"Happy birthday."
Wu Jiaju sat in Chen Tinghan's seat, and faced Li Zishan with a serious and sincere expression. He offered his blessings like a chant, and then hugged her tightly.
Li Zishan was hugged by her. She tried to raise her head to avoid her best friend's hair scratching her neck, and giggled: "Thank you!"
"It's 7:30 in the morning. I'm the first person to see you, so I must be the first one to say happy birthday to you, right?" Wu Jiaju said with a smile.
"Hmm..." Li Zishan tilted her head, her little face full of innocence.
Wu Jiaju, however, sensed something else. She pushed Li Zishan away and frowned, saying, "What do you mean? Am I not the first one?"
Shanshan pretended to be stupid and blurred her eyes: "Thank you for your blessing, I love you."
"Tell me the truth, has anyone else mentioned this before? Is it Chen Tinghan?"
Li Zishan rolled her eyes: "Why are you asking me when you already know everything?"
"Don't interrupt. When did he say happy birthday to you? You two, don't you want to see each other in the middle of the night..."
In just a few seconds, Wu Jiaju's eyes had changed from suspicion to shock. A moment later, in her mind, she probably thought that the two of them should have a child. Li Zishan quickly said, "No, it was the phone. It was a call! He called me on time, after midnight. We talked on the phone."
"Oh..." Wu Jiaju paused for a moment, then said angrily, "Cunning, really cunning, how can this count!"
"It doesn't count, it doesn't count. My Jiajia is still the best."
The two girls continued to play together until more and more students came to the classroom and they gradually calmed down.
After taking a break, Li Zishan was in a daze, not knowing what he was thinking. After a moment, he suddenly said, "He didn't come today either."
"He's taken the last two days off," Wu Jiaju said. "He said something happened at home, but no matter what, he'll definitely be able to make it to your birthday tonight. He promised us that right in front of us."
Li Zishan didn't say anything, but his brows were furrowed with uncontrollable worry.
Wu Jiaju caught her emotion, stroked the back of her hand, and said softly, "Actually, I've been admiring him more and more lately. Although he's full of tricks, he's truly capable. It's like he can split himself into two. He can speak his mind and always deliver on his promises."
"He even arranged the venue for tonight while he was busy."
Both of them received a text message on their mobile phones confirming that the reservation was successful: Wanqing Restaurant awaits your arrival.
This can be said to be the highest-standard place in Wanghai except for the teahouse. Originally, Chen Tinghan wanted to set the venue in the teahouse, but You Shenyu had shares there. He always felt something was wrong when inviting someone else's niece to have dinner on her own territory.
Wu Jiaju is smart and perceptive, but she ultimately fails to truly understand her best friend's thoughts. She simply thinks she is worried that Chen Tinghan will not be able to keep the appointment on time.
But what she was most worried about was Chen Tinghan’s last look when he left school the day before yesterday.
She didn't know how to describe it, she just felt that something bad had happened. Combined with what Chen Tinghan said about an urgent matter at home, she was a little scared, and it even overwhelmed her joy and anticipation for her birthday.
Li Zishan now just hopes that everything is fine over there.
......
Chen Tinghan couldn't say that he was in trouble, nor that he was fine, he was just a little tired. He stood outside a supermarket, took a few deep breaths, adjusted his expression, then pushed open the glass door and walked to the counter.
He asked in a panic, "Sister, this is what happened. I took a taxi an hour ago. When I got off the car, I found that I had left something in the car. It was a valuable item. I didn't remember the license plate number, and I didn't have an invoice. I called the taxi company but couldn't find it either.
I just happened to be looking for you along the way and noticed there's a surveillance camera outside your store, facing the intersection. Would you mind letting me take a look and find the license plate number of that car?"
The shop owner was an enthusiastic middle-aged woman. Seeing that Chen Tinghan was young and sweating profusely in anxiety, she felt sympathy for him. However, her supermarket was very large, selling not only daily necessities but also fresh fruits and vegetables. It was about to be the peak period, and she would definitely be too busy to handle it.
Chen Tinghan understood and said, "I'll buy some snacks and water from you. I'll just sit here and watch the surveillance slowly. I won't disturb you at all."
"Hey, there's no need to be so polite." She smiled and said, "It's not a big deal. Look, it's quite expensive, isn't it?"
"A laptop costs several thousand dollars." Chen Tinghan wiped his sweat and thanked him profusely.
"Oh, this is no small matter. Come quickly." Then, he was led to the surveillance computer a few steps away from the cashier counter. She simply taught Chen Tinghan how to operate it and then turned around and went about her business.
Chen Tinghan was grateful in his heart. When she was busy and had no time to take care of this side, he quietly switched the time of the historical record to late last night.
At triple speed, the images in the surveillance video flash quickly. In order to save storage space, surveillance videos like this generally have a motion capture function, which only records when someone passes by or the image changes. There are not many guests late at night, so a few hours of video can be watched in just over ten minutes.
The night before yesterday, Zhou Jinwei submitted a report to his superiors using the statement prepared by Chen Tinghan. Ironically, the attitude of the higher-ups was quite intriguing. Although they agreed to the action, their attitude was a bit intense and it took some time.
They agreed to move only for the sake of the possible existence of the homemade rifles, but whether they actually moved and where they moved was another matter.
There is someone behind this.
Therefore, Chen Tinghan decided to split his troops into three groups. One group would use an official identity to inquire about the situation without using informants or involving connections, and try to confirm the existence of the gun. At the same time, he would keep a close eye on Deng Shi, which was like waiting for him to come to him.
In the end, Chen Tinghan was responsible for tracking tens of thousands of traces.
Admittedly, guarding Deng Shi is the most convenient and perhaps the fastest solution, but if the situation develops to that point, Ji Yanghai is likely to have a gun in his hand, and the nature of the conflict or even a gunfight is too serious and the risk is too great.
Although it took him more than a day, fortunately he finally got the clue.
After chasing him all the way, Chen Tinghan finally locked onto his position, which was probably within this range.
He still needs hard evidence.
The progress bar of the video passed by quickly, and the pretended anxiety and real worry were mixed together and could no longer be distinguished from each other.
Fortunately, this torment did not last too long. About five minutes later, the figure of the person he had been looking for appeared on the screen.
A man walked into the field of view of the surveillance camera at the door. Although he was wearing a baseball cap, his body shape and posture seemed familiar. Chen Tinghan switched the view to the surveillance camera inside the store. After shooting from multiple angles, he finally confirmed that he was Ji Yanghai, whom Chen Tinghan had been looking for.
Chen Tinghan glanced at the time on the surveillance screen, calmly reached out to flip through the thick stack of bills placed next to him, and the cash register automatically sent out a thick stack of bills. He turned to the page with the matching time, scanned the content on it, and made up his mind.
He tore off the page of bill, put a bill under the machine, and stood up to leave.
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