On the third day of the Chinese New Year in 1990, in a small coastal town, an old man called the police and said he heard three gunshots.
The starting point of welcoming the deity is the South Wharf. People carry the huge sedan chair from the right time of the year and pass through the main road in the center of the city. The noise of carrying Mazu even exceeds the grand parade on New Year's Eve, and both sides of the shrine are crowded with people.
The sound of firecrackers was like thunder, and the whole city was filled with bright red lights and gun smoke. The old man's alarm was hard to believe - no one thought he could distinguish the gunshots from the deafening sound of firecrackers.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, it was overcast and rainy. The rain soaked the red paper scattered on the ground in mud. Looking down from above, the shrine road of last night seemed like a blood vessel running through the entire city.
The three men remained seated on the bench by the shrine. They wore plastic masks; despite the crowds of last night, they had remained seated. After the crowds dispersed, at some point, the three men had tilted their heads, like three rag dolls, folded over on the bench.
The bright red firecracker paper on the ground obscured the blood gushing from the three people. The first investigators who arrived at the scene lifted up their masks.
Under the mask were three heads that had been blown apart by gunshot.
-
Chu Jiajun boarded the train, carrying a large luggage bag in both hands and humming a song.
He sat down. Opposite him sat a somewhat shy and refined boy. When Chu Jiajun put down his luggage, the huge and heavy bag made the shelf tremble.
The young man opposite just looked up curiously and said nothing.
It was just after the Lunar New Year, a time when thieves are most likely to return. Almost everyone on the train was watching their luggage intently. The young man sitting across from him was no different, opening his backpack every half hour and pulling out an envelope to peer into it.
It seems to be an acceptance letter from a university.
——The young man's name is Xu Fei. He entered the university through spring recruitment and had repeated a grade for half a year before that.
Chu Jiajun: I happen to be going to City A too. Do you want to make some friends there?
Chu Jiajun took off his sunglasses and looked at Xu Fei with his bright eyes. The face behind the sunglasses was much younger and more beautiful than Xu Fei had imagined.
Those were a pair of eyes that were almost tearful, with the corners of the eyes slightly turned downwards, without a trace of aggression.
Being stared at by those innocent eyes like a child, Xu Fei quickly explained everything about himself - how he chose his major, how many people were in his family, whether he had ever smoked secretly, his favorite female star... and that he went to City A to study at a university, and his family also entrusted a relative who worked in City A to take care of him.
At first they sat facing each other with their backs to each other. Half an hour later, Xu Fei was leaning his elbows on the table in the middle, talking non-stop to Chu Jiajun.
Chu Jiajun leaned back in his chair, and he had been daydreaming since he didn't know when.
-
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, news broke in a small coastal town: three members of the roaming criminal gang known as "Face" had been shot and killed, their bodies dumped on the roadside.
The initial inference was that the murderer had disappeared due to internal strife caused by uneven distribution of spoils.
Ji Yongtao emerged from the conference room, clutching a tattered notebook, and followed his boss downstairs. This was a major event; Facebook, a gang that had done everything from armored car jackings to bank robberies, was practically destroyed by internal strife.
The problem is, three are dead, and there's still one left. Every single person in "The Face" is inhumane and vicious. Being able to kill three other accomplices at the same time, this person is obviously more threatening than the other three combined.
If we kill his accomplice, he will definitely flee to another place as soon as possible. No matter how evil he is, there is only one person left, fighting alone. If we want to intercept and kill him, now is the best time.
During that period, several trains were dispatched from the crime scene, and all cities on the routes involved began to be stretched to their limits in terms of schedule, destination, and stops. However, the lack of police force was the most fatal and helpless factor.
At a small team meeting, the various groups were assigned tasks. Ji Yongtao led the team to conduct surveillance at the train station this week. The train station exits were relatively controllable, but the most troublesome were the bus stations, which had completely free entrances and exits. The team leader, Li Yu, personally led the team to conduct surveillance there.
While signing, Ji Yongtao's pager rang, and Li Yu kicked him in the butt. He went outside to process the news - his mother had something to do and asked him to call back when he was free.
It's just a small matter.
I have a cousin whose name I can barely remember, and he's coming to City A to study at university. My family wants him to take care of him.
-
The car stopped at the middle station and Chu Jiajun went outside to smoke a cigarette.
When he returned to his seat, Xu Fei was not there, probably having gone to the bathroom; a strange young man was standing on tiptoe in front of the luggage rack, rummaging through their bags.
He opened Chu Jiajun's huge suitcase, and when the thief saw what was inside, his eyes widened in disbelief.
Perhaps he couldn't believe what he saw in the bag, so his legs gave way and he stumbled back half a step, only to be held tightly by a hand behind him. The other hand reached for the bag and, instead of zipping it up, zipped it open completely.
Chu Jiajun put his elbow on his neck from behind and whispered in his ear: "How is it? Is the stuff in my bag cool?"
His finger tapped the white rope on the zipper: "Hasn't your boss taught you how to read a bag? If you can't tell which bag is the bag of a gangster, then it can't be opened?"
-
It was still a few days' drive before we arrived in City A. It was late at night, and most of the train compartments were closed.
Xu Fei got up to go to the bathroom, opened the door of the private room, and staggered out along the wall.
The green train rumbled through a barren wilderness. In the early spring without the moonlight, the night was like a shadow with no visible edge.
A moment later, Xu Fei returned, yawning. He was wearing no glasses and walking unsteadily. He remembered he hadn't brushed his teeth yet, so he fumbled with the luggage rack on the upper bunk, trying to pull out his wash cup from his bag.
There was a sound of a zipper being unzipped, and something light and fluffy fell out of the bag.
Xu Fei was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had opened the wrong bag - he opened Chu Jiajun's bag.
Xu Fei muttered as he squatted on the ground, groping for the things he had just dropped. At this moment, the train rushed into the tunnel, instantly extinguishing all light.
Xu Fei squatted there with his eyes narrowed, and after the train rushed out of the tunnel, he could barely see what it was.
It's a plastic mask.
——Black facial mask.
Xu Fei suddenly realized that there was something behind him. He looked up and found Chu Jiajun standing behind him, looking down at him.
...The night was so dark, but the faint light fell on those childlike eyes, as bright as a cat's eyes.
The train jolted at this moment—and suddenly, a cold corpse rolled out from under the lower bunk in front of Xu Fei. In an instant, Xu Fei was trapped between the corpse and Chu Jiajun.
The train rushed into a tunnel again. When it rushed out of the tunnel, Chu Jiajun was the only one left in the compartment.
Chu Jiajun lowered the wide-open car window, opened Xu Fei's luggage bag, and took out the university admission letter that had been treasured by its original owner.
-
City A is relatively developed, which means convenient life for ordinary people; but for Chu Jiajun, it means having nothing he wants.
Chu Jiajun hated carrying so many things on the road. His biggest crisis at the moment was that his leather luggage bag would break under the weight. Then, 1.2 million in cash, two self-modified Type 80 submachine guns, a Type 81-1 with the stock removed, a bunch of magazines, grenades, machetes... would all flow all over the ground like a sewage outlet opening.
The scene was so spectacular, almost nightmarish.
He had done some deep self-reflection on his impulsive behavior on the third night of the Lunar New Year. He thought, when the money was divided unevenly and he was arguing with his accomplices, he should have won over his teammates first, squeezed one person out, leaving three or two people to share the money. That way, three people could handle one body, or two could handle two.
——Instead of impulsively shooting the other three people like this, and then not being able to deal with the bodies at night when the whole city was mourning the death of the gods, he had to leave in a hurry.
He tried to put his luggage bag on Xu Fei's huge trolley bag, but as soon as he put it on, he heard a click and the trolley broke.
Chu Jiajun's emotions collapsed at this moment. When the conductor came in to check tickets, he saw him kicking the luggage bag on the ground like crazy.
-
A few days later, the train stopped at the platform in City A. As usual, there were a few fewer passengers. It was just after the Chinese New Year, and there were many people trying to board the train, so a few or even dozens of passengers missing was normal.
In a corner beneath the stairs at the train station's east exit, Ji Yongtao and several other team members were assigning tasks on a map. There were two entrances and exits, both of which had to be strictly guarded. Every man from out of town would be checked for height and build, ID, body searched, and even their bags opened to inspect their luggage...
I encountered a few people who turned around and ran away, but they were all pinned to the ground by teammates who rushed out from the dark. It turned out that none of them were big fish, but just small fish and shrimps with some criminal records.
City A will receive several terminal lines from the coastal area today. This person either got off the bus before or had no way to escape.
Ji Yongtao speculated that this person must have been carrying a gun. City A is a relatively developed city in the south, and guns have been difficult to obtain since 1987. This person has developed a habit of carrying guns, and he must have brought them from there.
If you have a gun, you have a magazine. These two things together are probably the size of a backpack.
Captain Li Yu said that this person would not have much luggage with him. If he dragged a bag that was too big, it would attract too much attention and make it inconvenient for him to move.
Ji Yongtao sometimes has different ideas from his superiors. Desperadoes do tend to travel light, but that is to facilitate escape. The reason why the Facebook gang is so vicious is that its members have the courage to draw their guns in the street. They are equipped with light submachine guns and rifles, as well as grenades and fixed detonators. Many battles have resulted in extremely tragic consequences.
Bags, regardless of size, must be opened. According to the information, this individual is between 1.85 and 1.89 meters tall, not a large build, but incredibly strong. It's possible that a drastic situation could occur when he's detected, so all personnel must remain vigilant and avoid any confrontation in crowded areas like train stations.
The inspection continued into the afternoon, and the two teams were about to hand over their shifts. Ji Yongtao glanced at his watch and called for Team Two to hurry up.
Ji Yongtao: I'm going to pick up my brother, his shift has arrived.
Ji Yongtao: Lao Liu, I'll drive a backup car. The train after get off work is the last one to the terminal. After checking, we'll disperse and wait for news from the bus station.
Ji Yongtao: Don't let any one go! Remember, I'd rather check someone twice than let anyone go! Check every one of them, even if you're not sure if they're a man or a woman!
Old Liu from the second team smiled and told him to go without worry.
-
All in plain clothes.
Chu Jiajun struggled to get off the train, dragging two huge bags. Within his field of vision, there were at least ten men and women in plainclothes.
There was no other way to get out of the station unless he climbed over the tracks, but he suspected there were police cars guarding the area outside the tracks.
Walk another 30 meters and you'll enter the screening area. The exit is crowded with people holding signs waiting to pick up passengers, but even those who are picked up will still be subject to body searches and bag inspections.
Chu Jiajun felt aggrieved and angry—the person in charge of the railway station inspection clearly had no sense of responsibility for the safety of ordinary people. He'd narrowed the mesh too much, wasn't he afraid of running into a dead end and ending up with nothing?
He should have left himself a way out, like the men's restroom window or the unlocked employee passageway... that way he could have some fun, right? Trapped in the train station, Chu Jiajun couldn't see any other way out except to pull out his submachine gun and fight his way out.
He dropped his two large bags on the ground, and with a last glimpse of hope, he cast his gaze towards the sea of people waiting for the bus at the exit. Those colorful pick-up signs might provide cover. Or perhaps, if he fired into the crowd over there, causing a stampede and chaos, he might be able to escape in the chaos...
In this case, you have to abandon your luggage and can only take a gun, and you have to throw away the gun after escaping.
But you can fight your way out.
——Just do it.
Behind the sunglasses, those innocent eyes like a child swept the crowd waiting for the car with loving eyes, planning the direction of the first shot.
But at this moment, a sign caught his attention.
"Continue: Cousin Xu Fei - Ji Yongtao"
In Xu Fei's notebook, he wrote down his itinerary after arriving in City A. His cousin would come to pick him up, and his cousin's name was Ji... something.
Chu Jiajun was stunned for a moment, took off his sunglasses, picked up his bag, and walked towards the raised sign.
A plainclothes officer had already approached and was about to stop him to check his bag; but strangely, when the plainclothes officer saw him walking towards the man holding a sign that read "Pick up Xu Fei", he suddenly let him go and let him pass.
Chu Jiajun himself didn't understand. He had only gone there out of curiosity. The man who picked up Xu Fei was probably in his thirties, with a tightly furrowed brow. He looked more like Xu Fei's enemy than his cousin.
Ji Yongtao was getting a little impatient waiting.
The number of people exiting the station dwindled, but Xu Fei still hadn't arrived. His arms were nearly numb from holding the sign, and he wished he could use a megaphone to shout at the crowd.
Just as he was about to put down the sign, a young man in a black turtleneck sweater stopped in front of him. A leather jacket was draped over his arms, and he was carrying two ridiculously large duffel bags in his hands.
The young man opened his eyes slightly and looked at the sign in his hand, then looked into Ji Yongtao's eyes. The moment they looked into each other's eyes, they both turned their eyes away at the same time.
A kind of cold electric current ran through the spine, causing Ji Yongtao and Chu Jiajun's necks to tighten at the same time.
Ji Yongtao spoke first: Xu Fei?
Ji Yongtao: Are you Xu Fei? Are you...Xu Fei?
When Ji Yongtao tried to question this judgment, the young man smiled and nodded, his smile shy and harmless.
Chu Jiajun noticed that at this moment, the plainclothes surveillance officers who were originally surrounding him disappeared instantly.
Ji Yongtao wanted to carry his luggage, but Chu Jiajun only gave him Xu Fei's bag of daily necessities. The two walked towards a car parked across the street. When the car door opened, a choking smell of cigarette smoke poured out.
Ji Yongtao: Why is your luggage so heavy? It has crushed the car.
Ji Yongtao: What day is the report? If I have time off, I'll drive you there.
Chu Jiajun reported the date on the acceptance letter. He had already thought of an excuse, such as attending a freshman orientation before the start of the university semester and moving into the dormitory early, so he could part ways with his cousin.
Ji Yongtao: Can you move into the dorm by yourself? You have so much stuff. Before school started, you stayed at my place. Your mom even sent me the food money.
Ji Yongtao: What's up with your hair? You should get a cut before school starts, right? Will the school have any objections?
Chu Jiajun muttered: It's not like I'm going to police school.
Ji Yongtao: This is the police academy. If you dare to have this kind of hair in the police academy, I'll shave your scalp.
Chu Jiajun: Brother Yong, have you read it?
Ji Yongtao drove with one hand and took out an ID from his pocket and handed it over with the other hand.
——When Chu Jiajun saw the unit and position clearly on the certificate, he sat in the back seat, stunned for a long time.