Chapter 635 — Qiu Lingshan Is Caught

"Oh, it's not that I've had too much to drink." Shen Yushu shook her head. "I was thinking Yaoyao-jie seems a little unhappy today, and I just wanted to cheer you up a bit..."

Gu Mengyao was taken slightly aback. She had never imagined that Shen Yushu's antics today had all been meant to lift her spirits, and a warm current rose unbidden in her heart. She pulled Shen Yushu into an embrace, rather moved. "Xiaoshu, thank you!"

"Oh, it's nothing!" Shen Yushu shook her head. "If Yaoyao-jie isn't happy, of course I want to make you happy!"

"Mm, Xiaoshu, you really are good to me!" Gu Mengyao was truly touched.

"Then you have to let me be your little wife from now on!" Shen Yushu said.

"Ha, all right. We'll be together our whole lives, sisters for a lifetime!" Gu Mengyao nodded — the first time she had ever given Shen Yushu a straight answer to that silly question of hers.

Wei Zhao drove on ahead, as though he had not heard the conversation between the two sisters in the back seat. In truth, hear it he did; he simply did not know what to say, nor how to counsel Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu.

Back at the villa, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu went upstairs hand in hand to whisper secrets to each other, leaving Wei Zhao all alone downstairs.

……………………

After a meeting to discuss the matter, Qiu Lingshan decided to go undercover and infiltrate the criminal gang in order to wipe them out in one sweep. Otherwise, arresting only a few small fry would do nothing to advance the case as a whole.

This sort of tactic — sending someone out to make arrests — was known as "releasing a flying saucer." A flying saucer, as the name suggests, is an unidentified flying object: even if you catch one, you still have no idea what it represents behind the scenes, just as humanity remains ignorant of the flying saucer itself.

Qiu Lingshan, overriding all objections, resolved to risk her own person. She was the captain, after all; this case was her unshirkable duty. If she did not go, someone else would have to, and if someone else went, she as captain would not rest easy.

Within the entire criminal investigation unit, after all, she, Qiu Lingshan, was the strongest. Only if she went in person could the danger be reduced to the greatest possible extent and the undercover plan succeed.

Many of the squad leaders did not want Qiu Lingshan to take the risk, but she had made up her mind; there was nothing they could do but provide cover.

And so Qiu Lingshan dressed herself as a rural woman, moving through Binjia Village like a peasant wife hurrying along a night road.

"Biaozi, a peasant woman on a night road is coming our way. Do we make our move?" Behind a haystack, two burly men were talking in low voices.

"I say we do. The higher-ups handed down the order — we have to bring somebody back today. We've waited half the night and finally one person shows up. I say it's her!" The big man called Biaozi nodded. "Brother Ma, when she comes over, we make our move!"

Brother Ma nodded. "If we don't act, how would we ever have money to drink and chase women? To hell with it — it's her!"

Qiu Lingshan had in fact already sensed something was wrong. The professional instincts of a criminal investigation captain and the keen perception of a fine Yellow-rank practitioner had told her that two enemies were lying in ambush nearby. But her whole purpose this time was to be captured by these people, to slip inside their ranks, find their den, and wipe out the organization in one stroke!

Qiu Lingshan meant to play the part of a kidney-harvesting victim, to be delivered to the criminal gang's headquarters, and then, at the very moment before her kidney was cut out, to burst forth and destroy the entire hideout.

"Now!" Brother Ma waved his hand at Biaozi.

The two men suddenly leaped out from behind the haystack, pinning Qiu Lingshan down from left and right.

"Ah — what are you doing? Help!" Qiu Lingshan cried out in alarm!

Brother Ma and Biaozi exchanged a smile. Out here in this desolate wilderness, shouting at the top of your lungs was useless — you could bellow through a megaphone and no one would hear. Though they were operating in Binjia Village, they did not dare seize anyone where there were crowds. If the villagers were roused, how could two men stand against a whole crowd?

So to be safe, they had chosen a sparsely populated footpath through the fields. It was quiet here, true, but it had one drawback: almost no one came by at night, unless it was some traveler hurrying along the night road.

The two of them had only meant to try their luck here in the early part of the night, hoping someone might pass by; if that failed, they would wait until the small hours and break into a house to seize someone. Riskier, to be sure, but at least by then most people would be asleep and wouldn't be alarmed.

What they never expected was that after only a few hours of waiting, a lone village woman came walking the night road. What a rare stroke of luck! Without a thought for whether Qiu Lingshan might cry out, they drove a fist straight into the back of her neck and knocked her unconscious.

In fact, Qiu Lingshan had not lost consciousness at all; she was only pretending! If a Yellow-rank expert could be knocked out just like that, Yellow-rank experts would be far too feeble.

The two men dragged Qiu Lingshan into a minivan, and the van started up at once and sped off toward the city.

After a drive of roughly half an hour, Qiu Lingshan was delivered to another abandoned factory on the outskirts, still short of the city proper — only this time the place was at the opposite end of the map from the last hideout.

Qiu Lingshan knew this was merely a temporary transfer point, not the gang's headquarters; she was only being stored here for the time being! The two thugs just now had been the snatch team, and there would surely be another crew whose job was to deliver her to the place where the surgery was done! That place had to be their real headquarters.

At the abandoned factory, Qiu Lingshan was thrown into a basement, and the two thugs went off gleefully to collect their pay.

Her guard was another man, somewhat grim of face, with a hooked nose and deeply sunken eye sockets, like someone who had smoked opium to excess.

The hook-nosed man looked her over carefully and was struck at once by her beauty. He had never imagined a village woman could be so lovely — it was simply beyond expectation. And she looked young, too; surely she wasn't married yet.

The hook-nosed man smacked his lips, eyeing her with greedy longing, but after a moment's hesitation he dialed a number.

"Brother Tattoo, we've caught us a fat sheep," the hook-nosed man said in a low voice, afraid of waking Qiu Lingshan — never suspecting that she had been awake the whole time.

"Oh? Very good. I'll send someone to collect the goods in a bit." The one who answered was An Liwen's trusted man, Tattoo: "Not bad, quick work this time — consider yourself commended! Keep it up, and tell them to keep catching fat sheep!"