Chapter 354

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

After Shi Tianlin jumped out of the Western restaurant, he immediately made the worst-case assumption: first he switched locations with the other two action team members, then replaced all their original communication equipment, and subsequently changed the backup contact method for the shop owner, preparing to lie low and wait for the storm to pass.

By rights his speed was fast enough, his handling thorough enough, but his assessment of the environment was not ruthless enough.

He had no idea who Chen Yi was, so how could he have anticipated that he had offended all of Jiangning.

Ordinary evasion tactics work against secret organizations, and are more than sufficient against government security organs that aren't taking things seriously, but that is the extent of it...

When several government agencies join forces to carry out a dragnet-style sweep, relying on a self-taught fence operator becomes far less reliable.

Zhu Guangliang wanted to catch Shi Tianlin as a tonic; Bureau Chief Yan was no different — he had only just taken office, was more or less feeling insecure, so a little supplementation was in order.

At the second Bureau Party Committee meeting chaired by Bureau Chief Yan, he "exercised sole authority," breaking the task down onto each person's head: "The Municipal Criminal Investigation Corps, aside from homicide cases, must pull out all other manpower to conduct a baseline investigation of firearms transactions on the black market, and when necessary join forces with the Armed Police Force for a special operation; the Command Center and the Public Information Supervision Detachment must keep their eyes wide open, closely monitoring any intelligence related to this case... Bureau Chief Liu will bear primary responsibility for this matter."

Bureau Chief Liu, roughly the same age as Bureau Chief Yan, nodded heavily at this and said: "Resolutely obey."

Bureau Chief Yan continued with approval: "Good, that's the spirit of rising to the challenge. The Security Detachment has been loaned out, so coordinate well with the Security Department; the Public Order and Traffic Corps, while doing their own jobs properly, must cooperate with the sub-bureaus and police stations below, and all street-level organizations, to screen the floating population across the entire city — all religious organizations and mass gatherings must receive special attention... Bureau Chief Qian, you take the lead."

Yan Hang had served as Executive Deputy Director for three years, his prestige growing by the day; Bureau Chief Qian dared not rely on seniority to throw his weight around, and simply replied with a crisp: "Yes."

Bureau Chief Yan nodded in satisfaction; by seizing this opportunity he had effectively established the new Bureau Chief's authority before all the bureau's cadres and officers — something completely different from his time as Executive Deputy Director.

Pausing briefly, Yan Hang issued another order: "Led by the Major Crimes Squad, draw elite personnel from the Economic Investigation Detachment, the Narcotics, Chengnan, Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Port, and Technical six squadrons, strive to find a breakthrough in this case as soon as possible — for now the focus remains on screening. The Logistics and Equipment Division must ensure frontline support; weapons and bulletproof vests must be ready, maintaining a state of instant readiness to strike. All other units must shift their work focus accordingly. The Political Department, Supervision Office, and Police Inspection Brigade — for the coming period you are all deployed to the field, maintain close contact with the masses, carry forward our Party's work style. The sub-bureaus and county bureaus below must take the Municipal Bureau as the standard, integrate personnel, and strike out in all directions; the suspect's portrait must reach every single officer and every single Joint Defense member, not a single village or township left unchecked — this is a war... understand or not."

"Understood!" A crowd of Deputy Bureau Chiefs and Division Chiefs shouted like babies who had just been fed.

A perfectly good Bureau Party Committee retrospective was turned by Bureau Chief Yan into a pledge-rally mobilization meeting, and the Standing Committee Members below still dared not resist — this too was the "momentum" brought by the Chen Family's growing strength.

Jiangning's dozen-plus districts and counties immediately entered a state of tension.

Official power is extremely vast; the constant pre-Liberation advocacy of "streamlining the military and simplifying administration," reducing "redundant personnel," itself proves how numerous the redundant personnel were, how abundant the manpower. These people usually do nothing, but when orders come from above, they run even more diligently than the normally hardworking staff.

Just the Jiangning Municipal Public Security Bureau alone has 14 functional divisions, offices, or corps. Criminal Investigation, Traffic, and Public Order each have several brigades, independent large units of several hundred people, with their own logistics sections and offices. Add in over a dozen sub-bureaus or county bureaus, nearly a hundred police stations, over a dozen specialized squadrons — total headcount nearing ten thousand, equivalent to a field division of the army. If you count Joint Defense and public-institution staffing, even Yan Hang himself probably couldn't tally the exact number.

With this many people scattered across a metropolis of millions, solving every single case and satisfying every single citizen is basically impossible. But if the goal is to concentrate on cracking one case, doing one job well, and satisfying every single leader, there is still a very high degree of confidence.

Chen Yi's connections were in place; without even needing to greet the various sides, people with clear heads naturally caught the scent. For middle- and grassroots cadres, following the rules all your life will never bring great wealth and honor, but standing out in a mission that the higher-ups value — that is the start of a meteoric rise. A simple analogy: an important mission from above is like giving you a chance to buy a lottery ticket — the harder you work, the more tickets you buy...

The fence shop owner, who the night before had been beaming while counting money with his wife — Shi Tianlin had been extremely generous, casually helping him with a small matter earned thousands in reward money, and the clearly priced kickbacks would double — walked out the door early the next morning, only to be scared back by a familiar Joint Defense member.

A hand-drawn portrait the same size as Shi Tianlin's head sat openly in the police station officer's hands; dozens of Joint Defense members, plus the usually lazy-as-hell civilian police, were now all wearing duty belts, asking for information door-to-door, one by one...

The shop owner's only fortune was that Shi Tianlin had changed residences; if he had been caught in his relative's rental room, who knows how big the disaster would have been.

"These guys, are they planning to blow up a building?" The shop owner returned home with an anxious and wounded heart, grabbed his wife, and told her everything that had happened outside.

His wife was also badly frightened; the thought of fleeing crossed her mind, the look of shock gradually faded, and she finally said: "Why don't we run."

"Ah? I thought you wanted to sell them out..."

"Shh." The wife hurriedly pulled him close and said: "Are these people someone we can afford to offend? Before you were greedy for kickbacks — hey, you forgot those goods smuggled in from Southeast Asia and Canada? If we offend them, even if we reach Thailand we might still get killed."

"Just run like that?"

"Without offending them. Pretend we died in a car crash. You pack first, just take a plane, go... go to the United States. Once the plane lands, use the phone number you left to warn them."

"Flying to the States takes over a dozen hours, right? Why not warn them first, then board the plane?" The shop owner added one last line: "That counts as doing our utmost."

The wife didn't feel there was any "benevolence or righteousness" in this; fencing and pawnbroking follow the same work pattern — both require a heart black as pitch — but since the idea of not offending them existed, warning before or after the flight seemed to make little difference, so she agreed.

The two immediately started packing bundles; the only regret was the stolen goods they couldn't sell. These items couldn't be offloaded in a hurry, many were taken on credit, so they simply hid them in a concealed cabinet in the basement of the room, thinking to retrieve them later. They had made fast money for ten years and had long wanted to wash their hands of it.

Not long after the shop owner couple fled, the police screened their way to their home.

This lead was actually obtained through screening: a waiter at a local restaurant recalled a diner whose appearance closely resembled Shi Tianlin.

Prying open the shop owner's door, the local police who came to search immediately saw documents and ledgers not yet fully burned, piles of trash and scattered clothing from ransacked boxes and cabinets; as the contraband they found in the room increased, the importance of this intelligence rose straight up into reports that Bureau Chief Yan could see.

Following this thread, young officers began appearing in the urban-rural fringe; the atmosphere around Shi Tianlin grew tighter by the day; before long, Joint Defense members started asking at supermarkets, grain stores, restaurants... one household after another.

There is no more stifling covert operation than this.

Shi Tianlin couldn't even change rooms; landlords and agencies had universally become suspicious, they would stare at your ID card, keep staring, like a security guard.

When police uniforms appeared in the surroundings for the third time, Shi Tianlin began to feel a prickling on his back.

The Singaporean from the action team suggested: "Let's leave Jiangning."

Shi Tianlin said blandly: "The provincial highways are all blocked; leave from where?"

"Truly don't know who we offended — could Liu Xinyu really have this much pull?"

Several figures flashed through Shi Tianlin's mind, each dismissed in turn; he said: "Leaving Jiangning is too dangerous; we'll go to the Wharf District — Jiangbei's wharves are crawling with construction sites, we dive in there and we disappear."

"Go into the city center, the bustling areas — they can't possibly screen every single one."

"But we still need a place to stay. Screening by residence is very troublesome."

"We don't necessarily have to stay where people live; suffer for two days and it'll be over..."

"There's absolutely no need to check out..."

The two action team members started arguing first.

The Headquarters Action Team is the Research Society's only disciplinary force; its members are often dispatched worldwide as heads of operations, and during their training period at headquarters, obedience to superiors is most strictly emphasized.

Now two team members openly opposed Shi Tianlin's plan — that shows they truly sensed a life-or-death danger — normally they'd tolerate wild orders, but dying for this wasn't worth it.

Just as Shi Tianlin prepared to forcibly stop them, a light knock came from outside: "Checking Temporary Residence Permits, please open the door and cooperate."

"Pack up." Shi Tianlin's voice pressed low.

"Bluff our way through." Being fellow Chinese, the other team member understood a bit more.

Shi Tianlin shook his head and said: "They're bluffing."

"What?"

"We don't have Temporary Residence Permits; when we paid the housing deposit, we already said so."

"This bastard." The Singaporean's eyes were red; he yanked his hand back and drew his gun.

"You're crazy." Shi Tianlin pinned him down.

The Singaporean twisted once and asked, "Do you have another method?"

"Damn it. Let's do it, Captain?" The China team member took out a hand grenade and hung it at his waist.

"Bang bang" went the knocking on the door, giving Shi Tianlin little time to think. He finally took out his own submachine gun and said, "After we break out, meet at Jiangbei Wharf."

The three nodded at each other and together jumped out the south-facing window of the room.

Shouts rose; the Joint Defense and police at the door were, after all, somewhat unprepared. Facing pitch-black firearms, the batons in their hands suddenly went limp like noodles, as if they had already ejaculated the essence of their love for the Party and country.

Chasing armed suspects is not what police are supposed to do. The only leader on scene, a Second-Class Police Officer, immediately called the "Command Center"; only when he could no longer see those fearsome pistols did he run to catch up.

In today's Jiangning, there are police everywhere, and even rare helicopters in the sky. As long as they want to catch someone, no one can escape.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)