White Olive Tree

Chapter 29

Chapter 29
Spring in Liangcheng came much later than usual this year.
After that spring snow melted, the temperature was still cold.  In winter and spring, the water level of the Yangtze River is low, exposing strips of tidal flats in the middle of the river.  There seems to be a hint of green above Jiangzhou, which is better than nothing.
In the city, the sycamores and willows have not sprouted yet and are bare.  It is the last breath of winter.
On Friday afternoon, Li Zan was scheduled to get off work at half past five.  He is not on duty this weekend and plans to go back to Jiangcheng to visit his family.
At 5:20, I received a call from the police, saying that someone had abandoned a suspicious item in Baixi Shopping Mall, and told the salesperson that it was an explosive.  The more the salesperson thought about it, the more frightened she became, and she quickly called the police.
Li Zan and his colleagues rushed to the scene to evacuate the crowd.  When they cleared the mall and put up a cordon, the fire, criminal investigation, and explosion prevention departments also arrived.
Under the leadership of the caller, the criminal police and firefighters quickly went to a garbage bin next to the escalator on the second floor of the shopping mall.

Li Zan did not follow him up, but stood under the escalator on the first floor and took a look from a distance.
Someone pushed him behind him. Policeman Xiao Jia raised his eyebrows and pointed to the second floor: "Go over there."
Li Zan scratched the back of his neck and slowly walked up the escalator.
On the second floor, officers from various police departments stood a few meters away from the trash can, discussing the situation.  Li Zan took a look and saw that there was a black plastic bag stuffed in the trash can, and the object inside was a cube.
The surveillance video of the shopping mall was quickly transmitted to the criminal police's mobile phone. In the video, you can see a man in black wearing a hat and mask quickly walking over, taking out the contents of the bag and throwing them into the trash can before running away quickly.  Tracking surveillance showed the man quickly leaving the mall.
Xiao Jia punched Li Zan's arm and asked, "What do you think?"
Li Zan said: "It should be fake."
His voice was not loud, but the detectives heard him and turned around with unhappy expressions on their faces.  Maybe he felt that he was overstepping his duties as an auxiliary police officer.
The anti-explosion officers of the criminal police team were fully armed, wearing anti-explosion helmets and armors, and came over carrying tool boxes.
Upon seeing this, policeman Xiao Jia asked Li Zan in a low voice: "Hey, you used to be..."
"Quiet down, please!" the detective just said loudly.
There was complete silence.
Policeman Xiao Jia shrank his neck.
Li Zan said nothing and watched calmly as the explosion-proof guard walked to the trash can, opened the trash can lock, and took out the black plastic bag.
Li Zan thought that if it were him, he would not touch the bag first. He would cut the plastic bag open and observe the situation inside clearly before taking the next step.
Thinking of this, he felt a tiny tearing pain in his ears, like slowly tearing apart a piece of paper.  Then he got a headache, his ears started ringing again, and he kept chirping.
Li Zan turned around, pressed his forehead with his palms, and exerted force quietly, trying to control it.
Just then, someone held his hand.
Xiao Jia pulled him away.
After leaving the mall, the cold wind blew over, and Li Zan woke up a little. His head still hurt, but at least his ears stopped buzzing.
"Are you okay?" Xiao Jia asked.
"It's okay."
Xiao Jia asked him to go to the car and rest for a while.  Li Zan was about to go over, but he heard someone next to him say: "The reporter from Liangcheng TV is coming up."
He looked back, thought about it, and entered the mall involuntarily.
When we went in now, the explosion-proof man had already taken off his thick protective clothing.  The thing was taken apart, and it was a plastic box containing several bottles of kerosene. It didn't even have basic fuses, so it couldn't ignite, let alone explode.
The so-called bomb is just a "hoax" bomb that only creates a false alarm.
A female reporter and her colleagues were reporting on the scene.
Not Song Ran.
Li Zan remembered that with her current status, she should not need to cover such small news in the city.
He smiled lightly and turned to leave, but was stopped by the criminal police officer: "Comrade!"
Li Zan: "Huh?"
The detective's tone became much better: "How did you know this was fake just now?"
Li Zan said: "The bomb needs a detonation method. In addition to direct ignition, it also needs a detonation device. From the way he randomly placed the bombs, we can rule out the balancer sensor; he did not hold anything in his hand, and  It didn't explode after the crowd was evacuated, so I ruled out the remote control. He pretended to run away in a hurry, but the bomb didn't explode half an hour after he left. It was obviously not a timer. In addition, I suggest that the anti-explosion soldier cut the plastic first next time.  Bag, then move the bomb."
The detective was speechless.
Li Zan nodded slightly as a polite farewell and went downstairs.
Xiao Jia caught up and exclaimed: "Hey, Ah Zan, were you the same anti-riot soldier just now? Or are you more powerful in the military?"
Li Zan said, in front of me, he is just a child.
The words came to my lips, but there were no words left.
Song Ran went to the hospital to see a psychiatrist during her lunch break.  A week ago, the doctor discovered that she was secretly adding medicine to herself and forced her to reduce the dosage.
The side effects of reducing the medication were obvious. Song Ran couldn't lift her spirits all day long and couldn't sleep well at night.  Once a person is tired and sleepy, his or her emotional threshold is easily lowered.  All kinds of negative emotions come easily.
She had no choice but to run to the doctor to get medicine.
Dr. Liang refused to give her more and chatted with her for a long time, successfully making her fall asleep.  When she woke up in the afternoon, she didn't get much medicine and was kicked out of the consultation room by the doctor.
When they were about to get off work in the afternoon, Xiaoqiu and the others returned from an outing and chatted about the news about a bomb threat in Baixi Mall.  I don't know which sociopath dropped a fake bomb in the mall.
Song Ran didn't pay attention, returned to his seat and turned on the computer.
While the computer was still starting up, Xiao Xia slipped over and whispered, "Hey, I saw Shen Bei's ex-boyfriend today."
Song Ran thought about it for a while before she understood who her ex-boyfriend was. She wanted to explain, but she had no position and just said: "How did they meet?"
"Baixi Shopping Mall. It's strange, why did he become an auxiliary police officer?"
Song Ran couldn't say that he wasn't. He said vaguely: "Maybe it's because of work intensity and safety."
"That's true." Xiao Xia said, "Destroying bombs or something like that sounds cool, but the thought of it is very dangerous. ... But, I guess it must be because he became an auxiliary police officer, and Shen Bei doesn't like him anymore.  .”
"What's wrong, auxiliary police officer?" Song Ran frowned, "Did Shen Bei tell you this?"
"No. I guess, otherwise, why would such a good boy become an ex-boyfriend?"
"What if he doesn't like Shen Bei?"
"Shen Bei has such a good family background and is beautiful. What can he dislike about him? If we don't break up, we can still have nepotism. As for becoming an auxiliary police officer?"
Song Ran suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore. He turned his head and moved the mouse to open the mailbox.
When Xiaoxia saw this, she also went back to work.
Song Ran's work email is public for the purpose of collecting news materials.
However, more than half of the daily emails are not work-related - those who expressed their love and support to her, those who criticized her and scolded her;
As for work-related matters, many of them are not operable. For example, if her husband cheats on her, I hope she will report the mistress, if she is ticketed by the traffic police, I hope she will investigate, if there is a thief at home, the police cannot catch her...
Song Ran had previously replied to the woman whose husband had cheated on her, asking her to resolve the matter within the family, but she could not report it.  Unexpectedly, the woman replied: You don't care about the mistress. You have been a mistress yourself, right?
Reply to the person who was robbed, saying to wait patiently for the police investigation.  The feedback I got was: That’s right, only war and death-related things can catch your eye, so we little bastards won’t bother you.
After checking the reply email, Song Ran felt a little speechless.
At this time, a new email popped up in the mailbox.  The sender is Wang Han, a student from Baixi Experimental Middle School.  Wang Han said that just now, a boy named Zhu Yanan in his school committed suicide by jumping off the building because he could not bear the teacher's long-term private abuse and corporal punishment.
Now the police have blocked the school and blocked the news.
Song Ran sensed that the matter was not simple, and immediately called back to find out more about the situation.
Wang Han is a boy. His voice is very low, his mood is very flustered, and his speech logic is poor. However, what he described is basically consistent with what was written in the email, and the incident is very clear.
He prayed: "Reporter Song, please come and take a look, otherwise the truth may be buried forever."
After putting down the phone, Song Ran checked the internal platform.
Wang Han said that Zhu Yanan jumped from the building a quarter of an hour ago, but the internal platform has not yet received any clues from informants or people.  Really strange.
Song Ran thought for two seconds, put on her bag and got up to go out.
The middle school is not far from the TV station, only one street away.  Since it is far away from the main road and school is out, the street is very clean.  There are dead trees on both sides of the road and it is a bit depressed.
As expected, several police cars and ambulances were parked in front of the school, holding a cordon.
Song Ran showed her press card and wanted to go in, but was stopped by the police: "I'm sorry, I received an order from my superiors and no reporters are allowed to interview."
Song Ran asked: "Why? It's not possible to investigate the truth?"
"When the police investigate clearly, they will naturally announce the truth. You are also welcome to come and attend the press conference then."
Song Ran felt more and more something was wrong, but she did not argue. She stepped aside and observed the terrain, and saw a six-story residential building next to the school.
She thought about it and got into the corridor.
There was a middle-aged woman living on the sixth floor. At first, she was reluctant to let Song Ran borrow the window of her home.  After Song Ran said he would pay for the clues, she let her into the house.
Song Ran walked into the balcony of the middle-aged woman's bedroom, where she could clearly overlook the school building and the open space in front of the building.  The body of the student who jumped from the building was still in front of the building, covered with a white cloth, and the cement floor was covered in blood.
The police were investigating and collecting evidence near the body and on the roof of the teaching building.
While she was taking pictures, there was a commotion behind her.
Two police officers walked in with serious and cold faces. They waved their hands and said, "Delete what you just took."
Song Ran hugged the camera tightly: "Why? That's what the law stipulates?"
Another person yelled: "Delete it if I ask you to, there is so much nonsense!"
Song Ran bit her lip in humiliation and her face was blood red.