Accidental Hero: The Rookie Who Outshines the Force - Chapter 24

Municipal Bureau.

The interdiction operation had already been running for fifteen hours, yet there wasn’t the slightest breakthrough.

Chief Qi Shuliang sat grim-faced in the command hall, personally overseeing the operation.

One after another, information officers reported intercepted suspicious vehicles. Each was inspected thoroughly—yet nothing.

So many officers deployed, and still no results. Even Qi, normally composed, found himself restless.

Ten kilograms of drugs wasn’t a small haul. If it flowed into Jianghai, the consequences would be disastrous.

A report came in:

“Chief Qi, the checkpoint team at Fuxin Village intercepted a suspicious vehicle. The driver was using fake plates. They’re interrogating him now.”

“Changlin Avenue checkpoint also found two questionable trucks—one hauling children’s toys, another claiming furniture. Both cargo manifests have problems.”

…

“And on Provincial Road 212, Zhengyang North checkpoint, the task force stopped an empty dump truck from Yunnan Province. They’re transporting it to a repair shop to dismantle the cargo bed.”

Qi Shuliang frowned.
“An empty dump truck? And they’re hauling it to a repair shop to cut open the floor?”

“Isn’t manpower stretched thin there? Do they even have the people for that?”

Qi knitted his brows.

Based on years of busts, drugs were almost always hidden inside cargo—stuffed in frozen fish bellies, sewn into toy stuffing, tucked inside formula cans.

But an empty truck? That was usually an open book. Traffickers rarely risked stashing drugs in an empty bed—it would be exposed too easily.

Yet now, one checkpoint insisted on torching through the steel plating of an empty truck? Unless they had solid evidence, this was overkill.

“Who’s in charge of that checkpoint? Why the insistence on tearing the truck apart?”

“Chief Qi, that checkpoint is under Captain Wang Maosheng. His reason: a trainee officer suspected the drugs were hidden under the truck bed, and Wang chose to trust him.”

“Only two local officers from Sanliqiao Precinct are stationed there.”

When Wang reported to HQ, he’d given the exact reason. Though he put Lu Cheng’s hunch on record, if nothing turned up, responsibility would still fall squarely on him.

“Nonsense!”

Qi’s face darkened. “Trusting a trainee? Has Wang lost his mind? If the traffickers slip past while his people are off playing mechanic, and those two rookies miss it, can he shoulder the fallout?”

This entire operation was already short on manpower. Each checkpoint could only spare one narcotics officer. And now Wang had ‘abandoned post’ to follow a trainee’s whim? If something went wrong, suspension would be the lightest punishment.

“Get Wang Maosheng on the line!” Qi’s voice was cold.

Around the command center, officers exchanged uneasy glances and shook their heads.

What was Wang thinking? He was a narcotics veteran. And he chose to believe a rookie?

What did a trainee know?

Had Wang drunk fake liquor or something?

Meanwhile.

The truck driver truly believed the officers were only after potatoes. The three burly passengers, hungry after the long haul, were happily tearing open packets of instant noodles, chewing them dry with seasoning powder sprinkled on top.

Seven or eight minutes later, the truck pulled into a repair shop beside a gas station.

This place usually welded excavator buckets—good equipment, solid arc welders.

“Officer, you promised five thousand in compensation. Don’t go back on your word!” the driver reminded nervously. Surely police wouldn’t cheat him.”

Wang Maosheng didn’t even bother to answer, just nodded curtly.

“Boss, cut open the truck bed floor.”

Lu Cheng had the driver tilt the bed. As clumps of dried mud and sand slid off, welding scars appeared across the underside.

Oddly, many weld marks looked new. Square patches, neat rectangles—just like the ones spotted at the rear.

Even the driver’s face changed. He’d never patched the truck like this. The bed had never had square plates welded in before.

If even the driver was baffled, something was definitely wrong.

Wang’s heart clenched. This truck was bad news.

For once, the driver’s guilty expression told the whole story.

Wang glanced at Lu Cheng. The kid might be right…

The repairman, seeing police uniforms and caps, dared not ask questions. He simply fired up the torch where they pointed.

Blue flame seared the steel red, carving along the seams. A rectangular plate dropped free.

Wang and Lu Cheng immediately leaned in—and their eyes lit up, hearts hammering.

Beneath the panel was a shallow cavity.

And inside—packages wrapped in wax paper.

If it wasn’t drugs, why hide it like this?

From below, the hiding place was invisible, concealed above the crossbeams. Ingenious. Practically the pinnacle of concealment.

Had Wang not taken the gamble of believing Lu Cheng, even a veteran like him would’ve been fooled.

Thank heaven…

The driver and his three companions paled as soon as the stash was revealed.

“I—I don’t know what that is!”

“Officer, I swear I don’t know when this got put in there!”

The driver babbled desperately. He only ever checked the engine, tires, fuel tank. Who would tear open the cargo bed? And besides, the welded patches were covered in mud—easy to miss.

Wang ignored him and slit the wax wrapping. Inside: layer after layer of plastic.

Too light for ten kilos, but still—serious weight.

“Keep cutting the others,” Wang ordered.

Lu Cheng’s bodycam recorded every second.

Finally, as the last black plastic was peeled away, a bundle of white powder gleamed under the lights.

Exactly like on TV.

Lu Cheng’s face hardened. “Captain Wang… heroin?”

Heroin—chemical name diacetylmorphine. A white crystalline powder synthesized from morphine and acetic anhydride. On the streets, simply called “white powder.”

Wang fought to keep his composure but nodded sharply. “Eight or nine times out of ten. And high purity.”

High-grade heroin ranged from pale yellow to pure white. The darker bricks—gray, brown—were low-grade, crudely processed, nicknamed “green skin,” “yellow skin,” or “black skin.”

“How much in this one pack?” Lu Cheng asked.

“Roughly a pound.” Wang hefted it.

The four suspects turned deathly white. Trafficking was a capital crime. The death penalty loomed.

They’d never even touched drugs before, but everyone knew the severity.

They hadn’t imagined their journey would end like this.

The driver’s legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground; face twisted with terror and despair.