At this moment, several plainclothes police officers were standing on the left and right in the storage room of Fangfang Coffee House.
The surrounding empty cardboard boxes have been scattered on the ground, and in the corner, a manhole cover is placed aside, with darkness underneath.
Gu Chen quickly took the police flashlight handed over by the team members, lay down on the ground, and fired in a circle in the direction of the well.
"Gu Bureau, when we discovered this place, there was no trace of anyone. Now two colleagues have gone down, but it's so dark in here that you can't see anything," said a plainclothes policeman.
Gu Chen nodded silently, glanced in the direction behind him, and asked, "Where is the salesperson in the store?"
"It's already under our control," another plainclothes policeman said.
"Bring them here." Lu Weiwei said.
Not long after, three shop assistants were brought to Gu Chen one after another by the police.
The female clerk in the lead was also trembling with fear at this moment.
Since Gu Chen had always packed tightly when he went upstairs before, the female shop assistant didn't recognize Gu Chen's appearance.
At this moment, the coffee shop was surrounded by many plainclothes policemen, and she was brought here again. The female clerk seemed not to have a strong psychological endurance. Before she could ask her, her legs kept shaking.
"Keep your head up," Officer Wang reminded.
The female clerk did not dare to neglect and quickly raised her head to look in the direction of Officer Wang.
"Are you the store manager?" Yuan Shasha asked her.
"Hmm." The female clerk didn't dare not say it, but she just said "Hmm."
Gu Chen walked up to the female clerk, pointed to the floor of the storage room and said, "There is a manhole cover in your storage room that leads to the ground. Do you know about this?"
"I don't know." As soon as Gu Chen finished speaking, the female clerk shook her head in denial.
"Don't know?" Upon hearing this, Lu Weiwei knew that the female clerk was lying, and continued to ask: "You said you didn't know? You have worked in this store for so long, don't you know that there is an underground passage?
"
"I really don't know." Feeling that Lu Weiwei was wronging herself, the female clerk immediately became anxious and quickly clarified for herself:
"I only know that there is a manhole cover here, but it is usually covered with something, and occasionally I can hear the sound of running water."
"I think there might be a channel for flowing water down there, but what kind of channel it is? I don't know at all."
"After all, who would dig over a manhole cover to play when they have nothing to do? So I really don't know."
"What about you two?" After listening to what the female store manager said, Yuan Shasha pointed to the two people behind her.
The two female shop assistants also looked at each other in confusion at this moment and shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know.
Gu Chen saw that he couldn't ask many questions from several people, so he immediately glanced at the people behind him.
Due to the pursuit of Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang, two plainclothes colleagues had already gone to search.
Then he followed a few more people, but still no whereabouts at this moment.
As for the three clerks, all of them looked innocent, and Gu Chen couldn't tell whether these three were suspected of lying.
Thinking that Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang had not been caught yet, they could not be let go, so he said:
"Take them back to the police station first, seal off the store temporarily, and don't let anyone get close."
"Understood." Upon hearing this, several plainclothes men immediately brought the three of them to the door.
Then, he asked several people to get into the car and prepared to escort them back to the police station.
At this time, Gu Chen came to the direction of the manhole cover again and said with some regret:
"If I had known there was an underground passage here, I wouldn't have focused on the roof."
"Junior Brother Gu, I don't blame you for this. Who would have thought that there is an underground passage hidden in this small storage room?"
"Even if you wanted to go for a check-up, they wouldn't let you in."
"But if you had revealed your identity as a police officer at that time, it would have been impossible for Hu Fang to come out. After all, it was because the other party was too cunning, so you don't have to blame yourself."
Lu Weiwei always liked to comfort Gu Chen. Thinking that it was impossible to troubleshoot this kind of loophole, she casually comforted her with a few words.
Seeing Gu Chen's silence, Yuan Shasha quickly agreed and said, "Yes, Senior Sister Lu is absolutely right. You can't blame us. The most important thing now is to find the exit of the passage as soon as possible."
After a pause, Yuan Shasha added: "I don't know where the exit of this passage leads to? These people have already chased it, why is there no news yet?"
"Wait a little longer." Officer Wang walked back and forth in front of everyone, and said anxiously:
"I've long said that this fox is not a simple person. But let me see, this Hu Fang is quite pretty in her own right. Her name is Fox. I think it's quite appropriate."
"The more beautiful a woman is, the cunning she is sometimes. You have no idea how cunning Hu Fang is behind her. It seems like she already knows everything."
Looking up at Gu Chen, Officer Wang comforted him and said, "Gu Chen, you don't have to worry. Let me see, this Lu Xiaofeng also has a big problem."
"The reason why he was willing to cooperate with us, now it seems, is completely a trap."
"Oh?" After hearing what Officer Wang said, Gu Chen quickly asked:
"What do you think, Senior Brother Wang?"
"This is my opinion." Officer Wang crossed his arms and said thoughtfully:
"This Lu Xiaofeng actually never wanted to change his ways, but was thinking about how to escape."
"The things he told us all feel false, and there must be hidden elements in them."
"Yeah." After hearing what Officer Wang said, Gu Chen also analyzed:
"Lu Xiaofeng did show inconsistent attitudes before. Do you still remember when we first came into contact with him?"
"Of course I remember that I attacked the police and was involved in a murder. At the beginning, I didn't say a word about life or death."
"Later, he slowly relented and expressed his willingness to cooperate. At first, seeing as he looked like an undercover agent, I thought he could help us catch big fish, but now it seems that he is just playing tricks on us."
"I want to use us to let him be an undercover agent so that I can escape when he comes into contact with this contact person, Fox."
"Those things he said, about planting flags as signals, I feel that maybe the truth is not like this." Lu Weiwei said.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Yes, maybe this is not a code for their connection at all, but a code to tell the other party that the situation has changed."
As soon as Lu Weiwei finished speaking, Yuan Shasha on the side also expressed her opinion:
"From that time, it seemed that everything was going according to plan, but if there are other code words for connecting between Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang, maybe this is one of them."
"If they had discussed it before, then when Hu Fang saw the flag, she might have known that Lu Xiaofeng might have had an accident and had been captured by our police."
"So, when she saw the flag, she planned to meet Lu Xiaofeng."
"In this way, the two of them can escape the scene through a secret passage."
"And the rope on the roof might just be their cover-up."
"That's right, now it seems that it was just a cover-up." Lu Weiwei was also very angry at this moment, putting her hands on her hips to show her anger.
Gu Chen walked back and forth twice and said thoughtfully: "Perhaps we believe in Lu Xiaofeng too much."
"It seems that this person is stubborn. I originally gave him a chance, but he didn't accept it. So don't blame me for being rude."
Gu Chen's only idea now was to catch Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang.
In my opinion, although the two of them are cunning, it is basically impossible to escape from Jiangnan City with such little tricks.
Perhaps because the two were eager to get the USB flash drive, they performed a double act in the coffee house's private room and managed to get away with it.
After getting the USB flash drive, the two people quickly escaped according to their previous arrangements.
Therefore, in Gu Chen's opinion, this USB flash drive is very important to them.
But now, Lu Xiaofeng not only escaped unscathed, but also handed the USB flash drive into Hu Fang's hands. This is an extremely serious matter.
Just when Gu Chen was hesitating, his cell phone suddenly rang.
When Gu Chen opened the answer button, the voice of a plainclothes police officer came to his ears:
"Gu Bureau, we followed the underground passage where Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang escaped, and pursued them all the way. Finally, we found that the exit of this passage was a deserted weed pile."
"Where's the location? Send me the location right away." After hearing what the other party said, Gu Chen also hurriedly urged.
"I'll send it to you right now."
While talking, Gu Chen received a message on his cell phone.
When Gu Chen clicked to open the dialog box, the coordinates of the other party suddenly appeared on the mobile map.
Gu Chen clicked on the map and confirmed the direction.
And everyone else gathered around.
After a while, Lu Weiwei couldn't help but exclaimed: "So far? I didn't expect that this secret passage could lead to such a long distance. How was it possible?"
"Did they dig out the foundation? It was a big project, how could it be possible?"
"Of course it's impossible." Gu Chen sighed, and quickly forwarded the target location to He Junchao in the office, and then replied by voice:
"Senior Brother He, Lu Xiaofeng and Hu Fang have escaped from this location through the underground passage in the store. Please help me check the nearby surveillance cameras to see if I can find their location."
As soon as Gu Chen finished speaking, He Junchao's reply came quickly in the dialog box: "No problem, if I find the target, I will notify you immediately."
Putting down his cell phone, Gu Chen analyzed calmly: "As far as I'm concerned, Hu Fang didn't hire someone to dig this underground passage."
"Didn't she hire someone to dig it out? What's going on?" Yuan Shasha looked incredulous.
Gu Chen said calmly: "Do you still remember where this area is?"
"It's an old family area."
Everyone said almost in unison.
Gu Chen nodded silently and added: "It is the family area of the machinery factory, but according to my previous investigation, I learned that the predecessor of this machinery factory was actually a military factory, which produced some military products."
"It was only later that as the tasks changed, it gradually transformed and became a machinery factory that produces civilian products."
Looking outside, Gu Chen added: "So, I am not surprised that there is an underground passage like this sometimes in the family area here. It may be a passage dug for safety needs when the arsenal was built."
"I have seen passages like this in other places before."
"That's right, maybe this was a temporary command post back then." As soon as Gu Chen finished speaking, Lu Weiwei also expressed her own opinion:
"Just like the West Lake in Hangzhou, wasn't there a command post known as the Underground Great Wall before? That was also established to meet the actual needs at the time."
"And this machinery factory has existed for many years. After the transformation of this unit, many construction projects may no longer be needed, so it was sealed."
"And this Fangfang Coffee House is located in the center of this area. Maybe it was used as a temporary command post back then? There is an underground passage, so it seems reasonable."
"Yes." After listening to Lu Weiwei and Gu Chen's explanations, Yuan Shasha scratched the back of her head and said involuntarily:
"It's no wonder that Hu Fang would open a coffee shop here. As a local, Hu Fang should know this area very well."
"She may have ulterior motives for arranging the store here. It may be just for this day, so that she may have a chance to escape when she is arrested."
"Then Hu Fang is too cunning, isn't she? Since she escaped through this secret passage, she may also know where to escape."
"I estimate that even if we chase her now, the possibility of catching her is very low, unless God bless us." Officer Wang is now more pessimistic.
The main reason is that Hu Fang is a local and his understanding of this area far exceeds that of everyone present.
Therefore, when someone decides to escape, they will definitely leave a way out for themselves.
But Gu Chen didn't believe in this evil. After learning the details of Hu Fang and Lu Xiaofeng's escape, he slowly said:
"Don't say anything. Let's go over and have a look now to see if they left any traces at the scene."
…
…
Six minutes later, everyone arrived at the exit of the passage and discovered that the passage led directly to an abandoned house.
It looks very old here, and many of the buildings are red brick structures located on the edge of this area.
And there is a river all around.
As for the commercial development area, it is only limited to a few streets where the concerts were held. As for the edge areas of this old community, few people seem to come here.
But around the riverbed, there are still some vegetable plots developed by local residents.
The exit of the passage is in the shape of a pipe, and the periphery is covered with weeds, making it difficult for ordinary people to find it.
"Gu Bureau." A plainclothes policeman came out of the passage and took the initiative to come to Gu Chen and report:
"When we chased here, the passage was open, and there was only light here, so we chased here."
"But when we came out, we didn't find any signs of their escape around us."
"You mean, you were in the passage and found a bright light here, so you followed the light and came here?" Gu Chen asked.
"Yes." Another plainclothes police officer nodded in agreement.
Gu Chen frowned and asked again: "Are there any other branches in that passage?"
Gu Chen's question instantly stunned several people.
