Special District 9

Peng!

After a dull thud, Qin Yu knocked the bulky man back by two steps while he remained on the spot. He quickly raised his hand and shouted, “Brother, please don’t make things difficult for me. There’s no need for someone as powerful as you to lower yourself to deal with a lowly figure like me.”

On the other hand, after he was knocked back, the bulky man was clearly a little astonished, “You still have some skills?”

“I am just a small policeman…” Qin Yu exclaimed with a bitter look on his face. He turned to the old man in the car and pleaded, “Boss Ma, I really don’t have the authority to decide on the case. Please let me off the hook…”

The frowning Old Ma looked at Qin Yu and contemplated for a moment before he shouted to the bulky man, “Don’t touch him first.”

The bulky man quietly retreated a little with his knife.

“Since you said that this has nothing to do with you, why don’t you tell me who is the one that is so insistent on cracking this case?” Old Ma asked.

Hearing that question, Qin Yu replied very honestly, even going to elaborate details, “It seems to be an order from the headquarters. They want our Police Bureau to clear away the medicine smugglers in Black Street Sector. Superintendent Li, as the supervisor, passed this case over to Platoon 1, and it’s Platoon Commander Yuan who told me that I must crack this case within the deadline.”

Upon hearing Qin Yu’s response, everyone was flabbergasted. Not only did Qin Yu not try to cover up for his superiors, he even gutlessly gave it all away in order to protect himself.

Seeing that everyone was a little stunned, Qin Yu quickly capitalized on the opportunity to add on, “Boss Ma, if you are able to deliver the money to the superiors and convince them to let this matter go, I’ll immediately alter the report of the case and let your men go. That won’t be a problem at all!”

“Hah, you sure know how to switch your tone fast, huh?” Old Ma looked at Qin Yu with a glint in his eyes.

Hearing those words, Qin Yu quickly nodded his head as he replied, “I am just a small policeman. It’s already hard enough for me to survive, so how can I afford to offend anyone?”

Old Ma was silent for a moment before he waved his hand, “Let him go.”

“Brother Ma!” the bulky man exclaimed as he blocked Qin Yu’s path with his knife.

“Let him go,” Old Ma repeated again.

The four men glared sharply at Qin Yu before opening up a pathway.

“Rest assured, Boss Ma. Even though I’m not able to set your men free, they are still under my custody at the moment. I’ll take care of them in your stead,” Qin Yu followed up with these words.

Old Ma was surprised for a moment before he replied with a smile, “I’ll be troubling you then.”

“No, it’s no trouble at all!” Qin Yu nodded before leaving.

…

In the alley.

The bulky man stepped forward and grumbled to Old Ma, “That fellow is too soft. I think he’s speaking the truth. He might not be able to help us with this matter.”

Old Ma lit up his cigarette as he shook his head, “He’s not soft. He’s sly.”

The bulky man was slightly stunned.

“A soft person would have lost his wits upon encountering such a situation,” Old Ma said as he took a smoke of his cigarette. “You still don’t get it? He’s trying to convey a message to us.”

“A message?” the bulky man was confused.

“He’s saying that this thing has nothing to do with him. The problem stems from Yuan Ke and Superintendent Li,” Old Ma said. “He’s just a person doing his work, and he doesn’t want to take the blame for his superiors. That’s why he ratted them out without any hesitation.”

“Ah, so that means that he isn’t as close to Yuan Ke as we think he is?” the bulky man muttered as he followed the line of thought. “And if Yuan Ke promoted him, that means he’s…”

“Yes, that’s right,” Old Ma interjected. “The act of the officials suddenly cracking down on medicine smugglers could very well have something to do with the new bunch of medicine that flowed into the market recently. We were the only ones in this trade previously, but there are rivals coming in now… This means that the cause of the crackdown could very well be due to the competition.”

“What do we do now?”

“There’s no use tackling this matter through Qin Yu,” Old Ma said. “Get on. Let’s first ascertain the reason behind the crackdown first. This way, we’ll know what to do with Ma Lao-er and Damin.”

…

After escaping the alley, Qin Yu rushed over to the Police Bureau at the fastest time possible to him.

Old Ma’s analysis was spot-on. Qin Yu simply didn’t want to take the fall for anyone. It was fine for Yuan Ke to order him to clear the case, but trouble appeared as a result of that, it should be dealt with by Yuan Ke, not him.

Qin Yu was already struggling to build a place for himself in Special District 9, so he wasn’t in a position to take on anything else.

Returning back to the Police Bureau, the very first thing Qin Yu did was to find Yuan Ke and tell him about the matter concerning Old Ma. He wanted to see the latter’s reaction to that.

Yuan Ke was shocked upon hearing the matter. With a very solemn voice, he said, “That bunch of people aren’t to be trifled with. You must be extra careful for the next few days. Don’t worry, I’ll tank the pressure for this. I’ll let out word over the next few days that I’m the one who ordered you all to sweep away the medicine peddlers and deal with the smugglers. This way, trouble will only fall on me.”

Hearing those words, Qin Yu dispelled his doubts regarding Yuan Ke for the time being because he couldn’t find any gaps in his words yet. The fact that he was willing to take responsibility meant that he was a reliable superior.

After this small hiccup was resolved, Qin Yu headed straight for the interrogation room and continued cornering Ma Lao-er and Damin. He wanted to quickly receive their tipoff and capture the bigger fish.

…

It was six consecutive hours of interrogation, but Ma Lao-er and Damin’s mouths were still sealed. They refused to cooperate at all.

Jabi eventually lost his patience. He dragged those two to a room without surveillance cameras and began using others ‘means’ to force those two to talk, but even after a vicious beating, they still refused to speak a word at all.

In the end, Qin Yu had no other choice. He could only focus his effort on the small fries once more in order to gather more clues, though it was apparent they didn’t know of the confidential secrets.

In the interrogation room.

Smoking on the e-cigarette, Qin Yu looked at the brothers of Ma Lao-er and bellowed, “Give us something useful! How can we help you when all you are telling us are inconsequential things?”

The small fry replied with a lowered head, “Bro, it’s not that we don’t want to speak but we really don’t know! They would surely hide the goods elsewhere right after we are captured. All the information I knew before wouldn’t be useful anymore.”

“You must be ignorant of how vicious Jabi can be,” Qin Yu replied impatiently as he got up. “Forget it, I don’t want to bother with this anymore. Let Jabi teach you a lesson first.”

“Bro, bro! Don’t beat me up, I can’t take that. Please, let me think over it for a moment more.”

“Then hurry up and think! I haven’t eaten anything yet!” Qin Yu bellowed as he returned back to his seat.

The small fry pondered for a very long while before suddenly smacking his own head, “Ah! I might really know of a clue!”

“What is it?” Qin Yu asked.

“Before we were caught, I recall Ma Lao-er talking on a phone call about an important figure responsible for securing our supplies, saying that he’ll appear in Songjiang over the next few days!” the eyes of the small fry lit up.

Hearing those words, Qin Yu widened his eyes in agitation, “Are you certain about that?”

…

In a slum within Songjiang City.

An unkempt man was holding onto a phone as he asked, “Have the news leaked yet? I already got the goods, I need to clear it.”