When Le Jing walked out of the prison gate, he was almost blinded by a dazzling flash of light. He covered his eyes and heard cheers coming from all directions.
Someone rushed up and hugged him. He almost punched him - if he hadn't recognized who the voice belonged to - Yang Jinglun hugged him excitedly, and said in a hoarse voice: "Great, they let you out, sir!" Then his editor took his hand and raised it, shouting: "Justice will prevail! Justice will prevail!"
Along with the enthusiastic flashes of light came the roar of approval from all around: "Justice will prevail! Justice will prevail!"
The policeman guarding the door was so frightened by the deafening shouting that he shuddered and quickly hid in the house.
Several people rushed up and surrounded them. "Hello, Mr. Night Watchman. I am a reporter from Chaoyang Daily. Can I interview you?"
"I am a reporter for the Peking Evening News. What do you think of your imprisonment this time?"
"This is the Justice Daily, may I ask..."
Le Jing: ...
Yang Jinglun leaned close to his ear and whispered, "These are the reporters who spoke up for you in the newspapers these days. They also played a big role in your release from prison. Please answer their questions briefly."
Le Jing couldn't help but look at Yang Jinglun with surprise. It seemed that his editor had stirred up a lot of trouble during the few days he was in prison. He was originally regretting that he was in prison for too short a time and the situation might not have developed much. Now it seemed that his editor had given him a pleasant surprise. However, on the other hand, his true face was also exposed, and he might not be able to keep a low profile in the future.
He coughed. Even without looking in the mirror, he knew how bad he looked now. Although the jailer had tried his best to take care of him, the dark, damp and dirty environment of the prison was undoubtedly not suitable for human life. Normal people would get sick if they lived there for a long time, not to mention that Le Jing was already in poor health. After the torture of the past few days, Le Jing first coughed, and then developed a low fever. He estimated that he would soon be seriously ill.
However, this miserable and miserable appearance is undoubtedly a good gimmick for the current situation.
"Thank you all for your concern and help over the past few days. It is because of people like you who are not afraid of power and dare to uphold fairness and justice that I have been able to maintain my beliefs and persevere until now. I thank you all here!" After saying this, Le Jing bowed deeply to the people in front of him.
"You're welcome, this is what we should do!"
"Yes! It is illegal for the police to arrest you. We must have zero tolerance for such illegal incidents!"
"We should thank you for speaking out and telling the truth. You are much braver than us!"
The crowd started talking in a few words, and Le Jing immediately showed a touched expression, with tears of excitement appearing in the corners of his eyes. The emotions of many people were aroused by him, and the atmosphere on the scene was very warm for a while. Of course, all of this was captured by the reporters' cameras.
After Le Jing answered a few questions from reporters, Yang Jinglun protected him behind him and said to the reporters like a manager, "Mr. Rong has just been released from prison and is in poor health. Please go home and rest first. Don't worry, I will make time to accept interviews from you in the future." Under Yang Jinglun's mobilization, the crowd slowly dispersed, but there were still a few troublesome reporters lingering around.
Marshal Xue, who had been watching the show from the side, also interrupted with a smile and said, "Just let him go home and take a bath to get rid of the bad luck. If you want to know anything, you can come and ask me."
So the reporters immediately abandoned Le Jing and surrounded Marshal Xue, with their flash cameras flashing at him.
This time, Xue Dashuai bailed out the night watchman who was convicted for his speech. This was a righteous act and naturally had high news value. Moreover, compared with the fledgling night watchman, Xue Dashuai, the great warlord at the center of power in Peking, was naturally more newsworthy. It was just that Xue Dashuai had not spoken before, so they did not dare to interview him. This time, Xue Dashuai took the initiative to speak, and they certainly did not want to miss this opportunity.
"Marshal, may I ask if you have known the Night Watchman before?"
"What do you think of the police's arrest of the night watchman?"
"Could you please tell me more about that..."
Le Jing breathed a sigh of relief. The acting just now had cost him a lot of energy, and he was really weak now.
Before Le Jing was about to get on the rickshaw that Yang Jinglun had found, a young man who had been hesitating and wandering around here finally mustered up the courage to speak up: "Sir, I am a fan of your books... I want to ask, will you continue to write in the future?"
Le Jing answered firmly: "Of course."
After getting a satisfactory answer, the book fan finally left with satisfaction. However, Yang Jinglun seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"What's wrong? Just tell me what you have to say."
Then Le Jing finally pieced together through Yang Jinglun's words how Yang Jinglun had rescued him outside over the past few days.
In the past few days, there has indeed been a lot of noise outside because of his incident. Yang Jinglun used his personal connections to mobilize many journalists and authors to speak for him. In addition, the anti-smoking faction that had previously stood in the same camp with him also actively sent people to negotiate with the police. Among them, Mr. Zheng Yiliang and Mr. Zhou Dezhang mobilized their own circle of friends and encouraged a group of famous writers to publish various articles in the newspapers to support Le Jing. With the efforts of this group of bigwigs, the overall direction of public opinion at this time was mainly "sympathize with the night watchman, the police are lawless, and the innocent author should be released as soon as possible."
Yang Jinglun was somewhat smug when he talked about this: "Even without Marshal Xue's bail, the police station wouldn't be able to hold out for a few days under our pressure." He was also a little surprised: "When did you become friends with Marshal Xue?"
Le Jing coughed lightly and replied, "One of Marshal Xue's concubines is a fan of my books."
"So that's how it is." Yang Jinglun suddenly realized, "No wonder Marshal Xue put pressure on the police to release you."
"You should have something else you want to tell me, right?" If it were just these things, Yang Jinglun's expression just now wouldn't have been so awkward.
Yang Jinglun smiled bitterly and said, "Sir, I'm afraid you will have to change your pen name in the future. Your current pen name has been banned by the authorities."
Le Jing was not surprised. In the Republic of China, if a writer had any pursuits and ambitions and wanted to speak the truth, he would inevitably be banned. Each of the famous writers in the Republic of China had many pseudonyms. For example, a certain unknown writer named Zhou had 181 pseudonyms because he was often banned.
To put it bluntly, the freedom of speech in the Republic of China was due to the warlords' infighting, and the central government lost control over the local areas. Can your government in Peking still control what our local newspapers say? And if something really happens, just hide in the concessions, and the Chinese police can't control the "country" of foreigners. There are also ruthless people who go abroad directly to hide from the limelight, and by the way develop organizations and parties among overseas students. As the saying goes, exile and rebellion are both possible! Therefore, it has created an impression for readers in later generations that there is freedom of speech in the Republic of China, and literary masters dare to say anything. In fact, there were many newspapers and literati who were banned in the Republic of China, and many people were assassinated because their articles were too "free of speech".
So when Le Jing heard the editor say that, he didn't take it seriously. It was just a new account, not a big deal. The two of them did not mention asking Xue Dashuai to lift the ban on Le Jing.
Because Marshal Xue is also a warlord...
No matter how patriotic he is, he cannot give up opium tax as an important part of his military expenditure. He was able to bail Le Jing out this time because of Bai Shaoyao's face.
…
Zhang Minchang wondered if he should go to the temple to worship, as he had been having bad luck lately.
As the chief of the police station, second only to the chief and deputy chief of the Beijing Police Department, he was in charge of the lucrative inner city, so he was naturally supported by offerings and lived a happy life. However, bad things happened one after another during this period.
First, it was the good son of that old bastard Tang Shude! He was wrong, it was really a dog that bites! That kid could do so many evil things behind the scenes, he had to admire him. But after the kid was exposed, he actually bit him! What "my father knows the police chief", when Zhang Minchang first heard this sentence, he wanted to shoot him!
So no matter how much money Tang Shude gave him, he was ruthless for once, revealed all the shameful things in their family, and then directly put them in jail according to the law. He had finally waited for the rumors to subside, but then he encountered the night watchman incident!
At first, it was just the night watchman's anti-smoking advocacy that blocked the financial path of the Green Gang boss behind Chen Si, so the boss sent Chen Si to pass on a message to him. He asked him to teach the night watchman a "lesson". Zhang Minchang was familiar with this job! The night watchman happened to be in his jurisdiction, so he immediately sent someone to arrest him.
He didn't want to do anything to Li Jingran, he just wanted to lock him up for a few more days to make him suffer. A sickly young man like Li Jingran, who had never suffered before, no matter how tough he was before, as long as he ate prison food for a few days, stayed in prison for a few more days, and was tormented by the prisoners and jailers, no matter how much he won before, he would cry and shout and agree to all his requests in the end.
However, the subsequent development of the matter was different from what he had expected. First, Li Jingran was locked up in such a poor cell, eating prison food that tasted like pig food, but he did not cry or make a fuss, and actually stayed there quietly, looking like he would spend the rest of his life in prison. Zhang Minchang could not help but feel surprised. He did not expect that his eyes were just a decoration recently, and he always misjudged people!
Then there was the turmoil outside caused by this incident.
He had checked Li Jingran before and found that he had no relatives in Beijing, so he threw him into jail directly because he thought he was just a small person and could not cause any trouble. As a result, the outside world was in an uproar because of this matter. At one time, letters of condemnation and love letters were sent to his desk like snowflakes, and various insults against him appeared in the newspapers. This time the insults were much more serious than the last "My father knows the police chief" incident.
He backed out at that time and discussed with Chen Si, why don't we release the person? But the boss behind Chen Si didn't want to, so Zhang Minchang could only bite the bullet and bear all the criticism, and insisted on not releasing the person no matter who came to plead. But when even Marshal Xue called him and said he wanted to bail Li Jingran out, he finally broke down completely. He finally understood that this was just a fight between a group of gods, and he and Li Jingran were just innocent people who were affected.
So while he agreed to release the person, he called Chen Si and told him that he really couldn't do this job and asked him to find someone else.
Chen Si was silent for a while and said, "Thank you for your hard work this time, Brother Changzhi. I will personally deliver the thank-you gift to you some other day."
Zhang Minchang was satisfied then. This was right. He had suffered so much infamy for this matter. If Chen Si didn't give him a satisfactory number, he would not be able to continue working with him even though he had the big boss of the "Tong" generation standing behind him.
After hanging up the phone, he calculated the time. Li Jingran should have been bailed out by Xue Dashuai. The smile on his face faded, and a hint of sarcasm appeared in his eyes. Xue Dashuai could bail Li Jingran out once, but could he bail him out for life? If Li Jingran continued to be restless after being released from prison, the big boss would sooner or later be unable to resist and take his life.
After all, that’s the all-powerful Green Gang... Li Jingran is not Marshal Xue’s biological son, so is it necessary for Marshal Xue to go against the Green Gang for him?
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