Chapter 273: A Wily Rabbit Has Three Burrows

At this moment, everyone watching the surveillance footage noticed something was off.

In the hospital floor lobby.

Han Lianwu stood there stock-still, not moving a muscle for a long while.

For him, time seemed to have frozen.

He seemed to be thinking about something, staring blankly at the floor ahead.

The stack of documents that had been in his hand was gone — he must have put it in the bag he carried.

Now he was holding only a single sheet of paper; when the video was enlarged, the three characters "diagnosis form" could just barely be made out.

In that instant, everything seemed to make sense again.

That was the final straw that broke him.

The surveillance footage kept playing; Han Lianwu stood in place for a full ten minutes before finally turning slowly and walking away.

Xia Bin paused the video, then replayed it to the frame where Han Lianwu turned and left.

After watching it several times, he finally spoke:

"Gait, build, arm-swing range — similarity over eighty percent."

Yu Dazhang knew very well that when Xia Bin said eighty-percent similar, it could basically be taken as the same person.

He usually left himself three parts of margin, but this time he only left two.

Now that the fact of Han Lianwu being the suspect was further confirmed, it gave Yu Dazhang even more confidence.

What do criminal cops fear most?

Not coming back empty-handed.

But arresting the wrong person.

From here on, it was simple.

The suspect's identity had surfaced — Han Lianwu was a major person of interest!

Yu Dazhang immediately reported the situation up to the provincial bureau.

Issue a wanted notice, post a bounty, stake out fixed points, screen surveillance…

As long as there's a clear target, the police have plenty of ways to make an arrest.

Three days later, the provincial bureau conference room.

"That's the situation — for now, the trail has gone cold."

Captain Xu's expression was a little grim:

"Wan Bo dropped out of sight three months ago. No one knows where he went — not even his family."

He wasn't satisfied with such a result himself.

So when he reported just now, he was clearly lacking confidence, speaking with a certain cautious tentativeness.

"Three months ago he vanished…"

Yu Dazhang muttered, then asked:

"Give me the exact date — which day did he disappear?"

Captain Xu heard the question and answered at once:

"August 19th."

The fact that he remembered it so clearly showed he had genuinely put in the work; otherwise he wouldn't have kept the key information locked in his head.

Why does that date feel so familiar… Yu Dazhang rifled through his memory, certain he'd seen that date somewhere.

He pulled over the case file and flipped through it quickly.

Found it!

The second victim had been released back on August 19th.

So he ran… Yu Dazhang reached the conclusion in his head at once.

Although the Twelve Young Masters of Xicheng don't keep in touch with one another, Wan Bo — as the organizer of this group — must certainly have been keeping an eye on those eleven people.

When the first person was harmed, he already knew, but he still couldn't be sure it was revenge.

When another person vanished, he couldn't sit still anymore — sixteen years without incident, yet within a few days two people had been kidnapped in a row.

Right, there's no such coincidence under heaven.

But he still clung to a shred of wishful thinking, until the second person was released back…

A severed finger, driven mad.

The harm suffered by the two was identical — that couldn't be explained by coincidence.

So after Wan Bo learned of the second person's injuries, he ran that very day. Looking at it this way…

Yu Dazhang pondered, and after a moment, reached his judgment.

Wan Bo was actually a coward — he had been scared off!

"Did you check his immigration records?" Yu Dazhang asked.

"Checked," Captain Xu replied:

"No record of him leaving the country — not even a record of him leaving Xicheng. We even checked the bank cards under his name; after he disappeared, not a single transaction."

Could he have been caught by Han Lianwu long ago… the thought popped into Yu Dazhang's head unbidden. Probably not.

The timing doesn't match.

Wan Bo disappeared on the very day the second person was released.

If Han Lianwu meant to move against him, he would have needed prep time — he couldn't have acted the same day.

That also doesn't fit Han Lianwu's style of doing things.

And besides, when Captain Xu reported just now, he said Wan Bo had left word with his family before leaving — telling them he was going away for a while and not to worry.

This is also why Wan Bo's family didn't report him missing to the police after he disappeared.

No outbound travel, no leaving the city, no spending records...

Where could he have hidden himself?

Yu Dazhang's mind was spinning fast; one hypothesis after another surfaced in his brain, only to be dismissed by him one by one.

The meeting room fell silent, the atmosphere heavy and solemn to the extreme.

!

Everyone held their breath and focused their attention, looking at the fat man seated at the head.

Two officers had already brought their cigarettes up to their lips, but the moment they reached for their lighters, they put the cigarettes back.

At this moment, no one dared make a sound, afraid of interrupting Yu Dazhang's train of thought.

Over these past days, the task force's dozen-plus members had all been won over by this fat man's abilities.

In just a few days, the suspect's identity had already been dug out.

Not only that, he had also thoroughly investigated that little group from sixteen years ago.

Who could have imagined that a little group composed of a bunch of students would be so depraved as to reach this point.

"Have the cases on him been investigated?" Yu Dazhang suddenly asked.

"Investigated," Captain Xu nodded in reply:

"The homicide Wan Bo committed sixteen years ago has been reopened for investigation; direct evidence has already been found and can prove it was his doing."

He Tianxin wasn't lying... Yu Dazhang secretly let out a breath of relief.

He had always worried that He Tianxin was hiding something about Wan Bo, and if that were the case, the investigation would be very troublesome.

Now this concern could be set aside.

With ironclad evidence, the cases Wan Bo committed could be considered thoroughly dug up.

Even if in the end he escaped Han Lianwu's revenge, he still couldn't escape the sanction of the law.

What Yu Dazhang was most concerned about now was still Wan Bo's whereabouts.

In a certain sense, he and Han Lianwu were doing the same thing.

Their focus was both on the Twelve Young Masters of Xicheng.

For now, regardless of Han Lianwu's ultimate fate, those twelve beasts would surely get their just deserts.

Timid, good at laying out schemes... these were the labels Yu Dazhang had pinned on Wan Bo.

The fact that he used letters to contact the other members showed this was someone who thought three steps ahead with every move.

The more primitive the method, the harder it is to trace.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows, laying out schemes in advance...

"Wan Bo is still in Xicheng."

Yu Dazhang looked up at Captain Xu:

"Next, you go contact Wan Bo's family and find out about the properties he owns in Xicheng."

"Not just the properties under his name — any property his family knows about, any he's been to, count all of those in."

"I suspect that many years ago, Wan Bo already used other people's identities to register property purchases under their names."

This trick isn't new; many corrupt officials and bosses with guilty consciences use the trick of registering properties under someone else's name.

The pretty name for it: safe house.

One, it can be used to stash some valuables, or stash money directly.

Two, if something happens, it can serve as a place of refuge.

Because it's not property under his own name, the police won't trace it directly.

And compared to hotels and inns — those places with too many eyes and ears — residential buildings are far more concealed.

"Understood."

As a veteran criminal investigator, Captain Xu was no stranger to properties registered under other names.

"Move fast," Yu Dazhang added:

"Something's about to happen to Wan Bo."

(End of chapter)