"Guys! Look at this!" One of the newest recruits, Chang Le screamed.
An office full of sleepy traffic police startled awake. They were supposed to monitor the traffic cameras to ensure that they could respond quickly in the case of an accident, but usually, nothing like that happened. Their work was pleasantly boring, and most of them spent time doing anything else but their jobs.
"What? Is there a pile-up? Do we need an ambulance?" They all yelled over each other.
"Maybe?" Chang Le said hesitantly, his eyes still glued to the screen, his finger pointed at a bright red car that was expertly weaving through the traffic as though it was a hot knife cutting through butter. "I think he's going to crash soon!"
"Wait, isn't that Sun Jingwei's car?" One of his seniors, Zhou Zhi commented, flipping through a notebook. "Red Ferrari? Licence plate number KING15?"
"I think so?" Chang Le squinted at the screen, but he couldn't make out the plate number.
"Must be," another senior, Da Li, pointed out through a mouthful of biscuits. Chang Le twitched at the chewing noises, and the way crumbs fell on his shoulder. He politely brushed them away, vowing to himself that when he got promoted, he was going to ban snacking in the office.
"Oh definitely," a third senior, Yan Chi chimed in. "Even if the car isn't his, just look at the way he drives - Sun Jingwei is definitely behind the wheel."
As one, they turned to stare at the screen just in time to watch the red Ferrari skirt dangerously close to the car next to it, before accelerating even faster and switching a lane.
Chang Le's mouth fell open.
"That showoff," Zhou Zhi rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised that he's driving like this when the sun is still out though, our Superintendent is going to explode again."
"Wanna bet there's a hot beauty next to him? He always takes them out for car rides to impress them," Biscuit-senior Da Li said as he continued to drop crumbs on him.
"Duh of course, it's still daylight, not even he's dumb enough to race like this with clear video evidence."
"He must really like this woman then," Yan Chi stated. "God knows how many women have begged him to use his fancy tricks, but he always refused."
They watched as he made another sharp turn, narrowly squeezing through two cars.
"Why did he refuse?" Chang Le asked curiously. From the file he read on Sun Jingwei, he loved driving and hot women, so he should be jumping at the chance to show off.
"Well, his dad would kill him. The family is already getting flack for his other scandals," first senior said. "The illegal racing could be overlooked if it happened at night - but in broad daylight? Try explaining to everyone how he can still keep his licence." Zhou Zhi said, with no small amount of bitterness.
"Good old nepotism and bribery," Da Li stated, dusting off the last of his crumbs all over Chang Le's head. He quickly shook them off, because he had more questions to ask.
"Wait, you mean there are illegal races? Here?" Chang Le exclaimed in surprise.
"Of course," Zhou Zhi said. "You weren't here five years ago - I tell you, those were the days. There was at least one race every night. Now, there's only one per week. Back then, our Superintendent kept trying to resign in protest, but Sun Jingwei wouldn't hear of it, and kept him employed."
"Why?" Chang Le asked, baffled.
"Because he is insane, or a sadist," Zhou Zhi said, a speculative glint in his eye as he stared at Chang Le.
"He kept him employed, but our Superintendent wasn't allowed to arrest him or his racing buddies. Our Superintendent almost had a stroke. They only let him retire when we made an agreement with us and the cops - none of them could be arrested for racing if it happened past midnight."
"That's…" Chang Le replied, at a loss for words. "Then…Have they ever…killed anyone by accident?"
His seniors gave each other a look.
"What?"
"Well, not that I know of," Da Li said, shrugging. "Then again, they could have hidden it."
"Wasn't there a case of one of his racing buddies crashing into an old woman and a fire hydrant two years ago? Bai Shi Ting?"
"Ah yeah, that one was a real piece of work," Zhou Zhi shook his head, his breezy tone a sharp contrast to his white knuckles, created from gripping onto the chair too hard. "But his dad was also too rich, so we still couldn't arrest him. He's still driving now."
"That's ridiculous!" Chang Le exclaimed. "This is illegal! They should all be arrested!"
Everyone in the office turned to look at him with varying levels of pity on their face.
"Kid, traffic laws don't exist in their eyes," Yan Chi patted his crumb-free shoulder. "The sooner you learn this, the easier it is for you to stay here."
"But… but…this is wrong!" He turned back to stare at the screen. "Is he just going to get off scot free?"
"Pretty much, kid," Zhou Zhi said consolingly, then his face lit up, because he remembered something important."You know what, we can't exactly arrest Sun Jingwei, but let's see if we can send him and his family a warning about flouting traffic laws in broad daylight."
"Oh good idea, I would love to get a bonus," Da Li replied enthusiastically.
His senior then cheerfully texted his current Superintendent about the incident. He got a reply in less than a minute; he would be speaking to the Sun family patriarch about this - or more likely, the Sun family's firstborn son.
See if Sun Jingwei had the guts to be this brazen next time!
He longed to be able to do more to curb the arrogant Young Master Sun, but this wasn't the right time yet. He was here only to provide a pair of eyes for the people who actually had the power to do so.
Meanwhile Chang Le watched the footage over multiple screens, and he couldn't help but notice a generic black car that was trying its best to follow Sun Jingwei's route as faithfully as possible, as though… It was tailing him.
Was Sun Jingwei trying to lose the tail? But who would be following him to begin with?
"Seniors, there's a car that's following him. What do we do about that?" Chang Le asked.
"Really?" Zhou Zhi peered at the screen and shrugged. "Nothing. It's probably his own family's security detail."
"I see," Chang Le said, frowning. He still had a bad feeling about the car, and he zoomed in to take a closer look. Licence plate 09326. Why would Sun Jingwei need a security detail, and if so, why would he go through so much trouble to shake it? Especially if there was already a prior agreement in place?
Eventually, one couldn't see Sun Jingwei's Ferrari anymore. To their surprise, that car made a sharp u-turn into the other lane and promptly drove off in the other direction!
"Guess their job is done," Zhou Zhi murmured to himself.
"Eh? What did you say, Senior?" Chang Le asked.
"Nothing, don't worry about things like this, okay? And especially not about people like Sun Jingwei and his rich friends. Just keep your head down and work hard," Zhou Zhi advised, patting his head like he was a child.
"If you say so," Chang Le replied, giving that strange black car one last look. "I still think this car is weird though."
Senior Zhou Zhi smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"I'll let the Superintendent know too, so leave it to me," Zhou Zhi promised, knowing that he definitely wasn't going to do such a thing.
After all, he had some idea of who was in the car.