Four days later.
Jiuzhou, Qingcheng, Police Station Conference Room.
Zhou Ran was still sitting in the seat of honor, his face ashen, his eyes fixed intently on that satellite phone.
The police officers sitting on both sides of the conference table were the same—all staring at the satellite phone, waiting for it to ring.
A long time passed.
Zhou Ran let out a helpless sigh. “This Jiang Chuan… still hasn’t called us back.”
“In other words… we might have been scammed?” Wang Hai smiled awkwardly, very unwilling to admit this fact.
The conference room suddenly fell silent. Everyone stopped talking, lowered their heads, and looked at the satellite phone, their expressions a mixture of emotions.
“From the current situation, we can’t be sure that we’ve been scammed, can we?” Liu Changshan tried to patch things up. “It’s only been a week. It’s also possible that this Jiang Chuan ran into some kind of trouble?”
“What kind of trouble could take seven days? And during these seven days, he hasn’t sent a single message—he won’t answer calls, won’t reply to messages.” Zhou Ran snorted coldly, his face gloomy.
Gu Yuan smiled wryly. “Exactly. And these past few days, we even used Zhang Songyang’s phone to send him a text, telling him that if it wasn’t convenient to call, he could just deliver the goods directly to the address I wrote.
It’s been days now, and there’s been no response at all. Plus, that batch of goods was never delivered!”
“So, do you all think that our sting operation was detected by Jiang Chuan?” Zhou Ran asked, his hawk-like eyes sweeping over everyone present.
Wang Hai rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Otherwise, Chief Zhou, if Jiang Chuan really did sense something, I don’t think he would just disappear like this.
Based on how he escaped from our previous arrest attempt, he’s so cunning that he might even be thinking about how to toy with us.”
“That’s right. From my psychological profile of Jiang Chuan, it’s not hard to see that he’s someone with a strong need for control and excellent counter-surveillance awareness. Someone like that is very arrogant, so even if he sensed something, he would definitely still complete the transaction.” Gu Yuan agreed.
Zhou Ran frowned. “Then what’s going on now? Could it really be that he’s just too busy and forgot about our order?”
Everyone present fell silent.
Jiang Zhuyu’s lips moved a few times. She hesitated for a long time before breaking the silence. “From the current situation, I’m more inclined to believe that we may have been scammed.”
At these words, all the police officers present were stunned, and they all turned to look at Jiang Zhuyu in unison.
“Scammed? Are you sure, Officer Jiang?” Zhou Ran asked.
Jiang Zhuyu thought for a moment, then analyzed: “That’s right. If it were just a normal shipping delay, Jiang Chuan would definitely find a way to contact us, explain the situation as much as possible, and ask us to keep waiting, or give us a refund.
But now, Jiang Chuan has disappeared. That leaves only one possibility.”
She took a deep breath and spoke under the gaze of all the officers: “I have reason to believe that Jiang Chuan may not have been able to get that many guns at all. His so-called transactions with us before were all just to swindle our deposit.”
Hiss.
All the police officers present drew in a sharp breath.
To be honest, they had considered this possibility before, but hadn’t thought deeply about it, and felt that Jiang Chuan wouldn’t stoop to such a thing.
But with Jiang Zhuyu bringing it up, they had to take this problem seriously.
That’s right—if it were just a normal shipping delay, Jiang Chuan would have called them long ago to explain. Now that he still hadn’t explained and couldn’t be reached…
That could only mean Jiang Chuan had run away!
Or rather, he wanted to deliver the goods but simply couldn’t—he didn’t have that many goods on hand.
“If we follow this line of thinking, I firmly believe that Jiang Chuan doesn’t not want to deliver the goods—he simply can’t deliver that many. He’s not like what he bragged about, having a military factory.
Moreover, the price of the weapons he sold wasn’t exactly low, which also proves that he’s probably a middleman—what we commonly call a small arms dealer.”
Jiang Zhuyu analyzed.
Zhou Ran nodded thoughtfully, but immediately spotted a problem and pressed further: “But the minimum number of guns to buy was set by Jiang Chuan himself, not by us.”
Jiang Zhuyu sighed helplessly. “According to my analysis, the reason still comes back to Zhang Songyang.”
“Zhang Songyang? What does this have to do with Zhang Songyang?” Wang Hai was a bit confused.
Jiang Zhuyu explained: “From the current situation, Jiang Chuan just wanted to toy with Zhang Songyang—or rather, he wanted to extort more money from Zhang Songyang’s pocket.
So when Zhang Songyang wanted to introduce him to clients, Jiang Chuan would think that Zhang Songyang was setting a trap for him. So he played along, first naming a very large quantity to force Zhang Songyang to buy.
If the client Zhang Songyang introduced couldn’t afford this batch of guns, Jiang Chuan would then be convinced that Zhang Songyang was deceiving him. But if they could afford it, that would prove that Zhang Songyang really did introduce a big client.
But in that case, the quantity he had quoted before was too large—he simply couldn’t produce that many guns, so he had no choice but to run away.”
Hearing Officer Jiang’s explanation, the police officers suddenly understood, nodding one after another, then running through the logic again in their minds.
They found that it really could be like this.
Zhou Ran clenched his fists, looking at the officers present, his anger rising: “Well, well, this Jiang Chuan really is something—scamming the police!
He really doesn’t take us police seriously at all.”
Wang Hai said urgently: “Chief, then, what do we do now? That’s tens of millions in funds! If we can’t find Jiang Chuan…”
“If we can’t find Jiang Chuan, then those tens of millions in funds can only be considered a lesson bought.” Gu Yuan sighed silently.
Zhou Ran’s face was grim. How could he not know how serious the consequences were?
Now the matter with Jiang Chuan had already caught the attention of the higher-ups’ higher-ups. They were waiting for them to hand in a perfect paper to close the case.
And now? Their paper had been marked with a big fat zero. Not only had they failed to catch Jiang Chuan, but they’d also lost tens of millions in sting operation funds!
This sting operation was a complete and utter failure—a failure that couldn’t have failed any harder.
How was he supposed to explain this to his superiors?
“Chief Zhou, it’s not like there’s no way.” Jiang Zhuyu stepped forward at this moment.
Zhou Ran’s eyes lit up. “Officer Jiang, go on.”
“The account we used to transfer money to Jiang Chuan earlier has a built-in anti-tracking system. I already had people tracking it before, but Jiang Chuan’s receiving account is just too well hidden.
I think tracking Jiang Chuan through the receiving account is a good approach. Also, we can continue to make a breakthrough through Zhang Songyang.
After all, Zhang Songyang still has one of Jiang Chuan’s Desert Eagles in his possession. I believe Jiang Chuan would never easily let his Desert Eagle stay in Zhang Songyang’s hands forever.”
Zhou Ran nodded heavily. “Good, Officer Jiang. Let’s do as you say—track the receiving account and find a breakthrough through Zhang Songyang!”
“Did you all hear that! This time, we must find this Jiang Chuan! This isn’t just about those tens of millions in funds—this is about the reputation of us police!” Zhou Ran shouted loudly.
“Yes, Chief Zhou.”
All the police officers present responded in unison.
