Writing criminal investigation articles resulted in a life sentence, so I had no choice but to actua

Chapter 27: Technician at Chengxi Vocational College

despair.

Su Wan placed her phone on the table, screen up, and the list of video files was still there.

Each filename is like an eye, coldly staring at them.

Jiang Chen withdrew his gaze, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and wrote a few lines under Shen Ye's name: Date of Joining, Date of Leaving, Position, Authority.

"A technician, to put it simply, is someone who manages the data." Jiang Chen tapped his pen on the whiteboard a few times, making a clicking sound. "Student files, faculty and staff information, financial records, asset lists—they all pass through his hands."

"So he can contact everyone?" Lin Xiaoyu asked.

"It's not just about contact." Jiang Chen turned around. "He can copy, modify, and delete. Within the system, he is God."

Su Wan leaned against the table, arms crossed, brows furrowed. "You mean, before the school closed down, he likely backed up all the data?"

"It's not just possible, it's certain." Jiang Chen walked back to the table, picked up the printed personnel list, and flipped through a few pages. "Look, the completeness of this database is something even the school itself doesn't have. Students, faculty, staff, employees of the school-run factory, even temporary workers and interns are all in it."

What does this mean?

"This means he didn't passively 'obtain' this data." Jiang Chen put down the list and held up one finger. "He actively 'collected' it. Without anyone knowing, he secretly built a mirror database."

Lin Xiaoyu snapped her fingers: "Isn't this—a backup?"

"Yes, but it's even more ruthless than backup." Jiang Chen's lips curled up slightly. "Backup is passive, copying is active. He's leaving himself a backup plan."

Su Wan fell silent. "Why would he need a backup plan? Did he know something was going to happen at the school back then?"

"A school on the verge of bankruptcy, with chaotic accounts, personnel turmoil, and leadership passing the buck," Jiang Chen muttered to himself. "If you were a technician, what would you do? Wait to be laid off, or take some 'things' with you beforehand?"

"Those 'things' are his bargaining chips."

"Yes. With this data, he'll never have to worry about food."

Su Wan remembered the encrypted folder in the database and those video files.

If Shen Ye is only making money by selling data, why would he record videos?

"He wasn't after the money," she blurted out.

Jiang Chen glanced at her, a momentary look of surprise in his eyes, followed by admiration.

Why?

"Because he recorded a video," Su Wan said. "If it was just about selling data, getting the data would have been enough. What does recording a video mean? It means he needs evidence."

"evidence?"

"Yes. Evidence proving that this data is authentic and untampered." Su Wan's speech quickened. "A database can be questioned for its authenticity, but video cannot. What's captured in the video is irrefutable evidence."

Jiang Chen nodded without saying anything.

Lin Xiaoyu interjected, "Then what kind of video did he record? A crime scene?"

Su Wan and Jiang Chen both looked at her at the same time.

Lin Xiaoyu felt a little uneasy under his gaze: "Did I say something wrong?"

"You're right," Jiang Chen said, "but the term 'crime scene' isn't accurate enough. A more accurate term is—'the scene of the truth.'"

Su Wan picked up her phone and looked at the file list again. Each filename contained a date followed by a person's name. She clicked on the earliest one.

five years ago.

This was before Chengxi Vocational College went bankrupt.

The screen lit up on the phone. The light was dim, but it was clear that it was a conference room. People were sitting on both sides of a long table. Their faces were not visible, but their voices could be heard.

"This project is a must."

"But funding—"

"I'll handle the funding. You just need to sign the papers."

Su Wan turned off the video and looked at Jiang Chen. "Can these videos be used as evidence?"

"If we can prove the location and time of the filming, then we can. But the prerequisite is—" Jiang Chen paused, "that we can find Shen Ye."

The office fell silent.

Yes, Shen Ye ran away. He climbed out of the window of the barbecue restaurant's kitchen and disappeared into the alley in the early morning.

They only had an old photo and a bunch of data, but they couldn't catch the person who actually held the key.

"Could he have already left the city?" Lin Xiaoyu asked.

Su Wan shook her head. "No. He still has things to do."

"What is it?"

Su Wan looked at Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen continued, "His name is still in that folder. The last video, the file name is his name. The shooting time is marked 'today,' and the content is 'to be shot.'"

"What does this mean?"

"It means—" Jiang Chen's voice lowered, "that in someone's plan, Shen Ye hasn't 'finished' yet."

"So he'll come back?" Lin Xiaoyu's voice was a little tense.

"I'm not trying to jinx it," Jiang Chen shrugged. "If the people behind him have something he wants, like a security passage, a new identity, or a large sum of money—then he'll have no choice but to come back."

"I had to come back to complete one last 'shoot'."

Lin Xiaoyu shivered.

Su Wan didn't speak. She was thinking about another question. "Jiang Chen, you said Shen Ye is a 'pawn.' Then, is the person behind him the one who sent him to the barbecue restaurant to 'confirm' you?"

"Highly likely."

"who's that person?"

Jiang Chen remained silent for a long time, so long that Su Wan thought he wasn't going to answer.

"I don't know his name," Jiang Chen finally spoke, his voice low, "but I know his nickname."

"What nickname?"

""director"."

Su Wan frowned. "Director?"

"Yes. He treats every crime as a performance, every participant as an actor, and every scene as a stage." Jiang Chen looked up at the sky gradually brightening outside the window. "The nine cell phone screens we saw in the barbecue restaurant weren't nine independent entities. They were nine departments of a film crew."

"Lighting, props, costumes, sound effects..." Jiang Chen counted on his fingers, "Each person is responsible for one part, without interfering with each other, but cooperating with each other. And the person standing behind the monitor is the 'director'."

Su Wan's mind was racing.

If Jiang Chen's deduction is correct, then they are not facing a criminal organization, but a—

"Film crew?"

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded. "A perverted film crew that uses crime as its 'script,' the city as its 'studio,' and human lives as its 'props.'"

Lin Xiaoyu's face turned pale. "Are these people crazy?"

"It's sick," Jiang Chen said. "But a sickness that's organized, disciplined, and has a division of labor is harder to deal with than a healthy one."

Su Wan took a deep breath, suppressing her chaotic thoughts. "Now, let's go back to Shen Ye. What role does he play in this 'play'?"

Jiang Chen thought for a moment.

"log."

"log?"

"Yes. He's responsible for recording the details of every 'scene' and keeping all the 'film'." Jiang Chen pointed to the folder on his phone. "These videos are his 'script supervisor's sheets.' He knows every detail of every 'scene,' who was there, what they said, and what they did."

"So the 'director' needs him."

"It's absolutely necessary," Jiang Chen said. "Without him, the 'director' would lose all the records. All those 'scenes' would have been filmed for nothing."

Su Wan's eyes lit up. "So the 'director' won't kill him."

"No, not until we get the backup."

"Does this mean we can use Shen Ye as bait?"

Jiang Chen glanced at her and smiled. "Officer Su, you're getting better and better at it."

Su Wan ignored his teasing and turned to Lin Xiaoyu, saying, "Xiaoyu, notify the technical department to monitor Shen Ye's phone number and social media accounts. If there are any signs of activity, immediately pinpoint his location."

"yes!"

"Also, check if he has any relatives in the city. Parents, siblings, ex-girlfriends, anyone he might be in contact with, check them all."

"clear!"

Lin Xiaoyu turned and ran out, her footsteps fading away in the corridor.

Only Su Wan and Jiang Chen remained in the office.

Looking at the densely packed words on the whiteboard, Su Wan suddenly asked, "When did you come up with the concept of 'director'?"

Jiang Chen did not answer immediately.

He walked to the window, pushed it open, and the morning air rushed in, carrying a slightly damp coolness.

"When I saw Xiaolong's expression at the barbecue restaurant," he said.

"Little Dragon?"

"Yes. He knows the deliveryman, but he's not afraid of the deliveryman. He's afraid of the person behind the deliveryman." Jiang Chen turned around. "What can scare someone like Xiaolong isn't fists, or knives. It's—the 'script' in the 'director's' hands."

Why?

"Because Xiaolong's name was in that 'script'."

Su Wan felt a chill run down her spine.

"You mean—"

"I'm not saying that," Jiang Chen interrupted her. "I'm making a deduction. Xiao Long might also have a role in the 'director's' 'play.' Maybe it's a small role, but enough to scare him. Because he knows that when the 'director' is unhappy, he'll change the 'script.'"

"How should it be changed?"

Jiang Chen looked at her, his eyes holding something indescribable.

"Whoever is written to die in the script, dies."

silence.

The sky outside the window was already fully bright, and the sunlight shone in, casting a golden glow on the whiteboard.

But that golden light couldn't reach those words—Shen Ye, Liu Qiang, Li Yutong, Xiao Long, Brother Ma, Director.

Those names linger in the shadows, like seeds waiting to sprout, or corpses waiting to crawl out of their graves.

Su Wan's phone vibrated.

It was a message from the technical department.

She glanced down, and her pupils suddenly contracted.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Chen asked.

Su Wan handed him her phone.

The screen displays a file.

Name: Shen Ye. Former name: Shen — crossed out.

Date of birth: April 30, 1996. ID number: — Partially crossed out.

Registered address: No. 78 Jianshe Road, Chengxi District, Chengxi Vocational College Teachers' Dormitory Building.

It was the same as what Su saw last night, but with a few more lines of text.

Social relationships: None. Relatives: None. Marital status: Single. Education: — crossed out.

Work experience: Technician of the Academic Affairs System at Chengxi Vocational College. (The dates of employment and resignation have been crossed out.)

Note: This person reported being missing five years ago, and the report has not been withdrawn.

Su Wan's mind went blank.

Missing.

Shen Ye is a missing person.

A person who had been missing for five years came out to deliver food today.

"This is unreasonable," she blurted out.

"What's unreasonable about it?"

"A man disappeared for five years, the police couldn't find him, his family couldn't find him. But not only is he alive, he's doing well, he still has a cell phone, an electric scooter, and a delivery uniform." Su Wan's speech quickened. "That's impossible."

"unless--"

"Unless someone helps him."

Jiang Chen nodded. "Moreover, that person has the ability to allow a 'missing person' to live a normal life in this city for five years."

Su Wan took a deep breath.

They have the ability to keep a missing person undetected, the ability to organize a nine-person "film crew," and the ability to obtain all the data from Chengxi Vocational College—

He has the ability to become a "director".

"Is this person," Su Wan's voice was a little hoarse, "someone right beside us?"

Jiang Chen did not answer.

He walked up to the whiteboard, picked up the eraser, and wiped away all the words on it.

One, one, another.

White dust drifted in the morning light, like snowflakes, like ashes.

He put down the eraser and turned around.

"Officer Su."

"Um."

"From now on, don't ask 'why' about anything I say. Because I don't know why either. I'm just putting together a puzzle."

Su Wan nodded.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath.

"First, the 'director' knows Shen Ye; he's known him for five years. Second, the 'director' has the ability to make Shen Ye 'disappear' for five years, and he also has the ability to make him 'appear'. Third, the 'director' brought Shen Ye to the barbecue restaurant today not just to confirm my appearance."

"Why is that?"

"In order to—" Jiang Chen paused, "to let me confirm Shen Ye's appearance."

Su Wan was stunned for a moment.

"We sent Shen Ye to deliver the food not so he could see me. It was so we could photograph him, identify him through facial recognition, and then—"

"Then we found his file."

"Yes," Jiang Chen said, "Then they found out he was a missing person, then they found his data, then they found that encrypted folder, then they found those videos—"

Su Wan continued, "Then we discovered the existence of the 'director'."

"right."

"So the 'director' deliberately let us discover him?"

"right."

Why?

Jiang Chen's lips curled up slightly, revealing a cryptic smile.

"Because—" he paused, "his 'play' needs an audience."

Buzz—buzz—

Su Wan's phone vibrated again.

The second message from the technical department.

She glanced down and her fingers tightened suddenly.

Jiang Chen noticed her reaction. "What's wrong?"

Su Wan turned her phone around so the screen was facing him.

The message was only a few lines long:

"Shen Ye's cell phone signal has just reappeared. Location: Chengxi Vocational College, entrance to the underground fortification."

The signal lasted for about thirty seconds before disappearing.

"Suspected - intentional activation."

Jiang Chen stared at those lines of text, remained silent for three seconds, and then smiled.

It's the kind of smile a hunter gives when his prey finally shows itself.

"Look," he said, "the 'director' is inviting us."

He walked to the door and glanced back at Su Wan.

"Officer Su, what are you standing there for?"

"You're too late, he should change the channel."