Xu Cheng didn’t need to guess and knew that Lin Dong was referring to Shen Yao.
However, Xu Cheng felt a bit helpless knowing that Shen Yao still couldn’t let her feelings go, but he believed that sooner or later, he would only be a passing guest in Shen Yao’s life.
– The police station –
Ran Jing saw Xu Cheng come in and said, “We checked South Gate Food City and didn’t find any ‘goods’. The port was being patrolled over the past two days and everything was normal. But we learned from the gang that disbanded at the North Gate, that the ‘new goods ‘ in the market is still circulating, and I think your prediction that their source is from the ocean may need to be further confirmed.”
Xu Cheng sat down and thought about it.
After a long time, he said, “Everything being normal is what’s abnormal. That truck was supplying fish to the South Gate, but the license plate was very hidden, which is very abnormal; yet the South Gate’s fish supply is normal, so there must be a problem.”
Ran Jing: “Then it can only mean that we did alert the snakes and they may have stopped this mode of transport. If that happened, we could only start over on the case.”
Xu Cheng did not agree. “Not necessarily, a thorough transport chain cannot be established at once. Since it has been established, it certainly will not be easily abandoned. As you said, the market is still circulating ‘new goods’ so that means they still have a private supply chain under the table.”
Ran Jing: “Could it be that what we found is actually a diversion that they put out on purpose? I thought that since the beginning, because we’ve always been focused on city inspection, it was almost impossible for anything to be transported in. The only way was through the portside, since after all, we couldn’t survey that place 24/7. East Gate has been very cunning over the years, but we couldn’t catch them at all. So I was thinking, could it be that these two places were actually not the source of goods at all?”
Xu Cheng slightly shook his head. “I still firmly believe that South Gate has a problem, and that there is something fishy about that truck in the surveillance footage. The South Gate related to this would be a key point. Think about it, to transport goods from the port into the city, the goods are bound to be taxed, inspected, and need to pass a quality assessment. However, there is one thing that doesn’t need to be inspected.”
“You mean seafood and fish?” Ran Jing frowned. “We thought about this problem at first as well, and we’ve tracked down the fishermen as well, but we didn’t find anything.”
Xu Cheng said, “I am convinced that the source of goods come from the sea, mainly because there’s a big loophole in the South Gate.”
Ran Jing: “What?”
Xu Cheng: “Why is South Gate’s vehicle getting goods imported from the portside?”
Ran Jing: “They opened the city’s largest seafood food city, so to ensure freshness, it is not surprising to directly import it from the port.”
“I know that, but you also said it’s the biggest problem. That is, since they are the city’s largest seafood city, operating a high-end monopoly business, their position should be enough to make those fishermen beg to supply them with seafood. Reasonably, the fishermen should be sending seafood to the South Gate waiting for acceptance, but why does the South Gate choose to go in person every time? Also, why would the surveillance on that route be controlled? There must be a purpose for that.”
After hearing what Xu Cheng said, Ran Jing realized that there were many questions indeed.
Xu Cheng continued, “The route may still be the same route, but the method may be different. They may still be actively trading but you just don’t know, otherwise there wouldn’t be a constant stream of new goods.”
“We are watching them on such a tight schedule, and they still managed to transfer the goods. This is what I just cannot understand, I am curious about how they trade,” Ran Jing said.
Xu Cheng sat on the sofa and looked at Ran Jing as he asked, “If you were a smuggler using the same route, how would you manage to hide it from everyone? Think about it from their perspective.”
Ran Jing looked at the map and the available information they had. She said after thinking for a while, “I’ve mentioned what I thought was possible, but we just couldn’t catch them.”
Xu Cheng pondered about the lead on the South Gate truck, and he kept thinking about the possibilities.
He suddenly said after a long while, “Then do you think there is a possibility that they are using the anglers to hide from us?”
“What do you mean?” Ran Jing said, “You mean those who fish as a hobby?”
“Right.” Xu Cheng said: “I think the South Gate was transporting those fish instead. Have you ever thought that when you were strictly investigating on the portside goods, that these anglers were just passing by behind you? There may be a few fish in their buckets and you guys missed them all because they were just anglers.”
Ran Jing felt enlightened.
“That could be a possibility!” Ran Jing stood up and said, “Then I’ll have my people follow the South Gate trucks and see if they get the fish from those anglers.”
Having said that, Ran Jing got up and went to arrange a team to head over there. She was going to try if there was an opportunity, because no progress has been made on this case for a long time, and the pressure on the police was unbearable.
Xu Cheng didn’t stop Ran Jing.
Instead, he looked at Li Chao, the leader of the second team who stayed behind and said, “You come in with me.”
Li Chao saw that he had nothing to do, so he followed Xu Cheng into the temporary meeting room.
Xu Cheng said straightforwardly, “In addition to Ran Jing, I have another lead in mind. Do you have a reliable informant in your hands? Someone that’s new and hasn’t been seen before.”
Li Chao: “There are a lot of those in the police department, and I can just have someone transfer here.”
“Good.” Xu Cheng continued. “Have your informant be responsible for watching those anglers. If the South Gate trucks do not get the fishes from them, it would mean that they’re scared and that will expose the fact that the source did originate from the ocean. So, they will continue to get the goods every day, but they may not get the ‘abnormal fish’ all the time. They will then probably use the normal fish to lure the police. By then, only those anglers would have the abnormal fishes in the entire port, and I want your informant to find a way to track one or two anglers to see if they are taking the fishes to the South Gate to sell. Remember, you must track the anglers who are there between 2PM to 5PM. It must be done discreetly without them being discovered.”
Li Chao wondered, “Mr. Fang, why are we just looking at the anglers from 2PM to 5PM?”
Xu Cheng smiled faintly, “Shangcheng is a fast-paced city, do you think an angler could support themselves purely by fishing? So, normal people wouldn’t go fishing during that time, or it would only be the retired people. So any people from a younger generation who go at this time are jobless, could they be there just for fishing then?”
Li Chao immediately understood as he saluted and said, “Yes, I will go make arrangements.”
“This whole thing needs to be kept a secret and not be disclosed for the time being. They’ve probably been watching Ran Jing and every move she makes is under their surveillance. You need to become the pond piece in the dark.”
Li Chao nodded. “I understand.”
He turned around and prepared to leave the office.
But he suddenly looked back at Xu Cheng and asked after pondering, “Mr. Fang, do you know a person named Xu Cheng?”
Xu Cheng was slightly stunned, and he shook his head. “Who is he?”
Li Chao grinned: “My former boss. He is just like you, having a sharp vision and always to the point. He was very strategic about everything.”
“Strategic about everything?” Xu Cheng murmured to himself with a bitter laugh. He thought sarcastically inside: If I was strategic about everything, then I wouldn’t be at where I am today!