Chapter 43: Chapter 42: Make the Arrest
"Captain Li, Captain Li, what are your thoughts on the killer in this case?"
"Have the police identified a suspect? Can you share any details about the investigation?"
"What’s your take on the three deceased? Is it true their souls returned at midnight?"
"Captain Li, please give us a direct answer to our questions..."
"Can the police give us a clear answer? Or a precise timeline for the arrest? The people of Sishui County are in a state of panic. What are the police doing...?"
"..."
Outside the police station, Li Jianye’s face was grim. Countless cameras, like an arsenal of long guns and short cannons, were shoved in his face.
He was surrounded by reporters who faced their own cameras, their backs to him, chattering away about who-knows-what for their broadcasts.
Li Jianye’s gaze swept back and forth across the faces of a few of the reporters.
’Journalism has really gone downhill.’
’Details of the case? Is that something they can just ask about?!’
’A precise timeline for an answer?’
’Are they trying to force me to put my own neck on the line?!’
These people were the perfect example of "fortune favors the bold."
They didn’t care if they were hated for it; reporters were always on the move anyway. Even if they got arrested, it would only be for a day or two, and they could spin the arrest into another story. But if one of them actually got an answer from Li Jianye to such a pointed question...
...then they would have hit the jackpot!
"We have some theories regarding the suspect’s identity..."
"As for a timeline... The police will do everything in our power to investigate this case. I ask the public to rest assured. The police will be by your side, protecting you around the clock."
"There are no returning souls. That’s just superstition. We must trust the official word..."
He took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice, reciting his lines.
At the same time, Li Jianye’s eyes surreptitiously scanned the surroundings.
The entrance to the police station was packed with gawking onlookers—a sea of heads. Even with a detailed file on the target, finding them in this crowd would be no easy task.
Thirteen minutes... had passed.
Li Jianye’s heart sank. He opened his mouth and continued to field questions from the reporters, recalling Xu Huo’s instructions to steer the conversation toward the killer.
"The police believe the perpetrator of this crime..."
In a corner of the crowd.
Several young men in plain clothes were squatting on the ground, looking bored. Chewing on foxtail grass, they had the air of a few local punks.
"What’s the situation on the ground?"
Xu Huo asked casually, his eyes wandering around as if just making small talk.
"The K-9 unit hasn’t found anything unusual."
Zhao Shui, who was leaning against a utility pole nearby, answered without expression. He paused, then added:
"There are too many scents here, all kinds of people. Even if he’s here, the dogs might not be able to pick him out right away."
A triple homicide...
It was too big!
The entire municipal bureau was taking it extremely seriously. Even the provincial authorities had turned their attention this way.
The municipal bureau had requested K-9 units from the province. They had arrived early this morning and were deployed by noon, but so far, they had found nothing.
Thirty minutes... had passed.
Among the crowd, several plainclothes officers were growing restless. Their eyes darted back and forth, and their breathing grew a little heavier.
It had been thirty minutes. That left only four and a half hours until 5:00 PM, their predicted time for the next crime...
"Wait."
Xu Huo’s voice was low, his eyes like a razor blade slicing through the surrounding crowd.
"This operation is running on two fronts. We’ve mobilized most of Sishui County’s police force. Besides this lure point, we have teams conducting a rapid grid search radiating out from the internet cafe."
Zhao Shui understood this, and he nodded glumly.
Xu Huo offered no more reassurances. He controlled his impatience and remained squatting, his eyes peering through the gaps in the crowd, constantly shifting his point of focus.
’Is he here?’
The police didn’t know, but Xu Huo knew that whether the target was here or not, if they lost their cool now and did something drastic, it would... inevitably alert him!
This was a psychological game, a battle between the target’s primal self-preservation instincts and the police!
Xu Huo centered himself.
The time was now 12:43 PM.
The sun still blazed in the sky, baking the ground below.
The reporters were still spewing their endless questions, and sweat streamed down Li Jianye’s forehead, soaking the towel he used to wipe it.
But inside, Zhao Shui and the others felt as gloomy as the bottom of an old, dark well.
...
「The time reached 1:00 PM.」
Zhao Shui couldn’t take it anymore. He got up and began to move through the crowd.
Xu Huo remained at his post, squatting. A sense of scorching anxiety hung in the air.
...
「1:20 PM.」
Having gotten their soundbites, some reporters began to leave, peeling away from the crowd.
The target still hadn’t appeared.
Xu Huo stood up, scanning the area.
...
「1:30 PM.」
Xu Huo raised his hand and glanced at his watch, then turned his gaze back to the throng of reporters.
The target still wasn’t here.
Or rather, the police hadn’t found any sign of him yet.
"This shouldn’t be happening. It’s not right. Based on the timeline, if the public outcry pushed him to kill ahead of schedule, a fourth murder would most likely occur between morning and 2:00 PM."
Xu Huo murmured, his heart growing heavier.
"Since a fourth murder hasn’t surfaced, unless he’s already committed it and we just haven’t found it, it can only mean he’s busy with something else."
"The only things he could be doing are either committing another murder or coming to the bait scene..."
"There’s no new murder, so it has to be the bait scene. But where is he...?"
Xu Huo took a deep breath, his brow furrowed as he looked back and forth at his surroundings.
Reporters were starting to leave the crowd. If the killer didn’t show up now, it meant the lure drawing him here was gradually disappearing.
The police dog, disguised as a pet, weaved around people’s feet, sniffing continuously as it roamed the area.
’Damn it, I’ll force your hand!’
Suddenly, Xu Huo gritted his teeth. He walked into a small alley, took out his walkie-talkie, and spoke into it in a low voice.
"Start dismissing the reporters. Small groups, make it look natural,"
he ordered.
There was a brief pause on the other end of the radio, then the reply came: "Yes, sir."
With that, Xu Huo walked out of the alley, folded his arms, and breathed deeply.
The number of onlookers in the area gradually thinned.
Li Jianye had released plenty of information, and some of the reporters who had been loitering began to leave.
A stir went through the officers hidden in the crowd; a sense of unease was starting to set in.
Until...
Suddenly, Xu Huo’s eyes snapped open. He sniffed the air.
The police dog, which had been walking with its head down and sniffing the ground, stopped dead in its tracks. A second after Xu Huo turned his head, the dog snapped its head up.
Man and dog both stared at the same spot.
There, a man was standing in a baseball cap and a surgical mask.
He was about five-foot-nine with a medium build. He kept passing in front of the reporters’ cameras, as if by accident, and his gaze wasn’t focused on Captain Li in the center of the crowd, nor on the reporters, but on...
...the heavy camera lenses themselves.
’He’s here!’
"Team One and Team Three, move in. Disperse the civilians, quietly."
Suppressing his excitement, Xu Huo quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie. He kept his eyes locked on the target as he spoke in a low voice.
"...The target is here!?" Zhao Shui’s voice came back, and after a pause, his pupils contracted.
"Eleven o’clock. The one in the hat."
Xu Huo said, starting to walk.
"Team Two, surround him with me."
With that, Xu Huo put away his walkie-talkie and walked toward the target.
A group of plainclothes officers moved through the crowd from different directions and different corners, all converging on the same spot.
Xu Huo paced the target, walking slowly, staying just a short distance behind him.
"TAP... TAP... TAP..."
The sound of footsteps, of breathing, of heartbeats—they were all crystal clear, ringing in his ears.
Until...
The man in front of him froze. He stopped walking, as if he sensed something. He was silent for a moment, and then the next second...
He broke into a frantic sprint!
"SON OF A BITCH!"
Zhao Shui roared in a low voice, dropping his cover and furiously breaking into a chase.
But someone was even faster.
A black shadow suddenly shot past him like a bolt of lightning, weaving through every gap in the crowd.
He dodged and weaved, at times leaping into the air, at others using obstacles to vault right over people’s heads!
It was Xu Huo.
[Parkour Level 5!]
Zhao Shui was dumbfounded. The police dog was stunned. Man and dog, their minds a complete blank, just kept chasing mechanically.
It wasn’t until a voice shouted in his ear that he snapped back to his senses.
"Make the arrest!"
...
...
P.S.
I was looking at the comments, and some people are saying the synopsis is a lot like *Genius*, and there are issues with the title and the content.
Actually, if you just click and read the content, you’ll see it has nothing to do with *Genius*.
The reason for this is... my synopsis keeps getting rejected.
That’s right. Rejected.
This damn synopsis and this damn book title haven’t been able to pass the review process since I started the book. I changed the title two or three times before I was forced to settle on this one. The synopsis has never once been approved, from start to finish.
Eventually, I got desperate and had no choice but to use this one.
The original synopsis was twice as long, but I had to delete the other half. Anyone who’s read the synopses for my old books should know I usually split them into two paragraphs: one for the setting, and one for the plot. The entire second half introducing the plot got deleted...
This is all I can do. I’ll change it whenever I can think of something that’ll get approved. For now, we’re stuck with it.
[P.P.S. You can only submit this damn synopsis for review once every seven days. And each time, it gets rejected within two hours. I waited fourteen days and failed both times, so I just gave up applying.]
[As for other things, it’s about getting reads during the new book period. Please, guys, keep up with the latest Chapters. It’s going to go premium in a few days, and I promise a mass release when it does. Please don’t stockpile Chapters during the new book period! I’m begging you! QAQ]
Attached Image: