100. The Incident

After a full day of slacking off at the South City Outer District Administration Bureau, Guo Yang stepped out of his office whistling, feeling quite pleased with himself.

The long weekend had been wonderful, his wife and daughter had behaved, and on the first day back to work after the holiday, things were quiet and easy. His superior had even hinted, more or less plainly, that he would be on next year’s promotion list.

He had been stationed in this outer district for nearly five years. If this promotion could move him to one of South City’s five central districts, the resources in his hands would at least double. Then, when he sent Yarong abroad next year, he could choose a much better boarding family...

“Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law!”

Interrupted just as his thoughts were drifting, Guo Yang shot the newcomer an unhappy glare. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to stop coming to the bureau when there’s nothing important?”

Liu Yong hurriedly grabbed Guo Yang and dragged him outside. Only after they had left the administrative district completely did he finally, in a flurry, explain why he had come.

“Brother-in-law, you have to save me!”

The panic in his voice startled Guo Yang, and his good mood vanished at once.

“What’s got you so flustered? Speak properly. What happened?”

“Huang Ge has been arrested!”

Guo Yang looked at him in confusion. “Who is Huang Ge?”

Only then did Liu Yong remember that he had never even reported the progress of the task to his brother-in-law. He could only explain from the beginning.

“Didn’t you ask me last time to find someone to teach Chen Ruowen a lesson? I found this Huang Ge. But that useless bastard was careless and left traces everywhere. He got caught by the Chen family and sent to the police bureau!”

Guo Yang frowned. “What’s the fuss? Going in just means a few days in custody. Didn’t you give him money?”

“No! He... for some reason that idiot brought a knife with him! He even hurt someone. Now the Chen family wants to charge him with intentional homicide!”

“What?”

Only then did Guo Yang truly startle.

He had told Liu Yong to find someone to rough Chen Ruowen up. His original intent had merely been to have her “dealt with” a little. Even if they were caught, at worst it would be a case of fighting and brawling, and the tens of thousands of yuan he had given would be enough for Huang Ge to take the blame willingly.

But who could have imagined that this lunatic would actually bring a knife and wound someone? Once blood had been spilled, things were no longer so easy to explain.

“Did you leave any evidence in your dealings with Huang Ge? Did anyone else see you?” Guo Yang asked calmly.

Liu Yong shook his head at once. “Every time I met him, I chose very secluded places. No one should have seen us. And the money was all cash, too. I withdrew it from the bank and handed it straight to him. I didn’t even touch it.”

“That’s good.” Guo Yang relaxed slightly. “Without evidence, this has nothing to do with us. As for that Huang Ge, he brought this on himself. It has nothing to do with us.”

“But what if Huang Ge gives me up...?”

Guo Yang shot him a glare. “What are you worried about? We live under the rule of law. As long as they have no evidence, they can’t do anything to you. Even if they investigate, they won’t trace it back to you.”

“But what if...”

“There is no what if.” Guo Yang thought for a moment. “Do this: go back to your hometown for a few days and lie low. If anyone comes looking for you, just say you know nothing. They have no evidence. As long as you don’t admit anything, they can’t do a thing to you.”

After getting his answer, Liu Yong left half-convinced, while Guo Yang found his day spoiled for nothing. In order not to arouse suspicion from others, he could not seek anyone out at such a sensitive time to investigate the progress of the case. Sacrificing Liu Yong would not matter, but if it somehow implicated him, that would be no joke.

“Useless fools. They can’t even deal with one person without dragging in all this trouble!”

On the other side, at the South City Police Bureau, at the request of the victim’s family, the suspect Huang Ge was brought into the interrogation room for the second time.

“According to your confession, someone paid to have you carry out a killing against the victim?”

Huang Ge shook his head frantically, terror on his face. “No! I didn’t kill anyone! I only... I only wanted to act for justice and teach that woman a lesson. I never meant to kill anyone! I’m being framed!”

“Teaching her a lesson is illegal too!” Justice? The interrogator slammed his ballpoint pen onto the table with a crack, making Huang Ge jump again. “If you didn’t intend to kill anyone, why were you carrying a cleaver with you?”

“I... I was going home to cook...”

“Cook? You think I’m blind? The surveillance footage clearly caught you attacking someone with a weapon and trying to kill! You’d better honestly tell us who was behind this. That might get you a lighter sentence.”

Huang Ge grew anxious at once. “But I don’t even know who he is! That day, someone suddenly came to me and said there was a job that could earn me some money to help pay off my mortgage. I was short on funds, so I took it...”

“You’d take a job without even knowing who the client was? You must really not value your life.” The interrogator cursed under his breath, then took out several photographs of men and laid them out before Huang Ge. “Look carefully. Is there anyone here who was the person you dealt with?”

After studying them closely for a while, Huang Ge immediately pointed to the second-to-last photo.

“This one! It was him! When he came to see me that day, he was wearing a gold necklace just like this. At a glance, he looked rich, so I felt safe doing business with him!”

Just because someone wears a gold necklace, they must be rich? Then if you took a walk through the Northeast District, wouldn’t you find an entire street full of big spenders?

“How did he give you the deposit?”

“Cash.”

“So there’s no transaction record?”

The interrogator made two marks in the notebook. “Did you sign any agreement or write anything down?”

“No...”

“If you had none of that, then after you finished the job, how were you supposed to get the rest of the money? Weren’t you afraid he’d renege?”

“I didn’t think that far at the time...”

The interrogator scratched twice more in the notebook. “Any photos or recordings? Where exactly did you meet to make the deal? Was there any cash left from the payment? Where is it stored?”

Huang Ge answered all of it. There was no direct evidence at all. The meeting place had been chosen very carefully, with no cameras nearby. Only a little less than ten thousand yuan in cash remained, wrapped in kraft paper and hidden under the bed at home.

The interrogator sighed. At this point, the only possible lead was to trace the bank from which Liu Yong had withdrawn the money, then compare the serial numbers on the bills one by one. But ATMs did not record bill serial numbers. Finding evidence through that route would be extremely difficult...

The interrogator sorted through the notes from this round of questioning again, then pushed them in front of Huang Ge for him to look over.

“Take a look. If there’s no problem, sign and leave your fingerprints.”

Huang Ge silently signed his name.

“Officer, I really didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted to teach her a lesson. It won’t be too severe, will it?”

“Wait for the investigation results.”

The interrogator answered in a bureaucratic tone, though inwardly he had already lit a candle for Huang Ge.

The higher-ups had made it clear: the victim’s family strongly demanded a harsh sentence. This Huang Ge—who told him to be so clueless?