Insights Chapter 120: Action 

Chapter 120: Action 

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

The moonlight was beautiful tonight, but there was not a single guest inside Mansion 13. The ground was wet from the light rain. In the past, the mansion was bustling with people, full of song and dance, but now only a few staff members remained. The entire mansion was as empty as a vast haunted house.

Throughout the night, Gao Shixuan paced anxiously in the hall. Since taking over the business of the mansion five years ago, he had gradually expanded it. He had become more and more arrogant. In the past, his uncle often praised him for his good work, his ideas, and hinted that he would handle more of the family’s business in the future. He felt that with money, the law was just a piece of paper, and no one could touch them. But now, he realized that nowhere was beyond the reach of the law. A looming threat hung over their heads, ready to take his life at any moment.

After eleven o’clock at night, Sheng Qiancheng entered Mansion 13 with his assistant Lu Xin. Gao Shixuan finally saw a savior and rushed forward, calling out to his uncle.

“I’ve been ruined by you this time!” Sheng Qiancheng stepped forward, his face dark as he interrogated him, “Were the Ke brothers arrested?”

Gao Shixuan said, “I just got the news. A few days ago, someone ran away from the mansion, and they went to arrest people. Unexpectedly, they ran into the police.”

Sheng Qiancheng asked, “I heard that someone played with a girl to death in the mansion, and the corpse was dug up and discovered by the police?”

Gao Shixuan replied, “That’s the case.” He recounted the whole process in detail.

Sheng Qiancheng was furious, “Why did you wait until now to tell me about such a big issue?!”

Gao Shixuan stammered, “This hasn’t happened before. I handled it according to the usual methods…”

There had been girls who died in the mansion before, but they were all treated as missing persons, and the matter was quickly forgotten, without any investigation reaching them.

Sheng Qiancheng cursed, “Even the brothers are useless, they can’t even handle such a small matter, useless!”

Gao Shixuan’s expression was extremely aggrieved. Since a few days ago, he felt like he had entered a nightmare. He felt that there was nothing wrong with his handling of the situation, and it was considered a timely response. But today, not only were they unable to find the person, even the head of the security company was arrested.

Gao Shixuan clenched his fists. It was all because of the Special Criminal Division holding onto them.

Sheng Qiancheng suppressed his anger and asked, “Are the rooms all set up?”

Gao Shixuan said, “The cleaners have been through, we’ve changed everything that can be changed, it’s absolutely clean.”

Sheng Qiancheng nodded. He calmed himself down. It was no use being angry at this point.

“Even if the police are investigating, they need evidence. As long as there’s no evidence, they can’t link the woman’s death to the mansion.” He turned to Gao Shixuan, “From now on, there can be no more mistakes. Close the mansion, leave only essential staff, and reopen after the situation calms down. As for that kid surnamed Jiang, get his family to arrange for him to leave the country as soon as possible. As for the chairman, I’ll explain everything.”

Gao Shixuan dared not speak, he signaled to Li Yiyang with his eyes.

Li Yiyang understood and respectfully asked, “Mr. Sheng, should we temporarily suspend operations on the website too?”

Sheng Qiancheng paced back and forth for a moment, still hesitant, “Have them be careful, suspend new user registrations temporarily, but they shouldn’t be traceable. Even if they investigate, there’s a self-destruct program.”  He sneered at himself, feeling overly paranoid, “How could those police have such advanced technology?”

The voyeuristic website had a lot of traffic every day and was well-known in small circles. Shutting it down at this point was something Sheng Qiancheng couldn’t bear. As they talked, Sheng Qiancheng still wasn’t reassured. He said to Gao Shixuan, “Take me to the room where the incident happened.”

Gao Shixuan and Li Yiyang led him into the room where the incident had occurred. Sheng Qiancheng inspected it inside and out, everything seemed particularly clean, nothing seemed out of place.

Only then did he feel relieved. He turned to Gao Shixuan, “From today, keep an eye on the police and online movements at all times. If there’s any news, you must inform me immediately!”

Gao Shixuan answered with a yes. Sheng Qiancheng left the mansion, still accompanied by Lu Xin, and the car headed towards the affluent area in the east of the city.

While in the car, he called the president of the Trading Association, Zhen Jiaxu, for some reassurance. Zhen Jiaxu comforted him, “It’s not a big deal, they’ll probably release them in a few days. I’ll inquire about the situation again tomorrow.”

After hanging up the phone, Sheng Qiancheng’s brows were still furrowed. He felt a pressure like never before weighing on him.

Later, Sheng Qiancheng thought of the recent setbacks with Han Qingyi, as well as the arrests of Ke Ruhai and Ke Rushen. Sheng Qiancheng had never anticipated these events before, not even during Wang Ju’s tenure when people below were occasionally arrested. Back then, a phone call from him could get the person released.

But now, it seemed like the situation in Penang was changing. Would the police gradually trace back to him from some clues? Where was the missing Yan Chi now? What nonsense would he spout? And, had the chairman promised to protect him, just like he had promised Han Qingyi? It was all that damned Han Qingyi and that Huo Lei’s fault. Weren’t they supposed to deal with those police? But their words proved to be empty.

Sheng Qiancheng went over all the matters in his mind. If the incident at Mansion 13 was discovered, he had to turn it to his advantage.

Thinking this, Sheng Qiancheng said to Lu Xin, “Prepare some materials.”

Lu Xin glanced at her boss, “What materials?”

Looking at the woman before him, she was definitely his confidante. She had faithfully followed him for three years, young and beautiful, emotionally intelligent, knowing when to advance and when to retreat, and they had been intimate. Besides his parents and his deceased wife, she was the person he trusted the most. So he never hid anything from her.

After weighing it for a moment, Sheng Qiancheng said, “Prepare materials shifting all the blame to Gao Shixuan. You must do it quickly.”

Sheng Qiancheng decided to make all the preparations. If it came to that, he would let Gao Shixuan take the blame. As an accomplice, he would still have room to maneuver.

Lu Xin said, “Okay.”

After dropping Sheng Qiancheng off at his mansion, Lu Xin returned to her own home and immediately called Huo Lei using her backup phone. Over the years, Huo Lei had superficially been in the cosmetics business, but secretly, he had cultivated dozens of beautiful and intelligent girls. She had a unique ability; with just one glance at a man, she could tell what kind of girl he might like. She would cater to their preferences and send the girls over. These girls either married into wealthy families or were placed around these men, each given a suitable position.

Lu Xin was one of those assigned to Sheng Qiancheng previously. Huo Lei treated them far better than those stingy men did, so the girls always prioritized Huo Lei’s instructions.

After hearing about Sheng Qiancheng’s arrangements and plans, Huo Lei chuckled, “Oh, so this uncle is also scheming against his nephew.”

Lu Xin asked, “What should I do? Should I prepare materials for him?”

Huo Lei replied, “Prepare them, of course. But find Luo Xiaoxi and have her subtly warn Gao Shixuan to beware of his uncle. Also, prepare evidence of his uncle’s crimes. It would be even more exciting to see them fight each other.”

Luo Xiaoxi was also someone Huo Lei had previously assigned to Gao Shixuan.

Lu Xin then asked, “What about the chairman?”

Huo Lei said with some schadenfreude, “I warned them a long time ago not to mess with the Special Criminal Division, but they didn’t listen. These smelly men’s businesses should have been stopped long ago. The chairman is just pacifying them; he won’t intervene to save them. That’s not a bad thing. If they all go down, won’t the Trading Association be ours?” 

.

The next morning, when Shen Junci woke up in bed, he felt like his whole body was falling apart. His legs, back, and arms were bruised, and the wound on his abdomen, despite receiving injections and medication, was still swollen.

Gu Yanchen checked his temperature, 37.5 degrees Celsius, a slight fever. Gu Yanchen changed Shen Junci’s medicine again and prepared water by the bedside, but he dared not feed him anything. He also felt that Shen Junci’s mobility was limited, so he temporarily arranged for the cat and dog to be fostered downstairs.

Before leaving, Gu Yanchen asked him, “Where did you learn your computer skills?”

Shen Junci replied, “During college.” Then he urged Gu Yanchen, “You should hurry to work.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “I want to make a decisive move today, are you able to handle it?”

Shen Junci said, “I’m fine. Follow the plan we discussed last night and make preparations in advance. Just send me a message.”

Although his injuries hadn’t fully healed, he felt that solving the case was more important. At this critical moment of the investigation, those girls were still under surveillance. The police had gradually set up a net, and the faster they closed it, the less prepared the other side would be.

In the morning, at the City Bureau. Last night, the members of the Special Criminal Division had also worked overtime, many of them sporting dark circles under their eyes. During the morning meeting, Bai Meng pinned photos of individuals on the whiteboard. At the top was a photo of Xia Tian’en. Bai Meng then briefed everyone on the case.

“A few days ago, we found the corpse of a female. The police have confirmed that the victim in this case is Xia Tian’en, who likely died at Mansion 13. Mansion 13 operates both online and offline businesses. Online, they profit from spying on women in renovated rental houses. Offline, they kidnap these women and force them into relationships.” Bai Meng drew lines from Xia Tian’en’s photo, “Subsequently, we found many victims who were spied on, such as Deng Anlu and Xie Yuna.”

After pinning several photos of female victims, Bai Meng pinned a photo of a male, “According to our investigation, the person who disposed of the body is Yan Chi, who used to work at Mansion 13. Currently, Yan Chi is missing. Last night, we detained the persons assisting Mansion 13 in searching for Yan Chi, who are the heads of the Brother Security Company.”

Bai Meng drew a question mark next to Yan Chi’s photo and then extended a line, placing the photos of Ke Ruhai and Ke Rushen nearby. Finally, Bai Meng drew an arrow pointing to the mastermind behind the scenes, “According to the investigation, Mansion 13 is owned by Sheng Qiancheng. However, Sheng Qiancheng doesn’t directly manage it. The current owner of the club is Sheng Qiancheng’s nephew, Gao Shixuan, and the specific manager is named Li Yiyang. These people should all know who the real murderer of Xia Tian’en is. Once we capture them, we can find the killer.”

Bai Meng succinctly presented the details of the case on the whiteboard.

Lu Ying said, “No wonder these people are so arrogant. It turns out the Sheng family is behind them.”

In Penang, the Sheng family was well-known. With a nephew managing a high-end club in Penang, one could imagine how wealthy the Sheng family was. Sheng Qiancheng’s personal assets were estimated to be in the billions. Gu Yanchen knew that Sheng Qiancheng should be a core member of the Hetu Trading Association. Over the years, he had made a fortune by utilizing the connections and conveniences provided by the Trading Association.

Qi Yi’an was an outsider and didn’t understand the intricacies. “Regardless of whose territory it is, if there’s a homicide case, shouldn’t we go in and search?”

Bai Meng shrugged. “But where’s the evidence? I checked all night yesterday and found that the operation of this club is extremely secretive, with very little information in the police system. There are no direct financial transactions between Brother Security Company and them either.”

Yu Shen added, “Right now, we’re basing everything on deduction. To arrest someone or search a place, we need more concrete evidence.”

Gu Yanchen remained silent. They currently had witness evidence from Yan Chi, but solely relying on his testimony might not be enough to obtain a search warrant for the club.

After the incident, the other party might have already severed this line of connection. Undoubtedly, Mansion 13 had already been cleaned up, so even if they went there now, they might not find anything. Applying for a search warrant rashly, especially for such a sensitive place as Mansion 13, and finding nothing would make it even harder to wrap up the case.

“We will go to search the mansion, but not right now,” Gu Yanchen said. “First, we’ll take down their online business, which is the voyeur website.”

Although the other party had become more cautious, the website was still operational. This morning, they checked Ke Ruhai’s account and found they could still log in. Perhaps they were confident in their network security, believing they wouldn’t be discovered by the police, or perhaps because of the substantial profits, they didn’t want to shut down. The illegally operated voyeur website was still thriving.

“Just as long as the website and the operation are ongoing, they’ll need servers, programmers, and customer service personnel,” Gu Yanchen continued. “I had the cyber police investigate, and these things are all set up domestically. We can conduct surprise inspections from these downstream channels and further find out the physical location of this website in Penang.”

Capturing these people would enable them to gather sufficient evidence to link Xia Tian’en’s death to the website operators and those behind them.

Lu Ying looked up and asked, “Last night, the cyber police said it’s difficult to trace back. Captain Gu, have you come up with a new strategy with them?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Gu Yanchen reassured. “I found some technical personnel. As long as we find the information port, we can attempt to access their server.”

Last night, Shen Junci had explained to him that tracing back to the other party’s server address required reverse tracking technology.

The difficulty the cyber police faced in tracing back was due to their limited technology. After general data packets were sent, it was like entering a maze, losing direction. Those data packets might be shattered, making it impossible to trace the exact location of the other party, and some might even be filtered out by the other party. However, with high enough technology, the written data packets could hide and be recombined, evading the other party’s scrutiny to find the specific location.

So today’s focus was for the detectives of the Special Criminal Division to secretly contact those monitored girls and choose the right opportunity to enter the rooms. Gu Yanchen formulated a detailed plan and assigned specific tasks to everyone. They quickly selected one of the rooms with a confirmed address.

From the live streaming website, they could see that this particular room was labeled as Number 15. Two girls lived in the room, having moved in just over a month ago. Using other reasons, Yu Shen invited the girls out and explained the entire situation to them. The two girls were utterly shocked to realize they had been living under surveillance for a month. Their initial reaction was one of shock, followed by fear and anger.

Bai Meng comforted the two girls, hoping they could keep it confidential for the time being and not show any abnormalities, cooperating with the police in their actions.

At seven o’clock in the evening, the office of the Special Criminal Division at the City Bureau was still brightly lit. After communicating the final execution plan and making arrangements for the operation, Gu Yanchen stood up and asked Bai Meng, “How’s the progress on your end?”

Bai Meng had already settled the two girls in a nearby café and had begun changing clothes and putting on makeup. She put on a wig, transforming into a tall and beautiful woman. However, her voice remained as calm and professional as ever, without the expected sweetness and coquettishness matching her appearance. She stood up. “Captain Gu, we can start anytime.”

All preparations were complete.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the two girls entered the rented house, and Bai Meng appeared like an invited friend, taking out her laptop and phone, connecting to the room’s wifi, and playing a movie.

Gu Yanchen quickly saw their three figures on the live streaming app and sent a message to Shen Junci’s side, “We’re ready here.”

At night, at Shen Junci’s home in Penang, Shen Junci had forced himself to get up, put on a coat, and sit at the desk. He hadn’t eaten all day. By afternoon, he had a slight fever, and now his head was a little dizzy. However, his poor condition didn’t affect his operation. He opened his laptop, flexed his fingers, and began entering code.

Shen Junci was completely focused, staring at the characters jumping on the screen, his fingers swiftly tapping the keyboard. The light from the screen reflected on his pale and handsome face. The encrypted data packets were mixed into the data stream one by one. These data packets were actually small viruses that could evade the detection of abnormal data by the other party, ensuring they wouldn’t be broken up in each diversion. They were infected and spread rapidly.

It was like playing a game of chess in a dark forest, where one had to carefully conceal their own presence while searching for the opponent’s. The data faithfully recorded every node and IP address, many of which were overseas. However, those were not the actual locations of the other party but just some intermediate relay stations. To put it metaphorically, they were like reflections in the water. This was a process of slow exploration, requiring considerable patience.

As Shen Junci watched the progress, he coughed softly, each cough shaking his wounds and causing him pain. Cold sweat poured down his face, and he couldn’t help but press his wound against the table and lay there for a moment.

When he felt slightly better, he gritted his teeth and lifted his head again, continuing with his input. Whether holding a scalpel or facing a computer, he longed for victory. He wanted to bring those people to justice. Finally, all the data began to gradually converge. Time passed second by second. Among those numbers and codes, the hidden shape of the other party began to take form.

Gradually, it solidified into an entity. Shen Junci entered the last line of code, then pressed the enter key. The virus, as if imbued with life, began to enter the other party’s server, scanning it unnoticed, gradually taking control silently. Finally, Shen Junci obtained the real IP address of the other party.

He breathed a sigh of relief and sent the address to Gu Yanchen. “Found it. I’m checking the other party’s server now. You can ask the cyber police to verify the address.”

Gu Yanchen copied the IP address and immediately had other cyber police help locate the server. The address was analyzed. As expected by the police, the other party’s headquarters were right in Penang. Engaging in such illegal activities would undoubtedly be most convenient when done right under their noses.

The cyber police replied, “Near the Eastern Market District in Penang, the specific address is…”

Gu Yanchen was waiting for this information. He stood up and said, “Prepare, everyone. Let’s go!”

For tonight’s mission, several detective teams were on standby, not gathering at the City Bureau for secrecy but instead heading to their respective meeting points in advance. Under the cover of night, several cars set off simultaneously, converging amidst the bustling streets. The people hiding in the shadows were unaware that their days were numbered.