The curtains of the special operations observation room were half-drawn, and the room was utterly still. Su Wanqing sat in a wheelchair, her fingers tightly clutching the photograph she had brought back from the "Shadow Trade" site. It showed the body of an enemy who had been shot dead, and the tattoo on his arm was clearly visible.
It was a black bird with its wings spread, chains winding around the wings, with the end of the chain hooked to a blood droplet. The design was strange and unique, almost as if it symbolized something significant.
She hadn't slept much that night. It wasn't because of the pain, but because the tattoo had stirred up a long-repressed memory deep in her mind.
She closed her eyes, and the image of that rainy night from six years ago resurfaced.
It was the darkest night of her life.
That evening, she had been attending a clinical training session out of town when she received a sudden message from her father asking her to return home early. The message contained just one sentence: "Wanqing, come home, your father has something to say to you."
She immediately took leave and boarded the fastest high-speed train to return home, but when she stepped through the door, she was greeted by the smell of blood.
Her mother was collapsed in the doorway of the dining room, her eyes wide open. Her father was in the study, stabbed in the chest, blood flowing like a river. At that moment, she almost collapsed as she called the police, but there were no surveillance recordings, and the door locks hadn't been tampered with. The method of the crime was professional and cold. The police ruled it as a "premeditated revenge-type home invasion murder," but the case was shelved three months later due to "insufficient clues."
However, before she lost consciousness next to her father, she had vaguely seen a blurred figure, and there was a black tattoo outline on the person's arm. She had always assumed it was a hallucination brought on by the shock. But now, with a similar design appearing again, she began to suspect that it wasn't a hallucination, but the truth.
She suddenly opened her eyes, cold sweat dripping down her temples.
"Lu Chenzhou," her voice was low but resolute. "Six years ago, my parents were murdered, and the killer is most likely from this organization."
Lu Chenzhou, sitting at a table not far away, had been flipping through the hospital staff background files. He froze when he heard her, set the documents down, and immediately walked over.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't remember much, but that tattoo... I saw it. It was right next to my father. When that person turned to leave, the wind lifted their sleeve slightly."
Lu Chenzhou was silent for a moment, his expression growing serious. "Then your parents were most likely already involved in the 'Mirror' organization's plan."
"My father was a national security advisor and had participated in a multinational counterterrorism intelligence-sharing project called 'Nightfall Plan.'" A hint of hesitation flashed in Su Wanqing's eyes. "That project was suddenly terminated, citing excessive external interference. I suspect... the source of that interference was 'Mirror.'"
Lu Chenzhou immediately cross-referenced the traces left by the Mirror organization in recent attacks with the intelligence from the "Nightfall Plan."
Sure enough, a classified communication record from six years ago mentioned a mysterious organization called "Black Feather" attempting multiple times to infiltrate the domestic intelligence network. And "Black Feather" was the English translation of the tattooed black bird.
Su Wanqing leaned back in her chair, her breathing growing more rapid.
All these years, she had forced herself to move forward, too afraid to look back at the truth behind her parents' deaths. But now that everything was resurfacing, she had no intention of retreating.
"You want revenge," Lu Chenzhou's gaze was steady like water.
"It's not revenge," she shook her head. "It's about ending the conspiracy that started six years ago."
That night, Lu Chenzhou initiated the "Reverse Trace Plan"—a system designed to track past classified documents and cold cases, attempting to establish logical connections with current investigations.
He input the "Su Family Massacre" case along with the recent "Mirror Series Bombings" and the "Migratory Birds Plan" into the system, which began automatically matching key elements, including suspect identities, crime timelines, involved regional network data, and—tattoo features.
At the same time, Su Wanqing applied to the Forensic Center to extract blood clothing fibers from her father's belongings from six years ago, hoping to obtain an unknown DNA sample from contact traces.
By the early morning of the third day, the system had matched with a success rate of 68.9%. While it didn't meet the standard for final conclusions, it successfully identified three foreign suspects who had entered the country under "shell identities" six years ago—one of whom was the recipient of the funding flow behind the "Migratory Birds Plan."
This meant that the mastermind behind the Su family massacre and the current city-wide bombings had never changed—the only difference was that they had layered on new identities and methods.
"We can't wait any longer." Su Wanqing spread the match results on the table, her tone calm yet filled with burning anger. "Six years ago, I couldn't protect my family. This time, I won't let them harm any innocent people."
Lu Chenzhou looked into her determined eyes and nodded gently.
"We'll fight this battle together."
The first light of dawn broke outside the window, the golden morning sunlight filtering through the glass, casting over the bloodstained clue map.
The truth was getting closer, and the memories it awakened were not only painful, but also a journey of fate that was yet to be completed.