Chapter 44: He Says His Skin Is Itchy
“Squad Leader, Squad Leader, what’s wrong with you?”
A constable slumped on the ground, holding the fainted Chen Ban Tou and wailing loudly. Blood-drenched and flesh-smashed—this was still the mighty and domineering Chen Ban Tou in his mind?
He looked up, eyes bloodshot, and roared: “What have you done!”
To the arriving constables, the scene before them was like the sky collapsing. This Lin guy was truly lawless, utterly lawless.
Yang Ming stood stunned at the prison door, mouth slightly open, staring foolishly.
He heard the commotion and came out to check. This glance directly stunned him. He saw Brother Lin wildly swinging the whip, lashing Chen Ban Tou who was hugging his head and scurrying like a rat. It was truly ruthless, leaving no face at all.
At this time, Song Qing arrived. Seeing so many constables gathered here, he was startled and hurriedly pushed through the crowd. What he saw was Chen Ban Tou’s utterly miserable appearance, and Lin Fan holding the bloodied whip.
No need to think—he knew what had happened.
He just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
“What’s going on?” Song Ban Tou asked.
“What’s going on? Ask him!”
Chen Ban Tou’s confidant was like a crazed lioness, heartbroken for the squad leader, sympathetic to the squad leader, gripping the squad leader’s hand tightly.
Lin Fan said: “Squad Leader, here’s what happened. Early in the morning, I was interrogating a prisoner in the prison. Just as I came out, I saw Chen Ban Tou hurrying over. He said his skin was itchy and asked me to whip him. Then he stuck himself to the corner. That’s how it happened.”
“You’re full of crap.” Chen Ban Tou’s confidant roared.
Lin Fan shrugged indifferently. It was up to them whether they believed this situation or not.
Song Qing coughed lightly a few times and said: “Alright, what he said should be the truth. My subordinate has a bit of a fiery temper, but he’s sincere and never bothers with lies. It’s just strange—when did Chen Ban Tou pick up such a peculiar fetish? Truly strange.”
“You’re also full of crap.” Chen Ban Tou’s confidant roared again.
“Insolent!”
Song Ban Tou angrily rebuked. An official constable daring to tell him, a squad leader, to be insolent—it was simply looking down on him, outrageously bold.
This confidant lowered his head and shouted to the surrounding people: “What are you all standing around for? Stretcher, where’s the stretcher?”
They all followed Chen Ban Tou.
Now that the squad leader was humiliated and beaten, they wanted to stand up for him, but they knew this Lin guy was very frightening and definitely not someone they could beat. They could only wait for the squad leader to wake up.
“Coming, the stretcher is here.”
Four constables hurriedly carried the stretcher over, carefully placing the squad leader on it, then quickly rushing toward the medical hall with it.
Rip!
The stretcher couldn’t bear Chen Ban Tou’s weight and broke directly. With a bang, Chen Ban Tou fell to the ground.
“Ah… Squad Leader.”
The constables shouted heart-wrenchingly.
Moments later.
It quieted down.
Song Ban Tou shook his head. “Lin Fan, doing this means you’ve completely torn face with Chen Ban Tou from now on.”
“We’ve already torn face.” Lin Fan said cheerfully. He didn’t take Chen Xingzhi seriously. The other’s only advantage to challenge him was his status. “Squad Leader, with my current merit, I should be able to promote from commoner to official constable, right?”
“Mm, no problem. Promoting from commoner constable to official constable just requires some merit. I’ll write a recommendation letter and submit it to the clerk. No big issue.” Song Ban Tou said.
Yang Ming was very envious.
Although he was already an official constable.
But it had taken a long time, mainly because merit was insufficient, and the clerk wasn’t easy to deal with. Chen Ban Tou had been secretly tripping him up. If not for the merit gained recently with Brother Lin’s help, the promotion path wouldn’t have been so smooth.
Lin Fan looked at the squad leader and Yang Ming.
Their faction had too few people—useless ones at that.
Chen Ban Tou’s side, on the other hand, had numerous constables, basically all following him.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Squad Leader.” Lin Fan said.
Song Ban Tou nodded, saying nothing more.
At this time, Lin Fan took Yang Ming and left the Public Security Bureau. They first went to the wharf, gathered the brothers, and continued patrolling and sweeping the city. Thieves and petty crooks met the most terrifying nemesis of their lives.
The purpose of doing this was to boost prestige and leave a good impression in the common people’s hearts.
The things done during this time had indeed given the common people a good impression of him, but it was far from enough. He wanted all the common people in the city to hear his name, Lin Fan.
And immediately give a thumbs up, saying top-notch.
……
Tavern.
The once booming tavern was now very quiet. Inside, the tavern shopkeeper sat there listlessly, gazing blankly at his surroundings, thinking life would gradually improve.
But who could have thought such a thing would happen.
The neighbors all knew Old Wang at the tavern was in trouble, but they were all ordinary common people with no ability to help, so they could only come to offer a few words of comfort.
“Old Wang, we can’t fight them. Once little Hao is released, just live a good life again. Don’t think about those unrealistic things.”
“Dog officials, all dog officials, beasts, a bunch of beasts!”
The neighbors were furious, but soon their fury stopped abruptly because they saw someone standing at the door—it was a constable. This made those who had just been full of resentment lower their heads one after another, not daring to make eye contact.
Afraid of being overheard and getting beaten up.
Whether commoner constable or official constable, in the eyes of ordinary common people, they were existences not to be provoked. They had knives and power— a few words could destroy families, and praying to Buddha or ancestors wouldn’t help.
Xu Ming walked into the tavern.
Old Wang, who had been listless with head down, suddenly looked up, rushed to Xu Ming, and pleaded: “Constable sir, I’ve already given the recipe. When will you release my son? I’m not making trouble anymore. I’ve given it, given everything. I just want my son back.”
The recipe was his life’s work.
Being openly robbed, he naturally had to resist, but the opponent’s methods were too ruthless. He couldn’t withstand it. Grabbing his son was like pinching his vital point.
Xu Ming looked at Old Wang before him, then at the group of common people with heads down. Though they had their heads lowered, he could feel the disdain and scorn in their eyes.
He hadn’t handled the tavern matter.
Nor had he taken it over.
When he first joined the Public Security Bureau, he was full of struggle too, but the people he arrested were released not long after, even flipping him the bird right in his face to mock him.
On the way home at night, he was even ambushed and attacked.
Beaten black and blue.
Gradually, he gave in. That boiling hot heart slowly extinguished, and he went with the flow.
Xu Ming said in a low voice: “Shopkeeper, there’s a change in the matter. The higher-ups want to add charges to your son because he bit Young Master Hu. I can’t decide this.”
“Ah…”
The shopkeeper collapsed to the ground upon hearing this, nearly fainting. Fortunately, Xu Ming held him up.
The comforting common people clenched their fists tightly, wishing they could beat this constable to death on the spot.
“Constable sir, help me out, please help! I’ll sell everything I have. I’ll thank you properly.” The shopkeeper had only one son. Hearing about added charges, how could he sit still?
Xu Ming said: “I can’t help. I’m just here to remind you. If you really want to overturn the case, you only have one person to find.”
“Who? Who to find?”
“Lin Fan. Go find him, go shout your injustice to him. Might work.”
Xu Ming thought of what just happened. The guy even dared to beat Chen Ban Tou. What wouldn’t he dare?
After speaking, he turned and left, ignoring the shopkeeper’s bitter pleas.
The shopkeeper looked at everyone at a loss.
“Old Wang, this Lin Fan—I think I’ve heard of him. He’s been catching a lot of people lately. Others say he’s an upright blue-sky constable.”
“I say, the matter’s tricky. In my view, it’s just their uneven profit split causing struggle. No such thing as upright or blue-sky constable—it’s just struggle.”
“Old Wang might as well give it a try.”
“This Hu Family has background. They’re a prominent clan here. Can one constable handle it?”
“If he really gets justice for Old Wang, I’ll eat shit in public.”
