Chapter 24: The Mysterious Hacker

The post was made by an anonymous user, containing several clear photos from the parking lot, likely taken from a video there. Although the faces couldn’t be seen clearly, they were still quite distinct.
Ye Feng immediately recognized that the photos were real—they indeed showed his gear. His heart skipped a beat. “How could the police release something like this?”
The comments below were equally bizarre.
“Just passing by—not me who did it…”
“Better to execute a hundred innocents than let one escape. Drag them upstairs and shoot them! For stealing my sofa!!!”
“This is obviously taken from some movie—it’s too fake!”
“Master, I want to become your disciple!!!”
“(I just learned how to use this ‘roaring style’—please forgive me, brothers and sisters! Do you guys have any common sense?! How can anyone jump that high without a trapeze?! That high!!! That high!!!)”
…
As everyone continued to read the subsequent comments, a dialog box suddenly appeared on the computer: “The topic you’re viewing has been deleted. Returning to the homepage automatically!”
“Deleted?” Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
“That post was uploaded less than twenty minutes ago,” Lao Liu checked the time on the computer. “While you were gone, I clicked on the newly posted topic.”
“But the title only said ‘Assassins Hidden at XX University: Six People Shot Dead.’ There weren’t any words inside—just a few photos…” Lao Ba expressed his doubt. “Also, wasn’t it said earlier that there were only five bodies? Why six people killed? It seems the poster is spreading rumors without understanding the situation, trying to cause chaos.”
But Ye Feng was thinking to himself, “Who could it be? The students at the school only know there are five bodies. How does the poster know there are six? And such confidential information should be strictly guarded by the police—how did it get leaked?”
…
“Uncle Yang, about that post just now…” Zhuge Ling’er looked at Detective Captain Yang Chuan with confusion in her eyes.
Yang Chuan scanned the surroundings, giving a serious look at everyone present, but he had no clue. “Lao Cai, you’re the one who’s keeping the video footage. Has anyone other than those here seen it?”

“Captain, no one outside has seen it. I’ve been in this field for so many years; of course I know such things are confidential documents. How could they be shown to outsiders?” said a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses, shaking his head.
“Who can tell me how this got out?” Yang Chuan slammed the table suddenly, silencing everyone present.
After a long while, a weak voice spoke up, “Captain, this… these pictures… were taken by me…”
“You!” Yang Chuan turned to look at the source of the voice—it was Li Yong, the person in charge of video analysis.
“Captain, let me finish first. I just took the pictures and saved them on my computer, planning to analyze them when I got back. All the pictures I took were of the killer from the side or front. But right after I saved them, my computer was attacked. I quickly unplugged it, and fortunately, the data wasn’t lost. However, not long after, I heard from Xiao Chen that the post appeared on the school’s BBS…” Li Yong didn’t dare look at Yang Chuan, as leaking such information under these circumstances carried serious responsibility.
Yang Chuan frowned and waved his hand. “It’s okay, I don’t blame you! The other party clearly had premeditation. Be more careful in the future!”
“Thank you, Captain Yang!” Hearing Yang Chuan’s words, Li Yong finally felt relieved.
“This case seems less simple than we thought. That hacker might be the killer himself, trying to intimidate us on purpose. Or it could be the killer’s rival, trying to expose him. Either way, both the killer and that hacker are not good people,” Yang Chuan said seriously.
“Captain Yang, we’ve completed the basic records. At first, we contacted Niu Xing, the leader of Manniu. He was shocked when he heard about Manniu’s death and insisted it was done by someone from Longtian. When asked why he took photos of Manniu, he said he wanted to use Longtian’s friend Ye Feng as a hostage.”
“We’ve also questioned Ye Feng. Investigations show he’s an orphan with no background. He was adopted by an orphanage from birth and has had no record of misconduct from elementary school to university. He’s a top student with excellent character and grades. He met Longtian by chance half a year ago, and the two became friends, but he’s never been involved in any of Longtian’s actions. From the records, it seems he had no idea what happened that night. We’ve also questioned his roommate; they were both in the dormitory that night and didn’t leave the building at all—nothing unusual happened,” said a detective in his thirties, handing over the records.

“That means he had no time to commit the crime, but what if all his roommates are lying?” Yang Chuan narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Their roommates are telling the truth. After 9 p.m., anyone leaving the dormitory building had to register with the dorm supervisor. And during the time of the crime, aside from a brief trip to the restroom that took less than a minute, the supervisor was in his office at the first-floor entrance. That office has a large window facing the entrance, so he could see everyone coming in and going out. But according to him, none of the people from Ye Feng’s dormitory entered or left.”
“You’re saying that after that, no one from them came back from outside the dormitory building?” Yang Chuan frowned slightly.
“Yes. It wasn’t until 11 p.m. that the dorm supervisor locked the doors on the first floor. After that, if anyone wanted to enter the dormitory building, they had to ask the supervisor to open the door,” the detective nodded, clearly having asked detailed questions about everything that came to mind.
“Is there any other way to enter the dormitory building? Are there no windows on the first floor?” Yang Chuan turned to look at the windows of the teaching building.
“The school thought of that already. All the windows on the first floor are covered with aluminum alloy guards, both for security and to prevent students from entering without registering when they come back late,” the detective shook his head and smiled. “Unless someone can jump onto the windows on the second floor—those windows are about 3.5 meters above the ground. Even a world champion in high jump couldn’t make it.”
After hearing this analysis, Yang Chuan remained silent in thought…
After a while, he raised his head. “Haven’t you checked on Long Tian yet?”
The detective shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Xiao Chen, come with me. Just take notes; don’t worry about anything else.” Yang Chuan glanced at the people present, his gaze finally falling on a young man.
“I want to go too!” Before Xiao Chen could respond, another voice spoke up.
“Ling’er, I’m working on a case right now,” Yang Chuan said with a serious expression.
“Uncle Yang, do you know why I came to City H? Sister Yue’er…” Zhuge Ling’er was on the verge of tears.
Seeing this, Yang Chuan felt overwhelmed. “Alright, alright, come with us. But no talking once we get there!”
Zhuge Ling’er’s pitiful expression instantly turned into one of ecstasy, her change in mood as rapid as flipping through a page, leaving everyone present in awe…
Yang Chuan immediately realized he had been tricked. “You little girl…”