19: The referee leaves the field; the game is over!

Time seemed to freeze at this very moment.

The fury on Zhao Dahai's face solidified.

Supporting Chen Mo's arm, Su Qingxue no longer felt a weak trembling, but a coldness like steel.

All the police officers watching the commotion at the door had expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

"Pfft—"

A piercing sneer sliced through the dead silence.

Gao Fan, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, clutched his stomach and laughed until he was bent double, tears nearly streaming down his face.

"Hahahaha! Referee? Selection trials?"

He pointed at Chen Mo's nose, laughing breathlessly.

"Chen Mo! Have you gone stupid from reading case files? Do you really think you're some master detective?"

"And command authority? Are you worthy? You can't even hold a gun steady, who are you going to command? Command them on how to carry you into an ambulance when you faint?"

The officers behind him also burst into raucous laughter, their gazes filled with contempt and pity, stabbing at Chen Mo like countless needles.

"Enough!"

Zhao Dahai let out a thunderous roar, like a sudden crack of lightning on dry land.

He spun around abruptly, his tiger-like eyes glaring fixedly at Gao Fan with a look that seemed ready to skin him alive.

"Gao Fan, I'll say it one last time—take your dogs and get the hell out of my territory!"

"Captain Zhao, don't get so angry."

Gao Fan's laughter subsided slightly, but the mockery on his face only grew more intense.

"I'm doing this to help you, and to save face for our entire Jiangcheng police force."

"If you let him keep fooling around, a second and third corpse will appear in Jiangcheng tomorrow! When that time comes, can you bear the responsibility?!"

His words accurately struck Zhao Dahai's soft spot.

Zhao Dahai's expression instantly became incredibly grim.

He could disregard his own future, but he could not disregard the lives of innocent citizens.

He turned back to look at Chen Mo, a trace of hesitation appearing in his eyes for the first time.

"Captain Zhao."

Chen Mo spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, yet it possessed an unquestionable penetrating power.

Ignoring Gao Fan, he simply looked at Zhao Dahai and said word by word:

"He won't kill again."

"What?" Zhao Dahai was stunned.

"Because his 'work' is already complete. Right now, he's hiding in some corner, like an elementary student waiting for a teacher to grade his homework, waiting for my response with nervous excitement."

Chen Mo's gaze slowly swept across Gao Fan's stunned face.

"What he wants isn't slaughter, but recognition."

"Recognition from the 'Emperor,' and recognition from me, the 'Referee.'"

"And I am going to take his homework and tear it to pieces right in front of him."

This speech lacked evidence and logic.

It was entirely based on ethereal psychological profiling.

Yet everyone present felt a chill surge from their spine to the top of their skull.

It was as if they weren't watching a police officer analyze a case.

But rather a... devil, dissecting the soul of another devil.

Gao Fan's lips moved, but he found he couldn't utter a single word.

He was intimidated by the sudden explosion of Chen Mo's all-disdainful aura.

Zhao Dahai looked into Chen Mo's eyes.

There wasn't a single shred of wavering within them.

He abruptly gritted his teeth and made a decision.

"Fine!"

He grabbed the walkie-talkie on the desk and pressed the call button.

"SWAT Team One on standby downstairs, hear my command! All personnel, assemble at the Cold Case Investigation Team office!"

"From this moment on, your command authority is transferred to Team Leader Chen Mo!"

"No one is to disobey!"

...

Five minutes later.

Municipal Bureau, Technical Investigation Section, Monitoring Center.

On the massive electronic screen wall, split into hundreds of small frames, all the surveillance footage around the Second Art High School was displayed.

Chen Mo sat at the main control console, with Su Qingxue and Old Liu standing behind him.

Zhao Dahai, leading a team of fully armed SWAT Officers, stood guard outside the door.

The atmosphere of the entire floor was solemn and murderous.

Gao Fan and his subordinate officers were also blocked at the door, arms crossed, watching the inside with cold sneers.

"I'd like to see what kind of magic he can pull off," Gao Fan whispered to the subordinates beside him.

"Twenty-four hours of surveillance, hundreds of cameras—even if we called in our entire Major Crimes Unit, we couldn't finish watching it in three days and nights."

"He wants to find someone alone in one hour? Dreaming!"

Inside the monitoring room.

Chen Mo did not carefully screen frame by frame as they imagined.

He directly ordered: "Play all surveillance at eight times speed!"

The images on the screen instantly turned into rapidly flashing streaks of light.

Gao Fan sneered at the door.

"Just putting on a show."

Chen Mo ignored him.

His eyes were like two high-precision scanners, locked onto the screen wall.

He wasn't looking for a face, nor was he looking for a suspicious figure.

What he was looking for was a... rhythm.

A physical rhythm that was completely consistent with the tuneless humming he had 'heard' in Thought Synchronization earlier.

Time passed, minute by minute.

The time on the screen jumped from the early morning to dawn, and then to noon.

Countless figures flashed across the screen—students, teachers, delivery drivers, passersby...

The sneer on Gao Fan's face had already turned into impatience.

Even Zhao Dahai was starting to lose his composure.

Just then.

"Stop!"

Chen Mo's voice suddenly rang out.

All the images instantly froze.

He reached out and pointed at an inconspicuous frame in the bottom left corner of the screen wall.

It was a surveillance camera in the back alley of the school; the angle was awkward and the image was dim.

"Zoom in."

The image was instantly enlarged, occupying the entire main screen.

In the frame.

A man wearing a sanitation worker's uniform, a mask, and a hat was pushing a trash cart through the alley.

He didn't look unusual in any way.

He was the most ordinary type of person in this city, the kind most easily overlooked.

"What's the problem with this?" Gao Fan frowned.

"Rewind, slow motion." Chen Mo didn't answer, continuing his orders.

The footage began to slowly rewind and play at 0.5 times speed.

Everyone held their breath, staring fixedly at the screen.

Then, they saw it.

As the sanitation worker pushed the cart, his head would gently sway from side to side at an extremely subtle, fixed frequency.

His shoulders would also slightly shrug along with that rhythm.

It wasn't the natural movement of walking.

It was more like...

A person immersed in their own world, keeping time to music in their head.

"It's him."

Chen Mo's voice was like a judge's gavel coming down.

"In criminal psychology, there is a theory called 'Behavioral Labeling.' Everyone, when in a state of extreme excitement or relaxation, will have some unconscious, repetitive micro-movements."

"After killing, this man thought he was flawless and is currently in his most relaxed and enjoyable state."

"He thought he disguised himself well."

"But he didn't know that this song of death he's humming has completely betrayed him through his body."

The entire monitoring room was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

Gao Fan's mouth slowly drifted open, the color draining from his face instantly.

The criminal investigation techniques he prided himself on were as fragile as a joke before Chen Mo's uncanny insight!

"Investigate!"

Zhao Dahai's voice was trembling.

"Immediately check the sanitation worker responsible for this street during this time period! Now!"

"No need."

Chen Mo shook his head.

"He's not a sanitation worker."

He pointed at the trash cart the man was pushing on the screen.

"The trash bags on the cart are medical waste bags exclusive to the Jiangcheng University laboratories."

"And the hat he's wearing has a faint emblem that's almost been worn away."

Chen Mo's gaze pierced through the screen, as if seeing into the depths of that man's soul.

"That is the club emblem of the Jiangcheng University Criminal Psychology Research Society."

"He is a... peer of mine."

"A poor wretch who yearned to prove himself but strayed onto an evil path."

Su Qingxue immediately entered the keywords "Jiangcheng University" and "Criminal Psychology" into the police system.

A photo instantly popped up.

The man in the photo was twenty-five or twenty-six, wearing glasses, looking refined and scholarly.

His personal resume read:

[Lin Feng, Master of Criminal Psychology from Jiangcheng University. Expelled by his supervisor and failed to graduate due to his graduation thesis views being too extreme, advocating the 'perfect crime' theory.]

Found him!

A terrifying glint erupted in Zhao Dahai's eyes.

He turned abruptly to look at the now deathly-pale Gao Fan at the door.

His eyes were filled with endless mockery.

Then he looked at Chen Mo, and that gaze had turned into complete... fervor and conviction!

He grabbed the walkie-talkie, his voice as loud as a bell.

"SWAT Team One! Hear my command!"

"Target: Lin Feng. Address: West City, Sunshine Community, Building A, Room 701!"

"Move out!"

After speaking, he looked at Chen Mo and asked in a consulting tone: "Team Leader Chen, any further instructions?"

Chen Mo slowly stood up.

He didn't look at the petrified officers, nor did he look at the tottering Gao Fan.

He simply adjusted his collar, his movements as composed as if he were attending a dinner party.

He walked to the door and brushed past Gao Fan.

In a voice only the two of them could hear, he said softly:

"The game... should end now."

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