Special District 9

Superintendent Li slammed his hand on the table as he roared angrily, “Yuan Ke, what the hell have you been doing? How did a planned operation turn out like that? Lower your head and look at this report! Is your platoon made of paper? Ah?! Everyone was fully equipped to deal with just a few enemies, and you still can have four casualties. How do you expect me to report this to headquarters?”

Yuan Ke replied with a lowered head, “Superintendent Li, I was busy working on another case. This is… Never mind, I won’t make any unnecessary explanations to you. I’m willing to take on responsibility for this huge mess up.”

“You want to take on responsibility? Fine, step down as a platoon commander then. I’ll put someone else more capable in place!” Superintendent Li howled coldly.

Yuan Ke immediately raised his head to stare at Superintendent Li quietly.

“Goddamnit!” Superintendent Li paced around the room as he cursed furiously beneath his breath. “I have read that report, and that Qi Lin is not just a good-for-nothing, he also has a problem too. Put him under observation right away. There’s a good chance that he has some kind of deal with the medicine smugglers. Otherwise, why would he not fire a bullet at all? This matter must be investigated thoroughly!”

Yuan Ke stood up and replied, “I have already put him under observation. Qin Yu and Old Cat are interrogating the captured suspects at the moment.”

With a livid face, Superintendent Li continued pacing around the room before suddenly turning his head over to look at Yuan Ke, and he said, “I’ll put this out directly to you. In the current era, there’s no one who doesn’t wish to live a better life. There are plenty of people in the Police Bureau who are trying all sorts of things to earn money, build connections, and rise through the ranks. I am aware of that, and I’m no exception to that either. However, there is a bottom line to what one can and cannot do. It shouldn’t infringe on the interest of others, and using the Police Bureau and the lives of our policemen as a means to achieve your goals is a huge taboo. If this matter blows up, it won’t look good on anyone at all.”

Hearing those words, Yuan Ke immediately puffed up his chest and replied, “Superintendent Li, the rumors outside aren’t always necessarily true. I feel that you have some misunderstandings regarding me.”

“Whether they are just misunderstandings or not, you won’t be able to hide the truth, and I’m not blind either. You should think it over again,” the frustrated Superintendent Li walked over to the windows as he said. “I’ll leave it to you to write the report to the headquarters. Make sure that it’s detailed. As for the cleanup, you shall do it personally. Anything that needs to be reported, I’ll look through the document and decide whether I want to put my signature on it or not.”

“Yes, sir!” Yuan Ke saluted in response.

…

Midnight, Yuan Ke hosted a dinner gathering over at Second Sis’ restaurant. Renowned powerhouses in the underground world from the Black Street Sector and the other sectors were all gathered here, and there were around twenty to thirty people altogether.

On the second floor of the restaurant, Yuan Ke proposed three toasts to the crowd before he began speaking, “I believe all of the elders and brothers here would have heard of the operation we had at Three Rings Road earlier this night by now. The scoundrel killed four of our brothers, and those above me are enraged. Heh, I was even nearly stripped out of my uniform due to that. There are no outsiders here, so I’ll get straight to the point…

“Given the current circumstances, I have no choice but to make a move on those medicine smugglers. So, I have to ask you all to sell me a favor and allow me to do what I need to. I, Yuan Ke, will surely repay you in the future. On the other hand, if anyone tries to shield them from arrest, I’ll take it as a taunt directed toward me and the Police Bureau. I’ll do nothing but to crack down his operations for the next year ahead.”

“Platoon Commander Yuan, what are you talking about? You have already given the word, so of course, we’ll have to sell you this face!”

“Aiyo, I was still wondering how big a matter it is. Isn’t it just a couple of medicine smugglers? We’ll look into it and snuff them out for you soon enough!”

“…!”

None of those gathered here lost their temper at Yuan Ke’s declaration. On the contrary, they voiced words of agreement instead.

Yuan Ke humbly poured wine for them before chuckling along with the rest of the crowd, “Allow me to thank you for this favor. I will not forget this.”

A while later, after settling all of the official matters, the dinner gathering came to an end. One of the attendees, a buff man, got onto his car and received a call.

“Hello? Old Ma!”

“I need to ask a favor of you. Help me get a few guys out of the Special District,” Old Ma said.

The buff man chuckled softly before replying, “Well, I won’t ask you who those guys are, but I won’t be able to help you for this favor.”

“Money is not an issue.”

“The Police Bureau’s Yuan Ke has gotten serious about this. He called all of us in for dinner and warned us not to get involved in this. Scary, isn’t it?” the buff man replied. “Old Ma, even though I’m not afraid of him, there’s no reason for me to offend the officials either. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Fine. Treat it as if I have never made this call.”

“Sigh, see you then.”

Just like that, the two of them ended the call.

…

Eight-thirty in the morning.

A special arrest warrant for Ah Long was sent from the headquarters to the Six Sectors of Songjiang City. Upon receiving the warrant, the respective Police Bureaus of the Six Sectors immediately formed teams to assist in the investigation.

In a very short period of time, the little-known Ah Long became famous throughout Songjiang. Everyone knew that this was the man that the Police Headquarters was determined to get.

Back then, when Qin Yu first received this case from Yuan Ke, he thought that it would be a minor issue. He didn’t think that it would come to such a point. The whole situation seemed to be running out of control, and somehow, he felt like someone had been pushing him along all this while.

In the Platoon Commander Office.

Qin Yu looked at Yuan Ke and said, “I underestimated the difficulty of the operation.”

“I know very well where the problem lies,” Yuan Ke said with a wave of his hand. “You have some responsibility to take on this matter, but we are limited by our manpower. That medicine smuggler knows that death awaits him if he were to be caught, so he had no choice but to put his life on the line. On the other hand, the priority of some of our policemen isn’t to capture the criminals but to receive a steady wage while taking on the least risk possible. The difference in resolve makes a huge difference on the field. This will always be an issue in the Police Bureau that we can’t really do anything about.”

Qin Yu remained silent in response to those words.

“Whether I should punish you or not will depend on whether this case can be cracked, to what extent has it been cracked, and whether the superiors are satisfied with the outcome,” Yuan Ke replied frankly. “It isn’t the end of it yet. Do your best. I have high expectations of you, Qin Yu.”

“Thank you, Platoon Commander Yuan,” Qin Yu replied.

He had been feeling quite nervous ever since returning yesterday night because he felt that he didn’t do well for the operation. He was convinced that his superiors would skin him alive and punish him severely. Yet, who could have thought that Yuan Ke would take the fall for Squad 3 and Old Cat?

Not only so, Yuan Ke even instructed Qin Yu to focus his attention on cracking the case.

Dong dong!

Someone knocked on the door while the two of them were talking.

“Come in!” Yuan Ke called out.

The doors to the office opened, and a young man dressed in casual clothes saluted before reporting, “We have managed to make him talk. Based on their words, they don’t have any insiders, and they didn’t receive any tip-offs either.”

Yuan Ke frowned as he asked once more, “Are you certain?”

“The two criminals gave the same answer. It doesn’t look like they are lying.”

“We’ll release Qi Lin from observation then,” Yuan Ke instructed after contemplating over it for a moment.

“What about his punishment?” the young man asked hesitantly.

Yuan Ke replied without any hesitation, “It’s already shown that he’s not suited to work on the frontline. Transfer him over to the back office first. We’ll wait for his punishment to be decided first before informing him.”

“Yes, sir!” the young man saluted before leaving the room.

Hearing those words, Qin Yu couldn’t help but sigh internally. He didn’t speak up for Qi Lin on this matter because he knew that there was no one who could help the latter on this.

…

A few minutes later.

Qin Yu walked out of Yuan Ke’s office. He was just about to have some breakfast first before settling Jabi’s death when he heard Old Cat and Qi Lin fighting by the stairway.

At the same time, at the bottommost floor of the Police Bureau…