Chapter 184: A Narrow Escape, A Great Victory...
The city police gathered on the coast to wait for their departure, but no television reporters arrived for a long time.
"It's dawn. The smoke here is too thick and choking; we must leave quickly. Why haven't the people from Liancheng left yet? Have they found their informant?"
"I'll go find someone from the TV station to come back."
"Where did they go?!"
"I heard they're going to film Liancheng, after all, they lost a team captain there..."
"It's best not to make any rash statements since there's no sign of them alive or dead. Although we're not from the same municipal bureau, we're colleagues. In short, it's best to avoid any casualties."
"That's true, but everyone has been caught."
"The provincial department called!! Quickly get Captain Xu to go back!"
......
The forest fire was dying down, still struggling to billow thick smoke. The sunrise over the coastline seemed to be burning, while the mighty waves gradually calmed.
From an orderly search, the police in Liancheng turned into a aimless search, their efforts exhausted as they desperately sought a glimmer of hope for finding the sunken pearl.
"Could it be that the core members of the High Society have moved to another place?" Zhao Qiqi searched around the burning forest at great risk. His face was covered in soot that his expression was unreadable. He said wearily, "Sister Pearl couldn't have left without a word."
Little White followed him out, two tear streaks on her round, dark face. She kept repeating, "Sister Pearl will definitely leave clues, she will definitely give us hints, where are the clues... clues..."
Zhao Qiqi scratched his head and said, "Sister Pearl knows us well, so it's definitely an obvious place, right under our noses. But this operation was sudden, and we don't know if we'll have time to stay."
"Where did Uncle Wu go?" Lu Ye came down from the third floor, throwing a black robe on the ground for Xiao Bai and Zhao Qiqi to see: "Look, none of the people caught in the prefecture city are wearing this. At least it proves that we are on the right track, and there is still a group of people hiding in the shadows who have not been caught."
Zhao Qiqi pointed in the direction of the wooden house and said, "Uncle Wu was almost bitten by a snake. He went over there to catch his breath."
The fire drove out the poisonous snakes and insects from the forest, making it easy to fall victim if you're not careful.
"I'll go check on him." Lu Ye walked towards the wooden house. They had already turned it upside down; they had searched for everything, not even an ant, let alone a person.
Wu Zhongguo sat in front of the wooden house. After daybreak, the visibility improved considerably, and he was intently staring at a certain spot on the door panel: "Hiss...something's strange."
Lu Ye suddenly stopped walking, frowning as he looked near the doorknob of a wooden door: "There...are there black dots here? Are they black ink dots?"
"I'll go take a look."
"I'm going too!"
Xiao Bai and Zhao Qiqi behind him also stopped running and headed towards the other two wooden doors, squatting down to examine the door panels.
Xiao Bai suddenly shouted, "There are black dots marking the bottom of the doorknob!"
Zhao Qiqi also shouted, "I have two black dots here too!"
Wu Zhongguo waved to them from the top of the steps and shouted, "I was just about to call you, there are black spots on my doorknob too!"
Just as Lu Ye stopped, he noticed something strange about the doorknob in the sunlight, and soon everyone noticed that the other doorknobs were also odd.
After pacing back and forth in front of several doors and thinking for a while, he said, concealing his excitement, "Such an obvious location, it might be the password left by Sister Pearl!"
"I'll try copying it down." Xiaobai hurriedly took out a pen and wrote down the number and arrangement of the black dots under the doorknobs according to the front and back of the wooden house.
Zhao Qiqi asked with a worried look, "What kind of code is this? What do these black dots represent?"
The black dot was brazenly placed below the doorknob, seemingly unafraid of being discovered.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to inspect each household, Shen Zhenzhu arrogantly left marks on the door panels, a blatant act that can be described as both skillful and audacious.
"Brother Ye, take a look." Xiao Bai ran breathlessly to Lu Ye's side, hoping he would crack the code.
Five rows of tiny dots, some standing alone, some in rows of five.
They huddled together, unable to figure out how to solve the problem.
Lu Ye simply called Gu Yanzheng. They couldn't solve Shen Zhenzhu's problem, but Gu Yanzheng was the same kind of person as her and would definitely be able to solve it.
Gu Yanzheng's voice came from the other end of the phone. Lu Ye quickly explained the situation to him: "We need to crack the password. It's an emergency, and we can't find anyone else."
Gu Yanzheng spoke quickly: "This is a variant of the Polybius square, which we call 'dot code'. It uses a 5x5 square to determine and position the English letters."
He quickly calculated the code and gave the answer two or three minutes later: "The tree in the southeast direction, there is a passage under the tree."
Before Lu Ye could explain the situation to Gu Yanzheng, gunshots rang out in the background, and then Gu Yanzheng hung up the phone: "We'll talk about it later."
Lu Ye repeated, "Go find the tree in the southeast direction!"
Xiao Bai was so happy he almost cried. He wiped away his tears, bit his lip, and began checking his ammunition, preparing to riddle the enemy with bullets.
Zhao Qiqi, unlike his previous impulsive self, silently squatted down and tightened his shoelaces, vowing that no one could escape from his sight.
"Let's go. Ah Ye, get the men in order. We'll follow your orders this time." Wu Zhongguo patted Lu Ye's tense back, touched his bulletproof vest, and said, "It's giving me heat rash. Let's get this over with quickly."
"Follow me." Lu Ye took out his walkie-talkie and gave the order. Following the direction marked by Shen Zhenzhu, they went through the woods and found a tall, hidden black pine tree.
Its root system is extensive, gripping tightly the rocks and soil of the island, intertwining with each other. Beneath the tree grows the common shrub, Celastrus orbiculatus.
The group gathered around the black pine tree to investigate, where the roots, partially obscured by the fire, revealed the soil beneath.
Lu Ye knelt down in front of the black pine tree and called Xiao Bai over: "Try to see if you can get down from here."
"Okay." Without saying a word, Xiaobai grabbed the rope and wrapped it around his waist.
Wu Zhongguo tugged at the rope, lay down on the ground and looked inside, but it was dark and he couldn't see anything.
He looked up at Xiaobai and said, "Be careful, it might be a nest."
Little White nodded, stretched out its legs while holding onto the thick roots, and then disappeared into the narrow gap.
The rope was gradually loosened, and Xiaobai's footsteps went further and further away. Occasionally, she would tug on the rope to show that she was still there.
Five minutes later, a crackling sound came from Lu Ye's walkie-talkie. After a while, Xiao Bai's voice came from inside: "There's a tunnel here. This should be it. I can hear people talking inside."
"Go back, don't make any rash moves, and put on your mask." Lu Ye asked an officer for an axe, swung it around, and said, "I'll chop it open."
Little White hid under a tree hole, thick smoke and sawdust drifting in the air. Lu Ye was extremely strong, and in no time he split the tree root and jumped down.
Zhao Qiqi and Wu Zhongguo followed closely behind, while the Liancheng agents, armed, moved through the tunnels.
"Shh, there's a sound over here." Zhao Qiqi pressed himself against the wall and pointed to one end of the fork in the road.
Trusting his hearing, they walked down a side road.
Just then, Xiaobai suddenly whispered, "I think I heard Sister Pearl's voice."
Zhao Qiqi also lowered her voice to a very low level and said, "Sister Pearl is cursing."
The discovery of the sunken pearl's voice undoubtedly relieved everyone of their burden.
“The core members of the High Society are all here, so be very careful.” Lu Ye leaned against the wall, observing the situation ahead: “I’m afraid they’ve lost their composure, and no one is guarding the intersection.”
The fearsome Gao Hui was much easier to overcome than expected. Through the light ahead, Lu Ye and the others finally saw Chen Zhenzhu's figure.
"Gag her."
She was bound hand and foot to a wooden chair like a stubborn donkey, her mouth and nose covered, her face bruised and swollen, yet she still struggled. Surrounding her was a group of men in black robes, their faces also bruised and swollen, their eyes burning with a desire to devour Chen Zhenzhu alive.
At her feet was a short-haired woman, her face pale with anger, squatting down and brewing some kind of liquid.
There was a faint, almost imperceptible smell of bitter almonds in the air, and more than thirty people were crammed into the narrow passageway.
A man with a goatee walked up to Chen Zhenzhu with a screwdriver he had painstakingly collected, and unbuttoned two buttons at the bottom of her dress, revealing her delicate navel—
"Stop! What are you going to do to Sister Pearl?!"
Suddenly, a furious roar came from not far away, and a bullet pierced through the palm of the goatee-bearded chairman!
Bang!
"Aaaaah—!" The screwdriver in the goatee's hand fell to the ground, and he howled in pain as he clutched his wrist.
The goddess had finally managed to brew a new pot of "holy water" when a group of people suddenly appeared from the sky.
"Who are you?" the priestess roared. "Didn't the police already leave?!"
Lu Ye led the charge and, before she could retaliate, pointed his gun at her: "Don't move!"
The goddess cried out, "Don't let them steal our holy water! We are the ones who will board the heavenly ship!"
The goatee-bearded guild leader gasped for breath, struggling to shout, "Stop them! Quickly, grab the holy water!"
The heavily brainwashed believers charged forward unarmed, and the police fought them. They were like soulless zombies, using their bodies to block the police's advance.
Everyone who came down was thankful that they had no weapons; these people who didn't care about their own lives were the most terrifying opponents.
One by one, the agents subdued them and handcuffed them together. The Mother, with nowhere to hide, watched helplessly as her followers crumbled: "...No, everything I have, everything I have is gone!"
Little White rushed to Chen Zhenzhu and pulled on the rope: "Sister Zhenzhu!!"
Lu Ye restrained the goddess, then walked over, pulled out his knife, cut the rope, and patted Chen Zhenzhu's back hard: "You scared me to death, I'm so glad you're alright."
Xiao Bai angrily said, "What was that old man doing taking off your clothes?! Your belly button is showing! I'm going to kill that pervert!"
Shen Zhenzhu said in a hoarse voice, "It's not what you think. He's just going to drill open my belly button."
"Drill open the belly button?" Xiao Bai was dumbfounded and shouted at the goatee-bearded guild leader, "Do you have to be so perverted?!"
The goatee-bearded chairman said, with a heavy heart, "She ate our keys first! She's a madwoman, a complete madwoman!"
Under his leadership, the men in black robes accused Shen Zhenzhu: "This madman beats people so hard!"
Chen Zhenzhu felt extremely wronged.
A bunch of lunatics are calling her crazy. Is there any justice in this world?
Xiao Bai looked at Chen Zhenzhu: "Really? What else did you eat?"
Shen Zhenzhu said helplessly, "I only ate the key. If I hadn't, I would have been torn to pieces."
Xiao Bai paused for a second, then turned and cursed the goatee-bearded chairman again: "What a pervert!"
Zhao Qiqi followed up with a curse: "You filthy pervert!"
As Chen Zhenzhu stretched her body, she passed by the black-robed figures who were being held captive, causing them to shrink back in fear.
Shen Zhenzhu walked to the soup pot and told Lu Ye, "There is poison in the pot, so no one can drink it. The weapons are all in the kitchen at the end, and the kitchen key is in my stomach."
Lu Ye said, "Okay, I'll take care of things here. You go to the hospital quickly."
Chen Zhenzhu touched her belly: "I feel okay."
The priestess worried that someone was causing trouble in the tunnels, and even those who had passed rigorous selection and testing to become core members were not trusted. Her paranoia led her to order everyone to put their weapons on the kitchen shelves, leaving the believers powerless against the approaching police.
Xiao Bai didn't know what Chen Zhenzhu had gone through, but when she saw the injuries on her face, she felt sorry for her and shed tears.
Shen Zhenzhu cupped her round face and wiped away her tears, but the more she wiped, the dirtier they became: "I'm not seriously injured, I'm just outnumbered. Come on, help me find my things."
"Okay." Little White, now a cat with a painted face, walked past the believers who were being handcuffed one after another on the ground and went to the room on the right at the end.
Even after being arrested, the Mother Goddess continued to incite her followers to resist, shouting, "Heaven grants our wish! We will surely succeed; this is the final test. Seize the opportunity, even if it costs you your life, the heavenly ship will take you to paradise!"
Lu Ye said to Zhao Qiqi, "Put on gloves, cover her mouth, and take her away!"
Zhao Qiqi hated her with a vengeance, knowing she was the culprit, and shoved the goddess out of the tunnel without any politeness.
The agents behind them, leading a string of believers, also planned to leave.
The goddess kept turning back to look at Chen Zhenzhu as she entered the room, struggling and shouting, "Don't touch him! You're not allowed to touch my brother!"
Standing at the door of the room, Shen Zhenzhu said to Zhao Qiqi, "Let this goddess wait a moment, we have something good for her to see."
Zhao Qiqi stopped, picked up the goddess, and leaned against the wall to wait. The goddess, her eyes red, glared angrily at Chen Zhenzhu who had entered the room, and muttered some kind of vicious curse incessantly.
After entering, Chen Zhenzhu quickly located the hidden compartment in the wall of the room based on the young man's eyes, pried it open, and pulled out the account book inside.
"It contains a complete list of all the people involved, as well as the locations of their hideouts in various cities." Chen Zhenzhu flipped through a few pages and lowered her voice, saying, "The records of those with special abilities taking the drugs are also included... It's a bloody ledger of lives."
Xiao Bai swallowed hard, saying incredulously, "The dosage record could be...?"
Shen Zhenzhu sneered, "She thinks that taking the abnormal parts of people with special abilities can be very nourishing. Her cruelty and ignorance are outrageous."
As Xiaobai emerged from the room, she presented the ledger to the Mother Goddess.
The goddess couldn't believe her eyes. She had hidden this herself, and only her brother and herself knew about it: "You couldn't possibly have found this!"
With a forced smile, Shen Zhenzhu said, "Comrade Divine Mother, this is a gift your old brother gave you before he passed away. Aren't you surprised?"
The goddess's pupils widened slightly as she asked in astonishment, "What did you say? My brother told you? You're lying to me, you must be lying to me!"
Shen Zhenzhu said calmly, "When you forced him to eat people, did you ever think about his feelings? The meat soup you carefully prepared was more hateful to him than poison. Every day you took care of him, all he could think about was dying quickly. In his eyes, you were a devil."
"You're lying! My brother has always been obedient and sensible, he would never rebel against me! He would even risk his life for me!" Shen Zhenzhu's words drove the Goddess mad. She struggled desperately to pounce on Shen Zhenzhu, and Zhao Qiqi alone couldn't hold her back. The others grabbed her and dragged her away.
Shen Zhenzhu watched her leave indifferently.
The goatee-bearded chairman was also shoved and taken away. He said fiercely to Shen Zhenzhu, "I never thought of trusting you, but the goddess wouldn't listen to advice. If it weren't for you, we would already be on the heavenly ship by now."
Shen Zhenzhu pointed at the soup pot on the ground and said, "Do you really think this is something special?"
The goatee-bearded guild leader laughed awkwardly, "Holy water is the best thing in the world, a treasure I could never have asked for."
“I see you’re too poisoned.” Shen Zhenzhu shook her head and leaned against the wall, exhausted. “Take him away.”
A steady stream of agents came down to clean up the scene, and the locked kitchen door was violently broken open.
The agents confiscated various steel knives, guns, shotguns, and bullets inside.
Lu Ye exclaimed, "Good job swallowing the key! You've done a great service!"
Supported by Xiaobai, Shen Zhenzhu tried to smile, but her cracked lips stung. She smiled bitterly and said, "This trip has really broadened my horizons."
She turned around and saw boxes of psychology books and notes being carried out, and exclaimed, "In every profession, learning is the most important thing."
Emerging from the tunnel, Shen Zhenzhu followed the group toward the beach. Before she could catch her breath, Wu Zhongguo ran up from the front: "Captain Shen, the Goddess was about to commit suicide! But she's been stopped."
Shen Zhenzhu walked over quickly and saw the glass bottle that Zhao Qiqi had snatched, which was the poison that the Goddess had used.
Shen Zhenzhu cautioned, "Be careful, the poison is too strong."
"Stop filming! We're not from the Fucheng Public Security Bureau!" Lu Ye noticed that the Fucheng reporters had reappeared, carrying cameras and filming the arrest scene.
Xiao Bai muttered, "We're taking pictures everywhere we go on the island, like we're at home?"
Shen Zhenzhu stopped and turned to look at the camera. She stared at it without moving for more than ten seconds before the camera director slowly lowered the camera.
Shen Zhenzhu said sternly, "This is the first and last warning. Without permission, you are involved in law enforcement secrets. Even if the King of Heaven himself comes, I will still handcuff you and take you away."
"I'm sorry," the reporter said awkwardly. "We're leaving now."
Lu Ye watched from the side, feeling that there was still a lot he needed to learn.
There were hardly enough operators; they were passing body parts and formaldehyde jars around. Nearby, another operator was carrying more than a dozen corpses and placing them on the beach.
"A drug den." An agent from the prefectural city sat on a speedboat, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Team Leader Xu had just been reprimanded by the provincial department and was thinking that since it was all a criminal investigation team handling the case, and they hadn't even figured out who was in charge first, why was there such favoritism? Suddenly, he saw Chen Zhenzhu appear, and Liancheng officers arrested a group of criminals dressed in black robes.
The weapons, corpses, body parts, formaldehyde jars, chemicals, and other items displayed on the shore are enough to illustrate how terrifying this group of people were.
Captain Xu stared blankly at everything before him, while the agents behind him whispered amongst themselves.
"It wasn't a scam operation after all, it was...it was a cult. Look at those internal organs, they're human...they're actually human!"
"Captain Chen from Liancheng is there, and she's still alive!"
"They're really...really going all out! How come we couldn't find them?!"
"My God, so many people died, and they almost got away. If they had, even more people would have died."
The people in the prefecture city spoke softer and softer until they finally fell silent.
Having narrowly escaped death, Shen Zhenzhu spotted Captain Xu watching her from the crowd. She walked over confidently and extended her hand: "Captain Xu, hello. I heard you have some misunderstanding with our Liancheng Major Crimes Unit?"
This statement is off; it sounds like they're about to accuse someone.
Captain Xu grasped Shen Zhenzhu's hand, and seeing her composure despite her condition, he greatly admired the renowned Captain Shen: "I have long admired Captain Shen's name. This time, our city was biased and misled by our informant, so our investigation was not thorough enough. I am truly sorry. Congratulations on your great victory. I will take full responsibility for this... It is a pity that our informant sacrificed himself in this operation."
Shen Zhenzhu could guess who the informant was, and lowered her eyes, saying, "It is indeed very regrettable."
"Sister Pearl, the person has been brought over," Xiao Bai said from behind Shen Zhenzhu. "What should we do?"
Shen Zhenzhu turned around and saw the young man lying quietly on the stretcher, as if he were asleep.
"Don't put it in the yellow bag. Leave it like this for a while, and then put it on the ship last." Chen Zhenzhu looked up at the azure sky and said softly, "Let him take a look."
"The prefectural government left all the arrested believers to us," Wu Zhongguo said as he walked over. "Should we take them?"
Chen Zhenzhu said, "Yes, why wouldn't I want it?"
Wu Zhongguo said with a smile, "I thought so too. Even without a cooperation agreement, and since we are the main force in solving the case, they will give it to us sooner or later."
"It happened so suddenly, there wasn't enough time to ask my superiors for cooperation. I was lucky this time," Shen Zhenzhu said calmly.
"Sister Pearl, leave this to Brother Ye. I'll go to the hospital with you." Xiao Bai hurriedly pulled Chen Zhenzhu towards the speedboat: "Someone else will come to conduct a thorough investigation later, so don't worry about anything being missed."
Lu Ye patted his chest and said, "The provincial leaders and Director Liu have both inquired about this. Leave this kind of thing to me; I'm good at it."
Shen Zhenzhu waved her hand and got on the speedboat: "Then I'll go first."
The speedboat sped across the blue sea and sky. Chen Zhenzhu took a sip of water and whispered in Xiaobai's ear, "I didn't expect you guys to actually crack the code."
Xiao Bai clung tightly to Chen Zhenzhu, feeling a sense of relief at surviving a disaster: "It was Captain Gu who untied it. Brother A Ye called Captain Gu, and he untied it in no time."
To be fair, Gu Yanzheng also deserves credit. He absolutely deserves praise when it's due.
Chen Zhenzhu smiled and said, "No wonder."
Xiao Bai said, "Wow, Sister Pearl underestimates us. We'll study hard when we get back."
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Okay, I'll wait for you to study hard and make progress every day."
We chatted casually, and the speedboat journey seemed to take much longer than getting to the island.
Upon reaching land, the waiting medical staff quickly pressed Shen Zhenzhu onto the bed and pushed her into the ambulance. They arrived at the hospital without any obstacles.
Upon entering the hospital, a green channel was activated for emergency examinations.
After the examination, the chief physician said, "There are multiple soft tissue injuries on the body. The person who swallowed the metal key has not shown symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. There is no immediate danger to their life. I suggest inducing vomiting."
Shen Zhenzhu said with a pale face, "I tried it before, but I didn't throw up."
The chief physician said, "Drink some lightly salted water."
Shen Zhenzhu hugged a large tea mug filled with lightly salted water, while Xiaobai stood by the bedside urging, "Sister Zhenzhu, hang in there! Sister Zhenzhu, hang in there!"
With a sense of utter despair, Shen Zhenzhu forced the pearl down her throat...
After spending most of the day in the hospital, and successfully spitting out the key, Chen Zhenzhu washed herself and lay on the hospital bed, fast asleep. She slept sprawled out, her belly button exposed without any defenses.
Xiao Bai silently pulled the corner of the blanket over herself.
These past few days, Chen Zhenzhu hasn't been sleeping well, but she can finally get a good night's sleep.
When Director Tu, Director Liu, and other city bureau leaders came to visit her, she was still fast asleep. Xiao Bai, who was sitting on the edge of the bed reading, immediately stood up upon seeing this.
Director Tu reached out to stop him: "No rush, come and check on them first, find out what's going on."
Director Liu looked at the hero who had lost weight and sighed, "It's good that you're alright. This was too dangerous."
Unaware that the leaders were coming to offer their condolences, Shen Zhenzhu was still diligently acting as the patrol leader in her sleep, walking smugly along the road, leading a group of lackeys in shouting: "Goddess Mother Wan—"
Xiao Bai quickly covered Chen Zhenzhu's mouth and secretly glanced at Director Tu and the others: "It's just a dream."
Director Tu nodded: "You should still wake her up."
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Author's note: Happy November! [Sprinkling flowers]
See you tomorrow, there are 100 red envelopes! [Let me see]
***
Please do not take this as a real-life story; it is fictional.
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