CH 281

Noon, 12:00 GMT, which was 8:00 PM local time in China.

Around this time, ordinary working-class families had just finished dinner, and most of them were enjoying happy family time together. Fathers were washing dishes or helping their children with homework, while mothers tuned the TV to the primetime drama channel.

However, today, Yongchuan TV suspended the airing of its usual xianxia* drama and started uninterrupted live coverage of the latest developments in the Nao Kangning adverse reaction and the follow-up mass poisoning case.

*Basically Chinese fantasy involving immortals heavily inspired by Chinese mythology. 

In the studio of Yongchuan TV, more than ten experts and professors had appeared to analyze and comment on the letters from the sociopath and Lin Chen’s reply representing the government. Even the four criminals selected by Lin Chen were thoroughly investigated, and without the need for official disclosure, reporters had already dug into their personal backgrounds and criminal histories.

The well-built man named Zhao Yi was the leader of a criminal gang, involved in running illegal gambling establishments, and had forced debtors to their deaths. He had also injured a police officer during an arrest. He represented the most traditional kind of crime boss.

The dark-skinned man named Qian Bao was involved in fraud. He had a small storefront in a market and ran a P2P fundraising scam, which resulted in an elderly person’s death due to a stroke caused from being swindled.

The man with tattoos all over his head was named Sun Zhen, a murderer who accidentally killed a shop owner during a dispute at a barbecue stall. Before that incident, Sun Zhen’s frequency of visits to the detention center had been alarmingly high.

To be honest, except for Yan Guiqiu, the other three were indeed criminals with a long history of wrongdoing. But among the four, there was Yan Guiqiu, a skinny and foolish petty thief.

The woman leaned back on the sofa and didn’t feel any annoyance at the interruption of her favorite drama. She was genuinely engrossed in the news content.

The female anchor, who had previously read the letter and reply, had taken a break as her on-duty time was too long and was temporarily replaced by a male colleague.

The male anchor said, “Up until now, the police have not received any formal response from the responsible party in the poisoning attack. However, there have been no further cases of poisoning in various cities.” The host continued, “With fifteen minutes left until the appointed time, let’s focus on the latest visit to the online voting website that the police launched at 18:00 sharp.”

The LCD TV displayed a website ending with .ORG, with simple white text on a black background, indicating that it was a simple voting website to decide the life and death of the four criminals. It didn’t belong to the dark web; instead, it was a voting website purely made by the police, and anyone could open their browser and access it.

The host had already demonstrated the specific process of real-name registration and voting to the audience, but since it wasn’t yet the appointed time, they could only report on the real-time visitor count displayed at the bottom of the website.

“Now, it’s 7:48 PM in China, and we can see that the real-time visitor count mentioned in the police’s reply has reached 256,000. As we approach 8:00 PM, the number of visitors is increasing rapidly.”

Just as the host was speaking, the visitor count reached 3 at the beginning, and even the highly professional male anchor widened his pupils and revealed a shocked expression upon seeing this scene.

However, he quickly adjusted his emotions, steadied his breath, and said seriously, “Let’s move on to the next news.” The handsome male anchor looked at the teleprompter and reported, “As of 7:50 PM in China, the Goose Forum website’s public opinion survey shows that over 65% of the people believe that innocent civilians have more reason to live than hardened criminals. The remaining 31% of people cannot decide, and only 4% of people chose the option that the criminals should be allowed to live.”

The man washing dishes in the kitchen was dissatisfied with this and couldn’t help but shout, “I knew there are so many perverts in this society, actually thinking that innocent people have more reason to live than criminals!”

“Why is your voice so loud? Our son is doing his homework. Can’t you lower your voice?” The woman lowered the TV volume and warned the man in the kitchen in a hushed tone.

However, she didn’t realize that her son, who was doing homework in the study, didn’t obediently follow her words. Thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boys were at an age when curiosity was at its peak, and coupled with such a major social event, how could he resist the urge to secretly browse social media?

The boy switched to the mobile browser screen and quickly typed a line of text.

@MugglesEatEggs*: [Excited, excited! Only eight minutes left.]

*I’m pretty sure the Muggles is referencing Harry Potter.

@ComingAndGoing: [Really? Do you guys really think the big boss will agree with the police uncle’s proposal?]

@MugglesEatEggs: [Even if the police are making a fuss, it’s quite fun. In any case, the results will be out soon, and we’ll know in eight minutes.]

@TomatoFriedEggs: [I’ve been squatting on the dark web already (don’t doubt the word order because it’s censored).]

@ComingAndGoing: [OMG, how do you know the specific website address? Great expert, please teach me, I also want to witness history!]

@TomatoFriedEggs: [No.]

……

Similar or completely different discussions were taking place on various social platforms, converging into a massive information flow, pouring into the command center of the Hongjing Municipal Bureau.

19:55.

At this moment, the entire wall of the command hall was filled with projected screens displaying the continuous live broadcast from Yongchuan TV and various major online streaming platforms.

The main part of the screen was all white, but one could still tell it was a full-screen browser window. After all, everyone was familiar with the words “This page cannot be displayed”, which was the web address that was previously used to bet on in the dark web for their surrounding cities—the agreed location between Lin Chen and the other party.

Within a few hours, nothing happened, indicating the other party was also thinking.

However, the browser address part was covered with a thick mosaic.

The officer in charge of the live broadcast was named Zhou Quan, a key member of the Jiangxia Provincial Public Security Department’s Information Technology Division.

After checking the connection lines and systems, ensuring his code was thick enough, he synchronized the system time with the Greenwich Observatory time again and fell into a restless waiting mood as the countdown began.

He rubbed his hands and looked around, realizing that there were still five minutes left. People in the hall were still whispering to each other.

Different discussions filled the room. He nudged his colleague responsible for the live broadcast next to him. “Have you ever thought about why Consultant Lin used Greenwich time*?”

*Is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a consequence, it cannot be used to specify a particular time unless a context is given.

“Because the other party may be in a foreign country. Having a unified time point is better,” his colleague replied casually, still focusing on the main screen.

“What kind of reason is that?” Zhou Quan shrugged and scanned the entire hall with a prolonged neck. The atmosphere on-site wasn’t too heavy—at least much better than when they were ordered to enter the command center.

The operators were assigned to another area, and the higher-ups were all waiting in glass rooms. One minute passed, and the footsteps in the hall gradually stopped.

Because of the silence, Zhou Quan finally realized what was missing.

“Where’s that kid?” He remembered the teenager who had been instructing them in internet monitoring. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he last saw the other person. “His name is Wang Chao, right?”

“Oh, the one from the Network Division of the Hongjing Municipal Bureau,” his colleague from the same department replied casually.

Zhou Quan’s eyes lit up. “He was here earlier. Why isn’t he on duty now? How long has he been gone? Is he on a secret mission?”

Before his “Ah” could be fully spoken, he received a heavy scolding.

The public opinion expert in charge of commanding the entire live broadcast operation glared at him as a warning, making him instinctively shrink his neck and remain silent. But Zhou Quan thought that this seemingly unrealistic guess couldn’t be blamed on himself.

After all, Consultant Lin’s plan was so simple and straightforward. If the mastermind behind the scenes was still playing a magnificent killing game, then Lin Chen was directly handing over a sharp knife gleaming with cold light and asking the mastermind, “Do you want to use it to kill the four criminals?”

Who would be foolish enough to accept?

Zhou Quan’s thoughts drifted far away, filled with various random ideas, and he almost amused himself. He leaned back in his chair. It was 60 seconds away from the agreed time, and there was no sound in the command hall anymore.

Even the busiest people temporarily put down their work and looked up at the coarse-grained image on the display screen.

The air was extremely quiet, which made it seem even more grand.

As the second hand went halfway around the clock, Zhou Quan found that he couldn’t laugh anymore. He had always thought that his mentality was strong, but in these short 30 seconds, he found that his facial muscles were sore from clenching his teeth.

He couldn’t help but relax his jaw, and at that moment, the second hand also passed number 11 without any mercy.

Zhou Quan quickly shifted his gaze to the main display screen, and the atmosphere of the image weighed heavily on his chest.

Clearly, nothing had happened, yet why did it still feel heavy?

As he thought this, the second hand dutifully completed the last grid, and the web page refreshed automatically at its fixed frequency. Zhou Quan blinked lightly.

The words “This page cannot be displayed” were gone.

Unlike the countless scenes they had imagined and anticipated before, the transition of the webpage was very calm and serene, as if the first drop of rain had fallen from the sky, revealing an entirely new picture.

It was a short video, and people didn’t have time to carefully observe what the webpage carrying the video had transformed into. They instinctively stared at the screen.

In the video, there was a fast-forwarded footage showing a patient going crazy on the bed but completely regaining consciousness after being injected with some kind of medication. The hospital room was clean and white, and the video was relatively short and quick, with no significant changes in the lighting outside the window.

Anyone who watched the video could quickly understand its significance—it clearly implied that the detoxifying agent mentioned in Lin Chen’s reply was a real thing.

Zhou Quan’s mind exploded, and a myriad of information raced through his thoughts. He needed strong self-control to eliminate emotional interference and understand what this really meant.

Did it mean that the other side had actually accepted the new voting proposal that even a fool would refuse?

The other side even provided a short video, leaving no room for ambiguity: The four criminals needed to die, and the antidote would be theirs.

But…

Who could prove the authenticity of this video and the effectiveness of the antidote?

Zhou Quan even disregarded the live broadcast signal. He dragged the mouse and thoroughly checked the .onion ending website on his own small screen.

There were no specific descriptions of the therapeutic effects or any experimental reports, nor were there any fancy retro gold coin effects.

Besides this opening video, the website only had a simple multiple-choice question on a black background with white text, written in six languages:

—I believe that sacrificing the lives of four criminals in exchange for a drug that can save more people is worth it.

A. Yes

B. No

The webpage froze at this point.