Lin Qi sat in the office, gazing out at the unchanging view. Outside the Warehouse District, aside from the industrial forklifts coming and going, there were only a few "Blue Belts."
The so-called "Blue Belts" were day laborers who took odd jobs around the Warehouse District. They had no steady work or income, but still needed to support themselves, and sometimes even their families.
All of them were at least thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. They no longer had the foundation to learn certain survival skills. They had no time, no energy, and not enough mental capacity.
All they could do was trade their physical labor for meager wages. Not everyone renting a warehouse could afford to buy or rent a forklift, and not every kind of cargo was suitable for forklift transport. That gave these people room to survive.
The office door suddenly sounded. Lin Qi called, "Come in," and Vera stood awkwardly by the door for several seconds before finally stepping into the room.
She wasn't used to being alone with Lin Qi in a relatively enclosed space. An environment like this could make people's thoughts run wild, whether in a good way or a bad one.
She seemed unsure what to do with her hands. One hand held the elbow of her other arm while the other smoothed the hair beside her ear. "When I was standing outside the door just now, I noticed that there seemed to be people watching us."
Lin Qi raised an eyebrow. He turned and stood up, then walked to the window and looked outside. With that single glance, he spotted the "people" Vera had mentioned.
It also reminded him of the reason Mr. Fox had been certain that he didn't work for the Federal Government the first time they met.
The people outside were dressed in formal suits, wearing sunglasses and hair slicked down with pomade. They looked as if they might pull out their badges and identification at any moment. The daytime temperature in Sabine City was already close to thirty degrees. Even long sleeves felt stifling, yet these people...
He withdrew his gaze. Law enforcement agencies were never full of idiots. If they were, they wouldn't have caught so many criminals.
Rather than monitoring him so brazenly, these people were issuing a warning—warning Lin Qi not to make trouble while also applying psychological pressure and waiting for him to make a mistake.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's law-enforcement powers had long been criticized, especially its excessive authority to act at its own discretion. Under the current regulations and laws, if the Federal Bureau of Investigation believed someone might be involved in a crime, and the target made a dangerous move while being asked to cooperate with an investigation or while under surveillance—such as harming someone, harming himself, or attempting to flee—the agents responsible for the operation could immediately make a preliminary arrest before looking for evidence and applying for an arrest warrant.
Lin Qi was only a twenty-year-old young man. If they could force him to flee, then the people outside wouldn't even need to wait for orders from headquarters. They could simply arrest Lin Qi and take him away.
Of course, that was only part of the reason.
"You should go back first. Things are going to get dangerous here." Lin Qi took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He had been using his brain quite a lot lately and couldn't help wanting something to serve as emotional support while he thought.
When the brain was active, emotions fluctuated along with it. But rational thought was most afraid of such fluctuations. Whether excitement or irritation, neither had much meaning or value to the thinking itself.
One cigarette was enough to solve that problem, separating thought from emotion.
He lit one and looked at Vera. "They won't hurt you. You can go back without worry. As for when you should come back to work, wait for my call!"
Vera wanted to say something, but in the end she said nothing. She merely nodded, began gathering her things, and left. Just as she was about to go, Lin Qi came out from the back room and pointed at the trash bag inside. "Sorry for the trouble. Take the trash out with you."
Watching Vera leave, Lin Qi smoked as he shut the warehouse door. He picked up the phone and called Nai Wan Wan. "I want to report something... Yes, I found people watching me... No, I'm not imagining it. They're right outside the door... Yes... My address is..." After giving his address, he hung up and calmly pondered something.
He had already removed the ultraviolet lamp's bulb. He smashed it together with several ordinary bulbs and asked Vera to take the pieces outside.
He had also poured all the chemical cleaning agents down the drain. Such things were common in the Warehouse District, and nothing about them was worth noticing.
After thinking it over and finding no major oversights, he sat at the table beside the warehouse door, smoked, and waited for the police to arrive.
From the very beginning, he had known that these people would eventually make a move. Of course, he had also taken care of everything. From the current perspective, there might be a minor problem with his business, but overall, he was innocent.
Something not prohibited by law was not necessarily legal, but it was not necessarily illegal either. This was a blurred boundary. It was precisely because such a boundary existed that many new laws were introduced and enacted every year.
He had called the police simply to eliminate, in some respects, the possibility that the people outside could fabricate evidence. During this period, he had also been learning more and more about this world. The Federal Revenue Service had never been a particularly transparent department—he still didn't know that the people outside were actually from the Federal Bureau of Investigation—but his caution was crucial.
According to what Lin Qi had learned, the Federal Revenue Service had some questionable methods for solving cases. They would encourage certain people to come forward and report others, offering them immunity in return. Because of certain confidentiality rules, they also wouldn't disclose the informants' identities to the outside world.
There were simply too many ways to manipulate things under such circumstances. Aside from that, Lin Qi believed they would fabricate evidence, especially now that public opinion throughout the Federation was still building. To reverse the situation, manufacturing false evidence when appropriate might even be considered acceptable.
That was why he had called the police. The police and the Federal Revenue Service were not part of the same system, and there was also a degree of invisible competition between them. With the police present, the entire "process" would be somewhat fairer.
A few minutes later, the man watching Lin Qi stared in dumbfounded disbelief as two police cars stopped outside the warehouse. Several officers even spotted him when they got out, drew their weapons, and approached him. He reported the situation over a short-range radio while walking toward the officers.
At the same time, inside the warehouse, Lin Qi watched through the window as the man who clearly worked for the Federal Government raised both hands, his identification still in one of them. After withdrawing his gaze, Lin Qi gestured to the two officers taking statements. They also moved to the window to take a look, then sent one of their number outside to check the situation.
About a minute later, the two Bureau of Investigation agents entered Lin Qi's office together with the police. It was only then that Lin Qi learned these people were not from the Revenue Service, but from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also realized that they hadn't come merely to watch him—at least, not merely to watch him.
Because of the sudden intervention of a third-party force—the police—the arrest operation... It was hard to say whether it had been disrupted. The target was right there and hadn't run, but it was also hard to say that it hadn't been disrupted. Something about the situation was clearly off.
The agents immediately reported the situation to the Action Team handling evidence collection at Prosperous Glory Bank. The Action Team leader made a decisive call and ordered them to bring Lin Qi to the bank as well, citing cooperation with the investigation as the reason.
Investigate whom? Obviously, Mr. Fox. The crime was money laundering.
This decision was extremely resolute. Bringing Lin Qi over would place even more psychological pressure on Mr. Fox's group and make them feel as if they were about to be captured all at once.
In such an environment, they might originally have intended to resist desperately for a while. Now, under the pressure, they might instead choose to give up resisting.
Before long, Lin Qi was driven from the Warehouse District to Prosperous Glory Bank in a special vehicle. He appeared in Mr. Fox's line of sight, arriving even earlier than Mr. Fox's lawyer.
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