It was completely effortless to see Xu Xinran.
For a person with a steady job, one simply needed to show up during his working hours. When the two arrived at the Third Hospital, Xu Xinran was currently conducting a face-to-face consultation with a patient. Seeing Huo Ranyin, this rather lean and thin doctor was extremely surprised and stunned for a moment, yet he did not fall into a panic. He quickly said, “Wait until I finish seeing these two patients.”
Huo Ranyin left the time to Xu Xinran.
Xu Xinran did not keep them waiting long either. Seeing the patients, giving instructions to the nurse at the triage desk, and then going to the office to ask his supervisor for leave—he handled this series of matters in an orderly and methodical manner. By the time he left the hospital and got into Huo Ranyin’s car, he appeared entirely at ease, even capable of talking and laughing freely, hiding needles in silk: “What business does the police have in coming to look for me? Could it be that I have inadvertently gotten entangled in some homicide case again?”
“Whether you’ve been entangled in a case, don’t you know yourself?” Ji Xun interjected.
“Apologies, but I really don’t quite understand.” Though words of apology left Xu Xinran’s mouth, there wasn’t the slightest hint of such sentiment in his expression. “As a law-abiding citizen, I don’t do illegal things, so how could I understand? Are you taking me to the police station now? Is this considered a routine inquiry, or are you taking me away for investigation? Is there a detention notice?”
“Rest assured, the documents you want will be given to you shortly,” Huo Ranyin, who was driving, said faintly.
“Is the matter complicated? If it is, I’ll contact a lawyer ahead of time, would that be alright with the two of you?” Xu Xinran spoke again. From beginning to end, he remained perfectly polite, and within that politeness carried a sliver of banter.
He was somewhat arrogant.
Presumably, his previous flawless escape, where every calculation hit the mark, had caused him to look down on the police.
“The matter is very simple. I don’t believe a lawyer is necessary, but if you feel you need one, there’s no harm in contacting them in advance,” Ji Xun said. Sitting in the passenger seat, he looked at Xu Xinran through the rearview mirror.
Their gazes crossed in the mirror.
Ji Xun smiled slightly at Xu Xinran, his smile also carrying a few hints of banter.
“…” A wave of agitation arose in Xu Xinran’s heart. But he quickly sneered inwardly at the policeman’s bluffing. First, he contacted his lawyer on his phone, and then he turned his gaze outside the car window, looking at the street scenery with utter boredom.
It was school dismissal time.
The sunlight had turned a reddish-orange, illuminating the faces of the children until they were flushed red. The police vehicle entered the school zone and had to budge forward bit by bit like a snail amidst the congestion of traffic.
Moving slowly, the faces of those children were projected one by one with absolute clarity into Xu Xinran’s eyes.
They were wearing school uniforms that resembled blue-and-white flour sacks… This was the uniform of the Ning City Experimental Primary School… one of the top schools in Ning City. In truth, the Experimental Primary School was not far from the Third Hospital, which was evident from the situation after he boarded the car; after just a few turns, they had immediately arrived from the hospital to the school zone.
However, it had been a long time since he had walked this stretch of road… well, not that long.
It was just that when he used to take this road, it didn’t look like it did now.
Indeed, when a doctor got off work at 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM, or even 11:00 PM or midnight, the primary school students would have long cleared out. The road right now was packed with people and cars, narrow, squeezed, and cast in a red glow. The sounds of children laughing and shouting could not be blocked out by the closed car doors and shut windows. When he drove by himself, the road surface would be wide and vast, and the light from the streetlamps could only silently project the chilling coldness of the asphalt.
When one had nothing to do, thoughts were like bugs that couldn’t be caught, flying back and forth inside an empty brain, buzzing with annoyance.
With great difficulty, the car finally drove past the school zone, and the congested road returned to normal. Just as Xu Xinran breathed a sigh of relief from the stifling atmosphere, he detected that something was amiss: “…This isn’t the way to the police station.”
“No one said we were going to the police station either,” Ji Xun answered casually.
“Where are you taking me?” Xu Xinran grew visibly alert.
“We’ll be there soon.” Ji Xun did not answer directly, merely smiling, “Rest assured, the police won’t drive you off to sell you.”
Ji Xun wasn’t lying; this car ride was indeed not long. Fifteen minutes later, the car stopped inside Golden Park.
When the group got out of the car, Xu Xinran was clearly plagued with doubts.
But Huo Ranyin and Ji Xun gave him neither the time nor the opportunity to ask questions. Flanking the doctor tightly on his left and right, they led him forward.
Walking through a shaded path in the park, they arrived at the children’s playground ahead. It happened to be dismissal time, so there were quite a few parents who had brought students to play inside the playground. It was bursting with laughter and bustling with activity.
“What did you bring me here for?” Xu Xinran found it bizarre.
“Take a closer look.” Ji Xun gestured with his chin toward the inflatable castle and the ocean ball pit. “See if there’s anyone familiar.”
Xu Xinran swept his gaze across the direction Ji Xun indicated once more. His impatient gaze quickly froze. Amidst the crowd of children, he spotted a familiar child wearing the blue-and-white uniform of the Experimental Primary School…
He stared fixedly at that cute, boyish child for a very long time.
He watched him playing in the ocean ball pit, watched him running back and forth in the inflatable castle, and as he watched, the child suddenly tripped over his own feet, tumbling down from the inflatable slide.
Xu Xinran cried out in alarm and was about to rush forward.
But Ji Xun firmly clamped down on his shoulder. The man’s hand was like a pair of handcuffs, steadily locking him in place. He struggled with all his might, but before he could break free, another two adults ran into the inflatable castle.
A man and a woman…
He didn’t recognize the man…
The woman was his wife—his divorced ex-wife.
The two adults arrived together in front of the little child. The woman embraced the boy, while the man stood beside them like a mountain, encircling the woman and child. The child who had rolled down from the inflatable slide held his head and looked up; he didn’t cry, instead laughing very happily…
They looked very much like a family.
They were a family.
The force of Xu Xinran’s struggling gradually weakened, growing feebler and feebler. In the end, the doctor slumped to the ground like a deflated ball.
“Despicable!” Xu Xinran’s angry roar sounded more like a groan.
“This isn’t called despicable.” Ji Xun borrowed a catchphrase from a book’s protagonist. “This is called doing a good deed daily.”
“…” Even Huo Ranyin looked askance at Ji Xun’s despicableness.
“What on earth are you looking for me for?” Xu Xinran asked. Unwilling to look at the scene ahead, he buried his face in his hands. “I haven’t committed any crimes lately, have I?!”
“In fact, we want to find you to understand some circumstances,” Ji Xun said.
“Using this kind of method to understand?” Xu Xinran sneered.
“Just a little greeting, that’s all.” Huo Ranyin spoke up. “Previously, you sent a greeting to the police. Now, the police are sending a greeting to you. It’s just a matter of courtesy.”
Xu Xinran fell instantly silent.
Ji Xun discovered that the emotions that had been controlling Xu Xinran just now had vanished; he was currently thinking.
Sentiment had allowed him to exercise the last shred of his conscience, but conscience did not operate within his body at all times. What was controlling his brain now was the weighing of pros and cons.
This kind of weighing was advantageous to Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin.
Because this time, they had not come to arrest Xu Xinran; they had come to extract information from his mouth.
—As long as they made Xu Xinran understand that the police could not be toyed with in the palm of his hand, and as long as they made Xu Xinran feel danger, Xu Xinran would selectively sell out the things he felt he could afford to sell out.
This betrayal was naturally not for his child, not for his wife, and not for that insignificant shred of conscience.
It was simply because he felt afraid.
He began to strive for self-preservation, exactly like a gecko snapping its own tail to survive.
“What exactly does the police want to know?” Finally, Xu Xinran lifted his head and asked once more.
This time, his attitude was calm, displaying an intention to negotiate and communicate.
“The Juanshan Casino,” Huo Ranyin said.
The group changed locations when discussing the specifics of the case, returning to Huo Ranyin’s car. This place was both concealed and safe, leaving no worries about Xu Xinran escaping or anyone eavesdropping.
“Why do you want to learn about that casino? Isn’t that a matter for the Public Security Brigade? No matter how you look at it, it shouldn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Investigation Unit, right?” Although Xu Xinran’s psychological defenses had been breached, it was evident he still wanted to struggle a bit.
“Just speak when asked.” The seat of the passenger side had been lowered. Ji Xun rested his hands behind his head, lying on the seat and looking up at the ceiling from below, speaking lazily, “If you want to completely act as our informant to atone for your crimes and turn over a new leaf for the party, the police’s ideas on handling the case can certainly be shared with you…”
Xu Xinran shut his mouth immediately.
Being an informant was not a pleasant job. He did not want to place himself in danger over a tiny bit of curiosity.
“The Juanshan Casino… I suppose what you mean should be the Laifu Casino.” He organized his thoughts. “It doesn’t open regularly; it opens on weekends. But it doesn’t even open every weekend either. Generally speaking, it will open three to five times a month. The night before it plans to open, a secret code will be sent to your phone to notify you.”
Regarding the matter of sending secret codes, Zheng Xuewang had also confessed to it. It was just that Zheng Xuewang had only recently gotten involved in gambling after all, so his degree of understanding regarding the Laifu Casino was far less than Xu Xinran’s.
“Who contacts you?” Huo Ranyin asked.
Since it was time to confess, Xu Xinran didn’t hide things either. He generously opened his WeChat interface and pointed out one of the contacts.
Huo Ranyin took it over to look. The contact’s ID was “Juanshan Old Fisherman,” and the interactions with Xu Xinran were basically along the lines of:
“Brother, fingerlings have been released into the lake again. Coming?”
“Brother, someone caught a ten-pound tiger fish this morning. This luck is absolutely insane, the whole place was in an uproar. If you have time, hurry over and grab the tail of the fish to catch some of the good fortune.”
“Haven’t seen you in a long time. Brother must be busy with work, right? Find some time to come over, older brother will treat you to dinner!”
From outward appearances, these looked like messages sent to Xu Xinran by a normal fellow fishing enthusiast. But clearly, this so-called “fishing enthusiast” was nothing more than a broker for the casino.
Xu Xinran offered a brief explanation for these secret codes: “A ten-pound tiger fish refers to someone hitting the grand jackpot on a slot machine in the casino. This kind of luck is very rare. Generally, when it happens, everyone will want to rush over to place a wager and catch a bit of that luck.”
“I have a question.” Ji Xun’s gaze suddenly slanted, shifting from staring directly at the car roof to looking at Xu Xinran.
“What?” Xu Xinran shifted his eyes away slightly, unwilling to meet Ji Xun’s gaze. Just now, Ji Xun’s “despicableness” had left a shadow over his soul.
“Do you usually use Baidu?”
“Yes,” Xu Xinran said. “Why?”
“Have you just never searched for keywords like ‘slot machine trap’?” Ji Xun was perplexed.
In reality, the traps of slot machines, gaming machines, and all similar machines were exactly identical: the probability of them paying out could be set directly in the background. Whenever the casino wanted to give a payout, it would give a payout.
And it wasn’t unique to slot machines; the rest—American roulette, blackjack, dice, and so on—were all the same, capable of concealing tricks.
Why did nine out of ten bets result in a loss? Because the casino was always cheating. You thought you were competing at the same table as the casino, but in reality, the casino viewed you as a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. Whether they wanted you fat or lean, or when they wanted to slaughter you, was entirely up to them.
“…” Xu Xinran remained silent. Did he not know these things? He naturally knew them. It was simply that once the addiction took hold, it couldn’t be broken.
“Where is the casino?” Huo Ranyin had no interest in the mental journey of Xu Xinran’s gambling, directly asking about the important matter.
“I…”
Xu Xinran had only uttered a single word when Ji Xun already supplemented what came after for him.
“Don’t say you don’t know. Given your personality, you’ve probably quietly walked that route more than once already, haven’t you?”
“…Indeed. Officer, you truly understand me.” Xu Xinran smiled. “That’s right. Although the car cabin is entirely enclosed, there are still plenty of details available to unearth. Out of some curiosity, I privately walked that route more than once.”
