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 fraudster.
This fraudster's name was Zhang Huanan.
He was extremely cunning and had multiple prior convictions.
Even more troublesome was that Zhang Huanan possessed highly advanced counter-surveillance awareness and had evaded police capture several times. In this fraud case, Zhang Huanan was quickly listed as one of the key suspects, and my colleague and I were assigned to stake him out day and night.
"Captain Li, want one?"
Xiao Liu pulled out my favorite Dongchongxiacao cigarettes from his pocket. He wasn't a wealthy man, but he always carried cigarettes worth over fifty yuan. He didn't smoke them himself, but he kept handing me one.
"Xiao Liu, how much do you earn each month?"
I didn't take the cigarette. Instead, I pulled out a pack of Red General from my own pocket—eight yuan a pack, cheap and strong.
"Twenty-seven hundred," Xiao Liu said. "You know that, Captain Li."
"You earn twenty-seven hundred a month and smoke Dongchongxiacao?" I bit down on a Red General, and Xiao Liu quickly offered me a lighter.
"Captain Li, what are you saying..." Xiao Liu quickly forced a smile. "How could I afford to smoke Dongchongxiacao? I keep them for you..."
I shook my head helplessly and said to him, "We're criminal police. Whoever can solve cases is the real deal. Don't bother learning that office politics crap."
"Yes, yes... Captain Li, you're right." Xiao Liu put the Dongchongxiacao back into his pocket and pulled out his own pack of six-yuan Changbaishan. "I'm still learning how to handle cases from you, aren't I?"
To be honest, Xiao Liu was quite smart and had good instincts. I heard he always ranked near the top in the police academy. But I don't know how his parents raised him—such a young guy, yet he'd already picked up this greasy, bureaucratic way of doing things. As soon as he joined the team, he gave us veterans headaches.
"Captain Li, do you think we'll actually catch this Zhang Huanan?"
"Well..." I thought briefly. "Why are you worrying so much? The higher-ups told us to stake out here, so we just follow orders."
We parked the car across the street from Zhang Huanan's building and stared intently at the only entrance and exit.
This kind of stakeout 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 waiting only made the craving for cigarettes worse.
"I should have brought a pair of shorts," Xiao Liu said.
"What? You planning to change your shorts here?"
"Haha!" Xiao Liu laughed carelessly. "Just kidding, Captain Li. Want another one?"
We smoked one cigarette after another in that sealed space. Since we didn't dare roll down the windows, the car soon filled with haze.
Every so often, Xiao Liu turned on the air conditioner to circulate the air. Otherwise, in this environment, the chance of lung cancer was close to one hundred percent.
A full day passed, and neither of us had slept.
Since I was used to staying up late, I felt I could still hold out, but Xiao Liu was already dozing off.
"Get some rest," I said. "I'll keep an eye on things alone."
"Captain Li... is that okay...? If you haven't rested, how can I sleep first..." Even though his mouth was putting up a fight, his eyelids were drooping.
"It's fine. Go to sleep. I'll wake you up tonight."
"Th-then okay... I'll just close my eyes for half an hour..."
Within twenty seconds, Xiao Liu's snoring started. The kid was clearly exhausted.
After confirming he was fast asleep, I slowly pulled out my phone from my pocket and checked the unread messages.
Three of the four messages were from Xuanxuan.
"Daddy, are you coming home for dinner tonight?"
"Daddy, Grandma said you're out on an assignment. Be safe!"
"Daddy, next Friday afternoon is parent-teacher conference. Can you come back by then?"
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.
The unknown number had only sent three words: "Still on stakeout?"
I glanced again at the sleeping Xiao Liu beside me, then shifted my body to the other side and quickly replied: "Stop fucking talking. Stay hidden."
After doing all that, I put my phone away, slowly reclined my seat, and prepared to catch a little nap myself.
The department's new car was really quite fancy. The seat was electric and reclined slowly, unlike the old cars that would drop back all at once and make your back snap.
As for staking out Zhang Huanan...
Don't make me laugh. With me here, there's no way he'd show up.
I don't know how long passed, but I was suddenly shaken awake by a violent jolt.
I opened my eyes in a panic and saw Xiao Liu staring at me with a tense expression. "Captain Li!! How did you fall asleep too?!"
"Huh?" I was still groggy from waking up. It took me a moment to figure out what had happened. "Oh... you woke up?"
"Damn it! Captain Li, we both fell asleep. What if Zhang Huanan showed up?"
"It's fine. He can't get away." I rubbed my eyes and put the seat back upright.
"Can't get away?"
"Oh... I mean, I only just lay down. It shouldn't be that coincidental..."
"Sigh..." Xiao Liu still looked uneasy. He slapped his own cheeks hard and said, "I knew I shouldn't have slept. This is bad. On my first mission, I already made a mistake."
"It's okay, kid." I patted his shoulder. "If anything goes wrong, I'll take the blame."
Strangely enough, from that moment on, Xiao Liu seemed to have gotten a shot of adrenaline. He didn't close his eyes for two straight days.
I slept several times in between, but every time I woke up, Xiao Liu was staring blankly at the building across the street.
"You trying to drop dead?" I asked, a little worried. "I'm awake now. Get some sleep."
"No." Xiao Liu's dark circles were extremely 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, the phone in my pocket buzzed again.
Even my Nokia 6300 was almost out of battery.
I opened the phone and saw that Zhang Huanan had sent me another text message.
Without moving a muscle, I shifted my body slightly to see what he had sent, but Xiao Liu suddenly spoke up from behind me. "Is there an order from the department?"
"Oh, no." I smiled, clutching the phone in my hand and moving aside a little.
"Not from the department? Then who sent it?" He stared blankly at the phone in my hand.
I knew that ordinary people wouldn't ask such an impolite question. But Xiao Liu, due to prolonged lack of sleep, was completely out of it.
Seeing his state, an idea came to me.
I reached into my pocket, moved the cigarettes from the pack into my pocket, and then took out the empty pack to shake it in front of him.
"Xiao Liu, go buy a pack of cigarettes."
"Buy cigarettes? There's no convenience store nearby." He paused, confused.
"But I don't have a single cigarette left." I tucked the pack and my phone into my jacket. "If there's none nearby, go a bit farther. You can't go without cigarettes on this kind of all-nighter. Also, we're almost out of water and bread in the car. If it's convenient, pick some up too."
He stared blankly for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, Captain Li. I'll be back soon."