Chapter 180: Chapter 138: The Man Behind the Dark Web

“Unexpected yet reasonable.”

After reading it, Su Jiayi found it a bit amusing, but on second thought, it made sense.

Earlier, she had thought, with such a hyped-up dark web background, why would they send such an unprofessional hitman?

Using his own ID to check into a hotel, wouldn’t that be a sure catch?

Now it seemed like a trap within a trap.

“Yes, reasonable indeed.”

After their assistance notice was sent, Li Xiang and his team boarded the high-speed train to Xiangping. The journey would take 7 hours, and they would arrive there around midnight.

Fortunately, even at such a late hour, Xiangping police had arranged a hotel for them and a car to pick them up at the station.

The phrase “all the world’s police are one family” wasn’t just lip service. Typically, when handling cases in different locations, the local police are very supportive and hospitable.

Exiting the station, Li Xiang immediately spotted a young man whose demeanor stood out in the crowd. He must’ve been the person arranged by the Xiangping police to pick them up. So Li Xiang walked over as soon as he passed the ticket gate: “Hello, comrade, were you arranged by Captain Yuan?”

“Yes, my name is Xu Tao. You guys are the colleagues from Jinghai, right? May I ask which one is Captain Li?”

Xu Tao glanced at Li Xiang, who seemed quite young, about his age, and likely not the leading captain. Captain Yuan wanted him to coordinate with Captain Li, so naturally, he needed to know who Captain Li was. At this moment, his gaze turned to Mao Ji, the person who seemed most fitting as a captain in terms of age.

“My name is Li Xiang, and these two are my colleagues, Mao Ji and Sun Zhidong.”

Hearing this, a flash of surprise passed in Xu Tao’s eyes. So young and already a captain?

But then he warmly said, “Hello, Captain Li, the car is at the parking lot, please follow me. Arrangements for food and accommodation have been made at the hotel. It’s too late today, but I’ll drive you to the bureau at 8 AM tomorrow morning. At that time, Captain Yuan will assist you with coordinating Deng Yifan.”

“Has he been captured?”

“Yes, Captain Yuan personally led the team to capture him, and both his company and home computers have been sealed.”

Li Xiang and his team got into the car and headed straight to the hotel. They had a simple late-night snack at the hotel and then retired to their rooms to rest. After being on the high-speed train for so long, everyone was quite exhausted.

The next morning, the trio had breakfast provided by the hotel. Xu Tao arrived right on time at 8 AM to pick up Li Xiang and the team.

“Brother Xu, thanks for your hard work.”

“No problem.”

The journey was smooth, and the car drove through the gates of Xiangping Public Security Bureau, where Captain Yuan personally welcomed them at the entrance.

“Captain Yuan, sorry for the trouble this time.”

“No trouble at all. Captain Li, you’re truly young and talented.”

After a brief exchange, they got straight to the point: “Captain Yuan, we’re here primarily for Deng Yifan, and we need your cooperation on many tasks.”

“Of course, yesterday I personally led the team to control him, and we brought back the relevant computers. Let me take you there.”

Following Captain Yuan, they reached the evidence room and retrieved the computers sealed from Deng Yifan’s company and home.

“Brother Mao, please do us the favor of checking if there’s any dark web information on his computers.”

Before interrogating Deng Yifan, Li Xiang and his team needed to first grasp the facts of his illegal activities. Whether the people behind the dark web were actually Deng Yifan could likely be answered by his computers.

“No problem.”

Mao Ji examined the three computers: two desktops and one laptop, all connected to the external network, and powered them on.

“You guys continue with your work. If anything comes up, have Xiao Xu contact me. Xiao Xu, get some water for our colleagues from Jinghai.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Sure.”

After Captain Yuan led Li Xiang and his team to their station, he went about his own business. Xu Tao, following Captain Yuan’s instructions, brought them a few cups of water.

Once the computers booted up, Mao Ji immediately pulled out the logs from all three and began reviewing them. Li Xiang and Sun Zhidong couldn’t offer much help with this task and could only watch from the side.

The first computer Mao Ji inspected was Deng Yifan’s personal laptop. His fingers danced rapidly across the keyboard, leading to a screen that Li Xiang and the others found incomprehensible.

After about forty minutes, Mao Ji pressing the enter key heavily, exclaimed excitedly, “I found it, I’m in his computer’s backend and discovered the key to access the dark web. After entering, it’s precisely the platform monitored by the cyber police. This dark web is built by Deng Yifan himself.”

Mao Ji hadn’t expected things to go this smoothly. If they pursued Deng Yifan through the dark web, it would be a massive endeavor. But tracking back to the dark web through Deng Yifan was much simpler, only required accessing the entry point to the dark web, something Mao Ji, proficient in computers, could easily do.

“Great, with evidence in hand, we can now interrogate Deng Yifan.”

With evidence secured, Li Xiang felt assured. No matter how much Deng Yifan wanted to deny, he couldn’t escape the evidence.

Deng Yifan sat in the interrogation room, sleepless from the previous night, unsurprisingly unable to find a place to rest.

He had been peacefully staying at his company when suddenly, a group of police stormed in, took him to the public security bureau, and told him he was wanted by Jinghai police.

Wanted by Jinghai police?

Is there some mistake?

Perhaps with Jinghai police, with whom he had no ties, why would they issue a warrant for him? He hadn’t even been to Jinghai.

However, the term Jinghai felt oddly familiar to him.

Jinghai, Jinghai.

Suddenly, he recalled a job from an employer, seemingly in this place called Jinghai.

Could it be that his actions were uncovered?

That was way too quick?

He pondered over this the entire night, still uncertain of how much the police knew.

Everyone clings to hope; he wished it wasn’t related to this matter and hoped for something else entirely.

Just then, the interrogation room door opened, and two men walked in and sat down.

“Before we start, we would like to introduce ourselves; we are from the Criminal Investigation Team of Jinghai City Public Security Bureau. My name is Li Xiang, and he’s Mao Ji. You should be aware of the criminal case we’re talking about, and we need your cooperation in the investigation. Let’s begin the interrogation now.”

Mao Ji pressed the recording device button, starting the interrogation.

The more composed Li Xiang appeared, the more anxious Deng Yifan became.

Both hands were clenched tightly, leaving red marks on them.

“Name?”

“Deng Yifan.”

“Age?”

“36 years old.”

“Occupation?”

“Internet company owner, a company nearing collapse.”

“Stick to the point, answer what is asked. Do you know Wang Wei?”

Hearing Wang Wei’s name, Deng Yifan immediately tensed up. Things were indeed exposed, had Wang Wei already killed someone?

No, if Wang Wei had acted, it would be impossible for the police to find him so quickly.

I must have been tipped off.

There is only one possibility, that he had been pointed out, and this person was none other than Wang Wei.

But why would he do that?

Sitting at the dining table earlier, bragging about his toughness, he now embodies the saying: barkers don’t bite, biters don’t bark.

“I know him.”

“Did you send him to Jinghai City?”

“I arranged that.”

“What for?”

“To kill someone.”

“What relationship does the person you wanted to kill have with you?”

“None, it was an online order.”

Deng Yifan seemed resigned to his fate, cooperating entirely as he answered all of Li Xiang’s questions and disclosed everything.

It turned out he was the owner of an Internet company, an entrepreneur with technical skills who had thrived at one point, with over a hundred employees at his peak.

But in a complex market environment, his company quickly encountered financial issues. To pay salaries and keep the company running, he took a loan from the bank, yet this money couldn’t save the company. Instead, it weighed on him like a mountain.

Poverty brings change, and change ensures continuity.

Then he had a crooked idea, using his exceptional computer skills to set up a dark web server overseas, specializing in assassination services. To build client trust, he packaged his website as a hitman organization with a foreign black background, capable of providing professional assassination services.

But initially, he just wanted to scam a little advance payment from clients.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep