A live stream that dramatically transformed a depressed schoolgirl shocked netizens across the count

Gu Qingshang shifted his gaze from the yellowed train ticket to Zhou Henian's deeply lined face.

"Was Zhao Qiming the one who drove the truck that night?"

Zhou Henian waved his hand, and his wooden cane struck the bluestone slab with a dull thud.

"It doesn't match. Nobody knows the driver's name; this is the only ticket left at the scene."

"On the night the forest ranger station caught fire, someone stuffed the train ticket under the medicine cabinet. Mr. Cheng left in a hurry, taking the medicine account book with him, and didn't have time to check the medicine cabinet."

Chen Lang took a long stride, held up the train ticket in the light streaming through the wooden window.

Sunlight streamed through the yellowed paper, revealing the writing on the back of the ticket stub.

A string of numbers is divided into four segments. The first two segments are similar to a date format, the third segment is similar to the old transport route number, and only three digits are left at the end.

Su Niannian turned on her toes, leaned forward, and squinted for a long time to make out the details.

"telephone number?"

"Not enough digits."

Chen Lang flipped his wrist so the ticket stub was facing up, his knuckles pressed against the edge of the paper.

"The format of the tracking number is more similar, and it is possible that it is their internal transit number."

He stopped touching the ticket and had the village police bring him a new bag of evidence.

The tickets were bagged, photographed from both sides, and their origin was registered.

Zhou Henian, Zhou Lan, and the village police officers present signed the gag order in turn.

The original document was sealed together with the black ledger.

Gu Qingshang kept only one high-definition scanned copy that had been verified on-site.

The drumbeats pierced through the broken wooden windows, striking the brick walls again and again. The last police car drove out of the old shrine, its taillights disappearing into the woods.

After the villagers dispersed, Bai Weiwei untied the warning rope, wrapped it around her arm, stepped into the side room, and grasped the edges of the wooden stools that had been knocked askew, straightening them one by one.

Su Niannian carried the bronze incense burner with both hands to the shrine, bent down, and pressed the base against the wooden table with a muffled thud.

"I borrowed your incense burner to ward off a few people."

"The stove is intact, and there was no blood inside, so it can't be considered a collision."

She loosened the incense burner, tapped her finger on the burner wall, and added another sentence.

"This thing is quite handy, but I'd better not have to borrow it a second time."

Zhou Lan glanced at the new dents on the edge of the incense burner.

"What, you've got your eye on it now?"

"I don't have that hobby."

Su Niannian answered very quickly.

"Those people just don't learn their lesson."

Zhou Henian stood up, leaning on his wooden cane.

The years have bent the old man's back, and the veins on the back of his hand, which rests on the cane, are bulging, yet he holds it firmly.

"The stuff has finally been handed over."

"This account has been sitting in the house for ten years, and today I can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Gu Qingshang walked up to the old man, his chin slightly tucked in.

"Mr. Zhou, if anyone comes to inquire these next few days, please don't respond. Leave it to us to handle."

"A lawyer will apply for protection for you. I will also ask the village committee, the police station, and the grid management personnel to increase patrols."

Zhou Henian waved his hand.

"I've lived in this village my whole life, and I know exactly which way everyone's door faces."

"If they dare to come, I'm not afraid."

Chen Lang leaned against the doorframe, the black titanium steel earring in his left ear reflecting the sunlight. The hem of his tattered coat swayed in the wind, his tone revealing his usual nonchalant attitude.

"Whether you're afraid or not is your business; whether or not to lock the door is the responsibility of the security measures."

"When a young person does something like this, they'll have to pay medical bills every time. At your age, you should probably just let your medical insurance handle it."

Zhou Henian turned to look at him.

"When you were blocking twelve people by yourself, why didn't you think about medical expenses?"

Chen Lang looked down at the hem of his clothes that had been torn open by the crossbow bolt.

"I've thought about it."

"So when you make a move, you have to be careful and try to get them to pay for it themselves."

Zhou Henian gripped his wooden cane, remaining silent for a long while.

The old man tapped his cane twice on the floor tiles, then chuckled softly. His shoulders swayed with the laughter, and a crack appeared in the long-suppressed atmosphere of the side room.

The group left the old shrine.

Zhou Lan escorted them to the entrance of the village committee.

Just before getting on the bus, Gu Qingshang looked back at Citang Lane.

Zhou Henian was still standing at the alley entrance. His old long gown clung to his waist and back in the mountain wind, his wooden cane rested on the bluestone slab, and a shadow cast by the eaves lay across his feet.

The account book that no one was willing to take on ten years ago has left the side room today.

Gu Qingshang nodded to the old man.

"Mr. Zhou, I will come back to tell you in person once the matter has been investigated."

Zhou Henian did not respond, but simply raised his hand and waved at her.

Two SUVs rolled over the gravel road, their wheels kicking up clouds of dust. The old ancestral hall retreated into the forest and disappeared from the rearview mirror.

No one mentioned Cheng Shouzhuo's whereabouts along the way, nor did anyone discuss the number on the back of the ticket stub.

All mobile phone cloud synchronization was turned off, scanned documents were placed into an offline device, and the device was handed over to Gu Qingshang for safekeeping.

The SUV drove back to the Bai family's courtyard. White walls and bougainvillea stretched past the car window. Inside, the people sat up straight on their leather seats and exhaled a long breath.

A multi-million dollar armored RV truck was parked beside the yard, its massive black body lying across the shade of the trees, resembling a lurking steel behemoth. The fallen leaves around the tires remained unmoved, and it hadn't been started since morning.

The man who was bundling scallions in the distance had already left.

The vegetable basket remained where it was, and several pieces of broken hemp rope lay scattered by the roadside.

Bai Weiwei drove the SUV into the courtyard and pulled the handbrake.

"The person who had been squatting there all day has left."

Su Niannian glanced at the empty vegetable basket through the car window.

"After watching for so long, they still haven't figured out where we went."

"With this level of skill, how dare they take on jobs?"

Chen Lang pressed the buckle and unbuckled the seatbelt.

"Their skill level may be low, but they didn't charge us any money."

"Please refrain from giving a bad review; leave some room for maneuver."

No one went into the main room.

Chen Lang walked around the heavy truck, his boots crunching over fallen leaves, his gaze sweeping over the doors, the undercarriage, the inside of the wheel rims, and the external interfaces.

The terminal on his wrist lit up with blue light, and Titan scanned the vehicle body in sync.

No unfamiliar devices were connected.

[The car door seal is intact]

No abnormal attachments were found on the chassis.

The heavy car door opened, the hydraulic rod made a soft sound, and the pedal extended from the bottom.

The group entered the living quarters.

The car door closed, shutting out the crowing of roosters, the sound of the wind, and conversations in the yard, leaving only the low hum of the air conditioning vents.

The sofa, dining table, and storage cabinets remained in the same positions as when I left in the morning.

Chen Lang took out a black laptop without any brand logo from under the main control panel, connected it to an encrypted hard drive and an independent network terminal, and then took a portable projector from the top cabinet.

The curtain fell, and the cold white projection illuminated half of the car wall.

Su Niannian held onto the back of the chair, her gaze darting back and forth between the equipment on the table and Chen Lang.

"I knew it, your car wasn't as honest as it seemed."

Chen Lang pulled out the gaming chair, crossed his long legs, and leaned back in the chair.

"The car is quite reliable."

"Many drivers have acquired several skills."

Bai Weiwei wrapped her arms around the cushions, sank into the sofa, and draped her braid over her shoulder.

"Brother Lang, you bring all this with you when you go out?"

Ye Xingyu fastened her seatbelt and took the call.

"He said before that he could only drive big trucks."

Chen Lang rolled up the cuffs of his tattered jacket to his forearms, revealing well-defined muscles.

"Wouldn't it be reasonable for a truck driver to learn some computer repair skills as well?"

The projection interface loads.

Key management, link tracing, read-only certificate, data verification, and device feature identification—six windows fill the screen. The code scrolls up along the side, showing three closed links simultaneously completing their handshakes, and the progress bar at the bottom of the screen is already halfway through.

Just as Su Niannian was about to sit down, her knees touched the edge of the chair, and she stood up again.

She pointed to the curtain.

"etc."

"You call this computer repair?"

Chen Lang tapped the keyboard with his finger bones, the crisp sound of the keys echoing throughout the carriage.

"The computer can be repaired, and the data can be retrieved; it's pretty much the same thing."

"Very different."

Su Niannian leaned down and stared at the constantly popping-up verification results.

"Can computer repairmen perform network link tracing? And even build their own isolated networks?"

The cushion in Bai Weiwei's arms slid down halfway, but she didn't bother to steady it, her eyes following the code on the screen.

"Did you open all these windows at once?"

"Um."

"Can you manage to watch all of this by yourself?"

"They will line up by themselves."

Chen Lang pressed his fingertip heavily on the Enter key, and the three windows on the right completed the verification.

"More law-abiding than those twelve in the alley just now."

Ye Xingyu leaned forward, her gaze fixed on the device identification bar.

Although she didn't understand the complete process, she could recognize the long string of changing terminal data.

"This speed is something that ordinary forensic software cannot achieve."

"You also rebuilt the other party's device path?"

Chen Lang turned his head to the side.

"Does Ye know about this?"

"We've held cybersecurity lectures in the school's computer lab."

Ye Xingyu stared at the screen, not looking away.

"The instructor demonstrated it once, running only one link, and spent two days preparing. You have five sets of data running simultaneously here."

The only sound in the carriage was the low hum of the air conditioner.

Su Niannian turned her neck, her gaze fixed on Chen Lang's indifferent face, and her throat tightened.

"He can block twelve people, drive heavy trucks, rock climb, rescue people, cook, and now he even knows hacking."

"Chen Lang, are you going to take the college entrance exam or go to sleep in the exam hall?"