Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Shen Dongqing knew that drug addicts had no humanity to speak of, but these two incidents today still shook him a bit.

Xu Guosheng's son could at least be excused as a gambling addiction combined with a need for money, but this family's drug addict only put the kid on the window bars because his crying bothered them while they were high. They'd fried their brains so badly they'd lost all their humanity.

Someone in the comments section knew the family and started sharing their situation.

The drug addict was the child's father. He'd cheated during the pregnancy, and by the time it was discovered, the child had already been born. But the woman didn't put up with it—she divorced him immediately, didn't want the child, and just left.

The child was originally being cared for by the grandparents, but then the grandfather got sick and needed to go to another city for surgery. The grandmother had to take care of him and couldn't look after a small child, so she figured since the son didn't have a job anyway, he could help watch the kid for a few days.

Who'd have thought that in just a few days, the kid would almost lose his life?

"This poor kid has had it so rough. I suspect the baby was crying because the drug smoke was making him uncomfortable."

"With a father like that, the kid got dealt a terrible hand from birth."

"The child really can't be left with this father. Honestly, I'm scared that being around his dad, the kid could get exposed to drugs. He's so young and doesn't understand anything—what if he accidentally ingests something?"

"I just hope the grandparents get better soon and take the child away, keep him far away from his dad."

Reading through the comments, Shen Dongqing let out a sigh. If Xu Guosheng would've been better off without a son, then this kid would've been better off without a dad.

Xu Guosheng's situation was a bit better—he was the father, and Xu Xiaodong was the son. He was financially independent, and no matter how bad Xu Xiaodong got, as long as Xu Guosheng was willing to cut him off, it wouldn't affect him.

But this child's situation was far worse. With a father like that, many people who wanted to help didn't dare to—what if that dad latched onto them?

If the dad weren't in the picture, even if the mom's side didn't help out, at least the grandparents could devote themselves fully to the child without this dad dragging them down.

Shen Dongqing couldn't help but sigh again.

It wasn't that he wanted drug addicts to die young, but he really hoped this kid's drug-addict dad would kick the bucket soon, otherwise this kid's life was going to be miserable.

Shen Dongqing kept an eye on what happened next. After the grandparents found out, the grandmother had someone come take the kid away, and the dad got detained—reportedly for about ten days or so.

...

"Xiao Shen, I'm stuck working overtime and can't get away. Can you do me a favor and pick up Sisi for me?" Luo Meilan's voice came through the phone, sounding pretty embarrassed.

After her husband died, Luo Meilan went out and found a job that suited her pretty well—mainly because the hours worked well with taking care of her kid. But today work suddenly got busy, and she couldn't get back in time. And today just happened to be the day Sisi had her after-school class.

The class was a bit far from home, and letting her kid come back alone made Luo Meilan nervous. After racking her brain, the only person she could think of was Shen Dongqing.

"Yeah, what time does Sisi get out?" Shen Dongqing was editing videos. He'd posted the animated short about the kidnapping case, but his fans were all demanding to see the real footage—even if there wasn't much, they still wanted to watch it.

He had no choice but to edit some videos together.

Otherwise, according to his fans, as an outdoor streamer, whenever he ran into something, fans could only watch clips posted by other people. He had the footage but wouldn't post it—how unprofessional was that?

But maybe because he posted so little, Shen Dongqing noticed his older videos were still racking up views, and his Fame Points were climbing steadily too. Maybe it was a case of less is more.

Some fans even demanded he go live every time he stepped outside so they wouldn't miss anything. But Shen Dongqing never responded to those requests. He needed Fame Points, but he didn't want to put his whole life on display either.

But since he was heading out today, he figured he might as well go live.

Shen Dongqing asked where Sisi's class was, drove over, and found out it was a martial arts class.

He thought about it for a second and got it—Luo Meilan was probably still traumatized by what happened before. But it was good for a kid to learn martial arts and get more exercise. Once school started, there wouldn't be as much time for physical activity.

Shen Dongqing parked on the side of the road and chatted with his fans while waiting for the class to let out.

But before Zhang Sisi's class ended, another after-school class let out. A bunch of kids came bouncing out, and most of the parents picking them up were on e-bikes. Shen Dongqing looked around and realized he was the only one there in a car.

Someone walked past, and Shen Dongqing suddenly looked up. Before the guy noticed, he looked away and angled his camera to the side so the guy wouldn't spot the Flying Camera if he turned around.

"Hey, why'd the streamer suddenly move the camera?"

"Did something happen?"

"Someone just walked by—they smelled a bit like they'd been smoking meth." Shen Dongqing covered his mouth as he spoke.

"Damn, are drug addicts really this common? The streamer steps outside and runs into another one?"

"The streamer's been running into drug addicts a lot lately. I remember that kidnapping case—the mastermind was both a gambler and a drug user. Then that kid rescue—the kid was put on the window bars by his drug-addict dad. And now this again?"

"Can you call the cops on this?"

"Yeah, you can. Once you report it and they find drugs, they'll take care of it."

Shen Dongqing picked up his phone to call the cops when he saw the guy walk forward. When the guy reached a trash can, he paused, then, like he was throwing something away, stuffed some discarded packaging into the bin.

Normal people toss trash in about a second. But Shen Dongqing's camera clearly caught the guy's hand pausing inside the trash can for a few seconds, then pulling something out and quickly shoving it into his bag while glancing around nervously, looking tense and guilty.

That look and those movements made it obvious he was up to something shady.

"Whoa, is he picking up drugs?"

"That's way too obvious. He'd get caught easily like that."

"It's actually not that obvious. We only noticed because the streamer pointed it out. And there are more people here right now—usually it's not this crowded during class hours, and nobody pays much attention anyway. People have their kids with them; who's gonna be watching strangers?"

"But showing up at this time is pretty bold. He's not even trying to avoid people. That's so brazen."

"Maybe it's easier to blend in when it's crowded... No, I can't explain it either. If it were a person-to-person deal, a crowded place makes sense. But this contactless drop-off should be done when there are fewer people around."

The guy got what he came for and was clearly happy, his steps a bit lighter as he kept walking.

"Everyone, don't spread this around. I need to call the cops." Shen Dongqing gave a warning.

Shen Dongqing muted the stream and messaged Xiao Ze directly, telling him he'd run into a suspected drug user who'd picked something up off the top of a trash can.

When Xiao Ze got the message, he was still in a meeting at the station. From the two cases, they'd discovered a new drug trafficking ring operating in Ningchuan City. The ring was highly covert, using all kinds of methods to avoid meeting users face-to-face and keeping their identities tightly hidden.

Plus, they'd only been trafficking for a short time. In a few days, the police had figured out their method of exchanging drugs, but anything more specific was still unknown.

Xiao Ze wasn't a narcotics officer, but because he'd taken over Xu Guosheng's case, and given his skills plus the narcotics team being short-staffed, he'd been brought in to help.

Xiao Ze glanced at his phone—Shen Dongqing had sent him a video.

After reading Shen Dongqing's follow-up messages, Xiao Ze sat up straight and tapped on the video to watch it closely.

Xiao Ze had an excellent memory. He recognized that this suspected user definitely wasn't in Ningchuan City's drug user registry—either he was from out of town or a new user. And the spot where he picked up the drugs was somewhere they hadn't seen before.

Most of the exchange spots they'd found before were in parks. Parks had too few surveillance cameras and heavy foot traffic, making it really hard to figure out who'd dropped off the drugs.

But based on the video Shen Dongqing sent, this was clearly on a street—and streets had plenty of cameras.

Plus, this method of placing drugs meant the dealer had to do it himself; he couldn't hand that job off to anyone else.

No matter why this dealer was taking such a risk, Xiao Ze knew—they'd finally caught a lead.