Xu Heng? The moment I heard this name, I could feel that the muscles on my face become stiff as iron in an instant. I couldn’t say whether I was surprised or scared, but my voice was already trembling. “Who?”


  “Xu Heng,” Dong Xiaoye closed the car window, fearing that her words would drift to other people’s ears. She lowered her voice and said, “Since you are already involved in this case, it doesn’t matter if you tell you this. You already know that Xu Heng had sent an anonymous report letter to the Municipal Police Department. The content of the report included evidence of illegal competitions, extortions, bribery, and other criminal activities that Long Xiaotian had been involved in over the years. It involves many people with complicated identities and backgrounds.”


  “But what does this have to do with Sang Yingjie? Wait, are you telling me that he has a close relationship with the Long family?”


  “It’s not him, it’s his boss,” Dong Xiaoye said with a serious expression, “And it’s not so much of a relationship, it’s a conflict. Several years ago, Sang Yingjie’s boss got into the real estate business, trying to turn some of his illegal businesses into legal businesses so it would be easier for him to launder money. But the Long family gave him a hard time. So their relationship could be described as very bad.

  “Four years ago, the government approved a piece of land in Little Wolf Mountain in the south of the city. Because of various preferential policies, that piece of land was very popular. At that time, the Long family had already invested heavily in the development plan of Crouching Dragon Mountain Resort, so logically speaking, it shouldn’t have spare resources to bid for this project. However, in the end, they could still win the bid. Everyone suspected that there might be illegal operations in the bidding process, but due to Long Xiaotian’s background, most of the bidders dared not to speak out. Only Sang Yingjie’s boss, who had a grudge against Long Xiaotian, brought Long Xiaotian and the relevant people who were in charge of the Land Resources Bureau to court.

  “Because it was a citizen suing the government, it caused quite a stir at that time. However, due to a lack of evidence, Sang Yingjie’s boss lost the lawsuit. Not only that, but it also caused the Long family to bite back, suing him for defamation. In the end, not only did he lose a large sum of money, but he also had to apologize to the Long family publicly in the newspaper, which could be considered a big humiliation. Originally, this matter could just end here, but Long Xiaotian was not a forgiving person. In order to show people the Long family’s power in Bei Tian City, he began to retaliate against Sang Yingjie’s boss, not only in the business world but also in the underworld.

  “Long Xiaotian was not a gang member, but he had a very good relationship with the leaders of many gangs in the underworld, so it was said that he was also very influential in the underworld. He incited these underworld gangs to unite to suppress Sang Yingjie’s boss, annex his territory and business, reducing his territory to the eastern region of the city…”


  I was a little confused. “According to what you said, Sang Yingjie and his boss should have been the victims of the Long family, and they were clearly not on good terms with the Long family, so why are you going after them? Aren’t you supposed to be going after those who were involved in the Long family’s criminal activities?”


  Maybe it was because of Xiao Yike, although I knew that they were gangsters, I still couldn’t help but side with them.

  “It is exactly because he is not on good terms with the Long Family that we have to watch him,” Dong Xiaoye asked rhetorically, “Who do you think will benefit the most after the Long family collapsed, and all the gang leaders that had a close relationship with the Long family were caught?”


  I was taken aback, “You mean… He is the person who is behind Xu Heng’s case?!”


  What the hell was Xiao Yike’s dad thinking?! Minx had already lost her mother, if he was locked up again, what would the minx do?!

  For some reason, an image suddenly appeared in my mind, and in that image, Minx was sitting on the road in a ragged dress. Her small face was dirty, her big eyes were dull, and her petite body was trembling in the cold wind. There was a chipped porcelain bowl next to her bare feet, but she was biting her lips stubbornly, not wanting to beg anyone. Because of that, there was nothing in her bowl…


  “I didn’t say that. We just didn’t rule out the possibility, even if the possibility is only 1%. This is the principle of the police in handling cases.”


  Dong Xiaoye’s words interrupted my scary assumption. After I recovered from the shock, I noticed that my back was actually wet with cold sweat.

  “Don’t try to fool me. Xu Heng’s case involves so many people, the police definitely don’t have enough manpower to investigate everyone, so there is no way that they would assign people to watch him just because of 1% of possibility.” This thing mattered to Xiao Yike, so my mind was very clear.

  Dong Xiaoye stopped the car at the red light, and then turned her head to look at me silently. Only after the traffic light was switched to the green light and the wheels turned again, she sighed with a smile, “You know a lot about how we work…”


  I said lightly, “What I know is not how you investigate crimes, but your workload. Every time you called Lin Zhi, he would hang up on you in less than a minute. It is enough to tell how busy his workload is.”


  Dong Xiaoye was a little surprised, “You even noticed these little details?”


  I didn’t say anything, showing an unfathomable look. However, what Dong Xiaoye didn’t know was that I was secretly feeling guilty. I was a healthy and normal man, but three girls in my flat often wore tank tops and shorts, exposing their arms, thighs, and bellies in front of me.

  One of them was my little sister, and the other was about the same age as my little sister. Watching them made me feel like I was committing some kind of crime. So naturally, my gaze often followed Dong Xiaoye. Moreover, her superb figure was not something that the two little girls’ figures could compare with. Coupled with her careless character, she would often accidentally expose some areas that shouldn’t be shown to me…


  But there was no way I would tell her that the reason why I paid so much attention to her was because of that.

  Dong Xiaoye didn’t know my dirty thoughts, but her pretty face still flushed; she most likely misunderstood why I paid so much attention to her.

  As if to cover up her feelings, she cleared her throat before continuing, “Yes, the police won’t pay attention to them for such a small possibility, but I am definitely not trying to scare you so you will stay away from people like Sang Yingjie. Although the situation in Bei Tian City has been chaotic after what Xu Heng did, and people like Sang Yingjie haven’t taken advantage of the situation and created any trouble recently, the police have some good reason to suspect them. So I wasn’t lying when I said that the police are watching them.”


  I instinctively asked, “What is the basis?”


  Dong Xiaoye said without hesitation, “First, the police have found the off-road motorcycle that Xu Heng rode when he escaped from Crouching Dragon Mountain Resort. It was in the courtyard of a rental house in Xincun village in the east of the city. According to the landlord’s description, the guest’s appearance was very similar to Xu Heng’s appearance, but as if Xu Heng got the information in advance, he had already run away before Captain Lin surrounded the place…”


  What was Xu Heng thinking? Why was he still staying in Bei Tian City and didn’t leave? A thought suddenly flashed in my mind, “So that’s the reason! The police know that Xu Heng is still in Bei Tian City, so your Captain Lin told you to protect me as much as possible, right? That was the reason why you were scolded by your captain?”


  Dong Xiaoye blushed but did not deny it, “I only knew about it recently. My task is only to protect you, and I am not allowed to intervene in the investigation. What you just said is not correct. The reason why Captain Lin hung up on me every time was not only because he was busy at work, but mainly because I kept asking him about the progress of the case. But he didn’t want to tell me…”


  I almost wanted to ask Dong Xiaoye why Lin Zhi refused to tell her the progress of the case. But after thinking about it again, I figured out the reason. He was worried that Dong Xiaoye would tell me…


  “But isn’t it a bit far-fetched to suspect Sang Yingjie’s boss just because Xu Heng is hiding in the eastern region of the city?”


  “Of course that’s not all.” This time, Dong Xiaoye finally hesitated, but after a pause, she still said to me, “Originally, I shouldn’t tell you this, but I can trust you, so you must not tell other people. Do you understand?”


  After I nodded, Dong Xiaoye said,

  “We have found out where Xu Heng got his guns and explosives from. They were sold to him by a man who owns a stone factory in the east of the city. This man has a nickname – Black Robe, and he was sentenced to jail for two years for illegal possession of guns three years ago.

  “Based on the fact that he had been caught before, it was highly unlikely for him to sell those things to strangers, so when he was dealing with Xu Heng, there must be a middleman. As for whether this middleman was Sang Yingjie or his boss, we still can’t confirm it. Now that Black Robe has also disappeared, everything was just speculation before he was caught. However, combined with Xu Heng hiding in the east of the city afterward, and he obtained the guns and explosives from someone in the east of the city beforehand, we can still conclude that he must have been active in the east of the city for a long time before he went to work for the Long family…”


  Dong Xiaoye paused and said, “Birds of a feather flock together. You should understand what I mean, right?”