29 - What he wants is Hé Youan’s life!

“The number of people have been counted. It’s confirmed that 8 have been murdered, but 3 were rescued. 7 were seriously injured and 21 have minor injuries. In addition to Chen Hongping, we have 9 murdered passengers. The chance that the 3 that were rescued can be saved aren’t very high. Only Xiao Chi and Zhou Yanling are really able to help, but they’re busy and there are so many injured that the number of casualties is sure to increase.”

As Zhao Xintao neared the end of his work notebook which he held in both hands, the more he wished that he could bury his head in it and the smaller his voice became: “The mood of the passengers is also not good. I’ve already told my coworkers to reassure the passengers , but there are some who are more emotionally excited and won’t listen to anything. It would be best if you were to go down there as soon as possible with an excuse. If not, it’s likely that extreme behavior will happen……”

Wu Fengrong nodded: “I know. Go and speak with the passengers that today’s breakfast and lunch are free as a gift to everyone. Have the kitchen hand out extra sweets, biscuits, ice cream, and fruit to the children. As for a concrete statement, I’m still thinking it over.”

“It was certainly a premeditated crime but you can’t put it like that, right?”

“First say that it happened because of an accident, okay.That one of the heaters had an electrical malfunction because a cigarette butt had unexpectedly come in contact with the power source…..try to find a reasonable explanation so as to avoid mob panic. And remember to make sure that the crew is united in one voice 1 and that they’re not leak anything. Get in touch with anyone from the Ministry of Public Security?”

“I got in contact and reported all the specified numbers and all the details. The Ministry of Public Security also attached quite a lot of importance to it and promptly understood it’s seriousness. They’ve already dispatched the armed police. External aid is coming directly from Baihe and should arrive, at the earliest, in two or three hours. By that time, we should also have descended from the mountains.”

“Good. But I stand by my earlier statement that saving lives is the most important.”

Still, Zhao Xintao asked hesitantly, “It’s unlikely that there will be another explosion, right? I’m really scared. I think I’ll have this shadow 2 for the rest of my life.”

The statement “without end” appeared in Wu Fengrong’s mind causing a burst of sharp pain, resembling the ringing of the alarm bell. Wu Fengrong held his head and muttered to himself irresolutely: “I also think that it’s not good. No matter how vigilant we are, we can’t prevent these bastards from victimizing people. Oh, that’s right. Did you find out how the chlorine gas came to be onboard?”

“Altogether, the storage room was missing two containers of toilet cleaner and two containers of disinfectants. On the train, both the toilet cleaner and the disinfectants are used in large quantities, so a few were held in reserve. I didn’t expect that someone would be able to make their way into that type of place when no one was looking.”

“Take care of what’s left and make sure that they aren’t taken. I want you to ask all the janitors ‘who’s doing, what where?’ and make sure that they answer thoroughly. Also see if there’s anyone who is suspicious. I don’t want another Liu Qin.”

“Arrangements have already been made for the transit police to interview them one by one. Honestly, I think that it’s unlikely to have been one of our own.”

Wu Fengrong lifted his head: “You have an idea?”

Zhao Xintao sat down and lowered his voice: “RongRong, these aren’t the war years. There’s nothing to gain by bombing trains. We all know that it’d only be a lot of effort and a lot of trouble. You see, he racked his brains for schemes 3 to get a bucket of chlorine gas and few people were actually killed in the explosion. If it wasn’t because of the luggage crushing people to death, and if it wasn’t for the poison gas suffocating them, most of the other casualties were from people being trampled to death during the course of events. We didn’t have many people on this trip to begin with So if they wanted to take revenge on society by killing people, there was no need to choose our train. Wouldn’t it have been better to try to find a train route that runs to a tourist city? Just one explosion and everyone would be annihilated.”

At his words, Wu Fengrong knitted his brow: “What are you saying? Be careful.”

“Bah! I have a fast mouth 4 . Merciful Buddha, I’m not disrespecting the dead. You know what I meant.” Zhao Xintao slapped himself: “What I mean is that their intention wasn’t murder. And since their intent wasn’t murder, they must have had another goal. It’s like they wanted to create chaos and cause panic, so that they could then use the chaos and panic to conceal their real purpose. The explosion was just a means to an end and wasn’t their ultimate goal.”

Rarely did Zhao Xintao have a reasonable theory. Wu Fengrong indicated for him to continue speaking.

“Our attention now is focused entirely on the scene of the explosion. With the dead and the injured, we’ve certainly and naturally have had no time for anything else. I can’t say for sure, but maybe at this moment they’ve already hidden away making petty and mean actions 5 . They want us to pay attention to the scene of the explosion but really we shouldn’t be solely preoccupied with the site of the explosion. At this point we should turn our attention away. The place that we should pay the most attention to is the place that is the least conspicuous.”

Wu Fengrong said: “Yes, especially pay attention to the cars with fewer people. The transit police must not suspend patrols to check and investigate. The drivers compartment, the boiler room, the broadcasting room, the electromechanical room, all these important areas must not have only one person in them. At the minimum there should be at least two people.”

Zhao Xintao asked: “I have an idea. Listen and see if it’s reasonable. Is it possible that someone caused the explosion to allow Shi Xiaoran to escape the train?”

“Unlikely.” Wu Fengrong immediately shook his head: “They could go directly to the drivers compartment, threaten the driver to make an emergency stop and then flee. Shi Xiaoran has an adult with her so the success rate for going that would be quite high. It wouldn’t be necessary to cause such a disturbance as all this.”

“Then aside from Shi Xiaoran, there’s another on the train?” Zhao Xintao was very unwilling to consider this a possibility. He looked defeated: “Because two people, a child and a migrant worker, didn’t cause enough excitement. There has to be yet another criminal.”

At the words “migrant worker”, Wu Fengrong’s nerves were stung, struck by the realization the words inspired. He jumped up to look at Zhou Yanling’s laptop, the keys clicking and clacking as he began to search. Right away he saw numerous web pages pop up on the screen, all of it news about Tongda Construction being sued. Wu Fengrong carefully read each, one by one. Zhao Xintao couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Impatiently, he restlessly scratched his head, disturbing the silence with his rustling sounds. Wu Fengrong stopped him then had him wait off to the side.

“What are you looking for? Can I help?” Zhao Xintao asked, feeling wronged.

Wu Fengrong spun the mouse wheel, scrolling continuously down until he reached the bottom of the web page. The messy web page was filled with all different types of small ads, but reducing the page numbers squashed all the words into the middle. Wu Fengrong clicked on the second page that opened up to an image of a white piece of paper densely packed full of names. The picture was titled “Document of the collected signatures of workers’ friends and relatives”.

Wu Fengrong enlarged the image and saw that it was very pixelated. Most of the forty or fifty names were illegible, and it was very difficult to distinguish between individual names. Looking at the list of names from top to bottom, he saw that the penultimate name was unusually large and was quite eye-catching.

–Huang Ye.

“Found it!” Wu Fengrong slowly straightened up in his, understanding dawning. He grabbed Zhao Xintao’s wrist and said anxiously: “Xintao, it’s not Shi Xiaoran. It was Huang Ye who engineered the explosion. What he wants is Hé Youan’s life!”

Zhao Xintao helped him up and led him outside while putting on his coat. Wu Fengrong was completely engrossed in talking.

“Huang Ye is a construction worker and Hé Da’s company is a construction company. There’s probably a connection between the two of them. The signature on this document is already proof that Huang Ye has participated in the lawsuit against Hé Da. Hé Da’s company killed a worker and that worker must have been one of Huang Ye’s friends or family. Huang Ye wants to overturn the prior finding, but filing a lawsuit isn’t the same as winning it. He wants to get his revenge on Hé Da.”

Zhao Xintao did not react: “‘Friends and family’ refers to those two workers who ‘accidentally” fell because of the safety rope?”

“Yes, the specific relationship between Huang Ye and those two workers can be looked into again. The workers died, and Huang Ye refuses to accept the conclusion that they were ‘accidental deaths’. Together with the family members, they organized together to file a lawsuit. A lawsuit that’s dragged on for five or six years and still hasn’t been resolved. Finally, this year, they are at joint appeals 6 . This shows that Huang Ye’s attitude towards Tongda is to “fight to the death”. From what Yanlimg said, there wasn’t enough evidence. There is nothing one can do without evidence, and there’s no way to prove that the accident was intentionally done as part of a scheme, so as a result the case will be dismissed. Huang Ye knows that continuing with the appeal will not result in a favorable outcome. Bottom-rung workers contending against corporations is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot 7 . Inevitably, he’s at an impasse.”

Following his words, the train rapidly accelerated, the speed continuing to increase, faster and faster. Wu Fengrong’s lips were dry.

“But hope was not completely lost because Huang Ye found out that his sister’s daughter, Shi Xiaoran, was unexpectedly studying at the same school as Hé Youan and that they’d discussed dating. Then the 9/27 murder case arose. Shi Xiaoran told the matter to her mosted trusted maternal uncle. Huang Ye immediately knew that his chance had arrived. While he escorted his sister’s daughter to Baihe, he targeted Hé Youan. Perhaps he encouraged Shi Xiaoran to travel with Hé Youan. The two children are very affectionate. Because Hé Youan believes that Shi Xiaoran killed in his defense, he resolutely came to accompany his girlfriend. He didn’t think that there was someone behind his back who was eyeing his life!”

So long as there was Shi Xiaoran, Hé Youan would be unable to escape from Huang Ye’s grasp. This train trip to Baihe was Hé Youan’s funeral procession!

Hé Da’s calculations were very fine. Remove his son as a suspect in the murder case while simultaneously benefitting his company. Although he bribed Liu Qin, as long as he bit to death 8 , didn’t admit it and handled it neatly, he could probably push the majority of the blame onto Liu Qin. After all, Liu Qin 9 attacked Wu Fengrong and abandoned his duties; Liu Qin really did do those things. Afterwards, Hé Da could even talk with Zhou Yanling, offering to help clear Zhou Yanling of the criminal charges as long as Zhou Yanling kept quiet. In the future, Tongda Corporation and Zhou Yanling could continue to collaborate. Money, reputation, and a prosperous future would be shared by all, an entirely, mutually beneficial outcome.

But the mantis stalked the cicada 10 and the yellow 11 bird was behind an oblivious Hé Da. Behind his body was Huang Ye. A private 12 entrepreneur with a yearly profit of over 100 million, regarded as a dignified person with a reputation, was caught in the calculations of a construction worker. Huang Ye might not be able to topple the foundations of Hé Da’s skyscraper, but he could use Hé Youan as a point of attack. By killing the beloved only son, the family property 13 wouldn’t be inherited, and the dear parents would have no children to bring them happiness. Perhaps there was no other possible conclusion that could bring Hé Da more grief. What Huang Ye wanted was neither justice nor financial compensation. What he wanted was a life for a life!

“Since Shi Xiaoran disappeared, it’s been Huang Ye who’s been pulling strings from behind by killing Chen Hongping, kidnapping Hé Youan, and causing the chlorine gas explosion. All of this was done by him. All of this because he wanted Hé Youan. Shi Xiaoran was merely a front. We were all deceived.” Wu Fengrong sighed.

Zhao Xintao said with great hate: “This girl may not be innocent. Could it be that she doesn’t want to flee with Hé Youan? If it wasn’t for her avoiding charges of homicide, Huang Ye would never have had a chance to start his plot.”

His words were not wrong, but they also were not entirely correct. Shi Xiaoran was indeed guilty. She definitely decided Xiao Quan’s fate. But the second matter had nothing to do with her. If she hadn’t supplied him this opportunity, Huang Ye would have looked for another opportunity to get the ball rolling. In other words, whether or not she killed, Huang Ye would still have sought revenge on Hé Da. Huang Ye probably didn’t anticipate that his own sister’s daughter would have offered him this chance.

Hé Youan was rash and ignorant, and was plotted against by his own father. Shi Xiaoran was meek and shrinking, and was being used to mask her maternal uncle’s goals. The relationship between these two children was but a glimmer within a larger conspiracy. But unfortunately this glimmer, although pure and beautiful, was ultimately used by adults as an instrument to satisfy their own selfish desires.

At that moment, Zhou Yanling was giving emergency treatment to a victim suffering from chlorine poisoning. He mixed soda water for the victim to rinse their eyes and then administered an injection of glucose. Wu Fengrong saw that the chair beside him was covered in bottles of vitamin C — the train was not stocked with many medicines and also was not equipped with ventilators or hyperbaric oxygen therapy 14 , but there was a lot of vitamin C — which could be used to treat pulmonary edema and swelling of the throat. Soda water could alleviate burning of the skin and eyes, and a 10% glucose injection could also aid in healing of the bronchial tubes. This was all that he and Zhou Chi were able to do.

They were currently in urgent need of ethyl alcohol, mannitol 15 , aminophylline 16 and ventilators.

“Yanling,” Wu Fengrong held Zhou Yanling’s hand which was a little moist from soda water. “Hé Youan’s life can’t be taken in vain. Although this child has made a mistake, he still shouldn’t be sacrificed. Huang Ye probably caused the explosion in order to conceal being charged for his murder of Hé Youan. In the event that Hé Youan tragically and “accidentally” died in an explosion, then no one would know that he intended to kill Hé Youan. He could also leave that receipt in Hé Youan’s cell phone and frame Hé Youan for Xiao Quan’s 17 murder.” At that time, as long as Huang Ye traveled with Shi Xiaoran to Baihe and spent a smooth and stable Golden Week there, everything would pass. There would certainly be another explosion. They couldn’t allow him to do that. He must be stopped before they arrive at Baihe!

Zhou Yanling understood it clearly: “So it turns out that it was actually him. From the beginning, I’d been wondering what caused the chlorine explosion. By itself, chlorine is unlikely to explode. It would need to be heated or come in contact with something flammable to cause an explosive reaction. But you would need to heat a lot of chlorine to cause enough pressure to get it to ignite. Certainly more than two bottles of disinfectant. So, there must have been something flammable. Huang Ye had with him industrial glue which contained flammable dichloroethane. If the chlorine gas was introduced to a flammable liquid, it would immediately spark an explosion, and it wouldn’t take such large quantities. Right now, this guy is like a walking bomb. At any time and anyplace he could cause an explosion on this train.”

Wu Fengrong’s eyes rolled: “Huang Ye wants to kill Hé Youan, which Shi Xiaoran might not be aware of. If she knew, she would fight her uncle tooth and nail. We have to find a way to contact Shi Xiaoran. She might be able to help us.”

Zhou Yanling thought for a bit. “I have a way to do that, but it has some risks.”

Wu Fengrong motioned for him to explain. Zhou Yanling was silent for a moment, then said: “What Huang Ye actually wants is for the verdict of his coworkers’ deaths to be overturned. But killing Hé Youan won’t actually bring about justice. It’s only a way for him to vent his anger. However, if someone can help him, maybe he’ll change his mind about killing. I have information about the case with me, which could aid his fight in court. Maybe we can try with that. Whether or not it works, as long as he’s tricked into revealing himself that’s half the battle. I can send this information to Shi Xiaoran to coax Huang Ye out, then find a way to get him to talk. Even if he’s determined to keep quiet, at least it’ll give you time to try to find the man.”

Wu Fengrong was not reassured: “Won’t you be in danger? He’s carrying chemicals and might even have weapons.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zhou Yanling, already decided on this course of action, was resolute: “Right now this is the only way that we could possibly get him to show himself. I have to at least try.”

统一口径: idiom for a group of people adopting a consistent attitude towards a problem 阴影: metaphor for traumatic or unpleasant situations in life 费尽心机: did everything possible 嘴巴快: idiom meaning frank, plain-spoken 小动作: specifically, actions that are undertaken that are meant to interfere with others; also refers to illegal activities such as bribery, fraud and the like Joint appeals occur when two or more parties filed separate appeals about a single case. The appellate court may decide to consolidate the two individual appeals into one and then both parties are viewed as a single petitioner. In this case, it seems like those 50 or 60 signatures on that document represented the people who separately decided to appeal the original finding. For the purposes of the court, all of those people are lumped together as one appellant. 螳臂当车: idiom meaning to overrate oneself and attempt the impossible 咬死: was stubborn and firm added for clarity idiom describing when someone pursues a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger Huang private as in not state-owned specifically, in this case, the business “a type of treatment used to speed up healing of carbon monoxide poisoning, gangrene, stubborn wounds, and infections in which tissues are starved for oxygen” “a diuretic used to force urination production in people with acute (sudden) kidney failure. Mannitol injection is also used to reduce swelling and pressure inside the eye or around the brain” “a drug combination of theophylline and ethylenediamine in a ratio of 2:1. It is FDA approved for relieving symptoms of reversible airway obstruction due to asthma or other chronic lung diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema.” added for to specify which of the victims was meant