Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 33 Return without success
"Hello, sister, I'm here to pick up my handbag." Ai Liang flashed a bright smile, and his handsome face completely captivated the receptionist.

"Oh, handsome young man, you're back?" The receptionist felt her monotonous work life become much more vibrant when she saw Ai Liang's smile. "Here, your bag. I just took the green tea out of the refrigerator; it's still cold."

"Thank you sister."

After thanking her, Ai Liang slung her bag over her shoulder, took the chilled green tea, and left the beverage shop.

Sure enough, good-looking people always receive preferential treatment in life.

Drinking ice-cold green tea after exercising in the summer is simply a treat.

Ai Liang, holding a cup of green tea, leaned against the glass railing like a student taking a break after a long day of shopping. He looked at Shi Feng, who was directing the operation, and Xia Qinian, who was handcuffed, with a look of disdain.

Ai Liang placed the green tea on the railing, turned his back to the security camera, took out his spare phone from his pocket, connected it via Bluetooth, and dialed Shi Feng's number. At the same time, he used his telekinesis to create a soundproof barrier around his body to prevent Shi Feng from deduce his location by sound.

Ai Liang sat down on the chair, put his phone back in his pocket, and made a call via Bluetooth. This way, even if the surveillance footage of that time period was investigated later, he would not be a suspect. From the surveillance perspective, he would just be a passerby drinking a beverage.

Shi Feng, who was directing the crowd in the lobby downstairs, answered the phone.

"We haven't seen each other for five years, and the first thing you do when we meet is bring people to arrest me?"

Ai Liang greeted them in the hermit's voice, which was indistinguishable between men and women, young and old.

Shi Feng, who was originally analyzing the hiding places in the mall, frowned and looked around. However, there were too many people in the mall, and countless people were watching the excitement and fiddling with their phones.

Even though they kept telling people to put their phones down, there were still people who wouldn't listen and would hide in the corner to take pictures. It was impossible to tell who was making the call and who was talking to them.

"You should still be somewhere in the mall. Do you think you can escape?"

Shi Feng used police sign language to gesture to the officer next to him, meaning 'track cell phone signals'.

Ai Liang saw all of this, but he didn't care.

"I'm not making this call to mock you; I just want to tell you something."

"explain."

Shi Feng said.

"I have two points to make," Ai Liang said, standing on the third floor and looking at Shi Feng.

"First, I have no intention of harming Yue Chongshan; that rumor was just a ploy to lure me out. Second, I will leave Nevada City after this matter is resolved."

Shi Feng pondered for a long time, his expression somewhat complicated. He sighed and asked, "The security situation in Nevada City has stabilized, so you plan to go to another city to continue your work as an extrajudicial enforcer?"

"No comment."

Ai Liang naturally wouldn't reveal her purpose, but even if she did, he probably wouldn't believe her.

In fact, Shi Feng and Ai Liang had a good personal relationship back then. At Xia Qiyuan's suggestion, Ai Liang even told Shi Feng a lot of information and evidence about gang crimes, which helped him accumulate a lot of merit.

This situation persisted until after Xia Qiyuan's death.

Xia Qiyuan once asked his mortal enemy Yang Xingguo to take care of Shi Feng. Shi Feng's ability to maintain his current position is not only due to Xia Qiyuan's prestige, but also inseparable from Yang Xingguo's support.

If the two are mortal enemies, why would Yang Xingguo take care of Shi Feng?

Although Xia Qiyuan and Yang Xingguo are described as mortal enemies, they were actually both police officers in the same jurisdiction and had known each other for many years.

They became bitter enemies simply because of their differing investigative philosophies.

Xia Qiyuan advocated making the best use of resources. He believed that cooperating with people in the black market was acceptable as long as it could solve the problem. However, he would use various excuses and threats to avoid paying the intelligence providers. Yang Xingguo, on the other hand, was stubborn and would never associate with those people. Even if he was forced to cooperate, he would arrest the people who provided the intelligence afterward, making him a prime example of crossing the river and then burning the bridge.

While they appear to be at odds at work, they are actually birds of a feather and call each other brothers in private.

These two "gentlemen" had long made a name for themselves in the underworld. Just hearing their nicknames, "two-faced Xia Qiyuan" and "discarding the millstone after it has done its work," shows just how deep the resentment of that group was.

Shi Feng, who originally came from a gangster background, naturally leaned more towards Xia Qiyuan's ideas. However, his current superior was Yang Xingguo, and sometimes he had to listen to his opinions. For example, this arrest operation was organized by Yang Xingguo.

It's obvious who the informant was—Xu Zhihai, who's been in the restroom and hasn't shown up since.

“Even your master wouldn’t want to see you like this.” Shi Feng couldn’t help but sigh at the unpredictability of life. “If you hadn’t chosen to kill those scumbags back then, perhaps we would be drinking in a bar now, instead of standing on opposite sides and being hostile to each other.”

What does this have to do with Xia Qiyuan? Which version of The Hermit's Story did you buy from Mu Si?

Ai Liang was speechless; another guy led astray by Mu Si.

You even managed to fool Shi Feng, the top criminal investigator in Nevada. With that kind of talent, why don't you go write novels or become a screenwriter? Instead, you insist on being an information broker, ruining the entire underground scene in Nevada.

Having not shown his face for five years, Ai Liang had no idea where the latest chapter of the so-called hermit's 'personal information' had been updated.

"We're not that close."

The police officer who had just been instructed by Shi Feng to locate the cell phone signal jogged back to Shi Feng. They should have found out by now that the source of the cell phone signal was still inside the mall.

Ai Liang said, "I have delivered the message. Goodbye."

"Wait!" Shi Feng said urgently, "I have one more thing to say, for the sake of our past relationship."

"Captain Shi." The officer next to him immediately changed his expression and tried to stop him, but Shi Feng pushed him away.

The two are now identified as a wanted criminal and a captain of the criminal investigation team.

To openly admit to a friendship between two people in such a setting is not only inappropriate, but could also be considered a serious breach of discipline.

But Shi Feng still insisted on speaking, which shows how determined he was.

“I know you’ve seen far more darkness than we have. There’s always a light side and a dark side to life. If you’re always clinging to the dark side, how can you grasp the light in life?” Shi Feng slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his gaze had become incredibly sharp. “This is my last admonition to the hermit. From now on, in my eyes there will only be those who punish beyond the law.”

This was a piece of advice given to Ai Liang out of consideration for their past friendship, and it also served to put an end to their relationship.

I wonder what he would think if he found out one day that Ai Liang had never considered him a friend.

Ai Liang hung up the phone and left from the balcony.

Now that they have located the cell phone signal, the rest is easy.

Ai Liang put her phone on silent mode and turned off location services. Then she walked around the third floor. With location services turned off, the phone signal location range was quite inaccurate, and she could only roughly confirm that the phone was in the mall.

There are countless people wearing the same or similar clothes as Ai Liang, not to mention that he changed his face. In just a few minutes, the police mistook him for someone else no less than five times.

Finding him among these people would be incredibly difficult, practically impossible, unless they blocked every exit of the mall and searched each person individually, taking back everyone whose attire resembled the hermit for investigation. Of course, that was impossible.

Ai Liang casually bought himself a new baseball cap at the clothing store, followed two young women who were buying clothes onto the escalator, quietly put his spare phone into the bag containing the clothes, and then turned around and went downstairs.

At this moment, Shi Feng was directing his men to search the restrooms inside the shops in the lobby on the first floor of the mall. He knew very well that with the Hermit's counter-surveillance capabilities, he would never openly appear under the mall's public surveillance. Therefore, the only places to hide were the changing rooms and restrooms of the clothing stores.

Shi Feng himself plans to negotiate with the mall's security department to conduct real-time monitoring.

Wearing a baseball cap, Ai Liang walked openly towards the mall exit without being stopped by any police officers.

Xia Qiyuan had made a profile of the hermit back then. The hermit was a young man between twenty and thirty years old, who had worked in the logistics industry, could drive, had some medical knowledge, and had no bad habits such as smoking or drinking. He also liked to bite his lip when he was thinking. These were conclusions that Xia Qiyuan had gradually observed during his time with Ai Liang.

Ten years have passed since then, and the hermit is now at least thirty years old, so the police officer guarding the door glanced at Ai Liang and let her through.

While Shi Feng and his men were still desperately trying to locate the phone in the mall, they were completely unaware that the person in question had already escaped.

As a result, Shi Feng and his team failed to catch Ai Liang even by the time the mall closed. They only found the cell phone used to call Shi Feng. The identity information used to register the SIM card belonged to someone from another city, clearly indicating that it was stolen. Such SIM cards are readily available on the black market, making it impossible to trace their origin.

After several hours of fussing, Shi Feng could only leave one team to stay near the mall and take the mall's surveillance hard drive back to the criminal investigation team for review.

Leaving a team behind was just to wait and see if Ai Liang would run into them.

It was late at night, and most of the field staff had gone home to rest. Only Shi Feng and a few other criminal police officers on night duty remained at the criminal police station.

Being single is a tradition of Xia Qiyuan's lineage. As Xia Qiyuan's personal disciple, Shi Feng naturally inherited this fine tradition. He was over thirty years old and still unmarried, so he didn't have to rush home from get off work to be with his wife and children.

As for why he hasn't gotten married yet, it's because of his career and because he doesn't have any plans to.

Shi Feng brought Gao Bin, the slacker, to the technical department. He verbally said he was considering transferring him to the technical department, and then took the sullen-faced Gao Bin to check the surveillance hard drive, ostensibly to familiarize him with the work of the technical department in advance.

Gao Bin had no way to express his bitterness. Ever since he joined the criminal investigation team, Shi Feng would always call on him for everything, big or small. Let alone slacking off, anyone in the branch could have an easier time than him.

"Did I come here to rest or to suffer?" Gao Bin muttered to himself as Shi Feng left, then looked at the surveillance footage with a bitter expression.

Meanwhile, Shi Feng went to the lounge, closed the door, took out his phone, sighed, and then contacted Yang Xingguo.

After the call connected, Shi Feng said, "Director Yang, the arrest failed."

"I know. If it were that easy to catch him, the case would have been closed ten years ago." A calm male voice came from the phone. "Do you have any explanation for what you said to the throat-slitting man?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Feng stood up straight, bracing himself for a scolding: "No."

"You're exchanging pleasantries with a criminal in front of all the officers during a case? Do you think you're all that now?!" Yang Xingguo cursed directly. "I trusted you and believed you could handle this, which is why I helped you cover up your relationship with the Throat-Slitting Demon! And after all these years, you just openly admit to having a private relationship with the Throat-Slitting Demon in front of everyone. Have you considered the consequences?!"

Shi Feng remained silent. He was recommended by Xia Qiyuan through a recommendation system, so the disciplinary review process was much stricter than that of ordinary police officers. Any small stain could result in suspension.

Back when the hermit turned into the throat-slitting demon, if it weren't for Yang Xingguo's strong guarantee, Shi Feng would have packed up and left long ago.

Shi Feng was well aware of the consequences of doing so, but he also owed the Hermit a lot of favors. Ever since the Hermit became the Throat-Slitting Demon, unless he resigned, he would never have the chance to repay these favors.

Shi Feng couldn't bring himself to bend the law and let the hermit go, so he could only take this opportunity to advise the hermit, hoping he wouldn't completely succumb to darkness. Whether the hermit listened or not, this was the only thing he could do, risking being investigated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Shi Feng did not offer any explanation: "I'm sorry, Director Yang."

"You're just like that bastard Xia Qiyuan!" Yang Xingguo asked seriously after a moment of silence, "I can help you suppress this matter. But you have to answer one question for me: what is your opinion on the Throat-Slitting Demon?"

(End of this chapter)