Yu He swept her gaze around with the flashlight. Their car was stopped in the middle of the road. The road was still a dirt track, not paved with cement, and there were no streetlights or surveillance cameras.
On both sides of the road were stretches of forest, with many banyan trees, hence the name "Banyan Tree Forest."
The entire Banyan Tree Forest covered a considerable area. It was unclear whether the fourth tree that Luo Xiao Yao mentioned was on the left or right side. If they had no plan and searched repeatedly, they might not find it even by dawn.
"Let's start by systematically searching this section on the right. Our current direction is the main road into the village. Following the normal logic of driving on the right, the fourth tree is usually counted from the start."
Yang Lin swept the flashlight beam onto the woods on the right. He was quite familiar with this area.
Chen Hao spread a map on the hood of the car for Yu He to see. The map highlighted the location of the Banyan Tree Forest and marked several main roads.
This was homework he had asked Yang Lin to prepare before boarding the plane.
Yu He glanced at it. Although there were markings, it was still the countryside. The map was a two-dimensional representation; it didn't show the actual location of the trees or their exact number.
"Are there any other roads at the end of the woods on either side?" she asked.
"Yes, but they are small paths that outsiders rarely use, unless they are villagers."
Yang Lin took a pen, bit on the flashlight, and drew the locations of the small paths on the map with a dashed line.
Based on all the roads he marked, Chen Hao calculated that there were nearly twenty potential locations they needed to search.
With only three of them, if they split up, each person would have to cover six or seven locations, which would be exhausting.
"No choice, let's do it!" Yang Lin took down the flashlight and pointed at the map. "You two go together and search the left side. I'm more familiar with this side, so I'll go to the right side by myself."
As he spoke, he rummaged through the car and pulled out two walkie-talkies, handing them to Chen Hao. "You can keep the car. Stay in touch at all times."
"I have an idea, not sure if it's feasible," Yu He said suddenly, who had been deep in thought.
"What idea?" the two men asked in unison.
Yu He pointed at the sky. Chen Hao and Yang Lin both looked up at the night sky.
It was cloudy, so the moon was not visible, and even the stars were few and far between.
"What are you looking at?" Yang Lin turned back, looking at Yu He in confusion.
Yu He uttered four words: "Satellite surveillance."
"As expected of a beauty, a bold idea!" Yang Lin gave her a thumbs-up.
Chen Hao chuckled, "By the time we get the approval from the relevant departments, we could have turned over this entire forest."
Moreover, even if they could get satellite surveillance, they wouldn't be able to access video records from over a month ago; it could only capture real-time footage.
"..." Yu He felt embarrassed to tell them that she could actually try to hack in without going through official channels.
Chen Hao and Yang Lin were both upright officials and had no idea that Yu He would resort to unconventional methods. They thought she was just joking and didn't take it seriously.
"You stay in the car for now. We'll check the nearby spots first," Chen Hao said.
Yu He didn't refuse. While they were gone, she turned and went back to the rear seat, took out a laptop from her bag, and opened it.
She connected to her phone's hotspot, inserted a USB drive, and her slender fingers began to tap rapidly on the keyboard. Lines of code flashed across the screen.
She then matched the trees in the satellite images with the directions Chen Hao had marked. Through traces on the ground, she identified an area where the soil had been disturbed.
It wasn't on the main road where they were, but rather the fourth tree from a small path at the end of the woods on the left.
Yu He looked outside and could vaguely see the flashlight beams of Chen Hao and Yang Lin. They had already gone some distance into the woods.
She picked up the walkie-talkie Chen Hao had left behind and said, "Brother Hao, I've found the location. I'll go take a look first."