“How are you here?” Seeing it was Ji Xun, Yuan Yue couldn’t help but rush up the stairs and ask the obvious question.
“I found some unexpected clues, so I came over to take a look. Is there trouble inside?” Ji Xun craned his neck towards Sun Fujing’s apartment.
“Sun Fujing has a gun and a hostage,” Yuan Yue said succinctly.
“Hmm…”
To be honest, Ji Xun wasn’t surprised.
For the police to back out of a room with guns drawn, there were only a few possibilities, with the suspect having a gun being the most common. As he was pondering, he suddenly noticed Yuan Yue’s face darken.
“What happened in there?” Ji Xun asked. “Is the hostage hurt?”
“No. Sun Fujing wants a car to escape. Captain Huo offered to exchange himself for the hostage. Sun Fujing said he’d only agree if Captain Huo shoots himself in the arm first.”
Yuan Yue explained the situation in a few words. With the situation being urgent, he didn’t care that Ji Xun was an unofficial consultant and, just like in the old days, treated him as a partner, quickly sharing the current intelligence.
“The commander-in-chief has rejected Sun Fujing’s demand and told Captain Huo to continue stalling for time. The sniper, negotiator, and ambulance will all be on standby at the scene within five minutes.”
Huo Ranyin and Yuan Yue were the on-site commanders for the arrest.
But as soon as the news that Sun Fujing had a gun and a hostage reached the bureau, Chief Zhou quickly took over command and was now arranging the on-site tasks through the police internal communication system.
As he was giving orders, he was also cursing up a storm, his voice so loud that Ji Xun, standing next to Yuan Yue, could catch a bit of it.
Ji Xun smiled. “Chief Zhou is still the same as before. Usually like a seamless, solid teapot, but at critical moments, his hot temper always blows the lid off, revealing his true self.”
It’s not a bad thing for the suspect to make demands.
If the suspect doesn’t move, he’s like a turtle in its shell, impossible to get a grip on. But as soon as he moves, his head, tail, or limbs will stick out.
That’s the opportunity.
Ji Xun took two steps and came to the stair landing.
The building had two apartments per floor. The glass window next to the corridor was Sun Fujing’s dining room.
Sun Fujing’s apartment had a north-south transparent layout. The living room and dining room were in the same rectangular space, separated by the entrance hallway. The hallway ran parallel to the entryway, and further in were the bedrooms, study, and other rooms.
Sun Fujing was sitting on the sofa with his back to the floor-to-ceiling window, his field of vision covering all normal entry routes into the living room.
Because the curtains were drawn, the sniper couldn’t directly pinpoint his location for now.
Although they could use the video feed from Huo Ranyin’s body camera to estimate his position, the margin of error would be large, and it would be easy to harm the hostage.
Whispers came from beside him again.
It was Yuan Yue talking to Chief Zhou. Wen Yangyang had requested to be the one to exchange for the hostage. Chief Zhou refused and even gave the order to kill. If they couldn’t get a shot in the apartment, they would wait for Sun Fujing to come downstairs and get in the car. But Yuan Yue said:
“Chief Zhou, he’s the only mastermind left in the Tang Zhixue case. If he dies too, there will be nothing left of this case. Tang Zhixue’s mother is in her eighties. She’s been guarding that dilapidated house all these years, just waiting for the police to catch the man and the court to sentence him, to give her son justice. For this, she doesn’t even dare to die…”
A vague idea began to form in Ji Xun’s mind.
“I have an idea,” Ji Xun spoke up. He spoke just as the sirens of the police cars and ambulance arrived, the loud sounds coming from below the building, drawing the attention of Yuan Yue, who was talking to Chief Zhou.
“We can perform a magic trick. But it’s a somewhat dangerous magic trick…”
He stood there, looking down from the landing.
From a height of thirty floors, every gust of wind was sharp. He looked down into the sharp wind; people were like ants, cars like toys.
“By the way,” he asked Yuan Yue, “we never had a chance to experience this when we were partners, so I don’t know—are you afraid of heights?”
The commander’s orders came through Huo Ranyin’s earpiece, stage by stage.
Huo Ranyin remained composed throughout.
However, this silence itself was a sign of a choice. Sun Fujing smiled as if in appreciation. “Your leader has rejected my proposal, but you want to accept my proposal, don’t you? Young people these days are truly remarkable. You’re certain that even with one injured hand, you can still subdue me while I’m holding a gun.”
“You’re overthinking it,” Huo Ranyin said calmly. “No matter how well-trained a person is, they can’t contend with a firearm. I want to make the exchange simply because it’s my duty.”
“A very touching speech, but I don’t believe you. Where’s the car I asked for?” Sun Fujing suddenly changed the subject, his voice becoming stern. He had also heard the sounds of the police cars and ambulance below.
“It will be here soon.”
“When is soon?”
“In twenty minutes.”
“I see the police don’t want this hostage’s life anymore!” Sun Fujing’s gun barrel pressed hard against Lin Yun’s face. Lin Yun jerked as if struck by a whip, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. Her eyes had been wet all along, but after the initial uncontrolled crying, she had been trying hard to hold back her tears.
Tears were a burden now; she tried her best to be strong.
“Don’t get agitated!” Huo Ranyin said immediately.
At this, Sun Fujing smiled again. He was fickle, one moment frenzied, the next seemingly calm. Perhaps this back-and-forth was also one of his tactics to confuse the police.
“I’m not agitated. But I’m only giving you ten minutes. In ten minutes, if the car I want isn’t here, I’ll take her with me.”
Huo Ranyin quietly notified Chief Zhou at headquarters and quickly got a response.
He said, “Okay, we agree. The car will be here in ten minutes.”
The negotiator was also on the line. He hadn’t arrived at the scene yet and could only give remote instructions, telling Huo Ranyin to keep Sun Fujing talking, not to give him time to think and make new demands. At the same time, there was other noise on the line, as if headquarters was debating a rescue plan.
Huo Ranyin paid it no mind, focusing his thoughts on the present.
Right now, he was the only police officer still in the room, face to face with Sun Fujing. The other officers had retreated outside the room at Sun Fujing’s initial command.
This meant that if he were to disarm himself, it would be a very dangerous thing to do.
The danger did not stop Huo Ranyin.
Under Sun Fujing’s gaze, he holstered his gun. Then he spread his hands, showing they were empty.
“Let’s talk. Mr. Sun, besides the account book, we also found a hammer in Qian Shumao’s house. The size of this hammer matches the wound on the back of Tang Zhixue’s head. But after forensic examination, there was no trace of Tang Zhixue’s blood on it. It’s a fake murder weapon. Qian Shumao found out too, which is why he angrily said, ‘Old bastard, you tricked me again’.”
Huo Ranyin looked at Sun Fujing’s face.
He had no weapon in his hands, yet his entire being was sharper, more imposing than when he was armed.
“The ‘old bastard’ must be referring to you, Mr. Sun. For so many years, Mr. Sun, you’ve kept the very weapon he and Zhao Yuanliang used to kill Tang Zhixue, and you’ve used it to threaten them. A fine move. Usually, in a hired killing, it’s the hired killer who secretly collects evidence to blackmail the employer. But you did the opposite.”
At this moment, Huo Ranyin himself was a gun.
Wherever his gaze fell, that was the gunsight.
“With your style of doing things, Mr. Sun, I believe you must have considered the possibility of being threatened beforehand. So you made a plan and used some means to make Zhao Yuanliang and Qian Shumao willingly—or unwillingly—hand over the incriminating evidence. And that means was most likely money.”
“Ha,” Sun Fujing said, “is this an interrogation?”
“No police officer would interrogate someone in this situation,” Huo Ranyin said. “I’m just stating my own speculation, wanting to verify this truth.”
“Is the truth more important than your life?”
“It’s a police officer’s duty. Things have come this far; the crimes you’re responsible for won’t be lessened by what I’m saying now.” Huo Ranyin gave an extra glance at the muzzle of Sun Fujing’s gun. “No matter how heavy the law’s sentence is, a person only has one life, right?”
“How bold,” Sun Fujing’s face showed appreciation. “Young man, afraid of nothing. Not afraid to shoot yourself, not afraid of me shooting you… Alright, I’ll listen to you.”
Huo Ranyin paused for a moment before organizing his words.
This wasn’t his style. If he could, he would have preferred to prove all this with strong evidence, not through reasoning, guessing, and piecing things together… and then drawing a conclusion without sufficient proof.
These were all conjectures.
If Ji Xun were here, he would probably be in his element, making the conjectures sound perfectly logical.
He briefly recalled the image of Ji Xun talking eloquently, deducing the entire case, and following the conclusion Ji Xun had reached, he began to speak:
“You were the boss, Tang Zhixue was the accountant. Only you and Tang Zhixue knew how much the wages would be. Zhao Yuanliang and Qian Shumao didn’t know. Perhaps, you had promised them a huge sum beforehand, but the money Zhao and Qian found at Tang Zhixue’s house was less than their psychological expectation. They had already killed someone and were unwilling to settle for just that amount, so they didn’t choose to flee immediately. Instead, they had to stay and meet with you again to get the rest of the money. And you used this money to exchange for the murder weapon.”
Sun Fujing smiled with a hint of pride. Every old man has a strong desire to express himself, especially when talking about a part of his youth he’s proud of. He couldn’t help but show off the old photos in his book of merits, showing off his great achievements.
He couldn’t resist making a small, vague correction: “Maybe the amount of money was correct, but that person secretly met with the accountant and took all the money in advance.”
Huo Ranyin, seeming to get into the conversation, cooperatively used a vague pronoun as well. “Why wasn’t that person afraid that Zhao Yuanliang and Qian Shumao would go all out and kill him too?”
Sun Fujing became even more smug. “Two country bumpkins, how would they know where the money was hidden? They risked getting shot to kill someone, and if they didn’t get a penny, wouldn’t that be too tragic?”
There were no longer any doubts about the Tang Zhixue case. Huo Ranyin then brought up Qian Shumao’s hammer. “But the country bumpkin Qian Shumao still remembered the murder hammer very clearly after 22 years, and even knew some secret features, so the clever boss didn’t manage to fool him with a fake hammer.”
Sun Fujing’s face darkened. His hand trembled, and the gun butt bumped against Lin Yun’s shoulder.
But this time Lin Yun didn’t move. She was also listening, stunned. Perhaps when fear reaches its extreme, it becomes numbness.
“Qian Shumao got the hammer back from you on the night of February 1st. I’ve thought for a long time about why you suddenly agreed to return the hammer to him on that day. I’ve repeatedly reviewed all the reports from February 1st and tried to put myself in Qian Shumao’s shoes, but I couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t until your words just now that I realized a detail that, as a police officer, I would have found difficult to notice.”
“You are very arrogant, and you look down on Zhao and Qian. In your mind, they were just tools for murder. The tools didn’t need to know your plan. Your statement to the police would not be disclosed to the public. They probably didn’t even know you had created an alibi for them.”
“You only needed to tell them to kill Tang Zhixue at 9 o’clock, and after killing him, to stay quietly at the construction site. You would handle the police and ensure they wouldn’t get into trouble. This would achieve the same effect as a conspiracy.”
“Only on this premise can it be explained why Qian Shumao came to you on February 1st and was able to get a fake murder weapon from you. Because on that day, he watched Half a Cabbage’s video, and he suddenly discovered—you, Sun Fujing, had said 22 years ago that the murderer appeared at your house at 9:30, and both he and Zhao Yuanliang had alibis for 9:30. You had created a false testimony. The appearance of this false testimony meant that in Qian Shumao’s eyes, you, who were supposed to be completely detached from the Tang Zhixue case, were suddenly connected.”
Just as Huo Ranyin had asserted on the day he saw the video that had leaked numerous police investigation details.
The video was released, startling the snake.
The venomous snake was indeed startled, revealing its fangs and flicking its tongue. Unfortunately, its enemy was also a venomous snake, a smarter one. Their brutal game, however, implicated the most innocent people.
Causing those who were already living in great hardship to die of despair.
“…As for what you two talked about after that, I think Mr. Sun can tell me in detail, so there’s no need for me to guess too much. It was nothing more than some words of comfort and reassurance. But in the end, when Qian Shumao discovered that the weapon he got was a fake, he realized that you still wanted to use him as a scapegoat. So, he developed the intent to kill. He bought silver nitrate, created the public account soft articles, and wanted to kill you.”
“Captain, you are indeed smart, a truly cultured man. To be able to deduce things to this extent with so few clues left.”
But Sun Fujing smiled again, a smile tinged with disdain.
“Country bumpkins. I said, country bumpkins. Do you think a mere country bumpkin could think of all the things you just said? A rooster is still a rooster even if it eats an immortal pill. Does a toad think it can become a prince by getting a kiss?”
“You mean—”
Huo Ranyin looked at Sun Fujing’s extremely contemptuous expression, reviewed his own reasoning, and came up with a new guess. If—
“All of it—creating the soft articles, manufacturing more copycat cases—it was all my idea that I told Qian Shumao.”
Sun Fujing, who had been vague about his crimes until now, laid it all out in the open.
But of course, this was not a confession out of a guilty conscience.
He was showing off.
The more arrogant a person is, the less they can tolerate their achievements being credited to others.
After Huo Ranyin’s long deduction laid out his brilliant schemes from over the years, he finally couldn’t help but reveal his talent and intelligence to someone who “understood him.”
“He wanted to kill me. The desire to kill me was laid bare in his eyes. Every look he gave me told me he wanted to devour me. So I showed him a way:
“Use the parents, spread anxiety, create chaos. Ah… the case in Shanghai hadn’t even happened then. He came to me in the afternoon. But what happens when the media reports on it? Does one need an example to understand this flaw in human nature?
“I coaxed him. I told him we were in the same boat. The police would be run ragged by these copycat cases. The more copycat cases, the busier the police would be, and the less they would think of us. Hiding a leaf in a forest, you know. He completely believed it and, in his self-righteousness, thought this good method could be used for other purposes. Alas, you weren’t there. You didn’t see his stupid face. He couldn’t wait to take out a pen and write down every point I made, then follow it like a template to kill me—it was truly laughable.”
Sun Fujing actually laughed out loud.
“A trick I played twenty years ago, he hears it from me twenty years later and then tries to use it on me to embarrass himself. That ancestral stupidity passed down through eight generations, no amount of money can wash it away. If he doesn’t die, who does?”
“And that became your true ‘hide a leaf in the forest’ plan. While all police forces were focused on the poisoning cases, you used the simplest method, a seemingly unquestionable car accident, to eliminate the hidden danger.”
“Yes, that’s how it should have been.”
Sun Fujing said with a sigh. He looked at Huo Ranyin’s grim face and smiled faintly again.
“Unfortunately, I ran into a smart police captain like you. I didn’t ask earlier, and you didn’t say. Now I’d like to know, what is your honorable surname?”
“His surname is Ji.”
A voice suddenly cut in from outside the house.
Ji Xun strode in like a meteor. He stood next to Huo Ranyin and first praised him: “This smooth, flowing style of reasoning, you’ve truly learned from me, Officer Ji Ranyin.”
Then, before Huo Ranyin could speak, he turned to Sun Fujing and extended his hand:
“Allow me to introduce myself. My surname is Huo, Huo Xun. I’m the team leader of the Ning City Public Security Bureau’s Special Operations Group, and the immediate superior of this Officer Ji. I can make the decision on the request you’ve made.”
