Courtyard House: A Start with Black Gold Swallowing 100,000 Silver Dollars

Li Guoxuan sat on the hard wooden chair, his back ramrod straight, but his fingers were secretly picking at the edge of his trouser seam—his knuckles were white, and his fingernails had left several shallow marks.

Across from them stood two police officers, one sitting and one standing. The seated officer was Zhang Wei, wearing a dark blue uniform with his cuffs buttoned up meticulously; the standing officer was Lin Tao, holding an old fountain pen in his hand, twirling the cap halfway between his fingers before stopping. Their gazes swept over them like two dull knives, scraping at their skin and making one's skin clench.

Zhang Wei's lips twitched, but he didn't laugh; only a sliver of his teeth was visible. "From the Construction Bureau? Within the system? Ha." He drawled, the last syllable falling. "Precisely because you have a secure job, you should know your place—how can you expect to be employed by the government and then try to steal from others?"

Li Guoxuan's Adam's apple bobbed: "I clocked out of the office at 6:07 last night, the surveillance footage will show. On my way home, I bought a bag of soy milk, and the vendor recognized me. I don't even know where the crime scene is, how am I supposed to 'steal' it?"

"You don't need to take anything out," Lin Tao suddenly said, his voice low but like a shard of ice falling into a porcelain bowl. "Your accomplice takes the money, you receive the goods."

Li Guoxuan was taken aback: "Who? I don't know any accomplices at all."

"Witnesses—the two of us." Zhang Wei tapped the table with the nib of his pen. "Physical evidence—that unopened pack of cigarettes, stuffed in your coat's inner pocket, with three consecutive 100-yuan bills under the pack. You dare say it's not stolen money?"

Li Guoxuan felt a tightness in his chest. The pack of cigarettes was something a colleague had insisted on giving him that morning, saying it was for good luck on the new store opening; the money was for the property management fees he had paid on behalf of his neighbor, which the neighbor had just transferred to him via WeChat, and he hadn't had a chance to receive it yet. But saying these words now was like pouring water into a pot of oil—it would just splatter and make him look bad.

Zhang Wei leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the table: "Being stubborn won't work. Confess and you'll be treated leniently; resist and you'll be punished severely. I'll give you three more minutes to think it over."

"I want to make a phone call," Li Guoxuan said, his voice dry.

Zhang Wei didn't even lift his eyelids: "Looking for connections? Fine—first, admit to stealing, and I'll hand you your phone right away."

Li Guoxuan suddenly looked up: "I've never even seen that thief! He framed me! And what did you do? You didn't even take a complete statement, didn't even ask me how I got off work, and you just jumped to conclusions? Is this how you handle a case? This is like conscripting people!"

Lin Tao suddenly laughed, a short, grating laugh: "You just said, 'I don't even know where the crime scene is'—if you don't know the scene, how can you say you were 'arrested'? But your words implicitly admit that you are 'the one being interrogated,' don't they?"

Li Guoxuan was stunned, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

Zhang Wei stopped talking and gave Lin Tao a wink. Lin Tao bent down and pulled out a thick booklet from a hidden compartment under the table—"Compilation of Construction Safety Standards," a hardcover booklet, five centimeters thick, with its edges worn smooth.

"In a moment, I'll cushion your chest with this book and let your fist land on it." Zhang Wei slowly flipped through the pages. "It really hurts, but the bruises will disappear in three days, and there won't be any trace of them in the medical examination."

"This is torture to extract a confession!" Li Guoxuan's voice was tense. "The police station wall has the four big characters 'Enforcing the Law for the People' posted on it. Aren't you afraid of surveillance cameras? Aren't you afraid of recording devices?"

Zhang Wei scoffed: "The surveillance footage shows your refusal to tell the truth, and the audio recording shows your bad attitude. As for the law..." He paused, tapping the spine of a book with his fingertips, "We make a living this way, and we know better than you what 'anything not prohibited by law is permitted' means."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Guoxuan blurted out, "My brother, Li Guolei, works in the Criminal Investigation Department of the branch bureau; my sister, Li Jingjiao, is the director of the Construction Bureau's office! Think twice before you take action!"

He hadn't wanted to bring this up—he always handled things himself and didn't want to bother his family. But the two men before him had no light in their eyes, only fire, burning him until he had nowhere to retreat.

Zhang Wei's hand indeed stopped. He and Lin Tao exchanged a quick glance, their brows furrowing in worry.

They know Li Jingjiao. But they don't know who her husband is.

Lin Tao added in a low voice, "Deputy Director Zheng Weihua was at a coordination meeting at the bureau this morning... and sat in the same row as Deputy Director Han Zhiyi."

Zhang Wei's expression changed slightly. Han Zhiyi—Han Gongzi's cousin—was in charge of public security. Zheng Weihua, on the other hand, was in charge of personnel and discipline inspection. The two were of equal rank, not subordinate to each other, yet neither could bypass the other.

He got up and left, gesturing towards Lin Tao as he went out: "Keep an eye on him."

In a public phone booth at the end of the corridor, Zhang Wei dialed a number, his voice extremely low: "Young Master Han, we've detained him, and he won't divulge anything..."

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp shout rang out from the receiver: "Idiot! Can't you let him 'come to his senses'? Can't you let him 'misremember'? Do I have to teach you how to write a statement?!"

Zhang Wei swallowed hard: "No... his sister is Director Li Jingjiao."

"What weight does a section-level cadre carry?" Young Master Han said with a contemptuous tone.

"But her man is Zheng Weihua." Zhang Wei spoke faster. "The documents signed this morning, approved by your cousin and signed by Deputy Director Zheng—the two of them went to the city for a joint meeting together."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

When he spoke again, Young Master Han's voice deepened: "Then let's try a different approach. Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, at the old hardware market on Third Street in Chongwen District, there's a guy named Zhao Dehai, wearing a gray jacket and a silver stud in his left ear. You take some men there and 'coincidentally' arrest him—he knows Li Guoxuan and is willing to testify that the two of them were dividing the loot at the alley entrance last night. Once the charge is proven, the Construction Bureau will have to fire him themselves. He won't have to go to jail, but he'll lose his job."

Zhang Wei replied, "Understood. I'll inform the Construction Bureau office right away and have the directors keep an eye on this."

"Remember," Young Master Han said before hanging up, "don't get rough. Keep things clean under Director Zheng's watchful eye."

The phone rang busy.

Zhang Wei leaned against the wall and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He looked up at the interrogation room sign – “203”, its paint peeling and looking like an old scar.

"Once this matter is settled, my cousin will naturally give you a helping hand."

Young Master Han spoke with certainty, his gaze sweeping over the two of them as if inspecting a series of objects awaiting use.

Catching two petty thieves is considered a significant achievement. His cousin can easily promote someone by a flick of his finger.

"Alright, thank you very much, Young Master Han!"

The police officer surnamed Zhang grinned, his eyebrows relaxing.

Li Guoxuan was taken away just like that.

Night was falling.

The lights were still on in the courtyard. Qin Huairu paced back and forth in the main room, the enamel mug in her hand long since cold. Normally, Li Guoxuan would arrive before 8:30 at the latest, but today, at 9:00 sharp, he was nowhere to be seen. When she called the security department at his workplace, they only said, "He left a long time ago, and even said goodbye to Old Wang before he left."

Where did Ke Ren go?

She dialed the Li residence again, and a young woman answered the phone, saying that Li Wenguo was in Xu Wanqing's room and would call back later—but before she could finish speaking, the line went dead.

She didn't wait any longer, clutched the cloth bag tightly, and walked quickly towards Li Guoxian's house.

Every time Qin Huairu met Li Guoxian, she felt uneasy, as if she were walking on a half-brick.

Qin Jingru is her cousin, and Li Guoxian is her cousin's husband; but she also married Li Guoxian's father, becoming his and Qin Jingru's aunt; yet, when Qin Jingru sees her in private, she still calls her "cousin" all the time... This way of addressing her is more complicated than the side streets in a hutong.

She knocked on Li Guoxian's door, and before she could catch her breath, she told him that Li Guoxuan hadn't come home.

After discussing it, the two of them first went through their contacts, then dialed each number one by one, and finally found the person in the duty room of the police station—it turned out that the person was there and had just been detained for less than two hours.

When Zheng Weihua stepped into the branch office, the hands of his watch were already past ten o'clock. His face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and his gaze swept across the officers, fixing on the two officers surnamed Zhang and Lin.

"What happened?"

The voice wasn't loud, but it made the incandescent lights in the corridor seem to dim for a moment.

The two men tensed, their Adam's apples bobbing. This wasn't just any ordinary leader—he was the deputy director of the branch bureau, and also the husband of Li Guoxuan's older sister, Li Jingjiao. More importantly, Zheng Weihua had been in this line of work for over thirty years, rising through the ranks from a grassroots police officer. With a single glance, he could tell who was guilty, who was lying, and who was just putting on a brave face.

Upon seeing this, Li Guoxian immediately invited the person into the small conference room and personally brewed two cups of strong tea.

The men surnamed Zhang and Lin exchanged a glance and had no choice but to tell the truth: Li Guoxuan was stopped on the street corner, with a bulging canvas bag in his arms full of newly stolen radio parts; another suspect jumped over the wall and escaped, shouting "See you at the usual place" to Li Guoxuan before running away.

They didn't embellish the story—after all, Zheng Weihua was Li Guoxuan's brother-in-law, and going too far would have made them seem tactless. Besides, Young Master Han had already given instructions: the escaped thief would be caught by tomorrow morning, with all the evidence and witnesses, a sure thing. At that point, even Deputy Director Zheng wouldn't be able to find fault.

After listening, Zheng Weihua frowned deeply.

He believed Li Guoxuan wouldn't do such a thing—the kid was honest, had a job, was a party member, and had an older brother who had been a high-ranking official in the bureau. But now they were caught red-handed, and the fugitive hadn't been caught yet; he couldn't clear his name with just words.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and spoke amidst the rising steam:

"Li Guoxuan is most likely taking the fall for someone else. How could someone with a government job, a file, and an office job every day get involved with street thugs? I think the thief, seeing he was about to be caught, slipped the stolen goods into Li Guoxuan's arms so you would target the wrong person—and Li Guoxuan escaped into the alley in the chaos."

He paused, his gaze slowly sweeping over the two men. "Besides, he has no prior record and no motive. Let him go."

These words sound like an analysis of the case, but he didn't mention the phrase "see you at the usual place" at all.

That's not an omission, it's leaving room for interpretation—it's giving people a way out, but also drawing a line: the matter ends here, don't dig any further.

Ordinary police officers, upon hearing the deputy director's words, would immediately sign to release the person.

But the two people in front of me didn't budge an inch.

The man surnamed Zhang rubbed his hands together and smiled ingratiatingly, "Director Zheng, this case... Director Han specifically inquired about it this afternoon. We were thinking of consulting with him tomorrow morning, then getting back to you, and then processing the formalities."

Director Han?

Zheng Weihua paused, and the tea spilled over the rim of the cup.

He lowered his eyelids, didn't reply, just nodded, and turned to go into the detention room.

The iron gate clicked shut.

Zheng Weihua took off his hat, put it on the table, and said, "My name is Zheng Weihua, deputy director of the branch bureau, and I am your sister Li Jingjiao's man."

Li Guoxuan looked up, paused for two seconds, then suddenly let out a long sigh, his shoulders visibly relaxing.

Another brother-in-law?

This time, they really landed on clouds.

"Sister..." he began, his voice a little hoarse.

Zheng Weihua waved his hand, signaling him to speak slowly.

Li Guoxuan then began his story from the evening after get off work, recounting how he ran into those two policemen, how he was suddenly surrounded, how their words were barbed and their actions were abnormal, and how they even mimicked his phrase "see you at the usual place" perfectly.

The more Zheng Weihua listened, the colder his fingertips grew.

This wasn't a mistaken arrest; it was a trap.

But who set the trap? And who held the rope?