The real life of an American police officer: Winning over others with virtue

Chapter 191: People are ruthless and don’t talk much

At noon.

Eric completed the final inspection of the RV on the street in front of the front yard.

Water tank full, grey water tank empty, propane supply sufficient, tire pressure perfect.
Although the staff said the RV was in perfect condition, Eric, being the kind of person he is, would find it hard to relax without checking it thoroughly.

For him, not touching and seeing it himself felt like having an invisible fishbone stuck in his throat.

Or to put it more aptly, it's like stubborn food residue stuck in the gaps between your teeth, making you feel uncomfortable all over, and you only feel at ease after you remove it yourself.

Fortunately, the RV was in perfect condition, just as the staff had said.

They just need to use new things inside, such as new bedding, new towels, and a specially selected super comfortable memory foam mattress cover.

Eric straightened up, a rare sense of contentment welling up inside him. He raised his hand and patted the cold metal body of the car, producing a dull, reassuring thud.

The beginning of a trip is always full of anticipation and joy.

Eric looked up at the side window above the RV, a small window with a sunshade.

With his current extraordinary eyesight, he can't see anything at such a close distance.

I leaned closer and pressed my nose against the cold glass, and could only barely catch a very blurry outline of a figure moving inside. It was like looking at someone through a thick layer of frosted glass; I could only make out the general shape of the person and the direction of their movements, but no details.

Based on the range of motion, we can only infer that Tifa was tidying up something.

This particularly pleased Eric, as at least his privacy was guaranteed.

Before long, the already blurry figure, which resembled a reflection in water, swayed behind the window for a moment before disappearing completely from sight.

Eric heard the noise and looked towards the car door.

"Is everything all set up?" A clear, slightly amused female voice came from the RV door.

A figure leaped down gracefully and landed beside him.

She was holding a neatly packed garbage bag in her hand, and her hair was a little messy from being busy in the car.

The sunlight outlined her bright face, and her eyes, which were adept at seeing through the subtleties of people's hearts, were now filled with only pure anticipation for the journey, shining with an astonishing brightness.

Regardless of what Tifa is like, she is still just a girl in her early twenties.

“Hmm,” Eric smiled. “The exterior has been inspected, everything is perfect. Water, gas, electricity, tires—everything is ready. Just waiting…”

Before he could finish speaking, Tifa shoved all the garbage bags in her hand into his arms: "Then what are we waiting for, Officer? Time waits for no one, and I want to get to my destination before sunset."

Watching Tifa nimbly climb the RV steps again and disappear through the doorway, Eric shook his head, threw the trash bag into the back bin, and then strode over to the driver's side.

He rarely saw Tifa so happy.

Come to think of it, it makes sense. They've never had a time like this before, so this is their first time going out together.

I opened the car door and got in. As expected of a Class B motorhome, the space was indeed much more spacious and comfortable.

I glanced at the passenger seat and saw Tifa already sitting there, her seatbelt fastened, looking at a map.

“There’s navigation.” Eric thought to himself with a slight twitch of his lips, but in the end he didn’t dare to disrupt the tourist atmosphere and fun that Tifa wanted.

Because he knew that once he broke through, he would be met with a few mild punches.

Eric inserted the key into the lock and gave it a gentle turn, the deep, powerful roar echoing through the quiet neighborhood streets.

"Are you ready, Ms. Profiler?"

"The co-pilot is in position and ready to go, Officer." Tifa put away the map, her eyes bright.

The two smiled at each other.

-

Looking at the map, if we start from Quantico and end in Boston...

The prepared route, in its entirety, is about 400 miles or 700 kilometers long.

If you're just driving, it will only take about ten hours to get there.

Despite this, there are many campsites along this route.

This made Eric realize that road trips were indeed quite popular in America.

Eric began to leave Quantico as planned, slowly merging into the northbound traffic on I-95, and then continued north along I-95 for a short distance.

Because he had plenty of time, Eric kept the pace under control.

However, I-95 is one of the busiest highways in the United States, connecting countless towns.

There were quite a lot of vehicles.

Therefore, the huge body of the RV, with its speed controlled, appears clumsy in traffic, like a gentle giant that has entered the fast lane, occasionally attracting a few not-so-sharp honks.

This amused Eric and Tifa.

Although the speed was full, Tifa didn't care at all. She took off her shoes, sat barefoot in the passenger seat, and watched the scene rushing past the window with great interest.

Country music with a slight static was playing from the car radio, and she swayed to the rhythm without even realizing it.

“That’s nice,” she said softly, turning to look at Eric.

"Thank you, my patrol officer."

Eric shrugged: "You're welcome, because I'm enjoying it too."

-

3pm.

As the RV arrived in Fredericksburg, signs and historic buildings bearing the heavy marks of America's Civil War history began to appear along the roadside.

Since it was still early, Eric and Tifa decided on the spot to stop there briefly before heading to their last destination for the day, Sky Meadows State Park.

The RV eventually slowed down on the edge of a historic old town in Fredericksburg and stopped next to a gas station that looked a bit old.

After getting off the bus, Eric observed that the old town did indeed have some history, but it was small yet complete in every way.

It's very small inside, with only a few residential buildings.

Next to the gas station is a log cabin-style cafe, and the parking lot outside has several pickup trucks and some heavy trucks parked on it.

I glanced at it and didn't find anything unusual.

Eric and Tifa exchanged a glance and then headed towards the coffee shop.

Upon entering, I found that the cafe's layout was indeed quite nice, and it was quite crowded.

But most of the drivers are male, such as truck drivers.

As Eric had described, these truck drivers were mostly burly men, wearing oil-stained work pants and faded T-shirts.

If that were all, Eric wouldn't have cared, or even bothered. But the only thing that spoiled the mood was...

One of the truck drivers sat at the bar, devouring a cinnamon roll piled high with frosting. His bare arms were muscular, covered in thick hair and several shallow scars, and his forearms were so thick they looked like they were wrapped in leather.

Prolonged sun exposure gave his skin an unhealthy dark red color, and it was oily and shiny.

Another person sat next to him, with a buzz cut and blue tattoo edges visible on his thick neck.

He wore baggy work pants stained with oil and a T-shirt whose original color was almost unrecognizable. His beer belly bulged high, his hair was greasy and stuck to his scalp, and his chin was piled with several layers of fat. The glass in front of him was empty, but he didn't care. He just looked at a couple sitting at the table by the window with an unsettling, aggressive gaze, as if he were appraising merchandise.

His gaze was fixed on a woman in a floral dress at another table in the cafe.

Just as he led Tifa in, he even deliberately cleared his throat and, in a voice just loud enough for the girl to hear, spoke to his companion beside him:

"Hey, look at this little white rabbit, so delicate and tender. Coming to this old-fashioned place to drink coffee? Tsk tsk."

In Eric's eyes, who had observed the entire scene in an instant, the man sitting in front of the woman was both shocked and angry, and was about to do something, but was stopped by the pale-faced woman's outstretched hand.

Clearly, the woman knew her man would definitely suffer.

Eric shook his head inwardly and subconsciously looked at Tifa.

Tifa's eyes were also observing, clearly she had just finished observing.

The two exchanged a glance, and inwardly regretted coming in, as it had greatly affected their mood.

Eric and Tifa were even able to analyze and imagine what the subsequent process would be like.

At the same time, the two of them had just pushed open the heavy solid wood door, and the handmade copper wind chime hanging above began to ring out a clear and melodious tinkling sound, reminding everyone inside.

Someone came in.

Suddenly, the tattooed man's gaze, which had been fixed on the woman in the floral dress, was drawn to Tifa by a magnet.

Because Tiffany is more beautiful and refined than women in floral dresses, and her temperament and figure are more outstanding.

Therefore, Tifa's temperament and outstanding appearance instantly made the tattooed man's originally lazy and playful eyes light up, and a more direct, greedy, and unrestrained light burst out from his turbid pupils.

The tattooed man gave Tifa a thorough, unceremonious look, scanning her from head to toe.

The harassed couple instantly felt the pressure shift.

The woman in the floral dress secretly glanced up and saw that the two truck drivers' eyes were completely drawn to the newly arrived beauty. She breathed a sigh of relief, her body no longer so stiff, but she was still apprehensive.

The man sitting in front of her also breathed a sigh of relief, but his gaze toward the two truck drivers was filled with anger and disgust.

Eric shook his head helplessly. How come there are guys like this everywhere? But this also made Eric realize that this was a lawless place far from the city.

Eric didn't react immediately. He simply pulled Tifa behind him, using his tall frame to block most of Tifa's view.

Then he calmly looked back, his eyes like the sharp, cold edge of an ice-cold blade, without the slightest hesitation.

"friend."

Eric's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly pierced through the background music, like cold metal scraping against wood.

"Show some respect and mind your own business."

"Yo ho!" Seeing Eric's reaction, the tattooed man not only did not back down, but was instead aroused by Eric's obvious protective stance, which fueled his desire to provoke him even more.

He nudged his burly companion, who was still engrossed in his meal, with his elbow, his voice filled with undisguised excitement and crudeness.

"Look! Dude! This one's the real deal! Top-notch! Much better than that little bunny from before!"

The burly driver, jolted from the impact, looked up in annoyance, following his companion's gaze. When he saw Tifa clearly, she looked no different, and even let out a loud, flippant whistle, "Whoa!"

That shrill, flippant whistle was like a fuse being lit.

Eric's eyes froze completely, replaced by an almost tangible, suffocating low pressure.

"Stay here."

“Okay.” Tifa sighed softly, simply standing there observing her surroundings without stopping Eric. She knew Eric’s personality; he wasn’t as easily stopped as the men over there.

As for Eric, if someone crosses him, even if he can't beat them, he'll do everything he can to take a piece of their flesh.

However, with this stark contrast, Tifa felt a great sense of security.

Eric didn't look back at Tifa, but simply strode toward the two truck drivers.

His obvious act of retaliation instantly silenced the low conversation in the café.

The female barista standing behind the bar gripped the cloth on the counter nervously, looking worriedly at Eric as he approached.

She knew these two truck drivers were not to be trifled with, because they were locals and members of the local trucking gang.

As a local resident, she has been harassed quite often, and some customers have called the police, but the matter has always been left unresolved.

The couple sitting over there exchanged a glance and held their breath, watching in that direction.

Eric's eyes remained expressionless, and his pace remained unchanged as he approached step by step.

The tattooed man's roguish smile slowly froze as he sensed the murderous aura emanating from Eric—a aura that was anything but bluff, forged through countless real battles.

He instinctively wanted to stand up to make a show of force, but his buttocks had barely left the chair.

"Hey, what do you want?"

Eric didn't say a word, but suddenly moved, bursting out like a cheetah. He pushed off the ground with his left foot, and his body shot out like an arrow, instantly covering the last two meters.

With his body slightly turned to the side and his right shoulder forward, he slammed into the tattooed man's chest like a precise battering ram. The timing was perfect, just as the tattooed man was off balance and halfway up.

Bang!
The dull thud of the impact and the tattooed man's painful groan rang out simultaneously! The enormous impact caused the tattooed man to completely lose his balance, falling heavily backward back into the chair, the chair legs groaning under the strain.

Eric's left hand, like an iron clamp, precisely grabbed the tattooed man's right wrist as he tried to push him away at the same instant of impact, his thumb sharply pinching the Hegu acupoint.
At the same time, he twisted outward and downward with tremendous force! With a teeth-grinding cracking sound, accompanied by the tattooed man's shrill scream, his hand was instantly broken by Eric's reverse joint, and the excruciating pain rendered his entire right arm powerless.

But at the same time.

Eric didn't pause at all. Using the momentum from the impact and the leverage from twisting his wrist, he leaned forward, bent his right arm, and his hard elbow, like a heavy hammer, slammed into the tattooed man's unsuspecting left temple with perfect accuracy, carrying the power of his whole body and the rotation of his waist.

"Oh!"

A chilling thud! The tattooed man's eyes bulged out, his pupils dilated instantly, and he let out a strange hissing sound.

As if his bones had been removed, he and the chair tumbled to the ground with a thud, his body curled up, convulsing violently, white foam and blood oozing from his mouth and nose, before he completely lost consciousness.

The whole process was lightning fast, from the impact to the elbow strike, it took no more than two seconds!

Everyone, including the burly driver, was stunned by the sudden, bloody scene.

"Sek!"

Only after the tattooed man collapsed like a tattered sack did the burly driver let out a beastly roar, grab a heavy ceramic coffee cup from the table, and clumsily smash it down on the back of Eric's head!

But in Eric's eyes, the big driver's movements, though fierce, were haphazard and slow.

As the coffee cup whistled down, Eric swiftly slid to the side to dodge. The heavy cup grazed his shoulder and shattered on the wooden floor beside him, spilling coffee everywhere.

Eric did not create distance, but immediately closed in, taking advantage of the man's wide-open side as he turned to swing, and with all his might, he delivered a precise and heavy hook punch to the man's liver.

"Thump!" A dull thud sounded, and the big man gasped as if suffocating from the excruciating pain. His body arched like a shrimp, his vision went black, and his movements froze.

Without pausing, Eric raised his knee and slammed it into the burly man's groin. The distinctive thud of that area being struck caused all the male customers in the café to instinctively tense up.

"Agh—!" The burly man let out an extremely shrill scream, his eyes wide open and bulging, saliva and gastric juices spraying out uncontrollably. His massive body lost all support and slowly bent his knees like a collapsing sandbag.

The whole place was silent!

Eric leaned slightly forward, staring at the large man whose face was contorted in pain, his eyes unfocused, and who was panting heavily. His voice was as soft as if discussing the weather:

"Try whistling again?"

(End of this chapter)