Chapter 20

Chapter 20 A-Long, the Talk of Songjiang

Two hours later, inside the office of Police Superintendent Li.

Superintendent Li slammed the table, his face twisted with rage as he roared: “What the hell are you good for, Yuan Ke? It was an organized arrest operation — how did it end up like this? Look at the damn report in front of you. How many criminals were there in total? Are your team members made of paper? Huh?! A full-gear assault, and you managed to get four people killed on me. How am I supposed to explain this to the precinct?”

Yuan Ke kept his head down: “Superintendent, I was working another case at the time, and this situation… forget it, I won’t make too many excuses. The bottom line is, a mistake this big happened on my watch, and I’m willing to take responsibility.”

“Take responsibility? Then step down as team captain and let someone competent take over.” Superintendent Li barked, his expression cold and stern.

Yuan Ke suddenly raised his head, eyes fixed on Superintendent Li without saying a word.

“Damn it.” Superintendent Li clasped his hands behind his back and paced in a circle, continuing to curse in fury: “I read the report. That Qi Lin isn’t just useless — he’s got problems. Put him under surveillance immediately. He may have had dealings with the criminals. Otherwise, why didn’t he fire a single shot? This needs to be thoroughly investigated.”

Yuan Ke straightened up and responded without hesitation: “He’s already been placed under control. Qin Yu and Old Cat are conducting the interrogation, working on getting confessions from those who were arrested.”

Superintendent Li wore a stern expression as he paced around the room, then suddenly turned to look at Yuan Ke and said: “I’ll be straight with you. In the current environment, everyone has their own little agenda. Wanting to make money, wanting a promotion, wanting to align with someone — the precinct is full of people like that, and I’m no exception. But whatever your little agenda is, you must never step on other people’s interests, and you absolutely cannot use the precinct and certain people as your weapon. If things blow up, nobody comes out looking good.”

Yuan Ke was taken aback by these words, and immediately stood tall as he responded: “Superintendent Li, the rumors going around outside don’t necessarily have anything to do with me. I think you may have misunderstood me.”

“Whether it’s a misunderstanding or not, you can’t hide it, and I’m not blind. We’ll see how things play out.” Superintendent Li walked to the window, visibly irritated, and said: “The report for the precinct — you draft it, and make it detailed… As for the follow-up work, handle it yourself. Submit the required funds to me, and I’ll review and sign off on them.”

“Yes, sir!” Yuan Ke saluted.

……

Late that same night, Yuan Ke hosted a dinner at Er Jie’s restaurant, and a full twenty to thirty well-known underworld figures from the black street territory and other districts showed up.

In the second-floor hall, Yuan Ke smiled and toasted the crowd three times before opening his mouth to speak: “Tonight’s arrest operation our team carried out on the Third Ring Road — you’ve all heard about it by now, I’m sure. The criminals killed four of our brothers. The higher-ups are furious, heh, they nearly stripped me of my rank. There are no outsiders here, so I’ll speak plainly… These drug dealers — I’m going after them, no question. I’m asking everyone to lend a hand and make things easier for me. Yuan Ke will return the favor in the future. But if anyone wants to protect them, secretly help them evade arrest — that means going up against me and the precinct. For the next year, I won’t do anything else. I’ll dedicate myself entirely to hunting them down.”

“Captain Yuan, what kind of talk is that? You’ve spoken up — who would dare not show you face.”

“Come on, how big of a deal is this really? They’re just a few drug peddlers. We’ll ask around and find them for you in no time.”

“……!”

The crowd listened to Yuan Ke’s words without any sign of displeasure, and one by one they chimed in with agreement.

Yuan Ke bowed and poured drinks, smiling as he said to everyone: “Thank you all for showing me face. Thank you.”

A little while later, once the business was done, the banquet broke up. A burly man got into his car, lowered his head, and returned a phone call.

“Hello? Old Ma!”

“There’s something I’d like to ask for your help with — help me move a few people out of the Special Zone.” Old Ma’s voice came through.

The burly man smiled: “I won’t ask who the people are, but this is a favor I can’t do.”

“Is it a money issue?”

“The precinct’s Yuan Ke has gone red-eyed. He invited us to dinner with a machine gun in hand, if you can believe it.” The burly man said quietly: “Old Ma, it’s not that I’m afraid of him exactly, but there’s no need for me to get on the wrong side of the authorities, you understand?”

“Alright, pretend I never made this call.”

“Yeah, let’s leave it at that.”

With that, the two ended the call.

……

Eight-thirty in the morning.

A special-grade wanted order for A Long was issued from the precinct down to the six districts of Songjiang City. Upon receiving the order, each district precinct immediately deployed investigative directives to their subordinate public security units.

In an instant, the previously unknown A Long became a sensation throughout Songjiang, and his name rang out across the entire underworld. Because everyone now knew that the precinct itself had personally ordered his arrest.

When Qin Yu had first taken over this case from Yuan Ke, he had thought it was nothing too significant. But he never expected things to reach this point — the situation seemed to have spiraled somewhat out of control, grown more serious, and he had an inexplicable feeling that he had been pushed along by someone the entire time.

Inside the captain’s office.

Qin Yu frowned and said to Yuan Ke: “I underestimated the complexity of the arrest.”

“I know exactly what the problem was.” Yuan Ke waved his hand: “You have your share of responsibility, but we also had limited conditions to work with. That lead drug dealer knew that getting caught meant death, so he had to fight with everything he had. But some of our officers had it in their heads that even if they didn’t catch anyone, they’d still get their paycheck at the end of the month. When people’s motivations are different, their mindset is naturally different too. That’s an objective condition, and I’m well aware of it.”

Qin Yu heard this and said nothing in response.

“Whether or not you get punished ultimately depends on whether the case gets solved, how far it gets solved, and whether the higher-ups are satisfied.” Yuan Ke spoke with blunt pragmatism: “Things haven’t hit rock bottom yet. Put your heart into it. I think highly of you, Qin Yu.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Since returning last night, Qin Yu’s heart had been in his throat, because he felt he hadn’t done the job well and the higher-ups would surely skin him alive and hand down a harsh punishment. But he never expected Yuan Ke to still shield Team Three and Old Cat’s side from some of the fallout, and to specifically name Qin Yu, telling him to keep his main focus on solving the case.

“Knock knock!”

While the two were talking, a knock came at the door.

“Come in!” Yuan Ke called out.

The office door opened, and a young man in plain clothes saluted and said: “The confessions are in. The arrested lackeys admitted that they had no inside informant and received no tip-offs…”

Yuan Ke frowned and asked again: “Are you sure?”

“The two lackeys gave the same account. It doesn’t look like they’re lying.”

“Then lift the surveillance on Qi Lin.” Yuan Ke considered for a moment and replied.

The young man hesitated and asked: “And the punishment for him…?”

Yuan Ke responded without hesitation: “The facts have shown that he’s not suited for casework on the frontline team. Transfer him to logistics for now, and notify him once the disciplinary result comes down.”

“Yes, sir!” The young man saluted and left.

Hearing this, Qin Yu quietly let out a sigh and said nothing on Qi Lin’s behalf, because when it came to whether someone could survive on the frontline team, the truth was that no one could help with that.

……

A few minutes later.

Qin Yu walked out of the office and was just about to grab some breakfast before coming back to continue handling the matter of Old Hei’s death in the line of duty, when he heard Old Cat and Qi Lin erupt into a fierce argument at the stairwell.

At the same time, downstairs.

Lin Nianlei, dressed in a woolen coat with a cute pink scarf tied around her neck and her hair in slight disarray, shouted at the officer on duty: “I want to file a report.”