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Volume 1: Case 502 — The Intoxicated Frozen Corpse
Chapter 23
In front of all his subordinates from the city bureau, Vice Captain Yan ate an earth-shaking amount of shit.
Edited by Beth
Jiang Ting asked softly, “Your colleagues?”
Yan Xie: “No, they’re not the voices of my team!”
Bang!
This sudden change of situation caught them by surprise. Someone pounded hard on the door, and due to the shoddy construction of the building, dust fell all around them.
“You leave first!” Yan Xie decisively grabbed the edge of the window and yanked on it, removing the ventilation grille. “Hurry up, I’ll stall them!”
Jiang Ting was unable to climb up to the window, so he was lifted up by Yan Xie. But right at that moment, the door behind them—
Bang!!
With another loud crash, the door to the washroom had been kicked open by the police!
“Don’t move! We’re checking for illegal sexual activity!”
“Put your hands up!”
“What are you doing?! What are you doing?!” Yan Xie asked harshly. “What kind of police are you? Where’s your uniform? Where are your badges? You think just because you call yourself policemen, we should believe you? I’m going to call 1-1-0…”
Before he could finish speaking, a man rushed over and blocked Yan Xie’s path with a baton, while shouting to his colleagues. “Squad Leader, I need backup over here! Someone has escaped through the window!”
With nowhere to go, Yan Xie came to a difficult decision. Blocking the baton with his arm, he gave a kick, causing this impetuous little policeman to fly out through the door!
Whoosh—
The policeman fell onto the ground, crashing into various pieces of furniture, causing a loud clatter of sounds.
In that moment, countless thoughts ran through Yan Xie’s head. The discipline of the police-force: The Eight Honours and Disgraces, The Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention, Marxism, Deng Xiaoping’s Theory, The 12 Core Socialist Values.. numerous thoughts flashed by, none of them in detail. Finally, they all turned into an inexhaustible feeling of hopelessness and desolation.
I’m done, he thought.
Assistant Chief Wei will definitely strangle me to death with handcuffs, chop up my body, then bury me within the cement walls of his office. I estimate it will take many years before anyone renovating the building of the city bureau discovers my corpse which was unjustly murdered.
Yan Xie rushed out of the washroom and two policemen lunged for him, roaring with anger. However, how could he possibly be caught by these people working in a police station? Protecting his head with his arm, he endured a blow from the baton, and after a tumble he gave a spinning kick, sweeping down the older man on the left. Without even needing to catch his breath, Yan Xie yanked the baton from the young officer on the right, wrapping an arm around his neck and when the policeman lost his balance, and tossed him down hard.
The young policeman howled, crashing onto the couch, and the contents of his stomach nearly sprayed out from his throat.
“Fucking hell, stop!”
“Don’t move!”
Yan Xie eyed his surroundings. There were around eight or nine policemen in the room, and Zong-ge and his two lackeys had already been caught. The fatty was squatting on the ground as he was held down by a policeman, and his entire body was trembling like a leaf as he babbled, “I-i-i-it’s a m-m-misunderstanding! W-w-w-we’re on t-t-the s-s-same side, the s-s-same side! …”
The policeman was greatly insulted. “Who is fucking on the same side as you!”
“Command Center, Command Center, Yihe Police Station is requesting backup!” The squad leader of the police station was yelling into his walkie-talkie as he pointed his gun at Yan Xie. “Let me repeat, our crackdown in Yihe Road’s Three Spring Trees KTV has met with violent resistance, requesting swift backup!”
Yan Xie stood up, smiling wryly as he raised his chin towards the muzzle of the gun. “Oi, you didn’t undo the safety-catch on your gun.”
A jumble of footsteps were once again heard outside the room. In the blink of an eye, they quickly drew close, and a familiar voice shouted, “Stay where you are! Put your hands up, don’t move!”
Yan Xie turned his head to see his city bureau colleagues storm through the door, followed closely by Qin Chuan who rushed in fully geared and holding a gun. “Down on the ground, now! This is Jianning Public Security Bureau!”
Yan Xie felt relieved. “Old Qin, you…”
Before he could say the word “pig”, Yan Xie realised that Qin Chuan’s line of sight shot over his shoulders, and his expression turned from relief into panic.
Qin Chuan: “Wait—”
It was too late.
A baton slammed into the back of Yan Xie’s waist. He could not even make a sound, and the immense force caused him to fly into the seats. In front of all his subordinates from the bureau, he fell face forward with his arms spread open, eating an earth-shaking amount of shit.
The scene fell dead silent.
The atmosphere was like a block of ice.
The squad leader took the lead, rushing forward with his team. Clumsily, they caught hold of Yan Xie and dragged him up, giving him a slap right to his face. “How dare you be this audacious?! Try resisting arrest again, won’t you?! Cuff him and take him away!”
“… Hold… hold on, fellow colleague!” Qin Chuan finally found his voice. He flashed his badge, and although the slight trembling in his voice could be detected, it could still be seen that he was trying his best. “You… your crackdown, who was the one who called for this crackdown?”
“Sir!” Seeing that the person in front of him was a Vice-Captain, the Squad Leader immediately straightened his back respectfully, snapping a salute. “We received a report in the past, saying that this club was suspected of harbouring prostitutes, but we never managed to catch them red-handed! Today, someone again made a report, saying that there’s irrefutable evidence of homosexual indecency and illegal transactions going ahead. See, we have already discovered a large sum of illicit cash and unidentifiable drugs. We’ll be reporting this back to the station! May I ask, were our colleagues from the City Bureau sent by the Command Centre?”
“… Why did it have to be today…” Qin Chuan was really trembling this time. “Huh? Why did it have to be today of all days?!”
The Squad Leader was extremely baffled. “Because the Command Center received the report today!”
Qin Chuan was unable to speak.
None of the police from the city bureau made a sound. They did not even move. The heavy atmosphere pressed down on everyone, causing this room to seem like the scene of a serial killer’s devastation rather than the joy of executing a crackdown.
Gasping for air, Yan Xie looked up. No one dared to look at him directly, and one after another, they averted their eyes or covered their faces.
“What are you looking at!” The policeman who cuffed Yan Xie was probably too nervous. Stepping forward, he gave Yan Xie a kick. “You’re not allowed to play any little tricks!”
“Ah hold on!”
Qin Chuan came back alive again. His voice nearly cracked, and all the people from the police station looked askance at him.
In front of the drug traffickers, Qin Chuan naturally could not point at Yan Xie and declare that he was a vice captain of the city bureau working undercover, and ask them to quickly let him go. However, Qin Chuan was a very quick-witted person. He quickly found an excuse, and so shouldered his responsibility as a superior and reproached, “Were the videos on law enforcement fake? Has our internal reorganisation been done in vain? Don’t hit suspects as you just so please! You, go take the illicit cash and drugs, the city bureau will take over this case!”
“Ai!” The squad leader panicked. “Comrade, we do not hit people without reason! Look at my team, so many have been beaten up by this suspect. Xiao Liu, Er Wang, come help the injured over and show our colleagues what this suspect has done!”
The other policemen chimed in as well, “Yes yes, this bastard is really good at fighting. Just now, he even kicked one of us right out of the room!”
“Yes, he injured a number of us!”
“He’s extremely ruthless, he’s a complete bastard! …”
The public sentiment had been roused, and complaints arose around them. Qin Chuan’s expression was very awkward. Glaring at Yan Xie, he gritted through his teeth, “Why did you hit them?!”
Yan Xie: “…”
“That’s him! Just now, a civilian called the police and said that he was canoodling with another man, kissing and holding onto each other. The next moment, he followed the lackeys working in the club upstairs. What else could they be doing other than harbouring prostitutes?” The squad leader did not notice the entertaining expressions on the faces of the people from the city bureau. He pointed at Yan Xie, indignant. “Also, just now, right here, it was him who covered the escape of another suspect, allowing the suspect to escape from a window. Tell me, what could they be doing secretly in the washroom? How would you explain the tens of thousands of dollars on the table? If this is not prostitution, what else could it be?!”
If dead silence was the description used just now, the current atmosphere in the room was the nihility of the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
Qin Chuan’s refined and handsome face turned from green to red, then to purple, looking as though he was going through a dye factory. A moment of silence that felt like eternity, he finally forced out, “… Yes, it definitely is.”
The vast number of the unsophisticated, low-level policemen finally felt vindicated. With the sternness of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship, they all turned to glare at the person who was suspected of soliciting prostitutes, Yan Xie.
Qin Chuan: “Ma Xiang, Old Gao! Don’t just stand there! Go gather up these d—… pimps and johns and bring them to the bureau!”
The crowd quickly made way, and the scene was absolutely silent. Gazes both profound and complicated met each other. Yan Xie was the focus of those eyes. A few of the city bureau officers clustered around him, and they left the scene that was as hush as a graveyard.
At this moment, all the people from the police station thought, the city bureau definitely lives up to its name, that crazy suspect now doesn’t even dare to exhale too loudly, this is too fucking awesome!
As for Zong-ge and his lackeys, they thought, this fellow has done so many great things, knocking down so many people single-handedly. This time, he’s probably going to be sentenced for twenty years, right?
As for the officers from the city bureau, their brains were basically blank. In their dazedness, they heard Ma Xiang mumbling out what everyone felt, “I think when we go back, Yan-ge is going to strangle us all to death with handcuffs, chop our bodies up, then bury us in the cement walls of the office…”
***
An hour later, by the sidewalk along the entrance to the club, Qin Chuan pulled open the door to the Iveco minibus, bending down and climbing in.
The backseat had been laid down flat, and Yan Xie was lying down on his front, his muscular upper body bare. Holding onto a bottle of medicated ointment, Gou Li rubbed the ointment onto Yan Xie’s waist. Qin Chuan went over to take a look, only to suck in a breath. “Da Gou, Old Yan’s kidney wasn’t damaged, right?”
Gou Li said, “It’s fine. His skin is coarse and his muscles are thick. Also, in theory, a person can live with just one kidney.”
“… Then would he still be able to have sex in the future?”
“That’s hard to say,” Gou Li smiled. “However, I’ve heard that our Vice Captain Yan, after 108 consecutive failures at blind dates, has rallied up and revised his strategy — from now on, he will wash his asshole clean, and still be able to start a new chapter in life. He might even be able to brave new heights in his career, right, Old Yan?”
“… Shut your damn mouth,” Yan Xie feebly said. “I’ve already said, he’s my informant, only an informant!”
Clicking his tongue, Qin Chuan lit a cigarette. “Old Yan, you’re so unkind. You have your own informant, but still pestered me shamelessly to use mine — Fatty has never been reliable in his dealings. Later on, when the drug traffickers realise what happened, I’ll have to send him into rehab again to hide.”
Yan Xie waved his hand feebly, gesturing at him to stop the nonsense. “What’s happening inside? Has the blue powder been found yet?”
“The blue one? We didn’t even manage to find heroin. Ma Xiang led a group and searched over and over again, but they’ve only managed to dig out a few bags of weed here and there, not even enough to fill up the gaps in a mouse’s teeth.”
Yan Xie’s thick eyebrows bunched together.
Qin Chuan said, “Friend, can you blame me? Who would have thought that those idiots would choose today of all days to have a crackdown? They even wore their uniforms so splendidly, bursting in with a camera. Those outlaws probably smelled them from a mile away and ran off, taking with them everything that they could. For them to leave behind a few bags of weed, it’s all because Ma Xiaong’s ancestors accumulated great virtue by repairing roads and building bridges. If not, we would all have to go back, and Assistant Chief Wei will definitely strangle us all to death with handcuffs, chop our bodies up, then bury us…”
“I nearly managed to get that Zong-ge person to bring out some new drugs.” Yan Xie’s eyes were dark, and he said quietly, “There’s something wrong about this matter. Things cannot be so coincidental.”
Yan Xie’s brow ridge was rather prominent, making his eyes look deep set, and the tips of his brows tilted towards his temples. This was a distinct, memorable, and somewhat defiant face. Thinking, he narrowed his eyes, and abruptly said, “Go investigate the records of the police dispatcher.”
Qin Chuan said, “It’s already done. You think we were waiting for your instructions?”
“No, it’s not just tonight’s. Look into all the records of any reports of prostitution in this club, and match the records of Yihe Police Station, the police brigade of the jurisdiction, and the police dispatcher. If they match, forget it, but if they don’t, there’s something fishy.” Yan Xie paused, and continued coldly, “I don’t believe that there can be something so coincidental in this world. The city bureau decides to make a move at the last minute, and then the police station receives a report, so they decide to have a crackdown? Was there even a five minutes difference between these two maneuvers? Investigate it, investigate it thoroughly!”
Qin Chuan nodded. He wound down the window, sticking his head out and instructing the policeman standing outside.
“What now, Old Yan?”
Hissing, Yan Xie slowly sat up in the back. Gritting his teeth, he pressed a hand against the back of his waist.
He was actually considered very tough already. In the process of the violent resistance, he had received a very heavy blow from a genuine baton. If it was someone just slightly physically weaker, they would probably have been sent lying on a stretcher into an ambulance immediately.
“We have no other choice. Go back, we’ll interrogate Ah Zong and his two lackeys. The focus for the breakthrough is that red-headed man, we’ll see if we can get him to spill anything. Also, make a copy of all the CCTV recordings of this club and send it to the forensics agency and get them to sharpen the videos, then we’ll immediately arrange a follow-up and investigate further.”
Qin Chuan gave a nod for every sentence Yan Xie spoke. At last, Yan Xie fell into silence. He stared out into the dark night, his expression complicated and gloomy. No one knew what he was thinking, and then Yan Xie lifted his hand to touch his earlobe.
“Old Yan?” Qin Chuan reminded him quietly.
“… Oh,” Yan Xie returned to his senses and said, “I was thinking, fortunately, Hu Weisheng is still in our hands.”
Qin Chuan’s instincts told him that Yan Xie’s loss in focus was not about Hu Weisheng, but he did not press on, and only asked doubtfully, “Hu Weisheng hates you to his very soul, and the only thing he hasn’t done is to lunge at you and tear you into pieces. What can you interrogate out of him?”
Yan Xie’s voice was cold. “As long as they’re criminals, even if I have to peel their skin and pull out their tendons, I’ll still be able to squeeze out something from their bone marrow!”
The vehicle was left in silence for some time, and only the sounds of Gou Li quietly packing away the first-aid kit could be heard, as well as the busy sounds of the policemen outside the vehicle working in the night.
“Ah,” Yan Xie suddenly recalled something. “Why has Assistant Chief Wei not yet gotten in contact with us even now?”
Qin Chuan also froze, and then the phone in his pocket started ringing.
“Hello, this is Qin Chuan… Captain Fang?”
Qin Chuan exchanged a look with Yan Xie.
Fang Zhenghong was the Captain of the Anti-Drug division of Jianning Public Security Bureau, as well as Qin Chuan’s immediate superior. However, he was close to retirement. At the start of the year, he had been injured in an operation, causing an old injury to return and nearly costing him his life. Now, he was pretty much semi-retired.
It was about to be two in the morning. What would make this old man suddenly give him a call from his office in the city bureau?
“Mn, we’re still at the scene dealing with the aftermath, and we’ll be able to withdraw very soon… we were not very successful. The situation’s a little complicated, when I get back to the bureau I’ll… What? What did you say?!”
Due to staying up late, Qin Chuan’s voice had turned hoarse. His voice cracked during his exclamation, and Yan Xie jerked his head up.
From the phone came Fang Zhenghong’s old, weary and serious voice. “Hu Weisheng is dead.”
It was as though thunder had cracked through all three people in the vehicle, and their expressions changed abruptly.
Yan Xie quickly got up, snatching the phone and turning it to loudspeaker mode. “Hi, Captain Fang, this is Yan Xie. Hu Weisheng is dead? When did that happen, what’s going on?!”
Static crackled through the phone. After some time, Fang Zhenghong spat out three words, his voice tense and oddly hoarse, “— Assistant Chief Wei.”
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- ISMM Chapter 45 - May 11, 2023
- BTTC Chapter 55 - April 25, 2023
- BTTC Chapter 54 - April 18, 2023
Great chapter! Thank you for your beautiful translations 💖
Thanks for the chapter! \(^ ^ )/♡
I didnt realise you’ve updated 2 chapters in May. Thank you so much!
I really laughed at the misunderstandings that occurred between the 2 police branch, then the grim reality strikes and they’ve nowhere closed in solving this case. You’re really good in keeping with the actions and tension on the novel.
I rarely left comment when binge reading, but this chapter hilariousness make me LMAO. I need take laughing break while read this chapter multiple times. The misunderstanding ..lol… But the end turn over the comedic tone to dark
Firstly thanks for this great chapter. Your translations are always top notch.
Secondly this chapter was freaking hilarious. I loved every single moment of it specially the one where Yan Xie kissed the mother earth 😂😂.
Thirdly old old Wei is really dead. I will not say I was not expecting that when YX said that “Why has Assistant Chief Wei not yet gotten in contact with us even now?” but I still didn’t expect him to die 😔😔. I really liked his charecter.