Chapter 9

Chapter 9 The Wind Rises on Tuzha Street

Half past five in the evening.

Qin Yu, Qi Lin, and Old Hei from the non-Z brothers — the three of them had already eaten in the cafeteria when Zhu Wei finally came back with the others.

“Heh, went out?” Qin Yu asked from his chair.

Zhu Wei gulped down some water and replied casually, “Some little punk was giving my family grief, so I took the brothers over to check it out. It’s fine, all sorted.”

After a few seconds of silence, Qin Yu smiled and nodded. “Alright, let’s talk about the case then.”

“Are we all working overtime tonight?” Zhu Wei set down his cup and sauntered over to Qin Yu. “Got any smokes? Give me one.”

“All out. That one pack, we smoked through the whole thing.”

“Damn, you guys burned through those fast. Good stuff like that and you couldn’t pace yourselves!” Zhu Wei opened his drawer, pulled out an e-cigarette, took a drag, and asked, “So we’re working overtime tonight?”

“Yeah, Captain Yuan gave the order — this case needs to move fast.” Qin Yu nodded. “Everyone put in the effort tonight. We’ll start by scoping things out, get a feel for how these drug dealers operate.”

Before anyone else could respond, Zhu Wei plopped himself down on a desk and said, “No need to scope anything out. All the drug dealers work out of Tuzha Street. We go over there and we’ll nab them easy.”

Qin Yu paused. “We can just show up and find them?”

“If it weren’t for people turning a blind eye from above, who’d bother with these dealers?!” Zhu Wei counted on his fingers. “They’re out in the open on Tuzha Street, selling drugs right through their front doors. I’ve run into it plenty of times.”

“Captain Yuan told me the Special Zone has very strict drug controls. They dare to sell like that?”

“Our Ninth Special Zone is different from the others.” Qi Lin offered an explanation. “It was built later than the rest, and it’s the only Special Zone made up of so many ethnicities and peoples, so things are complicated here. Last year during the Chief Executive election, there were military clashes in Songjiang and Fengbei. It was a real mess.”

“I see.” Qin Yu nodded and asked, “So would it work to just do a street sweep?”

Qi Lin had just opened his mouth to answer when Zhu Wei cut in, “What’s wrong with that? While word hasn’t gotten out yet about the crackdown on dealers, we grab a few leads first — that actually makes the case easier to crack.”

Qin Yu felt Zhu Wei was a bit unreliable — the guy was pretty reckless — so he turned to Qi Lin and asked, “Do you think going in directly is the right move?”

“I’m not familiar with the situation over there.” Qi Lin scratched his head.

“Ha, him?!” Zhu Wei laughed and sneered, “That little coward Qi Lin is real good at one thing — whenever something comes up, he hides. Wherever it’s dangerous, he won’t go. So how would he know anything about what’s going on over there?”

It was a harsh thing to say, but Qi Lin just smiled and said nothing.

“Xiao Qin, you just got here — you can’t go wrong listening to me. Tonight we go out and do a sweep, grab a few leads first, and the rest will fall into place.” Zhu Wei called out with no sense of his own place in the hierarchy. “Everyone get moving. I’ll go sign out at the armory in a bit and get us some guns.”

Everyone was used to following Zhu Wei’s lead, so they all started getting to their feet.

Qin Yu sat in his chair, eyes fixed on Zhu Wei, and didn’t stop him — just said quietly, “Alright, let’s go take a look at the situation.”

Zhu Wei hopped off the desk and slapped Qin Yu on the arm with a grin. “Brother, landing in Team Three is your lucky day. None of us here are the type to cause trouble. You do things straight, and Brother Zhu will make sure everyone has your back.”

After the slap, Qin Yu clenched his jaw and glanced down at his arm.

“Damn, I forgot, I forgot — you’ve got injuries.” Zhu Wei froze for a moment, then quickly stepped forward. “You alright?”

Qin Yu looked up at him. “I’m fine. Go get the guns.”

“Alright, I’ll head over now.” Zhu Wei turned and left.

Qin Yu watched his retreating figure, brow slightly furrowed, lost in thought.

“Team leader, Zhu Wei isn’t like Old San — he doesn’t have any bad intentions. He’s just easygoing, likes to joke around, likes to mess with people.” Qi Lin walked over and said quietly, “Don’t take it to heart, okay?”

You may have met someone like Zhu Wei in your life — the type who, regardless of your personality, constantly pulls jokes that go too far. Always acting like they own the place, never treating themselves as an outsider, never stopping to consider how others feel. And when you’re about to lose your temper with them, they just give you a shameless grin and say, “Come on, we’re just messing around — why are you so uptight?” Then they keep right on doing it, never changing, not one bit.

In an ordinary social circle, you might just choose to keep your distance and stop engaging with someone like that. But Qin Yu didn’t have that option. Zhu Wei was his colleague — they had to work together every single day, and there was no way to avoid him entirely. But the way Zhu Wei threw his weight around without knowing his place, constantly issuing orders on Qin Yu’s behalf, acting like the team leader in front of the regular officers — how was Qin Yu supposed to get anything done? And the trickiest part was that everyone in Team Three was Zhu Wei’s friend. If Qin Yu came down on him right after arriving, it could easily stir up internal conflict.

So what to do?

As Qin Yu weighed it all in his mind, Qi Lin watched from the sidelines with cool eyes. He too wanted to see when this new guy would finally clash with Zhu Wei — and whether, after that clash, he’d still be able to hold his position as Team Three’s leader.

……

Half past eight in the evening.

Two police cars pulled up at the entrance to Tuzha Street. Qin Yu and the others got out in plain clothes and strolled casually into the street.

Tuzha Street was the most chaotic part of the entire black district. It was home to tens of thousands of people who had residency rights but no stable work. On both sides of the road, every shopfront lit up with pink lights had at least seven or eight women standing out front, striking poses and waving to draw in customers. In the dark alleyways, you could often spot “opium fiends” who had smoked themselves senseless — sniffling, eyes vacant, gazing blankly at the street. These people had no fixed home. Today they might steal something, tomorrow they might rob someone, scraping together enough to eat, enough to get their next fix. Just when they’d found a small moment of happiness, a heavy snowfall might come and bury them in these freezing alleyways.

Qin Yu had seen far too many people like this, and environments like this, back in the unplanned zones. His eyes had gone numb to it. He just kept his head down and walked.

……

After walking nearly a kilometer, the group finally stopped in front of a shopfront with no signage.

Zhu Wei scratched his nose and said quietly, “This one sells drugs.”

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s around.” Qin Yu turned and scanned the area, then said quietly, “I don’t know this area well. If we go in directly, can we actually take anyone in?”

Qi Lin thought for a moment and replied, “Catch them in the act. Wait for someone to come buy drugs, then we move in.”

Qin Yu stood by the roadside, frowning and thinking it over for a long time, still not fully confident. “They’re running an open operation here — there’s no way they have zero precautions. I’m worried we’ll fail to make the arrest and just tip them off instead.”

Zhu Wei’s expression immediately turned impatient. “I already told you — nobody’s been managing this before. If you want to clean it up, you need the element of surprise. By the time you’ve done your undercover investigation, they’ll have already heard the wind. The resistance you’ll face when you try to crack the case will be a lot greater.”

Qin Yu genuinely had no experience living in the Ninth Special Zone, and he wasn’t exactly a seasoned veteran when it came to case investigations either. So after deliberating for a while, he turned to Old Hei and asked, “Zabi, do you think we can make the arrest?”

“It’s true nobody’s dealt with this kind of thing before.” Old Hei replied simply. “But if we do long-term surveillance, word will definitely leak. There are no secrets in the department.”

After a few seconds of silence, Qin Yu immediately gave his orders. “The police vehicles are too conspicuous — there’s no way to bring them in here. Old Hei, Xiao Liu, you two move the cars around to the back of the street. The moment we make the arrest, we get in and go.”

“Understood.”

“Everyone else spread out and check your firearms, ammunition, and vests.” Qin Yu continued. “The moment someone walks into that shop across the way, we move in.”

“Heh, you actually wore a bulletproof vest?” Zhu Wei sneered. “You’re really that jumpy? These drug dealers have no real standing — back when I was on patrol a few years ago, I used to rough them up all the time. This bunch is scared of everything.”

Qin Yu glanced at Zhu Wei and still gave the order with caution. “Let’s get to work.”

……

Half an hour later.

Two young men led an old man into the shopfront, bold as you please. Qin Yu crouched in the alley, picked up his radio, and asked, “Get a look through the glass — see if they’re picking up drugs.”

After a short wait, Qi Lin replied, “They are.”

“Everyone move,” Qin Yu called out immediately. “They’re inside.”

The words had barely left his mouth when eight people converged from three directions on the shopfront, yanked open the wooden door, and rushed inside.

In the dimly lit main room, the two young men and the old man stood by the counter, in the middle of packaging drugs. Behind the bar, a stocky young man with an e-cigarette dangling from his lips stared at the doorway in shock.

Zhu Wei stepped forward, gun in his right hand, left hand pointing at the stocky man. “Police — hands on your head, get to the side!”

The young man snapped back to his senses and stumbled backward, inadvertently revealing the handgun at his waist — and he didn’t immediately put his hands up.

In a chaotic environment like this, a criminal facing officers could do anything reckless, so the moment Zhu Wei saw the gun, he grabbed the young man by the collar with his left hand and, without any hesitation, brought the gun butt down hard on his head.

Thud, thud, thud!

Zhu Wei struck him six or seven times in quick succession, but the young man was still struggling. In a flash of urgency, Zhu Wei grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head into the corner of the counter with a loud crack.

Blood poured down from the stocky young man’s head. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the floor with a thud.

At the same moment, the sound of frantic footsteps erupted from upstairs. A bald man in a military coat came rushing down, swept a startled glance around the room, grabbed his radio, and shouted, “What the hell — Shop 2’s been raided! Everyone get out here!”

Silence. A brief silence.

Then, suddenly, a deafening thunder of footsteps erupted on the street. From the single-story houses and buildings on both sides, dozens of people came pouring out in an instant.

They were armed with knives, steel pipes, chains, and guns — surging like a tide to block the entrance of the shopfront.

Qin Yu looked at the dense crowd outside and felt his scalp go numb, his mind flashing to the image of people fighting over food in the unplanned zones. Without thinking, he clicked off the safety on his handgun.

Zhu Wei peered through the glass at the scene outside, sweat beading on his forehead as he swallowed hard. “When… when did they grow to this size?… That’s genuinely a bit out of hand…”