Chapter 64 — Clues to the Robbery

In any case, though Gu Pengzhan had said Qing Bo was a man to be trusted, Wei Zhao could not shake the feeling that Gu Pengzhan was hiding something from him. Bringing him here to keep Gu Mengyao company was not simply a matter of finding her a study companion, a nanny, and a bodyguard rolled into one; there seemed to be something deeper behind it.

What that something was, however, Gu Pengzhan had not said. Qing Bo, he suspected, knew nothing of it either; most likely only Gu Pengzhan himself knew. "Mr. Gu, I've parked the car. May I come in?"

"Come in. Yizheng and I were just talking about yesterday's business," Gu Pengzhan said.

Qing Bo pushed the door open and came in, settling onto the sofa beside Wei Zhao.

"Earlier we were discussing why the kidnappers chose the bank. Yizheng already explained it — the school requires every student to open a bank card, to deposit their tuition and fees..." Seeing Qing Bo enter, Gu Pengzhan picked up the thread where they had left off. "From this it follows that there may well be someone inside Yao Yao's school passing information to them. Otherwise the kidnappers could never have chosen that particular moment to rob the bank."

"Yes," Wei Zhao nodded. "That's what I thought too. And I believe the informant must be a member of the school's staff, not a student. Only a staff member would know these things in advance — by the time the students learned of it, it was already almost dismissal time, and notifying the kidnappers to prepare at that point would clearly have been too late!" "Exactly!" Gu Pengzhan nodded in approval, apparently much pleased with Wei Zhao's quick thinking. "As for the school, I'll look into that as well... but... never mind, let's not go into that..."

"Why? Is it difficult? Isn't Uncle Chu a school trustee?" Wei Zhao was puzzled. Surely it would be relatively easy for Gu Pengzhan to investigate matters at the school?

"Why? Is it difficult? Isn't Uncle Chu a school trustee?" Wei Zhao was puzzled. Surely it would be relatively easy for Gu Pengzhan to investigate matters at the school?

"I am a trustee, true enough, but the school has three trustees, each holding a stake in it, so there are many of their people in the school as well. You can imagine the resistance an investigation would run into..." Gu Pengzhan did not conceal this from Wei Zhao; it was no secret.

"So that's how it is. Then I'll keep an eye out while I'm at school," Wei Zhao said after hearing Gu Pengzhan's explanation.

By this point Wei Zhao had roughly pieced the picture together: the kidnappers had not snatched Gu Mengyao for money or her life. They meant to use her to force Gu Pengzhan into concessions over a business partnership.

And the reason they had not chosen to carry out the kidnapping elsewhere was purely to throw the police off the scent and buy time. If Gu Pengzhan's daughter were abducted, one could well imagine the massive police force that would be thrown into a frantic search for the kidnappers' trail.

In that case, Gu Mengyao might well be found by the police before their goal was ever achieved.

...

Indeed, once Yang Huaijun returned to the criminal investigation unit, he immediately took over the bank robbery case — and in his hands, the case proved remarkably easy to handle!

Yang Huaijun simply made one phone call to the city management command center and obtained the surveillance footage from every street near the bank the day before! Only then did Qiu Lingshan realize how foolish she had been!

Although "Digital City Management" had been in operation in Songshan for less than a month, Yang Huaijun had sharply committed these useful details to memory! "Digital City Management," as it was called, referred to the use of information technology and mobile communications to process, analyze, and manage information on all the city's management components and incidents, an informatization measure to modernize urban administration.

The city management bureau had installed surveillance cameras on all the major streets, subjecting these stretches of road to round-the-clock monitoring.

The city management bureau had installed surveillance cameras on all the major streets, subjecting these stretches of road to round-the-clock monitoring to keep watch over sanitation, traffic flow, and the like.

At the time, Qiu Lingshan had also thought of obtaining footage from the traffic police, but to her frustration, the traffic police cameras only activated at red lights, capturing records of vehicles in violation; at all other times they were switched off.

So Qiu Lingshan had been forced to give up — never imagining that Yang Huaijun would think of borrowing the city management department's surveillance footage to crack the case.

It looked simple enough, but it proved one thing: she had not been careful enough! Matters that seemed to have nothing to do with the work at hand often played an unexpectedly crucial role at the decisive moment.

With the surveillance footage, everything became much easier. The city management bureau's round-the-clock cameras had only recently been activated and were still in the trial operation stage, so few people knew of them — the kidnappers could not possibly have known.

And in fact, they clearly had not known. On the stretch of road Zhang Xiaohang was responsible for, shortly after the first car, a Song A74, passed by, a second vehicle — a commercial van with the plate Song A74 — drove through. That was undoubtedly the getaway vehicle!

After that it was simply a matter of following the trail to its source, narrowing down the approximate area where the kidnappers' vehicle was located! Why only approximate? Because the city management's round-the-clock cameras were installed only along roads within the urban districts; remote streets had no need of them. So they could only judge the kidnappers' rough location from the final footage.

Even so, it was enough. The scope had been narrowed to a manageable range, and searching would be that much easier...

Zhong Yongliang spent the whole day in dread. He had never imagined that a transfer student who looked like a country bumpkin could be so vicious. Yesterday the kid had crossed him, and this morning he had beaten Zou Ruoming, one of the school's top figures. He had expected the boy to die a miserable death — only for Black Panther, the man he himself had brought in, to be the one beaten half to death!

He had expected the boy to die a miserable death — only for Black Panther, the man he himself had brought in, to be the one beaten half to death!

At this moment Zhong Yongliang finally understood what a difference in true strength meant. Black Panther had a gun in his hand and still couldn't beat Wei Zhao. What could he himself possibly do to the boy?

And yet, right now, he could not afford to look too weak in front of Zhang Naipao and Gao Fu. He hated Wei Zhao down to the marrow of his bones — and feared him just as deeply.

By ordinary means, there was certainly no dealing with Wei Zhao. If he wanted to wipe away this humiliation, he would have to think of something else.

"Brother Liang, how is this Wei Zhao so fierce..." Gao Fu said, somewhat aggrieved. "But that Black Panther is way too pathetic, isn't he? I thought he was supposed to be something, but he's about the same as us yesterday!"

"Exactly. He's got a gun and he's still that useless. If I were him, I'd have just shot that brat Wei Zhao dead!" Zhang Naipao said furiously.

Gao Fu and Zhang Naipao had never run with the underworld. They had only ever heard Zhong Yongliang talk about how formidable Black Panther was. Seeing him today, they thought he was nothing special, so they felt no particular shock.

The one truly shaken was Zhong Yongliang. He alone knew best just how skilled Black Panther was — and now Black Panther had suffered one setback after another at Wei Zhao's hands...