Chen Shi thought for a while and said, "I have an idea."

He drove the car in a circle and parked behind the China Construction Bank, avoiding the scope of the man’s view. Then Chen Shi stopped a young man who was passing by. "Want to make some money? Help me get the item in the trash can opposite the bank. I’ll give you a hundred yuan."

The guy showed an expression of interest. "Something’s happening?! One hundred yuan is too little!"

Lin Dongxue showed him her badge. "We are the police, not bad guys. Please cooperate with us."

"It's not a bomb, is it?"

"Absolutely not."

"We’ll add three hundred!"

"Deal!"

The guy went off to fetch the item and kk said, "I’ll detour to the upstairs of the building opposite him and take a picture of the man so you can investigate him easily later on."

"Okay, but don't get caught."

"Taking photos secretly is my forte. I won't get caught. Wait for my good news." kk winked his eye at them before leaving,

Chen Shi said to Lin Dongxue, "It's useful to have brought this kid."

Lin Dongxue snorted, "He's just a petty trickster."

The guy they sent out rummaged in the trash can and brought back a box. He said, "I looked for quite some time but I’m not sure if this is it."

It was a small and slender iron box. They thought that a syringe would be inside when they opened it. Who knew there would only be a pin code for a supermarket locker? The supermarket was right next to them. Chen Shi thanked and paid him, saying, “They’re too vigilant."

"Why hasn't the little thief come back?"

The two looked over and their jaws dropped in surprise. They saw kk behind the window fighting with the man. They hurried across the road to the building, only to hear kk yelling, "Taste the wrath of my Nine Yin White Bone Claws!"[1]

The other party's wailing seemed to be due to getting his vital parts grabbed.

"Hoho, I’ve cut off your hopes for children and grandchildren!"

Then there was the sound of someone falling down.

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue hurried upstairs. This was an abandoned building waiting to be demolished. The upper floor had been cleared out. The suspicious person fell onto the floor and moaned. kk strutted arrogantly as if he was the victorious cock in a cockfight.

"Weren’t you just taking a few photos in secret?" Chen Shi said.

"This kid caught me, but I didn’t retreat. I would have been beaten to death if I didn't fight back." kk pointed to the ground, where there was an iron rod.

The suspicious person was a haggard young man. He sat up cross-legged, sneered, swiftly fished out a syringe and plunged it into his own arm. Chen Shi rushed over, but it was too late. He had already injected the entire tube of liquid into his vein and his eyes started to roll back.

Chen Shi was horrified. They were just selling drugs. Did they have to be so unyielding?

But he didn’t die. Instead, he displayed a drunken and idiotic expression. "Can’t... can't make up a reason to arrest me... gift you... gift you a... reason, hahahaha!"

It turned out that he had injected himself with drugs in front of the police.

They had never seen such a fierce criminal. Since he wanted to be arrested, they had no choice but to fulfill his wish. Lin Dongxue handcuffed him and took him downstairs. When they were exposed under the sun, Chen Shi suddenly said, "It's over! We were exposed!"

"How?"

Chen Shi looked around, "His accomplices must be around. He got himself arrested in order to send a signal to his accomplices!"

Chen Shi didn't say another word and rushed to the supermarket. It didn't matter if he was exposed. The point was to get the poison. However, when he opened the cabinet and found that it was empty, the feeling of having been manipulated made Chen Shi feel very discouraged.

The man was taken to the bureau, and he was quickly identified. His name was Lin Tao. He was an addict as well as a seller of illegal drugs. He had a bad record. Lin Tao remained in a psychedelic state after taking drugs and they couldn’t ask anything. He sat in the interrogation room and kept drooling. He giggled foolishly, "Hehehe, little stars... many little stars..."

Chen Shi was on the alert and had copied and taken away the surveillance footage when he left the supermarket. He confirmed that a few minutes before his arrival, someone who appeared very similar to Xu Fa had taken away the item in the locker.

The opponent was just too cautious!

Chen Shi speculated, "Lin Tao must have been working and selling the drug for Xu Fa. They will only make a deal after confirming that the person buying the drug isn’t suspicious. Lin Tao used his arrest to send a red flag to Xu Fa and let him take the drugs away. We’ve fallen short at the last hurdle!"

"Don't be discouraged. At least we indirectly proved that Xu Fa was involved in this case, and Geng Zhangle was most likely killed by the poison he sold."

"A syringe of poison costs 400,000 yuan, which is more profitable than drugs... Oh yes, 400,000 yuan. It’s also 400,000 yuan. Geng Zhangle's card is also missing 400,000 yuan! The murderer used the deceased's own account to pay for it, so we can't investigate the murderer through the account. How smart!"

"So it turns out that the four hundred thousand was lost like this... It seems that the murderer was someone who had been in contact with Geng Zhangle and took the card from him."

"Where did the money come from?"

"Cash deposit. Geng Zhangle deposited it by himself a few days ago. We can’t find out."

"Let's look for that card!"

In this regard, Chen Shi had little hope. It was only to confirm his own speculation. The two of them visited Geng Qing again the next day. She checked Geng Zhangle's belongings again, and the card was indeed missing.

Geng Qing said that her father left things around everywhere. This card was registered a long time ago and hadn’t been used. It was usually kept in the drawer.

Chen Shi said, "The card would only be left around carelessly if there is no money in the card. If this card had a large amount of money, he would carry it on his person, right? Has he received a large amount of money from someone recently?"

"No. Could it be Director Wei? He was here two days ago."

It seemed that Geng Qing didn't know about this, so Chen Shi asked, "Can I have a look at your father's belongings?"

"Yes, go ahead."

There were a few packs of cigarettes in the big cardboard box, which Geng Zhangle had received at his wedding banquet. He didn’t have the heart to smoke them. There were also some personal letters, which Chen Shi glanced at, but they had nothing to do with the case. There was also a medical record and some miscellaneous old objects.

He found a photo in an iron box. It was a photo of a youthful Geng Zhangle with a girl. The young man in the 1980s displayed a gaudy fashion sense. Geng Zhangle had a crew cut and was wearing sunglasses as well as flared pants. He posed as though he looked very cool.

The girl was wearing a white shirt, had her hair curled and was wearing a navy-blue skirt with suspenders as well as red leather shoes on her feet. The man and woman were standing and sitting respectively. The background was a photo studio backdrop with a landscape painted on it.

"This is my mother." Geng Qing said. "Wasn't she beautiful when she was young?"

"She was indeed really beautiful. Can I take a photo of this?"

"Go ahead!"

Chen Shi took the photo, and then found several unmarked discs. Chen Shi wanted to see their contents so Geng Qing found the old DVD player at home and connected it to the TV. Once they were played, the eyes of the three almost went blind. They turned out to be a few imported pornographic discs that had been collected by Geng Zhangle.

Thus, the DVD player was turned off hurriedly.

1. This is a martial arts move from The Legend of the Condor Heroes.