Chapter 109 Chapter 109 Prison Break? Seize the Gun?
"Bang—"
The guard pulled the big iron gate and opened it to both sides at the same time. The sleekly painted Grand Cherokee slowly drove into the Handong Provincial Prison.
Ji Yinhe got out of the car and looked around. The barbed wire on the high wall was like countless upside-down daggers, piercing the light gray sky.
Although it was late spring, the warm breeze had clearly not yet reached the area. She didn't know why; this wasn't her first time at the provincial prison, but the atmosphere of hope amidst the oppression she had felt during her last visit to Situ Feng was now completely gone.
The faces trapped behind the bars - whether prisoners or prison guards, everyone looked dejected, casting gloomy and anxious gazes at the two detectives who had rushed over.
Deputy warden Han Feiyang, who had made a phone call at noon, hurried over to greet him.
"Team Leader Ji, Teacher Lu, thank you for your hard work." He extended his hand and shook it politely. "Please follow me to my office to discuss this."
Ji Yinhe nodded, walked along the dark corridor in silence.
Once inside the office, she asked, "Why is everyone looking at us so strangely? ... I've been to the prison before, and police officers are frequent visitors. They shouldn't be surprised."
Han Feiyang sighed, "Because today's incident was a bit strange, one of our prison guards had his gun stolen..."
"...gun?" Ji Yinhe took out the recorder and became focused instantly.
Han Feiyang handed over a stack of documents and explained, "To be precise, Gong Xie wasn't the only one who escaped from prison. None of us expected that the person who escaped from prison with him was actually that person—"
"Zhang San?" Lu Zheng looked at another file and frowned slowly. "He's going to be released in a year?"
"Yes." Han Feiyang exhaled. "Gong Xie has been trying to quit drugs since he entered prison. During this time, he had several conflicts with the prisoners in the same cell... But this Zhang San is very honest and loyal, and his sentence has been reduced several times. None of us thought that these two would..."
Ji Yinhe clasped his fingers together and said, "Warden Han, please tell us in detail how they escaped from prison."
Han Feiyang took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Gong Xie and Zhang San took the opportunity to escape while they were working in the morning-"
"At first, we thought it was just a sudden, accidental incident. The process wasn't complicated, even coincidental. It wasn't as exaggerated as the secret tunneling in the movies... You both know that our prison also operates as a diesel engine factory. Today is the day to deliver parts to the upper-level factory. I'm in charge with a team of prison guards. Large shipments can't be brought in, and those parts are not light, so we usually move them out of the workshop and transport them to the door on carts."
"But the cafeteria is making Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings today, and all the carts have been borrowed! It's too much work to move it over there by manpower alone, so we have to ask the prisoners to help. There is strength in numbers!"
Ji Yinhe roughly understood the whole story after hearing this, and asked, "The truck is parked outside the prison gate. Aren't you afraid that the prisoners will take the opportunity to escape?"
Han Feiyang took a breath and said, "I'm afraid, but this kind of thing has never happened before. After all, the people we picked out for this job are of course the most honest ones - such as Zhang San. Besides, we dare not let the prisoners walk out of the real big iron gate. They only need to let the goods cross the cordon and stack them on the open space inside the main gate of the detention center. And the third point -"
He stood up, walked to the window, and pointed to the empty space to show Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng, "Third point, we cleared the area and handcuffed them. I even checked the handcuffs myself! I didn't expect them to actually run away right under our noses!"
Lu Zheng asked, "So, you think this jailbreak was a spur-of-the-moment act by Gong Xie and Zhang San?"
"Yes, as I said before, we thought so too at first." The deputy warden turned around, his dry lips trembling. "I was surprised to find out before you arrived that these two people had been standing on the left side of the front of the queue, intentionally or unintentionally. Coincidentally, one of my supervisors had an injury to his right hand, so he raised his left hand and pointed at them, telling them to move the last section."
"During the first few moves, everything was normal. The work was tiring, and a few even slacked off," Han Feiyang said. "But Gong Xie and Zhang San were very disciplined. Every time they moved the parts to the designated location, they would immediately return without delaying for a second. Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth moves were unstoppable... so even the guards watching from the side became careless."
Facing the two famous young policemen, he lowered his head a little embarrassedly. "People in our line of work aren't much freer than prisoners. We do the same work year-round, and it's hard not to get numb... At that time, Old Wu and the others were going to have a cigarette to refresh themselves, and Xiao Fang from the cafeteria brought me some freshly baked rice dumplings, so Xiao Du was the only one left standing by the gate watching them—"
The office was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, with only rustling sounds coming from the corridor.
Without even looking, you knew it was the guilty prison guards.
Han Feiyang swallowed his saliva and said, "Anyway, I tried two zongzi at Xiao Fang's place. One was stuffed with salted egg yolk and pork belly, and the other was stuffed with red bean paste and candied dates in a ash soup. They were delicious... I had just finished eating the two zongzi when I heard the electric speaker on the wall suddenly go off, humming, humming, and then gunshots -"
Ji Yinhe narrowed his eyes and speculated, "Officer Du noticed something was wrong, sounded the alarm, fired a shot, and then had his gun taken away?"
"Yes." Han Feiyang clenched his fists. "I subconsciously turned around and ran. From a distance, I saw Xiao Du lying face down on the ground. Gong Xie and Zhang San were gone!"
He pounded his thigh in agony. "Just for a moment, I was away for a short while, and how could such a big thing happen? Captain Ji, I've been a prison guard for over 20 years, and this is the first time a prisoner has escaped! And two at once!"
Ji Yinhe asked calmly, "Is Officer Du injured?"
"I was completely stunned at the time, and it took me two seconds to react. Luckily, there was no blood on Xiao Du. He had been kicked hard in the knees and head twice, and was lying on the ground, unable to stand up!" Han Feiyang spat, "The keys hanging on his body and the gun in the holster were also taken away by Zhang Sangong Xie."
Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng looked at each other.
——Having the key means they can unlock the handcuffs, and losing the gun is an even bigger deal. The prison guards are equipped with submachine guns with a full magazine of eight bullets. After one shot, there should be seven bullets left.
Gong Xie, who is still in the process of drug rehabilitation, is very likely to commit crimes again!
"Which direction did they run in? Did you chase them?"
"Chased them." Han Feiyang's eyes were dejected. "You saw it when you came here. The provincial prison is so remote. There's a large farmland outside. A few hundred meters south is the Shiwuli River... I took two people and rushed out in the direction Xiao Du pointed. I only had time to see them cross the ditch and climb ashore. Before I could even pull out my gun, they had already dived into the small woods over there and disappeared... The armed police are still outside looking for them!"
Captain Xiao Ji lowered his eyes to look at the time. Five hours had passed since the prison break, and there was still no news. Hope was very slim.
"I reported it to the warden immediately. The armed police led a search but found nothing. The warden then called the Department of Justice."
Han Feiyang quickly explained what was going to happen next. "This matter is very difficult, and it involves drug trafficking. With the Hong Kong Return Movement imminent, we cannot cause public panic. The department has given you the phone number for your team's office. The documents assisting in the investigation should be transferred to the Provincial Public Security Department later. I heard that you specialize in special criminal cases. So, this case..."
On the first day back at the provincial department, Ji Yinhe assured all the leaders that he would absolutely ensure that the return activities would go smoothly.
A jailbreak at this critical juncture is indeed a big challenge.
But she nodded calmly and put away her notebook and recording equipment.
"If I can send Gong Xie in once, I can send him in a second time." Captain Xiao Ji stood up, raised an eyebrow, and gestured towards the prison area outside the office. "Let's go and take a look at their cells."
*
Gong Xie and Zhang San lived in adjacent rooms in the same prison block. As soon as the prison guard opened the chain on the door, Ji Yinhe saw an expected acquaintance.
Situ Feng stood behind the iron bars and shook his head in a slick tone, "Officer Ji, why are you still working with Teacher Lu?"
Lu Zheng took a step forward with a bad look on his face, standing between Situ Feng and Ji Yinhe, frowning and saying, "Why, no?"
"Okay, okay, of course." Situ Feng squinted his eyes and muttered, "I just don't want to see your face that brought me in..."
Lu Zheng stared at him quietly, his voice cold and clear.
"If you don't want your eyes, you can donate them."
"..." Situ Feng's eyes widened, "You!"
"Alright, alright—" Ji Yinhe smoothed things over and turned to the people in the cell. "We're here to investigate Gong Xie and Zhang San's prison escape. If you have any clues, please share them. If they're useful, I'll apply to the court for a commutation of sentence after the case is closed."
Situ Feng snorted coldly, raising his chin towards the bunk in the opposite corner. "I don't care whether my sentence is reduced or not. For Officer Ji's sake, I'll mercifully say this... That drug addict has a notebook. I saw him writing and drawing on it, and then he'd tuck it under the mattress. Maybe it can be of some help."
After saying that, he turned around angrily and lay back down on his bed.
Although he hated being thrown into jail by Lu Zheng, he had previously cooperated with the police, especially providing a lot of help to Ji Yinhe in writing his profiling paper.
Upon hearing this, Ji Yinhe and Lu Zheng immediately walked over.
——Sure enough, I found a thin draft book under the bed.
When they opened it, they were both stunned for a moment.
This notebook seemed to be the random thoughts written by Gong Xie when he was unconscious. Every page was scribbled with a huge word "hate", and the bottom was filled with people's names.
There were Gong Chenggong, Gong He, several of his subordinates who had betrayed him during the trial... and one name with hideous and twisted handwriting.
——It’s Ji Yinhe.
Situ Feng's cold voice drifted over from a few steps away: "Wei Manli, the mother who killed for him, was shot at the end of last year. His father and brother didn't even go to help collect her body... Ever since then, Gong Xie has hated these two entrepreneurs with the surname Gong with a vengeance."
"As for you, Officer Ji," he shrugged. "I don't know why he hates you so much. Honestly, we've all been arrested by the police for committing crimes! As much as I hate Teacher Lu, I just don't want to see his face, which is even more handsome than mine. But as for Gong Xie, it's hard to say, tsk tsk tsk..."
Ji Yinhe stared at the three words written in a ghostly manner on the draft book, and suddenly an absurd idea emerged in his mind -
Gong Xie escaped from prison, could it be to take revenge on her?
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