Half an hour later, the surveillance footage Guan Xia had been waiting for finally arrived. The laptop was already fully charged, and Guan Xia, no longer wanting to stay cramped in the car, found a nearby spot to stretch out and resume her search for Wu Yingze.
Xu Nian had gone to inquire about the latest developments in the case and now crouched beside Guan Xia. "I just asked around," he said. "According to the locals, this town doesn’t usually get many visitors. It’s not near any tourist spots, too close to Shangshuang City, and the transportation isn’t great. But a few days ago, groups of tourists started arriving—all driving cars and carrying large bags. The townsfolk thought it might be because hotels in Shangshuang were too expensive, but after checking in, these people didn’t leave. Instead, they wandered around town, buying supplies from supermarkets and stores. Then, tonight around midnight, they all checked out and drove away at the same time, as if it was coordinated."
Guan Xia, who had been focused on the laptop screen, paused and instinctively locked eyes with Xu Nian. Both wore the same thoughtful expression.
"Too much of a coincidence," Guan Xia said. "Based on the timeline we know, the bar fire was discovered at 10:57 PM, and Wu Yingze fled the scene at 11:13 PM. The distance from the bar to this town means he’d have arrived around midnight."
Lu Tingfeng, swatting mosquitoes nearby, nodded in understanding. "Seems like this was his next move—another attempt to throw us off and increase his chances of escape. But he couldn’t have expected us to catch up so quickly."
Zhong Xiaoyu checked her watch. "It’s past 3 AM. Given how cautious he’s been, he’s probably still on the run. We need to hurry. Compared to Yongquan City, Shangshuang is much closer to the border."
Her words carried a heavy implication, and the group turned to her, surprised.
"You think he’s trying to flee the country?" Ji An was the first to ask.
Zhong Xiaoyu nodded. "He wouldn’t run this recklessly unless he knew that if we caught him with evidence, he’d be facing death. Our country is vast, but given his crimes, it’d be hard for him to evade capture forever. His only option is to leave."
"But he’s got a hostage," Pang Le interjected. "Unless the buyer isn’t domestic but foreign? Otherwise, he’d try to complete the organ deal here before fleeing."
Guan Xia nodded thoughtfully again. "So his escape route will reveal the buyer’s location. If he heads straight for the border, it’s likely the buyer isn’t in the country—maybe not even one of our own people."
"A traitor," Pang Le gritted his teeth at the analysis. "That damn bastard, trading our people’s lives for foreigners’. When we find him, I’ll break his legs myself."
The possibility fueled Guan Xia’s urgency.
She started with the surveillance footage from the last known sighting of Wu Yingze—a supermarket called Longxing. According to Xu Nian’s intel, it was the town’s largest, covering over a thousand square meters with four customer entrances, not counting staff exits. A perfect spot for resupplying and changing disguises.
Guan Xia fast-forwarded through the footage until 12:14 AM, when the front entrance camera captured a familiar figure—still in the same dress and high heels, the curly black wig intact, but now with a wide sun hat and a face mask, hiding his features without drawing suspicion.
She sped up the playback to three times the normal speed, but by 1:30 AM, Wu Yingze hadn’t reappeared—not even in a different disguise. He must have left through another exit.
Closing that feed, Guan Xia opened another, then decided to save time by pulling up footage from the other three customer entrances. She kept the speed at double, cautious not to miss anything, but still found no trace of Wu Yingze.
Convinced she hadn’t overlooked anything, Guan Xia concluded he hadn’t used the customer exits. She rummaged through the surveillance files for staff exit footage but found none.
Surprised, she looked up at Xu Nian. "Why isn’t there any footage from the staff exits? Did they not have cameras?"
It seemed unlikely. Even in a small, underdeveloped town, the largest supermarket should have basic security.
Xu Nian made a quick call. "A coincidence—both staff exit cameras broke three days ago. The supermarket hadn’t gotten around to replacing them yet."
Lu Tingfeng scoffed. "Quite the coincidence. Seems this town wasn’t just for misdirection—someone paved the way ahead of time."
Guan Xia sighed inwardly. These local crime syndicates were always a step ahead, throwing obstacles in their path when least expected.
"What about the interior cameras?" she asked. "If the exit ones were broken, the inside ones should still work."
Xu Nian nodded. "When the police requested the footage, the supermarket staff confirmed only the staff exits were tampered with. The rest were operational."
At least they hadn’t hit a dead end. Guan Xia steadied herself and resumed the needle-in-a-haystack search.
Tracking Wu Yingze’s movements through the supermarket’s interior cameras was tedious, but his pre-disguise appearance stood out. With enough hands on deck, they quickly pieced together his path before the change: through the beverage aisle, snacks, toiletries, grains and oils—then he vanished.
While they were searching through the surveillance footage, Xu Nian obtained the floor plan of the supermarket from the task force. According to the blueprint, the rice, flour, and cooking oil section was directly adjacent to the warehouse, which occupied a considerable area. However, strangely, none of them—Guan Xia and the others—had seen Wu Yingze enter the warehouse on the surveillance footage from the warehouse entrance.
To confirm whether someone had missed it, they exchanged computers and reviewed the footage again. In the end, it was confirmed that Wu Yingze had indeed vanished in the rice, flour, and cooking oil section.
"Strange," Pang Le mused. "Could this supermarket have some kind of secret passage? How could someone just disappear into thin air? Unless Wu Yingze can fly or tunnel underground."
"Flying or tunneling is impossible, but a secret passage might not be," Lu Tingfeng said after studying the blueprint for a while. He suddenly pointed at a spot. "Look here—there's an unmarked empty room. It might be an employee break room or something similar."
The others leaned in to look. If not for Lu Tingfeng pointing it out, Guan Xia and the others might have missed it entirely. Compared to the thousand-square-meter space, the tiny square on the blueprint—smaller than a fingernail—was far too inconspicuous. Perhaps because it was so small, no one had bothered to label it.
Without Guan Xia needing to prompt him, Xu Nian immediately made another call as soon as Lu Tingfeng finished speaking. A few minutes later, he hung up and said, "Confirmed. It is an employee break room—only four square meters. There's just a stool, a small table, and a water dispenser inside. Nothing else. It's so small that only the staff from the rice, flour, and cooking oil section ever go in there."
"Seems like we've caught another peripheral member," Ji An remarked. "Is there a blind spot for surveillance after exiting this break room?"
Xu Nian shook his head firmly. "No."
"That's odd," Guan Xia said. "According to the blueprint, behind the rice, flour, and cooking oil section is the warehouse. Further in, past a fire door, there's a customer passage and an employee passage. We’ve already checked the surveillance footage for the customer passage—Wu Yingze didn’t go that way. So logically, he must have taken the employee passage. If he changed disguises in that small break room, how did he avoid being caught on camera when there’s no blind spot?"
At this point, Zhong Xiaoyu suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, "That restocking worker!"
Zhong Xiaoyu’s reminder jogged Guan Xia’s memory. While reviewing the surveillance footage earlier, they had noticed a middle-aged man in a supermarket uniform driving a restocking cart around the supermarket at around 12:25 a.m. The cart carried bags of rice and flour, as well as cardboard boxes of various sizes—some large enough that a person could theoretically hide inside if curled up.
With this in mind, Guan Xia closed her laptop and stood up. "Let’s go to the supermarket. Has the forensics team gone in yet?"
Xu Nian replied, "The forensics team is still examining the car for evidence. As far as I know, they haven’t entered the supermarket."
Just as Guan Xia was about to suggest calling someone, Lu Tingfeng spoke up. "I attended some related courses in college. I can handle basic forensics. Xu Nian did too. If we bring the tools, we can temporarily act as the forensics team."
Guan Xia was surprised and instinctively glanced at Xu Nian and Lu Tingfeng.
Xu Nian gave a slight nod, confirming Lu Tingfeng’s claim without saying anything further.
After waiting a few minutes for Xu Nian to sprint off and retrieve a toolbox from the forensics team, the group hurried to the supermarket.
With the blueprint in hand, Guan Xia and the others didn’t need guidance from the local police officers or the task force who had arrived earlier. They quickly found the employee break room. Guan Xia took a careful look—it was indeed tiny, but two people could stand inside if they squeezed together. Moving the stool onto the table would free up enough space for someone to change clothes.
Bending down to inspect the stool and table, Xu Nian suddenly said, "If Wu Yingze touched this stool, fingerprints might still be on it. Old Lu, bring the toolbox over. Let’s see if we can lift any prints."
Lu Tingfeng chuckled. "You’re really something. I’ve left the force, and you’re still ordering me around."
Despite the banter, Lu Tingfeng obediently squeezed inside with the tools.
Guan Xia stood at the doorway, rising on her tiptoes to peek inside, but she couldn’t see anything. Shifting her gaze, she retraced the path of the restocking worker from the surveillance footage, walking slowly toward the employee passage.
According to the blueprint, the employee passage wasn’t far from the warehouse, but on foot, the distance felt longer.
Standing at the warehouse entrance, Guan Xia looked up at the surveillance camera. After a moment of thought, she recalled that this camera was primarily installed to monitor the warehouse’s security. There was a five-meter blind spot between the warehouse and the employee passage.
The issue likely lay in those five meters. Guan Xia carefully reviewed her memory. While the break room itself supposedly had no blind spots, the shelves partially obstructed the camera’s view. If someone walked normally, they’d be visible, but if they crouched or crawled, the camera wouldn’t catch them.
If the restocking worker had driven his cart past at the right moment, Wu Yingze could have been smuggled out inside one of the boxes. But how had Wu Yingze crossed those five meters from the warehouse to the blind spot without being seen?
Frowning, Guan Xia suddenly remembered another detail. At 12:40 a.m. in the footage, several people had carried large promotional posters and stands past the area. The items were not only bulky but numerous, briefly blocking the camera’s view for a few seconds. Now, it seemed highly likely that Wu Yingze had used that brief window to slip out unnoticed.
Realizing this possibility, Guan Xia immediately sprinted through the supermarket. She vaguely remembered seeing workers replacing floor decals earlier while tracking Wu Yingze’s path to the break room. The supermarket was huge, and the crew was understaffed—even now, past 4 a.m., they were still working.
Though Pang Le and the others were confused, they ran after her. After some searching, Guan Xia finally found one of the workers and nearly pounced on a young woman, asking urgently, "At 12:40 a.m., when you were carrying materials in through the back door and passing the warehouse, did someone come out of the warehouse and walk past you in the opposite direction?"
Guan Xia's sudden appearance startled the workers who were busy with their tasks. The young girl flinched instinctively before relaxing after Wang Yu, who arrived right behind Guan Xia, showed his police badge. After a moment of recollection, the girl said, "There was someone like that—tall, wearing a supermarket uniform and a hat. They seemed to be in a hurry, walking quickly past us with their head down, so I didn’t get a clear look at their face."
Guan Xia pressed further, "Do you remember what color their hair was?"
This time, the girl took longer to recall before answering uncertainly, "It was probably black? I didn’t see clearly because we were carrying something heavy at the time, and I only glanced at them."
To verify the girl’s account, Ji An and the others questioned several nearby staff members, receiving roughly the same answers. Without wasting time on further discussion, Guan Xia and her team hurried through the employee exit to the area outside the supermarket.
Though it was the back entrance, the supermarket was located in the center of the town, with roads branching out in all directions. From where Guan Xia stood, she could see multiple paths a person could take to leave.
After a quick scan of the surroundings, Guan Xia instinctively wanted to look for eyewitnesses but dismissed the idea given the time. She returned to the supermarket instead. While Xu Nian and the others gathered evidence, the rest continued reviewing surveillance footage. At least now they knew which exit Wu Yingze had used and what disguise he was wearing. With so many people working on it, they expected to identify the license plate of the car he drove away in before 5 p.m.
Just as Guan Xia predicted, with about ten minutes left until five, Zhong Xiaoyu made another crucial discovery.
"This car—the white one," Zhong Xiaoyu said confidently, pointing at a corner of the computer screen. "Wu Yingze drove this car out of town."
"No matter how many tricks he tries, he can’t escape our watchful eyes," Qi Bai chuckled sleepily, amusing himself. "Even after arranging so many decoy cars and changing disguises again, we still found him. Now it’s time for him to learn what it means to face a real task force. With all of us on his tail, there’s no way this bastard gets away."
While Qi Bai was venting, Xu Nian removed his gloves and reported the new lead.
Finally having traced Wu Yingze’s movements again, Guan Xia let out a relieved sigh, though she couldn’t suppress a yawn. She had done all she could—now it was up to the task force. Unless the guy had another impulsive disguise change, they might just catch him before noon.
