Xiao Du, You’ve Got to Help Elder Sister
Du Lang left the mansion early in the morning, with a briefcase slung over his shoulder. He bade goodbye to Mu Wuying who seemed rather bored after a few days of exploring the oddly decorated interior, and hopped into the car and hightailed it onto the road. And once again, threw himself into the endless pattern of cursing at the poor traffic and repeating to himself the list of Young Master martyrs who had taken the journey of road rage.
He wasn't a stickler for the habit of wandering around outside for no reason. The usually abstruse and coldhearted policewoman Gu Ling had suddenly called at the early throes of dawn, screaming for his help. She had even threatened to invoke legal action if he refused, hence Du Lang was forced to mire himself into the deadly swamp known as modern traffic.
"…still, doesn't she know that I've retired? Common law in Jingdou states that retired citizens can't be invoked into legal service until eighteen months had passed – ah, she used the provincial order. Right, right…"
Du Lang sighed, and swatted the grumpy Wraith out of his vision. The black fuzzy sphere threw itself at the walls of the car and ricocheted off, the red eyes swirling all over its body. The mere sight of the disorderly Wraith compared to the silent and passive Sibyl caused his mood to immediately plummet, and he nearly harrumphed in frustration.
"You hurry up and decode those curse models for me before acting cute! Dear heavens, I've been granted the Curse Platform and have to create curse models to advance, but my first curse model effectively locked me out from making any curse models in the future since they will be registered as duplicate efforts…"
It was truly the epitome of 'shooting oneself in the foot'! No wonder Sibyl hadn't tried to stop him – this secretarial voice was out to make his life miserable!
Du Lang ranted to himself as time passed without mercy in seemingly infinite streets of Jingdou. Compared to major metropolitan cities and the kings of the nation such as Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, or any city in Guandong, this amount of traffic was child's play. To people in those influential areas, traveling two kilometers every thirty minutes during rush hour was 'hardly congested'.
"Wang Xiangxiang, we've collaborated for three years now. Do you still have to check my ID every time?"
The moment Du Lang parked his car in the local police station's parking lot, a young policewoman trotted towards the driver's side of the car. His annoyed comment caused a sheepish smile to bloom across her flawless countenance, and the woman replied by sweeping the back of her palm across her short hair and giving a standard salute, then ruining her presentable image by a goofy tilt of her head to the side.
"Well, Esteemed and Glorious and Heavenly Genie Senior Du, we lowly police officers have to follow regulations to the letter or risk being fired," she bared her teeth and chuckled.
"Aih, Du Lang, hurry and come out – are you an old man? Senior Gu Ling is screaming for you to come."
Du Lang followed the policewoman with the sheepish smile through the glass doors of the police station. The grateful expressions and sighs of relief exhibited by nearly all of the junior staff caused his eyebrow to sink, and his heart began to pound with angst. True to Wang Xiang's words, the office reserved to Gu Ling seemed to be infested with a typhoon of rage, and the hairs on his skin crawled upwards as he drew near.
The glass cover reverberated with a fierce mixture of sounds and pounds of fists slamming onto the wooden desk, and when the generous young policewoman opened the door, Du Lang found his hand soaring to the bridge of his nose and catching a porcelain teacup.
"I say, Officer Gu, is this the way you invite an old friend?" Du Lang scrunched his eyes and tightened his grasp onto the cup.
"You call him at three in the morning screaming for him to rise to the call of duty, then throw a cup at his face once he enters?"
"Eh?"
Gu Ling froze, and her gaze snapped from the cowering junior police officer towards the doorway. When she noticed Du Lang's disdainful expression and the teacup clenched in his hand, the mature policewoman's countenance immediately flushed a deep crimson, and she broke into a coughing fit to hide her embarrassment.
"Xiao Du, Xiao Du – we're longtime friends, no need to hold grudges between us, ah?" the woman coughed and threw a baleful glare at the giggling Wang Xiang.
"Wang Xiangxiang, go retrieve the case file for me? It's at the top of the bookshelf in the third archive."
Wang Xiang curled her lips into a fierce pout, but respectfully left Gu Ling's office with the junior policeman in tow. Du Lang stepped into the room and glanced around for a few breaths, then sat before the grumbling woman with his jaw resting on his palm.
"So? What made the great and might Gu Ling of Jingdou panic and call for the assistance of a retired reporter?"
Gu Ling's lips twitched, but she didn't rise to the bait. The policewoman heaved a low sigh, and swirled her finger along the rim of the teacup.
"We've got a few interesting cases lately, and our investigative team isn't prepped enough," she intoned with a grumbling sigh.
"Three consecutive murders conducted by the Luochen Gang in the western commerce sector of the city. What's strange is that after each killing, all of the blood was drained from the victim's bodies and used as paint. Then at the same time, the Blue Dragon Gang has initiated activities not unlike that of a trafficking operation."
As she spoke, Gu Ling grabbed a few photos that were splayed on her desk, and presented them before Du Lang. Du Lang set down his briefcase from his shoulder and retrieved the first photo, and his expression sunk almost immediately. His fingers made certain not to wander far from the photo's edge, but his eyes quickly captured the details contained within.
"Since when did the underworld of Jingdou gain access to firearms? This is a fourth-tier city – there's not enough political influence to sneak firearms into unlawful control without the Politburo going insane!"
"American-made Mossberg 500 – that was the result of the local weapons specialist in our station. Take a look – that's 12 gauge with buckshot shells."
Gu Ling traced over the opened wounds of the victim with the back of her pen, and scowled at the peppering of holes scored across the covered torso. The policewoman retrieved a folder from below her desk and opened the pages to reveal a set of photographs depicting a series of emblems, some of which were covered with a darkened liquid.
"Three leaves, two points, one flag. That's one of the major foreign influences in Hong Kong, isn't it?" Du Lang glanced at the presented emblems, then warped his lips into a grimace.
"The design matches that of the pictures of the victims. What is such an emblem doing in Jingdou, which is more than three hundred kilometers from Hong Kong?"
"Who knows? Isn't that why I called for your help? Elder Sister Policewoman is one for catching thieves and lawbreakers, not investigation. The higher ups have called for us to solve the matter quickly, so…"
Gu Ling shrugged her shoulders, not hesitating to expose her deficiencies with outstretched arms. Du Lang palmed his face as the mature and dignified policewoman respectfully marched towards his briefcase and stuffed the photos, case file, and suspect profile into the central pocket. When her hand left the briefcase with a suspicious key-object dangling from her fingers, Du Lang's mind rose on alert.
"What are you taking my keys for? Wait, Gu Ling!"
"Go with Wang Xiangxiang. You stupid journalist, changing your appearance so easily – this policewoman will search through your home for any illicit materials!"
Gu Ling slipped her shoulders out of her policewoman uniform, exposing a hazel sweater underneath. Before Du Lang could rise from his seat and chase after the departing figure of the woman, Gu Ling had managed to hang her uniform on the coatrack in her room, race outside of the station, and hop into his sedan. Wang Xiang caught up to the depressed Du Lang and displayed her usual, cheery smile.
"Senior Du, the car's ready. When do you want to leave?"
"The police here are traitors! You…"
Du Lang sighed and capitulated, allowing himself to be escorted into the undercover vehicle prepared by the local station. Wang Xiang showed little mercy as she stomped on the pedal with her small feet, weaving through the traffic as they made towards the southwestern sector of Jingdou. Along the journey, she had managed to rope three police cars on patrol into a goose chase – all for the sole benefit of 'appropriating extra manpower'.
The policemen of Jingdou were suckers and brownnosers to the extreme who weren't resistant to the idea of betraying just about any reporter they encountered, and the policewomen acting more like criminal racers having fun on the road.
The presence of the three sirens screaming behind the plainclothes sedan forced the pedestrian cars to dive towards the sides of the road, not daring to be implicated in some madman or madwoman's crime. As a result, Wang Xiang managed to shorten the three-hour, annoying drive into just seven minutes of intracity racing – much to the displeasure of a reporter and three senior policemen.
"You drove out here without establishing any type of plan as to how we are going to find the suspect. What, are we supposed to wander around aimlessly and aggro these thugs into launching another attack?"
Du Lang ruthlessly commented and adjusted the position of the briefcase on his shoulder, and glanced around at the bustling street. Wang Xiang took one glance at the ceaseless streams of people on either side of the road, and shrugged her shoulders.
"We received a tip from an informant that there was a high likelihood of another victim sometime this afternoon. It seemed rather credible, as their information were accurate predictions for the prior two incidents. Well, since it was an anonymous tip, it could be a self-report by someone in either gang, but…"
The police, when it involved a potential victim, was required to act on any information provided by an informant given its reliability and accuracy. The source could be questioned later once the matter had been resolved, but until then… for the intelligence-starved station at Jingdou whose investigation department had been completely overwhelmed by recent cases, Wang Xiang and Gu Ling had little choice.
"In the end, that's why you all dragged me out here again…"
Du Lang curled his lip, but didn't continue his comments. Since Wang Xiang had mentioned the plausible time to be that of the afternoon, there wasn't much for him to do for the moment. He was trained to investigate and derive information from limited clues once the deed was done, not act with clairvoyant observation –
[Detected mild threshold of danger to the host. Initiating
Sibyl's voice abruptly disrupted all idle thoughts racing through his ear, and Du Lang heard the distinct thud of a heavy but soft object falling to the ground with great force. When he turned his head to the right, he found a young man completely unconscious by his feet –
"Young man, why did you have to hit him with such great force?"
A harsh, criticizing voice stormed from his left, and Du Lang found a middle-aged woman waved her finger towards his chest, her expression heavily set into one of contempt and fear. She scorned and cursed with waving arms, but didn't dare draw near.
"You scoundrel, one with no respect for others. All he did was walk by your side, why did you have to kick him so hard?" she scowled and waved with her arms.
"You there – yes, you, Ms. Policewoman. Can you believe this man? – he struck my nephew with deadly force for no reason to the point that he's unconscious on the ground and frothing at the mouth! This type of dangerous, uncontrollable man cannot be allowed to roam throughout society!"
Her shouting and screaming successfully earned the attention of Wang Xiang and another policeman patrolling the area. When the policewoman noticed the target of the middle-aged woman's screaming to be that of Du Lang, her brows tugged into a confused frown.
"Lady, you might be confused. This man isn't the violent type, rather he is someone we hired to assist –"
[Detected mild threshold of danger to the host. Initiating
"–Senior Du!?"