NOS Chapter 33
by VolareSitting in the Linchang (Forest Farm) Police Station’s cafeteria, Yu Chunming stared unblinkingly at Guan Yao, who was focused on eating, and then asked the question again: “Are you very hungry?”
Guan Yao was taken aback. “I didn’t eat lunch. Of course, I’m hungry.”
After saying that, he looked at Yu Chunming in confusion. “Didn’t you say you were hungry just now? Are you not hungry now?”
Yu Chunming was so irritated that he just wanted to light a cigarette.
“Hurry up and eat, what are you doing sitting here spacing out?” Guan Yao glanced at the lunchbox in front of him. “There’s no celery or green onions in this either, is there?”
Yu Chunming was about to reply when Li Xiaotian rushed in, calling out, “Someone’s trying to commit suicide by jumping into the river near Yangqiao in District 11. Someone come with me on a call.”
Guan Yao immediately stood up, grabbing his belt, ready to go. But at the same time, his cell phone rang.
“It’s Han Chen. There’s a meeting, saying they found new clues in the trace detection at the Three Mine Family Compound.” Guan Yao paused.
Yu Chunming didn’t refuse. He took Guan Yao’s belt and picked up Guan Yao’s police uniform draped over the back of the chair. “I’ll go.”
Li Xiaotian didn’t bother being picky at a time like this. He waved anxiously and said, “Hurry, hurry, hurry.”
Yangqiao in District 11 was not far from the Linchang (Forest Farm) Police Station, nor was it far from the old site of the No. 2 Timber Factory. It was right where the Ning Nie Li Qi River forked. It was just entering October, and the river surface hadn’t frozen yet, but the sub-zero temperatures after dark for several days had already made the river water bone-chillingly cold.
As soon as they got out of the police car, they were hit by a gust of cold wind blowing in from the suburbs.
Yu Chunming tightened his police uniform, followed Li Xiaotian, pushed through the crowd, and squeezed to the riverbank. But before he could get close, he heard a scream in the distance.
“Back off! Everyone back off!” It was a woman shouting.
Shu Wen, who had arrived earlier, stood in the front, trying to calm her down. “It’s okay, we’re backing off, we’re backing off. Just stay there and don’t move, okay?”
Her words were gentle and calm, causing the originally agitated woman to slowly calm down.
At this moment, Yu Chunming saw that it was not just a woman, but a woman holding a baby in her arms.
In the deep autumn of the northern border, in the zero-degree Celsius wind, a woman holding a baby in her arms was sitting on a bridge pier, staring blankly at the cold river water flowing away under her feet.
No one knew what was wrong with her, but when Yu Chunming met her hopeless eyes, he suddenly felt grateful that Guan Yao wasn’t the one standing here.
“Everyone move back a bit,” Li Xiaotian waved to the onlookers. “Don’t just stand here watching the excitement. Go wherever you need to go.”
At this time, someone behind him shouted, “Her family is here!”
As he spoke, a middle-aged man squeezed over anxiously. He was thinly dressed, and it was clear that he had rushed out as soon as he received the news.
“Who are you to her?” Yu Chunming asked.
The man’s eyes were red, and his voice trembled. “My youngest daughter, she’s my youngest daughter…”
Seeing this, Shu Wen immediately raised her voice and shouted to the young woman sitting on the bridge pier, “Girl, look, your dad’s here!”
At this moment, perhaps startled, the baby, who had been sleeping soundly in its mother’s arms, suddenly woke up and cried out “Wah!”
The middle-aged man standing on the bank also began to wipe away tears. “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault. It’s all my fault for speaking harshly this morning. What do we do? Police officer, what do we do?”
Yu Chunming frowned. “Where’s your son-in-law?”
“Son-in-law…” The woman’s father’s expression darkened, and he said softly, “He’s out of town.”
“What do you mean, ‘out of town’? Call him back quickly after such a big incident!” Li Xiaotian rolled up his sleeves and directed Yu Chunming, “Hurry up and get a boat ready. She’s soaked. If we don’t pull her up soon, she’s going to have problems from the cold.”
Just as he was speaking, the fire department arrived. Yu Chunming and Li Xiaotian didn’t dare to delay any longer. They went around to the other side of Yangqiao with the fire department to inflate the raft and tie the ropes, preparing to go behind the woman and rescue her.
Watching Shu Wen reasoning with her earnestly from afar, Li Xiaotian shook his head. “She’s holding a child. If she doesn’t think about herself, she has to think about the child.”
Yu Chunming didn’t answer. He said inexplicably, “Za Mu Er is too cold. The days with sunshine are short in winter, and people’s mental state is prone to problems.”
Li Xiaotian slanted his eyes. “What kind of talk is that? Why don’t I have problems, then?”
Yu Chunming threw the life jacket into his arms, then stepped over him and got on the raft. “You have to be careful with the child later. If she accidentally drops it, it’ll be a disaster.”
The current in the branch of the Ning Nie Li Qi River wasn’t fast, but there were many undercurrents beneath the surface. Adults were fine; even if they fell into the water, they could at least struggle for a while. But the infant in the young woman’s arms looked less than half a year old. If it fell in like that, the river water was freezing cold, who could guarantee its safety?
Everyone was worried. It was only after the fire department fixed the rope that the raft was lowered into the water and slowly sailed toward the bridge pier in the center of the river.
On Yangqiao Bridge, two firefighters were also preparing to hang down with safety ropes in case of emergency.
But at this seemingly well-prepared moment, the woman suddenly broke down.
“I said I want a divorce, why won’t you let me get one?” she cried.
The father standing on the bank was stomping his feet anxiously. “Divorce! Why wouldn’t we let you get one? Just sit there and don’t move, stay put, and when he comes back, you can do whatever you want!”
The young mother turned a deaf ear. She looked blankly at the child crying heartbreakingly in her arms and muttered to herself, “Why are you so ugly? Why do you keep crying? I’ll take you with me to die, and that will be a relief.”
The raft was already very close. Li Xiaotian, sitting in the front, heard these words clearly. He suddenly felt a chill and blurted out, “What kind of talk is that? You’re a mother, aren’t you? Isn’t that your child?”
These words startled the woman sitting on the bridge pier, and her body trembled violently.
“Li Xiaotian!” Yu Chunming pulled him away, got up, and was about to cross the river surface between the raft and the bridge pier to grab the woman who was almost falling into the water.
She had come barefoot from the shallows, wading through the water all the way. She had been sitting on this bridge pier for an unknown amount of time before the water rose and she was discovered. At this time, she was icy cold, and her feet, which were not in the water, had long been frozen purple. The crying of the baby in her arms had also weakened. If they didn’t pull her up soon, the mother and child would probably die.
But obviously, this young mother didn’t want to live at all. Seeing Yu Chunming reach out to grab her, she immediately sank downward, throwing herself and the baby into the river.
Splash! There was a loud noise.
“My daughter!” The father standing on the shore cried out in despair.
At this moment, Yu Chunming seized the opportunity. With one hand holding the handle on the raft, he reached out with the other and accurately grabbed the woman’s arm.
But the person in despair had great strength. She was determined to die and struggled in the water. This struggle caused Yu Chunming to be pulled into the water as well.
Splash! Another loud noise.
Li Xiaotian cursed under his breath and, along with a firefighter, jumped onto the bridge pier and bent down to scoop up the child who had choked on several mouthfuls of water. On the other side, Yu Chunming was about to be dragged into the bottom of the water by the constantly struggling woman.
“Quick, pull them both up!” Li Xiaotian roared.
Yu Chunming had lived in Northeast China for more than thirty years. Countless snowy days had long accustomed him to this climate, but when he fell into the water and the cold river water poured into his nose, he realized for the first time what it meant to be chilled to the bone.
“Do you know how cold it is in that water?” Many, many years ago, Jiang Min had sat on a small stool under the radiator at home, smoking and asking.
She was a little drunk, and two patches of pink were reflected on her pretty cheeks, making her look extremely beautiful.
But the child, who had just been beaten up, felt that this face was terrifying. He didn’t dare to look up, but only dared to hug his knees and shrink beside Jiang Min’s legs, staring blankly at the dirty floor tiles under his feet.
Soon, Jiang Min finished smoking the cigarette, and she said melodiously, as if singing, “Falling into the river water at the end of September is like having ten thousand needles pricking your body, so cold, so painful, but you actually…”
Jiang Min didn’t finish these words. She looked quietly at the boy curled up into a ball and chuckled softly, “Go, go get me another bottle of wine.”
“Cough, cough, cough!” Even after being pulled onto the raft by Li Xiaotian and the firefighters, these words still echoed in Yu Chunming’s mind.
Even just for that brief half minute, he was still frozen pale and trembling all over, and his chest seemed to be filled with ice shards, both cold and painful.
Someone took off his soaked police uniform cotton coat, and someone else draped a blanket over him, but the warmth seemed to have completely dissipated and couldn’t be gathered no matter what.
“Cough, cough!” After getting ashore, Yu Chunming couldn’t stop coughing.
Li Xiaotian’s temples were throbbing. He rummaged through the trunk of the police car and took out a bottle of water, handing it over. “Rinse, rinse your mouth.”
Yu Chunming didn’t take it, enduring the pain rising in his chest, he questioned in front of everyone, “What were you saying to people just now?”
Li Xiaotian was stunned. “What did I say?”
“What did you say?” Yu Chunming scolded. “Did a dog eat your brain? She was already going to die, and you’re still asking her if she’s a mother. Li Xiaotian, have you been dealing with cases like this after being a policeman for one or twenty years?”
These words caused the already dispersed onlookers to look sideways. Shu Wen, who was about to accompany the suicidal woman to the hospital in an ambulance, also rushed over. She pulled Yu Chunming and said softly, “If there’s anything, let’s talk about it back at the station.”
But Yu Chunming refused, he insisted on venting his anger in front of everyone, only to see this person, who was already so cold that he could hardly stand, pointing at Li Xiaotian and saying, “What would you have done if she had died in the river?”
Li Xiaotian only reacted at this moment. He was angry. “Is it your turn to command me? Yu Chunming, I didn’t say anything before, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions about you. Stop showing off in front of me just because you have some connections!”
“Enough!” Shu Wen couldn’t bear it any longer and scolded, “All of you, go back and talk.”
The onlookers gradually dispersed. The woman and the baby, who were on the verge of hypothermia and fainting, were sent to the hospital. The Ning Nie Li Qi River returned to peace once again.
But the Linchang (Forest Farm) Police Station was lively. Li Xiaotian, full of anger, had barely walked through the gate and hadn’t had time to go upstairs when he shouted, “Yu Chunming, I’ve been disliking you since the first day you came here. If you ask me, Chief Zhang was right to ask you to resign!”
Yu Chunming walked inside with a sullen face, looking like he didn’t want to argue with him anymore.
But Li Xiaotian, this old man who cared so much about his face, wouldn’t let it go. He grabbed Yu Chunming, pointed at his nose, and said, “Aren’t you tough? Don’t you like being tough in front of outsiders? Try being tough with me again now!”
Yu Chunming said impatiently, “Let go.”
“What if I don’t let go? You want to hit me?” Li Xiaotian provoked.
He dared to provoke because he was confident that Yu Chunming would never hit him in front of everyone, but what he didn’t expect was that Yu Chunming never played by the rules.
So, once again, in full view of everyone, Li Xiaotian received a punch that landed squarely on his chin.
He took a few steps back, looking at Yu Chunming in disbelief. “You kid actually…”
Yu Chunming looked at him coldly, hit him, and left.
But the next moment, Li Xiaotian took a step forward, grabbed his shoulder, and immediately punched him, causing Yu Chunming to stagger and almost knock over an old man who was going to apply for a new ID card.
“What’s all this madness about?” Deputy Chief Wang Zun finally arrived in the lobby before a catastrophe occurred and separated the two.
Li Xiaotian was still going to hit him again, but Fang Wang grabbed him in time. “Be nice, be nice, don’t let the people watch the fun.”
“What’s so nice about it?” Li Xiaotian shouted, “Wasn’t it him who was lecturing me in front of the people?”
“Shut up!” Wang Zun roared. He raised his hand and pointed at the cockfighting Li Xiaotian, and then pointed at Yu Chunming, who was standing aside with a cold face. “Put these two in the detention room.”
Just like that, less than a day after being reinstated, Yu Chunming, whose written self-criticism hadn’t had time to be submitted to the chief, stepped into the Linchang (Forest Farm) Police Station’s detention room, which hadn’t been used for many years. He was wearing cold, wet clothes, sitting on a cold, unheated chair, quietly shivering.
Not long after, Meng Changqing, who had heard the news, knocked on the door of the detention room. He said softly, “Police Officer Yu, Sister Shu Wen said your clothes are wet. I brought you a set of dry ones.”
After saying that, he took out a thermos bucket and placed it on the stool next to him. “And some corn porridge from the cafeteria. Drink more to warm up.”
Yu Chunming took the clothes, thanked him, and instructed, “Don’t tell your master about what happened today.”
Meng Changqing was stunned, then smiled. “Police Officer Yu, don’t worry, I definitely won’t say anything.”
Yu Chunming forced a smile, showing a dry smile.
However, long before making this promise, Meng Changqing, who was born to be a big blabbermouth, had already told Guan Yao everything he knew about the ins and outs of the matter, but Guan Yao was currently in the city bureau, overwhelmed with work, and didn’t have time to take a look at his beeping cell phone.
During the only break in the meeting, Han Chen took the opportunity to ask, “How’s Chunming doing these days?”
Guan Yao’s eyes didn’t leave the trace detection report sent by Na Fei. He replied casually, “He’s doing fine.”
Han Chen’s eyes flickered. “I heard the other day that he was sick?”
“Ah, yes, yes, he was sick,” Guan Yao cleared his throat and returned the report to Na Fei. “The new results are correct. When the fight occurred, there must have been a third person at the scene.”
These words interrupted him, and Han Chen couldn’t ask any further. He looked awkwardly at Na Fei as she explained, “Actually, from the beginning, when I first examined the scene, I had this idea, but I didn’t have any concrete evidence at that time. I didn’t expect that after Deputy Director Yu ordered a re-examination, the experts from the provincial department were able to find this rubber shoe footprint outside the door on the first floor. This footprint has now been identified and does not belong to any of the residents in the Three Mine Family Compound. And Uncle Zhang said that his tenant, who was one of the people involved in the fight, was wearing sneakers, which you also saw when you went to pursue them. At the same time, according to the footprints we extracted outside the driving school rest room, the other person who may have been involved in the fight should have been wearing leather shoes, which Uncle Zhang also confirmed. In addition to the bloodstain distribution identification and ground trace identification I did before, this strange footprint is very likely to belong to the third person.”
After saying that, Na Fei sighed. “It’s just a pity that in the surveillance footage we’ve already screened, we haven’t found any suspicious people.”
Guan Yao frowned, wondering what he was thinking.
“You went to Qianjin Ping to see Li Ying today. Is there any problem with him?” Han Chen asked.
Guan Yao raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath. “There really is a bit of a problem with Li Ying… but, as of now, his problem doesn’t seem to connect with our case.”