Chapter 896: Busting a Kingpin

Despite the gunshots getting louder and louder outside, Yueyue calmly took out her phone before taking several pictures.

"Should be good enough... Now where do I go?"

Just as she headed out of the tent, she ran into hundreds of people heading towards the western side of the base.

All of them were armed with rifles, with determination on their face, seemingly ready to fight Yueyue’s agent outside the base.

However, it all shattered away as a loud noise suddenly dropped down from above.

The ground underneath them shook. Shells were falling from the sky, with gunshots appearing from all directions.

Bodies were falling onto the floor, with sniper shots coming from above the hills in the distance, far beyond what any of them could see.

The base was falling into absolute chaos, with everyone for themselves, including Yueyue herself.

"Shit, I need to get out of here."

As she sneakily moved past the panicked guards, she soon made it out of the base and hid herself in one of the nearby trees.

"Time to wait it out..."

---

After just ten minutes of bombardment and gunfire, all the guards had surrendered to a single person standing outside with a loudspeaker.

Nobody wanted to fight back at all, as all of them had assumed the military had caught on to them.

Their suspicion was further confirmed when they witnessed people coming down from the hills in ghillie suits and sniper rifles in hand.

"Drop your weapons on the floor! This is the government! Cooperate, and you’ll get leniency! Resist, and you’ll face the consequences!"

As the person outside repeated the message, all of the guards had long since dropped their rifles onto the floor.

"We don’t want to fight! Please don’t kill us."

One of the people among the guards yelled out loud, followed by more and more people yelling out the same thing.

"Any movement will result in being shot on the spot. I repeat, there will be no warning."

Not a single one of the guards dared to move. They all stood still as the people in ghillie suits started arresting them one by one.

Soon, the ghillie suits ran out of handcuffs. Fortunately for them, they had brought zip-lock ties as backup.

After everything was tied, some of the agents started administering aid to the injured guards while others started looking for more criminal evidence.

However, the agents soon noticed one of the tents that had caught on fire, with all the nearby tents seeming to have gone through a big explosion.

"Shit, did we accidently blow up the evidence?" One of the agents in ghillie suits nervously asked.

"Doesn’t look like it was done from artillery shells... Feels like someone ignited the evidence on purpose." The senior agent murmured.

"Should we get them back into the prison first and question them?" A third agent asked out loud.

"Not yet."

Just as the senior agent had finished talking, everyone could hear a loud siren coming from the distance.

Soon, they could see it right at the gates.

SWAT teams, alongside several hundred police officers, all armed to the teeth, exited their cars in position to fire.

"Don’t shoot. We’re from the internal intelligence department. You guys can clean up the mess here."

The situation quickly de-escalated as one of the ghillie suits took out their badges, one that they were more than familiar with.

---

"Breaking news: the Secretary of State Security had just completed its biggest operation in cracking down on illegally possessed guns.

A highly dangerous operation was what the Secretary of State Security had said in a live public announcement."

As the TV cut to Yueyue speaking before a podium, everyone at home was shocked. Even Xiaoyun was caught off guard.

Nobody had expected her to be handling such a big case, not when a wedding was about to happen tomorrow.

"She really picked this time out of all the other possible times—"

"We had seized over five hundred guns from this operation. With over a ton of explosives safely detonated."

Right before everyone’s eyes, Yueyue held up a picture of guns and explosives in crates, with a piece of paper on the other.

"I want everyone to know this was what we were dealing with. We at the security department do not fear criminals.

The kingpin of this criminal network, Min Cheng, is currently on the run. Any info on this person will be rewarded up to 100,000 NRC.

We currently do not have a picture of the suspect, but you can drop your anonymous tip at this hotline..."

As Yueyue repeated the hotline multiple times, Xiaoyun could feel the pride on her face as she spoke with her chin up.

"Beyond this criminal network, we have also made multiple arrests across multiple cities tied to this criminal network.

An exact list will be posted later today, and I’ll repeat this: gun ownership is explicitly illegal for private citizens.

The only legal case is through a police permit or the military. Regardless of whether you’re a trader or a salvage group, laws will be enforced.

Both inside and outside of our jurisdiction. There will be no exception for any person who has accepted citizenship with an ID."

Yueyue paused for a second as she put both of the pictures down.

"That’s all I have for today. Does anyone have any questions?"

Within seconds, the crowd of journalists raised their hands.

"The blue shirt in the back."

"Hello, I’m from Luoping Daily. I was wondering if there was any particular reason for the crackdown to be today?"

"Good question. We chose today because there is sufficient evidence that they are planning something within... This week."

"This week? Is Yueyue really suggesting what I’m thinking of?"

As Leyan raised her concern, everyone had the same thought. Even Xiaoyun thought of the same thing.

"The black shirt in the front."

"Hello, this is Guangdong Press. I was wondering where we can see the list, and whether we will be able to get a picture of the evidence?"

"We’ll be sending the list and the pictures out to various news outlets... And to add to it, we’ll also be releasing combat footage of the whole operation."

The bombshell surprised everyone, including Xiaoyun. He was instantly intrigued by what the combat footage could possibly be.

"Unfortunately, the combat footage will take much longer to be released. It will not be released at the same time as other material."

As the journalist sat back down, Yueyue quickly picked up the last journalist.

"The red shirt in the middle."

"Hello, this is Qingyuan Press. There have been rumors that the salvage groups are going to be disbanded. Is that true?"

"From my knowledge, the answer is no. This particular salvage group that had chosen to work with this criminal network was an outlier.

There will be no changes as far as I know. But there might be changes coming to how they operate as a business."

"Thank you."

Seeing Yueyue starting to pack up, several of the journalists quickly raised their hands, trying to get her attention.

But before anything could be seen, the TV cut back to the news anchor as the breaking news ended.

"Looks like she’s not coming back till tomorrow," Nami murmured as she sat down on the sofa with a tired face.

"Yeah..."

---

As afternoon turned into evening, everyone ate dinner together at home, except for Yueyue and Xiaoyun’s two fiancées.

Everyone was excited as they chatted at the dinner table. They were too hyped for the wedding tomorrow.

It was the first time they had planned something together as a whole family. Even though they only had a day to plan it out.

Except for Xiaoyun, whose mind was still thinking back to the press conference earlier. He was still thinking about what Yueyue had said.

A change for the salvage group.

It had clearly outgrown its usefulness as an organization and business, becoming a threat to the state having a monopoly on violence.

An organization that had too many people and too easy access to weapons. Especially when they had the choice to operate outside of cleared areas.

Places where they could easily escape government surveillance and be able to rule their base as their own little fiefdom.

The ticking time bomb has been delayed by Yueyue, but for how long? It was a question that Xiaoyun couldn’t answer.

"Xiaoyun, you okay?" Tianci quietly asked as she noticed the frown on his face.

"I’m fine."

Seeing his face return to normal, Tianci didn’t think too much of it. But Leyan quickly noticed their conversation.

"Xiaoyun, are you still thinking about what Yueyue said earlier?"

"No, I’m just thinking about what I need to say for tomorrow’s wedding." Xiaoyun quickly answered.

"You’re really bad at lying, you know that?"

As Leyan poked right through his lies, Xiaoyun didn’t bother with it, as he shoved food into his mouth to avoid needing to answer back.

"Good thing she busted it before the wedding. Can’t imagine people showing up to the place with guns unannounced." Shuli murmured.

"Still can’t believe they even had RPGs... How the hell did they get the material for that?" Wuli murmured next.