Dusk was falling slowly; the streetlights illuminated one by one.
The town residents liked to take a walk after dinner, waves of people walked back and forth the hotel entrance. The hotel owner moved a chair to sit by the door and ate red pumpkin seeds while happily chatting with people. Everything looked calm and relaxed.
Ji Bai, Su Mu, and Yao Meng were sitting in the car, staring at the road ahead. At the newspaper kiosks and bustling supermarket door not far from there, several police officer dressed in casual clothing were quietly waiting.
They had been waiting in ambush for more than ten hours. According to a reliable source, Yong would come back to the hotel today. The officers’ nerves also were tense as the night came.
Within the crowd, a man dressed in black, of average height and masculine body walked from the supermarket back to the hotel. In the lively night, his nervous face revealed a malicious intention.
Suddenly, as if aware of something, the man immediately paused and turned around to observe the surroundings.
“Go!” Ji Bai muttered. Su Mu and countless figures from all directions came charging toward Yong. Yong reacted very quickly, as soon as he heard the rapid footsteps, he immediately turned around and ran. But the police officers didn’t give him the chance to escape. A young police officer ruthlessly hit on Yong’s body, and others immediately rushed up, instantly pressed Yong tightly to the ground.
This scene stunned the owner of the hotel and all the passersby.
“The police is arresting a criminal.”
“Catching a thief, right?”
“Wanted criminal, definitely wanted, that’s why there are so many police officers.”
Everybody retreated back, stood around the entrance of the hotel to watch.
“Behave yourself!” Su Mu shouted, a couple of police officers escorted Chen Yong on the car. Ji Bai walked forward and conversed softly with Su Mu.
Yao Meng also got out of the car, and coldly looked at Chen Yong.
“Is she a police officer? So beautiful.” Someone yelled loudly, a lot of people turned around. Yao Meng’s face got slightly hot, she subconsciously looked toward the crowd. At this time, she was slightly stunned.
On the left side of the outermost of the crowd, a lanky man was staring at Chen Yong being escorted to the car. His expression was quite ugly and he was carrying a black bag on his shoulder while there was no bag on Chen Yong.
He just stood for a few seconds before he quickly turned around and walked quickly towards an alley in front.
“Stop!” Yao Meng shouted. The man stiffened, then immediately ran.
Hearing Yao Meng’s shout, Ji Bai, and Su Mu turned around at the same time. The next second, Ji Bai had turned to chase after the suspect. Su Mu also followed.
Inside the quiet alley, the street light was dim, completely different from the bustling street outside. There were a couple of passersby, seeing a man and Yao Meng run fast like arrows, they were frightened and moved aside, against the wall.
Hearing the powerful footsteps from behind, Yao Meng’s heart throbbed as if it had been injected with new energy, a desire to catch the criminal in front of Ji Bai’s eyes appeared on her mind. While at the police academy, Yao Meng was a short distance running champion. She grinded her teeth, used a vigor that was beyond her limits, approaching the man in front of her.
Hearing the footsteps approaching like the wind from behind, the man got frightened and turned around to see a pretty girl chasing after him. He was incredibly angry and afraid, and also surprised, he pulled out a pocketknife and struck out at Yao Meng.
“Ah!” Two middle school students next to them, who had happened to walk by screamed. They stood behind Yao Meng so she didn’t have the chance to dodge. Seeing the sharp knife in the man’s hand, she was afraid to reach out to block it.
Wasn’t Ji Bai right behind her?
Just with one second of distraction, her left shoulder suddenly stung, and the knife was plugged into her flesh.
At that time, she felt the breath of the man behind her, sheltering all of her: “Let go!”
Ji Bai said in a harsh voice while he twisted the man’s wrist, and pressed his body into the wall.
After that Ji Bai turned around and looked at Yao Meng, frowned and said: “Su Mu, call a doctor.”
Yao Meng used one hand to press on the wound on the shoulder: “No, I’m fine.”
The police lights were flashing; onlookers blocked almost half the street. But the police officers quickly got on their vehicles and evacuated from the location.
Yao Meng sat inside a van, the door was half open, and the doctor was treating her wound.
Her shoulder was exposed, a little cold and very painful. But even in pain, there was an emotion that was difficult to describe in words.
Su Mu was the first one to come to the car, glanced over her shoulder: “Are you okay? Fortunately, Ji Bai came on time, otherwise, the knife could have plunged into your bones.”
The doctor added: “That would have been really dangerous.”
Several young police officers came, looked at her wound, and said a few words of concern. Some also blushed which made Yao Meng embarrassed but also a little contented. Because their eyes drifted from time to time on the white shoulder of hers, and she couldn’t cover it up since the wound was being treated.
“How’s the wound?” a familiar deep voice sounded, the tall figure of Ji Bai’s appeared by the car’s door. His eyes just stopped on her shoulder for a second, then immediately looked somewhere else. He also slightly tilted his body so that his face was blocked by the door.
“I’m fine.” Yao Meng replied softly.
“Yao Meng’s very brave.” Doctor Chan praised.
“That’s good.” Ji Bai said softly: “Today you did very well.”
Hearing his footsteps growing distant, Yao Meng thought, he’s really different, completely different.
Ji Bai and all his colleagues continued to interrogate the two suspects overnight. Chen Yong confessed to his crimes. At the same time, He also gave some valuable information; a person who was higher up than him named “Lu brother” would soon deliver a number of goods to this province.
Ji Bai immediately briefed the situation to the local police officers and the city police station, at the same time together with Su Mu he was planning for a larger scale arrest.
The local police brought Chen Yong to the crime scene to confirm. The curious onlookers also surrounded the place like the other day.
When they saw the indifference and disdainful expression on Chen Yong’s face. Watching Ma Rong Rong’s deaf parents mumbled vague sounds of deaf people, grabbing and hitting on Chen Yong, a young lad rushed up to kick Yong in the foot. Later a few young men surrounded to beat Chen Yong, even Zhang also rushed up to kick him once, the police didn’t react fast enough to stop them. After that, Chen Yong was sentenced to death penalty.
While Ji Bai was struggling day and night at the front, Xu Xu’ work and life had been very peaceful.
She didn’t have any “nerve-wracking” feeling, and also wasn’t planning on calling or texting him to avoid affecting his work. But Xu Xu noticed the number of times she thought about him was gradually increasing.
The first day was twice, the second day was five times, and third day was eight times. Of course, with respect to the 24 hours, 1140 minutes, or 86400 seconds in a day, dazing for a few seconds each time didn’t matter. But this is the first time in her life, Xu Xu has thought about someone so often like that. (Other than the suspect, she thinks about the suspect 24 hours a day.)
Afternoon today, Lao Wu replaced Ji Bai to hold a team meeting. Lao Wu said: “Ji Bai has cracked the case…”
Xu Xu once again thought of Ji Bai, she thought about his stern expression and cold sharp eyes whenever he interrogated suspects.
At such times, he looked extremely handsome.
Then, Xu Xu was called.
“*Da Hu, Xu Xu, the province police requested additional people to resolve this case, the director specifically named both of you to go assist captain Ji. “
(*Da Hu aka Big / he appeared before and I was too lazy to use his name properly. :P)
Da Hu and Xu Xu arrived at Sichuan County that day at midnight. Da Hu was one of the best for searching and arresting criminals in the team, while Xu Xu is a criminal psychologist. Comforting the victims psychologically was very important so those were the reasons why the two was named.
Picking them up was a young man: “Captain Ji is having a meeting with Captain Su. Yao Meng is wounded so she’s resting in her room.”
While they were on the way, Ji Bai had just finished with the meeting. Everyone exhaled in relief; they could finally go home to have a good sleep, and tomorrow would be a new round of fierce battle.
Su Mu said: “You haven’t had a good sleep for these few days, you should go upstairs to rest as soon as possible.”
Public Security Bureau office (police station) building was built in the 1990s. It was fashionable to have the rooms in the top floor, used as reception for superiors. Ji Bai and Yao Meng each stayed at a double room.
Ji Bai smiled and nodded: “I’ll stay here for a moment then go.”
Everyone were all gone soon, Ji Bai sat in the empty office, closed his eyes and waited.
The little girl would be here tonight.
Did she know that he’s been waiting for her?
The young police officer didn’t take Xu Xu and Da Du to the office, instead he directly took them to the guest room: “The meeting has ended, everyone has gone home so you two should rest first.
Da Hu took a look inside: “Hey, Captain Ji hasn’t come back yet. Xu Xu, when you see Yao Meng, remember to express the concerns from everyone. It’s too late today, I’ll visit her tomorrow.”
Xu Xu nodded.
She crept into the room. Inside, the room was dark; she turned on the light in the hall to find that Yao Meng’s bed was empty.
Xu Xu placed the luggage down, prepared the bed neatly, Yao Meng hadn’t came back yet. There was no movement outside the hallway, seemed like Ji Bai hadn’t come back.
Xu Xu wanted to sleep, but her mind was still wide-awake and missing him a bit. Unable to bear it any longer, she got dressed and took out the stack of information from the bag then casually circled several information that seemed to be highly valuable to the case. After preparing her excuse, she got up and went down the stairs.
It was midnight; the small town sky was extraordinarily clear and starry. Within the whole floor, only one room was lit and reflected the dark hallway outside, there was not even the slightest sound in the room. Xu Xu’s heart started beating faster, she subconsciously fastened her pace. But she had just walked to the window, looked inside when Xu Xu stopped.
The large office was lit up by soft lighting. Across many messy tables, Xu Xu saw that Ji Bai was sitting in front of a table against the wall. His eyes were closed, and his handsome face slightly leaned back in the leather chair, his chest was heaving smoothly, he had fallen asleep. Yao Meng was crouching on one knee in front of him, only a step in distance away from him. She was staring at him.
She was wearing a white shirt with black pants her hair, like silk had fallen on her shoulder. Her side profile was very beautiful, and her eyes was glistening.
Xu Xu was about to greet her when she was surprised to find Yao Meng slowly lower her face, close to the dangling slender hand by the side of Ji Bai’s chair. From Xu Xu’s angle, it looked like Yao Meng’s face was leveled with Ji Bai’s hand, but also looked like there was a little distance between them.
Yao Meng’s posture was humble, sincere and full of love.
Yao Meng maintained this position for a few seconds, then she got up and softly left the office. She was lost in her own thoughts so she did not see Xu Xu standing by the window. She turned to the hallway and went upstairs.
Xu Xu remained silent for a moment before she opened the door and went in. She turned around and did not know what drove her, but she locked the door.
Ji Bai’s eyes were a little sunken, there was stubble on his chin. He must be extremely tired to sleep so deeply?
Xu Xu pulled a chair and sat across from Ji Bai. Both her hands rested upright on the armrest while she stared at him thoughtfully.
She stared at him for a moment, while the fingers on her right hand habitually tapped on the armrest.
She had tapped about one hundred forty-two times when Xu Xu suddenly withdrew her hand.
She walked back to the window, looked sideways to determine that no one was there. She then walked back in front, to where Ji Bai was. He heart was beating fast, like drum beats, her face was as hot as fire. Xu Xu also knew what she was about to do next wasn’t right, and it was equivalent to harassment, but…
Very gently held up Ji Bai’s hand to her lips, and her lips gently brushed over the back of his hand.
“Okay, I feel much better.”