Chapter 696: The Tone of Deduction

"His life, according to our investigation, has been pretty smooth sailing."

"Born into a relatively well-off family, he received an advanced education from a young age."

"After successfully completing his studies in the country, he went abroad for academic research."

"In the end, he became a renowned top scholar in his field!"

"When he returned to the country, many enterprises were excited, hoping to soon escape the days of being throttled by others."

"But who would have thought that before Professor Yuan could do anything, such an incident would occur."

Wen felt regretful about Professor Yuan’s situation.

Anyone with a sense of normalcy would feel regretful.

Seeing that Cao Xiuyuan didn’t intend to come closer, Chen Xiao started talking:

"According to our investigation, Professor Yuan always traveled to Xiaozhuang South Town using very formal transportation methods. To keep it formal, his travel seemed extremely tedious. I have always felt there was something wrong about this."

"This has been a suspicion of ours as well. We couldn’t understand why he would leave without a word yet choose such a method to come to Xiaozhuang South Town. His behavior is truly puzzling."

Wen’s expression grew more grave as he spoke.

Chen Xiao stared directly into his eyes, suddenly feeling a very strange sensation.

It wasn’t like the few moments of inspiration he had before, but a vague and close feeling.

Wen, noticing his gaze, asked with some doubt:

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I’m pondering a question: Professor Yuan exposed all his movements to the surveillance, and his purpose upon arriving at Xiaozhuang South Town was very clear. He came specifically for Sang Yupeng’s house."

"And since Professor Yuan is a researcher, you mean to say...". Chen Xiao’s words trailed off, causing Wen to become slightly anxious:

"What are you saying? Don’t leave things half-said!"

Qin Fei couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly: "Yeah, you’re leaving us hanging here!"

"Please hold on, my Brother Chen has an idea, but he hasn’t figured it out yet." Liu Dayou stopped the two from further questioning.

The latter two had to hold back temporarily.

After nearly half a minute passed, Chen Xiao spoke again: "Professor Yuan is a researcher, and throughout his career, he would have undoubtedly encountered some difficult problems. Therefore, his trip to Xiaozhuang South Town wasn’t because of something we initially thought, like unresolved relationships or deeply entangled issues."

"He came to Xiaozhuang South Town to solve a problem in his research. The person who could provide the answer is here in Xiaozhuang South Town, and they might have made some agreements not to speak to outsiders. Or, perhaps, to better ensure confidentiality, Professor Yuan chose to protect the other party’s identity himself."

Wen and Qin Fei’s expressions changed simultaneously.

Although Chen Xiao’s analysis still pointed out that Yuan Keyu came to Xiaozhuang South Town for a person or a matter,

the meaning of the current analysis was entirely different.

Because his analysis became more plausible!

"According to your interpretation, it makes sense that a tenant would communicate with the landlord’s son on the first day of renting the house!" Wen’s tone grew excited.

Chen Xiao squinted, neither affirming nor denying Wen’s words, and continued:

"Sang Xiaoming is very likely the person we are looking for, or if not him, he surely plays an important bridging role. Otherwise, Professor Yuan would never rent the house just to meet the landlord’s son."

"With your analysis put together, indeed the kid’s issue just got more serious." Wen said, but neither he nor Qin Fei was in a rush to go look for Sang Xiaoming again.

Neither did Chen Xiao rush, saying in a deep voice:

"But now is not the right time to find Sang Xiaoming again. Each time we approach him, we might essentially be reporting our investigation progress to the other party."

"Exactly, if Sang Xiaoming is the person still okay, we just need to find evidence and directly control him. But if he’s just a link, then even if we control him, it’s akin to notifying the other party that we’ve identified the right direction."

Chen Xiao nodded, thought a bit, and said: "The old saying goes, ’the journey needs to be taken step by step, the food needs to be eaten bite by bite, we need to find evidence first!"

"What evidence?" Liu Dayou asked somewhat confusedly.

The three looked at him simultaneously, then Qin Fei spoke: "For Professor Yuan to come to Xiaozhuang South Town, there must be a contact. Since they didn’t communicate through conventional channels, there would definitely be an unconventional communication channel that they used to establish contact."

"Continuing with the reasoning base Chen Xiao just laid out, if we were to infer this communication channel, their channel would probably be related to academia, like a relevant academic forum online!"

Chen Xiao gave a thumbs-up, and Wen followed by saying:

"Besides evidence, the reasoning base that Chen Xiao just proposed can also help deduce the identity of the suspect, he likely has involvement in the same field as Professor Yuan."

"Exactly!" Chen Xiao confirmed Wen’s statement.

The latter didn’t hesitate, speaking promptly: "As we said before, I’ll investigate the person’s affairs, whereas the forum-related investigation is up to you guys."

"No problem."

Chen Xiao nodded, Wen drove away again.

Liu Dayou watched as the car drove off into the distance, couldn’t help but ask: "Brother, who is that guy? Looking at his demeanor, listening to him speak, he seems quite impressive?"

"It’s right that he’s impressive, his occupation is something ordinary people may never encounter in a lifetime."

Liu Dayou uttered an ’oh’, unclear if he understood or not.

On the other hand, Qin Fei, who had always been unaware of Wen’s identity, seemed to ponder for a moment, then his eyes lit up.

"So, he’s from that department, well, it makes sense given Professor Yuan’s unusual identity." Qin Fei remarked, immediately following with some vexation:

"But it might be easy to find the related website, finding Professor Yuan and the other party’s account might not be so easy, especially the latter’s."

Chen Xiao also felt helpless: "That’s why I’m increasingly missing Black Cat and Xiaoji. But now, let’s temporarily leave it to the tech team in Dong’an to try."

As he spoke, Chen Xiao called Xie Wensheng, gave instructions on what needed to be done, and then proceeded back to his car.

He didn’t go looking for Cao Xiuyuan, nor check up on Sun Zhou’s investigation progress.

The whole task force, while seemingly cohesive, actually had their own teams.

The same was true for both Cao Xiuyuan and Sun Zhou, as well as for Chen Xiao and Qin Fei.

Chen Xiao adjusted his car seat lower, and then closed his eyes to continue pondering.

It wasn’t long before images of a kitten wishing a happy new year and an old dog named Health appearing crazily flashed across his mind.