Chapter 54: Video Playback, a Process Shrouded in Mystery!

Chapter 54: Video Playback, a Process Shrouded in Mystery!

1:00 AM.
The Jinling Municipal Public Security Bureau was brightly lit.

"Elder Cui, this is the database receiver that Director Huang of our Power Distribution Center entrusted me to deliver to Officer Duan."
Inside the expert panel office, a security guard from the University Town Power Distribution Center held a black instrument in his hands with utmost care.
He held it as if a single drop might shatter it, guarding it as vigilantly as one would cradle a newborn infant.
After all, Director Huang had explicitly warned them that they needed to guard against fire, theft, and ambushes; if anything went wrong with this delivery, none of them would need to stay in this profession anymore.

Seeing the tardy data terminal arrive, the few experts present couldn't help but smile.
Finally, the video footage could be restored, and for the first time, they would be able to take the initiative and uncover the killer's traces.

Following closely behind those security guards, another team of police officers walked through the doors of the expert panel office.
The man leading them carried a black suitcase.
"Elder Cui, Su Chen asked us to bring this to the expert panel office."
"He didn't say what it was, only that it might be useful later."

Cui Liwan nodded to the officers, signaling them to place the suitcase on the table for now.
At the moment, the experts' attention was focused almost entirely on the impending restoration of the footage.
As for the items provided by Su Chen, his responsibility had been the Jinling dismemberment case, and that case was already solved.
The culprit was currently undergoing professional questioning by the Jinling police, which had long since shifted away from the manhunt live broadcast and into the realm of judicial processing.
It was now being handled by the backbone of the new generation of criminal investigation.
Therefore, Cui Liwan and the others naturally assumed that the contents of Su Chen's suitcase could wait.

"I wonder where that guy Su Chen ran off to."
Bai Su swiped across her smartphone. Ever since Su Chen called her to confirm the scar on the real culprit's neck, she had received no response to her subsequent messages.
Was it read and ignored, or had he simply not looked at it at all?
Bai Su turned off her phone, sighed, and pouted her red lips.
For some reason, she recalled the faint scent she had caught on Su Chen the last time she saw him.
There were also certain details about Su Chen, such as the fact that, much like Officer Qin, he seemed to possess a slight penchant for cleanliness.
Perhaps an average person wouldn't pay attention to such trivialities surrounding a minor police officer, but Bai Su possessed an innate sharpness.

"When I see Su Chen tomorrow or later on, I'll have to ask him," she thought to herself.
"These details might conceal some kind of secret. Judging by both his background and his performance in the expert panel, Su Chen is no ordinary person..."

Just as she was pondering this, the power distribution center staff had nearly finished installing the equipment.
"It's a pity Officer Duan isn't here; this would definitely be invigorating news for him."
Qin Ming gazed at the technicians, watching them connect the data terminal to the office's multimedia display before booting up the computer and loading the footage.
Logically speaking, given Duan Yu's personality, he would have been the very first to rush over for something like this.
Yet, ever since that fellow provided them with the killer's information, he had not shown his face again.
In truth, the experts present all harbored varying degrees of doubt regarding this matter...

They had clearly set out to apprehend a simulated suspect, so how on earth had it ended in the capture of the real murderer?
And how did Duan Yu manage to obtain information about this killer?
It was too bizarre. They constantly felt as though their every action was being manipulated by someone else, and that none of the outcomes were under their own control.
It felt as if they were living beneath someone's shadow.

"Perhaps capturing the real culprit was part of Duan Yu's covert plan?"
Qin Ming frowned, quickly dismissing the thought.
"That doesn't make sense either. We're all members of the expert panel, and this is a real case. Why would Duan Yu feel the need to hide anything from us?"
"I honestly don't understand the logical connection behind all of this."
"What connection is there? Just watch and find out," said Wang Yanxing, who had been silent the entire time, speaking in a flat tone.

Within the police department, he had long held the nickname "Hawk-Eye" because of his meticulous observation skills and his extraordinarily rapid processing of information.
Once, when presented with thousands of photographs, Wang Yanxing had merely glanced at them before immediately identifying the criminal suspect.
And in that photograph, all there was to go on was a fleeting reflection of the suspect in a puddle of muddy water.
Consequently, Wang Yanxing's philosophy was that seeing is believing; information obtained directly through observation far surpassed countless speculations.

"The equipment is all set up. Should we start it now, or wait until Officer Duan arrives so we can watch together?"
The power distribution center technician plugged in the final cord and turned to ask the experts.
After all, this was Duan Yu's project.

"Let's start now. There's no telling when Officer Duan will get here," Cui Liwan decided.
"Understood."
The technicians bustled about for another moment.
Soon, the large screen at the front of the expert panel office lit up with tiny camera feeds.
Densely packed like a mosaic, they filled the entire screen.

Immediately afterward, an electronic AI voice chimed in:
[Beep! Congratulations, the Skynet System has been successfully bound!]
[Please input facial recognition data to facilitate searching.]

This was Duan Yu's "Skynet" system. As long as facial information could be entered into it, it could simultaneously track down the exact same person across tens of thousands of security cameras!
Empowered by formidable computing power and precise algorithms, this technology could increase efficiency a hundredfold.
Furthermore, if a suspect's face was inputted into the recognition system, "Skynet" could conduct real-time screenings across all tens of thousands of cameras.
The moment it detected someone suspected of being the killer, it would immediately report their location data to the expert panel.
It was practically a piece of black technology designed for fugitive manhunts.

"Let's first search for the face of that real murderer, Zhao Xiaoyue, to check her recent activities and see if they correspond with the manhunt broadcast," Cui Liwan instructed.

As the criminal, Zhao Xiaoyue's facial data had long since been entered into the police system, making her easy to locate.
Within seconds, the Skynet system responded.
[Scanning in progress...]
[Beep!]
[Camera feeds of the target's active zones detected. Now playing.]

Accompanied by the trailing echo of the electronic voice, four windows expanded from the densely packed camera views on the office's large screen, enlarging to occupy the entire display.
The experts' gazes instantly locked onto them.

However, to their disappointment, the contents of these retroactive video playbacks merely showed Zhao Xiaoyue within her residential neighborhood.
The woman was exceptionally low-profile, rarely leaving her home, and her range of activity never exceeded a radius of two kilometers.
As for the vicinity of the University Town South District's Power Distribution Center, that was completely out of the question.

"For a wanted criminal to keep a low profile is normal, but this doesn't seem quite right," Qin Ming muttered suspiciously as he watched the screen.
"I remember Officer Duan went to carry out a killer identification, which means the real culprit Zhao Xiaoyue's information should logically have been obtained from those eyewitnesses."
"Yet, since this wanted criminal has never even been near the University Town South District's Power Distribution Center, how on earth did those witnesses manage to identify her?!"

At these words, all the experts fell silent.
Although the end result was that they had caught the real culprit of an unsolved case, the process leading up to it was shrouded in layer upon layer of mystery.
They also wanted to know why the real killer had exposed herself so quickly.
Why was it that every initial step taken by their special operations panel was aimed at arresting a simulated suspect, only for the final outcome to be the capture of the genuine murderer?

"Why don't we... check Officer Duan's past footage?" Cui Liwan suggested.
"Things feel rather off."

[Scanning in progress...]
[Beep!]
[Query complete. Now playing.]

Soon, the footage of Zhao Xiaoyue on the main screen was replaced by footage of Duan Yu.
And the moment these surveillance records began to play, Wang Yanxing, sitting among the expert panel, raised an eyebrow instantly.
Without any preamble, he posed a question:
"Elder Cui, our manhunt live broadcast program backstage has people working as men in black, doesn't it?"
"Of course. They are mainly responsible for handling situations that arise during the program."
Cui Liwan nodded, looking at Wang Yanxing with some confusion. "Why ask that?"

The latter's gaze, however, remained fixed on a palm-sized window in an inconspicuous corner of the large screen.
His eyes gradually grew sharp.
On that screen, Duan Yu was being led away by several men in black. The surveillance resolution was poor, and those men in black seemed almost to blend into the night.

"Everyone," Wang Yanxing said calmly.
"If I'm not mistaken, Officer Duan was already eliminated around twelve o'clock due to some unknown reason."
"Yet, the phone call we received from Duan Yu regarding the identification of the killer seemed to come in at five past twelve..."