Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 925 One Person or the majority (Part 2)

"call."

Zhang Yang sat back in his chair, breathing heavily, his chest heaving with excitement, and the room returned to silence.

Over the past few minutes, Zhang Yang regained some strength and, suppressing his emotions, said, "Officer Chen, I'm not blaming you. I know you must have tried your best to rescue Xiao Zhao, but every word you just said tells me that under the current rules, rescuing Xiao Zhao is a very slim hope."

"I," Chen Shu, tried to explain, but Zhang Yang interrupted me as soon as I opened my mouth.

Zhang Yang raised his left elbow, which was resting on the table, waved his hand, and slowly emphasized, "You want me to take down the videos? The only purpose is to temporarily appease those beasts and buy your cumbersome procedures a window of time that doesn't even exist."

"Actually, I can." Chen Shu wanted to express his attitude and state the fact that he had been appointed as the commander of the joint law enforcement operation, but he was still interrupted by Zhang Yang.

Snapped.

Zhang Yang slammed his hand, which had been waving in the air, onto the table, and said solemnly, "Officer Chen, this buffer period comes at a price. The price is that I will personally extinguish the only force that can truly hurt them, the only force that can exert public pressure on that illegal area."

"Cough cough!"

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Zhang Yang bent over and covered his mouth, his chest heaving violently, and a sudden cough seemed to rip his lungs out of his throat.

After calming down, Zhang Yang, his face flushed and panting, said very seriously, "Phew, Officer Chen, the price you paid for doing this was extinguishing the only core of public opinion that could leverage higher-level forces."

really!

Upon hearing Zhang Yang's last words, Chen Shu confirmed the other party's true intention: to use public pressure to force the government to intervene and use violent means to eradicate the telecom fraud forces from all angles.

This tactic is similar in effect to how he pretended to be a rich second-generation in Kunming, arousing public outrage online and causing his sick daughter to be unable to afford medical treatment. This information spread rapidly across the internet, thereby attracting a large amount of donations in the shortest possible time.

“Yangyang, don’t you have a lot of fans online?” Chen Shu thought for a moment and tried to persuade this somewhat stubborn self-media influencer from a different angle.

Zhang Yang pointed to his chest, his voice hoarse from days of suppressed emotions, his demeanor slightly manic: "Fans? Do you expect those netizens who casually give you a like and follow to pursue the truth and results like you and I do? In their world, northern Myanmar is just distant northern Myanmar, and telecom fraud is just distant telecom fraud, it has nothing to do with them."

"Oh right, if the video is available, they might not mind giving us a like, or even following us. But what happens after that? They'll just swipe their thumbs and continue watching those mindless, entertaining dramas and novels. You think you can count on them? The Chinese netizens, who haven't come together, are even more scattered than a pile of loose sand. At least loose sand is still in one place."

"Officer Chen, look carefully. The person standing in front of you is not a super popular internet celebrity! Not an all-powerful reporter! She is just a woman who has been driven to the brink of despair, with only this last card left in her hand, but can only watch helplessly as her colleague is tortured to death, and may even hasten his death because she is holding onto this card and refusing to let go!"

Zhang Yang stood up, waving his hands and roaring wildly, "But as soon as the video is taken down, the hype will immediately dissipate, and everything will go back to square one! All the sacrifices we made will be for nothing! In the future, countless people will be ruined, their families torn apart, and their wives and children separated because of telecom fraud!"

"How do you want me to choose?!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Yang grabbed the phone on the table, and the green light reflected from the unlocked screen shone on her pale face.

Time is getting closer and closer to midnight.

Chen Shu felt a bitter taste in his mouth, but tried his best to explain: "Yangyang, taking down the video does not mean that we have given up on fighting telecom fraud. I don't know if you saw the press conference the day before yesterday, where our Deputy Minister Ling of the Ministry of Public Security announced it in front of the global media."

"I don't want to hear it!" Zhang Yang stared intently into Chen Shu's eyes, her voice trembling with extreme emotion: "Chen Shu! What guarantees do you have? Your high and mighty position as Deputy Minister Ling of the Ministry of Public Security? Your talk of coordination requiring layers of approval? Or the police uniform you're wearing?"
"No! You can't guarantee anything! You can't save anything! Tell me! Chen Shu! Officer Chen! In that no-man's-land in northern Myanmar, where even the King of Hell has to step aside! Your procedures! Your laws! Your coordination! Your identity! Everything you have! Tell me! Can they stop them from using torture!"

"Can you do it?"

The air in the room seemed to have been sucked out, so heavy it was suffocating.

Chen Shu felt unprecedented pressure, like a huge stone pressing on his chest. Zhang Yang's questioning was like the jagged edges of a stone, grinding away all the high-sounding excuses and exposing the most fundamental problem of this telecom fraud operation.

That is the sluggishness of the entire Chinese police system in responding to extreme crimes, especially transnational crimes like this. But there's nothing that can be done; they are the authorities, they can't disregard the rules, they can only follow the rules step by step, which ultimately leads to slowness.

Zhang Yang's live stream is grassroots, so of course he can disregard the rules and do whatever is effective.

Chen Shu was speechless. Clearly, Zhang Yang's conclusion was correct; her live stream was a sharp blade piercing the enemy's heart. Previously, no one would have imagined that someone would so openly expose the evils of the telecom fraud industry through live streaming.

Given how much the Chinese people enjoy watching a spectacle, Chen Shu could fully grasp the calm before the storm on the online platforms at this moment. Once Zhang Yang's live-streaming short videos accumulated enough momentum on the internet, the force they unleashed would be absolutely devastating.

But all of this is built on the sacrifice of one person.

“Chen Shu.” Zhang Yang’s voice deepened, yet carried a resolute determination born of desperation. “Don’t think I don’t understand the meaning of sacrifice. If sacrificing Xiao Zhao can lead to the complete exposure of this investigation, and truly ignite a fire that can reduce the entire telecom fraud industry in northern Myanmar to ashes.”

After a pause, Zhang Yang said in a hoarse voice, word by word, "I do."

The room suddenly became quiet.

Zhang Yang walked around the table, step by step, to Chen Shu's front. He bent down and pressed his forehead against Chen Shu's, his eyes like a quenched knife, fixed on Chen Shu's eyes.

“I will suffer, I will be tormented by guilt for the rest of my life, but I can convince myself that everything I did was worth it. I believe that this is the path that Xiao Zhao chose himself, just like those senior reporters who fell on the road of undercover investigation.”

"Illegal coal mines, gutter oil, medical fraud, and so on—we journalists are not afraid of sacrifice, nor are we afraid of death. As long as we can exchange our lives for the lives of millions of people!"

Tick.

Tick ​​tock.

Her tears rolled down silently, one after another, landing on Chen Shu's face as he looked up.

Chen Shu raised his hands, which were resting on the armrest, and held them in the air for a few seconds before letting them fall back down listlessly. He had to admit that at that moment, he didn't actually have the right to make the decision to take down the video on Zhang Yang's behalf.

Just as Zhang Yang had no right to make the decision to kill Xiao Zhao on Xiao Zhao's behalf.

This is a paradox.

Memories flashed through Chen Shu's mind: the police station, the special police brigade, the mines in southern Xinjiang, the Qingyue residential area—ultimately converging into two figures: Xu Mingliang and Xiaoqiang.

If these two people were given the choice again—whether to sacrifice themselves or for the greater good—the answer would likely have been decided the moment they put on their police uniforms.

Chen Shu let out a long sigh.