Bird on Fire Chapter 10

"I, I, we..." Grant Gu was so angry that he became a little anxious.

Feng Kai waved his hand to interrupt him and said, "Do you know that our Public Security Bureau now has advanced technology? We used technical means to determine that he had been to your home."

"If you say there is, then there is? I said no." Mao Tyler Tao still had a contemptuous expression.

Feng Kai put his hands on his waist, lowered his head and sighed, then stretched out his hand, which was now holding a pair of handcuffs. Feng Kai handcuffed Mao Tyler Tao to the tree in the yard without saying a word. Then he picked up a broken bowl from the corner of the yard and walked out of the yard. This sudden change made Grant Gu suddenly confused. Facing Mao Tyler Tao's violent struggle and cursing, Grant Gu did not dare to look at him and stood aside at a loss.

Feng Kai walked out of the yard, put some soil in a bowl, and used snow water to mix the soil into a paste. He stood at the door and listened to Mao Tyler Tao's scolding become quieter, then he walked into the yard with a smile.

"Hey, brother." Feng Kai walked up to Mao Tyler Tao and said, "You can see that we are new here and don't know any interrogation techniques. We only know a method taught by our predecessors. If you meet someone who doesn't tell the truth, just pour manure on his face, just like pouring manure on vegetables, and that person will definitely tell the truth. I haven't tried it either, so I don't know if it's just like pouring manure on the head. Let's try it today."

As he spoke, Feng Kai shook the yellow paste in the bowl. Grant Gu felt something was wrong and tried to reach out to stop him, but Feng Kai glared back at him.

Mao Tyler Tao's face turned pale instantly. He must be most afraid of meeting such a foolish young man. Not to mention that it doesn't make sense, even if it does make sense, there is no way to talk to such a person.

"No, no, I'll tell you, I'll tell you." Mao Tyler Tao broke down in a second and confessed, "He came, but I had no money, so I lent him two dollars."

"Don't be in a hurry, don't be in a hurry, talk slowly." Feng Kai sat down, put the clay bowl aside, hugged his knees and stared at Mao Tyler Tao with a smile.

"He said he got into trouble and had to run away." Mao Tyler Tao's arrogance was gone. "He asked me to borrow money, but I had no money to give him, so I gave him two yuan. He said two yuan was not enough to take a bus back to his hometown, so I said, you should find a way to walk to Longdong County. The long-distance buses in Longdong County are cheap, and two yuan is enough."

"Where is his hometown?"

"It seems to be Qingxiang City."

"Got it." Feng Kai opened the handcuffs contentedly, pointed to the bicycle in the yard, and said, "We have requisitioned your bicycle. You can go to the Public Security Bureau to get it back in a few days. I will consider it as making up for your mistake. We won't tell your unit about it."

Without waiting for Mao Tyler Tao's consent, Feng Kai got on the bicycle, asked Grant Gu to sit on the cargo rack, and pedaled the bicycle. The bicycle sprang out, leaving Mao Tyler Tao in the yard, rubbing his wrist and shouting, "Hey, take that disgusting thing with you too."

After leaving the yard, Grant Gu felt a little uneasy. He grabbed Feng Kai's police uniform in the back seat and asked in a low voice: "Does this count as a confession under torture? My father told me that confessions under torture are not good."

Feng Kai laughed and said, "It can be considered torture at best, but not forced confession. I tell you, as a police officer, you have to trust your instincts. If you know he's lying, use the simplest method to get him to tell the truth, and that won't count as a mistake."

In fact, what Feng Kai was thinking at this time was, this era is so great!

Grant Gu lowered his head and thought, seeming to feel that Feng Kai's theory was not very tenable.

"Holmes, do you know? Intuition! Intuition is very important!" Feng Kai added, "We have to go back to the bureau first and notify Longdong County to set up control at the bus station. At this time, there is no security check at the station."

"Security check?"

"Ah, it's a security check and body search." Feng Kai explained.

"Body search? How can that be possible? You can't just search someone casually."

...

When we got back to the bureau, Mark Chief was already sitting in his office. He was very happy after listening to Feng Kai's report: "Not bad, we found a clue so quickly. I will call the county bureau and Qingxiang City Bureau and ask them to set up surveillance on the long-distance bus. By the way, we know who the gun belongs to. It's a comrade from the forest farm security department. He drank at night, and his wife wouldn't let him in, so he could only sleep in the small bungalow in the yard. He put the gun on a stool, and when we called him to get up, he didn't know that his gun was lost. However, this man didn't have any money in his pocket, and Duan Qiang didn't steal the money, otherwise he would have run far away, and how could we catch him."

Feng Kai was somewhat indignant, thinking that the modern prohibition of alcohol and strict control of guns were all caused by these bad apples. The extreme irresponsibility of these people made it impossible for the police to carry guns with them, and their lives would be affected.

"They must be punished, severely punished," Feng Kai said.

"Of course." Mark Chief said, "I'll go set up surveillance first. You guys take a break. When I tell you, you can prepare to ride to Longdong County."

It was long after dawn when Mark Chief knocked on Feng Kai's dormitory door.

"Oh, you two are living here now?" Mark Chiefko said with a worried look on his face, but he didn't slow down. "We have started to deploy surveillance, but it may not be effective, because they say that some long-distance bus drivers stop at any time to pick up passengers in order to make private money. In other words, as long as Duan Qiang encounters a long-distance bus that wants to make private money on the road, he can take the bus and leave."

"Making private money?" Feng Kai asked, and then he realized that there was no Mark Chiefet economy yet, and long-distance buses were all state-owned, so making private money was illegal.

"What should we do then?" Feng Kai asked.

"There's nothing we can do. You can just look for him along the way and try your luck," said Mark Chief. "They say young people are hot-tempered and have good luck. If you have any clues, please find a nearby phone number and call us. As for the others, I've arranged to go to Longdong and Qingxiang to see if we can find him."

"Okay, let's go by bike." Feng Kai said, "This is Mao Tyler Tao's bike. After all, it belongs to ordinary people and was requisitioned temporarily. When can you get us two bikes?"

"If you can catch the person, I'll take care of the bicycle." Mark Chief said, patting his chest.

Feng Kai was just feeling happy, but then his heart sank as he thought to himself how come he had managed to lead Grant Gu in such a useless way.

Feng Kai rode his bicycle with Grant Gu, contentedly heading for Longdong County. Two policemen in blue uniforms, one holding the other's waist, riding on the same bicycle, would have been a hot topic the next day if it happened in modern times. Feng Kai thought that people of this era were really capable, after all, the county town was more than 20 kilometers long, and they could just ride a bicycle there. Grant Gu, on the other hand, was full of longing, and kept muttering along the way: "Can you really give us bicycles?"

Although the sky was clear, there was still some snow on the ground. Riding a bicycle in the snow really tests one's skills. After nearly falling several times, the two of them rode crookedly for two hours. At around eleven o'clock, they finally rode to a remote village ten kilometers away from the city.

The village was not big, but there was a farmhouse on the side of the road. They had set up a few tables in their yard, which looked like a restaurant. Feng Kai and Grant Gu were thirsty at this time, so they were going to go to the villager's house to get a bowl of water. When they walked to the door, they found a middle-aged couple who seemed to be in a hurry. Seeing that they wanted to say something but stopped, they just went to get water without saying a word.

"This family is so big that they need so many tables for dining." said Grant Gu.

"How can it be a family dinner?" Feng Kai thought Grant Gu was cute and silly, but he was quick-witted. He thought, in this era, private restaurants were not allowed, but farmers who lived on the roadside could make a little money by bribing car drivers to stop here at lunch or dinner time, and entertaining passengers on long-distance buses. These were all done secretly, so of course they would be very secretive when they saw the police.

When the middle-aged couple came out with the water, Feng Kai pointed at a few tables and said, "I know what you do."

The middle-aged couple's faces changed color instantly, and their hands holding the water bowl began to tremble, splashing the boiling water. They said, "No, no, no, public security comrades, you misunderstood."

"But don't be nervous. This has nothing to do with us." Feng Kai waved his hand to interrupt them and said, "I saw that you looked panicked just now. Is there something wrong? For example, did you lose something?"

The middle-aged man glanced at his wife, probably admiring the police officer's foresight. He thought for a moment and said, "Yes, we lost our bicycle."

Bicycles were expensive at the time, and even a "second-generation official" like Grant Gu dreamed of owning his own bicycle, so losing a bicycle was no small matter. However, the middle-aged couple didn't know what to do because they ran a private restaurant and felt guilty.

Feng Kai suddenly realized and whispered to Grant Gu: "If we let Duan Qiang walk to Longdong County, the 20-odd kilometers in between are all wasteland. There are no other families except this one. What if he wants to be lazy?"

Grant Gu also made an expression of sudden enlightenment and said, "This is the only way from the city to the county. I want to see the scene!"

"Our bicycle is different from others. I painted it green when I bought it," said the middle-aged man. "The bicycles on the street are all black, but I painted mine green so it's easier to find."

"Look at this flower bed." Grant Gu pulled Feng Kai to look at the traces. But Feng Kai didn't have the patience to look at any traces, so he said: "No, tell me the result."

"Indeed, it was Duan Qiang who came in by climbing over the wall." Grant Gu said.

"He also drank three bottles of beer." The middle-aged man said, "Who would drink so much beer in one go in such a cold weather?"

"After running ten kilometers, I can drink it." Feng Kai smiled and said, "It seems that we can call the old man and ask him to find a green 28-bar bicycle. This is a shortcut."

"Don't be in a hurry, public security comrade, we have lunch here, you can just eat a little before leaving." The middle-aged man was grateful to Feng Kai for seeing through the situation without saying anything, so he said politely.

"No, no, our Communist Party has three major disciplines and eight points of attention. We will not take a single needle or thread from the masses." Feng Kai said, puffing out his chest.

Grant Gu rolled his eyes at Feng Kai and thought: Where did you get your bicycle?

Before Feng Kai finished speaking, the middle-aged man stared into the distance, stunned. Feng Kai was curious and looked in the direction he was looking. A long-distance bus, with luggage on the roof, was approaching the courtyard. It seemed that the driver had a private appointment with the middle-aged man and drove the car over during lunch time.

Of course, it wasn't the long-distance bus that stunned the man. Even Feng Kai saw a green 28-inch truck on the roof of the bus.

"Then, is it yours?" Feng Kai touched the pistol on his waist and said, "How come it was stolen and returned?"

"It's mine, definitely mine. Maybe the thief is in the car." said the man.

The car had already arrived at the gate of the courtyard. The driver seemed to see two police officers in the courtyard, so he suddenly braked hard, as if he wanted to reverse and escape. Feng Kai took out his pistol and fired a shot into the sky. The car then stalled, and two people jumped out of the other side of the car and ran away. Because of the obstruction of the car body, Feng Kai did not see clearly where the two people jumped from. Fortunately, he had a smart head and knew that the criminals had no accomplices. The other person who escaped was a long-distance bus driver who was carrying private passengers. After seeing the police, the driver escaped from the cab, and Duan Qiang escaped from the window.

"Duan Qiang, don't run!" Feng Kai yelled.

One of the men in black cotton clothes staggered as he shouted. Feng Kai saw him, locked onto his target, and turned to the middle-aged man and said, "Brother, find a phone and call the Public Security Bureau, pick up the extension of the Criminal Investigation Division, and tell them to come to your village to arrest someone."

I don’t know if there is a telephone in this village, and whether the middle-aged man can call for reinforcements, but Feng Kai knows that if he doesn’t catch Duan Qiang now, he will run away again.

Duan Qiang was obviously unfamiliar with the village environment. He ran around like a headless fly and couldn't shake off Feng Kai and Grant Gu who were following him. Finally, Duan Qiang was forced onto a small hill by the two of them. Because there was a fence more than two people high on the hill to prevent wild animals from entering the village, Duan Qiang, who was exhausted at this time, couldn't climb over the fence at all. He could only find a big rock to hide behind and fired a shot at Feng Kai and his men. Of course, the shot was inaccurate, but it also scared Feng Kai and made him shrink his head.

Feng Kai saw that Duan Qiang was at the end of his rope, so he winked at Grant Gu, and the two of them found two large rocks to hide behind, forming a triangle with Duan Qiang. This was the standard formation for encirclement and pincer attack that they had learned at the Ministry of Public Security Police Cadre School.

"Hey, surrender, I'm here, you can't run away." Feng Kai shouted, "You only have two magazines, ten bullets, and now there are only seven left. How long can you hold out?"

After saying that, Feng Kai leaned over and fired two shots at the rock where Duan Qiang was hiding, and the bullets splashed and stone chips flew everywhere. But Duan Qiang did not show any weakness and immediately fired two shots at him. Feng Kai secretly said that it was really exciting, this was what it felt like to be a policeman.

"Stop showing off! If I hadn't gotten on the wrong bus, how could you have caught me?" Duan Qiang shouted hysterically.

Feng Kai couldn't help laughing, thinking Duan Qiang was a fool. He stopped a car on the way without asking where it was going. He saw the words "Longfan to Qingxiang" on the car and got on it stupidly. He didn't expect that the car was from Qingxiang to Longfan. For some reason, the car took him back to the hotel where he stole the bicycle.

"There is still one magazine left." Feng Kai continued to stimulate Duan Qiang psychologically.

"One magazine is enough to kill you." Duan Qiang is like a cooked duck - he is still stubborn.

Feng Kai did not show any weakness and fired two more shots, which induced Duan Qiang to fire back two more shots. However, no matter how much Feng Kai provoked Duan Qiang, Duan Qiang did not fire again, after all, he knew that he only had three bullets left.

The two sides were deadlocked on the hillside. Grant Gu imitated Feng Kai and fired a few shots, but Duan Qiang ignored him.

The gunshots had a side effect. In this era, most people had never experienced war, but their curiosity remained undiminished. Grant Gu was surprised to find that some villagers began to gather at the bottom of the hill to watch the excitement.

"There are people down there, they are all within range." Grant Gu was a little anxious, "The Type 54 pistol is lethal within a hundred meters."

Feng Kai didn't notice this. He was concentrating on observing Duan Qiang's position to prevent him from taking the opportunity to escape.

"Go away! It's dangerous! Go away!" Grant Gu shouted to the onlookers dozens of meters away on the hillside.

I don’t know if Grant Gu’s voice was not loud enough or the crowd did not realize the danger, but dozens of people were standing below, talking and laughing, while looking up the hillside. Some people were even holding children who were several years old.

"Go away, oh." Grant Gu was impatient, but after all, the onlookers were dozens of meters away from him. Grant Gu didn't know what to do and could only hope that Duan Qiang would stop shooting randomly.

After a long while, Feng Kai heard the sound of a car behind him and knew that reinforcements had arrived.

"Reinforcements are coming, with our jeep and an ambulance." Grant Gu shouted.

"Yes, it seems that the restaurant owner felt guilty and actually found the phone." Feng Kai said as he fired all the bullets in the magazine to suppress Duan Qiang and provide time for evacuating the crowd.

"Nowadays, every village has a post office, and where there is a post office, there is a telephone." Grant Gu felt relieved when he saw Mark Chief and several colleagues jumped out of the car and began to evacuate the onlookers.

But before they could feel relieved, they became anxious. Because a child from an unknown family suddenly ran out from the chaotic crowd that the police were evacuating and ran towards them. Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters, the child was already in a very dangerous situation.

"Be careful!" Grant Gu didn't care about anything else. He leaped towards the child and used his back to face Duan Qiang, forming a human wall.

At this moment, Duan Qiang, who had been resisting stubbornly, also gave up. He stood up from behind the rock and aimed his gun at Grant Gu. Feng Kai was changing the magazine at this time and had no time to shoot Duan Qiang. Seeing that Grant Gu was in danger, he rushed towards Grant Gu in one step, amid the exclamations of the onlookers.

Just as Feng Kai threw Grant Gu and the child in his arms to the ground, two gunshots rang out. A bullet whizzed past Grant Gu's ear and hit the tree trunk behind him, sparking a burst of burning sawdust. The other bullet pierced Feng Kai's shoulder and flew away.

"You're trying to kill yourself!" Feng Kai rolled over, taking Grant Gu and the child with him, hiding behind a rock and checking his injuries.

Affected by this sudden change, the crowd began to disperse, and the child's mother began to cry and shout dozens of meters away.

Grant Gu didn't know whether he was afraid or angry at this time. His face was pale and his eyes were red. He stood up from behind the stone. Before Feng Kai could stop him, Grant Gu raised his hand and fired two shots.

With a dull sound in the distance, Duan Qiang fell to the ground and rolled out from behind the stone. There was a burst of cheers from the hillside, followed by dense applause.

"Sure, you." Feng Kai confirmed that the child was fine, took the pistol with a changed magazine, and walked towards Duan Qiang.

"Is there a doctor? Doctor!" Feng Kai checked Duan Qiang's injuries and shouted down the hillside, "He was shot in the right chest, but he's still breathing."

Section Mark Chief was the first to run up, took the pistol that Feng Kai had seized, and said, "There are no bullets left. Red Star, you are good, a sharpshooter."

"He didn't hit me. I hit myself." Duan Qiang, who was lying on the ground dying, groaned.

Feng Kai took a closer look and found that there were indeed a lot of gunpowder particles on his clothes, which showed that the shot was indeed fired at a very close distance, not by Grant Gu who was far away. Grant Gu actually missed the target, and it just so happened that his gunshot and Duan Qiang's suicide gunshot were fired at the same time. Duan Qiang was afraid and his hand shook, so the gunshot did not hit the vital parts, so he saved his life.

"Stop talking nonsense and save some strength to save your life." Feng Kai said angrily and amusedly.

At this time, three doctors ran up the hillside, two male doctors carrying a stretcher, followed by a female doctor. Feng Kai looked closely and found that the female doctor was none other than Wang Jinye, who lived next door to him. Feng Kai thought it was over, Grant Gu's heroic act was seen by Wang Jinye, wouldn't she admire Grant Gu even more. But unexpectedly, when Wang Jinye passed by, she glared at Grant Gu fiercely, ignored him, and came directly to bandage Feng Kai's shoulder. Grant Gu came over to say hello to her, but she turned a blind eye.