Chapter 274: He Had Already Started Preparing Long Ago

After hearing this, Captain Xu exclaimed in surprise:

"Are you saying Han Lianwu already knows Wan Bo's hiding spot?"

He had another question left unasked.

That was: What is your basis?

At this point, he no longer had the qualification to ask.

A person's ability is not blown out of the mouth, but built through solid work.

Since the establishment of this task force, every step Yu Dazhang arranged has been orderly, without a single error.

Facing such a person, words of questioning were truly impossible to utter.

"Isn't this obvious?"

Yu Dazhang knew what he wanted to ask, so he simply answered directly:

"Except for Wan Bo, the other eleven people have all suffered retaliation; not one has escaped."

"Even the one who died had his tombstone kicked several times and was urinated on."

"Didn't you notice the suspect's success rate in revenge is too high?"

After his reminder, Captain Xu also realized this point, but still could not figure it out.

"Han Lianwu served in the military, and even in a special branch; dealing with ordinary people is naturally more than enough for him."

Captain Xu analyzed:

"Plus advance reconnaissance and mastering the victims' movements, a high success rate is understandable."

It must be said, what he said had some merit.

But if this happened in reality, the situation would not be like this.

Discussing a case is just like this: for every viewpoint, reasonable doubt must be raised as much as possible, and each one explained.

"As a criminal police officer, and an experienced veteran one, if you were the suspect, could you do what he did?"

Yu Dazhang stared at Captain Xu and asked:

"Or rather, could you achieve a one hundred percent success rate?"

This was not being argumentative, but thinking from another's perspective.

He was letting Captain Xu adopt the suspect's identity to think about the problem.

Before, Yu Dazhang had already made such an assumption.

The answer was: Impossible.

Nine victims, not one of whom was a fool.

Nine consecutive successes, and all completed within a short time.

First of all, one must be sufficiently familiar with these nine people.

Preparing only a few days in advance is definitely not enough.

Sure enough, Captain Xu gave an answer after just a moment of thought:

"No, two or three might be possible, but nine consecutive ones cannot achieve one hundred percent success; mainly because there isn't enough time."

Exactly, it is time.

Yu Dazhang had already made an inference on this long ago.

The suspect did not act on a sudden impulse; he had been pondering these people for days and days, likely having formed the idea even during his military service.

With hatred in his heart, he would naturally find ways to search for information on those people.

Precisely because he knew those people well enough, everything went so smoothly.

That means the preparation time must be extended backward; it could be one year, or it could be three years.

He had long been confident in making those people pay a painful price; he just hadn't acted yet.

"What if you were given three years of preparation time before acting?" Yu Dazhang asked again.

This time, Captain Xu only thought for a brief moment, then nodded and said:

"This time is sufficient. Investigating nine people over three years, I am confident I can master all their information; in my eyes, they will have nowhere to hide."

After speaking, he immediately realized something.

"You mean..." Captain Xu showed a surprised expression:

"Han Lianwu made preparations long ago. If this is true, the safe house Wan Bo prepared for himself is nothing but a joke in his eyes!"

There is a saying that goes well.

Fear not the thief who steals, but the thief who covets.

In Yu Dazhang's view, this series of severed-finger cases was, from start to finish, nothing more than a game of cat playing with a mouse.

At this moment, Wan Bo was like a mouse with its courage shattered, hiding in its hole and trembling.

And Han Lianwu was like an old cat, pacing endlessly at the hole's entrance.

"He served in the military for eleven years; he also has connections."

Yu Dazhang continued his analysis:

"The severed-finger cases seem to be the work of Han Lianwu alone, but in reality, some information is not something he could have inquired about."

"Among the three iron bonds of men, comradeship in arms ranks first; helping to inquire about information is quite normal." Everyone present were criminal police officers; upon hearing this, they immediately understood the meaning behind his words.

There are many ways to help; it does not necessarily mean going to catch people together with Han Lianwu.

Inquiring about information, helping him hide, assisting in the search—these are all effective forms of assistance for Han Lianwu.

It is even possible that someone helped Han Lianwu conduct one-on-one surveillance on those people.

Such help is no different from being an accomplice.

There was one more point Yu Dazhang did not mention.

Wan Bo was scared out of his wits.

After he went into hiding, he had plenty of time to warn the others—even by letter, the time would have been more than enough.

But he didn't do that. Yu Dazhang could think of two reasons:

1. Wan Bo didn't want to expose himself.

!

2. He had no intention of stopping it at all.

He even harbored the faint hope that the avenger would be caught by the police halfway through.

After the meeting, Yu Dazhang drove to Xicheng again.

Three days of pursuit had failed to bring Han Lianwu in, which meant his hiding place wasn't in the densely populated downtown area.

At this point, someone is bound to be curious.

"The greatest concealment lies within the city"—isn't it easier to hide by blending into a crowd?

First of all, you need to know that the saying "the greatest concealment lies within the city" was put forward during the Eastern Jin period.

And now it's 2014.

The city is covered in surveillance cameras everywhere—unless you stay hidden inside a room and never come out, a single facial recognition scan can lock onto you.

The Skynet surveillance system began to spread in 2006, and by 2014 it had long achieved intelligent operation.

How intelligent, you ask?

Let the facts speak.

In April 2018, among the Four Heavenly Kings, "Learner" Brother held a concert for sixty thousand people in J Province.

Right in the middle of his singing, several police officers came to the center of the stage and took one person away, and instantly the audience erupted in an uproar.

It was later confirmed that the man was a criminal suspect on the run online.

, still caught one every time without fail.

It was because the man was caught by facial recognition at the ticket checkpoint, and the police received the information simultaneously.

There was also a foreign BBC reporter who, when interviewing in our country, grew curious about the Skynet system and issued a challenge request.

We accepted the challenge, entered his facial information into the local citizen database, and then flagged him as a suspect.

As a result, once the challenge began, it took only seven minutes to catch that reporter.

So, in today's era of intelligent technology, "the greatest concealment lies within the city" is completely unworkable.

Instead, it's the suburbs or rural areas—regions without full surveillance coverage—that are safer.

Arriving in Xicheng, Yu Dazhang went straight to Han Lianwen's home.

When the door was opened, it was the same woman.

This time Yu Dazhang didn't beat around the bush; he asked point-blank:

"Has Han Lianwu contacted home these past few days?"

"No." The woman shook her head, looking at him with a puzzled expression:

"You were just here a few days ago."

The truth… After reaching that judgment, Yu Dazhang asked again:

"Do you know Han Lianwu's friends?"

"I've met two before." The woman thought for a moment and said:

"Xiao Wu once brought two people home for a meal, said they were his comrades-in-arms, but I only met them once, and it's been over a year now."

Watertight! Yu Dazhang secretly praised inwardly and nodded.

She told the truth, yet revealed no information at all.

He then took out a pen and a notebook from his bag, flipped to a blank page, wrote down his own phone number, and beneath the number wrote his own name.

"This is my phone number."

Yu Dazhang tore off that page and handed it to the woman:

"If you see Han Lianwu, or if he contacts home, you just need to give him my phone number."

After speaking, he didn't forget to add:

"Oh, and if he contacts home by phone, don't forget to tell him my name."

(End of chapter)