He had yet to work out what the sound he had just heard was when a police officer stepped out of the transport van.
The officer jogged over. "Lieutenant Colonel Qin, the four witnesses and the suspect surnamed Peng are all in the van. Do you think... we could take off those handcuffs?"
The officer had recognized Lu Yanchu. Although celebrities should not enjoy any special privileges, there had been no legal grounds for handcuffing him in the first place. If Lu Yanchu posted about this online later, wouldn't the municipal bureau end up taking the blame for the public backlash?
"Do you have an objection?" Qin Zaiye asked indifferently.
The officer forced himself to explain, "No, not exactly. It's just that Mr. Lu-"
"Cuff him too."
The officer started. Before he could try to dissuade him, the soldier who had come with Qin Zaiye immediately walked over to the transport van, climbed inside, and cuffed Lu Yanchu as well.
Qin Zaiye got into his vehicle, and the man in the passenger seat immediately reported, "Peng Zekun hasn't said a word since he arrived at the municipal bureau. He refuses to talk." He then handed over two document envelopes, one thick and one thin. "The top one contains the evidence seized at the scene. The bottom one contains the four witnesses' statements compiled by the municipal bureau."
Qin Zaiye took them and opened the top envelope first. "Have Peng Zekun's accomplices been caught?"
"Director Li said the tipster provided the information just in time. The Northbridge Public Security Bureau has detained all three suspects. They'll be transferred over this afternoon."
The first sheet Qin Zaiye saw was a blueprint of the internal structure of the Firegold-5 surface-to-air missile's engine.
The Firegold-5's launch system had only recently undergone technical improvements, and