The next day at noon, Zhang Yi’ang, with a tense face and his phone pressed against his face, steeled himself to listen through Gao Dong’s painful scolding. After hanging up the phone, he wiped his face, as if Director Gao’s saliva had splashed all over his face through the phone.

He sighed deeply, turned around, and looked at Li Qian sitting on the sofa with a worried and bitter face: “Leader, what exactly is your family member’s rank?”

Li Qian frowned and replied in a low voice: “My uncle is the Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.”

Zhang Yi’ang tightly closed his legs together to keep himself from jumping out the window and swallowed his saliva: “Vice Minister?”

Li Qian slowly nodded her head.

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Public Security concurrently served as Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. She’d stated the lower of the two ranks.

Zhang Yi’ang, a small deputy director of a county-level city, had almost gotten the Vice Minister’s niece killed yesterday. If he offended this immortal deity, with one sentence he could be demoted from a dashing and commanding deputy director solving cases to the household registration department lowering his head to process ID cards for people. Ten Director Gaos couldn’t protect him.

Seeing him like this, Li Qian hurriedly explained: “Uncle Guo isn’t my biological uncle. When he was working locally in the past, he was my dad’s partner. My dad saved him. Later… later when my dad was executing a mission, he was attacked by criminals and died. Uncle Guo has always taken care of me as his niece. At that time, Uncle Guo was still working locally. Later, he went to Beijing.”

Zhang Yi’ang thought to himself: Isn’t this the same thing? Your dad saved Vice Minister Guo’s life, then later died executing a mission. Vice Minister Guo, cherishing old sentiments, treats you as his own niece. This life-and-death comrade friendship is closer than biological brothers. If I’d gotten you killed, wouldn’t he have gotten me killed?

Li Qian anxiously said: “This morning I explained to Uncle Guo in detail. This matter isn’t anyone’s fault. It was me who had no experience and was rash. I was seen through by Liu Bei. And I wasn’t injured either. Uncle Guo said it’s fine, just told me to be more careful in the future. He said he won’t interfere with my work.”

Zhang Yi’ang thought to himself: Of course he’d say that to you—”It’s fine, it’s fine.” But he didn’t say that to Director Gao. Otherwise, why would Director Gao have scolded me to look like this pathetic dog!

Li Qian also spoke up for Song Xing: “Director, you shouldn’t blame Captain Song for what happened yesterday. It was purely an accident that no one expected. And… and you shouldn’t worry about my uncle and not let me participate in actual investigation work. I watched my dad work since I was little. Back then, I decided I must become a detective.”

“Of course I’m not worried about your uncle,” Zhang Yi’ang didn’t want to lose face in front of his subordinates and decided to lie. He said earnestly, “I’m considering your personal safety! You’re a rookie without experience handling emergencies, so I wanted you to learn first and do more basic work to accumulate experience. Rest assured, when you have enough experience later, there will be plenty of opportunities to participate in investigations.”

“Really?” Li Qian was overjoyed.

“Of course it’s true. First, go call Wang Ruijun and Song Xing over.”

Li Qian jumped up from the sofa and went cheerfully to call the two. When the two entered the door, Zhang Yi’ang’s first sentence was: “From now on, whoever lets Li Qian participate in investigations can get lost!”

Wang Ruijun and Song Xing didn’t know Li Qian’s family member’s specific identity, but heard it was a big leader from the Ministry of Public Security. Especially Song Xing—the leader had clearly instructed not to let Li Qian participate in investigations. Yesterday, Li Qian begged him several times. He felt that impersonating property management workers to go upstairs and check the situation would definitely be safe. At worst, their cover would be blown. Even with ten times the courage, Zheng Yongbing wouldn’t dare do anything to police. So he took it upon himself to let Li Qian go upstairs. Who knew Li Qian had almost been killed? He’d been so frightened that from last night until now, he hadn’t closed his eyes.

The two just nodded, not daring to say half a word of objection.

Zhang Yi’ang lowered his voice again and said: “Remember, this order was given by Song Xing. If Li Qian knows I said it, Song Xing can get lost immediately!”

Song Xing eagerly stated he had no objections, while thinking to himself: If Wang Ruijun tells, do I also have to get lost?

Zhang Yi’ang reined in his anger and turned to ask about business: “Have you found Liu Bei’s whereabouts?”

The two shook their heads. Just as Zhang Yi’ang’s expression was about to turn dark again, Wang Ruijun quickly delivered good news: “Director, last night Zheng Yongbing confessed. We discovered a major case in the goods he received.”

It turned out that the batch of jewelry and gems Zheng Yongbing had recently received—when the detectives went to investigate, they discovered these were stolen goods that the Provincial Public Security Department had recently issued documents to track down.

In the past few months, three cities had experienced small-scale explosive terror bombing cases. The criminals used homemade explosives to make remote-controlled bombs operated by mobile phones, detonating them in downtown areas. Although the bomb power wasn’t great and aside from a few civilians with minor injuries, no major consequences resulted, the impact of several downtown explosions was extremely bad. The Provincial Public Security Department sent expert teams, and the three cities jointly conducted investigations. When they strung these three bombing cases together, they discovered that at the time the bombing cases occurred, a jewelry store in the suburbs had encountered an armed robbery. Armed robbery cases were already rare. Several occurring at the same time point was obviously no coincidence.

The Public Security Department experts quickly understood the criminals’ logic: by causing traffic congestion through downtown explosions, they then carried out robberies in the suburbs and fled without a trace.

Regrettably, because the criminals had strong anti-investigation awareness and superior criminal methods, in subsequent tracking and pursuit, they were unable to identify the criminals. Based on photos of some lost jewelry items provided by several jewelry stores, the Public Security Department issued joint investigation orders to public security agencies throughout the province: arrest suspects immediately upon discovering stolen goods.

This batch of stolen goods was exactly what Zheng Yongbing had received.

Following the transaction time Zheng Yongbing recalled, they went to review nearby surveillance footage. Only one camera had captured the criminals, and the image was blurry. According to Zheng Yongbing’s description, the two people had disguised their faces at the time. Plus, after so many days had passed, he couldn’t remember their specific appearances clearly anymore.

Zhang Yi’ang discussed with the two for a while. These two robbers didn’t have Sanjiangkou accents. They were also committing crimes in different places. After such a long interval, they’d probably already left Sanjiangkou. They were powerless and could only report the case to higher departments. As for their current work, Liu Bei must be caught, Ye Jian’s case must be solved, and they had to continue watching the Zhou Rong lead.

Speaking of Zhou Rong, Wang Ruijun immediately reported another piece of good news: “Zheng Yongbing heard that the batch of goods he received were stolen goods from robbers listed by the province. He was terrified and immediately took the initiative to find me, wanting to atone for his crimes through meritorious service. He said he wants to help us solve the cultural relics case. He said he has a little brother who used to hang around with him. At that time, his little brother’s family had a car accident. He paid to settle everything. The little brother obeys him completely. Now his little brother works under Zhou Rong’s subordinates, as a driver for the security department. He can arrange for him to become an informant for us.”

Zhang Yi’ang pondered for a moment. If they had an informant inside Zhou Rong’s operation, this wasn’t about bronze bells anymore. Never mind what excavated cultural relics—even if Zhou Rong blew up the Qing Thirteen Tombs, Zhang Yi’ang wouldn’t care. What he cared about was that having an informant would be extremely beneficial for investigating Zhou Rong. He cautiously asked: “Developing this person as an informant—is it reliable?”

“I think we can try. Zheng Yongbing said his little brother has life-and-death friendship with him. Plus, these past years working as a driver under Zhou Rong, he hasn’t been satisfied. He can pay his little brother himself to have him provide intelligence, as long as we can give him lenient treatment.”

“He doesn’t know we’re investigating Zhou Rong, right?”

“He doesn’t know. He thinks we just want to catch Liu Bei and investigate the excavated cultural relics business.”

The three exchanged views and felt this plan was feasible.

Now they had to fight on two fronts. On one side was catching Liu Bei—this fellow absolutely couldn’t be allowed to escape. On the other side, they had to follow Ye Jian’s case and investigate further. After all, the criminals tried to frame Director Zhang. This thing worse than pigs and dogs was simply unforgivable.

For Ye Jian’s case, they’d already checked the spa and massage parlor. Next, naturally, they should look for the parlor owner Lu Yibo. Although they’d asked Lu Yibo about that night’s situation after Ye Jian died, that was just superficial questioning. Zhang Yi’ang firmly believed they could definitely dig up the most crucial thing from Lu Yibo. Who told him to have such a good name? As long as they broke through Lu Yibo, they could “take away in one wave” Zhou Rong’s gang!