You're just a locksmith! What are you doing catching swindlers at the start?

Welcome to the fantasy world of urban novels! The entrance is here:

The old man pressed pause.

The image freezes on the entrance of Building 3. Dusty gray work jackets and canvas bags.

The brim of the hat was pulled low, obscuring the face.

He had seen that work jacket before—he had seen it just yesterday. Lin Zhou and Officer Zhou had waited for him for ages by the roadside.

Old Zhou gently tapped the enamel mug on the table.

At 9:23, the man in the gray jacket came out of the entrance of Building 3.

His canvas bag bulged out, and he kept his head down.

The brim of the hat was pulled down even further than when it went in.

He didn't take the main road; he stayed close to the wall.

After exiting the community gate, turn right and disappear from the edge of the surveillance cameras.

At 9:31, he reappeared in the footage at the entrance of the residential complex—walking into the stairwell of the old building across the street. That building had no access control, and the door frame was covered with little "GG" stickers.

Lin Zhou straightened up.

He stared at the gray silhouette on the screen that had been paused.

The canvas bag was bulging, probably containing his row of twenty-odd lock cylinders.

He recognized the creases on the work jacket.

"Do you know him?" Old Zhou asked.

"Tsk."

Lin Zhou let out a soft breath, his gaze fixed on the screen with a complex mix of emotions, a hint of a sigh in his eyes.

Su Wan turned her head to look at him.

"The man who locked the car."

Lin Zhou straightened up.

"Old Zhou, the one you arrested yesterday."

Old Zhou removed the enamel cup from his lips.

He paused for a moment at his lips on the rim of the cup, then looked down at the blurry face on the screen.

He was dark red with a sparse beard, exactly like the person who had been squatting for fifteen minutes with a cup of cold tea at the entrance of Crescent Moon yesterday.

Yesterday at the police station, this person was detained for illegally locking his car. He wrote a guarantee, received a lecture, and was released that afternoon.

Early this morning, he broke into Lin Zhou's house, pried open the door, and took all the lock cylinders from the TV cabinet.

Su Wan looked at the screen: "Are you sure?"

"I saw those shoes he was wearing yesterday at the entrance of Yuebanwan. When he was riding his electric bike and using his feet to brace himself, the rubber sole of his shoe rubbed against the asphalt road, chipping off a corner. You can see it in the surveillance footage—it's the same corner missing."

Old Zhou didn't say anything.

He stared at the blurry face on the screen and remained silent for a long time.

Yesterday afternoon, he brought this person back to the station, detained him for several hours, and made him write a guarantee.

He thought the man was just greedy and would try to extort a few hundred yuan by locking up a few cars, so he just gave him a lecture and let it go.

Now this person is showing him through his actions.

He got caught locking his car, so he didn't dare lock police cars anymore, but he still needed to vent his anger somewhere.

Who is to blame?

It all came down to that young man who smashed his lock with a hammer in a second and then smiled as he handed him his business card, trying to sell him lock cylinder upgrades.

He took a deep breath.

The tea in the enamel cup had been cold for who knows how long. I picked it up, took a sip, and my Adam's apple bobbed.

"This time, you won't be writing a guarantee when you go in."

Su Wan took out her phone and took a picture of the monitor screen.

Then he dialed a number: "I'll have the station check his records. He was detained just yesterday, so there's a record of it."

Lin Zhou stood at the door of the monitoring room, looking at the paused gray figure on the screen.

The man who locked the car was writing a guarantee at the police station yesterday, but this morning he came and broke into his house, taking away a row of lock cylinders along with the pot.

This guy locked up a police car yesterday, and when Lao Zhou arrested him, he was still shouting "Officer, I'm innocent!" on his electric scooter.

He's here for revenge.

It wasn't to retaliate against Lao Zhou—he knew Lao Zhou was a policeman and didn't dare to do anything.

He targeted the young man who could pick locks, the one who could break open a crab lock with a hammer in a second.

The viewers in the live chat also realized what was happening.

"It wasn't the guy in work clothes, it was the guy who locked the bike! The one with the tan crab lock! He got arrested and detained by Brother Zhou yesterday, and he came to pick the lock this morning to get revenge. He didn't dare to go after Brother Zhou, so he picked on the weak and took all his anger out on Three-Second King."

"But he didn't know where the locksmith lived. Did he check the local delivery service? Or had he been keeping watch at the entrance of the community? The locksmith carries his tool bag in and out every day, and his address can be found by checking the surveillance footage. When the bike locker was putting up parking tickets at the entrance of the community, he might have been watching the locksmith go out to pick up orders every day."

"More than twenty lock cylinders, all of them were taken. He probably thought he had obtained a rare teaching material, but those lock cylinders were all disassembled by Three-Second King himself. Could something have been missed? Three-Second King was also pondering this in his mind. He stood at the door of the monitoring room without saying a word, his eyes were very cold."

Old Zhou placed the enamel mug on the table, the bottom of which hit the metal tabletop in the monitoring room with a dull thud that was heavier than usual.

The gray silhouette on the screen remained frozen in time, the canvas bag bulging, the brim of the hat pulled low. He stared at the ruddy face for a few seconds, then pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"It's me. Get the information about the person who locked the car yesterday: address, ID number, any prior criminal record. Right now."

He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.

I picked up the enamel mug and put it down again. The tea inside had completely cooled down, and the tea leaves had sunk to the bottom, like a small, rotten specimen.

Less than two minutes later, my phone vibrated.

Old Zhou glanced down at the screen and read the address aloud.

"No. 17, Lianhua Lane, Chengdong Urban Village".

Su Wan had already opened the map on her phone.

Lianhua Lane is less than four kilometers from Lin Zhou's residential area, about a ten-minute ride by electric bike.

She had been to that urban village; the buildings were so densely packed that you had to push your electric scooter around.

Renting a room doesn't require registering your ID card, and the landlord only accepts cash, making it perfect for people who don't want to leave any trace.

"Let's go."

Old Zhou picked up his enamel mug and strode towards the door.

The cuffs of his gray sweater swayed in the morning light, and he quickened his pace twice as fast as usual.

Su Wan followed behind him, and when she reached the door, she turned around and glanced at Lin Zhou.

Lin Zhou was still standing in front of the monitor screen. The gray figure on the screen was frozen in time, with a dark red face, sparse beard, and a canvas bag that was bulging as if it were about to burst.

"Aren't you going?" Su Wan asked.

"go."

Lin Zhou slung his tool bag over his shoulder and looked away from the screen.

He didn't say a word more.

The three men got into Lao Zhou's car. They put the enamel mugs in the cup holder, and Lao Zhou started the car. The engine gave a low roar, and the car drove out of the residential area and onto the main road.

The bare branches of the sycamore trees receded past the car window, and sunlight filtered through the branches, flashing across the windshield.

The carriage was very quiet.

Old Zhou didn't speak, and neither did Su Wan.

Lin Zhou sat in the back seat, leaning back, looking at the street scene outside through the car window.

Lianhua Lane is located in the east of the city. After exiting the main road, you turn into an old factory area, and further in is an urban village.

The car slowed down more and more, and the road became narrower and narrower.

Finally, the car stopped at the alley entrance—the alley was too narrow for the car to drive in.

Old Zhou turned off the engine and placed the enamel mug on the dial.

I opened the car door and stood at the alley entrance, looking inside.