The bad luck is gone.
“Bu Wei confessed almost everything. Wang Xingye isn’t a friend of her parents at all, but a seller who sells drugs, that is, a drug dealer. After Bu Wei’s parents died, this surnamed Wang adopted her. The first two years were fine, but after she grew up, Wang Xingye gradually became unruly. He almost raped her when he was drunk two months ago. But Bu Wei desperately resisted and escaped, and was going to call the police afterwards. But Wang Xingye used his forces in the underworld to threaten her, and finally, the two reached an agreement that as long as Bu Wei helped him accomplish one thing, he would give her a sum of money and never bother her again.”
Yan Xie held his mobile phone and pressed the elevator button several times. Seeing that the number was still stuck upstairs, he simply stopped waiting, turned around and went straight to the corridor.
Han Xiaomei quickly ran to follow him.
“Fuck, Brother Yan, does that mean the little girl is a kidnapping co-perpetrator?” Ma Xiang’s voice came from the other end of the phone.
“It means that Wang Xingye asked Bu Wei to assist in Shen Xiaoqi’s kidnapping, threatening to sell her if she did not cooperate, and Bu Wei agreed. The idea of a few students going on an outing in Tianzong Mountain was also proposed by Bu Wei first. Even if Shen Xiaoqi had not planned the stupid idea of the hero Saving the beauty, she would have found another way to lure Shen Xiaoqi out, get lost on purpose, and then take him to the Phoenix Forest under the secret guidance of the kidnappers.”
Ma Xiang immediately asked: “How many kidnappers were there? Can she provide information about their appearance?”
“It’s consistent with Li Yuxin’s description. All of them were wearing black clothes and covering their faces, four people, Wang Xingye was not at the scene. From the narrative, it is difficult to determine whether the four kidnappers at the scene are Wang Xingye’s subordinates or an accomplice. I have already sent the recording of Bu Wei’s confession to the technical team of the Municipal Bureau.”
On the other end of the call, Ma Xiang’s command immediately sounded: “Go to Director Huang and ask for the recording sent by Brother Yan, hurry up!”
“Brother Yan,” Ma Xiang raised his phone again: “That means she pushed Shen Xiaoqi down the hill? Did she know she was going to kill the victim?”
“Bu Wei’s statement is not like that.” Yan Xie walked across the corridor like a wind, and Han Xiaomei followed behind, feeling so panicked that she couldn’t wait to grow eight more legs. But then she heard Unit Deputy Yan’s calm and urgent words: “According to her until she arrived at Phoenix Forest on the last day, she thought that Wang Xingye was just trying to extort money from the Shen family.”
“Ah?”
“When she arrived at Phoenix Forest, she passed out like Li Yuxin, and when she woke up, she saw He Liang’s corpse in the pit. Shen Xiaoqi had been held on the ground by several kidnappers, and the other party asked her to execute Shen Xiaoqi. Only then did she realise that she was going to kill. After resisting, she was restrained by four kidnappers, who demanded that she must push Shen Xiaoqi down the hill, or kill herself.”
“And then she…?” Ma Xiang asked carefully.
Yan Xie and Han Xiaomei rushed out of the corridor one after the other, passed through the main entrance of the hospital building, and strode towards the parking lot.
“Bu Wei’s mental state is too unstable, and her confession was incoherent, but that’s probably what it means.” Yan Xie paused, then added: “After Shen Xiaoqi fell, she heard the kidnappers say that the police were coming soon, and there was no time. She begged them to give her a way to live, but she was pushed off the cliff by the kidnappers. She didn’t know anything after that.”
Ma Xiang said angrily, “Isn’t this silence?!”
Yan Xie sighed, found his Phaeton in the parking lot and motioned Han Xiaomei to get in the car.
“Hey, wait Brother Yan.” Ma Xiang suddenly realised something: “Everything that Bu Wei has experienced is highly overlapped with Li Yuxin, but how is there a point that is completely different?”
Yan Xie said, “Phone.”
“Yes! Phone!”
Li Yuxin was surrounded by black-clothed and masked kidnappers — now looking at their dress and role, they are more like “notaries” in the execution ceremony — when they gathered around and demanded to kill He Liang, there was a kidnapper who held a satellite phone to her ear. In this way, the King of Spades had a direct conversation with Li Yuxin.
But not in Bu Wei’s case.
King of Spades seems to be hidden, and has not appeared in this case from beginning to end!
“I don’t know.” Yan Xie sat in the driver’s seat, and his sharp frowning eyebrows were reflected in the rearview mirror: “But I feel like this detail can’t be ignored. It may be the key to unlocking the whole case.”
Yan Xie hung up the phone and started the car. Han Xiaomei was sitting on the passenger seat and asked timidly, “We… are we going back to the city bureau right now, Vice-captain Yan?”
“Otherwise?” Yan Xie asked back.
“……”
Yan Xie suddenly became vigilant: “Do you have a date?”
Judging from his expression, Han Xiaomei felt that if she dared to answer yes, she would be strangled in the passenger seat in the next second.
“No no, it’s just seven o’clock. I, I was thinking whether to buy some dinner first…”
“Don’t look for a boyfriend so early!” Yan Xie reprimanded, “How old are you this year, twenty? Twenty-one? Twenty-two? Still young and vigorous, but don’t want to hurry up to develop a career and earn a few more credits while still running and jumping so that you can be promoted to the police rank. What kind of boyfriend are you looking for? People can always rely on their own careers! And money!”
Han Xiaomei: “My mother said it’s easier to find when you’re young…”
“If you have money and a career, you choose men, but if you have neither money nor career, men choose you. Do you understand?!”
Phaeton galloped like an arrow into the traffic flow, and Han Xiaomei’s tears are flying in the air: “Understood, but I don’t have a man…”
“It’s alright If you don’t have one! Now go back to the city bureau with me and catch that surnamed Wang!”
Han Xiaomei said weakly: “But… Vice-captain Yan… we haven’t had dinner yet…”
The red light came on, and Yan Xie suddenly stopped the car, causing Han Xiaomei to almost throw up. Then she heard Yan Xie say as if enlightened: “Ah yes, dinner.”
Han Xiaomei peeked at the gourmet restaurants on both sides of the street with boundless hope burning in her heart. She saw Yan Xie quickly take out his mobile phone and made a call: “Hello, Lao Hu? Last time, the victim’s family thanked me with two wild partridges, are they still kept at your place? Well, yes, I’m on duty tonight, so I won’t be going home. You help me catch those two stupid birds and pluck their hairs, add the good fish maw from your store, and also add dried tangerine peel, red dates, loquat flowers, and stew the meat and bones into the soup…”
Han Xiaomei couldn’t believe it, and her saliva was about to flow down.
“Then take it to my house.” Yan Xie continued, “There is someone named Lu who will open the door for you. Oh, by the way, don’t add too much salt, he can’t eat too salty.”
Han Xiaomei: “……”
Yan Xie hung up the phone, feeling satisfied.
The saliva on Han Xiaomei’s mouth turned into tears in her eyes, and she choked for a long time without making a sound. Only then did Yan Xie notice her crying expression, and said, stunned: “What’s the matter? Are you moved by true love?”
“……” Han Xiaomei felt that this question was beyond the scope.
Yan Xie secretly rejoiced in his heart and taught earnestly, “So if you’re looking for a boyfriend, you have to find someone like me, who will dote on you.” Then he stepped on the accelerator and whizzed out in the direction of the city bureau.
………
Jianning Municipal Bureau.
“Got into a fight? Then how did you deal with it?… Hey, good job, the brothers in Jiangyang County did a great job!… Give Li Yuxin’s mother some fucking money and let her take you to buy drugs, then follow until you reach the dealer that supplies her drugs. Then tracked them all the way up, and after all of them were caught, handcuffed them back to Jianning overnight. There is a big case here, and our brother Yan wants to interrogate them in person…”
Yan Xie strode into the office: “What’s the matter, who is fighting?”
Ma Xiang hung up the phone and stood up: “Brother Yan!”
Usually when everyone is idle, and Yan Xie enters the door, all the younger brothers in the team will stand up and greet him one after another, but it is different when there is a big case in the team. Everyone was so busy flying to and fro, and only the sound of the phone ringing, shouting, and rushing down the corridor one after another can be heard.
Yan Xie put the two large bags of braised egg instant noodles with sausages in his left hand on the desk: “Li Yuxin’s mother confessed?”
“At first, she refused to say anything. But then you asked the police station to find Li Yuxin’s father to assist in the interrogation. As a result, the former couple got into a fight in front of the police. The head of the police station personally went out to resolve the fight…”
Yan Xie said while boiling water and making noodles: “Come on, resolve a fight. I still don’t know what’s going on at the grassroots level.”
Ma Xiang laughed: “Anyway, Li Yuxin’s mother is fucking honest now. I plan to let the Jiangyang County Anti-Drug Squadron cooperate with an ambush tonight. She will lead us to the local drug dealers, and then we pull out the radish along with the mud[1] and sweep away the local underground drug trafficking network in Jiangyang County. These people must have some connection with the fat man surnamed Wang. We have to wait until they are caught, then you can go and interrogate them in person.”
Yan Xie turned around and beckoned: “Han Xiaomei! Come here.”
Han Xiaomei entered the office door and was confronted with a large pile of materials. It was the information on drug-related cases over the past two years that Jiangyang County just faxed. She was just squatting over there with her head full of confusion when she was suddenly summoned by the Lord and rushed over immediately.
“Look, look,” Yan Xie held instant noodles in one hand and pointed at Ma Xiang with the other, then he lectured her: “Learn from your little brother Ma and see how people handle cases. A little girl who just graduated didn’t want to learn more things, and spent all day worrying about finding a boyfriend.”
Ma Xiang stroked his hair and magically pulled out a model figure from the drawer: “Love of a 2D man, you deserve it!”
Han Xiaomei felt so aggrieved that she could not speak.
“Lao Yan! Lao Yan!” Qin Chuan was holding a bowl of instant noodles, and stormed into the door: “I just saw your car drive in from the window, why didn’t you meet anyone for such a long time, fell into the toilet pit? — What the hell, your people have braised eggs, give me two.”
“Brother Qin is out of eggs, give Brother Qin two eggs.” Yan Xie finished his command and asked him, “What’s wrong with you, why are you so pale?”
“Wang Xingye ran away.”
Yan Xie immediately shouted: “What?!”
Qin Chuan waved his hand and breathed a sigh of relief: “Don’t shout, don’t shout. I also got the news just now. I’m not very familiar with the situation on their side. Your team’s Lao Gao and our team’s Lao Yang teamed up to divide the six investigation teams and took three independent informants to arrest Wang Xingye. I don’t know which informant leaked the wind. The grandson surnamed Wang ran away without even taking the documents. I have already interrogated the informants and added three additional groups of people to track down all the studios, galleries, art exhibitions, frequently visited feet massage shops and all kinds of fuck buddies… You hurry up and send a notice of assistance in the investigation so that this grandson does not run out of Jianning.”
Before he could finish speaking, Yan rushed out with instant noodles in his hand: “Let me contact Chief Wei! Contact all the Railway Stations, Bus Stations, and expressway toll booths in Jianning County!!
A lot of smoke and dust raised and rolled away, Ma Xiang held two braised eggs: “…Brother Qin, do you still want to eat them?”
“Eat, eat, eat.” Qin Chuan immediately stretched out his bowl: “One can’t function properly on an empty stomach, eggs are essential to eat…” Then he stuffed half of the braised egg in his mouth and went after Yan Xie while holding instant noodles.
……….
Even if Wang Xingye is a fat man, he is also extremely flexible and cunning like a snake.
The last time he appeared in the hospital was last night. Don’t know what abnormality he felt in Bu Wei’s attitude, this morning, he suddenly contacted other dealers and urgently sold all the “white goods” in his hands for a large amount of cash and bought a set of false documents.
When the police began to hunt him down at night, the dens where he lived in Jianning were already empty.
“Wang Xingye often goes to art exhibitions and galleries, and his whereabouts are all over the southwest region. Once he runs out of Jianning, it will be very difficult to catch him. Everyone listens to me, and sends notices of assistance to all transportation hubs and expressway toll booths, as long as any suspicious persons are found, they will be detained and interrogated immediately, and everyone should not go home tonight! The police platform, command centre, traffic police brigade, public security monitoring, and twelve detective teams will take turns, four-hour shifts! Do you understand? ”
“Understood!”
Yan Xie stood in the large office of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, rubbing his aching eyebrows with one hand, while everyone around him was busy. Suddenly, there was a cup of steaming coffee in front of him — Han Xiaomei.
“Yo, when did you become so discerning?” Yan Xie took the coffee unexpectedly, and before he had time to praise her, Han Xiaomei turned on her phone honestly, and on the screen was a WeChat red envelope sent by Consultant Lu:
[You are going to work overtime tonight. Take it and buy two cups of coffee for yourself and your Vice-captain Yan.]
“……” Yan Xie’s deep double eyelids fluttered, his face became suspiciously red, and after a while, he said forcefully, “It’s right for him to care about me, but why does he care about you?”
Han Xiaomei asked honestly: “Then I’ll return half of the red envelope to Consultant Lu?”
Yan Xie was a little embarrassed: “I didn’t ask you to return, just bought some snacks to eat.”
“—Hot coffee!” Qin Chuan finished the meeting at the anti-drug detachment next door, smelled the odour and came: “Having a little girl in the team who is caring, is great, really great, give me half of it…”
Yan Xie said angrily: “Go and buy it yourself!”
“Oh, don’t be so stingy. The point is Starbucks is already closed, so hurry up…”
Qin Chuan took a paper cup and forcibly poured out half of the hot coffee. He was feeling so happy as if he was reborn. He also took the initiative to take out a cigarette and gave it to Yan Xie. The two of them held the coffee and stood in front of the window, swallowing the clouds and blowing out the fog[2] face to face.
“Two major cases in a row are related to drugs, which doesn’t seem right,” Yan Xie said thoughtfully.
The darkness outside the window was as thick as ink, and only the flickering red dots of the two people’s cigarette butts were reflected on the glass window. Qin Chuan let out a long breath of smoke and asked back, “When Hu Weisheng died of drug allergy at our city bureau, didn’t you already notice at that time that there was something wrong?”
This is a sensitive topic, and although Director Lu didn’t put the words on the table, everyone tacitly agreed — This “coincidence” will one day be turned over and thoroughly investigated.
Yan Xie sighed softly and said, “It’s good that we all know it.”
The white fog rose, and neither of them spoke for a while, not knowing what each of them was thinking about.
“Hey,” Yan Xie suddenly remembered something: “Do we have a local police station relocated in Jianning this year?”
“—Oh, don’t worry, I have my eyes on it!” Qin Chuan immediately became confident when he talked about this topic, and counted his fingers one by one: “The metaphysics in the police, all kinds of feng shui, the eight great fortunes and the eight great misfortunes, as long as any teacher of the police academy gave earnest advice, I have my eyes on every one of them. Firecrackers are not allowed to be set off when the police station is relocated, goldfish are mandatory to raise in all sub-bureaus, and all the phones in the police centre have a sticker saying “Namo Amitabha Buddha”. Last time, Director Lu also asked me to move a stool and put an Eight Trigrams Mirror[3] on the top of his office door — what do you say is still missing?”
Yan Xie pondered for a moment: “What about personal phones?”
Then he took out his work phone and pulled down the back case, revealing that on the phone’s back, the three big characters “Namo Amitabha Buddha” were pasted with scotch tape.
“…That’s wonderful, old Yan,” Qin Chuan was convinced: “This trick is good, you’re really of a high level! When I go back, I will let everyone in the anti-drug detachment past a picture on the back of their mobile phone.”
Yan Xie said modestly: “It’s okay, it’s okay, all these are just the revolutionary experiences left by the seniors.”
After the two finished smoking, it was almost two in the morning. They both went to the various offices together to check around, and when they came out, it was half past two. All traffic card points and high-speed toll stations reported that no suspicious persons and vehicles were seen, and there was no new news from the traffic police and security monitoring; Yan Xie called the plainclothes policeman guarding the hospital, who said that Bu Wei had too much emotional fluctuation in the day and that she had already fallen asleep after getting tranquilliser in the night.
“It will probably be like this in the second half of the night. You should go home and sleep for a while.” Qin Chuan looked at the time and said, “I got up late this morning, so I can stay up for a while longer. You can just take my shift at seven in the morning.”
Actually, Yan Xie also woke up late this morning, but he was different from the bachelor Qin Chuan, he knew that Jiang Ting was waiting at home.
It was like there was a loved one at home, thinking of you, missing you, and pulling you in. The thin and invisible thread in the heart, every now and then would tug at his heart, making him feel more and more uneasy the farther he was from home; from the internal organs to the bone marrow and blood vessels are all clamouring to go home, to go home to confirm the loved one was still there.
“Okay, then I’ll go back to sleep for a few hours.” Yan Xie subconsciously looked away when he said this, trying his best to make himself seem normal from his expression to his voice, without showing the slightest eagerness or impatience: “Then, call me right away if something happens.”
Qin Chuan didn’t notice Yan Xie’s restlessness hidden under the calm surface and waved his hand to indicate that he knew.
Yan Xie was like an 18-year-old boy. He rushed out of the city bureau with the car keys in his hand in hurried steps and drove the car all the way home as if each car tire was wrapped in a light auspicious cloud. The elevator from the garage to the apartment was extraordinarily long and slow, and it was not until he stood in front of the familiar security door that he felt his throbbing heart fall back to his chest.
He pushed open the door, subconsciously relaxed his movements, and was slightly taken aback when he saw the scene in the living room.
The floor lamp beside the sofa was turned to the darkest setting, exuding a lazy halo. Jiang Ting, wrapped in a clean bathrobe, was reclining on the sofa, his head resting on one hand, but he was already asleep.
He was not wearing any shoes, his bare feet were hanging on the carpet, and the whole person was relaxed and soft. On the coffee table in front of the sofa, there was a bowl of rice and a cup of fish maw soup stewed with partridges, and the brand new chopsticks and spoon glimmered under the light.
Yan Xie stepped forward step by step, half squatting on the edge of the sofa and looking at Jiang Ting’s sleeping profile, his eyes flickered slightly.
——He cooked the rice, warmed the soup, even prepared the tableware carefully, tried his best to reduce the preparation work for Yan Xie to eat supper after returning, and then sat here.
Yan Xie thought to himself: “So he has been waiting for me to come home.”
The bad luck is gone.
“Bu Wei confessed almost everything. Wang Xingye isn’t a friend of her parents at all, but a seller who sells drugs, that is, a drug dealer. After Bu Wei’s parents died, this surnamed Wang adopted her. The first two years were fine, but after she grew up, Wang Xingye gradually became unruly. He almost raped her when he was drunk two months ago. But Bu Wei desperately resisted and escaped, and was going to call the police afterwards. But Wang Xingye used his forces in the underworld to threaten her, and finally, the two reached an agreement that as long as Bu Wei helped him accomplish one thing, he would give her a sum of money and never bother her again.”
Yan Xie held his mobile phone and pressed the elevator button several times. Seeing that the number was still stuck upstairs, he simply stopped waiting, turned around and went straight to the corridor.
Han Xiaomei quickly ran to follow him.
“Fuck, Brother Yan, does that mean the little girl is a kidnapping co-perpetrator?” Ma Xiang’s voice came from the other end of the phone.
“It means that Wang Xingye asked Bu Wei to assist in Shen Xiaoqi’s kidnapping, threatening to sell her if she did not cooperate, and Bu Wei agreed. The idea of a few students going on an outing in Tianzong Mountain was also proposed by Bu Wei first. Even if Shen Xiaoqi had not planned the stupid idea of the hero Saving the beauty, she would have found another way to lure Shen Xiaoqi out, get lost on purpose, and then take him to the Phoenix Forest under the secret guidance of the kidnappers.”
Ma Xiang immediately asked: “How many kidnappers were there? Can she provide information about their appearance?”
“It’s consistent with Li Yuxin’s description. All of them were wearing black clothes and covering their faces, four people, Wang Xingye was not at the scene. From the narrative, it is difficult to determine whether the four kidnappers at the scene are Wang Xingye’s subordinates or an accomplice. I have already sent the recording of Bu Wei’s confession to the technical team of the Municipal Bureau.”
On the other end of the call, Ma Xiang’s command immediately sounded: “Go to Director Huang and ask for the recording sent by Brother Yan, hurry up!”
“Brother Yan,” Ma Xiang raised his phone again: “That means she pushed Shen Xiaoqi down the hill? Did she know she was going to kill the victim?”
“Bu Wei’s statement is not like that.” Yan Xie walked across the corridor like a wind, and Han Xiaomei followed behind, feeling so panicked that she couldn’t wait to grow eight more legs. But then she heard Unit Deputy Yan’s calm and urgent words: “According to her until she arrived at Phoenix Forest on the last day, she thought that Wang Xingye was just trying to extort money from the Shen family.”
“Ah?”
“When she arrived at Phoenix Forest, she passed out like Li Yuxin, and when she woke up, she saw He Liang’s corpse in the pit. Shen Xiaoqi had been held on the ground by several kidnappers, and the other party asked her to execute Shen Xiaoqi. Only then did she realise that she was going to kill. After resisting, she was restrained by four kidnappers, who demanded that she must push Shen Xiaoqi down the hill, or kill herself.”
“And then she…?” Ma Xiang asked carefully.
Yan Xie and Han Xiaomei rushed out of the corridor one after the other, passed through the main entrance of the hospital building, and strode towards the parking lot.
“Bu Wei’s mental state is too unstable, and her confession was incoherent, but that’s probably what it means.” Yan Xie paused, then added: “After Shen Xiaoqi fell, she heard the kidnappers say that the police were coming soon, and there was no time. She begged them to give her a way to live, but she was pushed off the cliff by the kidnappers. She didn’t know anything after that.”
Ma Xiang said angrily, “Isn’t this silence?!”
Yan Xie sighed, found his Phaeton in the parking lot and motioned Han Xiaomei to get in the car.
“Hey, wait Brother Yan.” Ma Xiang suddenly realised something: “Everything that Bu Wei has experienced is highly overlapped with Li Yuxin, but how is there a point that is completely different?”
Yan Xie said, “Phone.”
“Yes! Phone!”
Li Yuxin was surrounded by black-clothed and masked kidnappers — now looking at their dress and role, they are more like “notaries” in the execution ceremony — when they gathered around and demanded to kill He Liang, there was a kidnapper who held a satellite phone to her ear. In this way, the King of Spades had a direct conversation with Li Yuxin.
But not in Bu Wei’s case.
King of Spades seems to be hidden, and has not appeared in this case from beginning to end!
“I don’t know.” Yan Xie sat in the driver’s seat, and his sharp frowning eyebrows were reflected in the rearview mirror: “But I feel like this detail can’t be ignored. It may be the key to unlocking the whole case.”
Yan Xie hung up the phone and started the car. Han Xiaomei was sitting on the passenger seat and asked timidly, “We… are we going back to the city bureau right now, Vice-captain Yan?”
“Otherwise?” Yan Xie asked back.
“……”
Yan Xie suddenly became vigilant: “Do you have a date?”
Judging from his expression, Han Xiaomei felt that if she dared to answer yes, she would be strangled in the passenger seat in the next second.
“No no, it’s just seven o’clock. I, I was thinking whether to buy some dinner first…”
“Don’t look for a boyfriend so early!” Yan Xie reprimanded, “How old are you this year, twenty? Twenty-one? Twenty-two? Still young and vigorous, but don’t want to hurry up to develop a career and earn a few more credits while still running and jumping so that you can be promoted to the police rank. What kind of boyfriend are you looking for? People can always rely on their own careers! And money!”
Han Xiaomei: “My mother said it’s easier to find when you’re young…”
“If you have money and a career, you choose men, but if you have neither money nor career, men choose you. Do you understand?!”
Phaeton galloped like an arrow into the traffic flow, and Han Xiaomei’s tears are flying in the air: “Understood, but I don’t have a man…”
“It’s alright If you don’t have one! Now go back to the city bureau with me and catch that surnamed Wang!”
Han Xiaomei said weakly: “But… Vice-captain Yan… we haven’t had dinner yet…”
The red light came on, and Yan Xie suddenly stopped the car, causing Han Xiaomei to almost throw up. Then she heard Yan Xie say as if enlightened: “Ah yes, dinner.”
Han Xiaomei peeked at the gourmet restaurants on both sides of the street with boundless hope burning in her heart. She saw Yan Xie quickly take out his mobile phone and made a call: “Hello, Lao Hu? Last time, the victim’s family thanked me with two wild partridges, are they still kept at your place? Well, yes, I’m on duty tonight, so I won’t be going home. You help me catch those two stupid birds and pluck their hairs, add the good fish maw from your store, and also add dried tangerine peel, red dates, loquat flowers, and stew the meat and bones into the soup…”
Han Xiaomei couldn’t believe it, and her saliva was about to flow down.
“Then take it to my house.” Yan Xie continued, “There is someone named Lu who will open the door for you. Oh, by the way, don’t add too much salt, he can’t eat too salty.”
Han Xiaomei: “……”
Yan Xie hung up the phone, feeling satisfied.
The saliva on Han Xiaomei’s mouth turned into tears in her eyes, and she choked for a long time without making a sound. Only then did Yan Xie notice her crying expression, and said, stunned: “What’s the matter? Are you moved by true love?”
“……” Han Xiaomei felt that this question was beyond the scope.
Yan Xie secretly rejoiced in his heart and taught earnestly, “So if you’re looking for a boyfriend, you have to find someone like me, who will dote on you.” Then he stepped on the accelerator and whizzed out in the direction of the city bureau.
………
Jianning Municipal Bureau.
“Got into a fight? Then how did you deal with it?… Hey, good job, the brothers in Jiangyang County did a great job!… Give Li Yuxin’s mother some fucking money and let her take you to buy drugs, then follow until you reach the dealer that supplies her drugs. Then tracked them all the way up, and after all of them were caught, handcuffed them back to Jianning overnight. There is a big case here, and our brother Yan wants to interrogate them in person…”
Yan Xie strode into the office: “What’s the matter, who is fighting?”
Ma Xiang hung up the phone and stood up: “Brother Yan!”
Usually when everyone is idle, and Yan Xie enters the door, all the younger brothers in the team will stand up and greet him one after another, but it is different when there is a big case in the team. Everyone was so busy flying to and fro, and only the sound of the phone ringing, shouting, and rushing down the corridor one after another can be heard.
Yan Xie put the two large bags of braised egg instant noodles with sausages in his left hand on the desk: “Li Yuxin’s mother confessed?”
“At first, she refused to say anything. But then you asked the police station to find Li Yuxin’s father to assist in the interrogation. As a result, the former couple got into a fight in front of the police. The head of the police station personally went out to resolve the fight…”
Yan Xie said while boiling water and making noodles: “Come on, resolve a fight. I still don’t know what’s going on at the grassroots level.”
Ma Xiang laughed: “Anyway, Li Yuxin’s mother is fucking honest now. I plan to let the Jiangyang County Anti-Drug Squadron cooperate with an ambush tonight. She will lead us to the local drug dealers, and then we pull out the radish along with the mud[1] and sweep away the local underground drug trafficking network in Jiangyang County. These people must have some connection with the fat man surnamed Wang. We have to wait until they are caught, then you can go and interrogate them in person.”
Yan Xie turned around and beckoned: “Han Xiaomei! Come here.”
Han Xiaomei entered the office door and was confronted with a large pile of materials. It was the information on drug-related cases over the past two years that Jiangyang County just faxed. She was just squatting over there with her head full of confusion when she was suddenly summoned by the Lord and rushed over immediately.
“Look, look,” Yan Xie held instant noodles in one hand and pointed at Ma Xiang with the other, then he lectured her: “Learn from your little brother Ma and see how people handle cases. A little girl who just graduated didn’t want to learn more things, and spent all day worrying about finding a boyfriend.”
Ma Xiang stroked his hair and magically pulled out a model figure from the drawer: “Love of a 2D man, you deserve it!”
Han Xiaomei felt so aggrieved that she could not speak.
“Lao Yan! Lao Yan!” Qin Chuan was holding a bowl of instant noodles, and stormed into the door: “I just saw your car drive in from the window, why didn’t you meet anyone for such a long time, fell into the toilet pit? — What the hell, your people have braised eggs, give me two.”
“Brother Qin is out of eggs, give Brother Qin two eggs.” Yan Xie finished his command and asked him, “What’s wrong with you, why are you so pale?”
“Wang Xingye ran away.”
Yan Xie immediately shouted: “What?!”
Qin Chuan waved his hand and breathed a sigh of relief: “Don’t shout, don’t shout. I also got the news just now. I’m not very familiar with the situation on their side. Your team’s Lao Gao and our team’s Lao Yang teamed up to divide the six investigation teams and took three independent informants to arrest Wang Xingye. I don’t know which informant leaked the wind. The grandson surnamed Wang ran away without even taking the documents. I have already interrogated the informants and added three additional groups of people to track down all the studios, galleries, art exhibitions, frequently visited feet massage shops and all kinds of fuck buddies… You hurry up and send a notice of assistance in the investigation so that this grandson does not run out of Jianning.”
Before he could finish speaking, Yan rushed out with instant noodles in his hand: “Let me contact Chief Wei! Contact all the Railway Stations, Bus Stations, and expressway toll booths in Jianning County!!
A lot of smoke and dust raised and rolled away, Ma Xiang held two braised eggs: “…Brother Qin, do you still want to eat them?”
“Eat, eat, eat.” Qin Chuan immediately stretched out his bowl: “One can’t function properly on an empty stomach, eggs are essential to eat…” Then he stuffed half of the braised egg in his mouth and went after Yan Xie while holding instant noodles.
……….
Even if Wang Xingye is a fat man, he is also extremely flexible and cunning like a snake.
The last time he appeared in the hospital was last night. Don’t know what abnormality he felt in Bu Wei’s attitude, this morning, he suddenly contacted other dealers and urgently sold all the “white goods” in his hands for a large amount of cash and bought a set of false documents.
When the police began to hunt him down at night, the dens where he lived in Jianning were already empty.
“Wang Xingye often goes to art exhibitions and galleries, and his whereabouts are all over the southwest region. Once he runs out of Jianning, it will be very difficult to catch him. Everyone listens to me, and sends notices of assistance to all transportation hubs and expressway toll booths, as long as any suspicious persons are found, they will be detained and interrogated immediately, and everyone should not go home tonight! The police platform, command centre, traffic police brigade, public security monitoring, and twelve detective teams will take turns, four-hour shifts! Do you understand? ”
“Understood!”
Yan Xie stood in the large office of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, rubbing his aching eyebrows with one hand, while everyone around him was busy. Suddenly, there was a cup of steaming coffee in front of him — Han Xiaomei.
“Yo, when did you become so discerning?” Yan Xie took the coffee unexpectedly, and before he had time to praise her, Han Xiaomei turned on her phone honestly, and on the screen was a WeChat red envelope sent by Consultant Lu:
[You are going to work overtime tonight. Take it and buy two cups of coffee for yourself and your Vice-captain Yan.]
“……” Yan Xie’s deep double eyelids fluttered, his face became suspiciously red, and after a while, he said forcefully, “It’s right for him to care about me, but why does he care about you?”
Han Xiaomei asked honestly: “Then I’ll return half of the red envelope to Consultant Lu?”
Yan Xie was a little embarrassed: “I didn’t ask you to return, just bought some snacks to eat.”
“—Hot coffee!” Qin Chuan finished the meeting at the anti-drug detachment next door, smelled the odour and came: “Having a little girl in the team who is caring, is great, really great, give me half of it…”
Yan Xie said angrily: “Go and buy it yourself!”
“Oh, don’t be so stingy. The point is Starbucks is already closed, so hurry up…”
Qin Chuan took a paper cup and forcibly poured out half of the hot coffee. He was feeling so happy as if he was reborn. He also took the initiative to take out a cigarette and gave it to Yan Xie. The two of them held the coffee and stood in front of the window, swallowing the clouds and blowing out the fog[2] face to face.
“Two major cases in a row are related to drugs, which doesn’t seem right,” Yan Xie said thoughtfully.
The darkness outside the window was as thick as ink, and only the flickering red dots of the two people’s cigarette butts were reflected on the glass window. Qin Chuan let out a long breath of smoke and asked back, “When Hu Weisheng died of drug allergy at our city bureau, didn’t you already notice at that time that there was something wrong?”
This is a sensitive topic, and although Director Lu didn’t put the words on the table, everyone tacitly agreed — This “coincidence” will one day be turned over and thoroughly investigated.
Yan Xie sighed softly and said, “It’s good that we all know it.”
The white fog rose, and neither of them spoke for a while, not knowing what each of them was thinking about.
“Hey,” Yan Xie suddenly remembered something: “Do we have a local police station relocated in Jianning this year?”
“—Oh, don’t worry, I have my eyes on it!” Qin Chuan immediately became confident when he talked about this topic, and counted his fingers one by one: “The metaphysics in the police, all kinds of feng shui, the eight great fortunes and the eight great misfortunes, as long as any teacher of the police academy gave earnest advice, I have my eyes on every one of them. Firecrackers are not allowed to be set off when the police station is relocated, goldfish are mandatory to raise in all sub-bureaus, and all the phones in the police centre have a sticker saying “Namo Amitabha Buddha”. Last time, Director Lu also asked me to move a stool and put an Eight Trigrams Mirror[3] on the top of his office door — what do you say is still missing?”
Yan Xie pondered for a moment: “What about personal phones?”
Then he took out his work phone and pulled down the back case, revealing that on the phone’s back, the three big characters “Namo Amitabha Buddha” were pasted with scotch tape.
“…That’s wonderful, old Yan,” Qin Chuan was convinced: “This trick is good, you’re really of a high level! When I go back, I will let everyone in the anti-drug detachment past a picture on the back of their mobile phone.”
Yan Xie said modestly: “It’s okay, it’s okay, all these are just the revolutionary experiences left by the seniors.”
After the two finished smoking, it was almost two in the morning. They both went to the various offices together to check around, and when they came out, it was half past two. All traffic card points and high-speed toll stations reported that no suspicious persons and vehicles were seen, and there was no new news from the traffic police and security monitoring; Yan Xie called the plainclothes policeman guarding the hospital, who said that Bu Wei had too much emotional fluctuation in the day and that she had already fallen asleep after getting tranquilliser in the night.
“It will probably be like this in the second half of the night. You should go home and sleep for a while.” Qin Chuan looked at the time and said, “I got up late this morning, so I can stay up for a while longer. You can just take my shift at seven in the morning.”
Actually, Yan Xie also woke up late this morning, but he was different from the bachelor Qin Chuan, he knew that Jiang Ting was waiting at home.
It was like there was a loved one at home, thinking of you, missing you, and pulling you in. The thin and invisible thread in the heart, every now and then would tug at his heart, making him feel more and more uneasy the farther he was from home; from the internal organs to the bone marrow and blood vessels are all clamouring to go home, to go home to confirm the loved one was still there.
“Okay, then I’ll go back to sleep for a few hours.” Yan Xie subconsciously looked away when he said this, trying his best to make himself seem normal from his expression to his voice, without showing the slightest eagerness or impatience: “Then, call me right away if something happens.”
Qin Chuan didn’t notice Yan Xie’s restlessness hidden under the calm surface and waved his hand to indicate that he knew.
Yan Xie was like an 18-year-old boy. He rushed out of the city bureau with the car keys in his hand in hurried steps and drove the car all the way home as if each car tire was wrapped in a light auspicious cloud. The elevator from the garage to the apartment was extraordinarily long and slow, and it was not until he stood in front of the familiar security door that he felt his throbbing heart fall back to his chest.
He pushed open the door, subconsciously relaxed his movements, and was slightly taken aback when he saw the scene in the living room.
The floor lamp beside the sofa was turned to the darkest setting, exuding a lazy halo. Jiang Ting, wrapped in a clean bathrobe, was reclining on the sofa, his head resting on one hand, but he was already asleep.
He was not wearing any shoes, his bare feet were hanging on the carpet, and the whole person was relaxed and soft. On the coffee table in front of the sofa, there was a bowl of rice and a cup of fish maw soup stewed with partridges, and the brand new chopsticks and spoon glimmered under the light.
Yan Xie stepped forward step by step, half squatting on the edge of the sofa and looking at Jiang Ting’s sleeping profile, his eyes flickered slightly.
——He cooked the rice, warmed the soup, even prepared the tableware carefully, tried his best to reduce the preparation work for Yan Xie to eat supper after returning, and then sat here.
Yan Xie thought to himself: “So he has been waiting for me to come home.”
