Dumping a body in a busy downtown area was, inherently, a public execution meant to announce a crime to the world.
A killer who would do something like this was clearly not the same type of person as an ordinary murderer, who, following normal logic, would choose to commit their crime quietly out of fear of being discovered. They simply could not be lumped together.
Therefore, a killer who wanted this murder case to be known by the masses would highly likely also fan the flames by feeding explosive tips to the media to attract even more attention.

Chen Cong instantly understood. He abruptly stood up, pacing back and forth while muttering to himself: "So those nonsensical, yet highly popular posts were highly likely manipulated by the killer behind the scenes..."

Watching Chen Cong pace back and forth in front of him, Peach Wood secretly thought this Vice Captain, who looked like an angry cartoon dragon, was actually quite amusing.

It was indeed highly likely that the news about the fingerprint was proactively given to the media by the killer. But exactly who was the poster maliciously fabricating the hidden details of the 2005 murder case? And for what purpose? For a moment, Peach Wood found it hard to draw a definite conclusion as well.

Those posts shared a unified narrative, and the fabricated "hidden details" were all malicious slanders against the victims from that year, and even the victims' families.
Because the 2005 pedestrian street murder case was of such a severe nature and garnered extremely high public attention, the police had immediately held a press conference after the investigation concluded, disclosing the details of the case to the public.
The case had a very clear investigation conclusion: it was an indiscriminate murder.
Although the true motive could never be known because the killer, Li Guangqiang, died before he could be brought to justice...
Based on Li Guangqiang's history of long-term drug abuse and the "indiscriminate" nature of the killings, the police deduced that he had committed this unforgivable crime due to drug-induced hallucinations.
Indiscriminate murder refers to cases where there is no grudge or even prior acquaintance between the suspect and the victims.
Without premeditation, the killer randomly selects targets, killing whoever they see at the crime scene.

According to the descriptions of the crowd present that year:
When the murder occurred, the victim was very close to the knife-wielding killer and was thus the first to be attacked.

Upon sensing the killer's intent to murder randomly, the victim—being a criminal investigator—stepped forward without hesitation despite having already been stabbed multiple times. Driven purely by professional instinct, he engaged in a fierce struggle with the killer that lasted over ten minutes. Those ten minutes were precious escape time the victim bought for the surrounding crowd with his own life.

Investigations showed that the victim, Shen [Name Withheld], had been injured in the line of duty shortly before the incident.
At the time of the attack, his injury hadn't fully healed, and his agility was far worse than before. Furthermore, the killer was also a trained fighter who ambushed him from behind. Armed with a sharp blade and striking preemptively, every stab aimed directly at his vitals.
In the end, the victim sustained over twenty stab wounds and died from excessive blood loss.
However, because he successfully stalled the killer's advance, the killer did not harm any other citizens and instead chose to flee the scene in his vehicle before the police arrived.

The cruel irony was that even though the victim—a criminal investigator—had maximally delayed the killer...
The extreme, kill-on-sight madness the killer displayed at the scene intensely stimulated the emotions of the crowd.
Everyone wanted to survive. Amidst the pushing and shoving, another tragedy played out on the street. —That year, Ji Jiangning did not die by the killer's hand. The true culprit of her death was the stampede triggered by the indiscriminate murder.

Yet, those highly popular threads on the forum not only collectively ignored the victim's heroic actions, but also distorted Ji Jiangning's true cause of death.
They avoided the heavy points, focused on the trivial, and inverted black and white.
To barely manage to justify their own twisted logic, they didn't even hesitate to commit slander, combining the unfortunate accident and the murder case into a fabricated, meticulously designed murder-for-hire plot.

The highly emotive and vividly descriptive rumor posts shared an extremely unified narrative: every single one pointed directly at the 2005 case being the result of Chu Zhentang discovering his wife's affair with a police officer. In a fit of rage, he paid a heavy sum to hire a hitman to kill his wife and the cop, and finally, using his immense power to cover the sky with one hand✦ translator's noteTo cover the sky with one hand (只手遮天): A Chinese idiom meaning to wield immense, absolute power and hide the truth from the masses., he bribed the police to silence the hitman.
...

Setting aside how past public reports always highlighted the deep love and devotion between Yuannan Group's Chu Zhentang and his first wife, Ji Jiangning...
Peach Wood knew better than anyone what kind of person the murdered police officer from that year was.

That unlucky man now being mocked by the internet masses as a "wife-seducer✦ translator's noteWife-seducer (勾|引|人|妻): The text uses vertical bars to bypass automatic internet censorship for sensitive words (like seducing someone's wife, drugs, porn, etc.). who deserved to die"... That workaholic who believed in fairness and justice and was constantly engrossed in case investigations... That father who was so busy his feet never touched the ground, who didn't even know what grade his son was in or which classroom he belonged to... He probably wouldn't have even known whether Ji Jiangning was tall or short, round or flat, male or female.

Peach Wood's expression darkened. There were too many questionable points in this case waiting to be solved: If the killer was using Li Guangqiang's identity as a front to commit murder, why did Chen Feng die? He wasn't the detective in charge of the 2005 pedestrian street murder!
Also, were the stamps containing "Zombie" found in Chen Feng's house really his?
That elder who always subconsciously pursed his lips into a straight line and rarely smiled... that stubborn, earnest veteran detective who was just like his father... could he truly be a "corrupt cop" who consumed drugs?

And taking a ten thousand steps back—even if these unified, plot-hole-ridden, yet fiercely aggressive posts desperately trying to blur the focus weren't posted by the killer, the mastermind manipulating them from behind the scenes was also highly suspicious.

Peach Wood's intuition told him that this suspicious attempt to crush the victims using public opinion was worth investigating!

While Peach Wood was pondering these questions, the impatient Chen Cong had already made another phone call.
He rapidly ordered the team to immediately investigate which media outlet was the first to release the fingerprint news, as well as the IP addresses of the people who posted the rumor threads.

At this moment, having found a new direction for the investigation thanks to Peach Wood's analysis, Chen Cong completely let go of his prejudice against this "luxurious-living, young and inexperienced" Captain. He began to genuinely agree that this young Captain possessed real skills and was a good partner.
As for his previous stereotypical assumptions that "all paratroopers are dogs" and "someone who looks like this must be here to gild his resume," those were purely misunderstandings.

After the call ended, Peach Wood asked him: "Apologies, I was too focused on the case and forgot to ask how I should address you."

Chen Cong knew that although he knew very little about Peach Wood, Peach Wood definitely had his detailed dossier. Not to mention, the other party had just inspected his police badge. Asking for his name now was nothing more than a polite pleasantry.

Chen Cong always admired the strong and loved befriending capable people. Seeing Peach Wood politely using the formal "you" (您 - nin) with him, he laughed heartily: "It's fine! We're all on the same side! You're the Captain, there's no need to be so polite with me!" He happily extended his hand: "Chen Cong, Vice Captain of the Lu'an Sub-bureau CID, and also the Vice Captain of our special operations squad. I look forward to your guidance, Captain!"

Chen Cong, whose words were full of hidden meanings and covered in thorns just moments ago, was now smiling so widely he couldn't even see his own eyes.

What a partner with clear-cut loves and hates.
Peach Wood revealed a genuine smile, accepting the olive branch Chen Cong was only willing to extend out of validation and appreciation.
He grasped Chen Cong's hand: "Shen Ting."
Chen Cong: ...

Chen Cong felt like he had instantly turned to stone.

"Have the other teammates in the detachment come over too. Let's hold a quick meeting about the case together." Having acknowledged this Vice Captain, Shen Ting wanted to meet the other members.

Chen Cong recovered from his petrified state. He scratched his nose awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed by his loss of composure. Using the excuse of turning around to grab his briefcase, he settled the massive waves that had risen in his heart upon hearing the name "Shen Ting." Opening the bag, he pulled out another stack of documents: "This is the roster of the team members. Wen Di, Jiang Zhi, and Pan Xiaozhu are all highly capable young people with firm convictions."

The background checks for the other anti-narcotics police candidates for the special operations squad had not yet been completed. Therefore, including Shen Ting, the team currently only had five members.

Shen Ting took the roster. These team members were all very young, close to Song Ci's age. It was quite reasonable for Song Ci to hang out and interact frequently with them.

Chen Cong immediately notified Pan Xiaozhu, telling her to bring Wen Di and Jiang Zhi over in plainclothes. He also specifically warned them to watch their backs and not leave a tail.
Pan Xiaozhu was a smart person; she instantly understood what Chen Cong meant.
But Jiang Zhi and Wen Di had just gone out on field duty. After checking the time, Pan Xiaozhu said it would take an hour before they could rush over. Chen Cong told them "as soon as possible" and hung up.

After finishing the call, Chen Cong sat back on the sofa and said to Shen Ting: "Let's wait for them to introduce themselves personally later; I won't step over my bounds✦ translator's noteStep over my bounds (越俎代庖): An idiom meaning to exceed one's duties and meddle in others' affairs.. Also, Captain Shen, Chief Sun said your current identity is a rich second-generation heir who just returned from abroad. So, how do we know each other? We better align our stories in advance to avoid slipping up."

Shen Ting thought for a moment and asked him, "Do you play video games?"
"Huh?" Chen Cong felt he needed to spend some time properly adapting to his Captain's leaping thought process. It took him a few seconds to react: "You mean, we met in a game? Like online friends meeting up in real life?"
"Mm."

Young people with shared hobbies easily ended up hanging out together.
Shen Ting and Chen Cong fleshed out various details of their "online friends meeting in real life" scenario.

To make it realistic, Chen Cong even played a round of a popular mobile game with Shen Ting.

However, Shen Ting—who never missed a shot in real life—turned out to be an absolute noob in shooting games, relentlessly dragging his teammates down and constantly feeding kills to the enemy.
Thanks to him, the severely outnumbered Chen Cong was brutally massacred by the opponents for the entire match.

Watching Shen Ting getting beaten on the screen without any power to fight back, Chen Cong held back a laugh and said, "The law doesn't state that highly skilled players can't be friends with pay-to-win✦ translator's notePay-to-win players (人民币玩家): Literally "RMB (Chinese currency) players." Slang for gamers who suck at the actual game but spend massive amounts of real money on premium items/gear to win. players, right?"

Shen Ting, who was terrible at all online games, was instantly arranged with a crystal-clear backstory.
...

While the CID had started tracking down the identities of the rumor posters based on Shen Ting's deduction...
Someone had already beaten them to it, obtaining all the data regarding the IP addresses of the rumor posters.

Guan Hongfen was not well-versed in information technology. Therefore, the heavy responsibility of thoroughly investigating the posters and pursuing their legal liabilities fell onto the shoulders of the Yuannan Information Engineering Department's Cybersecurity Team and the Legal Department.

While using legal methods to conduct their investigation, Yuannan's cybersecurity team also quickly reported the incident to the police, requesting the cyber police department's intervention.

However, their efficient actions did not yield the desired results.

Normally, tracing a poster's true address wasn't difficult. Because the servers of all platforms stored user-related IP records.

While there is no natural one-to-one correspondence between an IP address and a geographical location, IP addresses are allocated in blocks. Which block of IP addresses is assigned to which company, and which region uses it, can always be traced.

Yuannan had even invested in some of the platforms where the rumor posts were hosted. Therefore, Yuannan's IT department easily obtained authorization. Under normal circumstances, with authorization, even without the cyber police department's technology, Yuannan's cybersecurity team had more than enough capability to lock onto the posters themselves.

They simply needed to enter the system's backend, trace the poster's ID, follow the vine to get the melon✦ translator's noteFollow the vine to get the melon (顺藤摸瓜): A Chinese idiom meaning to track down the source by following clues., and uncover the poster's IP address.

Then, by reverse-searching the Internet Service Provider (ISP) associated with that IP, they could filter out the poster's actual physical address from the associated login records.

Ordinary netizens, though seemingly hidden behind screens, are actually under the constant supervision of relevant authorities in all their online activities.

This is why the internet is not a lawless land.

Those keyboard warriors who believed they could roam the virtual world and recklessly engage in rumor-mongering and personal attacks would ultimately be unable to escape the net of justice if they ever crossed the legal red line.

It was just finding a poster in the backend of a platform they invested in; there was absolutely no technical difficulty to it.

Initially, the arrogant IT elites didn't even consider this a challenge.
But facts proved them wrong.
The difficulty of finding the poster far exceeded everyone's expectations.

At first, after pulling up the backend records, the technicians from Yuannan's Information Department discovered that the IPs of all those unified rumor posts were actually located in Washington.
However, when the cyber police took over and followed this IP, they quickly realized that this IP address showing as Washington was a relay station commonly used by hackers.

A relay station is like a transit point. By using it, a user can connect to an overseas computer, then remotely control that overseas computer to log into platforms and post.
The platforms wouldn't know that these overseas computers were just a front, so the servers would only record the physical address of the overseas computer.

As the investigation deepened, the cyber police discovered an even more troublesome situation.
This relay station wasn't just an ordinary relay station; it belonged to the Tor Network!

Domestically, the Tor Network might not be well-known to the general public.
But in the IT world, it was famous!

Tor is an acronym for The Onion Router.

The world is far from being filled with sunshine and singing birds everywhere, as ordinary people see it.
For the vast majority of people, browsing adult websites might be the shadiest thing they've ever done online.

These ordinary netizens, secretly searching for various "disharmonious" keywords online, had absolutely no idea—and had never even considered—that the online world they could directly see was merely the tip of the iceberg, accounting for only four percent of the entire internet.

The remaining ninety-six percent consisted of web content that could not be indexed by standard internet search engines. The industry called this the Deep Web.

And beneath the Deep Web hid another notorious breeding ground for crime—the Dark Web.

The Dark Web, also known as the hidden web, is an important component of the Deep Web. Users cannot search for or access it through conventional internet means.
In other words, only clients using specific software, configurations, or authorizations can access the Dark Web.

Within the Dark Web, there are many websites referred to as the "Dark Taobao," providing users from all walks of life with an endless variety of services.
Drug trafficking, arms dealing, human trafficking, child pornography...
Countless darknesses unimaginable to ordinary people breed recklessly on the Dark Web at every moment...

And the adorably named "Onion Router" indiscriminately provided sanctuary for this terrifying "black network," acting as a key that could unlock the doors to the Dark Web world.

The reason the "Onion Router" was named after an "onion" was that by using it, criminals could do whatever they pleased online under layers upon layers of identity cover, like peeling an onion's skin.

Because it was designed from the very beginning with the purpose of preventing any software from monitoring browsing traces and IP addresses, the "Onion Router" was cryptographically unbreakable.

Upon discovering this, the cyber police—who initially felt that using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken✦ translator's noteUsing a butcher's knife to kill a chicken (杀鸡焉用牛刀): An idiom meaning using overly heavy or disproportionate measures for a minor task. was overkill—fell into despair.
With existing technology, finding a poster who used the Onion Router was no less difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.

The poster possessed highly professional cybersecurity knowledge and formidable counter-reconnaissance capabilities. They were a meticulous criminal genius. They had even carefully modified the user machine characteristics in the browsing records.

When ordinary users browse websites, the browser transmits the user's browser version and device model to the site.

With the mindset of treating a dead horse as if it were a living one✦ translator's noteTreating a dead horse as if it were a living one (死马当活马医): An idiom meaning to make a final, desperate attempt to save a hopeless situation, even if the chances of success are virtually zero., the cyber police pulled the User-Agent data from the HttpClient, only to look at each other in dismay.
That anonymous opponent hiding in the dark had actually manually changed their device information to Whisper.
And as for who this Whisper actually was... once again, there was absolutely no trace to follow!

—No matter how we search, it is impossible to find them!
This was the final conclusion jointly reached by the elites of Yuannan's cybersecurity department and the cyber police after working day and night.

Fully premeditated, ruthless methods, clean execution.
Chu Huainan's index finger tapped lightly on the desk in rhythm. Then, his fingertip paused, and he suddenly smiled.
Across screens and network cables, there was an anonymous shadow stirring up public opinion with unknown motives. It seemed they were trying to draw the attention of the Yuannan Group using melodramatic deductions and malicious smears.

Who are you?
Trying to drag Yuannan down into the water?
In Chu Huainan's inherently smiling, peach-blossom-petal-like eyes, a piercing, cold light faintly gleamed.
...

The Onion Router (Tor), the Deep Web, and the Dark Web are all real.

Nine years ago, when my professor was explaining the concept of Bitcoin, he mentioned the Dark Web. He even pointed out a way for me to make money while lying down (passive income):

'If you want to acquire extra wealth, spend $1,000 to buy some Bitcoin, then forget about it. Come back and check on it ten years later.'

Once again, I prostrate myself in worship of my teacher—he is truly a god-tier person.

Here, I’d like to give a special shout-out to the 'cutie' who wrote me a long review: Taotao Mars.

The update will continue at midnight tomorrow. See you in the comments section, cuties!

To cover the sky with one hand (只手遮天): A Chinese idiom meaning to wield immense, absolute power and hide the truth from the masses.

Wife-seducer (勾|引|人|妻): The text uses vertical bars to bypass automatic internet censorship for sensitive words (like seducing someone's wife, drugs, porn, etc.).

Step over my bounds (越俎代庖): An idiom meaning to exceed one's duties and meddle in others' affairs.

Pay-to-win players (人民币玩家): Literally "RMB (Chinese currency) players." Slang for gamers who suck at the actual game but spend massive amounts of real money on premium items/gear to win.

Follow the vine to get the melon (顺藤摸瓜): A Chinese idiom meaning to track down the source by following clues.

Using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken (杀鸡焉用牛刀): An idiom meaning using overly heavy or disproportionate measures for a minor task.

Treating a dead horse as if it were a living one (死马当活马医): An idiom meaning to make a final, desperate attempt to save a hopeless situation, even if the chances of success are virtually zero.