There was no need for politeness when dining with one's own brothers. Ping An, who had been subsisting on rice porridge daily in the hospital, ate like a starving ghost reborn.
In Hexiang City, authentic locals looking to satisfy their cravings would typically head to Wuzhong Hutong. Ping An and his friends, however, usually frequented their "old spot" in Wuzhong Hutong: a small eatery called "Pen Pen Xiang."
The eatery wasn't large, with only five or six tables in total. Ping An, Gao Xiaofei, and Su Xia sat at the most inconspicuous table.
The moment they were seated, no one spoke. This was the unspoken rule: no conversation until they were full and satisfied. There were no fancy dishes on the table, only three basins – one of roasted pig trotters, one of braised lamb ribs, and one of crayfish. Beneath the table, a case of beer was already more than half empty. Ping An, rubbing his swollen and itchy wounds, was engrossed in tackling a front trotter. Gao Xiaofei had already removed his jacket and undershirt, leaving him in only a vest despite the late autumn chill. Su Xia, having put his worries aside, was even more extravagant. With one foot resting on a stool, he used both hands simultaneously, his paws covered in chili sauce. He ate the crayfish whole, without even bothering to remove the heads, popping them in his mouth like peas, relishing every bite.
The three basins were empty, the beer was gone. The three of them patted their stomachs, burped with satisfaction, and contentedly picked their teeth. "Boss, clear the table and bring out the full set of gaiwan tea!" Ping An spat out a piece of meat fiber he'd picked from his teeth and shouted loudly at the owner.
Full of food and drink, legs crossed; red dates and longans in a large bowl of tea.
Who can chat about everything under the sun? In the depths of the alley, it's the aunties!
This was the life of the Hexiang people.
The owner quickly cleared the table. Without being prompted, three meticulously prepared bowls of gaiwan tea were served. Five small saucers were arranged in a floral pattern in the center of the table, filled with sunflower seeds, peanuts, crushed rock sugar, hawthorn strips, and sesame seeds. Ping An took a box of cigarettes from Gao Xiaofei's jacket pocket on the stool, pulled one out, lit it, took a deep inhale, and exhaled with great satisfaction.
"Go ahead! Old Su, tell us something we don't know. You're a veteran criminal investigator. You've been acting for the two of us since you saw us today. Enough of that!" Ping An picked up his gaiwan tea and took a sip.
"Ah! This case is not as simple as you think. Ever since the Niu Jian case occurred, I've felt something was amiss. Chen Nairong! Pfft! With his intelligence, could he have concocted all these schemes?" Su Xia lowered his voice. "Honestly, Chen Nairong was the first person I suspected. You're a reporter, Xiao Fei is in the municipal bureau, and the one responsible for the specific investigation, what's-her-name, Mei Qian, is an outsider. Do you know how deep the waters run here?"
It turned out that after the special task force was formed, Su Xia, who was responsible for the outer perimeter investigation, made no progress. Determined, he reviewed surveillance footage and compiled a list of all vehicles that passed along the route of the black van on the night of the incident. Then, like searching for a needle in a haystack, he collected and analyzed the dashcam footage from these vehicles. His persistence paid off when he finally captured an image of the black van on one car's dashcam.
"This car belonged to a private enterprise boss. He happened to drive past that black van. When we found the car, it was only 15 minutes before the dashcam footage was to be automatically overwritten," Su Xia said, lowering his head and taking a hearty sip of tea. "At the time, we couldn't be sure if the black van in the video was the vehicle involved, but there weren't many black vans on the market. Holding onto hope, I had the district bureau's technical personnel process the image of the driver of that black van, which resulted in a successful facial composite."
With the facial composite, Su Xia immediately conducted a search. He discovered that this man was named Gao Min, the owner of a small supermarket. Further investigation revealed that this man's legal wife, Liu Juan, was none other than Chen Nairong's secretary.
"Ping An, Chen Nairong is usually close to you, so I can't say too much. But you really don't know how much of a scoundrel he is in society," Su Xia said. "The companies he runs have never conducted a single legal transaction. Years ago, he was stripped of his police uniform for accepting illicit money. Most people don't know this. Even if you asked him, he'd say he was helping a friend out, right?"
Chen Nairong, as described by Su Xia, truly astonished Ping An. This ordinary traffic policeman, who had once helped taxi drivers voice their grievances, was now hospitalized after protecting ride-sharing drivers being beaten by a mob of taxi drivers. He and Ping An had once gone undercover to investigate a criminal group operating "black cars" from another region, specifically targeting local taxi interests. They were discovered then, and when they fled, they were nearly caught. If not for Ping An's timely use of his slingshot to save their lives, Chen Nairong would have been hacked to death. To be honest, Ping An and Chen Nairong had known each other for many years and had a deep bond. After Chen Nairong left the police force, Ping An had repeatedly attended his business events, supported him, helped him make connections, and assisted him with paperwork and procedures, all without charging a cent. Chen Nairong had even hugged Ping An and cried profusely several times, their brotherhood moving beyond words.
"Getting back to the case, after I discovered the connection between Gao Min and Chen Nairong, and considering that Niu Jian was a taxi driver who intended to report a police officer, the officers he would contact would naturally be from departments he could interact with professionally," Su Xia paused. "I've been a criminal investigator for half my life. My experience tells me that Chen Nairong is the person Niu Jian wanted to report. Niu Jian was probably silenced by Chen Nairong, and the perpetrator of the body disposal was most likely this Gao Min."
Su Xia's bold theory was not immediately reported to his superiors because he lacked evidence. Furthermore, he discovered that Ping An, who was close to Chen Nairong, was also implicated in the case. Heaven only knew how much Ping An actually knew. Could he have betrayed Niu Jian? With this caution in mind, Su Xia decided to keep it quiet. He didn't dare report directly to Yan Qing, nor did he dare tell Gao Xiaofei.
Given Su Xia's personality, it was impossible for him to possess such a "trump card" without showing it off. Even if he temporarily lacked evidence, he still wanted to give Chen Nairong a "tickle."
On September 14th, Su Xia directly summoned Gao Min based on the photograph of him driving the black van. During the interrogation, Gao Min quoted regulations fluently, reciting them at will. Regarding the black van, he adamantly insisted that the one he drove was not black but brown, and that the car wasn't his but borrowed from a friend for hauling goods. When Su Xia asked Gao Min for the owner's information, Gao Min readily provided it without hesitation. Su Xia and his team investigated and indeed found a brown van. The owner was a neighbor of the supermarket Gao Min managed.
One attempt failed, but there were naturally more moves! An old hand like Su Xia would not stake everything on this single summons of Gao Min. In fact, he knew well that several days had passed since the incident, enough time for Gao Min to cover his tracks.
If so, why did Su Xia summon Gao Min? Because he wanted Gao Min to deliver a message for him: "Chen Nairong, I've got my eye on you."
"Later, I specifically consulted technical experts for an appraisal, and they confirmed that the van Gao Min drove was indeed brown, and it only appeared black under strong light," Su Xia said. The car, the photo – neither was direct evidence. He simply wanted to see if Chen Nairong would react after Gao Min was summoned.
Speaking of which, Su Xia drained his gaiwan tea in one gulp and banged the table, asking the owner to refill it. After the owner brought the teapot, Su Xia waved his hand, signaling Ping An and Gao Xiaofei to lean closer, and said, "Guess what? I summoned Gao Min, and the next day, that is, the 15th, Chen Nairong invited me for drinks. Of course, I went, bringing two trusted men with me."
The scene that night could hardly be described as lavish; it could only be called extravagant. Not to mention the wine and cigarettes, the "health dishes" served individually were priced around a thousand yuan each. Su Xia and his men entered the private room to find only Chen Nairong and Liu Juan present. With ulterior motives, there was no need for pleasantries. They sat down, ate, and drank. The real show began after they were full.
"At the dinner table, Liu Juan took the initiative to ask about Gao Min's situation. I didn't hide anything because I knew that hiding things from Chen Nairong would be useless. I told them everything: how we discovered it, how we created the composite, how we found Gao Min, and how we interrogated him. While speaking, I observed Chen Nairong's expression. Well, this scoundrel could really keep his composure," Su Xia said. "During this dinner, Chen Nairong hardly spoke at all. It was all Liu Juan doing the talking, her words implying that her husband was timid, had a heart attack the night he was questioned by the police, and hoping we would be lenient and not summon Gao Min again."
At the banquet, Su Xia spoke clearly, and Liu Juan pleaded sincerely. Neither of them held back, and their back-and-forth exchange had a semblance of genuine business dealings. Chen Nairong naturally sided with Liu Juan, hinting at "giving you some benefits."
"I did say a bit too much that night, but you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a cub. I still managed to extract something useful," Su Xia said. "During the dinner, I feigned agreement not to trouble Gao Min further and then pretended to accidentally let slip that Wu An was under surveillance and that the net was about to close in the next day or two. My plan was simple: from the moment I left the hotel, I would have people watch Chen Nairong. If he truly had a problem, he would have to silence Wu An, and then I would be the mantis stalking the cicada."
That night, to make the act convincing, Su Xia drank a lot, but before he got too drunk, he had already instructed his subordinates to monitor Chen Nairong. The rest was him returning home drunk, being followed by a driver, and appearing in the property surveillance footage – a scene of either delivering a gift or taking a life.
As expected of an old detective like Su Xia, he was clever and resourceful. However, perhaps because he overthought things and underestimated the relationship between Ping An and Chen Nairong, he didn't report his suspicions in a timely manner, leading to an unwarranted disaster.
"The next day, before I even woke up, I heard someone knocking. Rubbing my eyes, I opened the door to find inspectors from the provincial department. I had no idea what was happening, but I was taken for tea and detained at the municipal bureau until you and Mei Qian were assassinated," Su Xia said. "On the very night he left the hotel, someone delivered a recording to the provincial inspection office. The inspectors listened to the recording, which was of my conversation with Liu Juan. The content of the recording remained unchanged, but to someone who didn't understand the context, it truly looked like I had accepted Chen Nairong's banquet and thus violated discipline by revealing police intelligence. Ah, I was doing it for the case. Don't you think I'm wronged?"
What followed was simple: Wu An was blown up, Ping An was injured, and then the assassination attempt at the hospital occurred. With Liu Juan's formal accusation, Chen Nairong's drug trafficking crimes were exposed, and the series of cases involving Niu Jian, Wu An, and the assassination attempts gradually became clearer. Niu Jian discovered Chen Nairong's drug trafficking and reported it. After several attempts to intimidate and threaten him failed, Chen Nairong learned that Niu Jian had contacted Ping An. Chen Nairong hired killers to murder Niu Jian and the informant Wu An in the supermarket cold storage and Jianzi Park respectively. He then intended to silence Ping An, leading to the thrilling night in the hospital.
After Chen Nairong fled, Su Xia's handling of the case was officially released. He was suspended from his duties for the past few days and sent home to await final processing. "Ping An, don't blame me for overthinking. It's not that I don't trust you, but we detectives have this bad habit. I only realized I had misunderstood you after you were also targeted by Chen Nairong for assassination," Su Xia said with some guilt.
"Don't say that. I've witnessed your capabilities today, Su Xia. It's also my fault for not communicating more with you. If you had known more, if you had heard the recording, you wouldn't have misunderstood me," Ping An said with a helpless smile, comforting him. "The case has made significant breakthroughs today. In my heart, you are a hero."
"I wouldn't dare say that. Although I can't access this case now, I still have a few things to say," Su Xia said seriously. "First, Liu Juan and her husband. This couple is unusual. What kind of man would willingly let his wife be someone else's mistress? Second, throughout this series of cases, while they are all connected to Chen Nairong, there is no direct evidence to prove he committed them. Third, the methods and techniques used in these cases are so complex and bizarre that someone as brainless as Chen Nairong couldn't have conceived of them. Furthermore, the murder methods in these cases are still unclear. Were the people who killed Niu Jian and Wu An truly those assassins? How was Wu An blown up? The method is still unknown, right?"
As an old detective, his brief remarks touched upon the very questions Ping An had been pondering. The case seemed to be nearing its conclusion, yet why did it feel like it was just beginning? Ping An's unease grew.
"Brother Su, have you reported these insights to Director Yan?" Ping An asked.
"Hmph! That old man never looks at me properly. I have a belly full of grievances. When I was called for tea by the inspectors, I wanted to explain the actual situation, but they insisted I was making excuses," Su Xia said, somewhat angrily. "Since that's the case, I don't want to say any more. However, the person in charge at the district bureau, after understanding the situation, might report it to Yan Qing."
"Brother Su, what you've told me today has resolved many of my doubts. Regardless, thank you. Don't worry, I will personally speak to Mayor Wang about your situation afterward. We can't let good people take the blame." Ping An said.
"Heh heh, I believe in the capabilities of my brother Ping An," Su Xia said, thinking for a moment. "How about this, I'll tell you two something else. You must keep it a secret!"
"What?" Gao Xiaofei asked curiously.
"Lean your ears over here!" Su Xia said mysteriously. "Wu An, who was blown up, was a police informant!"
"What?" Ping An and Gao Xiaofei exclaimed in surprise.
"Wu An used to drive unregistered taxis and then transitioned to ride-sharing. Where did he get the car? He was actually driving for Chen Nairong! Chen Nairong has over a dozen unregistered taxis, which have now been legalized and turned into ride-sharing vehicles," Su Xia said mysteriously. "Last June, the district anti-drug team traced it back to Chen Nairong from a drug dealer, but they lacked evidence. The anti-drug officers found a minor infraction to apprehend Wu An and used both persuasion and pressure, which led Wu An to agree to become a police informant. However, it's said that the kid didn't do a good job. When the police pressed him, he only gave up a few lower-level drug dealers and never actively disclosed Chen Nairong's drug trafficking activities. Hao Gang from the anti-drug team was preparing to use some methods on this kid recently to get some useful evidence and then report to his superiors, but before he could, the Niu Jian case occurred, and then Wu An died."
"Then why wasn't the anti-drug team reporting this?" Gao Xiaofei asked sternly. This was no small matter.
"Hao Gang from the district anti-drug team actually didn't know about Wu An's situation at first. It's also his bad temper; he pushed the brothers in the team so hard that his subordinates brought in Wu An. The main purpose was to apprehend Chen Nairong and incidentally generate some business," Su Xia said. "After the Niu Jian case, Hao Gang, who had just learned about Wu An's situation, quickly stopped and pondered how to report it. I also noticed something and pressured him, which led him to tell me the truth. Well, now it's my turn to have a headache, and I was wondering how to tell the superiors, but before I could, I was invited for tea. Later, Wu An was blown up, and no one dared to talk about it."
"Old Su, this is a matter of discipline! You can't do this!" Gao Xiaofei said indignantly.
"Captain Gao, you're a top student. You entered the police force as a section-level cadre and haven't worked in the lower ranks. You don't know the hardships of the brothers down here. In today's society, technology is advanced, and police investigation methods are numerous, but drug traffickers' methods are also more sophisticated. You clearly know Chen Nairong is trafficking drugs, but you have no evidence, and you're just anxious," Su Xia, clearly a bit tipsy, said in a complaining tone. "Those brothers in the anti-drug unit, damn it, they are truly pathetic! Besides themselves and their teammates, they don't trust anyone, not even their wives, children, parents, or mothers. Do you expect them to write down the names of the informants they painstakingly cultivated on official documents for layers of people to see? Do you believe that within three days, Wu An would be dead!"
"We're getting off track! Old Su, Old Gao, you've had too much to drink!" Ping An quickly pulled them back.
"Yes, we're getting off track. What was I trying to say at first? Oh, since Wu An was a police informant, why was he meddling with Niu Jian? Niu Jian is dead, and Wu An is still looking for you, Ping An. What does he want? To continue reporting Chen Nairong? Is it necessary?" Su Xia said.
Indeed! This Wu An person had too many questions. Niu Jian is dead, so it would be better for him to keep quiet or go into hiding, protecting himself from being implicated. Why would he risk danger to find Ping An? Just to point out where Niu Jian was killed? No, he wouldn't be that kind. Wu An's death was also very suspicious. If the person who killed Wu An was the same assassin who targeted Ping An, wouldn't a single shot have been simpler? Why use a landmine? Was he afraid the police wouldn't take it seriously? Let it explode, but why the abdomen? How was it achieved? It's still impossible to figure out, too bizarre! The timing was also wrong. The night before, Su Xia said he was going to monitor Wu An, and the next day they acted? Were they trying to ensure Su Xia would suspect them? Was Chen Nairong's brain filled with shit?
At the table, the three of them temporarily lost interest in talking, sipping their now-tasteless tea. Su Xia's insights tonight had opened Ping An's eyes and provided much important information, but they also raised new doubts.
"Little Bird Vodka..." Just then, Su Xia's phone rang. The distinctive ringtone attracted the attention of many people.
"Old Su, what era are we in? You're still clipping your phone to your waist!" Gao Xiaofei mocked, seeing Su Xia's phone in a phone case on his hip.
"Heh heh, it's easy to lose it in my pocket!" Su Xia replied with a chuckle and answered the call. It was his wife calling, no doubt to tell him to come home.
Listening to Su Xia use an old trick to pacify his wife, Ping An and Gao Xiaofei exchanged glances and smiled, treating Su Xia's words as a joke.
As he listened, Ping An, who had been paying attention to the phone case on Su Xia's waist, suddenly stood up, startling Gao Xiaofei.
"Xiao Fei, I remember that after Wu An was blown up, did you find his phone at the scene?" Ping An suddenly asked.
"Yes! It was just an old-fashioned phone," Gao Xiaofei replied strangely.
"When Wu An was blown up, was his phone in his pants pocket?" Ping An continued to ask.
"It seems so! You..." Gao Xiaofei suddenly understood.
"It wasn't just Wu An they went to great lengths to blow up, but also that phone!" Ping An said calmly. "What happened to that phone in the end?"
"I haven't heard anything about it. It seems some data was recovered. I haven't followed up on it," Gao Xiaofei said.
"Let's go! Let's go look at that phone." Ping An took out 500 yuan from his pocket, placed it on the table, and then said to Su Xia, who had just hung up after successfully pacifying his wife, "You should go home early. Don't let your wife worry. Don't tell anyone about what you said today."
"Oh, you're leaving already? I naturally know about keeping secrets, but do you have new developments?" Su Xia asked. As soon as he finished asking, he immediately changed his tone. "Hey, look at my habit. I'm no longer involved in this case. Alright, I'll leave now. You two also need to be careful."
"Ping An, where are we going?" Gao Xiaofei asked after getting into the car.
"Let's go back to the hospital first. I haven't turned on my phone, and if I don't go back, An Jing will worry," Ping An said after getting into the car, calming down.
"Tomorrow, go check on Wu An's phone. It's possible this case will depend on that phone. As for Su Xia's insights tonight, I'll tell Director Yan. It's not appropriate for you to do so."
"Okay! You're the boss!" Gao Xiaofei stepped on the accelerator, and the car drove into the darkness.
"Also, do you remember that handprint? Has it been compared?" Ping An asked.
"We really haven't had time for that. We'll ask about it tomorrow," Gao Xiaofei said.
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