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墨書 Inktalez
Soon, Xu Yiman brought Jiang He to the second floor of the Chain Supermarket on Yutai Road, where the Lockers were located. The three of them did not act recklessly; instead, they pretended to be customers and observed their surroundings. Within half an hour, Jiang He noticed that two individuals had appeared suspiciously next to the Lockers.
These two young men looked to be in their twenties. They stood in front of the Lockers, glancing around before carefully entering four digits on the keypad. Shortly after, one of the Lockers in the upper right corner popped open automatically. When the two approached and saw inside, they seemed to have a moment of realization before quickly closing the locker and leaving.
Jiang He noted that there was no one else observing the Lockers. It made sense; a Criminal Consultant wouldn’t waste too much energy on such trivial matters.
Jiang He whispered to Xu Yiman beside him, “It seems that customers set their own passwords for these Lockers. If a password is repeated, they must enter a different one. Each password consists of four digits corresponding to a unique Locker. During my observation, I saw many customers setting passwords, but the issue is that to increase usage, Locker passwords are supposed to be one-time only. However, this particular Locker clearly has something different.”
Xu Yiman nodded in agreement.
Jiang He continued, “You should go find the staff responsible for managing the Lockers and ask them about it. I believe they must know something.”
Xu Yiman nodded again and walked towards the east side of the supermarket.
Meanwhile, Jiang He stood in front of the keypad like the two young men before him.
He entered “1024” into the keypad, and when he pressed the confirm button, he indeed saw that the previously locked Locker popped open.
As he stepped aside, he noticed that the Locker was completely empty; nothing was stored inside. However, on the left side of the locker wall, some mischievous child had scrawled the word "Justice" with a marker.
No wonder those two individuals had looked so enlightened when they saw this Locker; it turned out that the Criminal Consultant had led people all this way just for these two words. To them, opening the locker meant seeing "Justice" written inside.
Yet, a sense of doubt arose within Jiang He’s mind.
Was the Criminal Consultant's purpose really that simple? Did he bring these so-called Core Members to this supermarket just to see these two words? At that Judgment Assembly station, one had to register to comment, and registration required coming to this place first; these two words served as another "key."
Jiang He closed the Locker and stood silently aside.
Guan Deng stood to the side, holding the computer, his eyes fixed on the number of people in the lower right corner of the screen, which was steadily climbing. It seemed that more and more people were entering this site. However, aside from the increasing numbers, there were no other changes at either site.
Xu Yiman quickly found the supermarket manager. Jiang He cut straight to the point and asked, "All your lockers are set with a one-time password, but this particular locker has a permanent password. What’s going on?"
The Supermarket Manager replied, "This happened about three years ago when our supermarket had just opened. A mysterious person approached us and requested to permanently own one of our lockers. Although it was a simple matter of modifying a small program, we were puzzled because these lockers are meant for free trial use—just one locker per visit. Why would this person want to keep one permanently?"
"Even though we didn’t understand what this customer wanted, we followed their request and reserved the locker for them at a price of one thousand a year," said the supermarket manager.
Jiang He looked at the nearby locker and asked, "Do you know what this person looked like?"
The Supermarket Manager shook his head. "It was winter then; he was dressed in thick clothing, wearing a hat and mask. I could only see his eyes and not his face, but I could tell he had a well-proportioned figure—about your height, roughly around one hundred seventy-eight centimeters."
Jiang He nodded. In his mind, he was almost certain that this person was the Criminal Consultant. This also aligned with the Criminal Consultant's usual style; if someone saw his face, he wouldn't be the Criminal Consultant anymore.
The supermarket manager continued, "That night we quickly settled this small matter, and we never saw him again. However, every year he has consistently transferred the management fee to our account. This is already the third year, so we have kept this locker reserved for him."
Pausing for a moment, the supermarket manager added, "But what's strange is that after purchasing this locker, he has never come by or used it even once. Yet in just the past month, there have been people coming to the supermarket to open this locker before leaving again."
The Supermarket Manager glanced at Jiang He and said, "Just like you guys. The supermarket security has become somewhat paranoid; they keep an eye on this locker every day. Fortunately, nothing unusual has happened. Officer, that's all I know; I can't provide any further information."
Jiang He nodded and turned to Guan Deng beside him. "Guan Deng, register now; use 'Justice' as the registration code and see what happens."
Guan Deng held the computer with one hand while quickly typing on the keyboard with the other. Soon enough, he completed the registration.
Jiang He and Xu Yiman leaned in from either side to look at the computer screen. After refreshing the page, another page popped up. This page was completely black with only one line of text: "Congratulations on reaching here. The following content may cause discomfort; if you wish to proceed further, please click 'Next'."
"Click." Jiang He clicked the next step without hesitation.
Guan Deng clicked the next step, and sure enough, images that could cause discomfort appeared.
These were images of corpses. For the members of the project team, they had seen countless bodies before, so such images wouldn't disturb them. However, for ordinary people, the impact of these images seemed quite significant.
Xu Yiman quickly scanned the images and said, "The corpses in these pictures have different causes of death and appear to be from various times. They should be images found online, not from the Criminal Consultant's victims. But what is the purpose of showing us these images?"
Jiang He noticed that the number of people online was only a mere thousand.
Beneath the chaotic array of corpses was another button for the next step.
"Click." Jiang He typed that single word again.
After Guan Deng clicked the next step, a box popped up. Everyone understood now; it seemed they needed a "key" to proceed further.
Xu Yiman frowned and said, "Damn, this Criminal Consultant really knows how to mess with us. Now we need to input a key again. I wonder where this will take us this time."
Indeed, before Xu Yiman's words had fully settled, an address popped up on the screen: 72 North Head Road, go there at midnight.
"72 North Head Road?" Xu Yiman said. "I've lived in Dragon City for so many years and have never heard of such a road."
Jiang He, with his mind like a living map, replied, "72 North Head Road used to be a village, but eventually everyone moved to Dragon City, and the village fell into disrepair. Now North Head Road is practically nonexistent. However, it's located in the suburbs, so it's quite a distance away. If we drive there now, it will indeed be midnight by the time we reach that village."
Xu Yiman nodded and asked, "So how are we going to handle this Locker situation?"
Jiang He pondered for a moment before speaking. "We won't handle this Locker. If we do, the number of people at this station won't increase. This is something many can manage, and if there’s no increase in numbers, the Criminal Consultant will know that the police have taken control. For someone as sensitive as him, he won't miss it."
Xu Yiman nodded and replied, "Then we just won't interfere."
As she spoke, Xu Yiman suddenly chuckled.
"What’s so funny?" Jiang He asked.
Xu Yiman sighed and said, "They say that your opponent knows you best, and it seems that's true. Your understanding of the Criminal Consultant might even surpass your own self-awareness."
Jiang He nodded in agreement. "I know the Criminal Consultant's style of operation; the only thing I can't figure out is what his ultimate goal is. But I'm quite sure we're about to uncover that."
Xu Yiman started the car and drove the three of them north.
Jiang He dialed Old Shao's phone.
After listening to Jiang He's account, Old Shao said, "Alright, just be careful. Let me know as soon as you have results."
After hanging up, Old Shao inquired, "So that means Zhang Shan has been dismissed by you? You can't get in touch with her anymore? I want to ask if Zhang Shan has ever physically harmed or abused the children at the kindergarten?"
The principal sighed. "Yes, there have been incidents."
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