Chapter 189 - 141: The Shocking 400,000

’Using a thief to catch a thief...’

Qian Hua’s heart skipped a beat, but he suppressed the feeling and considered it carefully.

Could it work?

It could!

Why?

Because Xu Huo wasn’t the first to use this method; others had done it too.

To put it bluntly, it was just finding people to assist with the case—people who could offer insights from a specialist’s perspective.

"This old man never thought I’d see the day I’d be helping catch thieves."

Huang Song chuckled, his stooped figure looking a bit seedy.

"Cut the crap."

"Do you still remember what Sun Jiang looked like when he was eleven?"

Qian Hua spoke in a cold voice.

"Is this him?"

As he spoke, he took an item from inside his jacket. It was a portrait, a sketch drawn by a forensic artist.

The mobile phone shop owner had a very clear memory and had given a complete description of the Sun Jiang he’d dealt with.

But before they could pursue him, they first had to confirm if it was the same person.

"Hmm, a mole by the corner of his eye, a flat nose, thin lips, almond-shaped eyes, a buzz cut... a very plain-looking guy..."

The four old men huddled together. They looked at the portrait, a face so different from the one in their memories, and one of them clapped his hands.

"No mistake, that’s him!"

Li Jianye nodded, paused for a moment, and prepared to go print wanted posters to distribute.

But Huang Song, unsurprised, shook his head.

"A wanted poster is useless."

"This is probably something those baby brokers taught him."

Huang Song said.

Baby brokers, in other words, human traffickers.

"In our line of work—the Lower Nine Professions—every racket, aside from the brothels, has one hard and fast rule: you can’t attract attention."

"You can’t be too good-looking, nor too ugly. You can’t be too tall, nor too short."

"Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, you’ll have no room to operate. It’s the same with baby brokers stealing kids. They rarely go after the pretty ones unless they can sell them for a high price. Otherwise, you make the money but don’t live to spend it."

"He’s painfully ordinary. So ordinary that if he stood right in front of you, you could look at him twice and still not remember his face. A wanted poster is a complete waste of time."

Huang Song shook his head.

Shady business has to be done in the shadows. Anything that draws attention is doomed to fail.

Even when a human trafficker is abducting a female student, if the client has no looks-based requirements, they’ll just snatch a plain-looking one.

Xu Huo shot them a look and said,

"Enough of this useless chatter. You were brought out to help the police make an arrest."

"You know Sun Jiang. Give us your personal assessment of the situation."

Huang Song thought for a moment and said,

"How long has that kid been showing up in Linlan City?"

"We don’t know. It seems he made an appearance eight years ago, and he’s resurfaced within the last month."

Qian Hua replied.

He thought for a moment, then added,

"And from what we can tell, every time he shows up, it’s to kill someone!"

"Within a month, huh..."

Another one of the old ringleaders thought for a moment and glanced at Huang Song. "What’s the shortest distance between the addresses of the victims?"

"The closest is eight kilometers, the farthest is fourteen kilometers."

"And the time between them?"

"No more than twenty-four hours apart."

"What about the locations of the thefts?"

"All over and around Linlan City."

Hearing this, Huang Song frowned, clicked his tongue, and shook his head. "This is bad. Very bad."

"Don’t be evasive," Li Jianye said grimly.

"’A rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its own hole.’ A thief doesn’t steal from his own neighborhood. Normally, once you hit a place, you don’t go back for a second burglary anytime soon."

"So we can forget about catching him in the places he’s already hit. We have to look in the places he hasn’t been."

Huang Song’s gravelly voice trailed off as he sank into thought for a moment.

"But if he’s been hitting places all over the city... it means the kid has no fixed base. He’s a drifter, which makes him damn hard to catch."

"Whose territory is the train station?"

Another of the old ringleaders asked.

Train stations, airports, long-distance coaches, city buses—places like these are regular haunts for thieves.

The constant flow of new people breaks the ’hit a place once and move on’ rule, allowing for multiple thefts in the same location.

"He doesn’t steal at the train station."

Qian Hua shook his head.

"The killer only targets the rich."

"Currently, a conservative estimate is that he’s obtained a total of 100,000 yuan from multiple thefts within a month."

Only steals from the rich!?

A conservative 100,000 in one month!?

This information left Huang Song and the other old-timers stunned.

Back in their day, before they got locked up, stealing ten thousand was enough to be hailed as a master. People would have been lining up, begging to be your apprentice...

But...

"Only steals from the rich?"

"Weird... very weird. No fixed address, but he’s stealing so much money..."

The four Thief Kings focused their attention on another point.

"What’s the kid doing with it? Even if he was chasing women every day, it wouldn’t cost this much."

Qian Hua paused, this time he was a bit puzzled.

’Is there some necessary connection between having a place to live and stealing money?’

There is!

Let’s put it this way: a person’s material desires are often tied to their environment.

If you’re lying at home feeling hot, you’ll want an air conditioner. If you’re sitting on the sofa feeling bored, you’ll want to buy a TV.

But it’s different if you’re a vagrant. If you toss 5,000 yuan in front of a homeless person, are they going to buy a color TV, or are they going to prioritize a good meal?

Also, without a home, no matter how many things you buy, it’s all for nothing without a house to put them in.

When you’re a drifter, you don’t need valuables.

A watch? Perfume? A necklace?

Those kinds of valuable accessories?

One of the fundamental requirements for a thief is to look completely ordinary!

"So, you’re saying it’s very likely the kid stole a huge pile of cash... and hasn’t spent a single penny of it?"

Huang Song stroked his chin, lost in thought.

"He’s saving it?" Li Jianye’s eye twitched as he asked the question subconsciously.

"Pah!"

"Scum!"