Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1119 570: Three Plank Axe Moves

Shen Jingye organized the information page by page and came to Li Qi's office.

"Bureau Chief Li, Du Wenming is on vacation."

"When did he go on leave?"

"Yesterday, starting from Monday, but in fact, it was from last weekend. He took a week's vacation, which means he has no alibi when Yu Yaoming was abducted!"

Li Banfeng said, "Wasn't it Du Wenming who called you today to let you attend the meeting?"

"That's because something happened in the lab. The higher-ups ended his vacation, and when he called me, he had just returned to the office."

Li Banfeng said earnestly, "Comrade Little Du is quite familiar with us. Just because he took a two-day vacation, it seems a bit inappropriate to list him as a suspect, doesn't it?"

Shen Jingye looked at Li Banfeng; such words were obviously not what Li Banfeng would say, but should come from the higher-ups.

Li Banfeng was helping Shen Jingye anticipate what to do. If he wanted to officially investigate Du Wenming or even arrest him, someone would certainly step in to obstruct, and these were issues he had to face.

"I have more than just a lack of an alibi; I have clues from other aspects as well."

"No matter how many clues there are, we can't wrong a good person," Li Banfeng's tone grew deeper. "All colleagues know that Little Du is not a Dark Energy User and can't use the Dark Ability!"

Shen Jingye handed a document to Li Banfeng: "According to official records, although Du Wenming is not a Dark Energy User, he worked in the Defense Agency for a long time. Most of his work experience comes from Puluo State, which gives him the conditions to become a Craftsman Cultivator."

"Having the conditions isn't enough, where's the evidence?"

Shen Jingye took out another document: "Du Wenming is a wireless radio enthusiast and has joined two radio enthusiast groups."

Wireless radio enthusiast?

Li Banfeng wanted to ask, but didn't, because this question might reveal his age.

Wireless radio enthusiasts were a special group active in the 1980s. They possessed a certain degree of communication knowledge and used self-assembled radio equipment to exchange signals on different bands with other enthusiasts.

In the days when the internet was not yet widespread, though this form of communication did not allow face-to-face meetings, it did enable them to hear each other's voices, which was noticeably better than traditional pen pals. But due to the high entry barriers of the radio circle, its coverage was extremely limited.

Li Banfeng looked at the related materials: "Even in this day and age, there are still people playing with radio?"

Shen Jingye replied, "This circle has always been active. The reason we find it unfamiliar is that we know too little about them.

Last month, Du Wenming even purchased a batch of components through a radio enthusiasts' organization. Here is the list."

Li Banfeng looked at the list: "They still use electron tubes? These devices could go into a museum."

Shen Jingye said, "I just learned that in the radio circle, using original equipment is a retro fashion.

The radio enthusiast groups Du Wenming joined are legal, and the components he purchased are also legal,

but many of these relatively primitive electronic devices are not standardized products. Their use and assembly are very complicated, which indirectly proves that Du Wenming is knowledgeable in certain crafts."

Li Banfeng frowned and said, "Little Shen, isn't this too far-fetched? You can't just say someone is a Craftsman Cultivator because they can assemble a radio, can you?"

The tone was very much like some superiors of Shen Jingye. Li Banfeng was not wrong. If there was a desire to investigate Du Wenming, such skepticism was unavoidable.

But Shen Jingye could only do so much: "Given the current situation, these are all the clues I can gather. Considering Du Wenming's status, it's unrealistic to arrest him for interrogation, and even obtaining permission to search his home is impossible.

Any investigation into people around him and related organizations must also stop here. Du Wenming is an insider; going deeper would certainly alert him."

Li Banfeng glanced again at the equipment list.

Was Du Wenming's interest in radio purely a hobby?

Was there a necessary connection between this and Yu Yaoming's abduction?

Li Banfeng couldn't reach a conclusion by thinking alone. Such matters required specialists to handle.

The Dark Star Bureau also had communication experts, so Shen Jingye called in Cheng Zhiyuan, a key member of the communications department.

Cheng Zhiyuan looked through the list for a long time, then explained the functions of each component: "The main function of a rectifying tube is to convert AC to DC, an amplifying tube magnifies audio signals, a frequency converter does..."

Shen Jingye frowned and said, "Who asked you to say all that? Am I here for a lecture? I want to know, what could the components on this list assemble into?"

Cheng Zhiyuan looked again for a moment and shook his head: "I can't say."

Li Banfeng asked, "Truly can't say, or don't dare to say?"

Cheng Zhiyuan shook his head with a bitter smile: "Bureau Chief Li, now you're making it hard for me."

Li Banfeng and Shen Jingye both understood this technical backbone.

It's like someone buying pieces of glass and a tub of glue; they might be making a homemade aquarium or a mirror, or maybe neither; they just want to glue a piece of glass onto a table.

When casually chatting, making a guess is harmless, but at the Dark Star Bureau, a wrong guess could lead to serious consequences, so until a formal order is received, Cheng Zhiyuan won't say anything.