Chen Shi drank his tea. “Mr. Li, are you serious?”

Li Biao suddenly slapped his thigh and laughed. “What do you think?”

Lin Dongxue said, “We are not here to joke with you. We are criminal police. We’re currently investigating Liu Hong. It’ll only be a matter of time before we uncover everything. If you know anything, it’s better to tell us earlier. That would be favorable for the both of us!”

Chen Shi glanced at Lin Dongxue approvingly, as her speech was quite outstanding this time.

But Li Biao was acting like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water. “What would I know? I'm not him.”

“So it's all a coincidence that these people are all missing.”

“Why don't you ask him yourself?”

It seemed that this person was not going to tell the truth, so Chen Shi said, “Mr. Li, your walnuts are pretty cool!”

“You know your stuff!” Li Biao got excited. “These are called Mopan Meatballs. I have been playing[1] with them for years now.”

“I heard people say that playing walnuts can give you better health. Is that true?”

“That’s just a myth...”

Chen Shi actually talked to Li Biao for half a day regarding playing with walnuts. Li Biao was so happy that he left a business card before he left and said that he would discuss this together with him next time.

Leaving the tea room, Lin Dongxue said, “Dead ducks have hard beaks. He refused to say anything... How can you be so happy talking about something off-topic for two hours?”

“I did it on purpose!” Chen Shi explained. “The police talked to Li Biao for two hours. If Liu Hong knew this, what would he think? Without a flaw, we need to create a flaw ourselves. He’s killed 30 people. Do you think he can sleep at night? I don’t think so!”

Lin Dongxue was surprised. “Do you want to use Li Biao as a bait?”

“I have this plan, but I don’t plan to let him die. Your brother sent you two extra people. Including Xiaodong, they should drop everything on hand and just monitor Li Biao all day long to protect him. They need to bait the snake out of the cave.”

Xu Xiaodong heard that he needed to do a tedious job again and was reluctant. “Brother Chen, will this work?”

“Rest assured, it’ll work!” Secretly, Chen Shi thought to himself that this was just all down to luck.

When they got to the place where the car was dropped off, a street-sweeping aunty said, “You need to look after your car. There was a man circling around your car earlier.”

“A man? What did he look like?”

“Not tall. Looked pretty fierce.”

The three exchanged a surprised look. Chen Shi looked around. There was a security camera at the entrance of a convenience store next to them. They immediately went to the convenience store and asked to watch the surveillance footage.

In the footage, a man in a leather jacket appeared. He used a mobile phone to take pictures of the license plate and tires. Then, he rubbed his face with his hands and looked inside the car. In one shot, he showed the front of his face. It was actually Liu Hong.

Lin Dongxue said, “He actually came to check on us?!”

“He must have seen my car last night. This guy has a strong sense of anti-investigation!” Chen Shi said.

“Would there be a problem?”

“It's okay. I have nothing in the car, and I'm not a policeman.”

On this day, there was still no progress and everyone was a little depressed. If Liu Hong decided to stop his killing spree, they could only watch him as he lived his days out.

The next day, Lin Dongxue prepared to look up Liu Hong's information again along with his family members to see if she could find anything. Chen Shi went to Officer Liu's home again and tried digging for clues from the information.

The whole day passed by. In the evening, Chen Shi's eyes were a bit spent. Xu Xiaodong sent a message saying, “Liu Hong and Li Biao met again today. They met at Li Biao's house, but they pulled the curtains shut so we couldn’t see anything. Liu Hong stayed for three hours though.”

Lin Dongxue said in the group, “Liu Hong suspects Li Biao. Should we go to see him again?”

Chen Shi shot down the notion. “Don't rush. Li Biao has my contact information. If he really wants to find us, he will take the initiative to contact me.”

Lin Dongxue complained, “How depressing. When will there be progress?!”

Peng Sijue, who never spoke in the chat, suddenly uttered, “Don't complain in the group chat. It will detract from our morale. We need to create a rule saying that from today onwards, nobody can complain!”

Lin Dongxue was frightened and immediately agreed. “Okay, I'll pay attention next time!”

Chen Shi went to the parking lot to pick up the car. Just after starting the car, Liu Hong's Mazda passed by in front of him. Then, he reversed and got out of the car. He closed the door and came knocking on Chen Shi's window. Chen Shi rolled down his window. “What?”

“Who are you?”

“Why do you care who I am?”

Liu Hong sneered. “I’m familiar with someone from the vehicle administration office. I checked your license plate. You are an ordinary person. Why are you with the police? Why are you investigating me? Who was that young monk that day?”

Chen Shi silently took out his document and opened it with his fingers. Liu Hong looked at it and said, “Wow, consultant. How amazing!”

“Why do you care if I investigate you so much? Do you have a ghost in your heart?!”

Liu Hong pointed at himself with his thumb. “What if I killed someone? Even if I said this in front of you, what could you do to me?”

“Nothing much really.”

Liu Hong clapped his hands. “So, get lost! Stop trying to create a problem when there isn’t any and wasting taxpayer's money. No matter how you look, my background is very clean. It’s like a flawless piece of white jade. Do you understand?”

Chen Shi gritted his teeth and suddenly pushed the car door open forcing Liu Hong to back up step by step. “How long do you think you can stay arrogant for? Do you think we’d let you know when we find evidence against you? Let me give you a piece of advice. If God wanted to make someone perish, they’d first make that person crazy!”

“You think you can take me on?!” Liu Hong shoved Chen Shi.

“Oh, do it! If you don’t, you’re not a man!” Chen Shi provoked.

Liu Hong glanced at the recorder still on Chen Shi's car and suddenly plastered a smile on his face. He neatly adjusted the clothes for Chen Shi and said, “I was impulsive just now. I'm sorry. Really sorry. Why don’t you hit me instead?”

He's really cunning and can’t be fooled.

Liu Hong said with a smile, “There is still something going on at home, so I won’t speak with you further. Let’s have a meal together when we have time. Remember to bring your beautiful girlfriend as well.”

Liu Hong parked his car and walked away with a big bag. When he passed by, Chen Shi noticed that there was something in his bag that didn't seem to be used by him.

There was the word “Walmart” on the bag.

Chen Shi immediately called Lin Dongxue and asked, “Where are you?”

“At home, why haven't you come back yet? Yueyue and I ordered takeaway.”

“Do you have a picture of Liu Hong? I need to check something!”

“But I just ordered takeaway...”

“Go to the Xiuqiu Community. I'll wait for you at the door.”

Chen Shi waited at the gate of the community. Half an hour later, Lin Dongxue arrived. Chen Shi took her to a nearby Walmart without a word and took Liu Hong's photo on her mobile phone to ask every cashier.

“What did you see? Why did you suddenly come to the supermarket to investigate?”

“I bumped into Liu Hong and I noticed that there was something in his shopping bag he wouldn’t use for himself. I'm not sure though!”

Finally, a cashier said that the gentleman had just come by. After checking the information on the cash register, everything Liu Hong had bought was displayed. Chen Shi looked at the things bought line by line until his finger stopped. Lin Dongxue noticed that it was a pack of sanitary pads.

1. They usually twirl the two balls around in one hand and it’s meant to be good for you.