Case Files Chapter 18: Debut (16)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

A total of three people climbed over, and the first one hissed, “Where did he go?! Didn’t you say that he ran here?”

“He ran out of the secret door, I saw him myself,” retorted another one.

“Stop arguing. Why do we still need to catch that kid, the police have already come knocking, so let’s just run,” the third person said anxiously.

“Never mind then, let’s go, quick.”

The tree of them began running towards another wall of the Zilan Clubhouse.

It seemed that that wall also had a secret door. Guan Jin turned around and asked Lu YunYang in an undertone, “Do you have a gun?”

“Officer, did you mix us up? I’m the civilian, and you’re the police,” teased Lu YunYang.

Guan Jin rolled his eyes. If you were a civilian, then I’d actually be the police!

“But, we don’t have a gun, and they do.” Lu YunYang pointed at the people who were running away.

Guan Jin frowned. Then, he quickly picked up a decorative flower pot near him and threw it.

Crash! It happened to land behind the fleeing people.

“Who is it?!”

Bang! There was a gunshot. One of them had randomly fired a shot behind them.

“Idiot! Who told you to open fire?!” exclaimed the other two, panicked.

The gunshot seemed to alert the nearby police, and there was a commotion.

Suddenly, they spotted Guan Jin, who was swaying purposely. “Someone’s over there! Don’t let them tell the police our whereabouts!”

Bullets flew in their direction, and Guan Jin shuddered. The scene of getting shot in the head replayed in his mind…

“Now is not that time to be distracted!” Lu YunYang kicked the boy, who had already fainted from shock, under the bush to hide him while he pulled Guan Jin with him, running towards the back door.

The two of them quickly darted to different sides, as they listened to the approaching footsteps.

When the first person got close enough, Lu YunYang stuck out a leg and tripped him. The person fell facedown to the ground, and he dropped his pistol.

Guan Jin quickly pounced over and grabbed the gun, rolling over before kneeling on one knee and pointing the gun at the other two. “Hands up and I won’t shoot!”

Lu YunYang wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry. Are you a policeman or a gangster? He could only do it himself, so he took advantage of the two people’s surprise and darted behind them in a flash. Before they could even turn around, Lu YunYang used the side of his hands to slice them both on the neck, and they collapsed limply to the ground.

The person lying on the ground struggled to get up, and Guan Jin, not to be outdone, also rushed over and used the side of his hand to slash the back of his neck.

The person blinked and looked at Guan Jin.

Guan Jin panicked a little, but he picked up the brick he had brought and smashed in onto the person’s forehead. This time, their eyes finally rolled back in their head, and they passed out.

Sure enough, a rotted brick was still better than a skilled hand.

“Hands up and I won’t shoot!” someone shouted as a group of policemen closed in on them.

Lu YunYang sighed; what kind of catchphrase was that?

“Guan Jin, how come you’re here?!”

“There’s three of them here, and there’s another one behind that tree, though that one seems to be a victim,” Guan Jin said casually, as if he was talking about the weather. His finger was in the pistol’s trigger loop as he casually twirled it around.

Unfortunately, his colleague didn’t feel the same way.

“Guan Jin…”

“Mn?”

“Have you refunded the insurance for that gun?”

“What’s insurance?”

Zheng Fei walked over and said, “Little Jinjin, come, give the gun to me~”

Guan Jin directly tossed the gun to him, startling Zheng Fei. Damn, if he died because of an accidental shot, then he really would ‘go down in history.’

While Mr. Lu was standing off to the side and watching the excitement, the frightened Officer Zheng and the unhappy Officer Guan were both very upset, so Mr. Lu, who had bravely assisted the police in fighting the gangsters, was invited back to the police station to continue helping them to take notes.

When he walked to the road in front of the villa, Guan Jin froze. There were seven or eight police cars flashing blue and red parked there, and police officers were rushing about. About a dozen or so people were pushed and shoved into the police cars, and there were also three ambulances parked nearby. Ding Ding and Chen QiaoYu were helping the medical personnel carry the boys onto the ambulances.

Guan Jin quietly stood there and watched everyone working as a team. He felt a little uneasy.

“I heard Zheng Fei say that you contributed a lot.” Wen JingHan smiled as he walked towards Guan Jin.

Guan Jin glanced at him indifferently. “Suddenly assaulting them like this will only make the mastermind behind the scenes even more cautious and stay on the safe side forever. So, wasn’t this a little shortsighted?”

“You don’t think that this was a meritorious deed?”

“You’re too emotional, those kids weren’t in life-threatening danger.”

Wen JingHan turned around and looked at the people on stretchers being carried onto the ambulances. “What do you think the police do?”

“Catch bad guys.” Like myself.

“I don’t know what you thought before you lost your memory, but if you want to continue working with me, remember this. The police’s duty is not to discipline, it is to protect and rescue, and ensure that victims don’t spend any second longer in danger or pain than they have to. You don’t have to imagine it as something really noble. For example, if those people were people you knew, you would do this instinctively.” After finishing talking, Wen JingHan stuck his hands into his pockets and slowly walked into the crowd.

The people he knew… The people Guan Jin knew either didn’t require protection, or were people that he’d like to shoot. Tony? Was Tony considered his friend? Guan Jin mulled over it. He didn’t seem to have any people he wanted to protect; on the contrary, there were quite a few people he wanted to kill.

“Officer, aren’t you going to take me back to take notes?” said a familiar voice.

Guan Jin suddenly didn’t feel like bickering with him anymore, and was too lazy to even look up.

“Don’t you want to ask me why I always show up near you?”

“Why?”

This time, Lu YunYang didn’t beat around the bush, and he said honestly, “Actually, it’s because of your chief, that Officer Wen. He’s really worried about you after you lost your memory, since he feels that your temperament has changed a lot and isn’t really stable. His brother just happens to be my good friend, so he requested me to observe and enlighten you.”

“Enlighten?” Guan Jin didn’t seem to be surprised. “Do you think I’ve been enlightened?”

“At least you haven’t gotten worse, right? And, I think that you don’t need to be enlightened. You just need time to get used to things. You often feel stressed, pent-up, and at a loss towards everything around you, but you’re also cautious, so you don’t express it. Actually, you don’t need to work that hard. You can express your emotions towards this unfamiliar world to your heart’s content.”

Guan Jin was silent.

“And you care a lot about your colleagues, and they’re also very, very amazing. You guys saved a lot of people today.”

Save? Guan Jin indeed felt strange. In his dictionary, there had always only ever been killing, and for him, the human life had always just been a target that he could snatch away at any time and nothing else.

Guan Jin’s face was illuminated only by the wavering lights, so his expression was unreadable. Yet inexplicably, Lu YunYang felt that he could clearly see one word——conflict.

*****

Du Sheng, who had been brought back to the police station for an overnight interrogation, didn’t resist at all, and he admitted everything openly. The truth was beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Bullshit, if Min Yan didn’t approve of this, then how could someone as irrelevant as Du Sheng dare to use his resources as a bait and set such an elaborate scheme involving so many people?!” Zheng Fei was so furious, he threw the case files onto the floor.

Guan Jin silently picked the files up and placed them on his own desk; if they were damaged, then he would be the one who had to repair them.

“According to what Du Sheng said, an unknown, powerful person was supporting him and gave him a lot of bribes, which was why he was willing to risk things,” said Gu Xiang.

“Only a ghost would believe that that person’s unknown! Who would make such an irrelevant person work for them?!” Chen QiaoYu also didn’t believe it.

“Let’s temporarily call this unknown person ‘X’. X has a lot of power in his own territory, and his goal was to expand and increase his power to City S and its surrounding areas. In order to do this, he chose an agent that wouldn’t attract too much suspicion to get those people that he could use for him, and then get recordings that he could use as blackmail. Du Sheng is the person that was chosen as his agent. Because Du Sheng used to work in child pornography distribution, he knew to kidnap boys whose disapperances wouldn’t attract too much attention. Thus, he used the Min family as bait to attract politicians and businessmen who were looking for fresh excitement, and recorded them watching unsightly things to use as blackmail,” summarized Wen JingHan. He looked at everyone and asked, “What part of this do you think doesn’t make sense?”

“It’s still the same. Min Yan definitely couldn’t have not known! How could someone as shrewd as him not notice the activity of the people under him?” insisted Zheng Fei.

Ding Ding frowned. “Then that can only mean he acquiesced in it, but what does he stand to gain from this?”

“There’s nothing he can gain, which is why it doesn’t make sense,” Guan Jin suddenly added.

Wen JingHan raised an eyebrow. “Tell me what you think.”

“First off, if this X wanted to expand their power into new territories, he should win people over, not threaten them. It’s not wise to offend people as powerful as them. Besides, if he first offended everyone, then establishing a foothold here would be foolish. Actually, those people were so easily lured in because of the Min family’s influence in City S and it would be beneficial for them to establish a connection to the Min family, and they never thought that the Min family would dare to set a trap. Once things were exposed, Min Yan would only be the target of public criticism, since no one would believe that he was oblivious to everything. Min Yan doesn’t seem to be able to gain anything from this matter. On the contrary, he’s practically drawing fire upon himself. With that line of reasoning, none of this makes sense, because no one benefits from it,” Guan Jin said in one breath. Everyone looked at him in astonishment.

“Guan Jin!” exclaimed Lin Bai.

“What is it?” Guan Jin was a little alert; had he said something wrong?

“You used so many idioms at once ¹!”

“…”

“Excellent explanation.” Wen JingHan smiled. “So you think that Du Sheng is lying?”

“Not entirely. I believe that there is an X, but I’m afraid his goal is not to expand his power.”

Chen QiaoYu exclaimed, “Yes! This X just wanted to do a one-time transaction, which is why he used such unscrupulous means!”

Wen JingHan nodded. “Not bad. And this is a big ‘transaction’, or else Min Yan wouldn’t have ignored Du Sheng’s actions. So this begs the question, exactly what is the transaction?”

“Boss, should we ‘invite’ Min Yan over tomorrow?” Ding Ding asked carefully.

“It’s routine, so of course we’ll question him. However, I don’t think we’ll be able to find any flaws. As for Du Sheng, whether he’s telling the truth or not, there’s not much point in trying to extract more information from him. Can’t you guys see? Compared to the police and going to jail, they’re more scared of that X.”

Everyone looked at each other and fell silent.

Guan Jin felt a little exhausted as he gathered his things and was about to go home to catch up on some sleep. Suddenly, he realized it seemed that… he had forgotten something…

When he opened the door to the reception room, Lu YunYang’s arms were crossed, and his head was lowered; he seemed to be asleep. When he heard the door open, he slowly looked up. His eyes were bright, and he didn’t seem sleepy at all.

“Little Jin, you finally remembered me.” He sounded plaintive.

Guan Jin rolled his eyes. “Hurry back home and go to sleep. Stop occupying public resources.”

“Occupy? I was only sitting on one of your chairs, and I didn’t even get a sip of water.”

“…” Inexplicably, he felt a little guilty for mistreating an innocent citizen.

“You guys only care about that criminal, but you left me, a brave, good citizen with a sense of justice, hanging here. Isn’t that a little too inhumane?” Lu YunYang didn’t move.

“If you also go and kidnap some boys, then I can guarantee that you’ll get to enjoy the treatment of a criminal.”

“Then never mind, I’ll pass.” Lu YunYang stood up, draped his coat over his arm, and walked away.

When he walked past Guan Jin, he paused briefly. “Officer Guan, so long.”

“No need, don’t let me see you again anymore.”

Lu YunYang walked outside, and the corner of his mouth curved upwards. Little Jin, before long, we’ll see each other again. I look forward to it.

*****

Meanwhile, in the surveillance car left behind to clean up the scene…

Jin MaiLong pounced over, terrified. “Le Fan! I thought I would never see you again!”

Le Fan was startled, and he subconsciously wanted to kick him, but he stiffly decided not to. Never mind, this time, he had forced someone to do something they didn’t want to do, and this idiot had risked a lot to help everyone. Thus, Le Fan decided to let him hug him, as it was no skin off his back.

“It was so sinister inside, it’s so good to see you,” complained Jin MaiLong, though he was grinning widely.

“…Enough, you’ve made a big contribution, I’ll remember this. When I go back, I can recommend you for——” Before Le Fan could finish, he suddenly felt something poke his thigh.

“What. Is. This?” Le Fan said through gritted teeth as he looked down.

“Ah… haha, I brought a self-defense baton,” Jin MaiLong lied blatantly.

“Is that so?” Le Fan turned around and grabbed a police baton that was nearby. “In that case, shall we have a duel with our ‘batons’?”

“I’ll pass!” Jin MaiLong covered his lower body and darted out of the car like a rabbit. “This will be your source of pleasure soon, mark my words!”

“Fuck off!” A police baton was hurled towards him.

 

“Tsk tsk, even a forensic scientist from the Special Cases Team is this powerful!” the policeman cleaning up the scene exclaimed in admiration.