"Sigh... I don't blame them. Think about it, we were born in the new society, grew up under the red flag, and have lived for 35 years. When we were young, we wet the bed, skipped school, and got beaten. When we got older, we dated and then went to work. A couple of years ago, we saw our parents off. After so many things and so many years, those old feelings have long been worn away. 35 years! Apart from the Jews hunting down old Nazis, what hatred can't be erased? But those guys from Liangshan are different. They've only been here for a month or so. That means even though it's 2007 now, they're still living in that era of war. Their brothers only fell a month or so ago, so it's normal that they wanted to pounce on me when they saw me."
I gave him a thumbs up and said, "You're the wise one—so you're just saying you want to fight Lu Zhishen, and your real purpose is to stall the heroes?"
This really stirred up a hornet's nest. Bao Jin slammed his huge hand on my dashboard with a loud crack. Now, my car stereo, which used to play cassette tapes, can only play DVDs from now on. Bao Jin roared, "How dare you look down on me, a monk, like that?"
I quickly said, "Master Deng, please calm down. Xiao Qiang knows his crime."
Bao Jin was taken aback and said somewhat at a loss, "I'm sorry, brother, I couldn't control myself. I become a different person whenever I think of Lu Zhishen."
I complained, "Who can stand this? Next time, tell me before you transform."
Just then, my phone rang abruptly. I awkwardly reached into my pocket, carefully observing the road conditions. Bao Jin snatched the phone from my pocket and asked, "Can I answer it for you?"
I asked, puzzled, "You can answer the phone?"
Bao Jin, his face full of exasperation, said, "You were still wearing open-crotch pants when I used the phone." He answered the phone without consulting me, said "oh" twice, and then hung up. I looked at him questioningly, and Bao Jin said expressionlessly:
“Your friend Cheng Fengshou is at the railway police station right now, and they want you to bail him out.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Surrender to the Police
"Cheng Fengshou?" I suddenly remembered (because many readers have forgotten him). He was the team leader of Hongri Martial Arts School. Although we hadn't known each other for long, we had a close relationship. If they hadn't voluntarily withdrawn from the competition, Yucai might not have won the championship so easily.
But how did this honest, simple countryman end up in jail?
I asked Baojin, "Didn't he say what it was about?"
Bao Jin said knowingly, "How could the police station possibly let you explain yourself when they call?"
I asked with a grin, "Brother Bao, would you like to come in and sit for a while sometime?"
Bao Jin said shyly, "I was even detained for a while last week, but luckily the security personnel in my unit knew the people inside. Now that I'm out, I'll have to be careful from now on."
I said, "Why don't you become a martial arts instructor with me from now on? After all, you still have decades of good life ahead of you. My place is now a government-employed job, with three types of insurance for you, and you'll earn several thousand yuan a month."
Bao Jin laughed and said, "That's great, but I don't know how many more days I have left. If I meet Old Lu, we'll fight to the death. No matter who gets the better of whom, neither of us will have a good life afterward."
I asked, puzzled, "Do you really have such a deep grudge against Lu Zhishen?"
Bao Jin waved his hand and said, "You don't understand. Some enemies are more worthy of respect than friends. This battle is our destiny."
I scoffed and said, "It's that same old showdown again. You two aren't planning on fighting on the roof of the Forbidden City, are you?"
Bao Jin laughed and started talking to me about football...
We chatted as we walked towards the railway police station. Old Cheng, I definitely had to get things done. Even if we hadn't dealt with them before, I'd still help anyone who participated in the martial arts tournament in this situation. In fact, the heroes were in incredibly high spirits during the tournament; participating teams who went to the Reverse Time Bar got a 20% discount, and they even declared: "If you're in trouble, find Xiao Qiang."
I've never been to a railway police station before, but I'm quite familiar with the police stations in the streets within the Third Ring Road...
I asked several people along the way, but they all ignored me. Finally, I parked my car in front of a small shop and said gruffly to the middle-aged shopkeeper inside, "Brother, we're turning ourselves in. How do we get to the police station?"
The shopkeeper, terrified, stammered, "You... drive straight ahead... turn left at the T-junction, then right at the first intersection..."
Bao Jin stuck his bald head out and shouted, "If we can't find it, we'll come back and ask you again."
The shop owner then pulled out a city map and came over to us. He marked our current location with a pencil, then, like drawing a battle map, pointed out the location of the police station to us, kindly telling us that north is at the top and south at the bottom on the map. Finally, the shop owner said to us, "I wish you success—the map and pencil are yours for the taking."
Baojin and I were overjoyed as soon as we left. We discovered that we were the same kind of people, possessing great wisdom.
This time we arrived at the destination without any problems. The railway police station had a small courtyard with a few locust trees. I parked the car at the gate, and Baojin said to me, "Brother, I won't go in with you. If I go in like this and then walk out, people will ask me questions."
I entered the courtyard and saw that there were people in one of the houses, so I walked through the shade of the trees and went inside. As soon as I entered, I was amused to see Cheng Fengshou and about twenty of his fellow disciples and apprentices squatting on the left side of the house. Not far opposite them, another group of people were squatting, apparently brought in because of a brawl between the two groups. Behind a table in the middle of the house sat a young policeman whose acne hadn't completely cleared up, frantically dealing with a group of residents processing routine paperwork.
Seeing that the young police officer didn't have time to pay attention to me, I squatted down next to Cheng Fengshou and asked, "Team Leader Cheng, what's going on?"
Although these people had practiced martial arts since childhood, this was probably their first time in a place like this, and they all looked dejected. Cheng Fengshou said with a bitter face, "It's my fault for not controlling my temper and getting into a fight. We don't know anyone here, so we can only trouble you with this." Then he told me the whole story. It turned out that after the martial arts competition, this group of farmers from Hongri stayed in the area for two days, looked around, bought some local specialties, and were on their way back to Cangzhou by train today. However, they encountered some pickpockets in the waiting room. They wouldn't have let it go if they hadn't been scammed, but the pickpockets got angry and wanted to "teach Cheng Fengshou and his group a lesson"...
To be honest, Cheng Fengshou himself didn't fight back, he just blocked a few blows. Who could withstand his iron arms and legs? The opposing thugs were furious and gathered all their henchmen nearby, so a brawl broke out between the two sides—that is, the villagers from Hongri Martial Arts School beating up a group of thugs.
Later, the group was taken to the local police station by several railway police officers. It wouldn't have been a problem for Cheng Fengshou and his group to run away; even with only one policeman in the room, I don't believe those railway police officers could stop them. But the villagers were law-abiding citizens and believed they were in the right, so they obediently stayed there. As for those thugs, needless to say, they were definitely registered with the police station; running away was pointless.
I looked across and saw the thugs grimacing and hissing in shock. Some were half-kneeling, half-sitting. It seemed that although the villagers had been careful with their strength, these cowards were badly injured.
As I looked across the street, the thug opposite me also looked up and sized me up. This guy was about my age, with a head full of white hair. I recognized him: Little Six, who had extorted money from Liu Bang!
I was furious. I strode up to him, poked his forehead with my finger, and yelled, "You're everywhere! You're everywhere!" Xiao Liu looked miserable and didn't dare to fight back.
At this point, the young policeman got angry, raised his chin, and scolded me: "Hey, hey, hey, don't you know where you are?"
I quickly smiled apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, those are my friends over there—" I pointed to Cheng Fengshou and the others and said, "They were doing a good deed, you see..."
The young policeman interrupted me, "Don't try to make yourself look good. The nature of this matter hasn't been determined yet. We'll discuss your case later. Go back to your work!" He then buried himself in his own tasks. I leaned over and offered him a cigarette, saying, "Officer, do you think we could have another officer handle this?"
The young police officer neither accepted the cigarette nor looked up, saying, "Nonsense, if someone else were in charge, they would have dealt with it long ago. Do you know how big an area the four of us are responsible for?"
I had no choice but to put the cigarette in my mouth. The young policeman didn't even look up and said, "Smoke outside!"
I realized this was going to be difficult. At the very least, this young upstart didn't have a good impression of me, and if he took a wrong turn, things would get messy. Besides, judging by his appearance, he wouldn't be able to finish anytime soon. I considered just sneaking out with the Hongri people, but I was afraid they wouldn't dare or would agree. So I had to think of finding someone to help. The best option was definitely to ask my current supervisor—Secretary Liu. He was ecstatic about the commotion Yucai had caused, and he had indeed secured funding for us. But given Yucai's current plans and scale, that amount was barely enough to tile each toilet. Right now, Old Liu was busy with his career, probably in a sensitive period. If I asked him for help with such a trivial matter and he just brushed me off, it would be difficult to deal with him again in the future.
So I had no choice but to contact the National Security Bureau. The only difference was whether to contact Li He or Fei Sankou. I decided to contact Fei Sankou almost instantly. Li He seemed a bit too meticulous and difficult to deal with. Moreover, he seemed to have anticipated this day and told me not to bother him with anything unrelated to Yucai. Besides, he deals with foreign spies every day; he might be posing as an arms dealer somewhere on Earth right now. It didn't seem appropriate for me to call him and ask him to come to the police station to bail out a few people involved in a brawl.
Old Fei was much more easygoing, and we'd only just started working together. I made a call, and the unit where Old Fei was hiding was just closing time. I heard a woman on the phone calling his name, inviting him to dinner. Old Fei gave a perfunctory reply, probably listening to my explanation while clearing the table. Unexpectedly, this old spy said with difficulty, "This is tricky. If you were caught illegally possessing firearms or something, it would be easier to deal with..."
I said, "Stop talking nonsense and come up with a plan quickly, or I'll tell your sister-in-law."
Old Fei was taken aback: "Tell her what?"
I chuckled coldly: "I'll tell your wife you're seeing someone else. The way you were calling out to her so affectionately just now—"