Chapter 69

Chapter 69

"Done with the statement?" Xiao Ze said.

"Yeah, all done." The officer said with a sigh, "Today was such a crazy coincidence. If Shen Dongqing hadn't happened to spot it and clock the guy as a user, we never would've found this lead."

"By the way, how's the footage looking? Did you find the suspect?" the officer asked.

Xiao Ze nodded. Because they had a clear time frame, and not many people had walked down that street during that period, their suspect list wasn't too long. You could say the narcotics team's workload just got a whole lot lighter.

As for the livestream fallout, since this broadcast had captured a drug transaction, Shen Dongqing had already disabled sharing. As for people who screen-recorded it, the cops got in touch with the platform, and any uploads got taken down.

Regular netizens also knew better—actually posting it would only make things harder for the cops.

So in the end, at worst, a few clueless people might secretly make videos to chase clout, but the platform barely pushed them, so the videos got almost no traction.

Xia Fei was a textbook case of selling to support his own habit. He'd initially been lured into trying drugs by someone else, and after a few hits, he was hooked. But back then, he still had enough sense to try quitting for a bit. But the withdrawal was so brutal he gave up on quitting.

As a college kid these days, he obviously knew where drug use ended up—either going broke, OD'ing, or getting bad stuff and dying.

Basically, once you started using, you could see exactly how long you had left.

Xia Fei didn't want to end up like that. After mulling it over, he quietly slipped out of the country, trying to get closer to the source of production, hoping the drugs would be cheaper.

The drugs there were indeed a bit cheaper and way more common than back home—some were even just sitting out in the open, and nobody batted an eye. The only catch was that it was way too dangerous over there. Drugs cost less than in China, sure, but living expenses weren't cheap, and he couldn't find work easily, so he had to live off his savings.

Which meant he was just burning through his savings. By the time his savings were down to a third, Xia Fei realized that keeping up this lifestyle wouldn't end any better than staying in China.

After all, no matter how much cheaper drugs were abroad, they still cost money, and his tolerance kept climbing, so he had to shell out more and more every day. He couldn't keep that up much longer.

After going back and forth, Xia Fei decided the only way was to sell drugs. As for the death penalty for trafficking, when he thought about the agony of being without drugs, even execution didn't seem so scary.

Since he'd used drugs overseas, he'd made connections with various production channels, which made sourcing product way easier.

The only problem was getting past border checkpoints. He could dodge checkpoints by taking back roads along the border, but once he was inside the country, even near the border, moving the drugs was still a pain. But luckily, after a ton of trial and error, he found a workable route before his savings dried up, and managed to get the drugs into the country.

Ningchuan was where Xia Fei first started selling. To stay safe and under the radar, Xia Fei ran everything through online channels, steered clear of surveillance cameras, and did his best to do contactless deliveries.

Xia Fei also brought in two users to help him move product. Using users to sell was risky—they were too unpredictable, and you never knew when their addiction would flare up and cause trouble—but he didn't trust anyone else.

Sure, China cracked down hard on drugs, but the business was seriously profitable. His shrinking savings quickly ballooned, and since he bought in bulk, his suppliers could even hook him up with better stuff.

Xia Fei was even plotting how to scale up bit by bit—until yesterday, when the dream came crashing down.

Panicking, Xia Fei fled the street where he lived and stumbled into an abandoned construction site. He didn't even dare try hiding somewhere else, because he knew the cops already had his face memorized. Going anywhere else would just get him caught faster.

Xia Fei couldn't figure out how any of this had happened. Only now could he sit down and slowly piece it together.

Right—the cops had been led there by that lackey. The cops must've grabbed the lackey first, then come for him. If he hadn't happened to be out, spotted strangers around the lackey, and ducked out of sight in time, he might've been caught red-handed.

But things had been smooth sailing all along—so why did everything suddenly go sideways?

Xia Fei hid in the abandoned building and replayed everything, but before long, his addiction flared up again.

Most of his stash was back at his place. Luckily, since his addiction was bad, Xia Fei always kept some on him just in case. He quickly swallowed two pills.

He didn't dare take too much, afraid he'd lose control of his body. Also, because he only had a limited amount on him, if he took too much now, he wouldn't have any for the next episode.

If he had money, he could buy drugs—after all, while selling in Ningchuan, he had come into contact with other dealers.

In fact, if those other dealers weren't so greedy, his business wouldn't have taken off so easily. He was a new seller, and users weren't sure if his stuff was legit or any good.

But because everyone else charged such high prices, his were much lower, and many users were willing to take a chance on him, eventually becoming regulars.

But now the problem was that he was on the run, and all his money was at home. Worst of all, he had just withdrawn all the cash from his bank account, leaving only the money from a few recent transactions. He couldn't even afford to buy drugs.

Staring at the money in his account, Xia Fei was so frustrated he wanted to throw his phone. But as he raised his hand, he looked at the phone and couldn't bring himself to do it.

This was his last means of communication. If he broke it, he'd be reduced to living like an ancient person with no electronic devices at all.

And if he had to get the phone repaired, he could easily be caught by the police during that process.

Xia Fei stared at his phone in distress, when suddenly it vibrated—a call was coming in.

Seeing an unfamiliar number, Xia Fei quickly hung up. Who knew if it was the police calling? At the same time, he prepared to leave. Then a text message came through.

Xia Fei looked at the message and froze. The sender was asking if he wanted to know how he had been discovered.

"What do you want to say?" Xia Fei asked after a long silence.

The other party sent a video link and told him to watch it.

Xia Fei clicked the video. At first, he didn't notice anything wrong, but after watching for a while, he realized something was off—in one corner of the video, there seemed to be another video, shrunk very small. Combined with the color grading of the main video, the small video was easy to overlook.

Xia Fei looked closely and heard Shen Dongqing's words, and saw the appearance of that trash can.

Xia Fei quickly flipped through his record book—the one tracking drug sales. There was an order for an urgent delivery to a trash can at a certain location. Could it really be that one?

"Your crew was discovered because of this person." After sending that message, the other party also sent over the previous drug cases Shen Dongqing had been involved in.

Xia Fei knew Xu Xiaodong. The guy spent generously, bought drugs quickly, and rarely haggled—basically a premium customer.

A few days ago, this customer had gone quiet. Xia Fei had assumed he'd been poached by another dealer, or that his family had found out about his drug use and he couldn't buy anymore. He never expected the guy had been arrested.

As for the other example, he recognized that person too. That guy was poor, had no money, and had even tried to work under Xia Fei. But even if Xia Fei was recruiting, he wouldn't take someone who was so ravaged by drugs they didn't even look human anymore.

"Shen Dongqing!" Xia Fei gritted his teeth in hatred. He was truly finished now. Crossing the border cost money, buying drugs abroad cost money, but he had no money left—he was trapped in Ningchuan.

Xia Fei could already foresee his fate. At best, he could flee to another city, but as a wanted fugitive, he couldn't do any legitimate work to earn money. Then his addiction would flare up, he'd be discovered, arrested, and executed.

The more he imagined his bleak future, the more he hated Shen Dongqing. If it weren't for him, his little business would have been thriving, growing bigger and bigger. How could he have ended up in this situation?

Despite his rage, Xia Fei still had some sense left. He directly asked, "What do you want?"

The other party wouldn't have contacted him without a reason—they must want something from him.

"Your product is so cheap, it must be imported from abroad. Give me your supply channel, and I'll pay you well."

The drug gang sending the message was also coveting Xia Fei's supply source. Xia Fei was practically disrupting the market in Ningchuan, causing many users to flock to him. If he hadn't been selling for relatively short time and in limited quantities, the gang would have lost all their customers to him.

If they were all getting product from the same upstream supplier, the other party would have to be selling at a loss to offer such prices.

The fact that they could sell at that price meant their costs were lower. Based on the channels the gang knew about, those prices were impossible. Clearly, the other party had a new, low-cost channel—and what drug dealer wouldn't be tempted by that?

Seeing that the other party wanted his channel, Xia Fei's mind stirred. Although his route wasn't stable, trading it for money wasn't out of the question.

If they were really willing to pay him, he could use the money to pay someone to smuggle him across the border. Even if he was wanted in China, he could just live abroad. He was already a drug dealer—what other work couldn't he do?

After some back-and-forth bargaining, Xia Fei was about to close the deal at a price he found acceptable. But at the last moment, he added one condition.

He wanted the other side to help him get back at Shen Dongqing. In exchange, if they helped him, he could even hook them up with better drug sources once he got abroad.

This offer was almost too good to pass up, and Xia Fei wasn't asking them to straight-up stab Shen Dongqing to death or anything—they could even make it look like an accident.

The dealers had no shortage of addicts willing to do anything for a fix, and some of them even carried deadly infectious diseases. Using someone like that as a tool to get back at Shen Dongqing was more than enough.

In the end, the other side agreed to Xia Fei's terms, sealing the deal on the condition of getting revenge on Shen Dongqing.

Even though Shen Dongqing's track record was impressive, these dealers didn't take him too seriously. Before, it was criminals going one-on-one with him, but now things were different. And as long as Shen Dongqing got hurt and caught a disease through blood contact, that would be his total downfall.

...

Normally, the failed police operation couldn't be shared with Shen Dongqing, but unfortunately, his grudge with this dealer ran deep. The dealer might not have known at first, but after running, they'd have to figure out what happened, and they might very well come looking for Shen Dongqing.

If Shen Dongqing stayed in the dark, the situation would be extremely dangerous.

After hearing what Xiao Ze had to say, Shen Dongqing was quiet for a moment. Just as Xiao Ze figured he was worried about his safety, Shen Dongqing suddenly spoke up.

"So, this is just some small-time dealer, a three-man operation?"

Shen Dongqing didn't know how to feel. A drug crew that had nearly caused two tragedies right in front of him turned out to be small fry—that was way beyond what he'd expected.

He'd figured the group would at least be a bit bigger, but who knew...

Although Shen Dongqing didn't finish his sentence, his expression said it all.

Xiao Ze said, "Because they sell their drugs way below the normal price, they've hurt a lot of people."

Drugs are pricey, so addicts take it slow and don't dare overdo it. But once the price drops, it's hard to hold back just to save money.

"We haven't caught them in days, and we suspect someone's helping them dodge the police," Xiao Ze said seriously.

Who else would help a drug dealer? Probably another trafficking crew.

And once they teamed up, it was almost a given they'd want revenge on Shen Dongqing. As for how they'd strike back, thinking about all the reports he'd seen, Xiao Ze looked at Shen Dongqing with worry.

If it came to a direct fight, Xiao Ze had some faith in Shen Dongqing, but he was worried they'd use other tricks.

"You should also let your friends know and tell them to watch their backs," Xiao Ze said, noting that some shady tactics involved using people as leverage.

Shen Dongqing got why Xiao Ze was so worried. After mulling it over, he texted all his friends in Ningchuan, filled them in on the situation, and told them to stay safe.

After that, Shen Dongqing went back to his normal routine.

Like Xiao Ze said, staying alert would help, but if they couldn't get to him directly, they might go after the people around him.

A few days went by, and Shen Dongqing stayed relatively safe, but he didn't let his guard down, and he didn't forget to spin the lucky wheel for draws.

But the draws were just okay—he kept getting skills he already had, which didn't help with the current situation.

One morning, Shen Dongqing drove out, and at an intersection, a car suddenly swerved right at him.

Accident or revenge?

A thought flashed through Shen Dongqing's mind, then he floored it. The car surged forward, and the other one scraped past his side and shot off.

That guy's quick.

Shen Dongqing was still mulling it over when he noticed the car hadn't stopped—it kept going, tearing through the city at a speed that was just insane.

Shen Dongqing's heart skipped a beat—something felt off. He whipped around and gave chase. Lucky for him, the roads were empty that morning. He cut a turn, hit the gas, and quickly caught up to the other car.

But as soon as he pulled up next to it, he saw the driver was off—the guy looked totally out of it, and even through the closed window, Shen Dongqing caught a familiar smell.

Driving high?