Chapter Ten: Traces of Crime
External Investigation Team
Night hung heavy. Lin Qishan stood by the window, gazing at the sparse streetlights outside. On the windowpane of the External Investigation Team's temporary office, his own blurred silhouette stared back at him, like a silent onlooker. Ever since Li Chongping's fall from grace, he and the other team members had barely slept. By day they shuttled between archives and interviews; by night they gathered here, sorting through the jumble of leads.
Lin Qishan was no ordinary journalist. He had formerly been a government-appointed senior public opinion advisor, long entrusted with handling politically sensitive incidents. A few years ago, an investigation into a certain religious organization had forced him out of that post after he stepped on powerful interests, but he still maintained an extensive network of contacts and channels. Because of that, some active investigators would occasionally slip him inside leads, hoping his judgment and experience could help push their case forward.
He gently rubbed the sore corners of his eyes. In his mind flashed the scene of Li Chongping being escorted away. Li had been one of the principal leads on the Xiangci system project, a man of considerable renown. Yet just last week, he'd suddenly been taken by the authorities for "serious disciplinary violations," and news of his downfall promptly blanketed the media. In the official narrative, Li Chongping was simply another toppled corrupt official, his guilt seemingly ironclad. And yet, a lingering shadow in Lin Qishan's heart refused to disperse: wasn't it all a bit too convenient? The evidence had surfaced too readily, as if someone had meticulously laid it out in plain sight for anyone to find. Truth often hides behind appearances, and Lin Qishan knew that all too well.
He sat back down at his desk. Spread across it were items retrieved from Li Chongping's home: a well-worn notebook with a scuffed cover, a gold-plated pen, a family photograph, and a handful of loose documents and receipts. Donning gloves, Lin Qishan carefully examined each object. These personal belongings were like fragments frozen in time, quietly narrating ordinary chapters of Li Chongping's life. He noticed the notebook's pages were yellowed and slightly curled at the edges, as if thumbed through frequently.
The inside cover of the notebook bore a motto in Li Chongping's bold handwriting: "One who stands upright is not afraid of a crooked shadow." There was no doubt it was penned by Li himself. Flipping through the notebook, Lin Qishan found it filled with work logs and hastily scribbled directives and ideas. Most of the content related to the progress of the Xiangci system project — everything from funding disbursements to technical hurdles. However, in the margins of certain pages, he spotted a few seemingly random strings of letters and numbers: "7F," "XC-33," "LCP," and so on. He frowned and held the notebook closer to the lamp. These sequences had no context, like some shorthand code jotted down on the fly. Other investigators had perused this notebook as well, but they likely dismissed those inscrutable scrawls as meaningless doodles.
Lin Qishan clicked his pen and neatly circled 7F, XC-33, and LCP. His intuition insisted these characters concealed some connection. "LCP" might simply be Li Chongping's initials — as if Li was leaving a note to himself — but why encode something so obvious? "XC," meanwhile, immediately made him think of Xiangci. And 7F… that one defied guess for the moment. He gazed at the silent strings of symbols on the page, as if staring at an impassive face, willing it to speak the truth.
Just then, the office door was flung open. A young investigator hurried in, tension written all over his face. "Qishan, something's wrong—we might have a leak," he said, his voice low but quivering with barely suppressed alarm.
Lin Qishan sprang to his feet, the notebook snapping shut in his hand with a loud thump in the silent room. "What happened? Start from the beginning, and take it slowly," he said, motioning for the young man to close the door.
The investigator drew a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "I was checking our email inbox just now and I received an anonymous message," he began. "No name, nothing—title line was 'A Gift for the Righteous.' At first I thought it was spam, but it had an attachment. I was worried it might carry a virus, so I didn't open it on any networked computer. I copied it to an isolated machine to inspect it instead."
Lin Qishan gave a curt nod — that was indeed the proper caution in a sensitive investigation like this. "What was in the attachment?" he asked.
"It was a file… looks like some data excerpted from inside the Xiangci system," the young investigator replied, handing a printed page to Lin Qishan. "I've already printed it out offline. It contains information regarding… the Xiangci system's deep core module."
"Deep core?" Lin Qishan's heartbeat quickened by half a beat. This was exactly the direction his thoughts had been heading moments ago. He lowered his head and swiftly scanned the page. It turned out to be a fragment of an internal technical report, plainly formatted, text mingled with diagrams and symbols. It outlined something called a Deep Core Module (section 3.2). The module code was listed as XC-33 — noted as Xiangci's 33rd core unit — and access to it was restricted to the project director and certain specifically authorized personnel. The functional overview detailed advanced decision-making algorithms, real-time monitoring, and autonomous adjustment of subsystem parameters. Its security level was designated Top Secret, not disclosed even to the regular operations team. And at the very end, a note stated that activation of this Deep Core module required "7F" level clearance.
Lin Qishan's eyes locked onto that last line. The words "7F-level clearance" hit him like a thunderclap. All at once he realized that the "7F" Li Chongping had scrawled repeatedly in his notebook was not some random doodle — it was a reference to a special clearance level in the Xiangci system's hierarchy!
He looked up, meeting the young investigator's gaze. He could see his own shock mirrored in the young man's wide eyes. "It looks like those characters Li Chongping noted down weren't just idle scribbles after all," Lin Qishan said slowly, his voice gravelly with intensity. "He must have sensed there was a secret hidden in the deepest core of the Xiangci system."
The young investigator nodded, then shook his head in disbelief. "But if Li Chongping grasped such a core secret, why would he be the one to fall? If someone truly holds a secret that critical, either their leverage is so great no one would dare move against them, or…" He trailed off meaningfully.
"…or it backfires and burns them instead," Lin Qishan interjected, finishing the thought with a bitter smile. His fingers were unconsciously kneading the edge of the printout, the slight roughness of the paper grounding him in the weight of their discovery. "Maybe it's precisely because Li uncovered something he was never meant to find that someone decided to make sure he'd stay silent forever."
Outside the window, the night had deepened. In the distance a few dogs barked, short and wary. Lin Qishan fell silent, pondering a moment. He picked up Li Chongping's notebook and laid it beside the printout on the desk. The "XC-33" and "7F" from Li's notes suddenly seemed to come alive, now perfectly corroborating the technical jargon on the printed page. He could nearly be certain: just before everything went wrong, Li Chongping had discovered an unspeakable secret hidden within the Xiangci system's Deep Core module. That was why he had furtively jotted down those critical codes.
But what kind of secret could compel a man as prominent as Li Chongping to risk everything to record it? And who had beaten them to the punch by leaking this insider information to the investigation team? Was the anonymous sender truly an ally — or just another puppeteer manipulating events from the shadows?
A flood of such questions weighed on Lin Qishan's mind, as heavy and impenetrable as the darkness beyond the window. He felt as if he were standing at the edge of a whirlpool—one misstep and he would be sucked into even deeper darkness. Yet his rational mind told him that this was exactly the moment when the investigation had to break through. Li Chongping's "downfall" might be nothing more than a façade; a far greater and more shocking truth lay hidden in the depths of the Xiangci system, waiting to be uncovered.
Lin Qishan drew in a long breath, steadying his thoughts. He carefully locked the printed report back into the safe beside him, and slipped Li Chongping's notebook into an evidence bag, sealing it tight. Placing a firm but reassuring hand on the young investigator's shoulder, he murmured, "You've done excellent work tonight. For now, say nothing of this to anyone. I need to figure out our next steps."
The young man nodded in understanding. As he turned and left the room, he trod lightly, as if afraid to disturb whatever fragile threads were now spinning in the darkness. The door closed softly behind him. The office sank back into stillness, lit only by the weak halo of the desk lamp.
Now alone, Lin Qishan sank into his chair, exhaustion weighting his limbs. He closed his eyes. In that brief snatch of darkness, his thoughts turned crystal clear. It all made sense: Li Chongping had likely been framed, and the reason had everything to do with the Xiangci system's most guarded secret. But who was the anonymous sender of the email, and why help him and his team at all?
As he grappled with these thoughts, one line of inquiry shone bright amid the mental web — the Deep Core of Xiangci. He imagined an invisible chain stretched between Li Chongping and the Xiangci system, binding Li's fate tightly to it. Where that chain ultimately led remained cloaked in darkness. But he knew he had no choice now except to follow it, wherever it might pull him.
Lin Qishan opened his eyes and rose slowly to his feet. In the window's reflection he saw his own face, drawn and fatigued but set with unwavering resolve. "No matter how deep the darkness, I will find the light," he vowed silently to himself.