Chapter 173 Why is it so unexpected?
Guan Xia was shocked by the sudden upgrade of the system, but was more surprised. After all, this meant that from now on, he would have to act proactively instead of passively.
For her own safety, she had to cooperate with Ji An, Xu Nian and others time and time again. It seemed that she was in charge, and both Ji An and Xu Nian asked for her opinion on the case. But in fact, only Guan Xia knew that she was controlled by this system from beginning to end. Even if she was reluctant, she could only appear to be actively involved in it in order to recharge the halo.
Everything will be fine in the future. The halo strength value is so intuitive, and coupled with the new function she just discovered, Guan Xia can stay at home when she wants and go out when she wants, just like before activating the system. The happiest thing is that she has money now. She can draw comics whenever she wants and not draw them when she doesn't want. She doesn't have to force herself to do something for money or her life. In order to recharge the halo, she can take a look at the details of the halo strength increase and decrease from time to time, and give Xu Nian the names and portraits of those people she meets who bring negative values.
Guan Xiale almost laughed out loud at the thought that he would no longer have to compete with criminals in the future, and could submit a series of lists to keep the system charged while traveling.
Fortunately, she still remembered what was happening and kept looking up at the ceiling, so the other three people in the temporary office didn't notice anything unusual.
In fact, Guan Xia still had many curious questions to ask the system, but there was a difficult case in front of him, so he could only suppress his thoughts and try to actively shut down the system for the first time.
The system is indeed smart and different. As soon as Guan Xia had a thought, it disappeared very tactfully.
After spending a few minutes trying to control his overly excited emotions, Guan Xia even rubbed his face to keep his expression heavy and calm before sitting up straight again and continuing his work of watching surveillance videos all night.
Seeing that it was already late at night and there was still more than an hour before dawn, Guan Xia once again discovered the direction of escape of a group of peripheral members. She just called Xu Nian, and in the quiet office, the cell phone she casually threw on the table suddenly rang.
Guan Xia stopped talking halfway through her sentence. Pang Le and the others all looked over. Somehow, everyone had a bad feeling in their hearts.
Guan Xia immediately picked up the phone and took a look at the caller. It was indeed Ji An's.
After the call was connected, Ji An was heard running, panting and speaking rapidly: "Guan Xia, the bar where the target is located suddenly caught fire. As soon as it was discovered, the fire was very large. It is suspected to be arson. The scene is now in chaos."
Hearing the word "fire", Guan Xia was surprised, but also felt a sense of relief that it had finally come. Based on the previous actions of the criminal organization, they had guessed that they would make a big move next. Now that there was arson, it further confirmed their speculation that they were luring the tiger away from the mountain.
Guan Xia immediately asked, "Where's Wu Yingze? Is he still there?"
Ji An quickly replied, "We're still looking. What we can confirm now is that he wasn't among those who fled the bar. Lu Tingfeng, Qi Bai, and the others rushed in. I stayed outside the bar just in case, and Zhong Xiaoyu also stayed on the high ground."
Guan Xia is now somewhat thankful for Wu Yingze's eye-catching hair. Coupled with the large number of bodyguards, he thinks he will not be in any danger. Even if he takes the opportunity to escape, we have placed so many people around him that it will be easy to stop him if he wants to run.
Although she thought so, Guan Xia was still a little uneasy. After only two seconds of thinking, she stood up and said decisively, "Be careful, we'll be there now."
Guan Xia hung up the phone and repeated Ji An's words very concisely.
Xu Nian and the others' expressions were already grim, and they became even more serious after hearing this. Without saying a word, they stood up from their chairs, not even bothering to turn off the computer. They slammed open the wooden door of the office and rushed out.
By the time Guan Xia and the others arrived at the scene, it was already 11:20 p.m.
After so much time, the scene was still in chaos, with people running and watching everywhere. A large number of firefighters were busy, and from time to time firefighters dragged or carried trapped people out of the bar that was still emitting flames and black smoke.
As soon as she found Ji An, Guan Xia immediately asked, "Where is Wu Yingze?"
Fortunately, there were a lot of people here at the moment, and the noise was very loud. Even if Guan Xia didn't deliberately control the volume, the people around him couldn't hear clearly.
Ji An's expression was very serious as he said, "They're still trapped inside. According to Lu Tingfeng, who sneaked in before the fire, Wu Yingze thought the booth was too noisy, so he took the two girls he was drinking with to the private room upstairs."
Guan Xia frowned at first, subconsciously worried that Wu Yingze might die in there, and then he felt something was wrong. Didn’t he bring several bodyguards with him?
Although she didn't know much about the lives of rich people, she had seen clips from some TV dramas that bodyguards would usually stay outside the door at such times, so that if the bar caught fire, they would get the news immediately. How could they still be trapped inside until now?
Guan Xia subconsciously looked at Xu Nian. Something was not right. According to their previous speculation, this arson was obviously intended to cause chaos so that Wu Yingze could take the opportunity to escape. Could it be that the person had already run away by now?
Just as Guan Xia was thinking this, he saw that the door of the bar that was still emitting black smoke suddenly moved again, and several very tall and burly men ran out, protecting a person.
The man who was closely protected in the middle had very conspicuous short light gray hair. Even though the scene was chaotic and there were debris and ashes floating around, the man's hair was very messy and had some black ash stuck to it, but under the light of the lights and fire, the gray color was still very obvious.
In order to prevent the smoke and dust from being inhaled into the human body, the man covered his face with a towel of unknown color. Judging from the exposed eyebrows and eyes, he did look somewhat similar to Wu Yingze.
But before Guan Xia could relax, she stared at the figure and frowned. Something was wrong. The system's intuition reminded her that the degree of danger was different.
The first time she accidentally saw Wu Yingze, the intuitive reminder from the system made her scalp tingle and goose bumps appeared. But this time, when she looked at him again, she felt that this person was not a good person and must have committed a crime, but she did not feel the kind of danger that made her back cold.
But thinking about the upper half of the face he had just seen, which was indeed Wu Yingze's, Guan Xia was a little unsure for a moment, not sure whether that person was Wu Yingze.
Guan Xia hesitated, and suddenly thought of the newly upgraded system. After thinking about it, he summoned the system in his mind.
As expected, the system's aura strength dropped a little in such a short period of time, but fortunately not much. Compared with the number of more than 70,000, Guan Xia didn't care at all.
Opening the details of the increase and decrease in the halo strength, Guan Xia looked directly at the last few lines. Sure enough, none of the names on it was Wu Yingze.
Her suspicions were confirmed. Guan Xia thought of the command to make the system disappear, and she lowered her voice and spoke quickly, "That person is not Wu Yingze."
As soon as Guan Xia said this, the eyes of the few people who had just breathed a sigh of relief suddenly widened and they exclaimed, "What?"
Fortunately, the noise at the scene was loud enough, so even though Ji An and the others were talking a little loudly, they did not attract the attention of people around them.
Guan Xia nodded confidently, looking around as he said, "I think he's managed to escape. If I'm right, he'll disguise himself as Wu Yingze under the protection of his bodyguards and go straight back to his residence. He won't go out again, buying time for the real Wu Yingze."
Xu Nian was still in shock, but he quickly understood Guan Xia's intention of looking around. He didn't say anything, but he looked up and looked around very experiencedly. He quickly pointed in a direction and said, "There's a camera facing the hotel entrance. If Wu Yingze took advantage of the chaos and ran through the bar entrance, he would definitely be captured."
Guan Xia glanced in the direction Xu Nian's finger pointed, then raised her wrist to check the time. She said decisively, "Find all the surveillance footage near the bar that can capture the entrance and exit. It's almost dawn. According to Captain Zhou, all major traffic arteries should be under martial law by this time. Wu Yingze will definitely seize the opportunity to escape before the martial law is implemented. He may have already left the city by now."
Guan Xia calculated in her mind that almost forty minutes had passed since she received Ji An's call, and the bar was located close to the suburbs. If Wu Yingze was fast and decisive enough, and did not escape by plane or high-speed rail, but just drove, he might have really run out of Shangshuang City.
Xu Nian and the others didn't know how Guan Xia confirmed that the man was not Wu Yingze when they were so far away and only half of his face was exposed, but no one asked. They just instinctively believed her words and then quickly got busy.
Guan Xia quickly took the opportunity to call Zhong Xiaoyu.
As soon as the call was connected, before Zhong Xiaoyu could speak, Guan Xia said, "Wu Yingze has already run away. You can come back now."
Zhong Xiaoyu was obviously surprised, her voice cracking with shock. "What? He ran away? How is that possible? With so many of us, we've practically set up a tight net. How could he escape?"
"Escape." Guan Xiayan replied with these four words concisely, then immediately hung up the phone and called Lu Tingfeng again.
So in just a few minutes, Guan Xia called back all the people who were outside.
At the same time, Xu Nian also hung up the phone and looked at Guan Xia and said, "I have already reported the news. The task force acted immediately and set up checkpoints and imposed martial law without waiting for midnight. The airport, high-speed rail station, passenger terminal, and all major transportation arteries are now under control. Now it depends on which direction Wu Yingze escapes."
"When will the surveillance video arrive?" Guan Xia asked.
Xu Nian glanced at the time and said, "In half an hour, they will come with their computers."
This meant there was no need to return to the Nanping branch. Guan Xia glanced at the still-burning bar, thought for a moment, and asked, "What about Wu Xingxian and Peng Yuanwei? Is there any movement?"
Ji An said: "I just asked, everything is normal."
This didn't match Guan Xia's speculation, and she subconsciously frowned. Then she heard Pang Le ask in confusion, "That's strange. Aren't Wu Yingze and Wu Xingxian father and son? Even if Peng Yuanwei was abandoned, Wu Xingxian shouldn't be abandoned either. Could it be that our speculation was wrong, and the real core figure of that criminal organization is Wu Yingze?"
Although Pang Le said this, his expression still showed disbelief.
No one spoke. Guan Xia glanced around. Even though she was sure that no one around would hear what they said, she still felt a little insecure in such a crowded environment. So she said, "Let's talk in the car."
Naturally, the others had no objection, so the group left the scene and found their vehicle parked nearby.
The group of people split up into two cars. After locking the windows and turning on the air conditioner, Guan Xia called Wang Yu, who was sitting in another car, on the hands-free mode, as a brief case analysis meeting before the surveillance video arrived.
"Something's not right," Guan Xia spoke first. "The relationship between these father and son seems strange to me. Wu Xingxian isn't even 60 yet. For someone in power, it's far from time for him to abdicate. Furthermore, judging by his daily behavior, he still maintains a firm grip on the company. If such a man truly created such a large criminal organization in Shangshuang City, how could he be so willing to hand over full power to Wu Yingze?"
As soon as Guan Xia finished speaking, Lu Tingfeng followed up, "There's another thing I find incredible. We've only been in Shangshuang City for a little over half a month, and we already traced Wu Yingze right from the start. From the time we really started to suspect him, it's been a little over a week at most. Even if he's well-informed, how could he have found a stand-in who's so similar in height and build, and even looks a bit like him, in such a short time? Unless he prepared in advance from the very beginning. If that's the case, then the question arises. Wu Yingze is only 31 years old this year. Even his father, Wu Xingxian, couldn't do this. Where on earth does he get the energy from?"
Lu Tingfeng's brow furrowed further and further as he spoke, his face filled with confusion. "Xu Nian and I previously conducted a detailed investigation into the experiences of Wu Yingze and his son over the years. From the information we found, it seems that apart from the years he spent studying abroad, Wu Yingze was completely under his father's watchful eye. His personality and behavior were greatly influenced by his father. His father didn't even achieve this, so how did he do it? Could it be that he had some special experiences during those years studying abroad?"
When it comes to studying abroad, whether it is Xu Nian, Guan Xia, or Pang Le, an idea subconsciously arises in their minds, but no one can be sure for a moment, and they just look at each other in surprise and doubt.
After a moment, Qi Bai was a little surprised and said, "That's impossible... He has only been studying abroad for three or four years. In such a short time, how could he be so easily turned against the government?"
Everyone was a little unsure how to respond. After a few seconds of silence, Zhong Xiaoyu asked, "Tell me, does Wu Xingxian know about what Wu Yingze did? Especially tonight, he ran away while his father was still working overtime at the company."
Before, Guan Xia was very sure that the father and son were birds of a feather, but after what happened in the past two days, he was no longer sure. After all, if Wu Xingxian knew everything from beginning to end, or was in control of the criminal organization, then why did Wu Yingze flee, while he seemed to be completely unaware and did not make any move at all.
Another two minutes passed, and Pang Le hesitated and said, "Perhaps Wu Xingxian also has some plans, or perhaps Wu Xingxian has already run away, just like Wu Yingze, and has a substitute?"
After thinking for a few seconds, Guan Xia said decisively: "Let's go to Wu Xingxian's company and see if the person still staying in the office is him or a substitute."
So Xu Nian made another call. Guan Xia and the others received the surveillance video on the way to Wu Xingxian's company. While looking for the real Wu Yingze in the car, they rushed to confirm Wu Xingxian's identity.
As Guan Xia stared intently at the computer screen, Ji An suddenly raised another question, "I've been wondering about this. Even though the arrest of the outside members alarmed Wu Yingze, we still haven't found any evidence that truly points to him. Wu Yingze had plenty of time to race against the police to clear the evidence. So why did he do the opposite and make such a big move and flee? Doesn't this clearly tell us that there's something wrong with him?"
When Ji An asked this question, everyone was stunned.
Yes, if Wu Yingze had learned the news even when the police had blocked all information and had prepared a double to escape in advance, then with his demonstrated abilities, he could have easily destroyed the evidence before the police could obtain it. So why did he flee so suddenly? Why was Wu Yingze's behavior so unexpected?
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