“Xu Jiang?” Ji Chenjiao frowned. Both he and Ling Lie had suffered at this person’s hands. A while back, he heard Xi Wan mention that Xu Jiang was suspended for investigation due to some baseless personal issues. With the Major Crimes Unit being so busy lately, he didn’t know if Xu Jiang had been reinstated.

“Ms. Xi said Xu Jiang’s work and conduct were impeccable. His past stains were suddenly exposed inexplicably, possibly just rumors. Doesn’t this resemble the ‘game’ orchestrated by ‘Pink Mask’?” Ling Lie said, “It also started with someone exposing his past online. Does this count as internet malice? If there were no internet, would Xu Jiang, a diligent inspector, have been spared from facing this?”

Ji Chenjiao: “Are you suggesting…”

Ling Lie quickly interjected, “I’m not suggesting anything!”

“…”

“I just happened to connect these two events.”

A few seconds later, Ji Chenjiao said, “I get it.”

Shen Qi was completely baffled, looking blankly between the two. What riddles are you playing? Am I, a dignified member of the Major Crimes Unit, not worthy of participating in your riddles?

Ling Lie walked behind Shen Qi. “The case isn’t hard to crack, but sentencing might lean favorably towards Wang Yingzhuo and his group. Even our own little team member emotionally feels their starting point was benevolent, let alone the general public.”

Shen Qi bristled, “I misspoke earlier! Can’t my awareness be low for once?”

“No, you weren’t wrong.” Ling Lie smoothed Shen Qi’s hair. “You rang an early alarm bell for us. ‘Pink Mask’ will definitely leverage public opinion and sentiment to strive for the lightest possible sentence. No wonder ‘Pink Mask’ dared to release people so readily after the ‘game’ ended. Not killing anyone is one point. Being rich and powerful, believing money can solve all problems, is another. And one more point, they know that when everything is exposed, to the point where even money can’t fix it, they still hold the moral high ground in public opinion.”

Shen Qi was good with technology, but when it came to logic, he really couldn’t keep up with his two older brothers. He hiccuped listening to them. “I, did I make a contribution?”

Ling Lie patted the back of his head, and he yelped, “Stop hitting! I’ll get stupider!”

Ji Chenjiao watched them banter for a while, then glanced out the window. The Wang family’s car was parked outside the municipal bureau again.

“Your brother-in-law is here again.” Ji Chenjiao looked at Wang Yingzhuo leisurely. “If you keep stalling with me like this, everyone suffers. They won’t go back, and they won’t let me get off work. Since I can’t get off work, I have no choice but to drag you into a chat.”

Wang Yingzhuo’s expression turned extremely ugly upon hearing his family was blocking the municipal bureau. Ji Chenjiao had already grasped this young man’s mindset—he believed he was doing something righteous and correct, and accepting an “absurd” trial was fine, but family members couldn’t get involved, especially not by pulling strings or using connections. The more the Wang family blocked the police, the more illegitimate his “cause” appeared.

Ji Chenjiao said, “Do a good deed, say what needs to be said. I’ll have the procuratorate pick you up. Then you can see your lawyer, and your brother and brother-in-law won’t keep staring at me.”

Pausing, Ji Chenjiao added, “Oh right, about thirty of your people have been arrested. Those who confessed basically said you were not only a core member of ‘Pink Mask’ but also one of the founders?”

Wang Yingzhuo’s eyebrows twitched, annoyed and disdainful of his family’s actions, yet proud of the phrase “one of the founders.”

Ling Lie said through the earpiece, “It’s chaos out there! They’re about to storm our office!”

The Wang family couldn’t truly do whatever they wanted at the municipal bureau; the Major Crimes Unit turned a blind eye and didn’t really stop them.

Ji Chenjiao signaled his team member to open the door, and the Feng City accent drifted in intermittently.

Wang Yingzhuo’s expression became very colorful. Ji Chenjiao put on a helpless, life-is-draining expression towards the public.

Ji Chenjiao had provoked Wang Yingzhuo too many times recently. Veins popped on his forehead, and he finally gritted his teeth, “What do you want to know?”

Ji Chenjiao closed the door and adjusted the monitor. “I’m very interested in your philosophy.”

Wang Yingzhuo was stunned. This seemed different from an interrogation.

“Although I am a police officer, I am also a normal person. Any normal person would detest uncontrolled malice on the internet,” Ji Chenjiao said. “I can understand your thoughts and motives.”

Wang Yingzhuo observed Ji Chenjiao like a bug lying in the grass. After a moment of silence, he chuckled twice. “That’s right, I am a founder because I can’t stand this world becoming cruel! Stupid! Vicious! Because of the internet!”

The Wang family lived off the sea and, after three generations of hard work, became one of the top wealthy families in Feng City. Wang Yingzhuo was the youngest child of this generation and a son, with several older sisters and one older brother above him. He lived a life of wealth and worry-free luxury since childhood.

Elders and siblings all said he didn’t need to worry about anything, just study his favorite major, do what he liked, and enjoy life with peace of mind.

For the twenty years before going abroad, he indeed did just that. But after studying abroad, he discovered that young people like him could do so many things! Helping the poor, speaking up for the bottom of society, contributing to environmental protection!

It turned out that being rich to a certain extent meant one should do something selfless!

He racked his brains: What can I do? Where should my money be spent on the right path?

He grew increasingly disdainful of those second-generation rich kids who only knew how to enjoy themselves, and didn’t think much of the lower-class people hysterically fighting for rights either. The former were parasitic waste, the latter truly undignified.

He read in some inspirational literature that fighting for one’s own rights isn’t great. Being a beneficiary of rights oneself, yet fighting for rights for those who don’t enjoy them, that is true greatness.

He had the capital and ability to achieve this greatness.

He began to be enthusiastic about public welfare, discussing ideals with foreign classmates. While pondering what specifically to do, he saw several tragedies involving human lives caused by uncontrolled internet flame wars, rumors, and smears.

He suddenly felt his mission. The more he thought, the clearer he realized that this world was becoming terrible, and the malice between people was becoming fiercer. What turned people so bad? Undoubtedly the internet. The internet was the fuse, the hotbed, the sharp weapon facilitating any crime.

If the internet were destroyed, malice originating from the internet would be eradicated from the root.

To his ecstasy, not only did he think so, but so did his classmates and several rich kids he met while doing public welfare.

They talked passionately, envisioned, and drew a blueprint to kill the internet—they would forcibly drag online events offline, make people attack each other, and experience the pain of having their entire lives erased by a trace of non-existent false stain.

They believed that people who had experienced this “game” would definitely not turn a blind eye to online malice. These participants would become anti-internet like them. Over time, as members increased, the internet would be killed.

But up to this point, the plan was just a fantasy. They had enough money but didn’t know how to organize participants.

Someone mentioned the “Floating Light” dark web.

Wang Yingzhuo asked, “What is that?”

“A place capable of anything. We use it to build our communication platform, and the police will be helpless against us.”

Soon, “Pink Mask” was established. The first “game” planned in Country E was a huge success, recruiting many talents needed by the organization.

Wang Yingzhuo returned to China last year, bringing the Country E set to the domestic scene. Three other core members returned with him.

They developed a new batch of core members,投放 the entrance of “Pink Mask” to target groups. Last November, thirty participants entered the “game”.

Then the second time, the third time…

Wang Yingzhuo emphasized they never harmed participants, even hiring professional teams to give them physical examinations before they left, and never disturbed them after the “game” ended. If they were willing, “Pink Mask” would accept them as members; if not, they would go their separate ways in peace.

“I didn’t commit a crime. I’m just doing something meaningful that can save many people, something you police can’t do.” Wang Yingzhuo became more heroic and impassioned as he spoke. “You are the ones committing crimes because you can’t punish online malice or save those killed by malice, yet you come to arrest us!”

Ji Chenjiao looked at him, feeling a wave of nausea. In this instant, he thought of the indifference in Lu Feixiang’s eyes when Xue Bin and Zeng Shu self-righteously wanted to “save” him back in Feng City.

Wang Yingzhuo shouted, “Even if you sentence me, I am innocent!”

Ji Chenjiao took down one of the cameras and replayed it for Wang Yingzhuo on the spot. His fanatical and hoarse voice echoed in the interrogation room, adding a mechanical chill.

Wang Yingzhuo stared at Ji Chenjiao in surprise, feeling somewhat uncomfortable hearing his own voice.

“Listen to what you are saying. Kill the internet?” Ji Chenjiao sneered, paused the playback, and looked back at Wang Yingzhuo. “Then what are you using? You can’t be unaware that your ‘Pink Mask’ is built on the ‘Floating Light’ dark web, right? Dark web, dark web, just because it has the word ‘dark’ in front, is it not a network?”

Wang Yingzhuo’s cheek muscles twitched. “Don’t play word games with me!”

“I’m just telling you a fact.” Ji Chenjiao pointed his index finger in the air. “You and your companions claim the internet is guilty, that the internet makes this world no longer beautiful, and you want to reverse the world’s downward spiral by killing the internet. But from the beginning, you used the dark web to contact each other, develop accomplices, and then build your own ‘Pink Mask’. Fundamentally speaking, the entire existence of your ‘Pink Mask’ relies on ‘Floating Light’. And yet you boast shamelessly here. If you have the ability, kill ‘Floating Light’ first?”

Wang Yingzhuo was enraged. “Shut up!”

“What? Struck a nerve, can’t maintain your hypocritical mask?” Ji Chenjiao said, “Any normal person looking at this would think you are hypocritical and laughable. Relying on the more evil dark web yourselves, yet wanting to kill the ordinary internet.”

Wang Yingzhuo dug his fingernails into the table, making a teeth-grating sound.

“‘Floating Light’ kills for you. You can say you never harmed ‘game’ participants, but ‘Floating Light’ acted,” Ji Chenjiao said. “The first batch, Yong Huihao and Tang Qi, guess how they died?”

Wang Yingzhuo was astonished. “‘Floating Light’ involved? How is that possible?”

Ji Chenjiao snorted lightly. “It seems your knowledge of ‘Floating Light’ is limited, but ‘Floating Light’ knows every detail about you. Yong Huihao and Tang Qi left the ‘game’ without any tendency to become your accomplices. You left them alone, confidently believing they wouldn’t call the police. Even if they did, they didn’t know where they participated in the ‘game’, and evidence on them was eliminated by you, so the police wouldn’t file a case for investigation. But ‘Floating Light’, watching your every move, judged they would expose you, so it engineered their elimination.”

Wang Yingzhuo shouted, “Impossible! We have no contact with ‘Floating Light’!”

“Still deceiving yourself,” Ji Chenjiao said. “‘Pink Mask’ is a bug parasitic on ‘Floating Light’. You call this no contact?!”

Wang Yingzhuo began to breathe heavily, his flared nostrils and stretched neck making him lose his usual elegant nobility.

“Back in Country E, weren’t you brainwashed by those like-minded friends of yours?” Ji Chenjiao continued, “Otherwise, why would you go from opposing the internet to being willing to become a parasite of the dark web? Those friends of yours, those founders like you, why do you approve of the dark web?”

“I…” Wang Yingzhuo suddenly couldn’t answer.

Ji Chenjiao said, “Wang Yingzhuo, you look down on the internet accessible to almost everyone in daily life, hating all malice bred on it, but how did you kneel to the dark web? The ordinary internet at least has aspects convenient for people’s work and life. What does the dark web have? The dark web has only sin!”

“What do you know?” Wang Yingzhuo seemed to finally adjust, his tone full of sarcasm. “The dark web at least has a threshold! People who use it know how to think and know what they want to do! It is just a tool. If the user is righteous, it is righteous; if the user is evil, it is evil! But what about the internet accessible to anyone? No threshold! Do you know what no threshold means?”

Ji Chenjiao leaned back. “What do you think it means?”

“It means all stupid, greedy, vicious people can get on too!” Wang Yingzhuo roared, “They are the ones making the internet a foul atmosphere where malice runs rampant! They don’t know what they want at all. Their lives are worthless; they are bugs in reality! So they jeer online, attacking everyone living better than them. They don’t care if they know the person being attacked. They are just too bad, too stupid, wanting to drag the whole world down to their living standard!”

The interrogation room fell silent, everyone’s hearing filled with the sound of breathing.

A moment later, Ji Chenjiao stood up. Wang Yingzhuo rolled his eyes upward, a shadow cast in his pupils.

“So that’s how you think. The dark web has a threshold, the ordinary internet doesn’t.” Ji Chenjiao asked, “So what does the threshold separate?”

Wang Yingzhuo opened his mouth but made no sound. He was suddenly subdued by Ji Chenjiao’s gaze, feeling an extremely powerful deterrence.

“You approve of the dark web, essentially approving of the ‘upper class’ who can access more resources, while automatically classifying ordinary people who can surf the web casually as ‘lower class’. The ‘upper class’ has ideals and ambitions, constantly thinking about how to save the world and salvage the ecology destroyed by the internet. As for the ‘lower class’, in your eyes, they are synonymous with stupidity and viciousness.”

“So I say, you people are hypocritical to the extreme. Imagining yourselves as saviors, looking down on others from high above, saying you want to protect them but actually despising them. Isn’t it just your own vanity you are satisfying? Using the most evil dark web to kill the ordinary internet that has both good and evil, your double standards are laughable!”

Wang Yingzhuo yelled, “Bullshit! You are distorting the facts!”

“Can I distort as much as you?” Ji Chenjiao pressed his right hand on the table edge. “Then let me ask you again. You just said you didn’t commit a crime. Then where did those weapons of yours come from? You can’t tell me those are toy guns, right?”

Wang Yingzhuo’s pupils suddenly contracted.

“Those guns, some were smuggled in by your overseas members by hook or by crook, and some were purchased through ‘Floating Light’.” Ji Chenjiao said, “Isn’t it laughable? Others deserving death for an online argument, while you illegally smuggle weapons and call yourself a good boy?”

Wang Yingzhuo gritted his teeth in anger.

“Let’s talk about the harm you caused to the ‘game’ participants.” Ji Chenjiao continued, “You said you never harmed them, gave them physical exams after the ‘game’, and their participation was voluntary. But was it really voluntary? Is mental trauma not trauma?”