Chapter 288: New Clues!

The next few days.

While magicians all over the world were racking their brains over this magic trick of Chu Chen's, the Expert Group's investigation once again fell into a stalemate!

These past few days, they had been searching for clues according to the action plan formulated previously, investigating Chu Chen's whereabouts after his disappearance while simultaneously attempting to find a breakthrough for the entire case through those four Tarot Cards.

Their investigative direction was indeed correct.

But because the clues at hand were limited, there had been no progress.

This morning, the two groups gathered in the conference room once again to meet and discuss the next steps of action.

"Over the past few days, we have checked the surveillance footage of all major traffic arteries in Yanjing and the recent passenger lists for those entering and leaving the capital, but we have not found any trace of the suspect."

After Liu Xuemin finished speaking, Lin Xu took over the conversation: "Afterward, we contacted the traffic management departments of several provinces and cities near Yanjing, and included Jibei, Nanhe, Huanghai Island, and other places in this round of screening..."

As he spoke, Lin Xu picked up the remote control on the conference table, lit up the big screen, and pulled up the photos of three suspicious subjects:

"As of now, the entire screening work is basically nearing its end. Through this screening, we have discovered a total of three suspicious subjects. All three of these people escaped Yanjing through irregular means after Chu Chen disappeared, which highly coincides with the time the criminal suspect vanished..."

Immediately following, Wang Ruomei continued:

"At first, we suspected that one of these three people must have been impersonated by Chu Chen. For this reason, we specifically contacted the relevant local regulatory departments, but after investigation, the identities of these three people are all just ordinary fugitives, and they have no connection to Chu Chen."

"From this, we infer that he is likely still in Yanjing and has not fled to other provinces," concluded Zhu Guowei at last.

At this moment, the expressions of the several experts, including Li Changyu, were somewhat grave.

After they finished speaking, Li Changyu slowly opened his mouth: "Our investigation here has also yielded little result and has not achieved the expected effect..."

After he finished, Chen Zijin spoke up:

"We analyzed the meanings represented by those four Tarot Cards from various angles and attempted to find the relationship they have with this criminal theme, but because the clues are truly too few, and coupled with the fact that we know nothing about his next crime, we have no way to make effective deductions. Unless he commits another crime, otherwise, we will never be able to know what exactly he intends to do."

"Based on my understanding of him, the reason he did this—if it wasn't to provoke us—must have been to confuse our investigative line of sight. I truly cannot think of any connection between these four cards and the theme of theft..."

At this moment, even Chen Zijin, who was usually adept at deduction, felt a sense of powerlessness.

After he finished these words, the atmosphere of the entire meeting immediately became subtle.

After a brief silence, Shui Ge, who had not yet expressed an opinion, spoke:

"Besides those four cards, there is also that magic trick where he disappeared from the Huashi Building. I still don't believe that his purpose in doing so was merely to obtain an identity to confuse us. Isn't this price a bit high? Or rather, is it really necessary for him to do this? A person who can disguise himself and change his identity anytime and anywhere, why would he use this method to obtain an identity?"

"What do you mean?" Li Changyu suddenly asked.

"I think we need to change our case-handling approach. We cannot continue to focus on these valueless clues to investigate this case. We must focus more on his criminal profile and infer his next move by analyzing his criminal profile."

"Continue," Li Changyu signaled for him to go on.

"Before joining the group, I read the criminal profile that Teacher Zhu Guowei made for him. This guy is a typical high-IQ criminal: crazy, bold, multiple personalities, extremely strong psychological quality, will not stop until his goal is reached, possesses extremely strong crisis awareness and Anti-Reconnaissance consciousness, and is skilled in fighting, Lock Picking, shooting, Disguise, changing his appearance, and escaping. He also habitually uses reverse thinking and frequently changes his identity. In order to leave no traces, he changes his identity before every crime to hide his tracks..."

"Through the above criminal profile, combined with his past criminal cases, we can basically draw this conclusion: he will absolutely not engage in petty theft like other contestants. As long as he commits a crime, it will definitely be a major case, and he will certainly find a way to hide his identity. This is his habitual criminal method."

"I think we can start from the point of identity and focus on investigating whether any person reported lost identity documents at Yanjing International Airport during the time he disappeared, especially passengers in the VIP lounge. Let's see if there are any abnormal travel trajectories; perhaps it will be helpful for our subsequent investigation."

Disguising his identity is indeed a criminal method that Chu Chen uses very habitually.

In the last competition, he often utilized changing his identity to evade the Pursuit Team's capture in order to achieve his goals.

This was indeed a very good investigative direction.

The last place he appeared was in the VIP lounge at Yanjing International Airport.

Afterward, he vanished.

Unsurprisingly, he must have borrowed someone else's identity this time as well, which is why he successfully hid his tracks!

This suggestion from Shui Ge immediately made the group of experts' eyes light up!

After deliberation, everyone immediately made up their minds and contacted the airport police station at Yanjing International Airport at the first opportunity.

The person who answered their call was the station chief, Zhao Zhangliang.

Upon learning that they were experts from "Simulated Crime," Zhao Zhangliang did not shirk and was very cooperative.

After communicating, the Expert Group quickly learned that during the time Chu Chen disappeared, a tourist from Hong Kong had indeed lost his wallet in the airport's VIP lounge.

After losing his wallet, he reported the case to the duty police officer at the airport police station immediately.

However, the several police officers checked the surveillance footage but did not find any valuable clues, and this case had no leads until now.

Zhao Zhangliang was also a loyal fan of their show previously and often watched their live broadcasts.

He knew that it was Chu Chen who stole the Hong Konger's passport.

But because the Logistics Team had found the Yanjing General Bureau and the higher-ups had given him orders, he did not reveal too many details to the Expert Group, only revealing the case information that should be revealed.

Due to the limitations of the show's rules, the Expert Group did not inquire too much from them either.

Because this type of investigation was an investigation through non-formal channels.

According to the rules, obtaining clues through such non-formal channels cannot directly involve the case, otherwise, it would be a violation.

After simply understanding the course of events, Liu Xuemin on the other end of the phone asked again:

"Station Chief Zhao, where is this Hong Kong tourist now?"

"He has already left Yanjing. At the time, we contacted the police station in Hong Kong and processed a temporary identity certificate for him."

"Can you send us a copy of his identity information?"

"No problem, but you must ensure it is not leaked, otherwise we will hold you accountable," Zhao Zhangliang replied.

"You can rest assured about that."

"Alright then, we will fax it to you immediately!"

After ending the call, Zhao Zhangliang sent the Hong Kong tourist's identity information to them at the first opportunity!

And it was precisely based on this information that the Expert Group finally found a new clue!