Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
After returning to the police station with the police, the suspect was brought to undergo an entire night of interrogation. The police had gotten hold of evidence and could basically confirm that he was the killer on the 31st of July. He could not deny it.
Xiang Kun, on the other hand, was brought to an empty meeting room by Officer Chen. After he closed the door, Officer Chen began to nag.
“What is wrong with you? Didn’t I tell you not to be impulsive? The suspect could’ve had weapons with him and may have been dangerous. Why did you still attack? You think you are good enough to defeat him?”
Xiang Kun also did not want to do that initially and wanted to remain low-profile. However, the suspect had charged at him with a knife. He could not have possibly dodged, because Tang Baona and her friend were just behind him.
Nevertheless, he knew that Officer Chen had good intentions and was worried about his safety. As the saying went, “no matter how good one’s fighting skill is, one cannot beat a knife”. There was a lot of news regarding how professional fighters were killed by hooligans with knives.
“The brat was hiding in a narrow alley and I was initially waiting outside for the police to arrive. Who knew that he would suddenly go mad and rushed out with a knife. I had no choice but to attack.”
After hearing Xiang Kun’s explanation, Officer Chen thought about it and pointed at the chair, signalling Xiang Kun to sit down. Then he passed Xiang Kun a cigarette. Xiang Kun said he did not smoke, so Officer Chen took the cigarette for himself and sat down.
As Xiang Kun looked at Officer Chen, who was smoking, he wondered what he was trying to do.
“Mr. Xiang, I remember when I took down your information last time. You said that you were unemployed because your company had gone bankrupt. So what now, do you have a new job?”
Xiang Kun felt strange. Why had Officer Chen suddenly asked about him? Therefore, he replied, “I am intending to take a break for now and make some plans for my future career.”
“Mr. Xiang, you have been trained in martial arts since young, right?” asked Officer Chen.
“Urgh, not really… I am interested in kung fu and I have practiced it by myself. I usually go to the gym for strength training too, but I have never practiced with a professional.” Xiang Kun had never been interested in kung fu or fighting and had never trained in the past. At the very most, he had watched action movies. However, he knew that Officer Chen had many questions regarding his skills and hence he had to make up some reasons to explain himself.
Then Officer Chen continued talking for a while about superheroes and martial art novels. The more Xiang Kun listened, the more confused he got. Therefore, he asked directly, “Officer Chen, you must be very busy now. The suspect just got caught, don’t you need to interrogate him?”
Officer Chen put his cigarette bud in the ashtray and said, “Not yet, we haven’t begun. Do you know that you have the traits of a detective? After the accident happened, we looked at the surveillance cameras near the ATM and realized that we had not captured the suspect anywhere besides the ATM and the shops nearby. The suspect decided to attack somewhere where there were no surveillance cameras. After the attack, he also took an escape route that did not have any surveillance cameras. We only managed to capture some parts of his body in a few clips of the surveillance cameras. However, we could not confirm where he went and his identity…”
“Didn’t you guys confirm his identity on the second day?” Xiang Kun was confused. He had thought that the suspect was not as clever as that.
Initially, he thought that he had killed the victim because of a grudge, but after hearing from the police, he came to know that it was a robbery. What era was it? Why would a clever person carry a knife on the streets to rob and kill? Who would carry a large sum of money with them? From what he had heard, the victim had only withdrawn 1,000 yuan from the ATM, because he needed to pack a red envelope for the wedding dinner he would be attending the next day. Judging from how the culprit had just been released from jail recently, he probably had the mindset of a criminal from more than ten years ago.
Officer Chen nodded. “That is because we found many clear images of him from clips of other surveillance cameras and could therefore confirm his identity. We also found his address and found evidence there. Nevertheless, this brat should have felt that something was wrong and knew that he was in trouble. He fled before we found him, and that’s why you bumped into him.”
Xiang Kun listened carefully and did not speak. He knew that Officer Chen wanted to say something to him when he revealed the details of the investigation.
Indeed, at this moment, Officer Chen’s tone changed. “Initially, we thought that the criminal must have checked out the route earlier in order to avoid all the surveillance cameras. So we went to retrieve the clips from surveillance cameras around the area for the past few days.”
Xiang Kun panicked a little.
Officer Chen asked, “Mr. Xiang, it wasn’t a coincidence that you found out about the incident that day, right? Have you been voluntarily ‘patrolling’ the area at night recently?”
Xiang Kun finally understood why Officer Chen kept talking about superheros and martial arts novels earlier on. Xiang Kun had been captured by the surveillance cameras for “patrolling” the streets every night. The police had found out when he was investigating the clues too.
He had not slept and had “patrolled” the streets the whole night for several nights in a row. That was definitely abnormal.
Officer Chen thought that Xiang Kun had the thought of becoming a “volunteer police officer” after preventing a murder in his block. Therefore, he had intentionally patrolled the streets every night to catch criminals.
Xiang Kun felt wronged. He had really met the victim by coincidence! Moreover, he did not want that to happen!
However, he could not explain it that way. Officer Chen’s guess was actually a better one. Or else, it would be difficult for Xiang Kun to explain why he had “patrolled” the streets on consecutive nights.
Therefore, Officer Chen began to nag at Xiang Kun for a while longer and told him repeatedly to call the police if he encountered such incidents instead of acting alone. After that, he allowed Xiang Kun to leave the police station.
Xiang Kun could receive 20,000 yuan for capturing the suspect. However, he could only receive the money a while later. It was considered a surprise.
Initially, some reporters wanted to interview Xiang Kun, but he had rejected the interviews. He hoped that Officer Chen would not reveal his name to the media and, if possible, cut down on the clips of him catching the suspect.
Officer Chen was very impressed by Xiang Kun as he felt that Xiang Kun was someone who had done that because he wanted to do the victim justice instead of becoming famous.
…
Xiang Kun felt worried as he stood outside the police station.
If he had not gotten to know Officer Chen because of the past incident and found the victim that night, the police would’ve definitely grown suspicious of this “bald man” as he was “patrolling the streets” every night. He would’ve probably been investigated by the police as a suspicious individual!
Once the police investigated and realized that not only did Xiang Kun go out at night, but also stayed in the gym all day long, they would definitely sense that something was wrong.
Moreover, if they searched his room and found the documents on his laptop, or the dead rabbits near the rubbish bins along the streets, he would be in bigger trouble.
If that happened, he did not know what would happen to him. Although he would not be blamed for the crime, the changes in his body would definitely be exposed.
“It seems that I have not been careful enough,” Xiang Kun said to himself.
Thankfully, his tenant had told him that he had found a house and would be moving out on the 6th. Xiang Kun would then move over to that apartment. Although the facilities nearby were sufficient, there were fewer people living around that area and fewer surveillance cameras.
After Xiang Kun reached home, he replied to Tang Baona’s WeChat message and explained what had happened that night to her.
Tang Baona also explained why Yang Zhen-er had gone over—she had thought that Xiang Kun had scolded her. Tang Baona also wanted to confirm if the bald individual on the trending clip “warrior monk’s kungfu skills” was Xiang Kun.
Tang Baona only stopped chatting past midnight and said goodnight to Xiang Kun. Then she told him that they had a date to go hiking on Sunday at 7 AM.
As they chatted, two hours had flown past.
Both of them used to be “awkward friends”, but because of this incident, they had gotten closer and more comfortable with each other.