Chapter Sixteen: Famous Throughout the City

  After arriving at the Public Security Bureau at noon, Liu Handong had been making a statement in the conference room. He had lunch with boxed meals. After finishing the first transcript, he was replaced by another person to continue questioning him. Every detail was not let go, and the same question was asked no less than eight times. Liu Handong's mouth was dry and his tongue was sore, and he was somewhat impatient. Fortunately, there were good cigarettes and tea, which could be endured.

  An old policeman repeatedly asked about the details of the gun battle in the courtyard of Tiehua Street 108, which basically corresponded to Ma Guoqing's record. He couldn't help but put down his pen and ask: "You kid, how can you be so brave? Facing a group of armed thugs, you can still remain calm and counterattack, aren't you afraid?"

  Liu Handong said, "I was afraid after the fact, but at the time I didn't think of anything else, just thinking about how to kill them. I don't know how many people they brought, in short, killing one would be enough, killing two would be a profit."

  The old policeman asked: "When the gangster took Ma Guoqing hostage, you shot him dead with one bullet, without even giving him a chance to speak. Where did your confidence come from? Weren't you afraid of mistakenly shooting a police officer?"

  Liu Handong said, "Don't worry, at such a close distance I won't miss again. If not, I'd rather hang myself from a hair. By the way, I used the August 1st rifle in the army, and within ten meters, I can shoot the bullet into the cartridge."

  The old policeman picked up his teacup and took a sip of strong tea: "Troops cultivate people, looking at your file, you have been awarded third-class merit, is it from the shooting competition?"

  Liu Handong said: "No, I am the champion pig feeder of the troops."

  The old policeman almost spat out a mouthful of tea, looking at Liu Handong's expression not like joking, nodded and said: "Not bad, the champion is indeed outstanding."

  The door was pushed open and Wan Xudong brought in a woman in her early twenties, saying: "Little Liu, this is the psychological expert invited by the provincial hall to provide you with psychological counseling."

  Liu Handong asked strangely: "Tutoring what?"

  The woman sat down and said, "Hello, my name is Shangguan Jin. You can call me Teacher Shangguan. Usually, after military police kill a criminal, they will more or less have some psychological trauma. I'm here to help you alleviate this mood."

  "Thank you, I'm fine, don't worry about me."

  Shangguan teacher smiled faintly and looked at Wan Xudong, who coughed dryly and said: "Well, if there's a need, it's not too late to find Shangguan teacher again."

  Shangguan teacher handed over a business card to Liu Handong and left with Wan Xuedong.

  Dinner was still takeout, and the female staff sent two boxes to the conference room. After a while, several old ladies in police uniforms came over with two more boxes of food, saying they were on a diet and couldn't eat them. Liu Handong didn't hesitate, and wolfed down the whole thing in just a few mouthfuls.

  It wasn't until 11:30 at night that Liu Handong, a key witness, was finally sent to the Public Security Bureau's guesthouse by Wan Xudong's men. The guesthouse was just next door to the Public Security Bureau and only served internal personnel, decorated according to four-star hotel standards. There were only three people living on one floor: Liu Handong and two auxiliary police officers who had been assigned to protect him - or rather, to prevent him from running away.

  The bed in the hostel was very soft, the sheets were snow-white, the air conditioning was sufficient, and there was 24-hour hot water. Liu Handong sat on the bed and patted it, saying: "I've never stayed in such a high-end hotel before, brothers, let's go out for barbecue, I'll treat you."

  Two auxiliary police officers hastily declined, saying they were unwilling to do so. Liu Handong couldn't force them either. He took a shower and went to bed, exhausted from the past two days, mainly due to high mental tension. As soon as he relaxed, he fell into a deep sleep, but woke up at 6:00 am sharp the next morning, a habit formed during his military service, unable to sleep in late.

  He did not know at this time that many things had happened tonight.

  At 7:30, Liu Handong returned to the conference room with the accompaniment of a police officer and continued to make a record. However, after waiting for half an hour, no one paid attention to him until 9 o'clock when Wan Xudong walked in with heavy footsteps, looking exhausted with two dark eye circles.

  Yesterday evening, the killer who was hit on the head with a brick by Wang Xing and suffered a concussion escaped from the hospital. Meanwhile, Gu Changjun, the most crucial person in the entire case, mysteriously died in the detention room of the Public Security Bureau, with preliminary examination showing that he had suddenly contracted heart disease.

  According to Ma Zai's confession, on August 31st, he was instructed by Gu Changjun to disguise himself as a police officer and abduct a little girl. He used tape and nylon rope to bind her up and put her in a woven bag. After searching for a long time on the road, they finally chose Liu Handong.

  According to Gu Changjun's plan, they put the kidnapped little girl in the black car and then killed the driver of the black car, creating a fake scene that the driver of the black car had kidnapped and murdered the girl before crashing into the Huai River. However, things did not go as planned when the driver discovered them mid-way, forcing them to take action ahead of schedule. In the end, the two were no match for the driver of the black car. Gu Changmin, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, died after hitting his head, and Gouzi was thrown out of the car with a steel bar piercing through his face. Fortunately, this construction site belonged to the Shifeng Group, and Gu Changjun, who had been following behind, used a crane to rescue him.

  Combining Shu Fan's memories and Liu Handong's confession, the whole case is clear, but the only thing that can't be explained is why Gu Changjun wanted to kill Shu Fan. After the first attempt failed, he even hired a small team of hitmen to launch a strong attack. The most reasonable explanation is that he was instigated by Wang Shifeng to murder Shu Fan in revenge for Xia Qingshi.

  Gu Changjun's plan was indeed seamless. Not long ago, a heinous crime occurred where a black cab driver murdered a young woman, causing widespread panic. Taking advantage of the fact that the impact of this case had not yet dissipated, another similar case was manufactured, and the police would be under double pressure from their superiors and public opinion. In such a situation, it is inevitable that there will be oversights, and the case will be hastily closed, thus successfully framing the black cab driver as the scapegoat for the murder.

  Now with Gu Zhangjun's sudden death, the case cannot continue and can only be hastily closed, leaving many doubts.

  These things, Wan Xuedong naturally wouldn't tell Liu Handong. He just shook hands with Liu Handong: "Little Liu, there's nothing for you to do here, go back first."

  "That's it?" Liu Handong was somewhat disappointed. The public security bureau's boxed lunch was delicious, the air conditioning in the guest house was very cool, and living there was quite comfortable.

  "It's all right, thank you for your cooperation. If there's anything else, we'll come find you again." Wan Xudong said absent-mindedly. With Gu Changjun dead, the storm had subsided, but someone still had to take responsibility for the dereliction of duty. The municipal bureau was probably going to face another storm.

  "By the way, where's my car?" Liu Handong suddenly remembered his scrapped Passat, maybe it could still be used after some repairs.

  "The traffic police department had it towed to a scrapyard." Wan Xudong dropped the sentence and left with two auxiliary police officers.

  Liu Handong thought of Pu San and rushed to the Nanguo Scrap Processing Plant, where a large number of vehicles that had been temporarily detained for violating regulations and those involved in accidents were parked. Many units also reported scrapped cars here, and every day, several compulsory scrapped vehicles were destroyed. More than a dozen dilapidated cars were lined up in a row, with a crawler crane lifting a huge iron plate crashing down, instantly crushing the car into an iron pancake.

  That Passat was also among them, smashed into a pile of iron sheets. Liu Handong stood on the slope and looked at it with heartache. He turned his eyes and saw several cars that still looked like they were 40 or 50 percent new, and he couldn't help but have an idea.

  "Hey, stop right there!" A loud shout came from behind. Liu Handong turned his head to look and found himself face to face with the traffic cop who had been chasing him that night at the scrap metal processing plant.

  Liu Handong took off running, with the traffic police hot on his heels, shouting "Halt!" as they chased after him.

  The factory was located in a remote wilderness, empty and flat. Liu Handong ran very fast, that young traffic police officer chased after him, pursuing him relentlessly. The two of them ran from the factory area to the fields, then from the fields to the highway. Liu Handong still had plenty of energy left, he looked back and saw the traffic police officer was already exhausted, holding his waist and slowly walking forward, then sat down on the side of the road with a thud.

  Liu Handong smiled slyly and was about to leave when a Santana police car suddenly appeared, cutting him off and stopping in front of him. The traffic cop in the driver's seat pointed at him and said, "Run, keep running, let's see if your legs are faster than my four wheels."

  "It's no use running anymore, let's just accept our fate." Liu Handong said, even if he could run, he couldn't outrun the car.

  Young traffic police officer, limping and hobbling over, his uniform soaked with sweat, his face contorted in agony: "Oh mom, my lungs are going to burst, does Old Wu have water in the car? Give me a sip."

  He pointed at Liu Handong and said: "What are you running for? I'm not catching you. You little guy can really run, must be a horse's descendant."

  Liu Handong took a look at the police car, and the rearview mirror that he had damaged was already replaced, but some scratches on the body were still there. He couldn't help feeling a little guilty, not because he was afraid of being caught by the police, but because he was afraid of being fined. He only had 300 yuan on him, which his mother had given him.

  The young policeman took two bottles of mineral water from the car, threw one to Liu Handong and drank a few mouthfuls himself before pouring half a bottle over his head, shaking his hair and saying: "You're quite something, I'm the city bureau chief's running deputy champion, but I just can't outrun you."

  Liu Handong laughed: "Even if you're the champion, you can't outrun me. Our troops are stationed on the plateau, running five kilometers cross-country every day, carrying guns and ammunition. What's that?"

  Young policeman said: "Liu Handong, where did you serve in the army?"

  Liu Handong said: "I was a soldier in Yunnan, how did you know my name?"

  Young police officer said: "All kinds of police in the city know your name, you've made all the police in Jiangjin suffer, no sleep for a night, continuous overtime, shot on the spot, regardless of life or death. I've been a policeman for two years and haven't seen such a big scene."

  The old policeman said, "Wanted is just wanted, but the most surprising thing is that he was a killer last night, and today he became a heroic model of justice. Don't mention you, Xiao Tan, I've been a police officer for 20 years and have never seen anything like this."

  Liu Handong said: "So you're chasing me for this?"

  The young policeman said: "Isn't it? Such a cool role must be met, I heard you killed several armed thugs, how did you do it?"

  Liu Handong said: "I'm hungry, let's go eat, I'll treat. We can talk more at the dinner table."

  The old policeman looked at his watch and said, "Get on the bus."

  Three people drove to a braised pork restaurant near the southern suburbs, just in time for lunch. The road in front of the restaurant was lined with taxis on both sides, and under the awning were many bare-chested men. When they saw the police car appear, the drivers hastily ran out and rushed to start their cars.

  "Never mind, let's change to another one." The old policeman said with a bitter smile. Traffic police and taxi drivers are like cats and mice, eating under the same shed always feels uncomfortable.

  Liu Handong changed to a family restaurant with fewer people, ordered four dishes, all of which were main courses with meat as the main ingredient. Because it was lunchtime at work, he didn't order beer and instead bought a box of Red Plum from the small shop next door. He chatted and ate with two policemen, learning that the older policeman's name was Wu Lianghai and the younger one was Tan Jiaxing, both of whom were patrol police officers from Yunshan Brigade.

  "What were you doing at the scrap processing plant?" Tan Jiaxing asked.

  "Go find my car."

  Tan Jiaxing said: "Your car has been forcibly scrapped, if you want to find a driving job, you might as well go to the taxi company to ask around, they are currently recruiting."

  They hadn't chatted for a few sentences when the intercom sounded, saying that there was an accident nearby and letting Old Wu and Xiao Tan handle it. The two quickly put down their chopsticks, picked up their hats, bid farewell to Liu Handong, and drove away.

  One person can't finish so many dishes. Liu Handong asked the waiter to pack and settle the bill, but the waiter said that the bill had already been settled by a young police officer.