Sundering Nature

Book 4 Chapter 26 – Arrested?

’That was definitely Bing Shuai. Any longer and I wouldn’t have been able to make it out so easily.’ Qian Mian’s heart was still racing in his chest, as the carousel spun around over and over again. He wore a princess dress and had a lollipop in his mouth. H ’What is it that they were escorting already...? Weird, I can’t to remember.’ Qian Mian put a bluetooth earphone into his ear.

"Hey Boss."

"Did you get exposed?"

"Yes."

"Did you escape?"

"Yes."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes."

"What was their target?"

"I forgot."

"What?"

"I don’t remember."

* * *

Li Yiming finally arrived home after a long journey. He needed a quiet place to sort out his thoughts, which grew even messier than in the morning. However, right as the elevator door opened, Li Yiming was greeted by a dozen gun barrels. A moment of hesitation and a few men in uniform put him to the ground. Li Yiming could have easily escaped, but he chose to submit when he noticed the emblems on their uniform.

’The police?’

"Li Yiming, you’re hereby arrested on the grounds of robbery and murder. Here’s the court order." A sheet of paper was put in front of Li Yiming’s, and a man with a serious expression emerged from behind it a moment later.

’Wait a second, this guy, I remember him. He was the one being intimidated by Grandma Wang in the domain... Only now it’s not a domain.’

The metal grid fell behind Li Yiming with a loud clunk. Li Yiming, with cuffs arounds his wrists and ankles, was brought to a chair made of steel rods. A projector was directed at his face, and the light was so bright, he could barely keep his eyes open.

"Alright, confess now and we’ll make it easy for you." Captain Zhang sat down facing Li Yiming and stared at him coldly.

"Confess what, sir?" Li Yiming sighed. He had not expected that out of all things, it was the police that would cause his ultimate downfall.

"Robbery and murder, of course! Do you have no regard for the laws of this country!?" Captain Zhang roared in anger.

"I’ve told you already. My friend was kidnapped at a Starbucks. I chased after the people who did it, and that’s why I grabbed the scooter. I’m willing to settle this privately."

"You said that your friend was kidnapped. What’s his name?"

"Fu Bo. He’s a web novelist. He lives one floor below me."

Captain Zhang looked at one of the investigation reports for the case. Fu Bo’s name was indeed on it.

"Where is he right now?"

"I don’t know, he’s been kidnapped!" Li Yiming was baffled by the stupidity of the question.

"I’ve read your file. Clean background, good student, and even a university graduate. With your talent in dance, maybe you’ll become an artist. I think you should confess so we can try to lessen your sentence." Captain Zhang suddenly took a different tone. Instead of intimidating Li Yiming, he was now trying to convince him.

"Sir, what is there to confess about? I’ve told you everything I know. I’m sure you’ll know that I’m speaking the truth if you verify the surveillance footage."

Captain Zhang’s lips quirked into a bitter smile. He knew that the conversation was going nowhere. He did not need Li Yiming’s reminder. However, the surveillance footage for all thirty one cameras around the area had been mysteriously erased. The only clue that led him to finding Li Yiming was the video footage taken by the owner of the scooter.

"We’ll investigate your friend’s kidnapping, but right now, it remains a fact that you have robbed the scooter." Captain Zhang took a deep breath to organize his thoughts.

Li Yiming closed his eyes and pondered. ’I didn’t have much of a choice back then, but now, it’s going to be hard to get myself out of this one. ’

"You chased after a black Chevrolet with plate number 83728 and entered viaduct number seven. We’ve found the corpse of the driver, Wu Hao, about fourteen kilometers away from the entrance. The scooter you hijacked was found along with the car. How do you explain that?"

"I borrowed the scooter. The battery ran out, so I gave up and walked back. I was going to gather the documents needs to file the case to the police station, but then I bumped into you guys." Li Yiming knew he could get away with the accusation of robbery by paying the money to hire a good lawyer. He had given up on being a teacher, and the last thing a guardian could care about was some petty crime whose punishment could be deferred. However, murder was a different matter; if he was to be convicted, he would find himself in a difficult predicament.

"That’s a poor explanation." Captain Zhang said grimly.

"So you think that I could have caught up with the car? That car’s engine is at least a two-liter, isn’t it?" Li Yiming asked back.

Captain zhang ran out of words. On-scene investigation had revealed that the scooter’s battery had indeed run dry, and experts estimated that the scooter’s speed must have been around one hundred fifty kilometers per hour at the moment of collision. There were far too many unexplained observations in this case.

* * *

"Li Yiming has been caught. He’s being detained right now." Ying Mei hung up the phone and reported the latest findings to Bing Shuai.

"The police got him? He didn’t resist?" Bing Shuai was as surprised as Ying Mei. ’Ying Mei’s original plan was just to put a cap on his efficiency... but it was this simple?’

"Apparently he’s given his given his full cooperation. They’re still going through the usual procedures" Ying Mei was both embarrassed and irritated; it was as if Li Yiming could see through her thoughts and sought to make sure that every single one of her schemes ended in failure.

"They got us." Bing Shuai rubbed his eyes and sighed. "An unannounced visit, seeing through our trap and killing one of us, and now he walks straight into jail when we just want to throw some trouble in his way?"

"He wouldn’t dare. I’ll make sure he never comes out of jail," Ying Mei said angrily. It was doubly unpleasant to hear Bing Shuai reiterate her failures, especially when she considered herself to be the brain of the team.

"We wouldn’t gain anything by doing that. We know nothing about our enemy." Bing Shuai sighed. He has been building and maintaining his network in Hangzhou for thirty years already, and now, simply because of that man who carried a nylon bag...

"So what’s next..." Ying Mei was still refusing to give up.

"Bring Tian Yan here. I need to talk with her." Bing Shuai sighed again. He had experienced more moments of helpless frustration over the last few weeks than all thirty years he had lived in Hangzhou.

"As you wish." Ying Mei pursed her lips and left for Tian Yan’s room. On her way, she picked up her phone. ’At least you won’t get out of there in one piece... Pfft, just a representative.’

* * *

An icy metal fence, a wall yellowed by age, sheets that reeked with the smell of mold, and a group of buffed man who seemed ready to jump on him at any time: such was Li Yiming’s first night in jail. It was hard for the police to arrive to a conclusion when the circumstances surrounding the death of Ye Lang were so abnormal, so Li Yiming ended up losing the privilege of spending the night in solitary confinement. Li Yiming looked at his jail-mates, swallowed down his disgust and laid down on his bed. ’I need some time to think about all of this anyways... It seems like I’ll be stuck here for a little while.’

’Bai Ze, any suggestions?’ Li Yiming had hoped for words of wisdom that pointed toward a path out of his cell.

’I don’t know much about your laws so you’re on your own.’ Bai Ze went silent. She had made her opinion abundantly clear; there was nothing that held Li Yiming in this cell, it was just a matter of whether he wanted to be fugitive or not.

’Ugh.’ Li Yiming sighed and looked outside through the small aperture near the roof.

"Hey boss, it’s that kid. We’ve received news from outside. We can play around as much as we want, all the better if we break him." A short man with a perverse smile ran to the fat man who sat in the middle of the group of prisoners.

"Really? He’s already here? Come, let’s see who’s the idiot who dared irritate our boss. I’ll show you how I got my name and reputation." The leader pushed through his minions and stared at Li Yiming coldly. He waved his hand and all the inmates, who seemed clearly bored from staying in the cell all day, followed behind.

"Hey kid, it’s been a while since you’ve arrived. Don’t you know the rules? Where’s your greeting?" The men surrounded Li Yiming, and the fat man shouted loudly. This was his speech for intimidating newcomers, and it usually worked well. On top of it, since they had received external instructions regarding Li Yiming, the connivance of the jailguards was to be expected.

"Hey, we’re talking to you!" The minion who had brought the information to his leader kicked Li Yiming’s bed. The vibration made Li Yiming turned around, and he frowned with surprise when he saw the group of men right in front of him.

"What are you thinking? Kneel down, now!" The minion shouted, emboldened by the power of numbers.

Thud!

Someone suddenly fell to his knees, cutting all of the yelling and shouting short.

Li Yiming was growing irritated. ’You think someone that’s been through Heaven’s Punishment is going be scared of you?’ He was about to teach the man who threatened him a lesson when a towering figure knelt down right in front of him, The leader of the gang, the fat man, had fallen to his knees, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. Some of the other inmates were starting to think that it was a new routine their boss had devised.

When Li Yiming saw the face of the fat man, he suddenly felt a strange warmness in his heart. It was like seeing an old friend he had not met for a long time.

I’m not sure how the police officer manages to know about Fu Bo when everyone, even guardians forget about him.

Also an addition from the comments section of the last chapter. There are two parties stalking Li Yiming right now. One from Bing Shuai and Co., who think that Li Yiming is a representative from another powerful guardian organization. Another is the skinny man/Qian Mian sent by Stargaze. Unlike Bing Shua’s gang, Qian Mian knows about Li Yiming’s being a guardian.

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