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The case back of some antique watches had a tiny groove, such that it could be removed using one’s fingernail without requiring the use of professional tools.

Previously, Jiang Chijing was able to do such a difficult operation as removing the case back of the watch without any tools precisely because his Old Timepiece was modelled this way.

With a head foggy with confusion, he handed his watch to Zheng Mingyi, then saw Zheng Mingyi deftly remove the case back, retrieving a black memory card from inside.

The memory card should have been pressed against the clockwork for a long time. Once it was taken out, the parts in the watch ricocheted out, and a fine and dandy watch instantly lost its timekeeping functionality.

Meanwhile, the owner of the watch, Jiang Chijing, didn’t have the mood to nitpick Zheng Mingyi for spoiling his watch. He looked at the memory card, then at Zheng Mingyi, asking, completely baffled, “Why is this thing in my watch?”

“Why else?” Zheng Mingyi said. “I put it there.”

“When?” Jiang Chijing immediately thought of the time when Zheng Mingyi came over to his place.

“It’s a long story.” Zheng Mingyi didn’t respond right away, giving the memory card to Yu Guang instead, saying, “There is a video I marked as ‘backup’ inside. Share this video online as soon as possible; the more people see it, the better.”

“Roger!” Yu Guang seemed to want to continue listening to the ins and outs of it, but hearing that Zheng Mingyi was telling him to get it done quickly, he rushed off like a streak of smoke towards the opposite infirmary.

“You said that you didn’t have clues with you.” Jiang Chijing gradually eased up, taking a deep inhale to calm his shock.

“They weren’t with me,” Zheng Mingyi shrugged. “They’ve always been with you.”

And they were literally ‘on hand’ for Jiang Chijing.

Jiang Chijing had nothing to say. He only felt that the longest road he’d ever walked in this lifetime was the circuitous road of Zheng Mingyi’s myriad schemes.

“Do you remember that I mentioned that I had investigated you?”

“After you vanished,” Jiang Chijing said.

After being assaulted by the man in black, Zheng Mingyi seemed to have vanished into thin air. At first, Jiang Chijing assumed that he’d gone to stay at a relative’s or friend’s place, but later Zheng Mingyi told him that he was looking into his background.

“During that time I was also considering where was the safest place to hide the clues,” Zheng Mingyi said.

Without Zheng Mingyi’s prompting, Jiang Chijing was already mulling it over.

The situation then was that Zheng Mingyi suspected there was a mole within the law enforcement, and he didn’t rule out that the mole could be Guan Wei.

Guan Wei had access to information about his interpersonal relations. So, no matter who he handed the clues to, it ran the risk of Guan Wei finding them. In the worst-case scenario, this might also bring trouble to the person he entrusted them to. As such, Zheng Mingyi wouldn’t give the clues to someone close to him.

But how could he hide them on him?

First, these clues definitely couldn’t be brought into prison, as there were stringent checks when entering prison. Even if he hid the clues in his personal belongings, it was entirely within Guan Wei’s capability to use the investigation as an excuse to swipe his personal belongings.

Aside from prison, the easiest place to think of would be to hide them at home. But this option also had its risks.

Because after Zheng Mingyi entered prison, his house would be vacant. Whether he hid the clues under the floorboards or in the ceiling, the other party had ample time to turn his house upside-down. It wouldn’t even be an issue to plow every inch of soil in his yard.

Or could he hide them somewhere else he was familiar with?

In the age where tracking technology was all-pervasive, it was effortless for the police to look into where Zheng Mingyi had been. They only had to follow the route he took and check every location; it wasn’t difficult to ferret out what he had hidden.

The reason that the above paths led to nowhere could be simplified to one keyword—known.

It could be likened to a game of hide-and-seek. Limit the range to a defined, known range for the seeker, then, it was only a matter of time for the seeker to find the other players.

And whether it was an acquaintance, in his house, or in the prison property room, these were all within the ‘known range’ that the other party could deduce from.

Therefore, if Zheng Mingyi wanted to hide the clues seamlessly, he could only hide them outside the ‘known range’, preventing the other party from deducing their location.

Would a random roadside shrub work?

There was no immediate connection; naturally, then, it was impossible for the other party to deduce. But on the other hand, similarly, this was also unknown territory for Zheng Mingyi.

What if the government rerouted the road?

What if there was an accident that knocked over the roadside shrubbery?

What if they changed the plant variety and turned the soil?

In short, there were too many uncertain factors. With Zheng Mingyi in prison, it was impossible for him to have complete control over what happened.

So, after eliminating what wasn’t possible, there was only one possibility remaining—Jiang Chijing.

He didn’t fall within Zheng Mingyi’s social circle. No one would expect Zheng Mingyi to hide the clues with him.

He didn’t have any dirt on his body. His family wasn’t short of money, so he wouldn’t make underhanded deals with the other party.

He liked to lend a helping hand, had good neighbourly relations, had a strong moral compass, and was a reliable person.

Most importantly, he worked at Southside Prison, and would have to go into prison every weekday.

Looking at it from another angle, inmates couldn’t bring items into prison. Under this premise, it was impossible for the clues to be with Zheng Mingyi.

No matter how well he hid them, as long as the clues weren’t on him, whatever unforeseen circumstance that arose would be beyond his control.

However, it was a completely different story if the clues were left with Jiang Chijing.

Jiang Chijing wore his Old Timepiece to work every day, which was equivalent to having the clues constantly placed in Zheng Mingyi’s sight. Even if anything unexpected happened, rather than being oblivious to the state of the clues in prison, Zheng Mingyi was able to know about it at the earliest and take appropriate countermeasures.

After all the twists and turns, Jiang Chijing found that he wasn’t Zheng Mingyi’s ‘last choice’.

Conversely, his fortuitous appearance allowed Zheng Mingyi to find the perfect hiding place. There were many other paths and many other options, but there were none as perfect as hiding them here with him.

“Was it the time when I sent my watch for repairs?” Jiang Chijing asked calmly.

By now accustomed to Zheng Mingyi’s style, Jiang Chijing didn’t feel any grief over it. Although the reasoning fried his brains, at least he didn’t need Zheng Mingyi to take him through a mind map this time. He only thought about it for a moment and was able to sort out the whole story.

“Yeah,” Zheng Mingyi admitted. “I secretly opened your express delivery.”

In the community, express delivery parcels were placed outside the recipient’s gate. Everyone was considerate enough not to touch others’ parcels.

Zheng Mingyi’s behaviour shouldn’t be condoned, naturally. But he was surrounded by peril at that time; in retrospect, Jiang Chijing could understand where he was coming from.

Of course, that was only as far as reasoning went. He still wanted to scold him.

“Pervert,” Jiang Chijing scolded him in an even, calm tone. “Even if I’m a voyeur, at least I’m a voyeur with a moral bottom line. What about you?”

“Sorry, Jiang Jiang.” Zheng Mingyi apologised in a sincere manner. “It was impossible for me to break into your place while you were away, and it was inconvenient to hide the clues in your yard as I considered you might landscape your yard. So, when I saw the three parcels placed outside your gate, I thought I’d open them and see if I could get any new ideas.”

More than a new idea, he’d practically found the most optimal solution.

The only thing that Jiang Chijing brought to work every day just so happened to be this Old Timepiece.

Speaking of which, if it hadn’t suddenly broken down back then, Jiang Chijing wouldn’t have stayed up late and, by chance, managed to help Zheng Mingyi. If Jiang Chijing hadn’t returned it to the factory for repair, Zheng Mingyi wouldn’t have had the chance to use it as a hiding place for his clues.

“How could you be so sure that I’d wear this to prison?” Jiang Chijing asked. “For a watch this old, I might just keep it for collection purposes after getting it repaired.”

“I’ve always seen you wearing it when you go to the supermarket,” Zheng Mingyi said. “During the days before the express delivery arrived, you weren’t wearing a watch, which told me that you don’t have a spare watch.”

That was indeed the case.

As long as Zheng Mingyi inspected closely, he could find out that this Old Timepiece was the watch that Jiang Chijing always used.

“Since you even know that I don’t have a spare watch,” Jiang Chijing jabbed his chin towards the miserable mess of parts that was his Old Timepiece on the table, “what am I supposed to wear now that you’ve wrecked my watch?”

“Didn’t I give you my watch?” Zheng Mingyi said. “You can wear that for now. That’s my favourite watch.”

“So you…” Jiang Chijing jolted slightly. “You knew that you might break my watch, and left me yours as a backup?”

“Mm,” Zheng Mingyi agreed. “I don’t have confidence in my watch-repair skills.”

Jiang Chijing folded his arms behind his nape, releasing a long exhale.

He had previously thought that, with Zheng Mingyi’s personality, it was unlikely for him to be so careless as to leave behind a watch at his place.

He had guessed many strange reasons, such as Zheng Mingyi wanting to give him a present, or that Zheng Mingyi didn’t want to submit such an expensive watch to the prison property officer.

Anyway, after turning it over, he ended up circling back to where he started—maybe Zheng Mingyi was just careless. After all, that day was so laidback that it was entirely plausible for him to have left his watch behind by accident.

But now it appeared that Jiang Chijing’s intuition was spot-on. It wasn’t possible for Zheng Mingyi, this old fox, to be that careless. He had a purpose for everything he did.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jiang Chijing set down his hands and asked flippantly. He had sort of guessed why already, but he was lazy to reason it all out one by one again.

“At first, it was because I didn’t want to bring you into this,” Zheng Mingyi said. “The more people in the know, the greater the risk.”

“That’s fair,” Jiang Chijing agreed. “And afterwards?”

“Afterwards, it was because I didn’t want to inconvenience you,” Zheng Mingyi said. “It didn’t make a difference whether or not you knew.”

“If you ask me, I think you’re just afraid that I’ll tear the watch apart out of curiosity,” Jiang Chijing said darkly. In all honesty, if he knew that there was a memory card hidden in his watch, he wasn’t certain that he could pretend to be unaware.

Zheng Mingyi laughed softly, reaching out to pinch Jiang Chijing’s cheeks, saying, “I’m realising that you’re getting smarter and smarter, Jiang Jiang.”

“Beat it.” Jiang Chijing slapped Zheng Mingyi’s hand away. “So what is the video that you got Yu Guang to share?”

“You’ll soon find out,” Zheng Mingyi said.