Chapter 485: Chapter 176: Community Iron Fist, No One to Rely On!

The difference in the growth environment is even more crucial.

If Mu Shuang had always been struggling under suppression and doubt, it’s inevitable that she would develop a mindset focused more on what she might lose or do wrong rather than what she could gain or learn.

"You lost because you fought alone."

Cheng Ye didn’t keep her guessing, paused and added, "There comes a time when manpower is exhausted. To catch you, I can mobilize one or two hundred people, or even three to five hundred to block and monitor. But you are only one person, you have no room for mistakes, any decision lacks the confidence to withstand risk."

"No..." Mu Shuang pondered deeply, slowly shaking her head.

In undercover tasks, the enemy is in the light, I am in the dark.

The advantage in numbers is merely the victor’s post-mortem, not a decisive factor.

Sometimes, having too many people leads to disaster, breeds betrayal and chaos, and instead messes things up.

Just like when the Hundred Ghosts Gang caught foreign gangs, she always used elites and never used hundreds or thousands of people to blockade, the commotion would only alert the enemy.

"Still don’t understand?"

Cheng Ye clapped his hands to indicate, Long walked out of the interrogation room with a smile, quickly dragging over a man with a black hood over his head, his whole body limp, as if knocked unconscious.

Who is this?

Mu Shuang frowned, unable to recognize him at first glance.

But when her eyes swept over the familiar clothes, shoes, and the bracelet hanging on his hand, she was stunned.

"Long, let Jiang Chuan catch his breath."

"Haha." Long smiled and pulled off the black hood.

Jiang Chuan kept his eyes closed, a trace of defiance frozen on his face, his mouth slightly open as if he wanted to curse.

"This..."

Mu Shuang was suddenly taken aback, looking at Cheng Ye in disbelief.

But she saw Cheng Ye still with that smile on his face, the type of smile that was hard to understand.

"You... already knew my identity?"

"Mu Shuang, Director Liu’s operative, an operative in the Fifth-Phase of the checkpoint..."

Cheng Ye nodded slightly, recounting all the information he had found out one by one.

The cooperation meter on the panel fluctuated suddenly, leaping like an electrocardiogram, reflecting Mu Shuang’s current surging emotions.

She couldn’t believe it. Had her identity been exposed so quickly?

Or did Cheng Ye know her identity from the beginning?

"Did you think I arrested Jiang Chuan? Did you think ’fighting alone’ meant I had many people under me and you didn’t?"

"Wrong."

Cheng Ye stood up, moved his shoulders, his tone suddenly solemn, "The one who gains the Way gains much help, the one who loses the Way has little help."

"Your undercover operation seemed to sink into the bottom layer of the Buffer Zone, blending in with the people here."

"But this kind of undercover work is really too low-level, just child’s play disguise."

"In that building you’re in, I don’t know anyone, but everyone could be mine. They will report you, they will expose you... they will help me deal with you."

"Why?"

"Because from the beginning your undercover work isolated you from the masses; your undercover work was always a solo act avoiding others’ sight."

"Do you understand?"

The last three words, Cheng Ye enunciated each word, his gaze sharp as a knife, piercing Mu Shuang’s eyes.

Mu Shuang shuddered, opened her mouth, but her throat seemed blocked by something, she couldn’t utter a word.

She suddenly recalled being escorted into the mall, those penetrating gazes like a ton of weight launched from the mezzanine.

Yes, she previously thought that Jiang Chuan being caught by ordinary people was a great humiliation, a laughingstock that could be mocked for a long time.

How could she have thought of uniting with these ordinary lower layers to create a deeper cover for her disguise?

Thoughts scattered like tangled threads.

All these years under Liu Kun’s orders, serving as the Fire Ghost King in the Hundred Ghosts Gang, she believed she did not do poorly, yet she never received a word of praise, even Jiang Chuan thought she was becoming more unsociable, hard to approach, like she was becoming a different person.

In hindsight, indeed deserved, what she did could be done by anyone.

Leading the lackeys to grab foreign gangs, retaliating against forces targeting Happiness City... over ten thousand in the Hundred Ghosts Gang, and after so many years still a scattered plate of sand, never forming true organizational power.

Now pointed out sharply by Cheng Ye, she realized one thing.

Actually, she had been avoiding certain things all along, never daring to face them directly.

For a moment, the cooperation meter on the panel plummeted suddenly, instantly dropping below 20%, and then soared to 95% like a rollercoaster.

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, then realized that this silly child must be overthinking things again.

Fixating solely on her own problems, but failing to see the essence of the problem.

If this mentality doesn’t change, she’ll only become more and more pained moving forward.

But Cheng Ye also understood, if he broke this point right now, Mu Shuang’s cooperation might not soar to 100%.

Well, with so much material, missing this one wouldn’t matter much.

Thinking about the purpose of Mu Shuang’s appearance and her identity, Cheng Ye could already guess some things.

If the one accompanying him to the Wilderness next wasn’t Jiang Chuan, but Mu Shuang, planting a mine for the future for just one search opportunity would be too uneconomical.

So, Cheng Ye sat down again, changed the topic, and asked, "If we play this game again, I let you hide, I come to catch, do you think you can win?"

"Win..." Mu Shuang stared at Jiang Chuan lying limp in the corner, gently shaking her head.

"Then do you know where the problem lies?"

"Information?"

"Information is only part of it." Cheng Ye shook his head, "In future tasks, the person issuing the task may not have detailed information. This requires your own investigation, and it’s the key to survival. More important than information is... support."

"Support?"

"If I let the people from three units of building 7 in the community cooperate with you, do you have the confidence to win?"

"Hmm..." Mu Shuang pondered, still shaking her head.

"What if the entire community of sixteen buildings cooperated in the act and disguise with you?"

Mu Shuang’s eyes brightened yet still shook her head.

"Not sure?"

"No." Mu Shuang said softly, "The cost of having four thousand people in the community play this game with me is too high."

"Is it?"

Cheng Ye turned to Long, "Long, if I tell you to bring 4,800 people from the community to play a scene with her?"

"Whatever you say, boss!" Long grinned, "Not to mention acting a scene, even building a human wall is no problem!"

"So, where do you think her problem lies?" Cheng Ye asked again.

"Of course, it’s because she doesn’t have someone like you to back her up, boss!" Long shrugged, his tone slightly annoying, "Unlike me, I only need to do what the boss asks."

These words, with a hint of ridicule that was hard to hide.

But to Mu Shuang’s ears, it made her heart tremble, an inexplicable emotion welling up.

She blinked in surprise, but after meeting Cheng Ye’s gaze, she couldn’t help but squeeze out a smirk.

"Inspector Cheng, haven’t you already guessed that I was going to swap places with Jiang Chuan, and said it on purpose for me to hear?"

"If you think it was on purpose, then it was on purpose. If you feel it’s useful, then listen."

Cheng Ye tilted his chin, "Long, aren’t you releasing them yet?"

Long approached with a smile to unlock the chains, repeatedly apologizing, "Sorry, Miss Mu, I just found out your identity, many apologies! If you feel wronged being tied up, or if someone in the community was too much, Long will kneel and apologize to you!"

He paused, and added, "But I... have one thing to say to you, even if you gather four thousand people in Da Fu Community to help you, the boss still has a way to catch you."

"Oh, you believe in him that much?" Mu Shuang couldn’t help but smile at these words.

Compared to Jiang Chuan, Long seemed more like he was bewitched by Cheng Ye, loyal as if a death soldier.

In the information she checked, Cheng Ye had only been in contact with Celestial Essence Community for a month.

However, Long didn’t respond again, after unlocking, he stood respectfully to the side.

Mu Shuang stood up, moved her body, her chest echoing with a teeth-gritting "crack" sound.

After moving around, she shook her head lightly again, "Inspector Cheng, if you expect me to be as obedient as Jiang Chuan and Long, I might not be able to do it."

"Is that so?"

Cheng Ye slightly shook his head, secretly smiling.

In the upper right corner of his vision, Mu Shuang’s cooperation meter, at her rising moment, steadily settled at 100%.

What a stubborn fellow.

It seems future directives for Mu Shuang will require effort and deliberate coaching.

Unlike Jiang Chuan, whose edges have long been worn down by worldly affairs, with his set principles.

Well, thinking of this, as Cheng Ye clicked on ’search’, he suddenly became curious.

What would Mu Shuang’s belief be?

...