Qiming Chapter 25

Chapter 25

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After retrieving surveillance footage from the vicinity of the Hongqi neighbourhood overnight, the criminal investigation team interviewed nearby residents. Liu Yan typically came here during the day on Fridays and went to another regular spot on Monday mornings.

Inside the neighbourhood, there was a card room where Liu Yan had a mistress, so he would come to play cards every weekend.

That day happened to be a Friday. Gu Yunfeng posted two people at each of the three exits of the neighbourhood, and he took Xu Chengyue with him to go in and catch Liu Yan directly.

"Is this person dangerous?" 

"I don't know," he shook his head. "In the few years after Liu Yan got out, he was involved in loan sharking and was detained many times for violent debt collection. He was quite ruthless with those who didn't repay their debts. Once, he beat someone so badly that they were covered in blood and couldn't get up from the ground. The forensic assessment didn't even qualify it as minor injuries, and he was released after fifteen days of detention."

Later, he started gambling. He lost all the money he had made from loan sharking and ended up in huge debt, which was listed on the court's dishonesty announcements. After changing his appearance through plastic surgery, he was constantly on the run, hiding from his creditors.

"So... is it necessary for me to wear this?" Xu Chengyue unbuttoned his suit jacket to reveal the vest Gu Yunfeng had forced him to wear. "Is this just two pieces of iron?"

"It's a bulletproof vest."

"Does he have a gun?"

"Probably not, but I told you to wear it, so wear it." He stopped, turned around, and gave him a white-eyed glare. "You insisted on coming along, so don't get hurt and make me responsible."

In front of them was the tightly closed door of the card room, with a sign hanging on it that read, "Business hours: 10 AM to 10 PM."

"Why aren't you wearing a bulletproof vest?"

"I'm tougher than you."

He waved his hand, signalling Xu Chengyue to stay put. He then tiptoed to the window of the card room and peered inside against the backlight. The card room covered about two hundred square metres. With the high housing prices and rent in Nanpu City in recent years, this operating time and such a large space couldn't be sustained solely by recreational card games.

Liu Yan had arrived at the Hongqi neighbourhood at eight in the morning several times. The card room wouldn't be open so early, could he have gone to his mistress's place? Gu Yunfeng knocked on the door a few times, but there was no response. He squatted down and tried to see something through the thin gap under the door. Taking a deep breath, he thought he could smell smoke inside but wasn't sure if it was from last night or if someone was indeed inside.

He found a thin wire and bought a pack of gum from a convenience store, taking out the foil paper and fiddling with the rusty lock.

A minute later, the iron-covered wooden door silently opened. A large amount of second-hand smoke mixed with dust hit his face. He waved his left hand lightly at his nose and signalled Xu Chengyue to come over while pinching his nose.

Xu Chengyue: "Where did you learn that lock-picking skill?"

"From a thief I once arrested," Gu Yunfeng said, tossing the tools into a bin and giving him a warning. "Don't learn it, it's not a good skill."

With that, he pushed the door open and walked in.

The card room, which appeared to be two hundred square metres from the outside, was empty inside. There were a few automatic mahjong tables and card shuffling machines, with a few chairs scattered randomly. He brushed his hand over a surface, coming away with a layer of dust.

No one used it? He frowned, blew the dust off his hand, and walked around the room along the brown wallpapered walls. Although the interior seemed spacious, it didn't look that big. Gu Yunfeng scanned the surroundings. All four walls had uniform wooden skirting boards, except for a nearly one-metre gap on the eastern wall's skirting. He approached this irregularity, knocked on the adjacent wall, and pressed on this section.

The texture felt different; this part of the wall seemed to be made of wood.

"It should be a hidden door, an unexpected find," he whispered to Xu Chengyue. Then he picked up the walkie-talkie and told the five or six people outside the community to come in quickly. He also notified the nearby police station to come over and confiscate some gambling funds.

Xu Chengyue bent down to examine the wall and finally found a small keyhole in the centre of a wallpaper pattern. The lock design was so clever that it was nearly invisible, blending seamlessly with the wallpaper's floral pattern.

The edge of the wooden door was just where the wallpaper seam was, smooth and unobtrusive.

He stood up and tried to push it, but it didn't budge.

"Is there someone inside?"

"There should be." Gu Yunfeng pressed his ear to the door gap, signalling him to step back and make room.

As soon as he stepped back three metres, Gu Yunfeng cracked his knuckles, then without a word, leaned forward and lifted his leg, delivering a heavy kick to the hidden door lock.

In the next second, the deeply hidden but fragile wooden door crashed down, and the room filled with the stench of smoke, making it difficult for them to keep their eyes open.

Crowd gamblers didn't even bother installing a better door. Gu Yunfeng covered his mouth and nose, his right hand resting on his sidearm. He thought for a moment, realising that even the door Professor Xu had installed in his own house, which was pretty decent, was gone just like that.

In the small room of less than thirty square metres were several slot machines from who knows when, surrounded by a dozen or so men with rat-like features and sinister looks. When they saw the hidden door being suddenly kicked open, a few of them dropped their chips, staring in surprise at the two young men who had barged in. More people ignored the commotion, still holding cash and shouting to continue playing.

A burly man, dark-skinned and covered in tattoos, swaggered over, holding an iron rod. He grabbed Xu Chengyue by the collar, shouting loudly, "Who are you guys busting in here? And dressed like a beast in human clothing..."

Before he could swing the stick in his hand, Gu Yunfeng instantly controlled his wrist, bending his fingers back and dislocating his wrist. The next second, as he gritted his teeth to fight back against the sharp pain, he heard the sound of a bullet being chambered, and a cold gun barrel pressed directly against his temple, veins bulging.

"Stop shouting. Where's Liu Yan? Tell him to come out."

"What the hell are you poking me with?" The burly man glanced up in confusion, saw the muzzle rise by a centimetre, and immediately let go, nearly collapsing to his knees.

"Handsome guy, ah no, Hero, calm down, calm down," he stammered. "Liu Yan, I don't know Liu Yan. The people who come here, I don't know their names either."

"We don't register IDs, right?"

Gu Yunfeng didn't respond, his sharp gaze sweeping over the dozen or so people in the room, who were still in a state of shock, probably because they hadn't gambled much and hadn't been caught before.

"Professor Xu, do you recognise which one is Liu Yan?"

Xu Chengyue shook his head, staring at the gun in his hand. "Your gun... what if it accidentally fires?"

"Don't worry, the safety is on," he whispered.

Liu Yan had been frequently changing his appearance since he fell into heavy debt. He had seen him on surveillance footage, and although he had altered his appearance, his bone structure remained largely unchanged.

Xu Chengyue's eyes quickly moved to a man in the corner with red eyes, and a correct facial structure but an incongruous appearance. His eyebrow spacing, cheekbone width, and eye distance were all very similar to Liu Yan's past photos.

"I see him," Xu Chengyue sidled over and whispered into Gu Yunfeng's ear, then took the handcuffs Gu Yunfeng handed him and put them in his pocket as he walked towards the man in the corner.

Seeing the unfamiliar man getting closer, Liu Yan suddenly realised something. He glanced around warily, noticing the sealed window not far behind him. Before Xu Chengyue could take out the handcuffs, Liu Yan shouted to everyone, "Police, they're police! Run, everyone, run!"

He then dashed towards the only window in the room, ruthlessly slamming his body into the long-closed window, breaking through the glass and tumbling outside.

The room descended into chaos. The blond youth, the tattooed man with the iron rod and others scattered blindly. The other officers waiting outside immediately rushed in, controlling most of the gamblers inside.

Only Liu Yan escaped through the window, his face covered in blood from the glass cuts, running around in a panic.

Xu Chengyue stood there in a daze, still holding the cold handcuffs. He had intended to quietly approach the suspect but seemed to have botched the operation, hindering the capture.

He stood there motionless, at a loss, and suddenly felt quite incompetent.

"It's alright, he can't get away," Gu Yunfeng patted his back, winked, and smiled as he leapt through the broken window. He cuffed one of his own wrists, disengaged the safety on his gun, and looked ahead with determination. "Attention all units at the exits, Liu Yan is running southeast in the neighbourhood, wearing a dark blue T-shirt and black capri pants, with facial injuries."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 4, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 18, 2024 by Angel