Kidnapping All Mankind

Kidnapping All Mankind

Chapter 1: Refreshing Criminal Charges

I must be crazy.

Even in his most arrogant dreams, Wu Qingchen never thought that one day he would wear a crumpled shirt, equally crumpled pants, a bulletproof vest outside, a lifejacket, with two bulletproof gla.s.ses in front of him, and sit upright on the Great Hall of the People’s1 main stage, rows and rows of seats in front of him filled with people, no matter yellow or white or black, their faces all filled with panic, anxiety, surprise, hope, and so on, almost the entire range of human emotions.

I must be crazy.

Wu Qingchen lowered his head, forcibly repressing his faint headache, trying to quickly leave this dream.

This kind of absurd dream was as absurd as the dream he had five hours ago in a certain old house five thousand kilometers away. Maybe it was even more absurd.

Maybe it was a rumor. It was said that when interior decoration managers promoted wooden doors to their customers, beside boasting its aestheticism, environmental friendliness, healthiness and so on, the most important reason for their recommendation was the sweet gentle sound when knocking at the door.

However, whether a metal door, a wooden door, or a plastic door that any store of some quality refused to sell, when it had been knocked at for a full five minute without any answer, there was a kind of "getting angry" environmentally damaging sound, and the sweet gentle knocking "Du du du…" would become a not so sweet "Bang bang bang…"

Then it would become this sound now that couldn’t be linked in any way to ear sweetness: "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The effect was remarkable.

Half a minute later, the door slowly opened, revealing a young man who was still yawning.

No one would be happy after being waken up in the middle of their sleep, and even when the young man who’d opened the door was in the middle of a yawn, his face still very accurately portrayed an irritable and impatient expression.

However, not even in one second, when he saw the guests outside, the young man’s yawn, irritation, and impatience, immediately vanished, and his sleepy eyes also spread wide open.

This was very normal. It wasn’t anyone that could see in the middle of their afternoon nap two policemen with stern faces standing outside of the door, accompanied with two army men with even sterner faces.

"Wu Qingchen?"

Without a complaint of "why did you take so long to open the door," or a courteous "sorry to disturb you," the policeman standing in front glanced over the young man when the door opened, and seemingly very casually shifted forward. His right foot very naturally slipped between the door and the frame.

"It’s…it’s me…" The young man involuntarily retreated and his left hand fell from the door’s handle to pull at his crumpled pants.

"You moved here the third of May 2001 ?"

"Yes…" The young man formally identified as Wu Qingchen moving here on the third of May 2001 swallowed his saliva.

"Graduated from the Lianjiang County’s Western Primary School? In fourth grade you had an altercation with cla.s.smates and your left eyebrow was injured? There’s a 7 millimeter scar?"

"What… yes…that’s right…"

A small fight from 10 years ago, they only came to investigate now? Or was it an invisible injury from ten years ago that finally erupted? This question made Wu Qingchen very startled, and unconsciously his hands left his crumpled pants and started to move aimlessly. Of course, they were fruitlessly trying to reorganize his equally crumpled shirt.

As if they didn’t see Wu Qingchen’s panic and nervousness, the policemen stared a long while at his left eyebrow, then lowered their head and compared it to several pages of paper that had obviously been tortured beyond recognition. They began asking a series of questions.

Some of those questions were very simple, merely about Wu Qingcheng’s past or present status, graduation, work, resignation and so on. Those question were very easy to answer, and the only details Wu Qingcheng could fill in were "Yes," "That’s right," "Probably."

Some questions were a lot more troublesome, many were about Wu Qingchen’s small scars left by his fistfights, outdoor work, home living, or even natural body reaction.

For example: Does the first finger segment of your ring finger have a scar 5mm long shaped like a semi-arc? 13 cm on the back of the your right arm, was there two black spots of respectively 03mm and 02mm?…

To this kind of question, Wu Qingchen a naturally couldn’t remember too clearly.

Any normal person couldn’t possibly remember clearly.

Fortunately, for such questions, the middle-aged policeman and the army man who had come closer who knew when didn’t pay too much mind to his answers. They merely read the description in the several pages in their hands and very carefully compared it to Wu Qingchen’s body.

What was this about? Public Security still needed to so carefully verify someone’s identify before arresting him? Wait, arrest? Why arrest me? Wrong, wrong, it should be on what basis are they arresting me?

Becoming aware of this point, Wu Qingchen became very angry, and the thing that made people even angrier was, the middle-aged policeman seemed to play him like a monkey, time after time asking him to pull up his trouser legs, time after time asking him to slant his head.

Finally, when the middle-aged policemen asked for the seventh or eighth time Wu Qingchen to "lift your left arm a little higher, a little higher again," Wu Qingchen completely exploded!

This young man who still didn’t figure out how things were since the moment he opened his door…

This young man who didn’t have one opportunity to say something on his own initiative since the moment he opened his door…

When this young man, whose dignity had been disregarded since the moment he opened the door, whose understanding had been disregarded, whose ownership of this house had been disregarded, heard this crooked, disgustingly-faced, vile-toned middle-aged policeman say for the eighth time "lift your left arm a little higher, a little higher again," he suddenly moved his left hand–

Only a little higher… not a little higher again…

This way, the policemen and army men obtained their desired cooperation, and Wu Qingchen also expressed his dissatisfaction and anger.

Moreover such a subtle way didn’t waste any time, and while the policeman and the other army man’s examination was very careful, the progress was also very fast.

At most in three, five minutes, Wu Qingchen’s hands, little arms, little legs, those parts that couldn’t have been considered embarra.s.sing had been carefully examined by the two of them several times. The middle-aged policeman’s doc.u.ment had also been turned to the last page, and he finally made the first request that asked even more cooperation from Wu Qingchen: "Mister Wu, please pull up your shirt, there’s still the last item left."

The Wu Qingchen who continued to be very angry continued to make veiled protests, and also continued to obey the demand.

When he pulled his shirt, Wu Qingchen’s movements were light.

This was purely his body’s instinct.

It was probably because when he slept at noon his posture wasn’t very proud, and he hooked the quilt’s zipper or the shirt’s b.u.t.tons, so he he felt a little pain in his abdomen. So when he pulled his shirt he naturally avoided the slightly painful place.

He hesitated with his head bowed down, feeling at the same time that this wasn’t any great reason. The Wu Qingchen who was focused on pulled off his clothes didn’t notice that the the two army men and policemen who’d been very grave from the moment he’d opened the door, all exposed shock the moment Wu Qingchen pulled his shirt off.

Following the vision of those fours, Wu Qingchen who’d just raised his head lowered it back:

The spot stared at by five pairs of eyes didn’t have any black spot, no scars, no swelling, no traces like the ones that had been inspected before. There was only small circular hole with a radius of about 5mm and a depth of 10mm—

The scientific name for it was navel.

Apart from the skin that was a little darker than when he was eighteen years old, this was purely a very normal young man’s abdomen.

However…

Strange? Wu Qingchen carefully examined his own abdomen. Weird, his pain was around this spot, but why there wasn’t any red mark?

Hence, Wu Qingshen lifted his right hand and softly pushed on it.

And then there was the uniform sounds of breathes being inhaled in.

"What are you doing!" "Stop!" "Let go of your hand!" "Move your hand away!"

Wu Qingchen did even better: he raised both his hands.

It could be seen from his standard surrender pose what level of severity those four sentences reached.

No one laughed, as if Wu Qingchen’s raised hand could also shoot out deadly bullets, or maybe there was an unseen lethal a.s.sa.s.sin hiding in the bright hall outside. The fours of them at time locked a deathly stare on Wu Qingchen, at times scanned all around with a searching gaze, and at times they looked at each others. After a long while, after they realized there was nothing abnormal, they visibly sighed in relief.

"From now on, don’t do anything rash…" Compared to a few dozen seconds ago, the middle-aged policeman’s face was a little whiter, and sweat was obviously visible on his forehead. Maybe he thought that his request was a little too broad, so he paused a moment. The middle-aged policeman once again added: "Act more or less as usual, just don’t do any brusque movement."

"Yes…yes…"

Looks like there’s something dangerous about me? Is there a gun hidden in my shirt that doesn’t even have a pocket, or maybe I can pull out a knife from my belly b.u.t.ton?

When he was being yelled at by the four persons at the same time, Wu Qingchen thought he was going to be shot dead the next moment. His brain suddenly went blank and his legs almost couldn’t stand steady. Now, although the middle-aged policeman’s voice had already become very gentle, Wu Qingchen still felt stiffness in his body, and even his tongue was like in a knot.

"Alright, lower your hands. What about your belly? You’re not comfortable? Do you have some sensations?" Another army man beside Wu Qingchen noticed that Wu Qingchen’s movements were quite stiff when he lowered his arms, and he couldn’t refrain from lifting his right hand like he wanted to pat his shoulder and let him relax, but then it looked like he thought about something else and abruptly took his hand back.

Wu Qingchen didn’t see this change, he just honestly answered: "Hm, a little, maybe I b.u.mped into something, it just feels like… just like…"

"Just like you’ve been tripped by a tree branch, and you fell on a rock, but fortunately the rock was very round, so it’s just a b.u.mp and it’s not yet to the point of pain, this kind of feeling?"

"Hey…" It’s was too unreasonable right? Wu Qingchen was extremely stunned.

This description was so precise it was a little overboard.

Because, this was precisely the content of the last scene in Wu Qingchen’s dream during this afternoon nap.

At noon, Wu Qingchen had a very absurd dream.

Inside the dream, Wu Qingchen suddenly came to a village like the kind often seen in movies set in ancient times made by western countries. A blue sky, white clouds, undulating hills that reached far beyond the limit of his vision; green little gra.s.ses, gurgling streams, and a slight breeze that blew past several tall trees with a "sha sha sha."

Then who knew how long later, a stranger suddenly also moved out from the vegetation, then he stood next to the gra.s.sland and started talking with Wu Qingchen. He didn’t say too many words, maybe the reason was because Wu Qingchen didn’t understand a word, so he didn’t answer back anything. Then the stranger suddenly started to wave the tool in his hand with force for some inexplicable reason, like he was starting to become angry.

Wu Qingchen was a little scared so he stood up and wanted to quickly leave, but he was a little careless and got tripped by a tree branch, fell on a rock, and the rock was even very round, so it was just a b.u.mp, but you couldn’t say it was real pain.

Dreaming to this part, Wu Qingchen had been woken up by the noise from an unimportant phone call. After the call he put the phone on silent and planned on going back to sleep a bit, but he had the lingering sensation his brain was a little swollen, so he hazily lay on the bed for who knew how long. Finally he was woken up by the "boom boom boom" noises coming from the door.

So this was Wu Qingchen’s weird dream this afternoon, and the last scene was exactly the same as described by the army man.

Wu Qingchen’s face couldn’t conceal his surprise. Eventually it came to the second policeman who’d stood in the hall outside so far. He coughed. This policeman had a few white hairs already and he said to the other army man who likewise stood in the hall: "We don’t need to ask any further right? Here’s… very inappropriate."

"No we don’t need to. In the city you guys are indeed talented specialists, but… you also know, in this kind of situation I’m not the only one who’s worried, any excessive caution can’t be wrong." The second army man shook his head, and quickly dialed the phone he was holding in his right hand and hiding behind his back: "Yes… already identified… there is… there is…. there is… yes… yes!"

He put his phone down and nodded at the policeman who already had some white hair and who was exposing an inquisitive face: "For now it’s still your jurisdiction, you do it."

The white haired-policeman nodded and walked in front of the door. He fished his police card from his pocket, "Mister Wu Qingchen, it’s the duty and responsibility of every citizen to a.s.sist Public Security, now there’s a major case that requires your cooperation. Please pick up your belongings and come on the car with us."

When he heard "major case," Wu Qingchen had no desire at all to "come on the car with us."

Maybe it was because he was too nervous, so Wu Qingchen’s mouth trembled slightly, and the "What thing did I do?" that he originally wanted to say changed into: "Did I do my thing?" when it actually came out of his mouth.

No one laughed at this. Another voice came from the stairs: "That’s right, you did your thing, and it’s a pretty big thing… You’re suspected of kidnapping the whole of humankind… How is it? This criminal charge is big enough, it’s also pretty refreshing right?"