Chapter 152: Why Should I be Afraid When I was Right?

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Where is that Wang Yao who was brought here just now?” asked the deputy chief police officer.

The reason why he cared about Wang Yao was completely because of what Deputy Chief of the County, Mr. Dai said. As a senior officer of the local government, Mr. Dai wouldn’t say anything casually or randomly. Every single word out of his mouth was meaningful and targeted certain people specifically. This was a rule of thumb in local government.

Although the deputy chief police officer was considered a senior level officer, Mr. Dai ranked much higher than him. One word from Mr. Dai could affect Deputy Chief Police Officer’s career.

“Vice-Captain, I’ve brought him here,” said a policeman.

“Good,” said Vice-Captain.

Inside the interrogation room of the police station was a middle-aged police officer in his 40’s. His face was slightly black, and he was staring at Wang Yao.

“What’s your name?” asked the police officer.

“Wang Yao,” said Wang Yao.

“What is your age?” asked the police officer.

“26,” said Wang Yao.

“Do you know why you are here?” asked the police officer.

“I don’t know,” said Wang Yao calmly.

Bang! The police officer slapped the table.

“You should be honest with me. We have all the evidence and information, so you’d better confess,” said the police officer sternly.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. What do you want me to confess to?” said Wang Yao.

“You are stubborn!” The police officer made an eye gesture to the men standing next to him.

“Well, some people are just so stubborn!” the man stood up and did some stretches. Suddenly, the door of the interrogation room opened.

“Chief?” The police officer was surprised.

“Song, please come out; I need to have a word with you,” said the deputy chief police officer.

“Yes!” The police officer who was so rude just now became very polite. He came out of the interrogation room immediately.

“Chief, how can I help you?” asked the police officer.

“I’ve told you many times, not chief, I’m the Deputy Chief.” Although he tried to correct the police officer, he was happy to be called chief.

“What can I do for you?” asked the police officer.

“What’s going on with this Wang Yao?” said the deputy chief police officer.

“Him? Assaulting people,” said the police officer whose surname was Song.

“Was it serious?” asked the deputy chief police officer.

“The victim is still in the emergency department of the hospital. The doctors are still trying to save him,” said Song.

“I see. Get the details of what happened. Our responsibility is to catch the bad people. But we also need to be cautious that we don’t catch the wrong guy,” said the deputy chief police officer who patted on Song’s shoulder. Then he turned around and left.

What does he mean?! thought Song.

Whoever worked in a government department should have a reasonable IQ and EQ. Song was not an exception. He started to think about every single word from the deputy chief police officer and why he just mentioned Wang Yao’s name.

Actually, he was asked by one of his friends to interrogate Wang Yao, and assaulting people was illegal anyway. It was his responsibility to find out what had happened. He initially wanted to make Wang Yao suffer a bit. But now, he started to hesitate after talking with the deputy chief police officer, who didn’t make it clear whether Wang Yao was innocent or not. However, Song felt his boss wanted him to think carefully before jumping to any conclusions. Another police officer came by while Song was thinking.

“Hi, Song?” said the police officer.

“Hi, Chief!” said Song in surprise after he had seen who came to speak to him.

“It’s Deputy Chief!” said another deputy chief police officer.

“How can I help you?” asked Song.

“I want to ask you about a young man called Wang Yao who was just caught by you guys just now,” said the deputy chief police officer.

“Yes?” said Song.

“Why did you bring him here?” asked the deputy chief police officer.

“He is related to an assaulting incident,” said Song.

“I see. You need to investigate it thoroughly and make sure you haven’t caught the wrong guy,” said the deputy chief police officer.

“Sure!” said Song.

The second deputy chief police officer left, but what he meant was clearer to Song.

Damn it! Who the hell is this Wang Yao? Two deputy chief police officers came to ask about him. Don’t tell me the chief police officer is also going to ask about him. thought Song.

Ring! Ring! The phone suddenly started to ring. Song went to pick up the phone.

“Hello, Chief!” Although Song could not be seen by the chief police officer from the other side of the telephone, he made a standard salute.

“Are you working today?” asked the chief police officer.

“Yes, we caught a guy called Wang Yao,” said Song.

“Why did you bring him in?” asked the chief police officer.

“Because we believe he intentionally assaulted someone,” said Song.

“Really? You need to investigate the incident thoroughly. Is it clear?” said the chief police officer.

“Sure,” said Song.

Song was sweating after he hung up the phone. He had never come across a situation like this. He looked at the door of the interrogation room and wondered who exactly was inside. He considered himself lucky that he didn’t get physical with Wang Yao. Otherwise, he could be in trouble.

“Go and check who Wang Yao assaulted. I need all the information and details.” Song passed his command to his men and went back into the interrogation room. He smiled at Wang Yao.

“Well, you can come out first. There was some misunderstanding,” Song left some room for himself.

He lead Wang Yao to a different room then made Wang Yao a cup of tea, which tasted awful.

The police soon found Li Dong’s history.

“He is a habitual offender.” Officer Song immediately knew how to deal with the case after reading through Li Dong’s criminal history.

“Shit! I was almost set up!” Song was also annoyed by his friend who asked him to help Li Dong.

Wang Yao called a taxi back to his village while his family was waiting for him anxiously.

“Are you okay?” Zhang Xiuying checked on Wang Yao all over. She was really concerned.

“I’m fine. I just went to help the investigation. Everything’s alright,” said Wang Yao with a smile.

“That’s good! That’s good!” said Zhang Xiuying.

Inside a restaurant of the town sat a big middle-aged man who looked stern. Obviously, he was not happy.

“What? Released? He was released? Why? He intentionally assaulted my worker, who is still in the hospital and almost lost his life!” said the middle-aged man.

“As far as I know, he knows people from the local government. The chief officer and two deputy officers of the police department had called to ask about him,” said one of the middle-aged man’s employees.

“Who is he? So powerful!” said the middle-aged man.

“His friend’s father from the same village is the mayor of Lianshan,” said another employee.

“Well, enough is enough. Don’t you have a small factory in their village? The mighty dragon is no match for the local serpent!” said a friend of the middle-aged man.

“Okay, I’ll talk to Li Dong. He has never suffered such a big loss since he started to work for me,” said the middle-aged man.

“It’s because he never came across people like Wang Yao!” said his friend.

Wang Mingbao, Tian Yuantu, and Li Maoshuang all called Wang Yao after he arrived at home. He was not surprised to get a call from Wang Mingbao, but he didn’t expect the other two would call him. He hadn’t told them about his experience at the police station.

“Thank you, I’m fine,” said Wang Yao to all his friends.

It seemed that things had settled for now.

However, an article appeared on a BBS online the next day. The title of the article was: “Injustice! The police released someone who committed a criminal offense.”

The article was soon posted by paid posters and received thousands of views. The number of people who clicked and viewed the article increased rapidly. The content of the article was directly related to Lianshan and Wang Yao. It didn’t even get the name wrong.

The article soon raised attention from a related government department in Lianshan, which even received a phone call from journalists.

Just one thing after another.

Therefore, Lianshan County made a decision to investigate the case thoroughly after facing such big pressure from the public. The person in charge was one of the deputy police officers. He asked Officer Song, who interrogated Wang Yao the other day to investigate the case.

They reviewed the case thoroughly, including watching the CCTV footage in the village, and interviewing Wang Yao and Li Dong, who was still lying in the hospital in town. Then they had a clear picture of what had happened.

Wang Yao was asked to be interviewed in the police station again.

“Why did you go to see Li Dong the other night?” asked Officer Song.

“He hurt my mother during the day, so I wanted to find out why,” said Wang Yao. He had a good justification for what he had done.

“Why didn’t you go during the day?” asked Officer Song.

“I didn’t know about the incident during the day. I only heard it from one of the villagers at night. Then I went to see the CCTV footage. I believe Li Dong did it deliberately,” said Wang Yao.

“Have you two ever had any conflicts in the past?” asked Officer Song.

“Yes, two days before the incident I had a row with him,” replied Wang Yao,” the reason was that he was rude to me and tried to hit me.”

“Do you have any witnesses?” asked Officer Song.

“Yes.” Then, Wang Yao named a few villagers who stood out to help him on the day.

“Well, you broke into other people’s property,” said Officer Song.

“Yes, I admit that. But he threatened to hurt my family.” Wang Yao didn’t deny the fact that he went into the factory because the factory had CCTV installed, too. There was no point in lying about it. “He got physical first,” said Wang Yao.

“He was protecting himself in self-defense,” said Officer Song.

“Officer Song, I don’t think he was protecting himself. I didn’t have any weapons in my hand while he had an iron bar,” said Wang Yao.

During the interview, a smart looking man entered the police station. He was wearing a suit and looked to be in his 30’s.

“Sorry, I’m late, everyone. I’m Mr. Wang Yao’s lawyer, and I need to talk to him in private.” It was Zhang Peng, the lawyer who spoke to Wang Yao at the law firm the other day. He left his contact details with Wang Yao. Wang Yao called him immediately after he had been questioned just in case.

“Sorry, I was in Dao City, but I was on my way back right after receiving your call,” said Zhang Peng to Wang Yao.

“That’s fine. I really need your help to deal with this,” said Wang Yao.

“Could you tell me the details of what happened between you and Li Dong?” asked Zhang Peng.

So Wang Yao told Zhang Peng about everything. Zhang Peng listened very carefully and made notes from time to time.

“I see,” said Zhang Peng. “Are you sure that the factory was discharging polluted water?”

“Of course, I’ve taken photos.” Wang Yao showed Zhang Peng the photos on his phone.

“Can you send me all those photos?” said Zhang Peng. “So Li Dong tried to fight you after seeing you were taking photos?”

“Yes,” said Wang Yao.

“Okay, I see,” said Zhang Peng. “And you went to find him that night?”

“Yes, I wanted to confront him, as he hurt my mother during the day.” Wang Yao was calm as he explained.

“I see. Actually, I have done my research before coming to see you here. Li Dong has a criminal history and is related to the owner of the factory and one of the deputy mayors of Lianshan,” said Zhang Peng. “The reason why the police started to question you again was because someone hired posters to stir things up on the internet to create pressure from the public.”

“Hiring posters just for this?” Wang Yao was surprised.

“Yes, but it was not too bad. Unfortunately, some government officers happened to see the article posted online. Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong,” said Zhang Peng with a smile.

“I see. Thank you so much. I’ll leave everything to you,” said Wang Yao.

Wang Yao not only said thank you but also transferred three thousand yuan to Zhang Peng using his phone. Zhang Peng had an even bigger smile after receiving the money.

After all, it was not some big event; no one really cared about the result of the investigation. Without support, the article soon lost its popularity and gradually disappeared.