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墨書 Inktalez
Eleven kilometers from Tongguan City, at the Expressway Entrance.
A black SUV sped off the highway, barely slowing down as it passed through the automatic toll gate, heading straight for the city center.
Inside the vehicle were Ye Tianshu, Luo Guanquan, and their driver. They had just contacted the Tongguan City Bureau and were preparing to embark on a search operation for the Special Operations team that was already in place. Ye Tianshu glanced at his watch; it was nearly one o'clock in the afternoon. This meant that the person who had gone missing had been unaccounted for for almost twenty-four hours. While those at home were on the brink of collapse, he couldn't help but wonder how the missing individual was faring.
"Don't worry, Team Leader Ye," Luo Guanquan reassured him. "Based on my years of experience dealing with Pyramid Scheme members, there’s little risk of personal harm." He reiterated that these illegal pyramid schemes often relied more on deception than violence; serious criminal cases were relatively rare.
Of course, that wasn't to say such cases didn't exist. Ye Tianshu replied, "The Northern Faction has a much higher incidence of violence and organized crime compared to your Southern Faction's Pyramid Scheme. Since we established the task force on April 2nd, we've already received reports of nineteen criminal cases related to Pyramid Schemes, three of which resulted in fatalities."
Luo Guanquan waved his hand dismissively; the toxic influence of Pyramid Schemes was indeed extensive and well-documented.
"What about that undercover comrade? What’s their situation?" Luo Guanquan asked again.
"To facilitate operations, personnel are exchanged between provinces. Some are from the Criminal Investigation Bureau, others from the Criminal Investigation Division; all are experienced comrades. Situations like this where someone goes missing are almost unheard of," Ye Tianshu replied vaguely. The personnel were reliable, and a nationwide crackdown relied on overwhelming force.
Luo Guanquan pondered for a moment before saying, "I can't convince myself that we need to resort to such extreme measures. Since there have been no information leaks and they haven't yet come into contact with core members, there's no real danger."
"But one of our informants is a rookie. If they slip up, the consequences could be dire," Ye Tianshu countered.
"What’s the psychological assessment of the informant? Do they have any rebellious tendencies?" Luo Guanquan inquired.
Ye Tianshu hesitated, caught off guard. Did Mulin Shen's various behaviors indicate rebellious tendencies?
It didn’t seem so; they hadn't even assessed it properly. In fact, it was the assessing doctor who had been evaluated instead.
After a moment of silence, Ye Tianshu's phone suddenly rang. He fumbled to pull it out and saw it was a call from Field Duty's home. He quickly answered, and a voice filled with relief came through—Confidential Officer reporting back:
"Just received news; they're safe."
Ye Tianshu let out a sigh of relief but immediately felt anger rising within him. He instructed the Confidential Officer to notify 3326 that he had arrived in Tongguan and needed them to report directly to him in detail.
With his heart finally at ease, they drove into the city. The bustling streets were filled with tourists under the scorching noon sun, leaving a very poor impression on the two urgent task force members.
In the city, at Minsheng Street Corner, Washington World, Xiao Mu settled into a booth and took a sip of the chilled beer, letting out a refreshing sigh.
Zhang Quan, on the other hand, downed his drink in one go. He didn’t feel any relief from narrowly escaping danger; instead, he was filled with a sense of frustration that had no outlet.
He had just contacted home, and the response he received only fueled his anger. Without asking any questions, they told him to contact the General Manager directly and report his disappearance. Being assigned to this task from another province already made him uncomfortable, and it seemed that the coordination between superiors and subordinates was not going smoothly.
Xiao Mu didn’t care about that. He ordered several expensive dishes: salted duck, sauced beef, roasted lamb chops… Zhang Quan could only give him an angry remark in return: “You’ll eat yourself to death.”
“Go ahead and curse; I’ll keep eating. I haven’t had a proper meal since yesterday,” Xiao Mu replied as he ate elegantly but with a certain lack of decorum. He quickly grabbed a duck leg and started gnawing on it. Zhang Quan reminded him, “Hey, don’t you call yourself a gentleman? Aren’t you supposed to act refined?”
“What’s there to act refined about with you, you uncouth brute? You wouldn’t understand anyway,” Xiao Mu said while chewing.
Zhang Quan glared at him. He swallowed back his earlier threat of “I’ll kill you.” After all, saying too much had lost its intimidation factor. This meal had turned into an exercise in elegance for him instead. The food tasted bland as his mind was heavy with thoughts. Xiao Mu glanced at him several times as if he were secretly laughing. After getting out of the car, he didn’t do anything else but change clothes and find a pharmacy to hastily treat his injuries. Then he wandered around the city for a while before coming here to eat. From Zhang Quan ’s expression, Xiao Mu could sense that something was wrong.
After eating until he was half full, Xiao Mu asked, “Hey, Baldy… what’s going on? You were fine earlier today; how did you turn into this after one phone call home?”
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you,” Zhang Quan replied, lowering his head.
“Maybe I would understand even if you don’t say anything,” Xiao Mu laughed.
“Eating a few pieces of beef won’t make you any smarter,” Zhang Quan retorted sarcastically.
“Well then let me blow my own horn; you can judge for yourself… You’ve been out of contact for twenty-four hours; isn’t that serious?” Xiao Mu asked.
Zhang Quan paused in surprise and stopped eating.
“Your family must be worried sick; they might have already prepared for the worst. They definitely know about the fake police situation now; there are new developments in the case. And here you are reporting back without knowing anything—doesn’t that make you feel miserable?” Xiao Mu pressed on.
Zhang Quan's eyes widened, seemingly puzzled by the thought of such a handsome worm crawling into his belly.
"Moreover, things are progressing quickly, but there's also the issue of rushing without proper preparation. Starting from He Yuguo, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Xu Da, Ma Bufang, and even Dong Zhuo whom we met yesterday—those elusive General Managers might be hard to identify. The only way to capture their physical characteristics is through external surveillance, but they have chosen areas where no one cares. If our Field Duty misses something or if they are already on guard... it seems even more difficult," Xiao Mu continued.
Zhang Quan felt disheartened; even the female doctor Pursuit of Pleasure could see that this Surface Issue was unlikely to stump Xiao Mu.
"So, the situation is quite awkward. You could say the results are impressive or that nothing has been accomplished. According to the internal assessment principles..." Xiao Mu said with a smile, revealing Zhang Quan's fate: "You will get scolded thoroughly."
"Go to hell! I'll kill you!"
Zhang Quan snapped in anger. As he cursed, Xiao Mu's lips moved almost in sync with his, uttering the same words. Zhang Quan stared in astonishment; studying psychology really was something else—it could even match your speaking rhythm.
Xiao Mu teased Zhang Quan for a while, laughing as he poured himself a drink, seemingly doing it on purpose to irritate him as revenge for his unfriendly attitude earlier that morning.
Suddenly, Zhang Quan remembered something and hurriedly poured wine for Xiao Mu. With a sheepish grin, he said, "Linzi, don't mind my roughness."
"Oh? Are you trying to flatter me? What do you want?" Xiao Mu replied playfully.
"Hehe... nothing at all. I'm just pouring you some wine..." Zhang Quan filled Xiao Mu's glass and placed it in front of him, eagerly asking, "You must have made some discoveries, right?"
"None at all. Since we didn't go together, what could I possibly discover?" Xiao Mu replied.
"No, no... I mean normally you should have something. Just by meeting that female doctor Pursuit of Pleasure, you should have been able to guess some characteristics about those people," Zhang Quan insisted. The more accurate the characteristics he provided, the better they could direct their search—and Xiao Mu certainly had that ability.
"I do have a few," Xiao Mu admitted while sipping his drink and countering with a question: "But why would I tell you? If I guess wrong, who's responsible?"
"That would be me," Zhang Quan patted his chest confidently.
"You've already had enough bad luck being beaten up like this without saying a word; if you get scolded like a grandson afterward and then guess wrong again or twice... well then you're worse off than just unlucky," Xiao Mu added before putting down his cup and adding, "And considering how you've been cursing me all morning, I think it's only fair to give you a little dose of your own medicine."
Zhang Quan was infuriated; he glared at Xiao Mu and slammed his hand on the table angrily. "Damn it! Keep acting cocky and see if I really won't beat you up... These people dare to use fake police cars and pretend to be Fake Police; what else wouldn't they dare to do? How many shady dealings are going on behind the scenes? I've dealt with drug dealers before and never encountered anything this outrageous; I can't even trust myself anymore... Scum like this in society can ruin ordinary people's lives without a second thought."
His anger reached its peak; perhaps this was Baldy's true nature—all the restraint was for tenfold or hundredfold returns.
Xiao Mu glanced at him and suddenly said, "Actually, what angers you isn't just the bad people, but also your own kind, the system you're in, and the profession you pursue... I've come to see you clearly now; you're an idealist, just like a fanatic brainwashed by a pyramid scheme—an extremely idealistic cop."
"And so what? Is living like you, indulging in food, drink, and gambling, considered normal?" Zhang Quan scoffed.
"I'm not exactly normal either, but being overly idealistic is even less normal; it will only lead to being hurt by reality." Xiao Mu sipped his drink and gave him a helpless expression.
This guy's old-fashioned demeanor was something Zhang Quan couldn't accept. However, his lewd teasing of Yang Beauty was somewhat easier to tolerate. Bored, Zhang Quan munched on his food, pondering whether this guy was playing psychological games again, just to toy with him without taking it seriously.
"Actually, you don't completely trust me. The most important thing to you is the mission. For the mission, you'd endure beatings without a word. Even if something happened to me, you'd remain silent... right?" Xiao Mu asked, subconsciously touching the sore spot on his back as if seeking an explanation.
There was a sting in his words that hurt Zhang Quan deeply. He looked at the somewhat disheveled Xiao Mu and sighed, "Yes."
Xiao Mu was speechless; his expression was rich enough to be accurately described as one of helpless laughter. What a situation this was—he didn't consider him an outsider at all.
"In this world, there are always things that make you willing to go to any lengths... It's not just me or idealists who have this; you do too. For example, family ties—the more unruly a person is, the heavier some things weigh on their heart." Zhang Quan said.
Xiao Mu smiled—a warm and happy smile. In that moment, he didn't know what he was thinking; he simply blushed lightly and concealed the expression that touched his soft spot.
The two fell into silence again. However, both seemed to be acting out of spite as they devoured their meals. Zhang Quan finished first and waved his hand dismissively: "Check please."
The meal cost over two hundred, and with clothes and medicine added in, they had very little left. They stood up to leave and walked down the stairs side by side but lost their direction. Zhang Quan looked at Xiao Mu, who seemed composed and confident. He asked, "Where to?"
"Are you planning to curry favor with me or are you ready to trust me?" Xiao Mu countered.
"Given my experience of losing more than once, I've decided to trust you," Zhang Quan replied.
"Then let's go shopping. In your pitiful career as a cop, have you ever had any fun experiences? The biggest flaw of idealists is that they always fantasize about doing things beyond their capabilities; they often end up failing—just like you. You have great ambitions but might lack the means," Xiao Mu said as he walked ahead while mocking him. He casually bought two ice creams and handed one to Zhang Quan.
Zhang Quan's face had already turned frosty. He took a vicious bite of the ice cream and winced from the cold pain in his teeth but didn't forget to retort sarcastically: "Damn it! Why did that guy only hit your backside yesterday? Should've hit your mouth instead—that would be more fitting."
"Heh heh, you've already lost to me once with a Police Flower. How about another bet? If I win another Police Flower, we can double date later," Xiao Mu teased while licking his ice cream.
Zhang Quan paused for a moment; he knew this guy was tricky. He instinctively asked, "What are we betting on?"
"I predict that when you report back today, you'll get a scolding from head to toe—something about being disorganized, not notifying your family in time, and not doing your job properly. With your temperament, you'll definitely come back with a nose that's not a nose and a face that's not a face," Xiao Mu scoffed.
Zhang Quan's expression turned awkward as he replied, "Is there even a need to bet on that? It's obvious."
"That's not what I'm betting on... I'm betting that we can slap this back in their faces today. I absolutely despise those organizations that stand there talking without feeling the pain themselves. They treat their subordinates like they’re nothing, making them suffer and then still not giving them any credit," Xiao Mu said, seemingly with some deeper meaning, as he provocatively looked at Zhang Quan.
Zhang Quan was bewildered, unsure of what this guy was up to. He skeptically said, "Are you having delusions or something?"
"Ever heard of whimsical ideas? All forms of crime start from whimsical thoughts. Even those lowly scams on the streets shine with a glimmer of intelligence. Sir, you're quite the police officer—ignoring details and lacking perspective," Xiao Mu remarked casually while licking his ice cream.
At this point, Zhang Quan had put away his dismissive attitude and silently followed behind him. He increasingly believed that this Quirky Sprite indeed had his own unique methods and heights that others couldn't reach...
...
After wandering around all afternoon and buying a bunch of things, they checked into a small inn. It wasn't until midnight that they contacted home. At four o'clock in the morning, after monitoring the inn for several hours and confirming there were no surveillance eyes lurking around, Ye Tianshu finally came to meet with 3326.
As expected, once he entered the inn room and closed the door, Ye Tianshu angrily began to scold:
"This is outrageous! You've been out of contact for 24 hours—do you know how serious that is? The Tongguan City Bureau is already gearing up."
"Do you have any sense of the bigger picture? You spent all afternoon playing around—did you think we wouldn't know?"
"Look at you! Do you understand how urgent the case situation is right now? Every day we delay could mean more victims... Being an undercover agent doesn't mean you can throw away your principles; on the contrary, you should hold yourself to even higher standards than others."
"Have you been drinking? You think it's all fun and games while so many at home are working tirelessly and worrying about your safety... And here you are, enjoying two meals of alcohol in one day."
After being scolded thoroughly, Zhang Quan remained silent, biting his lip but unable to hide the smell of alcohol emanating from him. After venting his frustration, noticing Zhang Quan was injured, Ye Tianshu looked concerned but also speechless; this job wasn't easy for anyone. Undercover agents faced pressures greater than regular police officers. He inquired about what had happened in detail. By the way, where was that little troublemaker?
At this point, Zhang Quan spoke up: "He's next door, but I suggest you wait a bit before going in."
"What do you mean?" Ye Tianshu didn't understand and angrily retorted, "Are we still playing games here?"
"Yes, he said you would definitely be furious when you arrived," Zhang Quan said.
"Of course, do you expect me to be overjoyed? You have results, but there are also significant problems," Ye Tianshu replied.
"You will soon be ecstatic, and you will need to apologize for criticizing us today," Zhang Quan said seriously.
Hmm, this is outrageous. Ye Tianshu was taken aback, feeling even more enraged. Zhang Quan fell silent, gesturing for Team Leader Ye to follow him as they swiftly exited the room. He lightly knocked on Xiao Mu's door, which opened slightly, allowing both of them to slip inside.
The moment they entered, Ye Tianshu was stunned and shocked, instantly exhilarated by the sight before him. His mouth dropped open in disbelief, and he truly was overjoyed, bursting into uncontrollable laughter...
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