The bus drove steadily along the mountain road, the scenery outside the window rapidly receding. The bus was filled with cheerful chatter and laughter, but it failed to make Wendy Lynch let her guard down. A living, breathing person couldn’t just vanish into thin air, and a case that left the police without a single clue couldn’t just disappear. There was definitely some crucial clue hidden within that she hadn’t grasped yet.
An hour later, the bus arrived at the South Gate of Galen Forest Park. Everyone filed off the bus and, led by the tour guide, marched grandly into the depths of Mount Galen. Wendy and Shirley Lowell walked in the middle of the group. Wendy’s gaze subconsciously searched through the crowd. Soon, she spotted Kyler Lowell and Jared Carter walking at the front. The two were still walking side by side, chatting as they went, looking no different than they had on the bus.
"Wendy, what are you looking at?" Shirley followed her gaze and leaned in to gossip. "Hey, isn’t that Kyler Lowell, the team leader of Algorithm Group Six, up ahead? I heard his technical skills are amazing, he’s a super nice guy, and he doesn’t have a girlfriend yet. Are you interested in him? If you are, how about I go over and get his contact info for you?"
Wendy retracted her gaze. "No, no, no, I have no plans to date anyone right now."
Shirley winked at her. "I’m warning you, Wendy, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As a P6 big shot, his annual salary plus bonuses can reach over 400,000. And if he gets promoted to P7 or laterally transferred to ByteDance, his annual salary could break a million. Besides..."
Seeing Shirley trying to play matchmaker, Wendy suddenly felt a bit awkward and quickly changed the subject. "Shirley, I really don’t have those kinds of thoughts. I was just looking at them because they’ve been chatting the whole way, and I wonder what they’re talking about."
Shirley chuckled. "What could two IT nerds possibly talk about? They’re either talking about tech or work."
Wendy nodded thoughtfully as the large group passed through Gryphonstone Forest and the vast bamboo sea. Finally, the deep blue lake water appeared before everyone’s eyes.
"Wow! So beautiful!"
"Is this Mirror Lake? It’s even prettier than in the photos!"
"Quick, quick, quick, take a picture of me!"
The colleagues let out gasps of amazement, taking out their phones one after another and rushing toward the lake. Colleagues from the administrative department, along with the tour guide, began setting up the barbecue area and resting tables and chairs on the flat clearing by the lake. The rest scattered in small groups of three or five—some taking photos, others simply strolling around. Wendy and Shirley also found a spot with an excellent angle and took quite a few photos.
"Wendy, can you take a look at this one for me?" Shirley held up her phone.
"It’s pretty good," Wendy answered absentmindedly.
Just as Wendy was about to offer a few more perfunctory words, she suddenly felt a strange sensation in her stomach. She immediately realized it was highly likely the delayed effect of the iced latte she had drank that morning. To wake herself up, she had completely forgotten to eat something first to line her stomach and had chugged an entire iced latte. Clearly, her stomach couldn’t handle it.
"Shirley, go ahead and keep taking photos. My stomach is feeling a little uncomfortable."
Wendy walked briskly to the public restroom by Mirror Lake. When she came to scout the location the day before yesterday, she had only glanced at it from afar and hadn’t gotten close. Getting closer today, she discovered that although the restroom was newly built, its hygiene was truly terrible. Just as she approached, a foul stench wafted over.
Enduring the almost suffocating stench, Wendy sprinted into the innermost stall of the public restroom. With a BANG, she locked the thin partition door. The churning, excruciating pain in her stomach left her no time to care about the unsightly graffiti on the surrounding walls or the unidentified stains on the floor.
The aftereffects of the iced latte were far more violent than she had imagined. After spending a full four or five minutes on the toilet, she finally felt the cramps in her stomach subside.
Just as she finished her business and was about to flush, faint sounds of an argument drifted over from next door, in the direction of the men’s restroom.
"Wait, why does this voice sound a bit familiar?" she thought.
Although separated by a wall, which distorted the voices slightly, Wendy quickly recognized the two people arguing next door. It was Jared Carter and Kyler Lowell!
"This isn’t right!" she thought. "They were whispering to each other the whole way here, and their relationship is clearly fine. Why would they suddenly be hiding in the restroom arguing?"
Wendy immediately held her breath, listening carefully to the argument on the other side.
"...I’m getting promoted to P7 at the end of the year, and I’ve already prepared my transfer application! We have to stop this! The risk is too high! If we get found out, I’m finished!" This was Kyler’s voice.
"P7?" Wendy’s pupils contracted slightly.
Right after, Jared’s hysterical voice rang out. "Stop? Kyler, you make it sound so easy! Don’t you know how much money this channel brings us every month? You can just wash your hands of it, get promoted, and live the high life. What about me? I’m still stuck rotting in this fucking P5 position! I already got an E rating last year for stealing the company’s traffic. If I get another E this year, the company will fire me!"
"Channel? Money? Fired?" Wendy’s eyes widened. Her brain worked at lightning speed, and a vague yet terrifying guess began to form in her mind.
Sure enough, Jared’s next words confirmed her suspicions. His voice was lowered, but it was full of resentment and threats.
"I’m telling you, if you quit now, how are we going to settle the previous accounts? Those data entries still leave traces. Do you think you can just stop just because you say so? I’m telling you, my rating at the end of this year must be an A! You can get promoted, but leave all the resources and channels to me!
"As long as you can get me promoted to P6, we’ll write off everything from before. No matter what happens in the future, I won’t cause trouble for you! But if you dare to unilaterally cut off my source of wealth, the worst-case scenario is that we both go down together! If my life is ruined, don’t even think about getting a peaceful promotion to P7!"
In an instant, all the chaotic clues in Wendy’s mind connected like a bolt of lightning!
She thought, "Good heavens! These two seemingly harmless programmers are actually parasites within the company! They’re using the traffic resources of the company’s servers to privately do data promotion and direct traffic for external companies. Uneven distribution of the spoils. Mutually assured destruction! So that’s it! That’s it!"
Wendy rapidly sorted through all the clues in her mind. In the original timeline, faced with Jared, a greedy ticking time bomb who could explode at any moment, Kyler—who was about to be promoted to P7—chose the most extreme and permanent method to clear the only obstacle and witness on his career path. He silenced him! And Mirror Lake became his perfect dumping ground.
Having figured all this out, Wendy felt a bone-piercing chill creep up her spine. It turned out her previous guess was correct. This Kyler Lowell, who had suddenly popped up, was the killer!