"Holy shit!"
At this moment, Han Fei's expression was as colorful as it could possibly be.
Deliberately setting a fire and then calling the fire department, using their ladder truck to escape... This was exactly the kind of thing Xu Mo would do.
This action was so typical of Xu Mo!
Moreover, from the firefighter's words, Han Fei learned that the scale of this fire was very small, the kind that could be extinguished quickly.
No wonder the firefighters came down right after going up.
It turns out it wasn't really a fire at all, Xu Mo had just lit something small to trick the fire department into coming!
Of course, this was still just Han Fei's guess.
He couldn't be certain of the exact situation.
To verify his suspicion, Han Fei immediately took out his phone, found a photo of Xu Mo, and then showed it to the firefighter in front of him, asking:
"Is this the guy you rescued from the fire?"
The firefighter shook his head without even looking at the photo.
"I don't know about that, I wasn't involved in the rescue. We came directly to put out the fire. You'd have to ask my colleagues about what the rescued person looked like."
Seeing Han Fei's anxious expression, he added:
"Are you looking for this person? He should have just been safely brought to the ground. My colleagues are probably giving him a safety lecture now. Would you like me to take you over to check?"
"Alright, thank you!" Han Fei nodded with furrowed brows.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to instruct the police officers:
"You stay here and keep watch, I'll go check it out."
Then, he followed the firefighter to where the ladder truck was parked.
However, the rescued person was nowhere to be seen.
Only a few firefighters who had participated in the rescue remained near the ladder truck.
The firefighter who had brought Han Fei there asked one of his colleagues:
"Li Dazui, this is Officer Han. He's here to find the person you just rescued. Hey... where's the person you just saved?"
Li Dazui shrugged.
"He left. I was about to give him some safety advice, but he jumped off the rescue platform before it had completely stopped and ran away. That guy... he ran like a rabbit, incredibly fast."
"He ran away!?" Upon hearing this, Han Fei's brow furrowed even deeper, and his voice involuntarily raised a few notches: "Where did he run to? Did you get a good look at what he looked like?"
"He ran in that direction, as for his appearance..." Li Dazui scratched his head, "I can't quite remember at the moment..."
At this point, Han Fei once again took out his phone, found Xu Mo's photo, and showed it to the firefighter nicknamed Li Dazui: "Is it him?"
Although he looked at the photo, Li Dazui still couldn't be sure.
"I'm not very certain. When we went to rescue him, the fire scene was full of black smoke. The rescued person's face was blackened by the smoke, so I couldn't see his features clearly... Besides, the situation was critical at the time, I was focused on the rescue and didn't have time to look at his appearance."
He did want to help Han Fei.
But unfortunately, the situation had indeed been urgent earlier, and he really hadn't had the chance to look at the rescued person's face.
Now, being suddenly asked to recall that person's appearance, he truly couldn't remember for the moment.
Moreover, the person's face had been blackened by smoke, so even if he had wanted to look, he wouldn't have been able to remember any facial features.
Seeing Li Dazui give such an ambiguous response, the firefighter who had brought Han Fei there reminded him:
"Come on, be more reliable, will you? Look again carefully and give a definite answer. Officer Han is here to get information from you, this is important!"
"Alright, I'll look again..." Li Dazui said, and carefully examined the photo on Han Fei's phone once more.
After about ten seconds, he shook his head with certainty.
"It's not him. The person in the photo looks younger. The person I rescued didn't look that young, he should be older... Oh right, the rescued person had graying hair, probably at least fifty, maybe even sixty years old."
As soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to think of something and scratched his head again, less confidently.
"But that's not right either. I remember the person we rescued was very agile, he jumped from the balcony onto the rescue platform in one go. His movements didn't seem like those of someone in their fifties or sixties... I might have mixed up his appearance."
Hearing this, Han Fei's expression immediately froze.
It could be that, as the firefighter said, due to various factors, he had mixed up the person's appearance.
Of course, there was another possibility - he hadn't mixed it up!
But a person with graying hair, seemingly in their fifties or sixties, yet very agile, was rather unusual.
Unless...
This person was Xu Mo in disguise!
Come to think of it, Han Fei had recently seen someone with graying hair who looked to be in their fifties or sixties.
It was that guy in room 2010 who was an old bull eating young grass.
Thinking about it now... that could very well have been Xu Mo.
Just then, Han Fei's phone rang.
It was Chen Ke calling.
As soon as Han Fei answered the call, Chen Ke urgently said:
"Captain Han, I have a lead to report. Do you remember the man and woman in room 2010? The woman came down and told me that the old man who appeared in the room wasn't actually her sugar daddy. She was forced to play along. Do you know who that old man was? He was..."
"It was Xu Mo, right?" Han Fei interrupted.
Chen Ke on the other end of the line was slightly taken aback: "Captain Han, how did you know?"
Han Fei thought to himself that he had indeed guessed correctly.
That old man really was Xu Mo in disguise!
Putting all the known clues together, Han Fei could even guess and reconstruct Xu Mo's course of action.
Xu Mo must have arrived at room 2011 before the investigation team, discovered that the room layout was unusual, and then lit a cigarette in the room, attempting to use the direction of the smoke affected by air currents to determine the location of the secret door.
He might have found the door to the secret room but didn't have time to open it, or he might not have found the door yet when the investigation team arrived, and Xu Mo heard Han Fei and the others outside.
To avoid them, Xu Mo climbed over the balcony to escape to the neighboring room 2010, disguised himself as an old man with graying hair, threatened the woman in the room to play along with him, and fooled the police officers.
After that, in order to escape while police officers were guarding the first-floor entrance, Xu Mo staged an 'accidental fire', called the fire department for help, and used their ladder truck to leave the building.
That crafty bastard!
To be honest, Han Fei had even considered the possibility that Xu Mo might risk using a rapid descent method to leave the building.
But he never imagined that Xu Mo would actually start a small fire and use the pretext of a fire to trick the fire department into helping him escape!
What kind of person does that!?