Meanwhile, He Yu and Xie Qingcheng were still sitting in the faculty dormitory of Huzhou University.
"Lu Yuzhu's life history is all right here." He Yu swiftly brought up all the relevant case files and perused them on the screen with Xie Qingcheng.
After reading the last line of information on her, He Yu promptly drew a straightforward conclusion. "There's no point in killing this person. She's theirs through and through."
"Then why does she need to be 'cleaned up'?" asked Xie Qingcheng.
"Cleaned up…" He Yu pondered this term, sinking into thought.
It took a thief to catch a thief.
Unlike Zheng Jingfeng, He Yu was a hacker; as such, he had a better understanding of different ways to relay information and tended to pay more attention to that kind of thing. Logically speaking, he could understand their opponent on a higher level. Years of hiding his mental illness and imitating the lifestyle of an ordinary person had polished his mind until it was warped, alert, and sharp.
He thought for a while, looking out at the broadcasting tower beyond the window that resembled a sword of blood piercing into the sky. After muttering to himself for a few moments, something related to the expression "clean up" occurred to him.
He jumped to his feet, gazing at the building behind the Huzhou University Broadcasting Tower, and a terrifying interplay of light and shadow flickered in his eyes.
L.
That's right… Throughout this entire incident, there'd been something that looked important to the scheme but was completely irrelevant and redundant: the broadcasting tower.
What purpose had it served over the course of the entire murder broadcast? On closer examination, it didn't seem to have a specific function of its own. For the time being, its role was to track the progress of the murders in real time, which was a function that wholly overlapped with that of the cell phones.
So why did they deliberately transform the broadcasting tower into something akin to an executioner's sword? Could it simply be for the sake of provocation? Interfering with the signal for the entire city was already arrogant enough—why go this extra step?
He Yu's expression turned grave. Taking control of the broadcasting tower might not have been for the purpose of displaying the murders' progress at all, but rather…
Somewhere near the tower…was the source of a signal that they needed to control with exquisite precision!
The hackers simply took control of the tower because they didn't want to be disturbed by the building's signal. And in the process, they also created a performance by giving the murders a sense of ritualistic ceremony. Their true goal was actually to stabilize the signal coverage in the surrounding area.
L… L…
Of the buildings near the broadcasting tower, which ones were worthy of notice?
The secondary dining hall… The indoor gymnasium… And also, the building that He Yu's gaze had already locked upon firmly—the library.
The Bowen Archives Building—one of the campus libraries.
Jiang Lanpei had been locked in Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital for nearly twenty years. Now that the Cheng Kang case and Huzhou University broadcasting tower homicide case were inextricably intertwined, the organization wanted to clean up…
Did L only refer to the "Lu" in Lu Yuzhu?
Their targets for "cleanup," were they only people?
A darkness spanning more than a decade was sure to involve numerous paper trails. Ordinary people rarely needed to be held in check by contracts, but such an organization couldn't possibly establish agreements through talk alone. And in the past, using digital copies would have been virtually impossible.
Then, if there were indeed case files, whether they were records of the people involved or what they'd done, how many volumes would have been collected over the course of ten or twenty years?
The most important files would be kept close at hand, but what about the bits and pieces that weren't so important? Would the perpetrators have taken them out and stored them in the domain of their allies, like "contracts" used to keep the members in check? To keep their coconspirators in the shadows under control?
Wang Jiankang and Zhang Yong had both been administrative higherups at the university. As collaborators of the mysterious organization, they probably received portions of the records—but where would they have stored them? Those records could have been massively expansive—unsuited to being stored in a bank vault. And they wouldn't have wanted their own families to find out, so…
In the entire university, where were the most files and records stored, and where could they be kept where people would be least likely to search?
The answer was the seemingly silent and unobtrusive archival building currently hidden beneath the bloody glow of the broadcasting tower.
Every famous centuries-old university had a building filled with huge volumes of files like this. Even though digital files existed now, Huzhou University in particular still kept the age-old tradition of documenting every graduate's grades, theses, and exams on paper. Within Huzhou University's case file building, one could trace the original copies of student dissertation defenses back to more than a century ago. There were so many archival envelopes on the premises that ten whole days wouldn't be enough to organize them all.
L, Library, Lu Yuzhu.
If she wasn't the person getting "cleaned up," then she was…
He Yu turned around. "If you trust me, then come with me to the case file building," he said to Xie Qingcheng. "But my judgment might not be correct. It takes twenty minutes to get there, and we have to avoid being discovered by the police, so it might take longer than that. And if my guess is wrong, we might lose the chance to find someone who might know something about your parents' deaths. Think it over and decide what you want to do."
Xie Qingcheng had grown used to calmly bossing people around, delegating and planning for others. But at that moment, facing the truth behind his parents' deaths—unsolved for nineteen years—his thoughts were a tangled mess.
As a result, even though Xie Qingcheng faintly felt that there was something inappropriate about this, he didn't know how to sort out the chess pieces before him. Nor had he ever imagined that the only person who could show him a path forward right now would be He Yu.
That it would be this little devil.
With his thoughts in turmoil, Xie Qingcheng picked up the box of cigarettes from the table and gave He Yu a meaningful look.
It was a look that Xie Qingcheng had never given He Yu before. In the past, he always seemed to He Yu as if he was looking down on him. Even when He Yu grew taller than him, the aura emanating from his peach blossom eyes was still one of someone looking at a youth from whom he demanded absolute obedience.
But now, Xie Qingcheng was looking at him straight on.
"I trust you," he said.
He Yu's heart shuddered.
Xie Qingcheng paused. Gazing at He Yu, he said with deliberate emphasis, "Thank you."
A few seconds passed before He Yu finally returned to his senses. "It's nothing." He suppressed that inexplicable tremor in his heart and said again, "It's nothing." He grabbed his phone as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh right, Ge, wait a minute."
He Yu turned away and quickly used his phone to connect the computer to the internet and casually log onto the dark web. He looked up a program, paid for it using a MasterCard, and then downloaded it onto his phone.
"This is the mirroring software from the equipment the hackers are using," he said. "It's only a copy of the most basic part, but it should be enough in case we need to use it."
As Xie Qingcheng looked at him, once again the niggling feeling welled up that this was inappropriate. If he were in his normal state of mind, he would have realized at once why he felt that way. But at the moment, his thoughts were like half-dried glue, impossible to wade through.
Thus, by the time He Yu finished setting up the software, shoved his phone in his pocket, looked at him, and said, "Let's go," Xie Qingcheng only hesitated a moment before agreeing.
He hurried after He Yu in the direction of the archives.
Within the archives, Lu Yuzhu's face was relaxed as she walked Jiang Liping to the elevator and handed her an external hard drive.
"I've gathered the most important materials here. Executive Duan knows the password."
Jiang Liping took the hard drive and pressed it between her hands with her head bowed. After a moment, she said to Lu Yuzhu, "Lu-jie, why don't you…"
"I won't be leaving with you," Lu Yuzhu said. "Someone needs to see this through to the end. By stirring up this big of a fuss, the boss is painting a warning in blood for all the collaborators that everyone hiding in the shadows should keep their mouths shut. He's telling them they need to know the consequences of betraying him—that if he chooses to act, even under the noses of the police, they won't be able to save themselves. But there's no doubt that those hunting dogs, especially their leader, will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this case. Otherwise, they would lose their positions of authority."
She smiled. "I know all too well how deranged those people can become when their badges are on the line."
"You're sure," Jiang Liping said.
"I'm sure," Lu Yuzhu confirmed. "I've been the domestic ringleader behind this entire case. I must convince the police that Jiang Lanpei had ties to foreign powers, and that those foreign powers had me carry out this plot to avenge her.
"Now, I've left behind everything that the police can use as standard procedural evidence. At the end of their investigation, the only evidence they'll find will prove that this was an international crime. A few months ago, after a ten-year standoff, the boss of that overseas machinery manufacturer finally fell under Executive Duan's control. Executive Duan will wait to pile all the evidence onto them before having them killed outside the country. That fallen giant should be perfect to take the rap for the Cheng Kang case and the murdered police officers from nineteen years ago on behalf of our organization. At any rate, dead men tell no tales.
"As long as the domestic investigators can use me to show that the case is closed, most of those hounds will be dispatched elsewhere. They won't waste effort on pursuing the people who remain at large. Some remaining officers might be dissatisfied, but it'll be difficult for isolated individuals to pull anything off without more support."
With that, Lu Yuzhu looked down to check the time. Then she said to Jiang Liping, "Liping, you should get on your way. It would be impossible for you to avoid being implicated for what happened to Wang Jiankang and Zhang Yong. If you fall into their hands, it'll all be over for you. When is Executive Duan sending people to come get you?"
Jiang Liping gazed at Lu Yuzhu's face as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn't manage it. After a moment of silence, she replied, "His people are already here. I'll be able to leave at once."
"Then hurry and get out of here. Zheng Jingfeng is no idiot; once he catches wind of this, he might follow the trail here."
"Lu-jie…"
"Go." Lu Yuzhu put her arms around Jiang Liping. The two of them were both undercover criminals from the organization hiding at Huzhou University, and in some senses they were like sisters who had overcome many difficult trials together. "You must be careful—there are police informants in the organization. If our plan hadn't been leaked in advance, it would have gone even more smoothly this time."
"I know," replied Jiang Liping.
"That informant still hasn't revealed themselves… They've harmed us for so long from the shadows. After you catch them, make sure the boss tears them to pieces…" As she gritted her teeth, Lu Yuzhu's eyes shone with a fanatical brilliance. "This is my only wish before I die. I'll be watching from hell."
Jiang Liping closed her eyes, hugging Lu Yuzhu back tightly without a word. Then she turned around and entered the elevator.
The elevator doors closed between the two women, a dividing line between the darkness and the light. Behind the doors, the elevator ascended.
Lu Yuzhu turned around and headed deeper into the library's basement levels.
There, an assortment of live wires and explosive devices had already been buried. She had also killed the archives' two staff members. Even if the informant leaked this information to the police, Zheng Jingfeng had still lost to her in the end—he'd failed to locate her before she finished her plan.
They were always so useless—it was the same ten years ago, and they hadn't changed since then.
They were always too late.
Justice that arrived too late was meaningless. Once, in the past, they had taught her this lesson using her life. Now, in the present, she intended to use this life of hers to teach them a lesson in turn.
Lu Yuzhu walked to the center of the basement and carefully inspected everything again. The organization had given her the most advanced equipment. Although she had no experience with explosives, she understood the necessary procedures. As long as she put everything together according to their instructions and pressed a button on the explosive device, their people would be able to control it remotely and detonate the entire installation in less than five minutes.
Lu Yuzhu walked into the middle of that crisscrossing web of wires. She stood quietly and calmly looked over her surroundings. As soon as the explosives went off, the entire archival library and all its files, whether they were from two decades or more than a century ago, would go up in flames. And with that, the person who had once rescued her from a life of hustling received the "cleanliness" he so desired.
"Duan-ge," she said softly—speaking aloud the words that she usually only dared to murmur in her heart, an incredibly audacious manner of address. "I've come to clean things up for you."
With a quiet laugh, she pressed the button on the device.
"Duan-laoban." In a suite in a Huzhou hotel, a technician with a cigar in his mouth was staring at the laptop screen in front of him with a very ugly expression on his face. "Someone's intercepted the remote-control system for the detonator."
A man stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows looking down at Huzhou University's Radio and Television Tower. "It's been intercepted by the police?" he asked coolly. "I spent so much money hiring you, yet you can't even beat the police at your own game. You sure accepted the payment with ease."
"It's not the police." The technician wiped at the sweat on his forehead. He was so anxious that his eyeballs were bulging out like a bullfrog's behind his high-prescription Coke-bottle glasses. "The intrusion port they used isn't one that we're familiar with."
The man's interest seemed slightly piqued. "And that is?"
"I can't figure it out right now, but looking at their technique, I feel… I feel that this person is…"
"Is?"
The technician swallowed. "Edward."
His words were followed by several seconds of silence. Then a woman's voice floated out from inside the room.
Up until now, that woman hadn't spoken a word as she lay back in a recliner scrolling through Weibo and looking at the discussion topics about Huzhou University's broadcasting tower. Even though such content was quickly blocked and deleted, the messages still kept pouring in. Refreshing the page from time to time was enough to hold her attention.
But upon hearing the name "Edward," the woman's hand stilled.
"Are you sure?" she asked the technician.
"I-I can't be sure, but considering that he broke into my system in such a short amount of time, and looking at the method he used, I can't think of anyone else among the well-known hackers right now, I…"
Duan-laoban smiled faintly. "Well, if it's him, that makes things easier. Let's first see if it's actually him."
He nodded to the secretary next to him. "Give He Yu a call."
The dial tone droned several times.
"Duan-laoban, he didn't pick up."
The man glanced at the woman out of the corner of his unfathomable eyes. "I really must congratulate you, Executive Lü. You have such a wonderful son."
The woman rose from the chair, her ample figure wrapped in a luxurious custom-made silk dress. As she walked over to the floor-to ceiling window, the nighttime city lights illuminated her face—the kindly looking, ingratiating face of a businesswoman.
Astonishingly, this woman was none other than Lü Zhishu!
Lü Zhishu looked rather embarrassed as she drained the wine in her cup. However, she forced out a few peals of laughter. "Executive Duan, I must also congratulate you," she said to the man. "If it wasn't him, it would be very difficult to resolve this issue today, wouldn't it? If it is him, at least it will be easy to deal with. My son isn't the type to get involved with something like this of his own accord. There must be someone else with him."
As she spoke, she looked down at her phone.
The last message sent to her family group chat was from He Yu. Doctor Xie and I have returned to the dorm.
Lü Zhishu handed her phone to the man with a complicated expression in her eyes. "Please try not to hurt him. Think of a way to make him stop as quickly as possible."
The man glanced at the screen.
"Your dearest son and Xie Qingcheng are together again."
"They seem to be getting along quite well." Lü Zhishu was all too eager to distance her family from this development and place the onus entirely on Xie Qingcheng. "I know my son—he doesn't like Xie Qingcheng's personality, but psychologically, he's always treated him as a role model to imitate and surpass. I suppose Xie Qingcheng wanted to look into this today, so He Yu threw himself into the endeavor, hoping to show off in front of his idol."
"Idol?" The man browsed the conversation history. After a while, he said to Lü Zhishu, "In that case, why don't we pull up some old videos? It's about time we destroy the kid's…what do they call it again? His bias."
Walking over to the computer, Duan-laoban continued to give orders. "I want everything that's publicly available on the internet and all our internal files. I'll tell you which particular videos to look for."
With a full plan in mind, the man smiled coldly. As long as He Yu was doing this for Xie Qingcheng, everything would work out. Actually, it couldn't possibly be any easier to make He Yu stop. He just needed to see those glimpses of Xie Qingcheng's past.
Surely then this son of Lü Zhishu would no longer make such an effort to extend a helping hand to his Doctor Xie.