Chapter 10: Action

Jiang Shiyan did not succeed.

Yan Anting caught her hand.

Noticing that Captain Yan's expression didn't look very good, Xiao Zhu hurried forward to shake Jiang Shiyan awake: "Yanyan, stop sleeping, wake up!"

Jiang Shiyan gave a start. She lifted her head and met Yan Anting's emotionless eyes. Realizing her hand was still being held by him, she was startled: "Captain Yan, what are you doing?"

Yan Anting let her go and said, "It's almost time for the operation."

With that, Yan Anting turned and left.

Jiang Shiyan stared blankly at Yan Anting's retreating back: "Sister Zhu, what was Captain Yan doing?"

"You don't know?" Zhu Zhu looked at her with a strange expression.

"Know what?" Jiang Shiyan asked suspiciously.

Zhu Zhu vividly described her recent actions.

Jiang Shiyan felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her—

"You... you say I... I flirted with..." Jiang Shiyan stammered out those words.

Zhu Zhu nodded and said meaningfully, "You've got guts! You're the first person brave enough to flirt with our Captain Yan. You deserve to be recorded in the history books!"

"..."

She was going to die!

Jiang Shiyan felt her life was in peril and wished she could perform a dirt evasion technique to escape right then and there.

"Sister Zhu, I... I'm scared..." Jiang Shiyan was on the verge of tears. "Captain Yan won't kill me, will he?"

Zhu Zhu patted her head: "What are you thinking? Our Captain Yan doesn't eat people."

"But he's scarier than a man-eater!" Jiang Shiyan said with a wailing face.

Although she would secretly fantasize about him in private, that was an absolute secret that could never be brought to light; she would have to take it to her grave. And yet, she had actually clumsily danced right in front of the man himself while in a daze?

"System, do you have any items that can reverse time or reset? Give me one, quick!" Jiang Shiyan screamed in her mind.

【I don't have any, dear.】

"Then can you make one on the spot?"

【...】

"If I commit suicide right now, can I return to my previous world?" Jiang Shiyan asked tentatively.

【Please don't daydream, dear.】

"It's nighttime."

【Even at night, no.】

Even the "dear" was gone, showing that the System was also driven to speechlessness by Jiang Shiyan.

Jiang Shiyan: "..."

Damn it!!!

Nothing is more sorrowful than a dead heart. Jiang Shiyan slumped over the table, her spirit completely drained, staring forward with hollow eyes.

Somehow, Yan Anting suddenly looked toward her, and their gazes inadvertently collided in the air.

Like a startled rabbit, Jiang Shiyan jumped up and reflexively hid under the table.

Yan Anting: "..."

Did he look like a sinister ghost that people couldn't bear to see?

Perhaps rendered speechless by Jiang Shiyan's reaction, Yan Anting let out an inexplicable chuckle.

Yan Anting suddenly believed a saying found online: indeed, people laugh when they are speechless.

"Captain Yan?" His teammate was bewildered; he didn't think he had said anything funny.

Yan Anting composed himself and said seriously, "Call everyone. Prepare for the operation."

"Yes, sir!"

After saluting, the teammate immediately went to pass on the word.

Once the time arrived, all the criminal investigators put on their bulletproof vests and began approaching the criminal den. Under the cover of night, they rapidly closed in on the human traffickers' hideout.

Strangely, the one leading them was that very same large rooster that had been brought back.

The operation team split into two routes and was accompanied by two police dogs. Because Xiao Jiu was injured and unable to participate in the operation, he was very sad. Fortunately, with Jiang Shiyan's comfort, his mood gradually stabilized, and he ended up being held in her arms while watching the footage transmitted through a miniature camera on the computer screen.

Jiang Shiyan wore a headset that allowed her to speak at any time. However, the moment she thought that the person on the other end of that headset was Yan Anting, she felt an impulse to throw the thing away.

But Jiang Shiyan also knew that the mission was the priority right now, so she didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Yan Anting was half-doubting of Jiang Shiyan's abilities. After the group arrived near the abandoned courtyard, he made a hand gesture to signal the people behind him to stay put, while he silently followed the large rooster to a haystack.

A man was squatting there with his pants down, smoking a cigarette held between his fingers.

Yan Anting delivered a knife-hand strike to the back of the man's neck. Before the man could react, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground, and Yan Anting quickly picked up the cigarette and crushed it out.

He raised his hand and signaled a "1" toward the darkness.

Then, the large rooster led him around to the back of the house. Indecent sounds drifted intermittently from behind a large tree, also transmitted through the headset to Jiang Shiyan's ears.

Jiang Shiyan awkwardly picked at her feet.

After a while, the man walked out, pulling up his pants, but after only a few steps, he slumped to the ground.

Hearing the sound of the fall, a woman had just stepped out when a dark gun barrel was pointed at her forehead. A pair of sharp, cold eyes stared at her: "Police! Don't make a sound!"

The woman's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Soon, she was tied up by the criminal investigation team, and her mouth was taped shut.

The large rooster led Yan Anting to find all the night watchmen; he alone took care of the perimeter lookouts.

Once the perimeter was secured, Yan Anting led the operation team into the courtyard, leaving a few people to search the seemingly abandoned rooms. He led his men further in. According to what Jiang Shiyan relayed from Xiao Jiu, the true hideout was in the basement of this courtyard...

It was just that their luck wasn't that good this time.

Someone happened to walk out to use the toilet, only to run straight into Yan Anting and his team.

After a few seconds of confrontation, the man's expression changed drastically, and he screamed at the top of his lungs: "The police are here!!!"

The man turned and ran, even pressing an alarm installed on the wall. In an instant, the clamorous sound of the alarm shattered the peaceful night.

Hearing the alarm through the headset and seeing the shaking footage on the computer, Jiang Shiyan's heart leapt into her throat!

Zhu Zhu, who was guarding Jiang Shiyan's side, couldn't help but look at her. Since the team began the operation, almost every situation had matched what Jiang Shiyan had predicted, and it was precisely because of this that she found it incredible.

Could there really be someone in this world who could understand animal speech?

After an unknown amount of time, through the blurry footage, Jiang Shiyan saw the children imprisoned in the basement. Each of them had a dirty face, and the eyes that occasionally flickered were filled with terror and lifelessness, making Jiang Shiyan's heart ache painfully.

"Found them," Yan Anting's voice came through the headset.

"The children with broken limbs..." Jiang Shiyan asked urgently.

Yan Anting fell silent for a moment, before finally telling Jiang Shiyan the truth: "Two are dead. One from excessive blood loss, one from starvation."

Jiang Shiyan gripped the table tightly, her eyes instantly turning red.

Just then—

*Bang!*

A gunshot suddenly rang out in the forest, startling countless birds.

The backup team remaining behind instantly became alert, and someone shouted, "Alert—"

Xiao Jiu suddenly jumped off Jiang Shiyan and barked wildly in one direction: "Woof! Woof! Woof!!!"

(End of Chapter)