Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to the hotel and verified Wang Mengqi's alibi for yesterday. After leaving the hotel, Chen Shi kept frowning. No matter what Lin Dongxue said, he kept silent.

"It wasn’t Wang Mengqi who killed the second victim, but the same technique was used!" Chen Shi said.

"Anyone can tell. I think this is another case."

"Could this really be another case? The victim was just a student. It costs 400,000 yuan to buy this drug. Is there such a rich person in his circle? Those who buy this drug would try to make the deceased look as though they’ve died naturally as much as possible in order to not attract the attention of the police. However, this student, like Geng Zhangle, was arranged in a pose and discovered by someone in public. It seemed as though they wanted us to find him. I suspect that Wang Mengqi is bribing Xu Fa to help him fake a serial murder case in order to confuse us."

Lin Dongxue glanced at her phone. "My brother told us to go to the college to investigate the interpersonal relationships of the victim."

"No, we should do something else right now!"

When Chen Shi got into the car, Lin Dongxue was baffled. He believed his own speculation. It was no coincidence that the two similar murders happened consecutively. He planned to question Lin Tao again.

The drug dealer Lin Tao who was arrested previously had been very uncooperative. No matter what they asked, he’d talk nonsense. This time was no exception. No matter what Chen Shi asked him, he would say, "Go to hell, you guys!" with a disdainful sneer on his face.

Chen Shi asked Lin Dongxue to turn off the recorder and Lin Dongxue said, "No, it's against the regulations."

"Then you should go out first. I will stay alone with this kid for a bit."

Lin Dongxue said uneasily, "Don't go overboard!"

Only the two of them were left in the room. Chen Shi walked up to Lin Tao. Lin Tao rolled his eyes and looked at him with disdain curling his lips. However, his trembling legs betrayed him. He was very nervous at that moment.

Chen Shi clenched his fist, deliberately creating a tense atmosphere. "You gave Wang Mengqi his drug?"

Lin Tao momentarily showed a flustered expression. However, he stubbornly answered, "Who’s Wang Mengqi? Your father?"

"Do you know where Xu Fa lives?"

Lin Tao shook his head. "I don't know a Xu Fa."

Chen Shi was observing his expressions. He was sure that Lin Tao knew where Xu Fa was, but when he asked this, he had already reached the limit, and he couldn't get any specific information without prying his mouth open.

"Do you want drugs?" Chen Shi asked in a low voice.

Lin Tao's eyes widened and his pupils shrank. He had been in the detention center for the past two days, and he hadn't touched any drugs. His addiction had started bothering him long ago.

"Stop fooling me. The police can't do this kind of thing."

"I can get some."

Lin Tao swallowed, "Don't bluff me..."

Chen Shi immediately went to Lin Qiupu for drugs. Two days ago, the police had seized methamphetamine from a nightclub, but it hadn’t been transferred to the narcotics team yet. Lin Qiupu said, "What are you doing? How can you give the suspect drugs?"

"Captain Lin, I have every reason to believe that this poisoning case is about to turn into a serial murder case. Confusing the opponent has always been Zhou Tiannan's forte. Do you remember the original pistol posting case? In order to divert the attention of the police, 16 pistols were sent to different people, and we were tortured! Xu Fa was Zhou Tiannan’s subordinate, and he’s also very good at this. Right now, we must do whatever it takes to ask for clues. Otherwise, someone else will die! Since the seized drugs need to be chemically destroyed anyway, does it really matter if we give this scum a hit?"

"Using drugs seized by the police in exchange for information. Do you know how big a violation that is?" Lin Qiupu was firm and determined.

"Yes, regulations are greater than human lives!" Chen Shi roared in dissatisfaction.

Lin Qiupu frowned, "This is just your speculation."

"We have fought with Zhou Tiannan and his subordinates so many times. You still haven't figured out what they’re like? You’re still fixing problems only as they come? Isn’t it frustrating for you to be on the losing end so many times?"

Chen Shi’s words struck a chord in Lin Qiupu’s heart, but he still couldn’t make up his mind. "You have no evidence."

"When fighting against this group of people, it will be too late when there’s evidence. Think about the previous case!"

After a moment of silence, Lin Qiupu sighed. "I will accompany you to interrogate him."

He took a small bag of methamphetamine from the evidence room and went to the interrogation room with Chen Shi. Lin Tao was an old hand. He became excited when he saw the ice-like powder in the bag, and pleaded, "Give me a hit! Give me a hit! I’ll tell you everything you want to know if you give me a single hit."

Lin Qiupu shook the bag in his hand. "Where is Xu Fa?"

"Let me have some first!" Lin Tao already had cold sweat all over his head as he stared straight at the powder.

"Where is Xu Fa? This is your last chance. You need to first reveal a little information before we give you this."

Lin Tao knew that he didn't have much room for bargaining, so he gave out an address. Lin Qiupu snorted and put away the bag, "We'll verify the address and talk about it later!"

"You’re a liar. A liar will have their whole family killed!" Lin Tao shouted in the interrogation room.

"How cruel. At least give him a methadone tablet." Chen Shi said.

"It’s not that I’m blindly following the rules. It’s that the police can’t cross the line even once. If you cross it once, there’ll be a next time. The police are a legalized violent organization. If we don’t follow these rules and regulations that you find ridiculous, we will be no different from criminals in the end... We will have the answers to the investigation soon. I’ll ask Old Peng to get him a methadone tablet, so that this kid won’t keep the other detainees up at night with his yelling."

"I will investigate it!"

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue rushed to the address immediately and arrived at the door. Lin Dongxue was well-prepared. She took out a reverse peephole viewer and looked inside. She said, "There isn’t anyone inside the house."

"I’ll just open the lock directly then."

Chen Shi unlocked the door in an experienced manner. The house seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time. There wasn’t much furniture and a computer was placed by the window. Chen Shi turned it on but it was password-protected. He called Sun Zhen and asked him to send a XX software to his mobile phone, and then connected it to the computer with a data cable. After a while, they bypassed the password, and he said to Lin Dongxue, "Simple hacking trick."

There were games on the computer. They opened a messaging app and the records on it were deleted completely. This was the minimum amount of vigilance required for a criminal. Chen Shi called on Sun Zhen’s off-site support again. Sun Zhen said, “Turn off the anti-virus software, log in to a website, and I will help you remotely. I can’t even play a round of my game in peace!"

"Sorry, it's urgent."

Chen Shi logged in to the website sent by Sun Zhen, and the computer automatically loaded the Trojan. Then the mouse icon moved on its own. Sun Zhen had already taken over the computer remotely. A videocam window appeared on the desktop. Sun Zhen's face appeared in it, and he greeted them with a smile, "Sister-in-Law, how are you... Brother Chen, what do you need me to do?"

"The owner deleted the recent chat history. Please restore it."

"Okay!"

Lock-picking and the use of hacking techniques were already considered illegal tactics. Chen Shi thought that Lin Qiupu was really exaggerating.

However, thinking about it again, he wasn’t a police officer after all, which was why he was so unruly. It was hard to specify limits for some matters. A good policeman may not completely abide by the regulations, but they must be able to face their own conscience.

Restoring the chat history was a piece of cake. It didn’t take long for him to find a large number of temporary backup files for the chat history. Among them, the content of one file surprised Chen Shi. It was a chat record from the evening of November 24th:

"Mr. Xu, the police are already suspecting me. The guy surnamed Chen really lives up to his reputation. When he exposed the truth, it was as though he had seen it with his own eyes."

"It can only be said that you were unlucky he came across this case."

"I want to ask you a favor!"

"You want to kill the guy surnamed Chen? If you do it yourself, I will give you the drug for free. If you’re asking me to do it, I wouldn’t even if you gave me 100 million."

"No, the police really couldn’t figure out the drug you gave me and I’m very thankful! I want to buy two more syringes. You don't have to send them to me. Use them to kill people randomly. I will definitely pay the money."