Chapter 71

Chapter 71

The driver stumbled out of the car, but his footing was unsteady. He grabbed the door and took a step, only to collapse weakly to the ground.

The nearby traffic cop rushed over and grabbed him.

Shen Dongqing's car got scraped up pretty badly during the interception and needs repairs and a check-up. Good thing the government's footing the bill. The only problem is he's stuck without a car until it's fixed.

The investigation came back fast. The driver's speeding and near-miss with Shen Dongqing wasn't an accident—it was intentional.

According to the security footage, the car had been sitting there for a while. It waited until Shen Dongqing went out for groceries, then the driver got in and just sat there, until Shen Dongqing's car came by, and then it suddenly gunned it toward him.

The car came at him at an angle. If Shen Dongqing hadn't reacted fast, getting hit would've been bad news.

"So, it's the dealers getting back at me. Someone's still watching me," Shen Dongqing said with certainty.

"Can I check the surveillance footage?" Shen Dongqing asked.

"What are you planning to do?" Xiao Ze asked.

"They staked me out this precisely, so someone's gotta be nearby watching me and reporting my moves. I want to find out who's tailing me," Shen Dongqing said.

"The sooner we find whoever's watching me, the more leads we'll have," Shen Dongqing added seriously.

It was a weird request for the victim to want to comb through the footage to find his stalker, but Xiao Ze knew about his face-recognition skills.

Sure, the cops could go through the footage too, but when it came to memorizing faces and IDing them fast, a few officers put together still couldn't match Shen Dongqing.

But even so...

"Won't your head hurt looking at all this?" Xiao Ze hadn't forgotten how, the first few times they met, Shen Dongqing had fried his brain memorizing wanted criminals' faces. Going through surveillance footage would drain him even more.

"I'm good, I've practiced a bit since then." Shen Dongqing didn't expect Xiao Ze to still remember that, and he smiled, shaking his head.

Seeing Shen Dongqing was set on it, Xiao Ze dropped it and led him to the footage.

They'd figured the dealers might come after Shen Dongqing, but they didn't think it'd happen this fast, this hard.

Thinking about the drug-driver's car scraping past Shen Dongqing's in the footage, Xiao Ze clenched his fists without realizing it.

"Let me know if it gets to be too much," Xiao Ze gave one final reminder.

Shen Dongqing nodded and pulled out a face-recognition card he hadn't touched in ages. After all that relentless training, he figured he could now do about half of what the skill card did on his own, just slower.

The card's plus was that it let him memorize faces without any strain, and the input speed was lightning fast. In a time crunch like this, the card was still the way to go.

The only downside was that once the skill kicked in, faces turned into data.

Shen Dongqing glanced at Xiao Ze. Maybe because he saw Xiao Ze so much, even when his face turned into data, Shen Dongqing thought his data looked especially good-looking.

"What's up?" Seeing Shen Dongqing staring at him, Xiao Ze figured he had something to say he didn't want to say in front of everyone, so he leaned in and asked quietly.

"Nothing, just thinking you're really handsome, Captain Xiao," Shen Dongqing said with a shake of his head.

Seeing Shen Dongqing could still crack jokes at a time like this, Xiao Ze shot him a helpless look. He knew Shen Dongqing was laid-back, but to just get targeted for payback and stay this chill, it really was...

But that was a good thing, though.

Watching Shen Dongqing zone in on the footage after that, Xiao Ze felt the tension in his chest loosen a bit.

Xiao Ze had his own stuff to do. He set a drink down next to Shen Dongqing before heading out.

The room was apparently set aside just for Shen Dongqing to go through the footage. Shen Dongqing got it—they couldn't exactly have him watching in the main bullpen.

Once Xiao Ze left, the room got a lot quieter. Shen Dongqing focused hard, feeling his brain drain fast. Luckily, with all his recent training, he'd come up with a new trick.

Most people's faces were different, but with a bunch of data strings, some could be ruled out just by glancing at the first one. With more practice, he could even get a vague read on the data.

That meant scanning once, saving the data as an image, and comparing it to later data images. Only the ones with high similarity needed a close number-by-number look, which saved a ton of brainpower. That was the trick Shen Dongqing used while going through the footage now.

Shen Dongqing mainly watched the footage around his own routes, and it didn't take long to spot the same people showing up near him at different times and places.

This drug crew had a lot of people. Shen Dongqing counted and found five people had been tailing him. They worked separately, but they'd mapped out his every move over the past few days—no wonder they'd been able to stake him out ahead of time.

Shutting off the footage, Shen Dongqing rubbed his head, feeling his brain was still a bit fried, given how many people were on screen.

Shen Dongqing casually picked up the drink beside him and took a sip. The sugar in it replenished his energy somewhat, making him feel a bit better.

He sent the photos of the trackers to Xiao Ze, then got up and left.

...

Meanwhile, Xiao Ze had found a new lead.

The dealers didn't think much of addicts, just seeing them as tools controlled by the drugs. That view wasn't entirely wrong, but as long as someone hadn't completely destroyed themselves with drugs, they still had their own schemes.

Because they underestimated the addict, the driver they'd recruited actually had quite a bit of information about the drug organization—things they had carelessly revealed in the past.

No one knew what the driver was thinking, but he had quietly collected all of it. This time, the drug dealers' communications with the driver had also been gathered by him.

"Captain Xiao, why do you think this guy collected all this?" Looking at the information extracted from the phone, Du Wei couldn't understand it. If this were an informant or undercover officer, collecting such intel would make sense, but a drug addict doing this was just bizarre.

Xiao Ze wasn't sure either, but looking at the various information the man had gathered, a guess suddenly formed in his mind—though it was a bit far-fetched.

When the person being questioned came out, Xiao Ze shared his theory and told them to go back in and ask.

"No, that can't be right." The questioning officer found it hard to believe, thinking Xiao Ze's imagination was running wild. But on second thought, it would only take a moment to ask, and besides, once mentioned, the drug-driving driver would likely become even more forthcoming.

After all, having done what he did, the driver should be more afraid than anyone that the drug organization wouldn't be eliminated by the police. If they ever found out, he'd be the next target of retaliation.

"Tian Jun, why did you collect so much information about drug trafficking, transportation, and sales?"

The effects of the drugs in Tian Jun's system had mostly worn off. He was utterly exhausted, his eyelids barely staying open, but he still had to complete the statement. All he wanted was to finish quickly and get some sleep.

Hearing the question, his sluggish mind offered no resistance, and he blurted out his purpose: "I wanted to make money selling drugs."

The questioning officer was stunned. What the hell—it really was exactly what Xiao Ze had guessed.

Realizing what he'd said, Tian Jun immediately panicked. Drug trafficking was far more serious than drug use. Even being hired to ram Shen Dongqing's car was a lesser crime than that...

No wait, Tian Jun remembered—he had only collected information. He hadn't actually done anything yet. Surely just thinking about it wasn't illegal.

"Officer, I was only thinking about it. I really didn't do anything. Just thinking—that's not against the law, right?" Tian Jun wasn't sure, so he quickly appealed to the police.

The questioning officers exchanged glances and continued pressing him on why he'd had that idea.

At that, Tian Jun actually perked up a bit.

The root of it all, as it turned out, came back to Xia Fei.

Tian Jun actually knew Xia Fei, though not very well. When Xia Fei returned to Ningchuan City, they initially had one-on-one meetups, and it was then that Tian Jun discovered Xia Fei had switched to drug dealing.

They had started using around the same time, but Xia Fei was in much better shape than him. Because Tian Jun was short on cash, the quality of the drugs he got was pretty poor, and with all the abuse his body had taken, despite being similar in age, he looked a lot rougher.

Moreover, Xia Fei's drugs were cheaper too. When Tian Jun asked around with some fellow users, he learned how much money Xia Fei was pulling in, and he felt a bit envious.

When you get envious of someone, you want to copy their playbook. But Tian Jun didn't have the money to go abroad, so he decided to become a small-time dealer himself—stacking up experience while scouting for cheaper supply lines.

But where could Tian Jun find supply channels? He could only go back to the dealers he'd copped from before. Dealers didn't watch users too closely, since a junkie wasn't about to run to the cops and rat them out.

A new user might have a moment of clarity and do something stupid, but an old junkie like Tian Jun was basically a lost cause.

You could say Tian Jun got lucky, or that he had a real knack for sniffing out info—he actually stumbled onto some major intel without breaking a sweat.

"I really regret it. If I'd known I had this skill, and I hadn't gotten hooked on drugs, I could've gone anywhere in life." Tian Jun said with a grimace. He'd been out on the streets since middle school, and somewhere along the line, he got hooked.

If he hadn't gotten hooked and had figured out he was good at digging up info, he might have found another path. Even as he got older, with a talent like that, he might not strike it rich, but he could live a decent, steady life.

But once you get hooked, it's all downhill from there.

"I thought about quitting too, but they—they kept sending me messages. New drops, how fire the product was, videos of people getting lit, deals and discounts... I, I just couldn't help myself." As he talked, the resentment toward the dealers crept into his voice.

"It's all on them! If those dealers weren't pushing, I never would've picked it up. I could've been clean by now!" Tian Jun broke down wailing.

But even as he voiced his resentment, his mind wandered back to those videos, and his body couldn't help but remember how good getting high felt. A dazed, dreamy look crept onto his face.

The cop questioning him wasn't buying any of it. The more junkies you deal with, the colder you get.

Maybe someone who got hooked by accident could quit if you stripped away the temptation, but someone like Tian Jun—after he started using, all the straight people around him vanished, leaving nothing but fellow junkies. Even if he wanted to quit, even if he had the willpower, his so-called friends would drag him right back under.

And honestly, looking at him right now, what willpower did he even have?

When he met the cop's eyes, Tian Jun's voice died in his throat. He went pale and dropped his head.

"Besides what's recorded on your phone, is there anything else?" The officer continued, though he was just fishing, not really expecting anything. He didn't think Tian Jun had anything more.

But to his surprise, Tian Jun went quiet for a beat, then coughed up some more info.

Tian Jun knew that since his information-gathering had been discovered, to keep from ending up like Shen Dongqing and getting hit with retaliation, even locked up, he still had family—a daughter. Even if they weren't close, with him behind bars, the dealers might come after his daughter instead.

Maybe it was the post-high clarity, but Tian Jun still had a sliver of conscience left—though that sliver shrank a little more every time he got high.

The cop was floored by what he heard, and couldn't help thinking Tian Jun's talent was wasted. If he'd been a plainclothes cop, who knows how much intel he could've pulled in.

But some roads don't have a way back. Drugs was one of them.

...

When the narcotics squad got the transcribed statement, they were damn near speechless.

If they had it right, Xiao Ze's crew had busted a junkie hired by the dealers to get back at Shen Dongqing—not some key player in the org. So how the hell did he have all this intel?

If they could confirm these leads and do a little more digging, they might be able to take down the whole operation in one go.

The intel was solid, except for one thing: no photos.

Right then, Xiao Ze sent over a stack of photos, saying they were of the guys who'd been tailing Shen Dongqing—possibly crew members.

Sure, they could hire someone else to do the tailing, but the more people involved, the higher the chance of getting burned. And as for using junkies—they weren't steady enough for that kind of delicate work. So odds were, these were guys from inside the org.

Putting two and two together, the narcotics squad moved fast.

Meanwhile, Xia Fei was pissed that the hit-and-run revenge plan had flopped. He'd already handed over his supply lines, and this was what he got? Total letdown.

The head dealer was embarrassed too. They'd planned everything so carefully, and they hadn't even grazed Shen Dongqing.

Sure, the only real loss was the junkie getting busted—one less customer, no big deal. But he'd talked a big game earlier, and this result was a bit of a slap in the face.

"Brother Xia, don't worry. We can afford to lose a hundred times, but Shen Dongqing only needs to slip up once, and he's done."

Of course, the boss said that partly because he remembered Xia Fei was headed to the border to bring back product. If he pissed Xia Fei off and the guy took off across the border, they'd be screwed.

Besides, with the whole crew watching, if he quit after one failed attempt, what kind of respect would he have left?

The boss quickly cooked up a second plan, but Shen Dongqing stayed holed up at home and wouldn't budge. Unless they went knocking on his door to start something, none of their moves would work.

But the cops regularly cruised Shen Dongqing's block. Even the craziest fool wouldn't be dumb enough to walk into that. And Shen Dongqing was known to be vicious—after that car hit, he'd definitely be on high alert. The boss could only wait, biding his time until Shen Dongqing dropped his guard and stepped outside again.