10 The Drug Mule

 

Early the next morning, Mary found the suspect on the train. There was a passenger who would ascend the train at Long Ze Train Station every Friday and descend at different stations. Sometimes, he would leave at the next immediate stop, other times, he would go further. The day after, he would take a different train back to Long Ze City and then repeat the whole exercise every week. Viewed on the surveillance, this was a very thin young man. He had serious eye bags like he had not slept in days already. He always came in suit and tie, carrying a briefcase in his arms. He looked just like a salesman bustling over the city. There were many other young men just like him taking the train every week so the disguise was perfect. Long Ze Train Station was not a big station, perhaps that was why he selected this station to purchase his tickets.

“He is the mule.” I said, “There’s no need to check anyone else. Contact the local police and have him arrested as soon as possible.”

“How could you know that?” Captain Zhao asked. I shrugged. The man on the surveillance would commit to a subconscious gesture, he’d keep touching his own stomach like there was something hiding inside there. To be frank, the journey of every drug mule was equal to a dance with Death. If the package leaked, he would end up in the same state as Luo Zhongcheng. Of course the man was privy to the risk but sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

“Alright, I’ll contact the local police now. We need to move fast.” Captain Zhao turned the china cup in his hand. “For such a dangerous deal, they will often have a follow up after the delivery was done. Since Ye Zhi is no longer reachable, they might have been spooked and gone underground already. After all, 2 days have passed since her death.”

The drug mule’s name was Lin Su, male 24 years old. He was a drug addict for 4 years. He was forced into rehab several times and he had fallen off the wagon every time. After he left rehab, he was never seen around his hometown anymore. In fact no one knew where he had gone until today when he reappeared at Long Ze Station and in the police’s sight. The police sent out a BOLO for Long Ze. The moment this man appeared on surveillance, he would be detained immediately. But for many days, there was no news of this man, it was as if he had disappeared from the face of earth. There were only 2 possibilities behind this, 1, Lin Su had escaped from Long Ze City; 2, he had found a safe place to hide at Long Ze City.

“What we need to do now is to find an informant.” I told Captain Zhao who was frowning deeply. “I’m very good with that.” Captain Zhao nodded and told me, “Be careful.” As I’ve mentioned earlier, I grew up in prison, the inmates there taught me many things that a normal person would have never approached in their lives and I was introduced to many individuals who spent their lives in the shadows. Using that knowledge, I had developed an extensive network of informants on my own when I was helping the police with their cases. Now I had to revisit my network to find out more about Lin Su.

…

Inside a dark alley, there were two flickering cigarette flames. I stood back to back with this informant. He wouldn’t show me his face because that was the rule. The rats’ lives depended on darkness because the dark provided them with the best camouflage. I handed him 500 RMB. He chuckled and asked, “What do you want this time?”

“I’m looking for someone from your circle.” As I took a puff of smoke, I handed a picture to him. “The man’s name is Lin Su, he’s a drug mule. If you have more information on him, I’ll give you 1000 RMB.” The moment I said that, the cigarette fell from the informant’s lips. My heart skipped a beat, thinking, ‘It wouldn’t be so serendipitous, right?! Could this informant really be Lin Su?’ Not taking any risk, I turned around to grab him and demanded, “I’m sorry for breaking the rules but I need to know.”

The informant panicked and even though he tried his best to use his hands to shield his face from view, I confirmed that this was not Lin Su. In fact, through the weak moonlight, the face that I saw barely could be counted as a human face anymore. The sunken eyes were incredibly muddled, the cheekbones protruded greatly and his skin practically were showing through. His mouth opened to reveal a complete lack of teeth. He looked more like a walking zombie than a human being. He tried his best to struggle loose from my grasp but of course a drug addict wasn’t powerful enough to shake me off. “You’re still on drugs? Haven’t I told you that you’ll die from the habit before your enemies catch up to you?!”

The informant cried helplessly, “I tried, I really did but I can’t!” The man sniffled as the struggle went out from him. There was nothing I could do but sigh. Once you had taken the deal from the devil, there was almost no way to escape from it. However, it was not all lost hope. Among rehabilitated drug users, 90 percent would relapse, meaning only 1 of 10 addicts could rise over the addiction, the man before me was clearly not one of them.

“So you do know Lin Su?” I asked.

“He’s my supplier…”

When we arrived at Lin Su’s home, it was already 3 in the afternoon. The summer sun cooked the earth, a few steps and one would be covered in sweat. The old rental home had its door open, the 20 metres square space was stuffed with various crap and only a narrow passage was left usable. An old woman around 70 sat in the middle of the pile of garbage. She sat cross-legged and turned her face up to the ceiling like she was thinking about something. Beads of sweat flowed down her forehead but she did not appear to feel the heat. It appeared like this senior did not have anything else in her life to live for.

“Madam…” before Captain Zhao could say anything, the old lady turned around and then something unexpected happened. She suddenly bent over and kept kowtowing at us. Her head banged continuously against the wooden floor. When she turned towards us, we saw that she only had one hand. The place where the other hand should be was a stump. Seeing the exposed wound, we believed her hand had been chopped off.

“Sorry, I really don’t have any money on me anymore…” The old lady wailed. Mary’s eyes watered. Gu Chen hurried forward and helped the old lady up from the ground. Captain Zhao’s expression shifted slightly and he explained, “Madam, we are the police.”

Hearing that, the old lady was silent for a moment before saying, “What did Lin Su do this time?”

The old lady was Lin Su’s grandmother. Based on Granny Lin’s explanation, Lin Su’s parents always worked outstation so Lin Su grew up with her. Before the age of 15, Lin Su was always a good student. He excelled at his studies, all his teachers said that he was bound for great things. After school, Lin Su would help his grandmother collect empty bottles and paper cardboards on the street to help supply the household.

But one day, an incident changed Lin Su and the life for this family of two.

The old lady remembered it clearly, it was a hot summer day like today. Lin Su came home with a blade dripping with blood. He told his grandmother, “Granny, I’ve killed a person.”

For that, Lin Su was arrested and sent to juvie. 2 years later, Lin Su was released. By that time, he was only several months away to adulthood. Lin Su probably did not even consider having any ceremony to mark that date but as fate would have it, it had ended in a horrendous street fight. After he left juvie, Lin Su joined a small-time gang to his grandmother’s disapproval. He was valued by the boss for having brains.

“Kid, you’re 18 now.” His big brother said, “It’s time for you to have a taste of women.” Lin Su only smiled. On their way to the club, they were ambushed inside an alley. Lin Su recognized them as their gang rivals. Inspired by the gang movies, Lin Su thought he could protect his brother from just loyalty alone. In reality though, he was cut by a cutlass and tossed to the side. This was the first time Lin Su experienced death firsthand, as he laid in the pool of his own blood, he saw his big brother die in a multitude of cuts. The memories from the day he turned 18 was forever branded in his mind.

The first thing he did was not go to the hospital but to return to his grandmother’s home. He hugged his grandmother and both of them cried. Blood bound them together. At the end of the day, blood was thicker than tears. After some examination, his grandmother realized that the wounds on Lin Su weren't serious, the gang rivals never wanted to claim Lin Su’s life. After they finished crying, Lin Su’s bleeding had already stopped. Lin Su found a nearby clinic to buy some bandages.

Lin Su reconnected with his grandmother but he couldn’t shake the nightmare from that gory day. One day, while at work, he asked, “Is there anything that can make you forget everything bad about life? Something that can make this hellish life more tolerable?” His friend took out a bag of something white. From then on, life did become more tolerable for Lin Su because he could no longer be said to be living.

Lin Su was sucked into drug addiction. The trips to rehabs did nothing to help him. After 1 year of addiction, to supply his stock, he sold his grandmother’s house without her permission and that caused the old lady to be thrown out of her own home. 2 years after his addiction, his parents cut off ties to their son but his grandmother still stayed by him. She still carried hope for her favorite grandson. His parents stopped sending money to him and his grandmother could barely sustain herself from picking trash.

The addiction completely changed Lin Su’s personality. When he was in the grasp of withdrawal, he would violently snatch the money from his grandmother. He knew how his grandmother earned these money. She collected them with hard work, looking through trash cans, prowling the streets for recyclable rubbish under the rays of the sweltering sun. Addiction turned Lin Su into a monster that couldn’t empathize with his own family anymore.

One day, Lin Su ran out of money again and he came back to demand it from his grandmother. This time, Granny Lin tried to stop him. She grabbed him with her left hand. She couldn’t let him sink any deeper. Aiming to make her let go of the money, Lin Su pulled out a cleaver from his back pocket and it made contact with flesh and bone. A palm fell to the floor, it was his grandmother’s.

Lin Su left without turning back once. Granny Lin was discovered by a passing Good Samaritan and she was sent to the hospital. And Lin Su was never seen by his grandmother again.

At the hospital, when asked, Granny Lin said, “I did this to myself, I didn’t want to live anymore.”

After that, Lin Su never showed up but he would send his ‘friends’ to extort money from his grandmother. Earlier, the old lady had mistaken us for Lin Su’s friends. By then, Mary was openly weeping. She cursed, “That bastard.”

I looked around the house of garbage. On the walls, there hung a few yellowed certificates. I could barely make out the few words on them. “Lin Su has been selected as the model student of the year. He is presented with this certificate to acknowledge his kind, filial, and hardworking nature.”