The Bank Burglary Case (16)

Chapter 16

That police officer still hadn’t left. She had arrived yesterday, and he had originally thought she would be gone by this morning.

When Xiao Mei’s Second Grandpa, Mei Qiang, returned, not only had the officer not left, but she was in their courtyard talking to his wife.

Wang Jiawang hadn’t been found, and there was still a corpse in town. Why wouldn’t she just leave!

Had she discovered something?

Could his wife have said something?

He watched from a distance, his heart nearly leaping out of his chest. His mind was filled with images of people being executed by firing squad from the outdoor movies he had seen in the past.

Second Grandpa took a few steps back, his legs feeling weak. He swallowed hard and forced himself to keep walking forward.

The voices in the courtyard gradually became clear. He heard his wife speaking cheerfully.

“Life in the city is still better. It’s not easy to make money in a place like ours. A while back, the town said they were buying Slug Moth Cocoons¹ for fifteen yuan a catty². My man and I stayed up every night looking for those cocoons everywhere. We gathered a big bag, but it was only half a catty, and then they stopped buying them anyway.”

“Slug Moth Cocoons? May I see them?” the officer asked.

Mei Qiang hurried inside and said, “This must be the comrade from the town police station? A rare guest, a rare guest.”

Yun Song had been waiting for him to return. She could tell almost at a glance that something was wrong with him; the man before her was trying far too hard to act natural.

Zhang Zhuzhen—Yun Song already knew her name now—Zhang Zhuzhen suddenly realized she hadn’t poured any tea yet. She hurriedly said, “Look at me, I’ve already started treating you like one of the family.”

She rushed into the house to pour tea. Yun Song didn’t stop her; she needed a moment alone with Mei Qiang.

Yun Song already had a rough idea of this man’s background. He didn’t have much experience with lying or doing bad deeds. Furthermore, in Tonglin Town, the people had almost no experience dealing with the police. The concept of “the police” existed mostly in their imaginations, a mixture of old movies and theatrical archetypes.

Yun Song’s face hardened. Dropping the tone she had used with Zhang Zhuzhen, she became serious. Her eyes locked onto him as she asked, “Are you Mei Qiang?”

The smile on his face practically froze. “I… I am.”

“I am Yun Song, an officer from the Jinguang Road Police Station of the Southern District Branch of the Pingcheng Public Security Bureau³. We have a case that requires your cooperation in an investigation.”

“I’m usually very busy, I don’t know what this is about…” He grew even more nervous.

Just then, he heard a “baaing” sound. He turned his head to see two sheep entering the courtyard, bleating incessantly.

He felt a secret surge of joy. This actually gave him an opening. He hurriedly said, “Officer, wait a moment. Our sheep have gotten into the yard; I need to drive them out.”

“Baa! Baa!”

“Baa! Baa!”

Both were adult sheep, and their bleating was quite loud.

Yun Song had no experience herding sheep. She assumed the animals were bleating because they had encountered a stranger like her; after all, she had been chased by a village goose when she first arrived yesterday. Most rural animals had a knack for guarding the home.

Yun Song didn’t step forward to help. On one hand, she needed to maintain her distance, and on the other, her status as a police officer worked on people, not sheep.

So she stood to the side, watching the man drive the sheep away.

Under her gaze, Mei Qiang swallowed hard. He grabbed a stick and began striking at the sheep to drive them out, talking to them as he did.

“What’s wrong with you today? Don’t you know to go back to the pen?”

“Get out, quick! Don’t go pooping in here.” As Mei Qiang spoke, his stick struck a sheep’s head, and it began to bleat even louder.

“BAAA!!!!”

Yun Song continued to watch, her suspicion of Mei Qiang deepening.

Earlier, when she had spoken to other villagers, whether they were weeding potato fields or fertilizing vegetable patches, almost all of them could answer her questions without stopping their hoes. They managed to avoid damaging their crops while still finding the mental energy to gossip about the corpse found in town.

Yun Song’s current line of suspicion was that Mei Qiang knew what Wang Jiawang had done and had likely helped hide him.

Zhang Zhuzhen came back out. She had just gone in to boil water to make tea for their honored guest.

But before the water could boil, the bleating outside grew louder and louder. She hurried out to see what was happening.

“What’s going on? Why are you picking a fight with the sheep?”

The two sheep were circling her husband, bleating non-stop.

Unlike Mei Qiang, Zhang Zhuzhen didn’t have so many worries weighing on her heart, so she was naturally able to sense that something was wrong.

Usually, when they came back from grazing, the sheep would go into the pen on their own. They rarely came into the courtyard.

What was happening today?

Zhang Zhuzhen thought the gate to the sheep pen hadn’t been opened, so she went outside the courtyard to check.

Four large sheep and two lambs were standing right outside the pen.

Sure enough, the gate wasn’t open.

Wait! Four large sheep, two lambs. Zhang Zhuzhen turned her head to look back at the courtyard.

There were two large sheep in the yard. That only made eight!

“Old Mei, where are the other nine sheep?” Zhang Zhuzhen looked inside and out, then checked the shop next door, but they were nowhere to be found.

Mei Qiang froze. Only now did he realize so many sheep were missing. When he returned, his mind had been entirely occupied by the money, the murder, and the police. How could he have thought to count the sheep?

“Have you gone deaf and senile! Nine whole sheep are gone and you didn’t even notice!” Zhang Zhuzhen was beyond furious.

Nine! It wasn’t just one or two! No wonder these two were bleating their heads off! Their companions were missing!

Yun Song immediately said, “Then we must go to the mountains to find them right now. I’ll go with you.”

Mei Qiang’s mind raced back to when he had taken the sheep near the cave. The sheep… could they have gone to the cave?

He hurriedly said, “There’s no need to trouble the officer.”

“It’s no trouble. I need to investigate the case anyway, so I should take a look in the mountains.”

Zhang Zhuzhen quickly put the sheep that had returned into the pen, then came back out and said, “Where were you grazing them today? Hurry up and lead us there.”

Mei Qiang did not want to leave. He kept trying to catch his wife’s eye, wanting her to settle down so they could deal with the police officer first before heading into the mountains to search for the sheep.

Zhang Zhuzhen did not receive the signal at all. Her mind was entirely consumed by the fact that nine sheep were missing. Nine whole sheep!

“What are you looking at me for? Do I have a sheep on my face? What exactly is wrong with you today?” Zhang Zhuzhen wondered if the man was getting old and his brain was starting to fail him.

Seeing her react this way, and feeling the police officer’s gaze fixed on him, Mei Qiang felt that something was very wrong. He had noticed yesterday that while this officer was all smiles and friendly with everyone else in the village, she treated him differently.

And now, she was staring at him again.

“Just shut your mouth,” Mei Qiang snapped, frustrated with Zhang Zhuzhen. She usually talked too much, but now she was blabbing everything in front of an outsider! She was going to be the death of him sooner or later!

“You’ve been acting strange since yesterday. Now you go out to graze the flock, and out of seventeen sheep, you lose nine!” Zhang Zhuzhen was truly anxious. They had borrowed money to buy these sheep; losing them was a disaster!

“Can you please stop talking? We’re going into the mountains to look for them right now. If we don’t find them, you can kill me today to make amends, will that make you happy?” He grew agitated, his face flushing and the veins in his neck bulging.

Yun Song: “…” Given his emotional state, it didn’t feel like he was merely harboring a criminal.

Rural folk often didn’t have a clear concept of what it meant to harbor a fugitive, especially since they hadn’t directly participated in a crime themselves.

In his case, it looked more like he had personally taken part in the crime.

Translator’s Notes