Tongue-Tied

Tong Haojing was taken to a small room on the ground floor of the West City Police Station. Officers Lan and Lu Tong arranged for auxiliary police officers at the station to keep an eye on Tong Haojing, preventing him from moving freely.

Tong Haojing immediately became furious and stood up, intending to rush out. The two auxiliary police officers were quick to react, grabbing Tong Haojing's arms as he lunged forward and sternly ordering, "Sit down, sit down! Don't be impulsive, or you'll regret it!"

At this moment, a young female police officer, Ke Qian, dressed in a police uniform, came out of the household registration office and shouted, "What's going on, what's going on!"

The household registration office was right next to the small room. Ke Qian had been alerted by the auxiliary police officers' commands and came out to see what had happened.

Ke Qian, twenty-two years old, had graduated from Hexi Police Academy with a bachelor's degree and had just been assigned to the West City station as a household registration and internal affairs officer. She was 1.7 meters tall, and her fluent Mandarin commanded respect. Her fair complexion and short ponytail exuded the simplicity and elegance of a female officer.

"Miss, could you go get your station chief? I haven't done anything illegal!"

Ke Qian glanced at Tong Haojing, thinking that this tall young man with a somewhat mischievous and cute face and a deep voice couldn't possibly have committed a crime. She shook her head regretfully, saying without any aversion.

"Just a moment!"

"I want to see your station chief! Why should I be kept in this small room!" Tong Haojing realized that the police station now considered him a lawbreaker. He couldn't believe he was in trouble for trying to stop a robbery. Pacing restlessly in the small room, Tong Haojing couldn't suppress his anger and muttered to himself.

"How could this happen? How could this happen?"

"The station chief is in a meeting and will be here shortly!" a police officer who looked like a regular officer came down from upstairs to comfort Tong Haojing.

"Oh no, I've messed things up," Tong Haojing said nonsensically. He suddenly remembered the important matter his mother had asked him to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau about to understand his resettlement arrangements.

There were many people conducting business at the West City Police Station.

"Officer, if you have any questions, please ask them quickly. I still have important matters to attend to at the Civil Affairs Bureau!" Tong Haojing pleaded with an anxious expression.

No one answered from the small room. A few curious onlookers were peeking in from the doorway of the room and even lectured the children beside them, "See, those who don't behave get locked in a dark room!" The little child started crying from fear, and the parents beside him kept comforting him, "You're so timid, you're useless, it's just pretend!" followed by laughter.

Tong Haojing felt as if he had truly become a heinous criminal, and the gazes from outsiders were dismissive, as if looking at a spectacle.

Officers Lan and Lu Tong had already gone up to the third floor to report the case to the station chief and discuss the next steps.

Tong Haojing urged the police to question him again. A young man sitting nearby, engrossed in a mobile game, looked up impatiently and glared at Tong Haojing, saying, "What are you yelling about? The station chief is holding a meeting with the officers! Someone is dead, do you think it's that simple?" The young man shouted impatiently, implying that Tong Haojing should shut up.

"Is the person really dead?" Tong Haojing wanted to confirm further. He repeated the question twice, but no one answered. In fact, at that very moment, the hospital had called to say that the shorter injured person had died from excessive blood loss due to a severed leg artery and that the police station should handle the aftermath.

The two people guarding him were auxiliary police officers. He seemed to realize he had said something wrong, or perhaps shouldn't have said anything at all. The young man stood up and paced back and forth beside Tong Haojing, muttering to himself, "I'm going to get criticized again!"

Tong Haojing finally realized that the situation was not as simple as he had imagined. There wasn't enough evidence to prove that Scarface was the criminal, and what if there was no evidence in the end? Scarface had jumped into the river during their fight, so what if his family made a fuss? Tong Haojing's head buzzed, and his vision went black, as if the sky had fallen. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He suddenly had a premonition of the seriousness of the situation—if Scarface couldn't be found, and if the shorter man's injuries were caused by Scarface, and if no one else had witnessed it, what then? He wouldn't be able to explain himself even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

The more Tong Haojing thought about it, the more frightened he became. He even thought about compensation, losing his job, losing his freedom, and his mother... He began to doubt if his actions today were correct, if he had been too impulsive and hadn't considered the consequences. No! He was a veteran officer of many years; he understood right from wrong. Good always triumphs over evil; that was never wrong, and things would eventually be clarified. He believed that police officers were the embodiment of justice, and because of his resettlement after leaving the military, he had chosen the police profession as his top preference. He had thought it through carefully, and it would allow him to fulfill his dream.

Tong Haojing tried his best to control his emotions and calm down, but he found that his thoughts were growing and spreading uncontrollably, too many and too complex...

After waiting for a while, Officers Lan and Lu Tong came down from upstairs, called Tong Haojing out of the small room, and took him to the Criminal Investigation Brigade office. At the same time, two other officers from the police station were questioning Uncle Mumu.

Tong Haojing sat opposite Officers Lan and Lu, their positions relatively equal. His sense of grievance subsided considerably, and he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"What do you need to ask? Hurry up, I have other things to do!" Officers Lan and Lu could immediately tell that Tong Haojing was eager to leave, but he had no idea how difficult it would be to leave before the matter was investigated. A prison sentence awaited him.

Lan and Lu sat down in the interrogation room and began to question him seriously, "We are police officers from the West City Station of the Tangdu City Public Security Bureau. We are here to understand your account of the incident of someone jumping into the Tangdu River. You must answer our questions truthfully. You have the right to refuse to answer questions unrelated to the case... Did you understand?"

"I understood!" In reality, Tong Haojing hadn't really listened. What he wanted to say was the truth of what happened at the scene.

"Name?"

"Tong Haojing."

"Education level?"

"University undergraduate!"

"Occupation?"

"A demobilized soldier from a certain unit's Special Operations Unit reconnaissance team, graduated with a degree in criminal psychology, awaiting resettlement."

"How did you come into contact with the person who jumped into the river?"

"A woman shouted that someone was being robbed. A man with a scar on his face ran towards us, and I went to intercept him, blocking his path."

"How did you determine that Scarface was the robber?"

"He looked fierce and was holding a knife."

"Where is the knife?"

"When you took me away, didn't I remind you?" Lan and Lu looked at each other. Officer Lan suddenly remembered and felt that Tong Haojing was quite professional in assisting the police with evidence collection, truly worthy of being a special reconnaissance military man.

"Right, there are two of them in our police car," Lu Tong recalled and whispered to Officer Lan.

"Why did Scarface jump into the river?"

"I intended to hand him over to the police station, but I didn't expect him to be cornered and jump straight into the river. I even went into the river to save him, but I couldn't find him."

"How many people were involved on their side?"

"Two, no, three!" Tong Haojing suddenly remembered the Middle-parted Hair who appeared later. There were two at first, but then another one appeared. Tong Haojing was a bit puzzled and added.

"What about the injuries of the shorter person?"

"Scarface stabbed him..."

"Middle-parted Hair claims you killed him, how do you explain that?"

"Do you believe him? That person wasn't even there!" Tong Haojing turned to look at Officer Lan, hoping the police wouldn't easily believe the baseless words of a hoodlum.

"Is that so?"

"Where is the woman? What are her features?"

"I didn't see her chasing after me, so I don't know where she went. You'll have to investigate that!" Tong Haojing's aloof and arrogant demeanor angered Officer Lan and Lu Tong.

Officer Lan continued questioning for another half hour, while Lu Tong took extensive notes beside him. Tong Haojing carefully considered every word, and what troubled him most was that the officers' questions focused most intensely on how the short man's injuries were sustained. However, the officers did not tell him that the short man was already dead.

Tong Haojing signed and pressed his thumbprint, feeling uneasy.

"Can I go now?" Tong Haojing asked.

"Wait a moment, we still need to verify some things," Officer Lan replied evasively, intentionally stalling for time. He was waiting for Director Tang Changan's next instructions.

Just then, Director Tang came downstairs and whispered a few words to Officer Lan. Officer Lan and Lu Tong, armed with their service weapons, got into a police car and sped out of the police station.