Manipulate My Heart [操纵我心] [GL]

Chapter 6

"Are you the only one investigating this? Have you told anyone else?"

"I'm the only one who knows. I haven't told Chief Li. I want to investigate this more— Liao Zilong caught someone's attention because he found something. I'm trying to figure out the IP address on his phone from before he killed himself."

Shao Xinyan was woken up bright and early by Zhou Bohan's call. She was now in his home listening to him talk about what he'd discovered.

"You knew to reach out to me. Li Hao must've told you something, right?" Shao Xinyan patted Zhou Bohan's shoulder, chuckling.

"He gave me a quick overview of what'd happened and told me that you've been temporarily taken off-duty. Maybe this way our culprit won't take notice of you," Zhou Bohan said, blankly scratching his head. "Chief Li is a genius. He thinks of everything."

"That sounds nice, doesn't it? Why don't you also consider that he might've just set me up as a target?"

"Uh..."

"I'm kidding." Shao Xinyan burst out laughing, but her tone turned serious again. "Did you find his IP address yet?"

"You're not going to believe this, but I've traced it to a business conference."

"A business conference? Why was he there? His family wasn't well-off enough for him to be part of that kind of thing. Do you think someone there might be involved in all this?"

Zhou Bohan beckoned her forward and turned on the computer. The screen displayed a webpage with a news summary front and centre. Shao Xinyan stepped forward, her gaze fixed on the text on the screen.

"This business conference managed to make the weekly news. It was a talk about business in the medical field. I'm guessing they introduced some new medical technology that needed rich investors," Zhou Bohan said thoughtfully. "I agree with you. Something's fishy about this conference."

"Yeah..." Shao Xinyan stared at the webpage for a second. Then something hit her... "Did Chen Guanzong, the rich guy from Z City who drowned a few days while on vacation, attend this conference?"

"Hmm..." Zhou Bohan clicked on the link, which took him to another page that listed some of the important attendees. "Yeah, he was there..."

"This is getting interesting," Shao Xinyan said, stroking her chin with narrowed eyes.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm not sure yet. Did they mention who sponsored the event?"

"Yeah, the sponsors are the Medical Sciences Foundation and the Huaqiang Financial Group. You've probably heard about Huaqiang before. Every rich investor in the country ends up working with them."

"Organisation against organisation... this makes the investigation much more challenging."

"Yeah. Wait, why did you bring up Chen Guanzong? Is it because he's wealthy and from Z City?"

"No." Shao Xinyan shook her head. "Chen Guanzong is a member of the ethics committee. I'm trying to figure out how all these events are connected. What's the logic behind everything, you know? Using assumptions to create scenarios makes things much clearer."

Zhao Bohan looked at Shao Xinyan with a doubtful look. Shao Xinyan let out a sigh.

"Let's assume that everyone who committed suicide is, to some degree, a barrier to the 'enemy's' goal. For example, Liao Zilong discovered something in his investigation. And Chen Guanzong— I'm going to take a guess and say that he opposed some new medical technology just on principle."

"Okay, that makes more sense."

"It's just a theory. I'm not going to make this my final conclusion until we have more evidence. I was watching the news the other day when they reported that one of the rich guys in Z City drowned while on vacation. I thought it was strange, so I just kept that in the back of my mind."

"Do you think this is related to the recent suicide cases?"

"That's tough to say. You've seen the files. The people who killed themselves have all been insignificant, ordinary people. I can't figure out the logic behind this. Maybe some of them really were just mentally ill and suicidal."

"Ugh, having no leads is exhausting." Zhou Bohan stretched and yawned. "I pulled an all-nighter to find Liao Zilong's IP address."

"Why don't you take a break? We're starting to get an idea of what's happening. It's not so urgent that we have to investigate right this second." Shao Xinyan sat down on the couch. She looked at Zhou Bohan for a moment before she spoke again. "Did you hear about how Liao Zilong's mom killed herself?"

"Yeah." Zhou Bohan rubbed his eyes, walking into the kitchen."Chief Li told me that you were suspended for it. Committing suicide by slitting your own throat is bizarre."

"People normally don't kill themselves like that. It was so sudden. They knew that I went to Liao Zilong's house. It's like they're everywhere."

Zhou Bohan exited the kitchen with two glasses in his hand. One was filled with steaming hot milk. He gave it to Shao Xinyan.

"Thanks."

"Liao Zilong's apartment was probably being watched. You just didn't have enough time to check. It's a good thing that you were only suspended."

"Do you know about the suicide note Liao Zilong left behind?"

"Huh? No, I don't. It wasn't in the file."

Shao Xinyan pulled out the note from her pocket and handed it over to Zhou Bohan. Zhou Bohan took the note, but his face was serious. "Jesus, why are you carrying evidence on you?"

"It's whatever. I'm suspended anyways," Shao Xinyan shrugged. "Liao Zilong's mom wanted to give it to me, but she killed herself before she could."

Zhou Bohan read the note out loud. "Living is pointless. She should've left a trace of a soul in me when she carved me through. Hey, what does it mean here by... 'she'?"

"It's weird, right? I don't get it either."

"It reads like a poem," Zhou Bohan said. He stroked his chin, deep in thought. "This handwriting is obviously Liao Zilong's, but don't you think the words look a little... forced?"

"What do you mean?"

Shao Xinyan scooted closer, looking at the strokes on the slip of paper. Zhou Bohan was right— it didn't look natural. It looked like he'd written it as hard as he possibly could. There were puncture marks all over the paper.

"It's like he was forced to write it."

"Liao Zilong's body was found inside his apartment. No one could've forced him to write it," Shao Xinyan said, gritting her teeth. "He suddenly committed suicide... and left behind a note that he might've been forced to write..."

"I can't do this. It just gets creepier and creepier." Zhou Bohan rubbed his arms. His hair was standing on end. "I mean, it's not like anyone could've controlled them, right?"

"Control them, huh..." Shao Xinyan repeated Zhou Bohan's words, moving her arms robotically. "You mean like how someone would control a robot?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Bohan, I don't think this is as impossible as you think."