In the Provincial Public Security Department conference room, after the morning study report meeting ended, the Director said he would delay everyone a few more minutes—he had to announce something.
“Just last night, the San Jiang Kou Public Security Bureau successfully apprehended Mei Dong. Some people may not be familiar with Mei Dong. This year the State Council-led financial regulatory departments and our public security departments joined forces to investigate underground banks and combat foreign exchange loss. This Mei Dong is a key figure in multiple underground banks. According to previous investigations, Mei Dong not only established dozens of foreign trade import-export companies conducting currency exchange and overseas transfer businesses, but also had deep cooperation with multiple domestic and foreign underground banks. Capturing Mei Dong is another major achievement in our province’s fight against financial crimes this year!”
The people around the conference table applauded one after another, their gazes turning toward Gao Dong.
“Gao Dong, your disciple has real ability.” The Director’s words were full of praise.
“Just lucky, just lucky.” Gao Dong smiled modestly.
“You don’t need to be modest—this isn’t praising you. I heard Mei Dong had always been abroad, and his capture this time was entirely orchestrated by Zhang Yi’ang. Previously when we caught Li Feng, the specific commendation document from the Ministry hasn’t come down yet, but the Department was notified it’s a team first-class merit for the San Jiang Kou Criminal Police Team. Not long after that, they’ve caught Mei Dong again. So should the Department award the team or the individual this time?”
“This must be the team’s merit.”
The Director smiled: “It can be team merit, plus individual commendation for him. I heard that when they were catching Mei Dong he almost escaped. He ran to the underground parking garage and encountered Zhang Yi’ang. At that time Zhang Yi’ang was alone, empty-handed and completely unprepared. Mei Dong had a dagger, but Zhang Yi’ang directly charged up and fought him, subdued him in a few moves, and wasn’t hurt at all himself. Impressive!”
Everyone nodded. Solving cases and catching criminals wasn’t rare—Gao Dong had solved many cases before—but arrests were done by subordinate detectives. For a leadership cadre to personally catch someone single-handedly, that courage alone was enough to command respect.
At this moment, a man around fifty next to the Director cleared his throat. This person had a square face and large ears, his countenance naturally carried official authority. Even without wearing a uniform, walking outside he could be recognized at a glance as a high-level government leader. This person was Zhou Weidong.
“I think regarding individual awards, we should still study this carefully and focus on examining the individual’s daily work performance and conduct.”
“Of course,” the Director nodded, sensing there was more to his words, and couldn’t help asking, “Weidong, is there some problem?”
Zhou Weidong turned his head and whispered a few words in the Director’s ear. After a moment, the Director’s expression underwent some subtle changes.
Everyone watched this scene but didn’t know what the two were discussing.
“Torture to extract confession?” These four words from the Director were slightly louder, and everyone heard them. He looked at everyone, then at Gao Dong, feeling that since everyone heard this, if the matter wasn’t clarified today, spreading it would have a bad influence.
The Director frowned and could only tell everyone truthfully: “Someone has reported to the Department that Comrade Zhang Yi’ang has issues with using torture to extract confessions during case investigations.”
Hearing the Director still address Zhang Yi’ang with “Comrade,” Gao Dong knew the problem wasn’t serious. Torture to extract confessions—every local criminal police team had some of that to varying degrees. When dealing with some rogue criminals, if you didn’t use some methods and they just refused to confess, what could you do? So this was something strictly prohibited in words, but in actual work, most turned a blind eye as long as it wasn’t too excessive. How had Zhang Yi’ang treated someone that it got reported to the Department? Gao Dong knew nothing about the situation and could only keep his mouth shut without taking a stance.
Zhou Weidong asked with a show of concern: “Xiao Gao, do you know about this matter?”
Gao Dong didn’t know how deep Zhou Weidong’s trap was, so he could only first distance himself: “After he went to work at the grassroots level, he’s not under Department jurisdiction. I’m not very clear about his recent work.”
A leader nearby asked curiously: “What about the criminal? Is it serious?”
At this question, Zhou Weidong paused. This matter was reported to his secretary by Qi Zhenxing early that morning. The nature of the matter wasn’t actually serious. Originally, seeing the Director about to make a commendation statement on the spot, he quickly used this to suppress the commendation. Who knew the Director’s voice was a bit loud, and everyone heard the four words “torture to extract confession,” so he could only speak openly about it on the spot.
“The suspect’s physical condition isn’t very serious, but the practice of torture to extract confession is very inappropriate.”
That person asked again: “What methods did he use on the suspect?”
“When Zhang Yi’ang summoned a suspect without conclusive criminal evidence, he threatened to take the person to the detention center and have them… have them blow out—” He originally wanted to say blow out the prostate, but that wasn’t appropriate for a meeting setting, so he could only change it to “blow out the brain.”
“Did he actually do that in the end?” Everyone was shocked hearing this. Taking an untried suspect to the detention center and beating their head to a pulp—this was a serious illegal act. Once something happened, the public security department would be held accountable.
“He… he hasn’t yet.”
Seeing this expression, Gao Dong already understood the general situation in his heart. Secretly relieved, he said lightly: “During interrogation, Zhang Yi’ang threatened the suspect with this, but in the end he didn’t do it, is that right?”
Zhou Weidong coughed and nodded.
“This…” Gao Dong laughed, and the others laughed along with him.
One person said: “Verbal torture to extract confession—should this be called ‘mouth torture’? Hehe, what’s the big deal? Back when I was a detective, we were really something, we—” He paused, immediately realizing this setting wasn’t suitable for discussing such things, and quickly corrected himself: “In the grassroots detective case investigation process, minor flaws are inevitable. If criminals can’t be hit, can’t be scolded, and can’t even be frightened, if they don’t cooperate, how can detectives interrogate? That’s how our national situation is. If verbally frightening suspects also counts as torture to extract confession, then how can grassroots police officers do their work?”
Everyone listening agreed very much with these words. Even some people close to Zhou Weidong couldn’t help but concur.
Gao Dong sneered inwardly. That boy Zhang Yi’ang had picked up a great bargain. After today’s meeting, if the Department didn’t give him a major individual award, when word got out people would think the Provincial Department required grassroots police not even to scold criminals—wouldn’t that disappoint the grassroots? Who would care about solving cases for you in the future? All the leaders understood this logic. Zhang Yi’ang’s commendation this time was already ironclad. Zhou Weidong’s attempt to harm had backfired.
After the meeting, Gao Dong returned to his office and immediately called Zhang Yi’ang.
Zhang Yi’ang was worrying about how to catch the two robbers before Zhou Rong when Gao Dong’s direct line rang.
On the phone, Gao Dong revealed three things to him: First, regarding the capture of Li Feng last time, the Ministry of Public Security would award the San Jiang Kou Criminal Police Team a group first-class merit. Second, regarding last night’s capture of Mei Dong, the Director evaluated their achievement very highly. According to his estimate, the team should get first-class merit, and he personally should get at least second-class merit. Third, someone had spoken ill of him to Zhou Weidong, but for now there was no problem. Be careful and vigilant. According to his guess, the only person who could directly report his workplace matters to Zhou Weidong was Qi Zhenxing. Don’t conflict with Qi Zhenxing for now—prioritize the bigger picture.
After Gao Dong finished, Zhang Yi’ang immediately reported that Zhou Rong’s USB drive had been stolen and contained extremely important criminal evidence. At this sudden intelligence, Gao Dong was greatly shocked. After his shock, he asked: “What do you plan to do?”
“I will do everything possible, overcome all difficulties, make comprehensive deployments, and strike precisely. I’m determined to apprehend the two robbers before Zhou Rong gets to them.”
“Speak like a human!”
“I’ve sent people to watch every move at Zhou Rong’s villa. I’ve also posted police at various stations and traffic entry and exit points. But we don’t have a clear grasp of these two men’s facial features. Our criminal police team is also short-handed. The other police forces I can mobilize are very limited, so—”
Gao Dong didn’t waste words and directly asked: “How many more people do you want?”
Zhang Yi’ang thought about it. Gao Ting was now working at the provincial level, not a local unit, with no troops under him. Asking for too many would probably be impossible anyway—couldn’t put the leader in a difficult position. With Director Gao’s connections, calling in dozens of people from brother cities should still be possible, so he said: “If… if you could transfer twenty experienced detectives for me, I’d be much more confident.”
“I’ll give you two hundred detectives. They’ll arrive by this afternoon. When the time comes, just give orders—don’t worry about personnel relationships. I want you to catch these two within three days—no, one week. You must catch them within one week.”
Hearing two hundred, Zhang Yi’ang had never managed so many people in his life. His heart surged with excitement, and he repeatedly promised he would definitely catch them.
“Remember, say these two are suspects in the bombing terror case and Yang Wei’s murder case. Don’t mention Zhou Rong.”
“Understood.”
After hanging up, Zhang Yi’ang rubbed his hands together. Suddenly having two hundred more detectives arriving in a few hours—Director Gao truly kept his cards hidden. Now they could really make things happen. On the other end of the phone, Gao Dong also rubbed his hands after hanging up. Once that USB drive was in hand, Zhou Rong and even Zhou Weidong would all be caught in one net. He couldn’t help but feel excited. After a moment, he frowned again and pinched himself. To think that one day I’d have to rely on Zhang Yi’ang to solve a case—am I dreaming?