I Am Your Natural Enemy

Chapter 1241: Chapter 426: Reopening Old Cases, Intelligence Network

With Fan Zeyun coming in to surrender himself, from any angle you look at it, Wen Yan had no reason to stop him.

Even if after Fan Zeyun turns himself in, there’s an eighty percent chance he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars, or not even have a “rest of his life” at all.

Even if Fan Zeyun is surrendering this openly and straightforwardly, according to the rules, the Scorching Sun Department must reopen the sealed case file, must reinvestigate the old case.

Under the current regulations, as long as during the initial interrogation Fan Zeyun provides new leads or a new statement that weren’t recorded before, and the probability of them being verified as true isn’t low—

Then the old case absolutely has to be restarted.

This is exactly what Fan Zeyun wants; he’s had enough of living.

Back when they went down the Nether Path, Wen Yan could already tell this guy had a very serious self-destructive streak, he didn’t care about life or death at all.

He only has two things left that he cares about: one is Brother Dao, and the other is what happened back then.

After going down the Nether Path once together with Wen Yan, then being dragged back by Wen Yan, and adding Wen Yan’s reaction when he saw Brother Dao before, Fan Zeyun was already certain he could entrust Brother Dao to Wen Yan.

Right now the one feeling miserable isn’t Fan Zeyun, it’s other people.

The Guanzhong County Chief is feeling pretty miserable; that case from back then—of course he knows about it. With the relationship he has with Cai Heizi, there’s no way he wouldn’t.

Back then it was Cai Heizi who led the team on that case, and now the General Director is the one overseeing it.

The time Cai Heizi offended the most people in one go was that time.

The young Cai Heizi was stubborn, foul-tempered, and hard as nails; he really was the person best suited to push the case as far as possible. But at the same time, it was also the job guaranteed to offend people the most; several big shots got dragged into it at the time.

When the very matter of Spiritual Qi Resurgence itself was still under debate, voices calling to cut the Scorching Sun Department’s funding and authority, or even abolish the Scorching Sun Department outright, were at their loudest then.

In that situation, even the hot-blooded young Cai Heizi, under the so-called requests from victims’ families, in order not to doom the entire Scorching Sun Department, began to compromise. From that point on, he changed.

He gradually changed from a hard-headed brat who was stubborn and foul-tempered and tough, into someone where, even though what he did pissed people off so much they wanted to smack the hell out of him, they still pinched their noses and endured.

Then gradually, he became someone where even if you later curse him out, even if you really do go beat the son of a bitch, you still can’t deny the work itself, can’t say the Scorching Sun Department was in the wrong; you can only swear at Cai Heizi, while the work still has to be done and keeps getting done.

At that point, Cai Heizi finally became “Cai Heizi.”

As one of the people Cai Heizi has offended, the Guanzhong County Chief of course knows where all of this started, and which incident had the biggest impact on Cai Heizi.

Now someone has straight up come in to surrender and admit to this matter, and when he hears that this person came together with Wen Yan—before even the initial interrogation—the Guanzhong County Chief’s vision goes dark. In his heart, he knows there’s an eighty percent chance it’s true.

Especially after he asks Wen Yan and Wen Yan says this person wasn’t someone he arrested at all, the Guanzhong County Chief is even more certain the matter is definitely real.

For something like this, he has no authority to make the final call, but he also has no way to refuse to take it.

Now, listening on the phone, listening to Wen Yan’s words, the Guanzhong County Chief thinks it over and says,

“It’s rare you’ve come all the way to my place, this is your first time at a Guanzhong County Unit, right? Come up and sit for a bit, we’ll have a meal together later, let you try some Guanzhong dishes.”

“I’ve lived in Guanzhong County for more than ten years.”

“Oh, that’s even better, then you can have some hometown food. Forget waiting, let’s go now—I’ll book us a table. You’re in the lobby on the first floor, right? Stay put, I’ll come down right away.”

The Guanzhong County Chief doesn’t give Wen Yan any chance to refuse. As soon as he finishes speaking, he snaps the call off.

Wen Yan looks at the phone, slightly taken aback. Of course he knows what this is about, and he wasn’t planning to make things hard for the Guanzhong County Chief anyway.

It’s just that a lot of things have rules. Fan Zeyun has been living in Guanzhong County for so many years; if he suddenly surrenders now but bypasses Guanzhong County, that would actually be making trouble for them.

Doing it by the book now, following the normal procedure, at least Guanzhong County’s Scorching Sun Department is definitely fine.

Wen Yan doesn’t leave. After waiting a few minutes, he sees the Guanzhong County Chief come down, who immediately grabs Wen Yan by the arm and refuses to let go.

“Come on, come on, you’re back home, how could you just walk off like this.”

The Guanzhong County Chief drags Wen Yan off, and instead of going for some big feast, they find a local, authentic paomo shop.

“The ‘water-basin’ mutton here is the real deal, and the crescent buns are all handmade and fire-baked, not done with electric ovens. This season, this is exactly what you should be eating—comfortable.”

Seeing him put official business aside and insist on dragging him off for water-basin mutton, Wen Yan naturally understands the case from back then isn’t some small matter, so he first gives him some reassurance.

“That Fan Zeyun has a very serious self-destructive streak. If he went somewhere else, it probably wouldn’t turn out too well.”

“I get that.” The Guanzhong County Chief is fully aware: the man’s in his jurisdiction, and deliberately runs off to somewhere else—whatever the inside story is, he’s the one who got bypassed.

The Guanzhong County Chief thinks for a moment, then says something that surprises Wen Yan a bit.

“There’s an eighty percent chance this case will be reopened. But after it’s reopened, how deep we can dig—well, that’s another question.

If the information Fan Zeyun provides isn’t particularly crucial, especially not crucial to the current situation, then the odds of us really digging deep aren’t that high.

Since we’re doing it, we should see it through. We can’t reopen it and then give up halfway, let it fizzle out.”

Wen Yan lifts his head, looking at the Guanzhong County Chief, slightly surprised. The Minister in Guanzhong County is a lot more moderate than Cai Heizi; you wouldn’t expect him to sound this uncompromising.