Killer Nights

When the police put all of their efforts into finding someone, a large city has a way of becoming much smaller.  Nevertheless, for an individual police officer, a Chinese megacity was still very much a geographic giant.

Lu Xiaoqiang and his two colleagues had been secretly tracking Li Hongbin for three days now.  During those three days, Li Hongbin continued going about his day as he would any other day. He spent his days scheming of different ways of getting his hands on other people’s money, while at night, he plotted how to get his hands on other people’s women.  However, none of these unfortunate women were named Ren Ziyuan. Therefore, after three days of shadowing Li Hongbin, Lu Xiaoqiang concluded that he couldn’t have been responsible for abducting Jiao. As such, he discreetly discontinued his surveillance mission and returned to the sub-bureau.

How ironic for a schemer like Li Hongbin: he’d been under constant police surveillance for three whole days, completely oblivious to the fact that he was the one being a.n.a.lyzed.  Jiang Zhengkai and his subordinates had had him right under their thumb, and he hadn’t even realized it. As far as Li Hongbin was concerned, all that mattered was finding a way of seducing women and getting into their beds.

Unfortunately, just as Lu Xiaoqiang was wrapping up his undercover operation, another team began stalking Li the Playboy.  These guys weren’t nearly as tactful and restrained as Lu Xiaoqiang and his fellow detectives: they straight up barged into the room where Li Hongbin was about to successfully seduce his latest conquest and dragged his naked body out of the bed.

“What… what…?” a startled Li Hongbin stammered as he fell b.u.t.t-naked onto the carpeted floor of a five-star hotel room.  “What do you want?”

“What do we want?  Why don’t you tell us?” a well-built man retorted.  He sat on the edge of the bed and cracked his neck, veins popping and all.  “I’m here to ask you some questions,” said the man as he clasped Li Hongbin’s face with both hands and forcefully squeezed it.

“Ow… ah…”  Li Hongbin cried out in pain while drops of blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.  

“Ah… ah!” cried out another voice in terror.  It was that of a naked woman, desperately trying to cover herself with the hotel’s white bed sheets.

“Shut your d.a.m.n mouth!” the man yelled without turning to face the woman.  He only stuck out a finger and pointed at her. “Or else his d.i.c.k won’t be the only thing you’re sucking tonight.”

“Okay, okay!” the woman replied.  She covered her mouth as her naked body continued to tremble in terror under the sheets.

“Alright, Mr. Li, have you come to your senses yet?” asked the man as he reached for Li Hongbin’s face again.  

At the sight of the man’s outstretched hand, Li Hongbin instinctively jerked backwards.  “Bro! Sir! Please, don’t do this?”

“Oh?  Why? Did it hurt?  A lot?” The man’s voice suddenly became much more relaxed.  “Does that mean you’re ready to answer my questions?”

“I… My dad is Li Gang!  He’s a sub-bureau commissioner, so don’t try anything stupid!” Li Hongbin muttered without thinking.  He was clearly hoping that his old man’s position of authority would be able to prevent this man sitting across from him from inflicting any more harm.

“Oh, really?” asked the man in his newfound relaxed tone.  However, his moves were much quicker than before. In a flash, he grabbed Li Hongbin by the face, then threw him flat on his back with a quick jerk.  Then a large combat-boot-clad foot came down hard on Li Hongbin’s chest, pinning him to the floor.

“Ah… uh… agh…”  A string of chaotic noises emanated from Li Hongbin’s mouth.  Then came repeated blows against his face, which caused the corners of his mouth to split wide open as more blood oozed out.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Li?  You like singing karaoke that much?”  The man ceased beating Li Hongbin’s face as he spoke, but he added more pressure to the foot on his chest.  With the added pressure, Li Hongbin struggled just to breathe.

“Ah!”  Seeing Li Hongbin forcefully hit the floor, the woman on the bed couldn’t help but scream in horror.  Just as soon as she opened her mouth, however, she closed it again as she looked on at the man sitting on the bed while her body still continued trembling.

“Hehe!  Hey there, beautiful, all of this action isn’t giving you an o.r.g.a.s.m, is it?”  This time, the man turned around and looked at the woman when he spoke to her.  “You look like you’d be a good f.u.c.k.” He stood up, grabbed the woman by the hair, and threw her down onto the floor as well.

“Ah!  I’m sorry, sir!  I won’t do it again!” the woman pleaded in between sobs, her naked body now completely exposed.

“What are you sorry for?  You didn’t do anything wrong.”  The man bent down and placed his face right next to the woman’s as if he cared a great deal for her.  “Tell me, what did you do wrong?”

“Noth… nothing…”  Petrified by terror, the woman simply repeated what the man had just told her.

“Nothing?” asked the man, before he forcefully tugged back on the woman’s long hair, causing her back to arch and her mouth to reflexively open.  Then came a crack as the man struck down with great force on the woman’s open mouth, instantly dislocating her jaw.  He stuck his hand in her mouth and red hot blood started pouring out. When the man finally removed his hand from the woman’s mouth, he pulled something out with it.

“I told you that his d.i.c.k won’t be the only thing you’re sucking tonight if you made another sound,” said the man to the dying woman.  He then turned to Li Hongbin and said sarcastically, “Say, Mr. Li, your new girlfriend’s tongue is a bit longer than usual, no? But look here, I fixed it for you!  Aren’t I just a great guy?” As he spoke, he threw what was in his hand in front of Li Hongbin. “So, now are you going to answer my questions?”

“Ah… uh!”  Li Hongbin helplessly kicked his legs as his hands and body continued to be pinned to the floor.  Clearly, he had been struck dumb by the man’s actions; at the same time, he was afraid of touching the woman’s tongue that was now inches away from his body.

“Do you still not want to answer?”  The man glanced at the woman’s now lifeless body on the floor.  He grabbed her neck and snapped it. “Better! Mr. Li said he doesn’t like seeing you without a tongue, so I’m going to turn your head away from him.  Look, Mr. Li, I turned her head around so you won’t have to look at her face anymore!” The man tossed the woman’s dead body onto the bed.

“I’ll talk!  I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything you want to know!”  With the boot still on his chest, Li Hongbin’s voice sounded like it came straight from his windpipe.  His body quivered in terror as a pungent yellow liquid flowed onto the hotel carpet from his crotch.

“It’s actually a simple question, really.”  The man didn’t mind at all that Li Hongbin had just p.i.s.sed himself.  In fact, he bent over closer to Li Hongbin and grabbed his chin before saying, “So tell me, what have you been doing this past week?”  The man then tapped Li Hongbin twice on the cheek before pulling back and saying, “There’s no rush. Take your time.”

“I… I’ll talk… I…” muttered Li Hongbin.  His body shook uncontrollably as more yellow liquid poured out from his crotch.  However, he did start recounting his activities over the past week. He was very specific as he detailed what he did and who he met every single day in the past week.  Perhaps not even his father could’ve gotten such a detailed report out of him.

“Brother Tao, it looks like he didn’t do it.”  One of the other men walked over and whispered into Tao’s ear.

“Yup!” acknowledged Tao.  He then looked at Li Hongbin and said, “Yeah, I don’t think he did it either.”

“Should we go, or…?”  The other man stopped mid-sentence as he looked at Li Hongbin.

“Let’s follow our standard operating procedure,” said Tao as he reached his hand out.  The other man immediately responded by placing a dagger in Tao’s outstretched hand.

“Ah!  Ah-haha… please, please don’t!”  Before the other man could even open his mouth, Li Hongbin crawled up against the wall and started weeping uncontrollably.  “Brother! Mister! Sir! I didn’t do it! I didn’t do anything!”

“Hmph!” Tao sn.i.g.g.e.red before squatting down in front of Li Hongbin.  “Mr. Li, I didn’t say you did anything, did I?” As he spoke, he softly drew a circle around Li Hongbin’s crotch.  The dagger’s edge gently touched Li Hongbin’s exposed skin, but didn’t draw blood.

“Ah!  Haha! Please, don’t!” Li Hongbin yelled out at random, “I don’t know anything!  I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do it!” While he spoke, his hands started scratching at everything within reach.  “I don’t know anything! Haha! I didn’t do anything!”

“Brother Tao, I think he’s gone mad.”  The other man looked at Li Hongbin and shook his head.

“Really?” asked Tao as he shot the other man a smile.  He then got up and looked at the crazed Li Hongbin before remarking, “Since that’s the case, I guess there’s no reason to cut his tongue out too.”

It wasn’t until the next morning when the hotel’s housekeepers came to clean the room that they found the horror scene and called the police.  By the time the police arrived, the woman’s body was already ice cold, and Li Hongbin was still hiding in a corner, having gone certifiably insane.  

As for Li Hongbin’s old man Li Gang, the sight of his baby boy having completely lost his mind was simply too much to bear.  Half of his face went numb, and he was immediately admitted to the hospital emergency room. For someone of Li Gang’s age, facial paralysis probably meant the onset of a stroke.  He’d probably have to spend the rest of his days lying on a hospital bed. It’s sad to think that as a career police officer, he had helped save countless lives, but in the end, he was powerless to save his own son’s.