The one holding the Ebony Staff was an old man about one meter sixty-something tall, with a face full of wrinkles, skinny as a rail, and white hair. The old man wore a loose plaid shirt and silk pants, giving him the air of a retired big shot enjoying his later years at first glance. Four people in their thirties or forties followed behind him, looking like bodyguards at first glance.
The old man halted with the Ebony Staff in hand, standing in the middle of the corridor, staring at Wang Ya as he shouted, “Wang Ya.”
Wang Ya said, “I don’t know you people.”
The old man slammed the Ebony Staff forcefully onto the ground and said, “Then you should recognize this staff in my hand.”
Wang Ya’s eyes lit up, and she immediately cried out, “Oh! Isn’t this the staff dug up from Zheng Yanxia’s construction site? Didn’t the country explicitly stipulate that cultural relics unearthed from building sites belong to the state?” She immediately shouted, “Uncle Jin, Uncle Jin.” Her calls made Officer Jin stride out quickly, startling even the people in the nearby offices.
Wang Ya pointed at the old man and said, “Quick, quick, arrest them. That old man is holding a cultural relic! I saw it unearthed from the construction site myself—it was dug up when my friend’s family was building there. It’s an Ebony Staff, at least a century-old antique!”
“Wang Ya!” one of the men behind the old man bellowed and charged straight at her. His momentum was swift and fierce, covering the ten-meter distance in the blink of an eye.
Wang Ya swiftly dodged behind Officer Jin, yelling, “Don’t hit me!”
Officer Jin roared, “What are you doing?”
Wang Chengwei also rushed out from a small office, shouting, “What are you doing! This is the Public Security Bureau!” He pointed at the man who had rushed to Officer Jin’s side and reached out to grab Wang Ya, yelling, “Who the hell are you?”
As Wang Ya dodged into an office, she shouted, “I remember now, I remember! It was you, it must have been you! Give me back my grandma!” She charged back out, hiding behind Officer Jin again, and said, “Uncle Jin, they’re gangsters. They had a grudge with a developer named Huang in Southern S City. They called dozens of thugs with gunpowder guns and Homemade Landmines to the construction site. I was there that night and nearly got blown up by a Homemade Landmine. Among this group is someone called Heizi—it was Heizi who hired those thugs. The developer’s daughter is my friend, and she told me it all started because of that Ebony Staff in the old man’s hand. Uncle Jin, if you don’t believe me, call over there and ask. Boss Huang said the case runs deep, and I was scared so I fled back home.”
Another man behind the old man cursed, “Wang Ya, fuck your mother!”
Wang Chengwei shouted, “Shut your filthy mouth!” He said to Officer Jin, “From the looks of it, there’s a bigger case behind this one. Cuff them first?” As he spoke, he glanced meaningfully at Wang Ya, then glared fiercely.
The old man slammed the Ebony Staff onto the ground again and said, “All of you, come back.” He looked expressionlessly at Officer Jin and the others, speaking in Mandarin with a southern accent, “We’re here to claim the bodies. If you officers have any questions, feel free to call and verify if Wang Ya is just spouting nonsense.” His hawk-like sharp eyes fixed on Wang Ya as he asked coldly, “Wang Ya, are the souls of those three in your hands? Hand them over, and everything can be negotiated.”
Wang Ya cried, “What souls? Didn’t your teacher teach you materialism?”
The old man said gravely, “Do you want the Wang Family to follow in the footsteps of the Feng Family back then?”
Wang Ya knew they meant what they said. She just hadn’t expected this group to be so brazen, openly threatening with weapons in the Public Security Bureau, not giving a damn about the people’s police. Wang Ya’s face darkened immediately. She crossed her arms, eyeing them coldly, and said, “Fine, the Lingnan Ghost Family really has a big reputation and even bigger guts, daring to threaten to wipe out my entire Wang Family here in the Public Security Bureau! Hasn’t my grandma already been beaten into the Underworld Courts by you? If you’ve got the skills, beat me into the Underworld Courts right here! Here’s an old saying for you: Good and evil will be repaid in kind, Heavenly Dao’s cycle is fair—look up to the heavens if you don’t believe it; who does it spare?”
“What are you doing? What is this place!” A man in a police uniform burst out from another office. From his authoritative demeanor, he seemed to be one of the bureau’s leaders.
A bunch of police had gathered in the corridor, already forming a blockade!
The apparent leader strode forward and bellowed aggressively, “What are you doing? Think you can fight here in the Public Security Bureau?”
Wang Ya gave a bitter smile and said, “Police uncle, there are five of them and one of me—how could I fight them?” She pointed at the old man again and said, “That old man threatened to wipe out my entire family. My grandma went missing, and right in those two days, someone from their group showed up at my hometown. These people have a grudge with me in the south—not directly with me, but with a real estate developer. I got dragged in and helped the developer out. The incident blew up big in the south, but both sides have strong backing, so it got suppressed. At least four or five dozen people died, including a cousin uncle of mine who worked at that developer’s construction site.”
