Her words were domineering.
Not only she managed to make both Tian Danyue and Huang He stunned but the other three detectives were also dumbfounded as well.
“Your superior?” Tian Danyue chuckled. “All of us here are the common people, there are no superiors here…”
“Stop your pretense!” Xiang Wan curled up her lips and looked at her coldly. “Are you gonna tell me that my man has an affair with you since a long time ago?”
“Your man?” Tian Danyue put on a half-smile with a meaningful gaze.
“My man.” Xiang Wan pointed at Bai Muchuan’s car calmly. “His car is here. Where is he?”
Tian Danyue squinted her eyes to study Xiang Wan without saying a word.
Tang Yuanchu and He Wencai had confused and dazed expressions as well… Cheng Zheng, on the other hand, seemed to be very sensitive to the word “my man”. As he stared at her serious side profile, his eyes gradually lost some brightness. His lips were pursed tightly and unable to say anything.
“You are talking about Captain Bai, right?” After the brief silence, Huang He laughed. “Since all of you are here, I don’t have to keep this a secret. Captain Bai is indeed here…”
That was for sure. His car was parked nearby, so he had to be there.
Xiang Wan lifted her chin. “Where is he?”
Huang He paused for two seconds. “He’s upstairs. There was a small misunderstanding earlier on.”
A small misunderstanding? Both Xiang Wan and Huang He’s gaze met in mid-air.
After a brief moment, she narrowed her eyes slightly. Her heart also eased a little.
Xiang Wan gave a sneer after pondering for a while as she looked at the woman beside Huang He. “Looks like Brother Huang has found himself a rich woman. Rest assured, we are not those people who prevent others from running toward their desired happiness… We’ll leave right away when you get Bai Muchuan to come here.”
Bang! Just as she said the word “here”, a loud sound was suddenly heard!
It had come from upstairs.
The sound of gunfire across the night sky was horrifying.
Who was the one who fired the shot?
Oh no! Will Bai Muchuan be alright?
Xiang Wan’s face immediately went ashen. “Bai Muchuan, where are you?” she shouted.
Almost at the same time, Tang Yuanchu and He Wencai pulled out their guns and pointed at the people at the courtyard. “Hands up! Don’t move!”
Tang Yuanchu quickly shouted at his walkie-talkie, “Old Qi! Someone fired a shot! We need reinforcements!”
“We heard it, we heard it. We’ll be there right away!”
The second team which was led by Qi Canghai was already outside at the border of the big courtyard. Earlier on, they were hidden amongst the dilapidated houses near the courtyard. They had heard the abrupt gunshot as well and had rushed over, surrounding the entire courtyard…
At the same time.
After the gunshot, they heard some sounds similar to that of some brawling.
Before Tang Yuanchu and the rest dashed inside the house, they heard Bai Muchuan’s frosty, angry shout.
“Who told you to kill him?!”
Who died?
What exactly happened upstairs?
The commotion made everyone a little confused
Huang He took a glance at Tang Yuanchu. “Put down the gun first. Be careful with it!”
Tang Yuanchu had always believed in Huang He as he was akin to his teacher when he joined them as a detective. Even though he was utterly disappointed in Huang He’s earlier attitude and performance, Bai Muchuan’s words had proven that he was still in control, and that lessened his suspicions toward Huang He.
“Alright!”
Although Tang Yuanchu agreed, he did not put the gun away. Instead, he shouted loudly, lifting his head.
“Captain Bai, what’s the situation?”
“It’s a misunderstanding!” Bai Muchuan said.
Very soon, Bai Muchuan came down the stairs.
A middle-aged man had followed him down as well. That man had a pot belly which was quite big as if he was a few months pregnant. When he laughed, the fats on his face seemed to be moving as well.
“Captain Bai, I’m really sorry for letting you suffer such a scare. This Jia An actually dared to do this behind my back. He’s totally audacious to the extreme and deserves to die…”
Who is this fat man?
Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan in puzzlement, expecting an answer.
“This is not a scare but a surprise.” Bai Muchuan looked at everyone and said coolly. “Brother Six took out the perpetrator in one shot!”
“Heheheh… Captain Bai is too polite. I was worried you’ll blame me for my recklessness…”
“Please don’t say that!” Bai Muchuan smiled arrogantly. “You’ve saved my life!”
“…”
Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan in a daze.
He took a look at Xiang Wan and the rest of people. His eyes narrowed slightly as he explained.
“I’ve received news from Huang He about Jia An’s whereabouts and followed him here… Earlier on, there was a small misunderstanding with Brother Six. Hence, Brother Six let me stayed here as a guest for a couple of hours…”
Stay as their guest? That meant they had restricted his freedom.
Xiang Wan felt weird that with Bai Muchuan’s character, it was strange that he could actually endure that kind of treatment. Not only he had been put under “house arrest” for a couple of hours, but he also did not seem to mind at all?
That was so unlike him.
“Jia An actually tried to sneak up on me earlier.” Bai Muchuan paused for a while and a corner of his mouth turned upward. “Fortunately, Brother Six came on time…” His smiling eyes were looking at the fat man whom he called Brother Six. “Otherwise, this life of mine would have been left in Brother Six’s house!”
“Sigh! Captain Bai, please don’t stand on such ceremony with me. In actual fact, I should be the one to blame. If I didn’t try to protect Jia An earlier on and listened to his nonsense that I refused to believe your words, this incident wouldn’t have happened… Captain Bai, you need to forgive me. Otherwise, I would be guilty of a great sin!”
Bai Muchuan looked at him with a half-smile as he continued to listen to what Brother Six was saying.
“This Jia An, I’ve been wrong about him,” Brother Six sighed regretfully with a sincere expression, “he actually dared to fricking keep a gun secretly! This is such a serious offense… He even dared to attack the police? He had absolutely gone out of control!”
Bai Muchuan asked, still wearing the half-smile, “Brother Six only got to know how he is like today?”
“Exactly! I’m nearly implicated by him.” Brother Six touched his head with a look of relief and fear. “Luckily, Huang He warned me about him. Otherwise, I can’t imagine what the consequences would be if I had been taken in by him…”
Bai Muchuan chuckled and behaved neither warm nor cold toward him. No one could tell if he had believed the fat man or not.
“He’s Brother Six’s little brother-in-law after all, it’s understandable that you want to protect him…”
Brother Liu rubbed his temples heavily with a remorseful look. “I’m so glad Captain Bai could understand me… I’ll be frank with you, I’ve no choice too. When he came to me, if I don’t shield him or protect him, I can’t account to my wife…”
Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “But your brother-in-law died in your house now. How are you going to account to her?”
Brother Six paused for a moment and laughed. “That can’t be helped.” He showed a righteous face. “Who asked him to engage in illegal activities? I’m a legitimate businessman, he can’t implicate me like this! As for my wife, I’ll have to apologize, console and coax her a lot for the next few days. This matter will ultimately pass with time. The problem lies with my parents-in-law… They are a big headache. How did I get this kind of brother-in-law?”
Bai Muchuan smiled and did not say a word.
As he did not respond and coupled with that indifferent smile, Brother Six could not tell Bai Muchuan’s emotion.
“Umm.. Captain Bai… The small misunderstanding earlier, please forgive me for the mistake I made. I hereby apologize to you. If you are still angry over it, you may go ahead and beat me up…”
“Huang He’s one of my brothers,” Bai Muchuan gave a sneer and looked at Huang He, “since he has said that, I will appear to be petty if I’m still angry over it.”
Brother Six was relieved to hear that when Bai Muchuan suddenly shot a cold glare at him.
“The matter this time, I can let it go. But—just this once.”
“Of course, of course, there won’t be a next time!”
Bai Muchuan did not look at him anymore as he turned to issue a command. “Tang Yuanchu, cordon off the area!”
Tang Yuanchu straightened his back. “Yes, Sir!”
Bai Muchuan turned his head and squinted at Cheng Zheng thoughtfully. “Go up and examine the corpse!”
Cheng Zheng met his gaze for a few seconds before giving a frown. “He Wencai, get my equipment from the car.”
“Alright, Captain Cheng!”
Everyone started to get to work.
This was a special death scene.
For there were no suspect that needed to be arrested immediately.
The police had cordoned off the courtyard and gathered everyone in the living room for investigation and questioning.
Brother Six’s full name was Zhou Dequan. He was the eldest brother-in-law of Jia An, the props master. As Zhou Dequan was naturally born with only six fingers, everyone liked to call him Brother Six. He never flared up at that form of address, and everyone started to address him that way.
The people working in the film crew said Jia An had wide connections and knew all kinds of people. They also said he had backing. That backing could jolly well be referring to his eldest brother-in-law—Zhou Dequan.
Zhou Dequan was a mason back in the early days. Later on, he rode on the spring breeze of reform to work in mines, dabbled in real estate and managed to earn some cash.
Especially in recent years, with the fast pace of urban development, there were redevelopment requests all over the country. Zhou Dequan seized the opportunity and earned a lot of money in the real estate industry. He had so many resources that could make people full of envy. Not only was his business flourishing and made a name for himself, but he also had friends from both sides of the law. He often openly boasted that “city officials need not be taken seriously”.
Of course, the owner of a real estate company was not enough to show contempt toward government officials.
Many people knew that Zhou Dequan had another powerful backing.
It was exactly because he had this powerful backing that he got to his current social status…
Nevertheless, although many people guessed who was his powerful backer, no one knew the identity of that person.
This courtyard of small villas was Zhou Dequan’s ancestral home.
Before he made his fortune, his house was no different from the surrounding ordinary houses outside waiting to be demolished.
After striking it rich, he felt that the good fengshui of his ancestral home must have blessed his good fortune. Hence, he tore down the old house and rebuilt new, bigger ones on the piece of land with a larger area. That was why the surrounding households had moved, and their houses were waiting to be rebuilt while his houses could still stay here, as though he was a holdout.
In the near future, this area would be rebuilt into a prosperous commercial area, and the value of his house would be doubled…
Her words were domineering.
Not only she managed to make both Tian Danyue and Huang He stunned but the other three detectives were also dumbfounded as well.
“Your superior?” Tian Danyue chuckled. “All of us here are the common people, there are no superiors here…”
“Stop your pretense!” Xiang Wan curled up her lips and looked at her coldly. “Are you gonna tell me that my man has an affair with you since a long time ago?”
“Your man?” Tian Danyue put on a half-smile with a meaningful gaze.
“My man.” Xiang Wan pointed at Bai Muchuan’s car calmly. “His car is here. Where is he?”
Tian Danyue squinted her eyes to study Xiang Wan without saying a word.
Tang Yuanchu and He Wencai had confused and dazed expressions as well… Cheng Zheng, on the other hand, seemed to be very sensitive to the word “my man”. As he stared at her serious side profile, his eyes gradually lost some brightness. His lips were pursed tightly and unable to say anything.
“You are talking about Captain Bai, right?” After the brief silence, Huang He laughed. “Since all of you are here, I don’t have to keep this a secret. Captain Bai is indeed here…”
That was for sure. His car was parked nearby, so he had to be there.
Xiang Wan lifted her chin. “Where is he?”
Huang He paused for two seconds. “He’s upstairs. There was a small misunderstanding earlier on.”
A small misunderstanding? Both Xiang Wan and Huang He’s gaze met in mid-air.
After a brief moment, she narrowed her eyes slightly. Her heart also eased a little.
Xiang Wan gave a sneer after pondering for a while as she looked at the woman beside Huang He. “Looks like Brother Huang has found himself a rich woman. Rest assured, we are not those people who prevent others from running toward their desired happiness… We’ll leave right away when you get Bai Muchuan to come here.”
Bang! Just as she said the word “here”, a loud sound was suddenly heard!
It had come from upstairs.
The sound of gunfire across the night sky was horrifying.
Who was the one who fired the shot?
Oh no! Will Bai Muchuan be alright?
Xiang Wan’s face immediately went ashen. “Bai Muchuan, where are you?” she shouted.
Almost at the same time, Tang Yuanchu and He Wencai pulled out their guns and pointed at the people at the courtyard. “Hands up! Don’t move!”
Tang Yuanchu quickly shouted at his walkie-talkie, “Old Qi! Someone fired a shot! We need reinforcements!”
“We heard it, we heard it. We’ll be there right away!”
The second team which was led by Qi Canghai was already outside at the border of the big courtyard. Earlier on, they were hidden amongst the dilapidated houses near the courtyard. They had heard the abrupt gunshot as well and had rushed over, surrounding the entire courtyard…
At the same time.
After the gunshot, they heard some sounds similar to that of some brawling.
Before Tang Yuanchu and the rest dashed inside the house, they heard Bai Muchuan’s frosty, angry shout.
“Who told you to kill him?!”
Who died?
What exactly happened upstairs?
The commotion made everyone a little confused
Huang He took a glance at Tang Yuanchu. “Put down the gun first. Be careful with it!”
Tang Yuanchu had always believed in Huang He as he was akin to his teacher when he joined them as a detective. Even though he was utterly disappointed in Huang He’s earlier attitude and performance, Bai Muchuan’s words had proven that he was still in control, and that lessened his suspicions toward Huang He.
“Alright!”
Although Tang Yuanchu agreed, he did not put the gun away. Instead, he shouted loudly, lifting his head.
“Captain Bai, what’s the situation?”
“It’s a misunderstanding!” Bai Muchuan said.
Very soon, Bai Muchuan came down the stairs.
A middle-aged man had followed him down as well. That man had a pot belly which was quite big as if he was a few months pregnant. When he laughed, the fats on his face seemed to be moving as well.
“Captain Bai, I’m really sorry for letting you suffer such a scare. This Jia An actually dared to do this behind my back. He’s totally audacious to the extreme and deserves to die…”
Who is this fat man?
Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan in puzzlement, expecting an answer.
“This is not a scare but a surprise.” Bai Muchuan looked at everyone and said coolly. “Brother Six took out the perpetrator in one shot!”
“Heheheh… Captain Bai is too polite. I was worried you’ll blame me for my recklessness…”
“Please don’t say that!” Bai Muchuan smiled arrogantly. “You’ve saved my life!”
“…”
Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan in a daze.
He took a look at Xiang Wan and the rest of people. His eyes narrowed slightly as he explained.
“I’ve received news from Huang He about Jia An’s whereabouts and followed him here… Earlier on, there was a small misunderstanding with Brother Six. Hence, Brother Six let me stayed here as a guest for a couple of hours…”
Stay as their guest? That meant they had restricted his freedom.
Xiang Wan felt weird that with Bai Muchuan’s character, it was strange that he could actually endure that kind of treatment. Not only he had been put under “house arrest” for a couple of hours, but he also did not seem to mind at all?
That was so unlike him.
“Jia An actually tried to sneak up on me earlier.” Bai Muchuan paused for a while and a corner of his mouth turned upward. “Fortunately, Brother Six came on time…” His smiling eyes were looking at the fat man whom he called Brother Six. “Otherwise, this life of mine would have been left in Brother Six’s house!”
“Sigh! Captain Bai, please don’t stand on such ceremony with me. In actual fact, I should be the one to blame. If I didn’t try to protect Jia An earlier on and listened to his nonsense that I refused to believe your words, this incident wouldn’t have happened… Captain Bai, you need to forgive me. Otherwise, I would be guilty of a great sin!”
Bai Muchuan looked at him with a half-smile as he continued to listen to what Brother Six was saying.
“This Jia An, I’ve been wrong about him,” Brother Six sighed regretfully with a sincere expression, “he actually dared to fricking keep a gun secretly! This is such a serious offense… He even dared to attack the police? He had absolutely gone out of control!”
Bai Muchuan asked, still wearing the half-smile, “Brother Six only got to know how he is like today?”
“Exactly! I’m nearly implicated by him.” Brother Six touched his head with a look of relief and fear. “Luckily, Huang He warned me about him. Otherwise, I can’t imagine what the consequences would be if I had been taken in by him…”
Bai Muchuan chuckled and behaved neither warm nor cold toward him. No one could tell if he had believed the fat man or not.
“He’s Brother Six’s little brother-in-law after all, it’s understandable that you want to protect him…”
Brother Liu rubbed his temples heavily with a remorseful look. “I’m so glad Captain Bai could understand me… I’ll be frank with you, I’ve no choice too. When he came to me, if I don’t shield him or protect him, I can’t account to my wife…”
Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow. “But your brother-in-law died in your house now. How are you going to account to her?”
Brother Six paused for a moment and laughed. “That can’t be helped.” He showed a righteous face. “Who asked him to engage in illegal activities? I’m a legitimate businessman, he can’t implicate me like this! As for my wife, I’ll have to apologize, console and coax her a lot for the next few days. This matter will ultimately pass with time. The problem lies with my parents-in-law… They are a big headache. How did I get this kind of brother-in-law?”
Bai Muchuan smiled and did not say a word.
As he did not respond and coupled with that indifferent smile, Brother Six could not tell Bai Muchuan’s emotion.
“Umm.. Captain Bai… The small misunderstanding earlier, please forgive me for the mistake I made. I hereby apologize to you. If you are still angry over it, you may go ahead and beat me up…”
“Huang He’s one of my brothers,” Bai Muchuan gave a sneer and looked at Huang He, “since he has said that, I will appear to be petty if I’m still angry over it.”
Brother Six was relieved to hear that when Bai Muchuan suddenly shot a cold glare at him.
“The matter this time, I can let it go. But—just this once.”
“Of course, of course, there won’t be a next time!”
Bai Muchuan did not look at him anymore as he turned to issue a command. “Tang Yuanchu, cordon off the area!”
Tang Yuanchu straightened his back. “Yes, Sir!”
Bai Muchuan turned his head and squinted at Cheng Zheng thoughtfully. “Go up and examine the corpse!”
Cheng Zheng met his gaze for a few seconds before giving a frown. “He Wencai, get my equipment from the car.”
“Alright, Captain Cheng!”
Everyone started to get to work.
This was a special death scene.
For there were no suspect that needed to be arrested immediately.
The police had cordoned off the courtyard and gathered everyone in the living room for investigation and questioning.
Brother Six’s full name was Zhou Dequan. He was the eldest brother-in-law of Jia An, the props master. As Zhou Dequan was naturally born with only six fingers, everyone liked to call him Brother Six. He never flared up at that form of address, and everyone started to address him that way.
The people working in the film crew said Jia An had wide connections and knew all kinds of people. They also said he had backing. That backing could jolly well be referring to his eldest brother-in-law—Zhou Dequan.
Zhou Dequan was a mason back in the early days. Later on, he rode on the spring breeze of reform to work in mines, dabbled in real estate and managed to earn some cash.
Especially in recent years, with the fast pace of urban development, there were redevelopment requests all over the country. Zhou Dequan seized the opportunity and earned a lot of money in the real estate industry. He had so many resources that could make people full of envy. Not only was his business flourishing and made a name for himself, but he also had friends from both sides of the law. He often openly boasted that “city officials need not be taken seriously”.
Of course, the owner of a real estate company was not enough to show contempt toward government officials.
Many people knew that Zhou Dequan had another powerful backing.
It was exactly because he had this powerful backing that he got to his current social status…
Nevertheless, although many people guessed who was his powerful backer, no one knew the identity of that person.
This courtyard of small villas was Zhou Dequan’s ancestral home.
Before he made his fortune, his house was no different from the surrounding ordinary houses outside waiting to be demolished.
After striking it rich, he felt that the good fengshui of his ancestral home must have blessed his good fortune. Hence, he tore down the old house and rebuilt new, bigger ones on the piece of land with a larger area. That was why the surrounding households had moved, and their houses were waiting to be rebuilt while his houses could still stay here, as though he was a holdout.
In the near future, this area would be rebuilt into a prosperous commercial area, and the value of his house would be doubled…
