Investigating Girlfriend's Parents

Tian Nina didn't buy her dad's act at all and replied easily, "Mom said she's considering bringing my little brother back for New Year's. With that attitude of yours, I'd advise her not to come back."

"Don't, Dani. Let's talk this out, just father and daughter. Braised beef is easy enough. It's best to use brisket, the part with tendon and fat. That kind of meat tastes best when it's stewed tender. Then put it in cold water, add scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, turn the heat up, skim off the bloody foam floating on top, then switch to a pressure cooker and keep stewing..."

Under her father's guidance, Tian Nina bustled around for a while, enjoying every second of it and not letting Lin Qiye help at all.

After watching for a while, Lin Qiye got out of the vehicle and put on his Bluetooth earbuds.

"Look into what happened between my girlfriend's parents back then."

[Task accepted. Targets: Tian Nina's parents.]

A short while passed.

[Tian Nina's father is Tian Mingjian. Her mother is Ildiko Nagy. Note: by that country's custom, the family name comes first and the given name after.]

[Based on big data analysis, the two met in 1991.]

[Because the Internet was still in its infancy at the time, there are no relevant records. However, from Tian Mingjian's online exchanges with classmates and Ildiko Nagy's autobiographical novel, their life trajectories can be pieced together.]

[In 1991, Tian Mingjian went to Austria for advanced studies in music. There, he met Ildiko Nagy, who attended the same school, brought her back to the country, and obtained a marriage certificate with her.]

[At the end of the same year, Tian Nina was born.]

[From 1992 to 1996, Tian Mingjian joined a conservatory as a professor, while Ildiko Nagy joined the same conservatory as a foreign English teacher.]

[In 1997, Ildiko Nagy resigned of her own accord, became pregnant, and gave birth to their second son, Tian Kairui.]

[After that, Ildiko Nagy stayed home full-time to raise the children, until Tian Mingjian also left the conservatory and opened a private music school in Kun City.]

[The two ran the music school together for ten years. Then, in 2008, Ildiko Nagy suddenly took their son Tian Kairui back to her country and never returned.]

"So the conflict between them happened during the ten years they ran the music school together. Check whether anything happened during that period that affected their relationship as husband and wife."

[A serious incident occurred at the music school. After class, a female student left on her own, then disappeared.]

[Later, the student's parents came to the school looking for her and realized something was wrong. The school reported it to the police. After twenty-four hours passed, she was confirmed missing, but she was never found. Three days later, her body was discovered by the river.]

[The forensic investigation at the time found water in the lungs, along with multiple injuries on the body.]

[Later, although the murderer was never found, the student's parents came to the music school every day to make a scene. They demanded a large amount of compensation and claimed Tian Mingjian had behaved improperly and was very likely the murderer.]

[Although this matter was never reported by formal media, some people repeatedly posted about it on local forums and stirred it up. Harassed beyond endurance, Tian Mingjian paid a large sum in compensation, and the music school was shut down.]

"What year did it happen?"

[2008. The same year Ildiko Nagy took her son abroad.]

Lin Qiye ended the conversation and returned to the vehicle, looking at Tian Nina's busy figure from behind.

Things were more or less clear now. This was the truth of his girlfriend's family.

Four years ago, Tian Nina's father had been branded a murderer, and because of that, his wife had also been dragged into the torment of public opinion.

It was very likely that Ildiko Nagy herself wasn't sure whether Tian Mingjian was innocent, which was why she had taken her son and left.

And over the past four years, Father Tian and Tian Nina probably hadn't had an easy time either.

The girl before him had endured pain, yet pretended nothing had happened.

Lin Qiye didn't mind Tian Nina's earlier lie. After all, that was still better than being the daughter of a murderer, wasn't it?

If he hadn't transmigrated back and had never had anything to do with her, perhaps this girl would have ended up like her mother, unable to bear the torment of public opinion and choosing to go abroad to hide.

He decided to do something for Tian Nina.

Then he got out of the vehicle again.

"Allocate part of the Computing Power and conduct a big data analysis of the entire web, focusing on collecting clues that prove Tian Mingjian's innocence."

[The police did not arrest or investigate Tian Mingjian, indicating that he was not a criminal suspect and was more likely to have been maliciously framed.]

[The root of the matter still lies in the case of the female student's disappearance and drowning. Considering the manager's safety, it is not convenient to intervene in the investigation of such a dangerous criminal case. I recommend hiring a private detective to investigate covertly.]

"There aren't private detectives in the country, are there?"

[If there are none domestically, one can be hired abroad. Compared with the cost of hiring a private detective, consuming a large amount of Computing Power to learn criminal investigation knowledge would be too wasteful.]

That seemed to make some sense. Wouldn't it be better to find a great detective to solve the case?

"Then what should I do?"

[Hiring a physical detective to come here will take time.]

[Alternatively, you can go to the Dark Web. I discovered a gathering place for mystery enthusiasts there and can make use of their deductive abilities.]

Go to the Dark Web! He had always wanted to see what that place was like.

Li Qiye turned back to the RV and took out the Laptop.

The world of the Dark Web.

The so-called Dark Web was an area of the Internet that ordinary people could not access.

It had no public web addresses. One could only enter by using special software, or by tampering with browser configurations and receiving authorization from the other party.

Compared with the public Internet, the Dark Web was far larger, and it was divided into countless independent zones.

So while the Dark Web had no order, it also had an enormous range of demands—not only crime and intelligence exchange, but also all kinds of private organizations and individuals with their own purposes.

Reason and Wisdom was one of them.

It was an underground community that revered deduction, gathering large numbers of mystery enthusiasts. They were not only detectives; they could also be police officers, criminals, merchants...

Of course, because this was the hidden Dark Web, with no identity verification mechanism, the people here were not worried about their true identities being exposed.

And on this day, the community's encrypted network was easily breached. Without anyone noticing, an account was automatically registered, and then a post was made on the underground community forum.

[Detective Work]

(Partial case clues)

[Xiaoya was a student at a music school. She had studied there for two years and was a very likable student. One day after school, she left alone to go home, only to disappear from then on. Realizing something was wrong, Xiaoya's parents went to the academy to ask questions. Her teachers and the principal were all very worried about her safety and immediately called the police.

Three days later, people found Xiaoya's body by the river. During the examination, the forensic doctor found multiple obvious physical injuries on her body, as well as fluid in her lungs.]

The people on this kind of forum were all obsessed with deduction. What they wanted more was the thrill of the mental clash that came from participating in the reasoning process.

Soon, someone replied.

Crown member "Sherlock Holmes": "It's not complicated. If the cause of death was drowning, and she was found by the river, then the crime scene was definitely nearby. Add the physical injuries, and the victim had a fierce dispute with the killer before death. It's very possible her personal freedom had not been restricted. I suspect she fell into the river during a struggle. The crime scene would be somewhere like a cross-river bridge, an embankment, or a boat."

Diamond member "I Have No Hair": "The killer and victim most likely met by chance, leading to a crime of passion and a fight. Then, afraid of being discovered, the killer directly formed the intent to kill."

Diamond member "Peter Pan": "The deduction is a little too smooth, but most cases in reality are like this. I'll add a few points. First, I suggest looking up the case files to determine whether the fluid in the lungs contained substances such as river algae, in order to confirm whether that was the crime scene. Second, multiple injuries across the body indicate a high degree of intense resistance and a strong self-protection instinct in the victim. This is unlikely to have been committed by an acquaintance; it's more like a stress response toward a stranger. In that case, the crime scene needs to be found, and nearby surveillance footage from the day of the incident should be retrieved to determine whether there were any suspicious individuals in the area. Third, judging from the victim's circumstances, the incident was sudden. I suspect it may very likely have been committed by a roaming offender, and it's necessary to check whether similar cases occurred in nearby areas around the same time."

These people had reached so many conclusions through deduction alone, giving Lin Qiye some understanding of their abilities, but he still could not be sure whose ability was stronger.

So there was a new post.

"Reward: one hundred thousand US dollars. Anyone willing to participate in solving this case may take part."

"Location: Kun City, Huaxia. Contact: Gray Hand. Contact method: email: xxxxxx. Deadline: 9 a.m. local time tomorrow."

"Note: This case took place within Huaxia. Participants may not use any illegal methods, but they may form teams to solve the case together."

"The bounty will be posted on the Dark Web platform. Whoever ultimately assists the police in finding the true culprit will receive it all."

Under the temptation of money, people immediately responded, and the post was instantly bumped to the top.