SFTD -Chapter 284 The Exploding App

The next day, Zhou Hai did not wake up until ten o’clock.

The mental strain from yesterday had exhausted him so thoroughly that he felt completely drained. Still, he had slept fairly soundly through the night.

After getting up, he realized that Xu Biao had long since disappeared. His bed had already been neatly made.

Zhou Hai found this somewhat strange. No one knew better than he did just how lazy and gluttonous Xu Biao was. Normally, if nobody woke him up, he could sleep for an entire day and night unless hunger finally dragged him out of bed.

After washing up, Zhou Hai picked up his phone and checked WeChat. Xu Biao had left him a message at 6:30 that morning, saying he had gone to the scene with Zhang Chao and Huang Zhongsheng.

Zhou Hai shook his head and headed downstairs with his phone in hand. Only then did he discover that he was the only one left in the hotel—everyone else had already gone out.

As soon as he entered the dining area, a woman who looked like a floor supervisor approached him.

“Doctor Zhou, we saved breakfast for you. Please come this way.”

The awkwardness on Zhou Hai’s face eased slightly. After all, he had gotten up embarrassingly late. If he waited any longer, it would practically be lunchtime.

He had not expected someone to actually save breakfast for him.

At a window-side table, dishes soon arrived one after another: shrimp dumplings, soup buns, black rice porridge, and several stir-fried side dishes.

The spread was unexpectedly lavish, making Zhou Hai feel a little embarrassed.

“This is a bit too much…”

The waitress gave him a polite nod.

“Doctor Zhou, please enjoy. Captain Xu personally instructed us to prepare this.”

She then placed a glass of milk and a cup of freshly squeezed juice before him and quietly left.

Looking at the luxurious breakfast, Zhou Hai’s appetite instantly awakened. He took a sip of milk, pulled the black rice porridge closer, and ate shrimp dumplings along with it.

The combination was perfect.

With good food before him, yesterday’s exhaustion vanished completely. He even felt a rare sense of leisurely peace, as though he had stolen half a day away from the chaos of life.

Just after finishing breakfast, his phone vibrated twice.

Wiping his mouth, Zhou Hai picked up the phone. There were no missed calls, no WeChat messages. For a moment, he had no idea what notification had made the sound.

Just as he was about to put the phone down, it vibrated twice again.

A notification banner popped up.

It was from the investigation task force app.

Only then did Zhou Hai remember that he had muted the app and turned on Do Not Disturb mode. Could someone have @-mentioned him?

Thinking of this, he quickly opened it.

The moment he entered the interface, messages began scrolling nonstop. Apparently, an enormous backlog of chat history had piled up.

Zhou Hai ignored the earlier messages. Since the recent vibrations were probably from an @ mention, he scrolled directly to the bottom.

Sure enough.

The person who had @-mentioned him was none other than Hu Nan.

But all Hu Nan had sent were two blank “@Fa Hai” mentions without any actual content.

Zhou Hai frowned slightly.

What was Hu Nan doing?

After a moment’s thought, he guessed that Hu Nan probably did not want to disturb his work with a phone call, so he had simply pinged him in the app instead.

Zhou Hai quickly replied with a yellow smiling emoji carrying a question mark.

Instantly, several people popped up.

Yantai Lan: As expected, only Forensic Hu’s @ works. We couldn’t drag Forensic Zhou out no matter how hard we tried!

Weihai Qi: (⊙▽⊙) Oh my god, it’s the real “Fa Hai” himself! What an honor! I’m your biggest fan!

Zaozhuang Zhu: Hahaha, a live appearance by Fa Hai??? I want to file a complaint. How did you three cities manage to turn one case into something that made us in Zaozhuang this busy? I haven’t slept for three days and two nights! Where’s the justice? Where’s humanity?

Yantai Lan: Get lost. If you can still jump around after three days without sleep, it means you’re not dead yet! Don’t complain to my idol!

Weifang Liu: o((≧▽≦o) Waaah! Is Forensic Zhou here to share case-solving experience? Everyone sit down neatly!

…

More than a dozen messages flooded in at once, leaving Zhou Hai somewhat bewildered.

Why were there suddenly so many people here?

Wasn’t this app originally just a small group?

More importantly, the troublemaker who started it all had completely disappeared.

After thinking about it, Zhou Hai felt it would be awkward not to say something, so he hurriedly greeted everyone.

What Zaozhuang Zhu said was true. It was indeed the three of them who had blown the organ trafficking case wide open.

After all, the missing persons were all linked there.

Fa Hai: Hello, everyone. I won’t @ each of you individually. I honestly didn’t expect this case to become so massive or involve so many places. Sorry for causing everyone so much trouble.

Yantai Lan: Hahaha! Forensic Zhou, ignore Old Zhu. He’s just a grumbling old man. Deep down he’s thrilled. Getting to work with Forensic Hu even once is such a rare opportunity! He should be thanking you all instead.

A trace of concern rose in Zhou Hai’s heart.

Although everyone belonged to the same system, discussing the case like this—could it lead to leaks of confidential evidence?

Fa Hai: This case involves far too many people. We should still control the spread of information. Otherwise, it may affect the progress of the investigation. After all, the headquarters behind it still hasn’t been completely uncovered, and the case isn’t over yet.

Yantai Lan: (⊙▽⊙) Wait… you seriously don’t know???

Zaozhuang Zhu: +1

Weihai Qi: +10086

Yantai Lan: Dear god, how many days has it been since you logged into this app?

A black line appeared across Zhou Hai’s forehead.

Know what?

Had they already talked about it earlier?

Or had there been some major breakthrough?

Fa Hai: I really don’t know.

Provincial Department Hu: Enough. Stop bombarding Forensic Zhou with nonsense. I’ll explain everything to him later. He’s been down in the county cities these past few days reviewing old accumulated cases. And what are all of you doing? Arguing? Cracking jokes? Spamming the group? If your workday is eight hours and you spend seven of them chatting online, I’ll report every one of you. We might as well delete this app entirely.

Yantai Lan: Uh… Leader, I suddenly remembered I have work to do. Bye!

Zaozhuang Zhu: Forensic Hu, I’ll send you the remaining files later. Logging off!

Weihai Qi: Bye-bye!

…

In an instant, the group chat that had been exploding with messages fell completely silent.

Hu Nan truly was a master at killing conversations.

Fa Hai: @Provincial Department Hu What exactly is going on?

The moment he sent the message, Zhou Hai’s phone rang.

The caller was none other than Hu Nan himself.

Clearly, he intended to explain the progress of the case personally.

Zhou Hai frowned slightly.

He disliked this sort of “act first, report later” approach.

But after another thought, he suppressed his irritation.

After all, Hu Nan was from the provincial department.

Better endure it.

“Hello, Zhou Hai speaking.”

“Finished with the case on your side?”

Zhou Hai’s voice carried a trace of restraint.

“Yeah, it’s temporarily wrapped up. How’s the organ trafficking case progressing?”

Hu Nan cleared her throat before speaking.

“The operation was carried out secretly on June 23rd. Four locations were raided simultaneously. We completely took down the Nanyang organization’s headquarters, along with three organ-harvesting sites in Jiangsu, Hebei, and Guangdong.

The case turned out to be even bigger than either of us imagined.

The Ministry of Public Security has already dispatched a special task force. Our people are working together with them locally to handle the aftermath.

There’s still the investigation into missing persons, as well as follow-up medical examinations for some transplant recipients.

So I can’t leave yet.

But I’ll send you the case materials and investigation details separately later.

You’ve probably been too busy these past few days to notice the provincial department’s announcement. The case details were only officially released last night.

That’s why everyone’s discussing it today.”

The slight dissatisfaction Zhou Hai had felt earlier vanished completely.

As long as the case was solved, that was what mattered.

The case was simply too enormous and far-reaching.

For them to achieve this much in such a short time, Hu Nan must have put in tremendous effort.

“You’re in Guangzhou?”

Hearing the coldness disappear from Zhou Hai’s tone, Hu Nan slowed her speech slightly.

“Of course. I promised you I’d personally follow this case through, so naturally I came myself.”

Zhou Hai lowered his voice slightly.

He did not want to confront the truth, yet he could not stop himself from asking:

“Have the final statistics come out? How many victims like Wang Qiang were there?”

Hu Nan sighed.

“The numbers are out. Those three regions started operating earlier than Xuzhou did, and they mainly targeted homeless people, so the scale was even larger. As of now, we’ve identified 187 missing persons connected to the case.”

Zhou Hai froze.

“That many? Then the unregistered victims… there must be even more. Maybe several times that number?”

“Yeah. The real number is definitely over two hundred.

A lot of victims were never officially recorded in the first place.

Just thinking about it is horrifying.

Seventeen members of the Nanyang organization have already been arrested.

From the interrogation results, we may have uncovered even more crimes.

Apparently, they were also trafficking eggs and sperm to Europe. The entire industrial chain was already highly developed.

And some personnel from the local health authorities were involved as well.

Alright, I won’t keep rambling about the case. You can read the investigation report yourself later.

I already sent it to your email.

Once I return to the provincial department, I hope we’ll have another chance to work together.”

Zhou Hai was still immersed in the shock brought by the case.

He merely responded absentmindedly.

“Mm. Alright.”

Then he hung up.

Hu Nan stared at her phone in astonishment, completely dumbfounded.

Blinking several times, her dark-circled eyes suddenly widened.

“He actually hung up on me? Who gave you the courage to do that?”