Chapter 3 Chapter 2 The Old Cop

Xiyuan County Community was built around 1991, and it was one of the few high-rise residential areas in C City at that time.More than ten years have passed, and with the rise of high-rise buildings around, Xiyuan County has lost its former status as a standout.Among those high-rise buildings with dozens of floors, Xiyuan County with only 15 floors is very inconspicuous. After 2007, because the property fee collection rate was too low, the property company in Xiyuan County was forced to withdraw, and it became an abandoned management community.Judging from the landscape of the park, this "abandonment" can be described as appropriate.

Potted asphalt roads; dilapidated corridors; trash cans full of dirt; motor vehicles parked randomly; waist-high lawns due to long-term neglect of mowing. Residents of the community were also "abandoned". The owners who were able to improve their living conditions had already moved out early, and the original houses were either sold or rented out.In addition, the community is adjacent to the city's largest wholesale market for daily necessities, and many merchants rent the residences here as warehouses.This makes the composition of the residents in the community relatively complex, and the migrant population and floating population account for a large proportion. It has been a high-incidence area for various public security and criminal cases for many years.

Du Cheng looked at the silent tall building in front of him, and let out a mouthful of smoke. In the middle of winter, around seven o'clock in the evening, the sky was completely dark.Although the road across the wall was brightly lit, the Xiyuan County community was lifeless.Most of the street lamps in the park have been scrapped, and only a few households can barely project light onto the corridor in front of the building from the windows.These sparse halos keep the park from being completely dark, but instead add more chic atmosphere. Du Cheng threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it out, then turned to a young man next to him, "Xiao Gao, are you sure it's here?"

"That's right." Gao Liang took the cigarette from his mouth and pointed to one of the buildings, "Building 4, unit 2." "Can you go into more detail?" Gao Liang glanced at Du Cheng, turned around and climbed into the back seat of the Santana car, pulled out a square black leather suitcase, and walked slowly towards Building 4. Du Cheng hurriedly followed. Gao Liang stood in the corridor, put the locator on his shoulder, took out the probe, and checked the left and right several times. His eyes were fixed on the signal frequency, and finally he lazily pointed to the right side: "No. 3."

"No. 3." Du Cheng asked again, "Which floor is it?" "Then I don't know." Gao Liang lowered his eyelids, put the probe back into the box, "Are you all right? I'll go back first." "I have something to do." Du Cheng was a little anxious, "I can't be searched on the 15th floor." "Then what should I do?" Gao Liang became impatient, "The locator can only find vertical signals." "Don't fool Big Brother." Du Cheng put on a smiling face, and he pointed to the signal frequency light on the locator, "When you get close to the signal source, this thing will flash fast."

"Damn it!" Gao Liang's eyes widened, "You won't let me search up one level, 15 floors!" "Let's take the elevator up and search down from the top of the building." Du Cheng patted Gao Liang on the shoulder, and stuffed half a pack of cigarettes into the other's pocket, "Big brother will accompany you up—in case that kid hides in the How about the 15th floor, I won’t tire you.” While talking, Du Cheng coaxed and dragged Gao Liang into the elevator.Gao Liang's face was full of displeasure, and as soon as the elevator doors closed, he couldn't help complaining, "You're still working so hard at your age?"

Du Cheng pressed "15", turned around and smiled, "Big brother won't be able to work for a few years, so I'll just do you a favor." Gao Liang looked at Du Cheng, an old policeman who had been in the police force for more than 30 years. His figure was already slightly fatter. The old gray jacket was stretched tightly on his body, and a ridiculous semicircle protruded from his waist and abdomen.His gray hair was disheveled, and his wrinkled face looked flattering, and he couldn't bear it, so he muttered a few words and stopped talking. Du Cheng stood up straight and stared intently at the constantly changing numbers on the LCD screen.

The elevator goes up to the 15th floor.The two walked out of the car one after another, and Gao Liang pulled out the probe of the locator. Just about to start testing, Du Cheng grabbed him and turned off the sounder of the locator with his hand.Gao Liang couldn't help laughing, and whispered, "You old fox." Du Cheng laughed silently, signaling Gao Liang to go ahead, and followed behind, staring at the signal frequency light. The two walked lightly, walking slowly in the dark corridor.The concrete floor has been severely worn, showing a grain of sand, and there is a "rustling" sound when stepped on.The two slowed down as much as possible. After detecting three households one by one, the signal frequency light did not change significantly.

Du Cheng pulled the bright sleeves, turned and walked towards the fire escape. Even down 5 floors, still not close to the signal source.Du Cheng was already slightly out of breath, and there were fine beads of sweat on his forehead.Gao Liang heard his breathing was different, turned around and asked softly, "Old Du, do you want to take a break?" Du Cheng waved his hand and pointed to the bottomless stairwell: "No, let's continue." Gao Liang sighed softly: "You old man, rest, I'll tell you when it's settled." "That's so embarrassing."

"Stop doing this." Gao Liang was already walking towards the stairwell with the locator in hand, "Take me to dinner later." Du Cheng smiled, leaning his back against the wall, reached into his pocket for a cigarette, and after a while he realized that half a pack of cigarettes had already been given to Xiao Gao.He smacked his lips helplessly, raised his sleeves and wiped his forehead, feeling the sweat on his back, and the cool shirt felt uncomfortable against his body. "Fucking bastard." Du Cheng scolded in a low voice, "If you get caught, you will never be spared!"

Two days ago, when the criminal police brigade of the sub-bureau conducted a surprise inspection of a bathing center, they arrested several drug addicts gathering on the spot.After digging deeper, a drug user confessed that the methamphetamine he took was sold to him by a person named Lao Si.The police believe that this so-called fourth child is likely to both manufacture and sell drugs, and preliminarily locked his den in the Xiyuan County community through the obtained mobile phone number. This location must be accurate, otherwise it will be difficult to capture both stolen goods and stolen goods. Du Cheng adjusted his breathing slowly, his body relaxed, and his abdomen began to ache again.He put his hands on his stomach and rubbed it randomly, and the pain seemed to ease a little. When people are old, parts are useless.But please don't trouble me tonight. Just as he was thinking, Du Chengcheng heard a slight "hush" sound from the stairwell. He followed the sound, and saw a black figure leaning out half of his body from behind the fire door, waving at himself. "Old Du, come here!" "Eighth floor?" "That's right, No. 3 on the 8th floor." Gao Liang's expression also became focused. He pointed to the locator in his hand, and the signal frequency light was flashing rapidly. Du Cheng signaled Gao Liang not to make a sound, walked to No. 3 door lightly, and put his ears on the door. After a while, he shook his head and looked around. Then, he focused his eyes on the two doors at the door. on the garbage bag. Du Cheng took out his mobile phone, turned on the flashlight function, and at the same time covered the mobile phone with his hand, trying to prevent the light from spreading too much.Gao Liang put down the locator, squatted down, observed the garbage bag, and opened it slowly. The words "Tianming Pharmaceutical" are printed on the white plastic bag, and the inside is mainly domestic garbage.Gao Liang took out a pair of long tweezers and rummaged through the bag carefully.Soon, several items were picked out: a shopping receipt from the supermarket; a delivery slip from Tianming Pharmaceutical; a fragment of a medicine box of a certain brand of cold capsules; two lunch boxes; a few chopsticks. Du Cheng stared at these things for a while, then signaled Gao Liang to put them back into the bag, and tie the mouth of the bag as it was. "Get out, Xiao Gao." Du Cheng's eyes gleamed in the darkness, "It's here, thank you." The two quietly descended to the sixth floor and took the elevator down to the first floor.After walking out of the park, Du Cheng went straight to several cars parked on the side of the road.He opened the door of one of the black Buick commercial vehicles, and a young man in a black leather jacket on the passenger seat immediately asked, "How is it, Old Du?" "No. 3, 8th Floor, Unit 2, Building 4—on the right." Du Cheng responded, then turned to Gao Liang and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Xiao Gao. I'll arrange someone to take you back." "You just leave me alone." Gao Liang returned to his laziness, "Old man, be careful." Du Cheng smiled and climbed into the car with difficulty. "We guessed right - use Ganmao capsules to extract methamphetamine." Du Cheng pressed his abdomen and panted, "At least two people." "Hmm." The black leather jacket turned his head to look at the back seat - a skinny young man with yellow hair was sandwiched between two plainclothes policemen, with his head bowed and shoulders shrunk, his handcuffed hands trembling uncontrollably. "Know what to do?" The yellow-haired youth nodded repeatedly.Du Cheng glanced at him, and asked the black leather jacket: "Zhenliang... Team Zhang, what are you doing?" Zhang Zhenliang pointed to the young man with yellow hair: "Let this kid call to buy methamphetamine, we will lie in ambush at the door, and arrest people as soon as the door is opened-everyone will get the stolen goods." Du Cheng didn't speak, he lowered his eyes and thought for a while, when he looked up again, he saw a pack of cigarettes on the dashboard, he took out one and lit it. Zhang Zhenliang became a little impatient: "What? You don't think it's right?" Du Cheng took a puff of smoke, thought for a while, and said, "The mobile phone is located on the 8th floor, and the person should be on the 8th floor. However, the drug making has both smoke and smell. Are they not afraid of being discovered?" "That's not a problem." Zhang Zhenliang waved his hand, "Hold the person down, everything will be easy to handle." After finishing speaking, he picked up the walkie-talkie and briefly ordered: "No. 3 on the 8th floor, go upstairs." Du Cheng turned his head and looked out the window, and saw a few young men jumping off the car behind them, and hurriedly walked into Unit 2 of Building 4. Zhang Zhenliang watched them disappear into the corridor. A few minutes later, a deep male voice came from the intercom: "The arrest team is in place." Zhang Zhenliang picked up the walkie-talkie: "Be quick and quick." Immediately, he took out a mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to the young man with yellow hair. "According to what I just explained, if you dare to play tricks, I will let you eat corn bread for the rest of your life." The young man with yellow hair raised his head and yawned a lot before opening his mouth. "I... How dare I?" He took the phone, opened the call history, selected a number, and dialed out. The policemen in the car all held their breath and watched him quietly. Twenty seconds later, the call finally got through. "Hello? Fourth brother, Gangzi... I'm at the Big Fish Bar, I'll bring some goods over..." The young man with yellow hair yawned again, "I can't stand it anymore... OK, three hundred yuan, right? .” The phone hangs up.The young man with yellow hair handed back the phone: "He said he will be there in half an hour." Du Cheng smiled: "Your acting skills are pretty good." Zhang Zhenliang opened the car door and said expressionlessly: "He is really addicted." After finishing speaking, he jumped out of the car and went straight to Unit 2.Seeing this, Du Cheng hurriedly got out of the car and followed him. Walking to the door of the unit, Zhang Zhenliang turned his head: "Why are you following here?" "What?" Du Cheng was a little puzzled, "Arresting people." "Pull it down, you have old arms and legs." Zhang Zhenliang waved his hand, "Go back to the car." Du Cheng's face darkened, and he said to himself, you little bastard, you were still fucking playing with me when I was a policeman, but when the words came out of his mouth, he said, "Okay, be careful." "Little bastard" went straight into the corridor, Du Cheng turned around resentfully, looked around, walked to the corner of the building, unbuttoned his pants to urinate. After finishing the work, Du Cheng shivered, slowly adjusted his clothes, walked back to the car, and opened the door to get cigarettes.At this time, there was a sound of rustling footsteps at the end of the dark corridor, and then, a looming black figure emerged from the night. Almost at the same time, Du Cheng moved his hand to the car key as an instinctive reaction, turned it, and turned it off. The two police officers in the back row let out a "huh" at the same time, and then fell silent. Du Cheng pulled out the key, closed the car door, lit a cigarette, and stared intently at the increasingly clear black shadow. It was a man, about 170 centimeters tall, holding a large plastic shopping bag in his right hand.Seeing the fireworks suddenly lit up in the darkness, he hesitated for a moment, then quickened his pace and walked towards Unit 2 of Building 4. Du Cheng followed without thinking, and followed the man into the corridor. The man obviously noticed that someone was following him, but he didn't look back. He went straight to the elevator and saw the "8" on the LCD screen. He froze for a moment, then raised his hand and pressed the up button. The elevator descended slowly, and a few seconds later, with a "ding", the car door creaked open. The man stepped into the elevator first, Du Cheng threw away the cigarette butt, and walked in.The man lowered his head halfway, only a head of thick short hair could be seen, and he was wearing a dark green army-style cotton windbreaker.The elevator door closed, his hand hesitated on the top of the floor key, and finally pressed 10.Du Cheng stretched out his hand from behind him and pressed 15. The man's breathing stopped obviously, and the elevator began to ascend. In the narrow enclosed space, all kinds of strange smells evaporated.Du Cheng looked down at the shopping bag in the man's hand. The two polyethylene lunch boxes were steaming, and the inside of the shopping bag was covered with a thin layer of water vapor.Du Cheng sniffed, raised his hand to his waist, and quietly opened the holster. When the elevator reached the 8th floor, there was a sudden noise, the sound of entangled human bodies, the blunt sound of the security door hitting the wall, and someone yelling "don't move". Du Cheng frowned slightly, and at the same time heard a sound in the car—the plastic shopping bag in the man's hand was rubbing against each other. The man finally raised his head, fixedly staring at the LCD panel, breathing suddenly short of breath. As soon as the number "10" appeared, he immediately rushed to the door, and squeezed out as soon as the door opened. The elevator continued to go up, and Du Cheng immediately pressed "11".When the elevator door opened again, he rushed out quickly and went downstairs along the fire exit.As soon as he walked to the slow platform, Du Cheng's cell phone rang. He connected the phone while going downstairs, and Zhang Zhenliang's voice came out immediately. "One person, less than two grams. No drug-making tools were found." Zhang Zhenliang was still panting violently, "Old Du, what's going on?" Du Cheng walked to the fire door on the tenth floor, and carefully opened a crack. In front of the elevator, the man had already switched the shopping bag to his left hand, and kept poking the down button with his right hand. Du Cheng whispered, "On the 10th floor, come up and help me." After finishing speaking, Du Cheng hung up the phone, opened the fire door and walked out. Hearing the sound of footsteps, the man suddenly turned his head, saw Du Cheng, and pressed the buttons even more frantically. "Put your things down and turn around." Du Cheng approached cautiously, pointing one finger at the man, and holding the handle of the gun at his waist with the other, "Hold your head with both hands!" The man ignored him, just turned his head and stared at the elevator door. Du Cheng gritted his teeth and walked over quickly. As soon as his fingers touched his shoulder, the elevator door opened.The man jumped up instantly, threw the shopping bag at Du Cheng, and squeezed sideways into the elevator. Du Cheng raised his hand to protect his head and face, drew his gun and pointed at the man: "Come out immediately, hurry up!" The man leaned against the stainless steel wall of the car, trembling all over his body, his eyes wide open, fixedly staring at the gun in Du Cheng's hand. The elevator doors had already started to close, Du Cheng cursed and rushed into the elevator.The man bumped headfirst and hit Du Cheng in the abdomen.Immediately, a breath stuck in Du Cheng's throat, his face was bruised from suffocation, one hand was firmly on the elevator door, and the other hand with a gun was randomly pressing on the floor key, "9"" 8" and "6" several numbers light up in turn.Almost at the same time, the elevator doors creaked shut. The elevator went down immediately, and the instant weightlessness caused blood to rush to his head. Du Cheng was a little dizzy. He held up his right hand holding the gun, and put his left hand between himself and the man. After the body was slightly separated, Du Cheng leaned against the elevator door , raised his foot and kicked the man away. The man bumped into the opposite stainless steel box wall, and in a blink of an eye, he rushed over again and went straight to Du Cheng's right hand, trying to grab the gun.After tearing it back and forth a few times, Du Cheng was exhausted, but the opponent was like a wild beast, his eyes were blood red, and he kept roaring. Du Cheng could clearly see the small white foam piling up at the corner of the man's mouth, and there was only one thought in his mind: whether he could be caught or not was the second priority, and the gun could not be taken away anyway. However, the man's movements became more violent.Soon, he had grabbed Du Cheng's right hand and desperately snapped at Du Cheng's fingers.Du Cheng watched his five fingers being separated one by one, and in desperation, without thinking, he pressed the magazine release button, and with a "click", the magazine fell to the ground.The man was taken aback.Almost at the same time, Du Cheng felt that there was nothing behind him, and he fell back on the ground. The elevator door opens, the ninth floor. Immediately, Du Cheng saw several pairs of feet flashing in front of his eyes, and the man who was on top of him was pulled up and pushed face down again.All this happened too quickly, and several feet wearing leather shoes bumped against his face and body continuously.Du Cheng didn't care about these things, he relaxed, and suddenly let out the breath that had been held in his throat. Immediately, he lay on his back, coughing heart-piercingly.After a while, he barely got up on his elbows and pointed upstairs. "15th floor." "Mm, um, I see... Hurry up and interrogate, I'll go back right away." Zhang Zhenliang hung up the phone with a gloomy expression.For a moment, he looked down at Du Cheng who was lying on the movable hospital bed, and said faintly: "These two bastards are quite cunning. They rented two apartments, people live on the 8th floor, and the drug production is on the 15th floor—how do you know it's on the 15th floor?" Du Cheng lay on his back.There is no pillow, the head is tilted slightly back, and the loose skin on the neck is piled up, making the face appear rounder. "It smells—the boy's clothes and hair smell sour." Du Cheng stretched out two fingers, "In the elevator, he made it clear that he wanted to press '15'." Zhang Zhenliang squeezed a cigarette between his two outstretched fingers, and lit it for him again. "Well, that's right—on the top floor, open the window to let the smoke smell, and it will float away with the wind, and no one will notice." Zhang Zhenliang looked at Du Cheng, who was smoking by himself, and suddenly raised his voice , "You are so fucking good, you dare to arrest people yourself! If we are one step too late, that kid will grab your gun and kill you!" "It's okay." Du Cheng chuckled, "Let me unload the magazine—there's no bullet in the chamber." Zhang Zhenliang smiled wryly: "I said, master, please don't make trouble for me, old man, okay..." "Hey, that comrade, put out your cigarette!" A middle-aged male doctor in a white coat came over, "Smoking is not allowed here." Zhang Zhenliang hurriedly stood up, snatched the cigarette from Du Cheng's mouth, threw it on the ground and stomped it out. "One of our colleagues was injured." Zhang Zhenliang took out his police officer's ID and shook it, "Show him quickly." The male doctor didn't dare to neglect, and walked over quickly: "Where is the injury?" "I got bumped on my stomach." Du Cheng tried to get up, "It's nothing serious." "Lie down, lie down quickly." The male doctor unbuttoned Du Cheng's coat, lifted up his shirt, and pressed on his stomach, "Does it hurt here?" "It doesn't hurt. I said it's okay, they have to send me here." "What about here?" "It doesn't hurt. It's really all right—ouch!" Du Cheng suddenly yelled, his legs curled up, and his whole body almost shrank into a ball.Zhang Zhenliang was also taken aback, and couldn't help reminding: "Doctor, be gentle..." The male doctor was unmoved, and continued to press Du Cheng's stomach.Du Cheng's complexion turned sallow, and he was so painful that he couldn't speak. The male doctor's expression became more and more serious.After searching for a long time, he thought for a while, straightened up, turned around and said to Zhang Zhenliang, "Push him, follow me!"