茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 128: Zhang Jinan’s First Task

Before going upstairs, Xiang Kun had self-hypnotized himself in the alley’s shadows for some time, imagining in his mind the image of a policeman in a cop drama, especially the one of forcibly breaking down doors and catching criminals.

However, the fact proved that it’s not that easy to abruptly immerse oneself into a certain kind of mood, let alone that he can’t listen to music or watch videos at the moment.

Each time he closed his eyes and thought about “breaking down the door”, either he pictured Brother Xiao Ma in a trench coat holding up two submachine guns going ‘biubiubiu’, or it was Keanu Reeves in a trench coat with two guns going ‘bangbangbang’…

Having no other choice, Xiang Kun had to abandon self-hypnosis and directly force his wav in.

After shouting out a question, Xiang Kun released his hand from covering Zhang Jinan’s mouth, allowing him to answer, but his hand was still pressing on his shoulder, ready to cover his mouth again if he tried to scream loudly.

Zhang Jinan didn’t scream in panic. Instead, he said fearfully and stutteringly, “Off…Officer… it’s not … not me, I didn’t… I am … um… It’s really not me… he just had me find someone to go to the cafe… other than that… I really, really don’t know…”

By the end, his voice already held a whimper.

Xiang Kun was startled. He hadn’t entered the “Emotional Assimilation” state, nor did he use “mental deterrence” on him, so why would he directly call him “Officer”?

This was his own assumption… and it wasn’t my intentional impersonation.

Xiang Kun continued to press on, asking directly, “Who asked you to find someone? How did they contact you?”

“A website, just a website they call the dark web. They posted a character, someone from * *City, and I took it. They just wanted me to arrange a young woman in blue clothes to be at the Long Time No See Cafe on * *main pedestrian street at two o’clock this afternoon, buy two drinks, and then say to the person who approaches her fanatically, ‘What you want to know is in **Town’. Other than that, I really don’t know anything! I don’t even know who the person is…”

No interrogative tactics were needed, and neither was any torture. Zhang Jinan blurted out everything he knew as if pouring out beans.

Worried that Xiang Kun wouldn’t believe him, he said, “If you don’t believe me, check my computer. The final payment only came this afternoon. They paid a total of 0.3 Bitcoin, it’s not that much..

0.3 Bitcoin? Even though Xiang Kun didn’t dabble in this virtual digital currency, he roughly knew its value.

A single Bitcoin is now worth more than 70,000 RMB?

This amounts to about 20,000 yuan? This is akin to a low-level wanted criminal reward.

Even if you deduct the 3,500 paid to the woman in blue, there was still at least 10,000 in profit. Just arranging someone to relay a message at the café really was a lucrative job.

“Is there a way to contact the other party?” Xiang Kun asked.

Zhang Jinan miserably replied, “We used anonymous IDs. I couldn’t get in touch with him after the transaction ended this afternoon.”

Xiang Kun first surveyed the situation inside the room, then pushed him in front of the computer and asked him to open the dark web where they made contact and explain the whole process of their contact and transaction.

Xiang Kun adjusted his stance so that his face wouldn’t be reflected by the computer screen or reflected by any other reflective surfaces in the room, allowing Zhang Jinan to see his face.

He was firmly gripping Zhang Jinan’s nape with one hand, controlling him so he couldn’t lift his neck.

He briefly checked out the dark web they logged into—it was actually a small community set up with tor. Some people conducted some slightly illegal small exchanges on it, sharing some dirty resources. In reality, it wasn’t a place where experts gathered and evil people hid.

If such a place existed, it would’ve long been infiltrated with undercover agents from various countries’ police forces. Any task posted there would probably attract a bunch of police officers.

However, Xiang Kun wasn’t expecting to reverse-track the person who gave Zhang Jinan the task. Perhaps there was a way to track the wallet that made the payment through Bitcoin, but to link the wallet to real-life identity was quite difficult.

“Don’t contact him again. If he contacts you, don’t respond at all. Just act as if this thing never happened, you got that?” Xiang Kun said in an indifferent tone.

Zhang Jinan nodded like a pecking chicken. Being gripped steadily by Xiang Kun’s nape, his body, similar to a quail doused in rain, shook uncontrollably out of fear. By now, he had naturally realized that this man, who suddenly burst into his house and had astonishing strength, was unlikely to be a police officer.

He didn’t want to know the man’s identity at all, and even thought about closing his eyes straight away, worried that he may inadvertently see his face and consequently face the risk of being silenced.

This was his first time accepting a task on the dark web. Actually, he was very nervous when he first got the task, fearing that he might be assisting some terrifying faction in passing on information and that he might be paid a visit by some people to settle the debt. But upon repeated examination of the task’s content, he thought it was probably not violating any laws. After all, asking someone to sit in a café and utter a nonsensical phrase probably wasn’t a big offense.

Besides, the task was quite lucrative. More than twenty thousand yuan income, that would take him a lot of different jobs to make…

However, he was always somewhat uneasy inside. So, when someone found him, his first reaction was that something had happened, that he had been caught by the police, he was done for, he was going to rot in prison…

But when he found out that the intruder wasn’t a police officer, he became even more afraid, not knowing what the hell he had gotten himself involved in. He silently swore to himself that if he survived this, he would delete the damn dark web once and for all and never think about any crooked ways again, start looking for a job at a photo studio or an advertising company tomorrow, no matter the salary.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Zhang Jinan found his neck was much more relaxed. When he turned his neck around, the iron-like large hand was gone, and when he carefully looked back, he found that the door was ajar and there was no one else in the room except him.

He let out a long sigh of relief. Zhang Jinan slumped in his computer chair, his whole body soaked as if he had just been drenched in rain.

Xiang Kun was worried that the phrase the woman in the blue dress said was actually information that ‘Kasumi of August’ intentionally wanted to disclose, so he observed for a long time near the place where Zhang Jinan lived, memorizing the terrain, the location of various surveillance cameras, and conducting a careful examination. Not having observed any abnormalities, he hid himself in the alley next to the watch repair shop.

Just now at Zhang Jinan’s house, most of his attention and consciousness were outside. In case anything happened, he was going to escape following his original plan. And depending on the direction from which threat could come, he had different escape plans.

Now that he had left, he followed a planned route, swiftly crossing between the alleys and quickly moving away.

Xiang Kun returned to the pedestrian street from before in a car. Now it was 8

p.m., but there were still a lot of people.

He strolled slowly among them, contemplating the current situation..