Chapter 201

Zhao Jianguo stood in the courtyard, holding in his hand a palm-sized object with a glass surface and a metal rim around the bottom. He cleared his throat and raised his voice: "Come gather around, today I'll teach everyone how to use this new gadget."

San Daye walked out from under the eaves leaning on his cane, squinting at the thing in his hand, and said, "Isn't this just a watch? And it has numbers?"

"It's different." Zhao Jianguo lifted the watch, "It can measure heart rate, check blood pressure, and even tell where you are."

Sha Zhu poked his head out from the kitchen holding a spatula, "Can it tell me when my wife will give birth?"

Xu Da Mao

Zhao Jianguo didn't smile, put the watch on his wrist, tapped a few times, and said, "Come on, San Daye, you try it first."

San Daye hesitated a moment, reached out to take the watch and put it on. The face lit up, and after a few seconds a line of text appeared: Heart rate 78, blood pressure 132/86.

"Is this accurate?" he muttered, "I measured it yesterday and it was still 140."

"You were just out of breath from walking, now that you're seated steady, the numbers changed." Zhao Jianguo pulled out a small notebook, "Write it down; from now on measure each morning, and if there's a change I'll get an alert on my end."

San Daye took off the watch and handed it back, murmuring, "Amazing, this little dial can even do its own calculations."

He Yushui walked over holding a folder, stepped to the front of the crowd, and said, "Zhao Jianguo, will every elderly person be able to get one of these in the future?"

"Yes." Zhao Jianguo nodded, "The system has approved the 'Tech Think Tank' project, specifically for popularizing technology among community seniors. The first batch is ten units, priority given to those who often go out and live alone."

Municipal Bureau Technical Investigation Section

Technology Think Tank

"Okay." Zhao Jianguo opened a form, "Now we start registering; whoever wants to use it, write name, address, usual route. We'll match the data uniformly in the back end."

Everyone crowded forward, scrambling to fill out the form.

Sha Zhu didn't move, crouched on the steps scratching his head, "Jianguo, you say this form can really tell where someone is?"

"Yes." Zhao Jianguo walked over, "For example, if you're hiding in the woodshed now, I check the location and I know."

"Try one then!" Sha Zhu stood up, "Let Teacher He hide, and you find."

Zhao Jianguo glanced at He Yushui. She froze a moment, then smiled, "Sure, I'll cooperate."

Five minutes later, He Yushui slipped into the woodshed at the west corner, the door closing softly.

Zhao Jianguo raised his wrist, tapped a few times, lowered his head to look at the screen, "Go three steps to the right… then forward… stop."

He walked to the woodshed door, knocked twice, "Come out, I found you."

The door opened a crack, He Yushui poked her head out, "How did you know I was here?"

"Signal source locked." Zhao Jianguo turned his wristwatch to show her, "The green dot is you, the red circle is the range."

The crowd gasped again.

San Daye muttered, "If we lost a grandson, wouldn't it just show up with a check?"

"Right." Zhao Jianguo put away the form, "So don't complain about the hassle, wear it, charge it, don't be afraid you won't know how to use it—we'll teach every day."

As they were speaking, hurried footsteps came from the hutong entrance.

Two uniformed people walked into the courtyard, the leading male comrade went straight to Zhao Jianguo, "Are you Zhao Jianguo?"

"That's me."

"From the Municipal Bureau's Technical Investigation Division." The other party showed credentials, "We just cracked a case of reselling electronic watches, seized over thirty imported electronic watches, the sources involve six units in this city. We found a clue in the ledger—a relative named Xu Da Mao bought five at once at the department store last week, paying entirely in cash."

Zhao Jianguo's eyes flickered.

"That man is Wang Dehai, Xu Da Mao's cousin, currently under control. We suspect this batch of watches isn't ordinary trade but someone deliberately collecting high-precision electronic equipment, possibly for illegal surveying or signal relay."

The courtyard fell silent all at once.

Sha spatula slapped the ground, "Xu Da Mao's relative? He still dares to cause trouble?"

San Daye also got anxious, "I was wondering why a bespectacled guy loitered at the courtyard gate these past two days, asking if I'd taken any new appliances! Turns out it's the same family!"

He Yushui flipped open her notebook, quickly turning pages, "There is this record…… On Wednesday last week, Wang Dehai came to the canteen and bought a meal ticket, then went to the department store and bought five electronic watches, saying they were gifts for relatives back home. At the time I thought the amount wasn't big, so I didn't ask further."

She looked up at Zhao Jianguo, "I still have the invoice."

Zhao Jianguo reached out, "Let me see."

She passed the notebook over. Zhao Jianguo stared at that line for a few seconds, his finger lightly tracing the three characters "electronic watch".

This is no coincidence.

An ordinary imported electronic watch costs only a few dozen yuan on the market, but with precise timing and signal reception functions it can become a positioning node. If someone wants to track personnel movement in a certain area, or build a covert communication network, this little device is perfect.

And at this critical juncture, someone sent over a draft for an "intelligent learning terminal," while elsewhere someone is bulk-purchasing similar products.

He slowly closed the notebook and handed it to He Yushui.

"Keep investigating this." He said to the public security comrade, "But don't let people in our courtyard spread rumors casually. Especially the elderly and children—don't make them panic."

"Understood." The public security officer nodded, "We'll keep the investigation route confidential and only do internal tracing."

After they left, the courtyard fell silent again for a few seconds.

Then San Daye spoke up, "Jianguo, are we still issuing these watches?"

"Issue." Zhao Jianguo's tone unchanged, "And we'll keep teaching as usual, using as usual."

"But what if… someone is watching us?"

"Then let him watch." Zhao Jianguo lifted his wristwatch, pressed a side button, "What we're doing now is meant to be seen. Whoever wants to know how to use it, let them come learn. Whoever wants to inquire about functional details, we'll explain them one by one."

Sha Zhu frowned, "Aren't you afraid they'll learn it?"

"What's there to fear?" Zhao Jianguo chuckled, "They can copy the appearance, but not the backend logic. They can buy the watches, but they don't know how to network them, encrypt them, or link them for alerts."

He looked around, "By teaching openly we can actually see who asks a lot, who asks oddly. If someone specifically probes battery life, signal frequency, or whether it can work offline—that's really a problem."

He Yushui said quietly, "Should we pause registration?"

"No." Zhao Jianguo shook his head, "Keep recording information, accept anyone who signs up. But I'll add a review step here, focusing on addresses and phone numbers linked to the Xu family."

San Daye sighed, "Smoke rising from the ancestral grave is a good thing, but too much smoke also attracts flies."

Sha Zhu suddenly thought of something, "Jianguo, about my wife's due date… can this watch actually calculate the day accurately?"

"It can't calculate the date." Zhao Jianguo said, "But it can monitor bodily indicators, like blood pressure, heart rate, activity level. Combined, doctors can judge trends. If you're really worried, bring your wife tomorrow and I'll fit her with a temporary monitoring version."

"That's great!" Sha Zhu smiled, "I said it, this thing should have some practical use."

Zhao Jianguo nodded, took off his watch, and put it into his carry‑on bag.

The sky was getting dark, people in the courtyard dispersed one by one. San Daye was helped back by his old companion, and before leaving he turned back and asked: "Will you still teach tomorrow?"

"Teach." Zhao Jianguo answered, "Eight in the morning, class as usual."

He Yushui didn't go far, sat on her own doorstep, clutching that ledger. She flipped to the last page and looked over Wang Dehai's name again.

Zhao Jianguo walked over and said softly: "You remember correctly, every entry is clear. But now, each entry could be a clue."

She looked up at him, "What do you think they want to do?"

"I don't know." he said, "But it's definitely related to technology. Moreover, they've already gotten to the edge."

She didn't speak again, just held the notebook tighter.

Zhao Jianguo turned and walked toward the courtyard, looked up at the night sky. The cloud layer was thick, no moon visible.

He took the watch out of the bag again, the screen lit up, and a prompt popped up on the home page: 【Local signal scan completed, no abnormal frequency band detected】.

He stared at that line, motionless.

In the distance, a bicycle slowly rode past the hutong entrance, its bell ringing once.

Zhao Jianguo raised his hand, set the watch to standby mode.

He stood in place, his gaze fell toward the courtyard gate.

That door was ajar, the wind blew a little, and it swayed half an inch.