After lunch the next day, I returned home and reunited with He Yan, and then we rode our bicycles to the street police station.

Maybe they came at an unfortunate time, because the hall was quite lively when they entered.

There were four or five hooligans who were brought back from a gang fight. They all had bruises on their faces and noses. They started quarreling when they disagreed with each other.

A young man was caught stealing on a bus and was taken to the police station. Along with him were the driver, the conductor, and other enthusiastic citizens on the bus.

Two people were arguing because the eggs laid by the chickens in A's house were missing. They suspected that their neighbor B had taken them. B denied it, and the two of them went to the police station to make a scene...

There were so many people in one space, all talking at the same time, it was very noisy, so much so that Su Ting, who had just followed the policewoman in, stopped in her tracks unconsciously.

Although she has always known that with the return of educated youth to the city due to reform and opening up, the number of unemployed young people in the city has increased, and compared with the early years, the number of public security incidents has increased significantly in recent years.

But Su Ting has always been a person with a fixed routine. Besides her freshman year when she had to attend evening self-study classes and come home late, she basically never went out at night after her sophomore year, so she never had any real feelings.

It wasn't until today when I arrived at the police station that I saw it was full of people reporting crimes.

The policewoman led them to an empty seat and sat them down. She then walked to the nearest police officer and briefly explained the situation. She then came back and said, "When he calls you later, just go over and tell him the situation again."

"Thank you." Su Ting said.

The other party nodded and left the hall to return to his work station.

Compared with other colleagues, the police officer who was closest to the case was in a much more stable mood and the problem was not that complicated, so the two of them finished their conversation quickly.

After the reporter left, the police officer looked up and shouted, "Comrade Su."

Su Ting walked over with He Yan and said hello, "Hello, Public Security Fang."

Policeman Fang nodded and asked with a pen in hand, "Name, age, address."

Su Ting briefly introduced herself and He Yan, and then said, "Our home is at No. 67 Sanyang Lane."

Police officer Fang wrote down the two people's information and asked, "What happened?"

"It's like this. Last night, my son told me that on his way home from school the night before, he saw two gangsters taking a boy from his class next to him to an alley and robbing him. He saw them and went in and beat them up and ran away."

He had just heard about the situation from a colleague, but the content was relatively brief, only saying that He Yan was blackmailed by a gang of youths two nights ago, and his parents brought him here to report the case after finding out.

Looking at He Yan again, although he was tall, he was thin and his face was a little childish. Fang Gongan thought that he was the one being blackmailed, so he asked in surprise, "Did he run away?"

"Yes." Su Ting explained, "My son has been practicing martial arts with his father since he was young, and his skills are pretty good."

That makes sense. Fang Gongan nodded and asked, "Do you remember the exact time and place where the incident happened?"

As soon as he heard the question, he knew it was directed at He Yan, so he took the initiative to speak: "I remember, the time was around 9:15, and the location was in the alley outside our school. Our school ends at 9:10, and I was delayed for a few minutes that day because of something. When I rode past on my bike, it was almost 9:15."

"What happened? How did you find them?"

He Yan recounted what happened at the time: "I kicked one person in the butt, and he lost his balance and fell down. I kicked another person in the stomach, and they probably felt pain, so they got up and ran away."

"Do you remember how tall those two guys were and what they looked like?"

"One is about the same height as me, a bit strong, with his coat open and a floral shirt underneath. Another is shorter, less than 1.7 meters tall, a bit thinner, and he wears bell-bottom pants." He Yan said, and put his hand to his head. "The hair of the man in the floral shirt is very high, almost to here."

The characteristics that He Yan mentioned are obvious, but not that obvious.

People with proper jobs usually don't dress like this, but eight out of ten young people in society wear flared pants, well, if they have money.

But Fang, the police officer, wrote down all of this and asked an off-topic question: "Aren't you afraid of beating up two of them by yourself?"

"Don't be afraid, they can't beat me." He Yan was very confident.

Su Ting interrupted at the right time and asked: "Comrade Public Security, can you find those two people?"

"Because there is no current case of extortion, if not many people come to report the case, we cannot be sure that they have been extorting students for a long time, and we may not be able to catch them."

"Then let them go unpunished?"

Fang said: "If we find these two people, we will keep an eye on them, and if they commit any crime, they will be arrested immediately."

"Then can you arrange police officers to patrol near the high school during the half hour of evening self-study?" Su Ting explained after making the suggestion, "Although my son beat the guy away the night before last, they are capable of blackmailing students. Their character must not be very good. They may take the opportunity to retaliate. What if they gather a large group of people to block my son outside the school... I dare not imagine the result."

Fang Gongan comforted him, "I will make suggestions to the leadership about what you said."

"Comrade Public Security, you must take this matter seriously. Our child is good at fighting. Even if those people come to retaliate, he may be able to handle it. But what about other children in the school? For example, the classmate my son saved the night before yesterday. If he hadn't been there, that child would have been blackmailed or even beaten. Also, think about it, they have started to blackmail students, will he be the only one blackmailed?"

Su Ting answered her own question: "Even if he was the only one before, when they succeeded in extortion, they would definitely look for other classmates who are easy to bully, and even do something worse."

Hearing this, Fang Gongan's expression became serious, and he said solemnly: "Comrade Su, don't worry, I will go to our director to discuss this matter later."

"Then I'll leave this matter to you." Su Ting said.

Fang Gongan said: "This is what we should do."

…

Although the police have agreed to talk to their chief immediately, it is still unknown whether they will increase the number of police officers patrolling near the high school, and when they will start patrolling if they do.

So when He Yan went to school in the afternoon, Su Ting specially gave him a fruit knife with a sheath.

He Yan swallowed and said, "I'm still a student. Is it inappropriate to bring a knife to school?"

"I didn't ask you to hold it in your hand. Can't you just put it in your schoolbag and don't take it out?" Su Ting said as she opened his schoolbag and stuffed the fruit knife into the innermost compartment. She said, "This is to prevent those two people from coming to retaliate. It's for your self-defense. Don't touch it unless necessary. Do you understand?"

"I know." He Yan turned his head and said, "But I don't think it's necessary."

Su Ting zipped up his schoolbag and said, "You don't need to take it today. You can take care of the rest when your dad comes tomorrow."

"Okay." He Yan had no choice but to push his bicycle out.

Believe it or not, Su Ting really predicted it right this time.

After evening self-study, He Yan rode his bicycle out of school. As soon as he turned into an alley, a group of people appeared in front of him, smoking cigarettes, squatting or standing in the alley.

Seeing He Yan appear, the man in the flowered shirt who was beaten by him that night said, "Here I am."

A group of people, some smoking, some standing up, walked to the middle of the alley and stood in a row facing He Yan.

There were no street lights in the alley, but the moonlight was good tonight. He Yan recognized that in addition to the floral shirt, the bell-bottom pants were also there, but they were standing closer to the side.

The man in the flowered shirt is not the boss either. The man standing in the middle has a crew cut and wears a blue cotton jacket and black trousers. His clothes are more plain than the others, but his expression makes him look more difficult to deal with.

There were also two young men who preferred manners to warmth, a total of five people, each holding a wooden stick in his hand.

He Yan saw it and silently tightened the handlebars of the bicycle.

The man with the crew cut noticed what He Yan was doing, a smile appeared on his face, he walked closer with a cigarette in his mouth, picked up a wooden stick and poked the handlebar of the bicycle, and said with a click of the tongue: "It's from Feiduo again, little classmate, your family is very rich?"

The man in the flowered shirt and bell-bottom pants did seek out the man with the buzz cut out for revenge, but the man with the buzz cut was willing to come not because he was so loyal, but because he heard from the two that the high school student who beat them up was riding a bicycle.

It's rare to find high school students who can ride bicycles to and from school these days.

Although the country has gradually cancelled some tickets after the reform and opening up, you still need a ticket when buying a large item like a bicycle, and the price is not cheap, at least a hundred yuan for a bicycle.

Ordinary two-worker families may not be willing to buy it. Even if they buy it, it is usually for the parents to use and will not be allowed to be touched by the children at home.

So when he learned that He Yan didn't just ride a bicycle occasionally for fun, but rode it every day to and from school, the guy with the short hair became interested and called two people over.

Because Flowered Shirt and Bell-bottoms said that He Yan was good at fighting, they brought wooden sticks with them before coming. But now that they see him, Baldhead thinks that the two of them were beaten like that, and it must be because they were not good enough.

Although the person in front of me is quite tall, you can tell from his face that he is a pretty boy and a good student. How powerful can he be?

Seeing them, he couldn't speak clearly: "No, no money."

"I don't have money to buy a bicycle for a high school student like you?" The man with a crew cut laughed and didn't believe what He Yan said.

Together with the others, they surrounded He Yan's flowered shirt and urged him, "Brother, you are right. His family is willing to buy him a bicycle, so they must be very rich. Let's kidnap him and maybe we can make a fortune."

The man with the buzz cut kicked him and said, "Get the fuck out of here! You want to be shot? I'm afraid of death!"

Even though he was not following the right path, he knew that kidnapping was more serious than robbery. The latter would at most result in a few years in jail, but the former would be punished with eating peanuts if caught.

The man in the flowered shirt and bell-bottom pants was stupid and wanted to get revenge after being beaten, but he knew very well the purpose of his trip.

The man with the buzz cut took a puff of cigarette, blew out his eye circles, squinted at He Yan and said, "Leave the car and money, and I'll let you go."

"I, I..." He Yan stammered. He took advantage of the crew cut's inattention and raised his right hand that was holding the dragon head. He grabbed the wooden stick in his hand with lightning speed. At the same time, he stepped on the ground with his right foot and raised his left foot to kick forward.

Although the man in the flowered shirt and the man in the bell-bottom pants said that they were beaten by He Yan, the man in the crew cut had never seen him fight and he looked young. In addition, since they had more people on their side, they could not help but look down on him, so they were not too defensive.

He Yan pulled the wooden stick, and the man with the short hair was thrown forward. Then he was kicked in the stomach. He covered his stomach in pain and bent over to kneel down.

He Yan took the stick and swung it back towards the people who were slow to react, blocking their first wave of attack and allowing him to step out of the encirclement.

He ran away so fast that the others didn't react for a moment, until the buzz cut guy came back and shouted, "What are you standing there for? Come chase him!"

Finally, a few people reacted, and they said "oh" twice and hurriedly chased after him along the alley.

Even though they caught up with it, several people felt that their efforts tonight would be in vain. How could two legs possibly outrun two wheels?

Before they reached the middle of the alley, the bicycle disappeared around the corner.

It was just that the boss spoke, and no one dared to stop and ran quickly to the end of the alley.

At first everyone thought they would lose the person, but some things are just so magical. When they ran to the end of the alley and looked to the right, they saw that the high school student who had just run away had stopped in the middle of the road sitting astride a bicycle after some unknown incident.

Their eyes suddenly lit up, and after looking at each other, they walked over quickly on cat-like steps.

But I don’t know if it was because they were too noisy or what, but when they were still four or five meters away from me, they started riding their bikes again.

The speed was not as fast as before. The man and the car never left their sight again, but it was not that slow either. No matter how fast they accelerated, they could not get close to him.

It's very annoying.

The few people were so angry that they could only see the man and the car in front of them. They only had one thought in their minds: catch up with him!

Until a shout broke the silence: "Help! Someone is trying to catch me!"

As the words fell, the man and the car turned right into a yard. When the few people looked closely, they realized that they had unknowingly followed someone to the police station.

Several people suddenly panicked and scattered like birds and beasts.

But the police officer on duty in the police station reacted quickly. He rushed out of the station immediately after hearing the sound. After seeing He Yan, he didn't have time to ask anything before he saw people running outside and rushed out to chase them.

There were only three police officers on duty, and there were four people chasing after them. He Yan was afraid that they could not catch all the people, so he quickly kicked off the footrest to park his bicycle, and followed out with a wooden stick to help.

He Yan went in the direction where there was only one policeman. After running for less than two minutes, he saw from afar the policeman and the two younger brothers brought by the man with a crew cut fighting with each other.

The two younger brothers brought by the crew cut were more experienced in fighting than the man in the flowered shirt and bell-bottom pants. In addition, they were holding wooden sticks in their hands, so the police were somewhat at a disadvantage.

He Yan quickened his pace and rushed over. Just then, a man raised a wooden stick high and was about to hit the policeman on the head. He saw it and blocked it with the stick without thinking.

The man looked strong, but in fact he was not as strong as He Yan, and he blocked the wooden stick.

He reacted quickly. After being blocked, he quickly changed direction and tried to attack from below. He Yan also followed suit and hit him directly on the hand holding the stick.

"ah!"

The man yelled, and the stick fell to the ground. He bent over to pick it up, but He Yan kicked it away even faster. The man knew the situation was hopeless, so he turned and ran.

Seeing this, He Yan hurriedly followed.

Although he was about the same height as the man, he had long legs and, thanks to years of training, was faster than the man. He quickly caught up with the man, jumped up, and kicked him in the butt.

The opponent was already running forward due to inertia, and after being kicked like this, he couldn't control himself and fell forward, face down on the ground, howling in pain.

He Yan took advantage of the situation and stepped forward, squatted down, grabbed his two hands, and controlled him from behind.

On the other side, the police also subdued his accomplice, handcuffed him, and led him over. Seeing He Yan pinning the man to the ground, the police praised him, "You are quite skilled."

Then he took out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed this man as well, and invited He Yan to go back to the police station to take a statement.

…

When He Yan was being pursued by a gang of young men, Su Ting was sitting on the sofa in the living room wrapped in a quilt, staring straight at the alarm clock on the wall.

She went to bed very early tonight, but she was restless after lying down. At nine o'clock, she thought that He Yan would be home from school soon, and she couldn't lie down any longer, so she simply went downstairs to wait.

High school evening self-study classes are from 6:50 to 9:10, with a total of three classes. The first two classes are taught by teachers, and it is up to the teachers to decide whether to give lectures or let students study on their own.

The last period is a simple self-study class. As long as the teacher does not occupy the class or extend the class, students can leave school normally.

He Yan only started his first year of high school in September, so his course load was not that heavy, and the evening study teachers rarely stayed after class. He usually did not linger in school for long and could get home around 9:15.

He didn't waste much time that night on the heroic act and arrived home just after 9:20.

But today, it was 9:20, 9:30, and almost 9:50, and He Yan still hadn't come back.

Su Ting couldn't do it anymore, so she got up and went upstairs, changed into a thick cotton shirt and thick pants, put on a hat and tied a scarf, took a flashlight and went downstairs. When she passed through the living room, Su Ting seemed to think of something, suddenly she turned and walked into the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife and walked out.

She locked the door with her key, turned on the flashlight, walked out of the yard and turned right. When she was almost at the alley, Su Ting suddenly heard a sound.

She stopped and raised the flashlight. As she moved, orange light penetrated the darkness. Soon, a man and a car emerged from the darkness, enveloped by the flashlight.

Because she was far away, Su Ting couldn't see the other person's face clearly, but she could see his blue and white school uniform.

It’s He Yan.

Su Ting let out a long breath and moved the flashlight downwards.

As the light moved down, He Yan's face was no longer directly illuminated by the flashlight, and his vision became much clearer. He also recognized Su Ting, who quickly rode up to him and asked, "Mom, why did you come out?"

Su Ting did not answer immediately. She took out a flashlight and shone it from head to toe. After making sure that he was not injured, she asked, "Why did you come back just now?"

He Yan got off the bicycle, pushed the bicycle and walked home with Su Ting, saying lightly: "Nothing, just ran into those two people again."

Su Ting suddenly stopped, looked up at him and asked, "Are those two really here for revenge? How many of them are there this time?"

"That should be the case, considering there are five of them, and they all carry sticks."

Su Ting raised her voice slightly: "Bring a stick? Are you injured?"

"I can run fast, it's okay."

Although He Yan has become more stable in his words and deeds in the past two years, he is still just a teenager after all. When he talked about what happened tonight, he couldn't help but hide a bit of arrogance in his tone: "As soon as I turned into the alley, they stopped me. I wanted to beat them up directly, but thinking of what you said, I decided to outsmart them."

Hearing the pride in his words, Su Ting believed that he was not injured. Her heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down. She asked flatteringly, "How did you outsmart him?"

"I pretended to be frightened and stuttered. Their leader believed me and pointed at me with a stick. I took the stick from his hand while he wasn't paying attention and kicked him to the ground."

"No one else responded?"

"Yes, but they didn't react as fast as I did. After I got the stick, I swung it backwards and they were all scared. I took advantage of their distraction and rode away on my bike."

"Did you run away?"

“He ran away.”

The two walked into the yard as they talked. Su Ting handed the flashlight to He Yan and took out the key to open the door.

As soon as she opened the door, Su Ting remembered something was wrong and turned around to ask, "Since you ran away, why did you come back just now?" According to He Yan, he should have been entangled with those people for only a few minutes, and should have come back by 9:30 at the latest.

But now...Su Ting looked up at the alarm clock, it was already ten o'clock!

He Yan pushed his bike in, parked it and said, "After I ran away, I remembered what the police said. If we can't be sure that they have been extorting students for a long time, we may not be able to catch them. Even if we catch them, they won't stay in jail for long. And if we don't catch them tonight, we don't know where they will go tomorrow. So I thought of a way."

"What can we do?"

He Yan didn't answer, but rubbed her belly and said sadly: "Mom, I ran for a long time tonight, I'm so hungry!"

Although she really wanted to know what happened next, thinking about how He Yan had been on the run for a long time after running away from the gangsters tonight, Su Ting softened her heart and said, "I'll go make noodles and lay two eggs for you. That's enough, right?"

Although eggs still require tickets to buy, after the reform and opening up, more and more rural people have come to the city to sell agricultural products, and buying eggs is much easier than before.

Su Ting is generous with her money, and now their family has no shortage of eggs. The two children drink at least a glass of milk and eat an egg every day.

If not for this, even if the gene was there, the brother and sister would not have grown so fast in recent years.

It's just that some foods are okay to eat once in a while, but it's really hard to like them if you eat them too much. Especially for someone like He Yan, who was just average when he was a kid, if he keeps eating them for so many years, he really doesn't like them.

He Yan quickly said, "It's OK if you don't lay the eggs."

Su Ting chuckled, and although she didn't answer, she still followed He Yan's wishes when cooking the noodles. She didn't fry the eggs, but washed some vegetables and threw them in to cook.

Ten minutes later, He Yan finished his combat bath, Su Ting also cooked the noodles, and the two gathered in the dining room.

He Yan was really hungry, so he started eating the noodles in big mouthfuls. In a short while, half of the noodles in the bowl were gone. Su Ting couldn't help but remind him, "Eat slowly, don't choke."

He Yan nodded, picked up the bowl and drank half of the soup. He slowed down his eating speed and showed off his performance tonight to Su Ting while eating.

"Didn't you take me to the police station during the day? After they ran away, I thought, could I take those guys to the police station? Then I stopped in the middle of the road and waited for them to catch up, then I rode my bike and took them to the police station."

Hearing the word "walk", Su Ting's lips twitched slightly and asked, "You rode towards the police station and they chased you there?"

"I chased after him."

Su Ting: “…”

In the early 1980s, population mobility was not that great, and this place was not considered a commercial center. Those young people who hung out nearby probably lived nearby.

In that case, it is impossible that they don't even know where the police station is.

But they knew where the police station was, but they still chased there without thinking. How stupid are these people!

"When we got outside the police station, I shouted for help and rushed in. The police officer on duty heard my voice and ran out. When he saw them trying to escape, he chased after them..."

He Yan became more and more excited as he spoke. After drinking the last mouthful of noodle soup, he stood up from the stool and demonstrated to Su Ting: "I jumped up and kicked the man, and he fell forward to the ground. I rushed over and banged his hands behind his back and pressed him to the ground. Then the police brought another subdued person over and handcuffed him."

At this point, He Yan emphasized: "The police officer praised me for my skills."

"And then?"

"He also praised me for my bravery and said I was smart..."

Seeing He Yan bragging non-stop, Su Ting had to interrupt him: "Didn't you just say that there were five people blocking you in the alley? How come there were only four who caught up with you?"

"That guy with the buzz cut is their leader. Didn't I kick him? He was the last one to chase after them. He was far away, so he probably felt something was wrong and ran away halfway."

"Run away?"

"Well, the police officer found out the home of the man with the short hair from the four people and went to their house to arrest him."

"Did you catch him?"

"I finished my statement and felt it was too late so I came back. I don't know if they have caught the person." He Yan finally realized what was happening and asked, "Should I wait a little longer in the police station?"

Su Ting didn't want to put pressure on him, so she said, "It doesn't matter. I'll go to the police station and ask about it tomorrow." She looked up at the alarm clock and said, "It's getting late. You should go back to your room and go to bed."

He Yan responded: "Then Mom, you should go to bed early too."

…

Su Ting didn't sleep much that night. The next day, after getting up and sending her son to kindergarten, she rode her bike to the police station to inquire about the situation with the police officer in charge of last night's case.

The news we got was not good. The man with the buzz cut went home last night and packed up his things and ran away. The police came to nothing and did not catch him.

Seeing Su Ting's pale face, the police officer consoled her, "Don't worry, Comrade Su. We have already reported the incident and contacted other police stations, as well as the train station and train station. Let them find any suspicious persons and arrest them as soon as possible."

But these words could not comfort Su Ting. Now was not like the Skynet system that would be available in a few decades. Catching criminals depended entirely on the naked eye. Once he ran away, it would be very difficult to catch him.

In fact, if the man with a short hair managed to get on the train and leave Shanghai, Su Ting would feel more at ease. A man with a criminal record would definitely not dare to come back in the next few years. But if he didn't run far and hated He Yan, it would be dangerous.

Su Ting asked: "What about my son's personal safety before he is arrested?"

Although He Yan is quite skilled, the other party is a young man from society with a strong desire for revenge. The leaders of the police station have also considered this issue. The police said: "We will arrange a police officer to pick up and drop off He Yan every day."

No strangers are allowed in or out of the high school, so He Yan's safety is guaranteed in school. The police station only needs to ensure his safety when going to and from school.

Because he would go home for a nap at noon, the police had to pick him up four times a day. Fortunately, his home was close to the school, and the four times combined would not take more than an hour, so it was easy to arrange the personnel.

After listening to the police's arrangements, Su Ting felt relieved and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. This is what we should do." The police officer waved his hand and said, "This time, it's all thanks to He. If he hadn't been brave and resourceful and brought the people to our police station, we wouldn't have been able to successfully arrest four of them. If we had let them do evil outside, the public security in our jurisdiction would not have been guaranteed."

Su Ting said without any humility: "This child is very smart."

"Yes, our director was very interested in He after hearing about this incident. He said it would be great if the public security team could have one more talent like him!" After expressing his feelings, the other party asked casually, "I wonder what school He plans to apply to after graduating from high school. Is he interested in becoming a police officer?"

Su Ting: "...It depends on his own opinion. His father and I respect his opinion."

Should she say that He Yan is worthy of being the protagonist, and that he can always meet a mentor who recognizes his talent no matter where he is.