PCJ – Chapter 371 Those Youthful Years

The cattle thieves were each thrown onto the backs of the oxen and then tied down with ropes. There were a total of eighteen oxen, with fourteen living people and one corpse tied to their backs. Strangely enough, the water buffalo were incredibly obedient, quietly forming a long line in the forest and, led by the mountain leopard, started heading towards Xintian County. Luo Changjun decided not to go to Shiqi. After all, he was no longer part of the police system, and going there would be inconvenient. Most of the key suspects in the cattle theft case had already been caught, with only the stolen oxen and the fence (the one who handled the stolen goods) left to be apprehended.

It would be best to interrogate these cattle thieves in Xintian County, especially since there had already been a tip-off. Moreover, when these people were arrested, the folks in Shiqi hadn’t caught wind of anything and still thought that the gang had moved the cattle and gone into hiding. The remaining criminals who escaped might still be feeling lucky.

Even though it was nighttime, this presented no problem for Zhang Jiaohua and his group. When Huang Yusheng and his men came, they had almost a flashlight for everyone. Now that all the thieves were tied up on the oxen, the five people walking each held two flashlights. Zhang Jiaohua shone one light in front and one behind, even holding a flashlight in his mouth, having a great time.

By dawn, they finally reached Meizi’ao. The people of Meizi’ao, seeing a large herd of cattle with people tied to their backs, all came out to watch the spectacle.

“Zaizai! You fearless child! Are you hurt?” Liu Qiaoye ran over quickly, hugging Zhang Jiaohua tightly, inspecting him carefully before letting out a sigh of relief. If she had known that the cattle thieves had even used guns, she would have been worried to death.

“Mom, I caught all these thieves myself!” Zhang Jiaohua was eager to show off in front of his mother.

“Mm, my Zaizai is amazing. But from now on, you can’t go after thieves alone. What if, instead of catching them, you got caught yourself? Where would your father and I go to find you?” Liu Qiaoye gently pinched his nose.

“That would never happen,” Zhang Jiaohua pouted.

At this moment, someone noticed that there was a dead body on one of the oxen.

“That guy was shot dead. Look, he’s lost a lot of blood!” Zhang Yuanbao’s sharp eyes spotted the detail, but he was quickly dragged home by Hu Xiaoqing, who had caught him by the ear.

Upon hearing Zhang Yuanbao’s words, the villagers finally realized that someone had died—a cattle thief had been killed!

“Jiaohua, were those cattle thieves really that dangerous?” Liu Qiaoye’s heart skipped a beat. Her child had been there the whole time, and guns had been fired! It must have been a dangerous situation, or else why would guns have been used?

“That cattle thief was shot by one of their own. They had guns and started fighting, and one of them got shot. Then we tied them all up and took their guns.” Zhang Jiaohua, recalling the scene, felt quite proud of himself.

“Aah!” Only now did Liu Qiaoye understand how dangerous it had been.

Zhang Jiaohua, still excited, didn’t notice that his mother’s face had turned pale. “Uncle Zhu even taught me how to shoot. He promised that when I grow up, he’ll take me to the police training ground to practice shooting!”

Zhang Yuanbao sneaked back and asked, “Jiaohua, when you go practice shooting, can you take me too?”

Zhang Jiaohua was troubled. “I’ll have to ask Uncle Zhu.”

Just as Zhang Jiaohua was about to turn and ask Zhu Kaixun, Liu Qiaoye grabbed his ear and dragged him back to the garden. Hu Xiaoqing also arrived just in time to grab Zhang Yuanbao by the ear and follow suit.

Liu Qiaoye was somewhat resentful of Luo Changjun and Zhu Kaixun for bringing her son into such a dangerous situation, but she couldn’t express it openly. Instead, she vented her anger on her son.

Zhu Kaixun didn’t notice, but Luo Changjun, being sharp, immediately pulled Zhang Youping aside. “Youping, I’m really sorry about this. Jiaohua was a huge help, but I didn’t expect things to go sideways. There was a leak in Shiqi, and the cattle thieves got wind of it. They came to move the cattle, and at the time, I told Jiaohua to hide. But he jumped into action, and before we even moved, Jiaohua had tied up all the cattle thieves. The thieves didn’t know what was happening and thought there was a betrayal among themselves, so they fired a gun. One of them was shot dead. We were worried about leaks, so we brought everyone here to Meizi’ao. I think your wife might be mad at us, so please help explain.”

“These cattle thieves are truly lawless, even carrying guns. Brother Luo, don’t worry. I trust you. I know you wouldn’t have let Jiaohua take any risks in such a situation. But this kid is hard to control. I can’t even handle him. Qiaoye was just too worried. To be honest, I’m also a bit scared. Guns don’t have eyes. What if any of you had gotten hurt?” Zhang Youping said, still shaken.

“Yeah, if it wasn’t for Jiaohua, Old Zhu and I would have been in serious trouble trying to stop them,” Luo Changjun said, recalling the moment with cold sweat. They hadn’t expected the cattle thieves to have imitation handguns.

“We were lucky this time. I’m really glad I had Jiaohua stay behind,” Zhang Youping added, feeling fortunate. He knew that Jiaohua had used Meishan magic to subdue the cattle thieves, and it had been put to good use.

Soon, the Xintian County Public Security Bureau sent a few cars to take the criminals away, though the oxen had to stay in Meizi’ao for the time being. The tricky part now was identifying who the stolen oxen belonged to. Many oxen had been stolen in Xintian County, and less than half had been recovered. Even the thieves couldn’t remember where all the oxen had come from. The case needed to be solved quickly, and the remaining stolen oxen in Shiqi needed to be retrieved.

Because of the case’s significant impact, the provincial public security department sent a special task force to Xintian County. The case spanned two cities, and there had been a tip-off in Wuxi City’s police system. The task force would be in charge of the cross-district investigation.

This time, Luo Changjun’s secret operation to bring the cattle thieves to Xintian County played a critical role. The remaining thieves in Shiqi hadn’t been alerted, and the pursuit of the criminals and the stolen goods was highly successful. Most of the stolen oxen and illicit money were recovered. Identifying the recovered cattle, however, took a lot of work.