Time rewinds a little, let's first review what happened before Meng Jingchan contacted Feng Bujue...

It was about eleven twenty when Chan-ge (Brother Chan) called Gui Xiao's home, and Gui Xiao's mother happened to be home. After talking, they found out that Gui Xiao had left the company at seven in the morning, but hadn't returned home by now, nor had he called home.

On any other day, they probably wouldn't have thought too much about it.

After all, Gui Xiao was seventeen years old, and a boy. Generally, people wouldn't think of kidnapping. Even his family guessed... maybe the kid lost his phone and went to report it himself.

But, this day was not an ordinary day... it was the day of a crucial match.

Meng Jingchan... could vaguely sense that something was wrong.

You can tell from Chan-ge's habit of drinking hot drinks and his catchphrase, "Don't look at me now, but I used to be...", that he is a young man with social experience...

To be on the safe side, he specifically went to the higher-ups in Order Studio and reported the matter...

As a celebrity player, he had some weight. Besides... his suspicions were indeed reasonable.

The Order leadership quickly realized the seriousness of the situation, and this uneasy atmosphere gradually fermented as time went on...

By two o'clock in the afternoon, Gui Xiao was still out of contact. At this point, his family naturally realized that something was wrong, and became more anxious than anyone else.

So, they reported it to the police.

Chan-ge was Gui Xiao's colleague and one of the last people to have contact with him. They also had a pretty good personal relationship.

Therefore, Meng Jingchan took the initiative to come to the Public Security Bureau to assist in the investigation.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as expected...

It's not like... you report a case to the Public Security Bureau, and a whole team of police officers will immediately pounce on your case to collect evidence and investigate, and solve the case quickly in a few hours.

Only robbery and murder cases involving serious violence get that treatment.

As for general property infringement cases (especially those involving small amounts), and missing person cases (non-children, male, missing for less than a day), that's another story.

Do you know how many small property infringement cases occur every year... no... every day? Some victims don't even report it, because they know that even if they do, the items are unlikely to be recovered.

And how many missing people are there every year... let's just say... the number of living people who go missing in China every year is probably as many as the number of lost mobile phones.

In short... in such cases, when you report it, you basically just make a record and register it, and then... wait.

How long you wait is uncertain...

Of course, the investigation will still proceed normally, but the manpower is limited, and the efficiency is not high. What? You want them to set up a special task force for your matter, and send two teams of people to watch the videos, do field work, and analyze the case in shifts? Sure... you probably need to know the Bureau Chief, or at least the Station Chief...

As mentioned earlier, Ma Junxiao's parents are both wage earners, or to put it more plainly—ordinary people. They have no say and no special privileges. And he himself is not a big shot. If you have to say he's a public figure... the title of "celebrity player" is, in the eyes of the public security department, at most on par with a second- or third-tier actor.

In summary, the progress of the investigation was extremely frustrating. Reporting the case took twenty minutes in line. After the line, there was only one police officer responsible for reception. By the time Gui Xiao's parents and Chan-ge had finished explaining the situation one after another, it was almost three thirty, and the police were only then preparing to retrieve street surveillance footage near the Order office building.

Seeing this, Chan-ge had no choice. Let's use some connections... So, he contacted the company's higher-ups again. The higher-ups didn't hesitate. Isn't it just using connections? Don't worry, we have connections... To get ahead, whether you're a tycoon or a gangster, if you want to reach the top of the industry, you must have connections... that is, so-called "guanxi." The significance of Gui Xiao to the competition was self-evident. This directly involved the interests of the studio. Even if he was regarded as an "asset," it was worth using connections.

As a result, less than ten minutes after Meng Jingchan made the call, a special task force... was formed.

These days, as long as you have someone above you, everything is easy. Not enough manpower? Let the police officers who are resting at home come in to work overtime. Why are they on call twenty-four hours a day? To serve the people.

After four o'clock, the investigation progressed rapidly. The bureau sent seven or eight people to sit there and watch the surveillance footage. The route before the disappearance was quickly found. Another five police cars were sent out, along Gui Xiao's route home from work to question eyewitnesses.

With a two-pronged approach, the police quickly narrowed down the approximate time of the disappearance and identified a white van and three suspects, and it was basically confirmed as a kidnapping incident.

However... just when Chan-ge breathed a slight sigh of relief and wanted to slip into the toilet stall to take a dump and smoke a cigarette... something that made him shudder happened.

This matter was really a coincidence...

Chan-ge likes to squat when he does his business, but the toilets in the Public Security Bureau all have sit-down toilets, so this guy very inconsiderately squatted on the edge of the toilet.

He had just squatted down and was about to light a cigarette when he heard a sound outside the stall, as if someone had entered the toilet.

The person was already on the phone when he came in. He lowered his voice and said, "Why are you calling now? I'm at the bureau... It's not convenient to talk..." As he spoke, he walked in, and locked the toilet door from the inside without thinking.

After locking the door, he took a few steps to the side and peeked from the bottom to see if anyone was in the stalls...

Perhaps because he had a guilty conscience, the person instinctively held the phone with one hand and shielded his mouth with the other to block the sound, which meant that he couldn't spare a hand to turn the doorknob of the stall... if he didn't turn the doorknob, he couldn't open the stall door... if he couldn't open the stall door, he would look from underneath...

And Chan-ge... was squatting on the toilet, and his feet couldn't be seen from the outside.

By a strange twist of fate, Meng Jingchan successfully began eavesdropping...

"Okay... there's no one around, go ahead..." After the man finished checking, he stood by the sink and raised his voice slightly.

When Meng Jingchan heard the first two sentences, he thought the man had received a call from a mistress.

But... after listening for thirty seconds, Chan-ge was shocked.

The man standing outside the stall was surnamed Zheng, the deputy director of this branch bureau, and the unknown person calling him... was instructing him to delay the investigation.

And judging from Deputy Director Zheng's tone, he had either taken a bribe from someone or had a weakness in their hands... in short, he should have been prepared to do it.

Anyway, delaying the investigation was not very difficult to implement, and the risk after implementation... was not high. Because this kind of behavior is difficult to define afterwards... what do you mean by delay? Delay can also be said to be caution. Excessive caution leads to delays. Can that be called delay? Even if it eventually leads to some bad consequences, what evidence do you have to say that this "delay" was intentional?

About two minutes later, Deputy Director Zheng finished his call.

And Chan-ge in the stall... was half-undressed, with his feet on the edge of the toilet, half-squatting, holding a cigarette in one hand and a lighter in the other... maintaining this posture, not daring to make a sound.

Not to mention a cigarette craving, he held back his urge to poop...

After Deputy Director Zheng hung up the phone, he washed his hands at the sink, looked in the mirror, and then he turned around...

"Hmm..." Perhaps out of years of experience in criminal investigation, or perhaps due to his suspicious nature, he suddenly thought of opening all the stall doors and checking again...

*Click*—

Soon, he opened the door of the stall next to Chan-ge and glanced inside.

No one...

Then, his footsteps came to the stall door in front of Chan-ge...

In that instant, Meng Jingchan's heart was in his throat. The only thing he could think of was... to pretend to be a deaf-mute person and temporarily bluff his way through...

*Bang, bang, bang*—

Just as Deputy Director Zheng was about to open the second door, the toilet door was knocked on.

"Hey! Who's in there! Open the door!" A man's voice came from outside. "Who locked the toilet door? Open the door!"

Judging from his tone, he seemed to be in a hurry...

Deputy Director Zheng frowned when he heard the voice and quickly walked over to open the toilet door.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way..." The person who came in was not a policeman, nor did he recognize the Deputy Director in front of him. This big brother rudely pushed Zheng aside and went straight to the first stall. He was still cursing when he closed the stall door, "Locking the door in a public toilet! Fuck your mother!"

Then, there was a thunderous roar in the stall, and a stench that made people want to die filled the air.

"Ah—" A few seconds later, that brother called out comfortably.

Before his enjoyment was over, Deputy Director Zheng had already covered his nose and fled far away from the toilet...

And Meng Jingchan, with the help of this "urgent brother"... narrowly escaped a disaster.

...

Time returns to the present, the waiting hall of the police station.

It had been nearly forty minutes since Feng Bujue and the others arrived. During that time, Meng Jingchan first told them about his previous experience and what he knew, and then took Jue-ge (Brother Jue) and Xiao Tan to greet Gui Xiao's parents and introduced them as "Xiao Xiao's friends."

Then, Feng Bujue went to make a few phone calls alone...

At six twenty in the afternoon, a black Phaeton car stopped at the gate of the police station again, and a person got out of the passenger seat.

The man was wearing a black suit, with a proper appearance and a serious expression.

When he walked past Xiao Tan's silver Porsche, he glanced at it sideways, and then continued forward.

Before long, he walked into the waiting hall, and his eyes met with Jue-ge and the others.

"Yo, Judge Bao, you're here." Feng Bujue smiled and stepped forward to greet the secret agent of Division Nine.

"I say..." Bao Qing didn't stand on ceremony and replied directly, "Is the Porsche outside Xiao Tan's?"

"Yes." Xiao Tan immediately replied from the side.

"You know you'll get a ticket for parking there, right?" It turned out that Bao Qing was worried about this.

"Uh... Jue-ge specifically told me to park there..." Xiao Tan replied.

"Don't worry, Lao Bao (Old Bao)." Feng Bujue laughed, "The more expensive the car, the more likely it is that no one will dare to give you a ticket if you park it in front of a law enforcement agency."

"Although your relationship with law enforcement agencies has always been tense, is it really okay for you to badmouth them like this in their office building..." Bao Qing complained with narrowed eyes.

"Hehe... then let's do a social experiment when we have time and see who will give me a ticket." Feng Bujue shrugged. "I'm telling you... whoever dares to give me a ticket is a pillar of society."

"Okay, okay, okay..." Bao Qing didn't argue with him and waved his hand. "Let's get down to business first."

In short, after a brief chat, Feng Bujue introduced Bao Qing to Chan-ge. Then, Bao Qing showed his credentials to a police officer...

Five minutes later, the four of them were sitting in the director's office...

After entering the room, Bao Qing just greeted the director and showed his credentials again, and then... handed over a mobile phone.

After the director took the phone, he walked into the next room.

At this point, Meng Jingchan had basically fallen into a state of mental short-circuiting, and his gaze towards Feng Bujue and the others could no longer remain calm.

"This... Brother Bao." Chan-ge asked curiously, "May I ask where you work?"

"Civil servant." Bao Qing only answered three words.

"Uh..." Regarding this answer that was as good as no answer, Chan-ge naturally wanted to ask further, "Specifically..."

"Civil servant." Bao Qing smiled, looked at Meng Jingchan, and repeated the three words with emphasis.

With Chan-ge's intelligence, hearing this, he understood... there was no need to ask any further.

"Speaking of... who's on the other end of the phone?" Feng Bujue also turned to look at Bao Qing and asked.

"On the other end of the phone is someone who has the power to decide many things." Bao Qing replied, "And that someone who has the power to decide many things just chatted with a 'mutual acquaintance' of yours and mine ten minutes ago."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue said, "So he's here to chat with this director now..."

"It seems they've already finished chatting." Bao Qing said this as the director happened to push the door back from the next room.

"Officer." The director walked up to Bao Qing with a serious face, "Next... what are your arrangements?"

Before Bao Qing could reply, Feng Bujue, who was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, interjected, "Pack up all the investigation data to date and transfer it to this computer. By the way, let the guy surnamed Zheng go to the interrogation room to wait..." He quickly finished speaking and added, "Oh, right, don't forget to confiscate his phone as soon as possible."

"Hey, hey... that's too arrogant..." Seeing this scene, Meng Jingchan looked at Jue-ge in astonishment, and complained in his heart.

But the director didn't react much. After listening, he silently looked at Bao Qing again.

"Sigh..." Judge Bao sighed and said to the director, "Just do as he says..."