44: Chapter 44 Volunteering for Battle

Lin Ning's voice carried a hint of excitement, "Zhao Xiaoqiang, nicknamed 'Greyhound,' is a specialist in 'grey-market brokerage.' The boss he used to follow is in prison, so now he's finding his own work. It's said that three months ago, he landed a big job. It's stable and pays well. When he was drunk, he boasted to people that it was a 'major cross-border deal,' and that he could go abroad and live the high life after finishing it."

"Is he the only one?"

"He hired an unlicensed taxi driver nicknamed 'Fatty.' I suspect it's Liu Jianjun; the physical description matches."

"Can we find him now?"

"I heard that Greyhound has a widow as a secret lover who lives in the Mingguang Cheng residential complex in the West District. Last night, people living in that area saw Greyhound and Fatty appearing near there."

Chen Zhi immediately ordered the people beside him, "Prepare vehicles to go to Mingguang Cheng and contact the local community office!"

He then said into the phone, "Wait for me to come and pick you up."

...

In Mingguang Cheng in the West District, Chen Zhi learned about the relevant situation of Greyhound's secret lover, Li Weiwei, from the community director.

He immediately issued an order to detain and interrogate Li Weiwei.

With years of experience maneuvering and fighting against enemies, the string in Chen Zhi's mind grew tighter, and the sense of urgency became even more intense.

Right now, it was a race against time against the enemy.

When Li Weiwei was brought to the interrogation room of the nearby Police Station, she was terrified.

Chen Zhi didn't use any convoluted interrogation tactics on an ordinary person; he asked directly, "Did Zhao Xiaoqiang and Liu Jianjun look for you yesterday?"

Upon hearing Zhao Xiaoqiang's name, Li Weiwei actually calmed down, "I don't know anything."

Chen Zhi took out his credentials from his jacket and threw them in front of her, "Look closely. We are not police; we are from the Ministry of State Security! Are you sure you want to take the fall for Zhao Xiaoqiang and the others? Are you going to sacrifice your parents and your children for a man?"

Li Weiwei froze instantly. Looking at the credentials in front of her, her face flushed red, then slowly turned pale. She shouted, "I really don't know! No! I don't know what he did; I didn't do anything!"

Chen Zhi slammed the table heavily, "Quiet!"

"Did they come to see you last night?"

Li Weiwei nodded hurriedly, "Zhao Xiaoqiang came to find me, bringing Fatty and a woman, but I don't know anything..."

Chen Zhi interrupted her, "What did that woman look like? Was it her?"

The assistant beside him showed Li Weiwei a photo of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin.

Li Weiwei took one look, "Yes! That's her. She looks very elegant."

Chen Zhi and his team felt a surge of energy, but also a faint sense of annoyance—could the act of bringing Li Weiwei in have alerted her? "Where is she now?"

Li Weiwei shook her head, "I don't know, I really don't know! When I went to check this morning, she wasn't there anymore. She didn't leave anything behind; I guess she left."

Chen Zhi frowned deeply and forced himself to calm down, "Don't panic. Think carefully. Tell me everything from when you saw Zhao Xiaoqiang last night, what he said, what that woman said—tell me everything!"

Under Chen Zhi's gaze, Li Weiwei composed her thoughts, "Last night around six o'clock, Qiangzi brought Fatty and that woman to find me. They didn't call; they just came directly."

"That woman's name is Feng Mei. Qiangzi said she was his client who was being severely abused by her husband and wanted a divorce. She was afraid her husband would find her and kill her, so he asked me to find a place for her to stay. Hotels require ID registration, so it wasn't safe."

"Comrade, I believed it. It really was out of kindness. You see those wife-killers on the internet..."

Chen Zhi interrupted her, "Continue with what you saw and heard. Do not explain these things to me right now!"

"I work at our residential community's property management office. I have keys to some of the vacant apartments for maintenance purposes and such. I led her to Building 6, Unit 1201, and then I went out to eat with Qiangzi and Fatty. There was nothing else, really, I was just being kind!"

Chen Zhi said, "Did they have any conversations? Think carefully about what they said."

Li Weiwei lowered her head and thought, "There really wasn't anything else. I never ask about Qiangzi's business; we just get together occasionally, it's not... Wait, I remember when I brought Feng Mei to the apartment, Qiangzi was pulling me away. I heard her making a phone call, but I was already almost at the door, so I only heard it vaguely. I heard something like 'plane tickets,' 'documents ready,' and um... also 'makeup artist.' This is a clue, right? Does this count as meritorious service?"

Chen Zhi's brain was racing; he paid no attention to the conversation between his assistants and Li Weiwei.

This information was already a major breakthrough.

Plane tickets, documents, makeup artist...

Chen Zhi stood up and left, ignoring Li Weiwei, who had started to cry behind him.

Outside the door, he reported the situation over the phone while rushing to Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's residence from last night.

"I highly suspect that Senior Engineer Gao Yayin is planning a disguised escape and preparing to leave the country using a fake identity," he said into the phone. "We will head to the airport after we finish inspecting the scene."

Lin Ning followed quietly by his side. Actually, even now, he didn't know why Chen Zhi was still keeping him around. He couldn't help with the reasoning, tracking, or arrests, and he couldn't even see anyone to use his Golden Finger on.

But Lin Ning remained fully focused throughout. He didn't have the investigative resources of their team, nor did he have their various authorities, but he could learn their investigative thought processes—where to break through, what information points were needed, and how to synthesize information to make reasonable deductions.

Learning just this much was enough; after all, he wasn't with the Ministry of State Security, he was just an ordinary whistleblower.

Unit 1201 was very clean. Perhaps they could find some of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's biological markers, but that wouldn't help at all in determining the whereabouts of her and the hard drive.

Chen Zhi stood by the window, gazing at the starless, moonless night sky.

He hadn't slept for two days, yet he didn't feel the slightest bit sleepy. Senior Engineer Gao Yayin had been missing for nearly thirty hours.

Every passing minute meant the probability of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin escaping completely increased.

Zhang Ming from the technical team walked quickly to Chen Zhi's side, holding a tablet, "Division Chief Chen! We completely lost the tracking of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's movement trajectory at ten o'clock this morning. Additionally, here are the full flight schedules for both of Yanjing's airports. Most international flights are concentrated at Qingda International Airport."

"We checked all domestic and international flight information for the last three days; there is no record of any ticket purchase by Senior Engineer Gao Yayin."

Chen Zhi was silent, constantly weighing and thinking in his mind; after all, any one of his decisions was a turning point in this battle.

A moment later, he said in a hoarse voice, "Arrange a team at the old airport and coordinate with the airport Police Station to search for the suspect. Note that Senior Engineer Gao Yayin likely used a different identity document."

"Deploy the remaining three teams to go with us to Qingda International Airport."

"Yes!"

The order was quickly relayed down the line.

Lin Ning felt the gravity when Chen Zhi gave the orders. The whole group hadn't closed their eyes for two days, but that drive to burn themselves out—Lin Ning felt his own blood slowly heating up.

Chen Zhi grabbed his jacket, preparing to depart, and took a moment to say to Lin Ning, "You should head back first. You worked hard today!"

Lin Ning quickly said, "I'm coming with you!"

Chen Zhi looked at him. Lin Ning said very quickly, "You also speculated that she would disguise herself and use 'fake' documents. I can help you find her. No matter what she turns into, as long as I see her face and see her 'essence,' I can recognize her!"

Chen Zhi's eyes suddenly erupted with an astonishing brightness, "Are you telling the truth?"

Lin Ning nodded heavily. He was just looking directly at people's names, alright!