Chapter 83

The next day, in the Huiren Hall of Zhongnanhai, the core of the People's Republic, a group of elderly men, all in their seventies and eighties, gathered here after nearly a year. The "Central Advisory Commission" had been dissolved after the 14th National Congress in October 1992. Today, these former "Standing Members of the Central Advisory Commission" had gathered not for any other reason but to discuss the conflict between Jia Hongjian and Wang Hongcheng. These elderly men, though they no longer held any official positions or even the title of "adviser," each had a name that could be found in the history books of the People's Republic. Under each of their names, there would be a description like, "His life was a glorious and combative one; he was an outstanding proletarian revolutionary and an excellent leader of our party."

"Now, I will preside over the meeting. Everyone has seen today's special issue of the 'Internal Reference Supplement,' right? Next, please share your thoughts," an elderly man with a Shanxi accent said first. This elderly man had once been raided by his third son during the ten years of turmoil, and this unfilial son would later gain some fame in a southwestern province.

"I think this young Jia Hongjian... his fighting spirit is a bit too strong, isn't it? The article he wrote is almost like pointing fingers at certain people in the central government? And the scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences haven't even spoken yet, but this young man is already so furious. There's something odd about this, isn't there?" an elderly man with a Sichuan accent, who was tall, said.

"Old Zhang, a strong fighting spirit is a good thing, isn't it? It's better than those educated youth who, after returning to the city, only write about their scars and cry all day, showing no ambition. This young man is just like his father; when he sees something that bothers him, he speaks up. Would those educated youth dare to do that? When faced with injustice, all they do is cry and complain about how much they've been hurt. What else can they do?"

An elderly man with a face that somewhat resembled a hawk, and who looked a bit like Andy Lau, then said, "Alright, I think it's time to wrap things up. We deliberately took a step back to lure the snake out of its hole. Now that this young Jia has taken the bait, it's time to warn those young people below. Otherwise, the team will fall apart..."

A round-faced, short elderly man then said, "Old Chen is right, I see it the same way. Let's vote on this." Seeing his old colleagues and comrades raise their hands, the round-faced elderly man continued, "But this Jia kid seems quite talented. At just fifteen, he wrote that analysis of the future situation, and apparently, he did it all by himself... He just has a bit of a bad temper, but that's understandable. At his age, to have such talent, if he didn't have a bad temper or act arrogantly, that would be strange..."

As these elderly men talked and laughed, they decided the course of many people's lives.

At this moment, the subject of their conversation, Jia Hongjian, was sitting in a Changhe minivan, heading north, with handcuffs on his wrists. He looked at the handcuffs curiously. These handcuffs were different from the usual ones seen on TV, which locked around the wrists. Instead, they were two very small handcuffs with reverse teeth and a small steel bar.

These two small handcuffs were locked around Jia Hongjian's two thumbs, and the reverse teeth inside the handcuffs were deeply embedded in the flesh, making it impossible to separate his hands too much. "Comrade police officer, where did you get these handcuffs? Can you give them to me as a souvenir when I get out?" Jia Hongjian asked the middle-aged police officer who was monitoring him.

Before the middle-aged police officer could respond, the young police officer driving the car was annoyed. "Hey, do you think we're taking you on a field trip?" "Xiao Zhang!" The middle-aged police officer interrupted the young police officer, then turned to look at Jia Hongjian and smiled. "We haven't updated our equipment yet. These are old handcuffs from the 1950s and 1960s. Now, only cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern coastal areas have new handcuffs. According to regulations, we can't give them to you, but if you can convince the higher-ups, you might get them..."

Seeing the middle-aged police officer being so polite to Jia Hongjian through the rearview mirror, the young police officer was puzzled. He couldn't understand why his usually tough senior was being so friendly. Just as he was wondering, the middle-aged police officer said, "Isn't it uncomfortable for you to wear these handcuffs? Do you want me to take them off? But don't try to jump out of the car, or I won't be able to explain it."

"That would be great!" Jia Hongjian smiled and extended his hands. After the handcuffs were removed, he rubbed his red thumbs and started chatting with the middle-aged police officer, first about football and Schappel, then about the future professional football league. His relaxed demeanor made it seem like he was on a school trip rather than being arrested across provinces, which really annoyed the young police officer.

After a couple of hours, Jia Hongjian, who had been chatting enthusiastically with the middle-aged police officer, suddenly said, "Hey, sir, can we stop for a moment? I really need to go to the bathroom..." "Hold it!" the young police officer shouted angrily. "Xiao Zhang, stop the car," the middle-aged police officer unexpectedly said.

When Jia Hongjian got out of the car to relieve himself, the young police officer got out and walked to the middle-aged police officer, who was still monitoring Jia Hongjian, and asked, puzzled, "Brother Li, why are you being so polite to him? He's a criminal, and we're the police. Why are you treating him like a civilian?"

"You!" Old Li smiled at Xiao Zhang, "Look at how relaxed he is. Have you ever thought about why he's so relaxed? When something is abnormal, it's usually a sign of something. He's so relaxed because he must have a backup plan. There must be someone in Shanghai protecting him. To put it bluntly, do you know who he's connected to? In the worst case, we might be stopped a few kilometers down the road, and we'll be ordered to release him... Why would we want to be so aggressive? Is it because we're too comfortable and need some excitement?"

Xiao Zhang was taken aback. He had been in the police force for less than a year, and he hadn't learned about these subtleties in police school. "He... he has connections?" He pointed at Jia Hongjian, who was urinating, and asked in a low voice, "Even if he has connections, shouldn't we still do our job properly...?"

"Naive!" Old Li laughed, "Haven't you noticed? He's going head-to-head with Wang Hongcheng. Would you dare to do that at his age? No, right! If you don't have the skills, why would you take on such a challenge? The fact that he's challenging Wang Hongcheng proves that he has a background. We're just small fish. Why should we get involved in a fight between gods? It's better for everyone to be friendly. We treat him politely, complete the task safely, and avoid making him our enemy. Even if he can't deal with Wang Hongcheng, it would be easy for him to deal with us."

Old Li, now in the mood to talk, continued to educate the young officer, "Don't think I'm being too worldly or smooth. Do you know Big Wang from the traffic police? He's just a regular traffic cop. One night, he was on duty and saw a man riding a smuggled Yamaha motorcycle at over 100 km/h. The rider took a turn poorly and crashed, falling to the ground, bleeding. When Big Wang approached, the rider immediately took out his mobile phone to make a call. Big Wang, seeing this, quickly said, 'Bro, don't make the call. I won't give you a ticket. I'll call an ambulance for you...' In the end, Big Wang even led the ambulance on his motorcycle. He didn't give the rider a ticket or impound the motorcycle..."

Jia Hongjian, who was urinating, didn't know what the two police officers were discussing. He wasn't nervous at all; in fact, he was quite excited, looking forward to the "surprise" Wang Hongcheng would give him. The bigger the surprise Wang Hongcheng gave him, the bigger the "surprise" he would give back to Wang Hongcheng! Jia Hongjian wasn't a nobody who could be bullied. Even without considering Ye Jing, there was still Old Luo. Even if Ye Jing couldn't help him, Old Luo wouldn't just stand by and watch him be mistreated.

Even if Old Luo could only get him out of trouble and couldn't help him deal with Wang Hongcheng on the spot, Jia Hongjian, relying on his own intelligence and skills, was determined to take down Wang Hongcheng. If he couldn't retaliate against a semi-literate who was expelled from school in the fourth grade, he might as well kill himself!

A day later, after driving for 2,500 kilometers, the group arrived in Harbin, Heilongjiang. After getting out of the car, Jia Hongjian was taken directly to an interrogation room by the local police, who seemed to want to mislead and trick him into confessing.

"Name?"

"Jia Hongjian."

"Age?"

"Fifteen years old."

"Why did you defame and slander Wang Hongcheng's invention?"

"Because his invention is fake."

"So you wanted to sabotage the verification test, ruin Wang Hongcheng's cooperation with other companies, and prevent other companies from investing in Wang Hongcheng, right?"

"No, I just wanted to expose his fraud. I didn't intend to harm his economic interests..."

***

In early 1990s TV shows and movies, I've seen those old-style handcuffs, but they were used by police in the northwest. I don't know if the police in the northeast used them, but I wrote it this way to give everyone a taste of something new. Please support me with votes and collections!

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