Chapter 84: My Name Is Li Shangwu
My name is Li Shangwu.
I lied.
On May 22, 2010, my colleague and I received an assignment to stake out a con man.
That con man's name was Zhang Huanan.
He was extremely cunning and had a lengthy criminal record.
What made it even trickier was that Zhang Huanan possessed exceptionally sharp counter-surveillance skills. He had evaded police encirclement several times before. In this latest fraud case, he was quickly listed as a prime suspect, and my colleague and I were tasked with round-the-clock surveillance.
"Captain Li, want one?"
Xiao Liu pulled out my favorite cigarettes—Cordyceps Sinensis brand—from his pocket. He wasn't exactly well-off, but he always carried a pack of those fifty-kuai cigarettes. He never smoked them himself, but he'd offer me one at every opportunity.
"Xiao Liu, how much do you make a month?"
Instead of taking the cigarette, I pulled out a pack of Red General from my own pocket—eight kuai a pack, cheap and strong.
"Twenty-seven hundred," Xiao Liu said. "You know that, Captain Li."
"Twenty-seven hundred a month, and you're smoking Cordyceps Sinensis?" I stuck a General in my mouth, and Xiao Liu quickly offered me a lighter.
"Captain Li, what are you saying..." Xiao Liu forced a smile. "Cordyceps Sinensis—how could I afford to smoke that myself? I keep it for you..."
I shook my head helplessly and said to him, "Come on, we're criminal police. Whoever can crack the case is the one who matters. Don't bother learning that office politics crap."
"Yes, yes... whatever you say, Captain Li." Xiao Liu put the Cordyceps Sinensis back in his pocket and pulled out his own pack of Changbaishan—six kuai a pack. "I'm just trying to learn how to handle cases from you, right?"
To be honest, Xiao Liu was a smart kid with good instincts. I'd heard he'd been at the top of his class at the police academy. But I have no idea how his parents raised him—he was still young, yet he'd already picked up that greasy, sycophantic government-office routine. It drove us veterans crazy from the moment he joined the team.
"Captain Li, do you think we'll actually catch this Zhang Huanan?"
"Well..." I thought for a moment. "Why worry about that? The higher-ups told us to hold this position. We just follow orders."
We parked the car across the street from Zhang Huanan's building, eyes fixed on the only entrance and exit.
Surveillance like this was usually done in pairs, so one person could rest while the other kept watch. But we had no idea how long we'd be here. That unknown stretch of time made the craving for cigarettes worse in an invisible way.
"I should've brought a pair of shorts," Xiao Liu said.
"What for? You planning to change your underwear here?"
"Haha!" Xiao Liu laughed carelessly. "Just kidding, Captain Li. Want another one?"
We chain-smoked in that sealed space. Since we didn't dare roll down the windows, the car soon filled with a haze of smoke.
Every so often, Xiao Liu would turn on the air conditioning to air it out. Otherwise, in this environment, our chances of getting lung cancer would be close to one hundred percent.
A full day passed, and neither of us had slept.
I could handle it—I was used to pulling all-nighters—but Xiao Liu was already nodding off.
"Get some rest," I said. "I'll keep watch alone."
"Captain Li... is that okay...? If you haven't rested, how can I sleep first..." He tried to sound tough, but his eyelids were already fighting each other.
"It's fine. Go ahead. I'll wake you tonight."
"All right, all right... I'll just close my eyes for half an hour..."
Within twenty seconds, Xiao Liu was snoring. The kid must have been exhausted.
Once I was sure he was fast asleep, I slowly pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the unread messages.
Three out of four messages were from Xuanxuan.
"Dad, are you coming home for dinner tonight?"
"Dad, Grandma said you're on a mission these two days. Be safe!"
"Dad, there's a parent-teacher meeting next Friday afternoon. Can you come back for it?"
I frowned slightly but still replied to Xuanxuan.
"I'll be home in a couple of days. Eat well."
After sending that, I opened the fourth unread message.
That unfamiliar number had only sent three words: "Still on watch?"
I glanced again at Xiao Liu, who was fast asleep beside me. Then I shifted my body to the other side and quickly replied: "Stop fucking around and stay hidden."
After that, I pocketed my phone and slowly reclined my seat, intending to catch a short nap myself.
The new car the team had bought was really high-end. The seat was electric and reclined slowly, unlike the old cars where the seat would suddenly drop back and throw your back out.
As for staking out Zhang Huanan...
Come on. With me here, there was no way he was going to show up.
I don't know how long passed, but I was suddenly shaken awake.
I opened my eyes in a panic and found Xiao Liu staring at me with a tense expression. "Captain Li!! How could you fall asleep too?!"
"Huh?" I was groggy from just waking up. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening. "Oh... you're awake?"
"Damn it, Captain Li! We both fell asleep. What if Zhang Huanan showed up?"
"He's not going anywhere." I rubbed my eyes and put my seat back upright.
"Not going anywhere?"
"Oh... I mean I just dozed off. It can't be that coincidental..."
"Tch..." Xiao Liu still looked uneasy. He slapped his cheeks hard and said, "I knew I shouldn't have slept. This is bad. I screwed up on my first mission."
"It's okay, kid." I patted his shoulder. "If anything happens, I'll take the blame."
Strangely enough, from that moment on, Xiao Liu seemed to get a shot of adrenaline. He didn't sleep for two straight days.
I took several naps in between, but every time I woke up, I'd see Xiao Liu staring fixedly at the building across the street.
"Are you trying to drop dead?" I asked, worried. "I'm awake now. You get some rest."
"No way." Xiao Liu's dark circles were heavy, and he looked haggard. "Captain Li, I'm not resting this time, no matter what. I have to wait until Zhang Huanan shows up."
Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Even the Nokia 6300 was almost out of battery by now.
I opened the phone and saw that that bastard Zhang Huanan had sent me another text.
I casually shifted my body to check what he'd written, but Xiao Liu suddenly asked from behind me, "An order from the team?"
"Oh, no." I smiled and pulled my phone closer to me.
"Not from the team? Then who sent it?" He stared blankly at the phone in my hand.
I knew most people wouldn't ask such an intrusive question. But Xiao Liu, due to prolonged lack of sleep, was in a bit of a daze.
Seeing his state, an idea popped into my head.
I reached into my pocket, moved the cigarettes from the pack into my pocket, then took out the empty pack and shook it in front of him.
"Xiao Liu, go buy some cigarettes."
"Buy cigarettes? There's no convenience store around here." He paused, confused.
"But I'm completely out." I put the cigarette pack and phone back in my pocket and said to him, "If there's none nearby, go a bit farther. You can't go without cigarettes when you're pulling all-nighters. And we're almost out of water and bread in the car. If you don't mind, pick some of those up too."
He stared blankly for a moment, thinking it over, then nodded. "Okay, Captain Li. I'll be right back."