Chapter 144: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

“Hello! Police? I saw someone carrying a gun!”

Who says a toy gun cannot be dangerous?

The police can classify it as a real firearm. That is where its danger lies.

Just who was Yun Shisan, and what exactly was that mysterious organization? There were far too many secrets behind it all. But if it was an organization that could not bear the light of day, then let them be exposed beneath the sun!

There was no way to trust anything the other side said in a face-to-face confrontation. If he wanted to uncover their secrets, he would have to resort to a few unorthodox tricks. Truth or lies, light or darkness—that was for the police to determine. Xiaocheng only wanted to be an upstanding citizen who actively cooperated with the authorities.

…

Cases involving firearms were major crimes anywhere, so the local police treated the report with extraordinary seriousness. A man had taken a gun to a half-built, abandoned construction site, and dusk was approaching. What had he gone there for?

The first possibility that came to the authorities was a criminal fugitive from another area. He had arrived in Dongfeng Town and temporarily taken shelter in the abandoned building. As luck would have it, he had been spotted by a witness because he was carrying a gun.

Yun Shisan had no idea that he was already surrounded by the police. Everything in his pockets had been stolen, and he did not even have the money to make a phone call. Fortunately, the hotel was not too far away—five or six miles, a distance that was hardly tiring on foot. Seventh Master should be on his way. Once he reached the hotel, he could call Seventh Master for help. Otherwise, he would have no choice but to beg for food.

The wallet and phone were minor matters. Even if he abandoned the car, it would not matter much. But the wallet contained a whole mess of identification documents, and that was troublesome.

He still had no way to contact Seventh Master. Toy gun in hand, Yun Shisan idly spun it as he walked along the riverbank. Far ahead, he could make out several police cars forming a checkpoint. Drooping willow branches obscured the scene, so he could not see clearly. He wondered why they were checking for drunk drivers so early—it was not even time for dinner yet!

He did not care, but the police responding to the call were facing the situation as if confronted by a formidable enemy. Dongfeng Town was a small place; the last major criminal case there had occurred five years earlier. Now that they had heard there was a firearm involved, the higher authorities were in a panic. It was practically a state of emergency.

That tense atmosphere infected the officers on the ground as well. Every policeman sent out was on high alert. The commander led the operation, with officers stationed both openly and covertly. Along the riverbank, there were even more plainclothes officers than ordinary people out for a stroll.

Meanwhile, Yun Shisan had slipped his finger through the trigger guard and was spinning the gun around like a toy. It was not yet the hour when people came out for an after-dinner walk, and there were not many people along the river. He kept thinking about his earlier clash with Xiaocheng. He had been on his guard, yet he had still been tricked.

Yun Shisan’s ostentatious behavior had attracted the attention of the patrol officers long ago. A plainclothes policeman had already begun to follow him discreetly. Two others, dressed as a couple, approached from the front, chatting and laughing as they came toward him.

Just as the couple passed Yun Shisan, the plainclothes officer behind him suddenly lunged forward and seized his right hand—the one holding the gun. At the same time, the couple rushed at him from the front, intending to seize him around the neck and force him to the ground.

Yun Shisan’s body reacted almost instinctively. The moment his right hand was grabbed, he jerked it sharply and drove his shoulder into the plainclothes officer behind him. Before the others could react, he had pulled his hand free.

The couple approaching from the front had been within his field of vision, so their attempted chokehold never even took shape. Yun Shisan drove a knee into the man’s stomach.

“What are you doing?”

He had barely spoken when the police beside the road drew their sidearms. Seven or eight pistols were pointed at him at once.

“Don’t move! Raise your hands! Slowly put the gun on the ground!”

Yun Shisan stood frozen for a full three seconds before understanding what had happened. He closed his eyes and threw his head back, shouting, “Damn it!”

Then he obediently crouched down, placed the gun on the ground, and kicked it toward the police. He clasped both hands behind his head and squatted there, cursing inwardly.

“Wen Xiaocheng, damn your ancestors!”

Two officers kept their guns trained on him while another approached with handcuffs and shackled his hands behind his back. Completely exasperated, Yun Shisan protested after being cuffed, “Take it easy, brother. It’s a plastic toy gun. Go have a look if you don’t believe me.”

By then, someone wearing white gloves had picked up the fake gun from the ground. He removed the magazine and found rubber bullets inside—not even steel pellets.

Still in handcuffs, Yun Shisan continued explaining. “At most, that thing would leave a bump on someone. See these two red welts on my face? They came from that gun. It’s just a toy gun. Aren’t you police making a bit too much of this?”

The police were actually rather depressed by then. They had initially hoped they were about to crack a major case. Now it appeared to be nothing more than illegal possession of a weapon—or perhaps even a complete misunderstanding.

Still, a fake gun could be used in a crime. After mobilizing such a large force, they could not simply release him after a few words. Furthermore, Yun Shisan’s reaction just now had revealed more than enough potential danger. He would have to be taken back to the station, where they could investigate whether he had a criminal record or any connection to other cases.

…………

The white Fukang had been abandoned by the roadside. Its keys had been placed on the inside of the wheel rim. They could not be seen from a normal angle, but anyone who bent down and ran a hand along the rim could retrieve them.

Xiaocheng got out of the car and walked fifty yards before beginning to rub the glue from his hands.

He had coated his hands with a layer of cheap glue used for sticking postage stamps. Once dry, it formed a protective film. Whether he touched the gun, the steering wheel, or the door handles, it would leave no fingerprints. In any case, caution could never hurt.

What if they claimed the gun had been snatched from me? There were no fingerprints of mine on it!

How was a man with no money, no phone, and only a gun on him supposed to explain himself to the police? Was he going to say that he had been carrying a gun when someone robbed him?

The mysterious organization had revealed only the tip of the iceberg. Xiaocheng was convinced that they dared not expose themselves to the light. Now that Yun Shisan had shown his face, Xiaocheng had placed him under the sun. He refused to believe there would not be a chain reaction.

In any case, lying to the police was far more difficult than lying to oneself. Causing them a little trouble was a good thing.

Watching from a distance as Yun Shisan was placed in the police car, Xiaocheng turned and left, concealing his contribution and his name. One man standing against a mysterious organization lurking in the shadows was obviously at a disadvantage. But once the brave people’s police were drawn into the matter, he felt much bolder.

Dealing with a criminal organization that had no regard for children’s lives and secretly injected newborn babies with mysterious drugs was surely better than sending the police out to raid brothels.

Xiaocheng was feeling rather pleased with himself. The organization’s mysterious veil was about to be lifted. Yun Shisan’s wallet and phone must contain countless secrets unknown to the outside world.

The wallet was made of finely selected genuine leather and appeared to be entirely handmade. It seemed the man lived rather well—at least at an affluent, comfortably bourgeois level.

There was nothing particularly unusual inside. One credit card had a limit of one hundred thousand yuan, suggesting that his income was not low. There was also an annual membership card for a club called Jazz. Xiaocheng still had no idea what sort of place Jazz was. It might even be where members of the organization met.

There was more than five thousand yuan in cash, a thick wad of bills. That required no explanation. Since he had stolen the wallet, there was no need to be polite. He would regard it as compensation for having watched him take a shower.

Wait—what was this access card? It had a QR code on it. He scanned it with his phone…

Yun Shisan—Strategic Human Resources Department, Busy Friends Group.

So that kid had not lied to me after all? His name really was Yun Shisan, and he really did work for Busy Friends Group?

Could Busy Friends Group be the mastermind behind everything?

——————

Several dozen chapters ago, this book discussed the standards for identifying firearms. That must have been a month or two ago.

Before New Year’s, an elderly woman in Tianjin was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for illegally possessing a firearm after setting up a shooting stall. The weapon was merely a toy gun capable of bursting balloons at close range.

The incident was heartbreaking—not because of what happened to the old woman, but because of our laws. The standard is 1.8 joules. A soybean held in the mouth and spat out with all one’s strength would produce roughly that much force. I wonder what foreigners would think if they saw something so absurd. I also wonder whether, decades or centuries from now, our descendants will read about cases like this in the history books and assume they were some kind of farce.

Old Blade has no ability to change the standards set by the Ministry of Public Security, so all he can do here is remind everyone: do not play with guns. Even if you believe it is only a toy, do not play with it. And do not spit on the street either, because the energy in that mouthful of spit might exceed 1.8 joules…