Chapter 48: Farewell to Wang Anguo
While Wang Anguo was leading a team to apprehend human traffickers at the Kang’an Coal Mine, Li Yi encountered trouble on his end!
At 12:30 p.m., Li Yi drove his bright red mule cart back to the sugar factory gate and began today’s business!
With his exclusive offerings, business was as brisk as ever!
But just as he had sold half of the cold noodles on his cart, he saw a small 212 jeep approaching from the distance, eventually pulling up in front of Li Yi’s stall.
The next moment, several uniformed police officers got out of the vehicle and quickly surrounded Li Yi.
Seeing this scene, Li Yi knew he was in trouble!
Sure enough, before he could say a word, the officers pinned him down and slapped handcuffs on him.
The workers waiting to buy cold noodles nearby saw the scene and scattered in all directions to avoid getting caught up in the trouble.
These days, when it comes to business, it’s not just the seller who faces punishment—the buyer is also held responsible.
This situation was just like child trafficking in later times—both buyer and seller are equally guilty!
At that moment, an older police officer who appeared to be the squad leader shouted, “Everyone, disperse! Don’t ever do business with private vendors again—or we’ll arrest all of you!”
The police clearly didn’t want to make things difficult for these ordinary workers; after all, they were just trying to improve their meals and hadn’t committed any major offense.
As for Li Yi, they would need to take him back for further investigation before deciding on his punishment!
Typically, this would result in the confiscation of illegal proceeds, and at most, a short stint in a detention center; it was highly unlikely he would be sentenced to prison.
After all, times are tough for everyone these days, and ordinary people like this are forced to take risks with small-scale trading out of necessity—there’s little malicious intent involved.
Without waiting for the workers to say anything, the police officers led Li Yi to the car and then drove his mule cart to the county public security bureau.
In the small jeep, the veteran officer looked at Li Yi, who remained calm, and asked in a deep voice, “How long have you been doing this?”
“About ten days,” Li Yi answered honestly.
“Ten days or so is fine, but if it had been going on longer, you really could have faced a prison sentence!”
To be honest, they didn’t really want to arrest anyone over this.
“You’re so young—why didn’t you do something else instead of engaging in profiteering? Don’t you know that’s against the law?” the older officer said with a hint of exasperation.
“I know, but I’m short on cash!”
“Being short on money isn’t an excuse for breaking the law. By your logic, everyone’s short on money—does that mean everyone should just go break the law?”
Seeing that the police officer was a decent guy, Li Yi smiled and said, “Of course not. But doing business is fine—after all, the higher-ups have already said they want to restore and develop the private economy!”
The veteran police officer was naturally aware of this news, but since the policy hadn’t been fully implemented yet—with reports changing back and forth—they were still unsure how to proceed.
Under these circumstances, they naturally couldn’t just turn a blind eye to those running businesses.
However, when it came to penalties, they were much more lenient.
“You know quite a bit, young man, but since the policy hasn’t been implemented at the county level yet, what you’re doing is still illegal!” the veteran police officer said.
“Hmm, so how do you usually handle someone like me?” Li Yi asked again.
“That depends on how much money you’ve made in total,”
“All told, it’s only a few dozen yuan,” Li Yi replied, not daring to exaggerate.
“That’s not too bad. Usually, we just confiscate the illegal proceeds and the tools used in the crime, and detain the person for about two weeks,” the veteran police officer said.
“You can take the money, but can you please not detain me? I don’t want my wife and parents to worry!” Li Yi said.
“I’ll be honest with you—we didn’t want to get involved in this case, but people keep reporting you, and some have even come to the station specifically to follow up on it. We have no choice but to detain you!”
Hearing this, Li Yi immediately furrowed his brow. He had originally thought these police officers had simply spotted him during a routine patrol, or that someone had reported him out of jealousy.
But he hadn’t expected them to be so persistent—just how deep must the grudge be?
Still, Li Yi didn’t ask who had reported him; he knew they wouldn’t tell him anyway.
After all, if they did, and he went back to take revenge on the informant, the police officer who leaked the information would be held responsible.
After that, silence fell inside the car!
…….
Soon, the small jeep arrived at the county public security bureau!
Upon arrival, the older police officer got out first and said to a young man standing beside him, “Take him to the interrogation room first. I’ll be there to question him in a moment!”
“Yes, sir!”
The young officer then had Li Yi get out of the car and began leading him toward the interrogation room.
But just then, the roar of car engines echoed from outside the county bureau’s gates, and immediately afterward, a convoy of vehicles burst through the entrance, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The vehicles came to a stop near the interrogation section, and a large contingent of armed police escorted several disheveled figures out of the cars.
Immediately after, a dozen or so children got out of another vehicle!
Upon seeing the children, the police officers in charge of arresting Li Yi let out a deafening cheer.
The older officer even ran straight over to them, his face brimming with excitement—so much so that he completely forgot Li Yi, the “suspect,” was still standing right there.
Just then, another jeep pulled up outside the door, and Wang Anguo and Li Gang stepped out.
Both men looked somewhat disheveled, especially Wang Anguo, who appeared to be injured; the sleeve of his right arm had been torn off and was wrapped in gauze.
However, their expressions were cheerful; they chatted and laughed as they got out of the car, clearly in high spirits.
It was easy to imagine why: successfully solving the case, apprehending all the suspects, and rescuing every single missing child without exception was undoubtedly a major achievement.
Compared to that, a few minor injuries were nothing!
However, just as the two were talking, Wang Anguo casually glanced to his right and spotted a familiar figure.
At first glance, Wang Anguo thought he was seeing things.
But upon closer inspection, it really was him!
Without paying any attention to the human traffickers, he immediately walked over toward Li Yi, instantly drawing the attention of quite a few people.
Li Yi hadn’t expected to see Wang Anguo here, especially in such a state, and he felt a bit embarrassed!
As soon as Wang Anguo reached Li Yi’s side, he asked, “Brother Li Yi, what are you doing here?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Speculating and profiteering!”
“What? How is that profiteering?” Wang Anguo asked, furrowing his brow.
He’d done a bit of background on Li Yi and knew that Li Yi delivered mushrooms and mountain produce to the state-run restaurant every day—hardly what you’d call profiteering!
“I was running a little side business, and someone reported me!” Li Yi explained.
The young officer in charge of guarding Li Yi quickly interjected, “Captain Wang, someone reported that someone was selling snacks at the entrance to the sugar factory. We went to check it out and happened to run into this… comrade, so we brought him in for questioning!”
Wang Anguo immediately breathed a sigh of relief; it was just a small street stall—no big deal.
“Take off the handcuffs and bring him to my office!”
“Yes, sir!”
Then Wang Anguo turned to Li Yi again and said, “Brother Li Yi, go wait in my office for a bit. I’ll be right over once I’ve taken care of those human traffickers!”
“Alright!”
……