Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Bai Muchuan clenched his fist. “Say clearly.”


  “That girl seemed to have detected something amiss. She wandered around randomly then entered a place called Summer Fruit Cafe. She ordered a cup of coffee and stayed there for two hours. When she went to the ladies, she actually wanted to leave the cafe sneakily……”


  Xiang Wan was dazed for a moment.

  Wasn’t this the place where Fang Yuanyuan and another two female authors had arranged to meet Xuan Yue?

  She instantly felt a tight squeeze in her heart. Could it be that Fang Yuanyuan and the two of them decided to just stood her up that she sensed she might have blown her cover?

  Xiang Wan started to clench her first slowly when Bai Muchuan asked another question. “So did you manage to catch her then?”


  Quan Shaoteng: “She took six hostages at gunpoint! I wanted to ask you if we could snipe her to protect the hostages?”


  She had a gun?

  If they snipe her…… that means she would be dead.

  It was not easy for them to finally caught sight of a big fish.

  If they killed her, all of their efforts would be in vain!

  Bai Muchuan hesitated for a moment. “Try to keep her alive. But the most important thing is still the safety of the hostages!”


  Quan Shaoteng responded, “Roger!”


  Bai Muchuan then swiftly said, “I’ll come over now!”
……

  Several police cars came out of the building of Serious Crime Division One.

  The urgent sound of the police siren screeched through the streets they drove past, attracting the attention of many pedestrians.

  Bai Muchuan and rest of officers arrived at the scene in no time.

  Summer Fruit Cafe was located on the ground level of a commercial building situated in a busy part of downtown.

  The arrival of the police cars caused a commotion among the crowd.

  The sounds of people talking, shouting and mumbling—it was chaotic.

  At the same time, the officers from the district police station, the ambulance, the various special police forces, detectives, as well as several police dogs, were all ready at the scene. Some police officers were trying to persuade the crowd to leave the area. The police had cordoned off a large area as the fake Xuan Yue was armed……

  All the people in the cafe had ran away, except for those hostages who didn’t manage to.

  The hostages were being requested to have their hands on their head and crouch on the ground—


  The fake Xuan Yue sat behind the serving counter. There was a glass of water and her mobile phone before her. There was a lost look in her eyes as she looked at the live surveillance footage. She made a little girl who had came to the cafe with her mom, sat on the counter to block the view from outside.

  The little girl was only six to seven years old, she was so scared that she didn’t even dare to cry.

  Outside the cordoned area, the situation was somewhat chaotic. The crowd was getting bigger in size……

  Bai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of the curious crowd that made up the majority.

  “Captain Bai!” Ding Yifan walked over. “That woman is really something. She actually has a gun with her and took 6 hostages, one of them is a kid.”


  Bai Muchuan swept a quick glance around. “Where’s Captain Quan?”


  Ding Yifan lowered his volume as he answered, “Captain Quan and team are looking for a sniping location.”


  “Hur!” Bai Muchuan remarked with a smile. “He’s preparing to snatch the work of the special police?”


  “You know how Captain Quan is.” Ding Yifan laughed. “Besides, our Special Operations Team is not bad at all!”


  That was for sure!

  Quan Shaoteng had brought along the elites of his platoon in Red Thorn to Serious Crime Division One after all.

  The original purpose of the formation of the Special Operations team, was exactly to cater for situations like this.

  Bai Muchuan paused for a while before he issued an order. “Walkie-talkie!”


  Ding Yifan gave him the walkie-talkie.

  “Laowu, Laowu, calling for Laowu over!”


  Quan Shaoteng was not really used to be called “Laowu” when he was carrying out a mission. This was such an exciting mission, yet he had lost his cool Red Thorn codename.

  He cleared his throat lightly. “What’s up, over!”


  Bai Muchuan: “What’s the situation like over at your end?”


  Quan Shaoteng was currently at the building across the street, crouching as he moved along. “I’m looking for the best sniping location……” he said seriously.

  Bai Muchuan’s tightened his grip while holding the walkie-talkie. “This fake Xuan Yue is a big fish…… I wanted to get more information out of her.”


  Quan Shaoteng observed the situation inside the cafe from his snipe scope before giving a reply. “Have you ever gone fishing?”


  Bai Muchuan responded with a raised eyebrow, “Why?”


  Quan Shaoteng snorted, “Big fish are hard to catch!”


  Bai Muchuan didn’t utter a reply. “.……”


  What he said was the truth.

  It was really hard to keep the hostages safe yet keep the perpetrator alive……

  Bai Muchuan replied after a while, “Try your best! The safety of the hostages is of paramount importance.”


  Quan Shaoteng responded, “I will!”
……

  The commotion of the crowd and the messy scene could not affect Quan Shaoteng’s judgment.

  He was sort of being “on loan” to Serious Crime Division One from Red Thorn. His main purpose was to handle situations that required his expertise, which was perfect for emergency situations like this. Criminal Investigation was never his expertise to begin with. Although he followed Bai Muchuan around to execute their missions, he was being called the “most idle detective” by a certain someone. As a result, he had quite an amount of pent-up anger in him.

  He did not move an inch then tilted his head to be closer to the microphone.

  “Observers, report the situations!”


  To be on the safe side, he had assigned three observers for this mission.

  That cafe was located exactly at the corner of the street with only side of the wall which was a full length glass facing the street.

  The three observers were located at three different angles which could provide him a bigger and better view.

  “Captain Quan, all is ok in A1!”


  “Report, all is ok in A2!”


  “Report, all is ok in A3!”


  Quan Shaoteng narrowed his eyes slightly as he licked his gums. “Got it! Report when there’s any problem!”


  “A1 roger!”


  “A2 roger!”


  “A3 roger!”


  Quan Shaoteng then contacted Bai Muchuan via the walkie-talkie. “Little Bai, everything’s ready now. Will await your instructions!”


  Bai Muchuan replied, “Got it!”


  The fake Xuan Yue was the target of Serious Crime Division One. Hence, they were the ones who would give orders and be responsible for what happened at the scene. Bai Muchuan met with the Special Police forces and discussed an action plan. His decision was to negotiate with the fake Xuan Yue first……

  Negotiation was a skilled job.

  Before Bai Muchuan had arrived, the police had already used the microphone to talk to Xuan Yue.

  However, the fake Xuan Yue did not make any request at all.

  She was very patient as she calmly sat at her spot. It felt like she was pitting against the police in terms of patience. She was not panicked at all, not flustered nor anxious. She was unlike most criminals whom when surrounded by the police, they were really frightened and would kill the hostages without qualms or behave as though they had lost control. They would also make all kinds of requests to try to get away while holding the hostages……

  But for her, she did nothing.

  She did not ask for anything.

  This type of people was the most difficult to handle.

  Bai Muchuan took a telescope and looked at the situation at the cafe.

  “Talk to her again!”


  Ding Yifan then took the microphone which let out a shrill sound of electric current when he turned it on.

  He adjusted the volume a little before he spoke. “To the people in there, listen! Do not hurt the hostages. Tell us what you want. We can talk!”


  Nobody responded.

  Of course, as it was quite a distance, they were unable to hear even if anyone spoke inside the cafe as well.

  Ding Yifan tried to go closer. “Please be rest assured. The hostages are in your hands, we won’t do anything recklessly. But I’m also sure that you are not willing to get captured as well. How about this? I’ll come into the cafe. If you have anything to tell us, we can talk it over face to face……”


  A glass cup was thrown out from the counter and hit the full-length glass wall, the glass cup was smashed to smithereens.

  That sudden ear-piercing sound made the hostages inside the cafe shriek in fear!

  The crowd outside also screamed and gasped at the sight.

  The fake Xuan Yue didn’t shoot. She only smashed a glass cup.

  The smashing act was an expression of her reluctance towards Ding Yifan wanting to enter the cafe.

  After that, she pointed the gun at a woman who was closest to the entrance of the cafe and waved the gun about. “You, the one who’s wearing red, go out and tell them that I don’t want to talk. I don’t want my life as well…… Tell them not to play anymore tricks or I’ll let them see corpses right away!”