Proofreader: Sandra

Chapter 155

Time is an interesting thing. Before it arrives, it feels distant and almost unreachable; while you are experiencing it, you hardly notice its flow; but after it has passed, you suddenly realize it has vanished without a trace.

The story Wu Hongyou wrote happened twenty years ago in Nancheng.

Back then, Nancheng was far less developed than it is now. Even the main roads were narrow, about half the width they are today. There wasn’t as much greenery, and whenever a car drove by, it would kick up thick clouds of dust.

Nancheng had just gotten an airport, and the train station was only half its current size.

As the century turned, several lost territories were smoothly returned, the world didn’t end, and many people and events became history. Pirated video stores and video halls faded into memory, the real estate industry was just beginning to rise, and the internet emerged victorious over the Y2K bug, starting to show its potential.

Factories underwent several rounds of restructuring, causing a large number of workers to lose their jobs, followed by a massive influx of migrant workers into the cities to fill the employment gaps.

It was a time of both despair and hope.

People suddenly discovered more opportunities, and the wealth gap seemed less entrenched. If you had the guts and the brains, money would flow into your pockets. Numerous new industries were emerging, and countless people dreamed of getting rich overnight.

Long Jinrong was originally the son of a woolen mill worker. His mother died in childbirth, and he dropped out of high school, later taking up a security guard position at the mill with his father.

Due to the restructuring of the woolen mill, both father and son were sent home. The old man, feeling that he had worked hard all his life only to end up like this, fell seriously ill and became bedridden. Long Jinrong had to earn money for his father’s medical expenses, leaving no one to manage him at home.

Long Jinrong was naturally bold, loyal, and a dutiful son.

Growing up watching gangster movies, after losing his job, he started hanging out on the streets and actually managed to gather a group of followers who called him their leader. Among them, An Kui was the most loyal and became Long Jinrong’s best buddy.

Long Jinrong gradually became dissatisfied with just collecting protection fees and keeping an eye on places for people.

At the age of twenty-two, Long Jinrong’s boldness led him to seek bigger gains. He started leading people in highway robberies and even got involved in fights. Fortunately, the incidents weren’t too severe, and he was sentenced to two years in prison.

During those two years, Long Jinrong’s father was taken care of by An Kui.

In prison, Long Jinrong thrived and met a weapons smuggler named Wang Ge.

After Long Jinrong was released, he discovered that the rules in Nancheng had changed, and among his former subordinates, only An Kui still remembered him.

Long Jinrong found work as a security guard at a dance hall, which essentially meant he was a bouncer hired to deal with troublemakers.

It was during this time that Long Jinrong met Wu Hongyou. Initially, Long Jinrong didn’t earn much, and every payday he converted his wages into medical expenses for his father. He even stayed at Wu Hongyou’s place, relying on her support.

While working at the nightclub, Long Jinrong was known for his fighting skills. He initially clashed with a fellow security guard named Er’Zi, but they eventually became friends. Impressed by Long Jinrong’s prowess, Er’Zi accepted him as his leader.

Er’Zi was different from An Kui, who was all brute strength and stubbornness. Er’Zi was a quiet, good-looking man who knew when to advance and when to retreat.

The three men hit it off and considered becoming sworn brothers, with Long Jinrong as the eldest, Er’Zi as the second, and An Kui as the third.

Later, Long Jinrong offended a princeling who frequented the dance hall and was fired, leaving him without a source of income.

With his father gravely ill, Long Jinrong rallied his two brothers and decided to return to their old ways of making money through robbery.

At this time, Wang Ge had also been released from prison and provided Long Jinrong with a few good weapons on credit. Feeling invincible with their new gear, Long Jinrong targeted a gold shop for their first heist, and the three of them masked up and went in.

However, the timing was off, and the alarm went off quickly. They only managed to snatch a few chains.

Fortunately, they were masked and didn’t get caught by the police. Frustrated by the small haul, Long Jinrong and his brothers went drinking, trashed a small restaurant in anger, and then headed to an internet cafe to play games.

It was then that a mysterious man contacted Long Jinrong.

Twenty years ago, the internet and mobile phones were just becoming popular, and internet cafes were everywhere. The man initially communicated with Long Jinrong through online games.

This man called himself the Planner. He seemed to know Long Jinrong well, mentioning his name, identity, background, past actions, and even his time in prison and the recent failed gold shop robbery.

The man then proposed a deal: they would carry out another robbery with his detailed plan, and they would split the proceeds fifty-fifty.

Long Jinrong had some objections to the plan, feeling that he didn’t need the man’s help.

The man said to him, “You’ve already tried on your own and know the outcome. If you continue as you have been, you’ll either fail or end up back in prison. But I can help you get the money and walk away unscathed.”

At this point, Long Jinrong was intrigued but still suspicious, fearing that the man might be a police informant or someone setting him up.

The man then suggested a trial run, providing them with a small plan for free, without taking a share of the spoils.

This time, Long Jinrong was tempted.

The man instructed him to go to an alley in the west part of the city three days later, on the 30th of the month, at 5:30 PM, on a motorcycle. He was to ride from east to west, be prepared, and carry out the robbery.

Although Long Jinrong didn’t fully understand the reasoning, he followed the man’s instructions regarding the time, place, and preparations.

It was raining that day. Long Jinrong and Er’Zi shared a motorcycle, wearing helmets and dark green raincoats. In the narrow alley, they caught up with a plump man walking with an umbrella, dressed plainly. They quickly snatched a black briefcase from the man’s hand and fled the scene.

The entire robbery took less than half a minute.

Back at their place, Long Jinrong found fifty thousand yuan in cash inside the briefcase.

Later, Long Jinrong pieced together what had happened.

The plump man was the owner of a small private factory. The 30th of each month was payday at his factory. He always withdrew money from the bank and walked through the alley at 5:30 PM. The alley was usually deserted, with no surveillance cameras nearby.

The owner had been taking this route for over a year without any incidents. His sense of security was low, believing that no one knew about the money in his bag, and he took the shortcut every time with a false sense of safety.

Choosing a rainy day for the robbery was strategic. The man was holding an umbrella in one hand and the bag in the other, making it impossible for him to protect the bag during the robbery, and he couldn’t react quickly enough.

Although fifty thousand yuan was a month’s salary for his workers, it wasn’t enough to financially ruin the owner. He wouldn’t risk his life or pursue the robbers relentlessly over that amount.

Long Jinrong’s execution was swift, their attire was common, and the rain washed away any traces. There were no witnesses or physical evidence at the scene.

They had no connection to the owner, and it wasn’t their usual area of activity, making it impossible to trace the crime back to them.

The owner reported the robbery, but the police found no effective evidence. Their analysis suggested it was an inside job, but with limited leads, they couldn’t identify the culprits.

The cash was quickly converted and funneled into the black market.

Thus, the robbery case was left unresolved.

This heist could be considered a perfect crime.

With an easy gain of fifty thousand yuan, Long Jinrong indulged in a period of debauchery and paid for his father’s medical expenses. He accepted the man’s proposal and began working with him.

The second time, the man provided a plan to rob a watch store.

Twenty years ago, the prices of some branded watches had already started to soar. These were among the first luxury items to appear in the country. However, because watches weren’t as liquid as gold jewelry, watch stores didn’t have the same level of security or staffing as jewelry stores.

The man’s plan was extremely detailed, including which watch store to rob, the number of people needed, the preparations to be made, the required tools, the exact time of the robbery, the steps to follow, how to subdue the security guards and salespeople, cut the wires, which counter to target, the escape route, and even how to fence the stolen watches. He also included contingency plans for unexpected situations.

All the information was compiled into a password-protected letter and handed to Long Jinrong.

Having the experience from the first robbery, Long Jinrong was confident about this one.

At 1:30 PM, during the watch store’s weakest security period when the staff and guards were switching shifts for lunch, the three of them, armed with guns, raided the store. The entire robbery took only three minutes, and they made off with more than a dozen luxury watches.

The robbery went smoothly, and the backup plans were unnecessary. After selling the watches, Long Jinrong received over three hundred thousand yuan in cash, a substantial sum twenty years ago.

Following this, Long Jinrong obediently placed a bag of cash at the designated location as instructed by the man and developed deep respect for this so-called planner.

Subsequently, Long Jinrong and the man collaborated on several more robberies. As they became more proficient, they grew bolder. Later, during one robbery, Long Jinrong shot and killed a security guard, adding a murder charge to his record.

Their frequent crimes soon drew the attention of the police. Although the police hadn’t yet discovered Long Jinrong’s real name, they gave him the nickname “Black Shark” after he wore a black T-shirt with a shark pattern during one of the crimes.

The notorious Black Shark quickly became a wanted man, with the highest bounty in Nancheng’s history, fifty thousand yuan, placed on his head.

At that time, Long Jinrong was rapidly gaining wealth and enjoying a life of luxury. Embracing Wu Hongyou and leading not just his two brothers but also a growing group of followers, he became the most feared criminal in Nancheng.

After several successful heists and narrow escapes, Long Jinrong grew dissatisfied with small-time robberies. Fearing exposure due to the police’s pursuit, he told the planner that he wanted to go for one big score. If successful, they could split the money, he could retire from crime, and also set aside some funds for his father’s surgery.

Thus, the planner fulfilled his request and provided him with a plan to kidnap Nancheng’s richest man.

At that time, the wealthiest person in Nancheng was Ji Mingquan. His wife was Zhou Mengying, and they had two sons: the eldest, Ji Shifeng, and the youngest, Ji Siyu. This family was very low-key. Ji Mingquan owned several companies, and even the Nancheng Tower was primarily funded by him.

The plan was as detailed as usual, including how to coerce the Ji family’s driver, who transported the children to and from school, into kidnapping the kids, and how to abduct the Ji couple. It also covered where to place the hostages after the kidnapping.

Long Jinrong meticulously reviewed the entire plan and did a reconnaissance trip, finding no issues.

Before the plan was executed, the planner requested to meet the three participants in person to wish them success.

Long Jinrong arrived at the restaurant where he was supposed to meet the planner. The dishes started arriving one by one, and they were all expensive and hard-to-get delicacies.

The planner was nowhere to be seen, and the three got impatient and started eating on their own.

As the meal was about to end, Long Jinrong received a call from the planner, who explained that something had come up unexpectedly and he couldn’t make it. He said he would cover the bill as an apology.

At that time, Long Jinrong thought nothing of it, believing that the planner needed them to get the big money.

Then, suddenly, Long Jinrong’s father’s condition worsened, and he passed away.

After handling his father’s funeral, Long Jinrong began the kidnapping operation.

Following the planner’s instructions, they first kidnapped the Ji couple’s two sons after school, then killed the driver and abducted the Ji couple. To avoid any leaks, they also brutally murdered the Ji family’s nanny. For a while, the lives of Nancheng’s richest family were entirely in their hands.

After extracting the password to the Ji family’s safe, they retrieved 3.28 million yuan in cash.

This sum, even today, could purchase a property; back then, it was an enormous fortune, more than many people could earn in a lifetime.

At this point, Long Jinrong decided not to follow the planner’s subsequent steps. Instead, he chose to continue extorting the Ji couple and severed all contact with the planner.

After collaborating for so long, he had long wanted to break free from the planner’s control, planning to take a large sum of money and flee far away. Now, with his father gone, nothing could hold him back.

Thus, the kidnappers continuously tortured and interrogated the Ji couple in that dilapidated villa, trying to extract more money. However, the Ji couple remained silent, and they couldn’t get another word about any additional funds.

At this time, Wu Hongyou joined in, delivering meals to them under Long Jinrong’s instructions, acting as their link to the outside world.

Meanwhile, the police discovered the kidnapping and began a citywide search and rescue operation for the kidnappers.

Soon enough, the kidnappers noticed something wrong with their bodies.

They started experiencing diarrhea, itching all over, skin ulcers, and internal bleeding. It was only then that they realized they might have been poisoned by the planner right from the start. It was a slow-acting poison that took a few days to manifest.

They had thought they were the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind them.

During that farewell banquet, where the planner didn’t show up, the planner had already anticipated their intent to keep the money for themselves or perhaps was already guarding against them.

At this point, Long Jinrong learned that the planner had also contacted his two loyal subordinates, sowing discord among them and hinting that they should kill Long Jinrong and work directly with him.

Since the kidnapping had been orchestrated by the planner, he knew the details and the whereabouts of the kidnappers. He controlled their psychology, almost as if he could read minds, and calculated every step they would take.

Amidst money and life-and-death stakes, the relationship among the three kidnappers became extremely fragile. They started arguing, each harboring their own thoughts.

In the end, Er’Zi and An Kui decided to unite and take control of Long Jinrong. They wanted to seek help from the planner or even turn themselves in. Being mere accomplices, they would at most go to prison.

The irate Long Jinrong tore up the ransom note, cutting off all retreat, and shot An Kui during their attempt to subdue him. Er’Zi, knowing he couldn’t escape, released the Ji couple’s two children before he, too, was killed by Long Jinrong.

With bloodshot eyes, Long Jinrong found one of the children and shot him, then dragged all the bodies into the basement. By that time, he was succumbing to the poison and was too weak to search for the last child.

In his final moments, it was Wu Hongyou, who had come to deliver meals, who accompanied Long Jinrong through his last moments of life.

Long Jinrong never imagined that his end would come in a rundown countryside villa, dying amidst betrayal and torture, so miserably.

After his death, Wu Hongyou fled that blood-soaked hell in a panic.

Subsequently, the planner, like the Grim Reaper, visited the villa, took all the money, and carried away one of the children’s bodies.

A few days later, the police, acting on an anonymous tip, found only the scattered bodies of the kidnappers and victims. In a locked cabinet, they rescued the only surviving boy.

Wu Hongyou was initially not part of the planner’s scheme and did not attend the farewell banquet, so she avoided the poisoning and escaped a disaster.

This story reveals the true events behind the 519 case.

The special task force at the time spent a considerable amount of time investigating, gradually piecing together clues and reconstructing most of the story. However, due to the story’s bizarre nature, many critical elements remained missing.

The police concluded that someone had poisoned the kidnappers in advance and that this person likely took all the stolen money, possibly being the real mastermind.

After the 519 case, the police exhumed Long Jinrong’s father’s body and discovered that the old man had also been murdered.

In the police files, that mysterious man is referred to as “White Whale.”

Everyone and everything was manipulated by this mastermind.

However, because all the knowledgeable people were either dead or missing, the police had no concrete evidence of this man’s involvement in the crime. They also did not know his exact role or actions in the kidnapping.

They were even clueless about his name, appearance, or occupation. He remained a mysterious figure hidden in the shadows.

For over a decade, the police have been striving to uncover the full truth of the case.

Both the old and the newly reactivated special task force encountered various unexpected obstacles whenever they found new leads.

This case turned into a long-standing unsolved mystery.

Wu Hongyou’s notes meticulously documented Long Jinrong’s numerous crimes, all of which were orchestrated by the planner.

The once-feared notorious bandit was merely a pawn in someone else’s game and ultimately met a tragic end.

The story left behind by Wu Hongyou provided the final piece of the puzzle.

Through old police records and Wu Hongyou’s writings, Lu Siyu and Song Wen finally pieced together the entire story.

Lu Siyu now realized that his adversary was a crime expert, akin to the Grim Reaper.