Su Kangxi felt a degree of sympathy for Lu Wencai after hearing his story, but regardless of the reasons, he was in the wrong and had seriously broken the law.
He asked, "Can you be a witness for the prosecution, to testify against those people and help us police bring them to justice?"
Lu Wencai hesitated and asked, "Can you really bring them to justice? Their entire group has a significant influence in Southeast Asia. I'm afraid, I'm afraid..."
"Evil cannot prevail over good. Now that we police are protecting you and your family, you have nothing to fear," Su Kangxi said. "Also, can you help the police there locate the secret place you mentioned? If you can provide clues, your girlfriend can be saved too."
Lu Wencai felt less afraid and tried to recall, "It's disguised as a small wooden cabin outside. To get inside, you have to open four security doors. That area should be a nature reserve. Even if you escape, without a prepared car, it's very difficult to get out of that reserve on foot. It's easy to get lost, and you might even encounter wild animals. I did think about trying to escape back then, but it was truly difficult, and if they caught me again, life would be worse than death..."
"I understand," Su Kangxi said. "If you agree to be a witness for the prosecution, I will report all these circumstances to my superiors truthfully and strive for leniency for you. What do you say?"
Lu Wencai gritted his teeth and finally nodded in agreement.
The next morning, after Su Kangxi and his colleague finished questioning Lu Wencai, his colleague happily said, holding the interrogation record, "With this, we can finally apply for an arrest warrant for Lü Yuanhong! That's great, all our hard work wasn't in vain!"
Su Kangxi was not as happy. He calmly said, "We can't apply for the arrest warrant yet. I have an informant whose whereabouts are currently unknown. If we issue an arrest warrant for Lü Yuanhong now, I fear that informant's life will be in danger. Let's wait two more days. Please don't disclose that we obtained Lu Wencai's confession to anyone for now."
His colleague understood and nodded. Arresting Lü Yuanhong was only a matter of time. If they could save the informant's life, they had to cooperate with Captain Su as much as possible.
...
In the darkness, Qin Tianyi emerged from the back door of the kitchen, dragging a bag of trash and piling it onto the trash bin.
There was no starlight or moonlight tonight. The alley was dark and dirty, the place where the row of bright shops in front disposed of their garbage.
He stood in the back alley for a while and saw several rats scurrying around, which made him feel disgusted.
However, at night, he could only leave Chef Achuan's sight for a short while when taking out the trash. He had been helping in the kitchen for two days and hadn't found an opportunity to contact Su Kangxi.
If he couldn't find an opportunity tonight, he would have to go with Brother Cheng to pick up the raw materials tomorrow night. At that time, he could only watch Brother Cheng destroy the materials, which would be equivalent to destroying Lü Yuanhong's evidence of crime. He was still unwilling.
Just as he felt tonight was another wasted opportunity, a beggar who scavenged for scraps walked into the alley. He slowly walked to a spot not far from Qin Tianyi and began searching through bottles and cans in the trash bin.
He suddenly had an idea. He walked towards the scavenging beggar, pushed the person against the wall, covered their mouth, and asked, "Do you have a mobile phone on you?"
The person was terrified, not knowing if they had encountered a robber or a ghost. They quickly mumbled and nodded.
Qin Tianyi said sternly, "Give it to me!"
The person rolled their eyes, glanced at their shirt pocket, and indicated that the phone was there.
Qin Tianyi reached out and took his phone, warning him, "I'll let you go now, don't shout. I just want to borrow your phone to make a call. I'll give you money."
The person blinked, indicating their willingness to cooperate.
Qin Tianyi then released him and made a shushing gesture.
The person, still very scared, whispered, "Brother, my phone isn't valuable, it's a very old model. Please let me go..."
Qin Tianyi took out several hundred-yuan bills and stuffed them into his hand, saying, "Don't worry, I'm not robbing you. I just want to borrow your phone."
"Ah." The person was stunned, holding the bills, thinking what a good deal this was.
"Go and stay over there. I'll return it to you as soon as I'm done," Qin Tianyi said, glaring at the person.
The person inadvertently looked at Qin Tianyi's ferocious and terrifying face, and was so scared that they thought they had encountered a ghost. They quickly ran far away and said, "Take this broken phone, it's yours." Then they ran off with the money Qin Tianyi had given them.
After running out of the alley without daring to catch their breath, they carefully examined the money under the bright streetlights. They realized it wasn't ghost money, but real currency, and felt it was too profitable, enough to buy a new phone.
Qin Tianyi was even better off seeing the person run away. He quickly went to a deserted corner and dialed Su Kangxi's phone, hoping he would answer this time.
After several rings, Su Kangxi finally answered, "Hello."
"Xiao Su, it's me," Qin Tianyi said in a low voice, speaking very quickly.
Su Kangxi recognized Qin Tianyi and asked excitedly, "Are you alright? Where are you?"
"I'm fine," Qin Tianyi said, unable to say too much at the moment. He urgently said, "The raw materials Lü Yuanhong mentioned will arrive tomorrow night at Longwang Temple Pier."
"Okay. Su Kangxi quickly said to him, "Actually, it's not necessary anymore. Someone among those arrested at the factory is willing to be a witness. You should still find an opportunity to escape from those people and wait for us police to arrest them."
"Is that person reliable? Will they recant? I think the more evidence, the safer. Otherwise, this whole effort will be in vain..." Before Qin Tianyi could finish speaking, he saw the kitchen door shaking. Someone was likely about to come out.
He quickly hung up, turned off his phone, and threw it into the nearby trash can.
He saw Chef Achuan come out, look around, and call out to him, "A'ban, does it take this long to throw out the trash? Where are you?"
"I'm here," Qin Tianyi said, holding a lit cigarette between his fingers and waving it at him. "I wanted to smoke a couple of cigarettes here, and I'm only on my second one."
Achuan said, "Stop smoking. Do you want to finish work tonight or not? There's still a lot of cleaning to do in the kitchen. Come in quickly."
"Okay," Qin Tianyi said, throwing away the cigarette in his hand and stomping it out. He quickly followed Achuan back into the kitchen.
The call suddenly dropped. Su Kangxi called the number that had dialed him, but the line was already switched off.
He didn't know how Qin Tianyi had escaped danger, nor did he know where Qin Tianyi was. But it seemed that Qin Tianyi would appear at that pier tomorrow night.
He had to deploy police forces to intercept the raw materials. But now, he needed to immediately check the phone number Qin Tianyi had called from to see if he could determine Qin Tianyi's current location.