Genius Detective

Everyone’s eyes focused on Chen Shi. He said, “I feel that the work of the police is to protect people. It is to protect the lives of the people. Although this is not a felony case, would you not lend a hand if you saw a thief on the streets? The casualties caused by this individual can be much larger than murders and the impact is far-reaching. I think we should intervene."

Many people nodded their heads and agreed and the expert gratefully said, "Thank you for the support and understanding, comrade."

Lin Qiupu said, "Talk about the clues you have on hand."

"I’ve prepared a PowerPoint. Please let me go set it up." The expert pulled out a USB.

A screenshot of a social media site appeared on the projector. This site was called "Help from Handsome Guys". To put it bluntly, it was a dating app. The female user posted her wishes on it. For example, if she wanted a designer handbag or to go to a specific restaurant, male users would offer to complete these wishes for a reward.

The people who used this app naturally understood that the male users would not do this for free. Rather, the wishes were exchanged with sex offered by the female users. 

The name on the screenshot was "Love is Like the Tides". The photo was of a small, kawaii[1] girl’s face. The expert explained, "This is the social app used by the individual. It shows that she has met with ten people so far. Only two of them have tested positive at the moment, most likely because the probability of AIDS spreading from women to men is still relatively low at the moment."

Lin Qiupu suggested, "I don't think we should think about probabilities. If they do it, it’s 100%, if they don’t transmit it, then it’s 0%”

Xu Xiaodong echoed, "Yes, so the probability is 50%."

The expert forced a smile and continued, "She hasn’t used this app since a week ago. It seems that she has shifted her approach… Oh yes, there are some photos of her daily activities on the app which you can look at for reference.”

The expert showed the photos on the projector. The girl in the photos looked very cute, but in this era of catfishing, no one believed that this was what she really looked like.

"The photo must have been photoshopped. The flower branches in the third photo are all curved. Can you recover the original photo?" Lin Qiupu asked.

A police officer in the network tech department responded, "We can try it, but it is hard to say how much of the original will be restored."

Chen Shi folded his arms. "You don't need to waste time on that."

"What are you talking about?" Lin Qiupu turned his head.

"Even if the photos are restored, there are so many people in Long'An City. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. If she changes to other apps, she would probably use these photos again. There are only a dozen trending social apps like that. We should be able to find her if we go on those apps."

"Okay, that’s a good idea!" Lin Qiupu praised.

Chen Shi added, "If you can contact the developer and they cooperate to reveal the person’s details, the search may be even faster.”

The expert cautioned, "Currently, social apps like these can be registered with just a mobile phone number. They don’t need personal information to register anymore. The personal information they enter is usually all fake as well."

"Just the mobile phone number would be fine. Ah yes, we should also contact the men she’s met up with as well.”

"Who is the captain?" Lin Qiupu interjected.

"You are! You are!"

Lin Qiupu coughed and assigned everyone a task. A group of people went to contact the developers to get the mobile phone number of the individual. A group of people visited the men and notified them to avoid another infection. The rest of the people registered themselves on the apps in order to find this woman.

The expert said, "The people in my center will cooperate with you to find her and immediately test her."

“Is the testing process very troublesome?”

“We generally use the international “gold standard nucleic acid amplification test” and only need the testing strip.”

"Then, there is no need to send another person. You can just give the test strip to the forensic doctor on our team and let him do it."

"Okay, I will go and talk to him later."

Chen Shi smiled and whispered, "Captain Lin really doesn't know how to love Old Peng."

The expert bid, "Thanks for your efforts and sorry for the trouble. Finally, I want to say that people who have AIDS are not the disease itself. She is probably doing this because she didn’t receive sympathy or care. I hope that you won’t discriminate against her."

"You can rest assured on that point." Lin Qiupu nodded.

Throughout the meeting, Lin Dongxue did not say a word. After the meeting, Chen Shi asked, "What happened, Miss Lin? Bad mood today?"

"Accurate."

"Who is irritating you?"

"You!"

"What have I done?"

"I think the men who came out to have sex deserve it. Why do we need to save them? And why are you interfering? I was just thinking about whether you were so assertive because you’re like those men as well.”

"We are not saving them. We are saving their families and their children."

"Not interested. I want to continue to investigate my insurance case."

“Hey!” Chen Shi called Lin Dongxue, who was about to leave. “Do you know what day is it today?”

"The 23rd. What about it?"

"Come out for dinner at night."

Lin Dongxue snorted. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"I guess." Chen Shi shrugged his shoulders.

"What about the little girl in your family?"

"First of all, I am not her dad. Secondly, she can take care of herself... Furthermore, I can just go back early."

"I’ll think about it. There may be a lot of work tonight since a certain kind-hearted citizen took on a job for us.”

The next day, everyone sat together to sign up for various dating apps and compared them using their mobile phones. "Do you think this photo looks like her?", "Hey, everything is the same. Everyone looks like clones of each other."

Xu Xiaodong suddenly stood up. "Everyone, I found her!"

Everyone took a look at his phone and just like Chen Shi’s prediction, that woman was still using the same photos. Everyone praised Xu Xiaodong and said that stupid people have stupidly good luck.

"What's next?" Xu Xiaodong queried with a blank face.

"Have a chat!"

"I’ve never done this before... Lao Zhang, why don’t you do it?"

"I have no experience either."

Everyone looked at Chen Shi. Chen Shi was reading the newspaper. "Why are you all looking at me?"

Xu Xiaodong said with a smile on his face, "Brother Chen is so charismatic. Surely you must have lots of experience?”

"Are you taunting me?"

"No. But can you help us?"

Chen Shi sighed and took the mobile phone. This was an app called "Pretending to be a Couple". The woman was online now. Chen Shi thought for a while and took a selfie with the phone. He looked at it and remarked, “I’m really not photogenic. Xiaodong, I’m going to take a photo of you.”

Xu Xiaodong immediately fixed his collar and smiled. Chen Shi pointed the phone at him before saying, “No, no. It’s not attractive enough. Go to my car, put on some sunglasses and hold the steering wheel.”

After some messing around, they finally had a profile picture. Under the gaze of the onlookers, Chen Shi sent, “Hey beautiful."

After waiting for a long time, the other party returned an emoji. Everyone was very excited, and Xu Xiaodong urged, "Brother Chen, continue to ask her out."

"How can you be so direct? Don’t you know how to chat?"

Chen Shi thought about what he should say next. Although he was usually talkative, he couldn’t find the right words over cold chats like this. Finally, he flipped through Xu Xiaodong’s photo album and found a photo of a cat to send to the other party.

Then, he typed, "I just spent 10,000 yuan to buy this Persian cat. Isn’t it beautiful?”

"Liar. Uncle, have you seen Persian cats before?"

"Uncle? Do I look that old? How old are you this year?"

"19."

At this time, the other party sent a video request...

---

1. The author actually wrote “Kawaii”. This means ‘cute’ in Japanese nowadays. For more background on the word, visit https://yumetwins.com/news/what-is-kawaii 

Previous Chapter Next Chapter