Chapter 15

Chapter 15 The Spring-Like Way of Handling Things

Qin Yuheng raised his arm and leaned his body to the left.

“Bang!”

A dull thud rang out. Qin Yu shoved the big man back two steps while he himself didn’t move from where he stood. He immediately raised his hands and called out: “Brother, brother, don’t make things hard for me. This Ninth Special Zone is nearly 7 million square kilometers, there are tough guys everywhere. What am I supposed to be in all of this? Why bother with someone like me?”

After being shoved back, the big man stood there gripping his knife, eyes wide with shock: “The hell, you actually know a thing or two?”

“What do I know, I’m just a small officer…!” Qin Yu said with a pained expression, sweat pouring down his forehead as he shouted toward the old man in the car: “Uncle Ma, this case, I really can’t make the call. Can you cut me some slack here?”

Old Man Ma frowned and glanced at Qin Yu, thought it over briefly, then called out to the big man: “Don’t touch him yet.”

The big man held his knife and stepped back slightly.

“Since you say this has nothing to do with you, then tell me, who ordered you to solve this case?” Old Man Ma asked, clearly trying to catch Qin Yu off guard.

Upon hearing this, Qin Yu not only didn’t lie, but responded with remarkable detail: “It was an order from the precinct, with a deadline for the department to clean out the drug trafficking gangs in the Black Street area. Director Li is overseeing it personally, the case was handed to Team One, and it was Captain Yuan Ke who told me the work had to be done within the deadline.”

Everyone who heard Qin Yu’s answer was completely stunned. Because nobody expected this guy to not defend the captain or Director Li, but instead, with absolutely no backbone, just laid everything out clean.

Seeing everyone a bit dazed, Qin Yu immediately opened his mouth to add: “Uncle Ma, if you can get that money up to the higher-ups and have them say this matter can be put on hold, I’ll redo the evidence right away and release your family. No problem at all.”

“Ha, you really do say what people want to hear, and what ghosts want to hear too!” Old Man Ma looked at Qin Yu with an amused smile.

Hearing this, Qin Yu pressed his palms together and nodded repeatedly: “I’m just a small officer, barely surviving myself. You think I dare offend anyone?”

The old man was silent for a few seconds, then waved his hand and called out: “Let him go.”

“Brother Ma!” The big man called out and raised his knife to block Qin Yu’s way out.

“Let him go.” The old man waved his hand again.

The four of them gave Qin Yu a cold look, then stepped aside.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Ma, I can’t release your family, but they’re still in my custody right now, and I’ll make sure to take good care of them.” Qin Yu added very tactfully.

Old Man Ma was taken aback, then suddenly smiled and said: “Alright, I’ll leave that to you then.”

“No trouble at all, no trouble at all.” Qin Yu nodded, then turned and left.

Inside the alley.

The big man stepped forward and looked at Old Man Ma: “That guy is too soft. I think he was telling the truth, he can’t handle this.”

Old Man Ma lit another cigarette and shook his head lightly: “He’s not soft, he’s slippery.”

The big man was taken aback by those words.

“Someone who’s just soft would’ve pissed their pants the moment they saw this scene.” Old Man Ma said, taking a drag: “Can’t you see it yet, he was trying to send us a message.”

“What?” The big man was puzzled.

“That this really has nothing to do with him, and the problem is on Yuan Ke and Director Li’s end.” Old Man Ma murmured quietly: “He’s just the one doing the legwork, and he didn’t want to make enemies of us on his leaders’ behalf, so without even thinking twice he threw Yuan Ke and Li Fatty out front.”

“Ah, so that means his relationship with Yuan Ke isn’t as close as we thought?” The big man followed that line of thinking: “Yuan Ke promoting him was very likely just…?”

“Right.” The old man cut in: “I have a feeling the authorities suddenly cracking down on private drugs is probably connected to another batch of drugs that hit the market recently. Before, we were the only ones in the game, but now there are new players entering the trade… the problem might be competition.”

“So what now?”

“No point going after this Qin Yu anymore.” The old man waved his hand: “Get in the car, let’s first figure out why the authorities are sweeping the goods, then we’ll know what to do about Xiao Er and Da Min.”

……

Qin Yu left the alley and made his way to the precinct as fast as he could.

Old Man Ma’s analysis was actually spot on. Qin Yu simply didn’t want to take the fall for anyone. Yuan Ke directing him to solve the case was perfectly fine. But once the case was solved and a whole string of trouble came knocking, that was for the captain to deal with. There was no way Qin Yu was going to carry that himself. Because in his current state he couldn’t handle anything, just maintaining the basic status quo was already hard enough.

At the precinct, Qin Yu went to see Yuan Ke right away and told him about Old Man Ma, wanting to see how he’d react.

Yuan Ke’s face filled with surprise when he heard it, and he said with great seriousness: “These people are not to be messed with, you need to watch your back lately. Don’t worry, I’ll carry the pressure on this end. Over the next few days I’ll have word put out that it was me who ordered you all to sweep the drug trafficking gangs, so any trouble that comes after will land on me.”

Hearing this, Qin Yu’s suspicions about Yuan Ke were temporarily put to rest. Because what he said made complete sense, and it was stand-up behavior, like a leader you could actually rely on.

Once that small episode was over, Qin Yu immediately headed to the interrogation room and kept hammering away at Ma Lao Er and Da Min, trying to get their confessions as quickly as possible and follow the leads to catch bigger fish.

……

After six hours of interrogation, Ma Lao Er and Da Min still kept their mouths shut and refused to cooperate.

Lao Hei got fed up and dragged the two of them to a basement with no surveillance and no cameras, using other “methods” to force them to talk. But even after a brutal working over, neither of them would say a word.

In the end there was nothing else to do, and Qin Yu could only try to get leads from the foot soldiers, even though what they knew wasn’t exactly core secrets.

Inside the interrogation room.

Qin Yu puffed on his e-cigarette, tilted his head, and looked at Ma Lao Er’s brother: “Can you say something useful! All you’re giving me is petty little scraps of information, how am I supposed to help you with that?”

The foot soldier lowered his head and replied: “Boss, it’s not that I won’t talk, it’s that once we got arrested, the goods and the people would’ve all gone into hiding. Some of the information I knew before is useless now.”

“You might not know how brutal Lao Hei is.” Qin Yu stood up impatiently: “Alright, I’m done interrogating you. Let Lao Hei give you a little lesson.”

“Boss, boss, don’t do that, I can’t take it. Let me think a bit more.”

“Then think faster, I haven’t even eaten yet.” Qin Yu bent down and sat back down.

The foot soldier lowered his head and thought for a long while, then suddenly slapped his forehead: “Hey, I actually do have a lead.”

“What?” Qin Yu asked.

“Before we got arrested, I happened to overhear Ma Lao Er on the phone mentioning that some big shot in charge of supplying the goods would be coming to Songjiang in the next few days.” The foot soldier said, eyes lighting up.

Qin Yu’s eyes lit up with excitement when he heard that: “For real?”

……

Inside a slum somewhere in Songjiang.

A scruffy-looking man held his phone and said in a low voice: “Has the heat died down yet? The goods are all backed up, I need to move them.”

Old Man Ma thought it over for a while, then said with a resigned tone: “Let’s meet first and talk.”