Chapter 1151: Corpses and Life and Death

Corpses and Life and Death

Early in the morning, seagulls woke from their slumber, flying in flocks across the sky above the seaside.

Sometimes they would perch on the masts of ships, standing in rows on cables or ship rails, searching for food nearby.

Only tourists living in inland areas like these birds; for those living by the sea, seagulls aren't actually very likable.

They are like thieves, secretly stealing property from seaside residents, such as small items left on windowsills.

As long as you forget to close the window, the seagulls will run in and snatch things away.

They aren't necessarily wanting to eat them; more likely, it's just curiosity. Once the curiosity fades, they just toss them aside.

For these seagulls, it might just be a boring little thing, but for their owners, it could be something very important, holding significant meaning.

Also waking up as early as the seagulls were the workers at the docks. Under the protection of the Lans family, the wages and benefits of the workers at the docks were much better than before. More importantly, there were no disputes here.

Unlike before, when, perhaps under the guidance of the federal government, various ideological antagonisms always existed between different races, locals, and illegal immigrants.

Intense conflicts would break out from time to time, such as strikes, marches, and riots, making the living environment of the entire New Jincheng not necessarily very good.

But after the strong rise of the Lans family, these problems were gone, because everyone was a "partner" of the Lans family.

And the withdrawal of the union indeed brought everyone a very novel experience, making people realize that they didn't necessarily need a union, and that the union didn't necessarily provide them with high-value services.

It wasn't as good as the Lans family; at least they could provide labor protection supplies for free, which saved the workers a large sum of money.

A worker responsible for checking the nuts and bolts at the port carried a heavy cloth bag early in the morning, holding a huge wrench in his hand, and began to work.

His work was very simple: walk a circle along the segment he worked on. There were many ship bolts at the dock, and he needed to use the wrench in his hand to knock on these nuts and bolts to ensure they were all tightened.

Because of various reasons, sometimes some vibrations, or the ship ropes would generate a force during the process of being taken away, which might pull the nuts to rotate, thereby loosening the ship bolts.

Actually, even if they were loosened, it wouldn't cause too big a problem, but no problem was better than having a problem.

He knocked and tapped all the way, and suddenly found a large group of seagulls surrounding the beach not far away, and seagulls kept descending from the sky. He felt strange and walked toward that side.

As far as he knew, unless there was some food, seagulls wouldn't gather together like this.

When he began to approach that place, a not-so-good feeling surged in his heart. He was a bit scared, but still gathered his courage and walked over.

Every year, some corpses would drift over to the port side. They might be people who fell into the water by accident, or they might be suicides. Anyway, there would always be some.

He already had a certain resistance to corpses, but being so close, he was still a bit frightened.

When he vaguely saw the things surrounded by the seagulls, he couldn't help but scream.

The high-pitched sound he possessed, which he had never imagined, penetrated the sky above the dock. Not long after, the police cars with sirens came here.

The police pulled up a cordon, constantly driving away the curious seagulls nearby.

Deputy Director Du Ke's police car soon stopped on the road by the sea. He walked over from a distance with a cigarette in his mouth. The police officer responsible for maintaining order immediately pulled up the cordon, allowing him to drill in from the outside without bending over.

Deputy Director Du Ke glanced at the reporters surrounding the seaside and felt a bit of a headache. "You guys arrived later than them?"

The deputy sheriff responsible for criminal cases in the city police station scratched his head. "Someone called the reporters. You know, once one person knows, many people will know."

In the federation, even an ordinary person who hasn't been to school much knows the importance of news, and also knows that news can be sold for money.

When someone knew that a corpse was found here, and it looked like a corpse executed by a gang, some people reported it to the police, but some people also called the newspaper reporters—

Almost every newspaper's middle pages, as well as the back of some heavyweight columns, would have a phone number for "paid news collection."

For local reporters, the news they obtained could not only be used by themselves, but also sold to peers.

In the federation, there are many "news companies." They have a large number of reporters collecting some news in various parts of the federation, then sending it to the headquarters, and then the headquarters sells it to some newspapers and magazines.

Cities like New Jincheng or Valley City have news every day, which is okay, but some cities are relatively dull, and there isn't much news happening every day. They can't just stop publishing newspapers because of this.

Or every time they read a newspaper, it depends on the day's news.

If there is a lot of news, more newspapers are printed.

If there is little news, fewer newspapers are printed.

This is obviously unreasonable, as it would only make the publication cycle go from daily, to half-weekly, to weekly, and then bi-weekly or even monthly, which is not suitable for newspaper offices and magazine publishers.

The purpose of capital investment is to make money, not to do charity. If you can print newspapers every day, why save them for weekly?

In order to make readers feel that the content of the newspaper is sufficient and they can like reading it, these newspaper offices will purchase a series of news from these large news companies. They generally sign long-term contracts.

This way, they don't need to send more reporters to other places to collect news, just need to typeset and print the news faxed by the news company every day, even the writing is saved.

News like today's, if someone writes it out one step ahead and matches it with photos, it can often be sold for a high price of twenty or thirty dollars.

For this, they are also willing to spend five or ten dollars to get the latest news.

Director Du Ke cursed a few times. These guys like wild dogs always add trouble to the police station's work. He said to the sheriff, "You go and warn them. Before the case is investigated clearly, they are not allowed to publish in the newspaper, otherwise we reserve the responsibility to pursue them for leaking case clues!"

This is also one of the few ways for the police, but it doesn't work very well, because some big newspapers will still publish it. Compared to the influence and economic growth brought by readers' attention, the police station's warning is not taken to heart at all.

The sheriff nodded. He hesitated for a moment. "You'd better go in and take a look first."

Director Du Ke glanced at him, realizing that this might not be an ordinary case, and walked deeper.

In order to avoid being photographed by the surrounding reporters, and to prevent more people from seeing it, they got some canvas from the dock and isolated the place where the corpse was found. From the outside, you couldn't see the situation inside at all.

The moment Director Du Ke came in from the outside, he was stunned when he saw the corpse, and then cursed a "motherfucker," saying he wanted to turn and leave.

But in the end, he turned his head back.

The corpse's hands were behind his back, and something like a spear pierced through his body from behind, pinning him to the beach. He lowered his head, and the blood spat out from his mouth and nose had already turned dark red, clearly oxidized for a period of time.

The forensic doctor responsible for the autopsy on the side didn't do much, he introduced it to Deputy Director Du Ke.

"His left hand is holding his tongue, his right hand is clutching his own heart, his face was peeled off and stuffed into his mouth."

"Then this long spear pierced through his body from behind, and look at his chest and stomach, the words 'thief,' 'liar,' 'traitor' are written on them."

"Undoubtedly, a very typical ritualistic execution."

"He was very likely a gang member before he died, but because he did some things he shouldn't have done, he was killed and nailed here."

Deputy Director Du Ke took two heavy puffs of his cigarette. "I have eyes, and I saw it..."

He paused. "Do you think it could be..."

Could it be done by the Lans family? This was what he wanted to say. It wasn't that he had any thoughts about the Lans family, it was just that if this matter involved the Lans family, it would become a bit troublesome.

The coroner nodded. "It should be them. I'm just a bit curious, they didn't hang the corpse on the streetlamp this time, so it makes me a bit unsure."

"Aren't you guys on good terms with Mr. Lans?"

"Can call and ask."

The coroner knew the relationship between these police and Lans, and the Lans family, and he himself was considered a member of the vested interest group under this relationship. He could get an extra "bonus" of about eighty dollars every month from the fund established by the Lans family.

This money helped him a lot, making his life undergo earth-shaking changes.

And after the rise of the Lans family, vicious cases in the city became very few. They didn't allow anyone to mess around on their turf. Those who didn't listen were basically secretly cleaned up, and the remaining ones were all cooperative and very obedient.

Deputy Director Du Ke took two more puffs of his cigarette and said "Hmm." "I'll go make a phone call."

Soon he came to a telephone booth. To avoid someone eavesdropping, he had the police officer isolate the reporters nearby who were swarming over wanting to inquire about news.

The phone was connected quickly. "Mr. Meiluo, just now they found a corpse on the beach. I want to know if it is..."

"Yes." Meiluo gave him this answer almost without any hesitation. "This is the Boss's decision."

Deputy Director Du Ke was stunned for a moment. "Has Mr. Lans already returned?"

"Yes, he is in New Jincheng now."

Hearing this news, Deputy Director Du Ke had no more confusion. "I know what to do."

"There are many reporters here. Should I let them take photos?"

He felt that if this was something Lans specifically made a trip for, maybe he needed to use the power of the media to promote it?

Lans seemed to be right next to him, Meiluo was talking to him, and after about seven or eight seconds, Meiluo said in the receiver, "No need to specifically promote it. You can give them some news, just say... suspect that a gang is executing a traitor."

Traitor, this is a keyword. Deputy Director Du Ke didn't know what kind of traitor could make Lans specifically come back, but he knew that he must do this matter well.

After he promised Meiluo, he came out of the telephone booth. The reporters swarmed toward him like a tide. The police officer beside him dutifully helped him push away these reporters, not letting them get close.

Deputy Director Du Ke coughed. "If you guys continue to be so unruly, I don't intend to say anything."

The scene quieted down a lot. These reporters all looked at him with expectant eyes. Deputy Director Du Ke cleared his throat, and then talked about this case.

"According to our investigation on the scene, the study of the corpse, and the inspection of some things left at the scene, we believe this is very likely an honorable execution event of a gang. The victim came from a certain gang. He betrayed this gang and did things he shouldn't have done, eventually triggering all of this."

"I can only provide you with so much information now. If there is more news, we will reveal it to the outside through the police station's news officer."

"Alright, that's it..."

How could the reporters be willing to let him run? Immediately someone asked loudly, "Director Du Ke, which gang do you think is executing?"

This reporter said many gangs, but only didn't say the Lans family. After all, living here, he had to have some brains.

Someone also asked, "Was your phone call just now confirming the source of the corpse?"

"Can you tell us who you were calling, and whether the source of the corpse has been determined?"

Facing these life-threatening questions, Deputy Director Du Ke could only shake his head with a straight face and say "no comment," and then leave quickly.

After the corpse on the beach was photographed and filed, the coroner untied it, but because the time was a bit long, it was completely stiff.

So he had to use some small tools to make it stretch out again. In this process, it was inevitable to damage some joints, but it didn't matter.

The corpse was put into a body bag and sent into the car. Accompanied by the departure of the police, the place where the corpse was found gathered quite a few reporters again. They used cameras to photograph that small piece of beach stained red with blood, and wrote the first draft for today's explosive news in their minds.

Lans didn't care much about the outside world's view of this case, just as he often said, a crime that has evidence and has been caught by law enforcers is called a crime.

If there is no evidence, then it is not a crime.

Since it is not a crime, no one can blame him.

This is the rule of the federation—when a person possesses a certain power and status, the law will provide him with comprehensive protection.

This is unlike those people at the bottom. If these people become the target of law enforcement, sometimes whether the law enforcer has evidence is not very important.

None?

Then fabricate one, that's it.

But this trick doesn't work very well for people with status and influence like Lans.

When he walked into a room of the "family prison," the senior agent in charge sitting in the corner stood up at once, but then his body swayed twice.

From last night until now, he hadn't eaten or drunk, and only rested for a short while when he was muddled.

His physical strength and energy had been completely overdrawn. Being able to stand up could be said that his body was still not bad!

"Are you crazy?" The senior agent looked at Lans. He knew Lans, not only had he seen the real person once, but he had also seen the photo many times.

Photos of Lans taken from many angles, so the moment Lans came in, he recognized Lans at a glance.

He didn't scream hysterically, but used such an opening remark as "Are you crazy."

His gaze was very fierce, but not evil, because he couldn't be evil. "Do you know what you are doing?"

Lans walked into the room, Meiluo took a chair for him from outside, and he sat on the chair. "Smoke?"

He took out a brand-new cigarette case from his bosom. It looked very high-end, silver, and also inlaid with some gems and the like, looking very classy.

This was a cigarette case Barbara gave him. The last time they met was for this reason. Barbara felt Lans's cigarette case was a bit too old.

She inquired about it, and there was no special meaning, so she picked a cigarette case worth more than a hundred dollars and gave it to Lans.

Lans didn't dislike this. Anyway, using whatever was using it, the feel of the cigarette was not bad, but it was indeed a bit yellowed.

He held a cigarette in his mouth, asked with the mouth on the other side, lit the cigarette, and took a puff.

The senior agent hesitated, but accepted the proposal. He indeed needed the help of nicotine at this time.

"You asked me if I was crazy, actually don't you already have the answer?" Lans licked his lips and spat out the smoke in his mouth.

"The first to be crazy was Luo Lan, regardless of whether these are not so important to you now. What you have to consider is yourself, how to walk out of here alive."

"Instead of whether I'm crazy, or other things."

The senior agent's expression was a bit gloomy. He stared at Lans without blinking, as if evaluating the authenticity of his words, guessing whether Lans really dared to kill him.

After a while, maybe he felt Lans wasn't lying, his emotions seemed a bit low. "I am a senior official of the FBI. If you kill me, your trouble will be very big."

Lans laughed twice. "Even if I don't kill you, is my trouble small?"

"Come on, we all know that Luo Lan will keep staring at me, just like a mad dog, but this dog has a collar, someone is leading him."

"Whether you die or don't die, he will bite me. Why should I care about this?"

"Compared to this, I want to know more, whether you want to live, or are willing to sleep here forever for the ideals, career, ambition, or other things that belong to others in your mind."

"I don't know if you've heard of the legend of Angel Lake, but I will definitely pick the sturdiest oil drum for you!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1152 =====