The reason for damaging the lock cylinder, Da Zhou needed to start from the people who were arrested. From the people Liu Ran had developed, those who joined their group were not necessarily truly connected to poverty. Some people did not actually have economic problems, but they still chose to join this criminal group. In Da Zhou's words, these young people did not do it because their friends were using drugs or selling drugs was safe, but because it could make money. Their mentality was actually very simple: what friends can do, I can do too.
This is what is called the brotherhood of young people!
Even if it had nothing to do with me, I did not leave the Criminal Investigation Brigade. I just waited, until three in the afternoon, when Da Zhou was finally busy and came to see me. He looked very tired, his eyelids drooping. He said the person who smashed the lock was named Han Fei.
Han Fei was a juvenile delinquent, involved in theft, indecent assault, and school violence. He had been to juvenile detention centers multiple times for these offenses. Han Fei's father was a businessman, constantly out for social engagements. His mother had run off with someone long ago. From the age of about ten, Han Fei had been living without any supervision. He loitered around all day, and when he ran out of money, he would go to his father to ask for it.
Han Fei's father was not a good person himself, either drinking heavily at parties or womanizing. He didn't care what kind of person his son was. After graduating from high school, Han Fei dropped out of school locally. When Han Fei's father found out, he paid money to send Han Fei to college in Beijing.
...
Han Fei was one of the first people to follow Liu Ran. He received a message stating that Liu Ran was finished. Therefore, he incited those people who usually called each other brothers and attempted to seize control of Liu Ran's business.
Da Zhou arranged for his subordinates to take me to meet Han Fei, while he went to find a place to rest. I met Han Fei. He still had a very childlike face. He was probably still in the age where he was immersed in the role-playing of "black eats black" characters from movies, and had become a real criminal.
"It was enough to break the door open, why destroy the lock cylinder?"
"Sister Ling told me to do it?"
"Who is Sister Ling?"
"Liu Ran's superior, the person who supplied Liu Ran with drugs."
Looking at Han Fei's dejected state, seeming to have no other tricks up his sleeve, I found it difficult to determine if he was lying. So, if Han Fei was telling the truth, then who was Sister Ling?
Chen Ling?
I hated this kind of preconceived notion, but it always unconsciously crept into my mind. I shook my head.
"Liu Ran was doing well, why would his superior ask you to do something?"
"Liu Ran is finished. More than a month ago, Jiang Keyang came to Bai Xue Club. He wasn't there to find girls, nor to buy drugs. He is the famous anti-drug warrior. Liu Ran's mother fell into Jiang Keyang's hands. Jiang Keyang came this time to eradicate Liu Ran, this tumor he left behind?"
"Jiang Keyang is an anti-drug warrior?"
"Yes!"
"He's an informant?"
"Yes, that's what Sister Ling said?"
Sister Ling, I didn't know who she was. I couldn't confirm if she was Chen Ling at the moment. Han Fei and Sister Ling had not met. However, during the month Liu Ran disappeared, Han Fei received goods from Sister Ling. It was precisely because of this transaction process that Han Fei believed he could replace Liu Ran and become the new drug lord.
However, the world was not as Han Fei imagined. In my opinion, Han Fei was merely a cheap tool in this scheme. Sister Ling's purpose in providing him with drugs was to make him destroy that lock, preventing Jiang Keyang from having evidence to prove his innocence, and allowing him to remain the suspect in Hu Xiaoyu's murder.
...
Jiang Keyang was currently a murder suspect, and I couldn't meet him. However, from Han Fei, I had learned some basic information about Jiang Keyang. Jiang Keyang was an informant who had previously eradicated Liu Ran's mother. From Han Fei's words, an unconfirmed piece of information was that Liu Ran's mother was also a major drug lord.
However, I knew more than Han Fei. Jiang Keyang had been a thief in my hometown. If Jiang Keyang was an orphan, the identity of a thief might suit him. But he was the son of Teacher Wang Ren, so this identity as a thief was very abrupt. However, it was clear now, Jiang Keyang was an informant.
Red or black, I couldn't determine for now. But from Teacher Wang Ren's perspective, Jiang Keyang was more likely to be a red informant. Therefore, I had to find out who Liu Ran's mother was. So, I called Old Tie. Old Tie sighed helplessly on the phone: "I have a flight to Beijing tonight, you really like to cause trouble for me."
"Then I'll find someone else?"
"Besides me, who else can you find? Alright, I know people in the municipal government anyway, I'll help you ask."
Since Liu Ran's mother had already been arrested, this was not a difficult matter. Liu Ran's mother had a nickname in our hometown, "Poison Queen." But she preferred to call herself "Empress," wanting to be a woman like Wu Zetian. However, this figure who held sway in the drug trade was initially just a single mother with a child.
Liu Ran followed his mother's surname. His mother was Liu Zhaodi, the eldest daughter of the Liu family. Liu Zhaodi's parents were very superstitious about continuing the family line. They had a daughter, then another daughter. By the time they had their third child, they named her Liu Zhaodi.
Liu Zhaodi was not a born criminal. When she was in school, she was plump and honest. In her teenage years, she was a very quiet person.
Furthermore, Liu Zhaodi's parents treated her quite well. The reason was probably that after her, the Liu family did indeed have a son. However, this son of the Liu family was not very promising; he didn't do well in school and wasn't good-looking.
At that time, Liu Zhaodi's parents, in order to help their son get married, married Liu Zhaodi off to a merchant from another place. Initially, things were not bad. The merchant gave a betrothal gift and treated Liu Zhaodi very well. Liu Zhaodi, who came from a rural background, felt this was a happy event. Soon, Liu Zhaodi became pregnant, and she looked forward to her beautiful life. However, her husband went out of town to get goods. When he returned, his truck overturned, and by the time they found him, he was beyond saving.
Was Liu Zhaodi's happy life over just like that? Liu Zhaodi wanted to go home to give birth to her child, but her parents disagreed. They said a married daughter was like spilled water, and asked Liu Zhaodi not to leave home, to uphold her wifely duties and be a good widow.
Thus, Liu Zhaodi and her son Liu Ran became a widowed mother and son.