He fumbled around on the bed for his phone and glanced at the incoming call—it was his mom.
Jiang Chuan answered without hesitation. “Hey, Mom, did you get the money?”
“We got it, Xiao Chuan. Where did you get all that money? You—you didn’t do anything illegal, did you!” His mother, Duan Yue’e, called out anxiously.
Jiang Chuan let out an amused, helpless laugh. “Mom, I’m telling you the truth. This is really money I earned from investments. And besides, I wasn’t actually scammed before. That guy was actually a pretty decent person—he just didn’t want me to pull the money out early and lose out on the investment returns, which is why he ignored me for a while.”
“See? Now that the investment cycle is over, the money came out naturally, and we even made an extra twenty thousand on top of it.”
Duan Yue’e was only half-convinced. “Really? You’d better not be lying to your mother. Even if you did get scammed, we can work hard and pay it back. But you absolutely must not do anything illegal!”
“I got it, Mom. Look, I won’t do this kind of stuff anymore. I’ll just work steadily, earn money steadily, and stay away from any investments, I promise.” Jiang Chuan gave his word.
Only then did Duan Yue’e let out a sigh of relief. “Alright then. If you can just take things steady, your mother can rest easy. I’m not asking for great wealth and riches in this life—just peace and safety.”
“Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right. I won’t mess with any of that anymore, I promise, Mom.” Jiang Chuan laughed.
Just as he finished speaking—
Ding-dong.
A text message notification chimed on his phone.
Glancing at the message from the scammer, Jiang Chuan said, “Mom, I’ve gotta go. It’s late and I need to get some sleep. I haven’t slept well these past few days.”
“Alright, alright, you go to sleep. If something comes up, you can tell your mother tomorrow.”
He hung up.
Jiang Chuan stared at the scammer’s text, a bit taken aback.
[Big bro, I really know I was wrong. Please, let me send this gun back to you. It’s not something I should be holding. I’m begging you, big bro, please spare me…]
It looked like the scammer was genuinely terrified out of his wits.
But Jiang Chuan had no intention of letting him off that easily.
The only reason this scammer had become so sincere and returned all the money was because Jiang Chuan had mailed him a real gun and scared him half to death.
Without that gun, the scammer would never have admitted his mistake.
He needed to teach this scammer a lesson—not just to avenge his parallel-world self, but also to collect a little interest.
After a moment’s thought, Jiang Chuan quickly typed back: [No need. It’ll be more useful in your hands—use it to save your life.]
He hit send, got up, grabbed a can of iced cola from the fridge, popped it open, and downed it in one long gulp.
The dense bubbles popped and crackled in his mouth. The sharp, tingly sensation of carbon dioxide, both stimulating and velvety, teased his taste buds and senses, while the rich, fizzy bite electrified every cell.
“Ahh! That hits the spot. Coke’s only good when it’s ice-cold.”
He tossed the empty can into the trash, feeling pretty good about himself. He hopped back into bed, picked up his phone, and scrolled through some borderline-content videos of attractive women with a “critical eye,” all while waiting for the scammer’s reply.
——-
Inside the interrogation room.
After the three of them had been waiting anxiously, the text notification finally rang out.
Ding-dong.
“It’s here, it’s here! He replied!” Zhang Songyang exclaimed excitedly, clutching his phone.
Liu Changshan and Zhou Ran immediately leaned in behind him. All six eyes were fixed on the message on the screen.
[No need. It’ll be more useful in your hands—use it to save your life.]
Seeing this text, Liu Changshan and Zhou Ran both furrowed their brows.
Zhang Songyang, on the other hand, was scared out of his mind. “Chief Zhou, Officer—he, he’s definitely sent a hitman! This message proves it—he’s already sent someone to kill me! He—he wants me to use the gun to fight for my life! Please save me! You have to save me…”
“Shut up! Calm down. You can’t determine anything from just one text message,” Liu Changshan barked.
He then glanced at Zhou Ran. “Chief, this Jiang Chuan has a pretty arrogant attitude. Normally, if he knew Zhang Songyang was inside the police station, he wouldn’t have replied like that.”
Zhou Ran nodded thoughtfully. “There’s also another possibility—that Jiang Chuan has just been bluffing Zhang Songyang all along. Maybe nobody’s actually watching Zhang Songyang, and Jiang Chuan doesn’t even know he’s at the station right now.”
“That makes sense…” Liu Changshan agreed.
“Keep texting him. This time, say… say you truly know you were wrong, and you’re willing to give him all the money as a token of appreciation for the brothers,” Zhou Ran instructed.
Zhang Songyang nodded like a chicken pecking at grain. “Okay, okay.”
As he spoke, he typed out the message and hit send immediately.
This time, the reply came back fast—within less than a minute.
“Quick, see what he said!” Zhou Ran squinted, staring at the phone screen.
[Hmph. The brothers don’t drink tea. And besides, you really think hiding in a safe place means you’re out of harm’s way?]
When they saw this message—
Not just Zhang Songyang, but even Liu Changshan and Zhou Ran’s pupils widened, their eyes filled with shock.
Arrogant. Downright arrogant!
“Chief, we can now say with one hundred percent certainty that Jiang Chuan definitely knows Zhang Songyang is inside the police station. That’s why he specifically mentioned a ‘safe place’—this is a blatant threat!” Liu Changshan said gravely.
Zhou Ran’s face grew somber. “Does this Jiang Chuan actually have the means to send someone into the police station to kill? Is he insane!”
Even if this Jiang Chuan really was some big shot from an underground organization, he wouldn’t dare send someone to kill inside a police station!
That would be an open challenge to the authority of the police!
It was very possible that the other side was just trying to scare Zhang Songyang.
But hadn’t the other side considered that since Zhang Songyang was at the police station, whatever texts he sent would definitely be seen by the police?
At the end of the day, this Jiang Chuan simply didn’t take the police seriously!
Zhang Songyang was crying like a mess, tears and snot streaming down his face. “He will! He definitely will! It’s over—he’s definitely sent a hitman to kill me! Officer, please save me! I’m begging you, you have to save me…”
“Chief, what do we do now? Should we notify the special tactics unit and go after this Jiang Chuan?” Liu Changshan asked sternly.
Zhou Ran stood there, thinking for a moment. “Not yet. We still can’t confirm whether this Jiang Chuan actually is a big shot from some underground organization.”
Based on just one text message, they really couldn’t determine the other party’s identity. They needed to make him slip up more.
At the very least, they needed to hear him admit it, or obtain some key evidence, before they could notify the special tactics unit to make the arrest. Otherwise, if it turned out to be a false alarm, that would be a major incident.
“Ask him directly—who exactly he is.” Zhou Ran made the decision decisively.
He hadn’t planned on asking so directly before, afraid it might put Jiang Chuan on guard. But now, since they couldn’t pin down his identity, they had no way to make an arrest anyway.
Zhang Songyang nodded blankly. “I—I understand. I—I’ll send it right now, right now…”
