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墨書 Inktalez
It seems difficult for pies to fall from the sky in real life, but today, the citizens of Dongxing City experienced something quite extraordinary. It wasn't a mere illusion; a toy airplane was carrying an open bag filled with cash—dollars, to be precise.
As a metropolitan area, the citizens of Dongxing City were accustomed to seeing dollars. However, witnessing money raining down from above was a first for them. Especially the hundred-dollar bills, which were particularly rare. They had never appreciated Benjamin Franklin, the man whose face adorned the hundred-dollar bill, as much as they did today.
One hundred dollars equated to over six hundred renminbi, and most people couldn't earn that much in a day. So naturally, picking up every bill they could find led to a frenzy among the crowd.
With ten million renminbi exchanged for dollars, that amounted to about one million five hundred thousand dollars—fifteen thousand bills dancing in the wind. Even if those bills were laid out on the ground for people to collect, it would take an immense amount of time to gather them all, let alone when they were swirling around in the breeze.
Moreover, judging by the bag carried by the airplane, it was clear that there weren't fifteen thousand bills in it. This suggested that several such planes might be scattering money across different streets. Consequently, police officers patrolling other routes would also be caught in traffic and forced to walk.
Indeed, the kidnappers had never mentioned money from the start; their ten million was merely a distraction.
"They must still be within a kilometer!" I shouted. "I know this kind of control distance; Liu Zeng and I have conducted experiments. The maximum range is one kilometer—any further and it becomes uncontrollable."
But just as I finished speaking, the toy airplane began to descend sharply, clearly about to crash. This indicated that they had already moved beyond the one-kilometer range. Below the plane, the bag still contained plenty of dollars. Bystanders surged forward like zombies drawn to living prey, frantically lunging at the falling cash.
We fought against the tide of people, desperately pushing through the crowd as we ran away. However, with so many people in Dongxing City and the allure of free money being too great, chaos erupted. Some even began fighting over who spotted the bills first; others were shoved to the ground amidst the turmoil.
At that moment, I realized this operation had been our most disastrous yet. We had been completely manipulated by the kidnappers. Every move we made and every clue we followed was precisely what they wanted us to see.
In this encounter, the kidnappers had gifted us a grim "present"—the death of Liu Yinyan.
Behind Wu Zui's mask lay a ruthless individual. He was cunning and treacherous. He was well-versed in psychology and had learned counter-surveillance techniques; he understood police investigation methods. He commanded a loyal group of henchmen—desperate men willing to do anything for him. He didn’t lack for money; he treated it like mere scraps.
Suddenly, I recalled a term Captain Shao often mentioned—criminal mastermind.
Standing in the middle of the street, jostled by countless people around me, I looked at the concrete jungle of rebar and cement while reflecting on Wu Zui's words from earlier. If I didn't use my skills to solve this case, was I really just an ordinary person unable to contend with someone whose name resembled mine so closely?
Wu Zui, there will come a day when I will personally arrest you.
Two hours later, all the officers gathered together, and this operation had completely failed. We didn't even catch a glimpse of the Murderer, allowing them to escape. Everyone felt disheartened; such a large-scale operation was quite rare in Dongxing City.
In the conference room, the chief had been scolding for a full hour.
Captain Shao's position was not much different from his own, so he didn't dare to directly insult Captain Shao, but the implications of his words were quite clear. The case involving Liu Yinyan was one that the higher-ups took very seriously. However, while Liu Fei'er was rescued, Liu Yinyan had been killed.
A few of us stood outside the conference room, unsure of what to say.
Gu Chen sighed and asked me, "How's your arm?"
I replied, "The doctor was too rough; I strained my muscle. I probably can't use it for a while. It looks like I'll have to eat with my left hand."
"This case has turned out like this; do you know how much impact Liu Yinyan's death will have on Dongxing City?" The chief continued to vent his anger inside: "Was his will prepared in time? What about the company's subsequent matters? With him gone, who can hold up Rongding Group? If there are personnel changes at Rongding Group, what will happen to those below? What if unemployment leads to an increase in crime rates? How could we let one person slip away..."
The economy is the most important measure of a city's stability, and above the chief, there were likely others who were even angrier.
I shrugged, wanting to say something humorous, but the words just wouldn't come out.
The kidnappers had seven or eight people and not a single one was caught—only Chen Lin and an abandoned Lin Da had died, which was part of the kidnappers' plan all along. Yet in this case, I still had several unresolved questions. I had previously asked Wu Zui about this key issue, but Wu Zui did not answer me.
That key question remained: why were they so afraid of exposure at first but then seemed unafraid later? There was only a short gap of three days between these two states; for kidnappers who had prepared for months, this time should not have affected anything significantly.
Moreover, how did Wu Zui know so many secrets about Liu Fei'er that even her father did not? Where did Wu Zui get this information that made them so certain Liu Fei'er wouldn't dare to lie?
Unless these series of questions were resolved, we couldn't truly consider this case solved. Although the kidnappers had escaped, the matter concerning Liu Fei'er was far from over.
After a while, Liu Fei'er inherited all of Liu Yinyan's assets. It turned out that Liu Yinyan had made a will before he left, believing he would not return. In this regard, he was a qualified father.
Unfortunately, Liu Fei'er's finger could not be reattached; too much time had passed. And finally, we met Liu Fei'er's mother, a beautiful Russian woman. She was tall and resembled her daughter.
At noon, the Russian Mother treated us to a meal, grateful that we had saved her daughter. The atmosphere at the table was somewhat somber as she continuously served us dishes. Both Liu Fei'er and her mother were adept with their chopsticks—one using the left hand and the other the right.
As a pure Chinese person, I could only awkwardly use my left hand to fumble with a spoon.
"I'm truly sorry about your father's situation," I said apologetically to Liu Fei'er.
"Thank you, Wu," Liu Fei'er replied, raising her glass. "We are all aware of what happened with my father; you don't need to feel overly guilty."
Tears spread across her face as she continued, "My father is already seventy years old; that's quite an age. Anyway, thank you for saving me. Without you, I might have died."
We clinked our glasses together, but suddenly I felt something was off, though I couldn't pinpoint what it was.
The meal felt heavy for everyone, and during our conversation, we learned that the Russian Mother had indeed hired a private detective. However, for some reason, the email regarding this matter never reached Jesse Detective Agency; it had been intercepted online.
The person who intercepted the email was skilled and must have known when Liu Fei'er's mother would send it.
This was unusual—very unusual.
However, at the dinner table, I couldn't bring myself to voice any gloomy thoughts and simply finished my meal in silence.
When we returned to the City Bureau, the higher-ups had issued their reprimands regarding our failed mission.
Captain Shao took all the responsibility upon himself and received a demotion. However, everyone knew that Captain Shao was favored by the deputy minister, so they understood the reasoning behind this decision. Captain Shao belonged to a special task force anyway; a demotion didn’t mean much in his case.
For us, the result of this failure meant that we might not get involved in any major cases for a while and would have to settle for some smaller ones to practice our skills.
Aside from Liu, who seemed a bit dejected, the three of us were indifferent. Gu Chen was only temporarily assigned to help out, Guan Zengbin was still a student, and as for me, I was just an unemployed drifter. None of us held any significant rank; it was just Liu who had to bear the brunt of this setback.
"This decision isn't too bad," Liu reassured himself. "At least I didn't start from the lowest level as a patrol officer. I know nothing about this. I'm off to buy a lottery ticket; maybe I'll get lucky."
Watching Liu's despondent figure, we felt a mix of emotions.
"Is this how this case ends?" Gu Chen picked up a handful of pebbles from the ground and began tossing them one by one. "This is our first failed case, and it just doesn't sit right with me. Damn it, if I run into those bastards again next time, I'll make sure they all face execution."
I watched Gu Chen throw the pebbles to the ground, my right hand instinctively wanting to join him, but the sharp pain reminded me that I was still injured.
Suddenly, something clicked in my mind as I stared blankly at my right hand.
"What are you looking at?" Guan Zengbin asked, noticing my daze. "With that arm of yours, it's going to be tough to recover in less than a month. You barely have any muscle on your legs and still dare to pull a ninety-pound girl? It's a miracle you haven't broken anything else."
I shook my head and stood up. "I've always felt that something was off, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Just now, when I tried to use my right hand, it suddenly became clear."
"What did you figure out?" both of them asked.
"If both parents are right-handed, is it possible for them to have a left-handed child?" I looked at Guan Zengbin and asked. "I don't understand genetics; you'd know more about this."
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