The farmhand, terrified, prostrated himself on the ground and quickly cried out, "Don't shoot, I don't know where Marden is. I only robbed a convenience store with him a few years ago, and I haven't done anything bad since then..."
Joe grabbed the farmhand by the scruff of his neck, like wringing a chicken, and pulled him to his feet.
His right hand pointed a gun at the farmhand's head, scaring him into trembling.
Joe pulled out handcuffs with his left hand and cuffed the farmhand.
"Anyone associated with Marden is no good. When we get back to the police station, if you don't tell us where Marden is, you're dead."
Joe said sternly.
The farmhand was so scared he was almost crying, begging for mercy repeatedly: "Officer, I really don't know where he is. I only robbed a convenience store with him a few years ago, and we haven't been in contact since. I haven't robbed anyone since then, please let me go..."
Joe ignored him and shoved him directly into the police car.
While Joe was putting the farmhand into the police car, Lin Li quickly surveyed the nearby farm warehouse, the same one where Marden had originally created the tornado.
He walked around it once but found nothing.
Joe called out to him, "Lin Li, let's go. I'll take this guy back to the police station for questioning to see if we get any leads."
Lin Li pondered for a moment and said to Joe, "Joe, you can't arrest this farmhand just yet."
Joe questioned, "Why? I'm a police officer, arresting a robber is normal. You shouldn't interfere with police work."
Lin Li said wisely, "Joe, I'm not interfering with your work. It's just, think carefully: when someone breaks an arm, they'll look for a doctor. If that person is someone who can't be seen in public..."
Joe immediately understood, his eyes lit up, and he finished the thought: "Then he'll look for friends to help."
Finding friends would undoubtedly mean finding those who are not easily found, and this farm fits that description perfectly.
Joe continued, "I'll go back and check Marden's network. This guy is timid and weak; I don't think he's capable of anything truly heinous. If we leave him here, Marden might seek his help, and then we can track Marden's movements and apprehend him."
Lin Li nodded, his gaze signaling to Joe, "Joe, you need to control him and make him tell us voluntarily."
Joe understood what he meant: verbal threats, a carrot-and-stick approach. Not prosecuting the convenience store robbery, but he must inform them when Marden appears, otherwise, it's jail time.
Joe was very skilled at this, and soon the farmhand was tearfully thanking Joe.
Running around all night, with no leads, just setting a bait, and still unsure if any fish would bite.
Joe continued back to the police station to investigate Marden. He also checked the farmhand's records and found that he hadn't committed any crimes in recent years, which put him at ease. After almost nine months, Joe only remembered Marden having a brother; he hadn't paid much attention to the others. He needed to go through the files because Barry had found clues in just a few steps back then, directly locating Marden's hiding place that same night without bothering with Marden's other connections. So Joe's memory of Marden's associates wasn't very clear. It was also during that incident that his partner died and Marden's plane exploded.
It was past 12 AM when Lin Li returned to Star Labs. As per routine, he did a quick scan for anything unusual, then showered, brushed his teeth, and went to sleep.
He woke up at 6 AM, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and went to Surgery to check on Barry. Because Barry was a patient, someone needed to stay overnight at Star Labs in case of an emergency. Last night it was Caitlin. She was not far from Barry, sprawled on the desk, with a small stream of saliva flowing.
Caitlin looked very cute in this scene, but unfortunately, the observer was Lin Li, and he wasn't in the mood to appreciate beauty. He took a jacket, draped it over Caitlin, and left without another glance.
As for Barry, there was no need to look further; his condition was good, the wound had healed, and the stitches were almost ready to be removed. He believed that Caitlin would remove them once she woke up.
He took his tablet and went directly to the underground training room.
He needed to constantly absorb knowledge, learning everything, both scientific and unscientific. He had to learn it all.
Now he carried his tablet with him everywhere. Whenever he had a moment, he would pull it out to memorize all sorts of knowledge.
There was so much for him to learn: various classical mechanics and theoretical mechanics, studying the basic laws of mechanical motion of objects; electromagnetism and electrodynamics, studying electromagnetic phenomena, the laws of electromagnetic motion of matter, and electromagnetic radiation; thermodynamics and statistical physics, studying the statistical laws of thermal motion of matter and their macroscopic manifestations; relativity and spacetime physics, studying the high-speed motion effects of objects, related dynamic laws, and laws concerning spacetime relativity; quantum mechanics, studying microscopic matter motion phenomena and basic motion laws. In addition, there were: particle physics, nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, solid-state physics, condensed matter physics, laser physics, plasma physics, geophysics, astrophysics, acoustics, electromagnetism, optics, radio physics, heat, quantum field theory, low-temperature physics, semiconductor physics, magnetism, liquid crystals, medical physics, nonlinear physics, computational physics, theoretical mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics and statistical physics, quantum mechanics, and so on and so forth. If he didn't have super-speed thinking, this would be a desperate undertaking. Even with super-speed thinking, the vast amount of knowledge still made him feel small, increasingly small, and increasingly hopeless, but he could only continue like this. Effort would bring hope; without effort, there would only be despair.
Around noon, at 11 AM, Cisco sent good news: Barry was awake.
Lin Li was almost at Surgery when he heard Barry's voice: "Who drew on me? It's so ugly!"
Caitlin stared at Barry and said, "I told you not to come to me if anything was damaged. I'd generously help you mend your body, you should be very grateful."
"You should be lucky that Cisco and I didn't stitch your wound, otherwise the flesh wouldn't even stick together."
Lin Li entered Surgery and greeted Barry.
"Hey, brother, are you okay? You almost died."
Barry hugged Lin Li, saying emotionally, "Lin Li, thank you."
When he woke up, he heard from Cisco that if Lin Li hadn't stood in front of him and blocked all the damage, he wouldn't be here now. Therefore, he was very grateful to Lin Li as a friend.
Lin Li smiled and joked, "You're much more of a man now; just showing your chest could scare delinquents to death."
Dr. Wells smiled and reminded, "Barry, be more careful in the future. Lin Li can't always arrive in time."