8AM!
Yunnan!
In a high-end villa district. A man and a woman stopped before a villa.
The woman seemed to be around 30 years old. She wore a suit and her hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her appearance looked very professional.
The man seemed to be in his early twenties. He was wearing sportswear and chewing on gum.
The woman took out her phone and took a glance at it before saying, "This is it. Mouse, ring the bell."
"Got it big sis," The man smiled and then walked up to ring the doorbell.
Four or five minutes later, after that man rang the doorbell seven or eight times, the door to the villa finally opened.
A drowsy-eyed man in pajamas opened the door halfway and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
The woman stepped forward and showed her credentials to the man, "You must be Wang Xiaofeng. We're from the Ministry of State Security."
What?
Ministry of State Security?
Hearing that name, Wang Xiaofeng immediately grew much more awake.
He stared at the two people with blank expressions before asking, "Ah. O-officers, do you need anything from me?"
"Can we talk inside?" asked the woman with a smile.
"Of course," Wang Xiaofeng immediately opened his door wide, "Please come in."
...
"Officers, pl-please enjoy some tea."
Inside the villa's living room. Wang Xiaofeng placed two cups of tea before the man and woman in a slightly nervous manner.
The woman nodded her head. She looked around before saying, "It would appear that being a hacker is quite a money-making career. Citizen Wang Xiaofeng, this villa of yours must be at least tens of millions."
"Hehe," Wang Xiaofeng chuckled nervously, "You can say that."
Seeing how nervous Wang Xiaofeng was, the woman smiled, "You don't have to be so nervous. You should be able to guess why we came here."
"Yes. It must be because of that Granddaddy 50M, right?" probed Wang Xiaofeng.
"Correct," said the woman, "The information you've provided last night was extremely helpful to us. We've come here today purely so that we can gain a clearer understanding with a face-to-face conversation. Were you the one that tracked him down?"
"No, it's not me," Wang Xiaofeng shook his head, "It's a skilled hacker that had recently emerged in our Hacker's Forum."
"Is it the guy who posted a program capable of searching hotel registries several days ago?" Sitting with his legs crossed, the man in his early 20s was still chewing on his gum as he interrupted.
Wang Xiaofeng was immediately startled by his comment.
Seeing Wang Xiaofeng's reaction, the man smiled, "I possess an account on the forum. That program is quite amazing. He should be the one, right?"
"This…" Wang Xiaofeng spoke evasively, "Officers, the truth is not as you two might've imagined. That friend of mine, he didn't leave that software on the forum for so long on purpose. He was having a wager with me. I wanted to pit myself against him, that's why I told him not to delete his post. Later on, I realized keeping that post up was not very lawful. I immediately told him to delete the post then. We were truly not intending to keep it up for so long."
"You don't have to be so scared," said the woman, "We're not concerned with that matter at all. So, in other words, he, not you, was the one who tracked down that 'Come Catch Granddaddy,' correct?"
"Right, that's correct," Wang Xiaofeng nodded his head repeatedly, "I don't possess the skills to track down Granddaddy 50M. He's more capable than me. He was the one who tracked down Granddaddy 50M."
"In that case, do you know about that hacker's real identity?" asked the woman.
"Regarding that, I really have no idea," Wang Xiaofeng shook his head, "All I know is that he goes by the alias of Shadow. I don't even know if his gender is actually male or not."
"Shadow?" The woman frowned, "Wasn't his name ''A Handsome Guy Who's Unwilling To Reveal His Identity?'"
"Perhaps he thinks that name's too long," said Wang Xiaofeng. "While he still uses that account, he addressed himself as 'Shadow' in our chats."
So that's the case!
The woman pondered for a moment before asking, "In that case, are you able to get in contact with him now? The information he provided yesterday ended up being very helpful. We came here mainly to reward him. But, we don't even know how to get in contact with him."
"Oh, it'll do if you all send the payment to me," said Wang Xiaofeng, "He told me yesterday to accept the payment on his behalf and pass it on to him later. He said he doesn't want to have dealings with you all."
This…
The woman smiled, "Citizen Wang Xiaofeng, this is no small amount of money we're talking about here. 55 million. I think it's better that we hand it to him personally. If something is to happen to the money, you wouldn't be able to explain things properly. Isn't that so?"
"Eh…" Wang Xiaofeng found himself in an awkward position, "Then, that's fine. I'll go check if he's still online right now. My computer's upstairs. If it's fine with you all, you can wait a moment."
"Oh, there's no need. We're not tired," The woman smiled and stood up, "We'll follow you over."
"Eh. Okay."
Soon, after the three of them arrived at the upstairs computer room, Wang Xiaofeng turned on his computer, logged into the Hacker's Forum and sent a message to Chu Tian.
"Shadow bro, are you on? Respond quickly."
After sending over the message, Wang Xiaofeng said, "It's showing that he's offline. He might still be sleeping."
Seeing that there was a private chat between them, the woman gave a signal to the man.
The man grasped that signal, "Citizen Wang Xiaofeng, that quite some advanced computers you got there. I just so happened to have to send an email. Can I borrow them to send out my email?"
"Of course," Wang XIaofeng immediately got up from his chair.