Editor: Scarlet
From the time Guo Lin hung up the phone, it took 50 minutes for Qiao Jia to arrive.
Guo Lin was sitting at a table in the shop when Qiao Jia entered with a mixed look of both desire and dissatisfaction on his face. He walked over to Guo Lin and said, “What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy?”
Guo Lin, this demon, insisted on meeting him at this time. He kept asking him to meet him out of nowhere. If he got caught by Black Dog one day, based on what had happened to Guo Lin the last time, he was very likely to die without a whole body!
Guo Lin lifted his chin, making eye contact with the standing Qiao Jia. “How long did it take you to get here?”
“I came from the western end, okay? I couldn’t get a taxi, and there was also a traffic jam on the road.”
“How long?” Guo Lin pressed.
“Forty-five minutes!”
“So you were done in just five minutes?” Guo Lin glanced at Qiao Jia’s lower body and said with a hint of sarcasm, “That was quick…”
No one would interpret this statement as a compliment.
Internally, Qiao Jia sent his respects to Guo Lin’s entire family with all the expletives he knew. He once again regretted not beating the policeman harder the last time he had the chance. He should have beaten the damn officer until he became disabled. That way, everyone would be saved!
He kept his anger in check and didn’t say anything. He asked the shopkeeper for a glass of iced beer before turning to Guo Lin. “If you have something to say, say it quickly. I have to wait on Black Dog later.”
Guo Lin scanned the area, then leaned in and asked, “Has Cai Qiang contacted Black Dog recently?”
“No.”
Qiao Jia added quickly, “Recently, Black Dog has only interacted with two businessmen from the south. They just had meals and drinks together. They talked in a private room at the Tianjie Nightclub for about half an hour, but I wasn’t able to get in, so I don’t know what they discussed.”
“Has Black Dog not given you an important role since that incident?”
“Important role?” Qiao Jia thought that these two words were particularly ridiculous. “The people he assigns important roles to either help him find entertainment or act as his procurers. What else do you think they do?” At most, he was given a seat closer to Black Dog during meals compared to the farthest one he had earlier. But he hadn’t been involved in anything significant yet.
“What are the names of those two businessmen?”
“I don’t know.” Qiao Jia frowned. “One is surnamed Lei, and I don’t know anything about the other one. Even though Black Dog acts carelessly in general, he is very cautious when it comes to these things. Most people simply couldn’t get close to him.”
Relatively speaking, he could be considered close to Black Dog.
But these days, his main duties were driving Black Dog’s lovers around for shopping trips, visiting hot springs, or singing karaoke with them. He’d been living such a chaotic life that he couldn’t even tell the difference between day and night. Today was a rare day where he had the chance to take a break and ask a boy out to let off steam. But just as he was about to reach the good part, Guo Lin called him and asked him to hurry over.
Guo Lin didn’t speak for a long time. He waited for the shopkeeper to bring up the beer and for Qiao Jia to pour himself half a glass of beer before slowly saying, “…Is there really no way?”
Qiao Jia thought he’d dealt with a lot of people in his line of work.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Qiao Jia put down his glass of beer and said, “There’s a man named Ah Lie who is close to Black Dog. I ran into him yesterday, and Black Dog’s lover, Li Nuo, was also there. If you start your investigation from Ah Lie’s side, you might be able to get some information.”
Ah Lie always acted as Black Dog’s driver, so there were things Black Dog couldn’t hide from him.
Guo Lin turned his gaze towards Qiao Jia. “Qiao Jia, you’re involved in Black Dog’s affairs, and it’s not a good thing for you at all. When the time comes, no one will be able to protect you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just want to remind you… You’re aware of what can and can’t be touched. Black Dog’s downfall is imminent. You have no future with him.”
Qiao Jia’s narrowed eyes bore into Guo Lin. “You doubt me?”
“I know you aren’t telling the whole truth…” Guo Lin said flatly. “Whatever your reasons are, it’s not a wise decision to help Black Dog. If something really happens, he definitely won’t protect you.”
“That sounds like you’ll cover for me if something goes wrong.” Qiao Jia laughed. It was a cold, mirthless sound. “Officer, I wasn’t born yesterday. Black Dog’s words can’t be trusted, but you police have never been reliable either. If I don’t leave myself some way out, half a month after you’ve made a success, the body at the bottom of the river will be mine. I can’t let that happen.”
Qiao Jia neither admitted nor denied Guo Lin’s words about him not telling the truth, but took a sip of beer and added, “I’ve already given you the information. It will all depend on your police department’s ability to find the evidence and solve the case.”
For a long time, no one spoke.
When Qiao Jia finished drinking his beer, he ran out of patience and stood up to leave. Guo Lin suddenly looked up and casually said, “Qiao Jia, you’re my informant, so I’ll protect you.”
Qiao Jia, who’d already turned around, froze for a moment.
Then he looked back at Guo Lin and smiled sarcastically. “If you were the head of the Public Security Bureau, I’d probably believe these words… But you’re just a small police officer who can’t even protect himself… I can only regard what you said as lip service.”
After saying that, he shook his head and departed from the shop.
Guo Lin just watched him leave, then fished out a cigarette and lit it. His eyes narrowed amongst the cloud of smoke, but his expression didn’t reveal any emotion.
Qiao Jia didn’t believe Guo Lin; it was natural.
Just like how Guo Lin couldn’t completely trust Qiao Jia.
As for the clue about Ah Lie, Guo Lin followed it up for two days by himself, and after confirming that Ah Lie had a very close relationship with Li Nuo, he reported it to Shen Jun. His priority task, however, was to catch Cai Qiang red-handed and arrest him.
“There is news that Cai Qiang is going to conduct business with someone at the abandoned factory in the southern suburbs at night. You can take two teams of people there. No matter what, bring him back to me!” Shen Jun threw the arrest warrant onto Guo Lin’s desk. “If you can’t catch the man, you don’t have to come back.”
Their plan was to ambush the trading place at 5 o’clock in the evening and arrest Cai Qiang on the spot as soon as the transaction was completed.
It was not the first time that Guo Lin had led a team, so he had no reason to be nervous. He went to apply for the gun possession and then reported the plan to Shen Jun for review. After making sure nothing was overlooked, he waited in the office until it was time to leave with the team.
However, just before 4:30 p.m., he received a text message from Qiao Jia.
This was the first time he’d received a message from him since giving him his phone number.
The message had only two simple sentences: Don’t go through the operation at night. It’s a red herring.
Guo Lin looked at his mobile phone for a long time. He wanted to call and ask for clarification, but considering that Qiao Jia had notified him by text message, it was definitely an inconvenient time to call. If he contacted the other person hastily, he might create problems.
However, a single message was not enough for the whole team to cancel the operation.
So Guo Lin asked, “What’s the basis?” But Qiao Jia didn’t send him a reply. When Shen Jun ordered them to leave at five o’clock, Guo Lin mentioned this matter to Shen Jun, but the latter thought the same as him. “Canceling the mission on the basis of a text message? Do you think this is a joke?!”
With no choice, Guo Lin could only proceed with the mission.
As a result, even after they’d spent the whole night waiting, Cai Qiang and the others didn’t appear.
In the early morning, when the whole team was regrouping, Guo Lin received a call from Shen Jun, telling him to hurry back to the station.
What he didn’t know was that a battle was already waiting for him at the station.
“Guo Lin, who is this informant of yours?” The investigator on the opposite side asked Guo Lin seriously, holding a notebook in his hand, while Shen Jun impatiently dipped his eyebrows low beside him.
And the subject of the investigation, Guo Lin, just repeated the answer that he’d given several times before: “I won’t disclose his identity unless necessary.”
“This time, a problem occurred during the arrest of Cai Qiang. It is suspected that someone leaked the information. You’re the only person who had contact with outsiders before the operation. If you don’t tell us the identity of your informant and the source of the information, the situation will be very unfavorable to you.”
“My informant is absolutely reliable, and I hadn’t made any contact with outsiders. I’d only received a text message.” Guo Lin’s tone was very calm. This kind of investigation would take place every time there was a problem with the operation, so he usually didn’t pay any special attention to it, but Shen Jun was around this time during the whole interrogation, which made him feel a little strange.
As if he could feel Guo Lin’s gaze, Shen Jun finally couldn’t help but interject, “Okay, you’ve asked enough, right? We have a lot of things to take care of. Don’t hold us up if you’re done.”
Shen Jun was reckoned as one of the most famous police officers in the bureau. Even the director of the bureau held him in extremely high regard. Naturally, this investigator wouldn’t give him trouble. Shen Jun and the investigator stood up and bid each other farewell politely. Then the investigator said a few words to Guo Lin as a formality before departing.
Guo Lin rubbed his eyebrows and said, “These investigations are really annoying.”
“You haven’t seen the really annoying ones yet.” Shen Jun smiled and sat down in the same position where the investigator had just sat. “What do you think went wrong with this operation?”
“Captain, do you really have to do this too?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Shen Jun tapped the table. “The way you handled the investigator doesn’t work for me. Tell me the truth.”
“I’m not sure for the time being. My informant had only sent me a message. Judging from the timing, if you are sure that there is no problem with your previous source of information, it can only be a problem from within our police force,” Guo Lin said.
This was the most dreaded scenario in the Drug Enforcement Unit.
The execution of a crime could easily implicate human lives, and drug-related cases were no different from other crimes. If a drug offense reached a certain level, the perpetrator would be punished by the death penalty. With their survival at risk, criminals would do everything they could to try to get more inside information about the police and use it to their advantage. Sometimes, they might even try to corrupt police officers. And occasionally, there would be some police officers who couldn’t resist the temptation.
Such police officers were far more annoying than drug dealers.
After a moment of silence, Shen Jun rose from his seat. “Until we get to the bottom of this, you’re not allowed to disclose a word about this to anyone.”
“I understand.”
Guo Lin nodded, his expression unprecedentedly grave.
After Qiao Jia sent that message to Guo Lin that afternoon, he seemed to have disappeared.
Every time Guo Lin called, his phone was always switched off. He went to check the billiard room, where Qiao Jia often went, but there was no sign of him. Since Guo Lin’s identity was known to many people, it wasn’t suitable for him to inquire about Qiao Jia’s whereabouts in broad daylight. After searching for the man for two days and not finding any information about him, he could only look for Qiao Jia’s brother. He found Qiao Jian based on the name of the school left on the form he’d filled out the last time the two siblings had been taken to the police station.
Fortunately, Qiao Jian hadn’t disappeared.
After finding out his class from the Academic Affairs Office, Guo Lin had someone call Qiao Jian to an unoccupied faculty meeting room, and then he directly introduced himself: “I’m a police officer.”
“I know.” Qiao Jian was very composed. “I still remember what happened that day.”
“I’m looking for you because of your brother.” Guo Lin gestured for Qiao Jian to take a seat. “Do you know what your brother is doing these days?”
At the mention of Qiao Jia’s name, Qiao Jian’s expression showed a hint of nervousness. He took a deep breath to steady himself and then shook his head. “I haven’t seen my brother for several days.”
“You haven’t seen him for several days, and you haven’t looked for him?”
“This is not the first time my brother has been away from home for several days in a row. If he doesn’t come back in more than five days, he will definitely contact me.”
When all was said and done, Qiao Jian had grown up without parental protection since childhood. So, even when facing Guo Lin, who was a criminal police officer, he didn’t have the fear that others his age might have. Guo Lin cocked an eyebrow and said, “How does Qiao Jia usually contact you?”
“He finds someone to send a message to me.”
“Who?”
“… I can’t say that.” Qiao Jian looked down. “My brother told me that… I can’t tell that to anyone…”
He wasn’t aware that this kind of concealment was actually a violation of the law. In Qiao Jian’s logic, Qiao Jia’s words should be put first. He was slightly uneasy and remained silent for a while before he raised his head and said, “I’m sorry…”
Guo Lin initially found the situation a bit ridiculous, but he decided not to press further after seeing Qiao Jian’s reaction.
In the end, he sighed and waved his hand. “Well, since you don’t know anything, you can go back to your classroom.”
Qiao Jian stood up quickly but hesitated to leave. After a moment of contemplation, he asked the question that had been on his mind, “That, my brother… nothing will happen to him, right?” He originally intended to ask if Qiao Jia had committed a crime, but when the words reached his lips, they changed into a different question. He was not naive. Of course, he knew who Qiao Jia had been mixing with over the years. But from both his position and his status, he couldn’t blame Qiao Jia for anything. After all, the reason why Qiao Jia went down this path was more or less because of him.
It was just that…
Just because he knew didn’t mean he could shake off his worries.
He was afraid that Qiao Jia would either end up in prison or be hacked to death on the streets. Seeing Guo Lin come looking for Qiao Jia only intensified his uneasiness.
Seeing Qiao Jian’s helpless expression, Guo Lin placed a hand on his head. “Don’t worry, your brother is fine… I’ll help him.”
“I’ll protect you.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help him.”
Ooh Guo Lin. Hahaha you can really say that with a straight face, huh.
Qiao Jia is as savage as always though.
Thanks for the chapter ❤️
Thank you 😘