Chapter 51: Culprits Always Love Compromise!

"Wawa! Wawa! Wawa!"

Fifteen minutes later, Lu Jiangying and Xu Hui squeezed through the jam-packed store entrance and arrived at the scene where the thin, dark-skinned young man had been captured.

"Sis, I caught him for you, and here's the stuff."

Lu Xingzhou pointed his finger at the thin, dark young man who was now curled up on the ground, and then handed the bicycle seat along with the attached drugs over to Lu Jiangying.

This scene looked not at all like police officers arresting a drug dealer, but rather like a scene from an old Hong Kong film where a triad boss lets his henchman take care of the enemy and then steps in to inspect the results.

Lu Jiangying instructed the investigators to step into the scene, take photos, and collect the evidence before turning her head to look at the criminal curled up on the ground.

"Did you beat him?"

Lu Xingzhou shook his head. "Sis, you know me. If I had thrown a punch, given his physique, he'd already be in the ICU playing a match for his life. However, all these drugs are his!"

Seeing that the police had arrived, the thin, dark young man quickly sat up straight. "Officers, you have to listen to my explanation. That bicycle really isn't mine!"

Lu Xingzhou jumped in, saying, "I have 600,000 witnesses who can prove that this bicycle is indeed his!"

At the same time, the onlookers standing outside the cordon shouted one after another, "We can prove that the bicycle is his."

Needless to say, most of these onlookers were viewers from Lu Xingzhou's live-stream who lived near the bicycle shop and had come specifically to watch the commotion, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle and egging things on.

The thin, dark young man felt like crying without tears. Had he known earlier that Lu Xingzhou's live-stream had so many viewers, he would have confessed to stealing the bike much sooner instead of being stubborn.

"Officers, please listen to me. If this bike were mine, why would I hide drugs inside it and try to sell them out? This bike really was stolen by me. The original price of this bicycle is over two hundred thousand. I admit it, I'm a habitual offender. In the past few months, I've stolen more than a dozen expensive road bikes, worth fifty or sixty thousand in total. I confess to all of it! All these contributions together should at least count as a third-class merit citation. You must handle this case strictly by the book!"

The thin, dark young man spilled the beans like pouring peas from a bag, confessing to every crime he had committed from start to finish, terrified that if he spoke too slowly, Lu Jiangying would classify him as a drug dealer and convict him as such.

Lu Jiangying's tone remained completely devoid of emotion. "I will investigate your case thoroughly. You said the bicycle was stolen—where did you steal it from?"

"North Zhongshan Road and..."

Before the thin, dark young man could finish, a trace evidence technician stood up and called out, "Officer Lu, we've found a new development. Come and take a look."

"What is it?" Lu Jiangying walked over to the technician and squatted down.

The technician said in a serious tone, "We found traces of blood on the handlebars."

Lu Jiangying suddenly realized the gravity of the situation. Blood on the handlebars of a road bike containing drugs likely indicated that...

"Is it the rider's own blood, or..."

"It's impossible to determine yet, but judging from the flow direction of the bloodstains, at least the hand of this bicycle owner wasn't the one injured."

Lu Jiangying looked down at the thin, dark young man sitting on the ground. "When you stole the bike, was it parked properly, or was it casually tossed on the ground?"

"It was leaning against a utility pole. When I saw nobody around, I wheeled it away."

"Were there any bloodstains on the ground?"

"I didn't pay attention. When stealing things, you only watch for people coming around. Who looks at the ground!"

Lu Jiangying took out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed the thin, dark young man. "Let's go. Come and point out the scene of your bike theft."

The thin, dark young man was ecstatic at this moment and leaped up from the ground. "Let's go, let's go, let's go. I'll go point out the theft scene right now."

As the saying goes, criminals always prefer a compromise. If you call him a thief, he won't admit it; but if you accuse him of drug trafficking, he will immediately confess to being a thief.

Lu Jiangying glanced at Lu Xingzhou. "You did a great job this time!"

Lu Xingzhou bared his bright white teeth and flashed an exaggerated smile.

After taking measurements and recording data at the bicycle shop, the police removed the cordon and left.

At the same time, Lu Xingzhou waved to the store manager. "Manager, once I finish riding a lap around the ring-road greenway, I'll bring the bike back to you."

The manager waved his hand like a fan. "No need, no need. Any bike that leaves my sight doesn't need to be pushed back. This bike is a gift just for you!"

...

"Two kilograms of drugs were found inside the bicycle frame?"

"The reason was that the drug-dealing thief wanted to fence the stolen goods, got into an argument with the bicycle store manager, and accidentally broke the bike frame?"

"And most importantly, Lu Xingzhou was right there at the scene!"

Lin Tianzong looked at the latest report, his tone gradually shifting from skepticism to calm.

No matter how bizarre a thing was, once it involved Lu Xingzhou, it suddenly started to make sense.

Song Xiangchen, however, frowned. "Using bicycles to transport drugs—it seems the remaining drugs have already trickled down to lower-level distributors. For us, this is going to be a protracted, grueling campaign. We can no longer focus solely on searching trucks; we must heighten our vigilance across multiple fronts! Circulate this discovery immediately and tell everyone to increase their vigilance."

Before long, the news of the two kilograms of drugs discovered was transmitted from the anti-smuggling operation's dedicated channel into the ears of every police officer responsible for setting up checkpoints.

North Zhongshan Road.

"Damn, what incredible luck, actually finding two kilograms of drugs inside a bicycle frame. How are we supposed to check this? We can't dismantle the frame of every single bicycle."

"This time it's another grueling chore. Until we find every last kilogram of these drugs, we'll probably..."

"Hey, hey, look at that."

Just as the checkpoint officers were lamenting that this was going to be hard labor, they saw a burly man running wildly down the sidewalk with a bicycle hoisted on his shoulder, moving like lightning.

Who else could this person be, if not Lu Xingzhou!

"Folks, riding a bicycle a full circle around the ring road is too easy. Today, we're going to let the bicycle ride us around in a circle instead."

As Lu Xingzhou ran, he chatted with the netizens in his video stream, showing no signs of getting a stitch in his side.

The few police officers exchanged glances.

"What are you looking at me for? Chase him! Whether there's a problem or not, we have to go up and ask!"

The officers lifted their legs and bolted in the direction of Lu Xingzhou.

Barely three minutes later, panting heavily, the officers could only watch as Lu Xingzhou vanished from their field of vision.

"Quick! Contact them! At the next checkpoint—we shouted at him and he didn't stop. Running like that, there's definitely something wrong!"

An officer picked up the communicator.

"9527! 9527! There's a strong, athletic young man, around twenty-something years old and about 190 centimeters tall, running toward your checkpoint. Most importantly, he's carrying a bicycle on his shoulder. We suspect he has issues. Intercept and question him."

Before the officer had even hung up the communicator, he watched with his own eyes as Lu Xingzhou, carrying the bicycle on his shoulder, sprinted wildly past right in front of him, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"I see the man carrying the bicycle that you mentioned."

"Intercept him quickly!"

"He's already run past me!"

"Then chase him right away!"

"Yes!"

Not long after, officers all along North Zhongshan Road began a relay chase after Lu Xingzhou.

However, because Lu Xingzhou ran far too fast, not a single officer managed to catch up to him.

At that moment, the communicator of Lu Jiangying, who was leading the thin, dark young man to identify the theft scene on North Zhongshan Road, began to ring.

"Xiao Lu, are you currently at the intersection of North Zhongshan Road and the North Second Ring Road?"

"Yes, Team Leader Zhou."

"The checkpoint on North Zhongshan Road just relayed an alert. A man carrying a bicycle is running wildly down the sidewalk, and several checkpoints failed to stop him. They suspect he might be hiding something. Take charge of intercepting him; police station reinforcements are on the way!"

"Understood, Team Leader Zhou!"

Lu Jiangying called out to Xu Hui beside her, "Let's go. We'll intercept him and see what's going on."

Just as they stepped out of the cordoned area, Xu Hui saw from afar a figure carrying a bicycle rushing wildly toward them at high speed.

"Jiangying, why does this person running wildly with a bicycle look so much like Xiaozhou?"

Lu Jiangying's face had already turned pitch black.