Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
âSpill it, who sent you?â the pale-faced man asked.
âI... I really came to steal. No oneâs ordering me,â the thief said in agony.
He hadnât expected to be so unlucky when he decided to come in and steal something. Now, he had been caught by someone, and the person seemed to be bad.
The pale-faced man did not speak. He took out a folding knife and waved it in front of the thiefâs eyes. It shone brightly under the light.
With a sploosh, it went straight into thiefâs thigh. âAh!â
âThatâs just the beginning,â the pale-faced man said. âScream softer, or Iâll cut your tongue off.â
âMmph.â The thief was gritting his teeth and twitching with pain.
âTell me, who sent you,â the pale-faced man said.
âNo one, really,â the thief said. âI just heard that there was a lot of cash in the managerâs office, so I came here.â
âWho said that?â the pale-faced man asked.
âSomeone I donât know,â the thief replied.
âDid he tell you that himself?â the pale-faced man asked.
âNo, I heard them talk about it when I was eating in a restaurant,â the thief replied. âIâm really just a thief. You can go to the police station to check it. I have a record.â
He felt dizzy when he saw the blood flowing from his thigh. When he had been caught in the past, at most he would be beaten and sent to the police station. The current situation had never happened. He had been imprisoned and stabbed
The pale man didnât speak. His eyes were fixed on the thief, which made the thiefâs heart bristle.
Sploosh! The knife was buried into another thigh. Another scream rang out.
âTell the truth,â the pale-faced man said.
âIâm telling the truth! I swear!â the thief yelled in agony.
âA thief like you swearing?â the pale-faced man asked. âOnly ghosts would believe it!â
âI didnât lie to you,â the thief said. âI really didnât lie to you.â
âWell, originally, I want to let you leave alive but forget it,â the pale-faced man said.
The thief was stunned. The smell of urine wafted out. He couldnât help but pee himself out of fear.
The lights in the basement suddenly went out. There was a thud and not another single sound.
When the lights came on again, there were several police officers and the original two men in the enclosed space. The bound thief still had a knife in his thigh. The pale-faced man was lying on the ground unconscious.
âWhatâs this situation?â an officer asked.
âAsk the doctor to come and see whatâs going on with them first,â another officer said.
The forensics team soon arrived. The two men were alive, but they were both in a coma. The bound one had lost a lot of blood, but it was not fatal.
âWhat caused the comas?â a police officer asked.
âIâm guessing something like ether,â a forensic team member said.
âSo, there must have been a third person here,â the police officer said.
âYes,â the forensic officer replied.
âMaintain the scene and look for evidence,â the lead police officer said. âThe injured one will be sent to the hospital, and this one will be handcuffed.â
âHey, isnât this the serial thief?â A police officer pointed to the man tied to the chair.
âDo you know him?â the lead police officer asked.
âYes, heâs a serial thief,â the other police officer said. âHeâs been caught several times. I think his name his Lu Xiucheng.â
Out of the two men originally in the room, one was taken to the hospital, and one was sent to the police station.
Somewhere in Dao, Jia Zizai puffed out a cigarette smoke ring and said, âI didnât expect this. Is it him?â
âNo one saw you when you attacked, right?â Hu Mei asked.
âNo. I was wearing a mask,â Jia Zizai said. âThey wouldnât know who I was even if they had seen me.â
âThatâs good,â Hu Mei said.
In the police station, the man who was handcuffed woke up without any panic. After looking around and making sure that he was in the police station, he began to think about how to deal with the possible interrogation.
âAn old hand,â a police officer said after seeing his actions from the monitoring equipment.
âYes, I just checked his ID card. Itâs forged,â another police officer said.
âFake?â the first police officer asked.
âYes, I have reported it to the leader and applied for help from the superior department to further expand the scope of the investigation,â the other police officer said. âCould this person be a wanted major criminal?â
âLetâs question him first,â the first police officer said.
âSure,â the other police officer said.
âName,â the first police officer said.
The handcuffed man looked up at the two police officers and remained silent.
âWhatâs your name?â the police officer asked again.
There was still no answer.
âDo you think we canât find out who you are if you donât reply?â the police officer asked. âYou are suspected of kidnapping and intentionally hurting people. If you want to get out, itâs impossible. Just come clean!â
The man remained silent. He was very calm. He was thinking about who couldâve attacked him so quietly. He had set up an alarm device outside the basement. The other party was an expert.
The first interrogation by the two police officers had failed.
âLook after him,â the lead police officer said. âDonât let him shut his eyes tonight.â
âGot it,â another police officer said.
A lamp was shining in the manâs eyes. He quietly sat as if he were a sculpture. A few hours later, he was in the same position.
âWell, heâs pretty good at enduring,â the lead police officer said.
âAn old hand indeed,â a police officer said.
âBy the way, has his blood sample been taken?â the lead police officer asked.
âNot yet,â the other police officer replied.
âArrange for people to take it,â the lead police officer said. âAnalyze his DNA and go to the database for comparison.â
âOK, Iâll arrange it right away,â the other police officer said.
When someone came to take blood samples for him, the pale-faced manâs expression quickly changed.
âLook, his face has changed,â the lead police officer said. âHe must have done something else. We better hurry up!â
In the hospital, the stabbed man had been sent to a separate ward for isolation by the police.
âTell me what happened?â a police officer asked.
âWell, I just went to get something from that trading company,â the man replied.
âIs that your company?â the police officer asked.
âNo, I...â The injured man hesitated.
âGoing in to take something that is not yours, perhaps?â the police officer asked.
âWell yes, I was going in to steal,â the man said.
âWhat did you steal?â the police officer asked.
âA bag of diamonds and $100,000,â the man said. âI think that was it.â
âHow did you get kidnapped?â the police officer asked.
âI donât know,â the man said. âI was stealing, but the light in the office suddenly turned on and I saw the man. He knocked me out. When I woke up, I found myself tied to a chair in a dark place. He stabbed me and asked who sent me to steal.â
âWho sent you there?â the police officer asked.
âI... No one sent me there,â the man said. âI had gone there to simply get some money to spend.â
âHow did you know there was money there?â the police officer asked.
âIt is a trading company,â the man said. âBesides, it was the general managerâs office. Iâve been keeping an eye on it for several days. Thereâs no one there at night. Thereâs just an old man watching the door, not even a security guard.â
âGo on,â the police officer said.
âHe stabbed me in the thigh with a knife, and then the light suddenly went out,â the man said. âI fainted. When I woke up again, I saw the police. You came at the right time!â
For the first time, he realized that the police werenât so bad.
âSo, are you saying that a third person knocked you out?â the police officer asked.
âWell, I guess,â the man hesitantly replied.
âThink again, is there anything else?â the police officer asked.
âThereâs no more,â the man said.
âAlright, take care of your injuries and let me know if you think of anything useful,â the police officer said.
âAlright, got it,â the man said.
The thief had no intention of saying anything more. It would be disadvantageous for him if he spoke more. Especially in the face of these veteran investigators and interrogators, one sentence might have fatal loopholes.
The night passed. The next morning, a police officer got some interesting news that he shared with the lead police officer on the case.
âBoss, there is a major discovery,â he said. âThrough a DNA comparison, this man is likely to be the killer in the massacre in Lan last year.â
âWhat?â The lead police officer froze. âLast yearâs Lan City massacre?â
âYes,â the other police officer said.
Last August, a family in Lan was massacred. Five members of the family had been killed. One of the two bodyguards died, and the other one had been seriously injured. There was no useful evidence left at the scene. There was only the blood of an eighth person. It had been a major case.
For that reason, the city of Lan had asked the Ministry of Public Security for help. They had cooperated with experts for more than three months. However, no trace of the criminal had been found, and no suspect was identified. It became an unsolved case.
The lead police officer hadnât expected that in Dao, thousands of miles away, they wouldâve caught the suspect who was most likely the criminal suspect of that massacre.
âGet in touch with Lan immediately,â he said.
âOK, Iâll do it right away,â the other police officer said.
The people in Lan were also shocked when they heard the news. They immediately arranged personnel to confirm it.