Chapter 101: Suspected Spies

“Foreigners?”

Xiao Yu was holding a personal file.  To be precise, it was a file on a Chinese expatriate.

Foreign name: Joey. Chinese name: also Joey.

Out of all the off-road vehicle drivers investigated, Joey was one of them, holding an international driver’s license.

The police had already found and checked all the other individuals. Only Joey, who had a hotel booking, happened to be out all night on the day of the prison break and had not returned to the hotel since then.

They also found records of Joey renting an off-road vehicle from a car rental agency.

An off-road vehicle.

Joey was not alone when he came to Bencheng from abroad. He had a companion with him, a Caucasian.

An unusual gleam flashed in Xiao Yu’s eyes.

Two people?

Including Yang Zhichao, Yu Hongmei, Ma Hexuan, and Lu Jia, there were exactly six people.

At the scene where Yu Hongmei was killed, Xiao Yu had detected the scent of six people. In addition to the smell of disinfectant on Ma Hexuan and Lu Jia, Xiao Yu had also smelled three strange scents.

Could these so-called strange scents be the scent of foreigners?

Different ethnicities and places of residence resulted in different body odors.

When Xiao Yu first smelled those three strange scents, he was puzzled. It was a scent he had never encountered before.

To verify his hypothesis, Xiao Yu headed straight to the hotel.

Xiao Yu had the hotel open the rooms of Joey and the Caucasian named Grandi. When he activated his Monarch Butterfly’s nose, his face turned cold and stern.

‘So, it was you.’

This brought up a puzzling question for Xiao Yu. What exactly was on that portable hard drive? Was it really just an artificial intelligence software?  Did it attract foreigners to commit murder for it?

Considering that Yang Zhichao had a similar scent to that of foreigners, Xiao Yu, with a somber expression, re-examined Yang Zhichao’s file.

Yang Zhichao had gone abroad with his parents as a child but never changed his nationality. He returned to China at 23 to live and settle down. He had no formal job, was idle, had many friends, and never lacked money.

At this moment, Xiao Yu’s mind seemed to be electrified. Numerous information molecules boiled and flashed by.

Many previously overlooked details surfaced.

“Spy?!” Xiao Yu said the word with a cold, uncertain expression.

Spies came in many forms. Some served certain countries. Some served certain corporations. And some served private interests.

Could Yang Zhichao be a spy? 

Otherwise, why would he collude with foreign nationals and commit these acts for a portable hard drive?

Well, a hasty conclusion couldn’t be made. Given the limited information, it was time to call in the professionals.

“List them as suspects and proceed with the arrests,”

After issuing this order to the police, Xiao Yu looked at a national security officer with a peculiar expression, “Notify your boss, we have a suspected spy.”

Who was best at catching spies?

The National Security.

Five minutes later, Xiao Yu’s phone rang.

“Are you sure they’re spies?” Wang Dong’s tone was cold.

“Brother Wang, I’m just a lowly police officer,” Xiao Yu responded irritably. “You’re with national security. Is it really appropriate for you to ask me such a professional question?”

However, if Yang Zhichao and those two foreign individuals really were spies, the thought was chilling.

Why? Because anything that attracted the attention of spies was far from simple.

“Try not to let them escape. Our people will get there as soon as possible.” 

Wang Dong, feeling a bit embarrassed, tried to cover it with his words. 

Seriously? A national security officer asking a lowly police officer about spies? Where was the dignity?

“The situation is pretty serious. You better hurry up,” Xiao Yu replied, contemplating. “I’ll do my best to keep them from escaping.”

That was all he could promise. He wasn’t entirely confident. 

Having lived two lives, this was Xiao Yu’s first encounter with suspected spies. He had no idea what their capabilities might be.

***

The arrest operation continued. The two escaped convicts, Yang Zhichao, and the two foreign nationals had vanished into thin air within the city.

Xiao Yu was puzzled.

Putting aside everything else, those two foreigners—didn’t they want to return to their country? One of them was a Caucasian, easy to spot. How could they hide?

Just as he was getting a headache, something unexpected happened.

Lu Jia was dead.

“Damn!” Xiao Yu cursed and quickly arrived at the scene.

Seeing the body, the forensic doctor provided the autopsy report: the deceased had been dead for two days. 

Cause of death: strangulation by rope, leading to asphyxiation.

How was Lu Jia’s body discovered?

The body was discovered by city sewage maintenance workers. Someone had called for maintenance, and when the workers inspected the area, they were nearly scared to death upon seeing the corpse and called the police.

“Retrieve the surveillance footage from inside and outside the residential area.” 

Xiao Yu coldly eyed the nearby residential complex.

Could they be hiding here? Or was this just a place to dump the body?

“It’s an old residential area. Difficult to investigate, and there are too few surveillance cameras,” a detective shook his head. “The perpetrator probably considered this and chose this spot to dispose of the body.”

Xiao Yu nodded. The seasoned detective’s reasoning was spot on. The perpetrator wasn’t stupid. Even a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its burrow. The likelihood of dumping the body nearby was very low.

However…

Xiao Yu’s eyes flickered. 

Precisely because everyone would think this, could the perpetrator be using this to their advantage? Would they dare to hide in plain sight?

Xiao Yu surveyed the surroundings. Residential buildings on two sides, with a road in the middle. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Go door to door and see if any households have surveillance cameras that might capture footage of the area below,” Xiao Yu ordered.

Nowadays, surveillance equipment was widespread among civilians. Many households had cameras. But the chances of them facing outward were slim, as most were used to monitor the interior to prevent theft, or to monitor the building to prevent objects from being thrown out of windows. Of course, some people had peculiar habits—those in the know, know.

But what if?

Such a clue couldn’t be overlooked.

The police began going door to door, asking if any households had surveillance equipment that could capture footage of the area below.

The result was… like opening a bottle cap to find a surprise prize!

It turned out there was indeed an oddball who had a surveillance camera mounted on his window, facing outward.

What was he filming?

A recluse was recording the schedule of a goddess living in the building opposite his.

All recluses know that goddesses were seen but unattainable. But it didn’t stop them from admiring.

Here comes the moment of public embarrassment for the young recluse.

Xiao Yu glanced at the young man, whose face was bright red, then looked down at his computer. Ignoring the section of the hard drive labeled with a terabyte of “wife” videos, he focused on the section containing the surveillance footage.

There were plenty of surveillance videos, all capturing the building across the street, including footage from two nights ago.

Because it was so dark, even with streetlights, the video was very blurry. 

But…

Around 3 AM, a tall figure appeared. This person was definitely over 1.85 meters tall, with a body built like a mountain. He was carrying a large suitcase, walking into the video frame. Then he stood by the sewer manhole, smoking a cigarette. 

No, he was surveying the surroundings.

Ten minutes later, he opened the sewer manhole cover. He opened the suitcase and threw down a curled-up…

Corpse!