Chapter 916: Does This Count as a Merit?

The middle captain surnamed Zhou nodded upon hearing this and began shouting according to Sun Nian's instructions.

The people inside the house immediately fell into a visible panic upon hearing the words. The man who had previously led the questioning of the gunman, the one referred to as Er Tuzi, spoke up

"Everyone, don't panic! Hurry up and search. If we don't find those IOUs, we won't be able to sleep a wink even if we're rotting in the slammer."

Hearing this, the crowd ignored the shouting from outside and focused all their attention on searching for the IOUs.

From this, one could see exactly how much deterrent power these IOUs held over these people, who usually made their living through lending and debt collection.

At that moment, someone muttered

"If it weren't for those four idiots guarding the Pixiu every day, I would've fucking killed him long ago. Dammit, we're worse off than the hired hands of the landlords back in the day."

The person beside him echoed while rummaging through things

"Tell me about it. The money we collect every day isn't even enough to pay the interest. Living like this is fucking pathetic."

Another person said with a look of longing

"I just want to know where the Pixiu hid all the money. That way, before we get out of here, we won't have to struggle so damn hard to find money to spend."

As soon as the man finished speaking, the entire room fell dead silent. Greed flickered in almost everyone's eyes simultaneously.

It was hard to imagine just how much money Wei Cheng—who was as greedy as a Pixiu—had scraped together through lending.

But it was certain that, for this era, that sum of money was an absolute astronomical figure.

Soon, three minutes passed, yet these loan sharks still hadn't found the so-called IOUs.

It had to be admitted that Comrade Wei Cheng was far too cunning and sly; his secrecy work was truly top-notch, as this many people still couldn't find those IOUs.

However, under the frantic searching of the group, many small trinkets worth a bit of money were unearthed. They lay there, yet the people in the room didn't even spare them a glance.

There were old silver hairpins, silver bracelets, silver earrings, and other silver ornaments, as well as many damaged silver dollars and fragmented silver ingots. Of course, there were also many quite nice-looking jade pendants, jade plaques, or agate bracelets... and so on and so forth.

Without exception, these items were things these people had seized while collecting debts.

It was just that in this era, although everyone knew these things were high-quality and had a certain value, in reality, few people would spend money to buy them.

The reason was simple: in a time when people couldn't even get enough to eat, these things were useless. Buying them was equivalent to throwing money away.

After all, even a man as shrewd as Wei Cheng had simply left these things lying around, not even glancing at them normally.

As for gold jewelry, these debt collectors had seized plenty of that too, but it was unclear whether Wei Cheng had sold it or hidden it somewhere.

After all, gold was always a hard currency; although the price was unstable, it was always valuable.

Just as the crowd grew more anxious in their search for the IOUs, Captain Zhou outside began the countdown.

Captain Zhou shouted loudly

"People inside, listen up! You have 20 seconds remaining. Please come out immediately to cooperate with the investigation, otherwise, we will take forceful measures."

Immediately after, Captain Zhou continued

"You have 10 seconds remaining. Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

Before the number six could be shouted, the people inside couldn't take it anymore. Er Tuzi rushed to the door and shouted through the crack

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Please don't shoot! We'll cooperate, I'll cooperate with everything!"

Hearing the voice from the courtyard, both Sun Nian and the group of "hat brothers" subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

Although shooting was their duty and calling, no one wanted to kill if it could be avoided.

Watching people get shot dead by one's own hand was not a pleasant feeling.

Subsequently, the dozen or so people, led by Er Tuzi, walked out of the house one after another with their hands raised.

Under Sun Nian's command, the hat brothers rushed into the courtyard.

It had to be said that, often, humans were inferior to dogs. From the moment Captain Zhou started shouting, the dogs in the yard had begun barking; now that the people had surrendered, the dogs barked even more fiercely.

Fortunately, the dogs were all held by iron chains, so the group ignored them.

Thus, in a very amicable atmosphere, these dozen-plus people were all fitted with "silver bracelets" by the hat brothers.

Unexpectedly, from the moment Wang An, Sun Nian, and the others arrived at this place until the moment these people were arrested, aside from the single shot fired by Wang An, the hat brothers hadn't wasted a single bullet, yet the mission was completed perfectly.

To be honest, this feeling was actually quite good.

After arresting everyone peacefully, Sun Nian led Wang An, Wang Li, and a few hat brothers into the house.

Looking at the eight corpses in the room and the various items tossed into a mess, Sun Nian and the others immediately picked someone to interrogate.

Surprisingly, dealing with these people was quite effortless. They didn't hide or conceal a thing, answering everything they were asked; no harsh methods were needed at all.

Even so, to prevent the person from lying, Sun Nian and the others questioned another person after the first.

Comparing the two, they found that neither was lying; their stories were identical.

However, after learning the sequence of events, Sun Nian, Wang An, and the others were all stunned. Mostly, they just didn't know what the fuck to say.

Finally, Wang An asked the man in disbelief

"So, you mean you all shot your own boss together?"

The man replied very candidly

"We had no choice. We wanted to surrender, but those four bodyguards wouldn't let us. They insisted we take up guns and fight you. Could we do that? No matter what, we can't go against the government, right? Then, because we wouldn't do it, they tried to kill us. So, we just beat them to death."

Pausing for a moment, the kid didn't forget to ask

"Uh, Officer, does this count as contributing to the cause? Could it, you know, mean a few days off my sentence or something?"

Subconsciously, Wang An said

"In your situation, it probably counts. What did that regulation say... 'effectively prevented'..."

But just as he reached this point, Wang An suddenly stopped. He realized that some things should not be said carelessly.

Thus, Wang An looked toward Sun Nian with a sheepish smile.

(End of Chapter)