The First Order

Chapter 990: Mastermind

“We must’ve missed out on some very important details.” Wang Yun said firmly, “The message from Future Commander said that during the sting operation, the suspects were still continuously being silenced by someone. This means we haven’t found the superhuman with the power of the heartworms yet.”

Wang Yun’s hair was messy, and he no longer looked like his usual smart self. He paced back and forth in the conference room with the screens on the wall paused while he processed the clues.

Nearby, Zhang Xiaoman said, “Why don’t you get some rest first? We’re only halfway through all the surveillance footage, so please don’t suddenly die before you’re done.”

Over the past four days, even the soldiers who were supporting Wang Yun’s work had already rotated shifts twice, yet Wang Yun remained on duty without taking a break. He ate and slept here in the conference room and did not even wash his face or brush his teeth.

If one were to see him in his current state, they would never imagine how sharp he looked in the past.

However, Wang Yun did not even answer when Zhang Xiaoman urged him to rest this time. He just lowered his head and continued thinking.

Suddenly, Wang Yun looked up and said to the soldier in charge of playing back the video recordings, “Quick, I want to see that day’s footage of the intersection where Mr. Jiang Xu met his demise!”

A soldier quickly switched two of the screens to show the day Jiang Xu died. The footage was captured by two HD surveillance cameras at the intersection.

Wang Yun watched the recording, which had its quality affected by intermittent flashes appearing onscreen. A large number of people could be seen moving through the intersection, and a rough calculation probably put that number in the thousands.

With so many faces in the footage, no normal person would even think about trying to remember them all.

After Wang Yun watched it, he said to the soldier, “Rewind and play it again!”

The soldier quickly rewound it to the start.

Just like that, Wang Yun rewatched this video three times in a row. Then he suddenly said to the soldier, “I remember Future Commander mentioned yesterday that someone told him Mr. Jiang Xu nearly got into an accident that morning. Scrub the feed to that time!”

Wang Yun was referring to the moment Jiang Xu was nearly crushed by the falling billboard.

They did not know the exact time of the incident, so they could only play back the recording from 8 AM of that morning and fast forward while looking for it.

Very quickly, Wang Yun saw Mr. Jiang Xu walk out of Hope Media with an upright posture. Then they saw some passersby greeting Mr. Jiang Xu with a smile.

And after that!

A young man in a black suit bumped into Jiang Xu just a moment before a huge billboard crashed down next to him.

“Vanilla?!” Wang Yun immediately recognized this very active superhuman from the Anjing House.

The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. “Wait a minute, could the Anjing House be behind this? But it looks to me like he’s clearly protecting Jiang Xu.”

“Yeah, the Anjing House has allied with the Wang Consortium. Since Jiang Xu had been constantly targeting the Wang Consortium in his articles, why would the Anjing House protect him?” Wang Yun wondered.

Next to them, P5092 suddenly said, “It’s understandable. Before this, we’ve always regarded the Wang Consortium as our imaginary enemy. Because the Wang Consortium seems to be the prime suspect in Jiang Xu’s death. But think about it this way: If the Wang Consortium is also afraid that someone will frame them and make them the target of public condemnation, their motive for protecting Jiang Xu will become valid.”

“Show me the footage of that day’s battle, the one that took place on the next street over!” Wang Yun shouted.

In the end, when the images were brought up on screen, everyone was surprised to discover that Vanilla and Tang Hualong were trying their best to rush towards Qinghe University. However, they were stopped by hundreds of black-clothed hitmen.

During this time, Vanilla and Tang Hualong were both injured in the battle. They only managed to escape from the encirclement of the hitmen when Vanilla risked his life to get away from them.

The hitmen were the same group of people that had been wiped out while pursuing Ren Xiaosu.

With that, it fell silent in the conference room. After a while, the Great Hoodwinker wondered, “Is this just an act, or did they really want to protect Jiang Xu?”

“It doesn’t look like it was an act.” Wang Yun stared at the screen and said, “I analyzed the movements of every hitman and realized none of them were holding back. Some of them even made plastic firearms for the battle. Look, after this person was knocked to the ground, his weapon fell to the side and got crushed to pieces by a moving car. Normal firearms won’t shatter like that, so it means the hitmen also knew Vanilla was coming and prepared weapons to deal with him. The firearms were plastic, and the bullets were probably specially manufactured too. Look at Vanilla’s abdomen—he was injured. He can manipulate metal, so standard bullets can’t hurt him.”

Wang Yun continued, “Rewind the recording back to the part where Vanilla protected Jiang Xu.”

Then Wang Yun stared intently at the screen, waiting for something to happen.

On the screen, Jiang Xu had already left the scene, but Wang Yun’s attention did not leave with him. Instead, he continued monitoring this same location.

He stared at the screen for two hours straight while six hours had already passed in the fast-forwarded recording onscreen. At this point in time, two hours had passed since Jiang Xu was assassinated.

Suddenly, Wang Yun raised his hand and shouted, “Stop!”

Everyone realized Wang Yun had become excited. He pointed at a young man in a blue factory uniform on the screen and said, “Check which factory’s uniform he’s wearing!”

When the Great Hoodwinker contacted Luoyang City’s administrative center, he quickly got an answer. “That’s the uniform of the water plant.”

“It’s him.” Wang Yun said firmly, “Luoyang City Freshwater Plant is eight kilometers away from here and nine kilometers away from where Mr. Jiang Xu met with trouble. It’s on the edge of the stronghold, and the three locations are arranged in a triangle. It’s obviously work hours at this time, yet this person suddenly appeared at such a baffling location. Have you all heard of a principle? Most perpetrators return to the crime scene after the incident. Some of them go back to check out if they’re safe from suspicion, while others carry out counter-investigative measures to see if they’ve done a clean job. Basically, they’re just afraid of being found out.”

“Of course, the most important giveaway is that he suddenly appeared at the two locations where Mr. Jiang Xu met with trouble. There can’t be such a coincidence in the world!” Wang Yun said, “Continue monitoring him. I want his movements to be placed under observation.”

As a matter of fact, that person was very cautious. He did not immediately go back to the scene to watch the happenings and only returned after Jiang Xu had died.

At this moment, 99.99% of the people in the world would probably be focused on that road intersection. Who would care to check back on the initial crime scene six hours later?

However, he probably did not expect Wang Yun to be so patient in seeking the answer!

Over at Ren Xiaosu’s side, he was listening in on Luo Lan’s interrogation. What left him at a loss was that as more and more suspects were arrested, some weirder ones started appearing.

The middle-aged man across from Luo Lan roared hysterically, “I only accepted a pack of sweet potato noodles and a bottle of honey. Did you people really have to drag me here?! Huh?!”

This middle-aged man was only a junior staff member of the Transportation Division. But as a result of accepting some local specialty products, he got arrested.

This time, it was really local specialties that were involved.

Luo Lan was tickled pink. “As the saying goes, though the bribe is small, the fault is great, understand?”

But after investigating this person, they didn’t make things difficult for him either.

This time, not only did Ren Xiaosu and the others capture the spies in Luoyang City, they also cracked down on many cases of bribery and corruption as a by-product.

Suddenly, an intelligence agent from the Northwest rushed in from outside. “Future Commander, Wang Yun said he might’ve found the mastermind!”

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