Silent Reading

TL: cici, Editor: Isalee

Synopsis:  Expectedly, these two mental r.e.t.a.r.ds were only able to maintain the peace for only three minutes before they started the d.a.m.n war again.

First Published on Ainushi. 

"I hate a.n.a.lyzing the victim." Lang Qiao pouted and put a pen under her lips and nose. "For those victims who are injured for no apparent reason, I feel like I need a long time before my heart to accept that. Why? Why does someone who is so good have to end up like that just because of bad luck? Why should someone who struggled to live for many years have to be killed by an unprovoked attack from a sc.u.m? But for those victims who are not innocent, or those that even deserve what they got, I feel that it serves them right. And… our action of finding the murderer on his behalf is no different than holding the candle to the devil, I… oh!"

Luo Wenzhou had rolled the paper into a paper drum and knocked the back of her head, successfully stopping Lang Qiao"s long speech.

Lang Qiao held the back of her head: "What did you hit me again for? What I said is what people feel! The police are also people!"

Luo Wenzhou: "Want your salary or not?"

Lang Qiao: "…Yes."

"Then just do your job. From where do you get so many feelings?" Luo Wenzhou grabbed a white board with one hand. Below the photo of a boy who had a small crescent scar on his forehead, he wrote down "He Zhongyi, male, eighteen years old, deliveryman, H-province" and other basic information.

Then, with his height advantage, from above the small white board, and through the clear gla.s.s windows of the office, he took a look at Fei Du who was accompanying Mother He.

Mother He probably heard something from someone and felt very desperate for Zhang Donglai to be released from the Bureau. As she believed that her action would lead to nowhere, she cried until she collapsed, to the point that she could barely walk upright. As a result, she came back with Fei Du"s support.

She was either instinctively grabbing a life-saving straw, or she firmly believed that Fei Du was one members of the Zhang Donglai gang and so she "could not let him run away". While Mother He"s mind was blank, she subconsciously and firmly grabbed the corner of Fei Du"s clothes.

Fei Du was forced to stay there, and therefore Luo Wenzhou saw this scene outside of the window.

Fei Du was a young man after all–it would be easy for him to forcibly get rid of the sick woman who was not even taller than his chest. However, he unexpectedly did not lose his temper and just quietly sat together with this old and ugly woman.

At this time, He Mother had recovered from the exhaustion from her collapse and retrieved some of her wisdom. Luo Wenzhou saw Fei Du hold one of her hands, lean over, and whisper to her. Luo Wenzhou did not know what rhetoric he had said, but Mother He slowly calmed down. She even occasionally nodded or shook her head to respond.

Luo Wenzhou looked through the window and asked, "Has Ma Xiaowei been released?"

Tao Ran hung up the phone: "No. The Sub Bureau sent a message to me and said that Ma Xiaowei"s drug addiction broke out. The people"s police had found out bulks of drug from his residence, so he was detained."

Luo Wenzhou: "Can we call him in for an interrogation?"

Tao Ran shrugged: "No. It is said that he is very unstable. If anything happens, the Sub Bureau cannot take responsibility. If we really want to have an interrogation, we have to send people to the Sub Bureau."

w.a.n.g Hongliang seemed to have made up his mind and would not allow them to come into contact with Ma Xiaowei alone. For this reason, he treated the boy as a museum artifacts–only allowing others to take a look at him through the window. Take him away from Sub Bureau? No way.

At the time, two policemen on the criminal investigation team came in with a cardboard box: "Boss, we brought back all of He Zhongyi"s personal belongings. After the investigation, we can return them to his family. There might be something useful."

He Zhongyi did not have many personal items. There were several pieces of clothing–most of them were uniforms that were given to employees by delivery points–basic daily necessities, a mobile box that he reluctantly could not throw away, and a diary.

Well, it was a diary without much content. It was basically an account book with memos.

In addition to being a delivery person, He Zhongyi apparently also did temporary part-time jobs from time to time. There were always scattered income of small amounts. Summing all those up, his monthly income was comparable to that of a young white-collar worker.

The account book had very detailed records, even events such as spending 2.5 yuan for breakfast was noted down. Luo Wenzhou flipped through a few pages and suddenly said: "What does the note that was attached to the head of the deceased look like? Let me take a look at it."

Someone next to him immediately brought out the close-up photo and handed it to him.

That character "Qian" was written in an askew form–a "kid style" handwriting that was far from decent. The hook on the right was so large that it was about to occupy half of the entire world of the character, which looked very uncoordinated–Exactly the same as the handwriting of the character "Qian" in He Zhongyi"s account book.

"This character was written by the deceased himself." Tao Ran was puzzled, "Wait, I remember when He Zhongyi appeared in the Chengguang Mansion that night, he was carrying a kraft paper bag in his hand. Was there a note in the bag? That kraft paper bag went missing later on. What was inside?"

Luo Wenzhou read through He Zhongyi’s notebook ten lines at a time: "Was it possible that it was cash? Look at this."

Outside the window, Fei Duo nodded with acceptance: "It really costed a lot for the treatment of this disease, but he had just arrived in Yancheng at the time, didn"t he? He just started working. From where did he get so much money?"

Mother He whispered hoa.r.s.ely: "He said that his GongJia (1) had given him an advance."

"Gongjia?" Fei Du was not that familiar with the term, so only reacted after being puzzled for a short while. "You mean the place where he worked?"

Mother He"s body was not in good condition. She was a rural woman who rarely came into contact with the outside world, so she did not know the short-term laborious employment relationship of the manual laborers and their employers–Many people got paid on a daily basis. Both the boss and the worker suspected the other party would run away at any time. The boss who was willing to pay wages in advance was basically doing charity.

And even if the boss did do charity and wished to acc.u.mulate virtue to offer help in emergency, it was very kind enough already to pay for one or two months worth of salary in advance. Nonetheless, the amount of money spent on Mother He’s treatment was probably equivalent to several years worth of salary of a delivery man.

Such a great favour was absolutely impossible to pay off by offering labor. Offering himself was more appropriate.

President Fei, who was also very experienced with men, objectively recalled when he once met He Zhongyi. He concluded that based on the appearance, the boy was not worth the price.

So who gave him the money at the time? Why did he not tell the truth to his mother?

He Zhongyi"s account book held a record of a debt of RMB 100,000. This mysterious debt came from nowhere. In order to investigate this, the criminal police of the Bureau all set off and spent most of a day"s worth of time to interrogate all people at He Zhongyi"s workplace and all people around him. People who were asked all looked inexplicable; not only did they not admit to have lent him money, but they also claimed that they did not even know that he had borrowed money.

When Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran returned to the Bureau, they found Mother He curled up on a few chairs and was asleep. Fei Du got a blanket from somewhere and covered her.

Tao Ran walked over and whispered: "Why is she sleeping here?"

"I offered to book her a hotel, but she refused. She insisted to wait here until you catch the murderer." Fei Du raised his head and saw Tao Ran sweating. He frowned and handed out a tissue from his pocket. "Do you usually work so hard? Looking at you like this makes my heartache."

Before Tao Ran managed to respond, Luo Wenzhou, who was standing next to him, said coolly: "That"s the life of the People"s Police. If you feel heartache, you should pay more taxes and cause less trouble. But President Fei, are powerful businessmen like you not generally busy? Why are you always be so idle?"

Fei Du smiled: "I am not paying a bunch of professional managers for them to talk. I am really grateful of Officer Luo for worrying about my financial security. Actually, you don’t have to. Even if I throw away all of my family’s savings and keep only some pocket money in the bank to earn the interest, it"ll still be more than the salary that you will earn for the rest of your life."

Tao Ran: "…"

Expectedly, these two mental r.e.t.a.r.ds were only able to maintain the peace for only three minutes before they started the d.a.m.n war again.

He held each male gamec.o.c.k in each of his hands and forcibly separated them. After that, he dragged Luo Wenzhou into the office with one hand, and warningly pointed Fei Du with the other.

Fei Du was totally undisturbed and pinched his finger.

Luo Wenzhou flared up into a fury: "This…"

Tao Ran closed the office door and said very helplessly: "After you get off later, you two can happily make an appointment for a fight when you are outside."

Luo Wenzhou caught the meaning beyond the words: "Mm? Do you have something to do after you are off today?"

Tao Ran turned around and looked at him: "I’ll be going to a blind date."

Luo Wenzhou was stunned.

Tao Ran patted his shoulder: "Your brother, I, am old enough. I can no longer be a single n.o.bleman with you."

Luo Wenzhou darted his eyes toward the ground. A moment later, he smiled and pointed to Tao Ran: "You traitor, you didn"t even warn us before you betrayed the organization. Our forever "Go Die Gang" will not let you off (2)."

Tao Ran thought for a moment: "Then I will bribe you. In the future when I have a kid, you will also be a father."

"Don’t do that," Luo Wenzhou waved his hand. "A Luo Yiguo is already enough for me. I don’t have the desire to be a "dad". The future of the motherland still relies on straight people like you–Alright, you can go if you have something else to do. Anyway, just sitting here will not give us any clues. If the murderer is following Zhang Donglai and is concerned about the progress of the case, I think he will do something within these two days. Let"s wait while we investigate."

Tao Ran shook his head and picked up his things to leave. Luo Wenzhou suddenly stopped him from behind.

"Now that you have betrayed the organization, I really feel a bit disappointed in love," said Luo Wenzhou. "Yes, Apartment Slave (3), do you need to borrow a car?"

Tao Ran: "Go away!"

On the evening of the same day, after Zhang Donglai knew when and how he entered and exited the small dark house from Zhang Ting. He believed that the lawyer played an important role in this; therefore, just after he returned home and took a shower with grapefruit leaf, he offered to have dinner with only the lawyer on the same day.

Compared to those colleagues who were doing non-litigation legal services for various gold providers (4), the criminal lawyers" jobs were high-risk, pressurized, and not very profitable. It was very difficult to meet such cases where the litigant was stupid and rich where the case itself was not complicated. If he was not Zhao Haochang’s cla.s.smate, it would not be his turn to enjoy this kind of benefit. The lawyer was pleased and went for the dinner.

Zhang Donglai politely gave him a red envelope (5). In the beginning, he offered to drive the lawyer back. However, right after they left the hotel, they happened to run into a beautiful woman with perfect body proportions. She greeted Zhang Donglai with familiarity and entered Zhang Donglai’s car with a natural att.i.tude.

The lawyer consciously felt that it would not be very good to stay with them. He would be an annoyance. So he sensibly sat down in the back seat and said that he would like a ride to the nearest metro station.

In the car, the beautiful woman and Young Master Zhang were talking shamelessly, which made the audience feel as though he was sitting on pins and needles. The lawyer was not so cheeky, so he had to pretend that he was only air as he leaned behind and played with his mobile phone. When pa.s.sing a crossing, Zhang Donglai slammed on the brakes. As a result, the lawyer leaned forward. At this moment, he saw something at the corner of the car.

Thinking that something on the car seat was thrown off because of the sudden stop, the lawyer wanted to pick it up. When he bent over, he was suddenly stunned.

He saw that it was a silver-gray striped tie with a big label on the tail. It was well-crafted, but seemed to be rubbed forcefully and the shape of it was changed. It looked like a salted fish and was curled up in the gap of the back seat.

"There is a scar from the blunt instrument that was used to hit the back of the deceased"s head. The deceased was suffocated to death. The weapon was some kind of soft cloth. Scarves, ties, soft cords, and similar objects are all possible…"

The lawyer was drunk in the beginning. At that moment, the alcohol evaporated from his open pores with a "hu" sound.

At this time, Zhang Donglai seemed to suddenly remember that there was a living creature in the back seat. While he was restarting the car, he looked back at the lawyer: "Lawyer Liu, why are you bending over? Are you drunk or uncomfortable?"

The lawyer hurriedly straightened up, and the blood in his entire body rushed to the top of his head. His limbs were cold and his ears creaked. He forced a smile: "I… I was a bit dizzy."

Zhang Donglai looked through the rearview mirror at him. Probably influenced by the light, Lawyer Liu felt that he saw indescribable haze in between Zhang Donglai"s eyes.

Fortunately, Zhang Donglai did not put him in his heart. After briefly looking at Lawyer Liu, he again devoted himself to chatting with the beauty sitting next to him. Lawyer Liu rigidly kept his sitting posture, opened his cell phone camera and secretly filmed the area around the tie. Then, he stretched one of his feet little by little, picked up the tie with his toes, and quickly put the tie into his briefcase with the cover of his sleeve.

Just before he could get his hand out, Zhang Donglai looked through the rearview mirror again: "Is that station correct? Lawyer Liu?"

The lawyer was scared to the point that his heart almost stopped functioning. He completely lost his language function and could only nod.

Zhang Donglai raised his eyebrows: "How sweaty is your face! Is the temperature of the air conditioner too high?"

The woman partner sitting shotgun opposed the suggestion: "Don"t make it lower, I am cold."

If not for the silly girl who did not know the truth as she just sat in the car and talked, Lawyer Liu believed that he must have already been scared to death. He could not recall how he got off Zhang Donglai’s car. Zhang Donglai leaned forward from inside the window: "Lawyer Liu, are you really okay? You really don"t need me to send you home?"

The lawyer tried to pull his facial muscles: "Really."

Fortunately, Zhang Donglai was obsessed with beauty and he did not really want to send a short man home. After he got confirmation, he immediately stepped on the accelerator and left.

The night wind blew over and Lawyer Liu found that his back was soaked.

(1) Gongjia: An old fashion Chinese word of "company".

(2) Go Die Gang: Slang. Refers to the "organization" of single people, since they want all people who are not single die. Betraying this organization means someone has found a girlfriend/boyfriend.

(3) Apartment Slave: Slang. Refers to people who pay housing mortgage.

(4) Gold Providers: Slag. Refers to very rich clients.

(5) Red Envelope: Traditionally, Chinese people give out money inside red envelope when there is something to celebrate.