Ch1 – Case

The winter winds were bitingly cold in Beijing, especially out in the suburbs where breath became icy mist the moment it mingled with air.
In the dead of night, at those ungodly hours when even owls stayed home, a faint rustling noise disturbed the eerie silence.
A dark silhouette nimbly wove through the pitch-black forest and slipped into the small courtyard of a rural residence.

The chill air enveloping the figure was swiftly dispersed by the warmth of a charcoal fire.
Upon his entrance, a young man in a winter-weather police uniform stood up and greeted quietly, “Captain Liang.” 

Liang Feng plucked off his padded cap and scanned the room before asking, ”Where’s Chief Zheng?”

“Further inside, talking with Captain Zhang.”

Liang Feng nodded and strode deeper into the house.

He pushed open the door and was assaulted with the acrid stench of cigarette smoke.
There were several policemen, bundled up in heavy overcoats on account of the shoddy heating system, sitting around a slapdash conference table pieced from miscellaneous furniture.
They all looked up vigilantly when they heard the door creak, except for the man seated in the middle, who didn’t even spare him a glance.
Liang Feng’s anger blazed as he planted himself before the conference table and stiffly asked, “Chief Zheng, you were looking for me?” 

His tone was confrontational.
The man at the head of the table waved the others away, “You guys go on and prepare first, we move in a few hours!”

Chairs scraped and clattered as his colleagues stood up and filed out until the room was empty save for two.
Chief Zheng gestured at a chair, “Lad, take a seat first.“

Liang Feng didn’t move, “Chief Zheng, I know what you want to say.
I can’t agree.”

Seeming to have expected that answer, Chief Zheng sighed wearily and crushed his cigarette out in an ashtray, “Lad, the plan for this operation is just about finalized.
Your squad’s been tailing the suspects for a while already, but we’re at a critical juncture now, and it’s about time to change hands.”

“Change hands?” Liang Feng sneered sarcastically, “I never knew our bureau had a habit of swapping generals mid-battle.
Do Zhang Liang and Deng Tao really understand the situation? Do they know what’s keeping those criminals banded together? My squad’s been keeping tabs on them for half a month now, all for this day! This is serious, Chief Zheng.”

Chief Zheng’s expression became more anxious, his fidgeting fingers rapped loudly on the wooden tabletop, “Liang Feng, these are orders!”

“Bullshit orders!” Liang Feng took a sudden step forward and pressed his hands against the table, “It doesn’t matter which desk jockey stuck their nose in, but they don’t know what they’re doing here! Chief Zheng, this is the biggest case our sub-bureau’s gotten this year.
That inane order could ruin everything!”

His words had jabbed Chief Zheng right in the sore spot.
His fingers froze and curled up in agitation.
All too familiar with his superior’s temperament, Liang Feng’s eyes brightened as he pressed his advantage, “A life is a life, mine’s not more valuable than anyone else’s.
Chief Zheng, you know me, I’ve been in the force for eight years, you’ve watched me get this far step by step, what danger haven’t I faced before already? There’s no reason to disrupt the operation just because someone decided to shoot their mouth off – this is our last chance!” 

Outside, the northern winds roared up again, sending the old shutters banging against the house.
After half a minute of silence, Chief Zheng finally sighed and conceded, “Lad you’d better keep your eye on the ball, you can’t afford to make any mistakes!”

Liang Feng grinned as he affirmed, “Rest assured sir!”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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They acted on the information as soon as it was confirmed, surreptitiously surrounding the trafficker’s location and getting ready to close in.
After having persisted for such a long time, it was finally the moment for Liang Feng’s unit to shine.
But who knew that at the last minute, they’d be cut out of the operation by orders dropping in from above.
To add insult to injury, he couldn’t even cuss out the person who’d instigated it all. 

That person was his second uncle, who’d personally paid a visit to Bureau Chief Yan.

Liang Feng, as someone who’d come from a model upper-crust family that’d produced two generals and four high-ranking government officials, had surprised everybody when instead of choosing a career in politics, military, or business, decided to join the police force.
That decision had greatly displeased his elders.
Whether it was scandalous or not came second, the problem of safety was their number one headache.
His family had stymied and obstructed him numerous times in hopes of pressuring him out of the force.
But not only did he persevere, he’d even crawled up to the position of captain based on his own skill and grit.

With actual achievements under his belt, his elders had more or less gotten off his back.
If he kept at it for a few more years and got promoted to chief or worked his way into the Ministry of Public Security, then his years of muddling around in the police scene would have amounted to something.
However, tolerance didn’t signify acceptance, and even his most open-minded relatives couldn’t have imagined that Liang Feng would get involved in such a case.

How could they accept it?! Were armed criminals a joking matter?! 

Their phone calls had gotten right to the head of the central office.
It was only because Liang Feng had managed to hide it nearly up until the minute of mobilization, and had his superior’s support, that he’d managed to stay on the operation.
Although, he knew that after this, he’d have a hard time getting involved in any more important cases.

“Captain Liang! Did we get the go?” someone asked, as he arrived at the ambush point.

Liang Feng grinned, “Course we did.
Original plan, 3 AM, we enter from the west side.”

“Whew!” Ning Gang sighed heavily, “I thought we were gonna get elbowed out this time by those damn glory hounds from headquarters!” 

Most of his coworkers didn’t know about his family background and thought that someone was trying to steal their credit.
Liang Feng smiled but didn’t explain.
He instructed, “This time