章 32: A Dash of Green in the Sun Rays
編集者: Sparrow Translations
Liu Xiaotian stood there stunned as Lin Fan left.
"Long Heaven's Bridge?"
Liu Xiaotian couldn't understand why Lin Fan would tell him that. He tried to make sense of it, with much hesitation and doubt.
"Chief, you can't really trust these fortune-tellers. They're all con-artists," said the officer who was in the car.
Since when could one use fortune-telling to catch criminals?
If the chief of the police force found out about it, there was no telling what he would do. A civil servant believing in pseudoscience was absurd. If it was made known to the public, it would definitely affect the image of the police force.
Liu Xiaotian immediately got into the passenger seat of the police car. "Let's go to Long Heaven's Bridge. "
"Chief, can we really trust him?" a few of the policemen asked.
"It isn't too late yet. Even if there isn't anything there, it's still worth a look," although Liu Xiaotian didn't believe in fortune-telling, he knew that if he didn't take Lin Fan's advice, he probably wouldn't be able to sleep that night.
Long Heaven's bridge.
One of the first ever bridges to be constructed in Shanghai, it connected the two sides of the Long River. It was also known as Beggar's Bridge as there was a community of beggars who settled under the bridge.
Under the bridge, a man in dirty tattered clothes sat at a corner. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His name was Qin Chuan and he disguised himself as a beggar to escape detection from the law after committing a spate of murders. Hiding had proven to be a difficult task with all the high-tech surveillance methods.
However, Qin Chuan had an ingenious method to escape detection, one which was undetected by the police. Hence, he couldn't use his own identity anymore. So in order to find a way to escape, he had to temporarily hide and lay low under Long Heaven's Bridge with a group of beggars in order to fool the authorities.
"Have you seen this guy before?"
Qin Chuan was resting when suddenly, he heard some noises. He was stricken with panic. As he lifted his head upwards to see what the commotion was, he saw a few police officers questioning the resident beggars one by one.
"Why on earth would they come here to investigate?" Qin Chuan's heart was pounding with fear, but he forced himself to calm down as he analyzed the situation.
"Chief, why would Qin Chuan be hiding here out of all places?"
The air under the bridge was extremely stinky and repugnant, so much so that all of the officers lost their sense of smell. Furthermore, there were so many beggars. It was going to take a long time to interview all the beggars.
"Yea, if I were Qin Chuan, I would never hide here," the other police officer commented.
"Which is precisely why the least expected place is the most probable place! Qin Chuan is extremely intuitive. According to our investigations, he was a psychologist at one point. He has a much better grasp on human behavior than we do. Although Liu Xiaotian formerly worked for the city council, he was trained in behavioral science. At one point he wanted to become a police officer but due to personal reasons, he chose to work for the city council.
Liu Xiaotian had a feeling that his years of experience and training would be of use today as a police officer.
As he scanned the area, Liu Xiaotian found the place peculiar. However, the day was getting dark. It was going to be difficult to continue with the investigation.
"Chief, it's getting dark. If we're going to continue interviewing every single one of them, we're probably not going to get anything much. We probably won't even recognize Qin Chuan even if we were talking face to face with him," the other police officer said. "Why don't we come back tomorrow and do a proper investigation?"
Liu Xiaotian considered in silence. What he said did make sense.
At that very moment, Liu Xiaotian saw from afar a figure standing up, slowly walking away with his back facing them.
That silhouette…
"Qin Chuan!" Liu Xiaotian bellowed.
The silhouette shuddered for an instant. Before Liu Xiaotian knew it, the person started making a run for it.
Qin Chuan didn't expect to be recognized that easily. What he did not know was that Liu Xiaotian and his crew were already planning to leave.
"Get him!"
Liu Xiaotian was a hundred percent sure that the person who was running away from them was definitely Qin Chuan.
"The b*stard running away from us is a criminal wanted by the law! Don't let him escape!" The distance between Liu Xiaotian and Qin Chuan was rather large. If everything went smoothly for Qin Chuan, there was a chance that he might even get away.
Qin Chuan was blocked by a few beggars ahead of him. Liu Xiaotian did not expect them to be of any help to him, but he still reminded them as it would still have been better than nothing.
"Out of my way!" Qin Chuan screamed at the beggars in front of him.
The beggars were all stunned. But just as Qin Chuan was about to pass them, one of the beggars stuck his leg out, causing Qin Chuan to trip and fall. The surrounding beggars gathered and pinned him to the ground.
"That's right!" Liu Xiaotian was ecstatic.
After the police officers cuffed and took Qin Chuan in, Liu Xiaotian went up to thank the beggars.
"Thank you so much! We couldn't have done this without you guys! Thanks to you guys, we've caught a very dangerous serial killer. I can't thank you guys enough!"
The three beggars were already in their sixties and seventies, and their faces were full of wrinkles. "You don't have to thank us. It was a pleasure to help the police force. This criminal would also be an embarrassment to us beggars if he stayed on," the beggars smiled. After that, the three beggars went back under the bridge.
Liu Xiaotian had a lot of things to settle but after listening to the beggars, he stood there in silence, in awe and shock.
"Beggars helping us? How embarrassing…"
"Let go of me!" Qin Chuan raged as he ferociously tugged at the handcuffs.
"Qin Chuan, I really didn't expect you to hide here." Liu Xiaotian heaved a sigh of relief, and thought of Lin Fan. His heart was full of suspicion. How did Lin Fan know that Qin Chuan was hiding here?
"How did you even find me here?"
Qin Chuan was dumbfounded. He couldn't think of any reason how he was traced to this location.
"Haha, that's a secret." Liu Xiaotian laughed confidently, but deep down, he was full of amazement and wonder. Even if he were to tell people how he solved the case, who would ever believe him?
As the other police officers got Qin Chuan into the car, they suddenly thought back to the conversation between Lin Fan and Chief Liu outside the police station. They were absolutely awestruck and lost for words.
"Chief, that youngster really managed to predict this correctly."
"Gosh! That fortune teller was actually able to figure out where the criminal was. If this isn't a miracle I don't know what it is."
…
Upon hearing the conversation between the police officers, he too was dumbfounded.
"I got ratted out by a fortune-teller?"
…
At that moment, Lin Fan had just reached home.
"Sigh, it never rains but pours," Lin Fan said dejectedly. "Reality is so cruel! My fortune telling ability is dead accurate, yet I barely have any customers…"
Encyclopedia's second task: Be a well respected divine fortune-teller
When he first started, he thought that it was going to be easy but things weren't looking so good now.
No! I must take action! I can't keep one waiting for gold to drop from the sky. There's only one way of getting famous now, I have to use the Internet!
Lin Fan was all set for his next move. He immediately opened up Weibo and scoured through thousands of profiles looking for celebrities.
"The first one shall be you!"
The picture of a male celebrity appeared on his screen.
Chen Yu, an old-school singer. His songs were popular and widely listened to.
Lin Fan was familiar with this celebrity. One could say that Lin Fan grew up listening to his songs.
He had over four hundred thousand followers on Weibo, it wasn't the most but it wasn't little either.
But the most important factor was that this bugger had a huge scandal.
Lin Fan didn't notice his domineering composure, but noticed the sun rays shining directly on his forehead in the picture while reading his fortune. It resulted in a green light shining on him.
Lin Fan immediately got to work and started typing a few paragraphs of fortune readings.
…
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