Yan Fei mounted his bicycle after dinner, fully prepared for a night in the wilderness - although there wasn’t much to prepare for. All he needed was a small homemade backpack stuffed with some food, drink, and necessities.
His old canvas bag remained unchanged on the outside, but inside it underwent a makeover - thanks to Lin Yumei, who added a layer of Titan Python skin to the mix. It appeared modest on the outside but was fortressed within.
Upon reaching the police station, he noticed a flurry of activity at the entrance - a group of people were trying to maneuver an old-fashioned jeep out of the door. Lin Baoguo was behind the wheel and greeted Yan Fei as soon as he arrived, "Xiao Fei, come on, we’ve been waiting for you. Your push will make it run."
The jeep should have easily been pushed into motion by that many people, but the problem was the uphill slope just outside the entrance of the station. There weren’t enough people to push it up the incline.
With the addition of Yan Fei, a freshly invigorated force, the jeep was finally maneuvered onto the road. Yet, despite pushing it for another hundred meters, the engine was still sputtering. They had to push it for another two hundred meters before it finally started.
They couldn’t stop the jeep immediately, so they securely drove it a bit further, reversed, and then continued down the road in a cloud of black smoke before finally picking up the rest of the crew.
Then, two motorcycles left. One of the motorcycles was the same ignition system model as the jeep--After pushing it for a while, the engine started humming.
Yan Fei was confused and asked Dang Wenzheng, who had called out to him earlier, "All the police vehicles have gone. How are we supposed to get there?"
Dang Wenzheng smugly replied to his supposedly naive question, "By bicycle, of course! You think that when we go on a mission everyone gets to ride a motorbike?"
Xiang Changqing reassured Yan Fei: "Don’t worry, we who don’t have cars have less distance to cover. Their journey is much longer! Besides, the vehicle has to patrol back and forth once they’ve dropped off the crew. We just have to guard one junction."
Dumbfounded, Yan Fei remained silent. Before, he didn’t realize the police station only had two old motorcycles and one Jeep. He considered it good enough. But now faced with a mission, it dawned on him how inadequate the situation actually was.
Fortunately, it wasn’t winter, because riding a bicycle to a guard post in the biting wind would be a real ordeal. The police officers don’t share his brawny constitution. Imagine how great that would be!
While riding the bicycle alongside the two, he took a moment to feel grateful. He wondered whether Heizi would regret missing this "great opportunity" to join the force if he knew the reality.
This was much more than a missed opportunity! In fact, Heizi had dodged a bullet.
Midway, he remembered to ask, "Changqing bro, what’s the mission tonight anyway? My uncle didn’t tell me!"
Dang Wenzheng interjected before Xiang Changqing could reply, "It’s not even our jurisdiction. It’s from that village with the oil fields. They have a serious problem with oil thieves, a crackdown is needed every now and then, otherwise their oil pipelines will be riddled with holes."
"After catching so many people last time, there are still thieves now? Are they just asking for trouble?" Yan Fei couldn’t comprehend what could drive people to such insane, risky behavior.
"There’s money to be earned! Stealing one bag of crude oil and selling it locally could make them a tidy sum. You can carry two bags on a bicycle, and even more on a cart. It’s way better than any other job. So what if they get caught? Pay a fine, spend a few days in prison, no big deal. They come out and continue stealing, at least to pay off the fine," Xiang Changqing explained.
The so-called nearby place wasn’t actually nearby at all, it was right on the boundary between two villages. How could it possibly be near?
But the scenery of this place was quite pleasant, with the small stone bridge over a babbling brook, the vast sandy beach, and the distant bamboo forest. The junction to guard was just by the bridge. Yan Fei had been here before when he used to catch rabbits, but he had never crossed the river to explore the other side.
Xiang Changqing arrived on an old type of bicycle, accompanied by Dang Wenzheng. Out of the three, they came with only two bicycles.
After parking their bicycles in a concealed location, they crouched down in a wind-protected and concealed spot. Dang Wenzheng pulled out something from his bag and handed it to Yan Fei, "Here, this is your weapon. You’ll need it soon!"
Yan Fei, amused and bemused, said: "You gave me a flashlight?"
Dang Wenzheng, patting the toy gun hanging around his waist, reiterated: "And this!"
Yan Fei was more gloomy, "Isn’t that fake?"
As if it was a matter of fact, Dang Wenzheng replied: "You know it’s a fake, but would the thieves know? If I just wave it around in my uniform, they will surrender without a fight."
"Okay, I don’t need it. I have good eyesight, and there’s the moonlight tonight. This flashlight would only get in the way." Yan Fei didn’t take the flashlight, considering this guarding mission seemed more like child’s play. "What if a motorcyclist shows up?"
"Regardless of the vehicle, we chase them if they show up! We give chase on the bicycle on the road while someone else takes a shortcut through the field to block them, why else do you think we only brought one bicycle?"
Yan Fei was speechless. If the oil thieves were like the motorcyclists he had encountered before, the police station’s bicycle chase would be even more grueling. Can it get any worse?
He took a look around before going to the riverbank to pick up a few fist-sized stones and brought them back, settling down for his shift at the junction.
Upon seeing him bustling about, Xiang Changqing comforted him again, "Actually, it’s no big deal. We just squat here and wait until someone appears on the bridge opposite us. Then, we rush over. They won’t have time to turn around and we can nab them. Besides, there are a lot of officers from their village station and county bureau. They probably won’t even reach our side."