Chapter 13: Report to Director Tang First

The car stopped on the road outside the old commercial district in the west of the city. Zheng Tao was about to get out when Li Mo grabbed his arm.

“Master, wait a moment…”

Seeing Zheng Tao’s puzzled look, Li Mo opened the glove compartment on the passenger side and took out several makeup tools.

“We’re both registered there. We can just walk in directly. If we happen to run into them, we won’t recognize them, but they definitely know us!”

Li Mo said as he handed the makeup tools to Zheng Tao.

Zheng Tao nodded after taking the items and immediately began a simple disguise.

After completing their initial disguises, the two pushed open the car doors and stepped out.

Li Mo pulled a Bluetooth earpiece from his pocket and put it on, so he wouldn’t miss Qin Ming’s call while on the way.

They walked into the alley ahead.

As soon as they stepped into this alley, they had entered the old commercial district in the west part of the city.

Once the commercial center of Pu County more than a decade ago, the old west district had its own glory days. Back then, whether people from towns came to the county for market days or to buy New Year goods, they all came here.

This place represented the entire county’s trend and fashion.

But as other areas of Pu County developed and the county expanded, shops originally in the old west district relocated to new commercial areas or other districts.

Due to reduced foot traffic and aging buildings, the vacant shops gradually transformed into places like tattoo parlors, nail salons, and locksmiths.

It could be said that over ninety percent of the county’s tattoo and nail salons were gathered in this old west district.

Within just a few minutes of entering the old commercial district, Li Mo and Zheng Tao had already passed five or six tattoo shops.

“So many shops, how are we supposed to find them?” Zheng Tao looked worried as he gazed at the numerous tattoo parlors.

Given the current situation, even they couldn’t confirm the whereabouts of those six people, and the old west district’s conditions made large-scale searches impractical.

“Don’t rush,” Li Mo smiled upon hearing Zheng Tao’s words. “Master, look over there.”

Li Mo pointed to a group gathered under a large tree.

“What’s that?” Zheng Tao asked, puzzled as he looked in that direction.

“That’s the People’s Intelligence Center,” Li Mo said with a smile, then ran to a nearby convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes costing about twenty.

At that moment, Zheng Tao finally understood what Li Mo meant by the People’s Intelligence Center.

“You’ve known there were people playing chess here all along, haven’t you?” Zheng Tao teased, nudging Li Mo as he returned with the cigarettes.

“Caught it on the surveillance,” Li Mo replied with a grin, walking toward the gathering crowd.

Zheng Tao followed him.

They stood among the crowd, watching the chess game for a few minutes before Li Mo offered a cigarette to an elderly man nearby and asked in the local dialect, “Sir, do you all live around here?”

The elderly man took the cigarette, sniffed it, then nodded. “Yeah, there’s not much to do, so we just watch them play chess to pass the time.”

Li Mo chatted casually with the old man.

After a short while, Li Mo asked, “Sir, which tattoo shop here has the best craftsmanship? My friend and I want to get some tattoos.”

Hearing the question, the old man sized Li Mo up before answering, “Tattoos, huh? The Wu kid’s shop down the street has the best skill, but their shop’s closed today.”

“Closed? They’re not open?” Li Mo asked nonchalantly.

“I don’t know. When I left, I saw their shop was shut,” the old man said, lighting a cigarette and taking a satisfied puff.

“Do these tattoo shops often close like that?” Li Mo feigned curiosity.

“No, they don’t. They generally open every day, even if no customers show up,” another elderly man chimed in, eyeing the cigarette in Li Mo’s hand.

Li Mo generously handed a cigarette to the speaking man as well.

The second man smiled broadly as he took the cigarette. “Wu’s shop was open this morning. When I came by earlier, I saw him loading stuff into a car.”

Another elderly man joined in, “Who are you talking about? The Wu kid? He won’t be back today. I passed by this morning, and he was on the phone, said he got a big order, something about washing…”

From the snippets shared by the old men, Li Mo gathered the information he wanted.

Zheng Tao, standing beside him, was smiling broadly as well.

“Gentlemen, since Wu’s shop is closed, whose tattoo skills are good? Preferably not too painful,” Li Mo decided to end the conversation.

“Little Li’s skills are pretty good, I think,” said the first old man who had just finished his cigarette.

“Nonsense, Wang Hao’s tattoo skills are better!” another retorted.

“No, I’d say Li Ming’s,” yet another chimed in.

Listening to the elderly men each advocating for who they thought was the second-best tattoo artist, Li Mo and Zheng Tao exchanged a glance and quietly slipped away from the crowd.

After the two left, the elderly men continued their debate for quite some time before realizing Li Mo and Zheng Tao had disappeared.

Having left the group, Li Mo and Zheng Tao quickly followed the road and soon arrived at the tattoo shop of the Wu kid the old men had mentioned.

They were familiar with the old west commercial district. Though there were some security cameras, the coverage was sparse—only on main roads and spaced far apart, not comprehensive at all.

Standing in front of the tattoo shop, Li Mo pointed to the bank across the street. “Master, let’s go there and get their surveillance footage. We need to confirm which car that guy drove and where he headed.”

“Alright!” Zheng Tao nodded, and together they walked toward the bank across from the tattoo parlor.

After showing their police badges, they obtained the surveillance footage from the bank entrance and information on the car that left in front of the tattoo shop.

“As long as we give this information to Qin Ming, he can track the car’s whereabouts. If we find it…”

A sharp gleam flashed in Li Mo’s eyes.

Zheng Tao looked excited but also a bit hesitant. “Li Mo, should we report to Secretary Tian first?”

“Although we can’t yet confirm if the people here are our targets, if they are, the two of us won’t be able to handle them alone!”

Li Mo pondered for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, but we won’t report to Secretary Tian first—we’ll report to Director Tang.”

“Master, you report to Director Tang now and have him contact Secretary Tian!”

Zheng Tao nodded, and Li Mo immediately took out his phone to call Qin Ming...