As we hurried back to the station, Xiaotao instructed the officers to comb through the place and notify the other jurisdictions.

We had dinner at the station when the officers sent to investigate came back to report their findings, shedding light on The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s identity. His real name was Li Derong, a pork vendor in the wet market, though everyone called him Pork Rong. His explosive personality often led to him quarreling, even fighting with his customers over a few yuan. An avid fan of American movies, especially action ones, he could never pull his eyes away from a good explosion scene. 

One of the vegetable vendors reported that Pork Rong had previously sold detonators and bombs in the northeast. It wasn’t an illegal or shady business since he mainly dealt with blast fishers and often had his head buried in studying these things.

But last year,...