Case Files 013

Chapter 148: Spirit of Righteousness

After Chief Zhou was arrested, the position for the crime unit leader was left empty. The higher up couldn't find anyone to fill the space, so I was told to take the spot for now. I would work the post until the official replacement arrived. Even though this was just a temporary posting, it already made my life. However, when I took the seat, I only realized the job was not as simple as I thought. The unit chief had to do more than solve cases, there were many other minor complaints to handle.

For example, I was now writing a report about a couple's quarrel. The reason for the quarrel was due to an imaginative five million RMB. They were discussing how to split the winning if they won the lottery, somehow that escalated to a physical altercation. Thankfully, the police were called before anyone was hurt. Just as I was wondering how to write the report, chaos came from outside the police station.

I pushed open the office door and walked out. I realized Gu Chen and Guan Zhenglin were there as well. A group of about 10 pushed and shoved, it made me feel like I was at the market. Looks like this was another neighbourhood altercation, I had dealt with quite a few of those in the past few days alone. An officer shouted at the crowd, "Calm down, I'm sure we can talk this out. What is all these pushing and shoving? This is the police station, not the market. A lot of officials are working here. You don't want to disturb them, do you?"

With that, the crowd finally piped down. Through the gap, I could see 3 people being surrounded in the middle of the crowd. Their hands were pinned behind their backs, but they looked quite nonchalant despite it. I frowned and walked towards the crowd. When the officer saw me, he greeted, "Chief Wu!"

I looked at the people in the crowd, from their appearance, they seemed to come from all walks of life. Some were in fur coats, others were in cheap trench coats. Some of them looked like bosses, others like manual workers. Some looked like students and others were probably housewives.

In contrast, the 3 who were being detained, were quite sharply dressed. They had buttoned-up shirts under their slick coats, scarves around their necks. They looked like workers from some kind of high end companies. This group was too complicated to be a simple family argument, could be it some kind of salary delay issue?

"What happened?" I asked around. Guan Zhenglin and Gu Chen shook their heads. They too just walked out and had no idea what happened. I cleared my throat and spoke into the crowd, "Please send out a representative and explain clearly what happened."

Then, a young man who looked like a high schooler said, "These 3 are cell phone thieves."

"Thieves?" I asked with interest, "Tell me all about it." The student obliged. Most of this group came from the Online Serendipity Internet Caf. At around 5 pm, the 3 thieves walked into the caf. 5 pm was the time when business at the caf was at its peak. The 3 wandered around the premise using the excuse that they were looking for good seats. In reality though, they were scouting out potential victims. Their targets were those who were too distracted by the online game. These people's phones were either placed on the table or hanging out from their pockets. This book was written about a decade ago when most cellphones were large and bulky.

When they had decided on the target, they would walk around the target pretending like they were interested in the target's gaming prowess. Two would distract and block the sight of others, while the last one was responsible for swiping away the phone.

Once they had the phone, they would leave immediately, using the lack of a good seat as an excuse. When the customers realized their phones had been stolen, the perpetrators would be long gone. But this time, one of them was discovered. The person who discovered them was the security guard, the caf's only security guard.

After finding out their deeds, the guard immediately rushed forward to reason with them. During the argument, the stolen person's phone fell out and thus the 3 were caught red-handed. The 3 turned to anger and tried to escape through brute force. It was also the guard who held them back. The 3 knew that the situation would only get worse if they stayed behind so one of them took out a dagger.

The crowd dispersed like sand, except for the guard. Emboldened by inexplicable courage, the thief stabbed at the guard's stomach. The crowd screamed, imagining the knife cutting into flesh. They could see the courageous yet foolish guard crumbling to the ground in his blood. But something unexpected happened, with a clink, the dagger fell to the ground. The guard grabbed the man's arm in a lock and then twisted it back. The shoulder dislocated with a crunch. The other 2 thieves hadn't encountered something like this before and intended to run away in the chaos. But the guard had anticipated their actions. He leaped forward and snatched up the offenders, one with each hand. Then, before the crowd knew what happened, the 2 thieves were already on the ground.

The crowd gathered back again. And that was how things ended up the way it was now.

The guard was pushed out from the crowd. I studied the man closely, he was in his 40s, and had tanned skin. He wore a grey coat and it wasn't zipped up. He didn't appear to flourish under the attention. He was uncomfortable due to the attention.

"Officers, you have to lock these 3 up." The crowd demanded.

One of the thieves exclaimed, "You said we're thieves but where is your proof? Which one of you saw us steal anything? You said we're phone thieves, where is the stolen phone? Where is the victim?" The man was pushy and harsh as if he knew we couldn't do anything to him. Then again he was not wrong, if the victim didn't lodge an official complaint, the whole event would transpire into nothingness. This thief knew a bit or two about law.

I scanned the crowd and then asked, "So where is the victim of the theft?"

No one said anything. Eventually, an auntie spoke, "The kid has run away. We did all these for him but the moment he heard that we were going to the station, he grabbed his phone and ran. It is because of people like him that our country is in the state that it is in now. It's like that one statement, the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." The auntie didn't look like someone who would frequent an internet caf. She was probably someone who just joined the crowd for the sake of it. Hearing her comment, the crowd cheered.

I scratched my head and said, "Well, if the victim's not here, I only need some of you to provide written testimonies to say that these 3 are thieves. Then we can detain them."

The moment I said that, the leading thief warned, "Fine, do that if you want. After all, stealing is just a petty crime, but the moment you provide a written testimony, your personal information will be on the record. Just you wait for me to come out from detention. I have no family unlike most of you. Think about the consequences." Then, the thief glared viciously at the people next to him, growling, "Let go of me."

The person was frightened and did what he was told.

At that moment, the auntie suddenly said, "Right, I'm boiling water at home. I better go back to check up on it." The student added, "Shit, I'm late for my tuition, I need to go." In less than a minute, the crowd disappeared. Suddenly they all had something important to attend to. In the end, only the security guard from the caf was left.

The thief turned to the guard and challenged, "I'd advise you to mind your own business. At most, I'll be charged with failed theft, and I'll be in detention for at most 10 days. But you, you might lose your job because of this."

Gu Chen launched forward to smack the thief's head, "You dare to threaten another person in front of the police?" As arrogant as the thief was, he didn't dare to challenge Gu Chen head on. So he shrugged and led his friends into the station like they owned the place. The security guard was invited to join us because we needed to take his statement too.

The security guard's name was Hao Ren. He was 44 years old. Before he got the job as the security guard, he studied martial arts in the countryside. His dream was to open a dojo, which was unrealistic in this era. It was why he felt no fear when he faced the dagger.

We contacted Online Serendipity Caf and confirmed the 3 as thieves from the surveillance camera. They were sentenced to 15 days in detention.

Before he left, we thanked Hao Ren. Hao Ren said, "This is what I should do. When I was young, my sensei told me that to study martial arts is to follow the virtue of , or the spirit of righteousness, to help those who need it."

As I watched Hao Ren walk away, I was reminded of the wuxia novels that I read but the heroes in those books were far more handsome than Hao Ren.