Translator: Ichinonsense
Chapter 1 - Death Row Prisoner
"Criminalsuspect Guo Jianjun, Male, Chinese nationality, 33 years old, born on11 November 1975, suspected of HSH organized crime"s leader, intentionalhomicide, intentional a.s.sault, intentional arson, intentional robbery,intentional illegal sale and possession of firearms, intentionalbombing, rape, smuggling, s.e.xual a.s.sault on woman, coercion, illegalgambling charges, extortion, bribery, crime of disrupting financialorder. The above charges, proved by testimonies and valid evidences,after the trial verdict, convicted. By the collegiate bench, i herebydeclare the sentence."
At this point, the judge looked around andsaw all of the people stood up and looked down at the verdict on hishand, then he read it out loud, "The criminal suspect Guo Jianjun is sentenced todeath, and deprived of political rights for life, this judgement shall befinal, shall not be appealed and to be executed immediately. HighPeople"s Court of G Province, 4 April 2008, adjourned!"
In thesolemn court, the crowd who heard the trial immediately clapped withpa.s.sion and cheered loudly, someone shouted, "Sc.u.m of society!" The judge onthe main trial bench subsequently withdrew.
The defendant on thedock was wearing a prison suit and his head was shaved. Two armedpolice officers grabbed each of his arms, he wore heavy handcuffs andfetters, the fetters made a rattling sound while dragged on the ground.
His footsteps were slowand heavy, though he had been sentenced to death and to be executedimmediately, but there was no usual appearance of a prisoner facing hisdeath, the corners of his mouth tilted, always hanging a faint smile.
Walkingto the door, bright sunshine shined upon his bald head, Guo Jianjunstopped, then took a deep breath, his heart was feeling warm, suddenly a newfeeling blossomed. The cold handcuffs in his hands seemed to bringwarm, his two eyes fell on the people around him.
"Is this GuoJianjun? Doesn"t look like a bad guy! How could you not learn at a youngage?" A white-heared aunt, probably older, curiously stared at GuoJianjun with hazy sight, She wanted to see this province"s infamous, theevil villain in the end looked like this. The place was crowded, brightlight flashed non-stop from the hands of reporters. Unfortunately, acircle of armed police officers would not let them get close.
GuoJianjun gave a deep bow toward the direction of the old aunt. Thewhite-haired old aunt shouted, "Child, remember to be a good person inthe next life!"
Guo Jianjun smiled, the armed police officerbehind pushed him, he staggered and stepped down his legs. After a longawaiting for the prisoner, the rear door opened, several armed policeofficers put him into the van, then followed in. The door closed, sirensounded. In the eyes of the crowd, a convoy of several cars rushed outof the court gate.
The convoy moved towards the suburbs, a middled-aged military police officer with two stars on his shoulders,looked at Guo Jianjun. The sight in front of the police officer, was none other than a tall andhandsome young man, if not for him to dress as such, no one would havebelieved him as a prisoner of death. What was the reason for such aperson to come to this situation?
Looking at the pa.s.sing of the streetthrough the van window, Guo Jianjun felt the opposite person"s gaze,twisted his body and smiled, "Big Brother! can i have a smoke?"
Themiddle-aged officer had performed the task numerous times, but thisman"s expression and behavior was not like a person who would meet his demise,he could not help but becoming alert immediately, he looked seriously at theprisoner. Two armed military police officers on both sides of him, while hisfinger touched the trigger.
Guo Jianjun smiled and shook hishead, "This is not a Hong Kong"s film of gangster vs police, are you afraidthat i will run away? Or are you afraid someone will rob the van? Will ibe able to do that? This is the communist country, few people in chinadare to do such a thing."
However, the police officer stayed silent, closely watched his movements.
"Hey!It"s just a cigarette! Why are you so nervous.." Guo Jianjun"s eyes swept afew people"s badges and collar, then turned out of the window, sighed"I was also a soldier in the past, fought with guns, worked really hardand won the reward, the blood flew through the sweat!" Finished, he nolonger said anything, looked out of the window with confusion, seemed toremember something.
The officer and several soldiers were alittle surprised to hear that. The officer"s watchful expressionlessened, and the finger unconsciously moved away from the trigger.
Theofficer looked up and down at Guo Jianjun, paused, and finally asked,"Have you been a soldier? Military police officer or the PLA?"
"Backthen..." Guo Jianjun faced back and smiled. After a slight ofhesitation, the officer took a pack of cigarettes, pulled out one of thedots, and cautiously handed it to Guo Jianjun. The latter thanked him,fingers on the cigarette, took a deep breath and exhaled through hismouth.
In response to the former"s inquiring eyes, Guo Jianjunsaid slowly, "I was an infantry soldier on 1993. I spent three years atthe frontier, and after returning from the army, i returned to myhometown in rural areas where my mother and father lived withoutrelatives. However, i came back and found out that my father died in thesecond year of my military service because of illness and lack of moneyfor treatment. Because my mom was expecting that i would be rewardedafter the duty and did not want to burden me with my thoughts, she didnot tell me about father"s death. When i got home, my father was goneand my mother was bedridden. The grief was painful, but the living stillhad to live, and mother"s illness had to be healed. My allowance backthen were less than 3000 yuan, i had to pack all of our stuff, then took mymother to the city to do all the checks needed, i bought all the medicinesneeded, but money were tight. With the help of my comrades andvillagers, i got some money to get mother to stay in the hospital.However, the hospitalization cost was too high for rural people like us,i had to entrust mother to the city"s comrades, i went to the south withsome villagers to find some work, hoping to earn some money for thebills." Here, the cigarette in his hand had been burned to the bottom,Ashes dropped on the van"s floor.
A leather shoe stretched overto put out the cigarette b.u.t.ts, the officer took out another cigarette,handed it to Guo Jianjun, "Continue!"
"Thanks!" Guo Jianjun wavedhis handcuffed hands, his mouth heavely sucked in. He continued to say,"In the city, the villagers got me a work in a construction site as alaborer, everyday had to go upstairs and downstairs to pick bricks andcement, 800 yuan for one month, including food and clothing, wageswould be paid in the sixth month. Altough it sounds tiring, but it wasnothing for ex-infantry like me. 800 yuan would be enough for ruralfamily like us even if we had to wait for half a year. Ha! Six monthslater, the building on the site was finished. But when the paytime wasdue, our boss was gone. We were only a group of workers from rural areasand a bit unfamiliar with the laws, Where to get back our wages? Findthe local government also useless, a few more times, even thegovernment"s door did not let us in. In the end, everything was fornaught, Mother"s sickness was still waiting for money, and i did nothave any technical skills. Had to find another workplace, to be thelabourer. Hey! The result was that, i did not come across any money norwork."
"Why don"t you report it?" The officer frowned. Severalmilitary police officers were also attracted to the story, curiouslystared at him, this famous Guo Jianjun suprisingly had such a job.
"Report?"Guo Jianjun sneered, "Brother, you stay in the army for a long time. Itwas not like nowadays, and it was no use to report it. Now there is away, even the prime minister would come down to give the workers theirwage. But back then, just try it!"
The middle-aged officerlooked slightly embarra.s.sed, took the cigarette b.u.t.t from the prisoner"shand, and dropped it off. He handed another one, briefly asked,"Later?"
"Huh! Later, my mother"s condition worsened, anxiouslywaiting for money for the surgery, my comrade in arms was there to seethe doctor, while i sold my parents" house. At that time the house was cheap! if itwas put now, it would be ten times the price. Finally, the money fromselling the house was almost spent. I was also pushing it too. Justthen, i met the boss who owed my wages. I begged for the wages but nothingcame, in the end, he called a bunch of people to beat me up. Dragged awound, i contacted a few former comrades, told the matter to them to getrevenge. Oh! Worthy of me who used to life and death on the frontier.After a discussion, the boss was kidnapped and beaten to pulp, we alsothreatened him if he would tell the police then his whole family wouldbe killed. Boss was also timid, he really did not report it," GuoJianjun laughed.
"Military origin, how could you do such a crime?" The officer shook his head.
"Itwas too late, Mother didn"t wait for the money and left this world,"Guo Jianjun voice down, suddenly looked at the officer, slightlyshouted, "What about military origin? if it was the warring era, i wouldnot hesitate to throw my blood for the country. To protect the country, toprotect the homeland, but i couldn"t even protect my own parents, what"sthe point of adhering to the military"s beliefs? Now you go and see,those who are in the most glamorous places enjoying themselves, arethose the ordinary soldiers who defended the motherland? Or thoseordinary people?!"
"Is this the reason you betrayed yourmotherland and harmed your national interests? Have you forgotten thephrase in your military oath.... That the national interests are aboveall?" The officer was in rage. The surrounding police officers in thecompartment looked at each other with a bit of gaping stare, this was thefirst time they perfomed the task and encountered such a thing.
"Harmedthe interests of the country, perhaps! But you said that i betrayedthe motherland, please take back that sentence. I, Guo Jianjun, dared todo anything these past years, but to betray the motherland, only thetraitor would do that, i can not afford to bear the name of atraitor.... If i had to put on this charge before i was dying, i really wouldn"t stop crying," Guo Jianjun stared coldly at the opposite partywith a chuckle.
Several military police officers did not quiteunderstand what Guo Jianjun meant by this remark. The middle-agedofficer turned out to be emotionally stable, and looked thoughtfully athim for a moment, slowly said, "Do you regret it till this day?"
"Regret?"Guo Jianjun laughed, "Regret in life? Is regret useful? Anyone whowalks the path of the world would know that sooner or later they wouldcome back to the beginning. At least 18 years later, i might be a hero."
"18 Years later, is a hero?" The officer could not help but laughed, "Do you read martial arts novels?"
"Oh!No more, no less. Yes, i will introduce you to a place to read somenovels. It is free to go and see, there"s also a lot of novels in it,"Guo Jianjun said.
The middle-aged aged officer nodded and smiled, "Thank you! I"ll go see it later."
Thevan shaked a bit from the b.u.mp, apparently they had come into thecountryside, not far from the destination. Guo Jianjun glanced at thecorner of a certain military police officer, the officer waswearing a black hood, and never took it off from start to finish. He couldnot help but asked, "Later, is brother the one who will send me to mydestination?"
The officer nodded and did not say anything more.Guo Jianjun exclaimed at the officer wearing the black hood, "Brother,please! Wait a little longer and entertain me some more," But no oneresponded him.
Felt helpless, Guo Jianjun sat on the swinging car,his feeling was down. Yesterday bustling like a dream, beauty in the armsleft and right, fleeting in the blink of an eye. He thought of an oldsong, mouth could not help but muttered, "Last night, Last night"sstars have fallen, disappeared in the distant Milky Way, want toremember, but forgotten..."
The van slowed down, and finally stopped.
GuoJianjun got dragged off the van, looked up to see the sky had becomeovercast, hiding thunder and lightning. After the officers intervened,he was pushed to the designated execution site.
The executionerreadied his gun, the dark muzzle aimed at the prisoner, finger to thetrigger, just about to pull it, but overheard the exploding thunder. GuoJianjun"s closed eyes suddenly opened fiercely to see the sky, a purplelightning from above, he only felt paralyzed, then gradually lostconsciousness. Before his consciousness dissipated, he asked himself inhis heart, "Did i really deserved to be struck by a heavenly lightning?"
TheDeath row prisoner"s body instantly charred black, all of the officersin the surrounding were stunned. The commander recovered his blank mind,he called the forensic officer to examine it. A while later, theforensic officer stood up and shouted, "Already dead!"
Standing infront of the charred body, the commander looked at the camera, not surehow to report the photographed evidence for the execution, then he took theexecutioner"s gun, pointed at the heart of the charred body, "Bang!" Ashot! He muttered, "You are executed according to law, not lightning!"