Chapter 106
Congratulations Captain Jiang for launching J-31
Huhuhuahua——
In the hotel suite bathroom, warm water poured down from the top of the head, washing over the countless bloodstains on the tight and smooth shoulders and back, bringing out a few reddish bloody traces on the skin.
“Huh…” Yan Xie kept taking deep breaths. Some of the wounds cut by the broken glass pieces were quite deep. He didn’t feel it during the adrenaline rush, but it was very painful after relaxing.
At this time, he heard the sound of the bathroom door being pushed open behind him, and when he looked back, he saw Jiang Ting come in with the hotel’s white bathrobe and medicine box in his arms.
“Are you okay?” Jiang Ting asked.
Yan Xie glanced out and raised his chin, his voice sounded muffled in the glass bathroom: “Where are those two?”
“In the hall.”
They were talking about Yang Mei and Qi Sihao. After escaping from the nightclub, Jiang Ting used Yang Mei’s ID card and found a place to rest temporarily to replenish his strength before preparing for the next step and interrogating Qi Sihao property.
Yan Xie’s tall, straight naked body was looming in the steaming heat. He pressed his hands against the glass, looked at Jiang Ting, and said, threateningly, “Why are you here, looking for fuck?”
Jiang Ting leasurily leaned his lower back beside the counter and winked playfully: “You can still get it up? Didn’t the Jack of Diamonds paralyze it.”
Yan Xie raised the corner of his mouth at him with a “hum”, turned off the water, and casually pulled a towel to wipe his hair. Then he pushed open the bathroom door and stepped toward Jiang Ting with malicious intent.
“……” Jiang Ting raised his brows subtly and took a half step back: “It seems that Jack of Diamond is not good.”
He was about to get out when Yan Xie brutally pressed his body and arms on the edge of the countertop, forming a tight-fitting cage. He lowered his head slightly and leaned into his ear, saying hoarsely: “He’s just a pewter spearhead that shines like silver*. If you hadn’t come, I would have killed him sooner or later. Don’t move; just let me kiss once and do it for two rounds…”
[*T/N: An impressive-looking but useless person]
Jiang Ting lowered his voice: “What do? You still haven’t applied the medicine.”
“Come on, let’s do it first.” Yan Xie couldn’t help but tighten the encirclement: “Let me give you some popular general knowledge. Do you know why in ancient times soldiers robbed women after fighting? Because experts say it takes two fucks after fighting, and two fucks are good for your health… Let’s listen to the experts; don’t move!”
The sound of kissing and rubbing filled the empty bathroom, and the echoes made the slightest movement very obvious. After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Ting finally squeezed out a voice from his throat: “…Yan Xie…”
Knock knock!
“Brother Jiang—” There were several knocks on the bathroom door, and Yang Mei’s shouting came from outside, “The surnamed Qi is insisting on ordering room service—!”
Jiang Ting pushed Yan Xie half a step and shouted: “You help him decide, don’t let him come in contact with the waiter!”
Yang Mei got the order and walked away.
Yan Xie looked at Jiang Ting with an unsatisfied look on his face, until Jiang Ting’s ears turned red, and he quickly buttoned his shirt buttons one by one.
“Yang Mei’s five carats have been reduced to four,” Yan Xie announced.
Jiang Ting laughed, kicked the bench in front of the dressing table closer to Yan Xie, motioned for him to sit down, and then opened the medicine box to apply medicine for him.
Yan Xie looked at himself in the mirror angrily. There were about 20 different scars on his sturdy upper body. His short hair was especially black because of the dampness, and his forehead was slightly oozing red blood. Jiang Ting wiped off the wound with alcohol little by little.
“Is that A-Jie dead?”
“I don’t know.” Jiang Ting concentrated on applying the Yunnan white medicine power*, then paused and said, “I didn’t seem to see much blood at the time.”
[*T/N: Used for treating wound and bruises]
“Fuck, missed?”
“Maybe; maybe he was wearing a soft bulletproof vest.”
Yan Xie was a little dissatisfied: “Such a waste.”
“You should treat everyone like you,” Jiang Ting teased, before changing the subject: “Qi Sihao explained just now that he went to the nightclub tonight to meet a director surnamed Liu of the provincial notary office. After discussing making more batches, he went to the toilet halfway through. He had no idea that when he returned, the man with the surname Liu would already be dead. Then he was taken to the underground wine cellar and saw A-Jie. He also knew that if it weren’t for us, he would probably be dead by now.”
Yan Xie couldn’t believe it: “The King of Spades really intends to kill him?”
“Of course not. He should still want to threaten him, but it doesn’t matter now.”
“Then, is he willing to cooperate with us?”
“What do you think?” Jiang Ting applied the medicine to all the deep wounds and finally put a medical bandage on his forehead. He looked at Yan Xie in the mirror and said with a smile, “He cooperated with others to secretly sell the drugs that should have been destroyed. If this gets out, not only will his career be ruined, but he will also go to prison. At the same time, the King of Spades wants his life. The roads on the left and right are blocked. Is there any other way for him besides cooperating with us?”
The two of them looked at each other in the mirror, and the warm orange light from the hotel bathroom reflected in Jiang Ting’s eyes, like a soft pearl shimmering with water. That ruthless, tough, and strong Captain Jiang seemed to be melted from the inside out by something fiery. Even his face, which showed little emotion, could not cover the youthful and soft look between his brows and eyes.
“……” Yan Xie opened his mouth, suddenly took his hand, and said, “You kiss me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Just a kiss.”
Jiang Ting looked back at the bathroom door, leaned over, and printed a kiss on the medical bandage that smelled of medicine on the corner of Yan Xie’s forehead, and then said in a low voice, “You can’t try so hard next time. If something happens to you, do you want me to…”
His voice paused, and he stopped talking. Yan Xie didn’t hesitate: “Want you to what?”
Jiang Ting raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
“Want you to what? A widow?” Yan Xie stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms, pressing him against himself. He exhaled a hoarse and hot breath, and whispered, “Damn, that surname Qi is such a big light bulb. If it wasn’t for him, by now I would definitely—”
Jiang Ting couldn’t help laughing and asked, “Your firebird is ready?”
“The firebird has become a J-31, why don’t you give it a test drive?”
Knock knock!
The door was knocked again, and Yang Mei shouted from outside, “The delivery is here! — Brother Jiang, why did it take you so long to apply the medicine? What the hell are you doing with the surname Yan! Don’t go too far!”
Yan Xie was furious: “Your four carats are now three carats!!”
Jiang Ting laughed, picked up the bathrobe, threw it into Yan Xie’s arms, and raised his index finger to tell him not to get excited: “Take good care of it for now. Let’s try your J-31 after going back…”
Yan Xie hummed in dissatisfaction, but he had no choice but to put on his bathrobe and go out.
In just a few hours, Qi Sihao seemed to be ten years older; he ate the food in his mouth as if chewing wax and looked absent-minded.
“Captain Qi’s cell phone has rung more than ten times,” Yang Mei said, motioning to the coffee table, “I asked him to pick it up first, but he wouldn’t.”
Yan Xie drove Yang Mei to the corner of the sofa like a chicken, sat down, took the wontons sent by the hotel, and started eating. Then he scooped it up with a spoon to feed Jiang Ting. Jiang Ting waved his hand and refused, picked up his mobile phone, and said, “It’s normal; the nightclub that caught fire is in the jurisdiction of the first detachment, and it must be reported to Captain Qi.”
He glanced at Qi Sihao, his eyes seemed to be smiling but also not smiling, “Why don’t you answer it?”
Qi Sihao’s mouth trembled for a while, and finally he made a difficult voice: “…Why are you not dead?”
Jiang Ting gently threw the phone back to him and asked, “If I had died, who would have come to save you today?”
Qi Sihao put down his chopsticks. He couldn’t eat anymore: “Why do you want to save me? What do you want me to do? I’ve already said, I’m not the mastermind of this matter. I’m just mixing in and earning some extra money. I don’t know what you want to ask…”
“No one is interested in your trivial matters. Instead of worrying about being blackmailed by us, it is better to think more about what the King of Spades will do next.”
“King of Spades?” Qi Sihao asked suspiciously.
Yan Xie and Yang Mei held their foreheads at the same time, thinking that this surnamed Qi was really a bold person who dared to go into the water to make money without knowing anything…
Jiang Ting pulled out a chair and sat opposite Qi Sihao, saying word by word: “The King of Spades is a drug dealer.”
He paused, then stared at Qi Sihao’s bloodshot, trembling eyes, and slowly shook his head: “No, it’s inaccurate to say that he’s a drug dealer. He is the drug lord who has been exporting a new type of fentanyl compound for the longest time and the largest quantity in Southeast Asia.”
“……” Qi Sihao’s lips trembled, and after an unknown amount of time, his muttering finally sounded in the room like ice breaking: “It’s not easy to kill me, it isn’t so easy. …I’m the detachment captain, so they can’t just… just…”
At this moment, a buzzing sound rang out. It was Qi Sihao’s phone that vibrated again. Jiang Ting picked up the phone and glanced at it, handed it to Qi Sihao, and motioned to him: “Take it, the detachment captain can’t disappear for too long.”
Qi Sihao actually has a deep-seated fear and obedience toward Jiang Ting, which he might not have discovered himself. Just when he was at a loss, he answered the call subconsciously: “Hello?”
“Captain Qi, why didn’t you answer the phone? A fire broke out in the Jinhui nightclub and three men died, and the sub-bureau higher ups just informed us about it. ”
“Ah,” Qi Sihao asked dryly, “Three people died?”
“One is Director Liu of our provincial notary office. I heard someone from the sub-bureau say that he was burned to death while assisting in the firefighting. Hey, about this matter — our detachment has just blocked the scene, and the sub-bureau explained that it will send someone down early in the morning to assist us in investigating the cause of the fire and hidden fire hazards. I will let you know right away. Tomorrow morning at eight o’clock…”
The voice on the phone continued, but Qi Sihao couldn’t hear anything.
He let go of his hand, and with a clang, the phone in his hand fell on the coffee table and was immediately hung up by Jiang Ting.
The sound stopped abruptly, and the room returned to silence. After a while, Qi Sihao nervously repeated, “Assist in the fire…assisting in the firefighting?!”
“A corpse poisoned by high-purity heroin in the box on the second floor can come ‘alive’ to become a hero who sacrificed his life to firefighting. It can also happen to you. Old Qi, the detachment leader who “sacrificed heroically’ during a certain mission,”Jiang Ting extended his hand and drew Qi Sihao’s pale and blue face, forcing him to face himself: “Look at me. Do you think your detachment leader’s position is more stable than mine? I can become a black police officer who was afraid of punishment and died in the line of duty, why can’t you?”
Qi Sihao’s scattered gaze gradually focused, full of terror and panic. Jiang Ting’s eyes were as calm as ice, piercing straight into the depths of his eye sockets, seemingly able to penetrate his dizzy and chaotic brain and dominate his last nerve that was not burned out.
Qi Sihao finally collapsed:
“Why is it me, why?! I just signed the documents, and I didn’t get much money at all—”
“As long as the law is violated, there is no difference between one step and ten thousand steps. This is true for criminals, but it is especially true for law enforcement officers.” Jiang Ting looked at him calmly and said, “You could have enjoyed the privilege of retiring as a senior officer, but if you try to ask a tiger for its skin, the rest of your life will only be destroyed.”
“……”
Qi Sihao scratched his trousers’ legs with both hands. The veins on the back of his hands burst out, and his fingernails were all discolored. After several minutes, he finally buried his face in his damp palm, wiped his face as if venting, then raised his head and asked:
“But what can I do now?”
Jiang Ting looked at Yan Xie and nodded.
Yan Xie got up and walked into the bedroom of the suite. The sound of the hotel safe’s opening was heard, then he came out after a while and threw a brown paper bag in front of Qi Sihao.
“This bullet rifling data may be one of the important physical evidences to bring the King of Spades to justice.” Jiang Ting tapped his knuckles on the brown paper bag and said solemnly, “I need to know from which police gun in Gongzhou it came…”
The next day.
“Captain Qi.”
“Morning, Captain Qi!”
………
Qi Sihao’s shirt had wrinkled overnight, his briefcase was tightly tucked. He nodded absentmindedly, and he quickly got into the detachment captain’s office, closing the door with a click.
It was not until he entered the office, which he was familiar with, that he seemed to have achieved a brief sense of security and relief. He put down his bag and took out a bottle of mineral water from the cabinet to unscrew it to drink. But he suddenly stopped, and nervously stuffed the bottle of water back into the cabinet.
Will it be poisoned? He wondered.
After all, that’s how Old Liu, who “assisted in firefighting and sacrificed”, died.
When he thought of Old Liu’s murder, Qi Sihao was like an ant on a hot pot; neither standing nor sitting, any movement outside the door disturbed him. He even began to regret that he hadn’t asked for leave today but had followed the instructions of Captain Jiang — No, the former Captain Jiang, and obediently come to work at the Municipal Bureau and pretended to be nonchalant.
Why didn’t the surname Jiang die? It stands to reason that the one, the drug dealer wanted to kill most, was obviously him.
—From last night to today, this thought popped into Qi Sihao’s mind for the 108th time involuntarily.
Ding—
Qi Sihao was startled as if he was facing a great enemy, only to see that it was the phone on his desk, and the red dot of the “Technical Investigation Team” extension was flashing.
“……Hey?”
“Captain Qi, the results of the comparison of the rifling you sent early in the morning have come out. Would you like to come over to the technical investigation team to have a look?”
Qi Sihao couldn’t wait to rush into the technical investigation team’s office. As soon as he entered the office, he almost knocked over the intern policeman’s teacup, and a few drops of hot water splashed on his shirt. The intern policeman immediately exclaimed, “Oops,” and hurriedly apologized, but Qi Sihao didn’t even have the mind to stop and hurriedly wiped the water and walked away.
“Why is Captain Qi in such a hurry?” The technical investigator in the office laughed while sitting in front of the computer: “Suddenly comparing the rifling of this bullet, is there a case?”
“Oh, an old case.” Qi Sihao didn’t want to talk more, he waved his hand perfunctorily: “—The result came out? Whose gun is it?”
The technical investigator pushed the display screen toward him at an angle and said, “You can see it yourself.”
The screen dimly reflected Qi Sihao’s pale face. He glanced down, and his pupils slowly widened.
………
Jiang Ting stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel suite, half of his face reflecting on the glass. Under his feet was Gongzhou, which was gradually waking up. The central business district was full of traffic in the early morning, but there was not a trace of the rising sun in the distant sky, and the tumbling clouds covered the zenith of the city.
“—Yue Guangping?” On the sofa behind him, Yan Xie suddenly raised his head.
“…I see.” Jiang Ting said succinctly, “Go to work as usual, don’t show your timidity; and remember to call your wife. I’ll let Yang Mei drive to pick you up when you get off work.”
Jiang Ting hung up the call and turned around: “The bullet’s rifling data matched with the gun lost at the scene of the operation when Yue Guangping took the lead in rescuing ‘Rivet’ and me after the explosion of the plastic factory three years ago.”
Yan Xie raised his eyebrows unexpectedly.
“The loss of a gun is a major event. It stands to reason that a detailed investigation should be carried out. However, in the middle of the investigation, Yue Guangping died, and it was said that it was a heart attack.” Jiang Ting said with a calm expression: “But many high-level executives think there is a great possibility that Yue Guangping was killed.”
“…Was it you?”
Jiang Ting met Yan Xie’s gaze and did not answer the question directly. It was hard to tell what he was thinking from the outside. After a long time, he turned around from the floor-to-ceiling window with his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and only his slender figure appeared in the backlight.
He said: “This thing… starts with me being ‘released’ by the King of Spades.”
Chapter 106
Congratulations Captain Jiang for launching J-31
Huhuhuahua——
In the hotel suite bathroom, warm water poured down from the top of the head, washing over the countless bloodstains on the tight and smooth shoulders and back, bringing out a few reddish bloody traces on the skin.
“Huh…” Yan Xie kept taking deep breaths. Some of the wounds cut by the broken glass pieces were quite deep. He didn’t feel it during the adrenaline rush, but it was very painful after relaxing.
At this time, he heard the sound of the bathroom door being pushed open behind him, and when he looked back, he saw Jiang Ting come in with the hotel’s white bathrobe and medicine box in his arms.
“Are you okay?” Jiang Ting asked.
Yan Xie glanced out and raised his chin, his voice sounded muffled in the glass bathroom: “Where are those two?”
“In the hall.”
They were talking about Yang Mei and Qi Sihao. After escaping from the nightclub, Jiang Ting used Yang Mei’s ID card and found a place to rest temporarily to replenish his strength before preparing for the next step and interrogating Qi Sihao property.
Yan Xie’s tall, straight naked body was looming in the steaming heat. He pressed his hands against the glass, looked at Jiang Ting, and said, threateningly, “Why are you here, looking for fuck?”
Jiang Ting leasurily leaned his lower back beside the counter and winked playfully: “You can still get it up? Didn’t the Jack of Diamonds paralyze it.”
Yan Xie raised the corner of his mouth at him with a “hum”, turned off the water, and casually pulled a towel to wipe his hair. Then he pushed open the bathroom door and stepped toward Jiang Ting with malicious intent.
“……” Jiang Ting raised his brows subtly and took a half step back: “It seems that Jack of Diamond is not good.”
He was about to get out when Yan Xie brutally pressed his body and arms on the edge of the countertop, forming a tight-fitting cage. He lowered his head slightly and leaned into his ear, saying hoarsely: “He’s just a pewter spearhead that shines like silver*. If you hadn’t come, I would have killed him sooner or later. Don’t move; just let me kiss once and do it for two rounds…”
[*T/N: An impressive-looking but useless person]
Jiang Ting lowered his voice: “What do? You still haven’t applied the medicine.”
“Come on, let’s do it first.” Yan Xie couldn’t help but tighten the encirclement: “Let me give you some popular general knowledge. Do you know why in ancient times soldiers robbed women after fighting? Because experts say it takes two fucks after fighting, and two fucks are good for your health… Let’s listen to the experts; don’t move!”
The sound of kissing and rubbing filled the empty bathroom, and the echoes made the slightest movement very obvious. After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Ting finally squeezed out a voice from his throat: “…Yan Xie…”
Knock knock!
“Brother Jiang—” There were several knocks on the bathroom door, and Yang Mei’s shouting came from outside, “The surnamed Qi is insisting on ordering room service—!”
Jiang Ting pushed Yan Xie half a step and shouted: “You help him decide, don’t let him come in contact with the waiter!”
Yang Mei got the order and walked away.
Yan Xie looked at Jiang Ting with an unsatisfied look on his face, until Jiang Ting’s ears turned red, and he quickly buttoned his shirt buttons one by one.
“Yang Mei’s five carats have been reduced to four,” Yan Xie announced.
Jiang Ting laughed, kicked the bench in front of the dressing table closer to Yan Xie, motioned for him to sit down, and then opened the medicine box to apply medicine for him.
Yan Xie looked at himself in the mirror angrily. There were about 20 different scars on his sturdy upper body. His short hair was especially black because of the dampness, and his forehead was slightly oozing red blood. Jiang Ting wiped off the wound with alcohol little by little.
“Is that A-Jie dead?”
“I don’t know.” Jiang Ting concentrated on applying the Yunnan white medicine power*, then paused and said, “I didn’t seem to see much blood at the time.”
[*T/N: Used for treating wound and bruises]
“Fuck, missed?”
“Maybe; maybe he was wearing a soft bulletproof vest.”
Yan Xie was a little dissatisfied: “Such a waste.”
“You should treat everyone like you,” Jiang Ting teased, before changing the subject: “Qi Sihao explained just now that he went to the nightclub tonight to meet a director surnamed Liu of the provincial notary office. After discussing making more batches, he went to the toilet halfway through. He had no idea that when he returned, the man with the surname Liu would already be dead. Then he was taken to the underground wine cellar and saw A-Jie. He also knew that if it weren’t for us, he would probably be dead by now.”
Yan Xie couldn’t believe it: “The King of Spades really intends to kill him?”
“Of course not. He should still want to threaten him, but it doesn’t matter now.”
“Then, is he willing to cooperate with us?”
“What do you think?” Jiang Ting applied the medicine to all the deep wounds and finally put a medical bandage on his forehead. He looked at Yan Xie in the mirror and said with a smile, “He cooperated with others to secretly sell the drugs that should have been destroyed. If this gets out, not only will his career be ruined, but he will also go to prison. At the same time, the King of Spades wants his life. The roads on the left and right are blocked. Is there any other way for him besides cooperating with us?”
The two of them looked at each other in the mirror, and the warm orange light from the hotel bathroom reflected in Jiang Ting’s eyes, like a soft pearl shimmering with water. That ruthless, tough, and strong Captain Jiang seemed to be melted from the inside out by something fiery. Even his face, which showed little emotion, could not cover the youthful and soft look between his brows and eyes.
“……” Yan Xie opened his mouth, suddenly took his hand, and said, “You kiss me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Just a kiss.”
Jiang Ting looked back at the bathroom door, leaned over, and printed a kiss on the medical bandage that smelled of medicine on the corner of Yan Xie’s forehead, and then said in a low voice, “You can’t try so hard next time. If something happens to you, do you want me to…”
His voice paused, and he stopped talking. Yan Xie didn’t hesitate: “Want you to what?”
Jiang Ting raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
“Want you to what? A widow?” Yan Xie stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms, pressing him against himself. He exhaled a hoarse and hot breath, and whispered, “Damn, that surname Qi is such a big light bulb. If it wasn’t for him, by now I would definitely—”
Jiang Ting couldn’t help laughing and asked, “Your firebird is ready?”
“The firebird has become a J-31, why don’t you give it a test drive?”
Knock knock!
The door was knocked again, and Yang Mei shouted from outside, “The delivery is here! — Brother Jiang, why did it take you so long to apply the medicine? What the hell are you doing with the surname Yan! Don’t go too far!”
Yan Xie was furious: “Your four carats are now three carats!!”
Jiang Ting laughed, picked up the bathrobe, threw it into Yan Xie’s arms, and raised his index finger to tell him not to get excited: “Take good care of it for now. Let’s try your J-31 after going back…”
Yan Xie hummed in dissatisfaction, but he had no choice but to put on his bathrobe and go out.
In just a few hours, Qi Sihao seemed to be ten years older; he ate the food in his mouth as if chewing wax and looked absent-minded.
“Captain Qi’s cell phone has rung more than ten times,” Yang Mei said, motioning to the coffee table, “I asked him to pick it up first, but he wouldn’t.”
Yan Xie drove Yang Mei to the corner of the sofa like a chicken, sat down, took the wontons sent by the hotel, and started eating. Then he scooped it up with a spoon to feed Jiang Ting. Jiang Ting waved his hand and refused, picked up his mobile phone, and said, “It’s normal; the nightclub that caught fire is in the jurisdiction of the first detachment, and it must be reported to Captain Qi.”
He glanced at Qi Sihao, his eyes seemed to be smiling but also not smiling, “Why don’t you answer it?”
Qi Sihao’s mouth trembled for a while, and finally he made a difficult voice: “…Why are you not dead?”
Jiang Ting gently threw the phone back to him and asked, “If I had died, who would have come to save you today?”
Qi Sihao put down his chopsticks. He couldn’t eat anymore: “Why do you want to save me? What do you want me to do? I’ve already said, I’m not the mastermind of this matter. I’m just mixing in and earning some extra money. I don’t know what you want to ask…”
“No one is interested in your trivial matters. Instead of worrying about being blackmailed by us, it is better to think more about what the King of Spades will do next.”
“King of Spades?” Qi Sihao asked suspiciously.
Yan Xie and Yang Mei held their foreheads at the same time, thinking that this surnamed Qi was really a bold person who dared to go into the water to make money without knowing anything…
Jiang Ting pulled out a chair and sat opposite Qi Sihao, saying word by word: “The King of Spades is a drug dealer.”
He paused, then stared at Qi Sihao’s bloodshot, trembling eyes, and slowly shook his head: “No, it’s inaccurate to say that he’s a drug dealer. He is the drug lord who has been exporting a new type of fentanyl compound for the longest time and the largest quantity in Southeast Asia.”
“……” Qi Sihao’s lips trembled, and after an unknown amount of time, his muttering finally sounded in the room like ice breaking: “It’s not easy to kill me, it isn’t so easy. …I’m the detachment captain, so they can’t just… just…”
At this moment, a buzzing sound rang out. It was Qi Sihao’s phone that vibrated again. Jiang Ting picked up the phone and glanced at it, handed it to Qi Sihao, and motioned to him: “Take it, the detachment captain can’t disappear for too long.”
Qi Sihao actually has a deep-seated fear and obedience toward Jiang Ting, which he might not have discovered himself. Just when he was at a loss, he answered the call subconsciously: “Hello?”
“Captain Qi, why didn’t you answer the phone? A fire broke out in the Jinhui nightclub and three men died, and the sub-bureau higher ups just informed us about it. ”
“Ah,” Qi Sihao asked dryly, “Three people died?”
“One is Director Liu of our provincial notary office. I heard someone from the sub-bureau say that he was burned to death while assisting in the firefighting. Hey, about this matter — our detachment has just blocked the scene, and the sub-bureau explained that it will send someone down early in the morning to assist us in investigating the cause of the fire and hidden fire hazards. I will let you know right away. Tomorrow morning at eight o’clock…”
The voice on the phone continued, but Qi Sihao couldn’t hear anything.
He let go of his hand, and with a clang, the phone in his hand fell on the coffee table and was immediately hung up by Jiang Ting.
The sound stopped abruptly, and the room returned to silence. After a while, Qi Sihao nervously repeated, “Assist in the fire…assisting in the firefighting?!”
“A corpse poisoned by high-purity heroin in the box on the second floor can come ‘alive’ to become a hero who sacrificed his life to firefighting. It can also happen to you. Old Qi, the detachment leader who “sacrificed heroically’ during a certain mission,”Jiang Ting extended his hand and drew Qi Sihao’s pale and blue face, forcing him to face himself: “Look at me. Do you think your detachment leader’s position is more stable than mine? I can become a black police officer who was afraid of punishment and died in the line of duty, why can’t you?”
Qi Sihao’s scattered gaze gradually focused, full of terror and panic. Jiang Ting’s eyes were as calm as ice, piercing straight into the depths of his eye sockets, seemingly able to penetrate his dizzy and chaotic brain and dominate his last nerve that was not burned out.
Qi Sihao finally collapsed:
“Why is it me, why?! I just signed the documents, and I didn’t get much money at all—”
“As long as the law is violated, there is no difference between one step and ten thousand steps. This is true for criminals, but it is especially true for law enforcement officers.” Jiang Ting looked at him calmly and said, “You could have enjoyed the privilege of retiring as a senior officer, but if you try to ask a tiger for its skin, the rest of your life will only be destroyed.”
“……”
Qi Sihao scratched his trousers’ legs with both hands. The veins on the back of his hands burst out, and his fingernails were all discolored. After several minutes, he finally buried his face in his damp palm, wiped his face as if venting, then raised his head and asked:
“But what can I do now?”
Jiang Ting looked at Yan Xie and nodded.
Yan Xie got up and walked into the bedroom of the suite. The sound of the hotel safe’s opening was heard, then he came out after a while and threw a brown paper bag in front of Qi Sihao.
“This bullet rifling data may be one of the important physical evidences to bring the King of Spades to justice.” Jiang Ting tapped his knuckles on the brown paper bag and said solemnly, “I need to know from which police gun in Gongzhou it came…”
The next day.
“Captain Qi.”
“Morning, Captain Qi!”
………
Qi Sihao’s shirt had wrinkled overnight, his briefcase was tightly tucked. He nodded absentmindedly, and he quickly got into the detachment captain’s office, closing the door with a click.
It was not until he entered the office, which he was familiar with, that he seemed to have achieved a brief sense of security and relief. He put down his bag and took out a bottle of mineral water from the cabinet to unscrew it to drink. But he suddenly stopped, and nervously stuffed the bottle of water back into the cabinet.
Will it be poisoned? He wondered.
After all, that’s how Old Liu, who “assisted in firefighting and sacrificed”, died.
When he thought of Old Liu’s murder, Qi Sihao was like an ant on a hot pot; neither standing nor sitting, any movement outside the door disturbed him. He even began to regret that he hadn’t asked for leave today but had followed the instructions of Captain Jiang — No, the former Captain Jiang, and obediently come to work at the Municipal Bureau and pretended to be nonchalant.
Why didn’t the surname Jiang die? It stands to reason that the one, the drug dealer wanted to kill most, was obviously him.
—From last night to today, this thought popped into Qi Sihao’s mind for the 108th time involuntarily.
Ding—
Qi Sihao was startled as if he was facing a great enemy, only to see that it was the phone on his desk, and the red dot of the “Technical Investigation Team” extension was flashing.
“……Hey?”
“Captain Qi, the results of the comparison of the rifling you sent early in the morning have come out. Would you like to come over to the technical investigation team to have a look?”
Qi Sihao couldn’t wait to rush into the technical investigation team’s office. As soon as he entered the office, he almost knocked over the intern policeman’s teacup, and a few drops of hot water splashed on his shirt. The intern policeman immediately exclaimed, “Oops,” and hurriedly apologized, but Qi Sihao didn’t even have the mind to stop and hurriedly wiped the water and walked away.
“Why is Captain Qi in such a hurry?” The technical investigator in the office laughed while sitting in front of the computer: “Suddenly comparing the rifling of this bullet, is there a case?”
“Oh, an old case.” Qi Sihao didn’t want to talk more, he waved his hand perfunctorily: “—The result came out? Whose gun is it?”
The technical investigator pushed the display screen toward him at an angle and said, “You can see it yourself.”
The screen dimly reflected Qi Sihao’s pale face. He glanced down, and his pupils slowly widened.
………
Jiang Ting stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel suite, half of his face reflecting on the glass. Under his feet was Gongzhou, which was gradually waking up. The central business district was full of traffic in the early morning, but there was not a trace of the rising sun in the distant sky, and the tumbling clouds covered the zenith of the city.
“—Yue Guangping?” On the sofa behind him, Yan Xie suddenly raised his head.
“…I see.” Jiang Ting said succinctly, “Go to work as usual, don’t show your timidity; and remember to call your wife. I’ll let Yang Mei drive to pick you up when you get off work.”
Jiang Ting hung up the call and turned around: “The bullet’s rifling data matched with the gun lost at the scene of the operation when Yue Guangping took the lead in rescuing ‘Rivet’ and me after the explosion of the plastic factory three years ago.”
Yan Xie raised his eyebrows unexpectedly.
“The loss of a gun is a major event. It stands to reason that a detailed investigation should be carried out. However, in the middle of the investigation, Yue Guangping died, and it was said that it was a heart attack.” Jiang Ting said with a calm expression: “But many high-level executives think there is a great possibility that Yue Guangping was killed.”
“…Was it you?”
Jiang Ting met Yan Xie’s gaze and did not answer the question directly. It was hard to tell what he was thinking from the outside. After a long time, he turned around from the floor-to-ceiling window with his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and only his slender figure appeared in the backlight.
He said: “This thing… starts with me being ‘released’ by the King of Spades.”
