The officer who went out quickly returned, his expression a little strange. Without waiting for the female officer to ask, he leaned in to her ear and whispered, "The tech team tested it. The contents of that black plastic bag aren't drugs. It's a type of incense made from Chinese medicinal herbs. According to them, not only does this incense lack any addictive or psychoactive effects, it actually refreshes the mind and is good for your health."
"What? It's really incense?"
This complete turnaround was hard for the female officer to accept.
"I told you you'd arrested the wrong people," Zhao Yuan chimed in.
The officer shot Zhao Yuan a look and whispered, "Land Group, it looks like we really did arrest the wrong people this time… Could there be a problem with the intel from our informant?"
The female officer, known as Land Group, shook her head. "There's absolutely no problem with the informant." Then, her expression turned grim. "This is bad. Our operation must have spooked them. Tell the people still at the scene to lock it down immediately. Don't let anyone in the coffee shop leave!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the officer replied, pulling out his phone to call his colleagues still at the coffee shop.
But Land Group waved her hand and said, "Forget it. There's no need to lock down the scene. Too much time has passed; the dealers have definitely run off by now! Have the people on site pull the nearby surveillance footage and trace the escape routes of any suspicious individuals!"
"Okay," the officer responded. Just then, the call connected, and he immediately relayed the situation and the female officer's orders to his colleague.
"I'm sorry. Mistaking you for drug dealers was our mistake. I apologize." Land Group walked quickly over to Zhao Yuan and sincerely apologized as she unlocked his handcuffs.
"You're not entirely to blame. We're partly responsible too," Zhao Yuan said with a wry smile.
'If he and Fang Yi hadn't been shouting about 'money' and 'goods' the moment they met, how could the police have misunderstood? Then again, who would've known the police were in the middle of a drug bust in that coffee shop? What a coincidence.'
"Thank you for being so understanding," Land Group said, breathing a sigh of relief. She had been afraid Zhao Yuan would cause a scene. After all, it was their mistake, and if he had made a fuss, they would have definitely been disciplined.
After some pleasantries and introductions, Zhao Yuan learned that the dashing female officer's surname was Lu and her given name was Qing. Despite her beauty, she was the head of this station's anti-drug team!
Walking out of the interrogation room, Zhao Yuan saw Fang Yi and asked with concern, "Brother Fang, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Fang Yi said with a wry smile. "Getting arrested and hauled to the police station as a drug dealer just for grabbing a coffee. This whole experience has been pretty surreal."
Lu Qing and the other officers stood by, looking rather awkward. Thankfully, Fang Yi was just venting and not clamoring to hold them accountable, which was a relief.
"Where's my Soul-Stabilizing Incense?" Fang Yi asked. That was his main concern.
Lu Qing quickly had someone fetch the Soul-Stabilizing Incense and return it to Fang Yi. However, the technicians, worried that drugs might be hidden inside, had taken several sticks from the boxes to break open and test. As a result, of the original thirty boxes of Soul-Stabilizing Incense, only twenty-five remained.
Fang Yi already felt thirty boxes of Soul-Stabilizing Incense wasn't enough. Now that an unexpected disaster had cost him a sixth of his stock, he was absolutely heartbroken.
Seeing this, Lu Qing quickly said, "How much was the incense? We'll compensate you."
"Compensate me?" Fang Yi shot her a look and said irritably, "Ten thousand a box. You do the math!"
"What?"
"How much? Did I hear that right?"
"Ten thousand a box? Isn't that price a little outrageous?"
Before Lu Qing could speak, the other officers cried out in unison. They couldn't imagine that one small box of incense could cost ten thousand yuan—that was more than several months of their salary!
Fang Yi snorted. "What, you think I'm just pulling a number out of thin air? Go ask around and see if Soul-Stabilizing Incense doesn't cost ten thousand yuan a box! Let me tell you, right now, you can't even buy this stuff with money! You think I'm upset about the money? Wrong. I'm upset because the Soul-Stabilizing Incense was wasted. With five more boxes of Soul-Stabilizing Incense, I could have dealt with five more people…"
Seeing him rambling on, Zhao Yuan cut him off. "Alright, Brother Fang, forget about the compensation. As for the Soul-Stabilizing Incense, I'll get you a new batch to make up for it as soon as possible." Then he turned to Lu Qing and the others. "Officers, Brother Fang isn't lying to you. The selling price for Soul-Stabilizing Incense really is ten thousand a box. Of course, the cost isn't that high. We're also partly responsible for this misunderstanding, so you don't need to compensate us."
Zhao Yuan had always respected anti-drug officers, and since this really was a misunderstanding, he certainly wasn't going to make things difficult for them.
Lu Qing and the others all breathed a sigh of relief. Fifty thousand yuan was no small sum for them. Zhao Yuan's reasonable attitude and words also made their impression of him much more favorable.
Since Zhao Yuan had shown such goodwill, Lu Qing and her team naturally wanted to return the favor. "Are you heading back to the Chinese medicine market? I can give you a ride."
"You still have a case to deal with. We can get back on our own," Zhao Yuan said, not wanting to trouble them.
Lu Qing said, "It's no trouble. We're heading back to the coffee shop anyway. It's on the way."
Since she put it that way, Zhao Yuan and Fang Yi certainly weren't going to object. Besides, it would be hard to hail a cab outside the police station at this hour.
Lu Qing wasn't driving a police car, but a red Volkswagen Bora. Besides Zhao Yuan and Fang Yi, two other officers were in the car. As for the rest of the anti-drug team, they had already rushed back to the coffee shop to conduct their investigation.
The five of them sat in the car, the atmosphere a little awkward. After all, they had just gone through a misunderstanding and no one knew what to say. They simply remained silent, and the quiet journey made the mood increasingly oppressive. Zhao Yuan simply turned his head to look out the window at the scenery.
About halfway there, Zhao Yuan suddenly saw a black Highlander drive past in the opposite direction. Through its lowered window, he saw a few familiar faces.
It was the group of people from the coffee shop who had been giving him and Fang Yi strange looks earlier.
'I didn't think anything of them before, but now, recalling the police's drug bust, they seem highly suspicious!'
In a flash, Zhao Yuan made his decision and urgently shouted to Lu Qing, who was driving, "Turn around! Follow that black Highlander! I suspect the people in that car are the drug dealers you're looking for! They were in the coffee shop earlier, and they were acting very strangely!"
Zhao Yuan's words startled everyone in the car.
Lu Qing hesitated. She couldn't tell if Zhao Yuan was telling the truth, nor could she be sure if his deduction was correct. But after a few seconds, she wrenched the steering wheel, made a sharp U-turn, and sped after the black Highlander.
'Even if there's only a one percent chance, I have to check it out!'