Chapter 116: Differing Theories on the Poison Master – Debates Among the Special Task Force Members

Two police cars bearing license plates from the Modu City drove into the Xiangcheng Criminal Investigation Division’s parking lot under escort.

At the same time—The head of the Xiangcheng Criminal Investigation Division, Liu Yang, was already waiting at the lot.

From a purely hierarchical standpoint, even though both Lin Tian and Liu Yang held positions in district-level CID teams, there wasn’t technically any rank disparity between them.

However, given that the Modu City was a directly governed municipality, there was still a subtle difference in status.

Not to mention—The special task force that had been assembled at breakneck speed had been granted immense authority from above.

Every public security unit in the cities connected to the case was required to unconditionally cooperate with the task force’s operations.

Rooting out this massive drug trafficking organization that had been lurking in Longguo for years had become the nation’s top priority.

Because whether it was in terms of the gang’s audacity or the overall danger it posed—It was, without a doubt, the most malignant tumor in Longguo today.

…

The passenger door opened.

Dressed in formal police uniform, Lin Tian stepped out in one stride and clasped Liu Yang’s already outstretched hand, speaking earnestly.

“Director Liu.”

“I’ll be counting on you over the next few days.”

Hearing this, Liu Yang clicked his tongue immediately, stood up straight, and feigned annoyance, shaking their clasped hands twice before replying.

“Come on, no need for that.”

“Director Lin, I should be thanking you. No matter what, with you all here, the pressure on my shoulders has eased quite a bit.”

“You have no idea…”

“These past few days, trying to get any leads out of Fat Cat—my hair’s practically gone gray with worry.”

“Now that your task force is here, I can finally breathe. Rest assured, we’ll fully cooperate with you. Feel free to order my team around as you need.”

It was clear—Neither Su Ming nor Lin Tian had revealed to anyone else that the task of locating the “Poison Master” was just a smokescreen, and their real target was Rose.

Or rather—They had never planned to tell them at all.

Because the most effective way to cooperate wasn’t to know the plan and fake a performance.

It was to make sure even their own people had no idea of the real arrangement, and still believed the task force was continuing to operate out of the Xiangcheng CID office.

If even the local officers were fooled, then no matter how cautious the drug ring’s leader was, it would be impossible for him to suspect the truth.

Releasing their clasped hands slowly—

Lin Tian pointed toward Su Ming, who had just stepped out of the car as well, and introduced him with evident pride.

“Director Liu.”

“This is Su Ming, the ace investigator from our Huaihai CID team. Whether it’s digging up this massive drug trafficking ring, or cracking that dismemberment case from twenty years ago—”

“Xiao Ming has been the key figure in both. Without him, we might still have no idea when we’d finally uncover Zhou Shirui.”

“Even though he only just joined our criminal investigation team a few days ago, I pushed hard to make him the deputy leader of this task force.”

Once the introduction was done—Liu Yang quickly shook hands with Su Ming and praised him with heartfelt admiration.

“Officer Su, you really are a young hero.”

“Back when I joined the CID, I was just following my mentor around doing odd jobs.”

“Don’t even talk about being deputy leader of a special task force—I barely even got the chance to handle murder cases.”

Su Ming gave a slight nod in response, saying little.

Though he had the experience to easily handle these formalities with more ease than a fishmonger like Brother Qiang—There was simply no need.

Compared to other government agencies, criminal investigation remained one of the purer fields—where strength and skill spoke the loudest.

As long as you could consistently and efficiently crack cases, merit and promotions followed quickly.

Just like now—Su Ming being forcefully promoted to deputy leader would have been unthinkable in other departments, not without spending years writing reports in an office.

After briefly introducing the rest of the team—

Lin Tian didn’t want to waste time. He turned down Liu Yang’s offer to grab a bite and firmly said,

“Director Liu.”

“We’ve already eaten on the way. Let’s jump right into the work.”

“Besides, the other four task force members who arrived late last night are probably waiting for us already.”

“By the way, did you prepare a few meeting rooms? We’ll need them to carry out the operation.”

“Of course—definitely.” Liu Yang nodded immediately, answering with seriousness.

“I cleared out the entire floor with the meeting rooms just for this.”

“After all, if we don’t root out that Poison Master, our Xiangcheng CID team will be under immense pressure too.”

“As for the four task force members who arrived early, they’re already in the meeting room going through the files, looking for any clues related to the Poison Master.”

“I’ll take you over right now.”

…

The group quickly made their way to the large conference room allocated by the Xiangcheng CID.

Of course—It wasn’t just that one meeting room. The entire floor had been cleared out for the task force’s use.

From the logistics arrangement alone, one could tell how important this mission and case were.

As they walked down the corridor leading to the conference room—Before they had even pushed the door open, they could already hear an intense discussion on the case from inside.

“You’re saying the Poison Master is timid? That’s totally unrealistic. I personally contacted Huaihai CID’s tech division and got access to the Skynet footage from when he left the scene. He was walking a Shiba Inu to disguise his identity at first, and only switched to the sporty youth look after noticing our plainclothes. That’s not timid behavior at all.”

“Exactly. From an investigative standpoint, a timid criminal could never pull off such a flawless disguise. A truly timid person, once they noticed experienced detectives searching in plainclothes, would’ve panicked and given themselves away.”

“That may be, but from a psychological perspective, he really doesn’t seem that bold. Compared to Zhou Shirui, he lacks that man’s madness. Whether it’s the past murders or dealing with Fat Cat, he probably didn’t show up in person at all. He likely just issued remote commands. And dismembering bodies? Dumping corpses? If we catch him, we might be able to extract a lot of intel about the organization’s inner workings.”

“Fat Cat’s family is still alive for now. Probably just because the Poison Master hasn’t had time to deal with them yet. I think we should dig into the addicts that had close ties to Fat Cat. We might uncover some new leads on the Poison Master that way.”

…

Hearing these conversations, which were part discussion, part heated debate—Su Ming raised his eyebrows slightly, realizing that the higher-ups had indeed handpicked the team.

At least from those few lines just now, it was clear these people weren’t amateurs.

Liu Yang knocked twice on the door, then opened it, gesturing for the others to enter.

And in the very next moment—As Su Ming followed Lin Tian into the room, he laid eyes on the four team members who had arrived before them…