But exactly what kind of person would hate Chen Feng so much that they would murder him, dismember his body, and actually put this horrifying idea into practice?

Chen Cong had racked his brains over this question the entire night.

According to the files, the victim, Chen Feng, was an abandoned baby who grew up in an orphanage and never married. Therefore, his familial relationships were extremely simple.
However, the unique nature of his profession made his social connections relatively complex. As a criminal investigator who had long been active on the front lines, the probability of Chen Feng forming deadly grudges with desperate criminals was far higher than that of an ordinary person.

If they were to start the investigation from Chen Feng's social connections, the number of cases they'd need to review would be as numerous as hairs on a cow. In the short term, it would be extremely difficult to make any sense of it.
Therefore, Chen Cong and his colleagues decided to start with the Li Guangqiang lead, attempting to find a breakthrough for the investigation.

Avoiding the heavy points and touching on the light, Chen Cong said, "As of now, it seems the only intersection between the victim, Chen Feng, and Li Guangqiang is that the police officer Li Guangqiang randomly killed fifteen years ago was Chen Feng's good friend and colleague. Aside from that, there should be no overlapping points between the two individuals or their social networks."

"Then did Li Guangqiang have any relatives or friends?"
This was exactly the part the CID was currently focusing their investigation on.

Seeing that Peach Wood instantly grasped the key point, Chen Cong stopped holding back. He sighed and said, "That phone call just now was about exactly this. First thing this morning, my colleagues reviewed the files of Li Guangqiang's case from back then. His parents died early. Before he turned eighteen, Li Guangqiang lived with his older cousin, who was over a decade older than him. That cousin was also his legal guardian when he was a minor.
"Li Guangqiang was married once in his early years, but because he was a heavy gambler and became addicted to drugs, they divorced after a few years. After his ex-wife remarried, she never contacted him again. Not long after his divorce, his cousin felt he had a wicked heart and was bringing shame to the family, so he also cut ties with him. Unable to survive in his hometown, Li Guangqiang eventually wandered to Jianghu City at the end of 2000 to make a living.
"He has a son named Li Songyuan, who came to Jianghu City with him in 2000. The year the incident occurred, the son was still studying; he was a student at a sports academy in Jinghe District. When Li Guangqiang's incident happened, Li Songyuan was only in his early twenties. Calculating it out, he should be at least in his mid-thirties this year. After my colleagues found out Li Guangqiang had a son, they immediately contacted the police precinct where Li Songyuan's household registration was located.
"However, the records showed that Li Songyuan's household registration had been canceled. The cancellation was filed at the end of April 2009. In other words, this Li Songyuan was already declared dead eleven years ago. Because of this, the possibility of the crime being committed by Li Guangqiang's direct relatives was also ruled out.
"As for Li Guangqiang himself, he had a rather withdrawn personality and didn't interact much with people, so he didn't have many friends to begin with. Coupled with his gambling and drug addiction, he was up to his ears in debt. He had borrowed money from everyone who even had the slightest relationship with him. Back when the incident occurred, while investigating his social connections, quite a few people complained to the investigating officers that the money they lent him would never be recovered. Therefore, expecting his friends to commit murder for him is highly unrealistic."

With a hint of regret, Chen Cong continued: "We also thoroughly investigated Chen Feng's side. His health hadn't been great these past few years, so he applied for early retirement a few years ago. For a criminal investigator, it's impossible to say no one holds a grudge against you. But the number of cases he handled was massive. The criminals he offended could line up from the east side of Jianghu City all the way to the west..."

Chen Cong subconsciously started scratching his hair again.
The new investigation direction they had established after staying up all night seemed to be another dead end.
This time, the investigation truly had stalled...

Before Chen Cong could scratch himself bald, Peach Wood suddenly asked, "You just said Li Songyuan's household registration was canceled in 2009. What was his cause of death?"

Chen Cong froze. Typically, a precinct's household registration records only display the status of death but do not record the detailed cause of death.
"We haven't looked into that closely yet. I'll call right now and have someone contact his precinct to ask!"

When it came to investigating a case, Chen Cong always fought for every second. He immediately dialed a number, instructing Pan Xiaozhu to contact the precinct holding Li Songyuan's household registration to find out exactly how this Li Songyuan died.

The moment the call ended, Peach Wood immediately pressed, "Have you investigated the original poster and the source of the media's information?"

Chen Cong originally intended to put this young Captain in his place, but suddenly felt the rhythm of the conversation was entirely being led by the other party. Not wanting to be led by the nose, he said bluntly: "Captain, I feel the first and second directions you just mentioned have very little to do with the case. It's not like online rumor posts are a recent phenomenon; they've been around forever. And the media chasing shadows is just out of professional necessity. Although the big mouth who leaked the case details deserves a beating, at a critical juncture like this, I don't believe it's necessary to divert police resources to track them down."

Peach Wood knew Chen Cong hadn't understood his point. He asked leadingly, "After reading those analysis posts, did you really not feel that something was off?"
"Things are off, everything is off! It's all just illogical, sensationalist bullshit meant to grab attention..."
"No, I mean the direction of the analysis posts is off."
"?" Chen Cong looked utterly confused.

Peach Wood's expression turned cold: "The key point of the note the killer left was 'corrupt cops are on earth.' I kept an eye on some threads related to the case. In the very beginning, everyone's discussion was focused on 'corrupt cops,' and most analysis posts were fabricating hidden stories about why the victim was killed, or sharing supposed insider info related to the case. And aside from the majority who were just watching the spectacle, some netizens eagerly replied to share 'corrupt cop incidents' they claimed to have encountered in real life. At that time, the direction in which the public opinion was fermenting was still relatively natural."

"A massive number of netizens chiming in online, claiming they encountered 'corrupt cops' in real life—you call that direction of public opinion fermentation natural?"

"Yes. Because it provided an opportunity to make a fuss about an underlying issue, groups dissatisfied with the police or public authority would naturally participate very actively. Them critiquing current events or even smearing the image of the police is entirely natural."

Because it housed a massive number of contrarians✦ translator's noteContrarian / Gangjing (杠精): Chinese internet slang for someone who argues for the sake of arguing, loves to be contrarian, and constantly nitpicks or plays devil's advocate., the Lu'an Sub-bureau CID had always been the unshakable champion team in the police department's internal debate competitions. And Chen Cong was the absolute king among contrarians. On the path to pursuing truth, he never bowed to any power, including his direct superiors.

"I don't think that direction of discussion is natural in the slightest. I don't know about other places, but the police in Jianghu City—even if not every single one is a paragon—are absolutely not as terrible as the internet claims! For so many netizens to harbor such malice toward the police, especially criminal investigators, and to claim they've personally encountered corrupt cops—that completely defies common sense!"

"The focal point of the killer's note was the second half: 'corrupt cops are on earth.' It is highly reasonable for netizens to center their discussions around the keyword 'corrupt cops.' As for why so many people harbor malice toward criminal investigators and publicly claim online that they've met corrupt cops... That's because, in reality, there's at least a fifty percent chance that anyone directly interacting with a criminal investigator is doing so under circumstances detrimental to themselves. Naturally, those people will view the criminal investigator—who is helping the victim seek justice—as a 'corrupt cop' who harmed their interests. As for those who are handled by criminal investigators according to the law, yet still thank the police for doing a good job and genuinely believe from the bottom of their hearts that they themselves are scum... to be honest, saints like that rarely commit crimes and get caught red-handed in the first place."

Peach Wood changed the subject: "However, after the media reported the fingerprint information, within half an hour, the direction of the online discussion underwent a fundamental shift."

He picked up the tablet resting nearby, opened a specific folder, and turned the screen toward Chen Cong: "These are some screenshots I compiled before the related posts were deleted. It's very obvious: after the media released the news, almost all the highly trending posts were discussing the incident from fifteen years ago—how former Yuannan Chairman Chu Zhentang hired a hitman to kill his wife, and then colluded with the police to silence the hitman." He crossed his hands over his knees, frowning slightly. "This is highly unusual."

"What's unusual about it?"
Chen Cong believed this was nothing more than a group of netizens—who had eaten their fill and had nothing better to do but wish for chaos—brainstorming a dramatic "wealthy family feud" soap opera.

"Like I said, the focus of the note at the scene was the words 'corrupt cops.' And the news the media subsequently released was 'There is a fingerprint at the scene belonging to Li Guangqiang, a murderer who has been dead for fifteen years.' But after the media announced the fingerprint info, those so-called 'deduction posts' that suddenly skyrocketed in popularity focused neither on 'the corrupt cops still on earth' nor on 'the fingerprint that shouldn't be in this world.' Unanimously, the overwhelming flood of rumor posts all went completely off-topic.
"Although these posts vary greatly in their language style and writing methods, they all, without exception, focus on the melodramatic, wealthy family emotional dispute of former Yuannan Chairman Chu Zhentang hiring a hitman to kill his wife and her lover fifteen years ago. But according to normal deductive logic, right now, Ji Jiangning, who died in an accident back then; the victim randomly targeted by Li Guangqiang; and the victim's family member, Chu Zhentang—none of them should be the focal point of public opinion."

Peach Wood glanced at Chen Cong, who was deep in thought, and continued his analysis: "Furthermore, normally speaking, compared to digging up a fifteen-year-old cold case, the public should care far more about a case happening right now. After all, in a major city like Jianghu with excellent public security, for a killer to dare murder and dismember someone, use an express courier to dump the body downtown, and publicly challenge the police... Such a case is unprecedented since the founding of the nation.
"The words 'murder' and 'dismemberment' are bloody and cruel to ordinary citizens who don't usually interact with ruthless criminals. And 'express courier' and 'downtown' are closely tied to the daily lives of the masses. The killer's deranged, audacious behavior is more than enough to make every ordinary citizen fear for their own safety. Yet, the popularity of discussion posts related to the current case—which directly concern the vital interests of the public—was absolutely crushed by the rumor posts digging up the fifteen-year-old cold case. Not to mention, those were low-level rumor posts based on zero evidence, randomly slinging mud at the victims' families. I believe this is highly unusual."

Convinced, Chen Cong couldn't help but nod along.
Peach Wood immediately clicked open another folder. Several screenshots lined up side-by-side to fill the screen.
"Look closely. These rumor posts, which easily garnered tens of millions of views, were posted by IDs that had surprisingly only ever published this single post. All of this is enough to prove that someone is deliberately hyping up the popularity of these posts, attempting to manipulate the direction of public opinion."

Listening to this analysis, Chen Cong also felt that these posts were indeed quite strange, and there truly was a possibility that their popularity was artificially manipulated.
But he still couldn't wrap his head around it. Even if someone was desperately hyping up the rumor posts, so what? There were plenty of people online who clowned around for attention. He'd even heard that on a live-streaming platform owned by Yuannan, there were bizarre streamers who ate shit live just to gain attention and earn tips.

In this era, anyone could become famous in fifteen minutes, and everyone might only be famous for fifteen minutes.
But since when did observing the trends of internet public opinion become the job of criminal investigators?

Peach Wood saw Chen Cong's bafflement. Feeling like he was playing the lute to a cow✦ translator's notePlaying the lute to a cow (对牛弹琴): A Chinese idiom meaning to offer a profound or complex explanation to an unappreciative or uncomprehending audience; casting pearls before swine., he sighed softly.
"Let's do this. We'll discuss the second point first."

Chen Cong suspected he was being secretly despised, but he had no evidence, so he obediently shut his mouth and listened to Peach Wood continue his analysis.

He had to admit, he truly couldn't keep up with the thought process of this seemingly young Captain, who appeared to be much more reliable than he had imagined.

"You mentioned earlier that you felt there was no need to investigate the source of the media's news regarding 'the fingerprint belonging to Li Guangqiang.' It seems you've already concluded that this news must have been leaked to the media by a colleague within the police force."

"The media received the news shortly after the fingerprint results came out. Aside from the people inside the police force who knew about it, who else could possibly..." Chen Cong was about to say, Who else could possibly notify the media?
But looking at Peach Wood's cold, solemn face, a terrifying thought suddenly surged into his mind: "Are you implying...!"

A strange, intense light faintly surfaced in Peach Wood's eyes. His speech was steady, but his voice was ice-cold: "The only other person who could have notified the media about the fingerprint information, under the circumstance that no one inside the police force leaked it... is the killer."

Aside from the police, there was one other person who knew the fingerprint information left on the note inside out.
That person was the killer.
...

I'll see you at midnight tomorrow as usual~
Waving hello to all the cuties in the comments section~ See you tomorrow!~

Contrarian / Gangjing (杠精): Chinese internet slang for someone who argues for the sake of arguing, loves to be contrarian, and constantly nitpicks or plays devil's advocate.

Playing the lute to a cow (对牛弹琴): A Chinese idiom meaning to offer a profound or complex explanation to an unappreciative or uncomprehending audience; casting pearls before swine.