Chapter 24: Things Are Getting Out of Hand! (Two-in-One)-Desafio de transmissão ao vivo: Cem vezes entrando por engano em cenas de crime(Gato de rua)

Staring at the pile of drugs covering the ground, Lu Xingzhou blinked and instinctively jumped backward.

"Damn it, a person can't be this unlucky! How did I end up running into this kind of mess again?"

Lu Xingzhou scrambled to his feet, intending to call his sister, but after patting down his entire body, he realized he didn't have his phone on him. When he jumped down earlier, he had only remembered to bring an air tank for her; now, he had nothing on him except for his smart glasses and his livestreaming camera.

"Forget it, they'll find me eventually anyway!"

For the moment, he didn't feel desperate at all. He had food, water, and a crowd of viewers keeping him company through the barrage of comments.

Lu Xingzhou stood up and managed a bitter smile. "To those brothers asking for the fishing spot, I suggest you don't come. I'm currently trapped in a cave."

As he spoke, Lu Xingzhou used his camera to pan around the environment inside the cave.

Lu Xingzhou watched the screen as countless anglers expressed their eagerness, seemingly ready to transform the cave into a fishing resort. It was no wonder people said you shouldn't let anglers gather together—their initiative was incredible; if they were in the wild one day, they’d have built a fishery by the next.

"Although I can't tell you the fishing spot, I can at least share this 300-kilogram catfish with all of you."

The viewers in the chat room were confused, not quite understanding what Lu Xingzhou meant by "share."

Lu Xingzhou looked down, found a relatively sharp stone among the countless rocks, and then found another smooth one to polish the sharp edge until it gleamed.

"This sharpness should be about right. Today, I'm treating you all to sashimi!"

Suddenly, a golden donation message flashed across the screen, making Lu Xingzhou flinch. There was no need to verify the tone; it was definitely his sister.

Lu Xingzhou had no choice but to helplessly put down the stone knife. With a pile of drugs on his left and a succulent piece of evidence on his right, he sat in the middle, daring not to move—not even an inch.

Three hours later, the police used an electric hammer to widen the cave entrance into a passage large enough for two people to walk through upright. This wasn't just to rescue Lu Xingzhou; it was to transport the murder evidence—the catfish—and the entire stash of drugs out.

Song Xiangchen was the first to pass through the tunnel. He rushed to the water's edge and immediately knelt beside the mound of drugs, putting on gloves to inspect the "Double Lion Globe" logo on the bricks. After sweeping his flashlight over the logo, his expression didn't show excitement, but rather, it grew even more grim.

"This isn't right! This stuff is wrong!"

Lu Xingzhou had no idea what Song Xiangchen had discovered. "Are these drugs fake?"

Song Xiangchen glanced at Lu Xingzhou's naive and curious expression and immediately understood that this guy knew nothing about drugs. He pulled a pair of gloves and a mask from his pocket, tossed them to Lu Xingzhou, and explained slowly: "The drugs are real, but the purity is wrong. This stuff is 99.9% pure alkaloid. If someone were to ingest this directly, it would be fatal. That's why drug traffickers dilute the concentration, adding..."

Lu Xingzhou ventured a guess: "Magnesium chloride?"

Song Xiangchen's expression was grave. "Right, magnesium chloride. That's why the drugs you found at the 'Mexican Flavor' beverage shop only had an alkaloid concentration of 1% to 3%. But these are at 99.9%. It seems there's a drug factory hidden behind this, along with a complete network of purchasing, processing, and distribution."

Oh no! It had started as a simple case of catching a thief, then escalated to drug use, then drug trafficking, and now it involved an entire drug-trafficking network.

The case showed no signs of being solved; instead, it was getting bigger. This was truly a case of "the mouse pulling the shovel—the big trouble was still ahead."

Lu Xingzhou looked at the mound of Double Lion Globe-marked bricks. "I heard that this stuff costs millions per kilogram. There are hundreds of kilograms here, so it must be worth tens of billions, right? Where do these people get so much money? Why wouldn't they do something better with it?"

Song Xiangchen stood up. "It's expensive here because the regulations are strict. The production cost of these Double Lion Globe bricks isn't high; when they buy the fruit from farmers in Southeast Asia, it averages less than one dollar per kilogram. However, the costs of logistics, transportation, and retail distribution are high. By the time it reaches Europe, the price increases about 1,000 times, to roughly 1,000 dollars per kilogram. If it's smuggled into the country, the value multiplies by a million."

Lu Xingzhou muttered, "Those who are truly skilled in battle have no glorious achievements to boast of."

Song Xiangchen waved at the officer holding the camera. "Photograph this for evidence first, then move everything out."

Accompanied by the officers, Lu Xingzhou walked out of the cave and went to a temporary medical tent to undergo a physical examination. Lu Jiangying, who had changed back into her police uniform, sat by his bed.

"By the way, our captain said you should consider the police academy entrance exam. I think it's worth thinking about. A police dog retired yesterday, so there's a vacancy for a police dog position. The meal allowance is even higher than our captain's. I think you'd fit right in."

Lu Xingzhou sat up. "Does the assessment follow the police dog standards too?"

Lu Jiangying turned to the psychiatrist nearby. "No need to examine him; there's nothing wrong with his brain."

The psychiatrist twitched his lips. Something was definitely wrong with his brain! Who in their right mind would take an offer for a 'police dog position' seriously?

***

Song Xiangchen and two other officers placed two photos in front of Tang Hongguang. One photo showed a heavily decomposed corpse; the other showed the mound of Double Lion Globe drug bricks.

Song Xiangchen said calmly, "We found the hidden drugs—a total of 832 kilograms of 99.9% pure bricks."

Tang Hongguang's face turned pale, his body trembling so violently that he would have fallen out of his restraint chair if it hadn't been secured.

"Eight hundred... how much? ...kilograms!?!"

Tang Hongguang thought he had misheard. In a country where a few dozen grams could get you the death penalty, 800 kilograms was... well, the country didn't have a firing squad using 155mm self-propelled howitzers, but otherwise, he was as good as gone. 800 kilograms wasn't just the largest seizure of the year; it was likely the largest single seizure in a decade! Just for this, Lu Xingzhou's name would be written into the history of anti-narcotics.

Song Xiangchen vaguely suspected that these drugs might not belong to Tang Hongguang, but he lacked conclusive evidence. Therefore, he decided to conduct a probing interrogation. Based on Lu Jiangying's analysis, Tang Hongguang had severe personality flaws. Such high-pressure interrogation would likely break his psychological limit.

As expected, Tang Hongguang's face turned from white to red, then to a deep, liver-like crimson.

"These... these things aren't mine! They really aren't mine!"

Song Xiangchen stared at his expressions and gestures. "But we found large quantities of glucose in your shop, along with tools for mixing glucose with the drug bricks. You're still saying these aren't yours?"

Tang Hongguang was on the verge of tears. "They really aren't! I don't know who hid these drugs there. I only hid my drugs on the chassis of the beverage delivery truck. And the purity wasn't 99.9%! I bought them through a ladder on a website hosted abroad, and the purity was only 25%. I would add more glucose and plum powder to dilute it to 1% to 3%. You know that a purity over 5% will kill people! By that calculation, I only had a total of 40 grams of drugs."

Song Xiangchen frowned. "Give us the license plate number of the delivery truck. We will verify everything you've said ourselves!"

Internally, Song Xiangchen was in a state of shock. If everything Tang Hongguang said was true, the situation had become the worst-case scenario. There was a drug manufacturing and distribution supply chain hidden in the shadows.

After Tang Hongguang confessed everything he knew, Song Xiangchen and the two anti-narcotics officers walked out of the interrogation room. One of them asked, "Captain Song, do you think Tang Hongguang is credible? If the person who sold him the drugs only provided 25% purity, doesn't that imply there's a drug factory hidden around Shanhe City?"

Song Xiangchen's expression was grave. "Tang Hongguang's statement actually matches my previous prediction. I interrogated him just to confirm it. Now it seems my theory was completely correct. However, I believe the 25% purity drugs didn't come from a primary distributor, but a secondary one. This is a massive drug manufacturing and trafficking organization! Our most urgent task now is to figure out the exact structure of this organization!"

***

After the physical check-up, Lu Jiangying drove Lu Xingzhou home, terrified that he might cause more trouble on the way. The old Honda Civic she drove had been left behind by their parents and was already ten years old.

"Sis, this car Dad left us—everything rattles except the horn. How about I buy you a Maserati?"

Lu Jiangying looked at Lu Xingzhou blankly. "Sit still. If I drove a Maserati to work, Chief Miao would send me home to write a self-criticism by the end of the day!"

During the hour-long drive, Lu Xingzhou sat in the passenger seat, bored. He opened the glove box, found a small booklet, and pulled it out.

*Police Wanted Person Retrieval Manual*

Lu Xingzhou flipped through it. Every page was a profile of a criminal: name, gender, age, hometown, a two-inch photo, and a description of their crimes.

Lu Jiangying said flatly, "The criminals in this manual are all looking at at least ten years to life imprisonment. They are all desperate men. If you see them, act like you haven't and leave immediately."

Lu Xingzhou looked confused. "Wait, don't you guys always encourage people to call the police and report criminals? Why are you telling me to act like I didn't see them?"

Lu Jiangying glanced at him. "Because you're my brother!"

*Ring, ring, ring!*

The phone in Lu Xingzhou's pocket rang. He pulled it out and saw the name 'Xu Xinghui' on the screen. Xu Xinghui was his best friend from high school, who had gone to study at Changda University.

As soon as Lu Xingzhou answered, Xu Xinghui's hearty laughter echoed through the phone.

"Hey, Old Lu, you're alive! I called you and you didn't pick up, and when I knocked on your door, there was no one home!"

Lu Xingzhou asked, "What's up? Is something wrong?"

Xu Xinghui laughed. "What could be wrong? I finally managed to get out. Let's go for a drink. I called Old Gao, Dabe, and the Captain, but they're all working out of town. The earliest any of them can be back is October 1st. Just the two of us tonight, how about the Shaomai shop by the Third Middle School gate?"

Lu Xingzhou tentatively glanced at his sister.