The Brain Science Case 142p1

Chapter 142: The Blazing Fire (Part 1) – 12 -1 (End)

As soon as Chen Huomu and the other detectives arrived at the scene, they saw the thrilling scene unfolding at the pier.

“I-Isn’t that Little Zhou?”

His eyes widened as Jinglin clung to the rusty hull of the boat. The boat’s wake showed that its engine was already at full power. If she were to accidentally fall into the water, she would very likely be pulled into the range of the propeller.

He knew that whether it was in action or in an investigation, Jinglin had always been particularly dedicated, but he had never expected her to go to such lengths.

“What are you still standing there for?” he gritted his teeth, “hurry up and find a way to support her.”

Meanwhile, Jinglin was holding on to the stern of the boat with all her might, but because the wake had made the hull slippery, it was difficult for her, in her leather shoes, to find a foothold.

It’s over if I fall now. With her usual training, she managed to pull herself up onto the deck with the strength of her arms.

Her palms were stained with yellowish-brown rust, and before she could even brush it off, another foreign fisherman saw her climb onto the boat and immediately shouted, “A police officer is on board.”

She rushed forward, and the foreign worker tried to grab an iron rod to fight back, but he was knocked down by her elbow strike. “Tell me, where did you take them?” she asked, grabbing his collar and straddling his waist, completely controlling his movements.

He was silent, and Jinglin, without a word, gave him two hard punches to the ground. “Talk.”

“Ugh… the three of them… are all below…”

“Thanks.” After knocking him out, Jinglin stood up and ran into two other foreign workers who had come to support him. There was no time to waste. A swift knee strike knocked one of them down, and the other was holding a weapon. She drew her gun and shot him in the left leg, then added a kick that sent him straight into the sea.

After temporarily trapping the two of them in a fishing net, Jinglin looked at the pier. The fishing boat had already moved a considerable distance. She turned on her radio, and the loud sound from her earpiece almost deafened her.

‘Little Zhou, damn it… turn on your radio. Can you hear me?’

“I can hear you, I can hear you.” She frowned and took off her earpiece. “Senior Ah Mu?”

‘I just got here and I saw you jump onto the boat… did you ever think about what would happen if you didn’t make it? You’d be done for if you got caught in the propeller, you know that?’

“But…” I didn’t even think that far ahead.

‘Oh, forget it. How are things on your end?’

“I’ve already taken down three of them. They should all be foreign workers. One of them revealed that the mother and her two daughters were all taken to the cabin.”

‘Very good… as long as you’re okay.’ Chen Huomu was clearly relieved. ‘The precinct captain has urgently arranged for a fishing boat. We’ll be there soon. You be careful when you act.’

“Got it, I will.”

‘Also…’ putting her earpiece back on, his voice suddenly became much smaller, ‘that, about what I said in the office before we left… I hope you don’t take it to heart.’

Jinglin was taken aback, and the corners of her lips couldn’t help but lift a few degrees. “I’ve already forgotten about that.”

Turning off the communication, she checked the remaining number of bullets and was about to sneak into the cockpit when she found that the engine sound had suddenly gone quiet.

The speed of the fishing boat had greatly reduced, but it was already a considerable distance from the shore, and it was at least impossible to swim back to the pier. She gripped her service pistol, but a figure flashed in the cockpit. She quickly swept the area, but found no one.

The pointer on the dashboard showed that the engine had been turned off, and the key had also been taken. But even if she had the key, she wouldn’t know how to drive it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure flash again. She raised her gun and was startled to find a young man on the bow deck, tightening a lock, and what he was locking was the door to the cabin.

“Don’t move.”

The man looked up, and Jinglin raised her gun and approached him, judging that he should be Taiwanese. “You locked them in there?”

“So what if I did?”

“Give me the key.” She aimed at his body. “Or I’ll shoot.”

The man had his hands in his pockets, and facing the gun, he was not afraid at all. “Are all the police so arrogant these days? They just shoot whenever they want…”

“I really will shoot.” Jinglin glared at him, her finger in the trigger guard. “I advise you not to challenge me. Just give me the key.”

“Ha, as expected of Big Sister’s daughter. Mother and daughter are both tough characters.” The man’s left hand came out of his pocket. “The key is here.”

“Throw it over,” she instructed, “throw it at my feet.”

He tilted his head. “Officer Zhou, don’t you want to ask why they were so comfortable in the warehouse, and why we had to go to the trouble of moving them to a boat and bringing them here?”

“I’m not interested in knowing, and I’m not in the mood to chat with you.” Jinglin maintained her shooting stance. “Hurry up.”

As soon as she had finished speaking, a loud bang came from the stern of the boat, followed by a violent vibration. “What’s going on?”

“Ah, I pressed it.” The man’s face was filled with regret, and Jinglin finally saw what he was holding in his right hand—it was a transmitter with a button.

In the blink of an eye, he threw the key overboard, and the transmitter was thrown in her direction. She pulled the trigger, but did not hit the target.

The man quickly approached, and Jinglin fired again, this time grazing his arm. He endured the pain and knocked her down, then added a punch that forced her to drop her service pistol.

“This boat will sink in ten minutes… fifteen at most. The reason we came this far is to let these three sink to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.” His right arm was bleeding, but his remaining left hand was tightly holding Jinglin’s neck. “You’re so cool to have climbed onto the boat alone. Here… I’ll give you one hand. Let’s see how long it takes you to take me down.”

Jinglin’s face was flushed, and she widened her eyes, her hands on his wrist.

Now, before she can save anyone… she has to find a way to survive.

**

Facing their conversation, even though Fang Zijun was very experienced, he was still dumbfounded by the news he had heard with his own ears.

Setting aside Shi Jingde’s key role in the massacre, what surprised him was Tang Yingli’s reaction.

From the content of the conversation, her real identity was already obvious—

“…At that time, the National Security Bureau was already facing the pressure of being downsized. If you have some understanding of the current National Security Bureau, you should know that now, instead of a ‘bureau,’ it has long since shrunk to a small office. As for the Investigation Bureau, which has an even worse reputation, there’s no need to say more.” Shi Jingde’s face was ashen. “At that time, one of the people who shouted the loudest was Gan Shuohong.”

Yingli knew that although her biological father was a literary scholar, he was very concerned about the civic consciousness and social issues of that time. To hear such information from Shi Jingde’s mouth, she was not surprised.

“At that time, everyone in the National Security Bureau was in danger, especially Zhou Zengxiang. If you remember, there was another massacre in the early 1980s…”

“Ah, the Lin family massacre. Was that also your masterpiece?”

“It was an order from the high-level government. But facing the subsequent public demand for the truth, it was clear that neither the high-level officials nor the country’s top leader had ever thought that this turmoil would escalate to this extent.” He gave a wry smile, which was an indirect admission of the National Security Bureau’s involvement.

Yingli’s body trembled. “So, your ‘solution’ was to once again turn the people’s memory upside down and to add another stroke of blood to your hands.”

“That was Zhou Zengxiang’s proposal.”

Her chest felt as if it had been hit hard. “Him?”

“Yes, if you ask Li Yuejiao, she will definitely have the same answer… at that time, Gan Shuohong had brought a great deal of public opinion pressure on the National Security Bureau. In the days when newspapers were still very popular, his revelations were a ‘sales guarantee.’ He didn’t know where he had gotten the information, but when he hinted in the newspaper that the Lin family massacre was related to the National Security Bureau, and mentioned the evidence he had in his hands… we all felt that this person knew too much.”

“So you planned this operation… and you wiped them out in one go, not planning to leave a single survivor?”

“That was also Zhou Zengxiang…”

“Don’t try to shift all the blame to your subordinates.” She clenched her fists. “You were the director. Didn’t you have any right to veto? Now you’re just trying to shirk your responsibility to save your own life…”

“I only planned to send Li Yuejiao alone.”

Shi Jingde harshly interrupted her accusation. “She was one of the most outstanding agents in our bureau at that time, and I had originally only planned to send her… you also know that for this kind of shady mission, the fewer people involved, the better. But Zhou Zengxiang insisted on adding another person. At first, I thought he was trying to protect his own woman, but after I learned that Li Yuejiao was pregnant out of wedlock, and that she had been quickly removed from the core of the National Security Bureau, I realized… their relationship was long gone.

“To send another person was based on a lack of trust in Li Yuejiao, and the result of the case also proved his point.”

“How do I know you’re not just trying to shift all the blame to Zhou Zengxiang to get yourself off the hook?”

“The National Security Bureau should still have the classified documents that were signed back then. Because the plan was carried out secretly internally, it did not have the approval of the administrative head, and Zhou Zengxiang was almost in charge of the entire plan. I just let the proposal pass… if you can get the information, you can confront him face to face.” Shi Jingde sighed as if in defeat. “What I said is all true. I could be blown up at any moment, and my… wife and Weihao, Shuxin, and Peixin are all in Li Yuejiao’s hands. I can’t lie to you with my and my family’s lives.”

Yingli was trembling with anger. Thinking of Zhou Zengxiang’s righteousness when he had formed the special task force, and how he had been so secretive about the whole case, and even his real relationship with Li Yuejiao, in contrast to the truth Shi Jingde was now telling, it was simply disgusting.

“But you still let the plan pass… and you watched as the Gan couple were brutally killed.” She bit her lip, and after managing to control her emotions, she asked again, “so the broken ceramic ox at the scene was the work of the person who was assigned later?”

“Yes.”

“Who on earth is he?”

Shi Jingde, who had been so talkative before, hesitated again. At that moment, the work of dismantling the bomb had reached the final stage. “One last step.”

Shi Jingde’s heart leaped with joy. “Oh, is it almost dismantled?”

“It’s the last step, but…” the police officer’s hesitant expression was hidden behind the sofa.

“Don’t beat around the bush. Answer me.”

At this critical moment, the phone rang again. Yingli ignored it.

“You’re not going to answer?” Shi Jingde urged. “Hey, how much time is left on the countdown?”

“One hour and five minutes.”

“Quick, answer. In five more minutes, my wife will be dead. Didn’t you hear what she just said? She’s going to kill one every fifteen minutes.”

Yingli turned to the ringing receiver, and after a moment’s hesitation, she finally picked it up and answered. “Hello.”

‘I heard everything. As expected, you won’t give up until you’re at the Yellow River. Shi Jingde has already told you everything he should have.’

“No, the most crucial identity of the killer is still…”

‘It’s better for you not to know. At least not now.’ Li Yuejiao sighed with a laugh. ‘Press the speaker button.’

Yingli did as she was told, and a round of applause echoed through the room. ‘Well done, whether it’s the director or the police officers who are dismantling the bomb.’

“Hey, I’ve already done everything. Tell me how to dismantle the bomb. And when are you going to release my wife and children?”

‘Don’t be in a hurry. Am I not about to reveal the final result? Yingli, you go around to the back of the sofa, that is, the part where the bomb is being dismantled.’

She held the receiver and came to the back of the sofa. “And then?”

‘Tell me what you see.’