Huaguang Street is one of the busiest streets in Haizhou City.
It hosts two large commercial areas, attracting a significant population. Besides, Culture Road on Huaguang Street is known as the antique street in Haizhou City.
Tianbao Antiques Shop is an old establishment on Culture Road; it was around when Old Luo joined the police force.
Now, the former boss Chen Youzhi has passed away, and his son Chen Wen has taken over.
Actually, although they are called antiques, most are modern crafts made to look old to fool ordinary people.
The true antiques in the shops on Culture Road can be counted on one hand.
Of course, it's not all fake here; there are quite a few old items collected from the folk.
When Chen Wen was young, he was once caught for fighting, with Old Luo being the main force against him.
A man with a faint scar on his left cheek behind an old sandalwood table looked up in surprise, recognizing the visitor.
Chen Wen stood up, looked closely at the visitor, confirming it was Luo Wenxiang who had caught him years ago: "We haven't seen each other for three to five years, right?"
"Almost didn't recognize you. What brings you here?"
"Please, have a seat!"
Chen Wen came out from behind the table, appearing quite cordial.
"Officer Luo, what brings you here?"
"Let me tell you, I've learned my lesson over the years, thanks to your guidance back then, haha."
Behind Old Luo, Huang Jianmin entered with several other officers, subtly surrounding Chen Wen.
Noticing things weren't quite right, Chen Wen's face changed: "Officer Luo, I've been running my dad's shop for a few years, haven't done anything illegal."
Gesturing around, pointing at the antiques and relics on the shelves: "These are all modern crafts, made to look old, none of them are real."
"The only antique is this sandalwood table, passed down from my grandfather's generation."
"Officer Luo, I'm running a legitimate business; we're not breaking any laws."
Old Luo snorted coldly: "Not breaking the law?"
"Wasn't that affair with Zhang San orchestrated by you?"
Upon hearing Old Luo mention Zhang San's name directly, Chen Wen froze slightly.
After a moment, Chen Wen spoke: "Officer Luo, I'm doing legitimate business, this Zhang San you're talking about... I really don't know him."
"Chen Wen, are you planning to resist to the end?"
"Officer Luo, I truly don't know this Zhang San. Could you have the wrong person?"
Old Luo turned to Huang Jianmin, who didn't expect Chen Wen to still be uncooperative at this point.
Police station interrogation room.
"It was indeed Scar... Chen Wen instructed me. As for what's inside the box, only he knows."
"How do you two contact each other, by phone, WeChat, or other means?"
"Livestreaming room, Chen Wen livestreams every night selling antiques. If he wants me to deliver something the next day, he'd place a handle-less purple clay teapot on the background shelf."
When Zhang Baoku was just arrested, time was tight, and there was no time to ask for details.
Now during the first interrogation, Old Luo realized, Chen Wen's methods are quite sophisticated.
"Over the past year, didn't you have phone contact, WeChat contact, or met up anywhere?"
"Truly not; Chen Wen said not to contact each other for safety reasons; he told me just to collect the money."
"Did you ever ask him what he was having you deliver, in case it was drugs?"
Zhang San, looking grief-stricken: "I'm not an idiot, I asked him, but he said it wasn't drugs, and even told me if I didn't trust him, I could soak it in water."
"If it were drugs, he definitely wouldn't tell me to soak them in water. I even tried soaking them twice and had no issues. I even once pierced the box with a steel needle, and there was no powder inside."
"Afterwards, I even squatted at the fish shop, and the people who came to pick it up were different each time, so I didn't think much more about it."
The interrogation of Zhang Baoku proceeded very smoothly.
The interrogation could be described as Zhang Baoku answering every question thoroughly.
However, the interrogation result was not very promising.
"Chen Wen is extremely cautious," in the meeting room, Old Luo reported the interrogation results.
"Zhang Baoku and Chen Wen have known each other since they were young. A year ago, Chen Wen reached out to him for help."
"However, afterwards, they had no direct contact, except for the first meeting; Chen Wen always communicated with Zhang Baoku via the livestreaming room."
"We currently don't have direct evidence to charge Chen Wen."
"Does the livestreaming room... have a playback feature?"
Yang Lin, who often browses livestreams when free: "Some big platforms have a seven-day replay feature. If Chen Wen mentioned anything during the livestream, it might serve as evidence."
"No use," Old Luo shook his head: "During the livestream, Chen Wen was only selling antiques. When he needs Zhang Baoku to pick up a box, he places a handle-less purple clay teapot on the shelf."
Placing an item to transmit information.
This Chen Wen really has the potential to be a spy.
"We checked the phones of Chen Wen and Zhang Baoku, and indeed, there was no contact."
"What about the money?"
Yang Lin raised his voice: "How does Chen Wen pay Zhang Baoku each time he delivers a box?"
"During the first time, Chen Wen gave the money directly. Afterwards, he would put cash in an envelope and tape it to the box. When Zhang Baoku picked up the box, he could take the money; there were no transfer records."
Chen Wen has thought this through, and Zhang Baoku's intelligence is questionable.
"Are the cash and envelope still around?"
Lu Chuan, who had been silent, spoke up: "With no transfers or phone contact between Chen Wen and Zhang Baoku, what about fingerprints on the cash and envelope?"
"He wouldn't handle cash with gloves on, would he?"
Lu Chuan's words sparked an idea among the group.
"As for the previous money and envelopes, hard to say, but the box from yesterday was just delivered by Zhang Baoku; the cash and envelope should still be there!"
Old Luo's eyes lit up with excitement. Although Zhang Baoku and Chen Wen had no direct contact, if fingerprints from Chen Wen could be extracted from the cash or envelope, Chen Wen's schemes would be exposed.
Old Luo said, heading directly to the interrogation room.
Since only a day had passed, even if Zhang Baoku spent the money, the envelope should still be there.
Fingerprinting to solve a case is typically a skill used in serious cases for grassroots police stations.
For day-to-day thefts, petty thefts, and minor cases, solving them with fingerprints seems like a resource waste.
More crucially, no one performs fingerprint analysis for such minor cases.
Lu Chuan is different; he specializes in technical work and naturally uses technology to solve problems when faced with cases.
Huang Jianmin's electric bike was stolen, and it was through fingerprint analysis that the suspect was identified.
This led to further discoveries.