Genius Detective

After venting their emotions, the three returned to the conference room. Everyone was deep in discussion. Surveying Long’an's past two decades of criminal history, there has never been a criminal like this “Observer of Humanity”.

"The mastermind behind the scenes has sent us a video directly to proclaim the ‘concept’ behind his crimes. This is already considered extremely reckless and provocative behavior. Let’s talk about our opinions separately!" Chen Shi said.

Old Zhang asked, "Captain, can you play the video again?"

Chen Shi did as asked. When the video reached a certain section, Old Zhang called for a pause and said, "I wonder if you’ve noticed. There are some constantly changing things behind his head. These should be images transformed from the video. I think this background could possibly be a clue."

Everyone discussed with one another. Some thought it was a TV set, and some thought it was a fish tank. After looking at it again, they found that the movement patterns and shapes of the dots didn’t resemble fish. They were chaotic yet orderly, and they didn’t seem to be tangible objects.

Xu Xiaodong asked, "Could they be... clouds?"

"That's right!" Lin Dongxue praised him. "They look like clouds. If you can see the clouds where he recorded the video, it means it was a high-rise building."

"This bunch of clouds changes very fast, indicating that the wind on the day of recording was particularly strong." Chen Shi speculated.

"No, that’s not right!" Tao Yueyue said, "The clouds haven't moved at all. You can see that his face is constantly changing too. This should be pixel loss caused by the special encoding technology."

Tao Yueyue picked up a pen, moved a chair under the white screen, stood on top of it and started drawing. Chen Shi wanted to stop her, but he was too late. He figured that in order to solve the case, sacrificing a white screen was nothing.

Tao Yueyue asked Lin Dongxue to continue playing the video. She kept drawing the shapes of the clouds, and finally called for a stop and turned off the projector.

A very three-dimensional cloud pattern appeared on the white screen. Everyone marveled at Tao Yueyue's quick thinking. A student in the police academy had actually noticed details that a roomful of police officers hadn't even noticed.

"Well done!" Chen Shi praised. "Contact the Meteorological Bureau to find out where clouds of this shape have appeared in Long'an over the past two days, and from which buildings you could have seen it from."

Tao Yueyue said, "Captain, I have some personal analysis of the observer of humanity."

"Go ahead, little genius detective."

"I think he’s a single man around age thirty. He suffers from sexual dysfunction, has an extreme personality, and is a perfectionist with a higher income. He is likely to be working in statistics. He has a science and engineering background and comes from a religious family. His mother probably died in a murder case."

Some people praised, "Yueyue is very amazing now. You must have read a lot of criminal psychology books." "Like father, like daughter."

While Tao Yueyue was smiling shyly, Chen Shi said, "You’re very much wrong!"

"Where did I go wrong?!"

"You think he’s a single male with sexual dysfunction, which is a reverse deduction based on his antisocial personality. Since he’s single and has sexual dysfunction, he has nowhere to vent his desires which transforms them into a desire for destruction. But this man didn’t have the fierce and brutal tendencies of traditional criminals. From beginning to end, he was extremely calm, and he also commissioned others to carry out the murders. This shows that he himself has no violent tendencies or anti-social personality, and can even be said to have an extremely perfect personality on the surface. This is a kind of gentleness belonging to a married man, so I am confident he’s married."

"I agree with the point about higher income. He can't plan these without financial resources. He has the space and freedom to engage in criminal activities. It shows that he holds a lot of power, but he can't be an official. His life should be smooth. He is a young and promising high-level company executive, aged between twenty-five and thirty."

"In addition, you say that there are religious people in his family? This statement is too presumptuous and has low credibility. He doesn’t have a job in statistics either. He cultivates executors to kill people, which shows that he has very strong charisma and leadership qualities. This also confirms that his profession is a high-level company executive."

"This person is confident, rational, and proud, so you think he has a high probability of having been raised by his father, and that he had thrown himself into this ‘cause’ because he had a close family member killed. This speculation is too one-sided. I think he had both parents when he was young and had a good upbringing. He prides himself on being an observer of humanity, indicating that his class is in the middle and upper part of the social pyramid, and his family should be relatively rich."

This well-founded psychological profile made Tao Yueyue flush red. Chen Shi said, “Psychological profiles are based on big data. It’s better to be a bit more conservative than to exaggerate for the sake of attention. It will mislead the investigation, so don't try to show off like this in the future."

Tao Yueyue blushed. "I admit that what you said is more reasonable, but according to your statement, the suspect is a very perfect, rich, and healthy person. If he hasn’t been traumatized, why does he engage in this kind of 'cause'?"

Chen Shi pondered for a moment. "You have to think about this from the perspective of the suspect. In his perception, killing isn’t a crime, but a kind of purification. He’s an extreme perfectionist and idealist. As for the beginning of his 'cause', I think it was some kind of coincidence."

Lin Dongxue said, "There is one more thing you haven't mentioned. He can find these people, which shows that he can easily access the private information of ordinary civilians. He controls a lot of data, so what does his company do?"𝗳𝗿𝐞ℯ𝙬𝗲𝗯n𝗼νel.𝒄𝑜𝘮

"Nowadays, nothing can surpass Internet-related industries for easy access to civilian information."

Lin Dongxue gasped with shock. "I suddenly thought of someone. Someone we just met."

Chen Shi nodded. "I also thought of him, and he fits my psychological profile perfectly!"

"Who is it? Who is it?!" Everyone asked.

Chen Shi searched on the computer, found Hai Guoyang's information and projected it onto the white screen soiled by Tao Yueyue. In the photo, Hai Guoyang was wearing a brand-name suit and gold-rimmed glasses, showing a personable smile.

Many police officers gasped in surprise, because this name was too well-known. Half of the communication software within everyone's mobile phones came from his company. It was hard to imagine that he could be the observer of humanity.𝗳r𝗲𝙚w𝐞𝚋𝘯𝚘ѵ𝗲l.𝑐oｍ

"Married, successful career, young president, and his office is also located at the highest point in the city, all of which is a perfect match!" Chen Shi said. "Of course, criminal psychology profiles cannot be used as evidence. We will pay close attention to this person from now on."

"Actually..." Xu Xiaodong said, "There are only a handful of people in the city who meet these characteristics. Even if he is really the observer of humanity, I’m not surprised."

Another policeman said, "He’s smart enough to suddenly announce the cessation of all criminal activities, which is completely different from those arrogant criminals who kept committing crimes in the past in spite of being targeted by the police."

"This gives us time." Chen Shi said. "Tomorrow, we will contact Hai Guoyang and see what we can gauge from him. The observer of humanity predicts that we will give up in 27 days. Let’s let him see how fast we can find him!"