National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1259 - 1186 Surveillance

Chapter 1259: Chapter 1186 Surveillance

Manli City Bureau Conference Room.

Liu Wenkai and Zhao Xiong, the captain of the Security Unit, each with a cigarette in their mouth, walked into the bright conference room.

The lights in the conference room were dazzling, and the officers’ ranks shone so brightly it was overwhelming.

Zhao Xiong scanned the room and felt it was full of olive branches and white shirts, just like a car exhibition where everywhere he looked was blindingly white, making it hard to look closely, leaving his heart yearning and astounded...

Zhao Xiong unconsciously took the cigarette out of his mouth.

Liu Wenkai smiled slightly, kept his cigarette in his mouth, quietly pulled Zhao Xiong to the corner of the room, and whispered, "Let’s just listen. It probably has nothing to do with us now."

"Alright, alright." Zhao Xiong nodded quickly, and added, "You’ve really made a big contribution this time."

"Just a coincidence." Liu Wenkai gave a sly smile.gif

The conference room door was open, and people kept coming in. Most wore white shirts, with a few in blue shirts, either having the look of seasoned smokers with wrinkled faces, or overly young bookish types. From Zhao Xiong’s experience, they were all difficult people to offend.

Liu Wenkai whispered, "It should start soon. Many people flew in from all over, so it should start around the scheduled time."

"I’m not in a hurry," Zhao Xiong said.

"Have a smoke." Liu Wenkai handed another cigarette to Zhao Xiong.

Zhao Xiong hurriedly accepted it with both hands.

Click.

Zhao Xiong first lit Liu Wenkai’s cigarette, then lit his own, took a deep inhalation to calm his nerves.

At this moment, someone at the front picked up the microphone, tapped it lightly twice, and said, "We’re ready to start the meeting. Put out your cigarettes. No smoking during the meeting."

The windows on both sides were opened, and cold wind rushed in.

Zhao Xiong hastily put out the Zhonghua cigarette he had just taken two puffs of.

"We have a tight schedule for this meeting, let’s get straight to the case. Wang Chuanxing!" Song Tiancheng said, handing the microphone to a fair-skinned, upright young officer with dark circles.

Wang Chuanxing stepped forward, saluted, then took out a PAD, and said, "Liu Bangshun, male, 28 years old, pharmaceutical representative, has long worked at the Shan Nan Province Tumor Hospital. Liu Bangshun encountered his superior, Li Hong, three years ago after graduating with a master’s degree when he was looking for a job. The latter arranged a job for him, and Liu Bangshun did several tasks for her, including delivering goods, providing information on the tumor hospital and related pharmaceutical organizations, obtaining bid documents, budgets, and so on..."

"Additionally, in the middle of last year, under the pretext of a trip abroad, Liu Bangshun underwent training with foreign organizations for five days, focusing on lock-picking, operations, and stealing computer data. Liu Bangshun is Li Hong’s subordinate."

"Liu Bangshun claims that contacting and persuading Ren Kuangshan, assigning tasks, arranging plans, and other work were all instructed by Li Hong. Furthermore, Li Hong personally conducted some contacts and took Liu Bangshun to reconnoiter in Songguo Park, arranging the specific routes for entering and leaving."

"Li Hong. Female. 29 years old. Owns several companies primarily engaged in foreign trade. She studied in the United Kingdom for more than a year. We have already locked down Li Hong’s phone and location, but have not arrested her yet."

Wang Chuanxing briefly introduced the situation, piquing the interest of the white shirts present, but the main investigators were still watching Jiang Yuan next to them.

The task force, although consisting of multiple teams, now seemed to rely most heavily on Jiang Yuan. At this point, the command of the task force has practically fallen into Jiang Yuan’s hands, and the other teams are mainly serving one direction of work. Although Song Tiancheng has the overall view, in practice, they still listen to Jiang Yuan.

Solving a case needs to be result-oriented, and it’s natural for the capable to rise. The other teams were selected this way, but they just got filtered out this time.

Anyway, it’s a temporary institution focused on doing business, with no talk of power struggle. Especially as the case has reached this stage, the main actions were done by Jiang Yuan, and the follow-up naturally depends on Jiang Yuan as well.

Jiang Yuan looked calmly at his computer, and after Wang Chuanxing finished speaking, he took the microphone and said, "Li Hong is also not the mastermind. She doesn’t have a motive for murder and seems more like an executor rather than a planner."

Jiang Yuan glanced at Song Tiancheng, then continued, "We are already reconstructing her daily interactions based on Li Hong’s movements. For the time being, I suggest focusing on surveillance."

Song Tiancheng nodded and said, "I agree with this plan. At the current stage, the immediate perpetrator has been arrested, and since the mastermind behind the scenes is linked to foreign forces, it’s hard to pinpoint a specific person. I think there is no need to make it the main direction of investigation."

Everyone nodded in agreement, as by this point, the case was nearly beyond the scope of a criminal investigation, and many detectives were reluctant to get involved.

"Does Li Hong know she’s been exposed?" asked an unfamiliar man in a white shirt.

Song Tiancheng said, "Li Hong might know. She booked a ticket to Hong Kong for tomorrow, probably to test the waters."

This is a common trick among high-level fugitives. Traveling to Hong Kong and Macau itself isn’t very sensitive, but it can test whether they’re on a border control list. If they’re not, they can quickly travel around the world from Hong Kong, very convenient, and returning to the Mainland wouldn’t be affected. If they are on the list, there are still ways to explain it, or they could just pray to Mazu right there as an alternative.

"Is it possible she reported her situation to her handler?" continued the unfamiliar white shirt.

Song Tiancheng said, "We secretly arrested Liu Bangshun, so the only thing Li Hong can confirm is that she can’t contact Liu Bangshun anymore, which might also be why she decided to leave the country. We continue to monitor Li Hong to see if she will contact anyone else before she leaves."

"What about online contact?"

"If she’s contacting anyone online, it’s already too late." At this point, Song Tiancheng looked at Liu Jinghui in the corner and said, "We believe that Li Hong’s personality is quite confident, even arrogant. She’s also very greedy when it comes to material things and wouldn’t easily give up such a large business in the country. Since she bought a ticket for tomorrow rather than leaving immediately, it shows she still wants to struggle a bit; at least, she thinks she has the capital for reconnaissance."

"Can we keep an eye on her? If she anticipates knowing she’s being watched... This Li Hong must have received counter-surveillance training, right?" The question raised here is very practical.

Surveilling ordinary people is a completely different concept from surveilling professionals. If it were the old tracking surveillance system, it would be fine. Fixed surveillance cameras and other technological equipment have too many loopholes for professionals familiar with their performance.

Moreover, real-time monitoring and subsequent investigation are two different concepts. Domestic image investigation teams, when conducting investigations, often involve dozens of people, and if necessary, even hundreds or thousands can be mobilized.

But for real-time monitoring, having more people is useless, as there are too many variables involved, and a sudden move could cause you to lose sight of the target.

In fact, the most comprehensive and stable surveillance is blatant tracking. This tactic was used by Japan before World War II and by post-modern North Korea. In those days, the moment a foreigner entered Japan, they would be openly followed by Japanese counter-espionage agency personnel who would simply follow and record, without speaking or interfering, leaving people completely helpless.

Song Tiancheng naturally understood the difficulty of real-time monitoring and looked at Jiang Yuan again.

If Li Hong were caught, this case would almost be wrapped up, but the clues behind Li Hong would basically be cut off.

Choosing to monitor is a gamble to see if Li Hong might still lead to more clues. From a cost-benefit perspective, since Li Hong can’t escape anyway, monitoring might as well be tried.

Song Tiancheng was only worried that if Li Hong managed to escape, having to launch another manhunt later would make the task force’s final operation look terrible.

Jiang Yuan glanced at his notebook screen, pondering for a few seconds, then said, "Li Hong has indeed received counter-surveillance training, but she’s essentially a beginner, which can be seen from her current behavior. I think it’s okay to monitor a little longer, and if you’re worried, just prepare two more teams nearby for an immediate arrest."

As the holder of Image Investigation - Trajectory Analysis (Level 6), Jiang Yuan judged that Li Hong was only at Level 2 at most, perhaps half a step to Level 2 mastery, unless she completely left monitoring zones; otherwise, she couldn’t pull off any tricks in the city center.

The domestic situation is also different from abroad, where a search warrant is required at every turn. For the detectives, as long as it’s confirmed there’s something or someone in a specific building or even within a block, they would dig three feet to find it.

"Let’s proceed according to Jiang Yuan’s proposal." For someone else, Song Tiancheng wouldn’t make a decision so easily, but since it was Jiang Yuan speaking, Song Tiancheng quickly said, "I know everyone’s worked hard, but let’s push through one more day and wrap up neatly."

"Understood," everyone responded in unison, most of them looking relaxed. With the case proceeding to this point, most people were merely spectators.

...

Li Hong carried her Hermès Kelly bag, weaving through the mall, and every store’s sales personnel greeted her with kind smiles.

Li Hong held her head high, confident and proud.

She knew the situation was urgent and suspected she might already be exposed, but surrendering was never her choice.

A series of predecessors flashed through Li Hong’s mind, Yu Zecheng, Cui Ping, Wanqiu... No, it was James Bond, M, and Bo En...

Although it was just short training, in today’s recruitment-driven era, having undergone such training can be considered professional. Especially since Li Hong excelled in her short training and was praised by her instructor as the best in recent years.

After calm deliberation, Li Hong felt she had a chance to rise above this dire situation; before that, she had to protect her companions!

Her mind was racing, yet her steps remained steady, as she casually walked into a clothing store, picked two garments, and entered the fitting room to try them on.

No matter how capable you are, there are no cameras in the fitting room, right!