Despite being incredibly wealthy, I want to be a prosecutor.

Around 3 p.m., when it was almost time to leave work, Zhou Hong arrived at Prosecutor Solawon's office.

"Teacher, you have a court appearance tomorrow. Is there a robbery and assault case, the one involving illegal workers in Laos? I'd like to review it for you..."

Soravon glanced at Zhou Hong, rummaged through the documents on his desk, and pulled out a file. "This one?"

Zhou Hong took it and glanced at it: "Yes."

After thinking for a moment, Solau crossed out his original opinion on the case file and wrote "Pending review" below it.

"Thank you, teacher!" Zhou Hong was delighted.

"What are you thanking me for? The court hearing was supposed to be tomorrow, and I still need to tell the court." Sorav waved his hand: "Hurry up and get it done before Songkran, it's almost Songkran."

……

On Chunyi Road, Zhou Hong strolled slowly, looking at a "Chunyi Supermarket" at the intersection, which was the location of the robbery.

At that moment, a green Jeep stopped beside Zhou Hong, and Erhei and another detective jumped out of the car.

Zhou Hong specifically requested that Erhei be the team leader to assist him in the investigation.

"Prosecutor Hong, we've released the suspect as you instructed for now. However, I've assigned one of my brothers to keep an eye on the siblings."

Because Fu Niang couldn't afford the high bail amount, her younger brother remained in detention.

When Zhou Hong reviewed the case file, he knew there were many problems with it; it was far too hasty.

The stolen money was never found, and the supermarket owner didn't recognize the perpetrator. The suspect was convicted based solely on his confession.

Moreover, the criminal was an illegal worker who was taken to the police station. Given the current state of affairs of these police officers in the country, it's easy to imagine what kind of confession they can get.

Not to mention, the prisoner was also mildly mentally challenged.

"The prosecution wants to review this case and specifically requested your participation. Will this affect you?" Zhou Hong asked Erhei.

Erhei chuckled: "It's not what you think, otherwise the boss wouldn't have sent me. Our boss is actually gloating, hoping this case will go wrong."

Zhou Hong nodded, remembering how a single sentence from Xiao Hei Mei had enlightened him.

The police station is not a monolithic entity; it is rife with contradictions and struggles.

These small actions I'm taking haven't touched the core interests of the entire police force.

They could not have imagined that they were so ambitious and had such lofty goals, aiming to reshape prosecutorial power here.

He was overthinking things, assuming that if he made any slight move, the police would join forces against him.

I can understand why I'm currently seen as just an intern eager to prove myself by the local police chiefs.

"Okay, let's go for a walk!" Zhou Hong smiled at Erhei while pondering randomly.

They didn't call Fu Niang's younger brother either. He's mildly mentally challenged and has suffered a lot at the police station. They're afraid he'll be forced to believe that everything in his statement is true. In the detention center, they're afraid he'll be beaten and forced to recite his statement every day.

Bringing him along only disrupts my train of thought.

"Let's go for a walk on Chun'er Road!" Zhou Hong gestured.

The robbery occurred around midnight, and Fu Niang's brother was arrested around 2 a.m. at a brothel on Chun'er Road.

But the prostitute said that Fu Niang's brother arrived at her shop around 1 a.m., so he couldn't be a witness about the time.

According to Fu Niang, although her younger brother has mild intellectual disability, he is very focused and good at cooking. He works in the kitchen of a restaurant on Chun'er Road, and the boss likes him very much.

He spent almost 24 hours a day at that restaurant, working during the day and working as a night watchman at night.

According to the owner's statement obtained by the detectives, the restaurant closes at 10 p.m., his family goes home, and Fu Niang's younger brother stays behind to watch the shop as usual. That's all they know.

Fu Niang's younger brother was arrested by the so-called anti-prostitution squad. Usually, the clients don't get into any trouble, but Fu Niang's younger brother ran away by climbing out of the window. When he was caught, his first words were "I was wrong, I was wrong," and he begged for mercy repeatedly.

Thus, the temporary criminal investigation team linked him to the supermarket robbery that had occurred a few hours earlier and identified him as the target.

Zhou Hong stopped in his tracks. He had arrived at the brothel on Chun'er Road. It was nominally a massage parlor, and a woman was standing at the entrance, striking seductive poses.

The boss paid the fine, got away with it, and continued operating.

Zhou Hong continued walking forward.

Chun'er Road is a very narrow street, a de facto commercial street where vehicles cannot drive in, but motorcycles whiz by.

The area is mainly lined with shops and entertainment venues, including massage parlors, barbershops, billiard halls, bars, and a few small restaurants.

Zhou Hong slowly strolled from the massage parlor to the restaurant where Fu Niang's younger brother worked, a distance of over a hundred steps.

Obviously, if Fu Niang's brother was sleeping at the restaurant, even if he only went to the massage parlor at 1 a.m., the timing would still make sense.

So, during the supermarket robbery, Fu Niang's brother still had no eyewitnesses to prove his alibi.

Hmm? Looking at the seal on the door of the restaurant where Fu Niang's younger brother worked, Zhou Hong glanced at Hei Er.

Hei Er shrugged. "I don't know, but the boss is harboring unlicensed workers, cough cough..."

I know I'm just making a forced explanation. It's common for illegal workers to be employed in Ching Luang. It's just a matter of whether the immigration police will give you trouble or whether you've paid the protection money properly.

In Elephant Country, the immigration department is part of the police force and staff members also have police ranks.

For example, the county police station, being an important trading port on the Mekong River, has an immigration office located there, sharing offices with the police station. The director of the immigration office also serves as the deputy director of the county police station.

"Let's go in and take a look." Zhou Hong directly tore off the seal on the immigration office.

It's not against the rules either. The scene of a criminal investigation is naturally larger than the immigration office's seal. Of course, you should give them a heads-up beforehand.

But in reality, when it comes to the lowest-level law enforcement officers, no one in each system is willing to submit to anyone else. Who has the patience to wait for you to report from level to level? They might even deliberately obstruct you just to make you unhappy.

Therefore, it is not uncommon for them to ignore each other's rules and directly tear off the seals.

The restaurant was small, about 50 square meters, with a few tables and chairs. Now it was in complete disarray, and it was unclear whether it was the work of criminal investigators or immigration officers.

The backyard kitchen was practically open-air, just a thatched shed.

This is typical for small restaurants here; otherwise, the kitchen would be too hot to be a place for anyone to stay.

There were two more small wooden houses, including a warehouse, which were also looted and left in a mess. It was unclear which of the houses was Fu Niang's younger brother's dormitory.

Zhou Hong's heart stirred, and he activated the "Focus" skill in his detective abilities, entering the cabin to investigate.

The world suddenly seemed different to him, every detail was clearly visible, and even the dust particles illuminated by the sunlight appeared to be the size of grains of rice.

"Focus: Greatly enhances observation skills when activated. This buff can be activated an unlimited number of times and lasts for 1 hour. Cooldown: 24 hours."

Zhou Hong stood at the door, feeling as if he had turned into a machine, his gaze scanning the light, turning little by little across the room, not missing a single corner.

Erhei and his assistant were ordered by Zhou Hong to stay in the courtyard. They watched Zhou Hong's actions and exchanged glances.

"Team leader, why is Prosecutor Hong acting so strangely?" the assistant asked in a low voice.

Erhei frowned and glared at him, a warning to him to be quiet.

Erhei was even more confused, but he couldn't gossip about his sister's "good brother" in the office behind her back.

Not to mention, didn't we just drink Hong Kong Prosecutor's "Louis XIII" not long ago? I'm afraid even the director himself wouldn't normally be willing to drink it.

After leaving one wooden cabin, Zhou Hong went into another.

……

When Zhou Hong came out of the last wooden house, he had a dirty photo of a woman in his hand.

"Erhei, if I'm not mistaken, this photo is of the prostitute who served the suspect that night. You can look her up; you might find something unexpected." Zhou Hong tossed the photo to Erhei. "I feel that this old woman took advantage of the suspect's not-so-bright mind, constantly swindling him out of the money he earned from his part-time jobs. That night, the suspect's mindset was like a primary school student caught doing something wrong; because of his naivety, he knew that hiding it from his sister and doing such a thing was wrong."

Erhei looked at the photo and nodded.

"As for the time period around 0:20, the suspect should have been preparing to go to the massage parlor in the rented house, taking a shower. It was probably the old woman who told him to wash himself clean before each visit."

Zhou Hong turned his head and looked around the sparsely walled courtyard, then pointed to the courtyard next to the wooden house. "He poured buckets of water on himself, using a lot of water. Let's see if the neighbors heard the noise of him drawing water from the well and splashing it."

Although several days had passed and the local weather was hot, the water stains were no longer noticeable to the naked eye. However, under Zhou Hong's "focus," the water marks in the wooden house were very obvious. Even under the bed, the calendar pages that had been torn off on the day of the robbery were still there. There were water stains on the calendar pages, which also indicated that the water was splashed after the calendar was torn off. That is, after midnight, Fu Niang's younger brother was splashing water on himself in the wooden house.

The shop was subsequently shut down, and no one came to clean the rooms.

According to Fu Niang, her younger brother has an intellectual disability, so he has obsessive-compulsive disorder and must do certain things at certain times.

As long as he is awake, the calendar must be torn off on each new day.

Of course, discoveries made under such "focus" cannot be used as evidence.

Even if the calendar is sent to Bangkok for testing and it proves that the water splashed from the top rather than slowly seeping in from the bottom, what does that prove?

He understands this logic; as long as he's certain he's not the perpetrator, that's enough.

For now, it would be best to find witnesses for him from among his neighbors.