Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

She opened her eyes, picked up the phone on the table, and dialed Zhou Pei:

"Has the department approved the request to add more search teams?"

"It's already on its way. It will arrive first thing tomorrow morning."

Zhou Pei's voice was a little hoarse, clearly indicating that he had been working non-stop for several days.

"Ruolan, I have to remind you of something—while the investigation into these murder cases is important, there is an even more urgent task at Shiqiao."

The phone you found in Tang Yuanqing's hideout had a number in its SIM card call history that we haven't been able to figure out.

That number made a call to Tang Yuanqing on the night Shen Wangshan was arrested; the call lasted less than a minute.

The number was then switched off and has not been turned on since.

"Have you found out who owns the phone?"

"Found it."

Zhou Pei's voice turned serious. "That number is registered under an ID card that has been cancelled. It's a typical 'black card'."

However, by tracing the location of the base station, we found that the last base station location of this number before it was turned off was in a mining area within Shiqiao County.

You should be familiar with the name of that mining area—Chenjiagou Mining Area in Shiqiao County, the largest mine of Fengmao Group in Shiqiao.

After Shen Wangshan was arrested, the mine was sealed off in accordance with the law.

However, because the location was too remote and the area was too large, we didn't have enough manpower, so after the seals were put up, no one was left to guard it.

The mining area has numerous underground tunnels and abandoned mine shafts, making it an ideal location for people to hide.

Jiang Ruolan tightened her grip on the phone.

Chenjiagou Mining Area—that was Shen Wangshan's base in Shiqiao, and also the core of all illegal mining activities of Fengmao Group.

Although Shen Wangshan has fallen, he has been operating in Shiqiao for thirty years. The underground tunnels of that mine stretch for tens of kilometers, and some abandoned mine shafts are so remote that even the old workers in the mine don't know their locations.

If anyone wants to hide, that labyrinthine mine is the best place to go.

"You mean the person who spoke to Tang Yuanqing is still at the mine?"

"It's not that he's still on the mine; it's that he's never left."

I retrieved all the call records for that number after Shen Wangshan's case—he only spoke to Tang Yuanqing once, on the night Shen Wangshan was arrested, and then the phone was switched off.

But if he has already run away, there's no need to keep that card; just throw it away.

He turned off his phone not to escape, but to avoid being tracked.

He is likely still hiding somewhere in the mine, surviving on leftover resources and supplies secretly delivered to him by outsiders.

"Who is this person?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I can tell you one thing—after Shen Wangshan was arrested, the first person Tang Yuanqing contacted was him, not his ex-wife or any other fugitive contact."

This means that, in Tang Yuanqing's view, this person is a higher priority than his family.

The person a fugitive thinks of first when he's on the run must possess some crucial secret or a significant amount of resources.

Jiang Ruolan was silent for a moment, then said:

"I will personally lead a team to Chenjiagou mining area tomorrow. I haven't finished exploring that mountain area in Shiqiao County yet."

After hanging up the phone, she stood by the office window, looking at the deepening night outside.

The city of Yian is slowly coming back to life—streetlights are lighting up one by one, the noodle shop downstairs is still open, steam is billowing from the kitchen exhaust fan, and several police officers who have just finished their shifts are sitting inside eating a late-night snack.

These most ordinary human moments were previously suppressed by fear and dared not be lit in Yi'an.

They are returning little by little, but the bones buried in the mountains are still waiting for an explanation.

Chenjiagou Mining Area is located deep in the mountains in the northwest corner of Shiqiao County. It takes nearly two hours to drive there from the county seat. The last part is a nine-kilometer winding mountain road with gravel. The road is narrow and steep, with a sheer cliff on one side and a bottomless ravine on the other.

The sound of the off-road vehicle's tires rolling over gravel echoed through the empty valley, like some kind of dull and ominous drumbeat.

Jiang Ruolan sat in the passenger seat, holding a map showing the distribution of underground tunnels in the Chenjiagou mining area.

This map was found in the archives of Fengmao Group. Qian Shouyi confessed that it was drawn during the mine expansion in 2013. However, Fengmao later illegally dug many unreported mine shafts. There were no blueprints for those illegal mine shafts, and only the old foremen at the mine knew their locations.

The map is covered with a dense network of alleyways, resembling a spider web. There are seventeen main alleyways marked, and countless branch alleyways and ventilation shafts. The deepest shaft goes down to 240 meters underground.

The underground space of the entire mine is larger than the commercial district in Ngee Ann City, making it incredibly easy to hide a person.

"Director Jiang, this mine stopped production three years ago. Fengmao claimed that the resources were depleted, but in reality, it was because they had been illegally mining rare earth in the surrounding area after they had emptied the main vein. They were investigated by the land and resources department once, and only then did they pretend to seal off a few tunnels."

Sitting in the back row was Zhao Rui, deputy director of the Shiqiao County Public Security Bureau. He was in his early forties, his face roughened and reddened by the mountain wind, and he spoke with a heavy local accent.

After Shen Wangshan's case came to light, the former director and two deputy directors of the Shiqiao County Bureau were taken away by the Discipline Inspection Commission. Zhao Rui was temporarily transferred from a neighboring county to take charge of the work and was quite familiar with the situation in Chenjiagou.

"Has anyone come to inspect the area since the seal was put on?"

Jiang Ruolan asked.

Zhao Rui gave a wry smile:

"Director Jiang, to be honest with you, the Shiqiao County Bureau only has about sixty people in total, and they are in charge of two towns and four townships with a population of nearly 100,000. They are already too busy to handle the daily police calls."

After the Chenjiagou mining area was sealed off, we sent people up to patrol once a month, but that was just driving around the entrance of the mining area to see if the seal was still on.

There are so many alleyways inside; to search them all, you'd need at least a hundred or so people.

Jiang Ruolan didn't say anything more.

She knew this wasn't the fault of the Shiqiao County Public Security Bureau. In a place that had been infiltrated by organized crime for decades, insufficient police force, outdated equipment, and low morale were common problems.

Shen Wangshan has fallen, but rebuilding the combat effectiveness and credibility of the grassroots police force cannot be accomplished overnight.

As the car rounded the last bend in the mountain, the entire Chenjiagou mining area came into view.

The entire mining area is built against the mountain, with more than a dozen buildings of various sizes—office buildings, ore dressing workshops, warehouses, and sheds—distributed from the foot of the mountain to the middle of the mountain. All of them are now deserted.

The gray cement walls were covered with mottled rain stains and mold, most of the windows were broken, and the few that were not broken were being torn apart by the wind and were swaying back and forth, making a creaking and screeching sound.

The most conspicuous thing is the main alleyway at the foot of the mountain, which is sealed off with tape. A sign that reads "Sealed off in accordance with the law" hangs on the iron gate, but most of the tape has been torn off by the wind, leaving only a few white fragments floating on the iron railing.

Jiang Ruolan pushed open the car door, and a strong smell of rust and mineral dust hit her...

She stood in the open space at the entrance of the mine and looked around—it was too quiet, unnaturally quiet.

There were no birdsong, no insect chirps, and even the whistling of the wind as it passed through the abandoned buildings sounded exceptionally lonely.

.............