The reason they’d tried to secretly sell product and make money back then was...

He’d fallen for a woman, the kind where he poured his heart out to her. Whenever she asked for money, he’d go find money for her.

But the problem was, this woman was no good person at all—he’d met her while buying sex...

At the time the boss was so furious he laughed, and directly kicked him out of the pickle plant and over to the shelter.

"Idiot! If it weren’t for you, how would we have all this mess!"

Zhao Hailong finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, cursing in his heart.

Zhang Yong bristled right away, lifted his head and glanced over. After their eyes met and he saw the look in the other man’s eyes, like he wanted to eat him alive, Zhang shrank his neck back and lowered his head.

Off to the side, Cheng Jia was getting irritated too.

After a long while, Zhang Yong finally spoke, embarrassed:

"So now... what do we do now?"

"It’ll get dealt with."

Cheng Jia took a deep breath, forced down his own anger, and said:

"But after this is over, the boss said... you’re going back to your hometown."

G...go back home!?

In an instant, Zhang Yong’s mouth froze stiff.

He was a bit unwilling, his lips moved, but in the end he still didn’t dare say anything.

He could only lower his head, looking extremely sullen, no one knowing what exactly he was thinking.

"Hmph, I see you still don’t realize how much trouble you almost stirred up this time!"

Zhao Hailong took a deep breath.

Then he stopped paying attention to him.

He turned instead to Cheng Jia and started going over where exactly the case still had holes.

...

...

One in the afternoon.

In front of Jiang City Police Bureau.

As the bureau of a county-level city, the director’s rank actually wasn’t high, just above that of a normal prefecture-level city’s division captain, far from the level of a bureau chief.

But...

Putting it another way, that’s only compared to a prefecture-level city.

And this was Jiang City, a county-level city.

Even if the director was currently only at a section-level rank, he was still the highest leader of the Jiang City Police Bureau.

Ordinarily, whoever saw him would have to flatter him a bit; getting an audience with him wasn’t easy at all—especially someone like Jiang City’s director, Sun Chuan, who hated evil with a passion.

Only...

This man who was usually hard to even see once was actually waiting at the front entrance of the bureau right now, and had been waiting for nearly half an hour.

Yes.

Right in front of the bureau.

The forty-something-year-old Sun Chuan was standing there with a few people, pacing back and forth at the door, as if waiting for someone.

After a long while...

The person next to him couldn’t bear it anymore and probed in a low voice:

"Director Sun, why don’t you head back first? I’ll wait here for you. If they show up, I’ll report to you?"

Hearing that,

Sun Chuan didn’t even think about it; he shook his head right away.

"No need."

He paused, then said in a deep voice:

"We keep waiting."

With that, he furrowed his brows and continued to wait, face serious.

The subordinates around him didn’t say anything more, though in their hearts they were all wondering who it could be.

One look at them and Sun Chuan knew what they were thinking, and he sighed inwardly himself.

Just a few hours earlier, while he was in his office carrying out routine duties,

the phone in his office suddenly rang. When he picked up...

He found it was a leader from the municipal bureau calling. Nothing special, mainly just asking him to cooperate with someone who would be investigating a case in a lawful and proper manner.

This was very normal; the police often cooperate with others on investigations.

It could be the procuratorate, it could be a lawyer, it could even be police from other jurisdictions, or some plainclothes officers.

But in Sun Chuan’s eyes, this time was anything but normal.

From the other party’s wording and tone, he realized they too were someone just like him, ordered to carry something out...

You’ve got to be kidding.

This was the municipal bureau—and not just any municipal bureau, but the capital city of Lanshan Province.

What kind of person could be giving them orders?

He didn’t know, but it was definitely not someone he had any chance of coming into contact with.

Sun Chuan didn’t dare think, didn’t dare guess. In any case he was just there to cooperate with an investigation, so he simply came out to wait in advance.

As for building connections?

Forget it. Sun Chuan didn’t want to build connections; he just wanted to stay on his little patch of land in Jiang City and get to the bottom of a certain case from back then.

That’s what he thought.

He reined his thoughts in and started quietly waiting.

About ten minutes passed, and there was still no sign of anything around them, as if Sun Chuan had remembered the time wrong.

Just as the others were getting more and more confused...

A white sedan suddenly pulled up at the entrance.

Three young people got out of the car.

They’d assumed the three were just ordinary people coming to the bureau to handle some business, but unexpectedly, the man among them looked around, then locked his gaze on Sun Chuan.

Then he strode forward.

How could Sun Chuan not know this was the person he’d been waiting for? He immediately stepped up and reached out his hand.

"Hello, I’m Xu Liang, a lawyer here to ask the bureau for cooperation to investigate a few cases. You must be Officer Sun?"

Xu Liang took his hand and spoke in a mild tone.

Sun Chuan nodded, a smile appearing on his face.

"That’s me."

Hearing that,

Xu Liang didn’t bother with any small talk, didn’t waste time on polite chit-chat. He went straight to it:

"I’m a lawyer. This time I’m mainly here to investigate Jianghe Pickle Plant."

Not long ago, he’d made his first request to Lin Fuqiang.

Of course, it didn’t really count as a request; it was just to make his investigation go more smoothly.

So there was no need for flowery pleasantries. Just handle business as business.

"Jianghe Pickle Plant!?"

Sun Chuan froze, and something immediately surfaced in his mind.

His expression turned ugly. After a long silence, he finally said:

"Is it the March 3rd accidental fall case of Qi Yu?"

Xu Liang nodded. He wasn’t surprised the other man knew about it.

"I want to ask, regarding this case... what’s the police’s stance?"

The police’s stance...

Sun Chuan paused, then spoke dully:

"This case... there are some suspicious points."

Even if you set aside his personal hostility toward the pickle plant, the police had initially treated Qi Yu’s death as a homicide case.

But after they’d gone around investigating...

They couldn’t find anything at all.

First, the surveillance footage.

Sunshine Disabled Shelter Center had very clear surveillance, showing his contact with Zhang Yong.

Zhang Yong had also produced the form showing the other party had voluntarily joined as an employee.

And the explanation given by the pickle plant...

Was that the staff had mistaken Qi Yu for a normal person and sent him to paint, but unfortunately his intellectual disability led to an accidental fall from the top and death...

The biggest doubts were only two points.

The missing eyeball, and the slightly heavier facial trauma.

But those two weren’t enough to form a homicide case. The eyeball could have been damaged from the fall or during the plant workers’ handling of the body.

Not to mention,

The forensic identification agency had also issued an autopsy report of accidental fall and death, which left the police with nowhere to start...

Now that someone was here to investigate the case, did that mean...

"The case really has a problem!?" Sun Chuan stopped, staring at Xu Liang in surprise.

Xu Liang didn’t give a direct, clear answer.

He only thought for a moment, then said:

"I want to know whether the pickle plant had any prior grudge or conflict with the police bureau."

"Or rather, were there any cases involving the pickle plant before this?"

Something was very off with Zhao Hailong’s side.

In a case like this, aside from the identification agency, the police were the most influential party.

Yet they hadn’t hidden anyone inside the police.

Was it that they didn’t want to? Or didn’t dare?

It definitely wasn’t the former.

Why?

First, the fact that Zhao Hailong’s side could influence so many people already proved they wanted to pull in as many sides as possible.

Combine that with how influential the police are, and it could only mean it wasn’t that they didn’t want to, but that there was some reason they couldn’t.

So was it the latter?

Didn’t dare? Why wouldn’t they dare!?

"This..."

Sun Chuan hesitated. His lips moved for a long time, but he still didn’t say anything.

Xu Liang wasn’t in any hurry. He quietly waited.

The man’s attitude was already a very good answer.

Between the police and the pickle plant... there was definitely something there.

"No rush, Director Sun. You can take your time and think it over."

Xu Liang smiled gently, waiting patiently.

The more conflicted the other man was, the bigger the conflict between the two sides.

And the bigger the conflict...

The more opportunities for him.

Until, after a long pause.

"There... was indeed a case, but I don’t know if what Lawyer Xu is investigating has anything to do with it." Sun Chuan didn’t dare vouch for it.

Xu Liang didn’t care at all. He immediately said:

"What case!?"

Sun Chuan took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice:

"Five years ago, a police officer was injured..."