It was daybreak, but still cloudy. The gray tones were in harmony with the gray county town of Meixian, with gray sky, gray streets, gray shadows, and dust.
Black top hat, black coat, white cuffs; black rolled-up trousers, black leather shoes, white socks showing; even at the moment of death, he is still Li Youcai, clearly a stray dog, but he still remains a treacherous person.
He walked into the gate of Meixian Police Station instead of the Detective Team. In the Detective Team, no one called him Captain Li anymore. In the Police Team, many people still called him Captain Li. Some people even called him Brother Li. Li Youcai, who was self-aware, always responded to calls and smiled back. He knew that it was not because people liked him, but because Li Weiwei had been promoted to deputy captain. The smiles he received were for Officer Li's sake.
Li Weiwei left the office and personally took Li Youcai to the police morgue. He asked in confusion, "Second brother, are you still worried about me handling the case?"
Li Youcai's face under the hat was haggard, and it was obvious that he hadn't slept all night. "I'm not here to investigate the case. I just wanted to see my benefactor. It was too dark at that time, and I couldn't see him clearly. Tail, no matter what his background is, don't make things difficult for his body. I'll pay for the coffin."
In the run-down morgue, there were three bodies, all covered with torn sacks. Li Weiba pointed to the body on the left: "That was the one who died in the gambling house yesterday. The one in the middle was the one who wanted to kill you last night." Finally, he pointed to the body on the right: "Go and have a look, that one saved your life."
Taking off his black top hat and pinching his throat, Li Youcai walked to the corpse on the right, lifted a corner of the sack, and gradually uncovered it, revealing a very unfamiliar dead face.
After staring at the face for a long time, Li Youcai suddenly turned around and lifted the sack covering the corpse in the middle. Another dead face appeared, with large patches of dirty blood on the side of the mouth and neck.
After a long while, Li Youcai straightened up and pointed at the corpse in the middle and said, "He can only plant flowers in pots. He always said so."
"What's the meaning?"
"He is the one who saved me."
"What?" Li Weiba was surprised: "You didn't see it wrong? He..."
"I was not mistaken. I have seen him before. If he wanted to kill me, I should have died before yesterday."
"… "
"What’s wrong with you?"
"Uh... nothing." Li Weiba hastily put away his surprise at this time, and put his hands into his trouser pockets unnaturally: "It seems... I... took it for granted."
…
Coming to this quiet street again, the walls were still covered with those mottled and faded advertisements of beauties, and the slightly crooked electric pole beside the street had not been straightened yet. The dog traitor came to the pole, folded his arms in front of his chest, leaned against the pole, frowned, and observed every pedestrian who occasionally appeared. He always felt that... knives and guns could be seen at any time!
The people who know us best are often the ones around us. Although Li Youcai's work performance is very poor, he still made it to where he is today in the detective team. What's more, he himself is a person walking on the edge of a knife.
How could Li Weiba determine who the murderer was after only one night? Could such a thing be taken for granted? Li Youcai was unwilling to consider this question, because it might be a sad question for him!
"Waiting for me?"
I turned my head towards the sound and saw a boy selling cigarettes walking towards me. His patches were still patched, his snot was still snot and his mud was still mud, but his face seemed to be rosier than before.
"Give me a pack of cigarettes!"
Hearing the dog traitor's arrogant tone, the cigarette seller immediately turned gloomy: "You lost it all again!"
"Stop talking nonsense!" The dog traitor raised his hand and picked up the most expensive box of cigarettes from the cigarette rack, opened the package on the spot, took out a cigarette and lit it.
"When will you pay me back for my cigarettes?"
"I didn't say I wanted to buy on credit, why should I pay it back?" The dog traitor threw away the matchstick that had just gone out, took a big puff, and then said, "Don't you have a younger brother? Why haven't I seen you take him with you?"
"My brother has to help mother with many chores, including collecting charcoal and vegetable leaves every day."
The cigarette selling boy was in low spirits, and the dog traitor was also in low spirits. He stared into the distance in silence for a while and said, "I'll introduce a job to you. You know Officer Li Weiba, right? Go to the entrance of the police station and keep watch."
"But you can't even afford cigarette money!"
"If I can steal your cigarettes, I can certainly steal other people's money!"
The cigarette selling boy was stunned for three seconds, then he immediately closed the cigarette stand and started running towards the police station. His mood was no longer depressed, but the dog traitor continued to lean against the telephone pole in depression.
…
In the evening, there was an oil lamp on the table, and a small pistol was placed on it. It was a Saul M1913, which was called the Snake Brand Pistol. People who often use guns think that the gun is not powerful enough, and people who don't often use guns think that the "snake" shape is unlucky. This was extorted by Li Youcai from a pawnshop owner in the afternoon. Now he is not so useful in the detective team. He claimed that he lost his service gun, but he was not immediately reissued.
Li Youcai, who was sitting at the table, was screwing a bullet into the cartridge case that had just been emptied of gunpowder, then pressing the bullet into the magazine, and then putting the magazine into the gun. Finally, he wiped off the gunpowder remaining on the edge of the table. Every movement was orderly, and he had never treated a gun so seriously before.
Not long after, there was a sound of a gate being pushed open in the yard, followed by the door of the house opening, and a police officer hurried in.
"Second brother, are you crazy? How dare you return to your nest at this time?"
"It's easy to dodge a spear, but hard to guard against an arrow from the dark. I think... I might as well just die! What do you think?"
"You... what's wrong with you?" Li Weiba stared at Li Youcai who was sitting at the table for a long time, sighed helplessly, went to the table and sat opposite Li Youcai, took off his police hat and put it on the table: "You called me here... not to say these nonsense, right?"
Li Youcai didn't look at Li Weiba, but stared at the oil lamp on the table, a little absent-minded: "Weiba, I'm not cut out to be a brother, I didn't teach you well. But... I'd rather die in your hands than have you use my knife to help me."
"Ah? You..."
Li Weiba was stunned and at a loss. He saw Li Youcai took out a Snake brand pistol and then he shuddered. He saw Li Youcai slowly push the gun across the table in front of him and said, "Fight in front of me. I won't bear grudge against you as my brother. If you want to wait for me to turn around, I will hate you forever!"
"I… "
"Tail, stop pretending! Ever since you learned to talk, you've been crawling behind my butt every day... Pick up the gun."
Li Weiba stopped hesitating and stared at each other across the table. After a long while, he finally slowly picked up the pistol on the table, looked down at the dim light reflected by the gun body, weighed the gun in his hand again and again, and then said: "Second brother, since you have said so much, then... come with me!"
…
There was an evening breeze, but no stars were visible. This place was very close to the south city wall of Meixian County, at the end of the road. There was a simple single-person wooden police booth with a lantern hanging next to it, illuminating a limited area. It occasionally squeaked in the wind. There was no one guarding the booth, and it was pitch black all around.
This is a night for murder, and this is a good place for murder, Li Youcai thought to himself as he glanced around.
As expected, Li Weiba stopped moving and stopped within the range of the light. He also looked around at the situation and then turned around: "Wait here." Then he left Li Youcai alone standing within the range of the light, and the road they were on disappeared into the darkness.
Not long after, footsteps were heard coming from another direction. The footsteps were approaching, very lightly and slowly. It seemed that the closer they got, the more hesitant they became. After what seemed like a long time, a figure finally slowly emerged from the darkness and quietly stopped at the edge of the light range.
Li Youcai couldn't see her face clearly, but he was still staring at her stiffly. The more he looked, the more he felt the pain of his past wounds, and gradually the pain became so severe that he couldn't even breathe!
"I'm sorry," she said.
“I came here because I heard you were in jail,” she said.
"I heard that you were in danger in the gambling house yesterday... so I sent someone to follow you." she said.
"Are you... okay?" she said.
However, he said nothing, but just stood quietly under the dim light, still a traitor in a black hat, black clothes, and black shoes, but she was no longer the bright blue shirt in the sun...