Chapter 316: Dashcam

So you actually have a discovery? What discovery?

As soon as the words finished, Xu Mo pointed at the computer screen, operating while saying, "Look, these frames captured by the roadside monitors show the route a victim passed yesterday… This is the day before yesterday, and this is the day before that."

Wang Dachuan followed Xu Mo's line of thought, looked at the recent footage, and nodded.

So this victim walks this stretch every day… but that's useless, it can't help us solve the case, can it?

"It's useless." Xu Mo first nodded, then continued, "But I haven't finished. The videos Han Team gave us only show the victim's last appearance on a camera. That alone isn't enough; we don't know the exact spot where the victim was abducted, because the cameras there are sparse, with many blind spots. Once the victim leaves the camera's range, we don't even know which direction they went…"

"So I checked the other cameras around that one, reconstructed the route the victim passes every night, and from those feeds pinpointed the approximate location where the victim was abducted—that stretch of road… The unmonitored segment is about fifty to sixty meters long."

Wang Dachuan listened with a clouded mind.

So?

Even knowing this, isn't it still useless…

Even if we know the victim was kidnapped on that stretch, isn't it still a dead end?

There's no surveillance on that stretch, so even knowing this, does it really help the investigation at all?

Seeing Wang Dachuan still looking puzzled, Xu Mo gave an explanation.

"That stretch has no cameras, but it's not only surveillance cameras that can capture footage; many devices can record video, such as a car's dashcam."

After speaking, he pulled up another piece of footage and pointed to the lower right corner, where a car's rear end happened to be captured.

"The spot directly in front of that car's front is the stretch where the victim was kidnapped; if the car is equipped with a 24‑hour continuous dashcam, its footage might help us solve the case."

"You want to use that car's dashcam to help us solve the case?" Wang Dachuan leaned in toward the screen. "But this surveillance didn't capture the license plate clearly; the image is a bit blurry."

If the video is too blurry to see, we can use technical means to make it clearer.

Xu Mo is a hacker, so he obviously knows that.

"I downloaded a program and am transcoding the video; after transcoding, the picture quality will improve dramatically. Don't mind the current blur on the license plate—once it's done, we should see it clearly."

"It can do that?" Wang Dachuan widened his eyes, looking shocked.

Blurry video can be clarified by transcoding? Can the mosaic be removed… Wang Dachuan suddenly thought of something huge: "What's the software you're using for that transcoding? Can it remove the mosaic? I have a friend…"

Xu Mo: "???"

The mosaic you mentioned, is it a legitimate mosaic?

What kind of video even uses a mosaic!

"We're investigating… can you be serious!" Xu Mo tapped the desk with his finger.

Wang Dachuan's tone immediately softened: "I'm just asking for my friend… just asking…"

He sensed the atmosphere had become awkward.

Wang Dachuan quickly changed the subject.

"A dashcam stops recording as soon as the vehicle is turned off, right? In the footage the car's tail lights aren't even on, so the car was probably off at that moment, meaning it wouldn't have recorded anything."

"That's true…" Xu Mo shrugged. "There are rechargeable 24‑hour continuous dashcams on the market; some owners, to handle certain situations, do love to tinker. If this driver happened to have a 24‑hour continuous dashcam, we should check it—just give it a try, whether it works or not."

In fact, Xu Mo didn't need to explain this at all.

Wang Dachuan also owned a car, so he naturally knew about those 24‑hour continuous dashcams, because he used one himself.

He asked the question merely to shift the topic.

After all, he couldn't keep discussing how to remove the mosaic with Xu Mo forever…

Just then, the video Xu Mo had fed into the software finished transcoding.

He opened the transcoded video.

He again located the car that only showed a rear end in the footage.

Compared with before, the transcoded video's clarity had improved considerably.

Although the transcoded video was still short of true HD, it was barely enough to read the license plate.

"Yang 233… let me check!" Wang Dachuan became instantly excited.

He logged into the system and entered the plate number Yang 233 for a query.

"Found it. It's a Leiling, and the owner is a middle‑aged man. I'll give him a call."

With that, Wang Dachuan immediately took out his phone and dialed the mobile number listed for the Leiling's owner.

"Hello, this is the Yang City Police Bureau… no, I'm not a scammer."

As soon as the call connected, they thought he was a scammer.

After a lengthy explanation to the owner, they finally believed he was a police officer.

"It's like this, Mr. Li: does your car have a dash cam installed? The kind that runs continuously for twenty‑four hours? That's the one you have, right? Right, right... We really need it; could you provide the footage captured by your dash cam? It's related to a case the Police are currently investigating..."

A minute later, Wang Dachuan put down the phone.

"All set. This Big Brother is also enthusiastic; he even wants to come to our bureau in person to deliver the dashcam. I told him to bring it, but he refused."

He insisted on coming, probably still not fully convinced. If he showed up at the station and discovered I wasn't a police officer, he could report it on the spot… Xu Mo thought the anti‑scam campaigns of the past two years had become too effective; everyone's anti‑scam awareness was extremely strong!

They waited about half an hour.

A middle‑aged man with a crew cut, a beer belly, slightly plump, and somewhat tanned skin arrived at the police station.

After briefly explaining his purpose to a police officer, that officer led him to Wang Dachuan: "Dachuan, he's looking for you."

"Mr. Li, right? We just spoke on the phone. I'm Xiao Wang. Did you bring your dashcam?"

He thought to himself that it was indeed a police officer asking for the dashcam, not a scammer… luckily he had some composure and didn't start shouting, and even came to the station cautiously; otherwise the police would have been disheartened!

"Got it, got it, it's right here."