Chapter 119: The Special Task Force Doesn’t Support Dead Weight—Poison Is Splurging on Luxury Cars?

Timid and cowardly, yet brazen and overconfident.

Two seemingly contradictory traits—yet both describe Poison’s personality.

Su Ming’s conclusion was unexpected for everyone present. Lan Jing and Guo Ping, in particular, both furrowed their brows at the same time.

As a PhD in psychology and a top reconnaissance soldier respectively, both of them carried a degree of pride in their own judgment, confident they wouldn’t misread a situation. Yet Su Ming’s take felt, to them, like a deliberate attempt to smooth things over rather than draw a clear conclusion.

But Su Ming wasn’t being cryptic for effect. He simply sorted through his thoughts and explained, “I overheard your discussion in the hallway just now. Dr. Lan believes Poison is cowardly, based on the poisoning case from several years ago and the recent case involving Fat Cat. Unlike someone like Zhou Shirui—a bold and reckless criminal—Poison doesn’t seem capable of handling corpses, or even killing someone with his own hands. From that angle, yes, Poison does come across as timid and cowardly.

“But Team Leader Guo has a different perspective. He points out that Poison has repeatedly outwitted undercover surveillance, spotting plainclothes cops and evading them. Most importantly…” He paused for emphasis. “After spotting the police, Poison didn’t panic. Instead, he calmly returned home, disguised himself again, and even used a Shiba Inu in another attempt to poison Skinny Dog’s family.”

“Also, I have another piece of intel you two probably aren’t aware of yet. Before Fat Cat, there was another drug distributor named Tie San. Poison threatened him at gunpoint, directly forcing him to sell ten kilograms of high-purity narcotics. And to coerce Tie San into compliance, Poison killed his elderly mother right in front of him. The sheer arrogance is beyond belief.”

“From these two events, we can also see Poison’s confidence—his brazenness.”

“That’s what I meant when I said Poison is both cowardly and arrogant. You can clearly see this duality in the way he operates.”

“However,” Su Ming continued, “you should pay attention to the timing. When is he cowardly? And when is he so bold he dares to kill to make threats?”

At that point, Lin Tian—who had also reviewed the ten unsolved cases in recent days—seemed to catch onto something.

“I see it now,” he said. “If I’m not mistaken, the key to this split in Poison’s personality lies in external factors.”

“The case from years ago was most likely his first kill. Naturally, a first-time murderer would be afraid and hesitant. That’s probably why he chose a poisoning method that let him wait and watch, without having to touch the body—minimizing the risk of being caught. That’s a stark contrast with someone like Zhou Shirui, who’s a born criminal.”

“Then came the threat against Tie San. By that point, Poison had already been in the drug trade for two years and had likely made a lot of money. After passing internal assessments, he probably gained support from the organization and learned advanced criminal techniques.”

“Once he confirmed that even if his downstream contacts got arrested, they wouldn’t dare leak any info about him, his confidence soared. The arrogance followed naturally—especially since the police hadn’t been able to extract any key clues, emboldening him enough to threaten Tie San with his family.”

“This attitude continued… all the way to the recent surveillance on Skinny Dog’s family.”

“But shortly after that, through a message from the drug ring leader, Poison learned that Zhou Shirui’s identity had been exposed and he might be caught by the police. Add to that the news that the dark web had been compromised and all downstream agents were now known… that shook his confidence.”

“The confidence and arrogance he’d built up collapsed in an instant. That’s why he handled Fat Cat remotely, instead of threatening him in person like he did with Tie San.”

“If I’m right, cowardice is Poison’s true nature, while his arrogance developed later, shaped by his environment within the drug trade.”

“It’s like… like…” Lin Tian searched for the right analogy.

“Like a fox borrowing a tiger’s might, or a nouveau riche mindset,” Lan Jing said, adjusting her glasses as she picked up the thread.

“From a psychological perspective,” she added, “when someone’s personality changes this drastically under external pressure, it means their mental state is extremely unstable.”

“While personality doesn’t determine achievement or future, based on my experience I’ll make a bold assessment…”

“Given that Poison chose to enter the drug trade despite being timid by nature, it’s highly likely he came from a poor background.”

“Which means…”

“After earning a cut from selling high-purity narcotics, he probably engaged in retaliatory consumption—buying large amounts of luxury goods.”

“Because luxury goods are expensive, once his first dealer was taken out, Poison had to immediately turn to Tie San and use his family’s life as leverage—starting off by demanding the sale of ten full kilos of drugs.”

This deduction clearly pleased Su Ming—he raised an eyebrow in approval. He hadn’t expected that just a simple hint would lead Lan Jing, a specialist in criminal psychology, to extrapolate so many details.

It also confirmed for him that the higher-ups were dead serious about dismantling the drug network this time.

Otherwise—

There was no way they would have pulled so many people from their respective posts just to assemble this special task force.

“Luxury goods?” Zheng Hui rubbed his chubby chin and said seriously, “In past cases, I got to know a few boutique clerks and had plenty of chats.”

“For luxury brands, major clients usually leave their contact info. We might be able to find a breakthrough there.”

“Granted, those client lists are confidential to protect privacy, but in reality, luxury store clerks often share information behind the scenes. Give me about half a day to connect with some clerks in Gusu City.”

“I’m about ninety percent confident I can get the list of high-end clients who’ve spent big on luxury goods in Gusu over the past three years—without revealing our official identities.”

“With that, we can start narrowing down suspects and possibly confirm Poison’s identity.”

Zheng Hui’s specialty was fieldwork—gathering witness testimony and tracking down clues.

Without using his official status or alerting the suspect, he could still obtain a list of high spenders in half a day—an impressive skill.

But Su Ming gave a faint smile and raised a hand to stop him.

“No need for all that trouble.”

“I already have a good guess about where Poison has spent the most money.”

“According to Skinny Dog, three days after Tie San got his ‘peanuts’—”

“His family was in a horrific car crash on the highway, their vehicle suddenly lost control, and no one survived.”

“Though it was ruled an accident in the end, I don’t believe it was just a coincidence.”

“Tampering with a car to make it crash at high speeds isn’t all that hard, really.”

“But of course, this assumes that Poison has a deep understanding of vehicles—not just someone who knows how to drive, but someone with real technical knowledge.”

“So I have two theories…”

“First, Poison once worked as a mechanic and knows exactly how to sabotage a vehicle to make it lose control.”

“Second, he’s into street racing or car culture, and spends huge amounts of money on luxury sports cars. To ensure safety and maximize performance, he would naturally have in-depth knowledge of how a car might go out of control at high speed.”

“Between the two, I lean more toward the second.”

“In other words—”

“The luxury goods Poison has been splurging on are probably high-end sports cars.”