Chapter 53 The Central Bureau

Three days later, at night, Hua Mansion, Central Bureau compound.

The entire compound was heavily guarded. Four soldiers stood outside the gate, each holding an automatic rifle. Through the barred gate, one could see patrolling soldiers in the courtyard, their formation orderly and their duty areas clearly defined.

Not far from the gate, a black car was parked near an apartment building. A member of Wang An's squad, from Team A, sat in the car, monitoring the gate.

About half an hour later, the compound's barred gate slowly slid open. Then, five cars drove out of the gate one after another, onto the road. Through the car window, one could see Yi Sheng sitting in the middle car, with security personnel in the other cars protecting him.

"Yi Sheng is out," the team member reported into his headset.

"Follow him and see where he's going," Wang An's voice came through the headset.

After they had driven some distance, the Team A member started the car and followed from a distance, maintaining a safe gap to avoid being noticed by Yi Sheng.

After following for about three or four kilometers, at a fork in the road, the Team A member slowed down and drove into the lane opposite the convoy. At the same time, another car parked nearby continued to follow, taking over the tailing of the convoy.

Under such careful surveillance, Yi Sheng did not notice anything unusual, and the convoy continued driving.

About twenty minutes later, the convoy stopped in front of a large hotel.

The bodyguards got out of the cars one after another, expertly splitting into two teams, standing on either side. One of the bodyguards walked to the door of the middle car, reached out, and opened the door. Yi Sheng stepped out.

He was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, a little overweight, balding, but not short, appearing to be around 1.8 meters tall.

As soon as Yi Sheng got out of the car, he smiled and greeted the six or seven people standing at the hotel entrance. The others also stepped forward, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with him.

Based on their interactions, Wang An's investigators judged that Yi Sheng was meeting with some political figures, or perhaps newly contacted and soon to be won-over business tycoons. Besides them, there were also two young women, lightly made-up, with pure appearances. They smiled, and one of them took Yi Sheng's arm, whispering a few words to him.

The group paused briefly at the hotel entrance, then entered the hotel, chatting and laughing under the escort of the security personnel.

At this time, across the street, the action team member responsible for surveillance connected to the headset to continue reporting Yi Sheng's whereabouts.

...

Hua Mansion, a certain garage.

The garage door was tightly closed. The interior was very simple, with only a few simple mattresses on the floor. Wang An and five team members sat on the mattresses. He was wearing a headset, listening to the surveillance team member's report.

For the sake of secrecy, Wang An's location was very hidden, unknown even to Su Tianyu.

"Team Wang, Yi Sheng has entered the Brighton Hotel." The team member's voice came from the headset, "The people who picked him up look very business-like. Two of them seem very familiar with Yi Sheng. There are also two women with Yi Sheng, probably going to play poker later."

"What about the security situation on site?" Wang An asked.

The team member said, "Yi Sheng has about twenty bodyguards around him... However, it's not yet possible to determine if there are any peripheral security personnel protecting him in the shadows."

"Understood," Wang An thought for a moment, then ordered, "Your team, go in first. Be careful and stay hidden."

"Yes!"

After instructing Team A, Wang An took out his phone and called the team members scattered in other locations, informing them to go to the Brighton Hotel.

"All teams, start a conference call. Stay in touch at all times." After instructing them, Wang An picked up the handgun on the mattress next to him, pulled back the slide to check it, and after confirming there were no problems, tucked the gun into the back of his waistband.

"Let's go, come with me to check out the scene." He led his five team members, opened the garage door, and set off for the Brighton Hotel.

...

Hua Mansion, Fifth Division of the Central Bureau.

It was late, and most of the Fifth Division staff had left work. The entire office building was empty.

Xu Nan, wearing a Fifth Division uniform, carried dinner he had bought from the "Hua Ji" Chinese restaurant, walking alone down the dimly lit corridor. He had some work that he hadn't finished, so he had to work overtime. But Xu Nan didn't like the food in the Fifth Division's cafeteria, so he specifically bought a serving of his favorite Chinese food.

Turning a corner, Xu Nan saw that the conference room ahead was lit, and the windows were covered with blinds, making it impossible to see inside.

Xu Nan paused with his dinner, glanced around, walked to the conference room door, and suddenly pushed it open.

There were a dozen unfamiliar faces sitting in the office, some smoking, some playing cards, and some on the phone. When Xu Nan pushed open the door, they stopped what they were doing and looked over, staring straight at Xu Nan.

"Sorry," Xu Nan said calmly to these people, "I didn't know there were people in here. Carry on."

With that, Xu Nan closed the door and turned to leave.

Xu Nan frowned, thought for a moment, and then turned and walked towards the action team's office at the other end of the corridor.

Sure enough, the action team's office was also lit.

Xu Nan walked to the office, knocked on the door, and entered.

Several members of the action team were on night duty in the office. The leader was a middle-aged man in his forties. Seeing him, Xu Nan greeted him directly, "Lao Wang, on duty?"

"Yeah, a lot of things going on in the team." Lao Wang nodded, "You're on night duty too?"

"Yeah!" Xu Nan raised the Chinese food in his hand, "I haven't finished a interrogation report, so I went out to buy something to eat, and I'll come back and keep writing! By the way, do you still have that beef sauce you had last time? Can I have some?"

"I do!" Lao Wang turned and walked to the shelf on the side, opened a drawer, and took out half a jar of beef sauce from inside, "How is it? Is my sauce good?"

"Delicious." Xu Nan gave a thumbs up, "Where did you buy it? I'll buy some next time too."

"You can't buy this. I had someone specially make it. The flavor is very authentic..." Lao Wang handed the meat sauce to Xu Nan.

After Xu Nan took it, he asked casually, "By the way, I saw that your conference room was lit up just now. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces inside. Who are they?"

Lao Wang paused slightly, not answering immediately.

Xu Nan quickly laughed and said, "Hehe, I'm just being nosy again. Never mind, don't tell me."

"The hell if I know what the director brought them here for." Lao Wang also smiled, then said to Xu Nan, "They came in the evening, and they've been sitting inside ever since, without even saying hello to us."

There was some dissatisfaction in Lao Wang's tone.

Xu Nan didn't press him, and said with a smile, "Think of it this way, the director thinks everyone is suspicious now."

...

At the same time.

Su Tianyu dialed his older brother's phone, "Hey, where are you?"

"I'm on a mission, what's up?"

"Where did you go on a mission?" Su Tianyu asked casually.