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Zhao Liangze entered the numbers in the SMS into his computer program, hoping the program would tell him what they meant .
Unfortunately, he came up empty-handed .
"Let's get Huo Shao and Brother Xiong to join us in a meeting . " Gu Nianzhi could hardly contain her excitement . "This is a major discovery, I'm sure of it . "
Zhao Liangze agreed . Together with Gu Nianzhi, he brought the printed records to Huo Shaoheng's office, and asked Yin Shixiong to join them .
Yin Shixiong was the last to enter the room . He closed the door behind him .
"What's wrong?" Huo Shaoheng had been sitting in his desk chair, talking to someone over his headset with his back towards the door . He swiveled around when he heard the door open . His expression was calm; he exuded the leisurely aura of a king who knew he was in complete control of the situation .
Gu Nianzhi suddenly felt that many of her difficulties seemed absurdly trivial before him .
"Huo Shao, we found Huo Guanyuan's private phone, and also this…" Zhao Liangze handed the printed record for the phone's local storage to Huo Shaoheng .
Gu Nianzhi had highlighted the set of numbers from the SMS .
The numbers had been repeatedly sent to Huo Guanyuan's phone over several consecutive days, six years after his death .
"228 . 45892311956, 52 . 339066749 .
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378 . 89020942583, 27 . 358020866 .
657 . 35966837696, 66 . 335066969 .
980 . 34969677770, 49 . 230556660 . "
A flicker of surprise shot across Huo Shaoheng's face when he saw the numbers .
Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong did not notice it, but Gu Nianzhi saw it, and was just as stunned by it .
Huo Shaoheng read the numbers carefully, several times . "Where did you get this set of numbers?"
Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze exchanged a glance . "These are text messages we downloaded directly from the local storage on Huo Guanyuan's phone . The messages were received six years after his death . Strangely enough, the telco has no record of these messages . "
Zhao Liangze handed the records from the telecommunications company to Huo Shaoheng .
Huo Shaoheng's expression grew increasingly grave as he compared the two records .
After a long moment, he finally gave a small nod . "I see . It seems that Bai Jinyi had something to do with my aunt's death, after all . "
"What do you mean, sir?"
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"Why do you say that?"
Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong did not understand what Huo Shaoheng was saying .
Gu Nianzhi, on the other hand, was not entirely clueless, thanks to the tireless research she had done over the years to learn everything there was to know about Huo Shaoheng's character . She knew him like the back of her hand…
"Huo Shao, you know what those numbers mean, don't you?" Gu Nianzhi asked without beating around the bush .
Huo Shaoheng put down the printed records . His gaze lingered on Gu Nianzhi's face for a few seconds, before moving on to Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong . "…This isn't the first time I've seen these numbers . "
"You've seen them before?!" Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong shouted in unison, unable to contain their excitement . "When? Where?!"
Huo Shaoheng turned on his computer and opened a program . He entered the numbers into it as he said calmly, "This set of data are magnetic field coordinates . They represent a specific location . "
The program crunched the numbers and converted them into another set of data, one that was a lot more familiar to everyone in the room . Yin Shixiong and Zhao Liangze were able to tell what it was with a single glance .
"This is… the latitude and longitude of some place in C City?!"
Huo Shaoheng nodded slowly . He glanced sideways at Gu Nianzhi .
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He did not know if he should say it . Huo Shaoheng, who never hesitated when it came to action or words, wavered now as he tried to make up his mind . He quickly threw his concerns away and said calmly: "That's where the abnormal magnetic field appeared in C City six years ago . "
His gaze fell upon Gu Nianzhi's face . "And that was where I rescued Nianzhi . "
Gu Nianzhi had not expected the case she had taken on to be connected to her in such an obscure and indirect manner .
She was silent for a moment . After a while, she finally asked: "…But that was six years ago, four years after Luo Xinxue's death . How do you explain the gap of four years?"
Luo Xinxue had been murdered 10 years ago .
Six years ago—four years after her death—an abnormal magnetic field appeared in C City .
"The order of events should go like this…" Huo Shaoheng entered a few dates into a file on his computer . "16 years ago, something went wrong with the joint experiment between the Institute of High Energy Physics and the military . Almost everyone involved in the experiment died, including Song Haichuan, the experiment's chief engineer, and also my grandfather . My uncle Huo Guanyuan, a senior colonel in the military, was also killed . My mother survived the accident because she was pushed out of the building, but suffered from psychological issues and a memory disorder after that . "
Gu Nianzhi added: "That's right . And then, 10 years ago, Luo Xinxue supposedly found out that her late husband had been in love with someone else, and killed herself because she couldn't take it . A few days before she committed suicide, a set of numbers were repeatedly sent to Huo Guanyuan's private phone through SMS . The telco has no record of these messages . "
"Six years ago, Bai Jinyi submitted a report to the military, stating that she had detected unusual changes in the magnetic field in a certain place in C City . She said she would go there to collect data, and to replicate the experiment, but the experiment failed before it had even begun . The car Nianzhi was in crashed into the area and exploded, destroying the magnetic field . " Huo Shaoheng's brow furrowed even as he methodically explained what had happened and typed out the timeline on his computer .
Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong both stared at the timeline Huo Shaoheng had typed out . They, too, had connected the dots .
"…How did Bai Jinyi know about the abnormal magnetic field in that specific location in C City?"
Zhao Liangze once tried to write a program that would monitor the magnetic fields on the planet in real time . But there was just too much data to crunch; the program worked in theory, but there was no computer with a CPU powerful enough to process the massive amounts of data the program generated . He gave up after that .
"I used to think that Bai Jinyi actually knew her stuff . " Huo Shaoheng laughed . "Well, now I know better . She was tipped off . "
"Tipped off? You mean Huo Guanyuan's private phone?" Gu Nianzhi's eyes lit up, but dimmed just as quickly as she thought it over . "But how was Bai Jinyi able to figure out what the numbers meant?"
"These numbers should look familiar to her," Huo Shaoheng explained . "I used to see similar numbers on my mother's computer . They use these as coordinate data . "
"Okay . " Yin Shixiong nodded . "That should be enough to prove that the phone is most probably in Bai Jinyi's possession right now . "
"This evidence we found was obtained illegally, through unofficial channels . We can't submit it to the court as evidence," Gu Nianzhi said awkwardly . "Is there any way to get the phone from Bai Jinyi's house?"
"We'll need a search warrant . " Zhao Liangze looked at Huo Shaoheng . "I can still locate the phone if we act now . "
"We shouldn't waste any time, then . Locate the phone, now, while I submit a request for a search warrant . " Gu Nianzhi looked at Huo Shaoheng, and was relieved when she saw that he did not object .
Zhao Liangze ran his program again . This time, he quickly found Huo Guanyuan's personal phone, and immediately began locating it through the tracking system .
Huo Guanyuan's personal phone was an old model from 20 years ago . It was not as sensitive to satellite positioning as the newer models; nevertheless, Zhao Liangze managed to pin down its location after three grueling hours refining his search method with his optimized tracking program and the help of the Nandou satellite system .
"…These coordinates point to Bai Jinyi's director's office in the Institute of High Energy Physics," said Gu Nianzhi as she double-checked with a map . "I'll submit a request for a search warrant, right away . "
The application for the search warrant was submitted to the court that very night, and approved at noon the next day .
Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze sat in the same car as they followed the police to the director's office in the Institute of High Energy Physics . They intended to watch the police search the office with their own eyes, to make sure they missed nothing .