709: Reasoning

Reasoning

"What happened to the Thai girl?" Su Jinmei shook her head and said, "I feel that maybe she was with the bad guys. They must have had an internal dispute, so they killed her to shut her up. Then, they used her as a tool to frame us!"0

"No!" Zhao Yu flatly denied her hypothesis. "I have come across similar criminal gangs before. Their identities can't be exposed. Hence, even if they had an internal dispute, they would only take care of the dead body in silence after they killed her. They wouldn't dare make a scene!"

"Then, what role does the Thai girl play in all of this?" Su Jinmei was getting more curious.

"I don't know!" Zhao Yu replied frankly. "But, the Thai girl obviously is related to them somehow. Once we find out more about her background, we should be able to find the man's allies!"

Su Jinmei then said anxiously, "Master, you said it yourself that the drone was a high-tech weapon from the American military. Don't you think that we are fighting against the American spies? If you fight against them in public, wouldn't we get into big trouble?"

"I'm not sure if I'd get into trouble or not," Zhao Yu said determinedly. "But, every injustice has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. No matter who offended me, he must repay me. After all, we must live by our principles!"

"You... Aren't you being a bit too ambitious? You don't even care if they are American spies?" Su Jinmei shook her head helplessly as she picked up the foreign man's phone and drone remote to investigate it more closely. However, those things were all encrypted, so she couldn't unlock them.

"Look, the surveillance video on the drone was recorded when we entered the hotel! Then... How about before that?" Zhao Yu asked, "Why didn't the drone capture any footage of the Thai girl being taken to our hotel room?"

"Would it be that the person flying the drone was doing something bad?" Zhao Yu surmised. "In other words, the person who put the Thai girl in our room and killed her was the same person who controlled the drone?"

"But, to move a living person to our room, he couldn't possibly leave any trace behind, right? He couldn't escape all of the surveillance cameras!" Su Jinmei shook her head.

"I don't know. Maybe the spies have their own sneaky methods," Zhao Yu said. "Maybe they even have someone to coordinate with in the hotel!"

"Master, if that is so, why are we worried?" Su Jinmei asked. "If you got it right, the murderer was the foreigner, so doesn't that mean that he had no allies? There's only one gun-firing drone, too! So, we'd better go turn ourselves in now!"

Zhao Yu shook his head and said, "That's not right. If they were to go through all the trouble of framing us, it means that they really wanted to use us to find Miao Ying. So, it was obvious that Miao Ying did something very serious!"

His eyes were wide as he continued, "She either killed their big figure in the group or she stole something from them. I feel that he definitely has allies. We have to find the truth in order to secure our safety."

"Find the truth, then." Su Jinmei pouted. "But, I am a murderer now. Do you think it's going to be easy?"

"Shh!" Zhao Yu held his fingers up to his mouth to hush her, then said, "I think, I have a way! If we approach it like we usually investigate a case, if we could find a crucial point, we might be able to solve this! So, let's calm down and talk it through!"

"Crucial point? Reasoning?" Su Jinmei asked, "How?"

Zhao Yu quickly asked her, "Do you remember when we were tracing Miao Ying's movements? Miao Ying behaved so nervously. Wouldn't that maybe mean that she has yet to take action?"

"Mmm... Master, slow down! You are going too fast! I can't follow." Su Jinmei shook her head, clearly overwhelmed.

"After leaving the coffee shop, she headed West along the shopping street. On the way, she disappeared near the forest for about twenty minutes," Zhao Yu said. "Then, she returned and walked towards the port. She most likely already left the Landing!"

"Yeah, that twenty minutes…" Su Jinmei wondered aloud. This period of time is what confused her the most.

"I've checked thoroughly on that. I realized that when Miao Ying was going to the port, she didn't seem nervous anymore. Maybe that means that she already completed her mission?" Zhao Yu surmised. "She left the Landing because she had completed her mission!"

"Completed her mission?" Su Jinmei repeated his words before it finally dawned on her what Zhao Yu meant.

She then said, "In other words, the problem lies within the twenty minutes where she disappeared? Then…"

"We once asked for surveillance videos around there, "Zhao Yu quickly added. "There are six shops. Among them, two were empty, two had just started operating and hadn't yet installed any surveillance cameras, and one said that their surveillance camera had malfunctioned. In the end, we only managed to get the video from the shop that was closest to the forest!"

"Yes!" Su Jinmei said. "We've only seen that surveillance video, and your wife didn't appear in the video! In other words, she didn't enter the forest!"

"Yes!" Zhao Yu nodded. "And… As there are six shops in total, the problem lies within those six shops!"

"That shop that provided us with surveillance video and the empty shop opposite it could be eliminated!" Su Jinmei said. "Then, we are only left with four. My God, would the allies be in one of the four shops, and it was because we asked for surveillance videos from them that we got ourselves into this mess?"

"No, there's only three left!" Zhao Yu said. "We can remove another empty shop, too!"

"Three shops left. The other two didn't install any surveillance cameras, and there's one that said theirs malfunctioned," Su Jinmei recalled. "Master, do you remember the situation then? Among the three shops, which one was suspicious in any way?"

"My God!" Suddenly, Zhao Yu said excitedly, "I know which one it is! It's the one in the middle. From the crossroads, the second shop on the right! The one that said their surveillance camera had malfunctioned!"

Su Jinmei recalled, "But, that shop seemed so normal. The one sells honey, right? The owner of the shop was an old woman. When we entered, there was an attendant who was mopping the floor. I didn't see anything strange."

Zhao Yu said, "But, I remember clearly that there was an electric car that was parked in front of that shop!"

"Really? I don't remember that. Do you think it was the electric car that we are in now?" Su Jinmei was clearly surprised.

"I've checked the two shops that had no surveillance cameras closely. They really didn't install any. They didn't lie!" Zhao Yu said. "So, there is only the shop that sells honey left! It was located right in the middle of the blind zone. If Miao Ying walked into it, we wouldn't be able to see her in the surveillance video!"

In order to verify his speculation, Zhao Yu wanted to use a Memory Replay Device to rewatch the situation back then in order to see if the electric car was the same one that they were in now.

Just then, Su Jinmei screamed in excitement, "Master! I think I found a way to prove this!"

Then, Su Jinmei unlocked her tablet and opened an all-English app. Although Zhao Yu couldn't understand it, it looked like an app that had a commercial district map. Su Jinmei tapped her screen a few times and quickly found the shop on the map.

"Master," Su Jinmei explained as she used the app, "Han Dewang introduced me this app. There's complete travel information on the Landing, and it has a detailed introduction for all of the shops. Look, the shop that we are investigating is called "Honeyhoney," and here's the information about the shop and its staff!"

As Su Jinmei tapped the screen once again, a few photos of the staff members popped up on the screen. When they saw the photos, Zhao Yu was stunned and his heart was beating incredibly fast.

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