Chapter 289: The Arrest

Before going to work the next morning, Zhang Ping'an went to the space to take a look; seeing the drag marks in the cave, this guy had actually crawled to the cave entrance, but perhaps he had been scared off by the Wolf again.

The five sheets of paper Zhang Ping'an had left behind were also filled densely with his writing, detailing every single sin he had committed over these years, down to the smallest trifle.

"Spare my family and children; they don't even know my true identity."

"I can, provided that after I verify it, it is the truth. If you hadn't provoked me, I wouldn't even bother with you."

"Give me a quick death."

"Fine."

Zhang Ping'an went hunting as usual today, only there were five more corpses buried twenty or thirty meters underground in the mountains.

Coming out of the mountains at dusk, he pretended to pass by their lair unintentionally and discovered they were still holed up there.

"Big Brother, I'm afraid Lao Er is in grave danger. We went to check that place today; there were signs of a struggle, but it wasn't very intense."

"That shouldn't be. Based on Lao Er's skills, even if he couldn't win, running away shouldn't have been a problem. Could the other party have experts too? Or did a group of people surround them?"

"We're changing our base tonight; they are very likely to follow our trail."

"Yes."

Zhang Ping'an hesitated for a moment, but still quietly slipped the Report Letter into the Eastern City Branch, writing down everything about the layout here, including the personnel deployment, with perfect clarity.

"Chief, this is bad. Take a look at this Report Letter."

"What? Where did they get so many weapons? Has it been verified?"

"No, I brought it over the moment I saw it."

"Quickly assemble the men. Call in everyone on duty in the bureau, fully armed. You take two people and go to monitor that courtyard first."

"Yes."

At this moment, there were only about forty people on duty at the Eastern City Branch, not enough to surround a two-courtyard compound, especially since, according to the Report Letter, the number of people inside was no fewer than their own.

Thinking of this, Li Baoguo quickly called Wang Weiguo.

"Lao Wang, there might be a big job..." Li Baoguo quickly recounted the contents of the Report Letter.

"Good, I will assemble the men immediately."

"Aiguo, assemble all personnel on duty at the branch, fully armed, and set off in five minutes."

"Yes."

The movements of the two branches naturally attracted the attention of interested parties, such as Zheng Zhiming, who had been keeping an eye on the movements of the two branches during this period.

Such a large commotion gave him a vague, ominous premonition. He quickly summoned his grandfather's guard and gave a few low-voiced instructions.

At seven o'clock, this two-courtyard residence had been surrounded by nearly a hundred Public Security officers, and the neighbors on both sides had been settled.

Li Baoguo waved his hand, and the group quickly stacked up to climb over the outer wall. The guards on the perimeter were quickly taken down, but they still managed to pull the alarm bell, alerting the people in the inner rooms.

"Bad, someone has broken in!" Following that, dense gunfire erupted in the courtyard.

"Damn it, ram the door, storm it!"

Twenty minutes later, as the last burst of gunfire ended, most of this group had been wiped out; on the Public Security side, two were seriously injured and over a dozen were slightly injured.

"Report to Chief Li, eighteen killed, fifteen captured alive. There are footprints on the back wall; it is suspected that some escaped."

Wang Weiguo, who was surrounding the back, heard the gunfire end and also led his men to surround the place.

"Li, how is it?"

"Wang, how many did you catch at the back?"

"Hmm? No one passed by our side."

"What?"

Li Baoguo's expression was uncertain. Since no one had escaped from the back just now, it proved that someone had already escaped before the encirclement.

Although their operation this time wasn't necessarily secret, it was definitely swift; no one should have been able to get the news in advance.

"Wang, someone got the news in advance and ran."

"What? Didn't you send people to stake it out before? How could someone still escape? Could it be..."

"Impossible, Xiao Qian has been with me for many years, he..."

"No, Li, you misunderstood. I meant could it be..." Although Wang Weiguo didn't continue, Li Baoguo understood: the Zheng Family.

"The top priority is to take the people back for interrogation and increase patrols in the surrounding area."

"Right."

Back at the branch, the fifteen survivors were interrogated separately, but they knew nothing except for their mission target, Zhang Ping'an.

Zhang Ping'an hadn't expected Li Baoguo to act so quickly. When he arrived there that night, it had already been cordoned off, and there was a pungent smell of blood.

"I hope they were all wiped out."

Zhang Ping'an went to the Black Market again and paid two Big Yellow Fish to have them find out the location of Qi Lu and his group in Yun Province; he wanted to verify the reliability of Lao Er's confession.

"Very well, boss, half a month at the latest."

"Good."

Inside the Eastern City Branch, Li Baoguo and Wang Weiguo hadn't gone back. They analyzed everything in detail, from receiving the Report Letter to the operation.

"You said you told Ping'an?" Wang Weiguo narrowed his eyes, lost in thought.

"Yes, I also wanted him to be prepared."

"Bring the Report Letter here; let me take another look."

He hadn't thought of Zhang Ping'an just now, but with Li Baoguo saying that, he suspected that Zhang Ping'an had written the Report Letter.

"Are you suspecting that Ping'an wrote it?"

"It's possible. This kid isn't one to sit and wait for a rabbit. Since he knew, he likely took the initiative to strike."

"I've compared it; it's not Ping'an's handwriting." Li Baoguo had also thought of Zhang Ping'an at first, but after comparing them, he found they were completely different styles of handwriting.

"Oh? It seems we thought of the same thing, but it looks like we were overthinking it."

"As for the Zheng Family..."

"It's useless. Not to mention that we don't have any substantive evidence, even if we did... it would be difficult," Wang Weiguo shook his head.

"Forget it. Regardless, we had some gains today. As for those few who escaped, report them directly and issue a nationwide wanted notice."

In the Report Letter, Zhang Ping'an had thoughtfully included portraits of the few, precisely because he was worried they wouldn't all be rounded up in one net.

"That's fine too. At least this way, they won't dare to stay in Sijiucheng."

At this moment, in a dilapidated Siheyuan near the city gate, four people lay on the ground in a disheveled state, gasping for air.

"Damn it, Lao Er betrayed us!" In their view, only Lao Er knew their base of operations.

"It couldn't be Lao Er. He wouldn't do that. Big Brother, what should we do?"

"Let's leave the city at daybreak. Regardless of whether it was Lao Er or not, in any case, we can't stay in Sijiucheng for the time being."

In the evening, they had received a note, which was sent by Zheng Zhiming to tip them off, but they hadn't dared to go to the residence arranged by Zheng Zhiming, fearing they would be silenced; this was also the reason he was anxious to leave Sijiucheng.

Before the founding of the country, Qi Lu had been the "black glove" for a certain big shot in Sijiucheng and knew the darkness within this place all too well. Now that he hadn't accomplished his task and had even been exposed, he dared not gamble his own life on Zheng Zhiming's character.

"Big Brother, so we're not taking revenge anymore?"

"I cannot let my brothers be placed in danger again because of my personal vendetta. We have already lost Lao Er, and I don't want to lose any more of you before we even return to Yun Province."

In truth, Qi Lu was also terrified. The main culprit behind his younger brother's death was Public Security, so he probably wouldn't have a chance in this lifetime; he might as well hurry back to his old lair and enjoy the rest of his life.

Earlier, he hadn't known that his brother had been sent in by Public Security. Back then, his brother and the whole group had been wiped out in one go, no news had leaked out, and later, he had even been misled.

Later, after he had investigated clearly, he realized he couldn't touch Public Security, so he simply continued with the mistake, thinking that killing the victim's brother would also let her taste the pain of losing a brother.

Unfortunately, it was too late to say anything now; it was hard to say whether he could even save his own life.