Zhong Shan said, "Zhengyang has been taken away by relevant departments in the city for questioning. Be prepared, others may come looking for you and ask about the fight between you and Shen Haobing that day."
Chen Chaojiang said, "I understand."
The conversation was brief, and the call ended quickly.
Zhong Shan and Zhao Qing both breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they had been overthinking things and that the Municipal Public Security Bureau probably needed to understand the situation in more detail. After all, Xu Zhengyang's involvement in interrogating the suspect was against regulations from any perspective. If someone were to take it seriously, Zhong Shan and Zhao Qing would at least get a scolding from their superiors, if not a disciplinary action. But that didn't matter; both of them were now well-known figures in the Provincial Public Security Bureau and even the Ministry of Public Security, so this small mistake was insignificant.
Xu Zhengyang was suddenly and inexplicably taken away by people from the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Officially, it was said that Xu Zhengyang needed to go to the Municipal Public Security Bureau to be questioned by leaders, and that he also needed to personally explain things to the families of Tian Qing and Xing Yufen, or even confront them. But no one believed this. What a joke! The case the police had already solved was a major case with irrefutable evidence, and the perpetrator was certain to be sentenced to death. What was there for the police to explain to their families? That was for the petition officers to deal with. Who had time to bother with them?
Therefore, Zhong Shan and Zhao Qing still felt somewhat uneasy. Thinking back to the last time Shen Haobing was dealt with, Zhao Qing was so angry that he fired two policemen and demoted a police station chief. Although he did not deal with Shen Haobing too harshly afterward, nor did he say anything to Liao Yongxian of the Traffic Bureau, who knew if they would interfere?
As the director of a county public security bureau, Zhao Qing knew better than anyone else: directly firing two formally employed police officers was not a big deal for a county public security bureau director, let alone demoting the head of a police station.
Just as Zhao Qing could easily transform Xu Zhengyang, an ordinary farmer, into a formally employed police officer.
However, this kind of thing may seem small, but it's definitely not a small matter.
If someone with ulterior motives were to insist on digging into the matter thoroughly, then Zhao Qing would be seen as acting too hastily, too arbitrarily, and even too domineeringly. That alone wouldn't be a major problem. What Zhao Qing is worried about is that he still doesn't know what the anonymous letters submitted to the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Office for Correcting Unhealthy Tendencies allege against him.
However, it seems there's no need to worry now, because if someone really wanted to investigate this matter, Chen Chaojiang should have already been taken away.
It wasn't that the city's inspection team neglected Chen Chaojiang; rather, they didn't want to alert him prematurely and planned to conduct some covert investigations before taking him away. They wanted to ensure they had sufficient evidence before arresting him. Because if they arrested Chen Chaojiang, Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan would definitely consider certain issues and prepare accordingly.
These cunning individuals always consider things too thoroughly.
But no one expected, not even Zhong Shan, that after making that call, Chen Chaojiang immediately asked for leave, left the police station, and disappeared without even going home. The next day, the investigation team suddenly realized what had happened and went to bring Chen Chaojiang to the city bureau, but they had no idea where he had gone.
However, no one paid much attention to a nobody like Chen Chaojiang. The fight, seemingly insignificant, was crucial. Even without Chen Chaojiang, there was Xu Zhengyang, who was the most important person. As long as Xu Zhengyang was there, there was no need to worry about Chen Chaojiang. After all, the prosecution's focus wasn't on the fight itself, nor were they targeting petty thugs.
Chen Chaojiang is a cold and effeminate man who is not good at speaking, but he is not stupid.
Upon hearing that Xu Zhengyang had been taken away, and that it might be to investigate the previous fight, Chen Chaojiang's first thought was that Shen Haobing was behind it all, seeking revenge. Based on his covert investigations of Shen Haobing over the past few days, Chen Chaojiang knew that Shen Haobing had powerful connections. From Chen Chaojiang's perspective as an ordinary farmer, someone like Shen Haobing could easily retaliate against them.
Therefore, Chen Chaojiang chose to lay low for the time being and see how things went. If Xu Zhengyang was alright, that would be fine. But if something really happened, he could find a way to help Xu Zhengyang while he was out there, perhaps by contacting the relevant departments to report the situation, asking Zhong Zhijun to inquire about some information, or... seeking revenge.
In this respect, Chen Chaojiang's thinking is very simple, very direct, and very... foolish, but not stupid.
He didn't go far; he simply asked for leave from the police station as usual and went to Cixian County. However, unlike before, this time he brought enough money—not much, just a few hundred yuan, enough for him to eat, stay, and drink simply for a while.
After the storm arrived, Chen Chaojiang was like a ghost hovering on the periphery of it. He couldn't observe the development of events or understand the truth, because he lacked the ability. However, he could be extremely indifferent, like a lone wolf lurking and waiting to hunt, keeping a close eye on what he perceived as his enemy or target, ready to fight to the death.
Yes. With Chen Chaojiang's unique and even abnormal personality, he never thought he was very powerful, but he also never thought of being afraid of anything, let alone racking his brains to plan or scheme against anyone behind their back.
His philosophy is very straightforward: if it's something I want to do but find difficult to do, then I'll risk my life for it.
Clearly, he felt that he couldn't possibly deal with Shen Haobing by relying on his strength, background, or connections.
If Xu Zhengyang is unharmed and it's just a false alarm, then his previous simple plan can be postponed until he has more certainty. However, if Xu Zhengyang really suffers a serious loss...
Chen Chaojiang sat outside an extremely simple little restaurant, at a low table, hunched over and head down, slowly eating the spicy beef noodles that made him sweat. It cost two yuan a bowl, without eggs or meat.
Across from the small restaurant is a construction site bustling with activity.
The expansion of the new ring road in the north of Cixian County, as well as several newly started construction sites for residential buildings.
Not far away, there are some ordinary farmhouses that are being demolished.
A group of thugs, their faces fierce and blatantly carrying sticks, stood near the bulldozers and excavators demolishing houses, smoking cigarettes and laughing arrogantly. Along the dust-filled roadside, a police Santana sedan and two large vans marked with "Urban Management" signs were parked. Unless an unexpected situation arose, the officers and urban management personnel wouldn't get out of their vehicles to endure the dust.
A black Jetta sedan drove up from a distance, kicking up more dust, and sped past Chen Chaojiang.
The car was parked at the site that was being demolished.
A group of thugs surrounded the people sitting in the car, bowing and scraping.
No one got off the vehicle; it only stopped for a short while before driving away from the construction site, where even the air was shrouded in a gray haze.
Chen Chaojiang watched calmly as the black Jetta drove away into the distance. His pale face was devoid of color, and his narrow eyes held an icy, emotionless expression. He knew that the person sitting in that black Jetta was named Shen Haobing.
Meanwhile, on the fourth floor of the Tianhong Hotel on Fuhe Middle Road in Fuhe City, Xu Zhengyang sat quietly alone on the sofa, his expression unreadable. He squinted calmly, his body hunched over, his head bowed, staring at the flashing red light on the county record in his hand, a light visible only to him…
The county register displayed several lines of clear gold lettering:
Xu Zhengyang
Zodiac sign: Pig
People from Shuanghe Village, Huaxiang Township, Cixi County, Fuhe River City
Twenty-one years old
Position: Wandering Judge under the City God of the Fu River
Xu Zhengyang, squinting his eyes and appearing calm, was inwardly ecstatic: "Holy crap, I've been promoted again!"
over
Volume 3, Judge 089: Let the storm rage, I remain calm.
Four days after Xu Zhengyang was taken away, Zhao Qing, the director of the Cixian County Public Security Bureau, was taken away by the procuratorate.
Although the news hasn't spread yet due to the deliberate cover-up by relevant departments, the county bureau is in an uproar. The major drug trafficking case involving Hao Peng had just been solved, and Director Zhao was at the height of his power; why was he suddenly taken away for investigation?
On the seventh day, Zhong Shan, the captain of the criminal investigation team, was also taken away to cooperate with the investigation.
Some rumors, containing some factual elements, began to spread in an exaggerated manner.
Panic gripped the county public security bureau; everyone was wondering if more people would be taken away. Sure enough, the day after Zhong Shan was taken away, Su Lu, the police officer who had always been by Zhong Shan's side, was also taken away.
In the rooms on the fourth floor of the Tianhong Hotel in Fuhe City, members of the disciplinary inspection team had already checked in. Zhao Qing, Zhong Shan, Xu Zhengyang, and Sulu each had their own room. Zhao Qing, Zhong Shan, and Sulu could roughly guess that the other party was also being held temporarily there. Only Xu Zhengyang was unaware that the three of them were staying in the rooms next to his, although he knew perfectly well that they had been taken to the city.
Although Xu Zhengyang couldn't know the exact details of what happened in the city, he did know what had occurred in Cixian County. Based on his conversations and inquiries with relevant personnel over the past few days, Xu Zhengyang could roughly guess what had happened in the city.
After the major drug trafficking case was cracked, all members of Hao Peng's drug trafficking gang were transferred to the Fuhe City No. 1 Detention Center to await final trial.
Then, Tian Qing and Xing Yufen's parents were finally able to see them. They discovered that Xing Yufen had gone mad, and Tian Qing was constantly spouting nonsensical things, like someone suffering from hysteria, talking incoherently. He said things like he'd seen ghosts, had done bad things and would die a horrible death; that his family should do good deeds and avoid bad ones, otherwise they'd be punished in hell and unable to be reincarnated, and other such nonsensical ramblings.
When both sets of parents saw their children in this state, although they knew that their children deserved to die for the crime they had committed, they were still heartbroken.
Then, under the guidance of a relative who had previously tried to help them, they gradually began to doubt how their children could have become like this. Even if they had committed a crime, their consciences were filled with remorse and fear, but it shouldn't have driven them insane. Therefore, they suspected that the police had used torture and coercion during interrogation, forcing them to confess under duress and causing them to become mentally unstable.
So, at the urging of their two in-laws, Tian Qing's parents and the four elderly people went to the city's petition office to file a complaint.
Immediately afterwards, anonymous whistleblower letters were submitted one after another without any obstruction. With the help of some people, they successfully reached the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Office for Correcting Unhealthy Tendencies.
It wasn't just the cases of Tian Qing and Xing Yufen being tortured into confessing. There was also the case of Tian Baotun, the director of the Nancheng Township Police Station in Cixian County, being demoted in retaliation, and police officers Wang Xiang and Chu Zhitao being maliciously dismissed from their positions. The report also detailed the incident on that day when Shen Haobing and Han Biao were maliciously beaten by Xu Zhengyang and Chen Chaojiang, resulting in minor injuries.
Both of these incidents were directed at Zhao Qing, the county public security bureau chief, and Zhong Shan, the criminal investigation team leader.
After receiving the tip, the municipal discipline inspection department took it very seriously and immediately set up an investigation team. After all, Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan were not ordinary people, especially since they had just cracked a major case involving Hao Peng's drug trafficking gang and were at the height of their fame. It was truly unbelievable that such a thing had happened.
The investigation team conducted a covert investigation, and soon the preliminary results came out, which were basically consistent with the facts reported in the whistleblower letter.
Zhao Qing did not hide the fact that while at the Nancheng Township Police Station, he pulled off the hats and tore off the shoulder insignia of two police officers, and in a fit of rage, he directly told them that they were no longer police officers. Zhao Qing admitted that he was indeed somewhat impulsive and emotional at the time, but he said he did not regret it. He believed that bad apples must be removed from the public security system, especially grassroots police officers, who must be strictly managed.
However, his words could not be entirely trusted by the relevant personnel. They questioned Tian Baotun, Wang Xiang, and Chu Zhitao, and privately interviewed several eyewitnesses who were at the "New Moon Dog Meat Hot Pot Restaurant" when the fight broke out. What they obtained was an investigation result completely different from the facts.
The "New Moon Dog Meat Hot Pot Restaurant" closed down afterward, and the family of four moved away somewhere unknown.
Investigators immediately suspected Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan, wondering if they had used intimidation or other means to force the restaurant owner and his family to leave in order to prevent investigations from higher authorities.
In any case, all the results of the investigation were basically unfavorable to Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan.
...
Having learned the general situation, Xu Zhengyang pondered for two days and then stopped worrying. He settled down peacefully at the Tianhong Hotel.
When relevant personnel spoke with him and asked him questions, he told the truth without hiding anything or emphasizing anything.
As for when the other person in the conversation deliberately tries to guide Xu Zhengyang or hint at something, Xu Zhengyang simply ignores them and doesn't care what they say.
It wasn't until yesterday afternoon, when Xiao Hanjun, the head of the special task force, the head of the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Supervision Team and Political Department, and also the deputy director of the Municipal Bureau, personally inquired about Xu Zhengyang, that Xu Zhengyang said lightly, "Give me paper and pen, I need to write something. Tomorrow, you can come and pick it up in person tomorrow. I don't trust anyone else."
Xiao Hanjun was quite surprised. This young man looked so calm and fearless, which was really unexpected.
However, Xiao Hanjun didn't think much of it and immediately arranged for someone to give Xu Zhengyang paper and a pen.
Xiao Hanjun arrived around 10 a.m. this morning.
Xu Zhengyang calmly handed Xiao Hanjun a page of manuscript he had written.
Xiao Hanjun took the manuscript paper, but after only glancing at a few sentences, his brows furrowed. There weren't many words on the paper; a single page wouldn't hold much. Xiao Hanjun had assumed Xu Zhengyang had probably come to a realization in the past few days, and was therefore spending the night carefully considering the situation before writing down a few pages of what he needed to say.
Unexpectedly, he wrote only a few words, and the content directly pointed out that someone wanted to frame and persecute Zhao Qing, the county public security bureau chief, and Zhong Shan, the county criminal investigation team leader. He also clearly wrote down the positions and names of the masterminds, and roughly described their motives for framing and persecuting Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan, as well as the general steps they took to do these things.
After reading it, Xiao Hanjun frowned and asked in a deep voice, "How do you know all this?"
"I guessed," Xu Zhengyang said calmly, as if there was nothing wrong with the reason.
Xiao Hanjun was taken aback, then snorted angrily and said, "Do you know? Just this piece of writing is enough to send you to jail. It's slander and defamation, and it's done by a government official..."
"May I have a cigarette?" Xu Zhengyang asked with a smile.
Xiao Hanjun remained silent. One of his attendants took out a pack of Yuxi cigarettes and a lighter and pushed them in front of Xu Zhengyang.
Xu Zhengyang lit a cigarette, took a few casual puffs, and noticed that Xiao Hanjun's expression was getting increasingly grim, so he said, "You have to guarantee my safety."
“Okay.” Xiao Hanjun’s eyes lit up. He nodded and said, his expression serious and earnest.
“Actually, I’ve never dared to say this.” Xu Zhengyang hunched over, elbows resting on his knees, smoking and hiding his face behind the smoke. He spoke slowly, “I’m telling the truth. The day we clashed with Shen Haobing and he was injured, the responsibility wasn’t really ours. But that day at the Nancheng Township Police Station, before Director Zhao arrived, they handcuffed us to the heating pipes and beat me and Chen Chaojiang. So I’ve always held a grudge. I was thinking of secretly getting revenge on them, so I secretly followed Tian Baotun.”
At this point, Xu Zhengyang paused, seemingly considering what to say next. After taking a few puffs of his cigarette, seeing that Xiao Hanjun's expression was serious and he didn't seem suspicious, he continued, "Liao Yongxian and Tian Baotun were talking outside Tian Baotun's house that day. Well, they were talking in the car. Because the car window was open, I overheard them."
"Why didn't you say so before?" Xiao Hanjun asked with a stern face.
"I'm scared." Xu Zhengyang looked hesitant and said, "Who knows who that person from the city they're talking about is? Besides, they're powerful and influential... Someone like me isn't worth their persecution. At most, they'd put me in jail for two years. But if I say these things, they might kill me."
Xiao Hanjun said, "Why are you telling me this again?"
“If you had come earlier, I would have told you sooner.” Xu Zhengyang said with a wry smile, “Do you still remember the case of Shen Qun, the former director of Futou Town? At that time, I heard Director Zhongshan and Director Wu Feng mention you, saying that you were an upright and honest leader, and that the Shen Qun case was handled under your strong leadership.”
Xiao Hanjun nodded with some skepticism, then frowned and said, "Do you have any evidence?"
"No." Xu Zhengyang shook his head.
"Then why should I believe your account of these situations?"
"I don't know," Xu Zhengyang answered honestly, smiling wryly. "Anyway, that's all I know. Whether it will work or not, I can't help you."
Xiao Hanjun sneered and said, "Then I can tell you now, it's useless! We now have sufficient evidence that Zhao Qing and Zhong Shan have violated the law. Think it over. If you cooperate with our investigation now, perhaps you can earn some merit..."
"Sigh..." Xu Zhengyang sighed, leaned back on the sofa, and said calmly, "Then let's wait and see. I've already said what I wanted to say today. If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do."
Xiao Hanjun's entourage shouted angrily, "Watch your attitude!"
Xu Zhengyang squinted, leaned forward, picked up another cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray, leaned back on the sofa, and said calmly while smoking, "Let's wait and see."
The attendant grew increasingly angry and was about to say something when Xiao Hanjun waved him off.