Chapter 282

Since the inspection confirmed there was indeed something inside, the five of them pondered what to do next.

Zheng Tan, listening to their discussion of revenge methods from the side, broke out in a cold sweat; he felt that these kids, who had grown up before his eyes, would utterly crush his former self by several blocks. Back then, he had always considered himself a world-ruining demon king, but compared to these guys, he was truly a pathetic loser.

"Should we tell our parents about this?" Xiong Xiong said uncertainly.

"Don't! If we tell them, we'll never be allowed to go out and play again." Su An objected.

Jiao Yuan and the others also nodded in deep agreement.

"Not even call the police?" Xiong Xiong asked.

"If you call the police, do you still want to hide it? Unless it's anonymous. If you make an anonymous report, why don't you go? I still have a voice changer." Su An said.

Zheng Tan: "..." Still a voice changer?! What the hell do these guys usually do?!

"Then let's settle it privately." Xiong Xiong shook his head. He was somewhat averse to calling the police; as a kid he had dialed the police many times, and kneeling on the washboard left him with some psychological trauma, so in his view, such a matter wasn't a big deal and wouldn't be reported lightly.

"What about if they go on to harm others later? And what about the people who supply them?" Jiao Yuan asked.

The few fell silent; after a while, they all let out a heavy sigh.

"Let's give them a lesson first, then we'll talk; the rest we can plan properly." Lan Tianzhu scratched his head. After all, they were still just half-grown kids; many things were indeed not easy to handle, and they couldn't do everything comprehensively.

They didn't plan to tell parents or teachers, nor to inform the police. They even drew up a "plan". Zheng Tan didn't know how to evaluate these kids, but while they were drafting their revenge "plan", Zheng Tan thought that these guys wouldn't report to the police, which was convenient for him, just as Jiao Yuan said: they couldn't let those spreading this stuff continue to harm other students.

Actually, Zheng Tan usually didn't care much about others, but this time it involved Jiao Yuan and the others, which made him angry.

"Hey, Su An, I still have a few cartons of milk back at my place; my dad picked them up on special at the supermarket. Do you need to bring some over for a quality test?" Fu Lei asked before leaving.

"Have you drunk it?" Su An asked.

"I've been drinking it for half a month."

"Any problems?"

"Not a single problem."

"Then it's fine. No need to test it." Su An said. "If you're not comfortable, you can bring a bottle over. We'll first devise an experimental plan; testing that stuff requires looking at bacterial colonies, and I can't get hold of an incubator. For the colony aspect, you can ask Jiao Yuan for help, and testing those things can be done directly in the lab—no need to do it here."

After all, this is a residential area; this is just for convenience and emergencies, not normally used. If it could be taken to the lab, Su An wouldn't do it at home, but this time he had no choice—he had to do it at home so others wouldn't find out.

"Yeah, I can help with that; I've tested tap water and cafeteria soy milk for colonies a few times, so I'm familiar with it." Jiao Yuan nodded. Just doing these things, his dad probably wouldn't say anything.

After leaving Su An's house, Zheng Tan didn't follow Jiao Yuan back directly; he ran to the small grove at the edge of the campus to open his phone and send a text.

After not touching his phone for days, he opened it to find several texts and missed call alerts, all from Xiao Luo. Upon glancing through them, Zheng Tan felt annoyed. He had originally just wanted to set up Zhang Dong once, regardless of whether Zhang Dong had stolen that twenty-eight-thousand-yuan phone; just keeping an eye on him would reveal something wrong, then give him a lesson. He hadn't expected it to actually be him who stole the phone. And from these few texts from Xiao Luo, Zheng Tan also realized that Zhang Dong had dragged him into a mess; fortunately, his special circumstances allowed him to act covertly, otherwise there would really be trouble.

Regarding Xiao Luo's several questions, Zheng Tan didn't want to reply. After thinking about that batch of problematic milk tea powder and Su An's test results tonight, he edited a text, briefly mentioning that the batch of milk tea powder was linked to the earlier cleanup operation, and also stated Su An's test results. He also wrote down the names of the several third-year junior high students that Jiao Yuan and the others had mentioned, as far as he could recall, saying that spelling out the details would speed up the case, and if this matter wasn't resolved, Zheng Tan would always feel uneasy.

After finishing the text, Zheng Tan paused.

Logically, notifying Hetaoshixiong directly would be best; besides, he's an acquaintance and Zheng Tan knows his character—he would surely investigate thoroughly and clean up completely, which would put Zheng Tan more at ease. But Zheng Tan thought about it and couldn't recall Hetaoshixiong's phone number.

Since Hetaoshixiong is out, the next best thing is to send it to Xiao Luo, who left a good impression on Zheng Tan. However, Xiao Luo is just a junior patrol officer, his abilities far inferior to Hetaoshixiong's, so it's uncertain how well this could be handled. Worst case, Zheng Tan could send it again once he gets Hetaoshixiong's phone number.

Xiao Luo had just returned home at night, holding his clothes and about to take a shower, when he was called upstairs by a landlady to help move a set of furniture; on the fifth floor, after hauling it up and down, he came back exhausted, drenched in sweat. As his foot stepped into the bathroom, he heard his phone's text alert.

Since the last time that number with four "6"s sent him a text, Xiao Luo had changed his phone's text alert; during non-working hours it became a more audible ding-ding sound. For the past few days that number had been off, so Xiao Luo and his colleagues thought the person had changed numbers and wouldn't use it anymore. Even so, upon hearing the alert, Xiao Luo immediately withdrew his foot and hurried to the bedroom, picked up his phone, and took a look.

The number displayed on the screen made Xiao Luo's heart leap with joy, but upon opening the text, his face instantly turned grave; the matter described was far more serious than stealing a phone, and given his previous experience, he instinctively felt this was also true.

Xiao Luo, having worked in this line for years, could certainly guess the gravity of such matters, but relying solely on him as a junior patrol officer made it hard to resolve. As the saying goes, "If you have the conditions, go ahead; if you don't, create them and keep going."

If he couldn't handle it himself, he could also call in reinforcements; besides, he knew a few people in the criminal investigations brigade. They had stayed in touch, and during a period when higher authorities strengthened grassroots foundations to effectively prevent and combat various crimes, they had interacted with the criminal investigations brigade. Later, due to some friends' connections, he became gradually acquainted with two people there, but usually everyone is busy, they rarely meet, so contact has been scarce.

After thinking it through, Xiao Luo opened his contacts and placed a call.

After sending the text, Zheng Tan turned his phone off again and went home to sleep; consequently, when Xiao Luo finished telling someone the matter and called back, he discovered the number was off once more.

A few days later, Zheng Tan was sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper he had just dug out from earlier that he hadn't read yet, when he saw a mention of Zhang Dong's affair, though it didn't give his name directly, just using "Zhang Mou".

As he was reading, Jiao Yuan and the others returned.

Jiao Yuan seemed somewhat excited today. While Jiao Ma was cooking, he ran to turn on the computer, logged into the chat software, and chatted with his other buddies about the topics they hadn't finished discussing today.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the table to look. He saw that these kids were discussing the problematic milk tea powder in the group they had created.

There was no need for the five-person plan anymore; the police went straight there, raided several dens, and uncovered the leaked batch of goods. The several third-year junior high students involved had taken a few days off, but most of the school's students paid no attention. Jiao Yuan and the others guessed they had heard about it through their own channels, and now they were chatting excitedly in the small group.

Zheng Tan nodded in his mind; Xiao Luo's efficiency was still not bad.

Without continuing to watch Jiao Yuan and the kids chat, Zheng Tan prepared to jump down from the desk to the living room to keep reading the newspaper, when he suddenly caught sight of the phone book beside the landline.

After glancing at Jiao Yuan, who was busy typing, Zheng Tan walked over to the phone book, and, with his back to Jiao Yuan, pretended to be nonchalant as he flipped open the little notebook with his paw.

It listed many phone numbers, including those of Er Mao, Wei Leng, and Zhao Le, and even Hetaoshixiong's private mobile number.

"Hei Tan, what are you doing?" Jiao Yuan asked, turning his head.

Zheng Tan closed the phone book and looked at Jiao Yuan.

Jiao Yuan's face lit up with realization, "You're waiting for a call?" Then, with an expression of grief, envy, jealousy, and hatred, he said, "You want to go out and play again, don't you?! Goodness, even cats live better than people!" Jiao Yuan had always envied Zheng Tan for being able to go out and play with Er Mao and Wei Leng.

Zheng Tan: "..." Silly kid. But it's true he hasn't gone out to have fun in a long while; Er Mao is occasionally snatched by his family for blind dates, and Wei Leng stays home as a good husband.

When Zheng Tan opened his phone again, he found many more texts, most from Xiao Luo, the rest being spam or carrier messages. From Xiao Luo's initial inquiries to his later thanks, Zheng Tan could sense his mood shifting from the texts; it seemed Xiao Luo had been doing well these days.

Xiao Luo had indeed been doing well; this time he also earned merit. Coincidentally, the higher-ups had recently planned to showcase a few positive examples to promote public attitudes toward them, and Xiao Luo happened to become such a positive example in this opportunity. He had to write reports, sum up, cooperate with the station and bureau's publicity work, deal with journalists, attend meetings for commendations, reports, award distributions, and so on; these days he was very busy, but he was busy willingly and in good spirits.

Perhaps this case wouldn't attract much attention, but Xiao Luo's life had undergone a huge change. Soon after, he was transferred into the criminal investigations brigade and became a criminal investigator. Recently, the district bureau's criminal investigations brigade had been short-staffed; this incident brought Xiao Luo to the notice of some people. The young man looked simple-minded but wasn't lacking in brains, his character was decent, he had both theoretical knowledge and rich grassroots practical experience, and moreover, a few people at the bureau had spoken up for him, so he was transferred there.

The developments happened too suddenly, the shifts too fast; these changes around him were beyond Xiao Luo's expectations. Not long ago he was still being lectured at a food stall, and now he's been assigned to be a criminal investigator. Xiao Luo had always wanted to be a criminal investigator; although it might be dangerous, he was willing, and this was a case of getting what he wished for.

Meanwhile, Zheng Tan looked at the incoming call display on his phone—it wasn't Xiao Luo nor Bai Lao Shi, but the telecommunications carrier.

Out of curiosity, Zheng Tan answered, and then a pleasant female voice came through.

Just hearing that voice, Zheng Tan would give it a thumbs-up, but what the other party spoke about made him want to curse.

VIP user?

How high-end it sounds, but damn, they want ID information! Hell, could I even send them a cat tag?

Those without ID—people or cats—can't bear this hurt! (To be continued…)

ps: (6.9)