Chapter 38 Restraint

Outside the interrogation room, Su Tianyu held his phone, silent.

"You've arrested someone, and I have cards in my hand. Let's not make things too tense between us, what do you say?" Wang Zhen's voice sounded again.

"What would be considered not tense?" Su Tianyu replied in a low voice.

"If the person you arrested dies, is crippled, or is no longer whole, then I'll tear up the cards in my hand." Wang Zhen replied calmly, "Wait for my call. I'll contact you again."

With that, the call ended. Su Tianyu stared at the phone screen, pondered for a long time, and then dialed the number again, but it couldn't be connected.

"A call from the accomplice of the bandits?" a colleague beside him asked.

"Yes." Su Tianyu responded, looking up at the interrogation room: "Don't bother with Wang Xiong for now, interrogate the others."

"Okay." The colleague nodded.

Su Tianyu frowned at Wang Xiong and turned away with the paperwork.

During the earlier raid on the warehouse, Su Tianyu had apprehended many local thugs, the ones serving Tianlan Company.

After preliminary interrogation, some of the thugs had already confessed, so Su Tianyu knew the relationship between Wang Xiong and Wang Zhen, making it easy to guess that the call earlier was from Wang Zhen.

The raid on Dongzhou Express had successfully led to Wang Xiong's arrest, but Wang Zhen, who had left Dragon City by car in advance, had successfully escaped, and they had also captured Zhang Chao, Zhang Hao, and others.

These were the cards Wang Zhen was talking about. The meaning of his call was clear: if the Coast Guard insisted on interrogating Wang Xiong and using torture, then Wang Zhen would kill someone outside the district, randomly picking Zhang Hao or Zhang Chao to kill.

Su Tianyu was currently unsure whether the Coast Guard's information would be leaked, so he didn't want to take the risk or continue pursuing Wang Xiong's line, as he was clearly a hardened and desperate criminal.

Instead of wasting time on him, it was better to deal with the other peripheral criminals first.

After sorting out his thoughts, Su Tianyu took the documents and went to the general interrogation area.

...

In the monitoring room, Su Tianyu sat in a chair with his arms crossed, closing his eyes to rest.

After about two hours, a middle-aged man from the First Squadron, specializing in interrogation, came in and immediately said, bowing, "Xiao Su, one of them has confessed."

Su Tianyu suddenly opened his eyes: "Someone from Tianlan?"

"Yes!" The middle-aged man nodded.

"Let's go, take a look!" Su Tianyu rubbed his eyes and followed the middle-aged man into interrogation room 05.

In the dimly lit room, a suspect wearing only briefs, with a bruised face and covered in sweat, sat on the iron chair, his eyes a little dull, clearly broken down by the interrogation.

Su Tianyu walked up to him and asked in a low voice, "How about it, can you talk?"

"Yes!" The suspect nodded.

"Tell me, what is the role of Tianlan Company, and who exactly are Wang Zhen and Wang Xiong?" Su Tianyu asked with his hands behind his back.

After a slight pause, the suspect whispered, "The legal representative of Tianlan Company is called Zhang Dayou. We all follow him. Tianlan Company was established last year, but it only officially opened this year, mainly doing... doing overseas labor introduction."

"Introducing your ass! Are you a legitimate company?!" The interrogator cursed, "Tell it straight!"

The suspect swallowed. "It's... so-called overseas labor introduction is actually trafficking. Specifically trafficking those from the bottom of society, without stable jobs, and preferably without Dragon City hukou (household registration). To put it bluntly, it's looking for people who can die outside without any relatives reporting them."

"What do you do with these trafficked people?" Su Tianyu asked.

"To be honest, we don't know exactly what they do. Zhang Dayou is the one who makes the connections." The suspect looked up at Su Tianyu. "We... just take the money. Moreover, Tianlan has only been in business for a short time. We haven't sent many people out, only about ten in total, before and after."

"Zhang Dayou never told you where these trafficked people were being sent?" Su Tianyu asked incredulously.

"He really didn't say, and I don't think Zhang Dayou himself knows where these people are being sent." The suspect shook his head. "To be honest, we are just the lowest-level thugs. We work for money and don't ask questions we shouldn't."

"Wang Xiong and Wang Zhen are Zhang Dayou's superiors?"

"Yes." The suspect nodded. "Wang Xiong and Wang Zhen had never shown their faces before, but they came to deal with the problem this time because something happened in Dragon City."

"Do you know anything about Wang Xiong and Wang Zhen's personal situation?"

"I heard Zhang Dayou mention it once." The suspect swallowed and said, "Wang Xiong and Wang Zhen seem to be involved in foreign legion armed forces and are very powerful. Look at the people around them, they are all Eastern European, black, or old Maozi (Russians)."

Hearing this, Su Tianyu felt that the case was incredibly complicated and the water was very deep.

How could a human trafficking gang easily get involved with foreign armed forces? Using cannons to protect human traffickers? That clearly didn't make sense!

"Where's Zhang Dayou? Did he run away in advance?!" The Coast Guard member next to him asked.

"No, Wang Xiong killed him." The suspect shuddered at the thought, his face pale. "That bastard was too ruthless. He killed Zhang Dayou as soon as he landed and also突突 (tu tu - slang for shooting) all the... the goods. In the end, he made us use... meat grinders to grind the meat... ugh... ugh...!"

The suspect started vomiting.

"Goods?! There are still people hidden by your Tianlan Company?" Su Tianyu immediately pressed.

"No... we didn't hide them. They came from the sea and temporarily took shelter in Dragon City because of the typhoon." The suspect vomited twice and immediately looked up and said, "In the warehouse where you arrested me."

"We didn't find them?!" Su Tianyu replied in shock.

"In... under the freezer in the kitchen, there's a newly dug pit." The suspect immediately replied, "Check it out, the people... the people are all in there."

Hearing this answer, Su Tianyu stopped talking and turned to leave.

About five minutes later, Su Tianyu gathered more than a dozen team members in the Coast Guard hall, preparing to return to the scene.

Just then, Hou Guoyu walked back from outside.

"Guoyu!" Su Tianyu called out.

Hou Guoyu turned around, his eyes red.

Su Tianyu greeted him and immediately asked, "How is your father?"

"Still under observation." Hou Guoyu lowered his head and replied, "...I went to the morgue just now and looked at that child."

At this point, the two fell silent.

After a while, Su Tianyu patted him on the shoulder: "Work on this case with me! Solve it, kill these bastards, and I'll get you a permanent position!"

Hou Guoyu licked his lips: "I don't care about the permanent position, I'll work with you!"

...

About three hundred kilometers outside of Dragon City, in the suburbs.

Wang Zhen sat in the car, frowning as he held the phone and said, "The second brother is done for. Don't touch those hostages for now. Let's go back to base."