Ten years ago, when Ai Liang was working as a vigilante, his first partner was Xia Qiyuan, an old bachelor. Ai Liang was responsible for collecting intelligence and evidence, and Xia Qiyuan was responsible for closing the net and arresting people.
After many cooperations, Xia Qiyuan began to find out Ai Liang's true identity, but everything was in vain.
After all, Ai Liang's true form was only five years old at the time. Even if Xia Qiyuan was the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes, you wouldn't be able to trace him.
One of them is a criminal police officer in Nevada City, and the other is an intelligence agent with unknown identity and purpose. No matter how many times they cooperate, there is always a gap between them.
It's just that at that time, Xia Qinian was still a novice who had just stepped out of the ivory tower and entered society. In his eyes, Ai Liang and Xia Qiyuan were close partners who worked together to fight crime, one in the open and the other in the dark.
And this misunderstanding continues to this day.
That's right, until now Xia Qinian regards the hermit as his uncle's best friend.
Has all his social experience over the years been fed to dogs?
Ai Liang's expression showed a hint of disgust.
"If you don't care, why are you calling me?" Xia Qinian hasn't given up yet.
"I just want you to give Shi Feng a message. I have no intention of attacking Yue Chongshan. I have already planned to completely retire."
This was the purpose of Ai Liang's sudden impromptu call to Xia Qinian.
Directly calling Shi Feng, the captain of the criminal police team, using a mobile phone to tell him that he was going to retire. In the eyes of others, it was simply a blatant provocation, and people in the technical department were not taken seriously.
It's like a wanted criminal calling the police and saying that he wants to live a peaceful life and don't look for me anymore.
If the police catch this kind of person, they will have to beat the crap out of him.
Don't look at the police in the movies who are struggling to investigate when the killers use their work phones. In fact, if they really want to investigate, they can just connect to the black base station and everything will be hidden.
Ai Liang was just not sure whether the police had controlled the self-built base stations in Neihua City in recent years, so he told Shi Feng in this roundabout way.
"Wait a minute, I can't explain many things clearly on the phone. Why don't we come out and meet tomorrow..." Xia Qinian said tentatively.
"Not interested, bye."
"A guy named Mask is tracking you recently, and I have some clues!"
On the eve of hanging up the phone, Xia Qinian took out the last chips, and Ai Liang's fingers paused on the hang-up button.
Xia Qinian on the other side of the phone spoke quickly: "Someone wanted to get you to join an organization a few days ago, right? The recent rumors were also spread by them, with the purpose of drawing you out. Not only that, they also have something to do with the organ trade ten years ago. Relationship, the guy who calls himself Mask No. 3 is the buyer of that deal! We can cooperate on this matter."
Ai Liang put the phone to his ear again and asked, "Let me ask, where did you hear that someone was tracking me down?"
"I know one of their insiders who wants to defect."
"name?"
Xia Qinian took a deep breath and read out a name that Ai Liang was very familiar with: "Xu Zhihai."
Ai Liang was silent for a while.
Why would Seo Ji-hae, a rag picker, get involved with this group of people... Then again, isn't his role over yet?
But these are not the main point. There is another problem at the moment.
It was recently revealed that Xu Zhihai was the mastermind behind the two murders. Although he was released due to lack of evidence, the police will definitely send people to keep an eye on him.
Now that Xia Qinian is taking him to meet him again, he will inevitably be exposed to the police's sight.
Ai Liang finally realized what it felt like to shoot himself in the foot.
Looking at Xia Qinian's attitude of saying, "I won't tell you until we meet," it's not enough not to meet him this time.
That group of people not only abused their names and tried to make themselves take the blame, but they also planned to silence them after the invitation failed. There were also the curses mentioned by the masked man before. These things made Ai Liang unable to turn a blind eye.
"Tomorrow night at seven o'clock, we will go to the fast food restaurant on the fifth floor of Yuelai Mall. Remember to bring Xu Zhihai with you," Ai Liang said.
Soldiers will come to block the water and the soil will cover up. Anyway, after transforming, he will be a completely different person. As long as he finds a chance to get rid of tracking, he can change back to his original appearance.
There is a lot of traffic in large shopping malls. Just find a bathroom and get in and come out.
Unless they also have superpowers, they will never discover their true identity.
"clear."
Xia Qinian's tense nerves finally relaxed and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Ai Liang hung up the phone, turned off the old man's phone, returned to the bedroom, and took out another spare mobile phone from the desk drawer.
When Xia Qinian and I had dinner together before, he saw the style of that phone.
Although most people would not associate a fifteen-year-old ordinary student with the feared throat-slitting maniac in the black zone, success or failure is determined by the details. To be on the safe side, Ai Liang decided to use a backup mobile phone.
...
The next day, at half past five in the afternoon.
Ai Liang put on a pure white T-shirt and three-quarter jeans. This was the most photographed outfit based on his observation around the mall during the day. His shoes also chose the most popular styles at the moment.
Of course, Ai Liang did not do this to follow the trend. The first point for the police to track down the suspect is to look for physical characteristics. When surveillance cannot clearly capture a person's face, height, body shape and clothing are the key research targets. Because I have not received relevant training, it is difficult to imagine a person's appearance based on description alone.
But if you wrap yourself up tightly, it will make you look more conspicuous. In a place with a large flow of people, Ai Liang is wearing a similar outfit for every twenty people. As long as he blends into the crowd, he will look like nothing. It is equally difficult to tell if a good building materials businessman mixes ashes in cement.
After changing clothes, Ai Liang took a taxi to Yuelai Shopping Mall.
There was still an hour before the agreed time. Ai Liang took advantage of this time to walk around the mall and find out the location of each camera and the general architectural structure of the mall. Then he ordered a cup of green tea at the beverage shop on the third floor and put it in his bag. Store it here and tell the store clerk to go to the bathroom and pick it up later.
Then he put on a black mask in the mall restroom and changed his body shape to complete the transformation into a tough guy.
Ai Liang, who has the appearance of a hermit, avoids surveillance cameras all the way to the fast food restaurant on the fifth floor.
Xia Qinian and Xu Zhihai have been waiting here for a long time.
Xia Qinian was posing with a sima, his face and fingers kept tapping on the table, saying loudly that I am in a bad mood right now, while Xu Zhihai next to him was heartlessly eating French fries and taking a sip of Coke from time to time.
The business of the fast food restaurant was good, and the seats were almost full. After rejecting the request to share a table again, Xia Qinian's face became more and more gloomy.
At this time Ai Liang went straight to sit opposite him.
"There are already people here." Xia Qinian asked Ai Liang to get up and leave.
Ai Liang glanced at the surveillance camera in the corner. After confirming that he could only take pictures of his back, he took off his mask and said, "That's me."
Hearing this familiar neutral voice, Xia Qinian's eyes widened and he looked Ai Liang up and down in disbelief.
"How come you're still so... young after all these years?"
He was so arrogant and couldn't think of a suitable adjective after thinking for a long time, so he could only say "young".
Ai Liang's current appearance is only twenty-seven. Ten years ago, he met Xia Qiyuan's uncle and nephew with this appearance. But today, ten years later, his appearance has not changed.
On the other hand, Xia Qinian was unshaven and only his grandfathers would treat him as a junior.
Ai Liang put on the mask again and said: "You probably didn't come to me to talk about this nonsense, right? I don't mind if you want to keep wasting it. The plainclothes man by the window will recognize my identity soon. Don't blame me then." Just leave.”
"Plainclothes are spying on Xu Zhihai, not..." Xia Qinian was worried that Ai Liang would misunderstand and planned to explain.
"I know. I have already investigated his information. Now I only care about what he knows." Ai Liang turned his gaze to Xu Zhihai, with a stern look in his eyes.
Hearing this Black Zone SSR-level figure turn the topic to him, Xu Zhihai greeted with a cheerful and friendly smile: "It's really flattering to be cared about by the famous Cutthroat Demon."
"A CEO who hides behind the scenes and guides others to kill is more powerful." Ai Liang responded unceremoniously: "Let others do the dirty work."
"You think you're clean?" Xu Zhihai picked up a fries covered in ketchup and put it in his mouth.
Ai Liang looked directly into Xu Zhihai's eyes, as if saying to him and herself: "No one's hands are clean. The key is how they get dirty."
"Well, that's an interesting statement, so I'm also on your hunting list?"
"You'd better stay in jail."
"It was obviously Gao Fuye and Wang Qiang who killed my sister. As a younger brother, is it wrong for me to take revenge? And... are you qualified to say that to me?"
When Xu Zhihai heard that he was on the cut-throat maniac's hunting list, Xu Zhihai not only wasn't nervous, but also dared to smile and refute. He was really brave.
Ai Liang's words originally meant that he was not going to pursue him, but the meaning was different when he said it as a hermit.
It was obvious that some kind of cognitive error occurred during the dissemination of the words, causing Xu Zhihai to mistakenly believe that Ai Liang was going to attack him.
"I kill people who deserve to be killed, but innocent people died because of you."
Ai Liang said solemnly.
"Oh, the enemy's daughter."
Xu Zhihai said disdainfully.
Xu Zhihai's situation is very complicated. It is understandable that he killed Wang Qiang out of revenge, but Gao Jiajia is an innocent victim.
Ai Liang wouldn't care if he killed people out of revenge, but Xu Zhihai involved innocent people, which caused his behavior to touch Ai Liang's bottom line but not completely cross it.
That's why Ai Liang persuaded Xu Zhihai to surrender after discovering that he was the real culprit behind the scenes, because Ai Liang himself was not qualified to judge whether his actions were right or wrong.
Xu Zhihai chose to take revenge in this extreme way when he had no other choice.
He was not like those heinous guys in the Black Zone, who would drag each one out and shoot him for ten minutes, and he would kill them without any hesitation.
In the final analysis, Ai Liang only used those criminals to vent his emotions and eliminate violence. He was not a truly impartial and impartial extrajudicial sanctioner. Ai Liang usually left this kind of personal hatred to the police.
Moreover, there was another most fundamental and direct reason why Ai Liang asked him to surrender. When he discovered that Xu Zhihai was the murderer, an idea flashed in his mind.
That thought was very familiar to Ai Liang, so familiar that it frightened him.
Xia Qinian, who originally planned to let the two get to know each other first, looked at the tit-for-tat confrontation and could only act as a peacemaker.
"Time is of the essence, so let's exchange information directly."
Xia Qinian suppressed his desire and handed the initiative of the topic to Ai Liang.
Ai Liang asked directly without any pretense: "Please explain clearly your relationship with Mask No. 3, the name of the organization behind it, and the main purpose of your organization."
"Well, you're really rude." Xu Zhihai put down his fries, took a sip of Coke to moisten his throat, and performed a Sichuan Opera face change, as if the unpleasantness just now was an illusion, "It's too troublesome to explain these things, so I'll start from the beginning. Bar."
"First of all, the name of this organization is the 'Apostles'. Its main purpose is to invite special talents from all over the world to join the organization. As for who are special talents, I don't know. They seem to have a special set of evaluation standards."
"After all my family members died three years ago, a guy named Thousand Faces Man came to me and asked me to join them in exchange for helping me get revenge. I was desperate and agreed. You can all find out what happened next, so I just No more words." Xu Zhihai said, "As for the purpose of this apostolic association, I don't know. After all, I am only a preparatory member and have not officially joined, and besides the person who invited me, I have never met anyone else. ."
"As for Mask No. 3, who seems to be an armed member of the Apostolic Society, I don't have much interaction with him. You may not believe it, but they have some kind of special power that can instantly improve their physical fitness. The masked man can even lift a ball with one hand. Lift a fifty kilogram barbell.”
"As for other things, I'll leave it to Mr. Xia Qinian to explain. Fried chicken legs won't taste good when they're cold." Xu Zhihai tore open the seasoning packet, sprinkled black pepper on the golden skin, and took a big bite. A crunching sound.
"They came here once ten years ago. According to the records, the masked man asked the Maoyan Gang to buy a living heart." Xia Qinian took over the conversation at the right time and added an explanation. "My uncle disappeared ten years ago just to hunt down that masked man."
Ai Liang kept a straight face throughout. Xu Zhihai seemed to have said a lot, but the actual information revealed was not much at all. The only useful information was the name of that strange organization.
While Ai Liang was thinking about how to find the members of this organization, Xia Qinian asked with a dull and painful expression: "Is my uncle still alive?"
Over the years, he had been hypnotizing himself that Xia Qiyuan must still be alive, but since he read the files in Shi Feng's office, a small crack appeared in Xia Qinian's originally tough heart.
Ai Liang's answer may be the glue that fills the small gap, or it may be a stone chisel that widens the crack and makes the whole heart fragmented.
"Probably dead." Ai Liang's tone was terrifyingly calm. "When Xia Qiyuan was pulled into the ambulance, his broken ribs pierced the lungs, the artery in his right leg was cut open, there were multiple fractures all over his body, and all his nails and teeth were pulled out. It was obvious that he had been abused inhumanely, and there was a high probability that he could not be rescued. coming."
"But I didn't find any hospital ambulance travel records." Xia Qinian clenched his fists with suppressed anger in his eyes, "All hospitals in Neihua City, including the emergency room of the Criminal Police Team, have no records of medical treatment."
"I only saw him being carried into an ambulance by a group of people in military uniforms. I don't know anything else." Ai Liang replied stiffly.
"Military uniform?" Xia Qinian was stunned.
Then he fell into deep self-doubt. In other words, was Xia Qinian taken away by the authorities?
