Chapter 197 144: Arrest! Surrender Without a Fight

Sun Jiang chuckled.

"I am a thief."

Hearing this, Xu Huo paused.

He pulled a stack of documents from his pocket.

"Hmm, an ID card for Sun Zhao, age twenty-five. Fake. A driver's license, a lawyer's certification, a magician's license… quite the collection. Which forger did you get all these from?"

"Whoa, carrying four thousand on you?"

"A piece of wire… planning to pick the handcuffs later? I bet you could pick the lock on a jail cell, too."

Sun Jiang was stunned. He quickly drew back his hands and frantically searched himself.

Just as he feared, everything he had prepared and kept on his person was gone…

'When?!'

Before Sun Jiang could ask, Xu Huo's voice sounded again.

"First, give my things back."

Sun Jiang froze. A second later, he said sheepishly:

"Professional habit."

With that, he handed a wallet to Xu Huo.

"And the phone."

"That's also a professional habit…"

"CLICK!"

The moment he handed them over, a crisp sound rang out.

A pair of handcuffs, glinting silver even in the darkness, appeared on his wrists.

After waiting for the cigarette to burn down to its end…

Xu Huo said:

"Let's go."

"Okay."

Sun Jiang left.

He walked toward the neon lights.

But he was going under different circumstances.

...

...

「December 7th.」

「Linlan City.」

Sun Jiang was caught.

He didn't resist, didn't struggle. In fact, from start to finish, the thought of escaping never even crossed his mind.

But even so, the police treated him with extreme caution.

The handcuffs and the lock on the detention room were custom-made, and three officers watched him face-to-face, twenty-four hours a day.

Two surveillance cameras were also installed overnight.

They had no choice.

The municipal bureau wasn't a prison.

Given his abilities, if he were held with the same security measures as an ordinary person, and he decided to leave…

He could walk in and out of the police station as if it were his own backyard!

He could just open a door, hop a wall, and disappear without a trace.

"Tsk, that was a damn good sleep."

In the municipal bureau's courtyard, Xu Huo yawned, basking in the sun as he spoke lazily.

With Sun Jiang captured, the subsequent interrogation and other tasks had nothing to do with him.

A while later, Li Jianye walked over, his face etched with anxiety. Spotting a bottle of water on the table, he grabbed it without a second thought about who it belonged to and chugged it down.

"Fucking exhausted."

"Running back and forth between several murder scenes… it's no damn place for a human being!"

Li Jianye cursed.

Wrapping up a case was more work than investigating it. There was no helping it; there were just too many crime scenes.

Like the guy who was dismembered and then deep-fried like chicken; they still haven't found all the body parts.

And then there was the incident from six years ago…

"What happened six years ago?"

Xu Huo asked casually, not even bothering to sit up.

At his words, Li Jianye paused.

"What else could have happened…" Li Jianye trailed off, shaking his head.

Li Jianye felt like his eyes had truly been opened.

Not a single one of the people who died was innocent.

They once drove away a melon seller from the night market. The melon farmer didn't know Sun Jiang, but he had once offered him a slice of melon.

Later, the farmer had a conflict with the Zhao Family and their associates—the very people Sun Jiang killed.

After that…

'Drove him away?'

No, they smashed the melons the man had invested his life savings in, leaving a small portion to take to the Urban Management Brigade.

This small portion wasn't impounded for safekeeping. The Zhao Family and the others sent them to the canteen and ate them all themselves.

And the money from those melons…

"He had a daughter who needed medical treatment. He was counting on selling those melons to get the money. They basically pushed him to a dead end."

"He died later. Hanged himself."

Li Jianye sighed, full of sorrow.

"What else?"

Xu Huo showed no emotion, asking as if they were just chatting.

At the same time, he paused. Without looking up, he shouted:

"Wang Chao, if you keep acting crazy, I'm going to punch you in the face!"

A second later, Wang Chao, who was behind him, stopped in his tracks, embarrassed.

He was holding a rope, the other end of which was tied to a tire. Sitting inside the tire was Niuniu.

Just now, Chao Zi had been pulling the rope, running back and forth, and Niuniu was finding it very exciting.

Of course, it was still a bit dangerous.

Li Jianye glanced over but didn't pay it much mind.

Xiao Long, Xiao Hu, and the other kids were very hostile toward the police. Even when they were eating with their heads down in the canteen, their eyes weren't on their food but darting around at the surrounding officers.

They were quite fond of Wang Chao, though. If it weren't for him, that group of kids would have probably run away from the station long ago.

As for Xu Huo, they weren't afraid of him, but they held him in awe.

"As for the rest…"

"There was also a homeless man."

Li Jianye said suddenly.

"That man was a friend of Sun Jiang's. He was homeless in the market area for a while. He would always pick up scraps to eat after the night market or morning market closed."

"But… you know how it is with the city's appearance for the 'Civilized City' award."

Li Jianye began to explain.

Xu Huo nodded.

For the 'Civilized City' award, appearance and the 'quality' of the populace are crucial. If a city wants to win, it can't have beggars and homeless people all over the streets. It wouldn't win shit.

So, they have to be 'managed'.

As for the management methods… they're actually quite proper.

This was why Xu Huo had rarely seen any homeless people in his past life.

The government would send people to find homeless individuals. Once found, if they were disabled, they'd be placed in nursing homes or welfare centers.

If they were able-bodied, they'd be offered a job.

Overall, it was a peaceful system.

Of course, even so, some homeless people were afraid and would run at the sight of officials.

But the Zhao Family and their group of city management officers…

"They drove him out."

"The man had made a home for himself in the sewers, but after that, he had no home at all."

Li Jianye said.

"Hey, speaking of which, Sun Jiang said he was on his best behavior during that time. Didn't steal a single penny."

Li Jianye suddenly added:

"His grandmother was blind, had some problem with her eyes. But even so, she never allowed Sun Jiang to steal. She told him that earning money honestly was better than anything."

"So, Sun Jiang stopped stealing."

To get a "born criminal," as someone like Huang Song would call him, to stop stealing…

It was quite remarkable.

But unfortunately…

Sun Jiang eventually did steal again.

"When someone dies, someone else has to cry."

"When someone cries, resentment builds in their heart."

"And when there's resentment, something is bound to happen."

Li Jianye took a drag from his cigarette, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and looked at Xu Huo as he spoke slowly.

"Honestly, he never intended to kill the director of the welfare center."

"During the interrogation, he said his original plan was to turn himself in at the end, just like a certain someone else."

"But later, when he went to check on those kids, he found nothing. And so, the plan to surrender was off."

"I'm guessing the reason he didn't resist at all is that he never planned to confront the police in the first place."

His plan was very thorough.

Steal three hundred fifty thousand and exchange it all for cheap food!

He thought that as long as the donation wasn't entirely money, no one would be greedy enough to embezzle it.

But Sun Jiang never expected that even milk, bread, and toy cars would be misappropriated!

"Heh."

"The murderer and petty thief, despised, feared, and hunted by the police, was someone whose first thought before his own end was to donate supplies to orphans."

"The entrepreneur and philanthropist, admired, worshiped, and praised, was secretly a man who committed subsidy fraud, trafficked children, and resold supplies."

As he spoke, Li Jianye started to laugh for some reason, but his smile was tinged with ridicule.

"How laughable."

It was unclear whether he found Sun Jiang laughable, or the director.

Or maybe it was the police who arrested Sun Jiang that he found laughable.

However, Xu Huo paid no mind to any of this.

He opened his eyes and looked at Li Jianye.

"You just said… his original plan was to turn himself in? Just like a certain someone?"

"Who? Who was it?!"

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes.

Li Jianye paused, and a moment later, a playful look appeared in his eyes.

"Damn it, that's the crazy part!"

"Kid, when I first heard him say it, I started questioning my own existence. It's too damn coincidental!"

"You'll never guess…"

"Damn it, that kid knew about us months ago!!!"

'Months ago?'

Xu Huo was stunned.

"This wasn't our first meeting."

Li Jianye took a deep drag, finishing his cigarette, and clicked his tongue.

"A few months ago, we met him in Jiangsan City, over a thousand kilometers from here!"

'We met him months ago?'

'Over a thousand kilometers?'

'What the hell?!'

Xu Huo's interest was piqued. He sat up straight and looked at Li Jianye.

"Details."