The car started again and drove back home.
Chu Jiajun loosened his hands in his pockets, and his palms were covered in cold sweat.
Ji Yongtao: We're almost there. Go back and pack up. I'll take you out for barbecue tonight.
Chu Jiajun looked out the window. He first saw a peaceful stream. Along the riverbank, the car drove into a residential complex. In the setting sun, the name of the complex shone brightly.
Aiyahe Community.
-
The complex was so new that the film covering the elevators hadn't even been removed. It was just after the cotton mill was closing time, and there was a constant stream of cyclists and pedestrians returning to the complex.
Ji Yongtao had to drive very slowly, often being stopped by people to greet him. A man named Mr. Zhou followed the car window and said, "Brother Yong, please give me a shout-out." A student fight was nothing serious; how could they be arrested?
Ji Yongtao: I've told you several times that using a knife is a different matter. And there's also someone with a steel ball gun. What do you say? Just shoot someone in the knee!
Teacher Zhou: Then you should tell the district you're in charge of, or the principal will come to me every day...
Ji Yongtao and Teacher Zhou chatted as a chubby older woman approached the right window. She knocked on Chu Jiajun's window. Chu Jiajun froze for a moment, then rolled it down. A basket of fresh, juicy scallions and cabbages was tossed in.
He said it was a gift from his hometown. Ji Yongtao hurriedly thanked the enthusiastic neighbor and turned to persuade the teacher who was a little confused about the situation.
There were people picking up their children from school, young couples leaving get off work together at the cotton mill, old men taking a stroll with cigarettes in hand, and children crowding around a popcorn machine on the roadside...
There was a loud bang, like a gunshot. Chu Jiajun's eyes whipped around, and then he heard the children cheering. It was the sound of popcorn being made from the oven.
Ji Yongtao's voice came from the front: Do you want some popcorn?
A hand held a two-yuan bill and handed it to him. Ji Yongtao: "Get out of the car and buy some rice cakes. I'll go park the car. See you at the entrance to the building later."
Chu Jiajun took the banknote and looked at it. The one-dollar bill was a little unfamiliar to him. It was a little damp and wrinkled in his hand.
He returned carrying two net bags of sweets. When he saw Ji Yongtao at the entrance of the corridor, Chu Jiajun's heart was in suspense again - Ji Yongtao had unloaded all the luggage by himself and was throwing Chu Jiajun's leather bag of dangerous goods heavily to the ground.
He could almost hear the clang of metal inside. Apparently, Ji Yongtao heard it too. He stared at the luggage on the floor in confusion, then squatted down and felt the contents through the leather.
Chu Jiajun: It's a puller and dumbbells!
Chu Jiajun: I'm working out and brought all this stuff from my hometown...
Ji Yongtao: ...How many kilograms?
Chu Jiajun: The kind that costs twenty. There are two inside...
Ji Yongtao squatted on the ground, looking at his cousin with complicated eyes. Just when Chu Jiajun was worried that he would open the bag to look at the pile of "dumbbells", the man stood up, stretched out his hand, and pinched his arm twice.
Ji Yongtao: Well, I practiced quite well.
-
Ji Yongtao's home is quite tidy compared to that of an ordinary bachelor.
The kitchen, in particular, was so clean it looked as if it had never been used. One could tell he never cooked. He usually ate at work, and on weekends he would just buy a boxed lunch from the nearby roast meat shop.
He had prepared a place for Xu Fei to live in advance, pulling out a camp bed in the living room and making some bedding. Chu Jiajun looked around the room and saw the salary slip on the living room table.
There were old newspapers, utility bills, invoices on the table, and a pay slip casually thrown on top.
Ji Yongtao's allowance, plus subsidies and bonuses, totaled 290 yuan.
Chu Jiajun laughed out loud: So little.
Ji Yongtao slapped him on the back of the head: You have the ability to earn more than this.
Chu Jiajun: I just go out and work. I earn a lot of money working!
Ji Yongtao laughed: What can you do? What kind of job can you do? Who would want you?
The two chatted for a while. They were about to go to dinner after putting down their things, but just as they were about to leave, Ji Yongtao received a notice from his work unit asking him to attend a meeting.
He took the car keys and hurried out. The moment the door closed, Chu Jiajun breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down on the sofa.
Ten seconds later, he sat up again and picked up the bag on the ground. Ji Yongtao had been called away by his work unit, and now was the time to go.
Chu Jiajun picked up the heavy bag. But the next moment, the sound of leather fabric tearing to its limit rang out quickly and briefly.
Accompanied by the sound of metal and banknotes colliding on the wooden floor, the contents of the bag poured out spectacularly onto the ground, out of control.
Ji Yongtao's salary slip of less than 300 yuan was buried under a mountain of banknotes.
-
This was the first time the name "Chu Jiajun" appeared on the whiteboard in the conference room.
The Facebook group originally consisted of eight members, and during several operations they exchanged fire with police, with four of them being shot dead. The remaining three were shot dead by their own accomplices on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
The deceased's identity was locked down, and the clues were followed to find his family in his hometown. Many people like this actually have families. The men rob banks outside, and their wives and parents use the money to start businesses in their hometown.
As the number of crimes increases, the gang becomes more closely connected, often recognizing sworn brothers and bringing them home for meals. One man's wife confessed that around three years ago, her husband brought a "brother" home.
She could feel that her husband was in awe of this young man.
Li Yu: It's unclear how many lives this man has taken. Seniority is measured by the number of lives he's taken, and age is secondary.
Li Yu: When her husband introduced her to him, he said his name was "Xiao Chu." The woman remembered it clearly, and "Xiao Chu" later told her his name was Chu Jiajun.
Ji Yongtao: It may be a fake name or identity.
Li Yu: It's also possible that this identity isn't even registered. Even if I tell someone my real name, it won't be found in the files.
Li Yu: This person hasn't had a haircut in a while, and he wore sunglasses the entire time, hiding his face. She judged his age mainly by the lower half of his face and his voice, and felt he might not be very old.
Li Yu: And then there is...
Li Yu flipped through his qualifications.
Li Yu: This person doesn't eat spicy food.
Ji Yongtao: What?
Li Yu: The woman was from Mianyang. She cooked spicy mutton in the evening. Chu Jiajun took a bite and drank beer like crazy, as if he couldn't handle spicy food.
A low laugh echoed in the conference room.
Li Yu: Then one day, her husband asked her to build a cold storage facility in her hometown. She used the money he stole to buy meat, so she had multiple cold storage facilities at home. Her husband asked her to build a new cold storage facility for "Chu Jiajun," saying Chu would need it.
Ji Yongtao: Chu also wants to do meat business?
Li Yu: She initially thought it was true, so she was very proactive in helping.
Li Yu: If Chu Jiajun wanted to join the business, she'd have to use her family's connections, which would also elevate her husband's status. This kind of gang values this, too. After all, they don't plan to be outlaws their whole lives. Once they've robbed enough money, they want to be the boss. Whoever's family is good at business will have a higher status.
Li Yu: Chu Jiajun didn't use the cold storage to buy goods; he was using it for himself. So the woman was very curious about what he was storing in the cold storage—she initially thought it was ginseng, deer antlers, or something like that.
Ji Yongtao flipped through the confession materials himself. The photocopy was very blurry, but the fact that it was sent from the original jurisdiction to the brigade in City A showed that this person had serious problems.
Then, he saw that statement. Attached to the confession were black and white photos of the cold storage.
More than one person went back to read the materials, but the conference room fell into silence. Li Yu didn't continue. Even with his experience, it was probably difficult for him to organize his words and clearly describe this person's situation.
Ji Yongtao closed the materials. In the silence, someone asked: So where is this Chu Jiajun now?
The key point is that no one knows where this person is now.
-
Chu Jiajun had just packed up all his things when the sound of a lock being unlocked was heard at the door.
Ji Yongtao is back.
Seeing that the lights in the house were on, he was obviously a little uncomfortable and stayed at the door for a few seconds; then, Ji Yongtao asked with a wry smile, what does the house smell like?
Two hours ago, the entire living room floor was covered with guns soaked in gun oil and brand-new banknotes. The two mixed to form a faint smell of oil. Chu Jiajun made an excuse: I was just hungry, so I went to the street corner to buy some wonton soup.
Ji Yongtao: Are these wontons cooked with gasoline? Why is there such a strong smell of oil smoke?
Chu Jiajun: It's quite unpalatable.
Ji Yongtao looked at the clock. It was eight o'clock. He felt a little embarrassed that he had an unexpected extra meeting, which made Xu Fei hungry.
He took the motorcycle keys from the entrance and took his cousin out for barbecue.
-
There are many barbecue stalls along the Ai Ya River, which are lined up along the river bank at night. When the weather is cold, the seats at the food stalls are full of people.
Ji Yongtao ordered some beef and mutton. He asked Xu Fei if he had any dietary restrictions, and Xu Fei said he didn't like spicy food.
Xu Fei's hometown is a place on the coast that is famous for its seafood, and the locals really don't eat spicy food.
Ji Yongtao asked the waiter to use less chili and ordered a dozen cold beers. The beer, caked with ice, reminded Ji Yongtao of the pile of black-and-white photos in the meeting materials.
Chu Jiajun expertly tied her hair up and used the corner of the table to open a beer cap. At eight o'clock in the evening, several tables were already drunk and shouting. A man, unfazed by the cold, sat shirtless in front of a pile of beef and mutton skewers, his skin flushed and hot from the alcohol. Chu Jiajun looked at him and felt a little hungry.
The drunk man noticed someone was looking at him and turned his head to meet their gaze. Ji Yongtao was ordering food when he saw several men at the next table stand up and surround Xu Fei. He knew something was wrong.
Xu Fei was still looking stupidly at the drunk leader. In Ji Yongtao's opinion, his cousin did show a lack of innocence to be beaten by street thugs.
The man walked up to Chu Jiajun, grabbed his bun and shook it: "What are you looking at? I'm asking you a question."
Drunk men at food stalls causing trouble, stabbing people to death, are a common reason for nighttime police calls. In the Aiyahe neighborhood, one of Mr. Zhou's students went out to eat at a food stall that night, and a fight ensued. One student used a fruit knife, while another rushed home and retrieved his brother's steel pellet gun, injuring both of them.
Ji Yongtao stood up to try to stop the fight, but the other party ignored him and continued to pull Xu Fei's hair.
When the five people from the other side came to their senses, they found that there were eight or nine big men surrounding them. They were all policemen like Ji Yongtao, who had just finished a meeting and came out for a midnight snack.
The situation was not right and the drunk was dragged away by his companions.
Chu Jiajun sat down in a daze, watching Brother Yong across from him greet the people who came to help. He came to his senses and remembered that the Ai Yahe community seemed to be allocated housing by the work unit.
Part of it was distributed to the cotton mill, and part of it was…
Ji Yongtao: Don't cause trouble when you go out. But don't be afraid if you encounter any trouble around here. They're all my colleagues—Hey, everyone, this is my cousin Xu Fei, a college student.
In an instant, nearly ten people from various departments surrounded Chu Jiajun, patting him on the shoulder and praising him for his promising future.
Colleague: He looks very cute, but his hair is a little long.
Colleague: What do you know? This is called modern, all foreign bands have this hairstyle.
Colleague: Come on, call me Uncle Liu, I will protect you when I go out.
Chu Jiajun: Uncle Liu.
Ji Yongtao: Are you really shouting? You idiot, you were so scared when you were surrounded by so many police officers for the first time.
——The last time he was surrounded by so many policemen, he was on a speeding jeep carrying a submachine gun.
Ji Yongtao: Xiaofei, say hello.
Chu Jiajun: Hello everyone, my name is Xu Fei and I am here to study at university.
Colleague: Brother Yong, your brother's tone is like a suspect confessing.
Ji Yongtao sent off several of his colleagues. They had patrol duties tonight, checking for suspicious individuals. Someone even joked with Chu Jiajun, "Xiaofei, be careful! If you forget your ID and get checked, Brother Yong will have to go to the detention center to pick you up."
Ji Yongtao: How long will your team take to investigate?
Colleague: Two weeks. If I see a man who looks similar, I'll check him out.
——When turning around, Chu Jiajun could see the marks of the gun belts on their waists.
Then he suddenly realized that his current situation was absolutely safe in a sense.
Ji Yongtao thought he was Xu Fei, and so did all the patrol officers in the area. With the secure identity of Xu Fei, he could go anywhere openly.
Or rather...
As long as Xu Fei's family doesn't show up, he can continue to use this identity.
Chu Jiajun's appetite suddenly improved. After the barbecue, Ji Yongtao went to the store to buy cigarettes and carved a house key for him. Chu Jiajun went home alone, feeling so good that he started humming a song.
As he was passing through the alley, a man stopped him. In the alley without street lights, he could see by the moonlight that it was the drunk who had caused the trouble.
The man was obviously proud of his ambush: You just escaped it.
——Now you are alone.
He was laughing happily. In the shadows where the moonlight couldn't reach, Chu Jiajun was also laughing happily.
——
To be continued
Love River Mystery: Bound Ears 3
Ji Yongtao felt that the floor was a little damp recently.
The damp and cold winter in the south is very damaging to wooden floors. Half of the floor in the living room is uneven.
Wax it someday when you have time. It will be troublesome if it rots.
He didn't know that the space under the wooden floor of his house was filled with money and guns.
-
Xu Fei almost always slept until the afternoon every day, yawned, casually grabbed his hair, and then went to brush his teeth and wash his face.
At night, he stayed up late watching TV. Sometimes Ji Yongtao would work all-night shifts and come home to see the TV still on in the living room, with Xu Fei asleep on the sofa.
Next to the TV, the number of movie tapes was increasing rapidly. Ji Yongtao didn't know where Xu Fei got so much money to buy videotapes. Xu Fei said that he worked part-time to earn pocket money before school started.
Ji Yongtao: Don't come home too late from work at night. Did you know that dead body was found in the river last time?
Chu Jiajun: Hey, I even went to see it! It was all soaked white...
Ji Yongtao grabbed his ear and said, "You have time to look at the dead, but you don't have time to clean up the house?! There are cockroaches crawling in the cup! Why didn't the cockroaches eat you?"
Chu Jiajun was kicked to sweep the floor with a gloomy face. The place he lived in was like a doghouse. Ji Yongtao said, "You are not treating my house as a guesthouse and expecting Auntie to come and clean it up every day, are you?"
There are still two weeks left before school starts. After school starts, "Xu Fei" will move to the dormitory and will only be back for two and a half days on May 6th and July 7th.
Chu Jiajun's plan was very clear - slowly transfer the equipment hidden in Ji Yongtao's home, investigate suitable banks in City A, recruit people here, and rob them.
Unlike the small towns we had met before, City A was a large city, very wealthy, a piece of juicy meat. As long as we were careful and thorough, this piece of meat would last a long time and be very enjoyable to eat.
-
He bought a shop three stations away and renovated it into a western-style restaurant, which he used as a meeting place for the gang. The money and equipment transferred from the Ji family could also be stored here first.
As for finding accomplices, there are local bosses in the local area. From pickpockets and car thieves to home robberies and hiring killers, these people can help connect the lines and put the pieces together.
But Chu Jiajun's attempt at this was a complete failure. He was well-known in the underworld, and would have had many admirers willing to follow him—but the incident of him killing his accomplice had brought his reputation to the bottom.
This is the rule in the underworld. If someone is rumored to have committed murder in an internal conflict, it will be difficult for them to form a group next time. No matter how much money is offered, it will be useless. Everyone in the underworld knows that this guy is not trustworthy.
Ji Yongtao felt that Xu Fei was unhappy these days.
Ji Yongtao: Were you bullied while working?
Chu Jiajun nodded perfunctorily.
Ji Yongtao put on his jacket and picked up his cousin: Let's go and see where you work.
Ji Yongtao didn't know where he worked, but he had heard vaguely that he seemed to be a waiter and doing odd jobs in a restaurant.
Chu Jiajun couldn't get through, so he had to nervously take him to stand in front of the Western restaurant.
On the surface, it looks like a low-end restaurant with slow business, selling only fried pork chops and bread.
Two waiters with sullen faces were leaning against the door, yawning, and would not greet any guests when they saw them.
Ji Yongtao: Who is your manager?
Both waiters looked at Chu Jiajun, then looked at each other with confused expressions.
Chu Jiajun pulled Ji Yongtao out: Forget it, Brother Yong, forget it, it's actually nothing!
Ji Yongtao wanted to wait for the manager to come and ask for an explanation. If he couldn't get one, he would call someone to check the store's certificate.
Chu Jiajun: Forget it, forget it, forget it. Actually, I don't plan to work here anymore!
Sitting on the back of the motorcycle, Chu Jiajun leaned against Ji Yongtao's back and remained silent for a long time.
Ji Yongtao: Your family entrusted you to me because they were worried that you would be bullied.
Ji Yongtao: If you feel wronged, tell me. You are here to study, not to suffer.
Chu Jiajun put his face against his back and could smell a strong smell of cigarettes.
Ji Yongtao: Why are you talking so little today?