The Bank Burglary Case (9)

Chapter 9

Yun Song slept until the afternoon. When she woke up in a daze, a group of children happened to be having a physical education class on the playground outside the school dormitory.

She woke to the rhythmic “one, two, three, four” of the children’s drills.

Upon waking, her clothes were almost entirely soaked with sweat. Her neck and forehead were covered in perspiration.

The sunlight was still struggling to force its way into the room. Yun Song stood up to drink some water, taking a moment to compose herself as the events of yesterday and today came flooding back.

What time was it? Why was the sun already setting?

Yun Song turned her head and saw Tong Jin sleeping soundly on the adjacent bed, her face likewise covered in sweat from the heat.

Across from them, two beds had been pushed together to form one large bed, where Tang Chao was also asleep.

Why hadn’t the two of them woken her up to rotate shifts?

Yun Song didn’t wake them; since she was already up, she decided to head out and check on the situation.

As soon as she reached the bottom of the Liao family’s building, Old Lady Zhang hurried over and whispered, “Officer, don’t you worry. I’ve been watching them all day. They went out once in the middle of the day, but I followed them and scolded them back.”

Yun Song thanked her, realizing this must have been the solution Tong Jin and Tang Chao had come up with.

“No need to be polite with me. Besides, I was paid for it. If anything like this happens again, you must call me. Don’t look at my age; you officials surely know that people my age are the best at getting things done.” The old lady was pleased. Five yuan was not easy for someone her age to earn.

When Tang Chao and Tong Jin arrived, they felt a pang of panic seeing Yun Song talking to the old lady.

For some reason, even though Yun Song was only a few years older than them, she possessed an indescribable air of authority. This remained true even though she was generally gentle and almost never lost her temper.

Both of them felt the awkwardness of being caught slacking off.

The two walked over, and Tong Jin offered an immediate explanation. “We were just too sleepy at the time and were afraid we’d nod off in the middle of the watch.”

“How much did you pay her?” Yun Song asked.

“Five yuan.”

Yun Song said, “Next time-“

“We won’t do it again!”

“Make it six yuan.”

The two of them spoke at the same time.

“Huh?” Tong Jin and Tang Chao were both surprised.

“There are three of us; it’s easier to split the bill that way.”

Tong Jin immediately waved her hands. “As long as you aren’t angry, it’s fine. I can cover the money.”

“Why would I be angry? It’s flexible policing, cooperating with the locals. It’s a good thing.” Only three of them had been sent to handle this case. Neither this town nor the neighboring one had a police station. When conducting interviews, they had to walk dozens of kilometers of mountain roads a day. The current workload was so heavy that even someone like Yun Song, who had endured great hardships in the past, felt her body reaching its limit.

Being a bit flexible was a matter of survival.

Yun Song still contributed two yuan this time.

Getting plenty of rest during the day was a good thing, because they would need to watch the couple themselves tonight.

When returning from the old lady’s house, Yun Song had explicitly told the pair that she would take them back to the city tomorrow. Their shifty eyes and uncontrollable fidgeting when providing clues about the bank burglary indicated they were hiding something.

Since they were leaving tomorrow, they would definitely make their move tonight.

Yun Song guessed they had likely seen exactly who robbed the bank and would probably go looking for that person tonight.

Though it had been so hot during the day that they were drenched in sweat while sleeping, when eight o’clock rolled around, the three of them were still in their short sleeves when wave after wave of cold wind began to blow.

“Is it going to rain?”

Yun Song looked up at the sky. It was pitch black, different from the usual night sky. She said, “Looking at this, it’s likely going to be a heavy downpour.”

“Go back and grab a jacket.”

“Alright, we’ll be right back.”

As soon as the two left, the young couple emerged from their house.

Yun Song followed at a moderate distance, remaining undetected.

They crossed the old street, passed the grain store and the threshing floor, and finally stopped briefly by the roadside. They seemed to pluck something before quickly continuing forward.

Yun Song walked to the spot where they had stopped. There was a large cluster of mugwort¹, and the leaves on the edge had been stripped away by hand.

Yun Song also plucked some mugwort and continued to follow. The two ahead stopped at the very edge of Tonglin Street.

This time they stopped for good. Between the heavy clouds and the darkness of night, it was impossible to see exactly what they were doing; only two blurred shadows were visible.

At that moment, the young couple stood before a large manure pit², covering their noses with the hands they had just rubbed with mugwort.

The strong, pungent scent of the mugwort instantly masked the stench of the waste.

“It works,” the husband said.

The wife replied, “Then let’s hurry and fish it out. It’ll be a mess once the rain starts.”

This pit had originally belonged to the Li family for their pigs. It was used to pile pig manure and was usually left uncovered, allowing rainwater to flow in, so it was mostly liquid.

The two of them used a long wooden pole to poke around inside.

They were more patient this time than the previous few, because they truly had nowhere left to turn. They had to get some money out of this.

Several times, the long pole hit something at the bottom of the pit. Once, it even snagged on something, but they couldn’t pull it up.

“There’s definitely something down there.”

The couple brainwashed themselves once more. With no path left ahead of them, they were desperate for something to fill the void of their fear.

“It must be the money stolen from the bank, packed in plastic bags and placed at the very bottom.”

“They definitely couldn’t take the money home after stealing it from the bank. If they took it home, their family would find out. If they went out to spend it, even more people would know,” the man said.

“Putting it in a manure pit, tied to a stone to weigh it down at the bottom… absolutely no one would find it,” the woman added.

Standing there, the couple was consumed by thoughts of the money below. They were being sent back to the city by the police tomorrow, and after that, they would be locked up. They had no idea when they would get out.

If they couldn’t get the money out today, they couldn’t tell their family about it either.

There were only old people and children left at home. If they came to fish for it and fell in, what would happen then?

So, the couple steeled their hearts and decided to go down and fish it out.

“Wait a minute, plug your nose first!” The woman went to find some mugwort and stuffed it into the man’s nostrils.

The man gritted his teeth and finally slid down.

Most people in Tonglin Town knew how to swim, and the man was no exception, but this was the first time he had faced a situation like this.

Soon, the man felt something. It was made of cloth. He quickly grabbed it and pulled upward.

He couldn’t budge it.

It was impossible for him to open his eyes down there; he only knew it was something wrapped in cloth.

“I can’t pull it up!”

“You have to pull it even if you can’t! There must be big rocks tied to the money! Can you see if you can untie the stones?”

“How am I supposed to open my eyes down here? Do you really think this is water?” He couldn’t hold out much longer in there.

The woman realized this as well and said, “Then give me one of your hands, and use the other to pull the money!”

The man went back under once more, straining with all his might. This was money! It was all money! This time he erupted with unprecedented strength, and the object finally moved.

On the other side, Yun Song noticed that one of the young couple seemed to have… been pushed into the manure pit?

She hurried forward to find the two of them.

As she approached, she realized the person hadn’t been pushed in, because the woman was still desperately pulling on the man’s hand, looking as if she were about to be dragged in herself.

Yun Song could only rush to help pull the woman back.

Soon, the man emerged from the depths, and the object he was dragging followed him out.

Under the faint moonlight, the thunderstorm that had been brewing for so long finally poured down.

And all three people present saw clearly what it was.

It was a corpse. The part the man was gripping was the corpse’s waistband.

The man’s reflex was to let go immediately, but Yun Song quickly grabbed hold and pulled the body onto the ground nearby.

In the heavy rain, the young couple was scared witless. They sat on the ground, staring blankly at everything.

Soon, they regained their senses. In the downpour, to their right were a police officer and a corpse; to their left, a slender willow tree stood solitary. Behind them, the people of Tonglin Town were still asleep, just as they should have been.

The couple looked at it all and broke down into hysterical sobs.

Translator’s Notes