The rain in Jiangcheng had fallen for three days straight, scouring the gravel in the old house's cellar into dark red gullies. Chen Yanxiu's fingertips slid across the decryption interface on his laptop, the screen light casting a dark shadow under his eyes.
The three-dimensional model of the Shen family emblem slowly rotated in the virtual space, and the refraction angle of the ruby at the center of the flower was decomposed into a string of complex digital codes, but it could never match the key format left by Li Zhengyang.
"The angle is wrong." Chen Yanbai placed the freshly brewed medicine on the bedside table. The edge of the celadon bowl was still stained with bitter medicine residue. "The bullet has been embedded in the coat of arms for twenty years. Perhaps the angle has changed a long time ago."
His sleeve rubbed against the gauze on Chen Yanxiu's arm, and the traces of blood oozing made him frown, "The wound has opened again, I'll go call a doctor."
"No need." Chen Yanxiu held his wrist, his eyes still on the screen. "When Li Zhengyang mentioned 'flower heart angle' in the video, he wasn't referring to the physical angle."
He suddenly pulled up the photo of the Shen family's cellar and zoomed in on the metal badge on Shen Mingzhe's windbreaker - that was the employee logo of "Star Track Technology" under the Jin Group. The gear pattern was somewhat similar to the lotus on the Shen family's emblem.
Li Zhou's communication request suddenly popped up, and a holographic projection unfolded in the center of the ward.
Behind him was a wall of evidence compiled overnight by the criminal police team. Shen Yanrong's autopsy report and the Jin Group's transnational capital flow chart were hung side by side. "Mr. Shen, we found this in Shen Mingzhe's dashcam."
The video screen shook violently, and Shen Mingzhe's voice was mixed with noise: "... President Jin has urged us to send the black account book to the New Delhi branch within 72 hours..."
The scene suddenly turned to the co-pilot seat. A USB flash drive inlaid with a star-shaped sapphire was reflected on the dashboard, and a tiny combination of letters was engraved on the disk: JSY-07.
"JSY-07?" Chen Yanbai suddenly remembered something and took out the tie clip that Chen Yanxiu brought back from the drawer. The SMZ-08 on the inside had the same code format as this one.
Chen Yanxiu magnified the star-shaped pattern on the USB drive, and his pupils suddenly contracted - that was clearly the personal mark of Jin Chenyun, the president of the Jin Group, which had appeared countless times in the cover features of financial magazines.
The Jin Group's headquarters is located in Singapore's Marina Bay, and its glass curtain walls reflect diamond-like light under the equatorial sunlight.
Jin Suyun stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the 88th floor, playing with a star-shaped sapphire cufflink in his hand.
The secretary knocked on the door in a rhythm of three long knocks and two short knocks, which was an emergency signal he set himself.
"Boss Jin, we've heard back from Jiangcheng." The secretary handed over an encrypted tablet. On the screen was a diagram of the heraldic model sent by Chen Yanxiu, with a note saying, "Request the key."
Jin Chanyun's fingertips slid across the lotus pattern on the screen, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
He walked to the wine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of 1961 Romanee-Conti. The wine shone in the crystal glass, casting an amber light, reflecting the faint black tattoo on his wrist - that was the rose emblem of Interpol.
"Reply to Chen Yanxiu," he placed the cufflinks on the tablet, the sapphire's refracted light precisely covering the center of the emblem. "Tell him that the key is hidden in the latest quantum encryption algorithm released by Star Track Technology."
The secretary hesitated to speak, for he knew that this young CEO was not only a business tycoon, but also a special adviser to Interpol codenamed "Star Track". It was he who led the crackdown on the "Nightingale" spy network spanning Europe and Asia five years ago.
The holographic projection of Jiangcheng Hospital lit up again, and Jin Chanyun's image appeared in the center of the ward.
He was wearing a haute couture suit, and his tie clip was the star-shaped sapphire from the video. The Merlion, Singapore's landmark, was in the background. "Mr. Shen, I've heard a lot about you."
Chen Yanbai clenched his fists. The man in front of him had enough wealth to buy half of Jiangcheng, but now he appeared in their decryption request.
However, Chen Yanxiu noticed the dark pattern on his tie - it was the twill weave that Li Zhengyang loved most during his lifetime, exactly the same as the windbreaker he wore in the video.
"Why would Mr. Jin be interested in the Shen family's mess?" Shen Yanxiu's voice was alert.
Jin Suyun raised his glass and clinked glasses with him through the holographic projection: "Because Li Zhengyang is my mentor."
He called up a dusty recording, and Li Zhengyang's voice came from the speaker: "Shan Yun, the angle of the center of the Shen family's emblem is actually..." The recording was suddenly interrupted, indicating that quantum key decryption was required.
Star Track Technology's quantum encryption algorithm resembled an ever-shifting digital maze. Chen Yanxiu imported the heraldic model into the supercomputer, while Jin Chanyun's remote cursor darted through the torrent of data, each collision sparking blue lightning.
"Pay attention to the topological structure of the eighth dimension." Jin Chenyun's voice came from the headset, with a calmness that seemed to be in control of the overall situation.
"Li Zhengyang taught me back in the police academy that the true key lies in the seemingly disordered symmetry."
His cursor suddenly turned to a set of garbled characters. It was the transaction data extracted from Shen Mingzhe's USB flash drive. The three digits after the decimal point perfectly matched the arc of the petals of the emblem.
Chen Yanbai looked at the key sequence that suddenly lit up on the screen, and suddenly remembered the photo in the cellar - on the envelope that Chen Yanrong handed to Li Zhengyang, the arrangement of the stamp perforations was exactly the same as this set of numbers.
He flipped through Li Zhengyang's investigation notes and saw a line of small words written in pencil on the edge of a page: "JSY, Key to the Star Track."
"Found it!" Chen Yanxiu pressed the confirmation button, and the encrypted folder opened.
The first thing that popped up was a shareholding structure chart. Jin Group's overseas subsidiary, "Dark Night Technology", surprisingly held 49% of Shen Chemical's shares. A familiar name in the shareholder list made the three of them silent at the same time - Night Owl.
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