Chapter 610 - 506: Choked, But Not to Death

Chapter 610: Chapter 506: Choked, But Not to Death

Zhang Hancheng skipped over that and summarized the findings of the social network investigation on Li Siyu.

"So? What are your thoughts?" Zhang Hancheng finally asked.

Qian Zidan froze for a moment. When he came to his senses, he moved to light a cigarette for Zhang Hancheng again.

Zhang Hancheng waved his hand away, telling him to get to business.

Qian Zidan forced a smile. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Old friend, where did you guys get that bird?"

The common criminals that the police deal with sometimes have a certain degree of counter-surveillance awareness.

But standard tracking methods, combined with CCTV, are usually enough to handle them.

But the opponents State Security faces are different.

Some of them are battle-hardened, professionally trained, real-life spies.

For a spy, the number one priority is always to stay hidden.

Therefore, counter-surveillance and counter-tracking are their most fundamental skills.

If they can’t master these, the only thing awaiting them is capture.

Take movies and TV shows, for example.

They portray criminals as being incredibly clever, but in reality, such criminals are extremely rare, almost nonexistent.

The term "dumb crook" really isn’t just a joke.

But when it comes to movies and TV shows about spies, there’s no exaggeration at all. In fact, they’re often toned down, portraying spies as being too stupid.

A master spy is like a drop of water dissolving into the ocean.

Trying to find someone like that is incredibly difficult.

And in Qian Zidan’s daily work, the hardest part was always finding a target, tracking them, and figuring out their movements and their contacts—both superior and subordinate.

And what did he just witness?

A bird!

All of a spy’s counter-surveillance techniques are designed to work against people.

But a bird? Who would ever pay attention to a bird?

’What a waste, using such a miraculous skill on common criminals.’

Zhang Hancheng shot Qian Zidan a glare. "Old Qian, my men are still lying in the hospital. I’ll be honest with you, I’m in a very bad mood right now. Until this case is solved, I don’t want to talk about anything else."

Qian Zidan got the message.

Solve the case, and then they could talk.

He crossed his arms and began to think.

Although his attention had been on the bird, he had still heard every single word Zhang Hancheng said.

After some thought, Qian Zidan said, "First, this person hasn’t appeared on our radar."

"Of course, that’s not certain. He seems more like the type who does the dirty work."

Spies come in different types.

Some are just ordinary people; you wouldn’t suspect they were a spy even if they were standing right in front of you.

These types of spies are often the handlers or commanders.

Then there’s another type of spy: the one who does the actual fieldwork.

Mao Ruiqiang is skilled in combat. His residence contained a large number of hard drives, files, and many tools for disguise. In Qian Zidan’s opinion, he was most likely one of the field operatives.

"So this Wang Liang... I believe he was their target, and there’s definitely something about him that we don’t know."

He recalled Shen Xin’s surveillance video. Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, something was definitely wrong. They must have been tracking and monitoring Wang Liang.

Zhang Hancheng nodded, signaling for Qian Zidan to continue.

He knew that the police and State Security viewed problems from different angles, so Qian Zidan’s perspective might open up a new line of inquiry for the case.

Qian Zidan continued, "Second, in our experience, a spy is like a rat stealing food."

"They’re mysterious, always hidden in the shadows. When one appears, their target is bound to be nearby."

"In other words, there must be something in this case that they want, or something related to them."

At this, he turned his head and asked his two subordinates if they had found any high-value targets.

The two didn’t speak, simply focusing on their work, rapidly flipping through all the investigation materials.

He Li, in particular, was flipping through the files at a terrifying speed.

"Section Chief Qian, we actually have something."

He Li pulled out a file and handed it over.

Qian Zidan glanced at it, and his expression changed slightly.

Zhang Hancheng hurried over to look. "Isn’t that... who’s-his-name from the expanded list?"

Previously, one line of investigation had been the top donors.

They had identified four people in the Nanjiang area.

Later, Zhang Hancheng, thinking that was too few, expanded the time frame and monetary amount, adding three more people to the list.

One of them was this Zhang Zhanhui right here.

A network administrator at Nanjiang’s Institute 57.

At this moment, Qian Zidan could no longer be bothered with the bird. His brows furrowed as he carefully examined the interview notes on Zhang Zhanhui.

Institute 57, a key national research institute, a classified facility.

Its main research areas are semiconductors and integrated circuits for military use.

Their strategic purpose is to achieve domestic self-sufficiency in certain specialized chips for military applications.

They are also tasked with making breakthroughs in domestic semiconductor technology.

So, based on the principle that ’when the rat appears, the target is nearby,’ and adhering to the principle of ’better to investigate a thousand wrongly than to let one slip by,’ this Zhang Zhanhui had to be investigated and treated with extreme caution.

This man has worked at Institute 57 for eight years. As a network technician, he has access to the institute’s internal network and is fully capable of transmitting critical intelligence to the outside.

"Lao Li, make a call. Have everyone from Division One who isn’t on an assignment come over. Also, notify Division Three and get this Zhang Zhanhui under surveillance immediately."

Qian Zidan immediately gave the order, then called for He Li to keep digging to see if there was anything else.

His reaction took Zhang Hancheng by surprise. Pointing at Zhang Zhanhui’s file, he asked, "Old Qian, are you saying you suspect this man is a spy?"

"Does that mean he had some connection to Li Siyu, and then had this Mao Ruiqiang kill her for him?"

They had previously used Celestial Skill to confirm that Zhang Zhanhui was not the killer.