Three o'clock in the morning.

The wind was blowing outside the police station, rustling through the tall pine trees and small bushes, sounding like ghosts knocking on the door.

But the detectives of the Criminal Investigation Division didn't sleep tonight. The lights were on, as if they were keeping watch. When the wind blew into the courtyard, they quickly dispersed.

Fourth floor.

The lights in the forensic office were also on, the door was open, but no one was inside.

Wu Jun went downstairs to help in the cafeteria, while Jiang Yuan squatted in the video office, his eyes becoming bloodshot from staring at the screen for so long.

There were only a few hotels in Ningtai County, but they had obtained a lot of surveillance videos.

Unlike some places where surveillance videos were often perfunctory, the hotel's surveillance videos were multi-angle. There might be two videos capturing the same bar counter, and it was necessary to watch them all. Not watching was not an option.

Jiang Yuan and several other technicians were drinking wolfberry tea and staring at the screens. Soon, they lost the mood for chatting.

Based on the current judgment, the suspect was likely a debt collector, which meant that he was probably from out of town and had a high probability of leaving after completing his task.

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Therefore, in order to minimize the difficulty of tracking and apprehending the suspect, it was better to identify the suspect as early as possible.

Of course, this was based on the premise that they could find the suspect.

At this moment, in front of Jiang Yuan and the other technicians, there were multiple sheets of paper with time periods extracted from the bills, indicating the time of cash transactions.

Naturally, everyone went after these time periods first, looking for someone of average build, aged between 45 and 49, possibly wearing "Puma" brand sports shoes.

However, there was no sign of such a person appearing during these time periods.

Several suspicious targets, and even pairs or groups of three, were followed up and questioned by the detectives as long as their age and build matched.

Nowadays, hotels require guests to register with their ID cards and leave their phone numbers. With this information, it wasn't too difficult to follow up and question the guests.

However, there was no exciting news coming back.

Jiang Yuan himself was getting anxious.

"Take a break. If it doesn't work, think of another way." Wu Junhao brought a plate of meat buns into the room and looked at the screen for a while before inviting everyone to have a late-night snack.

"Thanks, Captain Wu." Jiang Yuan was also hungry and grabbed a meat bun, devouring it.

"We have plenty of buns. Eat as many as you want. There will be lamb soup later." Wu Junhao used public funds to buy the buns this time, showing his generosity.

As they were talking, two young men pushed a cart into the room. The cart was filled with a stainless steel barrel full of lamb soup.

"The cafeteria's delivery equipment is quite complete." Jiang Yuan praised as he looked at it.

"The cafeteria usually has to deliver meals to the prisoners." Wu Junhao tapped the spoon against the barrel, making a crisp sound, giving people a sense of being behind iron bars.

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "It's for the prisoners during the day and for the police at night. Efficiency is maximized."

"That was in the past. When I was an apprentice, catching people was much more straightforward. It's not like now, spending half the night watching surveillance videos and finding nothing." Wu Junhao expressed his dissatisfaction.

He had acted as both a bodyguard and a nanny, but he hadn't achieved anything. He was indeed a little impatient.

But he quickly apologized, "I was just talking nonsense. Catching people sometimes requires luck. Maybe this person didn't stay in a hotel."

Suddenly, Wu Junhao had a bright idea and said, "Could this person have gone to a brothel? Find a Fenglou or a place for overnight stays..."

"Captain Liu has already gone to check." A detective reminded him.

Wu Junhao sighed regretfully, "Captain Liu is experienced!"

Jiang Yuan didn't laugh, he just ate his meat bun and drank his lamb soup.

At three o'clock in the morning, carbohydrates and fat were the absolute kings.

Forget about Michelin stars and intangible cultural heritage. In the early hours of the morning, no food could beat a barbecue stall.

Or to put it the other way around, why do some people say that the food from a barbecue stall is better than food from other places? It's because the body craves carbohydrates and fat.

The same food, when eaten at noon, doesn't taste as good.

This scientific experiment should be repeated multiple times to verify.

Jiang Yuan was also starving, and watching the videos was physically exhausting.

After devouring a meat bun, Jiang Yuan finally had time to adjust the progress bar and prepared to watch the surveillance while eating the bun.

They had already watched the time periods recorded in the logs two or three times.

This time, Jiang Yuan adjusted the time to the day of the crime and started watching from the afternoon in the lobby of the largest Crown Holiday Hotel in Ningtai County, playing it at double speed.

In this way, he was still focusing on the shoes.

The previous strategy was to follow the flow of money and look for guests who paid in cash.

In this day and age, there were very few guests who still paid in cash. If their age and build matched, they would be considered suspects and further investigated.

But no matter how they searched, there was not a single person left on the suspect list.

Even after searching for the third and fourth time, there wouldn't be any qualitative changes.

Perhaps the judgment of the detectives regarding the suspect was fundamentally wrong. The other party might not have stayed in a hotel, or they might have left Ningtai County directly, or maybe they didn't pay with cash when they stayed...

Any possibility was possible, but deep down, Jiang Yuan believed that the suspect would pursue a more comfortable lifestyle.A criminal suspect who dares to return to the crime scene must be arrogant and conceited.

He even dared to return to the crime scene, and even dared to watch Jiang Yuan collect evidence for such a long time. Would he leave Ningtai County overnight?

Jiang Yuan thought so, took a sip of mutton soup, and fast-forwarded the progress bar to the evening.

If his guess was correct, the suspect was watching Jiang Yuan mop the floor in the afternoon.

So, if he wanted to stay in a hotel, he could only come at night.

In theory, he wouldn't change his clothes either.

Because taking away the clothes worn at the crime scene for disposal is more secure and more arrogant.

Jiang Yuan tried to guess the other party's thoughts, chewing on a meat sandwich, a pair of grey and white sneakers appeared in the video crowd.

Jiang Yuan didn't even see the faces in the video, but he recognized those shoes at a glance without zooming in.

Bimawei!

A pair of unpretentious shoes.

Unpretentious naming, unpretentious aesthetic design...

These shoes had been hanging in Jiang Yuan's mind for the past few days, and now he saw them again—

Jiang Yuan put down his sandwich, first paused the video, then switched it to normal mode to watch.

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Others noticed Jiang Yuan's actions and gathered around.

"A tour group? Yes, tour groups register collectively." Gao Jiansheng, who was watching the video with Jiang Yuan in the video office, slapped his thigh, both excited and in pain.

"This man. His height, weight, and age all match. He seems to be single. He's wearing Bimawei shoes, and his clothes and pants were bought in that discount store." Jiang Yuan pointed out the suspect in the video.

He was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. His face looked a bit old, with small eyes and mouth, short hair, and at first glance, he looked like a security uncle from an old neighborhood who had just finished work and was changing clothes to go home.

His appearance was quite calm. After entering the hotel lobby with the tour group, he handed his ID to the tour guide and stood in the crowd, listening to people talk, and even spoke once.

"He came all the way with the tour group." Wu Junhao said this with a chill down his spine. This was a method of entry and exit that no one had thought of. If Jiang Yuan hadn't found the man's shoes, it would have been impossible to recognize him.

"This is the video from the day of the crime. The tour group should have left Ningtai County by now." Wu Jun reminded in a deep voice.

Ningtai County is not a tourist city, mainly used as a transit point for tourism. Some tour groups play in Changyang City during the day and bring their members to Ningtai County for accommodation at night to save the huge accommodation difference between the two places.

For this reason, Ningtai County has also developed several artificial and semi-artificial attractions, occasionally favored by some tour groups.

But no matter how good the service is, no tour group would stay in Ningtai County for two days.

They would definitely leave the next day, and maybe go somewhere else the day after.

"Jiang Yuan, you call Captain Huang. Everyone else, secure the evidence, pull out the suspect's ID, check the tour group's itinerary..." Wu Junhao pointed to one person, gave an order, and the video office quickly got to work.