“This might be the first time that the Sparrow Game failed to capture its prey. During the time period when Lan Er was in the hospital, there was a desperate influx of strongly suggestive dark articles. Lan Er tried to kill himself in the hospital, but fortunately, he was rescued. He was occasionally sober and that was when he told us about the incident. At the end of his story, he suggested for us to build our work on this special case.

This time around, we dare not let anyone deal with the forum alone. We arranged for a few people to work under the same IP address while dealing with our opponent. We’re unsure what our opponent’s state of mind was because he continued to be on our tail and refused to let us go. A few days ago, our account got dragged into a subsystem. The active users on the subsystem are those who were involved with the Chengdu mine. This time around, the scope isn’t confined to those who were involved in the mine shaft where the accident took place, but the entire mine itself.

Most of these people are suffering from Pneumoconiosis and they are always complaining about their bad luck, their hatred on the society, and their desire to take revenge on society. Their topics of discussion are mainly focusing on how to torture their neighbors’ dogs, molest young girls, and murder their wives. However, almost all of them have a keen interest in locating the mine owner and carrying out illegal punishments on him!” Xiao Feng explained.

“Huh? You’re telling me that such a forum exists?” Wang Hao folded his arms on his chest and leaned back. There were goosebumps all over his body.

“I think a big part of the reason why Lan Er was looped into the subsystem had something to do with the mine owner. Lan Er got his hands on the mine owner’s personal information and forged an identity…” Xiao Feng leaned back on the sofa and covered his eyes with his hands. He emanated helplessness around him.

“Alright, let’s allocate more manpower on the internet-related investigation. Meng Chengjun and Wang Hao, both of you and your respective team are to assist Officer Xiao. Xiao Zhang, bring some men with you and look into the escapees from the mental asylum. For now, let’s just leave Zhao Ran alone, we can’t act without solid evidence substantiating our hypothesis,” Hu Cheng said as he tapped against his tobacco pipe.

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

Xu Lan felt lost and did not know what to do. He stood still and watched as everyone continued to work on the tasks that they were assigned. The disruption in the space-time equilibrium took Xu Lan’s pride and confidence away. He became more cautious. He found it difficult to focus and he knew this would cause a lapse in judgment sooner or later. In fact, this was probably the reason why he made a misjudgment when it came to Zhao Ran and also failing to protect Lan Er!

“Alright. That’s all for today, everyone’s dismissed,” Hu Cheng stood up and tapped his tobacco pipe against the table as he spoke. Everyone else stood up too and proceeded to work on the tasks assigned to them.

‘What happened to my sharp observational skills? My fearlessness and decisiveness? Everyone in the station believes that I’m capable of solving the case, even the task force complimented me on my unique perspectives as they were incredibly helpful to the case! Yet, what am I doing now?’ Xu Lan wrapped his arms around his head and buried his fingers amidst his short hair as he whimpered in guilt.

“Xiao Xu, you should head home if you’re feeling unwell. We’ll let you know if there’s anything new,” Wang Meng said with a heavy heart. He patted Xu Lan on his shoulder as he made his way out with Xiao Feng.

“Qin Lao, can I talk to you please?” Xu Lan said with his head bowed, his gaze fixated on the tip of his shoes.

Liang Yu wanted to remain next to Qin Lao but he was sent away by Qin Lao instead. At that moment, Xu Lan and Qin Lao were in the room alone.

“Qin Lao, I need a favor. This is something that only you can do. If you decided to help me out, I can convince Bai Wu to help you out with your research,” Xu Lan said calmly and emotionlessly.

“Haha, it seems like the meeting today really took a toll on you. Spill, what is it?” Qin Lao chuckled.