Chapter 46

Chapter 46

"Come, tell me about it," said the middle-aged police officer in a casual, chatty manner, as if they were brothers drinking and bragging together, putting no pressure on the suspect at all.

Qian Tong seemed to fall for it completely, becoming quite talkative: "That punk Li Li may be young, but he's got a crafty mind and kept a lot of things from me. As for me, I've been in prison for a long time and learned that the less you know, the better. I didn't ask questions, just got a general sense of what was going on. After all, I was in it for the money and didn't want any extra risk - sigh, I guess that's what happens when you get older, you just want a safe and stable life but can't let go of the past and move on."

His tone was cocky yet remorseful and unwilling to give up, while also maintaining an appropriate attitude of admitting guilt - flawless.

The middle-aged officer played along, "We all make foolish mistakes sometimes."Alll latest novels at novelhall.com

"But I am more experienced after all," Qian Tong looked pleased with himself. "Li Li doesn't understand high-tech stuff very well, he never even used a password on his phone. One day I happened to see him buying things online - oxygen tanks, masks, stuff like that. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I do - hey, what do you think that stuff could be used for?"

He lowered his voice conspiratorially, "The gold, he must have hidden it in the lake."

The middle-aged officer raised his eyebrows, "So you're just guessing? You don't actually know where the gold is?"

"I really don't, that was never part of the plan," Qian Tong swore solemnly. "Think about it, the first thing you'd do after getting the gold is run away, right? If I had time to hide it somewhere and wait around to get caught, I'd have gone out of town instead. At the time, I drove to the park to distract the cops chasing me, while Li Li jumped out halfway to hide the gold so you wouldn't catch him red-handed.

"And you believed that?"

Qian Tong was quite honest, "No, who knows if he'd take the gold and run himself? But I didn't have any other options, you guys were closing in fast and had all the roads blocked. I figured he couldn't get far without a vehicle, so it was worth the gamble. And I turned out to be right, neither of us got away - the long arm of the law is inescapable. I'll never try anything like this again."

The officers exchanged glances, and one of them sent a brief text message.

"Um, Officer, could I use the bathroom? I drank too much water and really need to go," Qian Tong made a request.

Considering his good behavior so far, the middle-aged officer thought for a moment before agreeing, "Alright."

The bathroom was at the end of the hallway. The officer escorted him there, keeping him cuffed and never letting him out of sight.

Qian Tong acted very obediently, not trying to delay them at all. He finished his business, washed his hands, and wiped his pants before they headed straight back to the office.

The officer's guard lowered a little more.

The two had barely sat back down for less than a minute when they suddenly heard someone say over the earpiece, "A suspicious boat spotted on the lake, could be Li Li."

The head of the detective squad directing things said, "The lake is too big, spread out to block him." To teams A and B he ordered, "Seal off the docks for me. Team C stays put, absolutely do not let the suspect into the hills."

Team B reported: "There's a shallow shoal to the north where he could directly come ashore."

With two docks on the lake, one at the entrance and one south at the camping grounds, there was no dock built near the archery range to the north. But the water there was shallow enough for regular boats to pull up along the shore.

The middle-aged officer signaled the other two officers, "You two head over there to keep watch, I'll stay here."

"Got it," the two rushed off to help.

The middle-aged officer warned Qian Tong again, "No funny business. You can get your sentence reduced on one hand, or heavier charges on the other - think carefully."

"Yessir, yessir," Qian Tong sat obediently on the sofa like a schoolchild.

The officer kept an eye on him while listening closely to updates from the earpiece.

The spotters keeping watch from high vantage points reported in real time: "The boat is headed towards the center of the lake. There's only one person aboard, no life jacket, wearing a hat so we can't see his face."

"The boat is going very fast, he's noticed us."

On the lake, Ji Feng stood on the deck of the lifeboat, squinting forward. They had the engines on full speed, doggedly pursuing the smaller boat ahead, but for some reason it possessed a speed completely unfitting for a recreational boat, leaving a long, thin wake in the water.

"Faster," he urged.

The lifeboat pushed itself to accelerate, gradually gaining on the other vessel.

The person on the boat looked back at them, then suddenly turned and raced northwest towards the woods.

He used a cigarette butt to pass the key info about the "office" to Old Zhou.

Seeing so many police, Zhou must have known Qian Tong would come and just needed to tail him to get clues about their coordinated plan - he didn't even need to worry about tools, the guy had surely figured out ways to prepare over the past three years.

Then, Zhou Bing pretended to be Li Li to distract the police while Li Li disguised himself as Zhou Bing and sneaked into the office. Most critically, he had been cooperating with the police all along and used a fruit knife in the office to take care of the middle-aged policeman Lao Gao who was guarding him.

Of course, Qian Tong had anticipated that he would be asked questions, so he asked his cellmates in prison to teach him some voice changing skills. He couldn't imitate it perfectly, but it was enough to fool people for a period of time.

"Old Zhou can give us twenty minutes at most," Qian Tong urged. "We have to be quick."

Li Li sped up.

The cement wall wasn't thick, and his electric drill had plenty of power. After about three to four minutes, he could barely get the briefcase out.

"Got it," Li Li was overjoyed.

Before Qian Tong's joy surfaced on his brow, he suddenly saw someone running over from afar. Although only wearing casual clothes, his height and leg shape were highly recognizable. He immediately recognized: "Crap, the police are back! Run!"

Li Li was puzzled: "How did he come back so quickly?"

"Our cover is blown, let's go!" Qian Tong jumped out the window and ran.

Li Li followed closely behind.

The two jumped down, giving Jian Jing who was waiting outside a fright.

She hesitated, unsure whether to chase after them or not.

— Let's rewind ten minutes earlier.

Ten minutes ago, Jian Jing made up an excuse to leave Cheng Jiayou and the others, and sneaked into the office building. She pretended to use the bathroom and walked upstairs in broad daylight.

At that time, the two policemen guarding Qian Tong happened to be out providing support.

She went to the third floor, of course not appearing openly, and hid in the bathroom to observe the situation... Alright, she actually didn't know what to do and just squatted there to keep watch.

As a result, a blind cat ran into a dead mouse. Not long after, she vaguely heard noises coming from the office.

There were only two offices on the third floor. The park manager's office was lent to the police, and no one had come to the other office, and the sound insulation was quite good, so almost no one noticed.

She hesitated for a moment, then carefully went over and eavesdropped at the door.

Li Li was in the confined space, the thick walls filtering out ambient noise, but Qian Tong was keeping watch outside, so his voice wasn't too hard to hear.

Jian Jing hadn't expected them to all be here, and had actually obtained the gold. Shocked, she hurriedly informed Ji Feng.

Okay, back to the present.

The two suspects had jumped out the window and ran away. Should she chase them or not?

While Jian Jing was contemplating, her legs had already honestly darted out. The third floor wasn't high, and her recent physical fitness was quite good. She barely managed to keep up from behind.

Qian Tong and Li Li were headed towards the horse ranch at the back.

The horse ranch was very big, difficult to navigate, so golf carts were provided. Zhou Bing didn't know where he had come ashore from, but was waiting soaked in some hidden spot.

"Quick, let's head into the mountains immediately," seeing the briefcase, his eyes lit up. He didn't look like a 60-year-old man at all. "I know a small path that can definitely shake off the police."

The three got on the cart and instantly drove off into the distance.

Jian Jing was panting heavily. She called Ji Feng: "Where are you? They're about to get away!"

"Saving someone," Ji Feng gritted his teeth, continuously performing CPR on Lao Gao.