Chapter Three: The Common Thread Among Seventy-Three People
"It's the list of people connected to the R17-3 accident."
Those words left Chen Yaoting standing there for more than ten seconds.
Wang Zhihao reacted first.
"That can't be right."
He walked over to the filing cabinet and tore down the sheet of white paper.
The paper was still faintly warm.
"This was just printed."
Chen Yaoting looked up.
"Which printer?"
"Is there even a printer in here?"
They turned around at the same time.
There really was an old laser printer in the corner on the right side of the records room.
A green light was glowing on the machine.
Another sheet of paper was still sitting in the output tray below.
Wang Zhihao walked over and pulled it out.
There was no text on it.
It was a chart.
"R17-3 Accident-Related Personnel Comparison Chart."
The first column listed names.
The second listed their status at the time.
The third listed their current status.
The fourth was labeled "Special Execution Authorization Application Status."
The more Wang Zhihao read, the worse his expression became.
"This isn't data from seven years ago."
"Of course it isn't."
"It includes their current application statuses."
Chen Yaoting took the chart from him.
He had seen the first few names before.
Xu Wenshu.
Deceased.
Application status: Approved.
Lin Jianhong.
Resigned.
Approved.
Zhou Yating.
Resigned.
Approved.
Cai Mingzhe.
Currently employed.
Approved.
There were seventy-three entries in total.
It matched perfectly.
"Seventy-three."
Wang Zhihao spoke in a low voice.
"It really is every single one of them."
Chen Yaoting quickly flipped through the pages.
Of the seventy-three people, sixteen still worked at Shinrui Electronics.
Twenty-nine had resigned.
Eleven had retired.
Nine were listed as having invalid contact information.
The remaining eight were dead.
"Eight dead people?"
Wang Zhihao stared at that column.
"Wasn't it just Xu Wenshu?"
Chen Yaoting said nothing.
He spread the papers across the table.
"If this data is real, then someone didn't forge an application for just one dead person."
"There are eight."
"And all eight applications were approved."
The corner of Wang Zhihao's mouth twitched.
"So is there something haunted about this system?"
Chen Yaoting shot him a look.
"Don't say that word right now."
"How else are we supposed to explain it?"
"A system vulnerability, tampered data, identity theft—any of those makes more sense than a dead person really logging in."
"Then what about your employee number?"
That made Chen Yaoting fall silent.
A21749.
His own employee number.
It had already appeared in the sealed R17-3 accident records seven years ago.
That was even harder to explain than a dead person filing an application.
At least a dead person could have been impersonated.
But employee numbers were usually created only after someone joined the company.
"Are you sure the company doesn't reuse employee numbers?" Wang Zhihao asked.
"Not according to the rules."
"They don't reclaim them after someone resigns?"
"No."
"Have you ever asked Human Resources?"
"Who would specifically ask whether their employee number had been used by a dead person?"
Wang Zhihao had no answer.
Chen Yaoting pulled out his phone and opened the company's internal directory.
He searched for A21749.
Only one result came up.
Chen Yaoting.
Engineering Department.
Joined June 14, 2021.
There were no other records.
"So how did your number appear seven years ago?" Wang Zhihao asked.
"I don't know."
"Are you absolutely sure you never came to this company in 2019?"
"No, I didn't."
"Contract work? An internship?"
"Neither."
"Then what were you doing back then?"
Chen Yaoting thought for a moment.
2019.
He had been twenty-two.
He had only recently finished his military service and was working as an assistant engineer at a small systems integration company in Taipei.
His salary was thirty-one thousand a month.
Every day, he fixed clients' computers, set up networks, and reinstalled operating systems.
He had nothing to do with Shinrui Electronics.
"I barely even came to Taoyuan."
Wang Zhihao frowned.
"Then something's definitely wrong."
The moment he finished speaking, footsteps sounded outside the records room.
The two men stopped at the same time.
Someone was approaching from the hallway.
One step.
Then another.
Finally, the footsteps stopped outside the door.
The doorknob turned.
Wang Zhihao immediately gathered the papers on the table.
"Who is it?"
There was no answer.
The next second, the door opened.
A man in his fifties stood outside.
He wore a gray uniform.
A General Affairs Department ID badge hung from his chest.
Chen Yaoting recognized him.
Lao Zhou, the basement custodian.
"What are you two doing in here?"
Lao Zhou looked utterly bewildered.
Wang Zhihao shot back, "Weren't you the one who opened the door and let us in?"
"Me?"
"The door unlocked by itself."
Lao Zhou's expression changed at once.
"Who told you to come in?"
"There was a piece of paper by the door telling Yaoting to come in."
"What piece of paper?"
Chen Yaoting handed him the A4 sheet.
The moment Lao Zhou saw "R17-3," his hand visibly trembled.
It was very slight.
But Chen Yaoting saw it.
"You know what this is?"
Lao Zhou immediately handed the paper back.
"No."
"You obviously reacted."
"I just thought it was strange."
"How long have you worked here?"
"A long time."
"Were you here in 2019?"
Lao Zhou didn't answer right away.
Wang Zhihao stepped forward.
"We're not trying to give you trouble. We just want to know what happened here."
Lao Zhou looked at the folder in their hands.
"Get out first."
"You know about R17-3, don't you?"
"We'll talk outside."
"Why?"
Lao Zhou suddenly raised his voice.
"I said get out!"
The records room fell silent again.
Lao Zhou's emotional shift had come too quickly.
That only made Chen Yaoting more certain that he knew something.
"A man named He Chenghan died that year."
Lao Zhou pressed his lips together.
"You know him?"
"No."
"What about Xu Wenshu?"
Lao Zhou still didn't answer.
"He used to be the equipment section chief. You can't possibly have never heard of him."
"I said, get out."
"Seventy-three people connected to the accident all applied to kill me today."
Lao Zhou jerked his head up.
This time, his expression wasn't confusion.
It was fear.
Chen Yaoting saw it clearly.
"You do know."
Lao Zhou stood there for several seconds.
Finally, he pushed the door open from the outside.
"We can't talk here."
The three of them left the records room.
Lao Zhou locked the door again. After confirming that the electronic lock was glowing red, he led them toward the farthest corner of the underground parking garage.
There were no surveillance cameras there.
At least none that were visible.
Lao Zhou lit a cigarette.
His hand was still trembling.
"How many did you receive?" he asked.
"Seventy-three," Chen Yaoting answered.
Lao Zhou closed his eyes.
It was as if he were confirming something he had known would happen sooner or later.
"Just as I thought."
Wang Zhihao immediately pressed him.
"What do you mean, just as you thought?"
Lao Zhou took a drag from his cigarette.
"When I saw the news this morning, I knew someone would come asking sooner or later."
"So you were the one who left that paper?"
"No."
"The door, then?"
"I didn't open that either."
"Then who did?"
"I don't know."
Wang Zhihao couldn't help cursing.
"You don't know anything, so what the hell were you afraid of just now?"
Lao Zhou ignored him.
He looked at Chen Yaoting.
"Your name is Chen Yaoting?"
"Yes."
"A21749?"
Chen Yaoting's brow furrowed immediately.
"How do you know that?"
Lao Zhou didn't answer.
"You really don't know whose number that used to be?"
"Used to be?"
"Yes."
"The company system says it belongs only to me."
Lao Zhou gave a bitter smile.
"Because the old records were erased."
Chen Yaoting stared at him.
"Whose number was it?"
Lao Zhou stubbed out his cigarette on the nearby metal barrel.
"He Chenghan's."
The air seemed to rush out of the world.
Wang Zhihao spoke first.
"Wait."
"You mean that dead engineer?"
Lao Zhou nodded.
"A21749 was He Chenghan's employee number."
Chen Yaoting's mind instantly became a mess.
"That's impossible."
"It's true."
"The company doesn't reuse employee numbers."
"It doesn't now."
"What does that mean?"
Lao Zhou glanced around.
"After the accident in 2019, the company changed its personnel system once."
"What does changing the system have to do with reusing numbers?"
"After He Chenghan died, they processed his records as a resignation, not a death."
"Why?"
"Because that accident couldn't be allowed to remain on the books."
"How do you process a dead person as resigned?"
"The system allows it."
Lao Zhou said it with remarkable calm.
"All it takes is someone willing to sign."
Chen Yaoting thought of the document from earlier.
Xu Wenshu.
Zhao Mingyuan.
Lin Jianhong.
Those signatures.
"How exactly did he die?"
Lao Zhou was silent for a while.
"It wasn't an ordinary workplace accident."
"Then what was it?"
"He was crushed to death by a robotic arm."
Wang Zhihao sucked in a sharp breath.
"The news never reported it?"
"No."
"Someone dying at the company couldn't possibly have gone completely unreported."
"Because it was dealt with that same night."
"Dealt with?"
"Yes."
"They told the public he was in a traffic accident after work."
Chen Yaoting looked at Lao Zhou.
"You saw it yourself?"
Lao Zhou nodded.
"I was the overnight basement custodian back then."
"When they moved the body out of the factory, I was the one who opened the door."
Wang Zhihao fell silent.
Chen Yaoting continued questioning him.
"Why hide it?"
"Because that production line wasn't ready to operate yet."
"What do you mean?"
"R17-3 was undergoing unmanned-operation testing at the time. Its safety certification hadn't been completed."
"Who ordered them to put it online?"
Lao Zhou didn't answer.
"Zhao Mingyuan?"
"Not just him."
"Then who?"
Lao Zhou lit another cigarette.
"A lot of people."
"Those seventy-three?"
Lao Zhou looked up.
"More or less."
"So all seventy-three were connected to his death?"
"Some were at the accident scene. Some altered the records afterward. Some signed documents. Some knew the truth and said nothing."
"Then why did they all apply to kill me?"
Lao Zhou didn't answer immediately.
Chen Yaoting stepped forward.
"I didn't join the company until 2021."
"I know."
"I never even knew He Chenghan."
"I know."
"Then what does any of this have to do with me?"
Lao Zhou's gaze became strange.
He wasn't looking at a stranger.
It was more like he was looking at someone who should have disappeared long ago.
"Because of your employee number."
"Just because the company reused his number?"
"It's not that simple."
"Then what is it?"
Lao Zhou ran his tongue over his dry lips.
"Before He Chenghan died, he left something behind."
"What?"
"The day before the accident, he backed up a complete set of R17-3 control logs."
"Where?"
"No one found it."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Because the decryption authorization for that backup—"
Lao Zhou paused.
"—is tied to A21749."
Something in Chen Yaoting's mind suddenly clicked into place.
"So as long as the system identifies me as A21749..."
"You can open it," Lao Zhou said.
"In theory."
Wang Zhihao immediately asked, "So are those seventy-three people afraid he'll find the backup?"
Lao Zhou looked at Chen Yaoting.
"It's not that they're afraid you'll find it."
"Then what is it?"
"Someone already found it."
"Who?"
Lao Zhou shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You don't know again?"
"But I do know that someone in the company's IT department tried to activate the old R17-3 database three days ago."
Chen Yaoting's expression changed.
"When?"
"The night of August 25."
"Who logged in?"
"A21749."
Chen Yaoting immediately pulled out his phone.
"I was at home that night."
"I know."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"Because IT checked your access records," Lao Zhou said.
"You never entered the company that night."
Wang Zhihao glanced at Chen Yaoting.
"Someone is using your account."
"It's not an ordinary account," Lao Zhou said, shaking his head.
"The old R17-3 system is on an isolated network. Current employee accounts can't access it at all."
"Then how did they log in?"
"With an old physical credential."
"What kind of credential?"
"He Chenghan's old employee card."
This time, Chen Yaoting truly had nothing to say.
An employee card belonging to a man who had died seven years ago.
Three days ago, someone had used it to log in to the sealed old system.
And the system had identified that person as A21749.
Now that same number belonged to Chen Yaoting.
"Shouldn't that card have been deactivated a long time ago?" Wang Zhihao asked.
"It should have been."
"Then why does it still work?"
"Because the R17-3 system never updated its access-revocation data," Lao Zhou said.
"It's been frozen in 2019."
Chen Yaoting suddenly thought of something.
"If someone used that card to log in, the system would identify them as He Chenghan."
"Correct."
"Then what does that have to do with my Special Execution Authorization notice?"
Lao Zhou was silent for a while.
"Maybe the Legal Killing System doesn't verify names."
"What?"
"Part of the identity verification for the Special Execution Authorization is linked to the digital-certificate data shared between corporations and the government."
"What are you saying?"
"What if the seventy-three applications didn't originally designate 'Chen Yaoting'?"
Lao Zhou looked at him.
"What if they designated A21749?"
A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out across Chen Yaoting's back.
Wang Zhihao understood as well.
"So the person they want to kill..."
"Maybe it was never Yaoting from the beginning," Lao Zhou said.
"They want to kill He Chenghan."
"But He Chenghan is already dead."
"Yes."
"Then why did the system send the notice to Yaoting?"
Lao Zhou slowly exhaled smoke.
"Because in the government's current records, the person associated with A21749..."
"...is you."
The sound of a car unlocking suddenly came from the far end of the garage.
All three of them turned around.
A black SUV was parked at the other end of the lot.
The driver's-side door opened.
A man stepped out.
Chen Yaoting didn't recognize him.
But the moment Lao Zhou saw him, all the color drained from his face.
"Go," Lao Zhou said quietly.
"Who is he?"
"Don't ask."
The man started walking toward them.
He wasn't moving quickly.
He had a phone in his hand.
At that same second, Chen Yaoting's phone vibrated.
The Special Execution Authorization system displayed a new notification.
"Applicant location information updated."
"Nearest approved applicant: 38 meters."
Chen Yaoting looked ahead.
The man stopped walking.
The distance changed to:
36 meters.
Wang Zhihao saw the screen too.
"Fuck."
Lao Zhou grabbed Chen Yaoting's arm.
"He's not here to kill you."
"Then what does he want?"
"To confirm something."
"What?"
Lao Zhou stared at the man approaching them.
"To confirm whether He Chenghan is really dead."