Five ways to gather intelligence

This nouveau riche, as soon as he entered the exhibition hall, strode in with an air of not recognizing his own relatives.

He wandered around the exhibition hall, squeezing to the front to take a look at every display case.

It was a real look-see.

Glancing over quickly then moving on, never lingering.

It seemed as if in his eyes, all these exhibits were trash.

However, this nouveau riche's behavior didn't make anyone feel there was anything inappropriate.

After all...it could be seen from this person's outfit that he was a nouveau riche.

What would a nouveau riche understand?

Could he appreciate these high-class exhibits?

If he had really lingered for a long time at each display case to carefully view the exhibits, that would have caused suspicion.

After all, no one would believe that this country bumpkin nouveau riche could calm down to carefully appreciate these exhibits.

The only things that this kind of person could at most appreciate would be gold, diamonds and the like.

After circling around the exhibition hall,

this nouveau riche finally stopped in front of one of the display cases.

The exhibit in this display case was a gemstone - a sapphire.

It was also the only gemstone exhibit in the entire exhibition.

"Damn! This is good, this is so good!", the nouveau riche stared at the sapphire and said.

The people around all revealed looks of disdain.

They internally thought - a nouveau riche will always be a nouveau riche. All he can do is stare at these things, superficial with no substance or cultural value. The things that really have cultural value, he doesn't see them at all or give them any attention.

The next second.

This nouveau riche pointed at the sapphire in the display case and yelled loudly.

"Anyone there? How much do you sell this thing for?"

Upon hearing this, the disdain showed on people's faces deepened.

Damn, still asking how much it sells for?

Does he think this is a general store?

And shouting so loudly too, how rude!

Within seconds after this nouveau riche yelled loudly,

three security guards surrounded him.

"Sir, this is an exhibition, please do not yell.", one security guard said.

"I know, I know.", the nouveau riche smiled: "I just really like this sapphire, I want to buy it, how much does it cost?"

Then he added another sentence.

"You name the price, money is not an issue, I sincerely want to buy it, really."

The security guard was getting impatient now.

"Apologies sir, this is an exhibition, not an auction, the things here are for display only, not for sale."

"Oh.", the nouveau riche clicked his tongue: "How can it not be for sale, I said money is no problem...ok, give me your boss's contact info, I'll talk to him."

"Sir, if you continue to yell and disrupt the order here, I'll have to ask you to leave.", the security guard said.

Seeing this, the nouveau riche coldly laughed once.

"What? Want to throw me out? Do you know who I am? I can just keep yelling all I want, what can you do about it? Try laying a hand on me!"

But the next second.

The security guard took out his walkie-talkie on his waist belt and said some things into it after which over a dozen security guards rushed over.

The security guard leading them looked at the nouveau riche again.

"Sir, are you leaving by yourself or shall we escort you out?"

As he said this, his hand was already on his baton at his belt.

The nouveau riche's expression changed a bit.

He sized up the dozen or so security guards in front of him.

Since they outnumbered him, he chose to backdown: "You all outnumber me, fine, I'll leave."

Of course before leaving, he still arrogantly threw out a threat.

"Lousy security guards, you better watch out, don't let me catch you."

After saying this, he left the exhibition hall cursing and swearing.

The nouveau riche's vehicle was a white BMW 7 Series.

After leaving the venue, he didn't rush to leave but instead sat in his car.

The truth is this nouveau riche was actually Xu Mo.

The nouveau riche identity was his disguise.

Over the next few minutes,

four beautiful women also gradually came out from the exhibition hall.

Without exception, all four got into Xu Mo's BMW.

These four were Yang Jingxuan, Zhou Qiaoqiao, An Youyi and Li Jiaxin.

Of course, they were all in disguise.

They had split up into five routes to gather intelligence on the exhibition.

"Let me go first.", Xu Mo took the initiative to speak up and shared what he had observed.

"The security presence for this exhibition is very strong. There are six security guards at the entrance, even more inside. At least over twenty security guards evenly spread out in the central area of the venue, many in other areas too. All put together there are several dozen security in the entire venue.

Batons, walkie-talkies, stun guns, all at their belts, and the sapphire's location is right at the center of the venue, most conspicuous, also where security presence is highest."

"I tried it out just now, within five seconds of any incident in the venue, the first response security will arrive at the scene. For more serious situations, they also summon backup on the walkie-talkies, able to call over more than ten in one go."

After saying this, Xu Mo first looked to Zhou Qiaoqiao: "What about your side, what's the situation?"

"I counted, there are a total of 274 surveillance cameras in the venue, full coverage from all angles with no blind spots. I couldn't find where the surveillance room is either, it's probably concealed deep inside. And from the clues given by the program team, these cameras don't seem to be networked, will be a bit tricky." Zhou Qiaoqiao said.

After Zhou Qiaoqiao was done, Xu Mo shifted his gaze to Yang Jingxuan.

Seeing Xu Mo's gaze, Yang Jingxuan shook her head.

"The security check is also very strict, couldn't bring anything inside, they even confiscated my eyebrow razor. No way to bring in controlled knives to hijack hostages for a forceful heist either. As for stealing...with such strict checks, even managing to steal, whether we can bring it out of the main entrance is another question."

Right after, Xu Mo stared at An Youyi: "What about you?"

An Youyi took out a piece of paper from her bag.

"This is the floor plan of the exhibition hall, I've marked out everywhere I could go, checked it several times, no mistakes."

The last one to speak was Li Jiaxin. She started talking without Xu Mo having to ask.

"All the display cases containing exhibits have bulletproof glass, electronic locks, very secure. Other than the main entrance/exit, there are no other exits from the exhibition hall. All other doors have security guards or are locked up tight. I also checked out the security in general, if nothing unexpected they are all well trained."

They had basically scoped out the exhibition situation completely.

Based on what they had gathered so far,

to take the sapphire out stealthily without anyone knowing would be very difficult.

After all, those non-networked cameras weren't just for show. Hacking in was one thing, the key was they couldn't even find where the surveillance room was.

As for forceful robbery, that would be even tougher.

The security check was too strict, couldn't bring in controlled knives. Taking hostages to steal the gemstone was basically wishful thinking.

Smashing open the display cases to take the gemstone also wouldn't work. One because controlled knives couldn't be brought in. And two, those display cases had bulletproof glass, unsmashable.

To bring controlled knives inside, they'd have to fight their way in from the main entrance, take down dozens of security along the way.

But was that possible?

Those were trained security personnel. With just the few of them, no way they could overpower security.

This exhibition venue was pretty airtight in security it seemed.

"Quite thorny.", Xu Mo looked out the window, "Let's head back and think through this carefully."

Alright sweeties, night night!