Chapter 73: The Robbery

Su Cheng and his brother-in-law, Chen Shunhe, had been out in the fields for over a month, driving a fifty-horsepower tractor equipped with a Rotary Tiller.

Yesterday evening, after finishing the last plot of land in Shangpo Village, Maguan Town, Qingguan County, in the eastern part of Shatai City, Central Hebei Province, they had rested at the local contractor’s house until four in the morning. They then got up early and started driving home. Unexpectedly, after leaving the village and before they had even exited Maguan Town along Provincial Highway 313, they had to slow down on a section of road under construction, which was full of potholes. It was then that they were suddenly ambushed by five robbers, who cleaned out all the money they were carrying. They lost over six thousand yuan.

Moreover, both Su Cheng and Chen Shunhe were badly beaten.

Given Su Cheng’s temperament, he would have truly dared to fight the five robbers to the death. But since his brother-in-law Chen Shunhe was in the vehicle, and facing knife-wielding robbers, he couldn’t risk anything happening that he couldn’t bear the responsibility for. So, Su Cheng could only endure the loss, hoping to avoid further disaster.

After the incident, Su Cheng and Chen Shunhe drove to the Maguan Town Police Station to report the crime. They also called home to inform their family about the situation and asked them to send some money quickly—now penniless, they didn’t even have money for gas. Without money sent over, there was simply no way for them to get home from over two hundred kilometers away.

8:30 AM.

At Pingyang City train station, Su Chunfeng boarded a train bound for Shatai City, Central Hebei Province.

When he left home, he did not wear his school uniform. Instead, he wore a blue-grey denim jacket, black washed-cotton casual pants, and white sneakers.

When traveling outside, dressing like this always made him seem a bit more mature than wearing his school uniform.

It wasn’t for any other reason. He just knew that in these times, a student wearing a school uniform and speaking with a non-local accent might easily attract trouble from bad characters in public places like train stations. And on this trip, he was carrying a large sum of two thousand yuan on him, so he had to be careful.

It was just a pity that Su Chunfeng, naturally fair-skinned and handsome, still looked gentle and delicate no matter how he dressed.

It was almost noon by the time he arrived in Shatai City. Su Chunfeng didn’t bother eating. He found out the bus station wasn’t too far away, so he hurried over and bought a ticket for the 12:30 bus to Qingguan County.

He arrived at Qingguan County bus station at 1 PM and then took a public bus to Maguan Town.

At 1:40 PM, Su Chunfeng, who had made the journey safely, got off the bus. He asked a passerby for directions to the Police Station. Finding it wasn’t too far, he walked there. After turning two corners, he saw the gate of the Police Station and, parked quietly on the east side of the gate, their family’s fifty-horsepower tractor equipped with a Rotary Tiller. The dirty vehicle body was covered in mud and grime, with half of it up on the curb.

He walked over quickly. Through the dusty front windshield, he could vaguely make out someone curled up lying on the narrow, small berth behind the driver’s seat, covered with an army-green cotton-padded coat.

Su Chunfeng climbed onto the vehicle and looked carefully. It was his uncle, Chen Shunhe. He called out, “Uncle…”

“Ah.” Chen Shunhe sat up with a start and quickly opened the door. “Xiao Feng, you’re here. Well, your dad is still inside the Police Station. I’ll go call him.”

“No rush.” Su Chunfeng climbed in and sat in the driver’s seat. Seeing the blue and purple bruises on his uncle Chen Shunhe’s face, he couldn’t help but frown and asked with concern, “Uncle, are your injuries serious?”

“Just surface wounds, nothing major,” Chen Shunhe said with a sigh. “It’s just those few thousand yuan, all robbed. Sigh.”

Su Chunfeng comforted him, “As long as you’re both fine, that’s what matters most.”

“Sigh.” Chen Shunhe sighed again, took out a cigarette, lit it, took a hard drag, and exhaled smoke as he said, “Your dad wanted to save some money, thinking we’d be home in four or five days anyway, so he didn’t go to the post office to wire the money back. If we had known this would happen, we would never have carried all that cash on us.”

“No one could have predicted this,” Su Chunfeng said with a bitter smile and shook his head. Then he began to ask for the detailed circumstances of the incident.

Perhaps because he had never experienced such a dangerous robbery that brought him face-to-face with death, Chen Shunhe had been harboring a suppressed, fearful emotion that he desperately needed to vent. It was as if he couldn’t sleep peacefully without going over those events in his mind again and again. Without considering that his nephew was just a sixteen-year-old boy, he started pouring out the detailed sequence of events, prompted by Su Chunfeng’s seemingly casual interjections and questions.

Time, location, people involved, including the conditions near the scene, and so on.

Just as the two were talking, Su Cheng walked out of the Police Station. He was wearing dirty clothes and a peaked cap. His face was also bruised blue and purple, his eye sockets were dark and swollen, and there were several obvious scratches on his face.

Su Chunfeng quickly jumped down from the vehicle. “Dad, are you okay?”

“Xiao Feng, you’re here.” Su Cheng waved his hand. “Nothing too serious… did you bring the money?”

“Yeah.” Su Chunfeng reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, pulled out a wad of money, and handed it to his father. As he did so, he asked, “What about the Police Station? Any progress?”

Chen Shunhe also got down from the vehicle and walked over.

Su Cheng walked to the front of the vehicle, squatted down, and lit a cigarette. Looking tired, he said, “They’ve investigated at the contractor’s house in Shangpo Village. No news for now. I don’t think that old contractor is a bad person either. Police Chief Zhang from the station said we should go home first and wait. They’ll notify us when they crack the case.”

The so-called contractor was a locally respected person you found when away from home. They helped connect you with land plots, homeowners, accommodation, and could also handle some disputes.

Of course, being a contractor wasn’t for free; they took a cut.

“Sigh, looks like there’s no hope,” Chen Shunhe said gloomily, squatting down.

Seeing his father and uncle in such a state, Su Chunfeng felt his anger rising. He forced his fury down and, after thinking for a moment, said calmly, “Dad, Uncle, what’s done is done. Try to relax… If you ask me, since we’ll be resting after going home anyway and aren’t in a hurry to do other things, why not stay here and wait another day or two? What if the Police Station solves the case? And if the police see us waiting here so anxiously, they might feel some pressure and sympathy, which could make them work harder and faster on the case. Don’t you think?”

Both Su Cheng and Chen Shunhe were taken aback. They then looked at each other and nodded silently.

They hadn’t expected that young Xiao Feng, though not old, could always think things through so thoroughly. Indeed, after finishing the autumn work, they would just be resting back home anyway. Staying out another day would only cost an extra hundred or so yuan. What if the Police Station solved the case and got the money back? If they left now…

To put it bluntly, who at the Police Station would have the heart to keep thinking about their little case all day long?

That morning, Police Chief Zhang had already transferred the case to the county criminal police team, saying such a criminal case should be handled by them. The criminal police team would send someone in the afternoon.

A little past 3 PM, someone from the county criminal police team arrived.

It was just questioning about the case and a brief visit to the crime scene. Then came the investigation… For the victims, waiting for the case to be solved ultimately depended a lot on luck. When it came down to it, a case involving six thousand yuan wasn’t considered a high-priority case by the criminal investigators.

When they went to the scene, Su Chunfeng followed his father into the police car without a word and also took a look at the site.

The crime scene wasn’t far from Maguan Town, only a little over two kilometers away. However, there were three or four villages nearby. Generally speaking, in such cases, the criminals were almost always local people.

But actually tracking them down…

That was quite difficult.

After returning from the crime scene, the criminal police team officers took some evidence and then told Su Cheng to leave his contact information. They would notify them if the case was solved.

The police officers at the Police Station seemed indifferent.

Obviously, the idea of staying there to elicit sympathy from the police and pressure them to solve the case faster was impossible.

But seeing that it was getting late, if they left now, they would have to travel at night.

Still shaken by the experience, Su Cheng and Chen Shunhe felt their luck on this trip hadn’t been good. They decided to make do and stay one night, leaving at daybreak.

As for this ordeal… they had to accept their bad luck!

There was no other way.

After dinner, Su Chunfeng volunteered to spend the night in the vehicle to watch it, letting his father and uncle rest properly at a nearby small hotel. Still frightened and physically and mentally exhausted, Su Cheng and Chen Shunhe agreed without much hesitation—after all, the tractor and Rotary Tiller were parked right in front of the Police Station. Who would dare steal them?

A little past 8 PM.

Su Chunfeng got out of the vehicle, went to the entrance of the Police Station, and greeted the officer on duty. He asked if they could keep an eye on the vehicle for a while, as he had something to take care of.

The duty officer had a good impression of this gentle, polite boy who knew how to speak well and readily agreed. The duty room was at the main entrance of the Police Station anyway, and he could see the fifty-horsepower tractor parked by the roadside through the window. Besides, such a big thing couldn’t be dragged away easily.

After thanking the officer and turning back, Su Chunfeng walked to the back of the vehicle. He unloaded the bicycle that was carried on the Rotary Tiller, got on it, and rode east.

He was going to the crime scene.

Since he had been there once during the day in the police car, and the road wasn’t very winding—just turn two corners ahead, get on the provincial highway, and follow the road straight east.

The section of road where the crime occurred was under construction, full of potholes.

East-west National Highway 313 was straight and wide, with fields on both sides newly planted with wheat, stretching vast and boundless. Under the thick night sky, the road was deserted. Only the occasional passing car roared by, its bright, dazzling headlights swinging as it slowed down when reaching this section of road.

Su Chunfeng stood in a pothole on the north side of the road, looking around.

The autumn wind rustled. In the distance, under the night sky, the houses in the villages were lined up, their lights twinkling like stars.

When he came in the afternoon, he had observed the area. He knew that not far east from the crime scene, there was a small crossroads leading south and north to two villages. Also, during the police investigation and questioning in the afternoon, Su Chunfeng had overheard their conversation from the side. He learned that the village to the north was called North Lizhuang, and the one to the south was called South Lizhuang.