Chapter 897: An End to Salvage groups?

"Kate, Anna, don’t those weapons look a little familiar to you?"

Tianci’s comment instantly hooked everyone’s attention towards the two, whose faces looked awfully nervous for some reason.

"W-What? W-We never sold those weapons to criminals. The only organization we’re permitted to sell to is the military and police force."

As Anna instantly defended herself, the suspicion didn’t drop. Instead, it had only pushed it higher as they thought back to the image shown earlier.

The AKs and the RPGs, all looking extremely similar to the ones that were shown in the military parade in the past.

There were only two gun manufacturing companies in the town. It was either them or their Russian rivals.

"We swear we never let a single gun go missing. None of the factory workers even know how to assemble a gun fully by themselves.

All of them had their own part to work on, and we heavily classify the knowledge to only specific engineers with NDAs.

Besides, we don’t even produce AKs. Those Russians are the ones who are mass-producing them at scale."

Hearing Kate’s answer made everyone let out a small sigh of relief, except for Xiaoyun, whose face was still concerned.

In his mind, he couldn’t think of a reason why the three Russians would take such a risk. It didn’t make any logical sense when they were already so profitable.

But at the same time, it didn’t make sense for a criminal network to get their hands on so many guns in the first place.

"I’m going to Yueyue’s office... I’ll be back later."

None of them stopped him as he headed out the door, going over to the garage before a car drove out of the house.

---

As Xiaoyun arrived at the intelligence office, he could feel the tight tension around the entire perimeter.

There was armed security at every corner, with multiple police cars parked right outside.

More importantly, multiple vans from news organizations were seemingly packing up to leave the area as if they had finished a news meeting.

"Good evening, Governor."

"Evening."

After scanning his card, Xiaoyun quickly entered. Walking through the halls, he could feel the place was much emptier than usual.

It was almost as if everyone was out on duty. To those rare few who were in the office, they were all on phone calls or staring at some sort of CCTVs.

The busiest time he had ever witnessed as he knocked on Yueyue’s office door.

"Come in."

Inside, Yueyue was sitting at her desk. Her hand was holding a phone, seemingly in the middle of a phone call.

"What are you here for? I wasn’t talking to you... Xiaoyun, you’re here to ask me something?"

With a press of a button, she had put her call on mute before finally looking up to see Xiaoyun in her office.

"Of course I’m here to ask you something. What the hell was that whole operation? Zero notice beforehand?"

Xiaoyun asked as he sat down across from her. His face did not look happy at all about the work she had done.

"It was an emergency. I couldn’t wait any longer... They were about to carry out some sort of attack by tomorrow."

"Is it the wedding?"

After a few seconds of silence, Yueyue finally spoke up.

"I’m not sure, but all the evidence was leading towards it."

"Do you know how they knew? None of this is public information, if I remember correctly." Xiaoyun questioned again.

"Most likely from someone who was working for the news team. I have a team currently going through all the phone logs of Shen Wen’s employees."

"That would explain it... What are you doing now?"

"Getting the result of the interrogation from the survivors... Yes, I’m here. You can send the report to my office."

As Yueyue puts the desk phone back down, she finally looks back at Xiaoyun’s face again with curiosity.

"You came here to criticize me for not giving you a heads-up? Is that all?"

"No. I came here to make sure you’re fine."

"Why would I not be fine?" Yueyue questioned back, her face looking a little confused by Xiaoyun’s question.

"Well, I thought you might be a little overwhelmed. But it seems like you got everything under control."

"Of course I got everything under control. This isn’t my first rodeo... Is there anything else you want to know, or can I go back to work?"

Xiaoyun sat in his seat for a whole minute in silence, staring at her face as he didn’t say anything back to her at all.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Yueyue... Is there anything you want to propose?" Xiaoyun asked as he finally spoke up again.

"Propose? What?"

"From the press meeting earlier, you clearly don’t like how salvage groups operate. And you know who can make those guns, yet you didn’t name them."

This time, Yueyue was the one who fell silent. It was as if her mind was weighing what she could say without getting into trouble.

"I.. I don’t know."

"Don’t say you don’t know. Be honest with me."

As Xiaoyun continued to stare her in the eyes, Yueyue began to crack under pressure as her calm face began to show nervousness.

"This isn’t my area of expertise."

"I know policy isn’t your expertise. But you can still give your opinion as a government employee."

Seeing her still not speaking up, Xiaoyun doubled down.

"Yueyue, you’re my wife first and foremost. I don’t want you to be scared in front of me, regardless of whether your job requires impartiality."

"Fine... I hate the salvage group. They serve no purpose other than being a cancer to society that you had personally created."

Yueyue’s opinion didn’t surprise Xiaoyun in the slightest, as he had long suspected her disdain towards it ever since she had gotten this job.

"I don’t get why you created a whole private sector for this. All they do is cause trouble. Almost 90% of the cases are related to them.

Kidnapping, drug trafficking, anything that’s illegal—Somebody always uses salvage groups as a public disguise for a legitimate business."

"You never reported this to Yuqi?"

"I did. But every time I sent it, she points out how 75% of the goods are coming from them, always saying they’re a critical industry.

But they are just leeches. They don’t clear the zombies they get their goods from... They are like... Just state-sanctioned lootbox gamblers."

As Yueyue voiced her frustration, Xiaoyun kept calm as he let her continue rather than speaking up himself.

"I had repeatedly told her to straight up nationalize it or heavily regulate it. But she just throws economic paper at me as if the crime they cause isn’t real.

It just doesn’t make sense to me. Why would the government allow a known ring of potential trouble right before our eyes?"

This time, Yueyue stared right back at Xiaoyun, waiting for him to give a response instead.

"All of those are valid points. You’re probably right that something has to change about them... But I can see why Yuqi had chosen to do nothing."

"How? Tell me, Xiaoyun. Justify it for me."

"You ever heard of the phrase about how not everything is black and white? Yin’s bad criminals and Yang’s good policemen?"

"You suggesting we should let criminals exist?" Yueyue questioned.

"No. But I’m pointing out that without the grey area of the salvage group, the Yin can easily turn into something much uglier."

"Isn’t an armed criminal network already ugly and over the line? How’s the salvage group working as intended?"

"You know how many people work in the salvage group industry?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked, not answering her question.

"Close to 50,000. What about it?"

"Wrong. It’s over a million, from the logistics of carrying goods out of the cleared city to the point of sale to the consumer.

Every part of the way might not be a part of the salvage group directly, but they’re so interconnected that it is impossible to separate."

"But..."

As Yueyue’s face still looked irritated by the fact, she clearly couldn’t get over the decision to just do nothing.

"Yueyue, I’ll promise you this. By the end of this week, there will be legislation coming to address the lack of oversight, no matter the cost."

"Hope so..."

With her face looking at ease, Xiaoyun slowly got up from the chair as he started walking directly over to her side of the desk.

"Yueyue, I just want to say, you did a great job."

Xiaoyun suddenly complimented her as he sat right on the edge of her desk, his hands gently patting her on the shoulder.

"Just doing what my job requires me to do."

"I really mean it. Not once in my life had I ever felt more proud to have you here... You’re the person I trust the most."

"Thanks..."

"Ahem, one last thing before I leave. Do you know how they got hold of these guns?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"I... I genuinely don’t know."

"Really?"

For once, Xiaoyun was surprised. He really didn’t expect this answer from her, as he thought she would have this as her primary focus.

"I really don’t know. None of my agents could get any trace of it either... I’m not even sure who it could be coming from."

"Are you scared of blaming someone again? We both know there’s only one place that could make these guns."