Silent Reading

5.7.2019

Bureau of Public Safety, Yan-cheng City. Eight-o'clock sharp.

It was the time when staffs of each department trickled in to report to their posts. The yawning little Sun, a logistics clerk from the administrative office, was on his way to deliver a barrel of purified water to the Chief's office. He pushed open the office door, only to find that Chief Zhang had already poured himself the first cup of tea and was taking a phone call with a very serious face.

Their old chief was in his 50s and looked very thin for his age. He was a quick-tempered old fossil - one who brought his own tea cup where ever he went, used a non-smart phone with half a month of battery life, and only wore the uniforms to work all year long. There was a deep furrow in the middle of his forehead like the third eye of Er Langshen (1) - possibly from frowning at those who crossed him, which was pretty much everyone. His smile was as rare as a flowering iron tree.

The old office-phone was a bit leaky, so as little Sun kneeled to tear the wrappings off of the water barrel, he over heard the voice from the other side of the phone: "Boss, listen, I know that this happened in my jurisdiction and it was indeed a result of my negligence. But..."

Little Sun sneaked a peek at Chief Zhang's twisted brows, and thought: "What is it now?"

Yan-cheng City was currently hosting a very important international conference. Many world leaders and the press from across the globe were attending. Many local schools and small businesses were temporarily closed to yield to the conference. All private vehicles were operating under the odd-even plate number restrictions (2). All security departments were under extreme pressure.

Little Sun witnessed the perfect storm forming on the chief's neck and above. He tried his best to suppress the rage, and talked in a lowered voice: "North Nanping Avenue, merely three kilometers from the main conference venue. What did I say before the conference? that we have to guarantee safety no matter the cost. Clear up all the food trucks on the street if that's what it takes. And YOU...you present me with a murder case? Lao Wang, you've 'overachieved' big times..."

"But boss, it was in the middle of the night..."

"Didn't the order arrive months ago to fortify the nighttime patrolling? Were you expecting the criminals to stick to the eight-hour work day schedule?"

"Yes...NO no...I mean...I'm not trying to shirk responsibilities here. But as you know, the Western Huashi district had always been a pain. With those immigrants..."

Chief Zhang had put the famous temper of his on leash in order to reason with the head of the Huashi Sub-Bureau, only to find that the man had no intention to repent, only lame excuses. Outraged, Chief Zhang's suppressed anger bursted into a roar: "The hell do I know!! Isn't the Western district your jurisdiction? Your territory? Now you tell me that it's a pain. Where the hell were you before?"

Little Sun and the Sub-Bureau head on the other side both froze there.

Chief Zhang took a sip of the tea from his cup to quench the fire, but accidentally bit on a tea stem. He spat it back into the cup.

Then, he used only the index finger to press down on the dusty keyboard, and typed "garrote". The news photos and screenshots on the intranet immediately flooded his desktop.

In the early morning, a male corpse was discovered in a back alley of the Western Huashi district. At first, a forum thread was started online as a piece of local gossip. But since much more eye-grabbing stuff had long existed on the internet, this one didn't particularly draw much discussion in the beginning. However, the heads of the Huashi Sub-Bureau were terrified to have any uncontrollable factors during this sensitive period, so they did something stupid --- They tried to quiet it down by first deleting the forum posts. Then when words got out, they released a statement saying that the body was of a homeless person who died from an unknown cause.

Little did they know that the punks who first discovered the body actually took pictures. Later they posted those ghastly pictures in the most attention-seeking way online. The pictures, coupled with the fishy doings of the Sub-Bureau earlier, ignited the imaginations of Yan-chengers who were bored on their ways to work on the buses and subways. The story exploded. Even the city's municipal office called to inquire about it.

Chief Zhang put on his reading glasses and opened the forum post that had the highest clicks before it got deleted. It was titled "Robbing and garroting gang suspected in the downtown". Apparently it was a catchy title. AND there were pictures. When the page finished loading, a shocking, un-pixelated picture of the appalling body filled the screen.

Chief Zhang: "..."

Now he thought that he had raged too early. However, at his age it was impractical to yell any louder, so he resumed the normal volume: "Frankly, I think your talent is being wasted here. You should've gone to the advertising companies! Look what brilliant publicity you've attracted. "

"Those little bastards... they'd feast at the world's end... What wicked people would take selfies with a corpse? Boss, worry not. I've locked them up already. We're purging the pictures and the posts as well. I promise you that it is under control!"

Chief Zhang leaned back on his chair and pinched his nose bridge: "The most important thing right now is to solve the case and find the murderer. Deleting posts? Who do you think you are? An internet police? This case need to be dealt with properly as soon as possible. Tell your men to keep their mouths tight. I'll send someone over to be your consultant. Wang Hongliang, I'll give you one week, and one week only. If you don't give me something solid, then give me your resignation letter."

Chief Zhang's infuriated spits almost traveled through the telephone line to Wang Hongliang's face. He hung up the phone. Little Sun hurried to move the empty water barrel out of the way and took out a notebook - he knew that the Chief was about to give some orders.

As expected, Chief Zhang gestured at him: "Go get the Criminal Investigation Team."

"All of them?" Little Sun asked.

Chief Zhang thought for a while, eyes falling on the computer screen -- the face on the picture was bloated and the facial features were distorted. But it was clearly a young man's face. His mouth was slightly open; his eyes looked into the camera lens with a hint of surprise and disbelief.

"Get Luo Wenzhou. Tell him to take his men and go to the Huashi sub-bureau in person. " Chief Zhang replied, "it's not necessarily a complicated case. Tell him that after this month, I'll take care of that cunning old fox Wang Hongliang. He knows what to do."

Little Sun: "..."

Chief Zhang's inquiring eyes looked through the thick reading glasses at Sun.

"Ch...Chief, " little Sun forced a dry smile, "Captain Luo...he...he isn't here yet."

Luo Wenzhou always arrived at work exactly on time. As long as he was not on night shifts, he refused to show up at Eight Twenty-nine since the require time to report to work was Eight Thirty.

Moreover, today his car was restricted according to the odd-even number rules. Luo Wenzhou didn't want to take the bus, so he dug out an ancient museum-worthy Er-ba bicycle from his basement, fixed it up, and wobbled to work on it.

He was a very handsome man with a youthful-looking face. However, his manners and temperament were unmistakably those of a mature grown-up. He wore a pair of plugged-in earphones, sleeves rolled up, muscles hiding under the well-fitting casual shirt. He had a pair of long legs that could easily touch the floor even when sitting on the old-fashioned gangly bicycle. On his left handlebar hung a dozen breakfast pancakes, while on the right handlebar hung six, seven cups of soy milk. Luo Wenzhou's hands lightly rested on the obviously overloaded bike head, and glided gracefully through the main entrance into the Bureau's courtyard.

Upon entering, Luo Wenzhou saw that the guard was arguing with a flower delivery girl.

"No. Sorry. No entering. You ask why? Miss, this is the Bureau of the Public Safety, not the flower-fruit mountain (3), Okay? All mails and packages stay in the mail room and need to be registered and screened."

"But how could the flower stay in the mail room? It will droop. "The flower girl looked around and pointed at Luo Wenzhou: "You won't let me in. Then how come a food delivery guy can pass?"

Guard: "..."

Luo Wenzhou looked up and smiled at the girl, showcasing a mouthful of coquettish white teeth: "Because, the food delivery guy is too charming."

The guard was now full of worries for the public image of the Bureau: "... Good morning Captain Luo."

"Morning. Have you had breakfast? If not, help yourself." Luo Wenzhou balanced the bike with one foot on the ground: "Miss, who's the flower for? I can take it in for you."

The flower girl was a bit embarrassed, and hurried to find the card: "Um...it's for...the Criminal Investigation Unit, an officer...Mr...Tao Ran."

At exactly half past Eight, Luo Wenzhou entered the office and dropped the flower onto Tao Ran's desk: "You..."

Before he could say more, the messenger sent by the angry Chief Zhang caught him. Luo Wenzhou had to swallow the rest of his question. Instead, he pressed hardly on Tao Ran's shoulder and said: "We will talk later."

The whole investigation squad was in shock. They stared at the fresh and pretty flower bunch in front of Tao Ran as if staring at a timed bomb.

Policewoman Lang Qiao took out the magnifying glass and a disposable glove from her drawer, and scooted over from the neighboring desk. After carefully examining the flower from head to toe, she pulled out a simple scented card on kraft paper.

The brave girl solemnly flipped it open in front of everyone. In the card there were some quotes written in the standard Kai font: "The wind is howling. My limbs are cold, but my heart is warm. My heart is soft and tender, I know not why. I want to be close to you. Only then can I ease the sorrow." (4)

"The signature says 'Fei'." Lang Qiao said, "Fei what?"

Tao Ran yanked the card back: "Okay that's enough. Give it back."

"A gift from your girlfriend? I thought Boss Luo was going to confess his love to you in public."

The coworkers all patted their chests.

"Phew...thank God."...

"My heart was literally pounding in my throat."...

"Don't scare us like that."...

The relieved comments came from all around. Before long, the single dogs (5) quickly reformed their alliance to accuse Tao Ran of treason, all while dividing up the food on Luo Wenzhou's table.

"Vice-Cap, since when did you break away from the mighty FFF (6)? Did you submit a petition? Did the committee agree?"

"Tao Tao, Hummm... where is your team spirit? That was kind of mean of you to not tell your camarades..."

"Vice-Cap Tao, I only have thirty-seven point six dollars left on my paycheck this month. Not enough for dog food (5) I'm afraid. What say you?"

"Knock it off." Tao Rao tucked the card away and moved the flowers to an inconspicuous corner. "Where did the girlfriend come from? I want to know it too... Alright alright...enough messing around already."

In face of the big bulk of plain evidence, this guy was still trying to cover up? The crowd boiled and cornered Captain Tao, ready to squeeze some truth out of him.

At that time, Luo Wenzhou, who rushed off to hear the orders just now, returned to the office. He knocked on the hollow door frame: "There is a new murder case in the Western Huashi District. I need two of you to come with me. Speed!"

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(1). Er Langshen: a deity in Chinese Taoism mythology. Famously has a third eye between his eyebrows.

(2). the Odd-even plate number rules: To regulate the number of vehicles on a given day (especially during major national events, or when the air quality becomes unbearable), some mega-cities in China would adopt this regulation such that the plate number that ended with either odd or even digits take turns to roll.

(3). the flower-fruit mountain: existed in the book Journey to the West. It is the home of the Monkey King.

(4). This is a quote from a famous Chinese writer: Shen Congwen

(5). Single people, men and women, mockingly call themselves "single dogs". Seeing couples flaunting their love for each other is called "eating dog food".

(6). FFF: the union of single people. Leave FFF means not single any more.