NABC Chapter 8 Rising Star
Chapter 8 Rising Star
"General Huang has personally given the order that as soon as a suitable opportunity arises, your military police career will be shortened immediately, and you will be transferred to the plainclothes criminal investigation department ahead of schedule."
This was indeed truly good news for He Chu.
He Chu's eyes lit up, and he immediately stood up straight and spoke loudly.
"Thank you, sir!"
Superintendent Chen smiled and waved his hand.
"Just focus on your work and do your job well. What's rightfully yours will be yours, and we'll give it to you sooner or later."
He Chu agreed verbally, but didn't really take those words seriously.
It's not that he didn't want to earn merit and be rewarded.
He really didn't care much for this kind of hidden, shady achievement.
If this were any other ordinary police officer, such an opportunity to get close to higher-ups and be promoted early would probably only come once in a lifetime, and missing it would be a lifelong regret.
But He Chu wasn't worried at all, and wasn't even slightly disturbed.
Hong Kong, a city that has been the setting for countless movies and TV shows, is practically another version of Gotham City, a chaotic mess.
In a place like this, he's worried about not having opportunities to make meritorious contributions in the future? That's a joke.
To his surprise, when he returned home that evening, Lu Qichang was already standing at his door, waiting for him.
He Chu quickly opened the door, let him into the house, and asked with a look of surprise:
"Officer Lu, if you wanted to find me, you could have just called me. Why wait so long at the door?"
A bitter smile appeared on Lu Qichang's face as he asked:
"Do you have any beer at home? Give me a bottle first."
He Chu turned around, took two bottles of ice-cold beer from the refrigerator, and handed one over.
"What, are you celebrating Huang Zhicheng's arrest?"
Lu Qichang took the beer, pulled the tab, tilted his head back, and gulped down more than half the bottle in one go. Only then did he wipe his mouth and reply:
"It's not a celebration, it's to calm my nerves."
He Chu's smile vanished instantly, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Calm down? What happened?"
Lu Qichang let out a long sigh, his face filled with lingering fear.
"We really owe a huge debt to Inspector Ho for reminding us in advance. Otherwise, the losses to our police force this time would have been unimaginable."
He Chu's brows furrowed instantly.
"Inspector Lu, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Qichang gave a bitter smile that was more like a grimace.
"exaggerate?"
"If you knew just how many heinous things that bastard Huang Zhicheng had done, you would immediately take back what you said."
He Chu sat up straight instantly, his expression becoming completely serious.
"What else did Huang Zhicheng do?"
Lu Qichang's face remained expressionless, and he spoke in an icy tone.
"We all thought that Huang Zhicheng only sent Ah Ren as an undercover agent."
"But in reality, he sent a total of three people."
"The first two had already been exposed and were beaten to death by the gang members."
"Ah Ren, this is the third one he's sent out!"
"I personally interrogated Huang Zhicheng. The two brothers who sacrificed their lives earlier were exactly the same as Ah Ren now. From the day they were sent out, they never received any support or cover from him."
"That's not all. Not only did he not provide any support, but he also kept urging them to send back core intelligence, forcing them to take risks."
"In the end, these two brothers didn't even have a firm foothold in the gang before their identities were exposed due to their frequent actions, and they ended up dying tragically outside."
Upon hearing this, a chilling murderous intent flashed in He Chu's eyes, but Lu Qichang, who was drinking with his head down, didn't notice at all and continued speaking as if nothing had happened:
"But Huang Zhicheng was incredibly good to Han Chen, he was completely devoted to him."
"We did everything we could to create opportunities for him, clear away all obstacles, and push him up the ladder of success."
He Chu immediately let out a cold sneer.
"They don't care about the lives of the brothers they send out, and they don't offer any support whatsoever, but they go to great lengths to pave the way for and protect outsiders. They are utterly traitors."
Lu Qichang waved his hand and spoke in a heavy tone.
"No, you're wrong. In Huang Zhicheng's heart, Han Chen is one of his own, and we, his fellow police officers, are all outsiders."
He Chu remained silent for a long while before slowly nodding.
"You've hit the nail on the head."
Lu Qichang took a sip of his drink and then continued,
"These aren't even the most amazing things."
He Chu was completely stunned this time, looking at him with a face full of shock.
"Is there anything more outrageous or astonishing than this?"
Lu Qichang fell into a long silence again, and after a full half minute, he slowly spoke.
"Do you know how Ni Kun died?"
He Chu's pupils shrank instantly, and he exclaimed in surprise:
"You even uncovered this during your investigation?"
"Could it be that Ni Kun's death really is related to Huang Zhicheng?"
Lu Qichang gave He Chu a thumbs up.
"Inspector Ho is indeed sharp-minded; he guessed it right away. Although Ngai Kwan wasn't shot by Wong Chi-shing himself, it's no different from him killing him himself."
"Ni Kun's death was orchestrated by Huang Zhicheng, who instigated Mary to have someone kill him!"
Upon hearing this, He Chu was instantly filled with admiration for Lu Qichang's interrogation skills.
He was, after all, a transmigrator and already knew the truth about Ni Kun's death. Yet, Lu Qichang was able to extract the truth from Huang Zhicheng in just three days. His interrogation skills were truly superb.
Lu Qichang's interrogation skills were truly unparalleled, as he was able to uncover such a deeply hidden secret.
boom!
He Chu slammed his hand on the table and roared angrily:
"That beast Huang Zhicheng deserves to be torn to pieces!"
"He personally instigated Han Chen's wife, Mary, to kill Ni Kun. He clearly knew that Ah Ren was Ni Kun's biological illegitimate son, yet he still sent Ah Ren back to the Ni family as an undercover agent!"
"What exactly is he up to? What is he trying to do?!"
"Is he trying to use this scheme to wipe out Ni Kun and his entire family?!"
Lu Qichang didn't say anything, picked up the second bottle of beer, tilted his head back again, and gulped it down in one go.
"If this gets out, it will be the biggest scandal in the history of the police force!"
"I dare not say a word about this to outsiders. I have given all the team members involved in the case a strict gag order."
"They are strictly forbidden from divulging a single word about this, and are absolutely prohibited from spreading it around."
"Besides you, I only reported all the details of this matter to General Manager Huang and Superintendent Chen."
"This matter is weighing on my mind, it's really making me feel suffocated, and I want to find someone I can talk to and have a good chat with."
"After thinking it over, I decided to come here."
Lu Qichang shook the empty beer bottle in his hand and raised it towards He Chu.
"I apologize for disturbing you so late at night, Inspector Ho."
He Chu waved his hand dismissively.
"The fact that you're willing to come to me late at night to share these heartfelt words shows that you consider me, He Chu, a friend and one of your own."
"Isn't this the kind of time when friends should share their troubles and help each other resolve their inner conflicts?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Qichang finally showed a relieved smile.
"Officer Ho, I, Luk Kai-cheung, acknowledge you as my brother! You're a true friend!"
The two men opened new beers, clinked the bottles together, and took a big gulp.
He Chu put down the wine bottle, rubbed his chin with his fingers, and frowned deeply.
"By the way, have you thoroughly investigated Han Chen's path to climbing the ranks?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Qichang suddenly gave a wry smile.
"We've only figured out half of it; the other half is still unclear."
He Chu was stunned for a moment.
"What do you mean by that? What do you mean by 'half clear, half unclear'?"
Lu Qichang subconsciously pulled out a Camel brand cigarette, lit it, took two deep drags, exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, and then slowly began to speak.
"I have found out everything Huang Zhicheng did for Han Chen in secret, all the obstacles he cleared away."
"But besides these, there are some things Han Chen did, and the reasons behind them, that I still don't understand."
He Chu's heart skipped a beat, and an unbelievable thought instantly popped into his head. He looked up abruptly at Lu Qichang and asked in a trembling voice,
"You mean... Han Chen... he's also an undercover agent in our police force?!"
He Chu looked at Lu Qichang with a face full of astonishment:
"Inspector Lu, you must have made a mistake?"
"How could Han Chen possibly be an undercover agent planted in our police force?"
Lu Qichang was startled by He Chu's words and his whole body stiffened:
"When did I ever say that Han Chen was an undercover agent in our police force?"
He Chu's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, instantly settled down, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
But then Lu Qichang spoke up:
"I went to Lao Ye's office to check, and Han Chen is not on our list of registered police officers at all."
He Chu was both amused and exasperated after hearing this:
"So, after all this time, you were having your own doubts too?"
Lu Qichang's expression instantly darkened.
"Since I received this information from you, I have verified and checked every single piece of information in it."
Upon hearing this, He Chu couldn't help but exclaim in admiration:
"This trip involved an enormous amount of work."
Lu Qichang shrugged indifferently:
"No matter how big the workload is, we must verify everything. After all, this matter involves a senior inspector in office, and we cannot be careless in the slightest."
"Inspector Ho, you were absolutely right before. All the information in this file is actually very easy to verify."
"But it was precisely because it was so easy to verify that I discovered something amiss."
He Chu immediately pressed for an answer:
"Where exactly did things go wrong?"
Lu Qichang lowered his voice and said in a deep voice, word by word:
"The problem arose before Han Chen came to Tsim Sha Tsui."
"After he arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui, most of his public actions were actually planned and executed by Wong Chi-shing and Mary behind the scenes."
"Han Chen himself is either completely unaware, or he is fully aware of everything but pretends to know nothing."
"This is definitely an extremely clever way of dealing with people."
"He let Huang Zhicheng shield him from the wind and rain and take all the limelight, while he himself hid in the back and quietly reaped all the benefits."
"These things are all supported by solid evidence; there is no way to fake them."
"But Huang Zhicheng never offered a helping hand or assistance to Han Chen during the entire process of him establishing himself and rising to prominence in the underworld."
"But relying solely on his own abilities, without the secret support and help of others, Han Chen could never have reached this level in such a short time, let alone developed step by step!"
He Chu tossed a Marlboro to Lu Qichang.
"In the end, you still have doubts about him."
Lu Qichang lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and after a long pause, gave a bitter smile before speaking.
"How could I not be suspicious in this situation?"
"I went through all of Inspector Ye's files, inside and out, and the final result was that there were no major problems. He is indeed not a member of the police force."
He Chu looked at him and slowly offered a reminder.
"Inspector Lu, have you considered that there might be another possibility?"
Lu Qichang always took He Chu's words very seriously, and immediately said solemnly:
"Officer Ho, please speak freely."
He Chu reminded him again in a deep voice:
"Han Chen is indeed not a formally employed member of our police force, but is it possible that he is an informant planted by one of our officers?"
Lu Qichang suddenly jumped up from his chair, exclaiming in surprise:
"What?!"
He Chu remained calm and said in a deep voice:
"This isn't hard to figure out, is it?"
"The only people who could secretly provide such strong support to a certain officer in our police force, besides our own colleagues, are the informants that officer has cultivated on his own."
"An informant doesn't necessarily have to be a formally appointed police officer!"
Lu Qichang's face instantly filled with surprise and doubt, his expression shifting back and forth, unable to make up his mind.
He stood there, carefully examining all the clues, then suddenly slapped his thigh and blurted out,
"It really is true!"
Seeing this, He Chu took another step forward and continued,
"The identity of an informant is much freer than that of an undercover agent. Correspondingly, the police force's protection of informants' identities, as well as various supporting prevention and control measures, also means that they are not subject to too many constraints from police regulations."
After listening, Lu Qichang slowly nodded, deeply agreeing, and said:
You're absolutely right.
In the Hong Kong police force, whether they are undercover agents or informants, they have always followed the rule of single-line contact.
Apart from the officer in charge of the liaison, no one else could possibly know any of the inside story.
If anything happens to the officer in charge of the liaison, the undercover agents he sent out and the informants he developed will immediately become like kites with broken strings, completely disappearing from everyone's sight and becoming untraceable.
"Even our police force's legitimate undercover agents have been assimilated, corrupted, and turned against the gangs, not to mention those informants and traitors who already walk the line between right and wrong."
"The club/organization is a complete melting pot."