Chapter 8. Gu Sheng quickly opened the search engine and entered "..."

Gu Sheng quickly opened a search engine, entered "Ouroboros," and clicked search.

The search results were plentiful, and Gu Sheng picked and chose some to look at.

Then he put down his phone and looked up at the ceiling.

This organization is very mysterious; you can hardly find anything about it online.

All that could be found was that this was a thief organization that only stole priceless treasures. Moreover, unlike other thieves, they would return the stolen items to their original owners after a period of time.

As a result, they are very popular among young people and even have their own fan clubs.

The only thing Gu Sheng knows right now is that this organization is suspected to have five people, because they always leave five patterns at the crime scene.

Based on the five patterns, the police department gave these five people code names: Ashes, Raven, Ghost, Prism, and Tear.

Their fans drew character illustrations and created exclusive quotes based on these codenames. One of the quotes from the person in the phone was from Ashes.

So, the one who called Gu Sheng must be Ash, and I am Raven?

The voice sounded quite young, and the person even read out a quote; that person was so immature.

Gu Sheng recalled the phone call he had just received.

Judging from what they're saying, it was the two of them who did it? If two people could steal the gemstone, the museum's security must be terrible.

Moreover, judging from his tone, the rest of the organization probably didn't know.

The organization's leader only found out recently.

Does the leader of this organization never go online? The gem theft case has been making headlines online, even Gu Sheng, who doesn't usually pay much attention to these kinds of things, knows about it.

Moreover, Ash even asked Gu Sheng to gloss over the matter. Could it be that his words carry a lot of weight with that boss?

Finally, it's unclear what Ash wants to do with Gu Sheng, and judging from Ash's words, he seems to want to leave the organization.

It seems that there isn't a unified purpose within this organization.

Gu Sheng looked at the gems on the table, feeling a mix of emotions.

Just a few days ago he was an undercover agent for the police department, and now he's a member of a criminal organization. Is that right?

Thinking of this, Gu Sheng raised his eyes. A mole in the Public Security Bureau? A member of a criminal organization?

An undercover agent from the police department infiltrating a criminal organization!

Gu Sheng suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment.

Regardless of what happened before, from now on, he is an undercover agent for the Public Security Bureau, and no rebuttal will be accepted.

Gu Sheng had no interest in becoming a member of a mysterious organization; he would much rather be an undercover agent.

Simply leaving the organization isn't enough. Gu Sheng wants to sever all ties with it; he was never a member of "Ouroboros."

Gu Sheng decided that he would use his undercover identity to send everyone else in the organization to prison.

What he needs to do now is to gather as much intelligence as possible.

Since we can't find the information online, we'll have to find other ways.

Gu Sheng glanced at his phone, then opened his contacts, found the number saved as "Li," and dialed it.

The call was answered quickly, and Li Qingyue's voice came from the other end: "Gu Sheng? What happened?"

Gu Sheng said, "It's nothing. I just have something I'd like to ask you. Is now a convenient time?"

The background noise from Li Qingyue's end was chaotic, suggesting there were many people around. He asked, "Are you in a hurry?"

Gu Sheng replied, "No rush."

While dealing with the people around him, Li Qingyue said to Gu Sheng, "How about tonight? I'll send you an address, and you can come over so we can talk in person."

Gu Sheng said, "Okay."

The two agreed on a location and then hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Gu Sheng immediately regretted it. He shouldn't have agreed to meet and talk. He said it was perfectly fine on the phone, but what if he revealed something when they met?

Thinking this, Gu Sheng wanted to send Li Qingyue a message to cancel their meeting that evening. However, after typing the message, Gu Sheng hesitated. He had just agreed, and it wouldn't be good to go back on his word so soon.

After hesitating for a while, Gu Sheng finally decided not to send the message.

Let them meet if they want. Gu Sheng will have to get used to this kind of life sooner or later. After all, he doesn't know when he will have more acquaintances.

Gu Sheng looked at the previous unknown caller in his call log and thought of the "coffee shop" that Ash had mentioned.

Is he referring to a real coffee shop, or some kind of metaphor?

And if he had never met Ash before, how did they manage to steal things together?

Doesn't Ashes take responsibility for stealing?

If that's the case, then according to Ash, there were only two of them this time, so the only one who stole the gem was Gu Sheng.

Thinking of this, Gu Sheng shook his head; it was definitely impossible.

Although he complained about the museum's security earlier, even if its security is terrible, it won't be much worse when it comes to valuable items like these.

There's no way he could have stolen the gem by himself.

Um.

That's probably impossible.

Gu Sheng looked at his hands and saw only a pair of ordinary hands, nothing special.

Gu Sheng seemed to be convincing himself. He nodded and said, "I definitely can't do it alone."

Gu Sheng had no chance to know the specifics of stealing the gems; he could only hope to get some information out of Ash after they met.

Gu Sheng would do anything to avoid becoming a thief.

However, Gu Sheng had no idea where the coffee shop was or what time they had agreed to meet.

If he didn't show up when the time came, he could only apologize to Ash in his heart.

Anyway, since the gem is in his hands, Ash will definitely find a way to get it.

Gu Sheng put the gems back on the table, and before closing the box, he took out the specially made gun and bullets that were in the small box.

Gu Sheng watched as he skillfully disassembled and then reassembled the gun.

Although this was his first time using a gun, he was already quite skilled.

Let's take it with us first; after all, it's a gun, and we never know when we might need it.

He locked the box, put it back in the cabinet, and then went downstairs.

It was evening.

Gu Sheng arrived at a fast food restaurant, the place he and Li Qingyue had agreed upon.

As Gu Sheng pushed open the door, he inexplicably felt a chill coming from behind him.

He turned to look behind him, but there were only crowds of people coming and going, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Gu Sheng looked across the street and saw a five-story hotel.

He felt something was off, so he couldn't help but take a few more glances, but still couldn't find anything different.

"It must be my imagination," he thought as he walked into the store.

Standing at the door, Gu Sheng immediately spotted Li Qingyue eating in the corner.

Li Qingyue's seating position was quite interesting; the table he sat at was half against the floor-to-ceiling window and half against the wall.

He was sitting on the side next to the wall.

Gu Sheng walked over and sat down opposite him.

Li Qingyue looked at Gu Sheng and asked, "Have you eaten? The braised pork here is pretty good."

Gu Sheng looked at the plate in front of Li Qingyue. The dishes looked quite good, but unfortunately he had no appetite. Gu Sheng said, "I've already eaten."

Li Qingyue said "Oh," and then continued eating with her head down. Neither of them spoke again.

A few minutes later, Li Qingyue finished all the food on her plate, then elegantly wiped her mouth with a napkin before asking, "What do you want to ask?"

He pushed his plate aside and looked at Gu Sheng: "It's rare that you would take the initiative to come to me."

Gu Sheng had already prepared his words beforehand, but when he sat down in front of Li Qingyue, he didn't know how to start the conversation.

Would it seem too abrupt to speak so abruptly?

Should we tell Li Qingyue about his relationship with Ouroboros right now?

Should we wait until the investigation is complete before making a decision?

Gu Sheng was conflicted, but his expression remained unchanged.

He did not answer Li Qingyue's question.

Li Qingyue didn't urge him. He simply called the waiter to clean the table and asked him for two glasses of water.

Watching the waiter leave, Gu Sheng felt he could no longer remain silent.

Since we're already here, we should at least ask.

So he braced himself and said, "Ouroboros, do you know what that is?"

Li Qingyue seemed surprised that Gu Sheng would ask such a question, and said with some astonishment, "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Gu Sheng coughed lightly and said, "Just curious."

Li Qingyue seemed to have thought of something and said, "Is it because of that recent case? You're actually interested in that."

Gu Sheng remained silent.

Li Qingyue didn't press further. He said, "That organization also committed crimes in our city. They stole an oil painting, but I wasn't involved in that case, so I don't know the specifics. However, as far as I know, the investigation team didn't find any useful clues until the painting was returned."

Gu Sheng could find all of this information online, but he wanted to know some other details.

Li Qingyue continued, "Although they leave behind five different patterns after each crime, the investigation team suspects that there are actually more than five people involved. The exact number is still undetermined."

Upon hearing this, Gu Sheng's heart skipped a beat. Weren't there five people involved in the crime?

Li Qingyue said, "However, what is certain is that no matter how many people are involved, their methods are very sophisticated and extremely cautious, to the point that I suspect the perpetrators have obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is why the crime scenes are always so clean."

Gu Sheng thought silently, this definitely isn't about him, he doesn't have OCD.

“However,” Li Qingyue changed the subject, “I have a case that I’ve always suspected is related to this organization.”

Upon hearing Li Qingyue's words, Gu Sheng immediately became fully alert and listened attentively to what he would say next.

Li Qingyue said, "The Ouroboros organization basically only targets priceless works of art. This is the first time they've stolen jewelry. Every time they steal a piece of art, it doesn't take long before a large number of fakes of that artwork appear on the black market."

“Those fakes are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The people who sell fakes use the excuse that ‘the one Ouroboros sent back is fake, and the one in their hands is the real thing’ to commit fraud. Countless wealthy businessmen and collectors have been deceived, and the total amount of fraud is as high as billions.”

"These are just the cases that have been reported. There are many more cases that haven't been reported yet, and the actual amount of money involved in the fraud is likely much larger."

"Is that even possible?" Gu Sheng felt like he had learned something new. He had been wondering why those people would return stolen goods.

This is very important intelligence, but it doesn't help Gu Sheng's current situation.

Most importantly, there is still absolutely no information about the Ouroboros members.

Gu Sheng sighed inwardly; he still had to make contact with the ashes.

A note from the author:

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