You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

Lin Chen did not make a move immediately.

He instructed Su Qingge to proceed with the internal investigation according to normal procedures, to check surveillance footage where necessary, to take statements where necessary, and to complete all the required procedures, making as much noise as possible.

This is a smoke bomb.

The real knife is hidden in the shadows.

The following morning, Lin Chen requested a personnel file of all members of the Major Crimes Unit.

It's not an electronic version, it's the original paper document.

He wanted to see the handwriting, the photographs, and the wear and tear from turning the pages.

He spent forty minutes reading through the files of more than two hundred people.

The vast majority of people were excluded.

The lower-ranking officers and auxiliary police did not have access to the paper cups in the interrogation room. There were several suspects among the middle-ranking officers, but Lin Chen checked their cell phone location records for the past three months, and they all had alibis.

Ultimately, suspicion fell on three people.

Wei Guoliang, the head of the technical department, is 47 years old, taciturn, and is responsible for the maintenance of the recording and monitoring equipment in the interrogation room. He entered the interrogation room at 10 p.m. that night.

Hu Jianhua, the 51-year-old director of the archives, is in charge of all the confidential documents in the office and has the authority to enter and exit any floor. He is on duty that night.

Deputy Captain Zhao Deshun, 56 years old, entered the interrogation room at 11 p.m. that night to put the transcript template.

three people.

Three possibilities.

Lin Chen took out the small bottle that the system had rewarded him from his pocket.

The bottle is about the size of a palm, containing a transparent liquid that is colorless and odorless, making it undetectable by any conventional testing methods.

Three questions.

He needed to design a deployment scenario so natural that it wouldn't alert anyone.

"Qingge, at 2 PM, under the guise of offering condolences, call each of these three people to your office for a five-minute chat."

"Just say it's an internal investigation to show concern for the feelings of veteran comrades, don't make it too formal."

"and then?"

"I'll give you three cups of coffee."

At 1:30 p.m., Lin Chen made three Americanos in Su Qingge's office using her semi-automatic coffee machine.

His movements were casual, but as he added sugar cubes to each cup of coffee, his fingertips drew three drops of liquid from the bottle opening and precisely dropped them into the cup.

The bitterness of coffee and the sweetness of sugar will completely mask the taste of truth serum, which is not even present in the first place.

He arranged the three cups of coffee separately and made different marks on the bottom of each cup with his fingernail.

Then he left the office and went into the surveillance equipment room next door.

There was a hidden pinhole camera in Su Qingge's office, which he had Ye Qingcheng's security team install three months ago. It bypassed the city bureau's monitoring system and transmitted the signal directly to his mobile phone.

At exactly 2:00, the first person arrived.

Wei Guoliang, the head of the technical department, pushed open the door and entered. He nodded slightly when he saw Su Qingge and sat down.

"Section Chief Wei, you've worked hard. Have a cup of coffee."

Su Qingge pushed a cup towards her.

Wei Guoliang picked up the glass, took a sip, and put it down.

Following the conversation script Lin Chen had taught her, Su Qingge chatted about everyday things, and then casually mentioned something.

"With such a big incident in the interrogation room last night, did your surveillance equipment detect anything unusual?"

Wei Guoliang's answer was standard and steady, with no abnormal facial muscle contractions.

In the adjacent monitoring room, Lin Chen stared at his phone screen and shook his head.

The effects of the truth serum have begun.

If Wei Guoliang is the mole, he will involuntarily react honestly when answering key questions, and his body will react to the real stress before his mind does.

But he didn't react at all.

Because he really didn't do anything.

exclude.

The second is Hu Jianhua, the director of the archives.

Hu Jianhua was more talkative than Wei Guoliang. As soon as he sat down, he started complaining that the recent investigations had made his archives a mess.

Su Qingge handed him coffee, and he drank it while talking, completely unaware of anything unusual.

The same question was posed, and the same result was achieved.

Hu Jianhua's pupils, breathing rate, and the slight trembling of his fingers all pointed to one conclusion: this was a seasoned veteran nearing retirement, whose mind was preoccupied with where to go fishing after retirement.

exclude.

At 2:40, a third person entered Su Qingge's office.

Zhao Deshun.

He was wearing an old police uniform, his hair was gray, and he had the kind smile that only a veteran policeman who had worked at the grassroots level all his life could wear.

He waved to Su Qingge as soon as he entered.

"Xiao Su, what do you want to see Uncle Zhao about? Did what happened last night frighten you?"

Su Qingge forced a smile and pushed over the marked cup of coffee.

"Uncle Zhao, have a cup of coffee and let's chat."

Zhao Deshun chuckled, picked up his cup, and took a big gulp.

"Wow, this is delicious! Xiao Su's coffee-making skills are pretty good."

Su Qingge chatted with him about everyday things for two minutes.

Zhao Deshun's performance was impeccable; he was amiable, relaxed, and occasionally made self-deprecating remarks such as "I'm too old and useless."

Then Su Qingge said that crucial sentence.

"Uncle Zhao, when you went to the interrogation room to put out the transcript templates last night at 11 p.m., did you notice the paper cups on the table?"

Zhao Deshun paused for 0.3 seconds, holding the coffee cup.

It's 0.3 seconds.

Then he laughed and said, "Paper cup? I didn't notice. I just put something in and left, it was less than a minute."

The monitoring room next door.

Lin Chen's eyes were glued to the phone screen.

As Zhao Deshun answered, his left ring finger involuntarily flexed and extended once.

This action is so fast that it's impossible to see without frame-by-frame analysis.

This is a typical self-soothing behavior when lying.

But this is not enough.

In the next thirty seconds, Zhao Deshun took two more sips of coffee.

The concentration of truth serum in his blood continued to rise.

Following Lin Chen's instructions, Su Qingge steered the conversation in a seemingly unrelated direction.

"Uncle Zhao, you're retiring next year. What are your plans?"

Zhao Deshun had a smile on his face the whole time, but his answer contained an extremely unusual detail.

"My plans... hehe, I've saved up some retirement money, and I'm thinking of buying a small courtyard in the south to grow flowers and stuff..."

When he said he had "saved some money for retirement," his right index finger unconsciously drew a small circle on the side of the cup.

A small circle.

This is muscle memory from flipping through banknotes when counting money.

How much money can a deputy team leader who has served for 32 years and is about to retire save in his lifetime, including his salary and subsidies?

The micro-expression on his face when he said this did not reveal anticipation for the future, but rather a secret sense of satisfaction.

The intensity of that sense of satisfaction did not match his salary level.

Lin Chen turned off his phone screen and leaned back in his chair.

Target locked.

Zhao Deshun.

A 32-year veteran policeman, he always smiles at everyone, never stands out, and never makes a mistake.

The most perfect concealment.

Lin Chen did not inform Su Qingge, nor did he tell anyone else.

He simply memorized the name and then put the small bottle back in his pocket.

You can't move it yet.

Stirring up trouble will only make the old fox retreat back into his den.

He needed an opportunity for Zhao Deshun to reveal his true colors.

But not today.

Today, there are more important things to do.