Chapter 121 Evidence: Go through all his past door opening records
Having not seen each other for a long time, Li Zhenliang and the other two were full of curiosity about Liang Jiushan and surrounded him, asking him about his recent situation.
Is Kyoto University very big? Are you used to the food there?
"Do you have a lot of major courses? Are you finding them difficult to study?"
"What made you decide to start a company? What's the company name? What will you mainly do? Will it be profitable?"
Facing the police officer who had helped him in the past, 20-year-old Liang Jiushan was still as clever and lively as he was in his youth, with a bright smile and high spirits, speaking freely and without reservation.
"The school is quite big, with the best library, teaching buildings, and laboratories. It's just that I'm not used to the food. The cafeteria food is bland, not spicy, and not very flavorful."
"There are quite a few major courses, but the studies aren't too difficult. Computer science is quite interesting, and I like it. Sister Ling said that the future will be the information age, so I must study hard so that I can help you in the future."
“Starting a company is just for fun. At first, a few of us helped people write code and work on databases. Gradually, we gained a little reputation in our small circle, and many people came to us for help. So we simply started a company to do this, so we could make more money.”
When asked about "making more money," Liang Jiushan winked at them, his eyes gleaming with shrewdness. Taking small, private jobs was nowhere near as lucrative as running a company and using official accounts. Liang Jiushan understood the pros and cons without Jiang Ling needing to teach him.
Li Zhenliang and the other two laughed.
"You little rascal! You've been clever since you were a kid."
"I never would have guessed! Back then, you were so furious about Qian Darong that you wanted to fight him to the death, and now you're a big boss!"
"You've made something of yourself now, that's great."
Liang Jiushan was a little embarrassed by the praise. He raised his hand to scratch the back of his head and grinned. His smile was wide, revealing a set of snow-white teeth, and his eyes sparkled with a bright and infectious light.
Jiang Ling, who had just returned from reporting to Director Zhong, was greeted by this smiling face as soon as she opened the office door.
Seeing such a young and handsome face, smiling so happily, Jiang Ling, who had been anxious about the case, also felt relieved and her mood lifted: "What's wrong? Why are you so happy?"
Liang Jiushan's eyes sparkled: "Sister Ling, you're talking about my studies. How did your report go? What did Director Zhong say?"
Jiang Ling smiled and said, "Director Zhong is very pleased that the case has made progress. Now we need your support."
Liang Jiushan hurriedly replied, "Okay, as long as you... you need it, I will definitely support you!"
Although there was still a lot of work to do at the company, Liang Jiushan returned to Yanshi as soon as summer vacation started, because Jiang Ling had returned to work after graduating with a master's degree.
Since his company's business is all related to computers, he only needs to carry a laptop with him and find a network interface to solve most of his company's problems.
Jiang Ling liked Liang Jiushan's efficient and straightforward manner.
When she first met him, he was still in his final year of junior high school. Although he would rush to the police station to do his homework as soon as school was over and pester her with all sorts of questions, once Jiang Ling got into her work, he would immediately obediently step aside and do his own thing. Whenever Jiang Ling needed him, he would come to help without hesitation, just by saying the word.
He was fluent in the Hunan dialect and not only helped Xiaoyong, a child who had been abducted, find his parents, but also helped the city bureau pinpoint the area where the narcotics officer was murdered. Even without Jiang Ling asking, he could stake out the construction site and pretend to be a charlatan to persuade Xiaoyu's grandparents to give up their custody rights.
During their graduate studies, after Liang Jiushan went to Kyoto, the two often met. Jiang Ling wasn't good at mathematical modeling and analysis, so Liang Jiushan helped her with data analysis. Liang Jiushan contributed to her graduation thesis and the report she submitted to Director Zhong, including the idea for a criminal early warning system.
Jiang Ling felt that this younger brother was quite useful.
I helped him out back then, saving him from jail, but I never expected to become the beneficiary myself.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ling patted Liang Jiushan on the shoulder: "Director Zhong has approved my application. You will join the task force as a technical expert. Don't worry, there will be a bonus if we solve the case."
Liang Jiushan smiled and nodded: "Okay, then I must get this bonus."
With time running out, Jiang Ling quickly got into work mode, stood in front of the whiteboard, and began to reorganize her psychological profiling ideas.
The members of the portrait team also put away their smiles and sat solemnly at the conference table.
Liang Jiushan sat down and carefully placed his bulging laptop bag on the table. His clear gaze followed Jiang Ling's every move with focus and calmness.
Jiang Ling emphasized a spot on the whiteboard with her marker: "Based on Jiu Shan's core analysis of the 'electronic key'—that is, the access vulnerability—we have also incorporated the criminal's technical behavioral characteristics into the profile, which may be the key to catching him red-handed."
Everyone's spirits lifted. Li Zhenliang immediately picked up his pen, ready to take notes.
“First, technical preferences.” Jiang Ling’s voice was clear and steady, with a penetrating quality. “This person is definitely not the kind of ‘disruptive’ hacker who seeks to show off their skills and cripple systems to prove themselves. His methods are precise and pragmatic, only exploiting existing, known weaknesses in the banking system, such as default passwords, fragile authentication protocols, and chaotic access control. He’s like a…”
“Like a thief,” Liang Jiushan’s voice rang out at the right moment, “he painstakingly and patiently tried to open the doors of those banks one by one with the stolen keys in the dead of night. Once he found one that could be opened, he would slip inside, take what he wanted, and then quietly leave.”
He paused, then added, "His purpose is very simple: money. He's actually afraid of being discovered, so he doesn't dare to take too much at once. This kind of person is very pragmatic, but also more secretive and harder to detect."
Jiang Ling gave Liang Jiushan an approving look: "Jiushan's analogy is very vivid. It's pragmatic, efficient, purposeful, and avoids all unnecessary risks."
Li Zhenliang and the others suddenly realized: "Now that Jiu Shan has said that, I understand! The loophole in the bank is like a door that was left open. This person is like a street urchin who picked up a bunch of keys and wandered around, waiting for an opportunity to try them one by one, and then going in to steal things when he finds which one can be opened."
Jiang Ling switched to a red pen and circled some previously recorded "abnormal operations." "Li Bin from the technical team repeatedly mentioned a phenomenon: after completing critical transfers or withdrawals on terminals identified as 'stepping stones,' the background logs always leave some very subtle, seemingly insignificant actions, such as attempting to delete a temporary log fragment or modifying an insignificant configuration parameter. These actions are often incomplete or even fail, and the system will automatically recover."
Liu Haoran seemed to be thinking: "Is this... an attempt to clean up the scene? To erase all traces?"
“That’s right,” Jiang Ling affirmed. “This shows he has some counter-surveillance awareness; he knows his operations will be recorded and instinctively tries to cover it up. But the problem is…”
Liang Jiushan said calmly, "His little tricks were not very clever, even a bit clumsy, otherwise Officer Li Bin wouldn't have found so many redundant records that could be traced."
Li Zhenliang immediately added, "This shows that his technical skills are not top-notch. He understands the principles and knows what to do, but he may be limited by the actual operating environment, such as time constraints, or the limited tools he has or his in-depth understanding of the specific system, which prevents him from perfectly executing the cleaning action and instead makes things worse."
Zhou Wei, a former reconnaissance soldier, may not understand computer technology, but he is familiar with counter-tracking techniques: "His obsession with counter-reconnaissance outweighs his actual ability, which is a bit like protesting too much. This precisely exposes his inner tension and lack of confidence, so Liangzi is right, this person is not a computer expert."
Jiang Ling's gaze fell on several blurry copies of the bank's internal system operation records pasted on the whiteboard. She pointed to a few spots: "Look at these operator signature records. They're not handwritten signatures; they're operator IDs automatically recorded by the system. Examine the signatures associated with these suspicious operations closely and compare them with the normal operation records. Has anyone noticed anything?"
Liang Jiushan stood up, walked to the whiteboard and carefully examined the data. He then replied, "Hmm, the way it's combined is a bit awkward, like it was typed up hastily in a rush."
He turned around and pointed to one of them: "Look at this one. The operator ID field suffix should normally be a neat '_OP' or '_USER', but here, the spacing between the underscore and the letter is obviously abnormally loose, as if a space or a meaningless character was randomly added after the ID before the suffix was added."
The technical terms were too complex for most people to understand, so Liang Jiushan tried to find the right words to express it: "It's a bit sloppy, even a bit careless. For example, if you're asked to sign your name on a piece of paper, but you just scribble a few lines. From a psychological perspective..."
Li Zhenliang, who has focused on handwriting analysis for the past few years, immediately chimed in upon hearing Liang Jiushan's words: "This represents the other party's arrogance, even smugness. He is mocking! He is mocking the simplicity and stupidity of this banking system, thinking that it can be easily fooled, since no one can see through it anyway."
Liu Haoran's eyes lit up: "That's right! He didn't just steal money; he saw it as an intellectual game, a form of revenge and mockery against the banking system and its foolish managers. This mentality, combined with his method of exploiting internal loopholes rather than launching an external attack, shows that he is very familiar with the bank's internal system, but there's also a... resentment?"
Mockery, resentment?
A brief silence fell over the office.
Jiang Ling took a deep breath, picked up a marker, and drew a circle heavily in the center of the whiteboard: "Based on all information, update the psychological profile."
"Core profile. Male, age range adjusted to 28-40 years old. The reason I raised the upper age limit is because he has a thorough understanding of the early bank counter business processes, back-office system architecture, and especially those long-standing management loopholes. This level of familiarity requires time to immerse oneself and firsthand experience, and cannot be achieved through short-term contact or external observation."
"This person is highly likely to have been a bank employee, preferably in a technical or teller supervisor position. He is proficient in the specific operation of internal systems, the precise grasp of process vulnerabilities, and the chaotic points of access control, rather than pure programming or hacking skills."
"This person may have harbored intense resentment towards the bank for some reason. It could be due to severe punishment or even dismissal for work errors, long-term unfair treatment and exclusion leading to frustration, or the disregard and suppression of his technical skills or reform suggestions by stubborn and conservative superiors. This pent-up resentment drove him to use his most familiar weapon, such as loopholes in the banking system itself, to carry out precise retaliation and profit. He viewed crime as an intellectual catharsis and a way to settle old humiliations, which is why his actions revealed a subtle sense of superiority and mockery."
The outline of the portrait was clearer than ever before.
A vivid image of a tech-savvy criminal, twisted by resentment yet extremely calm and cunning, who is well-versed in the loopholes of the bank's internal rules, emerges in everyone's mind.
Li Zhenliang rubbed his hands excitedly, "Team leader, so what do we do now..."
Jiang Ling's thinking was now very clear: "Immediately investigate the targets! The focus should be on Yancheng and surrounding counties and cities, all banking institutions, including state-owned, local credit cooperatives, and city commercial banks, and technical maintenance personnel, core counter operators, and counter supervisors who have been dismissed, resigned, or internally marginalized in the past three years due to violations of regulations, gross negligence, conflicts with superiors, or objections to system management. Pay special attention to middle-level managers who left with resentment, or who have technical backgrounds or withdrawn personalities."
The portrait team sprang into action instantly.
Zhou Wei immediately grabbed the phone and contacted the municipal bureau's personnel archives department for assistance.
Liu Haoran and Li Zhenliang began to organize the existing internal personnel information of the banking system separately, and at the same time quickly drafted a detailed list of personnel that needed to be urgently obtained from various banks.
Liang Jiushan sat quietly in the corner, opening his "tool of the trade" that he always carried with him, an IBM ThinkPad 760 series laptop, the screen's blue light reflecting off his face.
Although computers are bulky, they were considered expensive in 1998.
Liang Jiushan opened an encrypted document containing a list of outsourcing partners for local financial institutions and information on key personnel, which he had previously researched and compiled. His fingertips slid across the touchpad, quickly filtering for companies and individuals potentially related to the bank's internal system maintenance, software development, and equipment supply. His brows furrowed slightly, his gaze focused, as if all the surrounding noise had temporarily faded away, leaving only the pulsating stream of data before him.
Jiang Ling walked to his side without disturbing him, and gently placed a freshly brewed cup of hot tea beside him, the rising steam blurring a corner of the screen.
Liang Jiushan paused, looked up, met Jiang Ling's gaze, and explained in a low voice, "Sister Ling, I'm screening a list of potential outsourced maintenance providers. Things that the bank's own IT department can't handle, outsourced companies have more opportunities to access core permissions, and the vulnerabilities may be bigger."
Jiang Ling glanced at the rapidly scrolling information on his screen: "Jiu Shan, a list alone isn't enough; we need more direct evidence. Since the other party used a stolen electronic key, there must have been traces left on the lock and key when he opened and closed the door and took things, right? Can you find a way to find those traces?"
Liang Jiushan's eyes suddenly lit up, like stars lit up in the night sky.
He closed the document containing the compiled list, swiped his fingers across the touchpad a few times, and brought up a brand new, more complex command-line window. "Sure! Sister Ling, give me a network cable and access to the bank's backend log database. Don't bother catching him in real-time intrusion; that's too difficult. Let's try a different approach—like checking accounts, go through all his past door-opening records!"
Upon hearing that Liang Jiushan could do it, Jiang Ling became excited and grabbed him, saying, "Come on! I'll take you to the technical team. Li Bin has the internet connection and has also obtained access to the bank. With a computer talent like you joining us, we have a better chance of solving this case."
Liang Jiushan stood up as Jiang Ling pulled his arm, and the warmth from their contact made his cheeks feel hot.
Over the years, the more he got to know Jiang Ling, the deeper his admiration for her grew.
Being accepted, trusted, and commanded by her filled Liang Jiushan with joy, like boiling water bubbling away.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me shut down the computer first." Liang Jiushan said while operating the computer. "Sister Ling, don't rush. Every trace leaves a mark, especially on the internet with its super memory. Let me think of a way to find evidence first."
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