Urban Martial Saint

As Lin Mengjie said, Ye Qing dared to kidnap Zhou Hongbin because he had backing; he wanted to lure out the old man Hong Tianxiang.

And his purpose for luring out Hong Tianxiang wasn’t a personal grudge but for the incident at the school that Lin Peng had mentioned.

A female student was forced by Vice Principal Wang to jump from a building, and the incident was spun as the student going to the principal’s office to steal something, attempting to flee out of fear of crime and accidentally falling from the building. Such a big incident could not possibly be settled by Vice Principal Wang alone.

Without Hong Tianxiang pulling the strings, it would have been impossible.

Hong Tianxiang actually managed to paint such a sordid affair white, which made Ye Qing feel that there was no longer any need for Hong to keep sitting in his position. So, he wanted to blow this matter up and to draw out Hong Tianxiang.

Ye Qing didn’t drive into the county town; instead, he circled around the county outskirts. After finishing his call to Old Fifth Yang, he then made a call to Lin Peng. Of course, this Lin Peng wasn’t the student at the school but an old classmate of Ye Qing, who was now the deputy captain of the county’s criminal investigation team.

However, the name Lin Peng was quite common; Ye Qing had encountered two Lin Pengs when he was in school.

Upon receiving Ye Qing’s call, Lin Peng was truly shocked. He had already received the news that Ye Qing had kidnapped Hong Tianxiang, and the entire department was now mobilizing manpower for the matter.

Lin Peng walked to a deserted area with the phone and whispered urgently, ”Ye Zi, what on earth happened? Why did you kidnap Deputy Director Zhou, now the entire department is after you!”

”Could you do me a favor?” Ye Qing asked.

”What kind of favor? Just tell me!” Lin Peng responded promptly.

”Half a month ago, there was an incident where a high school girl jumped off a building, you know about it, right?” Ye Qing asked. ”I think her name was Gu Yaqing, do you have any information on her?”

”You heard about that too?” Lin Peng hesitated for a moment, then whispered, ”You don’t need to look for her information, you... you should know her!”

”I know her?” Ye Qing was taken aback and asked, ”How could that be?”

In a low voice Lin Peng said, ”She... she is Teacher Gu’s daughter...”

”What!” Ye Qing slammed on the brakes sharply, and he was completely stunned, unable to recover for a long while.

Ye Qing knew the Teacher Gu that Lin Peng was referring to was his high school homeroom teacher Gu Xianping, an old-school scholar at the school. During Ye Qing’s schooling years, he used to bring his own dry food from home, and sometimes he would have to make do with moldy buns when there was no time to cook.

After learning about this, Gu Xianping often invited him to have meals at his house, and at the time, four or five poor students would dine at Teacher Gu’s home. In this lifetime, the teacher that Ye Qing could never forget was this Teacher Gu!

After going to college, Ye Qing would sometimes visit Gu Xianping’s home when returning. But later on, when he returned, Gu’s family had moved, and he couldn’t find where they had gone. The last time Ye Qing returned from the military, he intended to visit him, but he was pressed for time and didn’t know his new address, so the visit never took place.

Ye Qing had never imagined that the girl Gu Yaqing who jumped from the building would turn out to be Gu Xianping’s daughter.

Thinking back to the meals at Gu Xianping’s house, there were indeed two children. His daughter seemed to be named Gu Yaqing, but she was still in primary school at the time, and Ye Qing never connected the young girl from his memory with the Gu Yaqing who had jumped from a building. Now that Lin Peng mentioned it, he was entirely lost in thought for a long time.

Zhou Hongbin carefully watched Ye Qing, who was staring blankly ahead as if his soul had left his body. Zhou Hongbin looked around; there were quite a few loiterers below. He quietly opened the car door, got out, and began to run.

He had only run a few steps when Ye Qing also exited the car and charged straight towards him. Zhou Hongbin was startled, waving his hands and shouting, ”Help! Help me! I am Zhou Hongbin, deputy director of the county police bureau! He’s a criminal, he’s a terrorist, save me!”

The loiterers who were taking a stroll around, hearing this, all ran away. What a joke, when a gun-carrying policeman couldn’t deal with someone and called him a terrorist, who would dare to save you?

Zhou Hongbin didn’t expect this outcome and was taken aback. By then, Ye Qing had already run over, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him back to the police car.

”Run again, and I’ll break your legs!” Ye Qing said coldly.

Zhou Hongbin’s face was full of frustration as he looked out at the empty road and complained, ”Damn, what’s wrong with people these days? Why don’t they have any spirit of altruism anymore?”

Ye Qing looked at him with disdain and said, ”As if you police are so altruistic.”

Zhou Hongbin fell silent; even as a policeman himself, he usually didn’t bother with such trifles.

Ye Qing turned his car around and drove for about thirty kilometers until he reached the North Suburb of Jiuchuan County. There used to be several brick factories in the North Suburb of Jiuchuan County, but they had been abandoned. However, there were still quite a few brick kilns from those factories.

Ye Qing drove into one of the brick kilns, pulling Zhou Hongbin out of the car with him and into one of the brick kilns.

”Hey, why have you brought me here?” Zhou Hongbin asked in a panic, ”I warn you, the charge for killing... killing a police officer is very serious...”

”When did I say I wanted to kill you?” Ye Qing dragged Zhou Hongbin to a corner of the brick kiln, to an abandoned brick machine, and handcuffed him to the machine with Zhou Hongbin’s handcuffs.

Zhou Hongbin struggled a bit and said urgently, ”What... what the hell are you doing? I’m telling you, this is illegal detention. You better release me quickly, otherwise, you’re definitely going to be in trouble!”

Ye Qing sat down nearby and said, ”Deputy Director Zhou, since Hong Tianxiang made you deal with this matter, it seems you have a good relationship with him. You should know quite a bit about Hong Tianxiang’s affairs, right!”

Zhou Hongbin replied, ”I don’t know anything, and I won’t say anything. Mr. Ye, either release me quickly or just kill me. But, don’t blame me for not warning you. If you dare to kill me, you won’t have a place to stand anywhere in the whole Huaxia country!”

”I know, don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you!” Ye Qing said with a faint smile, ”Deputy Director Zhou, just stay here for a while. I advise you it’s best not to leave this place. I won’t kill you, but that doesn’t mean others won’t!”

Zhou Hongbin glared and said, ”Bullshit, who would kill me, who dares to kill me!”

Ye Qing smiled faintly, ”You know too much, aren’t you afraid of being silenced?”

Zhou Hongbin said, ”What do I know? Who would kill me to silence me! Stop trying to scare me, I haven’t said anything, who would kill me to silence me?”

Ye Qing sneered. By saying this, he was trying to draw out Zhou Hongbin’s words. From what Zhou Hongbin had said, it was clear that he definitely knew a lot about Hong Tianxiang. To take down Hong Tianxiang, Zhou Hongbin was a very important figure. However, getting him to come out and speak about what Hong Tianxiang had done was not going to be easy!

”It’s good to have confidence, but I advise you not to be too confident in yourself!” Ye Qing stood up and said, ”If I leave you here for a whole day, do you think Hong Tianxiang will believe you haven’t said a word?”

Zhou Hongbin’s expression changed. If he really was locked up here for an entire day by Ye Qing, with Hong Tianxiang’s suspicious nature, he might indeed start to doubt him.

”What exactly do you want?” Zhou Hongbin shouted angrily, ”Mr. Ye, release me quickly, or the Jiuchuan County police will not let you go. You think you can keep me here for a whole day? Impossible, the county bureau is currently searching for me everywhere, you won’t be able to keep me here for long!”

”Let’s just wait and see!” Ye Qing turned and walked to the entrance of the brick kiln, glanced back at Zhou Hongbin, and said, ”You consider it for a while here. I’ll come back tonight, and perhaps by then, you’ll have changed your mind!”

After finishing speaking, Ye Qing left the brick kiln and locked the door behind him.

The brick kiln was very dilapidated and the surrounding area was desolate, seldom frequented by anyone. After leaving the brick kiln, Ye Qing called Mad Dog and arranged to meet at the south city entrance.

Mad Dog drove over Liu Lianshan’s Land Rover. Ye Qing handed over the police car to him, instructing him to drive it out of Jiuchuan County through a back road and to keep going non-stop. Ye Qing wanted to divert all the police’s attention to this car while he had other things to do back in the county.

As soon as he returned to the county, Ye Qing received a call from Old Fifth Yang. He had already picked up Yuan Xiaozheng and settled him in the hospital. Yuan Xiaozheng was seriously injured, especially with several stab wounds on his body. Old Fifth Yang had already taken photos as evidence.

Ye Qing did not go to see Yuan Xiaozheng, as he knew the police were definitely watching Yuan Xiaozheng and waiting for him to return. After giving Old Fifth Yang some instructions, Ye Qing drove off to the Xicheng District market.

This market was the most chaotic place in Jiuchuan County and also where small vendors were most concentrated. Vendors selling all kinds of goods were almost all gathered here, and it was the cheapest place in Jiuchuan County to buy products, a gathering place for the lower classes.

Ye Qing parked his car outside a hotel near the market and walked into the market. After strolling around the market for a while, he finally spotted a book stall.

This so-called book stall was actually just a handcart with a neat array of books on it. Next to it sat an old man with gray hair, thick glasses, a gaunt face, and a vacant gaze, helplessly watching the passing pedestrians. He did not shout to attract customers or know how to promote his wares; even here, among the poor, he seemed like a beggar.

Seeing the old man in this state, Ye Qing’s eyes turned red. This old man was none other than the respected teacher Gu Xianping, deeply admired by his students. Unexpectedly, the once spirited Teacher Gu had now fallen to such a state. What on earth had happened to him?

Ye Qing strode over, about to speak, when suddenly five or six ruffian-looking youths approached. The youth leading them kicked the small stool that Gu Xianping was sitting on and said, ”Old man, do you know you’re blocking the way?”