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

Across the street.

Three vans, all with dark tint, have inconsistent chassis height and tire wear. The front tires of the two front-wheel-drive vans are 30% more worn than their rear tires, indicating that they have been driving at low speeds for a long time.

The third vehicle had unremoved highway insect stains on its exhaust pipe; it had been driven overnight from out of town.

Twelve meters to the left of the iron gate, next to a steamed bun stall, stood a man wearing a baseball cap, holding an eco-friendly bag in his left hand. The bag was not closed, revealing a section of a black cylindrical object. The diameter to length ratio indicated it was a telephoto lens, with a focal length of 400mm or more.

Eight meters to the right, a person was squatting under a utility pole, tying their shoelaces. They had been tying the shoelaces for forty seconds and were still not finished. Their gaze swept towards the iron gate of the residential area every three seconds.

At the corner of the intersection, four young girls huddled together, holding up signs that read "Brother Yuan, I love you."

Further away, a deliveryman stands in front of a convenience store, his helmet still on, the light reflecting off the gap on the side of his delivery box – that's also a camera lens.

And, the top of the head.

Lu Yuan's ears picked up a very low-frequency buzzing sound. It was a drone, a silent type, modified for civilian use, flying at an altitude of about eighty to one hundred meters, right above the ceiling of visual attention.

Paparazzi.

And they weren't ordinary paparazzi.

This setup boasts a high density of coverage and a cross-angle design, making it a top-tier tracking formation in the industry. The spacing between each surveillance position is calculated to ensure that the target will be captured simultaneously by at least two cameras, regardless of which route they choose.

Lu Yuan glanced down at his phone.

7:42.

There are 18 minutes until the supermarket opens. It's a 2-kilometer walk.

According to his observation last week, the stock of eggs at half price would be emptied by the "army of aunties" within four minutes of the store opening.

In other words, he needs to be standing in front of the refrigerator before 8:04.

I went home, but the eggs were gone.

If you walk forward, and get photographed and cause a crowd, the window of opportunity to queue up and grab eggs will be gone.

Lu Yuan sighed and pulled up the hood of his windbreaker to cover his forehead and cheeks.

Breathing rate decreased from 14 breaths per minute to 8 breaths per minute. Shoulder height dropped by less than one centimeter. Stride length decreased from 75 centimeters to 68 centimeters.

The curvature of his spine increased by two degrees, changing from straight to slightly hunched. His entire silhouette transformed from that of a 1.82-meter-tall young man into that of a passerby with an indistinct build, unknown age, and wearing a cheap windbreaker.

One of the core courses of the Syndicate in the previous life: Greys.

The principle is very simple:

Human visual attention allocation mechanisms are based on contrast. Bright colors, abrupt movements, unusual rhythms—any element that deviates from the environmental baseline will trigger the brain's alert circuitry.

Conversely, when all of a person's external parameters precisely match the average values ​​of their surrounding environment, they will be automatically filtered out from everyone's visual processing system.

Make the brain decide that it is "not worth paying attention to".

Lu Yuan stepped out of the iron gate.

The steamed bun stall at the entrance of the residential area is steaming its third batch. The moment the bamboo steamer is lifted, the white steam expands rapidly in the morning temperature of seven degrees Celsius, forming a semi-transparent barrier that lasts for three to four seconds.

He cut into the line of sight between the steamed bun stall and the iron gate the instant the steam rose.

The view of the person in the baseball cap on the left was obscured by steam for 0.8 seconds. The person tying their shoelaces on the right was just bending down to switch feet.

Ahead, a group of six middle-aged women wearing matching red vests were walking along the sidewalk at a pace of ninety steps per minute. Lu Yuan's stride, arm swing amplitude, and back-and-forth swing frequency were synchronized within two steps, perfectly in sync with the group's pace.

He entered the queue between the third and fourth middle-aged women. The third woman was rather plump, blocking the angle of the telephoto lens on the left. The fourth woman was carrying a large red backpack, distracting the observer's focus on the right.

A drop of water flowed into the river.

---

Inside the command vehicle of the Poison Bee team, the leader, Old Poison, sat with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, staring at the live feed on a tablet.

Six camera positions, two drones, and eleven people.

He set up this whole operation last night. Poison Bee has been in the paparazzi industry for ten years, photographing cheating movie stars and arresting tax-evading singers, but there has never been a target worth mobilizing his entire fortune for.

But Lu Yuan is worth it.

This person has a knack for generating buzz; a simple set of everyday photos can fetch a six-figure exclusive price.

He watched Lu Yuan's behind-the-scenes video seven times, and recorded all of the target's physical characteristics, gait frequency, and usual clothing into his visual memory.

"Position 3 reporting." The walkie-talkie hissed.

"The target hasn't been identified."

Old Poison checked the time: 7:51. According to the information he got from the property manager of the extras' gathering area, Lu Yuan's morning activity window was between 7:30 and 8:30.

"Keep an eye on it."

He picked up his thermos and took a sip of jujube water. People in this industry don't have good stomachs. His eyes darted between the three screens.

On the left side of the screen, a group of middle-aged women in red vests walk past a steamed bun stall.

In the middle of the screen, two middle-aged men who were buying groceries were chatting.

On the right side of the screen, a food delivery worker riding an electric scooter turned into the alley.

everything is normal.

Old Poison's gaze lingered on the left-hand screen for an extra half second. That group of middle-aged women seemed to be... no, nothing much, just middle-aged women.

He rubbed his eyes and continued staring.

---

Two streets away, there was a gray Iveco van without any markings.

Jiang Yan squatted on a folding chair, her knees resting on the edge of the control panel. The four screens in front of her were connected to signals from six nearby public surveillance cameras.

She saw it.

Lu Yuan emerged from the iron gate, using the steam from the steamed bun stall to obscure the window, and within 0.8 seconds switched from a stationary state to a moving state, then blended into a group of people exercising using gait synchronization technology.

In the footage captured by the high-definition camera, a gray shadow appeared among the group of middle-aged women, but if no one knew beforehand that he was there, no one would pay attention to this shadow.

Jiang Yan's fingers hovered above the keyboard, but she forgot to press any keys.

She received systematic anti-surveillance training. The training materials included the concept of "Greys," which existed as a theory in the declassified manuals of the CIA and MI6.

Theoretical stuff.

The instructor once said: "The perfect grey person doesn't exist in reality because humans can't completely eliminate their visual characteristics. There will always be some detail that reveals your existence: a habitual deviation in gait, the reflective texture of clothing, or even the amplitude of your chest rise and fall when you breathe."

She stared at the gray outline on the screen that had completely blended into the environment, and a chill ran down her spine.

Things that don't exist in theory are happening right in front of her in the camera's view.

---

Lu Yuan broke away from the group of middle-aged women at the second intersection.

The middle-aged women stopped at the intersection while waiting for the red light. He stepped onto the zebra crossing 0.4 seconds earlier than them, using that 0.4-second time difference to cut behind a young mother pushing a stroller on the opposite side of the pedestrian crossing, becoming her "visual appendage".

Human attention is naturally drawn to strollers, and a stroller with a person following behind it is a normal social scene, so the brain does not become alert to it.

But there are still things in the sky.