Chapter 29 Part 1

Spring in Liang City this year came much later than usual.

After that spring snow melted, the temperature remained chilly. During the winter and spring seasons, the water level of the Yangtze River was low, revealing mudflats in the middle of the river. There seemed to be a faint hint of green on Jiangzhou, which was better than nothing.

In the city, the plane and willow trees had yet to sprout, remaining bare. It was the last breath of winter.

On Friday afternoon, Li Zan was originally scheduled to get off work at five-thirty. He wasn't on duty this weekend and planned to return to Jiang City to visit his family.

At five-twenty, however, he received an emergency call saying that someone had abandoned a suspicious item in Baixi Shopping Mall and told a salesperson it was an explosive. The more the salesperson thought about it, the more frightened she became, and she quickly called the police.

Li Zan and his colleagues were dispatched urgently to the scene to evacuate the crowd. By the time they cleared the mall and set up a cordon, the fire department, criminal investigation, and bomb disposal units had also arrived.

Led by the person who made the call, the criminal police and firefighters quickly went to a trash can next to the escalator on the second floor of the mall.

Li Zan didn't follow them up. He stood at the bottom of the escalator on the first floor and glanced from a distance.

Someone pushed him from behind. Officer Jia raised his eyebrows and pointed to the second floor, "Go on."

Li Zan scratched the back of his neck and slowly stepped onto the escalator.

On the second floor, personnel from various police departments stood several meters away from the trash can, discussing how to handle the situation. Li Zan glanced over. A black plastic bag was stuffed inside the trash can, and the object inside was a cube.

The mall's surveillance footage was quickly sent to the criminal police officer's phone. The video showed a man in black, wearing a hat and a mask, walking over quickly, taking something out of his bag, throwing it into the trash can, and then running away at high speed. Tracking surveillance showed the man left the mall shortly after.

Officer Jia nudged Li Zan's arm and asked, "What do you think?"

Li Zan said, "It's probably fake."

His voice wasn't loud, but the few criminal police officers heard him and turned around, looking somewhat displeased. Perhaps they felt that he, an auxiliary officer, was overstepping his bounds.

Meanwhile, the bomb disposal expert from the criminal investigation team, fully geared up in a blast helmet and armor, came over carrying a toolbox.

Seeing this, Officer Jia quietly asked Li Zan, "Hey, you used to be..."

"Everyone quiet down at the scene!" the criminal police officer from before shouted.

It became dead silent.

Officer Jia shrank his neck back.

Li Zan didn't speak, just watched calmly as the bomb disposal expert walked to the trash can, unlocked it, and lifted out the black plastic bag.

'If it were me,' Li Zan thought, 'I wouldn't touch the bag first. I'd cut the plastic bag open to get a clear look at what's inside before deciding on the next step.'

At this thought, a very fine, tearing pain shot through his ear, like a piece of paper being torn slowly. Then, his head started to ache, and his ears began to ring and buzz incessantly.

Li Zan turned around, pressed his palm hard against his forehead, and applied pressure discreetly, trying to control it.

Just then, someone grabbed his hand.

Officer Jia pulled him away.

Outside the mall, the cold wind blew over, and Li Zan sobered up a little. His head still throbbed with pain, but at least his ears had stopped buzzing.

"Are you okay?" Officer Jia asked.

"I'm fine."

Officer Jia told him to go rest in the car for a bit. Li Zan was about to go, but he heard someone nearby say, "A reporter from Liang City TV went up."

He glanced back, thought for a moment, and then involuntarily went back into the mall.

When he went inside this time, the bomb disposal expert had already taken off his thick protective suit. The item had been dismantled; it was a plastic box containing a few bottles of kerosene. It didn't even have a basic fuse. You couldn't even light it, let alone have it explode.

The so-called bomb was just a "fraud" bomb, a false alarm.

A female reporter and her colleague were doing a live report on the side.

It wasn't Song Ran.

Li Zan remembered. Given her current status, she probably didn't need to cover such minor city news herself.

He gave a faint smile and was about to turn and leave when the criminal police officer from before called out to him, "Comrade!"

Li Zan: "Hm?"

The officer's tone was much better. "How did you know it was fake just now?"

Li Zan said, "A bomb needs a detonation method. Besides direct ignition, it needs a detonator. From the casual way he placed the bomb, we can rule out balance and motion sensors. He wasn't holding anything in his hands, and it didn't go off after the crowd was evacuated, which rules out a remote control. He pretended to flee in a hurry, but the bomb didn't go off for half an hour after he left, so it clearly wasn't on a timer either. Also, I suggest that the bomb disposal expert cut the plastic bag first next time, before moving the bomb."

The criminal police officer was speechless.

Li Zan gave a slight nod as a polite farewell and went downstairs.

Officer Jia caught up to him, exclaiming in admiration, "Hey, Ah Zan, were you like that bomb disposal expert before? Or is it that in the military, you guys are even more skilled than this?"

Li Zan was about to say, 'He's just an amateur compared to me.'

But the words never left his mouth.

During her lunch break, Song Ran went to the hospital to see her psychiatrist.

A week ago, the doctor discovered she had been secretly increasing her own medication and forcibly reduced her dosage.

The side effects of the reduced dosage were obvious. Song Ran felt listless all day and couldn't sleep well at night. When a person is exhausted, their emotional threshold tends to lower. All sorts of negative emotions came easily.

She had no choice but to go back to the doctor for more medication.

Doctor Liang refused to give her more, chatting with her at length until he successfully lulled her to sleep. When she woke up from her nap, she still hadn't gotten any extra medication and was shooed out of the consultation room by the doctor.

In the afternoon, just before getting off work, Xiao Qiu and the others returned from an assignment and started chatting about the news, mentioning a bomb threat incident at Baixi Shopping Mall. Some antisocial person had left a fake bomb in the mall.

Song Ran didn't pay it much mind and returned to her desk to turn on her computer.

While the computer was still starting up, Xiao Xia sidled over and whispered, "Hey, I saw Shen Bei's ex-boyfriend today."

It took Song Ran a moment to realize who the ex-boyfriend was. She wanted to explain, but she was in no position to, so she just said, "How did you run into him?"

"At Baixi Shopping Mall. Strange, huh? How did he become an auxiliary police officer?"

Song Ran couldn't very well say that he wasn't, so she said vaguely, "Maybe it's for the workload and safety."

"That's true," Xiao Xia said. "Bomb disposal and all that sounds so cool, but it's very dangerous when you think about it... But, I bet it's because he became an auxiliary officer that Shen Bei started looking down on him."

"What's wrong with being an auxiliary officer?" Song Ran frowned. "Did Shen Bei tell you that?"

"No. It's just my guess. Otherwise, why would such a great guy become an ex-boyfriend?"

"What if he was the one who looked down on Shen Bei?"

"Shen Bei has such a good family background and is so pretty, what's there for him not to like? If they didn't break up, he could have even used her connections. Would he need to become an auxiliary officer?"

Song Ran suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore. She turned her head away and moved the mouse to open her email.

Seeing this, Xiao Xia also went back to work.

Song Ran's work email was public in order to collect news leads.

However, more than half of her daily emails were not work-related—some expressed admiration, love, and support for her, while others attacked and cursed her.

As for the work-related ones, many weren't actionable, such as a wife whose husband cheated asking her to report on the mistress, someone getting a traffic ticket hoping she'd investigate, or someone whose house was robbed and the police couldn't catch the thief...

Song Ran had previously replied to the woman whose husband cheated, telling her to resolve it within her family as she couldn't report on it. Unexpectedly, the woman replied: 'You won't even go after the mistress. You must have been a mistress yourself, right?'

She replied to the person who was robbed, telling them to wait patiently for the police investigation. The feedback she got was: 'Right, only matters of life and death like war can catch your eye. We little commoners won't bother you.'

After checking the replies, Song Ran was somewhat speechless.

Just then, a new email popped up in her inbox. The sender was named Wang Han, a student from Baixi Experimental Middle School. Wang Han said that just moments ago, a boy from their school named Zhu Yanan had committed suicide by jumping off a building because he could no longer bear the long-term private verbal abuse and corporal punishment from a teacher.

Now the police had sealed off the school and were blocking the news.

Song Ran instinctively felt that this was not a simple matter and immediately called back to understand the situation.

Wang Han was a boy with a very soft voice. He was flustered, and his speech was illogical, but the content of his description was basically consistent with what he wrote in the email. The event was very clear.

He begged, "Reporter Song, please, come and take a look. Otherwise, the truth might be buried forever."

After hanging up, Song Ran checked the internal platform.

Wang Han said Zhu Yanan had jumped fifteen minutes ago, but there were no informant tips or leads from the public coming in on the internal platform yet. It was truly strange.

Song Ran thought for two seconds, slung her bag over her shoulder, and headed out the door.

The middle school wasn't far from the TV station, just one street away. Because it was far from the main road and school was already out, the street was very quiet. Both sides of the road were lined with withered trees, looking somewhat desolate.

As expected, several police cars and an ambulance were parked at the school gate, which was cordoned off.

Song Ran showed her press pass, wanting to go in, but was stopped by a police officer, "Sorry, under orders from our superiors, reporters are not allowed to conduct interviews."

Song Ran asked, "Why? Not even to investigate the truth?"

"Once the police investigation is complete, the truth will naturally be announced. You are welcome to attend the press conference then."

Song Ran felt more and more that something was wrong, but she didn't argue. She stepped aside to observe the terrain and saw a six-story residential building next to the school.

She thought for a moment and slipped into the stairwell.

A middle-aged woman lived on the sixth floor. At first, she was reluctant to let Song Ran use her window. Only after Song Ran offered to pay a tip did she let her into the apartment.

Song Ran walked onto the balcony of the middle-aged woman's bedroom, from which she could clearly overlook the school's teaching building and the open space in front of it. The body of the student who had jumped was still in front of the building, covered with a white cloth. The concrete ground was covered in bloodstains.

The police were investigating and collecting evidence near the body and on the roof of the teaching building.

As she was filming, a commotion erupted behind her.

Two police officers walked in, their faces stern and cold. One of them gestured with his hand and said, "Delete what you just took."

Song Ran clutched her camera tightly. "On what grounds? Which law says so?"

The other one roared, "Just delete it when I tell you to! Cut the crap!"

Deeply humiliated, Song Ran bit her lip, her face flushed red.

The first officer also said resentfully, "You reporters just write nonsense all day long, smearing the government's credibility."

Song Ran retorted word by word, "Credibility relies on restoring the truth, not on concealment and deception."

The other person couldn't be bothered to waste words with her. "Are you going to delete it yourself, or should I?"

Song Ran refused to hand over the camera, and the officer moved to snatch it.

Song Ran struggled, pushed him away, and tried to run out, but was tripped by someone behind her. She fell to the ground, and the camera rolled out, hitting the foot of another person who had just arrived.

That person bent down to pick it up, but Song Ran immediately scrambled over, slapped his hand away, and snatched the camera back into her arms.