Chapter 5: The Twenty-Third Person

Fu Jingze couldn’t accept that explanation.

He went back to the old archive and pulled every document connected to Fu Tingchuan.

After hours of cross-checking, he found something odd.

Fu Tingchuan had made a private copy of File 23.

That copy wasn’t stored in the city system.

It was kept in an iron box at the family’s old house.

Fu Jingze went home with Ning Chulan.

Behind the wall at the back of the bookshelf, they found the box.

There were no case documents inside.

Only a letter.

It had been written before Fu Tingchuan left Shanghai.

“Son, if you are reading this letter, it means File 23 has been reopened.”

Fu Jingze read every line in silence.

“Don’t trust the number 23. The twenty-three people on that list are only the ones who touched the system.”

“The most important person isn’t among those twenty-three names.”

“The true twenty-third person is the one all of us trusted most.”

Fu Jingze stopped.

Ning Chulan looked at him.

They both realized the last sentence was missing something.

At the end of the letter was a block of encrypted data.

It took Ning Chulan nearly an hour to decode it.

A name appeared on the screen.

Ning Chulan.

She stood perfectly still.

Fu Jingze said nothing.

Ning Chulan looked at him and slowly explained that eight years ago, she had worked at the data center.

She had discovered the secret system, and then every record connected to her discovery had been wiped.

Fu Tingchuan had never seen her as the one behind it.

He had marked her as the last person who could help the case be reopened.

In other words, her name wasn’t in the file because she controlled the system.

She was the person Fu Tingchuan had been secretly protecting.

At last, Fu Jingze understood the whole picture.

Mu Jingshen had altered the data at Fu Tingchuan’s request to protect Ning Chulan.

Ji Chengyuan had kept the USB drive, waiting for the right moment.

Ye Siyan had chased the file for eight years.

Song Huaizhou had helped build the system, but he wasn’t at the top.

And the person who truly controlled the whole network had yet to appear.

At that moment, Fu Jingze’s phone received a message.

No number.

Just an image file.

It showed Room 23.

But this time, a new number had appeared on the wall.

24.

Beneath it, a line of text.

“File 23 is closed. But the one who opens File 24 is you.”

Fu Jingze looked at Ning Chulan.

She said nothing.

Outside the window, the first light of a Shanghai morning was beginning to break.

It seemed as if every secret had been solved, but Fu Jingze knew he had only touched the outermost layer of the truth.

Somewhere else in the city, a man opened an old computer.

On the screen was a folder named FILE 24.

Inside was a list of everyone who had been involved in the case.

The first name was marked in red.

Fu Jingze.

The second made the screen pause for a few seconds.

Ning Chulan.

The man closed the laptop and looked out the window.

“So you’ve finally found it.”

The words echoed in the empty room.

At the same time, in the investigation office, Fu Jingze received a call from an unknown source.

The voice on the other end said only one sentence.

“If you want to know what your father really left behind, come to the harbor at 2:17.”

The call ended.

Fu Jingze looked at the clock.

The minute hand had just moved to seventeen.

He stood and grabbed his coat.

Ning Chulan followed him.

No one knew what was waiting at the harbor.

But both of them understood that File 23 had never been the end.

It was only the first door to a far bigger secret.

— END OF PART 1 —