“Undoubtedly, Miller’s life was getting worse and worse. His criminal record was increasing, his time in prison was increasing, and his age was also increasing… The only thing that wasn’t increasing, but decreasing, was his probability of finding a decent job.

“Faced with life, Miller had to make a choice… either return to the righteous path and scrape by at the bottom of society, or go all the way and go even further down the path of crime… In the end, people like Miller, of course, chose the latter.

“However, the evil path wasn’t so easy to walk…

“Miller wanted to join a criminal organization, but he couldn’t compete with those who were more than a decade younger than him but had a more extensive criminal record than he did.

“He even thought about joining a gang, but he was white, and there weren’t many gangs that accepted whites, and most of them were composed of racists.

“You have to know… stealing, robbing, and kidnapping are one thing, but racism is another…

“As a highly educated person who once had great ambitions, even if Miller went astray, there were still some things in his values that wouldn’t change; he could accept stealing, robbing, and kidnapping… From his logic, this type of crime was an act of ‘violating the law to earn some benefit.’ Since he took the corresponding risks, invested the corresponding effort, and was prepared to pay the corresponding price in the process of carrying it out, he didn’t think there was anything shameful about it.

“But, the racism thing is different… In Miller’s view, in modern society, those who discriminate against innate factors such as skin color, race, or region, their psychological source actually comes from a kind of ‘inferiority complex.’

“Although there are also some people who join the ranks of discrimination due to factors such as growing environment, ideological control, and stereotypes, those most steadfast racists, those who truly hate people of a certain region or skin color from the bottom of their hearts for no reason, are simply people who have a mentality of ‘only being able to find a sense of superiority in skin color and birthplace.’

“They are either ugly, or rude, or stupid, or weird… In short, based on some innate or acquired factors, these people have no competitive advantage in their own race, so the ‘inferiority complex’ in their hearts gradually accumulates into ‘anger,’ and ‘anger’ naturally needs to be vented. Just like middle-class people like to hold signs and protest in front of government buildings to vent daily stress, racists’ way of doing things is to gather together… and gain a sense of identity and superiority by attacking another race or people from another region.

“Miller, who holds this view, even if he is down on his luck, scoffs at these people…”

“Wait a minute…” Hearing this, Feng Bujue was really a little curious. “Xiao Zuo…” He called Zuo Yan by his name, “Everything you said before was fine, but that part just now… you’re overthinking it a bit, aren’t you? Miller wouldn’t have saved these white-washed self-justifications about his values in the recording, would he?”

“Heh…” Zuo Yan smiled. “Jue-ge, you asked a good question…” As he said that, his gaze swept across the other people in the room. “I think, everyone here must have more or less similar thoughts. But rest assured, my narration is based on evidence…”

After Zuo Yan finished saying this, he took out his own mobile phone from his pocket again, quickly operated it, and then turned the screen to face everyone.

At this time, the screen showed several screenshots of comments taken from a certain social media, and the images showed the posts of a user with the ID "mr.stone1962".

"This is..." Feng Bujue read, "Miller's account?"

"Yes." Zuo Yan replied quickly, "Although he didn't fill in the complete user information, it's not difficult to find out the user identity behind this type of account. In fact, the United States began a long-term online surveillance program in the 2010s. Except for some countries that isolate themselves from the world internet with firewalls, most civilians in other countries... as long as they have a certain frequency of activity on social media, their data will be captured by a program into a database in the United States. If necessary, Americans can use a complex but very precise calculation method to quickly match their real identity in reality based on their commonly used IP addresses, registration time, age, hobbies, various ideological tendencies, and other information. Those who like to use multiple 'aliases' online have always been the same person in the eyes of the intelligence agencies, and their identities are clear."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue nodded, "Okay... then let's skip how you got involved with the intelligence agencies of the United States... or some other country, and talk directly about those message records..."

"I just took a rough look." Zuo Yan continued, "First of all, the ID of this account is taken from the Rolling Stones and the year of its founding, which is undoubtedly one of Miller's personal preferences; like most people with some knowledge but not very happy lives, he used an incomplete account to post some clearly aligned, unique, and radically worded remarks online. From the content of these remarks, the posting time, and combined with Miller's criminal record, it's not difficult for me to piece together this person's character and his life trajectory over the years..." As he spoke, his fingers lightly swiped on the phone screen, flipping to a comment screenshot about "racism", "Look... most of what I said just now is just quoting Miller's original words..."

"Then your memory is good." Doste seemed really drunk. As he said this, he got up and went to the coffee table to pick up the bottle of "Flower Bud" and poured himself another glass.

"I already said that he's a famous detective, so photographic memory is a must." Feng Bujue glanced at Doste and replied in a teasing tone.

Jue-ge naturally understood that although Zuo Yan was also a good detective, he certainly hadn't reached the level of photographic memory. Being able to clearly remember the content he had "roughly looked at" and quote it fluently must be Vidocq's credit behind the scenes.

"Ahem..." The next second, Zuo Yan pretended to clear his throat, "Let's continue talking about Miller..." He had never been very willing to accept praise that didn't belong to him, so he immediately brought the topic back, "In addition to these social media posts, I also quickly looked at some of his information and recordings from when he was in prison, including the diary he wrote in prison... uh... I was looking at it when Jue-ge went to choose red wine, so my impression is still relatively deep.

"In short, I still have a relatively clear understanding of Miller's situation over the years and his logic in this case.

"About... three years ago, Miller, who couldn't get into an organization and felt that working alone had no future, finally found a long-term way to get rich after racking his brains..."

Speaking of this, Zuo Yan looked at John, "That is... extortion."