Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 151 I have a better story, do you want to hear it?

When Zhang Chao returned to the East Courtyard of Beida Street, it was already past 2 a.m. He was exhausted and fell asleep on the bed without even taking a shower.

After he followed Yu Zhandong and the others to take the man back to the police station, he stayed there for only a short while before leaving. As for whether the crosstalk artist had invited any leaders later, he was not interested in finding out.

When he woke up the next morning, Zhang Chao felt severe pain all over his body. He took off all his clothes and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. He found that he had at least seven or eight bruises. The most serious one was on his left rib, a purple-black mark the size of a fist, which looked scary.

Zhang Chao first called Director Xia and told him that he would go and treat his injuries and would not report to the institute in the morning.

Then I had breakfast and went to the school hospital of Yanda University.

After a thorough examination, Zhang Chao felt relieved when he found that the injuries were all on the skin and flesh, with no damage to the bones, ligaments or anything else.

In the afternoon, he went to Doufu Hutong as usual, parked his car far away, and walked into the station.

When Director Xia saw him coming, he quickly asked, "Why are you here? Didn't I tell you to stay home and take good care of yourself for a few days?"

Zhang Chao said, "I went to the hospital for a checkup this morning. I only had some bruises and hematomas. The big ones were bled and patched up, and the small ones were slowly absorbed on their own. I had nothing else to do in the afternoon, so I came here."

Director Xia said, "Don't do that again. Catching bad guys is our job as police officers. If a great writer like you is really hurt, our entire station will be in trouble!"

Zhang Chao quickly assured, "I was inexperienced last night, and acted impulsively... I promise to stay back there obediently from now on."

At this time, Yu Zhandong came out and was surprised to see Zhang Chao coming, but he still smiled and said, "Now that we have experience, will you still be the first to rush forward?"

Zhang Chao also laughed.

Director Xia glared at him and said, "How dare you say that! It's because you're so unruly that something almost happened last night!"

Zhang Chao quickly comforted Yu Zhandong with a few words and followed Yu Zhandong into the office.

When several policemen saw Zhang Chao again today, they were obviously much more enthusiastic, especially Ling Danlei, whose pair of phoenix eyes kept glancing at Zhang Chao.

Zhang Chao asked, "Why, did I grow an extra nose today?"

Everyone laughed. Although Zhang Chao's behavior last night was impulsive, it also won their approval.

In the past two or three weeks, Zhang Chao has been experiencing life at the Doufu Hutong Police Station. He has truly felt the reality of life on campus and outside the literary and cultural circles. It is as if the ghost has grown legs and can now stand on solid ground.

This is why Zhang Chao insisted on coming. Creation is a process of self-consumption. When a writer starts writing, he is "consuming internal energy" - the "consumption" here does not only refer to individual experience, but more to spiritual factors.

So when a writer stops writing, it is often not because he has nothing to write, but because he can no longer find inspiration in his writing. Once this state lasts long enough, the person loses his ability as a writer.

Jin Yong gradually stopped writing after writing 15 martial arts novels, and in the 80s he even stopped writing editorials for Ming Pao. In 1999, he started to revise his works again, but most of them were superfluous.

The so-called "Century New Revised Edition", although more exquisite in text and more rigorous in logic, no one thinks it is better than the earlier "Sanlian Edition".

Zhang Chao had read the new ending of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber in his previous life. After Zhang Wuji's eyebrow pencil fell to the ground, Zhou Zhiruo added a long and rambling paragraph, telling Zhang Wuji that in another ten or eight years, he would miss her again in his heart...

Zhang Chao has only one comment on this: "Jin Yong just wants to make up for his regrets, but it has nothing to do with the novel itself." Jin Yong's talent is still there, but he is no longer a writer.

The station was relatively quiet today, with not many police incidents. Yu Zhandong and others were adding some materials to the operation last night.

Zhang Chao was also relatively quiet, writing his own stuff and occasionally asking some questions.

This continued until the evening when it was almost time to get off work. Zhang Chao stood up and said, "Last night's action opened my eyes. I'll treat everyone to dinner tonight, please give me this favor!"

The other police officers all looked at Yu Zhandong. Seeing Zhang Chao's sincerity, Yu Zhandong could not refuse, so he asked everyone to call home and tell them that they would not be going back for dinner. They did not leave the alley to eat, but at the hot pot restaurant next to the station. Except for those on duty who were packing up, almost everyone else in the station went there.

Although there was no wine, the meal was a great success, and Yu Zhandong's evaluation of Zhang Chao rose to a higher level - this young man is really good!

After the show, Zhang Chao drove his car over and insisted on taking Yu Zhandong home.

After driving for more than ten minutes, the car was stuck in the traffic jam during Yanjing's rush hour.

Yu Zhandong asked, "Can I smoke?"

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Others can't do it, but you can."

Yu Zhandong rolled down the window, lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and slowly blew out the smoke rings before saying, "Don't hold it in, kid. Ask whatever you want to ask."

Zhang Chao was surprised: "How come you..."

Yu Zhandong said: "If you can't figure out something as small as this, then my 20 years of work would be in vain. Don't keep asking others, they don't dare to tell you."

Zhang Chao was silent for a while before he said, "I am indeed very curious about you. Especially since I know that you were a top student who graduated from the Public Security University, but you have been a patrol officer in this small police station for half your life..."

Yu Zhandong said, "Hey... what top student? It's been a long time since then... do you really want to know?"

Zhang Chao nodded.

Yu Zhandong sighed and said, "There's nothing to hide. More than 20 years ago, I just graduated from college and was assigned to the criminal police team of the bureau. I was young at the time and wanted to solve big cases. Our team leader at the time was named Cheng, who was an expert in solving cases in the bureau and my idol."

"Then a big case did come up. I can't go into the details - basically, there was a vicious murder in our area."

"Captain Cheng acted decisively at the time. He determined that the murderer was in our jurisdiction and had not gone far. He immediately blocked the main entrances and exits and launched a large-scale investigation. We indeed trapped the murderer in his hideout."

"Then the murderer showed up, and we went to arrest him. He was first caught by the public security joint defense team. The process was quite intense."

"Later, he died in our interrogation room..."

"After further investigation of the scene and their hiding place, and verification of his identity, we determined that the murderer should be two people, one of whom is his son, and the main culprit is his son."

"He showed up on purpose to attract our attention and let his son escape the encirclement. And this is not the first time they have committed a crime. They have two other cases in other places. It's just that the conditions were backward at the time and they couldn't merge the cases in time, which led to the loophole."

"The man is dead, the principal criminal has escaped, and the case is unsolved, so someone has to take responsibility. In 79, this kind of thing was criminalized. The year the incident happened, a typical case was caught. Captain Cheng took all the blame and was sentenced to five years in prison."

"Several brothers in the team were stripped of their police uniforms. I was young, just graduated from college, and was given a heavy punishment. I came to Doufu Hutong and have been there ever since. This is my story. Isn't it boring?"

Zhang Chao was silent for a long time before he asked, "Did they catch him? What about Captain Cheng? How did he become?"

Yu Zhandong said: "He was caught. In 98, at the railway station, when he was buying a fake ticket, the railway police held him and the ticket seller together. He struggled so hard that he was noticed to be abnormal, so they took him back and fingerprinted him.

Captain Cheng…started a small business after he was released, and died of liver cancer in 95. Is this story worth writing into a book?

Zhang Chao thought for a moment and said, "I have a better story, do you want to hear it?"

Yu Zhandong: “Oh?”

Zhang Chao followed the traffic flow and drove forward for a while, but was blocked again. He said, "If Captain Cheng had never given up on catching this fish that escaped the net after he came out..."

(End of this chapter)