Chapter 8: The Legend of the Red-Clothed Woman

  The woman in red is a person, I don't know her name, and I don't know her age. Even more so, I don't know her address or hobbies. She's almost like an enigma, an enigmatic woman.

  The real boss of the Fragrant Pavilion is said to still have to listen to this red-clothed woman. So, there are always plenty of rumors about this red-clothed woman.

  Some say the Red Dress Girl is a young and beautiful woman, some say she's an elderly person in her seventies or eighties; Some say she's a wealthy socialite, while others claim she's the mistress of a high-ranking official or a rich businessman... Anyway, there are all sorts of versions, but none of them are entirely true.

  But overall, one thing is certain: the woman in red is no ordinary woman.

  The day after the accident of the school bus of Yi Hua University, our school received an email from a woman in red.

  I'm not aware of the specific content of the email, but I do know that after the school leaders read it, they immediately convened an emergency meeting and sealed off all four main gates of the school at the first opportunity.

  This has led to a lot of speculation and unease, also making the school atmosphere suddenly become very oppressive and tense.

  After numerous doubts, the person in charge of the school's propaganda department came forward to explain: Recently, a gangster force has arrived at the location where the school is located, causing multiple vicious incidents. In order to prevent the teachers and students from being affected, the school decided to temporarily close the school before the government completely controls this gangster force, prohibiting all outsiders from entering the school, and also strictly forbidding teachers and students from going out.

  The ban was issued just 24 hours after the accident involving the school bus of Yi Hua University. At that time, I and Du Yifei, as well as five other classmates, were still in the hospital.

  Zhang Shuang's surgery was not very successful, but she is no longer in danger of losing her life. The doctors did their best to treat her and finally managed to temporarily pull her out of the clutches of death. The hospital has informed us that we should transfer Zhang Shuang to a provincial hospital with better medical conditions as soon as possible for further treatment.

  So we quickly coordinated with Liu Yifang to handle the relevant procedures and promptly contacted Teacher Gong at school.

  Soon, Zhang Shuang was sent away. The other two injured classmates who were transferred to the provincial hospital with her. Yihua University thought that the medical conditions here were not good and firmly requested that all injured students be transferred to the provincial hospital, and the school had no choice but to comply.

  Li Zheng also left together, but he went to Yihua University, not the Provincial Hospital. How his ending will be, I don't know, only feel that his experience may not be too good...

  After finishing everything, we were preparing to return to school when the school's ban was issued. So I, Du Yifei and seven others rushed back to school.

  All the security guards at school were on duty, not a single one was resting. Moreover, they even held the rubber batons that they usually didn't bother to carry in their hands, looking like they were ready to take action at any moment. After checking our student IDs, the security guards finally let us in.

  This time when I returned to the dormitory, Dazhang, Xiaolizi and Aqiang were all there, silently doing their own things, completely ignoring my arrival.

  "Coughing, I asked: 'Have you guys been recalled by the school too?'"

  "What kind of world is this? We're being locked up and isolated..."

  Xiao Lizi said with a huff: "It's all because of that woman in red, she's just talking nonsense after eating her fill, where did this so-called black society come from? I think it's just to attract attention..."

  A Qiang shook his head, and said seriously: "The red-clothed woman didn't talk nonsense. We really have a gang of underworld forces here, I heard they have several hundred people, and each one is a repeat offender, extremely vicious..."

  Xiao Li interrupted A Qiang's words: "How did you know? You saw them..."

  A Qiang slapped his desk heavily and said loudly: "I didn't see them, but I saw the documents on my dad's office desk - the documents from the provincial government."

  Xiao Li stopped talking and stared at A Qiang in a strange way.

  Dazhang also looked at Aqiang strangely and after a long time, he coughed heavily: "What official is your father?"

  A Qiang stretched his mouth, but he didn't say a word. However, there was an unusual expression in his eyes - it was a kind of pride!

  He must be proud of having a father like him, and in that pride, there is a great deal of admiration.

  Dà Zhāng furrowed his brow: "ā Qiáng, you little scoundrel, are you still a brother or not? You didn't even mention this small matter?"

  A Qiang hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "My dad is the captain of the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Criminal Police Brigade. The document was something I saw unintentionally, it was sent by the province to ask my dad and his team to cooperate in clearing out that black social force. Just listen to it, don't go around talking nonsense, you have to be responsible."

  We all nodded in unison, and for the detectives, we were all consistent with admiration and envy, and a little bit of expectation. Looking forward to when we can also become a detective who can hold a gun and fight against evil forces. Heroes are the dreams of every man.

  I don't quite understand: "Who is the woman in red?"

  Xiao Li Zi let out an "ah" and was 12% disbelieving: "You don't know the Red Dress Girl???"

  "Ha ha ha: 'You little rascal is really one of a kind... even Hongyi doesn't know...'"

  I feel ridiculed: "I don't know, you all know?"

  A Qiang looked at me, also with a face of disbelief: "Won't be, right? Alright, I'll tell you. The Red Dress Woman is a legendary figure in our place... a woman, anyway. Nobody knows her age, and nobody has ever seen her face. All we know is that her influence in our place is enormous, almost as big as the government's..."

  I furrowed my brow: "I've heard all of these before, I thought you knew who the Red Dress Woman was, but it turns out that what we know is just the same as me, all legends."

  A Qiang shook his head: "What I said earlier, you may have heard of, but what I'm going to say next, you may not know. Listen carefully, this is all internal news." A Qiang pretended to cough and lowered his voice, continuing: "According to internal sources, the Red Dress Woman is actually an organization, and the head of this organization is called the Red Dress Woman, which is why it has such a name. Within the Red Dress Woman organization, there are many big shots holding important positions, as well as thousands of members from all walks of life, so their information is more timely than the government's, and their influence is not much less than that of the government... They are the real local emperors in our city."

  "I was surprised: 'The Emperor of the Soil? How could the government allow such an organization to exist? You little brat, aren't you just talking nonsense?'"

  A Qiang shook his head and changed the subject: "Don't not believe me, I'm telling you a secret. Do you know who was responsible for crashing into Yi Hua University's school bus this time?"

  I felt a sudden movement in my heart and immediately asked: "Is there some inside story?"

  Ah Qiang smiled: "Of course, otherwise how could it be a secret?" He deliberately stopped and didn't say anything, which almost led to Xiao Li Zi and Da Zhang teaming up to beat him. Only then did he continue speaking: "My dad brought the driver who caused the accident back for questioning, guess what? That kid was a three-noes person with a record. My father thought things weren't that simple, so he suddenly launched an investigation. The result was beyond everyone's expectations - it wasn't an accidental incident at all, but... a premeditated murder!"

  I couldn't help but laugh when I heard this: "Nonsense, isn't it just a traffic accident? You're making it sound like a TV drama..."

  "A'Qiang slapped his desk again and said loudly, "Believe it or not! I'm telling you, my father just told me this. He also asked me to stay in school honestly and not go out for a while."

  I somewhat believed: "So, who exactly is going to kill a few students?"

  "Ah Qiang was taken aback: 'How am I supposed to know? If I knew, wouldn't I have told my dad already and let him solve the case?'"

  I forced a smile: "That's true. But killing students, this seems too unreasonable, right?" I paused for a moment: "Didn't you say that the red-clothed woman's information is reliable? Does the red-clothed woman not know who wants to kill people from Yi Hua University?"

  "A Qiang shook his head: "I don't know, haven't heard of it.""

  "Everyone, listen to me. No matter who wants to kill someone from Yi Hua University or for what reason, it has nothing to do with us. We just care about eating and playing games, the rest can be ignored."

  "Right, right, it's none of our business, let's just mind our own affairs and not get involved in these trivial matters..."

  He hadn't finished speaking when the phone on the table rang. He answered it: "Hello, Dad, what's up?"

  The two of us looked at Little Li silently for a while, and finally, Little Li sighed with a bitter smile: "It's really not going to work out, my dad said that just now several masked men robbed our supermarket, losing tens of thousands of dollars."

  "Are your parents okay?"

  Xiao Li shook his head: "They're fine. But several security guards at the supermarket were injured... They had guns, and they were very powerful, AK-47 assault rifles or something like that... Even the police who came to stop them were completely overpowered..."

  A fleeting blankness appeared in my mind again: AK47? And suppressing the police? Is this all true?

  "Is anyone dead?" Da Zhang suddenly asked.

  Xiao Li was taken aback: "Of course not! If he's dead, our family is finished... what kind of attitude do you have?!"

  Dà Zhāng waved his hand vigorously: "I didn't mean that! I'm just worried those scoundrels might be... ****!"

  When these words came out of Da Zhang's mouth, the few of us fell silent collectively. In recent years, terrorist attacks abroad have been increasing, with explosions, assassinations, kidnappings and so on, which we often see in newspapers, TV and online, truly making us feel fearful from the bottom of our hearts.

  Xiao Lizi also fell silent, and after a long time, he slowly said: "It shouldn't be, right... Our family doesn't have any dealings with those dark organizations from abroad..."

  I took a deep breath: "Don't scare yourself, what terrorist organization, ****, our country has been very peaceful in recent years, how could it be that out of nowhere a group of **** comes and coincidentally goes to rob the supermarket of Little Li's family? I think it's just some daring thugs who happened to rob the supermarket of Little Li's family once. The police will definitely catch them within a short period of time and bring them to justice."

  My words failed to convince them and we once again fell into collective silence.

  After a few minutes, A Qiang said: "I'll call my dad and ask him, he knows much more than us..." He really called his dad and started chatting with him.

  We two quietly listened, from Ah Qiang's father words, we knew more information: about half an hour ago, Xiao Lizi's family opened a supermarket in the city center was robbed by a group of unidentified masked men with guns. The gangsters shot and injured three security guards and two customers who were shopping at the supermarket, took away a sum of cash and some goods, and even took away two hostages when they left. After receiving the report, the police rushed to the scene, but because the police were not fully prepared and did not expect that the gangsters would have powerful weapons such as AK47 assault rifles, and had to consider the safety of the hostages, they were once suppressed by the gangsters and retreated step by step, and could only ask for support from the armed police. When the armed police arrived at the scene after receiving the order, the gangsters had already successfully escaped with two hostages.

  That's what happened. As for whether the police have been able to find the escaped culprits and rescue the hostages, Ah Qiang's father didn't say.

  Xiao Li's anxiety grew even more intense as he heard that someone had been kidnapped: "I hope it's not my girlfriend... My girlfriend told me yesterday that she was going to the supermarket near my house today..."

  He hastily called his girlfriend and almost dropped his phone.

  The phone rang for several times before it was finally answered amidst Xiao Li's repeated "hurry up and answer, hurry up and answer". Xiao Li loudly and anxiously asked: "Where are you? Is everything okay? How is it going now......"

  A gentle voice came from the other end of the phone: "I'm fine, I've already returned..."

  Xiao Li Zi let out a deep breath and put down the phone, his face filled with excitement: "Heaven is just..."

  We couldn't help but laugh together, after all, one less person going out is always a good thing.