If the Deep Sea Forgets You

Xia Qingyi continued to analyse. “It appears that President Zhang and his ex-wife have been on bad terms for a long time. She’s definitely mentioned divorce to Zhang before, but why didn’t Zhang agree? It’s not like his ex-wife is anybody special or powerful. It should be relatively easy to divorce her.”

Mo Han finished what she had to say, his eyes filled with steely determination and certainty “Unless… she had something on him.”

What that ‘something’ was remained for them to find out. What they knew for sure was, it was definitely not President Zhang’s ex-wife who had sent over the embezzlement tape. The events in the tape had happened after they were divorced. She would definitely not try to threaten him using the tape. Mo Han suddenly wondered whether they could find out more from the tape. He searched for the tape and handed it over to Xia Qingyi. “Do you think there’s anything wrong with this tape?

The videotape was short, lasting around a minute and a half. The video was taken from a corner of the table and they could clearly see Zhang’s movements and facial expressions from the side. Next to him was his assistant, a handsome young man. He stood quietly at the side of the door, head lowered, seemingly disinterested in their conversation. The last ten seconds of the tape had no image, just an audio recording of their voices. It was unknown if it was a result of the tape or the failure of the camera. However, the tape clearly showed that it was Zhang who had committed embezzlement of public funds.

Xia Qingyi watched the tape repeatedly. Mo Han looked at her expression from time to time. There was not much change. She was just furrowing her brow slightly, as though she was thinking of something.

“Anything?” Mo Han asked.

Xia Qingyi’s hand left the mouse. She paused, did not speak and after some time, paused the video halfway through, her eyes fixated at the screen. After a short while, as though she had figured something out, she slowly chuckled.

“This video is fake. It’s been digitally altered.”

Mo Han looked at the image suspiciously. He had asked the IT department to come and look at it in the afternoon. They all said it had not been Photoshopped or altered digitally. Xia Qingyi could see through Mo’s querying expression and continued, “The logic isn’t right. The entire tape lasts for one minute, with the whole time spent discussing the embezzlement. There aren’t any flaws and it couldn’t be more detailed.”

“So?” Mo Han asked.

“Don’t you think it’s strange? A normal person discussing illegal matters would try and avoid the sensitive words. But in the videotape, President Zhang and the person he was speaking to didn’t at all. They were emphasizing the words ’embezzlement’ repeatedly. The last 10 seconds were just a black screen. Clearly there was enough evidence in the rest of the tape; why are there seemingly useless noises at the end?”

“This can mean one of two things. One: she’s doing this for show and making a seemingly superfluous point. Another is that the entire tape is fake; half of its contents have been digitally altered.”

“The IT department says there’s nothing wrong with the videotape.” Mo Han looked at her quizzically.

Xia Qingyi smiled. “That can only mean that the people in your IT department aren’t very good! Why not find an audiovisual specialist from outside and ask him?”

Mo Han could not believe the problem which had been troubling him the entire day could be easily resolved using what Xia Qingyi had said. He remembered that the first time he had seen her, she was easily able to solve the riddle of the ‘sulfuric acid’ in the hands of the fat man.

Twice already. Rather than saying she had gotten lucky, it probably meant that she…

Xia Qingyi felt like she had solved a problem. After she saw the contemplative look on Mo Han’s face, her mood lifted, her spirits brightened and she tapped his shoulders lightly. “Brother! Do you feel like I’m really clever now?”