Chapter 433: Demotion, Not Gilding

As soon as Wang An approached, he heard a police officer using a tin megaphone, shouting repeatedly.

"People inside, listen up. We are the DJ County Police. You are already surrounded. Come out immediately and cooperate with the investigation."

Upon hearing this, Wang An curled his lip, feeling utterly speechless.

With this kind of posturing, no matter who it was, they wouldn't come out voluntarily! If you ran, you'd have no trouble at all, but "cooperating with the investigation" was like getting yellow mud in your crotch—once it's there, you can't explain it away.

Just ask yourself: if someone else had yellow mud in their crotch, would you think it was mud, or would you think it was shit? This is a matter of common sense and human inertia. Don't blame people for not cooperating; when you, as a police officer, say they are involved in something, they are absolutely unable to defend themselves.

Therefore, among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the one that always ranks first is "Run."

Seeing Zhang Shuya and the others, Wang An asked, "Big Sister, what's the situation now?"

Zhang Shuya said, "See those bushes ahead? They're right in there."

Wang An observed for a moment and couldn't help but frown.

He had to admit, these people really knew how to hide; mainly because those clusters of bushes were packed very tightly together.

From the inside looking out, one should be able to see quite clearly, but from the outside looking in, one couldn't see a thing.

Wang An sucked on his teeth, suddenly recalling the scene back at Wild Boar Ridge, where he, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li had fired blindly into the dense forest.

Consequently, Wang An suggested to Zhang Shuya, "Big Sister, why don't you just let loose a few volleys? I feel like after a few volleys, they'll definitely run faster than anyone."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shuya looked at Wang An with a face full of helplessness, then said irritably:

"What kind of joke are you making? They haven't done anything yet, and you want us to just shoot them dead? We are the people's force; everything we do must be based on evidence. Do you take us for bandits?"

Wang An blinked his eyes and gave an awkward smile, though he was thinking: It's true we are the people's force, but the part about everything needing evidence is a bit... well. Not to mention anything else, take those people in the Forbidden Zone—not one of them even left behind a complete corpse. I won't even mention those fierce bandits, because they deserved their crimes; it could be said they didn't deserve pity in death.

But the key issue is, there's a group of old women in there too! If you get to the bottom of it, what crimes did those old women commit? Even if they committed the crime of smoking opium, was their crime punishable by death? So, in reality, it's just Zhang Shuya and her group deciding what's what.

Besides, sometimes many things are just the way they are! Otherwise, can anyone explain the kind of messy business Qiao Xiaohu mentioned that keeps happening in the county seat? And it's not just the county; including the province and even the whole country, what could the situation be, or rather, how serious could it be? Of course, Wang An only dared to think about it; he absolutely wouldn't dare to say it out loud.

Not only did he not dare, he wouldn't say it; after all, it wasn't his call to make, so it was better not to complain randomly.

To be honest, it was only because Wu Dong and Zhang Shuya had an unusual relationship with Wang An that they would use their authority to come here.

Otherwise, with nothing having happened yet, would they mobilize the military and police based solely on a guess?

Are you kidding? Are these people someone an ordinary person could order around?

Don't talk nonsense. Who do you think you are? Would they even pay attention to you? After a while, the person shouting was still shouting, and the group still hadn't approached.

However, whether it was Jia Renlu's people or the military and police, they were all very rational and didn't open fire.

Jia Renlu's people didn't dare, because once they opened fire, the nature of the situation would change.

And Zhang Shuya and the others didn't dare either!

So the current situation was completely deadlocked.

To be honest, Wang An didn't have any good methods now; without using guns, this matter was truly hard to handle.

After another while, Wu Dong and Wang Shuai walked over.

Before they even reached them, Wu Dong asked, "Xiao Ya, how are we going to handle this? We can't just keep wasting time here."

Upon hearing Wu Dong's complaint, Zhang Shuya immediately acted like a tigress, glaring at Wu Dong and shouting:

"You ask me, who do I ask? If it weren't for listening to you guys about using cannons last time, would I have been demoted to this small county?"

Seeing Zhang Shuya was angry, Wu Dong immediately apologized with a smile:

"That was also to vent your anger. Besides, we only mentioned it at the time; we didn't think you would agree!"

Once Wu Dong said this, Zhang Shuya wanted to retort, but she just moved her mouth and didn't say anything.

Then Zhang Shuya just rolled her eyes at Wu Dong and said irritably, "Get lost to the side; looking at you annoys me."

Wu Dong gave a dry laugh and stood there; although he didn't "get lost," he stopped talking.

Hearing their conversation, Wang An instantly recalled why, when he had previously said Zhang Shuya came to the county to "gild" herself, she had been smiling, but her expression had been clearly wrong.

This wasn't "gilding" at all; she had actually been demoted!

Day after day! But this was actually normal; without asking right from wrong, she had just set up cannons and bombarded everything.

Those people in the Forbidden Zone, although they did things that were devoid of conscience, they were indeed part of the people.

And setting up cannons to bombard—was that something Zhang Shuya and her group should have done?

But it had to be said, from this point, one could also see that the power behind Zhang Shuya was absolutely terrifying.

No matter who died, and no matter what crimes they committed, so many lives were truly gone.

And there were so many people involved on the scene; no matter how you looked at it, this was something that shouldn't have happened in New Huaxia.

Many things, although ordinary people find them inconceivable and think they are huge matters, in the eyes of many big shots, they are just farts.

It was only at this moment that Wang An understood why Zhang Shuya had such a big reaction when he offered his suggestion earlier.

Zhang Shuya, Sun Nian, Wu Dong, and Wang An—the four of them stood together, silent, a scene that could be called quite eerie.

Finally, Wang An thought of a way to break the deadlock.

With the power behind Zhang Shuya, as long as she could perform more meritorious deeds, she would likely be promoted back up soon.

And that hollow stone mountain was of no use to Wang An, but to Zhang Shuya and the others, it was definitely a sharp weapon for meritorious service.

Thinking of this, Wang An gently tugged at Zhang Shuya's sleeve and said to her:

"Big Sister, come over here with me for a second; I have something to tell you."

The reason Wang An only spoke to Zhang Shuya was, in fact, a helpless move.

Because many secrets, if discovered by ordinary people first, would definitely lead to "catching the toad and squeezing out the urine."

Therefore, the fewer people who know about many things, the better; only then can many troubles be avoided.

(End of Chapter)