Chapter 70.1: I Don’t Think It Looks Very Convincing
“Now that’s interesting.”
Liao Zhongsheng took another two steps forward and examined her carefully for a few more moments.
“Jiang Xia, you’re actually doing a pretty good job. You’ve got a bit of… uh, a pickpocket’s vibe about you now.”
“She’s really got it!”
Photographer Zhao leaned halfway out to get a better look at Jiang Xia. The more he looked, the more astonished he became.
“Well, I’ll be! She really does look a bit shifty and sneaky. I’m almost starting to think that Jiang Xia stole that police uniform she’s wearing!”
He clicked his tongue in amazement.
What a difference between people! Not only did Jiang Xia have an incredibly sharp eye and skillful hands, and know how to draw, she was also proficient in all sorts of technical skills. And now it turned out she even had a talent for acting?
How could one person be good at so many things? Wasn’t there some saying that when God closes one door, He opens another window? Why did he feel that when God created Jiang Xia, He hadn’t closed either the doors or the windows? He’d even thrown open the skylight!
She could apparently do anything she set her mind to. She was just too lucky. Why hadn’t Heaven given him some of those talents?
Jiang Xia nodded slightly.
Of course. She was practically playing herself in this role. How could she not look convincing?
“Never would have guessed you could even play a pickpocket, Jiang Xia.”
Trace Examiner Li had also turned to look at her. He said with some surprise, “You really don’t look like you’re acting. Your talent for playing a pickpocket is every bit as good as your drawing skills.”
However, after saying that, Trace Examiner Li couldn’t help feeling that something about the whole situation was a little strange.
A police officer who was exceptionally good at pretending to be a pickpocket…
Well, that certainly made her well suited for undercover work.
“I’ve just seen so many of them that I’m very familiar with the way they look and act. If you asked me to play a textile worker or something, I probably wouldn’t be nearly as convincing.”
Having shown them enough, Jiang Xia dropped her pickpocket act. She pulled her hand out of her sleeve, straightened her hat, smoothed out the collar she’d deliberately crooked earlier, and stood up straight, her expression becoming serious again.
“Chief, do you think I’ll have any trouble passing myself off as one of them? I also brought a change of clothes and a wig. How about I put everything on and let you take another look?”
Liao Zhongsheng was momentarily speechless.
“You even brought everything you need to change your appearance?”
He could tell that Jiang Xia was determined to take part in the investigation.
That wasn’t particularly surprising. After all, she’d only just been followed and attacked yesterday. Who could feel at ease without bringing those people down? Besides, her former master’s and colleagues had all been injured. Now that Jiang Xia knew what had happened, she was bound to be seething with anger.
She would only be observing from the sidelines and asking pickpockets for information, so there shouldn’t be much danger. And if they could use this opportunity to wipe out the entire gang, that would be even better.
Liao Zhongsheng pondered for a moment before saying,
“How about this? Get yourself completely ready. I’ll go get Captain Tan and ask him to bring over a police officer who’s experienced in catching pickpockets while working undercover. We can discuss how to coordinate the investigation.”
So he was agreeing!
The corners of Jiang Xia’s mouth immediately curled upward. She answered enthusiastically, “You got it!”
Picking up her cloth bag, she went straight into the portrait room next door and locked the door.
This time, Jiang Xia hadn’t brought her mother’s old clothes. Instead, she’d brought her own everyday clothes.
Last time, she’d been playing an outsider, so dressing shabbily had made sense. But pickpockets who were just starting out and hadn’t yet learned how to steal were usually unemployed young people from the city itself. Dressing too shabbily wouldn’t fit the public’s image of them.
After changing, she put on a hairpiece to give herself long hair, then braided it into a plait. Next, she darkened her face, neck, and arms to the same shade before putting on a woven women’s hat.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Jiang Xia nodded with satisfaction.
She now looked no different from an ordinary young woman in the city. Unless someone examined her face closely, she could blend into a crowd without attracting the slightest attention.
After finishing her disguise, Jiang Xia pushed open the door. But just as she was about to step outside, she was startled by the crowd gathered in front of it.
It wasn’t just Captain Tan who had come. Captain Zhao and Captain Feng were there too, speaking quietly with each other. Three criminal investigators from their respective teams stood behind them. And, surprisingly, even the captain of the Narcotics Squad from upstairs was there.
Why had so many people come?
“Jiang Xia, you even darkened your face?”
Tan Bingyi had been keeping his eyes on the door. The moment Jiang Xia opened it, he quickly took in her new appearance and exclaimed with delight,
“That’s a good trick! You look much less conspicuous now!”
“Looking inconspicuous is exactly what undercover work is all about.”
Zhao Zhenzhong remarked, “I have to say, with Jiang Xia looking like this, we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone recognizing her if she wandered around the streets.”
“You’ve been talking for ages without getting to the point.”
Liang Jihua, the captain of the Narcotics Squad, shook his head and cut straight to the chase.
“The disguise looks fine. Jiang Xia, why don’t you act like a pickpocket again and show us how convincing you are? Let’s see whether you’re good enough to go undercover.”
At those words, all the police officers gathered by the door turned their curious gazes toward Jiang Xia, waiting for her to agree.
Jiang Xia, meanwhile, couldn’t help feeling both amused and exasperated.
Good grief. So they’d all come here to watch the monkey perform again.
But then, police officers weren’t professional actors. At most, they could change their clothes and disguise themselves as ordinary passersby. They couldn’t convincingly act out much else. Now that someone had suddenly appeared claiming she could play a pickpocket, naturally everyone wanted to see just how convincing she could be.
“Sure,” Jiang Xia agreed. “I’ll do it one more time.”
She stepped outside and moved two paces to the left. First, she leaned against the wall as though her body had no bones, pulling her hat brim down to hide her face. With her head lowered, she appeared to be playing with her fingers, but in reality, her eyes were secretly surveying her surroundings.
Even the brim of her hat shifted slightly with the subtle movements of her head.
The moment she spotted the police officers, Jiang Xia’s hand suddenly stopped moving. Immediately afterward, she turned around and hurried away.
Police! Something’s up! Time to get out of here! Move!
“Hey! Why are you running? What’s wrong?”
Wang Zhongshan, who frequently worked undercover in plain clothes, was momentarily stunned by the scene. Instinctively, he gave chase, his hand moving toward his waist.
His handcuffs… Uh, it was just a habitual reaction.
Jiang Xia forcibly suppressed her urge to break into a run. She stopped where she was, turned around, and smiled at Wang Zhongshan as he caught up with her.
“See? I acted pretty convincingly, didn’t I? Brother Wang, you even chased after me without thinking.”
“That’s for sure!”
Wang Zhongshan stopped in front of her and scratched his head.
“You took one look at that spot and could tell you didn’t have a proper job. You were clearly eyeing people’s wallets, getting ready to steal one. Then, the moment you spotted me, you ran off! You really did look just like a pickpocket!”
“Now, that’s something!”
Tan Bingyi walked over to Jiang Xia and circled her once, looking thoroughly amazed.
“Never would have guessed you had this talent, Jiang Xia! How did you learn to do that?”
“Maybe it has something to do with my profession?”
Jiang Xia offered a perfectly reasonable explanation.
“The most important part of drawing is capturing people’s movements, expressions, and mannerisms. I’ve watched pickpockets so many times that I’ve become very familiar with them, so imitating them comes naturally.”
After explaining, she asked, “With an act like that, I should be able to blend in with the pickpockets and gather information, right?”
“I think that’ll wor—”
Tan Bingyi was just about to nod when Liang Jihua, who had been studying Jiang Xia thoughtfully, suddenly interrupted.
“I don’t think it’ll work.”
“Huh?”
Zhao Zhenzhong had also thought her performance was convincing and was about to agree. He hadn’t expected Liang Jihua to reject the idea. Turning his head, he asked in confusion,
“Doesn’t Jiang Xia look just like a pickpocket? Why wouldn’t it work?”
“Exactly. That’s the problem. She looks too much like one.”
Liang Jihua nodded and offered a very professional assessment.
“What Jiang Xia just portrayed was an experienced, habitual pickpocket. Someone who’s been stealing for years and can actually slip a wallet out of someone’s pocket. But she doesn’t know how to do that, does she? The moment she joins their ranks, she’ll be exposed!”
Jiang Xia couldn’t help replying silently in her head:
‘Sorry, but I actually do know how.’
“Besides, her reaction just now was far too deliberate. Experienced pickpockets aren’t that timid. If they see a police officer and immediately run away, aren’t they practically telling the police they’ve got something to hide? When they bump into people and feel around in their pockets, they actually act even more naturally than ordinary people. Most of the time, they’re perfectly calm unless they see the police coming after them.”
Liang Jihua continued his analysis.
“In my opinion, we need to make some more adjustments. Let’s see if she can play the role of a pickpocket who’s only just started stealing wallets. Someone who’s only recently begun committing crimes and hasn’t yet gotten used to it. Such a person would naturally be more afraid of the police, so running away would be normal. It would also make sense if she wasn’t very skilled at picking pockets yet.
“Of course, she’d still need some practice. She can’t be completely incapable of bumping into someone and reaching into their pocket. Otherwise, no matter how convincing her performance is, the other pickpockets will see right through her.”
“That’s actually a very good point.”
After listening, Zhao Zhenzhong gave an approving thumbs-up.
“You guys in the Narcotics Squad really do know your stuff when it comes to undercover work. We definitely need to refine her performance a little more.”
“That’s actually a good point.”
These days, preventing pickpocketing was much like combating telecommunications fraud in the future: catching pickpockets was part of the job for every branch of the police force, regardless of their specialty. Tan Bingyi was no exception.
He carefully recalled the pickpockets he’d caught in the past and compared their behavior with Jiang Xia’s performance just now. Then he nodded in agreement.
“She was a little too deliberate, and she really did act like an experienced pickpocket. From a distance, she could pass, but she still doesn’t have the actual skills. The moment she gets close enough to someone, she’ll be exposed.”
Jiang Xia was at a bit of a loss for words.
Wait a minute. The police actually thought her imitation of a pickpocket wasn’t convincing enough?
That was ridiculous when you thought about it.
Forget it. She’d just play along.
“But how am I supposed to act like a beginner?”
Jiang Xia asked with a bewildered expression. “I’ve never seen one of those before!”
Tan Bingyi recalled the pickpockets he’d encountered in the past.
“Just make your movements clumsier and act more nervous. You should look like someone who’s only recently started committing crimes.”
“Uh…”
Jiang Xia fell silent for a moment.
“I’ll have to think about that some more.”
“Just thinking about it won’t help you pull it off.”
Liang Jihua waved a hand.
“Find someone to practice picking pockets with you. It’ll be easier to get a feel for it that way. If you can master even a little of the technique, it’ll be much easier to fool those pickpockets.”
Have Jiang Xia find someone to practice stealing wallets from?
Given the current circumstances, it actually made perfect sense. But why did the whole idea feel so strange?
Liao Zhongsheng’s eyebrows lowered slightly.
He couldn’t help feeling that Jiang Xia’s talents were becoming increasingly… unconventional.
He shook his head, dismissing the strange feeling, and said, “Then let’s have her practice.”
“But we need to take action by tomorrow at the latest, so we don’t have much time. We’ll just see how much she can learn. When the time comes, we’ll adapt as the situation demands.”
These criminal gangs were spread throughout the entire city. The responsibility weighed on every police officer. They couldn’t simply expect Jiang Xia to shoulder the whole burden herself.
If she managed to pull off the act and infiltrate the gangs, getting close to their leaders and core members, that would obviously be ideal. But even if she couldn’t get that far and only managed to sketch some peripheral members, that would still be useful. The rest of them weren’t just going to sit around doing nothing.
“Sounds good to me.”
Zhao Zhenzhong turned to his subordinate. “Old Wang, you’re used to working undercover to catch pickpockets, and you’re familiar with both disguising yourself for investigations and how pickpockets operate. Why don’t you practice with Jiang Xia?”
“Sure thing!”
Wang Zhongshan agreed without the slightest hesitation.
After hearing their arrangements, Jiang Xia felt a little dazed.
She’d been so cautious all this time, never expecting that today she’d suddenly get official permission to practice picking people’s pockets in broad daylight! And with the unanimous approval of both a criminal investigation team captain and her department chief!
This unexpected bonus was huge!
It was like money falling from the sky!
Experience points! She finally had another chance to farm experience points!
“Let’s head back and discuss how to set up surveillance.”
Seeing that they’d finished talking, Feng Zhengming took the initiative to say, “We can’t put all our hopes on Jiang Xia.”
Those criminal gangs treated the street vegetable stalls as their own territory and wouldn’t hesitate to pull knives on people. The pickpockets who operated in that area were bound to be familiar with them. They might even have to pay them protection money. Infiltrating the gangs would certainly provide them with plenty of information, but judging by the current situation, getting inside wouldn’t be easy. They needed to prepare for the worst.
The other team captains nodded in agreement. The group then filed noisily back into the conference room to continue discussing their plans for the upcoming investigation.
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