The hot sun scorched the earth. In the endless wilderness, the trees and grass swayed gently in the wind. It was as if there were only two colors between heaven and earth, the washed blue above his head, and the lush green below his feet.
A train came from behind the distant mountains. The dull roar of the train broke the silence of the wilderness.
This was the second day of the task force in Myanmar.
After arriving in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, yesterday, officials from both sides met.
The Chinese side's goal was not to arrest Brother Lu alone, but to destroy the entire cross-border criminal organization that she was the leader of. Therefore, today, the task force took a special train to Kachin State, where Brother Lu's criminal group might be based.
Kachin State was equivalent to a province in China, and the local army was armed and autonomous. Therefore, in addition to two police officers, there was also a local senior officer of Kachin State accompanying the task force. He led two battalions of soldiers and escorted the task force along the road.
The train departed at noon and was expected to arrive in the early hours of the next day.
It was a peaceful journey.
Night fell slowly, and the only sound was the roar of the train through the fields. Scattered lights began to appear in front of them. They had already arrived at the surrounding villages of Kachin State.
The task force consisted of eight men and two women. There was also a thirty-five-year-old female officer from the Ministry of Public Security called Chen Yalin, who was mainly responsible for contacting the Burmese side.
The two ladies shared a soft-sleeper compartment. When the sky turned dark, Chen Yalin washed up early and went to bed. After reading for a while, Xu Xu also picked up a towel and toothbrush, left the private room and headed to the bathroom.
The door of the private room beside them was not closed. The lights inside were blazing, and the men were still chatting enthusiastically. Xu Xu looked up and saw Ji Bai sitting on the lower bunk facing the door. Hearing the noise, he glanced up at her and continued to chat with the others.
There was no one in the bathroom. Xu Xu had just finished brushing her teeth when she heard footsteps. She looked up and saw Ji Bai in the mirror. He was also holding toiletries in his hands and there was a slight smile on his handsome face.
Ever since they boarded the plane, the two of them hadn't had a chance to be alone, nor had they spoken much. After looking at each other for a while, Xu Xu continued to wash her face and said, "Third Brother, you don't need anyone to accompany you tonight?"
Her tone was very casual and normal, but it made the corners of Ji Bai's lips curl up slightly. His deep and mellow voice had a hint of a smile in it. "Xu Xu, I didn't do anything yesterday."
Xu Xu was slightly embarrassed.
She could talk to her brother about sex all the time and make him speechless, but Ji Bai's vague words made her feel uncomfortable.
Her brother was right. She really was a bit of an extrovert.
"Why did you decide to come again?" She changed the topic. On the day of the director's announcement, he indeed had no intention of coming.
Ji Bai did not answer. Instead, he closed the bathroom door, put down the toiletries, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her passionately.
Was there a need to ask? Whether or not he went on this trip wouldn't affect the overall situation. It was all to accompany her.
Ji Bai stopped after tasting it. Not long after, he let her go back to the private room.
The train was bumpy, so Xu Xu could not sleep well. In a daze, he suddenly felt the car suddenly stop. There was a series of footsteps outside the window, and he could vaguely hear someone shouting something in Burmese.
She and Chen Yalin immediately sat up and opened the curtains to take a look. The car was parked on a small platform, and the light outside was extremely bright. It was a military searchlight. Many soldiers with guns were walking around the platform, and there seemed to be at least a few dozen of them.
The people from the task force all walked out of the private room and stood in the dark corridor, vigilantly watching the movement outside the car. Xu Xu and Ji Bai looked at each other with a few people between them, but they did not say anything.
More and more soldiers gathered outside the car, and there was almost a sentry every three steps as they surrounded the car.
After a few minutes, the Burmese officials rushed over.
The situation was quickly clarified. It turned out that although Kachin State was under the jurisdiction of the commander of the independent army, the troops under him were a mix of good and bad, and they often fought. In the small town ahead, there was a conflict between two brigades, and it was very likely that they would open fire.
The Kachin officer who accompanied the task force was called Ti Sa. He was a young man in his late twenties with tanned skin and handsome features. Through the interpreter, he comforted everyone. "Please rest assured, we have the flag of the commander-in-chief on the car, so they won't dare to offend us. Now that they're surrounding the car, they just hope that we won't interfere with what's happening in front. You can all go back to sleep. "After saying that, he added in choppy Mandarin, which meant that the situation was fine.
However, even though he said that, the other two Burmese officials looked very nervous. This made everyone in the task force feel uneasy. Chen Yalin frowned and said in Burmese, "I'll go with you to the front to take a look." An old criminal police officer said, "I'll go with you."
Chen Yalin nodded, then turned to Xu Xu and said, "You stay in the car and lock the door." After saying that, the two of them followed the Burmese officials and Ti Sa to the front of the car.
Xu Xu was not nervous. Before she came, she had read about Burma. The commander-in-chief of Kachin State was very prestigious, and no Burmese army had ever dared to touch Chinese officials. Who would want to offend a powerful neighbor? Moreover, there was no point in being nervous, so there was no point in wasting energy.
She turned around and went into the private room, locked the door, and lay back on the bed. The baton that she carried with her was placed beside her, just in case.
Ji Bai watched her go in, then returned to the private room with the others.
The car was quietly parked at the platform, and the light outside the window was still bright. At first, the men looked out the window, but they could not see any movement. After a while, someone suggested that each car should send someone to watch the night and take turns to sleep. Everyone agreed that if something really happened, maintaining their strength was the most important.
At this moment, someone remembered and said, "Xu Xu is the only one next door."
Ji Bai stood up. "I'll go."
Ji Bai walked to the door of Xu Xu's car and listened carefully, but it was quiet inside. He smiled slightly. She was asleep, right? The little girl was always so calm, and as her boyfriend, there was nothing he could do.
In fact, Xu Xu was not asleep either. She was a light sleeper, and after a while, she would observe the situation outside the car.
However, Ji Bai did not want to disturb her, so he lit a cigarette and leaned against the door of her car. He looked at the dark sky outside the window, and the swaying lights and shadows.
Finally, there were sparse or concentrated gunshots in the night, and red light faintly illuminated the sky. When Ji Bai heard that the car behind him was still quiet, his mood seemed to have calmed down. He passed a pack of cigarettes to the young soldier on the platform outside the car. The soldier grinned and gestured to him. After a while, he understood, and the soldier said that they would retreat at dawn, so he could rest assured.
When Xu Xu woke up the next day, the sky had just brightened, and the train was already speeding along the smooth railway. There were few farmhouses and villagers with cows on both sides. Chen Yalin had already returned and was sleeping soundly on the opposite bunk. It seemed that the crisis had been completely resolved.
Xu Xu got out of bed to wash up. When she passed by Ji Bai's car, she subconsciously looked up. Ji Bai was sitting by the bed with a colleague, eating instant noodles. When he saw her, he smiled faintly.
The train soon arrived at its destination, Muba Town.
Brother Lu had appeared in Muba Town before, but the reason why the task force came here first was a little complicated.
Because they were in a foreign country, the Chinese police had no law enforcement power. They could only follow the Burmese side as "observers", and were not allowed to carry guns. However, the Burmese side's attitude was a little subtle. They said that most of the criminals were Chinese, and they did not know the facts of their crimes. Therefore, they were willing to cooperate with the arrest, but only if they had evidence of their crimes.
Therefore, at this stage, the task force's most important task was to collect criminal evidence, submit it to the Burmese side, and let the Burmese side carry out the arrest.
Brother Lu's notorious crime in China was human trafficking. According to the evidence provided by the Guangdong Police Department, a considerable number of Burmese women they abducted came from the area around Muba Town. Therefore, the task force hoped to visit the victims' families to obtain direct evidence. This would also give the Burmese side more motivation, because the victims were all Burmese.
It was a two-hour drive from the station to the town. Ti Sa transferred a large military truck over to take everyone there. The soldiers ran forward. The mountain road was muddy and bumpy. Everyone sat in the dark back of the truck and did not speak. Some of them closed their eyes and took a nap.
Ji Bai sat next to Xu Xu and reached out to rub his tired eyebrows. Xu Xu asked softly, "Didn't you sleep well last night?"
Ji Bai glanced at her and did not answer. Instead, he asked, "What about you?"
"I'm fine."
"That's good," he said absentmindedly. He leaned his head against the wall of the truck, closed his eyes, and stopped talking. After a while, he tilted his head and leaned on Xu Xu's shoulder. Xu Xu looked up and saw that no one was paying attention to them. She adjusted her sitting posture and sat straighter, so that he could lean more comfortably against her.
Ji Bai lowered his head and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. 'Honey, I accompanied you for the whole night yesterday.'
Muba Town was adjacent to the river, and there were a few large boats that were panning for gold. Many simple sheds were standing along the river. The cottages were gathered behind the river embankment, and they were scattered and densely packed. In the hot and dry air, there was a faint fishy smell, but also the sweet smell of sugar cane.
According to the information obtained by the task force, there were at least twenty young women in this village who were trafficked into China. This was because this batch of rescued Burmese women were still being handed over to the Burmese authorities. The task force took the information on paper and visited a few of the families.
Soon, they found something.
Although a few families stammered and said that their daughters were just working outside and did not know anything, there were four families who cried when they saw the photos of their daughters in China. After being identified, they found out that they were two young men from the same town who introduced their daughters to jobs and never returned.
With all the evidence and witnesses present, it seemed like God was helping the task force. Soon, based on the clues provided by the villagers, Ti Sa led a platoon of soldiers to raid a restaurant by the river and successfully captured the two human traffickers. There were also two China men who were arrested along with them. According to a villager, these two people had also appeared in the village, and there was one time when they directly brought the Burmese women to China.
Ti Sa's men were not as civilized as the China police. They grabbed the four people and made them kneel in front of the restaurant, beat them up, and brought them back to the task force. This made the task force extremely excited. The leader of the task force was a deputy department cadre named Sun Pu. He happily said to everyone, "The first day is a good start, we must maintain this momentum and hit Brother Lu's group hard."
As it was already evening, the task force decided to stay in Muba Town for the night and continue to visit the surrounding villages the next morning. At the same time, they interrogated the criminals overnight to try to get more clues about Brother Lu's group.
As the night deepened, the distant village was quiet. Only the sound of Ti Sa's soldiers sitting in the open space in front of the cottage was loud and noisy.
In the narrow and simple farmhouse, the dim light shone on the faces of the criminals, making them look unusually tense. Ji Bai and several other senior criminal police officers interrogated them separately. However, these people were extremely stubborn and did not say a word.
However, everyone in the task force were veterans who had been on the battlefield for a long time, so they were very patient and continued to accompany them!
At three o 'clock in the morning, the soldiers outside the house collapsed and directly fell asleep on the grass. From time to time, someone would reach out to slap the mosquitoes on his face and curse in a low voice in Burmese.
Ji Bai and Chen Yalin interrogated a young man from China. Although he did not say anything, he seemed to be a little tired. His plump face trembled slightly and his forehead was covered in layers of sweat. Ji Bai and Chen Yalin looked at each other and understood most of the situation.
Seeing that he was about to be captured, suddenly, there was a burst of messy and loud footsteps outside the house. Ji Bai and Chen Yalin's hearts trembled and they looked up.
"Bang!" The door was pushed open. It was one of Ti Sa's platoon leaders who angrily said a long string of Burmese.
Ji Bai stared at him and Chen Yalin's expression changed. "Ji Bai, he said that the villagers who provided us with clues today were all beaten up. They're all kneeling outside now and want us to retract their statements."
The sky was as dark as fog and the wind rustled the trees around the village. When Ji Bai and the others rushed out of the house, many of the soldiers had already woken up and surrounded the dozen or so villagers who were kneeling in the middle of the open space.
The villagers who were dressed in old but clean clothes during the day were now all bruised and their clothes were tattered. Some of them had blood on their heads which was wrapped up in a messy cloth; some of them had blood in their eyes and looked extremely ferocious.
The villagers cried out in fear in Burmese and only their voices could be heard in the open space. All the Chinese people and Burmese soldiers were silent.
Chen Yalin and the Burmese officials comforted them for a long time before they learned two things from them.
First, five or six criminals came to their house that night and threatened to kill them after the task force and the soldiers left if they continued to testify. Even if their daughters were rescued, they would be sold to Southeast Asia, which would be worse than what they were now.
Second, the group of people asked them to pass on a message to the task force: Chinese people do not attack Chinese people. Burmese law and order was not good, if they continued to investigate, the task force would inevitably encounter some personal accidents.
After the team leader, Sun Pu, heard this, he directly cursed, "F * ck you, Chinese people don't fight Chinese people!" The other criminal police officers were also angry. "F * cking arrogant!" "This bunch of grandsons!"
The soldiers that Ti Sa sent to chase after the criminals came back quickly and said that when they rushed to the village entrance, the cars were already far away and there was no trace of them.
Ji Bai thought for a while and said to Sun Pu, "Director Sun, I suggest that we leave two people behind to appease the witnesses and at the same time get the portraits of the criminals from the witnesses. Then, we will escort the criminals to Yangon first and continue the interrogation. The rest of us will immediately follow the road and arrest them. Major Ti Sa, please leave a team of people behind to temporarily protect the witnesses. "
Sun Pu thought for a moment and nodded. "We will do as you say. There's no time to lose. Get in the car immediately." He looked around and was about to assign people when he heard Ji Bai say, "Xu Xu, follow me." Xu Xu replied, "Yes, Master."
As the situation was urgent, most of Ti Sa's people stayed behind while the other Burmese officials escorted the criminals back to Yangon. Ti Sa personally brought more than ten people with him to follow the task force.
Originally, Ti Sa had doubts about the task force's tracking because the criminals had already left for a few hours. However, when he saw Ji Bai and the others accurately locate the criminals based on the tire tracks, footprints, and the map, he could not help but admire the Chinese criminal investigation ability.
The truck sped along the mountain road for half the night. At dawn, Ti Sa found a few small cars.
Ji Bai did not rest and personally drove one of the cars while Xu Xu and two soldiers sat in the back. After a few hours, he exchanged seats with a middle-aged soldier and sat next to Xu Xu.
Ji Bai held her hand and asked, "What do you think?"
Xu Xu smiled slightly. "It's an opportunity."
Ji Bai also smiled.
Xu Xu said, "This group of people is very arrogant and their words are a little unrealistic. It's very likely that after Brother Lu's criminal force was attacked in the country, they recruited new young members, which is why they are so impulsive and bold. Brother Lu has always been cautious and we have no idea about the members of her criminal gang in Myanmar. This group of people made such a mess, but it gave us a chance to follow the clues. "
Ji Bai smiled faintly. "Director Sun is right, today is a real good start."
After a while, Xu Xu asked softly, "Did you wait outside my private room for the whole night last night? Actually, there was no need for that. "
There was no movement beside her, so when she turned around, Ji Bai was so tired that he had fallen asleep leaning against the back of the chair.
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