Chapter 390 - 390 357 Autonomous Driving Mode

Words : 2084 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

390: Chapter 357: Autonomous Driving Mode 390: Chapter 357: Autonomous Driving Mode Traditionally, Wang Chuanxing and others would self-manage when facing a simple police situation. But today, with Liu Jinghui present, the officers were once again unified. Some were assigned to organize evidence, a few began to draft documents, and others were responsible for contacting the local police stations and the criminal police team at the scene of the incident to verify the various pieces of evidence... The bustling meeting room made Jiang Yuan feel relaxed and comfortable, as if there was a chief steward who had already fulfilled all your needs, and all that was left seemed to be enjoyment. On the other hand, although the counterfeit currency case was egregious, it wasn’t like a murder or human trafficking case, which has a strong moral imperative, and could allow one to catch their breath slightly. The plan was just that, only it was unexpected that Liu Jinghui would work so hard when he put in effort. The surveillance video was pulled out, and those with potential to crack the case were sent to the provincial Image Reconnaissance Brigade. When further surveillance videos were needed, they would contact the traffic police brigade to search 100 kilometers ahead and 100 kilometers behind. Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team now had 22 people. Liu Jinghui, in one breath, pulled out 12 people to watch videos and kept sending the footage to Image Investigation, asking for their assistance. At the same time, the aristocratic-like technical investigation team was also put to use by Director Liu, and the number of phone numbers on the whiteboard quickly increased to 10. “Why not start making arrests?” Gao Yuyan suggested, her hands itching for action as she saw several phone numbers had their locations confirmed. She had stood out during arrest operations, and her specialty was capturing female criminals—the weight and strength of male criminals were much higher than that of females. Therefore, Gao Yuyan could only demonstrate her superior grappling techniques and overpowering force when facing female criminals. Director Liu was unmoved and said, “Not enough. These people all belong to small gangs and are unaware of each other, or at least not of the circumstances. At most, we now have control over the phone numbers of three small gangs, and we need to keep digging deeper.” “Digging deeper” wasn’t too difficult, actually. With more than 20 detectives, plus the participation of the provincial Image Reconnaissance Brigade, such a lineup for the climactic part of a complete counterfeit currency case wasn’t high-end, but for these initial small fry, it was indeed overkill. What Liu Jinghui and his people needed now was nothing more than time. As long as there was ample time, the difficulty of obtaining information wasn’t high. Of course, they needed to move quickly as well to prevent one or several of the small gangs from changing their operations in the next few days. Gao Yuyan had no further objections, only clicking her tongue twice and saying, “A gang of at least three people, spending fake money in twenty-dollar increments and driving to do it, is it worth it?” “That’s why he’s using family members,” Director Liu murmured. “This is where this counterfeit currency gang is somewhat innovative. The end users they pick are not only real consumers but also operate as family units, primarily traveling by car. I had this idea before when I saw the locations of the incidents. They’re not only places of everyday consumption, but the distribution is also very reasonable—eating at meal times, shopping during shopping hours, filling gas, washing cars, entering scenic spots. They don’t seem like they’re faking it at these times.” “So you mean these people are spending counterfeit money?” Director Liu nodded, “I talked with a friend who often deals with financial investigations. He said that this kind of situation with 20 yuan counterfeit notes is quite common now. It’s when someone buys them to spend themselves. These end consumers may not necessarily have a criminal record. Driven by greed, they can lead themselves right to jail.” At that moment, Wang Chuanxing looked up and said, “Were it not for our intervention, many here would probably have spent a bit of money without a care and then just gone home.” “It’s possible,” Director Liu said with a wry smile. “In the end, the details might not even be pursued that closely.” In truth, even they, when catching these peripheral petty consumers, aimed to facilitate reaching the core counterfeiters. If things went smoothly later on, they likely wouldn’t turn back to go after these petty consumers again. The members of Jiang Yuan’s team, like Gao Yuyan, who had never been involved with financial investigation, were perplexed. “Even if they weren’t caught, for such a small profit margin, is it worth it to engage the whole family in crime and risk criminal detention?” Director Liu chuckled, “Aren’t there plenty of people who throw caution to the wind for a small gain? Anyway, let’s hasten to confirm our targets. Work some overtime today and try to start making arrests tomorrow.” The team responded with a resounding chorus of agreement, as the excitement of solving cases and making arrests was still very strong. Jiang Yuan silently took out his phone, opened WeChat, and sent a message to his father: [Won’t come home for dinner tonight, everyone has to work overtime.] Jiang Fuzhen: [No problem, if the leader asks you to work overtime, just do a good job.] Jiang Yuan: [I am the leader.] Jiang Fuzhen: [So you decided on the overtime?] Jiang Yuan: [It was everyone’s initiative to work overtime.] Jiang Fuzhen: [After becoming a leader, do they hand out a book of nonsense for you all to recite?] Jiang Yuan: [Everyone is staying behind because they are devoted to their work.] Jiang Fuzhen: [Son, you don’t have to tell lies to be a leader. How about this, I’ll have someone send over a couple of sheep later so you can arrange something for the staff working overtime. Even as a leader, we’re still human.] Jiang Yuan: [Okay.] Jiang Yuan set down the phone with a resigned air, and when he looked up, he saw Liu Jinghui feverishly busy, his face full of zealous concentration. So Jiang Yuan said to him, “Director Liu, you’ve come out this time and will be away from home for quite a while again. It seems too arduous.” “Not at all,” Liu Jinghui said with a chuckle. “Compared with work, going home on time must be happier, right?” Jiang Yuan asked. Liu Jinghui was momentarily stunned, then laughed out loud, “Jiang Yuan, you’re too young. When you reach my age, you’ll realize that a man without a family is quite miserable, and a man who goes home on time every day is even more miserable!” Jiang Yuan was silent for two seconds, “So you’d rather work overtime on business trips?” “It’s not so much a matter of preference, but rather I’m definitely committed to my work, which is why I take the initiative to go on business trips and work overtime,” Liu Jinghui explained. Now Jiang Yuan didn’t know whether what his dad or Liu Jinghui said was closer to the truth. Maybe this was the difference in awareness between a demolition household and a deputy director-level official? ... In the evening. Jiang Fuzhen himself brought the cooked lamb to the criminal police brigade. Two sheep, one was split and roasted, and the other was the Jiang Family’s traditional boiled lamb, cooked with just ginger, scallion, and salt, simmered to the point where it was nearly falling apart. When you pick up a piece, you could see the trembling flesh on the bone, but no matter how much it shook, it didn’t come off easily; you had to put in a bit of effort to bite the meat off. With just a hint of saltiness, the delicious flavor of the lamb was brought out. Even someone like Jiang Yuan who often ate his father’s lamb felt that this time it was exceptionally good. His colleagues, who had never encountered lamb of similar quality, couldn’t help but look serious. Tang Jia and Dong Bing, the two ladies, had a natural fear of plain boiled lamb, but couldn’t resist indulging in the aromatic roasted lamb. Gao Yuyan, on the other hand, was much simpler; she liked both varieties and would eat the lamb with flatbread, enjoying the lamb broth, and even daring to eat raw garlic with the meat like some of the other guys. Jiang Yuan also silently ate two cloves of raw garlic. He thought that raw garlic might be his dad’s trick to resist overtime work. Eating raw garlic was like fishing semi-cooked meat out of a hot pot. Both actions had the effect of driving out good practice at the table; once someone chose to do so, the others would either follow suit or have to endure. And among those working overtime, if half of them ate raw garlic, and the other half did not, you could imagine the smell during the meeting... However, Jiang Yuan quietly ate his garlic, while Comrade Jiang Fuzhen had already strayed too far from the masses. He didn’t understand that for these junior officers in the meeting room, whether part of the county or city bureau’s establishment, when it came to stakeouts and surveillance, they might have to endure even the smell of feces in a stuffy van; what was a bit of garlic? After a satisfying feast of meat, everyone took a short rest before getting back to work, and not a single person mentioned garlic again. Those who ate garlic pretended not to know, and those who didn’t eat it didn’t make a fuss. The criminal police had a rough-and-tumble tradition, and people like Liu Jinghui, always looking clean and proper, did seem a bit removed from the crowd. “I think we’ve got enough,” Liu Jinghui said the next morning as Jiang Yuan was waking up. Jiang Yuan was startled, sat up straight, quietly wiped his face with some tea water, and then looked at Liu Jinghui. “We’ve now confirmed 33 people; we can start making arrests,” Liu Jinghui pointed at the whiteboard. “That many?” Jiang Yuan was somewhat surprised; typically, investigations became harder as they progressed. Having initially confirmed 10 people and adding another 10 later was quite good. To have confirmed 33, there must have been some new findings. Indeed, Liu Jinghui slightly lifted his chin and said, “Mainly because we’ve identified their modus operandi, which is driving and spending along the way. So I took some time to retrace the routes taken by the first two groups and then compared them with subsequent ones. I discovered several similar routes. Once I plugged those in, it was easy to identify several groups’ accommodations, and from there, their identities, faster than technical investigation could.” “Their routes were all similar? Isn’t it up to the individuals to decide their routes when self-driving?” “If it were just two or three groups, deciding their own routes would be fine, but we’ve found the number of small gangs to be well into the double digits. In such a case, I figure the organizers would likely assign routes to them. Otherwise, they’d inevitably encounter each other, especially at well-known tourist spots, and if several groups spend those similar counterfeit 20-yuan bills one after another, the later visitors would be essentially handing themselves over.” Liu Jinghui dumped a set of convincing analyses on the table. Jiang Yuan nodded slightly in agreement. Continuing, Liu Jinghui said, “It’s a bit like anti-parallel trading. The counterfeiter’s goal is to distribute a batch of goods as quickly and safely as possible... However, he probably didn’t expect that this method would actually help us identify so many people and also give me a bit of inspiration.” “Inspiration?” “If these ‘consumers’ had no connection to the counterfeiter, then there would be no need for the counterfeiter to go to the trouble of assigning routes; they could fend for themselves,” said Liu Jinghui. “So, catching these guys, there’s a high chance we’ll get some clues.” Jiang Yuan certainly hoped so; otherwise, everyone’s night would have been wasted, including the sacrifice of the two sheep... although this couldn’t really be blamed on them.

Chapter 390 - 390 357 Autonomous Driving Mode

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