Chapter 69.2: I Can Play a Pickpocket~
“Sorry to trouble you two with taking them back.”
Lu Yixing helped the younger traffic officer lift the men into the sidecar’s cargo compartment.
“Once you’re back, please ask the criminal investigators on duty to interrogate them immediately. See if you can get them to reveal who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes, so we can go arrest the mastermind.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure they’re interrogated as soon as possible.”
The older traffic officer immediately thumped his chest in assurance.
An injury to one was an injury to all. They were all police officers. If these thugs dared attack criminal investigators, they might just as easily attack traffic police. A serious case like this had to be investigated as quickly as possible!
After exchanging farewells, the two traffic officers didn’t waste any more time. They drove off one after the other.
Only then did Lu Yixing have a chance to take a proper look at Jiang Xia.
Her face was rosy, the corners of her mouth turned upward, and she stood tall with her limbs relaxed. She looked completely at ease, without the slightest trace of lingering fear.
That was good.
Lu Yixing finally relaxed. He took the initiative and asked, “Shall I walk you home?”
Jiang Xia looked up at him, her eyes curving slightly as she smiled.
“Sure!”
Having someone accompany her home certainly felt safer than going alone.
Liao Zhongsheng didn’t find out what had happened until he arrived at work the following morning.
As soon as the criminal investigator on duty saw him, he stopped him in the first-floor lobby and told him what had happened.
Liao Zhongsheng was so startled that his heart nearly stopped.
Two men had followed Jiang Xia while armed with a knife! Thank goodness she’d been alert and had brought something to defend herself with. Otherwise, things could have gone terribly wrong!
After confirming that Jiang Xia was physically unharmed, Liao Zhongsheng immediately pressed for details. “Did you find out who ordered the attack during yesterday’s interrogation?”
“No.”
The criminal investigator on duty looked a little embarrassed. “Those two bastards are playing dumb. When we asked why they’d attacked her, neither would admit they’d intended to teach anyone a lesson. They just claimed they’d seen a pretty female police officer and wanted to harass her. When we questioned them further, one kept wailing that his balls were ruined, while the other screamed that his ribs were broken.
“We checked them over. The one who got kicked in the groin seemed more or less fine, so we left him alone for the time being. But the other one, the guy nicknamed Rat, really did have a broken rib. We were worried he might die, so we sent someone to the hospital with him first.”
“Those two sure know how to keep their mouths shut.”
Liao Zhongsheng lowered his brows, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. “Then I’ll have to get some people to question them properly.”
If he remembered correctly, Old Feng’s team was already investigating this matter. They were bound to have some leads. Now that they’d caught two suspects, they could interrogate them together and combine the cases!
Perhaps speaking of the devil really did make him appear. Just as Liao Zhongsheng was thinking about him, Feng Zhengming walked in through the main entrance.
Unlike usual, however, his face was dark, and an oppressive aura surrounded him, like a black storm cloud gathering before a downpour, crackling with thunder.
“Old Feng?”
Liao Zhongsheng turned around. Seeing his expression, he immediately realized something was wrong.
“What happened? What’s going on?”
At Liao Zhongsheng’s question, Feng Zhengming stopped walking and explained, “Yesterday, my son was going home from school with his classmates when they ran into a young man carrying a jar of maltose. The man called them over and said he’d give them a big skewer of maltose if any of their fathers were police officers.”
“Hmm?”
Liao Zhongsheng immediately sensed the danger. His brows knitted tightly.
“Wasn’t that an attempt to fish for information? Did your son admit it?”
“I’d already warned him not to tell anyone, and he didn’t say a word. But his classmate wasn’t very wary. He pointed straight at my son and told the man.”
Feng Zhengming’s expression grew even darker.
“My son immediately denied it, then changed his story and said I was a soldier instead. He didn’t take any candy and hurried straight home. But even so, he noticed someone following him along the way.”
Liao Zhongsheng’s expression turned grave. “It’s almost certainly those vegetable-market bullies again.”
“Of course it was them! Who else could I have offended lately?”
Feng Zhengming’s voice rose sharply, but he quickly regained his composure.
“There’s no time to talk. I need to find Deputy Chief Duan right away. We can’t let this drag on any longer. We have to bring in more officers as soon as possible and arrest the whole lot of them!”
With that, Feng Zhengming stopped chatting and hurried upstairs.
“Wait for me! I’m coming too!”
Liao Zhongsheng followed without hesitation.
One of his own subordinates had been followed and attacked. If they didn’t deal with this, who knew what might happen tomorrow?
When Deputy Chief Duan arrived, he found two grim-faced men standing guard outside his office like a pair of door gods, each looking angrier than the other.
After hearing their accounts, his face darkened until it was black as the bottom of a cooking pot.
“These people are getting more and more out of control!”
Slapping the table, Deputy Chief Duan declared, “We have to arrest them. No question about it! Old Liao, go get Tan Bingyi and Zhao Zhenzhong. We’ll draw up a plan and wipe out these gangs in one fell swoop!”
A few minutes later, both squadron leaders arrived. The five men gathered in the office to analyze the situation.
However, as soon as the others heard Feng Zhengming’s account, they all felt a headache coming on.
“There are so many gangs, and we haven’t even identified their leaders yet. How are we supposed to arrest them all?”
Zhao Zhenzhong looked grave. After thinking it over carefully, he proposed what he considered the most practical plan.
“There’s no way we can investigate everything in the short term. But dragging this out would put us at a disadvantage, too. In my opinion, we should focus on taking out the ringleaders first. We can concentrate our investigative efforts on the few gangs causing the most trouble, identify their members and leaders, then move swiftly to arrest every member of those gangs.”
“That way, we can put an end to the immediate threats as quickly as possible while keeping the other gangs in check for a while.”
“I don’t think that’ll work.”
Tan Bingyi shook his head. “These people use all kinds of underhanded tactics, but actually convicting them is a nightmare. We have to find each victim and get them to press charges. But if we don’t arrest all the gang members, the victims will definitely be too afraid of retaliation to come forward and file complaints. Then we won’t even be able to secure convictions. Before long, we’ll have to release them again. We’d have gone through all that trouble for nothing!”
“I agree.” Feng Zhengming nodded. “This approach won’t intimidate the other criminal gangs at all. It’ll only make them think we’re powerless against them. They’ll become even more brazen in the future.”
Who didn’t know that arresting all of them would be better? The problem was that they couldn’t investigate everyone!
With both men opposing him, Zhao Zhenzhong spread his hands helplessly. “Our criminal investigation division has only thirty-eight people in total, and that includes the technical department. With so few officers, how are we supposed to investigate the situation across the entire city?”
His words plunged everyone into silence.
Manpower really was a major problem. Under normal circumstances, they could also direct local police officers and public security patrol officers to help. But now, many of those officers had been intimidated by the gangs and were afraid to investigate them. Their already inadequate manpower had become even more stretched.
After a moment’s thought, Deputy Chief Duan said, “I’ll speak to the deputy bureau chief and request officers from other divisions. We’ll take as many as we can get.”
Everyone had to bow to reality. Faced with the actual circumstances, even Deputy Chief Duan couldn’t confidently promise that they’d arrest every single gang member. All he could do was say:
“Use every method at your disposal. Start with the gangs that are the most lawless and work your way down. Do everything you can to wipe out all the notorious ones!”
Feng Zhengming and Tan Bingyi immediately noticed the change in Deputy Chief Duan’s wording.
They understood that this was already the best outcome they could hope for. But why did it still leave them feeling so frustrated and aggrieved?
Liao Zhongsheng was just as furious.
Back in the early days of the People’s Republic—not even that far back, but just ten years ago—they could have arrested these gang members and had them executed by firing squad.
Yet somehow, now that there were laws and regulations in place, they were less able to keep these people under control.
Whoever had written these laws clearly hadn’t used their brain! How had they managed to leave these local tyrants out of the legislation?
In truth, Liao Zhongsheng wasn’t entirely unaware of the reason. After the founding of the People’s Republic, the local tyrants had all been eliminated. They’d been gone for twenty or thirty years, so the people drafting the laws had naturally assumed there was no need to include provisions addressing them. Who could have predicted that the situation on the ground would suddenly change so drastically, leaving the police with no specific regulations to use against these people?
Understanding the reason didn’t stop Liao Zhongsheng from taking his frustration out on the lawmakers.
What kind of police force couldn’t even deal with local bullies? It was downright embarrassing!
With a dark expression, he headed toward the Technical Division. When he reached the door, he paused to compose himself before finally pushing it open.
Inside, Huang Xueling was sitting beside Jiang Xia, her right hand covering her mouth, her face filled with alarm. Jiang Xia, meanwhile, was holding Huang Xueling’s left hand and comforting her.
For a moment, it was almost impossible to tell which of them had actually been followed and attacked.
Hearing the noise, Photographer Zhao immediately looked up. The moment he saw who had arrived, he said, “Chief, you’re here? Yesterday, when Jiang Xia was going home—”
“I know about it.”
Liao Zhongsheng waved his hand, cutting him off. Seeing that Jiang Xia didn’t appear particularly frightened or shaken, he couldn’t help feeling relieved. He then offered some reassurance.
“Deputy Chief Duan already knows about this. He’s gone to speak with the deputy bureau chief to request officers from other divisions. Once we’ve finished surveying the situation, we’ll launch a crackdown on these criminal gangs!”
That quickly? They’ve already reported it to the deputy bureau chief?
Jiang Xia was a little surprised. But she immediately realized just how determined Deputy Chief Duan was to crack down on organized crime, and she promptly spoke up.
“Chief, I want to take part in the investigation, too!”
There was really no need for that.
Investigating these gangs would inevitably involve direct confrontations with them. If a young woman like Jiang Xia went out there, wouldn’t that be like a lamb walking straight into a tiger’s den?
Liao Zhongsheng would rather go himself than risk anything happening to Jiang Xia. He immediately refused. “Absolutely not! You were just threatened. How can I send you out there again? Besides, those people might already recognize you. What happens if they spot you?”
That argument was a little far-fetched. Even if the gang operating around Zhouying Police Station recognized her, that didn’t mean every other gang in the city knew who she was.
Still, Jiang Xia understood perfectly well why her chief was saying this. He was simply afraid something might happen to her.
Having already prepared her arguments, Jiang Xia immediately replied, “Don’t worry, Chief. I’ll disguise myself when conducting surveillance. Once I’m made up, nobody will recognize me. Besides, I’ll only observe them from the periphery. I just need to get a good look at their faces. After seeing them a few times, I can draw them from memory. Then we can use the portraits to identify and locate them, which will make the arrests much easier!”
That was actually true.
It was certainly easier to catch these people if the police had accurate portraits rather than relying on verbal descriptions. However, they couldn’t have every officer involved in the investigation personally look at the gang leaders and members. Nor could they simply take a camera along, photograph everyone, and bring the pictures back for the other officers to study. That would immediately put the gangs on alert.
If Jiang Xia really could observe these people and draw accurate portraits of them afterward, her skill would be an enormous asset during the arrests.
Liao Zhongsheng was tempted. After thinking it over carefully for a moment, however, he still shook his head.
“The hired thugs are one thing. They’re out on the streets keeping an eye on the vegetable vendors. If you want to draw them, you can just pretend to be shopping for vegetables and walk around the area. There’s no need for disguise in that case. But the gang leaders keep themselves well hidden. If you’re only looking around on the street, you’ll never find them.”
“Ahem.”
Jiang Xia cleared her throat. “Well, Chief, I’m pretty familiar with pickpockets. The streets where the vegetables are sold are crowded, and there are plenty of pickpockets around. How about I pretend to be a rookie pickpocket who’s just starting out? That way, I might be able to ask them a few questions.”
“What?”
Liao Zhongsheng froze for a moment. He looked Jiang Xia up and down, then laughed.
“I know you’re good at catching pickpockets, but that doesn’t mean you know how to act like one! Those pickpockets deal with us all the time. With that air of righteousness you’ve got about you, they’d recognize you as a police officer the moment you showed up. If you’re lucky, they might just suspect you’re an undercover cop and run away. But you think they’d actually stick around and talk to you?”
They were seriously underestimating her!
“Chief, don’t knock it till you’ve seen it. Let me give you a demonstration!”
Jiang Xia rolled her wrists. She didn’t resort to the ultimate trump card of using a system-given title. Instead, she recalled the sensations she’d experienced after acquiring top-tier pickpocketing skills from the system, then used what she’d observed of ordinary pickpockets over the past few days to gradually adjust her posture and expression.
Hunch her back a little. Draw her shoulders inward. Keep slightly out of people’s way. Let her hands move subtly. Make her gaze a little more shifty, avoiding people’s faces. Look at their clothes and pockets first, then estimate how much money they might be carrying…
Watching Jiang Xia’s posture gradually change, Liao Zhongsheng immediately straightened up.
Wait a minute. Why was she actually starting to look more and more like a pickpocket?
She looked just like one of those old hands who’d been in and out of prison more times than anyone could count!
<< _ >>