Hao Le’s existence had first been drawn out by the trail involving Wei Youtai and the others. After killing Feng Feng, Wei Youtai had used a proxy server to frighten Ke Shuer and interfere with the investigation.
Chen Zheng said, “Gambling again?”
“Yes. It’s hard to believe this is all coincidence,” Ming Han said. “Jiang Ming ran up debts through illegal gambling and his whole family was wiped out. A casino surveillance jammer turns up in one of our schools. The organization behind Jiang Luoqing is probably connected to illegal gambling. Then there’s Wei Youtai. Wei Youtai believed killing Feng Feng was something he chose to do on his own, but maybe he simply never realized someone was guiding him. Even the proxy server he used is connected to what we’ve uncovered now. Jiang Luoqing may have been interfering from the shadows.”
After a moment, Chen Zheng nodded. “Illegal gambling may only be one part of their ‘project.’ Otherwise, it’s difficult to explain what they’re doing in the schools.”
“True.” Ming Han slapped the desk. “One thing at a time. Gambling, spinach, cabbage, whatever. Our job right now is to find Lü Ou and evidence of Jiang Luoqing’s crimes. Bro, give me an assignment.”
Elio’s Notes: Ming Han is riffing on the similar-sounding Mandarin words for “gambling” and “spinach,” then piling on “cabbage” to keep the joke going.
Chen Zheng pulled his thoughts back to the case itself. “Jiang Luoqing isn’t alone. Other accomplices are still active in Zhuquan City. By now they definitely know he’s been detained, but they don’t know what he has told us. The areas around No. 10 Middle School, the sub-bureau, and Jiang Luoqing’s home are the places they’re most likely to appear. I’ve already told Kong Bing to strengthen security at No. 10 to stop them from harming or abducting students. We also need to find Jiang Luoqing’s actual residence. There will definitely be clues there.”
As Chen Zheng spoke, Ming Han watched him with obvious interest, nodding from time to time. Chen Zheng turned toward him. “Since you’re back, your assignment is to watch the people watching us.”
Ming Han laughed. “Why does that sound so tongue-twisting?”
Chen Zheng said, “As long as you understand it.”
The area around Huaquan Residential Complex, where Jiang Luoqing rented his apartment, had poor supporting infrastructure, especially its surveillance coverage, with large blind spots. On the night of November 29, when Lü Ou disappeared, Jiang claimed he had been out running, but because of the missing camera coverage, police could not verify the route he gave them.
This time Kong Bing was determined to map out Jiang Luoqing’s running range. He not only pulled public surveillance footage but sent officers to nearby businesses to collect private camera recordings and canvass the area. It was inefficient and prone to error, but sometimes a clumsy method was still a method. Jiang Luoqing had not avoided every camera. There were always places he could not escape being recorded. Those became the police’s “points.” Information from the canvass gradually connected the points into “lines,” and the lines into an “area,” allowing them to roughly determine where Jiang Luoqing was most active.
“The place he appears most often is around Tushu Street.” Kong Bing’s face was flushed. He was severely sleep-deprived but extremely excited. “It’s almost three kilometers from his home. Not far. And this area is interesting.”
Chen Zheng looked at the map. It was indeed interesting. Tushu Street had been Zhuquan City’s previous internet-famous district. A few years earlier, someone started giving businesses there a Southeast Asian theme. Going to Tushu Street was like taking a trip to Southeast Asia. Merchants chasing fast money flooded in, and every weekend and evening the street blazed with lights and crowded with young people.
But the previous year, Zhuquan City gained a new trendy district. People grew tired of Tushu Street and gradually abandoned it. There were still businesses there now, but business was nowhere near what it had been, and some storefronts stayed shuttered for long stretches.
The Tushu Street area was not suitable for running, but its mixed crowds made it perfect for hiding in plain sight. Chen Zheng planned to inspect it himself, and Kong Bing followed him to the door. Looking at Kong Bing’s bloodshot eyes, Chen Zheng said, “Captain Kong, you should get some sleep first.”
Kong Bing rubbed his face. “I’m fine.”
“By the time something goes wrong, it’ll be too late,” Chen Zheng said. “Leave it to me for now. Don’t tell me you think I’m trying to steal your credit.”
Kong Bing froze and hurriedly said, “Do I look like that kind of person?”
Chen Zheng said, “Then go sleep. I’ll report back when I return.”
As Chen Zheng’s footsteps faded away, Kong Bing shook his head and slapped both temples hard. The energy he had been forcing himself to maintain dissolved. He muttered, “Fuck. I’m really sleepy.”
Chen Zheng arrived at Tushu Street. In daylight the area looked desolate, the graffiti along both sides drained of life beneath the overcast sky. It had not originally been a commercial street. Before merchants took it over, the area was full of old buildings dating to the previous century. Businesses had driven up property values and bought some of the buildings to convert into guesthouses. Now, with business collapsing, those same properties were being dumped at low prices.
Chen Zheng walked and observed. Many cars were parked along the roadside, some already covered in fallen autumn leaves. Jiang Luoqing’s running was a cover. His true base was very likely somewhere around here. If Lü Ou was still alive, he might be here too.
Suddenly Chen Zheng noticed a black MPV. Parked among vehicles more expensive than itself, it looked unremarkable. Chen Zheng nevertheless walked over, bent down to check the license plate, and photographed it.
At that moment, he felt a dangerous gaze strike his back, as though someone were watching him from the shadows. He spun around immediately but saw only a group of elderly people playing mahjong across the street. He widened the range of his search and still found no suspicious person.
A technical-investigation officer received the photograph and sounded confused. “Teacher Chen, what is this?”
Chen Zheng said, “Run the information on this vehicle. I think I saw it on Yeping Street on the twenty-ninth.”
Chen Zheng did not have a photographic memory, but he had been at the scene when Xu Xinghao killed himself. After Lü Ou vanished, police learned that Lü Ou had also gone to Yeping Street that night and disappeared after entering Huaxiang Alley.
He had watched Yeping Street’s surveillance footage over and over, trying to spot anyone suspicious, without success. But after so many viewings, some of the people and cars that appeared had temporarily lodged in his memory. He vaguely remembered seeing an identical vehicle.
With a clear target, the technical team could search quickly. They soon called Chen Zheng back. The vehicle had been recorded at 9:50 p.m. on the twenty-ninth. Its registered owner was Li Changming. After leaving Yeping Street, the vehicle disappeared, and no other camera had recorded it so far.
Chen Zheng’s phone rang again. This time it was Ming Han. “Bro, you found a suspicious vehicle on Tushu Street?”
Chen Zheng was not surprised Ming Han knew already. “What about you?”
“I’m at Huaquan Residential Complex. There are a lot of police here, and someone seems to be trying to sniff out information from them.” Ming Han, playing the watcher behind the watchers, had stayed away from the detectives and dressed like an ordinary passerby while observing everyone on the street from a distance. “A moment ago he seemed to receive some message, then slipped away.”
Chen Zheng swept his gaze around. “Someone is watching me too. They know the police have traced things to Tushu Street.”
Ming Han said, “I’m following his car. Be careful.”
A Special Police team had now reached Tushu Street. Sensing the tension building, people began coming outside to see what was happening. Chen Zheng called Kong Bing. “Looks like you won’t be getting that sleep.”
Kong Bing had already received the update from the technical team. “Sleep my ass. Once we catch them, I’ll sleep as long as I want!”
“You don’t need to come. Special Police are already here,” Chen Zheng said calmly. “Find the registered owner, Li Changming, as quickly as possible. If the unit can still spare personnel, send me more people for canvassing.”
“What happened around here?” The hotpot restaurant was the earliest business on the street to open. A woman who did odd jobs there came to the doorway to stare, not even taking off her apron.
Chen Zheng pointed to the suspicious vehicle. “Have you seen that car before?”
The woman said, “What’s wrong with it? It parks here all the time, sometimes for several days.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Have you seen the owner? Who drives it?”
The woman looked at the others, but no one could answer. “Feels like we only ever see the car, never the person. This place is chaotic, and there are so many people at night. Who could remember?”
The parking spot sat inside a surveillance blind spot. The vehicle had been parked on Tushu Street without anyone noticing. If the police had not traced the case here, it might have kept parking in the same place indefinitely without drawing attention.
Chen Zheng took out a photograph of Jiang Luoqing. “Have you seen him?”
The canvassing officers were showing the same photograph. Tushu Street suddenly became lively in broad daylight. Many people shook their heads, while others said the face seemed familiar and they had probably seen him before.
The woman from the hotpot restaurant said, “I’ve seen him a few times. Our place opens early and closes late. Every time I saw him, he was coming back in the early hours of the morning.”
Chen Zheng said, “Coming back?”
The woman said, “Yeah. He didn’t look like he came here for fun. People who come to hang out travel in groups and dress fashionably. He was always alone. Maybe he lives around here? Not every unit in these old buildings is used for business. The guesthouses and things might be expensive, but apartments people actually live in are cheap. Nobody wants to live somewhere this noisy, so the rent has to come down.”
Besides the woman from the hotpot restaurant, three other people said they had seen Jiang Luoqing. Chen Zheng looked toward the dense cluster of buildings, rapidly calculating where Jiang Luoqing’s base might be.
“Li Changming went abroad years ago!” Kong Bing said over the phone. “He’s an economics scholar. We reached him personally. He knows absolutely nothing about the car and says he hasn’t been back for three years.”
Before that call even ended, Ming Han rang. Chen Zheng said, “I’m taking Ming Han’s call.”
“He changed direction,” Ming Han said. “It looked like he was heading for Tushu Street at first. Now he’s turned toward Jianan Street.”
“Keep following him,” Chen Zheng said. “Tushu Street is full of Special Police now. Even if they wanted to come in and do something, they wouldn’t dare.”
Jianan Street and Tushu Street lay in opposite directions. Ming Han hit the accelerator and pursued. The man in the other car finally seemed to realize he was being followed. He whipped the car around and, taking advantage of a red light, shot into an alley on the right. By the time Ming Han reached it, the car sat crookedly abandoned and a figure was disappearing around the corner. Ming Han sprinted after him without hesitation and saw the figure enter an old apartment building.
The building had no elevator and only six floors, with an extremely narrow stairwell. Ming Han drew his gun and stood quietly downstairs, calculating the timing in silence. Only after he heard the faintest sound of a door closing did he move quickly upstairs. There were two apartments per floor, and the man had most likely hidden on the fifth. Ming Han pressed himself against the wall between the fourth and fifth floors. The unit on the right had a floral cloth curtain over the doorway and handwritten Spring Festival couplets beside it. The other side had only a plain door.
Once he had identified the hiding place, Ming Han silently went back downstairs and knocked on the door of 4-1. An elderly man opened it. Ming Han showed his credentials and immediately shut the door behind him, startling the resident. In a low voice, Ming Han explained that the police were carrying out an operation and that the man’s assistance would be formally recognized afterward. The older generation trusted the police deeply. The man quickly waved his hands and said he did not need any recognition.
Ming Han observed from the kitchen window. On an old building like this, the outside of the kitchen provided the easiest route for climbing. He had rushed into the pursuit without preparing any climbing equipment, but the situation had developed suddenly. If he did not act immediately, the man might slip out of police sight.
Ming Han climbed out the window and deftly caught the pipe along the side of the building. Power from his waist drove his long legs upward, his whole body seeming to spring through the air as he hooked himself onto the windowsill above. The person inside was not in the kitchen and naturally did not notice the movement. Ming Han landed inside, gun in hand, and silently entered the living room. The man stood on the balcony, anxiously waiting for something. Only when the muzzle touched the back of his head did he suddenly realize what had happened.
Ming Han said, “Hands up.”
The canvass on Tushu Street was advancing too. As more witnesses came forward, Chen Zheng narrowed the target to Building 5. The building had seven floors and housed guesthouses and e-commerce businesses. Only three units were not used commercially, and 7-2 was highly suspicious. Special Police surrounded the building. Chen Zheng forced the door and found two women hiding inside. They stared at him with hatred, immediately reminding him of the hostile gaze he had felt while inspecting the vehicle.
The apartment had three bedrooms and a living room. It had previously been a massage parlor, and massage tables and other equipment were still stacked along the walls. After searching, Special Police confirmed there was no one inside besides the two women, and Lü Ou certainly was not there. But in one room they found something that instantly put everyone on edge: three entire boxes of cursed dolls sealed in transparent plastic bags. If police had not identified Xu Xinghao, even more cursed dolls might have flowed into the schools.
The women were already handcuffed. Chen Zheng asked, “Where is Yu Zhenxiao?”
Only venomous stares answered him.
Chen Zheng found phones and computers. “You were the ones messaging your accomplice, telling him to come back, then telling him to run when you realized things had gone wrong, weren’t you? You think staying silent makes you safe? Jiang Luoqing is already in my hands. If I could find this place, I’m not worried about getting you to talk.”
His rare harshness even startled the crime scene examiner who had just arrived. The women’s eyes began to shift. They were afraid after all.
Chen Zheng said, “The car downstairs went to Yeping Street to intercept Lü Ou. If I’m right, Lü Ou is somewhere on Tushu Street too. Talk now, and you still have a chance.”
One of the women could not withstand the pressure. Trembling, she said, “I… I’ll take you there.”
Her accent immediately marked her as foreign, though her appearance was indistinguishable from the locals. She was very young, no more than twenty, and dressed much like an ordinary high-school student. The hatred and fear in her eyes, however, separated her from other people her age.
She pointed toward a side lane off Tushu Street and said in an unpracticed local dialect, “He’s there.”
The side lane was lined with food shops and handicraft stores. It had once been busy, but if even the main street had declined, an easily overlooked lane like this had suffered an even worse wave of closures. The place the woman indicated was a storefront with a tattoo sign hanging outside. Other shops at least allowed people to glimpse part of their interiors through the glass, but this tattoo shop was sealed so completely that not even a mouse looked capable of escaping.
Onlookers were kept outside the lane. Chen Zheng remained highly cautious, worried that the woman might be leading police into a trap. Only after officers searched the surrounding area did he allow Special Police to approach the storefront. They forced open the metal door with a piercing crash. The sky outside was overcast, yet to whoever was inside, the flood of daylight was still blinding.
In one corner, a mass of shadow shifted and a faint sound emerged. Special Police cautiously swung their weapons toward it, but Chen Zheng stopped them. It was a black cloth draped over something. More precisely, someone.
Chen Zheng approached and pulled the cloth away. A boy was bound hand and foot, his mouth sealed, and barely alive. Yet he was still conscious. Though he probably could not clearly see who had come, his eyes locked onto Chen Zheng and he struggled with all the strength he had left.
Chen Zheng cut through the restraints and pulled Lü Ou into his arms. “I’m Chen Zheng. It’s all right. You’re safe!”
Lü Ou was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment. Elsewhere, Ming Han brought the man hiding in the residential building back to Beiye Sub-bureau.
Lü Ou was extremely weak. He had been injected with an excessive amount of anesthetic and had not been fed, so he had not yet regained consciousness. The two women Chen Zheng found were named A-Ping and A-Li. Neither had legal household registration.
A-Li continued glaring at the police with hatred and refused to answer questions. A-Ping admitted that she worked under Jiang Luoqing. She was twenty-one and did whatever Jiang told her. She said she did not understand whether things counted as crimes or not. She only wanted to live like an ordinary person.
The man Ming Han brought back was Qian Qibin, thirty years old. Once police checked him, they discovered he was an old acquaintance. He had already served two prison terms for intentional assault and fraud. After his most recent release two years earlier, the local police station had monitored him for a time. He had behaved well, only to become entangled in a far more serious criminal network.
Qian Qibin confessed that he merely did jobs for Jiang Luoqing. Jiang paid him a “salary.” Whoever Jiang told him to watch, he watched. Jiang had also told him that if he handled this job well and the people above approved of him, they would send him abroad to live comfortably. What exactly “this job” was as a whole, Qian could not explain at all.
Ming Han asked, “Were you the one who abducted Lü Ou?”
Qian Qibin hurriedly waved his hands. “Brother Jiang did that! I only drove for Brother Jiang and watched the kid!”
Ming Han said, “Then why did you run? Who told you to?”
Qian Qibin pulled a miserable face. “Brother Jiang had already been arrested. A-Li said the police had traced things to Tushu Street and told me to come back and move the kid. Halfway there, she called again and said I couldn’t go back because the place was crawling with police. How could I not run?”
Ming Han asked, “Didn’t you say you take orders from Jiang Luoqing? Why were you taking orders from A-Li?”
Qian Qibin explained that when he met Jiang Luoqing, those two girls were already with him. They looked pretty ruthless. When Jiang was not around, Qian listened to them, especially A-Li.
Ming Han asked what Jiang Luoqing meant by “the people above.” Qian said he did not know. Ming Han asked, “You know nothing and you still dared work for Jiang Luoqing?”
Qian said, “What choice did I have? He paid well. And what if he really could send me abroad? I sure as hell don’t want to go back to prison.”
Ming Han said, “Then what about Liu Wenran? Where is she?”
Qian Qibin looked genuinely confused. “Who’s that?”
Ming Han said, “You’re still pretending?”
“I’m not pretending! I really don’t know who that is!”
In another interrogation room, Chen Zheng was questioning A-Ping. Calmly, she said Liu Wenran was already dead, though she did not know who killed her. Yu Zhenxiao might still be alive. Not long ago, she too had been held on Tushu Street, but A-Ping said she did not know where Yu had later been taken.
Police recovered some communication devices and two jammers from several of the group’s hideouts. The encrypted information on the devices would take time to crack, while the jammers were very likely the equipment used to disrupt No. 10 Middle School’s surveillance system.
“To the people behind Jiang Luoqing, these three may be disposable tools, just like Xu Xinghao.” Ming Han’s voice was cold. “They’re still alive only because no one has gotten around to killing them yet.”
Chen Zheng finished reading the statements from Ming Han’s side and prepared to enter the interrogation room. “At least it’s something. We can’t be accused of ‘framing’ Jiang Luoqing anymore.”
It was the same interrogation room, but Jiang Luoqing now wore an entirely different face. The gentle, courteous mathematics teacher was gone, replaced by a man with obsession and malice burning in his eyes. “That Lü brat ruined my plan!”
Chen Zheng said, “Qian Qibin and A-Ping have already told us what you did. You abducted and harmed Lü Ou. Hao Le, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?”
Jiang Luoqing, or rather, Hao Le, twisted his features. “What do you mean?”
Chen Zheng said, “Was I not clear enough? I. Do not. Use. Children. You’re wondering why Lü Ou noticed you? Because he’s smart. Even smarter than you.”
Hao Le’s hand scraped against the tabletop with a sound that made the teeth ache. His neck stretched forward as though something were about to force its way out of his throat.
“Why did you abduct Lü Ou? Because deep down, you were wary of him, weren’t you? This was clearly outside your plan, yet you did it anyway,” Chen Zheng said. “If he hadn’t disappeared, you really could have stayed hidden longer.”
Hao Le drew in a deep breath, his smile strange. “You’re saying he’s a genius far beyond me? That I lost to a child?”
Chen Zheng said, “Frankly, I’m an ordinary man. I don’t understand the competitiveness of people gifted at mathematics. I don’t care which of you won or lost. All I see is that you’re the prisoner now.”
Hao Le’s eyes darkened. He lowered his head and said nothing.
“Where are Liu Wenran and Yu Zhenxiao?” Chen Zheng asked.
Hao Le scoffed, making his refusal to cooperate obvious.
There was undoubtedly a vast criminal network behind Hao Le, but finding Liu Wenran and Yu Zhenxiao was more urgent now. Chen Zheng had no choice but to set Hao Le aside temporarily and search for clues through Qian Qibin, A-Ping, and A-Li.
“I really don’t know!” Qian Qibin shouted. “Teacher Jiang never assigned me that job. You can beat me to death and I still won’t have anything to tell you!”
A-Ping said flatly that Teacher Jiang had personally taken Yu Zhenxiao away from Tushu Street. She did not know where he took her.
A-Ping was the most willing of the three to cooperate with police and also seemed to resent Jiang Luoqing the most. If even she did not know, the chances that the other two knew or were willing to tell them were even smaller.
Technical investigators were extracting clues from the communication devices. The data had been almost completely destroyed. They could confirm only that Hao Le had contacted certain people. Who those people were and what they discussed could not be recovered.
Building on the extensive canvassing, detectives found two more bases used by Hao Le’s group. Like the apartment on Tushu Street, both were hidden inside old residential buildings. The hideouts contained some daily necessities, but there was no trace of Liu Wenran or Yu Zhenxiao.
Just as the rescue effort hit a dead end, A-Li, who had shown intense hostility toward the police from the moment she was arrested, suddenly spoke. “Yu Zhenxiao isn’t dead. I know where she is. I can take you there.”