BTTC Chapter 48

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Chapter 48

Bourgeois Hegemonism and Proletarian Passive Resistance

Half an hour later, on the empty road in the early morning.

The Phaeton sprinted like lightning, like a dazzling meteor in the twilight, and disappeared at the end of the long street in an instant, leaving only the gas tail slowly drifting away.

“The overall process is like this.” The Bluetooth in the car was connected to Yan Xie’s mobile phone. Ma Xiang said, “The police team has already driven to Tianzong Mountain, and I’m rushing there. I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, pacify the parents of the kidnapped, don’t let them get too agitated to interfere with the questioning.” Yan Xie then hung up the communication.

“After Shen Xiaoqi’s parents got home at night, they were still worried and decided to drive to the scenic spot overnight to pick up their son. Because of the strong rebellious psychology of adolescents, they were afraid that forcibly picking him up would cause unpredictable consequences, so they didn’t say anything in advance. At 3’o clock in the morning, the couple secretly drove to the homestay. They found that their son was not with his classmates, and he didn’t even come back to sleep all night. So anxiously, the couple began to ask his classmates, but the children were very uncooperative. “

Jiang Ting was leaning back on the passenger seat with his eyes closed, his face a little pale: “Not cooperating?”

“They said they didn’t know. Father Shen and Mother Shen asked whether he left before or after the bonfire party. Some students said before, and some said after.”

“It means they are all lying.”

“Almost.” Yan Xie sighed, “But a group of lying children are better to deal with than criminal suspects who deliberately lie.”

“What if a child is a suspect?” Jiang Ting asked suddenly.

Yan Xie held the steering wheel and glanced sideways, Jiang Ting also raised his eyelids slightly; their line of sight collided with each other in the dark, and then separate immediately.

“At 5:17 in the morning,” Yan Xie turned back his gaze as if nothing had happened: “The parents received a call from the kidnapper again. This time it was Shen Xiaoqi’s screams and call for help that lasted for more than ten seconds, and then the voice was cut off. The kidnapper only gave the collapsed Shen family a sentence that there are still 38 hours and 52 minutes before the execution time.”

— 38 hours, 52 minutes.

There were hours and minutes.

“……more than ten seconds of screaming, plus a warning from the kidnapper, this call would take at least 60 seconds.” Jiang Ting folded his arms and pondered: “The predicted execution is tomorrow evening at 8:09.”

“Yes, let’s count eight-ten. But why?”

The car was driving fast on the road, leaving the city centre and high-rise buildings far behind. At the end of the horizon in the distance, the sub-urban fields were endless, and the morning mist was gradually dyed with light.

“You can’t miss that minute,” Jiang Ting suddenly said. “The kidnapper has a strong sense of time. He should have set the stopwatch beforehand, and the time is accurate to the minute. If he didn’t deliberately reveal it for clues or maliciously play tricks on the police and parents, then there is only one explanation.”

Yan Xie frowned: “At 8:09 in the evening, does this time have a specific meaning to him?”

“Right.”

“But,” Yan Xie said suspiciously, “Not before this time nor after, What special meaning could there be?”

This time Jiang Ting stopped him: “How do I know this, I’m not the kidnapper.”

He closed his eyes again, still holding his beloved thermos cup in his hand — if it contained wolfberry tea, he would really be like an old cadre. But in fact, it was Yan Xie who, in order to lure him out in the early morning brewed Lao Tongxing Pu’er tea by hand while changing his clothes.

That was really racing against time. It was not because of Yan Xie dressing himself, but because of dressing Jiang Ting. Jiang Ting was in poor health and mentally weak. If he slept well in the middle of the night, he would not be able to wake up in the early morning. Yan Xie slammed on the door for 30 seconds to wake him up but to no avail. So he simply broke into the room, picked him up from the large and fluffy double bed, grabbed a few pieces of clothes from the closet, and wrapped him up as if dressing up a doll. Then he picked him up and carried him out of the bedroom.

All the above details fully demonstrate Yan Xie’s hegemony as the owner of the house — the bourgeoisie.

“Hey,” said the bourgeoisie, “How about handling the case first? what’s with your attitude? are you still pondering about what happened in the morning?”

The proletariat didn’t even open his eyes: “I call this passive resistance after the violent struggle has failed.”

Yan Xie: “……”

……….

At 8:30 in the morning, Tianzong Mountain Scenic Area.

The Phaeton struggled up the hillside, not knowing by how many branches it was scraped, and finally stopped in the grass.

At the gate of the homestay in the distance, Ma Xiang looked up from the crowd and saw it, and immediately caught up in a few steps: “Brother Yan!—Oh, this is Lu—”

Yan Xie grabbed Ma Xiang and said, “Lao Wei and Lao Lu are not here, right?”

“Not here,” Ma Xiang said inexplicably, “Deputy Chief Wei is commanding the team from the city bureau.”

Yan Xie was relieved, turned around, and beckoned: “You can come down.”

“Consultant Lu” was wearing an anti-smog mask in the fresh mountains and forests and got out of the car with an expressionless face.

The three of them walked to the compound at the end of the stone road, and the police car of the Municipal Public Security Bureau had already surrounded the scene. The morning fog in the forest had not yet cleared, and the policemen were wearing it all over their bodies. They can hear Mother Shen crying hysterically from a distance.

“How is it?” Yan Xie asked.

“Just finished writing the transcripts for the students. There are four people, two boys and two girls in total.” Ma Xiang cursed, “F*ck, little brats don’t know the sky and the earth, thinking that their little cleverness can be hidden from the police. But the flaws in their words are enough to make a hole in jeans. Some people say that Shen Xiaoqi never came back after picking up the wood, and he disappeared all night; some say that they saw Shen Xiaoqi, but they couldn’t see clearly at night..…”

Yan Xie interrupted him: “What did Wang Ke say?”

Wang Ke, the only child of the owner of the steamed bun shop, was currently one of the little kids most likely to be instigated by the police.

“He said that Shen Xiaoqi never came back after picking up the wood. That’s what they are most inclined to say now.”

Yan Xie narrowed his eyes: “Who said that Shen Xiaoqi was seen at the party?”

The three walked into the compound. Yan Xie took the lead, Ma Xiang was close to his side, and Jiang Ting walked the slowest — Yan Xie turned back and pulled his arms from time to time like he was taking care of a police dog with pricked ears or a cat.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, Mother Shen’s cry became clear. From a distance, a girl with short hair had her back facing them, she comforted her softly: “Don’t worry, Auntie, nothing will happen to him. Auntie, please relax…..”

“It’s her,” Ma Xiang raised his head, “Tan Shuang.”

Yan Xie stopped, observed Tan Shuang for a while, and took the transcript of the questioning from Ma Xiang. At this time, Jiang Ting was standing leisurely in the shade of the tree breathing the fresh air. Yan Xie pressed the soft black hair on the back of his head and forcibly turned his head, insisting that he should watch him. The two of them stood face to face in the grass.

After a while, Yan Xie finished reading, and shoved the transcript into Jiang Ting’s arms:

“Tan Shuang!”

The girl turned her head, revealing a delicate and clean face, but with a strong sense of vigilance.

Yan Xie squinted his eyes and looked at her for a moment, then beckoned. He took out his ID from his trouser pocket and said, “Police.”

Tan Shuang hesitated for a few seconds, turned around and comforted Mother Shen softly, and then slowly walked over, holding her hands in front vigilantly, looking back and forth at the handsome and tall man in front of her. Obviously, It was clear at first sight that he was an annoying policeman.

Yan Xie was wearing a Taobao special Double Eleven, but he wore a Patek Philippe crocodile leather nautilus on his wrist because he didn’t have a cheap watch. So he stood there generously and let her look at it. After a while, he said casually: “Comforting the parents of a classmate?”

Tan Shuang saw him smiling and couldn’t figure out the policeman, so she replied in a low voice, “Yeah.”

“It’s alright. I saw that you are quite good at comforting. How do you know that Shen Xiaoqi will be alright?”

Tan Shuang choked, but then reacted quickly: “Because there are many police uncles here. I believe that no matter what happens, Shen Xiaoqi will come back safely.”

Ma Xiang immediately had an “Oh?” expression on his face.

At this time, Jiang Ting finished reading the transcript, and said softly, “I’ll go around the neighborhood.”

“Okay,” Yan Xie said that he approved: “Ma Xiang will follow you, Consultant Lu be careful.”

Ma Xiang immediately said, “Hey!”

Jiang Ting: “……”

Yan Xie turned back to Tan Shuang, put his hands in his trouser pockets, and walked towards the huge courtyard of the farmhouse hotel: “—Don’t say the cliché and don’t be nervous. I just want to ask, you know that Shen Xiaoqi has been kidnapped?”

“..…I heard.”

“Does Shen Xiaoqi usually have enemies at school? Anyone who has fought and quarreled and given a small report to the teacher is counted.”

Tan Shuang reluctantly followed behind him: “No.”

“How is your relationship with Shen Xiaoqi?”

“He’s my brother!”

Yan Xie turned his head: “Your brother?”

Unsurprisingly, the hobby of the children who like to recognize relatives has not changed for many years. Tan Shuang threw out two words: “Yes.”

Yan Xie felt very funny and laughed. Then he suddenly caught a glimpse of a figure not far away. The figure was at the end of the corridor, most of his body was hidden in the corner, only showing half of his head, and he was looking here anxiously.

It was Wang Ke.

Yan Xie recognized him in an instant. But he didn’t look at him at all, as if he didn’t see anything.

“It’s nothing to acknowledge. When I was in school, I not only recognized a group of big brothers and little brothers, but I also went to the police station more than ten times because of a group fight with them.” Yan Xie didn’t seem to see Tan Shuang’s skeptical expression. Then he changed the topic: “The air here is good, who suggested coming here?”

Tan Shuang replied immediately: “Shen Xiaoqi.”

“How did you know about the scenic spot of Tianzong Mountain?”

“Shen Xiaoqi said it was nice, quiet, and isolated from the world, so here we are.”

Yan Xie sneered: “Half-grown children still know what it means to be isolated from the world.”

Tan Shuang rolled her eyes behind him.

“Did Shen Xiaoqi behave strangely before disappearing? Did he say that he was threatened, followed, or had any abnormality recently?”

Tan Shuang flatly denied: “No, not at all.”

Yan Xie didn’t talk much and all the questions he asked were nonsense that had been asked at least three times in the transcript. But Tan Shuang had to follow him step by step, answering them one by one, feeling very aggrieved in her heart.

Although this policeman, who was obviously superior to other officers, was walking in front of her, and only occasionally glanced back; every time he cast his eyes, there seemed to be a sharp blade hidden in his smiling eyes, which can easily cut through any cover-up and camouflage.

“How many boys and girls are in your group?” Yan Xie suddenly asked.

“Tongtong and I are girls, and there are three boys, Shen Xiaoqi, Wang Ke, and Wu Zixiang.” Tan Shuang couldn’t help but said, “Haven’t you all checked the homestay register?”

Having said that, in fact, the registration book of the homestay was useless. Only Shen Xiaoqi left his name when he booked the room as the organizer.

Yan Xie didn’t take it seriously and said, “I see that the five of you have opened three rooms. Who is the person who stayed alone?”

Tan Shuang pouted: “Wu Zixiang snores at night, even boys don’t want to live with him, so he has to sleep by himself. Is there any problem?”

“No problem,” Yan Xie suddenly stopped and looked at her with a smile: “I wonder why you, a little girl, are so disgusted with the police uncle.”

Tan Shuang suddenly met his condescending gaze. Suddenly as if she had been stabbed in the chest by a knife her heart skipped a beat.

“You… you policemen,” Tan Shuang’s face turned pale, and she swallowed her saliva to calm herself: “You policemen treat us as suspects and ask questions over and over again. Is it strange that I am upset? I didn’t know anything and was detained inexplicably. Do you police know how to respect our personal freedom!”

This was really naive. Yan Xie raised half of the corner of his mouth, revealing a smile full of evil.

“What are you laughing at, what are you…..”

“Your hand is hurt.”

Tan Shuang shuddered, and hid her hand reflexively, covering the two hidden parallel scars on the inside of her palm: “That was when feeding the cat…..”

Yan Xie interrupted her and said, “Give me your cell phone.”

……….

Clang!

Jiang Ting opened the bathroom drawer in the homestay, reached in, and flipped through it. He carelessly pushed aside the girls’ shower caps, headscarves, hairpins, and other odds and ends.

Ma Xiang looked at consultant Lu in front of him and felt very confused. He felt like he was rummaging aimlessly in various rooms of the homestay. Except for the luggage locked by the students, he didn’t even let go of the wardrobe, drawers, and toilets. What’s worse was that he spent a lot of time in the girls’ room. Not to mention that this kind of unauthorized search behavior was illegal in the first place, but he was behaving like a psychopathic voyeur.

—But an ordinary voyeur would not be as cold as him. His eyes were so sharp, and his aura was so natural, calm, and professional that Ma Xiang was too embarrassed to stop him after trying to persuade him several times.

“That… Consultant Lu,” Ma Xiang said cautiously, “How about we go buy something to eat?”

Jiang Ting didn’t answer and suddenly took out an item from the depths of the drawer.

Ma Xiang curiously examined it, only to see that it was a pink ceramic round rod that looked a bit like a police baton, with a short rubber handle, and there seemed to be several switches: “What is this?”

“You do not know?”

“I do not know.”

Jiang Ting said casually, “Your brother Yan must know about it.”

“???” Three question marks appeared on Ma Xiang’s head. He heard the word “Brother Yan”, and then looked at the shape of the round rod, his thoughts suddenly diverged into some indescribable dimension. Teng! He Instantly blushed.

“Hey, I… ah, Consultant Lu, you really…”

Jiang Ting inexplicably glanced at Ma Xiang, who was stammering, not knowing what he was thinking. But he was not a curious person. He just reached out to turn on the bathroom light, squatted on the ground and started to search carefully.

“Sure enough, it’s the same as what you said.” At the same time, outside the house, Gao Panqing followed Yan Xie up the steps and said admiringly: “We checked all the students’ mobile phones as you said. Usually, in this case, minors contact their parents to talk to the police, but these children are afraid of going back and don’t even dare to notify their parents…”

“There are many kinds of fears. The objects of fear of these four students are not the kidnappers nearby, nor the students whose life and death are unknown, but the police.” Yan Xie said lightly, “You can clearly see from Tan Shuang’s reaction. It can be seen that she and several other students have the same hope: As long as Shen Xiaoqi comes back, the police will withdraw, and this matter will be over. As long as they insist on not telling the parents and teachers, they will not be scolded.”

Gao Panqing stopped abruptly: “You mean that the disappearance of Shen Xiaoqi is these students’ doing?”

Yan Xie said: “It is most likely that he is the mastermind himself. It also can’t be ruled out that Tan Shuang assisted from the side and other classmates set fire to the bridge.”

“But… why?” Gao Panqing said stunned: “I thought that this kind of teenage boy who ran away from home pretended to be kidnapped and used a high ransom to prove his status in the hearts of his parents could only appear in TV dramas….. “

“No, not really. The Shen family secretly drove to Tianzong Mountain for a few hours in the middle of the night; obviously, they were very concerned about their son. Besides, if this was self-directed and self-acted, then the shirt soaked in the white-tailed sea eagle’s blood could not be explained.”

After Yan Xie finished speaking, he continued to walk along the hotel corridor. The stupid Gao Panqing, who was puzzled, hurried forward: “Could it be related to the national first-class protected animals? These brats tried to steal the bird’s egg and were caught by nearby people with Zorro complex?”

“Are you writing a novel?” Yan Xie said with a smile, “After Da Huang suggested that the blood might come from the white-tailed sea eagle, I went to check the information. First of all, this scenic spot is not a habitat for sea eagles at all, and second, do you know how ferocious is the white-tailed sea eagle? These bear children may not be their opponents even if they tried together. If they dared to steal the eggs, their ashes would have been cold by now.”

This kidnapping case was full of weirdness, and Gao Panqing only felt that he had never encountered such a cloudy case in his life, and he was completely lost: “Then brother Yan, what the hell is going on?”

At this time, they walked to the open door, Yan Xie stood still, took the plastic bag from Gao Panqing’s hand, and smiled:

“How do I know, I’m not the kidnapper.”

Gao Panqing: “.…..”

Yan Xie threw the words that Jiang Ting had spoken in the morning, and immediately felt an unspeakable spiritual satisfaction. Then he turned around and entered the room: “Consultant Lu! I’ve brought you some food, did you find something?”

In the hotel room, Ma Xiang was kicked out by Jiang Ting long ago. He was standing outside with a blushing face while rubbing his hands. In the bathroom, Jiang Ting was picking up a few strands of hair from the ground with tweezers, and looking at them in the light carefully.

“—Yo, what are you doing?” Yan Xie saw this scene, and immediately stopped sensitively: “This is the scene? Do you want to wear shoe covers?”

“No.” Jiang Ting said intently, “What’s there to eat?”

Yan Xie took out the soy milk cup, inserted the straw, and put the warm plastic bag on the outside table: “This is the sweet soy milk and bean paste buns that I worked so hard in my busy schedule to buy especially for Consultant Lu, to show some appreciation to our free white worker…”

Jiang Ting didn’t take his eyes off the strands of hair, took a mouthful of soy milk, and answered without raising his head, “If you can leave the kidnapping case with only 30 hours left and go to buy some soy milk first, then, I am afraid that you’ll not be able to sit in the position of the Vice-Captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment for long.”

When he said that, he raised his eyes, and the two stood close to each other in the bathroom, looking at each other.

“Among my busy schedules, I worked tirelessly to personally instruct the intern under this young master to buy the buns.” Yan Xie politely said, “Take it and drink it, don’t speak so much nonsense.”

Jiang Ting took the soy milk cup, and a faint smile slipped through his eyes.

“How is it?” Yan Xie looked away somewhat unnaturally, and took the tweezers carefully: “Have you found the evidence?”

“It’s not the evidence, it’s just a suspicious point, mainly because I found this.” Jiang Ting held the hot soy milk in both hands and glanced at the pink ceramic round rod that made the innocent boy Ma Xiang unable to calm his blushing.

Yan Xie picked it up easily: “The hair doesn’t match?”

“See for yourself.”

Ma Xiang’s eyes immediately straightened, only to see Yan Xie pick up the round rod and observe it for half a moment.

“…That’s true.” After a long time, Yan Xie murmured in the quiet room, “Sure enough… I knew these children are hiding something. The courage of students these days is really…”

Jiang Ting bit the straw vaguely: “There is another detail in the boys’ room. I suggest you take a look, maybe there will be more clues.”

Yan Xie nodded in agreement. He took the lead to get out of the bathroom, handed the pink ceramic round rod with wires to Ma Xiang, then turned around and walked out.

Suddenly he noticed something strange and stopped: “—what’s the matter with you, not feeling well?”

Everyone looked around and saw that Ma Xiang was blushing so red that he could almost burn a boiled egg. His expression was like holding a bomb that was counting down in his hand: “I’m not, I don’t, I, I, I…”

Yan Xie and Jiang Ting looked at each other, the latter shrugged to indicate that he was completely unaware.

“What’s wrong with you?” Yan Xie asked inexplicably, “Is there something wrong with this ceramic hair curling iron?”

Ma Xiang: “Huh?”

Ma Xiang who had never even held a girl’s hand in his life, and was a single, mature and straight man, fell into silence amidst the suspicious gazes around him.

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