America: The Gear-Up Detective

Franklin Canyon National Park is just a 12-15 minute drive from UCLA. It houses a tranquil lake and was the location featured on the cover of the famous song "The Sound of Silence."

This park, known as "Urban Wilderness," covers 260 acres with no artificial environment, making this oasis seem deserted day and night, perfect for rendezvous among the vibrant, hormone-fueled young people in the neighborhood.

Although it was daytime, the dense canopy of trees provided shade, making the park appear secluded and tranquil.

At the park entrance, Liu Qingxi arrived at the meeting point mentioned in the message. Looking around, she found that apart from the dense oak forest, there was no one else around.

Remembering the phone call she received from Detective Rod just before leaving the house, Liu Qingxi felt her heart pounding. "Why does this feel so exciting!"

The Bluetooth earphones I was wearing were emitting a faint white light. When I tapped the phone screen, it showed a call in progress, and the contact was none other than Rod.

Not far away, Rod and Hank lay prone in a thick patch of grass, while about ten patrol officers were scattered and lying in ambush further away.

"You're amazing for coming up with this idea." Hank lay flat on the grass, pulling his hat up to his face to block out the sun. He looked very relaxed. If it weren't for the inappropriate setting, you would have thought he was there to sunbathe.

"Jin Chongguang wanted to lure people out, but we just turned the tables on him. We didn't even have to chase after him. It was a win-win situation."

On the way here, Rod came up with a plan.

Now that we know Kim Jong-eun sent a message to his classmate, we can deduce that Kim Chong-gwang, who is involved in the internal strife, probably wants to pull off one more big heist before the police notice him and he flees.

Rod decided to play along. The police had a search warrant for Kim Jong-un, and based on Kim Jong-un's cell phone signal, they directly contacted Liu Qingxi, briefly explaining the situation to this fellow villager from his previous life.

The original plan was to find any Asian female police officer from the detective agency or a nearby precinct to impersonate Liu Qingxi, since Jin Chongguang probably had never met Liu Qingxi before.

As a result, after hearing this, the girl insisted on taking action herself. In addition, in order to ensure the perfect implementation of the plan, Rod gave in to Liu Qingxi's wishes, which was nothing more than adding more police support.

Of course, this plan has a major premise: the suspects are unaware that the police have retrieved the container of body and have identified them. Therefore, they will likely be careless and lack vigilance.

It focuses on an information gap.

Liu Qingxi's cool voice came through the Bluetooth headset, though tinged with a hint of nervousness, "Is that all? Why haven't they arrived yet?"

"Are you nervous?"

"N-no, it's so exciting, okay, I'm still a little nervous..."

Starting from the second half of the sentence, Liu Qingxi began to ramble on in Chinese, perhaps thinking that Luo De couldn't understand Chinese, and thus talked a lot more.

Rod remained silent, listening quietly, until Liu Qingxi, who was not far away, gradually fell silent. Only then did Rod say in Chinese, "Exciting? Exciting is exactly what I'm looking for."

Not far away, Rhodes clearly saw Liu Qingxi pause. "You understand?"

Just as Rod was about to answer, he heard the voice of a patrol officer on guard at the park entrance coming through the walkie-talkie.

"Watch out, they're here. Act normal."

......

At the entrance to Franklin Canyon National Park, a black BMW slowly came to a stop.

The car door opened, and Jin Chongguang and Luke got out. Luke cocked an M1911 pistol with a metallic sheen and tucked it into his waistband.

Seeing Jin Chongguang's slightly surprised look, Luke said in a deep voice, "Just in case, to scare that girl."

The two looked around and, seeing no one, walked into the park.

In the nearby woods, two patrol officers on surveillance reported to Rhodes, "Detective Rhodes, two suspects have entered the park."

"Two?"

Rod was slightly surprised, but upon reflection, he realized that there was another man in the back seat of the car in the gas station's surveillance video whose face was not clearly visible. At the time, he had suspected that there might be another victim, but now it seemed that he was probably the third suspect.

Rod used his walkie-talkie to alert the backup police forces positioned in various locations, "Attention everyone, two suspects have entered the surveillance range. Be prepared to make arrests at any time."

"Liu Qingxi, be careful."

......

"Luke, do you think we can escape?"

Jin Chongguang looked around at the dense oak forest, his head bobbing like a radar, but his tone was filled with worry.

"Relax. Nobody knows about the body in the lake."

And that Kim Jong-un kid, by the time the body was found, we'd already been to Mexico.

Luke sounded relaxed, after all, no one could have imagined that his body, which had just sunk into the lake, would be discovered by the police the very next day.

Under normal circumstances, the Pyramid Lake is rarely visited, and given its vast area, the probability of it being discovered is even lower than the probability of finding Kim Jong-un's body.

Luke regretted killing Kim Jong-un so hastily. He lamented that after years of struggling in northern Myanmar, he had painstakingly saved two million US dollars, hoping to immigrate to America and live a better life. He even changed his name to Luke. Unfortunately, less than a month after arriving, before even receiving his green card, he had squandered all his savings in Las Vegas.

"Once I escape this time and make a comeback, I'll be back!"

Thinking about his extravagant life in Las Vegas a while ago, Luke's eyes burned with desire. He licked his chapped lips, looked up, and saw an extremely beautiful Asian girl sitting on a bench under a tree.

Jin Chongguang stepped forward first, forcing what he thought was a friendly smile, "Are you Liu Qingxi? Zheng Yin's friend?"

Liu Qingxi stood up, took a half-step back, and asked with just the right amount of tension in her voice, "Who are you? Where's Jin Zhengyin? Didn't you say you were here to discuss the assignment?"

"Jung-eun had something to do and couldn't come, so he sent us to pick you up." Kim Chong-kwang's gaze swept over her face, then looked around. "Let's go, the car's at the door."

Luke stood half a step behind Jin Chongguang, his right hand hanging at his waist, just a hand's distance from the M1911. His gaze wasn't on Liu Qingxi, but rather scanning the surrounding woods.

His gaze swept over Liu Qingxi's slightly nervous performance, and a sense of foreboding crept into his heart. This feeling had helped him escape danger many times when he was living in northern Myanmar.

"His eyes were unfocused, his hands and feet were unnatural, and he spoke with his nose in his mouth."

Even seeing two strange men like us, this reaction is far too tense.

"wrong--"

The moment Luke's hand touched the gun handle, Rhodes' voice boomed from the loudspeaker behind him:

"LAPD! Lay down your weapons!"

Hands up!

Kneel down!

From all directions, more than ten patrol officers rose from their cover, their guns all pointing at the two men.