The Same Fate Awaits All Sins Chapter 63

Final Part – 04

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Gu Yanta was in a deep sleep when he vaguely heard a loud boom that jolted him awake.

The sky outside was still dim, and before Gu Yanta could check the time, his phone rang loudly.

Chang Le's anxious voice came through the receiver. "Captain Gu! This is bad! Something big has happened! Captain Jiang is on a mission, so I had to contact you first!"

"What happened? It's fine, just take your time!" Gu Yanta put the call on speaker while getting out of bed.

"There was a massive explosion at a gas station not far from the Xia County entrance of the Yuling Expressway! At least a dozen fire engines have been dispatched, and it's unlikely that there are any survivors!"

"What?! We're on our way!" Gu Yanta shot up from bed.

Hearing this from the neighbouring bed, Lu Zheng also leapt up. The two of them quickly got dressed, woke up Chen Chen, and rushed out.

The three of them sat in the car, and even from a distance, they could hear the wailing sirens of the fire engines. Though the flames at the gas station had already been extinguished, thick smoke still billowed relentlessly into the sky.

At the perimeter of the gas station, police cars from the Xia County Sub-bureau had formed a semicircle around the scene. Chang Le stood by a car, his brows tightly furrowed and his face dark. When he saw Gu Yanta and Lu Zheng get out of the car, he hurried over to meet them.

"What's going on?" Gu Yanta rushed over, not fully understanding the situation.

"It's not clear yet!" Chang Le replied. "At five-ten this morning, an explosion suddenly occurred at the gas station. There were three employees on-site and a private vehicle refuelling at the time, but the number of passengers in the car is unknown. The fire has now been brought under control, and the firefighters are preparing for the first round of search and rescue to see if there are any survivors."

"Survivors, my ass!" Gu Yanta couldn't help but curse. "Is this how you do your job in Xia County? An accident of this scale, and instead of organising a rescue immediately, you're just standing around watching the spectacle?"

"Captain Gu..." Chang Le looked troubled. "You can see for yourself, the search and rescue operations are all being handled by the fire brigade, we don't have any say in it!"

"This is your excuse?" Gu Yanta's voice was sharp and severe. "Pull up the surveillance footage from around the gas station immediately! If this was intentional, the perpetrator shouldn't have gotten far!"

"This..." Chang Le lowered his head sheepishly. "The tech team hasn't arrived yet..."

"Useless!" Gu Yanta was stunned by Xia County's inefficiency. If this had happened in Yuchuan, Director Wu would have torn them apart by now! No wonder they couldn't even keep basic operations running after Captain Li was killed. Jiang Ziyu has a mild temperament and is an outsider brought in from elsewhere, there's no way he could handle these old farts!

"Boss! I'll do it!" Chen Chen was already standing by on the sidelines. "Give me a few minutes!"

"Good! Make it fast!" Gu Yanta nodded, and Chen Chen quickly linked into the traffic police unit's monitoring centre.

Within minutes, the footage from the monitoring centre was transmitted back. Chen Chen took less than five minutes to edit and restore the video, just as Xu Jia finally arrived with the technical team, dragging their feet.

"Aiyou!" Xu Jia's voice carried a fawning tone. "Captain Gu! Consultant Lu! Expert Chen! So sorry, there was a bit of traffic on the way..."

"Bullshit!" Gu Yanta didn't bother to give Xu Jia face. "It's barely past five in the morning, and you expect me to believe there was traffic? If this is the attitude the Xia County Sub-bureau has, don't blame me for showing no mercy when I report to my superiors!"

Xu Jia's expression clouded over for a moment before he forced a smile back onto his face. "Understood, Captain Gu! I'll make sure to be more careful next time! Besides, Expert Chen has already sorted it out, hasn't he? With a talent like him around, no wonder Yuchuan is the provincial capital!"

Ignoring Xu Jia, Gu Yanta turned his attention to Chen Chen's computer screen. The surveillance footage showed that, before the explosion, the last vehicle to enter the gas station was a black Volvo sedan. The driver stepped out of the car and began refuelling on his own. Just before returning the nozzle, he took a small bottle of liquid from his pocket and discreetly poured it down the fuel hose. Then, as if nothing had happened, he placed the nozzle back, got into his car, and drove away from the gas station.

At around five-ten in the morning, a white Santana sedan drove into the gas station. The driver got out and began refuelling the vehicle. Just as he inserted the nozzle into the fuel tank, the surveillance footage suddenly turned white. Several seconds later, the screen cleared to reveal the gas station engulfed in flames. The explosion had triggered a chain reaction, and the entire gas station was engulfed in flames...

"Lock onto the black Volvo immediately!" Gu Yanta ordered.

Chen Chen swiftly entered the vehicle's details. "Confirmed, it's a cloned licence plate. The car disappeared after heading towards the G390 national highway!"

"Check the surveillance here." Lu Zheng, who had remained silent until now, pointed at the computer screen.

Chen Chen adjusted the video to the specified location. The driver of the black Volvo had his face covered and was wearing sunglasses. Facing the surveillance camera, he raised his middle finger...

"Fuck... This bastard!" Even Chen Chen, who usually prided himself on being a gentleman, couldn't help but swear.

"He's openly provoking the police!" Lu Zheng stared at the figure in the footage, his eyes practically bursting into flames.

"For someone to trigger an explosion like this, could it be Ma Xiangrong's men?" Gu Yanta frowned. "When did he become so bold?"

"Not necessarily," Lu Zheng replied. "Just because Ma Xiangrong has the ability to synthesise this kind of compound, it doesn't mean he's the only one who can use it. Given how he fled the moment Huang Chufeng got into trouble, this doesn't seem like his style."

As the fire was gradually brought under control, firefighters entered the scene to begin search and rescue operations. Unsurprisingly, all property at the site had been completely destroyed. The Santana sedan had burned down to a mere shell, and none of the people present had survived. Not even intact corpses remained, only charred, fragmented body parts were being carried out one after another...

Chen Chen, who rarely participated in fieldwork, couldn't stomach the sight. He was the first to rush to the roadside toilets.

"Can the identities of the victims be determined?" Gu Yanta glared at Xu Jia.

Until now, it had been Chen Chen handling all the work. Now that Chen Chen was gone, Xu Jia fumbled awkwardly with the computer system. After quite some time, he finally managed to pull up the victims' identities.

"There were three staff members on duty at the gas station that night, plus the Santana's driver, their identities have been confirmed." Xu Jia wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Take your team to the scene and collect evidence, see if you can extract the suspect's fingerprints or any other physical evidence near the gas pump!" Gu Yanta ordered Xu Jia.

"This... The place is completely blown up, forget fingerprints..." Xu Jia muttered, clearly reluctant to go. But when he met Gu Yanta's sharp gaze, he swallowed the rest of his words. "Alright... I'll go..."

Gu Yanta turned to speak with Lu Zheng, and behind his back, Xu Jia muttered under his breath, "Tch! Who the hell does he think he is?"

Though he was dissatisfied, he didn't dare voice his complaints openly. He had no choice but to obediently lead a few forensic officers into the site, fully equipped with protective gear. After a thorough search, they returned empty-handed.

"The scene is already like this," Lu Zheng surveyed the charred ruins. "Sending them in was pointless."

"I know!" Gu Yanta replied. "But I want to cure their passive and lazy habits. Jiang Ziyu is too gentle, he's probably been manipulated by these old foxes! I wanted to make a point today. As police officers, our duty is to protect the lives and property of the people unconditionally, not to fuss over personal gain and loss! If Xia County continues to operate like this, it's no wonder the drug trafficking cartels have been running rampant in this area!"

"Alright, calm down." Lu Zheng patted Gu Yanta on the back. "A problem that's been festering for years won't be fixed overnight. You can use this opportunity to shake them up, but the real change will depend on how Captain Jiang leads them in the future."

"Right, I wonder how his mission is going. Once we get back to the bureau, I need to have a proper discussion with him." Gu Yanta frowned. "These officers in Xia County talk big about avenging their former captain, but when it comes down to it, this is their attitude? Looks like their previous work was only done under the high pressure of Captain Li's. This can't go on..."

Speak of the devil, just then, a battered Santana with police lights flashing sped towards them, screeching to a halt beside Gu Yanta. Jiang Ziyu, with two massive dark circles under his eyes, rushed out of the car. The moment he saw the devastation before him, his legs faltered, nearly causing him to stumble.

"This... How did it end up like this..." Jiang Ziyu's voice was hoarse. "I've only been here for a month!"

"Let's pack up first! We'll discuss everything in detail when we get back to the bureau," Gu Yanta said firmly.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: February 17, 2025 by Angel

Edited: February 26, 2025 by Angel