Criminal Psychology

The website went dark.

It was like an eerie ghost light in the wilderness, arriving without a sound and disappearing with the wind.

Countless people who were peeking into the dark web witnessed this moment together.

Some thought it was a network failure, some thought it was sudden internet restrictions implemented by the government, and others felt it was the puppet master gathering strength for the next round of actions. Each person had a different understanding of the same phenomenon, so this significant event didn’t cause much stir.

Similarly, members of the organization who were waiting for the next round of poisoning operation arrangements also thought it was a normal adjustment, nothing unexpected.

The only one who reacted was the one who had lost control of the website.

In the middle of the night, the lights were still on at the beef noodle shop in the commercial district. Some overtime workers were still eating, and the boss was still bustling about.

There were three or four programmers in the store who had just finished work, looking exhausted while waiting for their meal.

The boss, wearing an apron, was cheerfully cooking a pot of noodle soup, as if the store were still full of distinguished guests.

Next to him was a large pot of red oil still simmering on the coal stove. The white noodle soup bubbled, complemented by the green spring onions at the bottom of the bowl.

The noodles floated up, and the boss quickly scooped them out, pouring in the long-simmered soup base and a spoonful of red oil. His movements were smooth and interesting.

He removed his apron, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, and served the noodle bowl to the customer’s table.

The programmers were whispering about yesterday’s vote, exchanging opinions on website construction, and incidentally mentioning the extinguishing of the dark web voting site.

The red oil that had been spilled on the TV earlier had been wiped clean, but the device was broken, so it no longer lit up, and there was only a single incandescent light shining silently in the store.

The old shop owner collected an empty bowl from the table, went back to the kitchen, extinguished the fire on the stove, and washed the bowl in passing.

The process was very calm, without any anger.

In the shop, the programmers’ noodles were about to be finished, with only a thin layer of soup left in the bowl.

The old shop owner put away the bowl, gently wiped his hands with a handkerchief from his pocket, pulled out a cell phone with his other hand, made a simple phone call, and walked towards the entrance.

“Let’s start,” he said.

The sound echoed darkly in the night, and the programmers looked instinctively towards the door, where they were met by a sudden lowering of the shutter.

The grating sound of steel echoed abruptly in the empty street, causing a cold chill, and at the last moment of the shutter’s descent, a cell phone was casually thrown in.

The programmers rushed to the door in an instant, with the sound of a light lock falling at the entrance.

Fear and the will to survive drove them to pound on the steel door and scream for help, but all their pleas fell on deaf ears. On the ground beside them, a flash of light suddenly flashed across the screen of the cell phone.

Someone bent down to pick up the phone, but time had run out.

The timer in the beef noodle shop hit zero, and the nearby residents heard a deafening explosion.

The fire soared into the sky, lighting up most of the night sky.

The entire shop was engulfed in the roaring fire.

……

When Xing Conglian received the call from the detention center, he had already returned to the command center from the criminal investigation team’s office.

The moment he saw the incoming call display, he had a strong sense of foreboding.

He answered the phone, and the officer on the other end reported the situation in the interrogation room.

After that, Xing Conglian couldn’t quite catch what was said; he felt as if he had sunk to the bottom of the water, with the officer’s voice coming from the surface, accompanied by an empty and blurred echo.

Thirty seconds later, he hung up the phone and then began to search for his car keys, which were actually in his hand, but he still fumbled in his pocket for a while before realizing it.

The last words of the officer kept echoing in his ears: Shen Lian has been sent to the hospital for rescue, and Consultant Lin is by her side.

Because of these words, his limbs were cold, but his heart was beating heavily and painfully, as if it were about to jump out of his throat.

He got into the driver’s seat and made a tremendous effort to tell himself that he wasn’t in a state to drive. So he held the key, stared at the barrier in front of the parking lot, calmed down for a while, and then reluctantly inserted the key into the hole.

Xing Conglian threw his phone on the dashboard, put on his Bluetooth headset, dialed Lin Chen’s number, then stepped on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel sharply.

The car shot out of the parking lot like an arrow from a bow.

Streetlights whizzed past, but the waiting tone in his earpiece remained constant, and Xing Conglian felt as if he was about to crush the steering wheel.

Three minutes and forty seconds later, the call was terminated three times due to timeout, making Xing Conglian forcefully step on the accelerator to the end.

Just before he dialed the fourth call, the call was answered. Xing Conglian didn’t react at the time and immediately shouted, “Lin Chen.”

However, he didn’t hear Lin Chen speaking, but it was Wang Chao’s voice that came out. “Boss, can you come to the unfinished building? There are some things you must see.”

The anxiety in Wang Chao’s words was even greater than his.

After a moment, they both spoke at the same time: “What happened?”

Before he could answer, Wang Chao interjected, “Boss, why is your voice so hoarse? What happened to A’Chen Gege?”

“Shen Lian attempted suicide in the detention center, in front of Lin Chen,” Xing Conglian said up to here, only to realize that his voice sounded like a windshield wiper scraping a large amount of muddy water, rough and horrifying.

But what surprised him wasn’t his voice, but the silence on the other end of the phone. Wang Chao didn’t even say his usual “holy crap”.

Xing Conglian’s heart also missed a beat. It seemed bad things often came one after another, as they always had since ancient times.

“Speak.” He found that his voice sounded even more hoarse.

“Boss, I know you want to go to the hospital now,” Wang Chao said with difficulty. “But you can’t go. We found some things on the dark web server that in Mailin. The operation team had passed them on to me. You… You have to come see it, Boss.”

After Wang Chao finished speaking, he quickly hung up the phone, not wasting a second, obviously to give him and Lin Chen time for a phone call.

But this attitude was also very clear: Boss, you must come over. 

The traffic light in front changed, and Xing Conglian slammed on the brakes.

At this moment, his phone rang again.

It was a red light, glaringly red like blood in the night. Xing Conglian was startled and looked down. It was a callback from Lin Chen’s number.

If Lin Chen had called back before Wang Chao, he would have continued to the hospital regardless of what happened. But this seemed to be an arrangement by fate.

He answered the phone as the red light turned green and gritted his teeth. He turned the steering wheel sharply, heading in the opposite direction.

During this gap, there were sounds of chaotic conversations from the entrance of the hospital operating room, but Xing Conglian wasn’t sure he heard Lin Chen’s voice.

 “Hello… Is this Captain Xing?” Someone on the other end asked tentatively.

The voice was submissive, but it stood out starkly against the noisy background. Xing Conglian’s heart sank.

“Where is Lin Chen?” He asked.

The phone was passed to someone else.

From the sound of it, it should be a leader from the detention center.

“Captain Xing, right? I’m Chu Wei from the detention center.”

Xing Conglian coldly stared at the road ahead without saying a word.

“Captain Xing, I’m really sorry. Has Xiao Chen reported to you just now? It was our problem during the surveillance. We didn’t notice when things were being delivered in…”

Before the other person could continue, Xing Conglian interrupted him, “Where is Lin Chen?”

“Consultant Lin, he was just here, but somehow he left his phone at the entrance of the operating room. I saw that the phone had been ringing too many times, so I let a younger colleague answer it.”

“Find him.”

Xing Conglian was calm, and his voice was very faint, but Chu Wei felt as if he was like a stretched wire. Because it was so thin and shallow, when it snapped, it would be sharper than a gun.

“I-I understand…”

Chu Wei was originally talking to someone else, but after hearing Xing Conglian’s request, he instinctively filtered out the people at the entrance of the operating room. He remembered Lin Chen was just here, but how could he suddenly disappear?

The entrance to the operating room was getting more and more crowded, as every department had sent some people over, and there were also experts from the higher-level hospital. Chu Wei struggled out of the crowd, and only then did he realize that he could check the surveillance video.

He sent someone towards the staircase. Just then, a cold figure slowly came out of the bathroom at the end of the hallway.

It was Lin Chen.

Chu Wei sighed with relief and quickly rushed over, wanting to give Lin Chen his phone. But when he ran in front of Lin Chen, he suddenly stopped, because the eyes that Lin Chen slowly raised didn’t seem to belong to a human.

Dark, numb, like a land covered by the shadow of death.

He opened his mouth, but his first reaction was that no matter what he said, Lin Chen wouldn’t hear.

“Give him a Bluetooth headset and hang the phone on his ear. If the phone is out of battery, connect it with a power bank, and put them all in his pocket.”

The call was still ongoing. Xing Conglian was still on the line, calmly ordering him.

Just then, Lin Chen seemed to have some perception. He looked at him, his eyes fluctuated a bit, and then he slowly stretched out his hand to him.

Chu Wei breathed a sigh of relief, wanting to give him the phone back.

But Xing Conglian insisted, “Do as I say.”

Chu Wei quickly followed Xing Conglian’s instructions and equipped Lin Chen with the “set”. During this process, Lin Chen was like a marionette, sitting on the chair at the door by the bathroom, letting him fiddle around.

Only then did Chu Wei break out in a cold sweat. He had no doubt that if he had given Lin Chen the phone just now, it would have fallen directly from Lin Chen’s hand onto the ground.

Xing Conglian was driving on the dark city road.

He listened to the sounds of the earpiece rubbing against the ear—Lin Chen’s breathing and Chu Wei’s voice calling Lin Chen. His heart felt like it was being cut by a knife.

Although it was only a few breaths apart, Xing Conglian felt the time was unbearably long.

Finally, when Chu Wei left, he tentatively called out, “Baby”.

“I made a mistake,” Lin Chen responded.