Chapter 1 One Day Later

One day later, Montre Avenue in Bashi, Second District.

Five cars stopped. Zhou Xian, along with seven or eight members of the investigation team and local police officers, walked towards an ordinary supermarket called Ba Ke.

Before arriving in the Second District yesterday, Zhou Xian had specifically completed the procedures for handling cases across districts. Relevant personnel contacted the police department in Bashi, requesting their assistance in the investigation.

The group crossed the street and entered the Ba Ke supermarket. Zhou Xian stood at the entrance, surveying the interior. He discovered that it was actually a Chinese-funded supermarket; the owner and the delivery employees were all Chinese.

Zhou Xian exchanged a few words with the local investigators in French. They dispatched a white officer who went to the front of the cashier counter to speak with the owner.

The supermarket was not particularly large, only about two hundred square meters. Zhou Xian walked in from the entrance and strolled around the interior.

Many of the goods in this supermarket had labels with special product brands from the Hua District, such as instant noodles, water, and alcohol.

Zhou Xian came to a shelf and looked up at the betel nuts displayed on it. Seeing that there were also Zui Xiangtan brand ones, he picked up a bag, examined it carefully, and compared it to the photos stored in his phone. There was almost no difference between the two.

At the bar counter.

After the local police officer showed his credentials, a Chinese man from the investigation team said to the owner, "Can I see the surveillance footage from your store?"

"No problem!" The owner immediately nodded in agreement upon seeing the local police officer.

The person from the investigation team took out a supermarket receipt sealed in a plastic bag and handed it to the owner, saying, "Is this a shopping receipt from your store?"

The owner looked at it carefully, "Yes, it's from our store."

"Please retrieve the surveillance footage according to the shopping time on the receipt, so we can take a look," the person from the investigation team said politely.

"Okay, come with me!" The Chinese owner led the group to a small surveillance room.

...

About ten minutes later.

Zhou Xian and the others stood in the surveillance room, watching the owner operate the computer.

After a while, the owner stood up and pointed to the computer screen, saying, "At this time, this person bought things, three bags of betel nuts, some canned goods, instant noodles, and so on."

Zhou Xian bent down to look at the computer screen and saw a man standing outside the cashier counter, of medium build, wearing a baseball cap and a jacket, making it impossible to see his face clearly.

"How many surveillance cameras does your supermarket have?" A member of the investigation team asked for Zhou Xian.

"About six or seven in total, mostly filming the merchandise areas, only two at the entrance," the owner replied.

"Can you find me a shot of this person's face?" Zhou Xian turned to look at him, "This angle makes it a little hard to see his face clearly."

"Actually... I know this person," the owner said, hesitatingly.

Zhou Xian was stunned, "You know him?"

"Yes, Montre Avenue is like a small Chinatown. Many workers and technicians live here, so it's a small circle," the owner said softly, "This person often comes to our supermarket to buy things. I've seen him several times. I think his name is Hai Hai, and he used to work at the Ming Yue Tai Bar for a while!"

"Are you sure?"

"I should be sure because our store is open twenty-four hours," the owner nodded, "He and a few others often come to buy things late at night, and they probably live nearby."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"I don't know!" The owner shook his head, "I don't know him personally. It's just that he comes here often, and those people have called his name."

"Think back, after he bought things that day, did he come here again?" Zhou Xian asked again.

"No!" The owner thought carefully for a moment, "That was the last time he came to buy things."

...

Twenty minutes later.

Zhou Xian and the others left the Ba Ke supermarket and returned to the car.

"Di Ling Ling!"

A phone rang, and Zhou Xian pressed the answer button, "Hello?!"

"Team leader, we've finished checking the Nick Mountain store," the person on the phone said quickly, "We didn't find any useful clues. There are too many video surveillance images, and there's a lot of foot traffic in the store every day, so it's difficult to identify them without a specific time frame."

"Copy a surveillance video and bring it back for slow identification. I have some information here that you can compare it to," Zhou Xian replied.

"Okay, understood."

After speaking, the two ended the call. Zhou Xian gripped his phone and muttered softly, "Ming Yue Tai Bar! That sounds like a store opened by Chinese people."

"What do you think, should we go there directly?" The person in the passenger seat asked.

"No, no!" Zhou Xian waved his hand, "Bars are full of all sorts of people. Going there rashly will only alert the enemy!"

"It's very obvious," the person in the passenger seat immediately replied, "This Hai Hai is either the person who shot Yang Gang, and didn't return to the Second District after finishing the job, or he's an intermediary, and had contact with the gunman. I estimate that he's not here anymore."

Zhou Xian paused for a moment, "Tonight, have them go there tonight and investigate secretly!"

"No problem!"

"Oh, no!" Zhou Xian immediately waved his hand, "Like this! Coordinate with the local police later and have them find an excuse to summon someone who knows Hai Hai and bring him in for questioning!"

"This is a good method, good, I'll take care of it!" The person in the passenger seat replied.

...

Nothing happened during the day.

Zhou Xian and the others stayed in the hotel, identifying the surveillance footage from the Nick Mountain store.

Around nine o'clock in the evening, Zhou Xian had just finished eating when the investigation team and the local police returned to the hotel together, along with a man in his late twenties who was handcuffed.

Zhou Xian was very surprised to see everyone and asked softly, "Did you arrest someone who committed a crime?"

"Hehe, yeah!" The person from the investigation team replied with a smile, "He's selling medicine in the store!"

Zhou Xian walked up to the man and asked him softly, "Do you know Hai Hai?"

The man hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly, "I know him!"

"How many days have you not seen him?" Zhou Xian asked again.

"He hasn't worked at Ming Yue Tai for a long time, but we had contact before," the man paused for a moment, "If I tell you, can you not detain me?"

"That depends on what you say," Zhou Xian bent down and sat down, picking up a cigarette case and asking, "Want one?"

"Thank you!"

Five minutes later, the group sat in the living room, chatting with the man.

"Hai Hai used to be a pimp at Ming Yue Tai, always hanging out with us, but later he followed a new boss and stopped doing that," the man said, smoking a cigarette, "That kid was a soldier and knows how to fight. The big boss took a fancy to him."

"What big boss?" Zhou Xian asked.

"His new boss!" The man paused for a moment, "That person is also a regular at Ming Yue Tai, his name is Xin Xiaoming!"

"What's his name?" Zhou Xian was stunned for a moment and immediately asked.

"His name is Xin Xiaoming!"

"……!" Zhou Xian's heart skipped a beat when he heard the name. He knew he had finally caught a big lead.

...

Somewhere in the Second District.

Hai Hai was locked in the basement, yelling at the top of his lungs, "What exactly do you want to do?! Who exactly are you people?!"