Chapter 236: The Hackers

Just as I had expected, the explosion itself was a performance.

"Can we watch those videos now?" I asked.

"No, these are all live streams,” Young Master Wang shook his head. “They are only available on Sunday nights. Besides, this client doesn’t allow for the recording of videos. If you try to open it while other programs are running, it will crash."

The client created by these hackers was phenomenal. If the source code were altered, perhaps even the intelligence agencies could use it!

When I asked Lao Yao if he had found anything, Lao Yao apologized, "I'm sorry. I was too engrossed in watching the live streams that I forgot to do anything!"

"Why are you even here then?!" I fumed.

"Xiao Song-song, look at how anxious you are!” His lips curled in a snarky smile. “I'm just teasing you. I’ve been tracking the data stream. The data received by this client has a complicated encryption algorithm. I’m afraid to make any big moves lest I alert the other party."

"Do you think the person who replied to my post on the forum is an insider?" I asked.

"Most likely,” nodded Lao Yao. “Otherwise, why would a bunch of people suddenly attack me? Just forget about that. It’s impossible to make a breakthrough from this angle."

"Are they better than you?" I asked.

My words seemed to have threatened Lao Yao's self-esteem. "Better than me?” he exclaimed, his voice rising an octave. “You must be kidding! They just have more people on their side."

A battle between hackers wasn’t so different from an ordinary fight. After all, the side with the numerical advantage usually won the war. As soon as Lao Yao took any action, the people on the other side would attack him at the same time and instantly cripple his system. He didn’t have the power or resources to fight back at all.

"So after all this talk, what have you found?" I asked.

Lao Yao picked a bottle of red wine from the table, poured himself a glass and leaned in to sniff the bouquet. "I just checked the background program and found a monitoring program that runs simultaneously with the client. But I altered the source code and turned it off! We can take this computer away and run other programs on it now."

I tried to open QQ on Young Master Wang's computer and it worked.

"We have to confiscate your computer and cell phone," I told Young Master Wang.

"What about the voice authentication?" he asked.

Lao Yao leaned into his office chair and sipped on the wine. "That’s simple. The verification code is made out of letters and numbers. We’ll record him reading the alphabet and numbers later. I'm great at synthesizing audio and creating deep fakes!"

At first, the young master refused to hand in his cell phone. Under my strong insistence, he sent a mass message informing his acquaintances of the change in phone numbers. Then, he removed the sim card and handed it to me.

When we were about to head back to the station, Young Master Wang ran after Xiaotao, shouting, “Xiaotao, I hope you understand that I have my own circle of friends. Some of the things I do might seem strange to you but..."

"Mr. Wang, as a suspect, I think you should stop speaking or you might reveal some other sordid secret!" sneered Xiaotao.

Her words were no different from a slap in the face. As we walked downstairs, Dali clapped his thighs and roared with laughter. "Oh my God, that was hilarious!"

"And my father wants me to marry such a man!" Xiaotao heaved a heavy sigh.

"As he said, you do run in different circles,” I pointed out. “And it’s difficult for your father to meet people outside his. Judging by his outside appearance and successful career, he seems like a good choice. But I guess your father never expected Young Master Wang to be a poisoned apple–good without but rotten within.

Dali combed his fingers through his hair. "Your father should get to know honest men of humble origins like me!"

"Poverty can’t be equated to integrity,” scoffed Xiaotao as she rolled her eyes at Dali. “As the saying goes, a woman’s character is tested when her man has nothing, but a man’s character is tested when he has everything. I think the old adage is true. When a person is poor, he doesn’t have the opportunity to do anything bad. But once he has money, he also has many choices before him. That’s when you know his true character!"

"When will I finally get the chance to see my true character?" lamented Dali.

"Don't underestimate yourself!” encouraged Xiaotao. “You still have a bright future ahead of you. You won’t be penniless all your life!"

"I’ll take your word for it!” grinned Dali. “Dude, I promise even when I’m rich, I’ll still be your buddy and staunch supporter!"

In truth, Dali was indeed the most mediocre among us but a few years later he became CEO Wang, the wealthiest one. Life was certainly full of twists and turns.

Lao Yao and Dali took Wang Yuanchao's car back to the station. Upon arriving, Dali remarked that Wang Yuanchao had almost blown a fuse and beat Lao Yao up. Throughout the entire journey, the shameless flirt continuously asked Wang Yuanchao questions unrelated to work, his grubby paws fondling Wang Yuanchao’s muscular chest. I could hardly believe that coquettish man chaser actually dared to provoke Wang Yuanchao!

The officers I sent returned with a case file. Half a month ago, a man's body was found in a river, his arms neatly sliced off by a sharp weapon. The precinct had already filed a case for investigation so Xiaotao sent someone over to handle the takeover procedure.

"It looks like the murderer didn’t allow the victim to live,” I mused. “At the time, he hadn’t cooperated with The Strongest Mantis Shrimp yet so the body wasn’t destroyed by an explosion. Thus, we weren’t alerted of the murder. I think the victim might have been killed by the murderer himself. If I can examine the corpse, I should be able to obtain some information!"

"The body was dissected by the coroner a fortnight after the body was found," reported an officer.

"What happened to the corpse after the autopsy?" I asked.

"It was cremated!"

I couldn’t help but sigh. The number of bodies the Public Security Bureau received was more than the public could imagine. They couldn’t just allow corpses to pile up in the morgue so the standard procedure was to send them to the funeral home.

"Post mortem examinations must be filmed. Song Yang, since we don’t have the body, will the video do?" asked Xiaotao.

"We don’t have any other choice. Let's just give it a try!"

The rest of our work was all done on a computer. The officers watched live streams on the In-depth Live Stream site using Young Master Wang's computer and tried to gather as much information as they could. The plan was to first locate these criminal streamers and bring them to justice after we caught Storm Punisher.

Lao Yao spent all afternoon decoding data, trying to identify the other party’s IP address.

Meanwhile, I watched the autopsy video in Xiaotao's office. As usual, the timid Dali couldn't stand to see such gory scenes and quickly slipped away.

In the middle of my perusal, Xiaotao walked in with two cups of Starbucks coffee in her hand and asked, "Have you found any clues?"

"I’m still looking!" I replied.

She told me to scooch over and sat down beside me, her body leaning close to mine. I was nervous with cold sweat.

"I’ll watch it with you!” she said. “Ever since we started working together, I feel like It’s been a long time since I’ve witnessed a serious autopsy.”

Hitting rewind, I started back from the beginning of the video. The picture showed a coroner and his assistant. They started off with a complete external examination, reporting their findings as they examined the corpse. The deceased was a naked 40-year-old man covered in moderate bruises. His ankles showed clear ligature marks that were very wide, unlike ones left by a rope. His two arms were severed by a sharp weapon about an inch below the armpit. The coroner believed that this was caused by a heavy weapon such as an axe, but obviously his conclusion was misguided! It was very difficult to hack off an arm with just one blow.

The victim’s face remained frozen in a terrified expression, his eyes wide open and his mouth agape, as if he had suffered something horrifying before his death. From the size of his pupils, the coroner estimated the time of death to be about two days before. At this point, I could no longer hold back from shouting at the computer. "Wait! There’s a blunt force trauma on the bridge of his nose!"

However, the coroner in the video seemed blind to it and continued to examine the other parts of the corpse.

Then, he opened the dead man's mouth and dictated, "No signs of poisoning!"

"Fingernails!” I yelled. “Look at his fingernails!"

The most accurate way of determining if someone had been poisoned was to look at their nails. The lunula of a poison victim usually showed an abnormal purplish–red discoloration. Yet, the coroner completely neglected this detail.

"Look at how agitated you are!” Xiaotao laughed. “It’s almost like you’re watching a football match.”

"You’re right!” I exclaimed. “Watching the coroner perform the autopsy puts me in the same mood as watching the national team play football!"

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