Elder brother's garrison

Page 1708

"This...this..." The man stammered, his lips trembling.

"Are you really the one who filmed the Deep Sea Dean?" York frowned and asked the man.

"Me! Of course I am! Of course I am!" Upon hearing York's words, the man panicked and shouted desperately, "Of course I remember! I filmed this video myself, and I have evidence from my ship, my company, and my travel records! I...I...I just can't recall the details after two months! It's all because you hit me as soon as you came in, yes! Yes! It's because you hit me! I can't remember! That's your problem! I need to rest now, so get out of here!"

In the end, the man even hurriedly told Xiaobai and the other two to leave.

"Sigh." Xiaobai sighed, stood up from her chair, put away her wallet in front of the man, and looked down at the man on the sofa. "...Most importantly, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll tell you a little secret that only our admiral knows."

Xiao Bai looked at the pale-faced man and spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Deep-sea creatures... their blood isn't actually red. Even if you let them bleed on the surface of the sea, all that would come out would be black oil."

Amidst the man's panicked expression, Xiaobai continued to approach him.

"Actually, you weren't the one who filmed the Deep Sea Dean's video, were you?"

Chapter 2336 Evidence

The man sat blankly on the sofa, his pupils reflecting the slowly approaching figure of Xiaobai.

"Actually, you weren't the one who filmed the Deep Sea Dean's video, were you?"

Xiao Bai's gentle voice reached the man's ears, instantly causing his unfocused pupils to constrict.

"You're talking nonsense!!" The man's emotions instantly surged, and he roared furiously at Xiaobai, "I am the one who filmed Dean Shenhai! It's undeniable! Without a doubt! No matter what you think, I am! I, I know, you're in cahoots with the people who imprisoned me, right! You're trying to use this kind of provocation to extract the secrets from me, aren't you! You're despicable, you're vile! I have very complete information to prove my identity! I can't just send someone over to ask me a couple of questions and I can deny it!"

The man's desire for money finally subsided, but what replaced that feeling was a thunderous rage.

"Now it's my turn." Xiaobai stopped and asked the man, "What evidence do you have to prove that you are you?"

"The video website login account... I am the account owner who was the first to post that video on the entire internet!" the man shouted angrily. "The real-name registration information for the video account used my own information. Since you are from the Governor's Office, you should have the ability to investigate this information!"

“I don’t deny that the video account is yours. After all, the Governor’s Office probably found you by following the real-name registration information of the account.” Xiaobai nodded and said with great approval.

"Heh, heh heh heh heh..." The man's emotions calmed down a little after hearing Xiaobai's words. "It's good that you know this!"

"However, just because the account that posted the video is yours doesn't mean that you were the one who filmed it."

"You, you...you're talking nonsense!" The man's face turned pale.

"You just said you have something like a travel history code to prove it, right?" Xiaobai stroked her chin, thought for a moment, and then said to the man, "Tell me about it?"

"The evidence is all in my bedroom! You can go and find it if you don't believe me!"

“The bedroom…” Xiaobai put down her hand and glanced at Baltimore beside her.

"I'll go find it!" Baltimore understood what Little White meant and quickly turned and ran towards the bedroom.

Under everyone's gaze, Baltimore arrived at the closed bedroom door and first reached out and twisted the bedroom doorknob.

With two creaking sounds, the doorknob clicked as it was locked.

Baltimore frowned, took a deep breath, released the doorknob, and then kicked the bedroom door hard.

Boom! ! !

Baltimore kicked open the man's bedroom door and went inside.

About three or four minutes later, Baltimore came out carrying a large pile of miscellaneous items. She put everything in her arms on the coffee table and then said to Xiaobai, "Admiral, his room is very clean. There is only a bed and a desk. I brought everything from his desk over."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Xiaobai smiled at Baltimore, then sat back down on the stool and bent down to search through the clutter on the coffee table.

The items Baltimore brought out of the man's bedroom were very miscellaneous, including a full piggy bank, a phone book, a tall stack of notebooks, and items such as wallets and bank cards.

Xiao Bai rummaged through the clutter and found a blue folder, then opened it and took a look.

The folder contained two neatly collected train tickets, a fishing boat rental contract, and a video production agreement.

"Is this the evidence you mentioned?" Xiaobai asked the man.

"My itinerary code shows my movements! Here is proof of all my movements!" the man said, straining his neck at Xiaobai and the other two. "On the day the Deep Sea Dean was discovered, I definitely went to the sea with my company's video production team! Even if you burn these documents, it won't change anything! We live in the information age. Even without paper documents, you can find information about my trip online! Even all the staff from my company who went with me can testify that we encountered a storm that day! They even filmed behind-the-scenes footage of the storm! I was there!"

"You've kept these two tickets really well," Xiaobai said suddenly, looking up at the folder and listening to the man's words.

"Huh? What?" The man was taken aback.

“These two tickets.” Xiaobai held up the folder, showing the man the well-preserved tickets inside. “These two tickets are in such good condition, not a single crease or tear. Even the edges still have the raw, white frayed edges. You couldn’t have preserved them like this unless you carefully put them in an airtight bag as soon as you got them, right? I admire your timely realization after discovering Dean Shenhai that you should have kept evidence of your identity. But one of these tickets should be the one you used when you went to the beach, right? What were you thinking when you kept that ticket?”

“…I, I…” The man stared blankly at Xiaobai’s face.

The living room was quiet.

The three of them watched the man silently.

"I...I own a company, and it's a professional habit for me to keep these receipts. Is that so strange?" The man stammered for a moment, sweat dripping down his forehead.

“Not surprising, not surprising.” Xiaobai shook her head, as if she had been persuaded by the man, and put down the folder again to look through it. “You should have shown this folder, which proves your identity, to the people at the Governor’s Office, right? With the Governor’s Office’s investigative capabilities, if there were any problems, they should have discovered them long ago.”

“Yes, yes!!” The man immediately chimed in upon hearing Xiaobai’s mutterings, “So everything I’m saying is true! You military people need evidence to do things! Now I’ve presented evidence to prove myself. If you want to doubt me, you’ll at least have to produce corresponding evidence!”

"Presumption of innocence applies, right?"

"Yes!"

"Do you still have that behind-the-scenes video you mentioned?" Xiaobai asked.

"Yes! Right here!" The man quickly raised his chin and pointed to the clutter on the coffee table.

Following the man's directions, Xiaobai rummaged through the clutter on the coffee table and pulled out an old-fashioned DV camera.

"This DV camera isn't professional filming equipment. We brought it along simply because it's part of our company's corporate culture to shoot behind-the-scenes footage, compile it, and release it at the annual meeting as entertainment!" the man explained. "I was in it, in the latest video!"

Xiao Bai didn't answer, but simply turned on the DV camera, retrieved the latest video from the memory, and clicked play.

The video starts playing.

The video shows a group of young men and women packing up their filming equipment on a fishing boat. The person in charge of filming is explaining to the camera that they encountered a storm during their filming trip and that they need to take shelter in the cabin to avoid damaging the equipment. As the camera pans, Xiaobai quickly spots a man on the deck. The man is looking at the dark horizon and tells everyone that he wants to stay outside a little longer and asks them to go into the cabin first.

Xiaobai dragged the progress bar.

After the photographer entered the cabin, a strong storm soon broke out outside. The cabin was shaking violently, and the outside was alternately bright and dark with thunder and lightning. The young men and women chatted and laughed in the cabin for a while. Suddenly, the cabin door was pushed open, and Chen Rui, soaking wet, rushed into the frame with his phone in hand, shouting frantically to the crowd that he had filmed the Dean of the Deep Sea outside.

The video then abruptly ended amidst gasps of surprise from the crowd.

Xiao Bai nodded, turned off the DV camera, and put it back on the coffee table.

"Well! Now the evidence is conclusive!" the man said to Xiaobai, a smile gradually spreading across his face.

"...Are you not very popular at work?" Xiaobai suddenly asked.

"Huh?" The man was taken aback again.

"No, never mind." Xiaobai smiled slightly, then placed her hands on her knees and continued to ask the man, "It is indeed very conclusive evidence, so flawless. Hmm... So you filmed the video with your phone, right? No wonder the footage is so blurry."

"My phone is here too, but the SIM card has been removed, and the Wi-Fi in the room has been disconnected, so I can't use it to make calls or access the internet." The man's emotions gradually calmed down, and he gestured to Xiaobai to pick up a worn-out phone from the coffee table, like a victor displaying his spoils.

Xiao Bai reached out and picked up the phone, weighing it in his hand.

This phone is really old and worn out. The casing is covered with tiny scratches, and the model is very old. In this age of smartphones, the one in Xiaobai's hand is still the kind of old phone that requires a memory card to function.

"Are the videos still on your phone?"

"Hmph, I've hidden the phone's memory card. This is the most important evidence proving the video came from me, how could I dare show it to anyone else! But I have a backup of the video on my computer, you can go there and look for it." The man sneered and turned away. "The computer is in the study, the people at the Governor's Mansion should have seen it. As for the memory card... hmph, forget about it, I've hidden it somewhere no one but me can find it! You can turn this place upside down and you still won't find it!"

"I see." Xiaobai nodded in satisfaction. "Since you can produce so much evidence, it's not surprising that the Governor's Office would naturally assume that you were the one who filmed the video."

"What do you mean by that!" The man was immediately displeased upon hearing Xiaobai's words. "You're making it sound like I'm lying! Can you produce any proof that I wasn't the one who filmed the video?"

Chapter 2337 York's Revenge

After the man finished speaking, he stared intently into Xiaobai's eyes, his gaze burning with an aggressive intensity.

Xiao Bai looked at the man and smiled slightly.

Xiaobai put the phone back on the coffee table, then placed the phone, the DV camera, and the folders together side by side.

“If we only consider the evidence, yes, being able to produce so much evidence all at once, and in such a well-preserved manner, with each piece of evidence interconnected, then you can indeed prove that you were the one who filmed this video,” Xiaobai said slowly to the man.

"I am the one who filmed this!" The man looked at Xiaobai confidently. "You can't provide any evidence to refute me, right? Even if you suspect me, that's just your own feeling. Subjective feelings without real evidence are the most unreliable! Someone of your status should know that!"

"Yes, subjective speculation and doubt are very unreliable."

Xiaobai strongly agrees with men.

"However, while my suspicion is subjective, it is not entirely subjective."

"What, what do you mean by subjective! Aren't all your thoughts subjective?!" Upon hearing Xiaobai's words, the man immediately tensed up again. "Are you trying to say that your suspicions can't possibly be wrong?!"

“That’s right.” Xiaobai smiled, her eyes slightly narrowed, and she raised her finger to gently tap her eyebrow. “My suspicions can’t be wrong.”

"You, what evidence do you have!"

"I have no evidence," Xiaobai said. "Or rather, even if I showed you my evidence, you wouldn't understand it."

"What kind of riddle are you talking about! Just show me the evidence, and I'll understand!"

“You definitely don’t understand…” Xiaobai sighed. “After all, even if I told you that you are currently bound by more than a dozen mental tentacles and that no emotional fluctuation can escape my eyes, how could you possibly believe me?”

"Wh...what kind of mental tentacles?" The man stared wide-eyed in confusion.

The man looked around, but there was nothing there; there were none of the tentacles that Xiaobai had mentioned.

The man looked back at Xiaobai.

Xiaobai and the two ship girls stared at him quietly with strange looks, and the atmosphere suddenly became very eerie.

"You...you're bluffing me again, aren't you!"

"..."

"Speak up! Why won't you say anything!"

"..."

"Speak up!"

The man looked at the three people in front of him, and for some reason, a strange sense of panic welled up in his heart. The irrefutable evidence was right in front of him, but he felt that the evidence was as fake as paper and completely unreliable.

Why do I feel this way...?

Obviously...

I had prepared very carefully and made sure everything was perfect!

Why are these three people looking at me with increasingly strange expressions? It's as if... as if they already know the answer and are just watching how I struggle!

Why is this happening?

The man's body began to tremble, and his face turned pale.

“You know what? There’s no such thing as a perfect lie in the world.” Xiaobai began to say to the man, “A fake thing is a fake thing. No matter how you try to disguise it, there will always be loopholes. The completeness of a lie is the difference between the size of these loopholes. And... the longer the lie, the more difficult it is to fix it, and the easier it is to make mistakes. For example, the question I just asked you about the train ticket in this folder.”

Xiao Bai picked up the folder and gently ran her finger over the train tickets on it.

"Then, regarding the DV issue," Xiaobai continued, "Are you underestimating the storm? The storm at sea is quite strong. Even if you had the leisure to go out to see the scenery, the ship was already rocking like that. Why aren't the people in the cabin worried about you at all? It's as if they knew from the beginning that you would come back safely."

Xiao Bai finally pointed to the phone on the coffee table.

"Also, isn't this model of phone too old? It clearly clashes with your image as a big boss, doesn't it? Even if you're not the type to like to show off, you wouldn't use such an old-fashioned phone with limited functions when choosing a work phone, would you? What if you miss out on some work orders because of these outdated features? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"

Xiaobai picked up the phone and turned his back to himself.

"I have a rough guess, I don't know if it's right." Xiaobai looked up at the man and asked hesitantly, "This phone... it's not yours, is it?"

In the living room.

A moment of silence fell.

The man's lips trembled, and drops of sweat dripped from his chin onto the sofa, making a pattering sound.

"Huh? Isn't this his phone?" York looked at Xiaobai in surprise.

“Yeah, if I’m not mistaken, it was stolen from someone’s phone,” Xiaobai replied to York.

"Uh, but he clearly has so much evidence! There are even videos."

"It's probably a mix of real and fake, a forgery," Xiaobai said. "The video can be filmed with actors to recreate the scene, and as for the tickets, like in the movies I've seen before, buying them on different dates is very deceptive... And then there's this phone... even simpler."

Xiao Bai turned on the DV camera and randomly picked a few videos from earlier dates to play.

"Doesn't this DV camera contain a whole year's worth of behind-the-scenes footage? Let's look for him in earlier videos and see what his phone looked like back then."

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh————" York shouted as if struck by a sudden realization, "So that means he didn't just hide that memory card to keep us away. There must be a secret on that memory card that can expose him as not being the real photographer!"

“I guess it’s the filming date?” Xiaobai nodded and smiled at the man. “The series of evidence you’ve fabricated is very well done, and there are almost no suspicious points. But there’s one thing you definitely can’t fake: time. The actual time this video was filmed must be earlier than the time shown in the evidence you’ve presented, right? As long as we find the memory card and see the real date inside, all the evidence you’ve carefully arranged will become invalid.”

"No, no..." The man shook his head, staring at Xiaobai while repeatedly saying the same words.