In the conference room, after listening to Chen Shi’s findings, everyone was surprised.

"That kind of rice is actually marijuana?"

"How bold of them. They brazenly planted drugs for a decade! Who knows how many people have been harmed during this time."

"I’m afraid that a complete black industrial chain behind this has been formed long ago. This isn’t a matter of one or two criminals, but an entire criminal syndicate."

Lin Qiupu asked, "Do you have clear evidence? Did the professor produce a laboratory report or something?"

Chen Shi shook his head. "No, but this clue is absolutely credible. In fact, I thought that this definitely wasn’t rice a long time ago because this thing caused the disappearance of the police officers and the murder of the villagers. The truth is actually beyond what I had thought."

After a moment of silence, Xu Xiaodong muttered, "Therefore, it can be said that genetically modified things are harmful."

"What are you talking about?!" Lin Qiupu glared at him.

"Uh, I wanted to say that since they’re planting drugs, why don't they just plant poppies? Won’t they earn even more? Marijuana doesn’t count as an expensive drug, right?"

Chen Shi said, "I’m guessing this thing was created in the laboratory by accident. In addition, marijuana has an advantage over poppies. It doesn't need to be processed at all. It can be smoked after cutting it off and rolling it up. The processing of poppies is troublesome. They would need a workshop, professional drug-making equipment, and of course there are climate-related reasons."

"I’ve never understood one thing: Isn’t this drug cannabis and weaving hemp the same thing?" Lin Dongxue said.

"It's one and the same, but the ancient Chinese used it to weave cloth, and foreigners used it for smoking. Huatuo's Chinese anesthesia drug, Mafeishan, was extracted from cannabis. Ever since this plant was declared a drug by the United Nations, the country has no longer allowed its private cultivation." Old Zhang said, "A few years ago, a man in Long'an grew marijuana at home. Didn’t it make the news? This plant is actually easily grown, and those overseas call it a drug for the poor."

Lin Qiupu said, "No matter how poor the people are, this gang can get several times or even ten times the profit. I will tell the third team about this tonight. The third team will definitely send people to assist us. Of course, we still have to come up with practical evidence rather than just pure speculation. Xiaodong, go find a few relevant experts tomorrow, and go to Wangchenggang to investigate it thoroughly. Don’t we have the seeds in our possession right now? By the way, the roots should still be in the ground. All of this is proof!"

Chen Shi said, "This might tip them off. We went to look for the agronomy professor in the morning and were discovered by the gang. If a group of policemen goes to dig up the ground, they would definitely notice. Be a bit more cautious. You can secretly bring back some roots for testing under the guide of investigating the case tomorrow."

"Let's do that then!" Lin Qiupu nodded, "Rest early tonight. There are still many things to do tomorrow."

After the meeting adjourned, Chen Shi didn’t leave. He said to Lin Dongxue, "Let's go to the archives room."

When they got to the archives room, he picked up some files. Chen Shi said, "I’m going to look at some old cases. If you’re hungry, head back first. I don't know when I’ll be finished!"

"Why are you acting like a stranger? I'll stay with you."

"I told you to go back precisely because we’re not strangers... Your brother told you to come back previously. What did he say to you? Is it related to the case?

"Uh, no. It's a personal matter." Lin Dongxue said evasively.

Chen Shi sat down and looked through the files. Lin Dongxue walked up and down the rows of shelves with her hands clasped behind her back. After some thinking, she finally made up her mind and walked to a stack of shelves. Criminal cases were placed in the upper row and non-criminal cases were placed in the lower row. She found the old file based on its date and opened it.

April 29th Traffic case: A couple drove back from a neighboring city late at night. On the way, an illegally modified truck bumped into their car. It was originally a minor accident. However, the truck carried a few tons of cement cylinders and the bolt on the truck’s side panel had been knocked off during the impact. Several tons of cement cylinders rolled down, crushing the couple’s car like an iron can. The driver feared the legal repercussions, abandoned the truck and fled...

The photo of the unrecognizable corpses in the file was of her biological parents. She caressed it with her fingers. She was shocked but it couldn’t evoke sadness, because her image of her parents was too vague.

April 29th was her parents’ death anniversary. When she was a child, Lin Qiupu took her to the grave every year on this date. One year, it rained and she sprained her ankle. She cried out in pain saying that she didn’t want to go anymore, since they wouldn’t revive anyway.

She hadn't been there since, but Lin Qiupu always disappeared on this day of each year.

Thinking about it carefully, the reason why she wasn’t sad was because Lin Qiupu took care of her with all his heart after the death of her parents, allowing her to have a normal childhood, and compensating her for the lack from the loss of her parents.

Thinking of this, Lin Dongxue was overwhelmed with a mixed array of emotions. She should treat Lin Qiupu a bit better.

After being in a daze for a while, Lin Dongxue reinserted the files in silence, and went over to see what Chen Shi was doing. There were a lot of files and past forensic records spread out in front of him. He was attentively writing and drawing on a piece of white paper.

"Hey, these are all the cases that Zhou Xiao committed previously! Why are you suddenly looking through these?" Lin Dongxue asked curiously.

"The deceased, Qiu, a nightclub waiter; Zhang, a pharmacist; Lou, a bar singer; Song, a greenhouse cultivation contractor; Chang Guoqing, a biological science researcher, and Tao Yueyue’s mother. She had a history of drug abuse. As she was a prostitute and only associated with shady people, the police didn’t pay much attention to this point at the time... I have a bold guess that these deceased may be the upstream and downstream of a drug manufacturing, marketing, and sales industry chain. The serial murders back then were essentially contract killings. These connections were too well hidden, so the police mistakenly thought they were random murders."

"You mean to say that the person behind the scenes this time was the person who hired Zhou Tiannan's gang back then? But since he sells drugs, why should he get rid of the people in this industry chain?"

Chen Shi's eyes were sober and calm. He said, "I think it's for transformation!"

"Transformation?"

"Nothing takes shape overnight. In the process of development, it will take detours, regress, and sometimes come back after being overturned. The current case, casting aside a judgemental perspective, is a perfect arrangement. Giving the fake rice to ordinary, single, farmers to plant and give them money, but not too much. They buy point-to-point and strictly control disobedient individual growers. So far, we have only seen a group of farmers. Where is the head and body of this poisonous dragon? We don’t know at all! A bunch of criminals are silently making a fortune without batting an eyelid. If it weren’t for a ferret who ate the crop and then the disappearance of two policemen who went to mediate, it might not have been exposed for another ten years."

"Was it all planned from the beginning? I think that at the very beginning of this business, the person behind the scenes didn't think about it that much. They casually asked a bunch of people to do it. The marijuana that looks like rice is a huge business opportunity. They can give it to a Mexican drug lord and build an entire drug empire with this plant. Thus, everyone in the industry chain quickly enjoyed the profits in the beginning. Everyone came to share a piece of the pie, and gradually the whole chain began to go out of control. The person behind the scenes could no longer control it. Driving too fast would sooner or later destroy the car and its driver. They were afraid of such a result, so they changed all the blood in the body and used the most powerful hitman at the time to pluck out the whole chain by the roots. They did it without leaving a trace, and then they chose the most trustworthy people, arranged the entire business chain in a low-key and cautious manner, doing it quietly for ten years."