Chapter 193: Butcher: Everything is normal, escaping from the big net according to plan

At this moment.

Although it has been roughly deduced that the Butcher is currently wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, and disguising himself as a commuter, using public transportation to escape to the Gusu bullet train station, this only provides insight into the Butcher’s whereabouts and his chosen escape route. The Butcher’s true identity is still shrouded in mystery.

Moreover, it’s not just the Butcher’s real identity that remains unknown; there’s also the possibility that he has used a human skin mask to assume another identity.

For years, the Butcher has not stopped killing, seemingly deriving pleasure from shedding blood, with new victims appearing every year. The likelihood of his identity being exposed has therefore risen year by year.

So even though the Butcher may have confidence in his counter-surveillance skills, and his arrogance has led him to forgo custom-made human skin masks from Qiangwei, K’s usual caution would have required the Butcher to be fully prepared, perhaps even forcing him to prepare enough human skin masks to avoid being traced by the police and exposing the entire organization.

Thus, finding the Butcher’s current disguised identity and confirming the train number and seat he will board has become the most crucial task.

…

The car sped along the road.

Earlier, Liu Yang, who had been confused about why they were heading to the Gusu bullet train station, had now been completely convinced by Su Ming’s deductions and logic. With years of criminal investigation experience and familiarity with various routes, he pressed down hard on the accelerator and took a shortcut, speeding toward the Gusu bullet train station.

The car passed garbage trucks and early morning buses.

Sitting in the back, Bai Yu also didn’t sit idly waiting for the result. After checking the Gusu city map and transportation information on his phone, he analyzed, “Um… I looked it up, and if you’re coming from Shimao Jincheng Residential Area, without driving or taking a taxi, the fastest public transportation option to the Gusu bullet train station takes at least an hour.”

“First of all, since he’s disguising himself as a commuter, the Butcher definitely can’t be too extravagant. He certainly wouldn’t take a taxi to the Gusu bullet train station.”

“Shimao Jincheng is an old residential area with no nearby subway lines, so the Butcher needs to take Bus 16 to the nearest subway station and then transfer to Line 5.”

“But the bus service starts at 6 AM, so his departure time and the fastest arrival time at the bullet train station are already fixed.”

“So, unless something unexpected happened, even though the Butcher might have left the house early, he likely boarded the first bus at 6 AM to head to the nearest subway station.”

“The bus takes about 10 minutes to reach the nearest station where he can transfer to Line 5.”

“After boarding the subway at 6:15 AM, the Butcher would need to transfer to Line X halfway before arriving at the Gusu bullet train station.”

“The subway ride takes about 30 minutes, and with the combined travel time of the bus and subway, it should be around 6:45 AM.”

“Since the subway is connected to the bullet train station, it wouldn’t take long to get inside the station.”

“Based on this ideal transfer route, the Butcher would likely be boarding a bullet train to Modu around 7 AM, though it would be hard for him to catch any earlier trains.”

“In fact, it’s highly probable that he booked the 7 AM train, because in previous statistics, due to the fixed times of buses and subways, many commuters heading to the Gusu bullet train station usually arrive between 7:10 and 7:50 AM.”

“So I think, Brother Quan… you should focus on screening the bullet trains from Gusu to Modu between 7 and 8 AM, especially the one at 7:00.”

Clearly, Bai Yu had also focused on the possibility that the Butcher might be using cross-city commuting to escape from Gusu to Modu. He was also using his method to try to uncover the Butcher’s true identity.

For Bai Yu’s deduction, An Quan didn’t respond but nodded slightly, indicating he understood, and fully focused on connecting to the internal platform to screen for suspicious individuals.

…

Five minutes later.

An Quan, who had been typing continuously on his laptop with the device resting on his lap, suddenly stopped, adjusted his glasses, and handed the laptop to Su Ming while seriously explaining.

“I found it!”

“Based on Xiao Bai’s deduction, I further narrowed down the possible train options. I’ve now identified three suspicious individuals who fit the profile.”

“Our country’s official 12306 ticket sales system is under maintenance from 11 PM to 5 AM.”

“So, if the Butcher booked his tickets, it would likely have been during the time window from 5 AM to now, especially within the first few minutes after the system was restored.”

“And I personally believe… the Butcher must have booked his ticket as soon as the system came back online. First, he would confirm the bullet train ticket to Modu, and then plan his next escape actions.”

“And just as I thought.”

“The three suspicious individuals I found all booked tickets to Modu within ten minutes of the system being restored.”

“In fact, from 5 AM until now, there have been quite a few commuters or passengers with urgent needs who bought tickets from Gusu to Modu.”

“During the initial screening, nearly 80 people booked tickets to Modu during the early hours.”

“After narrowing it down to departures between 7 and 8 AM, there were only about 10 people left.”

“Then I filtered by gender, age, daily commuting, return tickets, seat class, and recent booking frequency.”

“After that, the 80 people were narrowed down to just these three.”

“If nothing unexpected happens, one of these three individuals who bought tickets to Modu in the early morning might be the Butcher, though we can’t be completely sure yet.”

Looking at the filtering entries and methods on the laptop screen, Su Ming nodded in satisfaction. From the perspective of a commuter, both Bai Yu and An Quan’s deductions were spot on.

By relying on public transport schedules, they had narrowed down the possible train times and halved the number of suspicious individuals. Then, by considering commuter characteristics and frugality, they had further narrowed the scope, and now only three potential candidates remained.

Looking at the identities and ticket information displayed on the laptop screen, Su Ming immediately noticed that the three people had booked different trains. In addition to the 7:00 AM train to Modu, there were also the 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM trains.

Moreover, and very importantly…

None of these three had any previous commuting records, nor had they booked return tickets for today, and they hadn’t taken a bullet train in the past year. Even if this drug trafficking organization was highly skilled and could prepare several new identities and human skin masks for each member for later escapes, it seemed the Butcher was still missing critical details.

But K absolutely couldn’t manage, nor did he have the energy to maintain these identity records periodically.

So, this led to…

In the police’s real-name system records, these unmaintained backup identities had no real-name information tied to hotels, internet cafes, travel, sightseeing, etc., making them as blank as a whiteboard.

In the past, when there was no discovery or strict investigation, using them was naturally effortless.

But now… it had become the best guiding light.

At this moment, Su Ming slightly squinted his eyes, looking at the three identity records on the screen, and said meaningfully.

“With the butcher’s excellent counter-surveillance ability, even tour groups could think of booking tickets under these names to mislead our attention.”

“So, is it possible that these three people… are all actually the butcher?”

Three people are all the butcher?

…

This time, the people in the car no longer had many doubts about Su Ming’s deduction.

Because, as Su Ming said, with the butcher’s excellent counter-surveillance abilities, even a provincial tour group could book tickets like this. To ensure safety and conceal his movements as much as possible, it would be perfectly normal for him to use three different identities to book tickets for three different trains heading to the Magic Capital.

At this moment, Liu Yang, who was driving, turned his head to look at Su Ming, a little confused and asked.

“Xiao Ming.”

“Even if the butcher used three different identities to book tickets, wouldn’t it be useless?”

“Because when entering the train station, facial recognition is required, and the internal railway system would immediately identify…”

“Which identity the butcher used, which face mask he wore, and which train and seat he was on when entering the Gusu train station.”

“If we used this method to lock him down, wouldn’t it be easy to quickly determine the butcher’s current identity?”

In response to Liu Yang’s words, Su Ming shook his head slightly. It wasn’t as simple as he thought, and with a neutral expression, he explained.

“Director Liu, it’s not that simple.”

“Although entering the train station does require facial recognition, which allows us to initially determine which identity the butcher used to enter the station…”

“The problem is… when the train arrives and tickets are checked, there’s no need for facial recognition. This leads to…”

“Regardless of which identity the butcher used to enter the train station, he could casually take one of the three trains. This is a loophole in our ticketing system.”

“Even more extreme, if he chooses the 7:30 or 8:00 train, he still has time to change his face mask and further conceal his identity.”

Hearing this, Liu Yang was stunned for a moment, slapped the side of the steering wheel with force, and frowned in disbelief.

“Xiao Ming, wouldn’t that be too exaggerated?”

“Could the butcher really decide which train to take at any time? Would he always be that cautious? Always maintaining such excellent counter-surveillance abilities?”

“Logically, from his perspective, we shouldn’t even know about his cross-city commute escape plan. Our focus should still be on the provincial tour groups.”

“Well, maybe it doesn’t matter that much?”

“As long as we can capture and control the butcher when he enters the station…”

At this point, Liu Yang immediately looked at the large screen inside the car displaying the time, then slapped the steering wheel even harder, his mood slightly agitated.

“Damn it! It’s already getting late.”

“We left a bit late, and by the time we reach Gusu train station, it might be around 6:50. The butcher might have already entered the station.”

Su Ming handed the notebook back to An Quan, then, regarding Liu Yang’s earlier words, he squinted and said meaningfully.

“Director Liu.”

“I don’t think that a butcher, who took dozens of lives and is still out there evading capture, would feel much slack during such a tense escape.”

“Therefore, because we can’t capture him before facial recognition, I think the best approach right now is…”

“To have the train station staff assist in constantly monitoring the background information for incoming trains. Once they find out that the butcher used one of these three identities to enter the station, they should notify us immediately.”

“And also, we should use all the station’s surveillance cameras to monitor the butcher’s movements, making sure he doesn’t disappear from our sight.”

“But, don’t let the conductors attempt to capture him. We must avoid unnecessary accidents.”

“Because the butcher’s danger level, strength, and ruthlessness are far beyond that of Rose, and we absolutely need him alive this time!”

…

Meanwhile, at the transfer station between Line 5 and Line 10 of the Gusu subway.

A large crowd of commuters traveling across cities poured out from the train on Line 5, quickly heading towards Line 10.

These commuters were mostly wearing suits or professional attire, seemingly with decent jobs in the eyes of others.

However, due to the high cost of housing in the Magic Capital, they had no choice but to commute from another city, wasting several hours every day on the long journey to work.

Among the crowd, a man in a black suit, holding a briefcase and about 185 cm tall, was preparing to transfer to Line 10.

But compared to the other commuters, whose eyes had been flattened by life, leaving only fatigue and the hope of weekends, this man’s eyes were cold and dark, giving off an indescribable sense of gloom.

He would occasionally make small gestures to cover his movements, constantly observing his surroundings, especially the subway staff dressed in uniforms.

When he finally boarded Line 10 and the subway started, the man took out a plain, ordinary phone and sent a message to a very special number.

“Everything is normal, following the plan to escape the net…”