On Xu Lan’s first day back on the field, Lao Chen reassigned Team 2 to be under his command. Despite that Xu Lan rejected the arrangement multiple times, Lao Chen carried on with his plan.

Meng Chengjun smiled and patted Xu Lan’s shoulder, telling Xu Lan to give it his best. Meng Chengjun was a nice guy who was competent and knew how to take a joke.

Sun Fei once said Meng Chengjun was how he imagined a police officer would be. On the contrary, Xu Lan was burly, stubborn, and bad-tempered. Xu Lan effectively changed Sun Fei’s opinion and the day the duo met was the day Sun Fei realized that there were very different characters in the police station.

Xu Lan was so angry that he gave Sun Fei a kick on his butt, causing Sun Fei to fall face flat onto the ground.

Before the welcoming ceremony was even over, the members in the task force filtered in with their equipment.

“Who’s the person-in-charge for the case? There’re still some details from the handover that we need to go over again. I’d rather be meticulous than to make any mistakes later on.”

A man in shades walked into the middle of the hall after the equipment had been moved in.

“Oh, Chengjun is the person-in-charge. Officer Xiao, you can approach him should you need any clarification.” Lao Chen smiled as he introduced Meng Chengjun to Officer Xiao.

“Alright, let’s go. We should head up and go over the files,” Officer Xiao nodded as he spoke. He took his shades off and sized Meng Chengjun up.

“Xu Lan, please assist Chengjun from now on. The 928 incident is an important case, even a special task force has been assembled to work on it. Work well with Chengjun and you might be commended for your efforts after the case is cracked,” Lao Chen patted Xu Lan on his shoulder as he said with a nauseating smile on his face.

‘Heck! I was wondering why did he reach out to me so urgently. It seems like the task force is here and he wants me to work under Meng Chengjun. If anything bad happens, I’ll be the scapegoat; if the case is a success, Meng Chengjun will be getting all the praises. How very cunning of Lao Chen?’ Xu Lan thought.

His comrades from Team 2 were equally surprised. Wang Hao was rolling up his sleeves, suggesting that he was ready to pick a fight!

“Alright! Since the Director General has spoken, I look forward to working with you, Group Leader Meng.” Xu Lan turned to look at Meng Chengjun who seemed to be in shock and was equally surprised. Meng Chengjun looked at Xu Lan and was clearly embarrassed by what just transpired.

Even he was not informed by Lao Chen about this? Xu Lan thought, ‘Forget about it! This is insignificant anyway. As long as he earns enough for both Bai Wu and himself, he’s happy with it.’

“Alright everyone, please return to your work.” Perhaps, this was Lao Chen’s mini revenge on Xu Lan for taking his packet of cigarettes. In any case, Lao Chen embarrassed Xu Lan and made his point.

“Sergeant Xu! You… I didn’t expect the Director General to do something like that!”

“Yes! The Director General acted out of line!”

“Exactly! If this goes on, I might consider getting myself transferred.”

“Stop this, you all. Where are you going to get transferred to? Moreover, this is unavoidable seeing how I’m being reinstated. Given the scale of the case and the uncertainties in my schedule, the Director General’s action is justified.”

Xu Lan silenced everyone with his booming voice.

“Everyone, please carry on with your tasks. Even though the Director General said that Team 2 is under my control now, but we will be following Group Leader Meng’s orders. We’re a team and let’s not have unnecessary office politics. Got it?”

Director General Chen brought Xu Lan back to keep everything under control, as the former was worried that Meng Chengjun could not keep everyone in check. On top of that, Xu Lan’s return was necessary for a smooth handover to the task force.

Everyone in Team 2 remained in silence – they felt wronged and oppressed.

“Am I clear?” Xu Lan shouted.

“Yes, sir!” everyone replied in unison.

“Everyone, get back to what you were doing. Wang Hao, please remain.” Xu Lan sent everyone off and asked Wang Hao to remain.

“Sergeant Xu, is there anything that I can help you with?” Wang Hao was unhappy about earlier, which explained his distant tone.

“Make me a copy of the information we have. How else are we going to start working?” Xu Lan said as he walked toward his office. He even went to check with Lao Chen to see if the office still belonged to him.

Xu Lan went through the files. Basically, an evil organization created a game of death called Sparrow. The game was transmitted mainly via the internet.

Those who were going through a rough patch in life would publish their information on selected internet forums. The forum administrator would then contact these prospective participants. The participants would submit themselves to the organizer’s plans and threats. The missions were given to the participants through the internet and the participants must complete the missions listed, leading them to walk toward their eventual death.

Through the missions that were given in the Sparrow Game, the participants’ will to live would slowly be destroyed. In the end, the participants would kill themselves without hesitation.

This seemingly ridiculous game took seven lives in the city of Whitehorse since its first appearance and people had been paying attention to the development.

Xu Lan noticed something. Out of the seven deceased, five of them worked at a mine in Chengdu thirteen years ago.

They ended up with lung diseases and their respective family members spent all of their life savings to pay for their treatment. The question arose, how did someone like them found out about the game of death that was circulating on the internet? What happened thirteen years ago at the mine in Chengdu?