The enclosure was not large, but one would not be able to finish walking around even if they had three days to do so. Yuan Xuan and Shao Yibai walked around the border of the enclosure with just a map in hand.

Every year, Yuan Family had spent hundreds of millions to maintain the ecology of the area. All the animals were free-range, so they were on high alert.

The three were only practicing their hunting skills. Before noon, they managed to snipe four rabbits, three Siberian musk deers, and seven pheasants, which was satisfactory.

Originally, they were going for a wild boar, so Tian Qi was not too pleased by it. “You two are going about without much weight on you, so you were playing around. I was carrying all the trophies, so if a wild boar appear right now, you two carry it!”

Back when Shao Yibai had led a column of special forces deep into the forest separating Northern Burma and Western Yunnan, he had saved several children being trafficked by a underground organization.

One of them was Tian Qi.

They had wanted to send them back to the relief station, but in that moment, Tian Qi snapped out of his wooden-headedness. He tugged at Shao Yibai’s camouflage costume and begged, “Big brother, can you bring me along?”

Shao Yibai looked at the bluish-black irises of the bony boy, pinched the boy’s arm lightly, and asked playfully, “You’re like a lady, what can you do?”

Tian Qi said with a simple-minded grin, “I can fight and carry rifles!”

…

Hearing Tian Qi’s protest, Shao Yibai knocked his head. “Alright. My Blockhead has grown up and started to have his own ulterior motives!”

Yuan Xuan laughed along. He looked at the trophies in Tian Qi’s hands and decided that it was enough food for the afternoon. He told Shao Yibai, “Let’s go back to relay station. We can come back in the afternoon! He’s right, if we managed to score a wild boar, you can carry it yourself!”

Considering his own heroic stance, Shao Yibai was not worried. What encumberance would a wild boar add?

“I am in charge, of eating it!”

Shao Yibai said in a pompous outlaw manner as he led the hunting party with a self-centered parade.

Tian Qi kept the rabbits and pheasants on his body, while Yuan Xuan took over the Siberian musk deer.

They went past three ridges before a spacious clearing appeared in front of them.

Without the giant trees that obscure the sky, the clearing seemed really empty.

Yuan Xuan stood still with his rifle as his walking stick and scanned the clearing, piping up suddenly to Shao Yibai, “Fourteen years ago, I saved Ye Kun here. He was pursued by other people for years and escaped from Xi Fan back to Luo Hai and into this enclosure!”

“He didn’t eat or drink. When I saved him, he was half-dead. He was hiding in this enclosure, hurt by beasts, and his injury was not cauterized. By the time he was sent to the hospital, the wound on his leg has been infected and had to be amputated. His hands were also badly injured by someone else, so he had that uncontrollable shaking ever since…”

“Who would believe he was the personal bodyguard fourteen years ago, the sharpshooter who was infamous across the lands?”

Hearing that, Shao Yibai patted Yuan Xuan’s shoulder and said softly, “The pawn you moved this time should yield fruit soon, right?”

Yuan Xuan’s eyes were dark, beneath his calm demeanor was full of murderous intention. “What needs to be done had been done, I just don’t feel like reeling in the nets yet. Luo Hai had been calm and peaceful for so many years, if it ends without some turmoil, the game would’ve been boring!”

…

Aside from Wu Huai, everyone was surprised by Mu Chenyan’s return.

After a few days of not seeing Mu Chenyan, Su Qingcheng had a seemingly-limitless amount of things to tell her. However, it was business hour, and she was not as relaxed as Mu Chenyan.

She had a case that she had to work on. With a simple greeting, the two women made an appointment to have lunch together.

Zhang Xin had been libidinous for the past few days. The moment he knew about Mu Chenyan’s return, it was as if he was injected with a cardiotonic agent. He was passionate to the point that Mu Chenyan felt an ardent stare from her back, so she had been slightly cold to Zhang Xin.

There were several people who knew of Mu Chenyan’s identity in the police, but Zhang Xin did not. Everyone had been busy with their own business, coupled with Wu Huai’s strictness forbidding his subordinates from chitchatting, no one had told Zhang Xin.

No one would think that he would dare to set his eyes on Yuan Xuan’s woman…

“Chenyan, let’s have lunch together?”

Zhang Xin typed up a storm on his keyboard as he quietly invited Mu Chenyan.

Separated by two computers, Zhang Xin was observing Mu Chenyan’s expression.

Normally, the police would dine in their cafeteria, but Zhang Xin wanted to invite Mu Chenyan to have lunch outside.

Mu Chenyan was busy with the documents pileed up in front of her and said without even lifting her head, “I’m eating with Su Qingcheng at noon, you know that. What if I invite you out together with the other comrades in the team on another day? I’ve depended much on you for work recently, so I should be the one footing the bill, don’t flake on me, senior.”

This woman had always been able to reject an advance appropriately without leaving the other party feeling embarrassed, but at the same time, clear and concise.

Zhang Xin stopped the work he had in his hand and stood, musing out loud, “Su Qingcheng had been assigned a pretty big case yesterday, she might not make it back by noon, I think?”

Sensing no reaction from Mu Chenyan, Zhang Xin sighed and mumbled, “The police are such uptight people to involve Luo Hai’s Yuan Family. The case is evidently not easy, they don’t even want me there to report, so I had nothing to do. Who would dare to offend the Yuan Family…”

“It’s about the Yuan Family?”

Mu Chenyan stood as she heard. Seeing that she finally responded, Zhang Xin moved closer to her hurriedly and asked, “You’re interested in this case?”

“Tell me!” Mu Chenyan stayed patient. If the case involves the Yuan Family, not even Wu Huai would be able to stop her from keeping tabs on it.

“Every year, our country would set aside an amount of budget for the military houses and would hand them out through Luo Hai’s Arms Control Department, do you know about that?”

Mu Chenyan shook her head, she was not too knowledgeable on these things. “Cliff’s notes version, please.”

Zhang Xin relayed the information he had heard elsewhere to Mu Chenyan.

(1000-ish words redacted for censorship…) (TN: Author redacted the recounting of the information from a previous chapter for brevity.)

“How much money would it involve to have so many important people make their moves?”

If it was about the docking of soldiers’ pay and creative accounting, Mu Chenyan felt the amount involved was too little to warrant paying attention.

“It involves several hundred people spanning decades. The exact amount of money involved was not meager. By this time, it matters not how much money was involved, because if something happens, it would be huge. Right now, several departments in the station were working together to solve the case, even the Discipline Inspection Commission had a part in it.”

“What does that have to do with Yuan Family?”

Mu Chenyan asked expressionlessly.

“Arms Control Department’s Head of Financial Division, Nie Chao, used to be a subordinate of Yuan Tangzhong.”

Zhang Xin mentioned off-handedly. Division Head Nie was Yuan Tangzhong’s secretary. Something happened then that ascended him to his current position.

Zhang Xin looked at Mu Chenyan with a knowing look.

Mu Chenyan gave it a thought. She did not believe that Yuan Tangzhong was involved in corruption. At least, he would not have risked it for this amount of money. After all, the financial ability of the Yuan Family was of a certain level.

However, it was not clear if Yuan Tangzhong would allow his subordinates to participate in unsavory practices like this!