Chapter 1: The Black Car

  Liu Handong became a black taxi driver after retiring from the army. He drove a 1996 Passat that had been scrapped, with a gearbox that was worn out, an engine that had been overhauled several times, and gears that were difficult to shift. The windshield had a row of faded annual inspection stickers and compulsory insurance stickers, and the suspension was adjusted very high, making it convenient to drive on the rough roads in the urban-rural fringe areas.

  On the last day of August, which was also Liu Handong's seventh day driving a black cab, after dinner he pulled over to the side of the road near the South Suburbs Long-distance Bus Station and dozed off. Other black cabs waited at the exit to actively solicit business, but Liu Handong drove solely based on his mood; this moment he was a bit sleepy and didn't feel like joining in the bustle.

  Liu Handong was in a daze when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the car roof. He looked up to see a middle-aged man of about 40 years old, with yellow teeth stained from smoking, leaning against the window and saying to him: "Driver, are you going or not?"

  "Where are you going?" Liu Handong asked with some displeasure.

  "Onsen Town." said Da Huang Ya with a big smile.

  "One hundred yuan." Liu Handong opened his mouth wide, the hot spring town is only ten kilometers away from here, but it's undergoing road widening and intersection overpass projects, making the road very difficult to navigate.

  "Cheaper." Da Huangya pulled out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Liu Handong, 45 yuan per box of Su cigarettes. Liu Handong took it, sniffed it under his nose, and put it behind his ear, saying: "This is already the lowest price."

  "Alright, I should introduce you to this friend of mine." Da Huang Ya turned around and waved his hand. Liu Han Dong also turned around and saw a black Honda CR-V parked across the street. The driver was a tall and thin man with most of his face covered by sunglasses, but he could vaguely see the scar on the side of his cheek.

  A sturdy young man came down from the front passenger seat and pulled out a huge red and blue striped woven bag from the back of the CR-V, carrying it with both hands as he walked over.

  Liu Handong got out of the car and opened the trunk lid of the Passat, casually asking: "You have a car, why didn't you go?"

  "I'm driving a car borrowed from our unit's leader, I don't dare drive on rough roads." Da Huang Ya explained.

  The woven bag was put into the trunk of the Passat, Liu Handong got in and started the car, Da Huangya sat in the front passenger seat, and the young man with the bag got into the back seat. The Passat sputtered for a while before finally starting up. Da Huangya laughed and said, "This car still has four forward gears, it's probably using a carburetor, right?" Liu Handong said, "A Santana that can't be opened is not bad, a Cherokee that can't be repaired is not good. Don't look at the age of the car, at critical moments it won't let you down. There are several slopes in Wenquan Town, my Passat can climb up, but your Hanlanda may not necessarily be able to."

  The two of them laughed, and Liu Handong glanced in the rearview mirror. The Accord on the side of the road gradually disappeared into the distance. The man in his late 20s in the back seat had a tattoo on his arm and was smiling somewhat absent-mindedly.

  After a while, Da Huangya yawned and casually asked how much money you can make by driving a black car for a month. Liu Handong didn't respond because he felt a slight tremor in the trunk, not caused by the goods shifting due to bumps, but by living things twisting and struggling.

  Liu Handong shifted into neutral and slowed down to prepare for a stop by the side of the road, asking: "What kind of goods are you hauling?"

  The man on the back seat suddenly stretched out his hands, which had been prepared with a thin rope, and strangled Liu Handong's neck violently. Liu Handong's eyes bulged out, and he slammed on the brakes, causing the car to screech to a halt. The pressure on his neck was suddenly relieved, and as soon as he caught his breath, the yellow-toothed man next to him pulled out a dagger and stabbed it over.

  Liu Handong blocked the dagger and still managed to shift gears, his foot on the accelerator and clutch pressing down and releasing in a rhythmic motion. The normally sluggish and slow-starting Santana suddenly showed its face and sped away with a screech.

  The noose around his neck tightened again, but this time Liu Handong tensed the muscles in his neck, leaned forward with all his might, and rapidly shifted gears to accelerate. One foot on the floorboard oil, the Passat shot forward like an arrow leaving a bowstring, speeding down the deserted night road. While driving, he also had to counter the strangulation from behind and the stabbing from the right side. His arm was covered in blood, his fingers were cut in multiple places, the noose around his neck was getting tighter and tighter, and his eyes were about to lose consciousness. Liu Handong suddenly turned the steering wheel sharply, and the car crashed towards the roadside.

  Pu San's head hit the precast concrete slab used for the overpass, and under the high-speed impact, the big yellow tooth on the passenger seat was knocked unconscious with blood all over his face. The dagger fell out of his hand, and the guy in the backseat flew out, smashing through the windshield, landing on a pile of precast slabs, with steel bars piercing his face, blood flowing onto the slab, and his two legs twitching.

  Liu Handong fastened his seatbelt and was fine, but he was also shaken up. The car didn't have an airbag, the door was deformed, and the seatbelt couldn't be opened. He picked up a dagger to cut off the seatbelt, crawled out of the window, took out his phone to call for help, but his Nokia 1110 had no battery. He went around to search the middle-aged man's body, found a phone, pressed it, and was asked to enter the boot password. Infuriated, he threw away the phone and went to flip over the guy on the prefabricated board, only to find that an Apple phone had been smashed into pieces.

  Try that guy's breath, and there is air. Liu Handong didn't care about him for the time being, limping to the back of the car, opening the trunk to look at the woven bag. The bag was no longer moving. Liu Handong unzipped it, and inside was a curled up little girl, in her early teens, with white T-shirt and jeans covered in dust, with tape on her mouth, hands and feet tied tightly with nylon rope, long eyelashes trembling, a pair of terrified big eyes staring at Liu Handong, under the illumination of the construction site's mercury lamp, you could vaguely see the blue blood vessels under her pale skin.

  Liu Handong ripped off the tape and cut open the ropes on the little girl's hands and feet with a dagger, saying: "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad guy."

  Suddenly, two dazzling beams of light shot over, the rumbling sound of the engine grew louder and closer, it was a dump truck carrying soil. Liu Handong hurriedly waved his hand to stop the truck, but the dump truck didn't pay any attention to him. Although it clearly saw that an accident had occurred, it didn't even step on the brakes, brushing past Liu Handong's body with a whoosh, and the dust it raised made him feel like spitting out dirt from his mouth.

  Damn it, no morals at all! Liu Handong cursed and turned back to look, but there was no sign of the little girl in the car, only an empty colorful woven bag. He looked around and shouted twice, but nobody responded. This section of road was under construction, the streetlights were not lit, and it was pitch black. It was also a rural-urban fringe area, with bushes, crops, and trees that could easily hide people. Most likely, this little girl had taken herself to be part of the hijacking gang and hid, which made sense.

  Liu Handong was very depressed, unexpectedly getting into a car accident and kidnapping case. He thought he should hurry up and report to the police. Another dump truck happened to pass by, this time he learned his lesson, quickly ran forward and grabbed onto the reinforced ribs on the side of the dump truck's carriage, hitching a free ride for a while.

  Less than three kilometers away, a police patrol car with flashing lights came over, Liu Handong hurriedly jumped down and waved his hands to stop the police car, reporting that he had encountered a robbery case, two robbers were injured and lying in front. The police took it very seriously and let him get on the car to go check.

  Drive to the place where the car accident just happened, Pu San is still there, but the two hijackers are gone. The prefabricated board is clean and tidy, not a drop of blood. Facing the puzzled gaze of the traffic police, Liu Handong was also stunned.

  "Have you been drinking?" the traffic police officer asked.

  "Show me your driver's license and vehicle registration." another traffic police said.

  Liu Handong didn't have a driver's license, so he quickly came up with the excuse that his documents had been robbed by bandits. He pointed to his blood-soaked shirt and showed it to the traffic police, saying "I ran all this way to find you and report the crime, I'm not trying to cheat anyone." The traffic police didn't think he looked like a drunk driver, and there was a first-aid kit in the car, so they hastily bandaged him up. Then they said "This case belongs to the public security department, we'll take you to the police station."

  The nearest is the Wenquan Town Police Station, which was still lit at 9:30 in the evening. The blue and white sign above the gate read "Wenquan Town Police Station of Jinjiang City's Yunshan District". The traffic police stopped the car without even turning off the engine, and took Liu Handong into the duty room to report the case.

  Liu Handong first handed over the murder weapon - a bloody dagger, and then spoke incoherently for a while. The two police officers on duty were confused and took out a piece of paper, saying impatiently: "Think clearly first, write down what happened."

  The traffic police and the community police were all familiar with each other, and after chatting for a couple of sentences, they were about to leave when Liu Handong, holding a pen and scratching his ear, hadn't written a single word yet. Suddenly, there was a loud noise at the door, and a black Highlander stopped in front of it. A tall man got out of the car, wearing a Dream T-shirt with sunglasses hanging from the collar, dark blue pants, and carrying a handbag. On his waistband buckle was a silver police badge, and more importantly, there was a scar on his face.

  Liu Handong recognized the man, stopped writing in shock, and slowly stood up. The man also recognized Liu Handong and immediately pointed at him, shouting loudly: "It's him, catch him!"

  The police had not yet reacted, and Liu Handong grabbed a chair and threw it over, taking advantage of the opponent's dodge to rush past, rushing to the door without looking back. The road was crowded with cars, nowhere to escape, Liu Handong didn't have time to think much, opened the car door and got into the traffic police's Santana, turned the key to start, shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator, violently turning the steering wheel. The car made a strange cry, the tires emitted a burst of blue smoke, and the police car shot out of the parking lot like a runaway horse.

  The traffic police and the community police officers rushed to get in their cars and chase after him, sounding their sirens as they pursued him relentlessly. Liu Handong looked at the flashing police lights in his rearview mirror and also turned on the police lights of his own car. Two police cars plus a Highlander sped down the highway at night, their sirens wailing nonstop. Other vehicles on the road thought it was a police operation and hastily gave way, which ironically made it easier for Liu Handong to escape.

  The traffic police Santana was 2.0 displacement, gearshift clear, car condition very good, compared to Liu Handong's black car strong out of unknown times, quickly speed up to one hundred and sixty, but rearview mirror chasing soldiers still tight grip not put, front but have jam, more than a dozen dump trucks blocked the way. Liu Handong gritted his teeth, single-handedly slammed the steering wheel, while suddenly lifting the handbrake, a burst of burnt smell wafted out, police car came a one hundred and eighty degree drift.

  Liu Handong released the handbrake, stepped on the accelerator, stared at the police car in front of him, suddenly shifted gears and charged forward. The opposing vehicle hastily made way, the two cars brushed past each other, knocking off both left rearview mirrors. However, the Hanlanda that followed closely behind did not yield, flashing its headlights as it crashed head-on.

  Damn it, I've met a tough opponent! Liu Handong saw that his plan was not working, so he turned the steering wheel and drove off the road, heading towards the distant railway where a long coal train was speeding by.

  The police car was racing towards the crossing, Liu Handong gritted his teeth and stepped on the accelerator, staring at the huge train head getting closer and closer, he could even feel the momentum of the crash, if they collided, Santana would definitely be smashed to pieces!

  Liu Handong suddenly downshifted and accelerated, the Santana roared as it smashed through the thin roadblock bar and flew over the crossing. Almost at the same instant, the train whizzed past the crossing, its air wave pressing in on people. The police car chasing behind was forced to stop, and the policeman got out of the car, throwing his hat off and jumping up and down like thunder.

  The train was very long, with as many as seventy cars, and the iron rails and wheels crashing against each other made a deafening noise. Finally, everything quieted down, and the train slowly disappeared into the distance. At the crossing, on the opposite side of the road, a Santana police car stood still, its warning lights still flashing, but it was empty, with no one inside.