Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 396: Border Town
Sun Hang opened a picture on his mobile phone. It was a real photo of Qiao Liu’s “Qingzhu Bar” before it was burned down.

This is a bar with postmodern decoration style. The main color is gray, just like the owner of the bar. It is filled with a cold and aloof style that keeps people away. Even the chandelier hanging from the ceiling emits cold light.

There is almost no warm-colored solid wood furniture in the bar. The cold metal texture and angular decorations set off each other. The bar is so simple that only the wine list in black and white has the names and prices of the wines. The names of these wines are also simple to the point of being clear at a glance, unlike most bars that give those very common drinks a bunch of fancy names.

The most eye-catching part of the entire bar would be the two floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street. There is a gap of about 40 centimeters between the two windows, and two huge ecological fish tanks are embedded inside. Standing in front of the windows, you feel like you are in an aquarium.

Under the light, the bubble column used to supply oxygen in the ecological fish tank looks extremely dreamy. Colorful fish shuttle between water plants and fake rocks. You can even see an octopus hiding under an oversized shell used as a decoration, with a few soft tentacles exposed, drifting with the current.

Wait, octopus?
Sun Hang enlarged the picture and took another look. He was sure that what was hiding under the shell was an octopus, a living octopus, not an octopus doll made of soft rubber material.

Whether it is octopus, cuttlefish or squid, all cephalopods are marine creatures without exception.

Cephalopods cannot survive in freshwater environments, which means that the ecological fish tank in Qingzhu Bar... simulates a marine ecology rather than a common freshwater ecology?
These colorful and beautiful little fish are actually all marine fish?

"Interesting." Sun Hang murmured to himself.

Marine ecological fish tanks are more complicated than freshwater ecological fish tanks. In addition to the fact that the water in the fish tank must be seawater with a suitable salt concentration, there are also very high requirements for temperature and water pressure... Unless you are an avid aquarium enthusiast, otherwise, if it is just used as a store decoration, ordinary people will definitely not choose the expensive and more difficult to maintain marine ecological fish tank.

"Does Qiao Liu's file mention her hobbies?" Sun Hang asked.

"Hobbies?" Yang Qi was slightly startled. "She goes to the gym three times a week and has signed up for yoga and Pilates training classes. In addition, she also likes cycling and has a high-end road bike worth more than 70,000 yuan. She also taught herself French and would buy some English and French versions of books to read..."

"Does she like the ocean?"

"Ocean?" Faced with Sun Hang's slightly nonsensical question, Yang Qi was obviously stunned for a moment, and then shook her head subconsciously, "It's not mentioned in the file."

"The ecological fish tanks at Qingzhu Bar are full of marine fish." Sun Hang added, "There are probably not many aquariums in Tianfu City that are capable of installing marine ecological fish tanks... By the way, did you find what I asked you to check just now?"

"We found out." Yang Qi said, "The renovation project of Qingzhu Bar was fully contracted by 'Tianfu Youjia Decoration Company'. The colleagues from the Public Security Bureau have just contacted the person in charge of this company, and the other party also admitted that he did have business dealings with Qiao Liu. But when the person in charge of the company found the designer who designed the Qingzhu Bar, the designer said that the ecological fish tank on the exterior wall was not designed by him."

Yang Qi paused for a moment and continued, "The designer said that the entire bar adopts a postmodern decoration style. The ecological fish tank embedded in the glass wall near the street is indeed very attractive to customers, but it does not match the overall design language and cannot highlight the attributes of the bar. According to his original design plan, the floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides will be made into an embedded transparent wine cabinet and decorated with cold-toned metal artworks. But the customer strongly requested that the floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides be transformed into ecological fish tanks..."

"The customer strongly requested it?" Sun Hang repeated these six words, "And they changed it for her?"

"Customer requirements are the top priority, that's what the designer said," Yang Qi replied.

"Then was this decoration company the one that installed this marine ecological fish tank for Qiao Liu? An ordinary decoration company probably can't do this kind of work. I guess they have to outsource it to another aquarium store or something."

"Well, it's true that they didn't install it, but they didn't help contact the aquarium store responsible for installing the ecological fish tank. The customer found it himself."

"Which aquarium store is it?" Sun Hang continued to ask, "Even if it's not someone hired by the decoration company, both parties will always leave some information when they cooperate, right?"

Ye Xuan, standing in front of the one-way glass, looked at Sun Hang with a puzzled expression. She didn't understand why Sun Hang was so obsessed with the ecological fish tank... The bartender might have just said that casually. After all, when people are in a daze, they always subconsciously stare at something.

If Qiao Liu usually likes to stare at the table in a daze, does Sun Hang have to investigate the company that manufactured these tables and chairs?

In Ye Xuan's opinion, investigating the real cause of Qiao Liu's death is far more important than investigating these two ecological fish tanks.

"They are still looking. Those contract files are quite old, so they may not be that easy to find... Found it!" Yang Qi's tone suddenly brightened, "The name of the aquarium store is 'Senyang Aquarium'!"

"Which neighborhood is this store in?" Sun Hang asked immediately.

"No, it's not in Tianfu City!" Yang Qi said excitedly, "I checked the business license of this aquarium store, and it's registered in Jinlu County!!"

"Jinlu County!" Ye Xuan, who was still questioning Sun Hang in the last second, couldn't help but widen her eyes and looked at Sun Hang in surprise.

It’s Jinlu County again!
This is definitely no coincidence!
This... is this a man's intuition? Ye Xuan looked at Sun Hang in amazement.

How could he grasp the key point of the problem from a random sentence? Did this guy use a plug-in for the God's perspective?
"Did anyone find the bodies of these sea fish at the fire scene at Qingzhu Bar? Even the kind that were roasted into charcoal would do." Sun Hang asked again.

"I'll go ask the sheriff in charge of the on-site investigation at the Sheriff's Department."

Two minutes later, Yang Qi's voice sounded again in the communication channel: "They said no, no carcasses of aquatic creatures, including fish, were found at the scene."

"Even if both fish tanks exploded, the fish couldn't fly out of the streets..." Sun Hang said, "Then there is only one possibility... The person who killed Qiao Liu and set fire to Qingzhu Bar took away the sea fish kept in the ecological fish tank of Qingzhu Bar."

"Do you think those fish...are related to the A11 organization?"

"Since we can't find any abnormal communication and social records, let's make a bold guess. Could these sea fish be the tools that Qiao Liu uses to communicate with the A11 organization?" Sun Hang said.

"This Qiao Liu can talk to fish?! This is so cool!" Fukada Miki's voice interrupted from the side.

"It doesn't have to be talking to the fish. There are so many ways to convey information... The color, number, and movements of the fish can all be used as codes to convey intelligence. As long as someone can remotely control these fish, he can use them to convey information and orders from within the organization to Qiao Liu." Yang Qi's mind also completely turned around. "The address of this 'Senyang Aquarium' is at No. 591, Shengli Avenue, Jinlu County. I will go and inform Wang Xiyi now and ask her to pay special attention to this address!"

……

……

Jinlu County, a small town on the border of Shuzhou. Wang Xiyi's wings were fully spread out, with a wingspan of nearly seven meters. The wing membrane covered with metallic scales cut through the whistling wind and glided at high speed in the sky.

The black windproof jacket and black wings almost blended into the night. Only the flash of flame at the end of the tail occasionally revealed Wang Xiyi's whereabouts.

Looking from the ground, it looks like a phosphorescent fire moving quickly and erratically in the sky.

Wang Xiyi opened her eyes. She had completely adapted to this environment. Even without wearing goggles, the high-speed airflow would not affect her vision. A transparent protective film hardened by the secretions from the inside of the eyelids covered her eyes... Not to mention the airflow generated by high-speed flight, even if you shot her eyes with a pistol, the bullet would not be able to penetrate this film that was less than two millimeters thick.

Sun Hang said this is called "bulletproof eye booger". Wang Xiyi did not refute it. It's eye booger, as long as it can prevent wind and bullets.

She could already vaguely see the outline of the city below - although Jinlu County was a small border town, to be honest, its economic development was not bad.

Before the entire city was evacuated, the permanent population of Jinlu County was not the tens of thousands as Wang Xiyi had imagined, but a full 190,000 people.

There are a large number of high-rise buildings with more than 50 floors in the city. The upright office buildings form a dense forest of reinforced concrete. The not-so-small commercial center vaguely gives one a glimpse of the prosperity before the great evacuation.

There is only one reason why Jinlu County, located on the border, has been able to develop to such a scale - there is a rare earth mine with considerable reserves here.

According to the plan of the Disaster Countermeasures Committee, after the Eternal Night subsides, Jinlu County will definitely find a way to take it back... But now, shrinking the defense line is their only choice. Resources like rare earth ore, which will not be lost if left alone, will not have much impact if temporarily abandoned.

After all, it is impossible for the monsters to secretly dig out the rare earth mine while the entire Jinlu County was evacuated.

“Fuck, is Jinlu County so big?” Wang Xiyi muttered in her heart.

As the ace hunter of Tianfu City, she has been to many places in Shuzhou to carry out missions in the past two years, but this is her first time in Jinlu County.

Wang Xiyi climbed a little higher to avoid a towering office building, then she turned around in mid-air and braked suddenly, diving down along the glass curtain wall of another office building.

The strange watch on her wrist had been adjusted to the exact time. She decided to start her search from the commercial district that looked the most developed, and then slowly cross the entire city from east to west.

Just at this moment, a beeping sound came from her headphones.

It is a communication request from Tianfu City.

"I've arrived in Jinlu County. What's the matter?" Wang Xiyi answered the call and spoke.

"Prioritize the investigation of 'Senyang Aquarium' located at No. 591 Shengli Avenue. We found that this store may have some connection with Qiao Liu and the A11 organization." Yang Qi said.

"'Senyang Aquarium'? You mean... the two big fish tanks in Qiao Liu's store?" Wang Xiyi had a good memory. "Were they installed in this store?"

"Yes. We suspect Qiao Liu used those fish to communicate with the A11 organization."

"Okay, I'll be there now!" Wang Xiyi replied.

She wished to complete the task as soon as possible...Sun Hang hadn't come to see her for a while. As a humanoid black dragon, Wang Xiyi's actual needs were much greater than those of normal humans.

She had been holding back a lot of anger inside, and she wanted to vent it out on Sun Hang.

"It would be best to finish the work before ten o'clock." Wang Xiyi said to herself, flapped her wings, and flew towards the north of the city.

Victory Avenue is one of the four north-south main roads in Jinlu County. If you pass through this bustling commercial district and fly along the road below, you will soon arrive at the address that Yang Qi sent.

As Wang Xiyi got closer and closer to the target location, the height of the surrounding buildings was rapidly decreasing. Unlike the prosperous southern part of the city, the development level of the northern part of the city was very different from that of the southern part. Most of the blocks here were old and small, and it was rare to see buildings with a height of more than six floors.

But even so, Wang Xiyi did not dare to lower the flight altitude too low - the number of telephone poles here was too dense, and if she was not careful, she might directly hit the wires crossing over the street.

Unfortunately, these black wires are hard to distinguish with the naked eye under the cover of night...

"This place... always makes me feel uncomfortable..."

Just as Wang Xiyi was thinking this, the strange watch on her wrist suddenly emitted a very subtle heat.

"Ok?"

Wang Xiyi remembered very clearly that Yang Qi said that the maximum sensing distance of this watch was one kilometer... In other words, the target she was looking for was within a range of one kilometer?

Wang Xiyi landed on the ground and folded her wings.

"It looks like there's something hiding here," she muttered to herself, and walked forward instead.

The temperature emitted by the watch gradually increased. This sensing function is bidirectional, and the other party can also sense that a "homologous object" is approaching itself... It is almost impossible not to alert the enemy.

But Wang Xiyi doesn't care.

The other party can't escape.

(End of this chapter)