75: Chapter 75 A Storm of Rage

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the line, and then Officer Li Feng's voice grew clearer: "Are you serious? You aren't joking?"

"Do I look like I have the leisure to be joking with you in the middle of the night?"

Officer Li Feng fell silent for a moment, appearing to digest this information: "...For an attempted major economic crime case like this, if the leads are solid and it can be successfully prevented, the reward... is very high. According to relevant regulations and the influence of the case, it could reach up to one million. However!"

He emphasized his tone: "This kind of case is absolutely not something our Police Station can touch! It involves a huge sum of money and is an inter-provincial or even cross-border economic crime; we don't even have the authority to file it, and if we took it, we'd have to transfer it immediately. If you really have solid leads, don't come to me. I'll help you contact some acquaintances at the Municipal Bureau's Economic Crime Investigation Detachment; they specialize in this."

"Municipal Bureau Economic Crime Investigation..." Lin Ning repeated.

"Yes," Officer Li Feng warned. "So you aren't joking with me, right?"

Lin Ning rolled his eyes. "How unreliable do I seem to you? If I wanted to mess with you, a few more reports would be enough. You think too highly of yourself, weakling!"

"Damn!"

"Wait for news from my end. It'll be within the next two days, or if it's fast, I'll contact you tomorrow. Find me someone who's in charge and reliable, okay!"

...

The lights of the small building appeared exceptionally desolate in the dead of night.

Lin Ning parked his e-scooter, took a deep breath of the cool night air, and then pushed the door open to enter this building that looked ordinary on the outside but held countless secrets within.

The Ministry of State Security personnel on the night shift had evidently received notification; he simply nodded at him, signaling for him to go straight upstairs.

Chen Zhi's office door was left slightly ajar, revealing bright light from within.

Lin Ning knocked on the door, and a low "Come in" came from inside.

Chen Zhi was standing in front of the window with his back to the door, holding a cigarette in his hand, the smoke curling up under the light.

"Brother Chen," Lin Ning called out.

Chen Zhi turned around; his face lacked its usual gentle expression, showing only solemnity.

He looked Lin Ning up and down, and seemingly finding nothing amiss, his expression relaxed slightly as he asked, "You came rushing here in the middle of the night. Speak, what's the matter?"

On the way here, Lin Ning already felt he might have been stupid, and the moment he saw Chen Zhi, he felt even more guilty.

Steeling himself, he quickly said, "I discovered a highly suspicious foreign woman. The car she drives is registered under Collamela International Co., Ltd. I spent four days tracking her in segments and confirmed her address is at the Wutong Garden residential complex."

Chen Zhi's eyes flickered slightly, signaling him to continue.

"Tonight, while I was staking out her building, I saw an Audi A6 with a Beijing A license plate park at her unit entrance. A middle-aged man got out. My 'Physiognomy' result showed —" Lin Ning paused, emphasizing, "—'Heinous criminal'! I switched to tracking him and discovered he lives in the Ministry of Education family quarters. I checked public information; he is a director at the Ministry of Education's XXXX Department, in charge of... basic education textbooks."

Lin Ning said the last few words very slowly and heavily.

The air in the office seemed to freeze instantly.

Chen Zhi's fingers holding the cigarette tightened slightly, and the ash fell silently.

His complexion sank at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his eyes roiled with shock, anger, and a chill like a storm about to break.

"Did you see him enter that woman's unit door with your own eyes? How long did he stay?" Chen Zhi's voice was calm, but Lin Ning could feel the surging waves beneath that calm.

"Seen with my own eyes! He went in after eight in the evening and didn't come out until nearly midnight, over three hours." Lin Ning replied.

In reality, the current clues, excluding "metaphysics," provided no evidence at all. Lin Ning even knew Sofiani's real name, but he didn't even know what name she was using in China. To corroborate that this woman really had issues, Lin Ning quickly stated the most suspicious key detail —

"Also, the first time I was staking out that woman's car downstairs at Collamela International Co., Ltd., everything was normal at first. But a few minutes before the car came out of the underground garage, I felt a gaze scanning down from the high floors of the building, as if conducting environmental surveillance. After the car appeared, whoever or whatever moved was watched."

He deliberated over his wording, but ultimately chose the most direct expression: "It was like a sentry post. In China, what kind of person would need to set up sentry posts?"

"Bang!"

Chen Zhi slammed his palm onto the desk, shaking the pen holder until it jumped. His expression changed completely, filled with both shock and anger.

He grabbed a thick folder from the desk with one hand, his arm muscles tensed, and it looked like he was about to throw it at Lin Ning.

Lin Ning shrank his neck in fear and instinctively retreated half a step.

Chen Zhi's arm froze in mid-air, staring fixedly at Lin Ning, his chest heaving violently a couple of times, before he finally slammed the folder back onto the desk with resentment, producing a dull thud.

"Lin! Ning!" Chen Zhi's voice squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying unprecedented fury and... lingering fear. "Who the hell do you think you are?! Batman? Iron Man? Do you think you're invincible just because you achieved a little something?!"

Lin Ning was stunned by this sudden torrent of abuse; he opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound.

"Have you received professional training in tracking and counter-tracking? Do you know what coordinated operations are? When we handle targets like this, it's always a team! It's a meticulous plan! It's cross-covering fire! It's using absolute force and resources to crush the opponent on our home turf! Why take the risk? Why go scout a location by yourself?!"

Chen Zhi pointed at Lin Ning's nose, his spit almost spraying onto his face: "You keep saying you don't want to join the Ministry of State Security, that you want to live the life of an ordinary person, to make money and enjoy life! Then what are you doing now? Playing a game of a lone hero infiltrating behind enemy lines?! Huh?!"

"I... I didn't mean to be a hero, I just wanted to get more concrete..." Lin Ning tried to defend himself, but his voice grew quieter and quieter.

"Concrete what? Evidence?!" Chen Zhi sternly interrupted him, so angry he turned in a circle on the spot. "You've reported so many times; when have I ever not taken it seriously because there was 'no concrete evidence'? When have I ever insisted on you having ironclad proof before taking action? Why didn't you report the suspicious target immediately?! Where is your caution? Where is that shrewd, cautious intelligence you had before? Did you just feed it to the dogs along with your dinner?!"

Every question was like a heavy hammer striking Lin Ning's chest.

His face burned; every word Chen Zhi shouted accurately pierced the twistedness and arrogance deep in his heart that even he himself hadn't realized.

After the Ou Jiarui incident, he had indeed changed subconsciously.

Relying on his Golden Finger upgrade, relying on his physical enhancement, and relying on having twice survived dangerous situations, he began to be unsatisfied with just being an "informant" in the background. He wanted to get closer to the front lines, wanted to tear open a corner of the darkness with his own hands, and wanted to prove that he was more than just a "radar."

To put it plainly, he had gotten a bit carried away.

Chen Zhi's angry scolding was like a basin of ice water, drenching his secret, dangerous vanity and self-satisfaction until he was chilled to the bone.