A real killer playing a villain; the guy surnamed Zhen in Detective, run!

Su Qinghan stood at the entrance of the studio, watching the ambulance turn out of the gate, and took out her phone to dial the production team's number.

"The whole team will take a one-day break. They will resume work daily afterwards."

Before the coordinator on the other end of the phone could say anything more, Su Qinghan had already hung up.

She turned and glanced around the set. The lighting crew was winding up their cables, the photographer was putting lens caps back on, and several production assistants were squatting on the ground wiping up water stains.

Lu Yuan squatted next to the cardboard box and teased Lao Liu with a cat treat.

Su Qinghan walked over.

"Take a break tomorrow, start work the day after tomorrow."

"Alright, Director Su." Lu Yuan didn't even look up. "It just so happens that Lao Liu's splints are due to be removed tomorrow."

Su Qinghan opened her mouth, then closed it again.

She had so many questions to ask. What was the story behind that glass of water? But once those questions were asked, something would be broken.

Get some rest.

Lu Yuan watched her figure disappear at the shed entrance, stuffed Lao Liu into the snakeskin bag, screwed on the thermos lid, and hummed a song as he went back to his room.

---

The next morning at seven o'clock.

When Lu Yuan left, the door next door remained completely still.

Jiang Yan had been waiting in the parking lot for forty minutes. She wore a gray-black hoodie, faded jeans, and a baseball cap pulled low over her nose. Her ponytail was tucked into the cap, and a miniature communicator hung from her right ear.

The hotel's side door opened. Lu Yuan came out carrying a snakeskin bag, while Lao Liu's head poked out of the bag, half a cat treat dangling from his mouth.

Bypass the parking lot, pass through the gap in the green belt behind the hotel, and step onto a cement path.

Jiang Yan followed. The distance between them was sixty meters.

This wasn't the first time she'd followed Lu Yuan. But this time, the route made her heart race.

The target did not take any main road.

Leaving the hotel, Lu Yuan ventured into the heart of the urban village. The infrastructure in this area lagged behind the main urban area by at least fifteen years. The alleyways were so narrow that two people had to turn sideways to walk sideways. Clotheslines, like flags from all over the world, stretched densely overhead, and the distance between residential buildings was less than three meters.

Jiang Yan took out her surveying book and started drawing as she walked. Three minutes later, the route map in her hand made her break out in a cold sweat.

Lu Yuan's movement perfectly avoided all the high-definition surveillance points she knew about. Every turn was timed to coincide with the cameras' blind spots.

When he walked through the crowded farmers' market, his walking speed was exactly the same as the average walking speed of the people around him. From the playback footage of any camera angle, he looked like just a passerby being swept along by the crowd.

This is textbook-level anti-surveillance footwork.

Jiang Yan drew a deep circle on the surveying book with the tip of her pen, and wrote three words next to it: KGB.

What she didn't know was that Lu Yuan's only reason for taking this route was that it was 1.3 kilometers shorter than the main road. It saved him two yuan on bus fare, and the vegetable buns at the roadside bun shop were 50 cents cheaper than elsewhere.

He had just finished half a steamed bun, then broke the rest into pieces and fed it into the snakeskin bag. Old Liu ate with loud smacking noises.

---

Affordable pet hospital.

When Lu Yuan went in, a young girl wearing glasses at the front desk was eating a steamed bun.

"Removing the splints, by appointment, Lu Yuan."

"Oh, right, number six cat?" The little girl put down the steamed bun, flipped through her notebook, and said, "Come on, let's go into the second consultation room."

When the sixth dog was placed on the examination table, it displayed a commanding presence. Its hind legs were resting motionless on the table, its front paws were on the edge of the table, its head was turned to stare at the doctor's scissors, its eyes were round and bright, and its tail tip was swaying gently.

The doctor cut the gauze and removed the splint. He massaged the healed area of ​​the tibia and checked the joint's range of motion a couple of times.

"You've recovered really well." The doctor pushed up his glasses. "Stray cats have really strong bones, much stronger than those of domestic cats."

The sixth child cooperated by kicking his hind legs twice to prove that his function was normal.

"How much in total?"

"Re-inspection and demolition, 52."

Lu Yuan took out some money from his pocket, flattened it, and handed it over. It was forty-eight yuan less than expected.

As he closed his wallet, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn upwards.

The sixth dog jumped off the examination table, landing steadily on its hind legs. For the first time, it didn't have to drag itself around in a splint; it paused for a second, then ran around happily for a couple of laps.

"Don't show off." Lu Yuan scooped it up and stuffed it into the snakeskin bag.

On his way back, as he passed the main street of the southern commercial district, a giant banner blocked his view.

Red background with yellow lettering, large enough to be seen from 50 meters away: **Imported Cat Food - 50% Off for a Limited Time - Today Only!**

Below the banner was the roller shutter door of a fresh food supermarket, where fifty or sixty people had already gathered.

The group consisted entirely of middle-aged women, each pushing a shopping cart, knees slightly bent, center of gravity low, forming a tight formation. They used the metal frames of their shopping carts to brace each other's hips, none of them willing to give way even a fraction of a step forward.

There was a somber atmosphere in the air, typical of a market before it opened.

Lu Yuan stopped.

He stared at the "50% off" sign on the banner for three seconds.

A can of imported cat food costs sixteen yuan at full price. It's half price, eight yuan. He took out his phone and checked his shopping history. He usually buys domestic alternatives for twelve yuan a can.

After the 50% discount, it's four yuan cheaper than domestic brands.

Lu Yuan's expression changed.

He took the snakeskin bag off his shoulder, wrapped it around his waist, and tied the strap in a tight knot at his side. Old Liu was jolted and meowed in displeasure.

"Bear with it."

Lower your center of gravity. Pierce the ground with the balls of your feet and tighten your calf muscles.

Relax your shoulders, let your arms hang naturally, and slightly bend your fingers.

The supermarket's loudspeaker announced: "Dear customers, a limited-time special offer has begun..."

Pull the roller shutter door all the way up.

The middle-aged women started moving at the same time, and the wheels of their shopping carts made a piercing shriek on the concrete.

The crowd surged in.

Lu Yuan started 0.3 seconds later than everyone else.

Instead of charging head-on, he shifted two steps to the left, pressing himself against the load-bearing pillar at the supermarket entrance, waiting for the first wave of impact to pass. The flow of shopping carts branched off on either side of the pillar, creating a vacuum window of less than 0.8 seconds.

He cut in.

He pushed off with the ball of his left foot, narrowed his right shoulder, and compressed his entire cross-sectional area to its minimum. A shopping cart swept across from his right, the metal frame of the cart less than three centimeters from his hip bone. He pulled back his waist and hips in a very short arc, the metal frame grazing past his T-shirt fabric.

Stop. The two middle-aged women in front of him were pushing each other with their shopping carts, forming a moving roadblock. Lu Yuan put his right hand on the side rail of the shopping cart on the left, and using its momentum, he turned and squeezed through the gap of less than forty centimeters between the two carts.

Old Six poked half his body out of the snakeskin bag, his ears flattened.