Huang Jianmin truly deserves to be called a seasoned police officer, with his wealth of experience.

The gang at Pine Forest Villa has remained inactive, clearly wary of alerting their target.

"Based on the current situation, Chen Wen's information is quite limited."

Chen Wen is basically responsible for receiving the goods and then sending them to the villa for processing.

Although he was very cautious about the process, even using Zhang Baoku as a scapegoat, he was still just an ordinary person.

Knowing not to leave traces like phone or WeChat contacts, learning from his higher-ups to use live streams for communications, was already not bad.

Unfortunately, the fingerprints on the cash and envelopes betrayed him.

"The critical point is still the people at the villa, especially the leader. Catching him is the key to uncovering more case clues."

Zhang Baoku is just a mule, not even a proper one, pulling boxes out of Red Flag Park and delivering them to the market, earning five hundred yuan each time.

Chen Wen is a slightly smarter mule, knowing to disguise himself with express delivery, even using live streams as coded communication with Zhang Baoku.

It's just a pity that he isn't familiar with criminal investigation and left fingerprints.

Even so, he's only a little smarter, but knowing too little about his higher-ups.

He only knows it's a man, in his forties, who deals in selling craft goods.

"Can we investigate the logistics? Since the other party is using logistics express to ship ivory, there must be an address for them."

Yang Lin offered his suggestion.

Zhang Hui nodded: "This is a direction to pursue. Yang Lin can follow up on this, go to the logistics company and check the shipment records to see if we can identify the other party's information."

Will the other party leave such an obvious flaw for the task force?

Logistics express is different from regular courier services; many logistics companies use freight stations to ship goods.

Simply put, it's akin to hitching a ride—a city with goods vehicles going to another city, several freight stations collaborate to transport materials.

This method helps split costs.

Such logistics have unpredictable mailing times, lack full security guarantees, and inspections are virtually impossible.

The so-called real-name system is also impossible to enforce in such a logistics system.

The long-haul transport drivers take on shipments to collect goods from the destination city.

If they can haul something on the way, they will, as it covers fuel costs, saving a trip with an empty vehicle.

"Brother Hui, what should we do about the villa?"

Lu Chuan felt that leaving the villa as it is wasn't an option.

If they arrest them, there's a risk of alarming the enemy, but if they don't, just leaving it like that?

Even if they don't notice Chen Wen's arrest immediately, over time, the people in the villa will realize it when goods stop arriving.

"We have to arrest them, that's for sure."

"But the issue is how to arrest them."

There are over a dozen people at the villa, and while catching them all is feasible, Zhang Hui wants to conduct a secret operation.

Aiming to minimize the impact, to follow the clues to unravel the entire case.

Lu Chuan and the others have little experience in this arena, mostly being unable to offer any effective plans.

Old Luo coughed and pulled out another Chunghwa cigarette.

"A few years back, I encountered a case at my station, it was a pyramid scheme group."

Old Luo seemed relaxed, showing no concern over Zhang Hui's misgivings.

"There were over fifty people, more than all the field officers in our station combined, making it very difficult to arrest them, and fearing too many people would lead to trouble."

Old Luo took a drag and exhaled a big smoke ring, which rose and gradually dispersed.

"Director Huang came up with an idea to add something to their takeout meals."

"What kind of thing?"

"Laxatives. We had a dozen brothers waiting outside, catching them one by one as they exited."

"Didn't they have bathrooms in their place?"

"They had, but they were all occupied, and couldn't form a queue."

Zhang Hui was silent for a while.

He had been involved in many cases but had never heard of such a method before.

The meeting quickly adjourned, and in the end, Zhang Hui didn't say if he would adopt this tactic or not.

The next morning, Lu Chuan heard that Zhang Hui indeed acted on it.

On the phone, Yang Lin's tone seemed somewhat disdainful.

"We can't stay in our station anymore!"

"I feel there's a smell of shit everywhere!"

Huang Jianmin, apparently experienced in such matters, didn't put laxatives in their takeout because the guys didn't order takeout.

They cooked for themselves at the villa.

Yesterday late at night, Huang Jianmin contacted the property management, having them cut off water to the whole neighborhood.

Then, he had the property company deliver water to each villa, with something special added to the water delivered to Villa 12.

Early in the morning, those guys fell for it.

"Was Zhang Hui there too?"

"Yes, he's busy interrogating the southern leader over there, and indeed, there's some useful information!"

In the interrogation room of Huaguang Street's police station.

"In this business, you can't operate in a regular factory; it easily attracts attention and too many eyes."

"Villas have basements; the noise from processing ivory isn't loud, ensuring a high degree of secrecy.

Cao Wenjun, from Yun Province, learned carving in his early years and has been in this trade for over ten years.

The underside of Villa 12 in Pine Forest Villa has already been thoroughly searched.

The finished illicit goods filled the basement, with people and evidence caught, leaving Cao Wenjun nowhere to run.

"Where are these items being sold? Who are your downstream contacts?"

"I only organize the people for carving. Once the items are ready, someone comes to pick them up. As for where they're sold, I have no idea."

Cao Wenjun confessed everything he knew without hesitation, but the information offered wasn't much.

"Why did you recruit thieves for carving?"

Besides a few experienced carving masters, there were also several local thieves in the villa.

"Thieves practice their craft, learning simple carving skills is easy for them, they handle the rough work while my team handles the fine work, improving efficiency."

Clearly, talent exists everywhere; the key is whether it's utilized correctly.

A thief might earn a little money each month, but working for Cao Wenjun, they get a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan.

With food and accommodation covered, living in a luxury villa, who wouldn't want this job?

By the third day, everything returned to normal.

A new batch of goods arrived on Chen Wen's end, and he picked it up and delivered it to the villa area as usual, of course, with Old Luo shadowing him, ensuring no issues arose.

Lu Chuan and Yang Lin weren't idle, currently polishing ivory in the basement of Villa 12.

"This thing is pretty hard."

Yang Lin rubbed it for quite a while, clueless and making no progress.

"You won't get anywhere rubbing it like that; you need a gentle touch. Push when he retreats, retreat when he pushes. Use a back-and-forth movement, keep it light and deep gradually."

Cao Wenjun no longer showed the tension from being captured the previous day; immersed in work, he had the aura of an artist.

Aside from a pale complexion caused by the stomach trouble, there were no other issues.

This afternoon was the day when Cao Wenjun's buyer would come to collect the goods.

Zhang Hui had already set a tight net inside the villa, just waiting for them to take the bait.

At two thirty in the afternoon, a black Audi sedan drove into the villa area.

The car parked in the open space in front of Villa 12, and a middle-aged man in a jacket stepped out.

"Is this guy... the one picking up the goods?"

Observing through the monitor, Zhang Hui was somewhat surprised by the man getting out of the car.

In his fifties, with a square face, styled hair combed back, wearing a jacket, white shirt, black shoes, and straight pants pressed with a crease like a sharp sword.

With such an appearance, Zhang Hui, if not already informed this was the person coming to make the pickup, would otherwise have assumed it was some top official inspecting public sentiment.

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