I See through Everything

The pickup truck had just reached the entrance of the aquaculture farm.

Jiang Miao saw his brother-in-law’s pickup truck was also there. He took Shuya and headed straight for the manager’s office.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on a worker feeding eels on a nearby pond embankment. The man saw Jiang Miao as well and quickly set down the feed bucket he was holding.

Shuya, who was holding his arm, also sensed that something was off, but she didn’t say anything.

"Boss, Ma’am, Happy New Year!"

Jiang Miao smiled and handed over a red envelope. "Xiaocai, Happy New Year!"

"Thank you, Boss!"

Jiang Miao turned around, his eyes narrowing slightly.

The two walked hand in hand into the farm’s manager office.

His brother-in-law was not in the office.

Just then, Shuya asked in a low voice, "Was there something wrong with that employee?"

"The moment he saw me, his eyes darted away and he subconsciously glanced toward the feed mixing room. Even in this cold weather, his forehead was beaded with cold sweat. He was obviously extremely nervous. I’ve seen him a few times before, and he’s never reacted like that," Jiang Miao explained, providing a cover for what his appraisal panel had revealed.

Through his appraisal panel, he had seen that when the worker, Xiaocai, saw him, his adrenaline had spiked. All the telltale hormones and physiological responses associated with panic, guilt, worry, and nervousness had flared up.

’Clearly, this man has done something wrong, and it must be something serious.’

Jiang Miao turned on the computer in the manager’s office and pulled up the surveillance footage from the farm’s monitoring room.

Soon enough, he found what he was looking for.

"He’s been furtively approaching the feed mixing room several times. He definitely has ulterior motives," Shuya said, her brow tightly furrowed.

For the sake of secrecy, Jiang Miao had purchased a wide variety of nutrients. A large portion of them were useless, or would even cause adverse side effects, all to obscure the true formula.

Moreover, the mixing room had only one door, which was equipped with a password lock. Only Jiang Miao, Jiang Dahai, and Zhang Xincheng could enter.

In the daily routine of preparing and feeding the eels, the key part of the feed was personally mixed and distributed by either Jiang Dahai or Zhang Xincheng, giving no other workers a chance to handle it.

This security measure wouldn’t last forever, but the key right now was to stall for as long as possible.

More than twenty minutes passed.

Zhang Xincheng, wearing a red down jacket, came in from outside.

"Ah Miao, Shuya, it’s the middle of the New Year celebration. Why aren’t you two at home? I can handle things here."

Shuya had already brewed a pot of Fenghuang Dancong tea. She poured a hot cup for Zhang Xincheng and said with a smile in Cantonese, "Brother-in-law, have some tea."

"Thanks, Shuya." Zhang Xincheng could speak Cantonese; in fact, many of the fishermen around Magong Town could.

"Brother-in-law, I noticed something wrong with that Xiaocai just now," Jiang Miao said as he sent the video he had copied to his phone to his brother-in-law.

After watching for a moment, his brother-in-law’s expression grew serious. "Ah Miao, this Xiaocai is definitely trouble. Why don’t we just call the police?"

Jiang Miao shook his head. "Calling the police is useless right now. He hasn’t actually managed to steal any secrets, so there’s no evidence. At most, the local police will just give him a lecture, and that will only tip him off."

"So are we just going to watch him steal the secret? What if he really succeeds?" Zhang Xincheng paced back and forth, worried.

"What’s his background?"

"Let me think..." Zhang Xincheng recalled the man’s information. After a moment, he said, "This Xiaocai is from the main town, not from one of the villages here in Salt Town. I think he used to work on the assembly line at Xinli Electronics Factory."

"It’s good he’s not from Salt Town." Jiang Miao then leaned in and whispered a few instructions in Zhang Xincheng’s ear.

Then he took out a blank notebook and wrote a series of data and nutrient names in it. He wiped the pages with a damp paper towel and crumpled them a few times to make the notebook look well-used.

Zhang Xincheng took the notebook and nodded. "Leave it to me."

Jiang Miao left the aquaculture farm with Shuya.

A little after four in the afternoon, several more employees at the aquaculture farm had clocked out for the day. Only Zhang Xincheng, a disabled security guard, and two workers remained. One of them was Xiaocai, who had volunteered to stay.

「Inside the logistics warehouse.」

Zhang Xincheng had Xiaocai help him gather a large amount of nutrients and other ingredients, loading them onto a handcart to be taken to the mixing room.

Arriving at the door, Zhang Xincheng turned his head. "Xiaocai, have you been short on money lately?"

"Uh... no..." Xiaocai was evasive, then nervously changed the subject. "I have a girlfriend, and expenses are a bit high. There’s triple pay for overtime during the New Year, plus the red envelope, so I just wanted to earn a little extra money."

"I see. If you’re short on cash, just let me know. A loan for a few tens of thousands is no problem," Zhang Xincheng said with a smile, patting his shoulder.

Xiaocai’s body stiffened, and an awkward smile appeared on his face. "If I need it, I’ll definitely ask you for a loan."

Zhang Xincheng smiled and instructed, "Go feed ponds 20 to 30. Use feed number 3."

"No problem."

"Keep up the good work. The company won’t treat you unfairly."

Watching Xiaocai’s departing figure, Zhang Xincheng felt a complicated mix of emotions. ’I hope you know what’s good for you. I’ve given you a chance.’ 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He then went into the mixing room and closed the main door.

Next, Zhang Xincheng placed the notebook on a workbench to the side before flipping a special switch hidden inside a switch box.

He began to mix a bucket of feed additives according to the formula in the notebook.

He then deliberately turned around and mixed another bucket of feed additives in a corner.

Immediately after, he carried one of the buckets out of the mixing room, closing the main door behind him.

On the embankment of the fishpond diagonally opposite the mixing room, Xiaocai saw Zhang Xincheng hurry away with a bucket. He glanced around and saw no one else. He knew the other worker was at a pond on the far side of the farm.

He steeled himself, picked up his feed bucket, and snuck over to the switch for a nearby pond’s aerator. Under the cover of a mulberry tree on the embankment, he pulled a charger with a paperclip stuck in it from his pocket and quickly jammed it into the electrical socket.

FZZT...

Because the paperclip connected the neutral and live wires, the charger instantly let out a flash of scorching light, followed by the stench of burning plastic.

Xiaocai ignored the sparking charger, quickly wrapped it in his glove, pulled it out, and tossed it into a nearby fishpond.

At the same time, the power for the entire farm tripped.

However, the indoor farming area of the aquaculture farm had a backup power supply, which kicked in immediately after the circuit failed.

Zhang Xincheng, who was in the indoor farming area, felt his expression darken. ’A coincidence? Or...’

He didn’t go out. Instead, he picked up the phone and called the electrician. "Old Zhao, the farm’s circuit just failed. You need to get over here right away."

"What? Okay, okay... I’ll be right over."

「Meanwhile.」

After throwing away the charger, Xiaocai quickly ran toward the mixing room with his bucket. He knew this was his only chance.

Because the farm’s surveillance cameras were on the same grid as its other circuits, the power failure would cause the cameras to stop working.

But time was tight. Zhang Xincheng would definitely call the electrician to fix it immediately. The electrician, Old Zhao, was from Qingcao Town. It would take him about twenty minutes to get here from home, and with troubleshooting the lines, it would take at least half an hour.

In other words, he had fifty minutes at most.

Arriving at the door of the mixing room, he recalled his online research on this type of password lock. It was a simple 4-digit lock.

As long as he knew which four digits were used, it would be easy to figure out the password through trial and error.