The wholesale market was indeed a hodgepodge of good and bad people. Its layout was complicated, but luckily, Cui Lizhu was familiar with the place, so she could lead the police to one of the basement warehouses.
"Can't go any further!" Just as they got to a turn, Cui Lizhu reminded everyone, "Everyone has their alarm system. Any further, and we would be exposed! Noh…" She pointed at a curtain door somewhere further on and said, "Their lair is right behind that door. I reckon that most of the people should be there!"
"Alright!" Li Luoyun immediately gave orders to each unit, then urged them to prepare tools for the break-in. At the same time, he reminded all of the policemen to take extra note on Liu Yu! After all, their surprise attack was focused on the Hasty Murder Case.
"Oh, right…" Cui Lizhu waved at Li Luoyun and Zhao Yu. "You have to send another troop with me to outflank them from the other side. I know one other secret tunnel, so you have to keep guard at that exit, too!"
"Okay!" Li Luoyun immediately sent a troop of police detectives.
"Team Leader Zhao, thank you!" Li Luoyun passed Zhao Yu a gun and exhorted, "When my men are ready, we can move together! Please be careful!"
Zhao Yu took the gun and nodded. He then let Cui Lizhu lead the way, bringing a few police detectives towards the depth of the basement warehouses. It seemed to be abandoned, as all of the lighting was dim and some places even had no lighting at all.
Cui Lizhu was extremely familiar with the space, as she had promised. She brought Zhao Yu and the troop to and fro inside the warehouse. Then, they all arrived at an emergency exit.
Near the emergency exit stairways, there was a little door that looked somewhat like a big circuit breaker box. Then, when it was pushed open, besides the electric panel, there was a narrow yet long passageway behind the door.
"We have to sneak in and walk to the other side of the passageway!" Cui Lizhu said. "Otherwise, there are quite a few exits! It would be hard to guarantee which one would they might take!"
Zhao Yu nodded in agreement. After Cui Lizhu went in, he followed closely behind her.
Luckily the passageway wasn't long. Soon enough, they came to somewhere more spacious. It used to be a basement parking lot, but was now abandoned. The smell of pee filled the entire space, causing their stomachs to lurch.
"It's here!" Cui Lizhu pointed to the front of the parking lot. "You can lie and wait to ambush from here! I guarantee you will have some results then!"
Zhao Yu observed the layout and nodded at the police detectives. They immediately dispersed and looked for a good hiding spot.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Captain Li, we are ready!" Via walkie-talkie, Zhao Yu reported their situation to Li Luoyun.
"Alright! We are ready, too! Then… Team Leader Zhao, let's… begin?" Zhao Yu was of a higher commanding position, after all, so Li Luoyun, not daring overstep his position, asked politely.
Zhao Yu was only thinking about solving the case, so he naturally couldn't be bothered by this kind of silly etiquette. He said straightforwardly, "Captain Li, it's your call!"
"Alright! All units, attention, go!" Li Luoyun omitted the courtesy and immediately sent out action orders. Each unit launched their surprise attack at the thieves' lair.
However, although the action had launched, the location where Zhao Yu was at had no movement at all. They could only wait patiently.
"Police officer," Cui Lizhu told Zhao Yu softly, "I have no idea how many of them will run out from here later! Why not unlock my handcuffs, and I will help you to arrest a few?"
"Humph, dream on!" Zhao Yu sent her a glare and said. "Why are the handcuffs difficult for you now? At the hotel, you freed yourself behind your back!"
"Humph! Don't ask what you already know!" Cui Lizhu pouted. "These are obviously special handcuffs that police detectives use, so it's different than your cheapskate brand! Hurry up and open them for me. There are so many police here, are you worried that I will run away?"
"Hey?" What Cui Lizhu said triggered Zhao Yu's curiosity. He creased his eyebrows and asked, "Speaking of which, I have something that I don't quite understand. In the hotel, how did you open your handcuffs? You weren't really dressed back then…"
What Zhao Yu meant was that Cui Lizhu was only wearing her sleeping gown and so she shouldn't have had any tools that she could use to pick the lock of the handcuffs.
Plus, she was handcuffed behind her back, so how could she possibly have opened them?
Just as Zhao Yu asked her, one of the police detectives at the front suddenly reminded the group, "Take note! There's movement!"
Then, everyone quickly lowered their heads. When he looked towards the parking lot, a few figures were running towards them, obviously panicked. When they arrived before them, Zhao Yu was surprised that there were actually about seven or eight of them that had fled that way!
So many?
Zhao Yu looked back at Cui Lizhu, while Cui Lizhu raised her hands before her again, signaling for him to open her handcuffs. But, Zhao Yu naturally wouldn't open her handcuffs for her. He immediately lifted the gun that Li Luoyun passed to him and rolled his eyes at her cheekily.
Quicker than words could tell, the seven or eight thieves were before them, and the police detectives hemmed them in and caught them off guard. However, including Zhao Yu, there were only six now on the scene. Under such chaos, someone had run off!
However, fighting against these thieves, Zhao Yu of course didn't need a gun. He dashed forward and landed a punch and a kick, taking care of the two escapees easily! But, just as Zhao Yu had beaten them up and turned around, he realized that Cui Lizhu was nowhere to be seen!
D*mn!
This girl…
Zhao Yu searched around in a hurry, but didn't see her anywhere.
Eh?
That's strange!
Where did she go…?
Zhao Yu looked around, even searching along the shadows. In the end, when he took a whiff of a foul smell, he was surprised to see another passageway! It was dark and boundless, and the foul smell soared upward from it, as the passageway led downward. It was most likely connected to the sewer!
Motherf*cker… What is this?
Suddenly, Zhao Yu finally realized that everything before his eyes seemed to have been pre-arranged by Cui Lizhu!
She knew that there was a passageway that connected to the sewer. Hence, she requested to block off the escape route here!
Why does she want to run? Is she afraid that I will go back on my word, or…
Due to the pressing of time, Zhao Yu couldn't think on any of this further. He quickly tapped opened the system interface in his head to look at her via the camera on her shoulder. When he opened it, he was upset to find that the invisible camera's filming duration had ended, as it could only be effective for twelve hours!
D*mn it!
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWhy didn't I notice this earlier?
At the moment, the police detectives were still entangled with the thieves, but Zhao Yu had no time for that. He turned on the flashlight feature on his cell phone and dashed into the sewer.
There wasn't any light in the sewer. Besides filthy water, there was only that same foul smell.
Pitter-patter…
After he had jogged for a bit, he suddenly heard a faint ruffling sound. He quickly ran forward. He was shocked to see a metal fencing!
The metal fencing blocked off the sewer! However, what shocked Zhao Yu most was that Cui Lizhu was standing on the other side of the metal fencing!
It can't be, right?
Zhao Yu's eyes shot wide open.
How did she get over to that side?
He looked closely and noticed that the metal fencing didn't seem to have a door, so it was impossible for anyone to have gone through it!
Would it be…
Looking at the fence, Zhao Yu thought of another possibility.
Did she climb over?
"Police officer!" Cui Lizhu turned around to greet Zhao Yu. She raised her hands and smiled. "Don't you want to know how I opened my handcuffs? Look…"
Just as she spoke, Zhao Yu was shocked to see that she had used her left hand and squeezed her right hand out. Then, along with the cracking sound that her right hand's bones made, the handcuffs fell off smoothly…
Wow!
Zhao Yu then understood that Cui Lizhu didn't pick locks at all! Instead, she knew a body-shrinking skill!!