Lin Qin put on the bandage again and asked, “Didn’t you say you’ve been busy lately and don’t have time to pay attention to the trivial matters?”
Ning Zhuo replied, “I can’t ignore it even if I wanted to. His videos are everywhere now.”
Lin Qin sighed softly.
Ning Zhuo continued, “What? You know how bad ‘White Shield’ is. You were determined to dive in back then; how much have you changed it since?”
Lin Qin walked to a place away from the crowd, responding with a gentle smile, “Everyone has moments of discouragement. A break is all that’s needed.”
Ning Zhuo wanted to probe into the investigation progress of ‘White Shield,’ so he patiently waited for Lin Qin’s mood to improve.
The noisy voices gradually faded from the communicator as Lin Qin’s footsteps echoed faintly in the corridor, indicating that he had reached an empty area.
He asked, “What will happen to Charlemagne?”
Lin Qin replied, “Currently, ‘White Shield’ has temporarily suspended his duties.”
Ning Zhuo questioned, “‘Temporarily’?”
Lin Qin chuckled softly, “That’s a more cautious way to put it. To be precise, he will never appear in public again. However, after so many years, he has deep roots in ‘White Shield’… you know what I mean.”
Ning Zhuo’s voice was devoid of emotion as he said, “Yes, I understand.”
Lin Qin stopped at the automatic coffee machine and took a steaming cup of black coffee. “I know you hate Charlemagne. I’m not clear on the specifics of your grudge, but just wait a bit longer.”
“The roots grow from the same tree, and the nutrients they can absorb are limited. If one root system consumes more, the other will take less.”
As he spoke, Lin Qin took a sip of coffee and accidentally burned himself.
He gasped softly and continued, “Think of it as me sharing gardening knowledge with you.”
Ning Zhuo understood Lin Qin’s meaning.
Charlemagne had been striving to climb up, tirelessly crafting his public image, aiming for a position that was far more than just a police chief.
Within ‘White Shield,’ there were definitely many who opposed him, envied his prominence, and disliked his ostentatious style.
Now was a perfect time for a fall, as it was a moment when everyone would push the wall that had fallen.
Once the surveillance video was exposed, Charlemagne would never be able to step up again in his lifetime. The best outcome would be a superficial reassignment, while actually being demoted to a quiet, powerless position, collecting a salary, and patiently waiting for retirement.
Charlemagne’s greed meant that it would only take breaking his carefully cultivated image in half and severing his ascent to leave him in deep anguish in the second half of his life.
However, for Ning Zhuo, this was not enough.
Far from enough.
Ning Zhuo feigned ignorance and asked, “What about his precious son? Have they found him?”
Lin Qin took a warm sip of coffee and replied, “No, he can’t be found.”
Ning Zhuo responded, “Oh?”
Lin Qin said, “This matter… is quite complicated. Just hold off on asking for now.”
While talking to Ning Zhuo, Lin Qin took out a report he had obtained illegally and leaned against the wall to examine it carefully.
The disfigured murderer who died a painful death in public, the villain who embodied both the identities of Basil and Raskin, had been turned to ash by ‘White Shield’ due to the humiliation of his death.
—They certainly couldn’t leave behind a body for detailed investigation; what if something was discovered?
This was ‘White Shield’s usual working style.
As a result, this approach had closed off their own escape routes.
After finding the video, even someone like Lin Qin, who suspected that Raskin was Charlemagne’s precious son, could find no DNA from a pile of incinerated inorganic material.
Thus, well aware of ‘White Shield’s methods, Lin Qin took the initiative to seek out a hospital specializing in health check-ups for prison personnel.
Inmates undergo routine health checks to ensure they do not carry infectious diseases and to prevent sudden illness during incarceration.
With Lin Qin’s current rank as a district-level special police deputy commander, he had no authority to access the hospital’s information database.
Forcing an entry would inevitably leave traces, and with the hospital database’s sophistication, it would be easy to trace back to him, even if he wasn’t discovered immediately.
Therefore, Lin Qin used his self-made data observation device and selected the hospital database as his observation target, not intending to intrude.
As he expected, he received an extremely subtle data change from the hospital’s backend.
There had been an unusual opening of permissions.
—Charlemagne was going to send someone to destroy the evidence.
Raskin could change his face, but not his blood.
If Raskin successfully “died,” naturally no one would bother to check the health records of a murderer; Charlemagne just needed to think of a way to swap things around later.
Now that the incident occurred suddenly, he could only hastily arrange for someone to clean up the aftermath, regardless of how obvious it might seem.
By the time Charlemagne’s people replaced Raskin’s blood data with that of an unrelated third party, Lin Qin managed a counter-surveillance track, subtly infiltrating that person’s brain-computer interface using a pop-up from a yellow advertisement.
—Since he needed to modify the data, he had to look at Raskin’s original data.
More than a decade ago, ‘White Shield’ had implemented a clock-in system, similar to ‘Haina,’ requiring a scan of a golden scale anti-counterfeiting mark upon entry.
Ordinary officers, not Charlemagne’s biological son, naturally couldn’t enjoy the convenience of being waved through merely by a face scan.
Most ‘White Shield’ officers, to make their identities clear to others as quickly as possible, would directly implant the mark into their eyes, taking off their sunglasses to reveal their golden pupils, which was both cool and straightforward.
This also greatly facilitated Lin Qin.
He directly copied all the data seen through the eyes of the man via the brain-computer interface.
Now, in Lin Qin’s hands, was the last blood data that the criminal Raskin had in this world.
Charlemagne’s son had used cruel means to punish a criminal who would have died easily; initially, he had indeed gained some praise online.
Someone strongly supported him, believing this was an act of “vigilantism,” providing a sense of relief to those suffering girls.
However, the usually righteous Charlemagne had surprisingly given his son such an outrageous green light in private. Even after the incident, he had not turned his son in for trial, leading to a significant collapse of his public persona.
As for that “vigilante” who poisoned someone, he had vanished without a trace after the incident, and the heroic image was at risk of turning into a joke. The act of poisoning shifted from being seen as “executing justice” to merely “a mischievous act by a reckless kid.” Now, it gradually evolved into the narrative of “the official’s son recklessly playing with lives.”
The initially good reputation had completely crumbled.
The citizens of Silver Hammer City were not lacking in hidden talents, and with people disliking Charlemagne subtly stirring the pot, Charlemagne’s past life was thoroughly exposed, with his every secret laid bare online for public scrutiny.
Among these was a health examination report for Charlemagne.
While the public was buzzing about Charlemagne’s prostatitis, Lin Qin effortlessly obtained his blood report.
In contrast, Lin Qin knew he had uncovered a major secret.
However, it was a secret he couldn’t disclose publicly.
He let out a quiet sigh.
The conclusion provided by this information was singular:
Charlemagne was a hazard, no matter which position he held within the “White Shield.”
How to utilize this information well required careful consideration from Lin Qin.
He was inclined to give this information to Ning Zhuo.
But before that, he needed to confirm one thing.
Ning Zhuo remained oblivious to Lin Qin’s calculations: “So what’s your next step? Is this where it ends?”
Lin Qin’s voice sounded quite helpless: “We’re currently at a standstill. You’ve seen the video; what are your thoughts?”
Ning Zhuo frowned slightly.
He remembered burying a hook.
In the surveillance footage, the real person who poisoned was someone who drew a symbol on the box.
He spoke up: “In the surveillance—”
Before he could finish, Ning Zhuo suddenly felt something was off.
It was a pure animal instinct warning of danger.
Even though everything seemed normal.
On the communication device, Lin Qin was leisurely savoring his coffee.
Ning Zhuo paused for a moment, maintaining his usual tone: “If there’s no information in the surveillance, isn’t it impossible to trace who misused the ‘White Shield’ surveillance?”
As he spoke, Ning Zhuo quickly opened the motorcycle’s onboard video system and found the most viewed clip, clicking on it.
At a glance, a chill subtly emanated from Ning Zhuo.
In the complete surveillance video released by the “Regulator,” a person who looked exactly like Jin Charlemagne had traced characters with his hand on the box.
However, the officially released version across major online channels had been heavily edited, focusing on the scenes where “Jin Charlemagne” replaced the poison and suddenly turned around.
Even in the longest and most complete video, those few seconds of tracing characters had been intentionally obscured and subtly adjusted!
This meant that the average citizens of Silver Hammer City could at most know that this person was doodling on the box, but they absolutely couldn’t distinguish what he had written.
Of course, there were also voices questioning the completeness of the video.
Many who watched the live broadcast claimed the video seemed modified.
But currently, the online uproar was overwhelming, and the doubts and debates surrounding Charlemagne were rampant; these skeptical comments were lost in the noise.
…Lin Qin was setting him up!
From the very first sentence of their discussion about this matter, he had been setting him up!
—“Didn’t you say you’ve been very busy lately and had no time to pay attention to irrelevant matters?”
The “Tuner” had hijacked Silver Hammer City’s public channel, and the video was only a little over a minute long.
Since Ning Zhuo claimed to be busy, it was unlikely that he happened to catch the firsthand video during that one minute!
If Ning Zhuo clearly stated that the information missing from the video played on the official channel existed, it would be tantamount to confessing!
In response to Ning Zhuo’s reaction, Lin Qin remained rather calm, as if they were genuinely engaged in an ordinary conversation and discussion: “The other party acted very cleanly, so it must have been handled by professionals, but we still uncovered some clues. It seems to be… related to a mercenary organization. Since you work in this field, you should understand that you’re often just a gun; whoever tells you to do something, you do it.”
Ning Zhuo: “Hmm.”
Lin Qin didn’t want to delve deeper.
Based on the information he currently possessed, this matter was related to the mercenary organization “Panqiao.”
It appeared something had happened with the leader, Shan Feibai, and then this video leaked…
The timing was a bit too coincidental.
… Could it be that Shan Feibai was plotted against by “White Shield” and, in a fit of anger, exposed this record as revenge?
He had no evidence; it was all just speculation, and Lin Qin naturally wouldn’t voice it.
Lin Qin spoke gently: “I’m relieved to know you’re not involved in this.”
Ning Zhuo: “…” Haha.
Lin Qin: “I still maintain what I said; don’t rush. Do you remember what I told you before? The question Han Shan asked Shi De?”
Ning Zhuo knew that was an ancient question-and-answer.
The question is, how should one deal with the slander, disdain, deception, humiliation, laughter, belittling, hatred, and lies directed at them?
Lin Qin slowly said, “Endure it, let it be, just let it go… I’ve forgotten what the rest are. In short, don’t pay attention to it, just wait a few more years…”
Ning Zhuo sneered: “If we wait a few more years, he’ll retire in glory.”
After saying this, he hung up the communication.
Lin Qin moved the communicator away from his ear, holding it in his hand, and said to Ning Zhuo, who could no longer hear him:
“You never let me finish my words.”
“… After a few more years, I’ll handle him myself.”
However, Ning Zhuo and he were never of the same temperament.
Lin Qin knew Ning Zhuo’s character.
He wasn’t afraid of Ning Zhuo going down the wrong path; he was just afraid he would take a road from which he couldn’t return, pursued by big corporations.
Lin Qin lowered his head and took a lucky coin out of his pocket.
He closed his eyes, the faint bitter aroma of coffee lingering in his mouth.
That year, when Lin Qin was accepted into “White Shield,” he went to find Ning Zhuo but was turned away at the door.
Ning Zhuo said, “Officer Lin, you’re the law, and I’m a thief; we shouldn’t meet again. If by chance I fall into your hands in the future, you can flip a coin: heads, I get caught; tails, I don’t. That’ll be a repayment for the favor from back then.”
Lin Qin later asked someone and learned that the five-petal lilac flower etched on the coin was a prayer for peace.
He smiled and kept the coin close to him, carrying it for five years.
After graduating, he applied to work in the Chang’an District but never saw Ning Zhuo again, only occasionally making a phone call—like friends, but not quite.
Lin Qin unconsciously used his right hand to fluidly pass the coin from thumb to pinky and back again, repeating the motion in cycles.
In the next moment, he flicked the coin high into the air and caught it.
Then, Lin Qin strode toward his post.
He had many things to do.
For instance, to investigate what exactly “Jin Charlemagne” had written.
On the other side, after hanging up, Ning Zhuo remained lost in thought for a moment.
A gust of wind caused a thin layer of sweat to break out on his back.
He softly cursed into the communicator, “Dead fox.”
…
After finally dealing with the dead fox, Ning Zhuo still had to handle the little wolf cub.
Things had more variables than he had anticipated, but so far, everything was still within Ning Zhuo’s plan.
Except for Shan Feibai.
Pushing open the door with a complicated mood, Ning Zhuo saw Shan Feibai doing crunches on a simple pull-up bar hanging in his room.
Because of his workout, the muscle definition on his abdomen became more pronounced, and the beads of sweat glistened as they ran down his waist, nearly obscuring the imperfections and flaws of his body.
Shan Feibai clearly didn’t care much about these things.
With his hands naturally hanging down behind his head, he smiled and swayed in midair: “Ning-ge, you’re back.”
After his conversation with Lin Qin, the moment he opened the door, Ning Zhuo had already made up his mind.
Ning Zhuo walked in front of Shan Feibai, kneeled on one knee, and met his gaze.
“Hey,” Ning Zhuo said, “be my accomplice.”
__
Author’s Note:
Ning Zhuo’s zoo is officially open!
