Chapter 120: Entertainment

It’s easy to say, and not hard to do.

Cisha directly gathered the suspects involved to create a sketch for Qin Qing.

In the spacious conference room, the Action Team members stood in a row like steadfast pines, their black tactical uniforms accentuating their upright figures. In front of them, a dozen suspects huddled together nervously, like a flock of startled quail. Some rubbed their fingers incessantly, others had beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, and some surreptitiously glanced around with the corners of their eyes.

The Special Investigation Team knew well that these people were innocent, but such was the procedure of criminal investigation. They were temporarily detained and suddenly brought out, expecting to be interrogated, only to be left standing in this empty conference room.

Aside from the armed guards at the door, the only noteworthy sight was the corner they kept stealing glances at—a short girl with round eyes sitting on a table, snacking.

She swung her legs, which couldn’t touch the ground, her chubby cheeks puffing as she chewed, resembling a little squirrel sneaking nuts.

They watched her open a bag of chips, crunch… crunch… crunch…

Then she opened a yogurt, slurp… slurp… slurp…

Next was a pack of spicy strips, hiss… hiss… hiss…

The girl tossed the empty packaging of the spicy strips, fanning her mouth with her hand.

“So spicy, so spicy!”

A soldier-like officer beside her wordlessly handed her a bottle of mineral water.

Gulp… gulp… gulp…

Most of the suspects’ attention was drawn to this corner, though they dared not look openly.

They couldn’t help but wonder if they were there to watch a live eating show.

The officer lowered his voice and said to the girl, “If you’re bored, you can go back. We don’t need so many people here.”

The girl, pulling out a large jelly from who knows where, continued eating and retorted indistinctly, “Wouldn’t that make me seem uninvolved?”

The officer’s expression was indescribable, as if saying, “Weren’t you always like this before?”

The girl said to herself, “I’ve finally got some fighting spirit, don’t discourage me.” She lifted her face, her round eyes gleaming with mischief. “Besides, I need to work harder. Didn’t you notice the team leader didn’t scold me during the meeting?”

After a while, she lamented, “Who would have thought my newfound fighting spirit would be so useless!”

Speaking of which, the officer—Captain—also sighed.

In previous missions, no matter how low the task rating, they always risked life and limb.

This time, they were “reduced” to merely maintaining order.

Captain glanced at the right wall, hoping the people inside would quickly identify the real suspect. He was eager to spring into action and bring the culprit to justice.

In the room on the right, Qin Qing swiftly sorted through the detailed information of each suspect’s network.

She was assisted by two technicians who scanned the information she organized into a mathematical model to find intersections, avoiding the repetitive labor of manual comparison.

After three rounds of comparison, the direction of the suspects’ intersection with the criminal’s social network was ruled out.

Qin Qing busily mapped out the movements of these people…

The two technicians focused intently on the data flashing on the screen. Suddenly, a red dot lit up on the map.

“Found it!” one of the technicians exclaimed excitedly.

Before the crime occurred, all the suspects had visited the same place.

Unfolding the map, the point where multiple paths overlapped was a restaurant.

In the team channel, the Action Team members temporarily serving as guards in the conference room perked up upon hearing the clear target.

They instantly tensed up, like a pack of leopards ready to pounce.

Captain immediately ordered, “All units, move towards the target!”

Meng Yuan jumped off the table with a thud, jogging to keep up with Captain, her combat boots tapping rhythmically on the floor. Confidently, she said, “I’m coming too, don’t forget me.”

The conference room quickly emptied, leaving the bewildered group of pseudo-suspects staring at each other. From start to finish, they had no idea what had happened.

Just like they never understood how they became scapegoats.

Of course, Qin Qing was also going to the arrest operation. The final step required her to confirm the specific target.

To avoid alerting the enemy, the restaurant was not informed.

Our technicians directly connected to the Sky Eye system, taking over the surveillance cameras inside and outside the restaurant.

Surveillance images were fed into the Resident Population Database for facial recognition.

In no time, the information of today’s diners and staff was fully extracted for backup.

The Action Team, fully armed and disguised, was poised and ready, awaiting the command.

Everything was in place, only waiting for Qin Qing’s results.

Qin Qing did not disappoint. She had pre-set a “disguise” tag a kilometer away from the restaurant.

Within the system panel’s recognition radius, the person topping the filtered list was indeed the target.

It was almost too easy to recognize, with multiple gaps in the target’s logs.

Qin Qing synchronized the information in the team channel, and the technicians identified the target’s data, sending it to the team members’ personal terminals.

Moreover, for double assurance, each Action Team member was now equipped with a Palm Mini Compass.

The suspect was caught off guard. Our personnel barely exerted any effort, hardly disturbing the restaurant guests, and within five minutes, the target was detained and loaded into a vehicle.

At the same time, a stud earring named “Gene Simulation” was confiscated from the suspect.

The target was a restaurant server who could easily obtain others’ saliva and hair through his work. The earring could read these genes and transform the wearer into another person within a certain space and time.

This person’s cheat was indeed advanced, but he lacked intelligence and caution, leaving behind clues.

The server was bewildered throughout, and a team member couldn’t resist giving him a hard knock on the head, leaving him even more dazed.

The team member felt somewhat satisfied, saying, “Finally, it’s your turn to be confused, you slacker, messing with everyone.”

Back at the station, Qin Qing, exhausted from the high-intensity mental work, decided to rest.

Meng Yuan followed Captain back to report the mission, bouncing along like a happy rabbit.

In Cisha’s office, they encountered the Captain of F Team also submitting a report.

Seeing them, Captain F greeted, “Looking good, was it smooth this time?”

Hearing this, Meng Yuan straightened her back even more.

Captain chuckled and replied, “Not bad. From receiving the mission to closing the case, it took less than 12 hours.”

“No way,” Captain F punched Captain’s chest playfully. “12 hours? Did you take a D-rank mission?”

Captain brushed off the wrinkles on his shirt and smiled, “A-rank Mission.”

Captain F was taken aback, blurting out, “Were you blessed by Lady Luck?”

Captain nodded seriously, “Two of them, actually.”

Captain F chuckled wryly.

His team had taken on a B-rank mission, where the target wasn’t particularly smart, and the cheat wasn’t offensive.

It was a “Probability Dice,” capable of increasing the success rate of low-probability events by billions of times.

The target got carried away by winning lotteries and raffles, leaving clues for the Action Team to find an entry point.

Even so, to capture this fool before he could wreak havoc in the financial market and harm the national economy, F Team still had three seriously injured and several lightly injured.

Seeing the look on Captain F’s face, Captain had a guess but didn’t press further, asking with concern, “Did you also have a special abilities consultant?”

Captain F sighed, “He got injured this time too.”

–

Qin Qing had a deep sleep in her dorm.

When she woke up, it was already 8 PM, and she was starving. With Shi Jiang not around, she didn’t want to go out or order takeout, so she took her lunchbox to the cafeteria to try her luck.

Of course, the work schedule of the agency wouldn’t operate based on her luck.

Going to dinner at 8 PM was indeed a bit much.

The cafeteria lights were on, but there were no diners, not even staff.

The 24-hour convenience store next to the cafeteria was open, though.

Sighing, Qin Qing planned to buy instant noodles from the store.

“Comrade Xiao Qin?”

She heard someone calling her from behind; it was a cafeteria auntie holding a mop, seemingly cleaning the floor.

“What’s up?”

The auntie looked at the lunchbox in Qin Qing’s hand.

“Haven’t eaten?”

Qin Qing nodded.

She still didn’t understand why she was being stopped.

The auntie asked, “Want me to make you some fried rice?”

Qin Qing hesitated, “If it’s not too much trouble?”

Auntie replied, “No trouble at all! Just a few minutes.”

She happily left, abandoning the mop.

When she said a few minutes, she meant it.

The auntie brought out a pan of fried rice, filling Qin Qing’s lunchbox to the brim.

She even asked, “Is it enough? If not, I’ll make you some shredded pork noodles.”

“It’s enough, it’s enough.”

The cafeteria was too quiet as Qin Qing carried her fried rice back.

At the dorm entrance, she ran into Meng Yuan, who was carrying a bunch of barbecue.

Meng Yuan said, “I was going to bring you a midnight snack, but you already got something… What kind of fried rice is that? Smells so good.”

The fried rice was made with fermented sour shoots and eggs.

The sour and fragrant aroma was incredibly appetizing. Qin Qing didn’t know how many times she swallowed on the way back.

“Want some?”

Meng Yuan nodded vigorously.

Qin Qing said, “But I don’t have another bowl, hard to share.”

Meng Yuan dashed back to her dorm and returned with a bowl.

The bowl was even bigger than Qin Qing’s.

“I brought my own!”

Qin Qing sighed, “Alright then.”

The two shared a bowl of fried rice.

Qin Qing said, “I haven’t eaten here much, didn’t know the staff was so enthusiastic.”

Meng Yuan, with a mouthful of rice, swallowed and replied, “Not everyone gets this treatment, you know? Director Feng specifically instructed it. There aren’t many like us in the bureau, and Director Feng said to ensure good logistics.”

She added, “That’s why Cisha used to scold me for not working but enjoying special treatment.”

This was something Qin Qing hadn’t known before.

With half the fried rice gone, Qin Qing wasn’t full, so she opened the barbecue.

It turned out that Meng Yuan’s carefully selected barbecue was delicious. Even though it had cooled, the taste was still great.

Meng Yuan said, “By the way, we exceeded our mission this time. The team leader gave everyone a bonus and approved a five-day annual leave, which can be accumulated. To celebrate, Captain plans to take everyone out for fun.”

“Oh, team building… What are we doing?”

Meng Yuan replied, “Not sure yet, but team building is usually just eating and drinking, right?”

Captain organized the team building, and when Qin Qing arrived, she realized Captain might have misunderstood the word “fun.”

What were the activities?

Rock climbing, skydiving, dodging infrared beams…

As it turned out, everyone was having a blast except for the two girls.

Qin Qing didn’t quite get it. “Aren’t these activities part of our usual training?”

The team members replied, “It’s different. Normally it’s a task, but now it’s for fun.”

Qin Qing sighed, “As long as you’re happy.”

While she didn’t feel particularly involved in the games, the afternoon activity was a group cookout.

Still, she felt no sense of participation…

Meanwhile, everyone else was showing off their skills.

Some were grilling, others were simmering river shrimp, and some were mixing wild greens…

Even the Captain was resourceful enough to catch fish on the spot and make fish soup.

The fish bubbled away in the pot.

“Wow, you can catch fish and make soup too?” Meng Yuan followed closely behind the Captain the entire time, like a little animal waiting to be fed, squatting by the pot with eager eyes.

The Captain ladled a full bowl and handed it to her first. “Careful, it’s hot.”

“I know,” Meng Yuan replied, blowing gently on the steam.

Qin Qing, with a blade of grass in her mouth, found a rock to sit on and watched.

So, this team-building exercise consisted of a special terrain obstacle course in the morning and wilderness survival in the afternoon, right?