Chapter 38: Silent Thunder

After finishing the meal, Du Qiu and several people finalized the plan but did not stay at the company.

He went to Ovi Sensors, a company that produces various types of sensors, as Du Qiu wanted to purchase a batch of customized sensors.

The “Tianqing System” designed by Du Qiu, when integrated with the hardware, needs appropriate modifications and adaptations to the hardware part to achieve optimal performance.

Du Qiu had used sensors from this company in past projects quite a bit, and there was no question about the quality. The key was that they accepted custom orders for small quantities from customers.

Du Qiu was considered one of their regular customers, but this time his order was much larger than before.

As a major customer, he received different treatment. The custom requirements were quickly settled, and once the contract was formed and Du Qiu paid the deposit, the factory got to work.

With their production speed, the delivery could be made in three days.

Having settled this matter, Du Qiu declined the dinner invitation from the boss of Ovi Sensors.

It was only 4:30 PM, and Du Qiu couldn’t just wait for an hour or two for dinner.

Besides, he planned to visit Qin Yun to give her the alarm watch.

Ovi Sensors was about a fifteen-minute drive from the shipyard where Qin Yun worked, not too far away.

Du Qiu drove, the navigation map he had modified displayed on his phone.

“Ding ding, a traffic jam has been detected on your route. Would you like to take an alternative route one?” the phone suddenly chimed.

Du Qiu glanced at it and immediately confirmed on the screen, then the car followed the new route.

A few minutes later, the car was guided onto a side road with very few vehicles, apparently bypassing to the side of the shipyard.

He hadn’t driven long when Du Qiu’s phone suddenly made a “doo doo doo, abnormal signal transmission found!” sound.

“Hmm, what’s going on? Is someone following me?”

Du Qiu muttered to himself in surprise, but he didn’t stop to check; instead, he cautiously checked the rearview mirror.

There were no vehicles following him on the quiet road.

Du Qiu slowed down and rapidly scanned the surroundings.

To the left of the road was the tall fence of the shipyard, and to the right were some buildings of various styles; it seemed there were buildings similar to factories as well as a few old residential buildings that were five or six stories tall, all looking like they came from the architectural style of the 70s and 80s.

As he continued forward, he was approaching an intersection near a big building—a hotel.

Just as Du Qiu was about to make a left turn, he was surprised to spot a woman getting out of a van in front of the hotel.

He pulled over and picked up his phone to dial.

“Officer Ning, are you busy?”

The woman Du Qiu saw was none other than Ning Shuangshuang, who was not in her police uniform today; she was wearing a light grey long-sleeve shirt and black straight-leg pants, resembling a female college student.

After she got out of the car and was about to walk toward the hotel entrance, she moved aside upon receiving Du Qiu’s call.

“Do you need something from me?”

“Are you on leave or working?”

Ning Shuangshuang suddenly looked up and glanced around. “Did you see me or something?”

Du Qiu didn’t expect Ning Shuangshuang to respond so quickly; with just one sentence, she guessed he had seen her.

“Smart girl! Do you see the third car parked on the roadside in front of you? I’m in the car.”

As soon as Du Qiu finished speaking, he saw Ning Shuangshuang looking in his direction, then she hung up the call and walked back to the van, apparently saying something to someone inside.

Then, Ning Shuangshuang walked towards Du Qiu’s car.

After getting into the car, Ning Shuangshuang stared at Du Qiu.

“Hey, Officer Ning, if you keep staring at me like this, I’ll feel embarrassed.”

“Did you just happen to appear here by coincidence?”

“Yeah, I came to the shipyard to find Qin Yun and bring her the alarm. It’s because you withdrew your protective measures.”

Ning Shuangshuang took her eyes off him and asked, “What kind of alarm?”

“I made it myself; it looks like a wristwatch. If Qin Yun and the others encounter danger, pressing the button will trigger an alarm and display the location.”

“Aren’t you a researcher on unmanned driving? How come you’re making things like this?”

Du Qiu spoke with a bit of pride: “Officer Ning, I only worked at an unmanned driving technology company before; I’m actually a doctoral graduate in mechanical and electronic engineering, and I’m quite familiar with electronic products.

I’ve installed a type of alert system in my car that can detect a variety of electronic signals around it. If someone tries to take pictures secretly or eavesdrop, they can be found by me.

How about it? Do you need any? I could sell them to you at a discount, which also counts as supporting the national construction.”

“We wouldn’t need your type of civilian system,” Ning Shuangshuang replied, curling her lip.

“Ah, you look down on me, don’t you?”

On further thought, such top-notch equipment is definitely used in security departments; indeed, they would look down on his DIY civilian products.

Then he asked curiously, “You must be working, right? I’m not disturbing you, am I?”

“I am working, but checking why you’ve shown up here is also within the scope of my job,” Ning Shuangshuang said as she looked at Du Qiu again. “Tell me, how did you end up on this road?”

“I came from the west, the original route was congested, so the navigation rerouted me here.”

Du Qiu suddenly realized something and carefully asked, “You’re protecting the shipyard, aren’t you? No wonder you were protecting Qin Yun. She’s from the shipyard.”

A flash of appreciation appeared in Ning Shuangshuang’s eyes, but she said, “Don’t ask what you shouldn’t. If you’re going to deliver something, you’d better hurry; Qin Yun will be off work soon.”

With that, Ning Shuangshuang prepared to get out of the car.

“Hey, don’t hurry away. Do you have any special signal sources nearby?” Du Qiu suddenly called out to stop her.

Ning Shuangshuang looked at Du Qiu warily and asked, “Why are you asking this?”

“When I was coming over here, my car’s detection equipment found an abnormal information transmission signal. It wasn’t you guys, was it…”

“Where is it? Take me there!” Ning Shuangshuang immediately interrupted him.

“Oh… Okay.”

Du Qiu quickly started the car, turned around at the intersection, and drove back slowly.

When they passed the old residential buildings again, Du Qiu’s phone issued another alert.

“Doo doo doo, abnormal signal transmission found!”

Ning Shuangshuang looked at Du Qiu’s phone and asked, “Can you pinpoint it accurately?”

Du Qiu picked up his phone, opened the app, and the phone screen immediately displayed a 3D spatial map with a radius of 200 meters centered on Du Qiu’s car.

A red dot appeared next to a residential building on the map, with a height value next to it. After a simple conversion, it could be determined that it was the top floor, the sixth floor, of the building.

“It’s on the sixth floor of the building right by the road, probably the north-facing room.”

“Stay here and don’t move!”

Ning Shuangshuang opened the car door, turned on the comms earpiece on her collar, and issued a series of commands.

Then she led the way to that residential building.

Du Qiu saw this and thought, isn’t this a bit too bold? Aren’t you going to wait for backup?

Just as he was about to get out and help, he saw Ning Shuangshuang suddenly look back and gesture to him to stay put.