Chapter 470

Siqin Gaowa is truly worthy of being a child of military personnel raised on the great grasslands; when it comes to drinking, neither Wei Ming nor Tang Guoqiang is a match for her, and she has a bit of that "Tiger Girl" style.

She was born in '50, so Tang Guoqiang has to call her "Sister." Looking at these two fair and tender "younger brothers," this sister is in a great mood, but as soon as she takes the script, she begins to frown.

"I can't understand it."

"It doesn't matter if you can't understand it; I can explain it."

Siqin Gaowa waves her hand: "Let's just forget it. The director and the crew are all from Hong Kong, right? The actors I'd be acting against also speak Cantonese, right? I wouldn't even be able to communicate with them. How could I have any feeling for the role while filming?"

I didn't expect her to refuse; she was afraid of the trouble.

Tang Guoqiang sips some Maotai and laughs: "Are you afraid that if you go to Guangdong to film, the time will be too long and Old Ao won't be happy?"

"I'm afraid he won't be happy?" Siqin Gaowa suddenly raises her volume, then lowers her voice, "I'm afraid my daughter will miss me too much."

Wei Ming feels this is just an excuse; she has had to leave home for months at a time to film before, as that is the nature of the work.

"Big Sister Siqin, are you aware of the last film from Ms. Xia Meng's company, *Boat People*?"

Siqin Gaowa shakes her head while shelling edamame.

Wei Ming: "I went to Hong Kong a few days ago to present an award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. That film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and many other major awards; it was the undisputed big winner. That is the characteristic of Blue Bird Company's works—they have a relatively deep humanistic concern. In a place like Hong Kong, where commercial films are rampant, it's very easy to win awards. The Hong Kong Film Awards are currently the most authoritative awards in Hong Kong. If you could take home Best Actress..."

Wei Ming pauses, and Tang Guoqiang immediately slaps his thigh in support: "That would be incredible! What 'South Gong Xue, North Zhu Lin,' and there's also Liu Xiaoqing, Li Xiuming..."

Wei Ming and Siqin Gaowa look at Tang Guoqiang at the same time—go on, keep talking.

Tang Guoqiang realizes he has made a slip of the tongue. It's one thing for him to talk about Liu Xiaoqing and Li Xiuming, as they are all good friends, but he isn't that familiar with Gong Xue and Zhu Lin. Moreover, there is a rumor that Wei Ming and Gong Xue are lovers, and another that he and Zhu Lin are the ones.

Tang Guoqiang immediately downs a cup in one gulp, acting as if he hadn't said anything just now.

After finishing the cup, he goes to grab the bottle, only to find it empty. He didn't expect Wei Ming to pull a bottle of Rémy Martin out of his bag.

"Try this foreign liquor; I brought it back from Hong Kong. There's a saying in the ad: 'Once a Rémy Martin is opened, good things naturally follow.'"

Tang Guoqiang adds: "Hong Kong is a good place. Big Sister Siqin, if you film this movie, it certainly won't be difficult if you want to go to Hong Kong."

After drinking for an hour and chatting for an hour, Wei Ming finally helps Tang Guoqiang leave Siqin Gaowa's home. In the middle of it, her daughter returned from school.

Hearing that the guest was Teacher Wei Ming, she even had him sign two autographs: one for "Wei Something" from *The Lion King*, and one for Wei Ming from *Fierce Animals*.

After leaving the August First Film Studio residential compound, Wei Ming immediately sends a telegram to Xia Meng in Hong Kong: "She is interested, but please send the Mandarin script as soon as possible."

Siqin Gaowa has relented. She thinks the story Wei Ming told is good, but everyone knows the great writer Wei has first-class literary talent and is better at telling stories than many directors. Who knows what the actual script is like? So she needs to understand the script herself before making a decision.

Afterward, Wei Ming rides his motorcycle to the *Sihe Academy* in Nanluoguxiang. He looks at the courtyard wall; most of the wall is actually one side of a pitched-roof house, which is extremely high and offers no foothold. Unless it's a flying thief who knows *qinggong*, it's very difficult to enter the courtyard.

Only a small section is a pure wall surface, but it is also four meters high, and Wei Ming had it heightened back then.

Therefore, the difficulty of entering from the courtyard wall is very high; it's more realistic to slip in through the door or pick the lock.

Wei Ming turns back to the main entrance.

Although the door is a wooden door, it is quite sturdy and was replaced during the renovation, so he can only start with the lock.

The lock on this door is an all-steel German brand lock that Wei Ming bought from the Friendship Store. He bought it himself and didn't let anyone else handle it.

Wei Ming specifically had Brother Feng test it; he can easily open ordinary locks, supposedly having learned from an old senior in the military who possessed superb skills, but he poked at this lock for a long time and couldn't open it.

It's a pity that Wei Ming only replaced the locks with this type for Beichizi and this courtyard at the time. After buying the courtyard in Houhai, he didn't even change the locks, thinking he would change them when he renovated. By then, there would certainly be even more powerful new types of locks.

Of course, no matter how powerful a lock is, if someone uses brute force to tear it down, it could probably be opened.

However, if there is someone at home and they lock it from the inside, the safety factor can be increased a bit.

Wei Ming opens the door and goes in. The design behind the door was also done well; as long as the door is locked from the inside after returning home, it is almost impossible to get in unless the door is smashed open with brute force.

Even so, Wei Ming is still worried. He looks at the outer courtyard; it would be great if there were a female guard, but unfortunately, that's not popular now. It's not just about having money; there are many things to be concerned about.

When he leaves Nanluoguxiang, the sun has risen above Wei Ming's head. He only sees the street lamp poles when he walks onto the main street.

Looking at the sun and the street lamps, Wei Ming suddenly has an idea. He knows how to reduce the probability of this courtyard being targeted by burglars!

Generally, this kind of home invasion usually happens at night, especially in the second half of the night, because thieves cannot stand the light. During the day, the flow of people is large, and there are people everywhere, making it inconvenient to take action, and even if they do, it's hard to run away.

Since they cannot stand the light, what if the entrance is bright? Even in the middle of the night, when they want to break in, seeing so many lights, they would probably have a guilty conscience and wouldn't be able to focus on breaking the door, right?

Thinking of this, Wei Ming has an idea. He prepares to discuss it with Lao Lao Lao Wei; this matter needs to be coordinated with the neighborhood committee, and he has to be the one to step forward.

Returning home, his parents are not there. Wei Ming first takes out a notebook and writes for a while on that Hong Kong film script.

By five o'clock in the afternoon, his mother returns with a vegetable basket. She is cooking when, unexpectedly, Lao Lao Lao Wei also returns with a vegetable basket.

Xu Shufen is puzzled: "Why did you buy vegetables too?"

"I didn't buy them; someone gave them to me," Lao Lao Lao Wei says proudly. Wei Ming also comes out and hears him say, "I ran into Brother Old Bu. He bought a *Sihe Academy* over in Dashilan and comes to live there occasionally. He also sells greenhouse vegetables in the city. I told him about the *Sihe Academy* being robbed and reminded him to change to a good lock. He insisted on giving them to me to show his gratitude."

For the past two years, their family's vegetables, besides those sent from their hometown, have been bought from the Sijiqing Commune, mainly from Bu Dachun. They are all very familiar with each other.

"Uncle Old Bu finally listened to his son and bought a *Sihe Academy* in the city," Wei Ming laughs and asks, "Did he say anything about letting you sell him the motorcycle?"

The motorcycle Lao Lao Lao Wei is riding now is the one Wei Ming had before, which was bought from Bu Dachun.

"He didn't say that, but he said he plans to buy a car in the future. He also said his son has earned a lot of dollars in the United States. Pfft, showing off to me—can his son compare to my son?" Lao Lao Lao Wei's expression is radiant; when it comes to comparing sons, he has never lost.

Xu Shufen smiles and reminds him: "Stop showing off. Did you forget you have something to tell your son?"

"Oh, right, right, right," Lao Lao Lao Wei says, "I almost forgot the main thing. The bicycle has been found; I put it in Beichizi. That thief has also been caught."

"So fast?!" Wei Ming is surprised. In this day and age, without a surveillance system and networked identities, the case-solving rate is far too low.

Lao Lao Lao Wei laughs: "It was a coincidence. That person had actually been caught long ago, but the car hadn't found its owner. As soon as I reported it to the police, I got the car back."

So that's how it was.

Lao Lao Lao Wei adds: "Later, I have to reinforce that courtyard in Beichizi. I'll let Ginkgo go out and get a dog—bring back two puppies. There are too many valuable things there; the security level needs to be raised. Not to mention my old antiques, there's also a large color TV in the room."

"These thieves even steal TVs?"

"Hey, why wouldn't they? That grandson of a thief who stole your bike—stealing bikes, stealing TVs, stealing tires, stealing wheels, and even stealing from factory warehouses—stole thousands in supplies. The police officer, that Little Yang, said he'll at least be sentenced to several years."

Wei Ming feels it might be more than several years. The "Strike Hard" campaign is about to arrive. He was just caught, and there is still some time before sentencing; he might just happen to be caught as an example. Maybe it'll be more than ten years, and then he'll be sent to Shihezi.

"Little Yang also said there's a high probability he'll be sent to Shihezi Prison," Lao Lao Lao Wei shakes his head, "It's just a pity for his mother, wife, and children at home. I heard they are twins—twins, how great! It's a pity they ended up with such a father."

Long Fengtai?

Wei Ming's heart suddenly skips a beat, thinking it can't be such a coincidence.

"Dad, how old is this thief?"

"Just over twenty. He got married the year before last and had children just last year. By the time he gets out, the children probably won't even recognize him." Lao Lao Lao Wei really inquired clearly.

Wei Ming: Holy crap, the age matches too!

"Where is he from? A local from Yanjing?"

"Yeah, from the Shijingshan area. Both he and his wife are employees of the Shijingshan First Electric Carbon Factory."

Wei Ming's mouth opens slightly; the workplace matches too!

Since Lao Lao Lao Wei inquired so clearly, even knowing the workplace, Wei Ming can't help but ask: "Do you know that person's name too?"

"Oh, I can't say that. Little Yang said he's already made a mistake by saying so much, telling me not to blab it out."

"You've already blabbed so much, what's the difference?" Wei Ming adds, "I know a reader from the Electric Carbon Factory whose situation is similar. I'll see if it's him."

"Ah, that can't be. That person's name is Bai Baoshan. Is he really your reader?"

"Oh, Bai Baoshan, that's not him. My reader's name is Zhang Wei. You scared me." Wei Ming pats his chest; in reality, he was really scared.

Bai Baoshan—he never expected it. In the future, he would be listed as the "No. 1 Criminal Investigation Case in China in 1997" and the "No. 3 Criminal Investigation Case in the World." It took tens of thousands of police officers mobilized by the Chinese public security to catch him. A super-murderous thug who robbed over a million in cash and killed 15 police officers and civilians—he was actually the thief who stole his bike!

Then his judgment wasn't wrong; he was eventually sentenced to 14 years and sent to Shihezi Prison, later being released after a one-year sentence reduction.

Wei Ming is too familiar with this person, so when he mentioned twins, he realized something was wrong.

This is not only because he has watched *The No. 1 Criminal Investigation Case in China*, but also because he later wanted to film a version of the Bai Baoshan case from the police perspective. He consulted a large amount of information and visited many involved parties, but it happened to coincide with the introduction of new regulations for TV dramas, which didn't allow this type of film to be shown during prime time.

So Wei Ming knows that Bai Baoshan already had anti-social thoughts during his first sentencing.

Although he didn't immediately turn evil after coming out, even saying, "If I can live a normal life, I won't commit crimes anymore; if I can't, I'll rob,"

later, because he was made difficult when trying to get his household registration and found it hard to reintegrate into society, his wife divorced him, and his children didn't recognize him, so he embarked on the path of no return of killing, stealing guns, and robbing.

But Wei Ming feels that even if he hadn't been made difficult, even if he had been accepted by society, as long as he didn't earn enough money to live a life of great wealth, he would still have embarked on that path.

After all, he had already cunningly killed and buried two cellmates while serving his sentence, not only not being discovered but also getting a one-year sentence reduction.

How could such a person be a peaceful citizen after coming out?

"Dad, that person doesn't know he stole Zhu Lin's bike, right?" Wei Ming suddenly asks.

"He definitely doesn't know that. But those police officers basically all know; many of them are her fans, so they were very proactive in handling the case. They let me push the car back today, otherwise, I'd still be waiting."

Wei Ming frowns slightly, thinking that the police officer was so loose-lipped that he told his father everything. It's possible, it's possible that Bai Baoshan knows about this connection.