Chapter 28

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Chapter 28 Stars On The Sky(28)

The middle-aged man fell to the ground and for a while, he couldn’t get up on his own. Zhai Chen stood in front of the little girl to protect her. “Don’t be afraid.” he said.

Upon finishing the words, the closet door behind them suddenly opened, the little girl’s mother shouted and rushed out of it. She had something in her hand and swang it right onto Zhai’s head. Zhai Chen subconsciously held the child in his arms and raised his hand to stop the girl’s mother. Bang! A cheap plastic hanger hit him on his arm. It was not strong, broke instantly. The uneven hard plastic left three wounds on Zhai Chen’s arm.

“Let go of her!” The women proceeded, grabbed Zhai Chen’s arm and was about to bite him. At the same time, the young man who was smoking outside rushed in as well and tried to hit Zhai Chen on the head with a folding chair made of metal.

“Ah ah!” The little girl in Zhai’s arms suddenly screamed and threw herself on her mother, biting her mother’s neck like a beast. Zhai Chen’s hands were free. He firmly got a hold of the chair and stopped it from approaching. Then he swept his leg and brought the young man to the floor. Zhai grabbed this man and threw him to the middle-aged man who just got up.

These two men, like a sack in the truck, piled together and fell to the ground.

Zhai Chen felt dizzy for his lack of oxygen. The woman there screamed in utter pain caused by her own daughter. The little girl bit so hard that the woman was bleeding a river. Zhai Chen pulled up the little girl and quickly retreated to the living room. The woman tried to rush out with her neck covered, but Gao slammed the door and jammed the door with a pole.

Zhai Chen was half kneeling on the ground, putting his hand on the shoulders of the little girl who was breathing heavily and tried to comfort her: “It’s OK, it’s ok…”

The little girl was shaking. Her mouth and body were covered in blood. She couldn’t say a word.

The people in the bedroom were pounding the door. The men were shouting and the woman was crying. The four prayers the living room didn’t mean to do anything with them, staying where they were like chicken. Gao Yusheng passed the oxygen bottle to Zhai Chen, said: “Take care of yourself first.”

“Bang!” The pliable pole was bent and the people in the bedroom rushed out no sooner than the front door broken opened.

“Police! Nobody moves. Crouch down to the wall with your hands on your head!” Fang Chuyang rushed in with others and put the two men who had run out of the bedroom half naked on the ground.

Zhai Chen and Gao Yusheng were also asked to do as told.

“We are innocent!” Zhaichen raised his hand.

Fang Chuyang glanced at him and said: “These people have participated in cult. Take them back.”

“Hey, officer, at least call an ambulance first.” Zhai Chen tamely reached his hands for the police to put on handcuffs and raised his chin to the little girl who looked shocked.

Xiao Chen came up to help the little girl, his dark face was contorted by anger. Xiaoma kicked the fat man several times while captain wasn’t looking and other policemen were purposely ignoring it.

The disgusting middle-aged with devious intentions was the star envoy in the den, called Luo Quanpei. Luo, the young smoker along with the little girl’s mother were directly sent for interrogation. The rest of them were put into a large cell and left unattended for the time being.

Zhai Chen and Gao Yusheng were also put in. There were about a dozen young people sitting in the room, each with colorful hair. At first glance, they thought they had entered a bad hair salon. Hearing the noise, all the colorful heads turned around together and looked at the two people who were apparently unable to fit in.

“Hello, I’m the new barber, Kevin.” Zhai Chen greeted them warmly.

All the them were confused for a second, then stood up one after another.

Gao Yusheng: “…” Got in the jail with a bodyguard, but the risks had multiplied. He’s probably the most unlucky employer this year.

“What are you two here for?” The youngsters were approaching step by step, they outnumbered Zhai and Gao, and looked quite similar to the gangsters in movies.

Zhai Chen stood between Gao Yusheng and those youngsters and sighed: “We are here because we are so handsome that we have affected the city’s appearance.”

“Bah!”

Kevin Zhai didn’t convinced these funny-looking youngsters and the vibe grew tense.

Luo refused to admit that 1326 was a cult stronghold: “I was there for hookers, and someone came from nowhere beat me like this.” He was thrown by Zhai Chen and fell heavily. His back was full of bruises and his eyes were hurt.

Xiao Ma stepped ahead to beat him, but stopped by Xiao Zhang. “Don’t be impulsive, there are monitors.”

“Turn them off. I’ll beat the shit out of him!” Xiao Ma couldn’t calm himself and was pulled out by Xiao Zhang.

Fang Chuyang, suppressing his anger, said: “Hookers? Do you know that the little girl is under 14? What you did was raping and you can be sent to prison for 8 to 10 years.”

“No way! Her mother said that she’s sixteen!” Luo Quanpei was surprised.

“Her mother,” Fang Chuyang asked, gnashed his teeth in anger, “why does her mother do such a thing?”

Realizing that he had spitted out some clues, Luo Quanpei immediately began to pretend: “I don’t know. Maybe she was short of money.”

The police officer in charge of interrogating Zhao Mengmeng’s mother was also trying to restrain his impulse to hurt people. The woman was totally fascinated by the cult and insisted that she was sending her daughter to be purified and it could save her from her sins.

“She had a twin sister, but her sister didn’t survive. God said that she took her sister’s life and was born with evil in her. She always talks to good-looking young men. She is sinful. If she doesn’t get purified, she will be punished by god.” The woman’s neck was wrapped with bandages, her face was sallow, her eyes looked paranoid, and her words were mean.

“Nonsense!” The officer shivered with anger.

“I’m not trying to harm her, I’ve purified myself!” The woman said righteously, and then bit her teeth fiercely, “This devil! She bit me! She wanted to kill her own mother, isn’t she a devil? If I don’t purify her, she will kill me!”

Luo didn’t cooperate, so Fang Chuyang asked Xiao Ma to lock him up for now. Xiao Ma took the man to a cell, in which sat some strong men who were grinding their teeth to kill some time.

After taking Luo Quanpei in, he cuffed Luo on the rail and scolded: “molest a little girl and rape women by means of heresy. If you are so resourceful, you should be ok to be locked like this and squat all through the night!” After that, Ma Tianxing left.

The gangsters waited for the police officer to leave, and then looked at the guy who hung on the rail like a chicken with wings tied. A strong man with gauze wrapped around his head and tattooes on his arms walked over and kicked him: “Yo, a cult head, huh? Deceives women and hurts children?”

Luo Quanpei looked up and shivered. The people in this room did not look like good guys. He smiled obsequiously, “No, it’s not like that. I was arrested for whoring.”

“Do you think I believe it?” the tattooed guy laughed, “Guys, we got our entertainment tonight.”

No fight in this room, the police would notice. But there’s always other ways to punish people.

Mr. Gao, who was also locked up, didn’t understand how things turned out to be so dramatic. The young hippies who were threatening them have given them a place to sit on the ground and listened to Zhai Chen’s talking tall.

“When I was your age, I was in charge of all three blocks in the old town.” These are the stories that Zhai Chen heard from other gangsters when he was doing his homework. This kind of story can never be boring for teenagers.

“Really? How did you take money from people there?” A mohawk boy didn’t believe it. The old town is the most difficult place for them to develop.

“I threatened them, mostly, sometimes physical to keep them tamed. And it should be done with a good plan. Let’s say… There was this dude who sold duck neck. He got up at 5 o’clock every morning to deal with his ingredients. The marinade was prepared the first day, and the first batch of duck neck could be ready at 11 o’clock. If I want to threaten him, I would either mess with his marinade in the morning, or mess with his duck neck at noon. Destroying his money box in the evening is also a good choice. In a word, whatever that makes him feel awful. And then he would pay me as told next time.” Zhai Chen’s words were reasonable and those gangsters listened very carefully, as if this was a valuable lesson for them.

Gao Yusheng listened, and was surprised. This guy had bought duck neck for Fang Chuyang so many times that he knew the owner’s daily routine.

Zhai Chen, who is mainly responsible for carrying things, bodyguarding and looking for business, finally had a chance to give lectures to the young. From how to win a group fight, the management of gangdom to the importance of learning technology.

“It was a good guild until that master who came back from a university overseas brought it to collapse. I didn’t know what to do, so I went to learn how to run a excavator,” Zhai Chen said profoundly. “Knowledge is power, kids. It’s better to pick up a skill, otherwise any intellectual could easily destroy you gang before you figure out how things work.”

The police who came to free the two were stunned at the door. It took a long time for them to come back to their senses and ask Mr. Zhai to go out.

“You two are free to go.” The police coldly let them out and gave Gao Yusheng back the bag of 100000 yuan. In order to avoid any kind of retaliation, the police will not give any reward to them for now. Instead, they treated them as cult believers and offered criticism and education.

“We won’t get involved with cult ever again.” Zhai Chen promised, holding on to the policeman who was going to leave. “Officer, how is that little girl?”

“She’s in the hospital, there’s physical injuries, just mental instability.” The officer sighed.

“Can we go see her?” Zhai Chen couldn’t stop worrying.

“No.” The officer said without hesitation, refused to allow anyone who had anything to do with the cult to know the whereabouts of the little girl.

Zhai Chen had nothing to do but to give up. He could only turn to Fang chuyang later. He walked out of the police station slowly with his hands on Mr. Gao’s shoulder, and thought of the little girl with the same name as his nephew. He was still a little upset: “Tell me, how can there be such a mother, pushing her child into the pit?”

“Not all parents love their children.” Gao Yusheng looked up at the sky. The moon was big and round as a disk, dimmed all the stars.

Zhai Chen looked at him under the moonlight and frowned: “You… ”

“What you just said…Is it true?” Gao Yusheng drew back his sight and led him to the side of the road.

“Just now? Ha, it’s for the kid, don’t take that seriously.” Zhai Chen laughed. He held Gao’s shoulder and jumped onto Gao’s back, floppy.

Gao Yusheng’s back froze and he went silent for a second, as if he was wondering whether to ask Zhai to get off his back. After a while, he started to walk again, with Zhai on his back: “That excavator thing is fake, too?”

“That part is true,” Zhai Chen didn’t want to lie to Tian Ci. “among all the lies. I’m not exaggerating, but I was pretty good with excavators, I could make run on walls in my best days. I have the license in my hand and no one ever found any faults on me when I was with an excavator.”

“…”

Fang Chuyang went back home at midnight, searched several rooms, and found the Zhai, who suffered night blindness, standing in the corner of the balcony: “Why are you smoking?”

Zhai Chen used to like smoking when he was driving excavators on construction sites. Then he quit smoking because of the children. It had been years since the last time there’s cigarettes in the house.

“I’m upset because I can’t see the night scene.” Zhai Chen sat in the bamboo recliner left by Zhai Jianguo, one foot on the top of the railing, smoked a heavy one and slowly let it out through his nose.

“Is this the first day you know that you’re blind at night?” Fang Chuyang gave Zhai an eye and took the cigarette box, lit one himself. “That son of a bitch, Luo, wouldn’t tell us who the culthead is, and he doesn’t know who are those executioners. Your man, Tian Ci, is in great danger these days. Tell him not to go anywhere high.”

“My man? How can you be so sure?” Zhai Chen lit another cigarette after the last one and blew a smoke ring.

“He,” Fang Chuyang sneered, “I know you too well. If it’s not for sure, why are you doing this night eye thing here?”

“Hey, don’t look down upon a poet who drives excavators,” Zhai Chen kicked him and sighed wistfully. “I used to look forward to finding him, I used to worry about him, but now I find him, I dare not tell him who I am.”

“Are you on a TV play? So dramatic.” Fang didn’t understand his logic. “It’s nothing embarrassing. It’s not like that acknowledging your relationship with him would do any harm to his reputation.”

“It’s not that. I always thought that he was a child from an ordinary family. Who knows that his family is so rich? Now he owns a big company. He doesn’t need me anymore. Those things are not good memories for him anyway… There must be a reason for his mother to keep me away from him back then…” Zhai Chen kept murmuring for a while, but he didn’t get a clue. He kicked Fang Chuyang again because he’s upset. “Say something. I can’t even get a response from you. What’s the use!”

“Fuck off!” Fang Chuyang, who was going to comfort him, suddenly ran out of patience after the kick. “Keep it to yourself, die upsetting.”

Zhai Chen finished the cigarette gloomily: “The night not only gave me black eyes, but also gave me an evil brother. It’s all so miserable.”

“…” Fang thought that he’s definitely gonna be sick of this asshole sooner or later.

Zhai Chen for the night, and those cult believers for the day.

After a good treat from his cellmate, Luo Quanpei was drooping and finally gave the police some intel. The main purpose of their den is to give the believers a place for repentance and sacrifice. If you or your relatives did something wrong, you need to repent in front of god. If you want something from god, then you need to sacrifice.

The repentance and the sacrifice is actually the same. You can offer some money, if you haven’t any, you can offer something else.

“What do you mean something else?” Fang Chuyang knocked on the table to remind him to be honest and unreservedly.

“Those supplicants your subordinates have told us everything, so you better be honest. If there’s anything wrong, we have more than enough time for you.” Xiao Ma threatened him.

“Real estates, cas, or… Women.” Luo Quanpei gave in.

Fang Chuyang took a deep breath: “So, Wang Jinghang, Zhou Yufen and Yuan Xiaoai gave you money and made sacrifices?”

“What Zhou Yufen gave us was money. I don’t know about Wang Jinghang and Yuan Xiaoai. They were dealt with by the star master himself.” Luo Quanpei said in a low voice, hurriedly adding, “I have nothing to do with those three things. I only know a little bit. Officer, my lechery’s the only thing, I didn’t do anything unforgivable. Those women had sex with me under their own free will. That little girl was forced by her mother, I didn’t know that she didn’t want to! ”

“How about the 100,000 yuan? Isn’t that a fraud?” Xiao Ma wanted to beat him again.

“That donation was their own choice. Don’t pilgrims often donate money in the temple? He insisted on giving it to me. What can I do?” Luo started to be unreasonable again.

“It’s up to the judge whether it’s illegal. According to the current situation, If you are convicted, you will be sentenced to an indefinite term for defrauding money, raping women, abetting murder by heresy. If it is verified that there were acts of coercion against women and young girls, then you’ll be sentenced to death.” Fang Chuyang arranged the intel and told him without expressions.

“I didn’t instigate murder! I just collect money, god knows that I have never forced anyone!” Luo Quanpei got really nervous when he heard this. “The killing is under the command of the star master. I haven never talked to those executioners!”

“Who is the star master? If you help us to find him, you can get a commutation.” Fang Chuyang gave Xiao Ma a hint to hand the pen and paper to Luo.

Luo Quanpei looked at the paper in his hand, took the pen, and then put it down: “I don’t know.”

“You are the confidant in charge of collecting money, don’t you know?” Xiao Ma knocked on the table.

“I really have no clue.” Luo Quanpei looked like that he’s ready to die for the secret.

“Let’s call it the day. Send him back.” Fang Chuyang stood up.

“Wait a minute, can you put me in another cell?” Luo immediately started to struggle, shouting and screaming to avoid going back.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no other cell left.” In line with the principle of punishing the bad, Xiao Ma told him gently.

“Well, I’ll tell you.” Luo Quanpei sat back and buried his face in his hand for a long time. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s that I can’t. I have an old mother in her seventies and a son in his seventeen. If I told you, my family would get killed.”

In fact, the high-level members of a cult are actually fully aware that the cult is a lie. They have their clear purposes, either for money or for sex. Luo refused to tell on the star master, not out of faith, but for fear of retribution from the executioners.

“Your son is seventeen and you put your hands on a sixteen-year-old girl? Shame on you!” Xiao Ma gave him a push and was stopped by Xiao Zhang.

“No one will know that it’s you who tell on them.” Fang Chuyang gave them a tip to turn off the monitors.

“Vice-captain?” Those outside weren’t sure about it.

“Turn them off, both the video and audio recorder.” Fang Chuyang said firmly. With the disappearance of the weak current sound, the whole room fell into silence. “Can you say now?”

Luo Quanpei scratched his head in this dilemma and lowered his head in silence. After half an hour, he said in a hoarse voice, “I can only tell you that you’ve seen this man before.”

Luo Quanpei gave the intel the police wanted and didn’t have to go back to the arms of his “cell-mates”’ .He was kept in solitary confinement. And the criminal police team was involved in a discussion of who the star master could be.

First of all, this man is definitely not the five star envoies who have been caught. Other people known by the police are Wang Jinghang, Zhou Yufen, yuan Xiaoai, the parents of the deceased Wang Qiang, the parents of the deceased Li Ting, Li Ting’s best friend Xu Jiao, Gao Yusheng, who is keen to provide clues and Zhai Chen, who is unexpectedly involved…

There are too many people involved and the police don’t know where to start.

“Gao Yusheng is suspicious. He seems to know everything.” Chen Zhaohui tried to reason with his unwise brain.

“Come on, raid his own den. It’s either you or he is insane” Fang Chuyang rolled up the documents and beat him in the head. “I don’t know if I can find the ready-made evidence. Isn’t there the voice of the star master in the audio provided by a citizen?”

“Yes!” All the people were inspired, and quickly found out the audio.

“Once the punishment begins, it is unstoppable.”

It’s a voice of a middle-aged man, the tone raised slightly at the end. It sounds sophisticated and arrogant.

“Cai Wandai!” Wang Jinghang’s uncle, the former village head of Caizhuang, who took 500000 cash and said to use it on his son’s wedding!

“Let’s go arrest Cai Wandai now!”

At the end of the week, the news briefing of punctuation map was held on the 16th floor of Minton hotel.

The 16th floor is the characteristic venue of Minton Hotel, extending more than ten meters. It goes out from the main body of the building and made it a boundless swimming pool built in the mid air. There is also leisure space beside the pool in which people can enjoy the view.

Zhai Chen, wearing the new bodyguard suit provided by Gao, looked around the venue, frowning. Half of this hall’s in the building and another half extending out. There is no guardrail on the edge. There is only a small platform less than two meters squared below the swimming pool and the leisure area.

“Why here? We told you not to be anywhere high!” Zhai Chen pulled Gao Yusheng, who dressed very handsome today, aside and scolded him in a low voice.

“The reservation was made a month ago,” Gao said innocently. “Don’t worry, I told you they won’t do it in the daytime.”

“Are you the star master? Do they listen to you?” The bodyguard was very angry at this disobedient client. Zhai Chen stopped talking to him and called the hotel manager to arrange safety protection around the swimming pool. The manager said there was no hidden danger. Even if a guest fell down accidentally, they fell on the platform.

“I’m not talking about accidents. What if someone got pushed or thrown?” Zhai Chen pointed at the narrow platform.

“Sir, you’re joking, right?. Isn’t that a murder?” The hotel manager couldn’t understand Zhai Chen’s concerns.

“Yes. And I’m so frustrated that I could use some killing right now!”

☞

☞

Like this:Like Loading...

Related