THAT AFTERNOON, in the Huashi District Bureau, Wang Hongliang announced that he had a meeting and took off like a rocket, leaving the handling of the fight’s aftermath to Luo Wenzhou.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Luo Wenzhou bent down and peered closely into Tao Ran’s face. “Even back when we helped the narcotics boys on that drug bust and got caught in the crossfire for twenty minutes, I don’t think anyone sustained heavy injuries, and now look at you.”
Some martial hero’s Nine Yin White Bone Claw strike6 had left a gash on Officer Tao’s chin.
“I just knew that you guys would get into trouble as soon as you left my line of sight,” Luo Wenzhou continued. “When you go home tonight, remember to get a rabies shot.”
While questioning neighbors about the He Zhongyi case, the district bureau officers had come across a street brawl. The catalyst, it seemed, had been a young worker’s theft of five yuan from a little stall; that had erupted into a huge fight that absorbed even the officers who came to stop it. Now the people involved had all been hauled to the district bureau, and everything was a mess. The brawlers remained primed for battle, their war drums continuing to pound even at the police station. The cacophony of their arguments and protests was punctuated by repeated interjections of “Get down!” and “Rein yourselves in!” from the officers, always in the same tone—a damning indictment of the police force members’ vocabulary. Extra hands from other stations stood in a row to one side, confused and unsure as to what they were meant to be doing.
When Luo Wenzhou walked in, he slammed the door hard behind him. His sheer dominating aggression cowed both of the armies facing off before him. Everyone spun to look at him, startled by the bang. Luo Wenzhou leaned back against the doorframe. “Which of you guys assaulted an officer?”
Nobody spoke.
“You think that, if you don’t own up to it, the law won’t punish you as a group?” Luo Wenzhou’s face was stony. “Fine. Lock them all up. Remember to tell their families to post bail. If they don’t have families, tell their bosses. And I heard something about illegal occupation of public roads and an unlicensed business? Perfect timing. Let’s be rigorous about this; punish the wrongdoers properly. After that, I’ll ask my colleagues from the local station to pay special attention to everyone here going forward, now that these guys will all have a record.”
He’d barely finished speaking when a man who seemed to be in his fifties yelled, “What do you mean, ‘a record’? How can you just accuse us of assaulting an officer? Have you got evidence? Are you keeping us here without cause? I’m warning you, I have a heart condition!”
Far from batting an eye, Luo Wenzhou barely raised his voice. “Ever heard of police body cameras, dumbass?” Right on cue, Lang Qiao walked over and handed Luo Wenzhou a printout. Luo Wenzhou took it and glanced over it, then swept a lingering look over the head troublemaker. “What a coincidence.” He took his phone out and made a call. “Hello? Principal Han, this is Wenzhou… No, I’m not up to much here at all. Hey—you’ve got a security guard named Yu Lei at your school, right?”
The man froze, then turned as white as a sheet, as if he really was about to have a heart attack.
Phone to his ear, Luo Wenzhou smiled at him. “Could you check? The character for ‘Yu’ is two dashes and one ticked line, and ‘Lei’ is written with three ‘shi’s, as in ‘stone.’7 Male, fifty-three… No, nothing major. He’s a fit old man—got into a brawl, and my colleagues at this station have him in custody. But now he says he has a heart condition. If it acts up while he’s with us, and news gets out, that’ll be a whole new problem on our hands, you know? It’d be more than we could take responsibility for. I’m begging you, Auntie Han, send someone over quick to bail this liability out of here.”
Before Luo Wenzhou could hang up, Yu Lei seemed to panic. “I…I-I-I was just keeping the neighborhood safe! It was self-defense!”
Luo Wenzhou snorted. “Do you even know what self-defense is?”
“It was self-defense!” Yu Lei pointed at some young men who’d clearly set themselves apart from the larger group. “Last night’s killer was one of them! I heard it!”