Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1183: Chapter 24: First String

After receiving the phone call from Lin Feng who was on a business trip, Officer Ma and Zhou Yusheng didn’t have time to handle the situation accordingly, because immediately, another homicide disrupted their pace.

“The deceased’s name was Chang Xiao, externally the security director of a finance company, but in reality, he was a debt collector.”

The officer who arrived first reported quickly: “According to his companions, Chang Xiao was driving, but suddenly Chang Xiao’s head tilted down, and then the car went out of control and crashed into a safety post. When they dragged Chang Xiao out, he had already stopped breathing, with just a blood hole on his forehead… suspected gunshot wound.”

When he heard gunshot wound, Officer Ma’s hand couldn’t help but tremble slightly… Gun control in the New Kingdom is very strict, and possession of firearms is not casually granted as overseas.

If the perpetrator had a gun and was walking in the bustling city to kill people…

“What was the deceased doing before the incident?” Zhou Yusheng asked solemnly at that moment.

They had already arrived on the scene, and there were many onlookers at the scene, though all were contained beyond the police barricade.

The officer said: “They were drinking, just at a bar not far behind. We asked, and the bar owner can testify. Also, we found traces of a fight in the alley behind the bar; the other two in the car confessed honestly, they just happened to encounter someone who owed them a debt, beat him up, and then left.”

Officer Ma frowned and said: “What about the debtor who was beaten up?”

“Oh, the person is named Qian Er, his identity has been verified.” The officer immediately replied, “However, when we found him, he was already so drunk he was out of it, covered in blood and traces of beating, and preliminary estimates suggest he may have mild internal bleeding, consistent with what the other two said.”

Officer Ma nodded, then went with the officer to check on the so-called Qian Er. The two came in front of Qian Er, looking at his current drunken state that couldn’t be awakened even if kicked, “Did you do the test?”

“We did, two hundred ninety-two per hundred milliliters,” the officer swiftly said.

Officer Ma glared and shook his head: “A reckless fool… drunk like this, forget killing someone, he couldn’t even stand up to pee, right? Quickly, send the person to the hospital.”

Actually, Qian Er was already in the ambulance, and as Officer Ma spoke, the ambulance drove away immediately.

At this time, Zhou Yusheng came over looking displeased, “Old Ma, Chang Xiao’s death… might be similar to the one at the detention center.”

“What?” Officer Ma’s face changed slightly.

Zhou Yusheng said seriously: “Before the incident, Chang Xiao was driving, he must have been facing the windshield… but no damage was found on the windshield—unless the two people in the car are lying, otherwise it’s too irregular.”

Officer Ma scratched his head, looked around, “There’s no surveillance in this area… let’s do this: bring the people in the car back first, and interrogate them well. We’ll review the situation after a report from the autopsy is out tomorrow.”

That’s the best they can do, Zhou Yusheng had no choice but to nod.

At this moment, Officer Ma said: “Old Zhou, I think it’s better like this, this place is close to your home, why don’t you go back, take a shower and rest a bit? There’s still a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

“I’m not tired.” Zhou Yusheng shook his head.

“But I’m tired!” Officer Ma said without hesitation and patted Zhou Yusheng’s back, “I can’t feel at ease without someone dragging me down, right!”

“You old rascal.” Zhou Yusheng couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “You better go home, it’s right to take more care as your wife is pregnant with your second child… Anyway, someone has to handle this, and the follow-up procedures need to be done by someone. I’m not tired, I’ll do it.”

“Is this what you said?” Officer Ma blinked, “I didn’t force you, did I?”

“Alright, stop being so wordy.” Zhou Yusheng responded irritably.

Officer Ma took out a cigarette pack, gave one to Zhou Yusheng, and lit one for himself, planning to drive home after smoking. He patted Zhou Yusheng on the shoulder and suddenly asked with curiosity: “Hey Old Zhou, these past two or three years you seem like a different person, working so hard, what’s it all for?”

Zhou Yusheng responded casually: “We are people’s police, if we don’t work hard, who will?”

Officer Ma was stunned, leaned against the car door, “Ah, if it were you a few years ago saying this, I wouldn’t have believed it at all. But seeing how hard you’ve been working these two or three years, almost like Desperate Sanlang, makes it hard for me not to believe it… Remember when the two teams worked together on cases, back when Captain Luo was here, and it was Team Leader Gao leading the second team? At that time, you were the most slick, clocking in and out of work precisely on time, always making excuses or handling things carelessly, everyone said you were just here to muddle through.”

Zhou Yusheng lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.

Despite being at the same level now, Officer Ma awkwardly laughed twice, “Old Zhou, I’m just expressing my feelings, don’t mean anything else. Old Zhou?”

Seeing Zhou Yusheng pressing his palm to his forehead, rubbing hard, looking somewhat in pain, Officer Ma grew concerned.

“It’s nothing…” Zhou Yusheng shook his head, casually took out a small bottle from his clothes, poured out two pills, stuffed them in his mouth, and drank a few gulps of water from a bottle taken from the car.

“What medicine are you taking?”

Zhou Yusheng regulated his breathing, seemingly feeling better, “Just some headache medicine, it’s nothing serious.”

“Well, how can it not cause headaches?” Officer Ma said frustratedly: “Like you, staying up late every day, often not sleeping, wouldn’t be surprised if you suddenly died of exhaustion one day. This won’t do, how about this, you should go back to rest, let me handle the rest.”

“No need.” Zhou Yusheng shook his head.

Officer Ma’s attitude became more assertive, “Are you going or not? If you don’t go, I’m calling Secretary Liu and let him order you.”

“This…” Zhou Yusheng rubbed his forehead, really having a severe headache, had no choice but to say: “Alright, I’ll go back first.”

“Remember to see a doctor!”

Zhou Yusheng waved his hand, showing he wasn’t listening. Officer Ma not feeling assured, called a colleague to drive Zhou Yusheng back.

…

“Team Leader Zhou, are you feeling better? Let me get you a cup of water?”

The colleague helped Zhou Yusheng down onto the sofa in his home.

“No need, I can take care of myself.” Zhou Yusheng leaned back on the sofa, looked up, waved his hand and said: “There’s are a lot of things at the bureau, you go back and get busy. I’ll be fine after a rest, I’ll return to the bureau a bit later… get Chang Xiao’s data organized promptly.”

“But Team Leader Zhou, shouldn’t you rest a bit more? With Officer Ma watching over there, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Just go as told, why so much nonsense!” Zhou Yusheng’s tone suddenly became sterner.

The colleague had no choice but to nod, poured a cup of hot water, and then hurried away… thinking to himself that Team Leader Zhou must be feeling down these days—though in these years, Team Leader Zhou is basically known for having a perpetual scowl, often losing his temper, even if his crime-solving abilities are top-notch, under such pressure, the team has suffered greatly.

Could be family issues… it’s known that Zhou Yusheng’s family isn’t great, today when escorting him home, the place was empty, could see that.

The colleague shook his head, took a last look at Zhou Yusheng, then closed the door.

After the colleague left, Zhou Yusheng felt dazed, cold sweat slowly surfaced on his forehead, neck, feeling dry-mouthed, chest tight and uncomfortable… he wanted to drink water, but his hands trembled, causing the cup to crash to the ground, directly shattering.

The moment the cup shattered sounded like a switch being activated, sending Zhou Yusheng into madness as he yelled out loud several times.

He frantically swept things off the table, even flipped the coffee table, yelling endlessly into the empty house.

Around him, it’s as if everything fragmented, overlapping on top of each other, Zhou Yusheng painfully opened his mouth, his hands slowly covering his ears as he knelt on the ground, finally curling up.

He seemed to hear countless, repetitive, loud sounds.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang—!

Those kinds of sounds.

Finally, he collapsed on the ground, not knowing whether he fell asleep from exhaustion or lost consciousness.

…

…

Instinctively, Zhao Le’s hands felt weak, almost unable to hold onto the box he was clutching… He took a deep breath, his first reaction was to close the box and nervously look around.

The road was crowded with people rushing to work or school, none paying attention to Zhao Le’s sudden abnormal behavior.

With his head lowered and the box hugged to his chest, his original plan to head toward the bus stop changed… He quickly walked into the nearest public toilet, entered one of the stalls, and shut the door.

Zhao Le’s eyes flickered as he quickly adjusted his glasses, his hands hovering above the box… frozen in place.

Suddenly, Zhao Le took a deep breath, and as he inhaled deeply, he opened the box directly… The silver handgun seemed far from light. He could even feel the weight pressing on his leg.

Zhao Le took another deep breath, picked up the handgun… still feeling its heaviness. It was clearly made of metal and not just a plastic toy.

Under the silver handgun was a small paper card… Zhao Le quickly picked it up and opened it.

——Hold the gun, think of the person you want to kill, and the bullet will appear.

——You can kill from any distance.

Then there were just two lines of explanation——no more details.

Zhao Le was silent for a moment, then placed the gun and the paper back into the box… He contemplated for a while before taking out his phone.

Social media, a blank profile picture.

No message history… At this moment, Zhao Le quickly typed out a line of text.

——Is the gun something you sent?

After sending the message, Zhao Le stared at the screen without blinking, silently counting the time—about a minute later, the screen showed a text reply.

——No.

Upon seeing the reply, Zhao Le hurriedly typed a new message.

——I received a gun today, but there are no bullets. Do you know who sent it?

But after waiting for a long time, this time there was no reply… Zhao Le gritted his teeth and typed another message.

——The police have come to see me.

Again, there was no reply.

Three minutes, ten minutes… twenty minutes—still no reply.

Zhao Le’s expression flickered with a hint of fierceness, then he finally closed his eyes and after a while returned to his usual calm expression—he cleared the message history, leaving the screen blank again.

Zhao Le thought for a moment, finally stuffing the gun and the paper into his backpack, leaving the box behind, and then lowered his head and left.

…

…

Fortunately, there was no class for the first period, so even after some delay, Zhao Le was not late—his family’s economic situation was not very good, but due to his excellent grades and academic performance, he soon qualified for a scholarship.

Thus, he tried his best not to make mistakes at school.

Large classroom, public class.

Today’s teacher was Lecturer Gao Wen, whose course was one of the required courses for Zhao Le. He needed this course’s credits. Of course, there were only three classes per week, which was not much.

However, in Lecturer Gao Wen’s class, if you were late, you usually had no chance to get a front seat—though Zhao Le was not late, he barely arrived on time.

As a result, he could only head directly to the seats at the back.

Just as he walked into the classroom through the back door, Zhao Le saw several unfriendly glances—these were the students who had pinned him down and beaten him on a high floor yesterday.

The one leading them saw Zhao Le walk in through the back door and squinted while smiling, suddenly standing up.

Zhao Le lowered his head, quickly changed direction, anxiously looking around—suddenly, as if he found a savior, he quickly sat down.

He sat next to… Chen Mingming.

Seeing Zhao Le sit next to Chen Mingming, the boys made a hand gesture toward him and then sat back down with cold smiles—the class bell was about to ring, and once Gao Wen came in, they wouldn’t dare to make trouble.

Though Lecturer Gao Wen was only a teacher at the school, his father-in-law was a high-ranking official who might be promoted to the province level next year?

The students’ families had some assets and connections but even their parents didn’t dare to offend, let alone themselves.

“Mingming… I’ll leave as soon as class is over. I won’t drag you into this…” Zhao Le shrunk his neck at this moment, speaking quietly next to Chen Mingming.

Chen Mingming glanced calmly, then said, “Let’s focus on the class first.”

Lecturer Gao Wen slowly walked into the classroom through the front door… Due to the difference in the schedule, yesterday’s incident with Gao Wen wasn’t witnessed by today’s students.

Although some students talked about it on the school forum, the impact wasn’t significant.

Gao Wen scanned the students once over, finally nodding slightly as he noticed Chen Mingming sitting at the back, “Alright, classmates, let’s begin the class.”

Before turning on the projector, Gao Wen discreetly turned on the camera on his phone, placing it on the podium… Then he continued his lecture with a composed expression.

Even midway through when he once again saw Luo Qiu’s silhouette suddenly appear on the empty seat, Gao Wen showed no sign of disturbance.

Indeed… it’s happening again.

It was still a competent lecture… As with previous times, once the class bell rang, neither Gao Wen nor the students could see Luo Qiu, nor did anyone know anything.

As usual, Gao Wen stayed in the classroom after class, awaiting some students to come forward with questions, until it was nearly time for the next class before packing up and heading back to his office.

Everything as usual.

All the way back, Gao Wen did not open his phone until he reached his office, where he linked his phone to the computer and opened the recorded video from the class.

From the first second… to the very last second of the video, Gao Wen never once fast-forwarded.

Finally, he dejectedly closed the computer—indeed, there was nothing.