Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Eight : 3

Wrapped in a burgundy cashmere shawl, her full figure encased in a white turtleneck sweater, Cui Yucui still felt a bit cold. She hugged her arms, gazing at the two men sitting opposite her. Their faces, with their strikingly high cheekbones, were stiff and expressionless, their thick lips tightly pressed together, exuding an air of arrogance that nothing could make them speak.

She recognized the two plainclothes policemen behind the table. One was named Sun Kang, supposedly a police chief temporarily assigned to the Special Task Force. The other, with a small mustache, was surnamed Lin and held a higher rank, but compared to the men she often drank with at banquets, he wasn’t much more powerful. Thinking this, she felt reassured. She knew perfectly well that everyone in the government was like a piece in a game of Chinese chess, strictly adhering to certain rules based on their rank. They could only move within their designated “classes” and couldn’t overstep them in the slightest. To a large extent, she, as the person being interrogated, had more power and more means at her disposal than these interrogators. Therefore, she thought, “Let’s see what you could do to me!”

“Cui Yucui, we’ve said enough. Since you maintain this attitude, we have no other choice,” Sun Kang said softly to Lin Fengchong. “Let’s leave it to Old Ma?”

His voice was low, but it still reached Cui Yucui’s ears clearly in the quiet interrogation room.

Lin Fengchong nodded.

For some reason, Cui Yucui shuddered.

“Don’t be afraid,” she thought to herself. “They wouldn’t dare do anything outrageous, especially not to a woman like me…” But why did that “Old Ma” sound so familiar?

Sun Kang got up, opened the door, and called out “Old Ma” into the hallway. Then, a grinning guy slipped into the room.

It was him?!

Cui Yucui immediately recognized the short, chubby man with a slightly crooked mouth. She remembered how he went from a grinning face to a menacing one in less than half a second. She remembered the scalding hot pot covered in a layer of red oil. She remembered Old Chef Bao rolling on the ground screaming with a whole pot of hot pot smeared on his face. She even remembered the cracking sound of Old Bao’s nose being shattered by his knee…

Wasn’t he suspended? According to the “insider” information, he wasn’t a member of the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case Special Task Force team. How did he suddenly appear here?

She curled up like a startled caterpillar.

“It’s up to you.” Lin Fengchong got up and started to leave.

Ma Xiaozhong grabbed Sun Kang, pulled a few crumpled bills from his pocket, and stuffed them into his hand: “I haven’t had dinner yet. Go downstairs and get me a serving of spicy hot pot.”

After they both left, Ma Xiaozhong closed the door.

Turning around, he dragged a chair from behind the table to sit opposite Cui Yucui and said with a smile, “Sister Cui, it’s been a while! You’ve gotten thinner!”

Cui Yucui didn’t dare speak, but the air in the room made her afraid to even say, “I don’t dare speak.” She forced a smile: “Old Ma…brother, you see, with all this big stuff happening lately, I haven’t been able to eat or sleep properly; of course I’ve lost weight… Actually, this case really has nothing to do with me. My job at the orphanage is to handle external matters; I’m the one who has to manage things on the ground. As for internal management, Xing Qisheng is always very strict and doesn’t allow anyone else to interfere…”

Ma Xiaozhong leaned back in his chair, watching her spittle fly everywhere, until she finished speaking before lazily asking, “Hey, Little Chi, Chi Fengli, does she have a boyfriend?”

Cui Yucui’s mind didn’t quite process what he was saying. She blinked for a while before saying, “I’m not really sure; it seems… none.”

“Really!” Ma Xiaozhong raised his short, thick eyebrows. “She’s so beautiful, I don’t believe no one sleeps with her—uh… no, no one pursues her.”

Cui Yucui still didn’t understand why he had shifted the topic to Chi Fengli, but since he was willing to ask such a completely unrelated question, it at least relieved some pressure for her. Cui Yucui secretly breathed a sigh of relief and began telling him how much Chi Fengli frequented brothels, how she always wore designer clothes, accessories, and footwear, and how she liked to go to certain restaurants and order certain dishes… Ma Xiaozhong listened with great interest.

Suddenly, Cui Yucui asked, “What’s wrong, Brother Ma? You want to hit on her? I advise you not to even think about it. That’s a bottomless pit that no amount of money can fill!”

After hearing this, Ma Xiaozhong was somewhat dejected: “Damn it, the worst thing for a cop is dealing with this kind of woman. You start as a constable and end up as a beggar… But look at me, I’m over thirty and still don’t have a girlfriend. I’m so bored at night, I’m practically crawling on the wall with my pillow. If this keeps up, I’ll become a psychopath!”

“Brother Ma, listen to your older sister’s advice: don’t look for a partner. What’s the point? Playing around is fine, but definitely don’t aim for marriage… What’s so great about marriage? I’ve been married, and then I got divorced. Breakups without marriage are just breakups, but breakups after marriage are like being dismembered. It’s meaningless, boring, utterly boring!” Cui Yucui said.

“I know, but I can’t help it. My mom’s been pressuring me to have grandchildren all the time. I told her, ‘There are more grandchildren in the detention center than anywhere else. One day I’ll bring her a couple home for her to hold.’ Hey, the old lady chased me halfway down the street with a rolling pin…” Ma Xiaozhong finished speaking, and Cui Yucui couldn’t help but laugh, countless deep wrinkles appearing on her heavily made-up face.

“Oh, right.” Ma Xiaozhong suddenly remembered something. “You have a son, right? In elementary or middle school?”

“Sixth grade.” Cui Yucui sighed. “Next year’s the middle school entrance exam, a crucial time.”

“Sixth grade, twelve years old…” Ma Xiaozhong counted on his fingers. “Hey, isn’t that the same age as Zhao Wu?”

That one sentence sent a chill down Cui Yucui’s spine. She stared blankly at the short, fat man with the forced smile, realizing that his rambling hadn’t been a misunderstanding; he was actually loosening his grip on her neck, preparing to snap it in the next stranglehold!

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Ma Xiaozhong stood up, opened the door, and saw Sun Kang carrying a plastic bag containing a round, beige takeout bowl with chopsticks and napkins sticking out at an angle. “Old Ma, your spicy hot pot.”

Ma Xiaozhong took the bag with one hand and tried to support the bottom of the bowl with the other. Even through the plastic bag, he was burned and cursed.

He turned around and closed the door again.

Then he locked the latch.

He placed the plastic bag on the table, took out the takeout bowl, and lifted the lid. A rich, spicy aroma immediately filled the small information room. Then, he broke apart the disposable chopsticks, wiped off the splinters, and used several layers of napkins to support the bottom of the bowl before sitting down opposite Cui Yucui.

First her fingertips, then her palms, then her arms, and finally her whole body trembled uncontrollably… Staring at the bowl of maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot), Cui Yucui was filled with fear and despair.

Ma Xiaozhong, however, didn’t seem to notice. He picked up a piece of blood tofu with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, then grimaced from the heat and took it out. Blowing on it, he said to Cui Yucui, “Your son’s twelve years old, and Zhao Wu’s also twelve. Put yourself in his shoes. If your son were strangled to death tonight, stripped naked, and burned in some abandoned subway station tunnel ventilation shaft, how would you feel?

“If you went to the school and asked, ‘How did my son die?’ the vice principal would just shrug and say, ‘I don’t know. Ah, I’m in charge of handling external cases at school. This case really has nothing to do with me. Look at me, I haven’t been able to eat or sleep lately; I’ve even lost weight.’ You’re probably going to skin her alive, pull out her tendons, smash her bones, and rip out her heart, right?

“Of course, Zhao Wu’s an orphan with no parents; nobody would care if he died, but orphans are people too. The criminal law doesn’t say that orphans or disabled children can be killed without anyone caring. On the contrary, when something like this happens, the government will crack down on it even more severely! Why? Because the government is responsible for patching up the sins God has committed!”

After saying that, he stuffed the piece of blood tofu into his mouth and swallowed it without even chewing.

Steam rose from the bowl, which was covered with a layer of red oil, enveloping Ma Xiaozhong’s chubby face.

“From the moment I walked in, I knew you were thinking, ‘Wasn’t this short, fat guy suspended? Why is he interrogating me again?’ Yes, that’s right. To tell you the truth, I was suspended, but the investigation results are in. It was that chef who attacked me first. I accidentally caused serious facial injuries while handling the situation according to the law, so I bear no criminal responsibility. Don’t think the government’s biased towards me. Our People’s Government is the fairest and most conscientious. The law is above all else, but some things are even greater than the law and the law combined!”

Ma Xiaozhong picked up a large piece of tripe and stuffed it into his mouth, his rough teeth crunching as he chewed, red foam dripping from his lips. “A bunch of orphans, little kids tormented by various illnesses since birth, barely alive, and he actually fed them swill! He actually fed them swill! He’ll never leave the hospital alive, or I’ll get a few brothers to break his legs in the middle of the night!”

At this point, Ma Xiaozhong suddenly couldn’t continue. Staring at the ceiling, he swallowed hard twice, his large Adam’s apple bobbing, then lowered his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Cui Yucui.

Since Cui Yucui started looking at the bowl of spicy hot pot he was holding, she had been terrified, tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably.

“You, surnamed Cui, how did those children die?” Ma Xiaozhong stretched his thick neck forward, his fierce face casting a huge shadow over the already huddled Cui Yucui. He said, word by word, “I’ll only ask you once.”

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’ll tell you everything…” Cui Yucui said between sobs, “Xing Qisheng has already abused those children, not just the ones who died, but all the others. He’s not human; he’s truly inhuman when he’s insane, torturing those children in all sorts of ways. The children bleed, they cry out in pain, and some of the deaf and mute ones can’t even cry, especially that five-year-old girl named Li Ying with cerebral palsy; every time it’s over, she’ll curl up on the bed and whimper all night, like a little dog.

“I’ve also tried to persuade Xing Qisheng, saying, ‘That’s enough.’ He said, ‘It’s okay, nobody cares.’ He’s just a little afraid of Zhou Liping. It seems Zhao Wu said something to Zhou Liping… The day before the Sweeping Mouse Ridge case, he raped Li Ying again. Apparently, the girls couldn’t take it anymore, and Zhao Wu, being the leader and acting like an older brother, strangled Li Ying and another girl named Dong Xinlan, then hanged himself from the radiator pipe… The next morning, the cleaning lady, Aunt Zhang, found out and reported it to me and Xing Qisheng. Xing Qisheng told Aunt Zhang and me not to tell anyone, that he had a way…”

“You’ve worked hard.” Lin Fengchong patted Ma Xiaozhong on the shoulder. “Go and rest for a bit.”

Ma Xiaozhong nodded and walked towards the other end of the corridor. Halfway there, he suddenly stopped, twisted sharply, and dashed to the interrogation room door, throwing a bowl of spicy hot pot at Cui Yucui!

Cui Yucui screamed, dodging the blow, narrowly avoiding being hit. The hot pot splattered red oil all over her, terrifying her, and she cried and screamed.

Ma Xiaozhong pointed at her, his fingertips trembling, repeatedly cursing, but he forcefully controlled his vocal cords, so no sound came out. Veins bulged on his neck, each one throbbing as if about to burst. His face was crimson, his features distorted, like a raging fire!

Sun Kang had known him for many years and had never seen him so angry. He grabbed him and dragged him into the stairwell, whispering, “Old Ma, Old Ma, calm down, calm down!”

In the stairwell, Ma Xiaozhong leaned against the wall and slowly squatted down. He gasped for breath, his body trembling violently, his teeth chattering loudly, as if he had fallen into an icy river.