"This Tao Qing… what's his background?"
After asking a question about Tao Qing, Ansheng stopped paying attention to him and turned to Zhang Lin to ask.
"Tao Qing, male, 37. His official job is a commercial-finance broker in Magic City. To put it bluntly, he's the middleman who squeezes lines of credit out of commercial banks, and by building up his network, he also does some matchmaking for certain… colorful deals."
"Mm… commonly known as a pimp or a madam in pants." Zhang Lin glanced at Tao Qing and went on:
"The 'educate the fox' job was something an overseas businessman commissioned him to handle."
Tao Qing was indeed, as he claimed, from a family with no criminal record for generations. The only case he ever brushed against was secretly connecting rich men with young models to earn some kickbacks.
Of course.
That was all in the past. Right now he was carrying the serious charge of trafficking in national strategic resources.
Push it a bit further up the line and it becomes espionage, plus endangering public security as an extension of trafficking strategic resources.
Put the charges together and the maximum is the death penalty—or being thrown in the ER to "fully enjoy" three days.
"Don't… don't strip my citizenship. Whatever intel you want from me, just ask straight out! I'm really timid…"
Tao Qing pulled a long face, raised his hand, and spoke as obediently as a student who'd been caught misbehaving.
"Your parents… they must be getting on in years, right?"
When Ansheng heard what Tao Qing said, he turned his head and asked calmly.
"Uh, I…" Tao Qing's expression changed; the pallor in his face flushed a bruised purple, as if his airway were blocked.
He'd been brought in for crimes involving a Spirit Beast, and the only Spirit-Beast-related incident on him was this 'Fox Education' gig.
The moment Master Fuli opened his mouth, how could Tao Qing not understand the cause-and-effect chain behind the whole thing?
Damn it, he'd been scammed by that dead foreigner!
No wonder the mission was "educate the fox"—turns out that vixen's ancestral grave was belching black smoke, their family produced a Su Daji!
The dead foreigner didn't dare offend her, so he subcontracted it layer by layer until it landed on him to go step on the mine!
"I… I'll plead guilty, just don't mess with my mother. My family can't take that kind of torment." Face iron-blue, Tao Qing stammered to Master Fuli:
"I'll confess everything—and I want to report people. I know a ton of dirt on rich businessmen and financial elites."
"What are you talking about…"
Master Fuli raised his hand, let out a cold laugh, and said to Tao Qing: "At this point, you still think this is a matter of legal clauses?"
"You've opened a precedent. My whole life I've been dedicated to establishing prestige in the underworld, making the name of the fox resound throughout the land."
"If I don't drag you out as an example today, to kill the chicken and warn the monkeys, won't it mean any random cat or dog can come climb on my head and act wild? How exactly do you expect me to choose?"
As Master Fuli spoke and started to step forward, Ah Qing—who had been about to persuade Ansheng not to implicate the man's family—froze, then silently retreated behind Momo and lifted her hands to cover her ears.
And Tao Qing's vision went dark as he collapsed to the ground.
"Old Zhang! Set up a doctor to give him a vasectomy, then get the old shamans from the Dao Alliance all out in force, and hustle his whole family hard into buying health supplements…"
"Every three days a little seminar, every five days a 'summit on the mountaintop' to reboot their worldview, and squeeze every last bit of their ill-gotten gains out and donate it all to Homeless House."
"I want their household so rattled that not even the chickens and dogs get peace." Master Fuli looked over at Zhang Lin as he spoke.
"Huh?" Zhang Lin froze. He'd already planned out how to collect evidence and send the whole Tao family to prison, and had absolutely not expected Master Fuli to go after the man's entire family like this.
"Eh?" Ah Qing also stared, her gaze locking straight onto Tao Qing's crotch, a visible exclamation mark popping out of her head.
"Eh!? A vasectomy—that's basically cutting his balls off, isn't it?" Ah Qing sucked in a sharp breath and asked.
"Technically there's a difference, but not a big one." Momo said, expression odd: "Just now I thought Little Fox was about to say, 'kill his whole family'…"
Based on all the old Hong Kong flicks she'd watched, once the enemy messed with your family…
The next step should be to wipe out their whole clan in return.
"What nonsense are you two spouting? Our Security Bureau is a state agency; we have to do things by the book." Ansheng turned around and griped at Ah Qing.
"It's almost seven at night, my stomach's growling like a drum…"
He rubbed his belly and complained to Ah Qing: "Let's go scarf down two bowls of rice first."
"Uh…" Ah Qing turned her eyes toward Zhang Lin.
"The canteen's right next door; I'll take you." Zhang Lin scratched his head, face full of black lines, and spoke.
The topic shift was a bit abrupt—clearly Master Fuli had some things it wasn't convenient to say just then.
Probably out of consideration for Ah Qing and the others, right?
Zhang Lin thought this as he walked ahead, leading Ah Qing and the rest into the canteen.
Once inside, while Ansheng was picking a Coke from the fridge, he glanced at Zhang Lin, who had followed them in.
"I'll be troubling you with my family's matter." Ansheng said aside to Zhang Lin, then continued: "As for the people behind this, the Security Bureau doesn't need to get involved."
"Just organize all the files and dossiers, then send them over to Royal Mutual Benefit Group, the Lin Clan International, Earl, and Unos. They'll handle it."
"Tell them I want a textbook case out of this…"
The issue of "educating Fox Mother" was extremely serious. Just because the written mission brief didn't seem malicious didn't mean it was some trivial thing to laugh off.
On the small side, it was tricking Fox Mother into going vegetarian and chanting sutras.
On the big side, it meant someone was trying to subtly influence his will—and even plant an undercover agent by his side.
And that agent wouldn't even know what was going on—Fox Mother, still muddle-headed, Spirit Beast mind unopened, all dazed and Huhu-ing.
It wasn't that Master Fuli couldn't see this. It was just that with Ah Qing and the others right there, he didn't want to explode, afraid of scaring them. Tao Qing… was a disposable pawn.
The ones Master Fuli truly wanted to go after were the overseas businessman behind Tao Qing and the mastermind's whole family.
They dare show up today telling Fox Mother how to live—tomorrow what, move into his bed and ask for the AC remote so they can randomly mess with the temperature he's already set?
What a joke!
Once he found out who they were, he'd go over that same night and blow their house sky-high; even the eggs in their fridge would get shaken into omelets, the nutrients in their soil would be sucked dry by Treasure Tree, and if he didn't compact the land within a ten-kilometer radius into concrete, he'd feel like he'd let them off easy in their dreams!
"Our Security Bureau is famous for doing things steady." Hearing Master Fuli's words, Zhang Lin finally let out a breath.
Now that was more like it.
That kiddie-level punishment from before—who would that even scare?
If the enemy dares push one inch past the thunder line, you respond with thunderous force, a million punches to break their legs.
...…
After dinner in the canteen, it was around 8:30 p.m., about when nightlife should be kicking off.
But up here in the real north, the biting winter cold was already fully in effect.
A solid minus thirteen degrees wiped out everyone's desire to head back into the Imperial Capital's city districts to stroll around.
They checked into the Security Bureau's guest hotel; Ah Qing, full of cheer, was tapping away on her phone, telling her Second Uncle about how she'd come to the Imperial Capital to travel with friends, and by the way asking if he had time tomorrow night so she could pay an early New Year's call.
While she was replying to messages, an unexpected WeChat notification sound chimed.
Ah Qing looked over, froze for a moment, and blurted out in surprise, "Eh? Ah Di's back?"
"Hm? You've got a younger brother?"
Lounging on the sofa watching TV, Ansheng heard her mutter and couldn't help pausing.
So… he actually had a little brother-in-law?
"Not my biological brother, it's Chen Nian. You don't remember? His mom brought us red eggs not long ago. We grew up in the same village, so I've always called him Ah Di."
Ah Qing smiled as she introduced Chen Nian to the little fox.
Chen Nian was quite a bit younger than Ah Qing, and since they were from the same village and basically two doors down, they naturally addressed each other as big sis and little brother.
"Chen Nian, huh…"