Near Splendid Plaza.
A lean, muscular Black man in sportswear was out for a morning run, wearing earphones with a blue towel draped around his neck.
Starting from his residential complex, he jogged slowly along the street, paying no heed to anyone around him. Only upon reaching Splendid Plaza did he turn and begin running around it.
After several laps around the plaza, the lean Black man braced his hands on his knees and panted for a while, looking exhausted. Then he bought a sports drink from a nearby minimart, jogged over to a bench in the plaza, sat down, and gulped it down.
The bench was one of the commonplace marble benches installed in large numbers around the plaza and along the edges of its lawns. There was nothing much to say about it, and an occasional foreigner sitting down at Splendid Plaza did not attract attention.
After surveying his surroundings again, the lean Black man found a moment when no one was looking, took a small black leather pouch with double-sided tape already attached out from beneath his sportswear, and stuck it directly underneath the marble bench he was sitting on.
Then, as though nothing had happened, the Black man drained the rest of his drink, stood up, and jogged away. On the way, he took out an old non-smartphone and pressed send, sending off a text he had composed beforehand.
[Location: Splendid Plaza...]
Unfortunately, what he did not know was that less than two minutes after he left, an unremarkable wolfdog wandered over. It walked purposefully beneath the stone bench, raised its head, and bit down, tearing the leather pouch straight off the underside before racing away with it in its mouth.
"Nicely done, A Tuo."
Around the street corner, Xia Xu crouched down with a smile