Qianlong's Long Night

To the northwest of the county seat, there is a place called Huangni Fan.

Many years ago, this was a labor reform farm. "Going to Huangni Fan" was practically synonymous with "serving a sentence." Nowadays, however, Huangni Fan, after generations of labor reform personnel... and of course, primarily under government construction, has shed its desolate appearance. It has become a vibrant, large farm, no longer worked by convicts. Instead, it serves as the vegetable garden for the villagers of Shili Pu, supplying Fengcheng with fresh produce.

Few people know that within the former labor reform farm stood a three-story villa, and beneath the villa, a special basement.

This was the special prison, designed to hold the most unique suspects.

Its security measures surpassed all others.

An ordinary car drove up to the villa, and 88, Chang Ye, the Director, and the Deputy Director all alighted.

Entering the villa and descending into the basement, they found the suspect. The suspect lay quietly on a small bed, his back to them.

Chang Ye's expression suddenly shifted slightly. "Something's wrong!"

"88" also startled. "Open it!"

The room was opened, and the two stepped inside, their expressions changing simultaneously. The suspect's nostrils were bleeding; he was undeniably dead.

The Director's face changed. "What happened?"

One of the guards also looked greatly alarmed. "He was fine when we brought him in. We've been watching from outside the entire time, and absolutely no one approached. How could he have been poisoned?"

"It wasn't poison!" Chang Ye stated. "The chip in his brain exploded. He had a chip implanted in his brain!"

"88's" expression darkened. "Didn't I tell you to block all remote signals?"

Brain chips still required signals for control. Blocking remote signals could cut off signal transmission, theoretically preventing remote activation of the chip's self-destruct function.

"If I'm not mistaken, it must have been a hacker intrusion that altered the blocking program..." Chang Ye said. "Where is the control room?"

They entered the control room. Chang Ye flicked his fingers lightly, accessing a program. After a few more keystrokes, the answer was revealed: half an hour ago, a hacker had infiltrated the system, silently disabling the block. It was at that precise moment that the chip activated, killing the suspect.

The Director, the Deputy Director, and three seasoned, highly trained police officers exchanged glances, their faces pale.

The idea of a chip implanted in someone's brain was already bizarre enough.

However, the opponent's strangeness was even more unexpected. The police had blocked the signals in advance, yet the other party had managed to hack in and disable the block.

Even the experienced computer experts in the control room were unaware of this method of disabling it.

The enemy's methods were truly inescapable.

A single remote confrontation was enough to demonstrate how terrifying they were.

Such methods were truly beyond the capabilities of a county-level organization to counter.

Chang Ye and "88" also knew this wasn't their fault. They walked side-by-side to the rooftop, the Director and Deputy Director trailing behind like chastised children, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"You're saying the person who solved the case for you today is an ordinary villager named Lin Xiaosu?" Chang Ye exhaled softly.

"Yes!" Deputy Director Li Li stepped forward.

"From over ten miles away, across four blocks, he was able to accurately track the suspect based on just a trace of his scent?"

"Yes."

Chang Ye's eyes glinted slightly in the darkness. "Tomorrow, arrange for a female police officer to accompany me on the mission. Don't tell her who I am."

"Understood!"

"Have her meet me tomorrow morning in room 302 of the Fengcheng Hotel!"

"Understood!"

"You may go now. You don't need to worry about us."

"Sir, the car is still downstairs. We should escort you both to the hotel..."

"No need. For such a short distance, we have our own way back!" Chang Ye said.

The Director and Deputy Director exchanged a look and descended the stairs.

On the rooftop, it was dark. The county town looked somewhat distant from this angle.

"88" exhaled softly. "You're interested in that person named Lin Xiaosu?"

"Yes. Our team has quite a few people with olfactory gene enhancements, but even '101', who is hailed as the 'Guardian Divine Dog,' couldn't have found the suspect in such a short time under these circumstances."

"88" nodded. "Let me check if he has any gene modification records!"

He raised his hand and put on a pair of glasses. They looked like ordinary gold-rimmed spectacles, and when he wore them, he gained a touch of scholarly elegance.

"No need to check; I've already done it!" Chang Ye said. "There are no records of his gene modification. This also aligns perfectly with his family situation. His family is just ordinary villagers; they wouldn't have had the millions to afford gene modification surgery."

"Without gene modification records, if a gene mutation occurred, there would only be two possibilities. One is that he inherited a mutated gene from his bloodline. Given that his parents and brother are ordinary people, this possibility can be basically ruled out. Only the second possibility remains!"

"An unconscious external gene injection!" Chang Ye stated. "This is unlikely to occur elsewhere, but it is possible in Tashan..."

Unconscious external gene injection...

What did that refer to?

Perhaps an insect bite, or some insect entering his body, triggering a gene mutation.

Such a situation is virtually nonexistent in the outside world. If a simple bite could cause mutation, then with billions of people being bitten by various insects daily, wouldn't gene mutations be rampant?

However, Tashan is no ordinary place. Its biodiversity is unparalleled, already attracting the attention of Qianlong.

Even Qianlong researchers have studied here for many years.

A major incident also occurred just three days ago...

"Chang Ye, I know you want to recruit talent for Qianlong to resolve the current complex game situation, but you also need to realize our position is very delicate. Sometimes, a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado on the west coast of the Pacific," said 88.

"That's why I had them arrange for someone to accompany me for a test tomorrow," Chang Ye replied.

"How do you plan to test him?"

"I want to see if his unique reconnaissance methods can solve the Qingyuan Temple mystery from three days ago."

88 was surprised. "You still believe 2198's death was a case?"

"2198 was just a numerical codename in the group, but to me, he was like a father and a teacher. I can't forget how he came to me when I was looking at the sky at the orphanage, holding an umbrella for me in the cold autumn rain. I also can't forget what he told me the night before I sent him to Fengcheng... He said that genes are a double-edged sword, with infinite destructive power on the edge. All he could do was thicken the spine of the sword, allowing it to protect the billion people of Great Xia. He died with his ambitions unfulfilled!"