Chapter 147: Chapter 104: Returning What’s Perfectly Intact
Upon discovering the other party’s request, Yu Xiaozhou hurriedly clicked to agree, adding them as a friend.
The other party immediately sent a message, “Have you arrived in Shanghai?”
Yu Xiaozhou started typing, “What is the address of the room you stayed in Japan?”
There was a moment of silence on the WeChat end before an address was sent over, with the message, “Rest assured, I am the person who contacted you this morning. I’ve just switched my WeChat for some reasons.”
Seeing the address sent by the other party was indeed the one they had in Japan, Yu Xiaozhou confirmed their identity and wrote on WeChat, “We have arrived in Shanghai and are currently in the city area.”
It took about ten minutes before the other party said, “Open the map of Shanghai and look for a place called Maliutuo.”
The technician beside them immediately started to locate the area and found that Maliutuo was a very remote small town on the western side of Shanghai, next to the mountains.
The other party sent another message, “Have you found that place?”
Yu Xiaozhou replied, “We have located the position!”
The other party then said, “Meet me at Maliutuo in two hours. I will personally return the item to you.”
After saying that, the other party went offline on WeChat.
Duan Hongye looked at the technician beside her, who said, “The login address for this WeChat account is a 24-hour café in the city area of Shanghai, and they were using the café’s free WIFI. Based on the maximum WIFI connection distance, we have mobilized several hundred nearby surveillance cameras for monitoring using the latest Sky Eye Technology. However, the individual in question could not be found on any of the surveillance cameras.”
Since returning to China, Yu Xiaozhou had relied on her memory to sketch a portrait of the intermediary they met in Japan. As a special operations worker, her memory was exceptionally sharp, and she possessed a high level of drawing skill. Therefore, the person she met in Japan was depicted very clearly and vividly. They immediately uploaded the person’s portrait into the Chinese Population System to search. Although they found several hundred people who resembled the individual, after careful investigation, they excluded all of them because these lookalikes had not traveled abroad during that time period. That meant the intermediary’s information could not be found in the Chinese Population System, suggesting they might not be Chinese. It was for this possibility that Yu Xiaozhou felt extremely guilty until the individual suddenly reappeared and contacted her, giving rise to a glimmer of new hope.
The technician’s database had long stored the portrait drawn by Yu Xiaozhou. So after identifying the potential area where the individual might appear, they deployed nearby surveillance cameras to search, using Sky Eye Technology for facial recognition, yet they found no matches to the portrait.
Duan Hongye said, “Our adversary is an expert who might be skilled at perfectly controlling their facial muscles, rendering their appearance through manipulation. They are likely to be appearing with a different face now, which is why you can’t find them.”
Yu Xiaozhou asked, “Deputy team leader, what should we do now?”
Duan Hongye answered, “We will immediately head to Maliutuo town to await the meeting and retrieve our property.”
Pausing briefly, she added, “Contact the local military base right away, and request army assistance. After we reclaim our item, we’ll capture this mysterious person.”
Yu Xiaozhou, puzzled, said, “Deputy team leader, why should we capture them? If they truly return our item, shouldn’t we be thankful instead?”
Duan Hongye exhaled, blowing away a clump of dust falling from the ceiling of the room, then said, “Xiaozhou, you need to think comprehensively and not just go by personal feelings. Let me ask you, it’s almost certain this person is the mastermind behind the mysterious Drone, and they seem to be Chinese, typically residing in China. Where do you think their Drone is located?”
Yu Xiaozhou ventured, “Could the Drone be in China?”
Duan Hongye replied, “Of course the Drone is in China. I’ve told you before, when I was on a task in Shanghai, I once encountered a Drone at the docks. That Drone killed Jūbei Yamamoto of the Yamamoto Family from Japan. Sadly, by the time I arrived, the Drone had already taken off, and I couldn’t see its specific features, only a masked figure being lifted away. Later, the crime scene investigation revealed that the Drone had fired Vulcan Gun rounds at Jūbei Yamamoto. You should know, no Drones in the world are fitted with Vulcan Guns, which means the one I saw in Shanghai and the one that appeared in Japan were certainly the same.”
Yu Xiaozhou said, “I remember this incident; you investigated it later but found no useful leads, right?”
Duan Hongye explained, “It’s not that there were no leads, but all the clues were destroyed by someone else beforehand, that’s why we have never been able to find the person behind the mask controlling the Drone. Later, Captain China from Africa reported that a Drone appeared in Africa, engaging in a fierce battle with US Forces and achieving a significant victory. Just like before, that Drone fired Vulcan Gun rounds, so it definitely was the same one I saw in Shanghai, only mysteriously transported to Africa somehow, some way. Hence, I started an investigation in the hope that I could find the suspect through airport immigration records to Africa. However, I discovered that the airport records for those specific days had strangely disappeared, including the passenger purchase information. Therefore, I could not determine who was connected to that Drone.”