I had to send the CPU back before dark so I really didn't have any time to waste. Thus, I went ahead and knocked on the door several times.

Unexpectedly, Lao Yao opened the door. Upon noticing me, he quirked his eyebrows and said, "Xiao Song-song, what brings you here?"

With how neatly dressed he was, it seemed he wasn’t doing anything strange. It turned out to be a misunderstanding on my part. "What were you doing in there?" I casually dropped the question.

"Playing games. I’ve taken a job working as a tester for a game company," he replied.

I couldn’t help thinking this wasn’t at all in line with his character. Would he actually find a job with zero technical content just to earn money?

Upon entering his dormitory room, I saw VR equipment on the desk and a CD box with a muscular man in the most suggestive posture on the cover. I instantly understood what sort of game it was.

"Xiao Song-song, would you like to experience the feeling of being pinned down by a hunk?" he asked.

I quickly waved my hand, "No, thank you! I'm in a hurry so please look at this for me."

Lao Yao grabbed the CPU from my hand and stared. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

Assuming Lao Yao had found something, I was about to ask when he placed the CPU on the desk and took the cabinet apart. "Hey, don't open it!" I immediately stopped his actions.

Looking as if he had discovered a great treasure, Lao Yao gushed, "This thing is awesome! The motherboard, hard disk, CPU and graphics card are all top-notch. Playing games on this would be so satisfying!"

"Is it very expensive?"

"You would need at least a hundred grand!"

Lao Yao plugged into the power and connected the monitor to start probing. He took one glance at the system and said, "This was started yesterday."

My heart sank. Perhaps we can’t find any clues.

The computer was almost empty with only some movies and landscape pictures, making the conversation preserved on QQ seem rather suspicious.

"Can chat records be forged?" I asked.

"Yes!" Lao Yao explained, "All you have to do is change the time. Even entry-level hackers know how to do that."

"Could you check to see what was deleted from the computer?" I furrowed my brows.

After fiddling with the keyboard for some time, Lao Yao shook his head, "It's empty. This machine was only recently equipped."

"He was ahead of us again!" I ranted through gritted teeth.

I thanked Lao Yao and took the CPU back to Zhao Dapeng’s apartment. When I exited the apartment building, I phoned Xiaotao to give her the green light.

Right then, I noticed three young men standing at the gates of the community. The oldest one was nearly thirty years old, dressed in a white T-shirt and white jeans. He had one hand in his trouser pocket while he listlessly played with his cell phone. The second guy had a rather unconventional style–dyed hair and metal rings on his lips, he wore a pair of baggy jeans. The entire get-up lent him the appearance of a little hedgehog that no one could approach. The other guy wore glasses and looked rather refined, though his body language suggested insecurity as he continuously looked around.

Although I had never seen them before, they gave me a sense of déjà vu. My intuition told me that these were Zhao Dapeng's three partners in crime!

Rushing up for questioning would only startle them so I hid behind the flower bed and snapped a few photos with my cell phone. The oldest one answered a phone call, briefly exchanging a few words before turning to the other two and leaving together.

I called Xiaotao to inform her about my unexpected discovery. "Did Zhao Dapeng just leave the station?" I queried.

"Yes, he left ten minutes ago!"

It seemed that the call the young man answered was from Zhao Dapeng. "Check his phone records and see who he last spoke to," I instructed.

"Alright, it's getting late. Go back to the store first. I'll text you if I find anything," said Xiaotao.

In the evening, I received a text message from Xiaotao. Apparently, Zhao Dapeng hadn’t made any calls at the time. In fact, there weren’t any noteworthy calls throughout this entire month which suggested he had two SIM cards.

The case suddenly reached a stalemate. The clues we could follow up on included some physical evidence found at the scene, as well as the panties, though neither clue yielded anything.

Song Xingchen continued to report Zhao Dapeng’s movements daily. This man was vigilant and hardly contacted anyone since leaving the station.

But on the bright side, Xiaotao and my actions made the suspects nervous so there were no new murders for the time being. The calm in Nanjiang City during this period of time only proved that the four of them were the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

A few days later, Song Xingchen called in the afternoon and said, "There’s a situation. The target has just come into contact with a middle-aged man."

"Are you sure?" I was excited by the news.

Zhao Dapeng had entered a fast food restaurant and sat at a table diagonal to a middle-aged man. Although there seemed to be no contact between them, their covert moves couldn’t evade Song Xingchen's observant eyes. Zhao Dapeng spoke while chewing on his food; a prudent way of meeting indeed!

Song Xingchen also sent me a photo. But because it was taken through the window, the photo wasn’t very clear. I forwarded it to Xiaotao and asked if she could restore it by technical means.

After waiting anxiously for an afternoon, Xiaotao called, brimming with excitement. "Song Yang, do you know who that man is?"

"Oh enough with the suspense! Just tell me!" I urged.

Xiaotao chuckled, "We managed to restore the photo using technical software. I sent an officer down to the spa center and the receptionist confirmed this is the man who impersonated the police and kidnapped the witnesses."

"So this man has been secretly helping the murderers!"

"That’s right!" The happiness in Xiaotao's voice couldn’t be concealed.

After further contemplation, I asked, "Can we take any action?"

"The crime of impersonating a policeman is enough for us to bring him in. Ask Song Xingchen for the address and we’ll arrest this man first."

A while after I told Xiaotao to contact Song Xingchen directly, she arrived outside the store. "Get in!" she waved.

We tore hell for leather to the location Song Xingchen last saw Zhao Dapeng. It was an old residential building where the two men had entered together.

As the three of us headed upstairs, Song Xingchen and I observed the footprints of the ground with Cave Vision. Finally, we stopped in front of a locked door. After knocking several times, no one answered so I took out my pick locking tools.

Upon opening the door, choking tobacco fumes coming from the bedroom assaulted our noses.

The sight that greeted us was thoroughly shocking! The four second-generation rich kids were lying in bed and on the floor with two women and a striking bag of what seemed to be drugs sat on the nightstand next to them.

With a cigarette between his lips, Zhao Dapeng sat by the bed, high. He seemed slow to respond at the sight of us. "Who let you in?"

He tried to stand up, but failed, almost falling to the ground.

The oldest one among them lay in bed, arms wrapped around a woman. "Get out of here, you son of a bitch,” he drawled. “Do you know who I am?"

Xiaotao and I exchanged a look of surprise. What the hell was going on? Did we win the lottery? Surprisingly, the four criminals fell into our hands without much effort!