He ran away.
The traitorous little prince Qin Chuan, after miraculously deceiving the judgment of the attending doctor and the surveillance of all the plainclothes, took advantage of the short gap between the change of guards to successfully break free from the handcuffs, escape through the window, and disappear without a trace.
It took less than half an hour for Chief Lu to learn about the situation and deploy emergency control, but the cunning shark was not caught by the net. From the handcuffs on the hospital bed to the outer wall of the window sill, everything was covered with his DNA. After two days of hard work in front of the surveillance video, the investigators only found the blurred half of his back at the exit of a certain highway and his hands waving backward in the wind.
The gesture seemed to be saying goodbye.
No one knew why Qin Chuan chose to escape that day. Maybe it was because he had finally recuperated to the point where he could act, or maybe it was because there was really negligence during the change of guard that day. No one could figure out Qin Chuan's unpredictable good and evil, but Chief Lu said: "Maybe it's because he has been waiting for you."
Yan Xie: "Huh?"
"What huh? Think about the day when we talked in front of the hospital bed. I think he was actually awake all the time, listening to everything in his ears, and when we went outside, he immediately got up and ran away. How do you think this can be explained otherwise?"
"..." Yan Xie was speechless for a moment, and Chief Lu sighed: "Since he didn't want to go to jail so much, why did he have to do all those things in the first place?!"
Chief Lu stood in front of the office window. Wolfberry Chrysanthemum rock sugar tea rippled in the ceramic tea mug, bubbling hot, and a thin layer of white mist condensed on his reading glasses. He just stared fixedly at the busy street in the distance; his eyes flickered with faint light, and he sighed after a long while:
"Qin Chuan has a righteous and loyal side in his character; it's all because I haven't done enough to guide him. I doubted him when Old Yue just left. At that time, it wasn't actually too late to restrain him, but his appearance to the outside world was too easy to handle. He never settled down and changed from beginning to end…"
"I'm getting old!" Chief Lu finally reached a self-deprecating conclusion.
Yan Xie wanted to say something to comfort him, but he didn't know what to say. Chief Lu turned around and walked to the big desk, signed the assisted investigation announcement, held up a wanted warrant in front of him, and narrowed his eyes with emotion.
"…I will catch him back," Yan Xie finally whispered.
Chief Lu nodded. Both of them were staring at the arrest warrant, and Qin Chuan's gentle and handsome face was smiling back at them.
"Waiting for you?" Jiang Ting was leaning at the head of the hospital bed. He slammed closed "The Significance of DNA Methylation in Forensic Practice (Author Gou Li)" and said with a smile: "——why waiting for you? You and Chief Lu are really too emotional. That surname Qin's escape was definitely not planned by him alone. There is a high possibility that he has accomplices helping him. The reason he chose that day was because the timing was just right. Where did so much nonsense about waiting come from?"
Yang Mei sat on the sofa chair in the single VIP ward, drinking seafood soup, finding it so delicious that she nodded her head while humming. She was not familiar with Qin Chuan, but Qin Chuan once cut a line on her brother Jiang's face, so he was now in third place in her vengeance book; in fourth place was the nightclub manager in Gongzhou who took away her diamond necklace; and in fifth place were all those KTV bosses who competed with her for business next door to Sleepless Palace.
As for the first and second places, they were both dead.
"Look at you, still drinking!" Yan Xie lectured her, "This is something I cooked and sent to your brother Jiang to replenish his body. Why do you drink it?! Seeing that you have gained weight in the past two months and haven't washed your hair or done makeup, do you not want to get married in the future?"
Jiang Ting was about to defend Yang Mei, but when he heard the word "marriage", he felt a sense of urgency and stared at Yang Mei reproachfully.
"Why marry?" Yang Mei wiped her mouth and said coldly: "It's fine for me to live alone, earn money to buy bags, houses, and jewelry, and go to dinner and yoga classes with Han Xiaomei on weekends. Isn't it much better?"
"It's true, but…" Yan Xie still didn't give up.
Yang Mei's next sentence left him speechless: "No buts. The profit of the Sleepless Palace triples every year, and this lady has plenty of money!"
Yan Xie, who knew the benefits of being rich, had to admit that these words were very true.
Jiang Ting smiled and shook his head helplessly as he opened Director Gou's latest masterpiece (signed version) again, casually asking: "Has the notice of assistance in the investigation been released?"
"It's early, can't send it. We'll have to wait until the Chinese New Year." Yan Xie sighed: "However, according to the latest developments, he may have escaped from Province S, and the hope of being caught in a short period of time is relatively slim."
Jiang Ting said, "I think he may go abroad."
"Go abroad?"
Jiang Ting turned over a page, pursed his lips, and said "hum": "Qin Chuan is a man who does not do things himself; he just lent a knife to kill and likes to stay behind. When he vowed his loyalty to the King of Spades, he also showed favor to Wang Xingye; otherwise, he wouldn't have left a flaw in the surveillance so as to be caught by Chief Lu. In addition to Wang Xingye, who was more failure than success, I guess he has other contacts, and he may have already paved more than one way for himself."
Yan Xie was thoughtful, and Jiang Ting said again: "I think you should have seen this clearly a long time ago. What makes Qin Chuan different from ordinary people is that the good and evil in his personality are fluid and not fixed. The reason why Wen Shao started to lure him into the water more than ten years ago was not only because he was Yue Guangping's only son, to whom Yue Guangping owed a lot, but also because he smelled a side of Qin Chuan that was similar to himself—they all liked the feeling of controlling the evil in their hands. When Qin Chuan deliberately asked A-Jie to return the Type-92 police gun in front of me, he pointed at A-Jie's head with the muzzle of the gun as if to shoot him, regardless of A-Jie's suspicion, because he enjoyed the excitement of provoking someone. Compared with Wen Shao, Qin Chuan just has an extra restraining spell in his heart."
"If possible, it's best to bring him to justice as soon as possible," Jiang Ting paused to conclude, "Otherwise, I'm afraid that under the influence of external forces, he will gradually evolve into the second King of Spades."
Will Qin Chuan embark on that road of no return?
No one could explain this clearly, but Yan Xie felt that what he had more than the King of Spades in his heart was not just a restraining spell but something else.
However, this would only be known in the future when he would personally capture Qin Chuan.
The result of Jiang Ting's inquiry hadn't come down. Chief Lu said that it was because the S Provincial Department had been arguing with the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau. Since Deputy Chief Hu came to take notes, Jiang Ting had been interrogated several times, and every time he came out, he felt a little more tense. But later, because it was useless to wait for the results, he gradually calmed down, telling Yan Xie that he would not be afraid even if he was sentenced to a few years in prison. He would take Gou Li's latest book and the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra into the detention center, and when he would be released after serving his sentence, he would already be a versatile sword master.
Yan Xie smiled bitterly and said that his husband couldn't do anything else, but he would definitely apply for medical parole for him, so he didn't have to worry.
At the beginning of spring in March, Jiang Ting was finally discharged from the high-level single ward, officially ending the days of Yan Xie running around the city bureau, his family, the hospital, the hospital, the hospital… and all over the place.
Not only did his hair grow back, but they were also so soft and black that even Yan Xie was amazed and touched them whenever he had time. However, Jiang Ting had become accustomed to the cool and neat feeling of baldness, so he euphemistically expressed his desire to cut his hair. This time, not only Yan Xie but even Yan Mei, Ma Xiang, Han Xiamei, and other aesthetically normal masses expressed strong opposition, so he had to give up.
In the end, he was still most comfortable at home. Jiang Ting ate and slept all day long, and when he was bored, he went downstairs to the community park to feed the kitten. Madam Zeng Cuicui came to deliver soup every two days and fed him like a big baby. As a result, he felt that he had gained weight not long after he was discharged from the hospital, and his weight has increased by three kilograms since his last weighing.
"Yan Xie!" Jiang Ting poked his head out of the bathroom and shouted, "You promised to take me to Gongzhou if my weight increased by five pounds, come and see!"
Yan Xie was watching football in the living room. Hearing this, he immediately rubbed his hands, went up immediately, and said to himself: "Grown fat, now I can eat meat…"
Jiang Ting wanted to go to the Gongzhou Martyrs Cemetery. This was the first time he had voluntarily made this request since the 1009 plastic factory explosion.
It wasn't that Yan Xie didn't want to drive him; the main reason was that the doctor said that Jiang Ting's heart and brain vessels were still weak, and he couldn't withstand too many emotional fluctuations. Chief Lu also felt that judging from Jiang Ting's situation, he might die in front of the tombstone. It wasn't until the weather got warmer, after mid-April, and the reexamination results were very good, that Yan Xie finally took Jiang Ting out of the house with the doctor's permission.
Unlike the renderings of literary works, when they arrived at the cemetery, not only was it not cloudy, drizzling, or gloomy, but the weather was fine. The buds on the tops of the branches germinated, clusters of small flowers swayed in the wind on the green grass, and even the gray tombstones reflected the warm shimmer of years.
Yan Xie said: "I'll find you a seat to sit on for a while, you can't stand for too long."
Jiang Ting said nothing and walked back and forth in front of more than a dozen tombstones with a bouquet of flowers, muttering in his mouth. After a long time, he finally couldn't walk anymore. He lifted his trousers and sat on the floor, letting out a long breath.
"Okay, I'll be alone for a while," He said casually, "I'll go out to find you later."
Yan Xie patted him on the shoulder, took a cigarette from his pocket, and put it in his mouth. Then he put one hand in his trouser pocket and went out.
Criminal police was one of the most dangerous professions in peaceful times. The older the criminal police officer, the more he could see how evil an evil heart could be in this world, how kind a kind soul could be, how precious life was, and how easily death and parting could come.
Precisely because life was too fragile and perishable, it was necessary to bid farewell to the dead with the mentality of looking forward to reunion and protecting the living with strict laws.
Yan Xie walked out of the cemetery, took a deep breath of the fresh air mixed with the smell of vegetation, and suddenly felt the phone vibrate in his pocket.
"Hello, Chief Lu?"
Captain Yu proposed to retire from illness, and Yan Xie's formal succession was also put on the schedule. After being promoted to the position of a middle-level leader, it would be inconvenient to scold him, so Chief Lu and Deputy Chief Wei seemed to be trying to spend the last few days scolding him for the rest of their lives. Now, as long as they saw him, they couldn't help but pull up their sleeves, which caused Yan Xie to have a considerable psychological shadow when answering the phone calls of the two.
"Are you recruiting cats and dogs in Gongzhou?"
"...…"
Before Yan Xie could argue that you personally approved the leave, he heard Chief Lu continue: "The ministry's opinion on Jiang Ting's case has been approved."
Yan Xie's cheeks tightened. "How is it?"
There was a rush of air over the phone, which sounded like a long sigh, and Chief Lu said, "In the end, it's all thanks to Old Yue!"
Among all the points where Jiang Ting could touch the line, shooting Qi Sihao was the least serious because he had already taken refuge in the King of Spades at that time and betrayed Yan Xie's position to drug dealers, so this point was debatable. What was really serious were some of the things he did for Wu Tun when he first joined the police in his early years, and covering for the drug dealers he later did by the King of Spades' orders—Hu Weisheng was a typical example. After Jiang Ting "died in line" after the 1009 incident, some big tigers in the upper echelon of Gongzhou took advantage of the situation to dump the things they had done to him, and now it was completely unclear.
Although it was said that his merits and demerits were equal, the methods by which merits and demerits were calculated were very deeply hidden, and it was almost impossible to uncover them layer by layer.
The S Provincial Department, the Jianning Municipal Bureau, and the Gongzhou Municipal Bureau argued for two months and finally alerted the Ministry of Public Security. At the beginning of April, the Ministry of Public Security sent personnel to conduct a thorough investigation and brought up a large number of old case files from ten years ago. When investigating Jiang Ting's violations of discipline in his early years, they found a lot of evidence that he was framed, so two retired leaders of the municipal party committee were arrested at the speed of light. Afterward, the ministry went deeper and found that some of Jiang Ting's mistakes in the early years had been made up for by various means.
——It was Yue Guangping.
After Jiang Ting confessed his identity to Yue Guangping and proposed the 1009 action plan, the old bureau chief quietly dug out all the problematic files from his early years and filled in the instructions and signatures. By doing this, he took the blame on himself. Although the supplementary instructions were not compliant, if Jiang Ting was criticized one day in the future, Yue Guangping would be able to act as a barrier to surround him with the last buffer zone.
The dead were gone, but the shadow remained. Before these old case files were exposed, no one knew what Yue Guangping had done, and even Jiang Ting himself didn't know that there was always a pair of old and powerful hands supporting an invisible umbrella behind him.
"It won't reach the public prosecution, but the system will inevitably record serious misdemeanors, and let Jiang Ting take the blame and resign later…"
In fact, he would be fired and wouldn't be able to put on his uniform and return to the police force. But compared to the prosecution and imprisonment, this ending was already very good and was even worth celebrating.
"…I understand," Yan Xie was silent for a long time and said with emotion: "Okay, it's okay… I'll go and talk to him."
Chief Lu said a few words and hung up the phone.
Clutching his phone, Yan Xie took a deep breath to calm his mind and walked toward the green cemetery in spring. He lightly stepped on the soft grass with his leather shoes, passed through the heavy gray stone monuments, stood beside Jiang Ting, lowered his head, and smiled into his bright eyes.
"It's like this. Chief Lu called just now, and he said…"
The blue sky was as blue as blue washing, and the clouds were flying around. A ray of light broke through the clouds. Immediately, thousands of golden lights, like golden arrows shot by the gods, penetrated the heavens and earth in the mortal world, illuminating the vast mountains, rivers, cities, and villages in the southwest of the motherland.
In the Gongzhou Martyrs Cemetery, there were many pines and cypresses, green and vigorous, and countless stone monuments stood up to the sky.
Jiang Ting buried his face in his palms. Although he tried his best to suppress the trembling in his shoulders, he couldn't. Hot tears rolled down from between his fingers and hit the loess earth where the bones of his loyal comrades were buried.
Yan Xie pulled him over forcefully, pressed his forehead to his shoulder, and let out a long sigh.
The plum blossoms were like rain, swaying one after another, blowing past the rows of peaceful and silent stone monuments and the red and moist corners of Jiang Ting's eyes, swirling in the wind straight up to the sky.
…
A year later.
9:30 in the evening.
In a villa in a community on Yucheng Road, Taiping District, Jianning City, the floor was covered with survey boards, and the sound of criminal photos being taken was endless. Gou Li, carrying a suitcase, led people to the scene in a hurry. Outside the cordon, there were crowds of curious people pointing, and the trainee policemen drove them away, shouting a few words from time to time.
"What's the situation, Brother Yan?" Han Xiaomei raised her chin at the corpse without changing her face.
"I knew the robbers could fight among themselves because of the uneven distribution of spoils, but I didn't expect them to kill someone." Yan Xie took the police record file to sign without raising his head and ordered: "Immediately send an assistance investigation notice to the train station, expressway toll stations, bus stations, and the traffic police brigade to transfer the surveillance video of the northern section of Yucheng Road between 6:00 and 9:00 tonight and send them to the physical evidence technical team. Ma Xiang! Send back the numbers of the stolen diamonds for trace inspection and comparison! Where is ErGou? Is the forensic doctor in place?"
"Who is your ErGou1!" Gou Li roared, "It's Director Gou, Director!"
Yan Xie laughed and looked out the door: "Hey, why hasn't your teacher Jiang arrived yet?"
A car came from a distance, and under the watchful eyes of everyone, it slowly stopped at the gate of the community.
Associate Professor Jiang from the Investigation Department of Jianning Police Academy leaned out of the car door, put one hand in his pocket, gathered up the windbreaker with the other, and walked quickly through the crowd amidst discussions. The trainee policeman has long been used to it, and he greeted him with a smile from a long distance, handed him gloves and shoe covers, and hospitably raised the cordon for him.
Jiang Ting thanked him and raised his head to meet Yan Xie's smiling gaze not far away.
No one could see the smile in Jiang Ting's eyes clearly. He put on his gloves and strode toward the crime scene, facing the flashing red and blue police lights.