Chapter 293 Suspicious Shawl
Li Qihan's breath brushed her ears warmly, and his voice lowered even more: "Evans will be guarding the foot of the trail with weapons, ready to respond at any time."
He paused for a moment and said, "If something unexpected happens at night, we won't be alone when we retreat."
Xia Lili's originally tense shoulders relaxed slightly, and her heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down.
Li Qihan continued in a low voice, "Also, Detective Reina is already in place. She's been walking around the cable car workshop under the pretext of looking for a lost earring."
"Her task is to keep a close eye on the movements in the control room and watch out for any suspicious individuals approaching the cable car control system."
His tone was slightly heavy. "But if the murderer had made some moves in advance, the situation would have become much more complicated."
Xia Lili nodded: "It's possible that he has accomplices at the starting point of the cable car station."
At this moment, Li Qihan's phone vibrated slightly.
He looked down and saw that it was a message from Detectives Evans and Modi, who had already sneaked into the hiking area.
With the help of three scene sketches provided by Xia Lili, the two detectives successfully locked down the possible crime scene.
The hallucinatory sketch that Xia Lili drew for Li Qihan included a giant cedar tree of bizarre shape and several distinctive rocks.
They have accurately found the target area based on these landmarks and are now hiding in the snow near cedars and rocks, lurking quietly and closely monitoring all movements around them.
After Xia Lili and Li Qihan finished their conversation, they returned to the starting point of the track together.
She keenly noticed that Thorne had finished his training and was sitting alone on a bench in the rest area, frequently checking his phone with his head down.
Xia Lili calmly adjusted the angle and distance, and with her eyesight far beyond that of ordinary people, she quietly stared at Thorne's mobile phone screen.
He was seen communicating nervously with someone in an encrypted chat interface.
Suddenly, a message from the other party popped up:
"She must die today. Otherwise, if she really finds something from the maintenance log and tells Professor Tian, I'll be finished!"
Then, Xia Lili saw Thorne constantly urging the other party to pay the reward, and the other party finally replied: "The final payment is 300,000 yuan, and it will be transferred to your card immediately after the task is completed."
At this point, Xia Lili completely understood that there was no direct personal grudge between Thorne and An Zhaoyan.
Instead, someone was well aware of Thorne's background as a hunter and An Zhaoyan's trust in him, and bribed him to plan this murder disguised as an accident.
The manipulator behind the scenes is from Professor Tian’s laboratory!
This is a murder case!
As the sky gradually darkened, the ski resort was shrouded in a quiet dark blue. The once bustling ski slope was now only occupied by nine people.
There are three more people than the six people in Xia Lili's foresight: Li Qihan, herself, and detective Reina disguised as an ordinary skier.
An Zhaoyan neatly put away her skis, her face flushed with excitement after the workout, and enthusiastically invited everyone, "Master helped me break through a bottleneck today! I'm so happy! I'll treat everyone to a meal at that super famous barbecue restaurant down the mountain to celebrate!"
Thorne smiled and took over the conversation in a gentle tone: "This meal should be my treat. Seeing my apprentice make such progress, it is even more gratifying for me as a master."
Xia Lili said, "How embarrassing!", but her eyes quickly exchanged a knowing look with Li Qiuhan.
The group chatted and laughed as they walked towards the cable car station, but from a distance they found that the platform was pitch black.
All the indicator lights were off, and only the staff were anxiously shouting into the intercom: "The main cable is faulty! Repairs will take at least two hours!"
When everyone heard this, their reactions varied.
Xia Lili immediately feigned surprise and raised her voice, "Ah? A malfunction? Then how long do we have to wait before we can get down the mountain?"
She sounded anxious, but she was very clear in her mind: Detective Reina did not find anything unusual at the platform on the top of the mountain, which meant that the murderer had either tampered with the equipment long ago, or bribed the people in the control room, or even arranged accomplices at the foot of the mountain to cooperate with him.
Li Qihan, standing beside her, said nothing, but reached out and gently patted her shoulder. His movements were restrained yet steady, and the warmth from his palm was brief but reliable. He was earnestly playing the role of the distant cousin who cared for his sister.
An Zhaoyan also moved closer to Xia Lili and whispered, "Don't worry, the repairs should be done quickly."
Detective Reina stamped her feet and complained in a very dramatic manner, "Oh my god! I haven't found my earrings yet, and the cable car is broken down again. I'm so unlucky today!"
At that moment, Thorne, the ski instructor who had been working with his head down, put down his phone and said calmly to everyone, "The mountaintop route has just been opened, and the facilities are not yet complete. Don't panic. I have contacted the rescue team, and they will be here as soon as possible."
Everyone calmed down a bit after hearing this, but as time passed, and an hour passed with the cable car still motionless, anxiety returned.
In addition to Thorne, two other foreign skiers, a man and a woman, were the first to lose their patience and asked the staff: "It's too cold on the mountain. We can't wait any longer. Can we walk down the mountain?"
The staff member looked hesitant and advised, "It's really dangerous to walk down the mountain in this weather. There are hidden gullies under the snow, and visibility is poor. Everyone should be patient and wait. Let's go to the platform first to avoid the wind."
However, the so-called platform had long been leaking on all sides, and the cold wind wrapped in snow foam kept pouring in. Everyone was shivering with cold and huddled together to keep warm.
Only Xia Lili was well prepared: a thick and warm cashmere scarf and earmuffs to protect her ears.
While no one else was paying attention, she quietly moved to An Zhaoyan's side and quickly stuffed a few hot packs and a small can of bear spray into her hands.
The latter is a new sample that Xia Lili brought from Professor Tian’s security laboratory. It is said that its spray distance and blocking effect are far superior to the ordinary version. Unexpectedly, it will come in handy so soon.
She also handed An Zhaoyan a panda-shaped plush hand warmer. The round black and white shape was cute and soft and warm to the touch.
"Use this to cover your hands too." Xia Lili said in a low voice.
When An Zhaoyan saw the cute panda, her eyes lit up slightly. She subconsciously held it in her hands and gently rubbed the panda's ears with her fingertips.
Her cold fingertips were instantly wrapped in warmth, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into an almost invisible arc.
She hadn't been back to China for a long time, and her heart couldn't help but soften when she saw the national treasure panda. She would graduate and return to China to work in half a year.
An Zhaoyan didn't know that deep inside this heartwarming panda, there was a micro locator hidden.
If she encounters an accident and unfortunately gets separated from the main group, Li Qihan and detectives Evans and Modi who are lying in ambush near the hiking trail will be able to track her exact location in real time based on the signal it sends.
An Zhaoyan silently accepted this "warmth" and looked into Xia Lili's bright eyes. She whispered sincerely, "Thank you."
My hands unconsciously tightened the panda hand warmer.
At this moment, Thorne took out a thick plaid cashmere shawl from his backpack and carefully draped it over An Zhaoyan's shoulders. He said gently, "It's windy on the mountain. Wrap yourself in more layers and don't catch a cold."
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