Necessary Evil

Mo Qiong's flight suit was taken off, folded, and put into a woven bag, which was then left in a deserted wild forest in the mountains.

He wouldn't carry this set of equipment with him; he would only use it when he needed to travel long distances.

He'd remember the location and pick it up when he left.

At two o'clock that afternoon, Qin Ya and her family arrived in the county town.

Mo Qiong received Qin Ya's call and waited at a plaza. Less than ten minutes later, a black Phaeton came to pick him up.

"Brother Mo!" Qin Ya popped out of the car.

Seeing two middle-aged men in the car, Mo Qiong knew they were Qin Ya's father and her second uncle.

Just as he was about to go up and greet them, he saw the middle-aged man in the passenger seat get out and grab him, saying, "You're Mo Qiong?"

Mo Qiong nodded. The middle-aged man then said gratefully, "Thank you so much. Without you, we don't know when Liang Liang would have been found..."

"Liang... Hmm, the child was rescued?" Mo Qiong felt the nickname was a bit ominous.

Second Uncle shook his head. "Not yet, but we've already found the Special Investigation Team and confirmed that Liang Liang is okay... and we confirmed it a while ago!"

At this point, Second Uncle's face showed dissatisfaction.

Mo Qiong was completely confused and asked, "What do you mean? What do you mean confirmed it a while ago?"

At this moment, Qin Ya's father, who was in the car, said, "Get in the car first, we'll talk on the way."

Qin Ya pulled Mo Qiong into the car, and they sat in the back seat.

The car drove directly to the county bureau. On the way, Mo Qiong listened for a while and finally understood the situation.

Qin Ya's family knew many influential people. Through connections, they directly found the Special Investigation Team responsible for such cases.

They also learned about the investigation progress of the Special Investigation Team.

The information Mo Qiong obtained from the human traffickers he caught was actually already in the hands of the Special Investigation Team; only a small portion was useful.

This Special Investigation Team unified the investigation of cases, combining cases from all over the country into one large case.

The information they possessed was even more extensive than that of some of the lower-ranking members of the trafficking ring.

They had been tracking this Dinosaur for a long time, and its strongholds and personnel had been fully understood six months ago.

Theoretically, they could have taken action six months ago, apprehended Dinosaur's group, and rescued all the children under his control in the vicinity.

"If you could have acted, why didn't you rescue them?" Mo Qiong exclaimed in surprise.

"Not only did they not rescue them, they didn't even tell us," Second Uncle said.

"You've been looking for Liang Liang and reported it to the police. The Special Investigation Team has been watching for so long, they should have known one of the children was Qin Liang, right?" Mo Qiong asked.

Mo Qiong was surprised. Since they knew everything so clearly and knew that the children's parents were looking for them, why didn't they notify the parents?

Second Uncle continued, "If you hadn't told me, I might still be in the dark. Liang Liang, and many more children, who knows how long they would have had to wait to be rescued..."

Hearing this, Mo Qiong sighed.

Qin Ya felt even worse. "The police clearly knew where my brother was long ago, but they never told Second Uncle, making him search so desperately outside..."

Mo Qiong quickly said, "Qin Ya, you're oversimplifying."

"Uncles, this can't be a cover-up. Otherwise, they wouldn't have investigated so thoroughly, nor would they be telling you the investigation progress now."

Hearing this, Second Uncle turned his head and looked at Mo Qiong with admiration.

Mo Qiong was taken aback and noticed that Qin Ya's father was also looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"Then what was their reason?" Qin Ya's father asked.

Mo Qiong said, "They probably wanted to catch them all in one go. This isn't just a local gang; they're distributed across the country. To catch them all, they need simultaneous action in various locations. They have a complete grasp of the situation here, but perhaps they haven't figured out the situation elsewhere yet. Maybe they felt it wasn't time to cast the net?"

Qin Ya was stunned for a moment and said softly, "So that's how it is..."

Her father said, "You are very calm. You can consider the situation from a global perspective."

Mo Qiong said, "This is a very simple reason. It seems like the police are doing nothing, but the fact that they've investigated and understood all the situations here is a major accomplishment in itself. They must have put in tremendous effort behind the scenes. There's a reason why they didn't rescue the people, and I believe the uncles have also thought of this."

"Uh... I didn't think that far..." Qin Ya whispered.

Qin Ya's father sighed. "The reasoning is simple, but not everyone will think about it. At your age, being able to think independently instead of just following the crowd is already very rare."

He said this while looking at Mo Qiong with a smile in his eyes.

Mo Qiong touched his Adam's apple and remained silent. He could tell that this family was evaluating him, but he didn't know why...

Qin Ya's father continued, "Xiao Ya, we can only worry about our own family members, but the police cannot. They have to consider the safety of every child. Precisely because parents only care about their own children, and knowing their child can be rescued, they would put pressure on the Special Investigation Team from all sides, or even try to find their child privately, alerting the criminals. That's why they didn't notify anyone, preferring that the parents continue to search everywhere."

Qin Ya asked, "Dad, after arresting these people, can't they interrogate them to find out about other places? Even if the criminals in other places escape, can't they be put on a wanted list? Rescuing the children is more important, isn't it?"

Mo Qiong hesitated to speak.

Qin Ya's father shook his head. "These people are extremely cunning and vicious. Small-scale operations in various places, arresting a few traffickers, is one thing. But if they raid an important stronghold and fail to eradicate them completely, the others will destroy evidence, abandon their hideouts, and go into hiding."

"Huh?" Qin Ya still seemed not to understand.

Mo Qiong couldn't help but say, "Fleeing and hiding while bringing many children is suicidal. At the same time, if these children are rescued, they can identify them among the many suspects..."

Qin Ya's mouth widened. She finally realized what her father and Mo Qiong were talking about.

In fact, child trafficking, if the circumstances are serious, can be punishable by death. Never underestimate what criminals will do to survive.

"We have to take down this group in one fell swoop with lightning speed. The police have worked for three years, investigating openly and secretly. If they don't have all the intelligence, the police wouldn't dare to move. Rushing it would only waste three years of planning," Qin Ya's father said.

Mo Qiong asked, "When will you make the move?"

Qin Ya's father chuckled, "This is thanks to you. Although you used vigilante justice, the personnel and routes you extracted from those human traffickers, while ordinary on their own, provided the Special Investigation Team with the final piece of the puzzle."

"Last night, the police began deploying, and simultaneous raids will be carried out across the country. This menace will be eradicated tonight."

Mo Qiong said, "Okay."

Upon arriving at the county bureau, Team Leader Chen of the Special Investigation Team was there.

Since the operation was being conducted simultaneously across the country, it didn't matter where the command center was located; wherever he was, that was the center.

To prevent the only informed parents from influencing the operation, Team Leader Chen had moved the command center here.

"Brother Qin Zheng, Brother Qin Zhi, you two will be staying here tonight. Rest assured, not a single child will be missing."

Team Leader Chen was old but full of vigor.

Second Uncle Qin Zhi nodded, "Thank you."

"You should thank this kid..." Team Leader Chen looked at Mo Qiong and said, "You must be Mo Qiong. If you hadn't extracted the information from those traffickers for us, we don't know how many more days it would have taken to get them to talk."

Hearing this, Mo Qiong knew they would likely do the same thing in a similar situation.

Seeing Team Leader Chen walk into the command room, Mo Qiong suddenly stepped forward and stopped at the doorway.

"Hmm?" Team Leader Chen turned to look at him.

Mo Qiong asked, "How many children have been trafficked in the past six months?"

This sudden, sharp question stunned Team Leader Chen, who then said gravely, "..."

Mo Qiong asked again, "And what is the probability of a complete success tonight?"

Team Leader Chen's eyes sharpened, and he stated decisively, "One hundred percent."

Mo Qiong asked no further questions. Team Leader Chen smiled and had someone arrange for them to sit in the adjacent room.

Now, the Qin family members present, along with Mo Qiong, were all aware of the operation. If they hadn't come, it would have been fine, but since they were here, they would have to stay at the bureau until the operation concluded.

Although Mo Qiong didn't know the police's deployment details, he knew that since they had decided to act, it would be a complete success. While "one hundred percent" might have been an exaggeration, Team Leader Chen and the others had undoubtedly done their utmost.

For this operation, the police had investigated for three years and planned for half a year.

Especially in the last six months, they had uncovered information on nearly ninety percent of the personnel involved, yet they had to restrain themselves from acting.

Perhaps acting early could have saved most of the children, but some would have died, and some criminals would have disappeared.

Conversely, by waiting until they had absolute certainty to make their move, they could save all the children's lives, but some children would suffer immense pain in the meantime.

The police chose the latter because they wanted to eradicate the entire organization, with saving lives as their bottom line.

However, for the children who could have been spared this suffering, they would passively bear the cost under the police's inaction, in order to save other children who would have died otherwise.

"Is kindness to everyone inherently cruelty to a small group..."

"A necessary evil?"

Mo Qiong sighed, wondering if this was simply reality.

All blame could only be placed on the human traffickers.

His eyes flickered, and he recalled the photos covering a wall that he had glimpsed in the command room during the interrogation.

p.s: Apologies.