Tracking

Early the next morning, after a three-hour ride, Mo Qiong arrived in Weifang.

He traveled light. Aside from his phone, ID Card, and GPS, he had brought only three ballpoint pens.

Yes, ballpoint pens...

He had wanted to bring his bow and arrows, but he couldn't take those onto a train. The arrowheads were genuinely capable of hunting.

Mo Qiong couldn't be bothered to disassemble the arrows just for that. If it was only for self-defense, three ballpoint pens were enough.

In his hands, three pens were no different from three throwing knives.

In fact, he didn't think he would have to confront Zhao Mingjun. Once he saw where the man was hiding, he could simply report him to the police.

Once the man was arrested, the fifty thousand yuan would be his.

"Mm. Time to confirm his location again."

After getting off the train, Mo Qiong didn't hurry to the GPS's previous Landing Point. He avoided the chaotic crowds.

After looking around, he walked straight into a nearby supermarket and bought a pack of gum, along with a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"The range has narrowed enough. I can use anything to locate him now."

Standing in an empty spot, he took out a stick of gum. As he chewed it, he casually tossed away the wrapper.

The wrapper floated in the air, flying in one direction at an extremely slow speed.

After confirming the direction, he reached out, plucked the wrapper from the air, and stuffed it into his pocket.

After turning down all the unlicensed drivers soliciting passengers, he walked two blocks before finding a shared bicycle.

He unlocked one and pedaled furiously toward his target.

Along the way, he tossed out the wrapper from time to time to confirm Zhao Mingjun's direction.

Step by step, Mo Qiong left the city proper behind. On the road to the county seat, he was soon drenched in sweat.

"As expected. I knew he'd run again."

Mo Qiong sighed, took a taxi back to the train station, turned into the ticket hall, and immediately queued to buy a ticket.

He estimated that after Zhao Mingjun discovered someone had thrown a GPS at him last night, he must have panicked, thinking he had been targeted. He had hurriedly moved his hiding place, but hadn't dared take a train.

Therefore, even if he had escaped the city proper, he had probably used another form of transportation, which might not have been very fast.

In other words, he should still be in one of the nearby counties and hadn't yet escaped Weifang.

"If he's going in this direction, it could be Chang Le or Lin Qu."

"I'll go to Chang Le first and see."

Mo Qiong soon bought a ticket. After waiting for more than ten minutes, he boarded the train.

"I can only test things step by step."

"I can't stir up trouble by using the GPS again. Once he's arrested and questioned by the police, he'll definitely mention it."

Although determining his direction bit by bit with the flying paper was extremely inefficient and nowhere near as convenient as using the GPS,

after what had happened last night, when Zhao Mingjun seemed to have discovered the GPS, Mo Qiong absolutely couldn't use the same method again.

Having an unknown person throw a GPS at his face was believable once. If it happened again, it would become highly suspicious and prove that someone had been following him from last night until now.

If it only happened once, then after Mo Qiong reported him, he could simply deny it. After all, he had an absolute alibi: when Zhao Mingjun had been struck last night, Mo Qiong had been in his dormitory at Yan Da.

If it wasn't him, the police wouldn't care. They would think last night's GPS-to-the-face incident had merely been a coincidence, probably caused by someone nearby casually throwing it and accidentally hitting Zhao Mingjun. Zhao Mingjun's panicked flight would then be dismissed as nothing more than a guilty conscience and excessive fear.

On the other hand, if Mo Qiong used the GPS to strike Zhao Mingjun multiple times and then reported him after finding him, once that was combined with Zhao Mingjun's statement, the police would conclude that Mo Qiong had been the one who hit him last night.

But the problem was that Mo Qiong had been in his dormitory last night... Once the police noticed this detail, they would wonder how Mo Qiong, who had been in Dengzhou, had managed to hit Zhao Mingjun in Weifang.

So Mo Qiong had no choice. He absolutely couldn't admit that he had thrown the GPS. He had to downplay its existence.

"Ha... What a troublesome bastard..."

After riding for half an hour, Mo Qiong walked out of Chang Le Railway Station.

He continued using the flying paper to determine the direction bit by bit, pursuing him by bicycle.

He didn't believe Zhao Mingjun would keep running forever. The man would have to stop eventually. Zhao Mingjun probably also felt that he had been overly sensitive last night. Once he realized no one was actually pursuing him, he would hide somewhere and rest.

Fifty thousand yuan wasn't easy to earn. After cycling for another half an hour, Mo Qiong arrived at a residential complex.

The security here was practically nonexistent, and even the dilapidated surveillance cameras were rusted...

The guard didn't even look at him. Mo Qiong swaggered straight inside.

With no one around, he parked the bicycle, then walked along while chewing gum. A gum wrapper floated before him, guiding him onward.

At that moment, the wrapper resembled the vivre paper from One Piece, tightly linked to Zhao Mingjun's location. It wobbled along, yet pursued him relentlessly.

When the flying wrapper suddenly rose higher, drifting toward an upper floor of one of the buildings, Mo Qiong casually caught it and put it away.

"Confirmed. He's in this building."

As for which floor... Mo Qiong took out the cigarettes he had just bought, lit one, inhaled deeply, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

He didn't know how to smoke. At that moment, he was using the cigarette as an arrow, shooting a mouthful of smoke toward Zhao Mingjun.

The smoke drifted upward at a steady speed. It reached the fourth floor without dispersing.

It slipped through the gap in a window and floated straight into the room.

"Room 401..."

Mo Qiong nodded. When he reached the bottom of the building and saw a security door, he directly pressed the button for 401.

But although the bell rang for a long time, there was no response, as though no one lived there.

"Heh..."

Zhao Mingjun had been on the run for three years. During that time, he had concealed his identity and lived as a vagrant.

Because he couldn't use his ID Card, he couldn't find a job at all. He could only commit petty thefts, and when things didn't go smoothly, he would simply rob people at knifepoint before moving to another city.

After wandering like this for three years, he had arrived in Qilu Province.

Once he had money, finding a place to stay was easy enough. At first, when he couldn't find anywhere that didn't require an ID Card, he simply slept in parks.

Later, during the bitter winter and harsh weather, he saw that the police still hadn't managed to catch him. His courage gradually grew, and he began befriending some local thugs.

Once he had so-called friends, he could pay them some rent and have a place to stay.

However, because he was wanted for major crimes, he would immediately flee after causing even a little trouble in a city.

He would also cut off all contact with his newly made friends and start over somewhere else.

He wasn't like those thugs, who could get into a little trouble and at worst spend a few painless days in detention.

If he was caught for some other matter, all the crimes he had committed before would immediately be exposed.

With seven lives on his hands, being caught for theft, robbery, or even a fight would make him wish he were dead.

Moreover, he had continued committing crimes throughout his years on the run. He had never had a stable living environment, so he had remained highly vigilant. At the slightest sign of trouble, he would immediately move elsewhere.

Last night, he had been sleeping at a friend's place, lying on the bed and watching television.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the window shattering. The next moment, something slammed into his face, leaving him bruised.

Startled, he leaped out of bed and rushed to the window to look outside.

He looked left and right, but didn't see anyone.

Being cautious, he got dressed and fled the apartment first. After hiding in the dark for a long time, he still saw no movement. It seemed someone had merely smashed the window.

Since he was staying in a thug's apartment, he wasn't surprised that someone had smashed its window.

After waiting an hour without seeing anything happen, he returned to the room with peace of mind.

When he saw the sponge ball on the floor, he grew puzzled again. Who would use this thing to smash someone's window? And why had it hurt so much?

He tore it open and was immediately horrified.

There was a GPS hidden inside the sponge ball, and it was still running, actively tracking a location.

This terrified him. What was going on? Why was someone tracking this place? And who had done it?

He didn't think it was targeting him. He assumed the former owner of the apartment had offended someone. But no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure out what the thing was meant to do.

Not wanting to cause any trouble, he crushed the GPS underfoot, hurriedly packed his belongings, and slipped away that very night.

He walked all night, planning to go to Qingzhou on foot.

Since he wasn't in a hurry to arrive, he stopped and started along the way, deliberately choosing small roads. By the time dawn came, he had only reached CL County.

He hadn't slept and had walked all night. He was utterly exhausted.

As fatigue overcame him, he wondered whether he had been too sensitive. If someone wanted to catch him, what would be the point of throwing a GPS?

Besides, he had waited for an hour at the time and nobody had come. Perhaps he had been overthinking it. Maybe someone in the building opposite had so much money they were burning it, and had casually thrown a GPS out of sheer insanity. It had just happened to fly into his room and smack him in the face.

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, and the more furious he became. His life was already lived in constant fear, yet even the heavens had sent some idiot to make him restless. He couldn't help feeling deeply resentful.

Hungry, exhausted, and penniless, he decided to pull off a job while he was fired up.

He was going to change cities anyway. Making one last score before leaving had become his routine over the past few years.

After casually choosing a run-down residential complex, he swaggered inside.

He wandered beneath one building after another. Whenever he saw someone come out, he would approach them and slip inside.

After observing the buildings for a while, he chose Room 401. Judging by the door, this household was the wealthiest. More importantly, when he pressed his ear to the door, he could hear people inside.

Yes, he specifically looked for occupied homes, because he couldn't get into empty ones...

He rang the doorbell. When the door opened a crack, he rammed into it and forced his entire body inside.

With one hand, he shut the door. With the other, he pulled a knife from his pocket.

Wearing a mask, he said calmly, "This is a robbery."

There were only two people inside, a young man and woman. The woman had opened the door, and Zhao Mingjun's collision had knocked her to the floor.

The man came running over. Perhaps because Zhao Mingjun's tone was too calm, he actually pointed at him and shouted, "Are you fucking looking to die?"

"Pfft!" Zhao Mingjun flicked his hand, slicing off one of the man's outstretched fingers.

The viciousness of the attack instantly left the two people inside dumbfounded.

Although Zhao Mingjun was terrified as he fled, that was because he cherished his own life. Other people's lives meant nothing to him.

The main reason he hadn't added another life to his tally over the past three years was that the police responded differently to robbery and murder. He could still escape after robbing someone, but after killing someone, he might not be able to leave the city.

So he still covered his face when committing crimes. That was also to prevent a robbery from turning into a murder. Otherwise, once his victim described his appearance to the police, they might recognize him as someone on a wanted notice and immediately treat the case with extreme importance.

After committing so many robberies over the years, he knew exactly how to control a situation.

Holding a knife and threatening someone ferociously was far less effective than simply slashing them at the start. There was no need to do much—just draw blood.

With the former, the victim might appear compliant while secretly thinking about how to fight back.

With the latter, after being cut, the victim would instantly surrender, cooperate fully, and no longer dare resist.

As expected, the man whose finger had been cut off clutched his hand and trembled. Tears and snot covered his face, but he didn't dare cry too loudly for fear of being killed. He could only whimper softly.

"Hurry! Go get the money! Why are you crying, you stupid woman? Hurry up!" The man whimpered as he hissed at the woman.

The woman had also been frightened into tears. She had already been knocked down and couldn't get back up for the moment.

Just then, a thick cloud of smoke suddenly burst out of the room and sprayed Zhao Mingjun directly in the face.

"Cough, cough... Ptooey!" Zhao Mingjun waved his hand, and the smoke was quickly dispersed.

"There's someone else in the room?" Zhao Mingjun's eyes turned cold.

"Huh?" The couple was confused as well.

Zhao Mingjun herded them into the room and went in to inspect it himself, only to find no one inside. Even the windows were closed.

Just as he was wondering about it, the doorbell rang.

P.S.: Sorry.