Chapter 44: Brother Hua

“Uncle Ye, you’re back, how did things go?”

Ye Tian and Feng Kuang, who had been waiting at the Recycling Station, saw Ye Dongping returning with a man in a police uniform and quickly went up to meet them. Feng Kuang’s head was wrapped up bandaged, making him look like a rice dumpling.

“This is Deputy Director Liu from the Police Station…”

Ye Dongping introduced the visitor to Feng Kuang and then said, “Let Comrade Liu here look at the scene first. By the way, you two didn’t walk around everywhere, did you?”

Hearing Ye Dongping’s words, Feng Kuang was visibly taken aback and said, “Uncle Ye, what? We weren’t supposed to move around? I… we cleaned the place up a bit…”

After Ye Dongping left, Feng Kuang and Ye Tian saw that both the yard and the rooms inside were such a mess that there was literally no place to stand. Thinking it was unacceptable, they started cleaning. They had just finished when Ye Dongping arrived with the others.

Seeing this, Deputy Director Liu shook his head repeatedly and sighed, “Ah, young man, you’ve destroyed the crime scene, you know that?”

To be fair, Director Xu hadn’t been fooling Ye Dongping. This Deputy Director Liu was the famous “One-Eyed Liu” of the Jiangnan region. He used to work in the railway public security system. Back then, thieves traveling north and south would all tremble at the sound of “One-Eyed Liu’s” name.

Like in the early 80s during the capture of the Thief King of Henan, the Ministry of Public Security gathered anti-pickpocketing and criminal investigation experts from all over the country. Deputy Director Liu was among them. He was quite famous within the public security system.

However, One-Eyed Liu was also over fifty. Keeping up with trains was becoming difficult for him. In the end, he pulled some strings and applied for a transfer back to his hometown, this small County Town, to retire.

Having spent his life catching thieves, One-Eyed Liu didn’t have any big aspirations left. He just wanted to live a few peaceful days.

This County Town was a tiny place where there usually weren’t any major cases to handle. At most, it was mediating neighborly disputes. No one would have guessed that this smiling Deputy Director Liu was still a criminal investigation expert.

But even the best housewife can’t cook without rice. No matter how skilled Deputy Director Liu was, the scene was completely destroyed. Plus, the Recycling Station usually had people coming and going all the time. Deputy Director Liu couldn’t find any more clues.

Finally, Deputy Director Liu wandered around the courtyard gate for a while, collected a few footprints, and then left, leaving Ye Dongping and the others standing there looking at each other in dismay.

After Deputy Director Liu left, Feng Kuang lowered his head and said, “Uncle Ye, I… I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know we had to preserve the scene either.”

Although both Feng Kuang and Ye Tian were quite clever, they were just country boys who had recently come to town. How could they know so much? In their minds, when Ye Dongping came home and saw they had cleaned up, he might even praise them a little.

Besides, Ye Tian already knew who was behind this whole thing, so the idea of preserving the scene never even crossed his mind.

Looking at the neatly cleaned room, Ye Dongping gently patted Feng Kuang on the shoulder and said, “Forget it, it’s not your fault. I didn’t know at first either. Feng Zi, your injuries aren’t healed yet, go lie down inside.”

They had only been in the County Town for a few days, and so many things had already happened in a row. Ye Dongping was also a little puzzled. Had his son really misjudged things this time? Otherwise, how did he see that Divinatory Symbol saying Feng Kuang would have wealth and status?

After Feng Kuang went inside, Ye Tian pulled his dad into the yard and whispered, “Dad, it was Dai Xiaohua and his gang who did this.”

Although Ye Tian was young, he was shrewd. The reason he hadn’t told Feng Kuang was because he was afraid Brother Fengzi would go crazy and call people from the countryside to come cause trouble.

“Really? How do you know?”

Hearing this, Ye Dongping was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly. Wasn’t he asking a pointless question? This little charlatan of a son naturally divined it.

“You didn’t tell Feng Zi, did you?”

Seeing his son shake his head, Ye Dongping thought for a moment and said, “Don’t tell Feng Zi about this, and definitely don’t tell the police. They are already investigating Dai Xiaohua. If we can confirm they were the ones who beat up Feng Zi, maybe we can link that to this case…”

Hearing Ye Dongping’s words, Ye Tian asked somewhat confused, “Dad, why not? If we tell the police uncle now, can’t they just go search their house?”

“What evidence do you have that it was those guys? Are you going to say you figured it out by casting Divinatory Symbols?”

Ye Dongping glared at Ye Tian with annoyance. He made this decision purely to protect his son. Even if those Calligraphy and Painting pieces were never recovered, Ye Dongping couldn’t let anyone know that Ye Tian was skilled in Feng Shui and fortune-telling.

In his urgency, the words Ye Tian had been keeping in his heart blurted out: “Dad, then… this matter will just be dropped like that…”

“Dropped? How could it be? Aren’t the police investigating?”

Ye Dongping shook his head and said with a smile, “You, kid, don’t worry about so much. Prepare yourself properly. You start school in just a week. Once you’re staying at the school, you’re not allowed to cause any trouble.”

The middle school in the County Town had boarding facilities. Ye Dongping was afraid the environment at the Recycling Station would affect his son’s studies, so he arranged for him to board. Ye Tian could only come home on weekends.

“Oh, I know.”

Seeing that his dad wasn’t listening to him, Ye Tian agreed sullenly. However, as he turned away, a look of determination flashed across his face. “Dare to rob my Master’s things? Do they really think this Little Master is just for show?”

…

Not far from the East City Cinema, there was also a scrap collection station. However, this station’s location was much better than Feng Kuang’s. Not only was it surrounded by residential areas, but it was also much closer to the state-owned collection station.

In the yard of this scrap collection station, a light bulb of probably one watt was shining. Seven or eight young men with bare chests sat around a table under the light, drinking beer and playing drinking games, shouting and laughing with flushed faces.

A young man with a pointy face and monkey-like features stood up. Holding a bowl of beer, he toasted to the bearded man sitting in the middle and said loudly, “Brother Hua, you’re really something! Daring to give the police the cold shoulder! From now on, who in our County Town would dare not listen to you?”

If Feng Kuang were here, he might recognize that the last wrench to his head was swung by this skinny young man. As for the bearded man, he was the one who threw the first punch at his face.

Dai Xiaohua wasn’t actually very old, only about twenty-three or twenty-four. It was just that his full beard made him look like he was in his thirties or forties.

After downing the wine in his bowl in one gulp, Dai Xiaohua put on a show of boldness by turning the bowl upside down and shaking it, then said, “This is nothing? Back then, my big brother was wrongly accused and got executed. Now they come to hassle me? Do they really think my uncle is just sitting around doing nothing?”

Not long ago, police from the East City station had come to the collection station, intending to take Dai Xiaohua back for questioning.

But this Dai Xiaohua was fearless. He immediately asked the officers for an arrest warrant and then loudly accused the police of making arrests randomly. With a bunch of his little brothers joining in the commotion, the few police officers who came could only leave in frustration.