Chapter 14 – Shadows Behind Glass
City A buzzed under neon and mist as Bai Xueqing stood at the corner of her private surveillance room, a glass of wine in her hand and fire in her eyes. The still frame of Qiao Lan photographing the falsified documents flashed on the central screen.
Mo Chen leaned against the console, arms folded, eyes locked on the footage. "We've confirmed it. Her phone pinged a secure external server. But the strange part? It bounced the data through six countries before reaching its destination."
Xueqing raised a brow. "Which means she's either stupidly sophisticated or someone else is pulling the strings."
"Definitely the latter." Mo Chen brought up another screen. "We traced the encryption key. It's identical to the one used in that missing Bai Corp shipment two months ago."
Xueqing's jaw clenched. That shipment had never been found—sensitive AI chips, gone without a trace.
"And the man who organized that?" she asked.
Mo Chen tapped the screen, pulling up a blurry surveillance photo. A tall man in a coat and gloves, his face hidden. "This guy. We're calling him 'Ghosthand' for now. Same encryption. Same pattern. And now, same pawn."
Xueqing took a sip of wine. "Time to lure the real rat out."
---
They staged a press leak.
An anonymous post hinted that Bai Corp had discovered the identity of a mole and was preparing to prosecute—along with revealing evidence tying the leak to an unnamed international tech syndicate.
It didn't take long to draw attention.
The next night, a silent alert pinged Xueqing's phone.
Someone tried breaking into the Bai Corp mainframe through a backdoor used only by two people: Meng Zhihao... and Qiao Lan.
But Meng was seated across from her, mouth full of skewers and hotpot soup.
"It's not me," he said between slurps.
Mo Chen smirked. "That leaves one."
They set the trap at 3 a.m.
---
In the dark of the executive floor, Qiao Lan crept along the corridor. The cameras had been rerouted to play looped footage. She thought she was invisible.
But hidden sensors tracked her every move.
Mo Chen and Xueqing watched from the shadows as Qiao Lan used a card to enter the tech archive room.
"She's not acting alone," Mo Chen whispered. "She's wearing an earpiece."
Sure enough, Qiao Lan paused to whisper something, then moved to the server cabinet.
A click. A pulse. And the moment she inserted the USB—
Boom.
Not an explosion, but a blinding flash of light and a curtain of foam that poured down from the ceiling.
She screamed.
Lights flicked on. Xueqing stepped forward, arms crossed. "Hello again."
---
In the interrogation room, Qiao Lan sat soaked and shivering.
"I told you," she gasped. "I don't know who he is!"
Xueqing circled her slowly. "Then tell me everything you do know. Voice, accent, habits. What kind of threats did he make?"
Qiao sniffled. "He always wore gloves. Used a voice distorter. But... he seemed to know a lot about Bai Corp. About you."
Mo Chen stepped into the light. "Did he ever call you by a different name?"
"Yes," she whispered. "He once called me 'Qingying.' But I don't know why."
Xueqing's eyes sharpened. That name hadn't been used in years. Not since her previous life.
"Mo Chen," she said slowly, "run that name against military archives and underground identities."
He nodded. "Already on it."
Qiao Lan trembled. "Am I going to jail?"
"Depends," Xueqing said. "If your mystery man was smart, he left no trace. If he made a mistake..." Her lips curled. "I'll find him."