Special District 9 Chapter 173: The Mind of a Small Fry

Hearing Liu Baochen’s angry ramblings, Wen Yonggang flung his fringe to the side and berated him sternly, “Watch your attitude! Who do you think you are lashing out at here?”

Liu Baochen took a look at his document once more. Unable to swallow down his indignance, he marched forward and exclaimed, “Vice Superintendent Wen, isn’t this too severe? An official reprimand is as good as stripping me bare in public!”

“Who can you blame for that?” Wen Yonggang glared at Liu Baochen. “If you weren’t so greedy, would things have blown up so far?”

Liu Baochen was rendered speechless.

“I’ve already tried my best for you, but I can’t help it that there’s such a clear video of you accepting someone else’s money!” Wen Yonggang waved his plump hands coldly as he spoke. “I have no choice but to deal with it this way in the face of such conclusive evidence. No one will be able to help you on this!”

Liu Baochen’s cheeks flushed red as he pursed his lips like a wronged victim for a long while before he retorted furiously, “But an official reprimand coupled with two years of no promotions means that there’s no way that I’ll be able to be promoted before I’m 40!”

“Look at the current situation! You still dream of getting promoted after the mess you got yourself into? It’s due to my connections that you’re able to keep your job, or else things could have gone much worse!” Wen Yonggang reprimanded. “This is the best outcome there is. Just treat it as a painful lesson!”

“…!” Liu Baochen gritted his teeth angrily, but he didn’t refute Wen Yongagang’s words this time.

“Go back!” Wen Yonggang said with a wave of his hands. “Hurry up and crack Wu Yao’s case. This way, you can at least get something good from Yuan Ke and Wu Wensheng. At least that’s better than nothing. As for your future in the Police Bureau… grit your teeth and hang on. There’s bound to be light at the end of the tunnel.”

Liu Baochen took a long while to calm down before he finally nodded, “I understand. Thank you, Vice Superintendent Wen.”

“You may go now.”

“Un.”

Taking the notification of punishment with him, Liu Baochen left the room.

…

In the common working space of Squad 4.

Qin Yu sat down on his chair with his hands in his pocket, He turned to Zhu Wei and asked, “I told you before to find opportunities to nurture some eyes out there. Those living on the streets are bound to have more information than we do, or else we’ll be forced to proceed blindly on whatever case we work on.”

“I’m still in the midst of dealing with that,” Zhu Wei took a gulp of water before replying. “I’ll be visiting a gun smuggler over in prison later on. He has quite some influence on the streets, so I’m thinking of asking him about Miao.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Qin Yu replied. “Bring Fu Xiaohao and Ding Guozhen with you too.”

“Sure, no problem,” Zhu Wei replied as he put down his cup.

While the two of them were chatting, Liu Baochen walked out from the Vice Superintendent Office. His eyes, filled with grudge and vengeance, pierced through the glass partitions to glare at Qin Yu’s silhouette.

He was convinced that Qin Yu was the root of all of his misfortune these days. He thought that someone had pulled some strings in the shadow in order to accord him a disproportionately severe punishment so as to screw him over…

…

That night.

Brother Xiao and his group were huddled close together with dumplings. They returned back to Mapleforest Road’s Charity Apartments with some of their luggages, and they were heading toward Block 8.

Block 8 was located directly opposite to Block 2, which they previously lived in. There was an empty clearing and a three-storey boiler room sitting between the two blocks.

The five of them headed over to the seventh floor, unlocked one of the metal doors, and walked in leisurely.

Yellowhead took off his coat and yawned leisurely. He exclaimed, “I’ll read my novel for a while before heading to sleep. Don’t disturb me!”

“Useless shit. All you know is to stare at your phone all day long. Like you can get anything out of it at all!” Leopard berated. He headed over to the balcony and looked at Block 2 Room 606, remarking, “Oof, the landlord sure is pitiful. He might still be interrogated at the Police Bureau even at this very moment.”

“Hah, he gets to earn such easy money, so what’s to be pitied about him?” Brother Xiao remarked as he sat down on the sofa and shook his leg leisurely. He looked around the room before remarking with a gleam in his eyes, “Since those from the Police Bureau have already raided this area once, they won’t be coming back anymore. We can stay here safely till the end of the year.”

Leopard closed the windows before walking back into the living room. He said, “Yeah, we did rent this room earlier than the one on the opposite side. The landlord is currently working at Fengbei, and he’s a trustworthy person. There’s no issue.”

“Who’s keeping a lookout over there?” Brother Xiao turned his head over and asked.

“Ming-zai!” Leopard replied heartily.

“We just have one last job to deal with,” Brother Xiao said as he took out his cigarette box. “Once we clear it, we’ll be able to rest for a period of time.”

“Yeah. I’ll be taking over Ming-zai’s lookout duty later on,” Leopard said as he took out a can of beer from his bag. “I think they should be arriving soon.”

“Nah, there’s no need to keep a lookout for today. Have an early night today,” Brother Xiao said. He placed a bag filled with guns on the table and beckoned to the two fresh faces in the room, saying, “You should check your own goods.”

The two fresh faces walked over. They quietly picked up the guns and bullets and began inspecting them one by one.

…

In one of the northern communal regions in Songjiang.

Dajun sat on a broken wooden bed, munched on an icy-cold bread, and sipped on freezing water. Unable to stand such suffering, he cursed, “Goddamnit! Brother Wu is gone, and now, I’m suddenly reduced to a fugitive. This dastardly life!”

Miao stared at him gravely as he remarked grudgingly, “I already told you a thousand times that those fixers aren’t to be messed with, but you refused to listen to me. Look, you blew it all up for just a mere 80,000 dollars. How are you going to settle things now?”

Dajun shot a glance at Miao, but he didn’t say a word.

“What did I do? Bloody hell, I even refunded the money to those fixers, but I still ended up having to run away together with you,” Miao grumbled in irritation. “Shit! If only I knew earlier, I shouldn’t have built those connections for you.”

“In the end, we’re all out for money. What’s the point of spouting all those bullshit now?” Dajun criticized with an awful look on his face.

“Forget it, I can’t be bothered to argue with you anymore,” Miao replied dejectedly. “Anyway, I don’t think that I can stay in Songjiang anymore. I’ll be seeking refuge with my friends over in the Development District for the time being.”

“Is there a need to go so far?” Dajun thought that Miao was being too excessively wary here. “I know that the Police Bureau will investigate this matter, but Brother Wu’s father won’t let the details about gun smuggling blow up. As long as we lie low for a while, the storm will blow over.”

“Are you dumb?” Miao replied with a mixture of frustration and helplessness. “Who do you think is the cause of Brother Wu’s death? It’s you, do you get it now? I’m telling you this, once the Police Bureau figures out that the cause of the incident is a deal over smuggled guns, the first thing that Wu Wensheng will do is to silence you for good. Do you finally understand what kind of situation you are in right now?”

Dajun froze up upon hearing those words.

…

In the Police Bureau.

Due to the punishment Liu Baochen received, he could only pray for Wu Yao’s case to be quickly resolved so that he could claim some compensation from Yuan Ke and Wu Wensheng to make up for his losses. Thus, he didn’t return home that night. He remained in the office to look through the evidence collected from Room 606, hoping to get some lead from them.

Ten at night, Liu Baochen was just about to head to the canteen to have supper when he noticed a few small cards inside one of the evidence bags. He turned to the police officer beside him and asked, “What’s this?”

“We found this in one of the bed rooms,” the police officer replied. “It contains the contact information of a few underground casinos. You can place bets online or through phone. They provide a lot of different entertainment, be it horse betting, lottery, anything.”

Liu Baochen stared at the cards with a tight knit on his forehead.

…

The following afternoon.

While Brother Xiao was fiddling with his phone on the bed, his ringtone suddenly sounded.

“Hello?”

“… He’s currently heading to the destination in his car,” Leopard reported.

Brother Xiao’s eyes widened before his body quickly shot upright. He shouted loudly, “Wake up! Wear your clothes. It’s time to get to work!

Several seconds later, the crowd in the room rushed out with guns in their hands.