Chapter 141: The Blazing Fire (Part 1) – 11
“Still pretending to be asleep, miss?”
Shi Peixin struggled to look up, but because she was kneeling and her hair was being pulled, she couldn’t see his face, only his left leg—
A colorful dragon was tattooed on it.
“Hmph, you’re really working hard, and just as we expected, you’re stretching your legs to get this phone.”
“You… who are you? Why did you kidnap us?”
“You just need to know that we’re ‘gangsters.’” Wu Jianxiong loosened his neck. “Actually, your family has no beef with us, but your old man and my woman had a grudge before, so you were dragged into it.”
Her scalp was pulled hard again, and Shi Peixin’s face was filled with pain. “Uh… my, my dad?”
“Yes, don’t say you don’t know what good things your old man did before.”
Wu Jianxiong looked around at the other three, and the sirens in his ears were getting closer and closer. “The police have already found the place? So fast.” he muttered to himself, and with a turn of his head, he said to the few foreign workers standing at the door, “what are you still standing there for? Follow the plan.” he spat and threw Shi Peixin away.
Shi Peixin was in tears, and she suddenly felt a dizzying spin. Before she could even figure out what was going on, two men had already surrounded her and had lifted her up. “What do you want to do? Shuxin, Mom.”
“Don’t be in a hurry.” one of them slapped her hard, “we’re just changing places. Someone will be with you. Don’t worry.” he sneered and re-taped her mouth shut.
**
The police from the Bali district contacted Jinglin. They had dispatched three police cars and were searching the Xiagu Fishing Harbor.
A moment later, a police officer reported, ‘I think we’ve found the warehouse shown on the location.’
Jinglin quickly navigated to the meeting point, and Xiangrong stuck his head out the window. “Senior, the warehouse you mentioned… is it over there?”
“It must be.”
The two of them got out of the car at the same time. “This is Jinglin. Reporting to Senior Ah Mu, we have already found the warehouse that is suspected to be the location shown on the GPS.”
‘So fast. But… tsk.’ Chen Huomu on the other end was frustrated. ‘We’re still on Chengde Road. It will take at least another twenty minutes.’
“Then we’ll deploy first and wait for you to arrive before we…”
‘No need.’ he interrupted, ‘the teacher is currently in a standoff with you… your mom. They’re using the four hostages in their hands, and their attitude is very arrogant. If we can rescue them first, the chief will also be able to be more free to catch people… you see what you can do. See what’s most beneficial to the situation.’
Yingli is in a standoff with Li Yuejiao. Jinglin’s heart was suddenly in her throat, but she knew very well that she had to focus on the matter at hand.
“Okay, I understand.”
The precinct captain explained the situation they might encounter next—“that’s a private warehouse, but it’s been abandoned for a while… I didn’t expect it to be used to hold hostages.”
“What’s the situation inside?”
“There shouldn’t be anything in it. The culprits came by car, but…” the precinct captain looked at the pier not far away with a worried expression, “that old fishing boat, it bothers me a little.”
“Which one?”
“The white one. Over there, the hull is a little rusty. I’m very familiar with the fishing boats here, but that one… I’m sure I’ve never seen it before.”
“In any case,” Jinglin bit her lip and looked directly at the closed warehouse door, “we should still focus on the warehouse. The signal is still there, right?” the last part was directed at Xiangrong.
“Yes, it’s still there.”
She drew her service pistol. “The captain is more familiar with this place, so please direct the operation. The two of us will cooperate.”
The precinct captain instructed the police to first check the inside of the vehicle, and after confirming that no one was lying in wait, everyone quickly surrounded the warehouse and prepared to storm it.
“This is Jinglin.” she reported through the radio, “we’ve found a vehicle that is suspected to have been used to kidnap the hostages, but we haven’t found any culprits. We’re already outside the warehouse where the signal is coming from, and we can storm it at any time.”
‘Very good. You follow the precinct captain’s instructions. We’ve crossed the bridge, and we’ll be there in ten minutes at most.’
After the report, she nodded to the precinct captain. The police used bolt cutters to cut the chain and broke into the warehouse.
A strong, foul smell hit them. The scene was filled with iron cages and old styrofoam boxes. Jinglin followed the police officers to sweep the area and soon found the scattered luggage.
“There’s someone inside.” Xiangrong shouted, and two police officers immediately followed.
It seemed no one was lying in wait. Jinglin relaxed a little and looked up at the dilapidated ceiling. “Senior, we’re in… there’s only one hostage, and we haven’t found any culprits…” she called Shi Peixin’s phone, and a few seconds later, she found that the sound was coming from a corner.
Xiangrong approached the hostage, and since he was the only male, there was no doubt that he was Shi Weihao.
He had clearly been beaten, and he was probably just waking up, and his mind was not very clear. “Hang in there. Are you okay?” Xiangrong lightly patted his swollen chin, and two police officers used a small knife to untie him.
“They… my mom and my sisters…”
Xiangrong listened closely. “What about them?”
“They… took them to the boat. And we have to leave quickly…”
“We’ll get you out of here right away.” Xiangrong forcefully supported Shi Weihao and shouted back, “Senior, he said the others were taken to the boat.”
“Then it must be that strange boat,” the precinct captain said.
Jinglin picked up Shi Peixin’s phone, and just as she and the precinct captain were leaving the warehouse, before she could even make a report—a loud bang suddenly came from above.
She looked up, and the C-shaped steel broke like a toothpick, and the back half of the roof collapsed.
“Xiangrong.”
**
The two police officers who were dismantling the bomb let out a heavy breath, and while confirming the internal circuit connections, they dismantled it.
Time was tight. There were less than two hours left.
“Li Yuejiao just said that she was carrying out this mission under your and your superior’s instructions. I guess that superior is Director Zhou, right?”
“What did Zhou Zengxiang say to you?”
“Facing a former subordinate, and one who may have had a past relationship, Director Zhou was naturally reserved.” Shi Jingde raised an eyebrow slightly. Yingli did not miss this detail. “As far as I know, after the Gan family massacre broke out, the police offered a reward of up to two million for information from the public… and special task forces were set up all over Taiwan, and the president at that time even expressed his ‘condolences.’
“The problem is, this case is full of suspicious points. The most suspicious is that the Gan couple, because of their support for the social movement, had long been under the attention of the Investigation Bureau and their communications were monitored, but afterward, the special task force claimed that they could not track down the suspect, and they did not know his identity. If the killer was a government official, then everything would make sense.”
“About the matter between Zhou Zengxiang and Li Yuejiao, in the National Security Bureau back then… it was an open secret, right? She later had a daughter, but she was always very low-key, and many people were guessing whether she was their ‘love child,’ but Li Yuejiao denied it.” Shi Jingde chose a safe topic and ignored Yingli’s subsequent account of the massacre. “You’re very clear about the background of this case. By the way… you look very young. When the Gan family massacre broke out, you must have been very young, right? Why are you so obsessed with this matter?”
“Because…” Yingli gritted her teeth, “because that couple were my dad’s friends.”
“Who’s your dad?”
“That’s not the point. Answer me, was it you who sent Li Yuejiao to participate in this incident back then?”
“I refuse to answer that question.” Shi Jingde stubbornly shook his head. “And being obsessed with this case is of no help to the current crisis. The statute of limitations has already passed.”
Yingli was dumbfounded, and Shi Jingde let out a “hey.” “You didn’t know? The statute of limitations for criminal prosecution is only twenty-five years. This year, from the year the massacre broke out… it seems to be the twenty-eighth year. So what if you find the real killer? So what if you know Li Yuejiao was involved? You can’t even bring the killer to court.”
Her black-painted nails dug into her palm, and Yingli glared at the arrogant Shi Jingde. “What are you glaring at? By the way… which side are you on? Hey, you two, haven’t you dismantled the bomb yet? I heard this thing is powerful enough to blow up this floor.”
“We’re already doing our best.” one of them couldn’t help but retort.
“Tsk, is Li Yuejiao still hiding around here? So many people have been deployed… didn’t the Criminal Investigation Division solve so many cases before? How come they can’t even find a person?”
“Even if the statute of limitations has passed…”
Shi Jingde stopped his muttering. “What did you say?”
“Even if the statute of limitations has passed, I will still not give up on finding the real killer.” Clenching her fists, Yingli looked up. “Ha, yes, outsiders and the perpetrators have never thought about what kind of life the people who were affected by this incident have been living for these twenty-odd years. They have endured the pain of being separated from their loved ones, and have lived under the shadow of the incident, day after day, year after year, in agony. You have never… never thought about it.”
Shi Jingde’s face was stiff, and the air in the room seemed to have been frozen by Yingli’s shout.
At that moment, the phone rang again.
Yingli pursed her lips and answered. “Hello?”
‘It seems you can’t handle it. As expected of our director, his level of lying and shamelessness is indeed beyond imagination.’ On the receiver, Li Yuejiao’s tone was light and easy.
“Auntie, you…” Yingli looked at the building across the street. Not only the inside of the room, but even the roof, she could see police officers searching everywhere. “Where are you?”
‘I can’t tell you, but it’s not in the direction you’re looking now.’
She turned to the surveillance camera, and then she heard Li Yuejiao say, ‘Here, press the speaker button and let me talk to that arrogant fatso.’
Yingli returned to Shi Jingde and pressed the speaker button.
“What’s this? Is it Li Yuejiao again?”
“Just listen.”
‘I heard everything, Director.’ Li Yuejiao’s voice came from the speaker. ‘You just said that the truth of the Gan family massacre has nothing to do with this incident, right? You say that so easily.’
“Y-You haven’t been caught yet?”
‘You said the detectives of the Criminal Investigation Division are useless, so how could they catch me? Don’t mind them. How about this, to get you more into the situation… I’ll try to see if I can remotely control that bomb under your butt from this far away.’
Shi Jingde’s face turned pale. “What do you want to do? There’s still a Tang and two police officers here…”
‘They’re not my people. I don’t feel bad at all about dragging them down with you. Here… there’s still one hour and fifty-four minutes before the detonation. Should I speed it up a little?’
“Damn it, time is already tight enough…”
“Li Yuejiao.” Shi Jingde shouted. “Y-You’re a madwoman.”
‘Ha, isn’t this fun? To make this game even more exciting, when the bomb countdown enters one hour, my people will first kill your wife, and then your son, your eldest daughter… one every fifteen minutes.’ Li Yuejiao laughed with pride. ‘Now will you still say that the truth of the massacre has nothing to do with you?’
“Quick, quick, stop her.” he shouted at Yingli.
“I don’t care.”
Compared to the panic of the two police officers and Shi Jingde, Yingli was as if she were an outsider.
“Even after all these years, I can’t help but keep thinking… what if I had been in that house that night? I would have probably been unable to escape, right?” she smiled, as if she were reciting a poem, “but maybe that would have been good too. I wouldn’t have had to experience that recurring nightmare… those nights when I woke up from my sleep again and again. Again and again… until I could no longer cry.”
“You… who are you…” who?
“I just want to know about the massacre back then,” Yingli turned off the speaker, “was it really caused by your order?”
“Tsk… you have Li Yuejiao cancel the fast countdown, and I’ll talk when it stops.”
As soon as Shi Jingde said that, the bomb’s countdown immediately slowed down. “It’s stopped, it’s stopped…”
“How much time is left?”
“One hour… twenty-two minutes.”
It’s been shortened so much. When he looked back at Yingli, Li Yuejiao seemed to have also cut off the communication. He let out a breath, and when he spoke again, it was as if he were a deflated balloon. “She was right. The reason the Gan family massacre broke out… was indeed my order.”
Gently throwing the phone onto the sofa, Yingli crossed her arms.
“And then?”
**
“Xiangrong.”
The old warehouse had collapsed by more than half, and Jinglin cried out in pain. Forgetting how dangerous the scene was, she wanted to rush back to find him without hesitation, but was held back by the precinct captain.
“Don’t go in. The front half could collapse at any moment.”
“But our colleagues are still in there.”
“I know. We also have two people in there, but the priority now is that boat.” The precinct captain pointed to a boat not far away. “There are still three hostages to save.”
Jinglin’s forehead was flushed, and her hands were trembling. The precinct captain had to use all his strength to hold her back.
“I know… I know there are still three people. But…”
Suddenly, a weak voice came from her earpiece. ‘Senior…’
Xiangrong’s voice made her, who had been impulsive, cool down a little. “Xiangrong, y-you’re okay?”
‘Yes… there’s still a little space under the steel bars… I’m fine.’
“That’s great.” She let out a solid sigh of relief.
‘But the little brother with the surname Shi is not in a good condition. He needs medical attention more than I do…’
“Are your people okay?” she nodded, and the precinct captain turned to greet the other police officers and also contacted the fire department to support. “The fire department will be here in a bit. We’ll go and see that boat first.”
Jinglin pursed her lips, and after a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Xiangrong, hang in there. We’ll get you out in a bit.”
‘You go and save the other three, senior… I’m fine.’
When Jinglin and the police officers from the Bali precinct approached the strange fishing boat, they unexpectedly found a man untying the rope.
“They’re leaving.”
Don’t even think about escaping.
Jinglin fired a warning shot into the air and then aimed at the man. “Don’t move. I’m going to shoot.”
But the man ignored her and instead sped up his actions. “He’s a foreign worker.”
She pulled the trigger firmly, and the man fell to the ground, clutching his lower leg in pain.
But the boat’s rope had already been untied, and the fishing boat quickly started its engine.
Jinglin ran toward the boat with all her might, but no matter how fast she was, the fishing boat was already more than two meters away from the shore.
“Tsk, hurry up and contact the other fishing boats…” the precinct captain said, but when he saw Jinglin whiz past him, he was stunned.
Facing the fishy sea breeze, Jinglin’s suit jacket and long ponytail flew in the wind. The road had come to an end. She shouted and, with a powerful leap, she jumped toward the stern of the boat—
