The Novelist Forced to Become Famous

Chapter 43

She swayed back and forth, hesitating and wavering: "How suspicious is this suspicious person?"

"You know the big bank gold robbery three years ago, right?" Ji Feng said. "The criminal escaped from prison. We believe he will definitely return to Lakeview Park to retrieve the gold and then flee again."

Jian Jing: "???" She couldn't help but glance at Cheng Jia You.

This was more effective than speaking of Cao Cao and having Cao Cao arrive. With just a bit of backstory, they had already encountered the protagonist.

"I see, send me the details on WeChat." She hung up the phone.

Ji Feng sent two typical prisoner photos, one with a short stature and evasive eyes, the other ordinary in appearance, like a passerby, but with very calm eyes.

There was also an introduction provided.

Qian Tong, nicknamed "Shorty", was a habitual thief who liked to drink and boast about his skills when drunk, especially bragging about how good he was at picking locks and cracking safes, claiming that God had given him the talent to earn a living. Although he had been in and out of jail several times, because the items he stole were not particularly valuable, he would only serve a few months before getting out, until the next time he committed a crime.

If asked why he never managed to steal anything worthwhile, he would say that while skilled at opening locks, he didn't know how to crack security systems, so he could only steal from ordinary people's homes, unable to pull off a big heist.

Li Li worked as a security guard at the bank. In his colleagues' eyes, he was a silent and hardworking employee. However, according to his own account, the first time he saw the vehicle transporting the gold drive into the bank, a terrible idea germinated in his mind.

He wanted to get rich.

In the five years he worked at the bank, he cherished every opportunity to familiarize himself with the bank's security system until he was certain he could access the vault without anyone knowing. But he didn't know how to crack the safe in the vault, so he set his sights on Qian Tong, coercing him into becoming an accomplice.

The two conspired for three months, stealing large quantities of gold from the bank vault, and hiding it in Lakeview Park during their escape. Shortly after, both were arrested, but did not reveal the whereabouts of the gold.

A week ago, Li Li was severely injured in a prison fight and transferred to the hospital for treatment. Although he was closely guarded by the police, a fire broke out in the hospital, and in the ensuing chaos, Li Li took the opportunity to escape.

The police immediately interrogated Qian Tong overnight, hoping to learn Li Li's whereabouts from him.

In order to reduce his sentence, Qian Tong agreed to cooperate with the police and told them that Li Li would definitely return to Lakeview Park to retrieve the gold, but he didn't know where exactly the gold was hidden, since Li Li hadn't told him.

For the past three days, Ji Feng and his colleagues had been staking out here with Qian Tong, but hadn't seen any sign of Li Li.

Ji Feng: [This guy is very cautious, he may have noticed us. As a student, you won't arouse his suspicion. Help us keep an eye out, any clues, no matter how small, you can let me know.]

Jian Jing's curiosity was piqued and she agreed to his request.

She probed Cheng Jia You, "Can you give me a hint about the treasure in advance?"

Cheng Jia You laughed, "That would spoil the fun - okay, it's actually gift certificates. Zhao Xuan got sponsorship from an outdoor brand and received over 10,000 dollars in gift certificates. First prize is over 5,000 dollars, pretty decent."

"You guys must have prepared for a long time, huh?" she continued asking.

"Not too bad, the hardest part of organizing an event is getting sponsorship, the school subsidy isn't much." Cheng Jia You said, "But coming up with the clues took up a lot of my time, I really admire you for that, it's harder to make up clues than to solve them."

He tried his best to flatter her, unaware what Jian Jing was thinking - she had run into Cheng Jia You at the library on September 3rd, and he already had a relatively solid treasure hunt plan at that time. Meanwhile, Li Li's escape happened a week ago.

Besides, a rich playboy like Cheng Jia You was unlikely to have any connection with Li Li, it must be pure coincidence.

"There are quite a lot of people in the park." Jian Jing looked around, feigning casual conversation, "There are so many people coming to such a secluded place."

Lakeview Park was large with abundant greenery, relatively remote, the nearest residential area was a villa district, quite far on foot. Yet tourists were not scarce in this location.

Cheng Jia You nodded, "It's Saturday today, everyone's here for outdoor activities."

Jian Jing asked curiously, "What kinds of activities are there?"

"Camping, boating, archery, horseback riding, laser tag, sometimes marathons too." Cheng Jia You was clearly very familiar with Lakeview Park.

Jian Jing took out a map, "Will we pass by them later?"

Cheng Jia You was happy to see her interest in outdoor sports, "Yes, the stone bridge we passed just now is where you can go boating, the camping area is up ahead."

"The kind where you set up your own tent?"

"Yeah, the park rents out tents and grills." Cheng Jia You pointed ahead, "We're here."

The second check-in point: Campsite.

A flat house rented out all kinds of tents, sleeping bags, grills, and also sold BBQ skewers, drinks etc.

Zhao Xuan and Liu Kai were sitting on folding chairs at the entrance drinking cola. Seeing Cheng Jia You arrive, they jokingly said, "What took you so long today?"

"I can't compete with everyone else for the prizes." Cheng Jia You bought two bottles of ice cola, handing one to Jian Jing, "Want to take a break?"

Jian Jing's endurance had improved significantly since going to the gym to train, after just twenty minutes of walking she wasn't tired at all, "No need, I want to look around."

"I'll go with you." Cheng Jia You followed along.

Zhao Xuan said, "Hey, you can't do that, who knows if you'll give hints, come back here."

"I promise I won't say anything."

Liu Kai tsked, "Didn't expect that, Old Cheng is pretty slick with chasing girls. But Jian Jing is quite pretty, and she's a writer too, no wonder he's interested."

Zhao Xuan rolled her eyes.

"You don't agree?" Liu Kai had an expression of anticipation for drama.

"Why wouldn't I, she is very pretty." Zhao Xuan brushed it off.

She didn't deny Jian Jing's looks, but had no liking for artsy girls. At least for the girls of this type she had encountered before, most were whiny hypochondriacs, liking to post pretentious words on their Moments like "Beijing becomes Beiping as soon as it snows".

Writer? Excuse me, but she hadn't read any of her books. She heard Jian Jing was good at writing mysteries, but there was no shortage of so-called mystery novels in bookstores that were just sugar-coated romance.

Rich and handsome police male lead X super genius girl.

Pfft, that's called a mystery too.

*

Of course Jian Jing was completely oblivious to others' disdain and criticism.

She was busy asking the staff about renting tents.

The staff said, "Our fees are based on the tent size and rental period, the cheaper ones are 80 a day, more expensive around 200, sleeping bags can be rented too."

"I see a lot of people over there, did they all come today?" Jian Jing asked, "How long is everyone staying?"

The staff said, "Usually it's people coming over the weekend, renting for an afternoon and night. "

"Nobody during the week?"

"Very few, mostly just weekends when people have time." The staff answered.

Jian Jing nodded lightly, peeking at the counter again - unfortunately everything was computerized, no way to find a list of people who had rented tents.

She reconsidered, asking, "I guess everyone comes in groups right, has there never been someone coming alone?"

"Basically no, I've never seen it at least." The staff said, "We recommend 4-6 people for the most fun, there are safety concerns with coming alone after all."

Jian Jing nodded.

This matched her speculation, Li Li likely wouldn't brazenly rent a tent for overnight stays, seemed there were no leads here.

She pretended to have satisfied her curiosity, and took the chance to unlock the next clue - Koi Pond.

"You really are hard to stump." Setting off again, Cheng Jia You spared no effort to gain her favor.

Jian Jing politely said, "Very clever riddle."

The check-in point here was just a small table. Other than stamping the wristbands, there was only a bluetooth speaker repeating the melody of "luck, luck, luck".

Because there were English letters on the seal, many people were confused, guessing the abbreviations of the letters, and thus ignoring the real clue "luck", which represented the Koi pond of good fortune.

But this question was not really difficult, just like when a boy tells an unattractive girl that she is "cute", she can only say "clever" in response.

The path leading to the Koi pond was lined with lush and verdant trees on both sides.

The green canopies were like clouds, vibrant and picturesque, creating an extremely beautiful scenery. But Jian Jing, after looking at the map, discovered that only the roadsides had surveillance cameras, with many blind spots within the woods.

If Li Li engaged the police in a game of cat and mouse within the park, it would indeed be very difficult for them to track his whereabouts.

As she was pondering this, a young man approached from the front, wearing headphones but scanning them over alertly, his gaze lingering for a moment before casually turning away, searching back and forth through the woods, like a searchlight over the night sea.

Jian Jing: "..." Wasn't he being a little too obvious?

Normally people wearing headphones and listening to music have a vacant look, immersed in their own world, otherwise they'd easily get into accidents. But this guy was wearing headphones with his full attention on his surroundings - how could anyone not notice?

She shook her head slightly, her attention turning to the trash can up ahead.

Oh, don't get the wrong idea, she had no interest in the trash can itself, she just finished her soda and needed to throw the bottle in the recyclable bin.

The trash can was very ordinary, stainless steel barrel-shaped, with an opening in the upper middle part. The top was a steel plate, specifically for smokers to press out their cigarette butts.

But now, the top was covered in a large number of cigarette butts, extremely dirty.

She took a glance before shifting her gaze, tossing the soda bottle into the trash can.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Koi pond.

Ji Feng and his partner were also there, chatting with the old vendor selling fish food next to the pond.

The old vendor looked very angry, cursing loudly: "What kind of bastard thief, even the fish food is stolen?"

"Boss, you lost stuff?" Ji Feng looked very interested, "Just the fish food was taken? You can't even eat that."

"Who knows, something wrong in the head. He even took two boxes." The old vendor couldn't comprehend the thief's mindset. "Two boxes of feed, goddamn turtle!"

Ji Feng asked again: "Nothing else was taken?"

The old vendor waved his hand: "Also two bags of bread rolls, oh well, if he was hungry he should've just taken some food. What's he stealing fish food for? That stuff's no good for eating and expensive too. If I catch him, I'll chop his hands off."

Ji Feng stroked his chin, his eyes filled with great interest: Brazenly stealing fish food, was it the helpless act of taking away the gold, or a trick to divert their attention?

He exchanged a look with his partner, and the two casually strolled away.

Jian Jing brushed past them, her gaze falling on the two men by the pondside.