I am a super cop

Chapter 3039 Self-Indulgence Within the Circle
During the phone call, Hu Xue's explanation made Gu Chen feel that Wang Tianming had actually been set up. If Hu Xue was the one who set up the setup, then Zhang Meng was also involved.

If this watch was originally a gift from Wang Tianming's wife to Zhang Meng before she died, then Zhang Meng would not have needed to return it to Wang Tianming after her passing.

After all, they are all friends, and Wang Tianming wouldn't mind, but Zhang Meng's decision to pull this stunt is clearly unnecessary.

However, Zhang Meng's seemingly unnecessary action appears to have its own purpose, namely, to get Xu Lang involved.

Zhang Meng wanted to use Hu Xue's deal to get in touch with Xu Lang.

This is the same principle as Zhang Meng trying to get to know Zhao Wen and then getting to know Xu Lang through Zhao Wen.

However, Zhang Meng got to know Xu Lang through Zhao Wen, and then bought the watch that originally belonged to him from Xu Lang. It seems that everything was under Zhang Meng's control.

He clearly had his own reasons for doing this.

This makes it seem like Zhang Meng is the mastermind behind everything, but now that Zhang Meng has disappeared, is it just a smokescreen? Gu Chen can't judge for sure right now, but he can at least be certain that knowing Xu Lang is something Zhang Meng desperately needs.

"How many more things are you hiding from us?" Gu Chen asked without waiting for a reply.

Upon hearing this on the phone, Hu Xue quickly clarified, "Officer Gu, I've said everything I need to say. I have nothing left to hide. Please believe me."

"Okay." After hesitating for a moment, Gu Chen slowly said, "I'll trust you one more time. If there's anything else you haven't explained clearly, remember to call me when you remember."

"Definitely, definitely." Hearing Gu Chen say this, Hu Xue quickly agreed.

Gu Chen let out a soft sigh after hanging up the phone.

Yuan Shasha leaned closer and said, "Zhang Meng is the key. He wanted to get to know Xu Lang, and he went through Zhao Wen's connection, which seemed like a natural thing to do."

"He wanted to buy his own watch, so he got Hu Xue to steal Wang Tianming's watch and then sold it to Xu Lang through Hu Xue."

"So it seems that the cause and effect of this matter are all related to Xu Lang. Xu Lang is the point of convergence."

“That’s right.” Hearing Yuan Shasha’s explanation, Gu Chen flicked his fingers and said without further ado:

"That's what I think. Zhang Meng wants to establish connections with Xu Lang, but Zhao Wen's introduction alone won't be enough."

"With Zhao Wen's introduction, Zhang Meng can at most add Xu Lang's contact information, but that doesn't change anything."

"Xu Lang's phone is never short of people like Zhang Meng. Adding Zhang Meng's contact information just adds one more spot to the contact list."

"What truly connected Zhang Meng and Xu Lang was that watch."

"Yes." Hearing Gu Chen's analysis, Lu Weiwei quickly added:
"With this watch as a bond, the relationship between the two people can take another step forward."

"Buying this watch cost 32 yuan, which is equivalent to paying Xu Lang to give it to a friend."

"Once you become friends, it will be natural to discuss deeper business matters."

"Yes." Hearing Lu Weiwei say this, Officer Wang also chimed in without hesitation:

"This Zhang Meng is the most unpredictable one. He may be good at disguising himself. After all, the Zhang Meng we investigated seems to have a serious discrepancy with the actual Zhang Meng's personality."

"That only means he's a hidden master." Before Officer Wang could finish speaking, Gu Chen slowly said:

"Zhang Meng concealed his true situation and was a master of acting when facing his neighbors. He completely fooled them, and they thought he was an unsociable person."

"But that's not actually the case. Zhang Meng is very good at socializing, and he does it with a strong purpose. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get to know Zhao Wen and Xu Lang in such a short time."

"Now we can roughly guess that Zhang Meng's target is Xu Lang, but why would Zhang Meng want to get involved with Xu Lang? And why did he mysteriously disappear?"

"I think it's possible that Zhang Meng and Xu Lang didn't reach an agreement on some things, which ultimately led Xu Lang to send his younger brother Xu Ming to deal with Zhang Meng. Of course, this is just my guess."

"After all, Xu Lang's younger brother, Xu Ming, had appeared near Zhang Meng's house twice, which is a crucial clue."

“Yes, Xu Ming will definitely be the focus of the investigation,” Lu Weiwei said.

Then Gu Chen added, "My guess now is that Zhang Meng is either playing tricks and deliberately hiding."

"Either he was kidnapped by Xu Ming or even secretly murdered, but either way, we still need to find Zhang Meng."

"However, if we want to investigate Zhang Meng, I think we should start with the antique shop. After all, according to Zhao Wen, the shop assistants at that antique shop are probably in cahoots with Zhang Meng."

"They put on a good show of helping Zhang Meng, which earned Zhao Wen's trust."

"Of course, Zhao Wen said that he had actually figured it out a long time ago. As for whether he really figured it out, we can't judge that right now. We can only find Zhang Meng's accomplices and investigate them thoroughly before we know the final result."

“Zhao Wen provided the address of that antique shop before,” Yuan Shasha reminded her from the side.

"Let's start with this antique shop." Gu Chen took a deep breath and looked at He Junchao beside him, offering a reminder:
"Brother He, remember to focus on investigating those people in the antique shop for me. I'll make contact with them first."

"Okay." Seeing Gu Chen say this, He Junchao quickly echoed:
"Go investigate first, find out the background information of these people, and then tell me, and I will handle it."

"Okay." Seeing He Junchao say this, Gu Chen quickly agreed.

After a brief exchange, Gu Chen turned to the crowd and said, "We can go and check out this antique shop now."

……

……

There aren't many pedestrians on this antique street, but those who do come here are mostly experts.

Because Gu Chen had inquired with the neighbors beforehand, he knew that the most common antique shops in Jiangnan City, especially those with lower-value items, were located in the antique market in the south of the city.

That wasn't a modern shopping mall with all sorts of complete facilities.

This antique street is different; there isn't as much transient population, and the shops and buildings are all decades old.

But in such an environment, where there is a severe lack of foot traffic, none of these antique shops have closed down, which is quite intriguing.

"The antique shops here are all long-established brands, and although there isn't much foot traffic here, the customers are more targeted, and we only cater to high-end clients."

Gu Chen also shared what he knew with everyone.

Yuan Shasha quickly added, "No wonder these people can keep operating. They sell high-end goods. One order is enough to feed them for months."

"Hehe." Hearing Yuan Shasha's words, Officer Wang, sitting in the back row, smiled slightly and explained:

"That's nothing. Some businesses don't open at all, but when they do, they might have to eat for a whole year."

“These high-end antiques have the highest premiums and a lot of room for price negotiation, which gives these people plenty of room to make money.” After a pause, Officer Wang added, “Think about it, the antique market in the south of the city has a lot of customers, but it sells mostly low-end goods.”

"You might be busy all day, selling a lot of things, but the profit is only a few hundred."

"This place might not be open for a month or two, but once it opens, it can make a year's worth of profit."

"But normally, you can even sleep in the store every day. Which would you choose?"

“Of course, we’ll open a shop here,” Lu Weiwei said.

“Exactly,” Officer Wang said gratefully. “Only big players dare to play like this, because these people have real, high-quality equipment.”

"And the things they have are all hot commodities on the market. Without some strength, it's impossible to open a shop here."

"So don't be fooled by the low foot traffic here; the key is the high precision of our customers and the high sales volume. Can you compare that to the small vendors in those antique markets?"

"I understand," Yuan Shasha quickly replied.
"These antique shop owners who opened here probably spent many years struggling in the antique market in the south of the city before finally accumulating their initial wealth."

"Then we moved the shop here. By then, we had some cash on hand and felt more confident."

"Yes, that makes sense. It's like a clothing boutique where all the clothes are high-end, and you can make a lot of profit from just one item."

"The antique market in the south of the city is like a clothing market. They shout for a long time and then haggle with customers for a long time, but in the end, they may only make a profit of ten or twenty yuan on a piece of clothing."

“Yes, yes, yes, that’s the most vivid metaphor.” Seeing Gu Chen say that, Lu Weiwei quickly chimed in.

Officer Wang sighed and asked Gu Chen, "Which store?"

Gu Chen glanced at the house number and then pointed to the right: "That one over there, the one with the big vase at the door."

Following Gu Chen's directions, everyone arrived at the entrance of the antique shop.

Just as Zhao Wen described, it was much larger than other shops, with three floors.

This shop is very eye-catching in this location.

The group, dressed in casual clothes, prepared to go inside and found that there were still customers on the first floor.

So everyone kept quiet, went into the store, and pretended to look at and select goods.

The first floor was managed by a young man, which matches Zhao Wen's description perfectly.

The young man followed behind the customer, continuously explaining the history of the antiques.

However, the man clearly had no urge to buy anything. He just glanced at it and turned to leave, not even bothering to go upstairs to take a look.

The young man didn't mind customers like this, since doing business here allowed him to be quite laid-back.

Because when customers come here to choose things, they are choosing things, and it doesn't have much to do with the store staff.

Moreover, the customers here are generally quite quiet once they enter the store, making communication very efficient.

"Welcome to visit again next time." The young man bowed silently and watched the man leave the shop.

Seeing Gu Chen and his group standing there, the young man quickly turned back and followed behind them, beginning to talk:
"How can I help you?"

"Are you the owner of this shop?" Gu Chen asked knowingly.

The young man shook his head: "I'm not the boss, I'm just an employee."

"Working here? It's not easy to get a job here; you must know the products very well," Lu Weiwei quickly added.

The young man smiled slightly and quickly explained, "My major is archaeology. After graduating from university, I didn't work in archaeology. Instead, I became obsessed with studying antiques."

"So later, I went through the interview and came to my current company."

"So you're an archaeology whiz?" Lu Weiwei couldn't help but tease the young man.

But the young man didn't seem to care and continued to press them: "What are you looking for? Just tell me. We have many collections here."

"Some of them are right here, but they're all mediocre. If you're really capable, I can show you the mediocre stuff."

"Oh?" Hearing the young man's words, Gu Chen was reminded of what Zhao Wen had said earlier.

However, since everyone is here to conduct a survey, they naturally won't let the opportunity slip by.

Gu Chen smiled slightly and said, "Then take us to see some high-class items."

"Alright, come with me." The young man looked them up and down, noticing they didn't seem wealthy, but he still forced himself to lead them to the second floor.

This immediately piqued everyone's interest.

If the first floor is full of mediocre items, then the second floor is just the beginning.

The young man quickly explained, "These items on the second floor aren't exactly high-end, but for the average collector, they're considered entry-level. Sometimes, you can find treasures here."

"Sell it as soon as you want, and you can immediately achieve financial freedom."

“That’s gambling,” Officer Wang said.

"Yes, it's gambling." Seeing Officer Wang interrupt, the young man replied without hesitation:
"In the antique business, sometimes you have to gamble," Officer Wang said.

"Yes." Feeling that Officer Wang's words were as pointless as farting, the young man continued:

"This requires exceptional insight. People with a discerning eye can easily find bargains here, but they also need to consider what might happen if they're unlucky."

Listening to the young man's eloquent narration, Gu Chen suddenly realized that this was a formidable character.

Gu Chen walked up to a calligraphy and painting, admired it for a few seconds, then shook his head repeatedly, sighing:
"This painting is lacking in meaning."

"Not up to your standards?" the young man asked with a smile.

Gu Chen shook his head: "You're far behind. Your stuff is really far behind."

"But many of the things here can fetch high prices at auctions," the young man quickly explained.

"That's just your own little world hyping it up," Gu Chen said without hesitation.

……