Wang Dong was forty-three this year; having joined the system after graduating from college at twenty-two, he was fortunate to work under Mr. Li and his career soared until recently, when he hit a bottleneck—the position of a JC bureau chief, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
But at this critical moment, something happened to the Eldest Miss Li, who, in broad daylight, was taken by a group of thugs wielding machine guns straight into the hospital.
After he heard the news, the man was stunned for a few minutes, until the endless "hellos" from the other end of the phone broke his concentration. He then swept all the items on his desk onto the floor, cursed "goddamn bastards," grabbed his coat, and decided to check out the crime scene.
Having seen so many mutilated corpses at the crime scene, Wang Dong, who had lived a pampered life for years, almost vomited his breakfast. The forensic experts on the scene said that most of the deaths were caused by shots to the head, with fatal results in one strike; the kind of damage seen could only have been inflicted by a Barrett sniper rifle.
But who the hell would take a Barrett and deal with these more than ten ruffians at a standoff?
While Wang Dong was lying in the back seat of the car, trying to rest, he received some good news from his subordinates: they had captured a man holding Eldest Miss Li at the crime scene, and he was already taken in for interrogation. Probably by that moment, they had pried something out of his lips.
Hey, don't say that among all the bad news, this piece of news could slightly cheer Wang Dong up. But then, this single piece of good news quickly turned sour.
Mr. Li called him personally to say the suspect they had arrested might actually be the savior who rescued Eldest Miss Li. He told them to treat him well and that he would come to check on him at the police station later.
Wang Dong obviously knew what kind of scum his subordinates were, accustomed to filthy tricks and resorting to violence if someone refused to confess. If it hadn't been connected to the Li family, he would have turned a blind eye to their irregular tactics, but now that Mr. Li had personally shown interest in the suspect, if those bastards pulled any tricks, it was going to be a disaster.
When his secretary, seeing his superior fretting and approaching with a concerned face, asked what had happened, Wang Dong felt a murderous rage building up.
But he hadn't been muddling through the officialdom for twenty-plus years for nothing. The principle of self-control was deeply engraved in his heart; losing his temper in front of his subordinates would only lead them to disrespect him.
When he finally made it back to the Municipal Public Security Bureau, he ran towards the interrogation room, disregarding his image, because during the short drive, he had received calls from five or six big shots from the Ministry of Public Security, who all directly ordered him to release a man named Song Yun.
My god, what connections did this Song Yun have to move people from the ministry? Wang Dong felt his heart was about to explode.
Praying that his men hadn't laid hands on Song Yun, he took a deep breath and pushed open the door of the interrogation room.
Inside the interrogation room, darkness prevailed with only a harsh spotlight focused on the man sitting in the suspect's chair. And this man, Song Yun, had a large gash on his forehead, blood slowly dripping down his face to the floor.
Drip, drip, drip.
At that moment, Wang Dong felt as though he could hear his own heart bleeding out; he was finished, his career over today.
"Son of a bitch, who gave you permission for this unauthorized action?" Wang Dong could no longer contain his anger and slapped his subordinate Wang Feng hard as the latter approached him.
Wang Feng, slapped dizzy, couldn't figure out what got into his boss today; he had never seen him this angry before.
"Wang... Director Wang, the suspect is about to confess everything, please don't worry, the case will be crystal clear soon," explained Wang Feng, thinking his superior's temper flared due to inefficient work on his part in prying information from the suspect's mouth.
But little did he know, Wang Dong, upon hearing this, felt as though Buddhas ascended to heaven, leaped over walls, and took to the skies in rage.
"Water your mother, who allowed you to operate against regulations, who gave you the courage!" Wang Dong pushed Wang Feng to the ground with a kick. Did this bastard want to kill him? With one sentence, he implicated himself too; now he was as good as dead.
As for the two junior police officers, they were trembling, standing discreetly aside, worried the furious Director would take it out on them.
"Mr. Song, nice to meet you. I'm Wang Dong, the bureau chief of the Sunan Municipal Public Security Bureau. I've long heard about you," said Wang Dong, forcing a smile to calm his nerves.
"Ha, so we meet in such an awkward place today? And here I am, handcuffed to a chair and unable to move? Director Wang, I had no idea your police station was such a den of hidden dragons and crouching tigers," Song Yun sarcastically stated with a mocking smile.
"What are you two waiting for, quickly release Mr. Song from the handcuffs," Wang Dong felt if death was upon him, it would be because of his inept team.
"No need, I'm quite comfortable with them on," said Song Yun, seeing the situation and how could he not guess someone was pulling strings for him behind the scenes? If he didn't play it up now, how could he face others after getting out?
"No, no, no, Mr. Song, a person of your status shouldn't be restrained like this. Let's remove the handcuffs and we can slowly talk in my office, how about that?"
"What's there to talk about? About how you beat me up? Please don't. In this little room, at most three people can abuse me, but if I go to your office, who knows how many will beat me up?" prodded Song Yun, laying it on thick.
Hearing these heart-piercing words and glancing at the time, Wang Dong sensed that Mr. Li would soon arrive. With a mournful face, he was close to kneeling before the great man before him, but Song Yun wouldn't budge, refusing to leave.
Just as Wang Dong was despairing over how to coax this Buddha-like figure out, his phone rang.
Mr. Li had arrived at the police station!