Chen Ke's proposal seemed feasible to everyone.
They were very clear that Xu Mo must have had a purpose for coming to this residential area.
This purpose, in all likelihood, was to find a place to stay.
He couldn't really be planning to sleep under a bridge with those four girls!
Xu Mo and Yang Jingxuan were not local Hangzhou people, so they wouldn't have houses in Hangzhou.
According to their information, this was indeed the case.
Neither of them had houses in Hangzhou.
An Youyi and Zhou Qiaoqiao were local Hangzhou people.
But the police knew their specific information.
They didn't own property in this residential area.
That left only Li Jiaxin...
Li Jiaxin was also a local Hangzhou person.
Presumably, she owned a house in this residential area.
That was also why Xu Mo had come here.
He wanted to stay in the house registered under Li Jiaxin's name, in order to evade the police!
The police basically knew nothing about this Li Jiaxin person.
Other than her name, they were completely unaware of any other information.
They didn't even know what she looked like.
The only time they had caught a glimpse of her, she had been in disguise.
But...
Knowing the name was enough.
The property management would have registered owner information.
What they needed to do now was to go to the property management of this residential area and check if there was a property owner named Li Jiaxin.
Then they could find the specific address and go there.
Han Fei also knew they were pressed for time, and immediately prepared to take the officers to the property management office.
"Let's go!"
...
Property management office of the residential area.
Having been informed of Han Fei and the others' identities...
The property management staff were very cooperative.
Without hesitation, they had a staff member input 'Li Jiaxin' into the computer to search.
After some querying, the staff member turned to look at Han Fei.
"Officers, we don't have a property owner named 'Li Jiaxin' here."
"That's impossible. Is there something wrong with your system, or did you input it incorrectly? Check it again.", Chen Ke blurted out instinctively.
Chen Ke sounded very certain.
For a moment, even the property management staff felt uncertain.
Could there really be something wrong with the system?
The staff member wasn't sure.
"Maybe I did input it incorrectly. Let me try again.", he said.
This time, instead of clicking Search directly, he looked to Chen Ke first.
"Officer, check if this is the right name. I didn't get it wrong, did I?"
After Chen Ke leaned over to take a look and nodded, "That's it, click Search."
The result was the same as last time.
Still nothing in the search results.
There was no property owner named Li Jiaxin in the residential area.
At least not according to what was in the computer.
"What about tenants? Can you search tenant records?", Han Fei reminded.
"Well...", the staff member hesitated, "We can't access tenant information. We only have property owner records...we don't have tenant information."
In fact, when Han Fei had asked this question, he had already guessed the answer.
Property management usually only keeps records of property owners.
As for who property owners choose to rent their properties out to, that is the owner's own personal freedom and none of the property management's business.
"If she turns out to be a tenant rather than property owner...then that would make things difficult. Should we go ask rental agents in the area to try searching?", Li Chen scratched his head.
But soon, he shook his own head in response.
"That won't work either. What if it was rented directly from the owner without an agent's involvement? Then there'd still be no records."
Having searched the property management records to no avail, Han Fei and team did not foolishly stand around.
Instead, they chose to leave.
It felt extremely frustrating to finally have a lead, only to have it slip away again during the search process.
As Han Fei gazed absent-mindedly at the rows of residential towers within the community, he pondered their next step.
Trying to take shortcuts by searching property management owner records did not work.
That left only the most cumbersome methods.
Either they would have to go door-to-door...
Or they would have to stake out exits and entrances of the residential area and wait for Xu Mo to appear.
The former would be fairly troublesome to execute, not to mention the waste of manpower and disturbances caused to residents.
The latter would not require excess manpower wastage, but there would be no telling when Xu Mo might emerge!
Most importantly...
Even if wanting to use either of these clunky methods, first it had to be confirmed - whether Xu Mo was actually hiding inside this residential area!
To be honest, Han Fei himself could not say with 100% certainty that Xu Mo was indeed lurking inside this particular community.
Because all he knew was that Xu Mo had driven into it.
And parked his car in the community parking lot. Nothing more.
For all he knew, Xu Mo could have merely parked his car here before running off somewhere else entirely.
It wouldn't be unlike Xu Mo to deliberately leave false trails to misdirect police.
Who's to say him leaving his car parked wasn't yet another one of his smokescreens.
This damned sly kid.
Just as Han Fei was pondering their next step...
Chen Ke sidled up.
"Captain Han, what now? Should we search door to door?"
"There are so many units in this community, if we went door to door we'd be at it till who knows when. Plus it's far too great a waste of manpower, and a disturbance to residents.", Li Chen shook his head.
He then looked to Han Fei.
"Captain Han, why don't we stake out the entry and exit points of the community? As long as Xu Mo is in here, we're bound to spot him sooner or later. I can't believe he'd never emerge. The second he sticks his head out, we strike."
Han Fei massaged his temples as he regarded Li Chen.
"As you also said, that's on the premise that he's in this community. What if he isn't? All we know for sure is that he parked his car here. Whether or not his person is inside this compound, we have no way of confirming."
"It wouldn't be the first time Xu Mo has deliberately left false trails to throw us off. I'm worried that he merely parked his car here to misdirect us into wastefully staking out just this one community, when in truth he himself never returned here after parking his car and has already gone somewhere else instead."
Upon hearing this, Li Chen froze for a beat.
"You mean Xu Mo could have parked here before running off to hide in one of the neighboring communities?"
"Or maybe an even more remote one. Or he might have even stolen another car here and driven that away. We can't rule out anything.", Han Fei supplemented.
Everyone fell into contemplative silence after those words.
Ten-odd seconds later.
Han Fei's gaze was steady as it swept over them.
"But no matter the circumstances, we cannot give up."
Right after, Han Fei's attention returned to Li Chen.
"We'll go with your proposal for now. Stake things out. But we need to position people at more than just this one community's exits. Several of the neighboring ones will have to be watched as well, since Xu Mo could just as easily have gone into hiding at one of those instead after parking here."
"Also...send a team to contact the local authorities in surrounding districts, ask if there have been any reports of stolen vehicles. I suspect Xu Mo might have ditched his car here before stealing himself another set of wheels to drive off in."
...
The night was getting late.
Wanhui City.
A family sedan had been parked at the roadside near a community gate since the afternoon, all through the night!
Not once had anyone emerged from the vehicle the entire time.
The head security guard thought this increasingly strange.
A car that pulled up at the gate only to park there for hours upon hours without anyone getting out, even as darkness had fallen?
And the occupant(s) inside acting all dodgy, sneaking glances at the community entrance the whole while?
One look would tell you these were surely no good characters!
The elderly guard clenched his rubber baton tighter and pulled out his cellphone to dial 110 for the emergency police hotline...
Chen Ke's proposal seemed feasible to everyone.
They were very clear that Xu Mo must have had a purpose for coming to this residential area.
This purpose, in all likelihood, was to find a place to stay.
He couldn't really be planning to sleep under a bridge with those four girls!
Xu Mo and Yang Jingxuan were not local Hangzhou people, so they wouldn't have houses in Hangzhou.
According to their information, this was indeed the case.
Neither of them had houses in Hangzhou.
An Youyi and Zhou Qiaoqiao were local Hangzhou people.
But the police knew their specific information.
They didn't own property in this residential area.
That left only Li Jiaxin...
Li Jiaxin was also a local Hangzhou person.
Presumably, she owned a house in this residential area.
That was also why Xu Mo had come here.
He wanted to stay in the house registered under Li Jiaxin's name, in order to evade the police!
The police basically knew nothing about this Li Jiaxin person.
Other than her name, they were completely unaware of any other information.
They didn't even know what she looked like.
The only time they had caught a glimpse of her, she had been in disguise.
But...
Knowing the name was enough.
The property management would have registered owner information.
What they needed to do now was to go to the property management of this residential area and check if there was a property owner named Li Jiaxin.
Then they could find the specific address and go there.
Han Fei also knew they were pressed for time, and immediately prepared to take the officers to the property management office.
"Let's go!"
...
Property management office of the residential area.
Having been informed of Han Fei and the others' identities...
The property management staff were very cooperative.
Without hesitation, they had a staff member input 'Li Jiaxin' into the computer to search.
After some querying, the staff member turned to look at Han Fei.
"Officers, we don't have a property owner named 'Li Jiaxin' here."
"That's impossible. Is there something wrong with your system, or did you input it incorrectly? Check it again.", Chen Ke blurted out instinctively.
Chen Ke sounded very certain.
For a moment, even the property management staff felt uncertain.
Could there really be something wrong with the system?
The staff member wasn't sure.
"Maybe I did input it incorrectly. Let me try again.", he said.
This time, instead of clicking Search directly, he looked to Chen Ke first.
"Officer, check if this is the right name. I didn't get it wrong, did I?"
After Chen Ke leaned over to take a look and nodded, "That's it, click Search."
The result was the same as last time.
Still nothing in the search results.
There was no property owner named Li Jiaxin in the residential area.
At least not according to what was in the computer.
"What about tenants? Can you search tenant records?", Han Fei reminded.
"Well...", the staff member hesitated, "We can't access tenant information. We only have property owner records...we don't have tenant information."
In fact, when Han Fei had asked this question, he had already guessed the answer.
Property management usually only keeps records of property owners.
As for who property owners choose to rent their properties out to, that is the owner's own personal freedom and none of the property management's business.
"If she turns out to be a tenant rather than property owner...then that would make things difficult. Should we go ask rental agents in the area to try searching?", Li Chen scratched his head.
But soon, he shook his own head in response.
"That won't work either. What if it was rented directly from the owner without an agent's involvement? Then there'd still be no records."
Having searched the property management records to no avail, Han Fei and team did not foolishly stand around.
Instead, they chose to leave.
It felt extremely frustrating to finally have a lead, only to have it slip away again during the search process.
As Han Fei gazed absent-mindedly at the rows of residential towers within the community, he pondered their next step.
Trying to take shortcuts by searching property management owner records did not work.
That left only the most cumbersome methods.
Either they would have to go door-to-door...
Or they would have to stake out exits and entrances of the residential area and wait for Xu Mo to appear.
The former would be fairly troublesome to execute, not to mention the waste of manpower and disturbances caused to residents.
The latter would not require excess manpower wastage, but there would be no telling when Xu Mo might emerge!
Most importantly...
Even if wanting to use either of these clunky methods, first it had to be confirmed - whether Xu Mo was actually hiding inside this residential area!
To be honest, Han Fei himself could not say with 100% certainty that Xu Mo was indeed lurking inside this particular community.
Because all he knew was that Xu Mo had driven into it.
And parked his car in the community parking lot. Nothing more.
For all he knew, Xu Mo could have merely parked his car here before running off somewhere else entirely.
It wouldn't be unlike Xu Mo to deliberately leave false trails to misdirect police.
Who's to say him leaving his car parked wasn't yet another one of his smokescreens.
This damned sly kid.
Just as Han Fei was pondering their next step...
Chen Ke sidled up.
"Captain Han, what now? Should we search door to door?"
"There are so many units in this community, if we went door to door we'd be at it till who knows when. Plus it's far too great a waste of manpower, and a disturbance to residents.", Li Chen shook his head.
He then looked to Han Fei.
"Captain Han, why don't we stake out the entry and exit points of the community? As long as Xu Mo is in here, we're bound to spot him sooner or later. I can't believe he'd never emerge. The second he sticks his head out, we strike."
Han Fei massaged his temples as he regarded Li Chen.
"As you also said, that's on the premise that he's in this community. What if he isn't? All we know for sure is that he parked his car here. Whether or not his person is inside this compound, we have no way of confirming."
"It wouldn't be the first time Xu Mo has deliberately left false trails to throw us off. I'm worried that he merely parked his car here to misdirect us into wastefully staking out just this one community, when in truth he himself never returned here after parking his car and has already gone somewhere else instead."
Upon hearing this, Li Chen froze for a beat.
"You mean Xu Mo could have parked here before running off to hide in one of the neighboring communities?"
"Or maybe an even more remote one. Or he might have even stolen another car here and driven that away. We can't rule out anything.", Han Fei supplemented.
Everyone fell into contemplative silence after those words.
Ten-odd seconds later.
Han Fei's gaze was steady as it swept over them.
"But no matter the circumstances, we cannot give up."
Right after, Han Fei's attention returned to Li Chen.
"We'll go with your proposal for now. Stake things out. But we need to position people at more than just this one community's exits. Several of the neighboring ones will have to be watched as well, since Xu Mo could just as easily have gone into hiding at one of those instead after parking here."
"Also...send a team to contact the local authorities in surrounding districts, ask if there have been any reports of stolen vehicles. I suspect Xu Mo might have ditched his car here before stealing himself another set of wheels to drive off in."
...
The night was getting late.
Wanhui City.
A family sedan had been parked at the roadside near a community gate since the afternoon, all through the night!
Not once had anyone emerged from the vehicle the entire time.
The head security guard thought this increasingly strange.
A car that pulled up at the gate only to park there for hours upon hours without anyone getting out, even as darkness had fallen?
And the occupant(s) inside acting all dodgy, sneaking glances at the community entrance the whole while?
One look would tell you these were surely no good characters!
The elderly guard clenched his rubber baton tighter and pulled out his cellphone to dial 110 for the emergency police hotline...
