Chapter 150 - 125: 1.1 Million People Should Thank Me

Li Jianye was going frantic. He felt like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

If an ordinary police officer was killed in the line of duty, it was already a monumental affair. The news would be reported to the provincial authorities in short order, and a special task force would be dispatched for a full investigation.

To say nothing of someone with a special status.

Cheng Yang could have covered up the news or destroyed the evidence they provided. He could have fought them in the shadows or simply made a run for it.

But...

The one thing he absolutely, under no circumstances, should have done was point a gun at Xu Huo’s head!

A member of Special Division 5—people who specialized in investigations, granted authority from the highest levels to look into murder cases of every kind—had a gun pressed to his head...

And it happened while he was in the middle of an investigation!

Li Jianye remembered that Xu Huo had only received that status around the middle of last month.

That was just over two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, Special Division 5 had recruited him.

Two weeks later, the man was taken hostage, a gun barrel practically shoved in his mouth...

You don’t hit a man in the face when you fight, and you don’t attack his deepest insecurities when you argue. But their opponent was about to rip the very face of Special Division 5 right off!

It was like they were squatting on their faces and taking a shit!

The moment the information got out, the head of Zhaozhou’s forces felt the world spin and his vision blur.

In Linlan City, Wang Hu, who was still wrapping up a case, didn’t hesitate for a second. He suspended the case, dispatched all his personnel to Zhaozhou City, and personally led a team to conduct the search.

Police forces from three nearby cities were mobilized on a massive scale, and the population of Zhaozhou City swelled at a visible rate!

The roads were swarming with motorcycle police, search vehicles, and officers conducting inquiries.

There were even armed officers conducting constant searches.

In the shortest possible time, the information also reached the ears of certain individuals in the Capital City.

Capital City.

In his office, Zhang Liang’s expression was terrifyingly grim.

’What was the foundation upon which Special Division 5 was built?’

’Talent?’

’Honestly, with the Eastern Country’s population, there was no shortage of talent. Only a shortage of opportunity.’

’It was security!’

’Their foundation was security—their own security. The assurance that after cracking certain cases, they could still live, completely safe from any threat!’

’Before, that security was absolute. But now... a crack had appeared.’

Zhang Liang was silent for a long moment. Then he rose and walked out. He spoke slowly to the person beside him.

It wasn’t much, just two words.

"Find him!"

...

....

「Meanwhile.」

Zhaozhou City.

"Fuck, we can’t move on the ground. This kid must be high-ranking; his identity isn’t simple."

"President Cheng, we just got word. The train station, buses, and public transport have all been temporarily locked down. There are people searching at every major intersection."

"Lawyer Zhang and Shareholder Sun have been caught. There are people everywhere..."

November 11th, 5:30 PM.

Zhaozhou City. Inside a car speeding down a country road, the sound of arguing was incessant.

One of the men took a call. After listening, his face turned black, and he immediately threw the phone out of the car.

"President Cheng, who the hell is this guy?"

"The ground and the sky are all locked down. The rest of our guys can’t escape even if they want to. They’re being checked one by one!"

Hearing this, Cheng Yang, who was in the driver’s seat, felt his expression instantly darken as he glanced at Xu Huo in the back seat.

In less than two hours...

Police from all the surrounding cities were rushing here!

’When did the people in Zhaozhou City get so fast?’

"Head to the docks. We have a contact at the docks."

Cheng Yang said in a low voice, repeating what he had said before.

Xu Huo wouldn’t reveal his identity, and Cheng Yang had no clue. They didn’t even have time for an interrogation.

They had barely scraped together enough time to switch cars and change their appearance while on the run!

"The docks?"

Another man frowned.

"President Cheng, after we went legit, we got out of the dock business. Who the hell do we have at the docks!?"

After going legit... which meant that before going legit, they were no angels.

In the early days of their enterprise, they couldn’t have gotten started without getting their hands dirty with a little violence.

But once they did, they discovered that making money through violence was incredibly fast!

And so, their subsequent businesses all revolved around it.

Porn, gambling, and drugs. Cheng Yang had dabbled in the first two, to put it mildly, but he never dared touch the third. He wanted to get bigger and stronger, not get himself killed.

Were the other two as simple as just selling sex or playing Fight the Landlord?

If that were the case, the authorities wouldn’t have banned them.

Lust is a poison that corrodes the bones; gambling, a wildfire that devours the heart.

First, even if you view "lust" as simple prostitution, to run such an operation, you need people.

What kind of people?

Prostitutes!

And where do prostitutes come from?

A partnership? Find some pretty college students and negotiate a cut with them? You provide the venue and the clients?

That’s how you’d cooperate before getting into the black market. If you’re still cooperating like that after getting into it...

...then what was the point of getting stained black in the first place!?

Coercion, pressure, finding ways to set a trap for you—like those phone scams that lure you in and compromise your personal safety.

Or, to be more direct, just like what happened to Han Shi in the Ghost Well case.

Buying them from human traffickers or kidnapping them right off the street!

Those were the real methods for procuring people for the sex trade; it was a far cry from just dealing with willing participants.

Next were the casinos.

And casinos, don’t even get me started. Just a few tables in a basement warehouse, and believe it or not, the turnover in a single night could be more than a small company makes in a year!

Cheng Yang had his hands in all of these.

Besides those, there was also...

"Smuggling!"

"Twenty years ago, we had a smuggling route at the docks!"

Cheng Yang was cool and composed, quickly digging up an escape route from the depths of his memory.

"Twenty years ago?"

His subordinate was stunned. "Can we still trust it!?"

"Is the smuggling route even still usable?"

"The docks are still managed by our people. We just don’t use them. It’s a fallback I’ve kept in reserve!"

Cheng Yang pulled out a map of the Eastern Country from a corner of the car.

He stretched out his hand, starting from Zhaozhou City, a coastal city at the very bottom, and drew a line all the way to the far right.