61: Chapter 61: Have we received news from all five targets?

After venting through exercise, and despite his refusal, the feeling of being recognized by others remained.

The heavy stone that had been weighing on his heart since last night was finally lifted.

Lin Ning finally felt in the mood to open his mobile banking app. Looking at the latest deposit of 600,000 yuan, he counted his balance again—hehehe, over a million!

How could this not be considered a huge sum?!

In the evening, Lin Ning planned to call Jin Er and the others for a good meal, but unexpectedly, Jin Er and his group contacted him first.

Juma Bridge, Old Yang BBQ.

Jin Er took a bite of kidney and a sip of wine, letting out a comfortable sigh. "It still has to be Old Yang BBQ. The environment is average, but the skill is truly beyond words. This charcoal flavor, this heat control—authentic~~~"

Old Yang, who was skewering meat, heard this and laughed happily.

After a round of heavy eating, they entered the second stage. Sipping small amounts of wine, Jin Er handed Lin Ning several pages of paper.

"Didn't you give us five targets before? This is basically the situation. Take a look."

Lin Ning: "??? You've investigated all of them?"

Jin Er smiled reservedly. "Take a look first and see if it's alright. I need to focus on that spicy hot pot shop at the end."

He flipped through them briefly.

The first one, in Millennium Community, was a pyramid scheme den. According to the information Jin Er and his group gathered, it was a normal three-bedroom apartment without any partitions or group rentals. However, residents reported that many people lived there, and young, naive people were often brought in and rarely seen coming out.

There were many Pin Hao Fan food deliveries every day.

And where were Jin Er and the others impressive? They hung around that community for two or three days, got friendly with the neighbors in unit 301, and went over to drink tea and chat.

According to the neighbors, they could hear slogans being shouted every day, but it was quite quiet at other times. It was supposedly a cross-border e-commerce business.

Jin Er and his group laughed secretly. Based on the snippets of slogans and other information they gathered, what cross-border e-commerce? It was a pyramid scheme.

For more detailed information or evidence, Lin Ning had always told them that 'close enough' was fine. If the opportunity was right in front of them, take it; if it was too much trouble, don't bother. They were just reporting and confirming if it was truly illegal; the work of solving the case didn't belong to them.

Jin Er and the others were very receptive to advice.

Lin Ning nodded. "That's enough. If we do all the work, what are the police for?"

The three brothers laughed heartily.

Lin Ning flipped through the documents.

The second one was in Jiutiansheng Community.

It was written as a suspected prostitution ring.

Jin Er and the others used their old trick: infiltrating the community.

Supposedly, in unit 601, a three-bedroom apartment, lived two couples and three young women sharing the space.

They were quiet, didn't cause trouble, and didn't interact with neighbors.

So there wasn't much useful information, only that they worked at night, supposedly as nightclub servers.

They specifically went to the community at night to take a look.

Xu San winked at Lin Ning. "We saw them. Five women, all young and beautiful, not ordinary types. Those two men are the 'pimps'. They go out every night, and these two pimps pick them up and drop them off."

Zhang Shitou added, "With pimps involved, it's usually a gang. We couldn't tell who the boss was; they probably aren't among them and don't live with them."

Lin Ning nodded. They might misjudge other things, but definitely not this.

If you asked what was most common among the low-level underworld in Juma Bridge, it was 'carriage drivers' and 'chickens'.

How could Jin Er and his group be mistaken?!

The third one was in Fuqing Community.

Lin Ning wasn't sure if this was a gang. When he saw the red name Wang Xiaoqing, the man was chatting with two light-red names in the community, but they separated afterward. His color was the darkest, so Lin Ning chose to follow him to his residence and found his address.

What Jin Er and the others recorded was—a gambling den.

The old neighbors in the community all knew Wang Xiaoqing liked to find people to play cards at his house.

But they didn't know how high the stakes were. Those who played wouldn't say, and those who didn't didn't know any specifics.

But gambling was something Jin Er and the others were familiar with.

Through chatting, they identified several people who often went to Wang Xiaoqing's house to play cards.

Jin Er did a little more digging into those people and realized they were Steerers who recruited people for games.

Steerers were very easy to recognize. They were responsible for bringing in business and always took the initiative to contact people with decent assets. Despite having no proper jobs, they showed off with branded clothes and watches.

The old neighbors knew their backgrounds and knew the older generation wasn't wealthy, so where did this money come from?

After staking out for two days, they found these Steerers brought people over to play cards every night.

If it wasn't a gambling den, what was it? Or perhaps a private mini-casino?

Speaking of this case, Xu San and the others sighed and seriously warned Lin Ning: "Anything is fine, but you must never touch gambling or drugs. We've seen too many people in Juma Bridge who touched those two things and ended up neither human nor ghost!"

Lin Ning knew this was well-intentioned and nodded solemnly. "Would I have to be insane to touch that stuff?!"

But you guys didn't mention 'prostitution' at all!

Lin Ning was also very satisfied with this one. Catching them in the act would suffice; it was simple and the reward was high. Nice.

The fourth one was in Heyuan Community.

This was considered gang theft, and the situation was hard to describe.

Many people shopping online specify that packages must be delivered to their door. This is understandable, as some large communities have distant pick-up stations, or people find it tiring to carry packages up the stairs.

But many people aren't home, so what happens? They tell the courier to leave it on the floor by the door.

This group would dress as couriers every day, pretending to be deliverymen, and then roam through various communities to steal packages from doorsteps.

They were professional—hitting one spot and then moving to another.

Yanjing City was big enough that they could change communities every day for a year without repeating.

Then they opened a Xianyu store at home. With cheap, brand-new deals, they gained an excellent reputation and their business was booming. Many people in their own community bought things directly from them.

Moreover, the few people in this gang were quite considerate—they would organize the large number of cardboard boxes discarded daily and deliver them to a poor old lady in their community. Sometimes they even brought over some health supplements they had "stocked."

Zhang Shitou was a bit regretful. "How did they think of it? To think of stealing packages to open their own shop—they've got brains. If you hadn't said they were problematic, we would never have guessed."

Xu San also said, "They were quite cautious in their actions. Three of them posed as deliverymen, and their uniforms, equipment, and tricycles were very professional. They would change routes, vehicles, and clothes every day when they returned. It was cautious enough."

Jin Er narrowed his eyes and took a sip of wine. "Their brains aren't being used for the right things, and they've gotten addicted to a business with no overhead. I heard they're even college students!"

The fifth one was the spicy hot pot shop on the pedestrian street that Lin Ning had always been concerned about.

Jin Er wrote very simply—suspected drug trafficking.

Lin Ning was instantly shocked. "???"