8: Chapter 8 The Readers are Police, the Author is a Criminal

Not in a hurry to go home, Li Changsheng went straight to the bank and transferred 100,000 to his grandmother's bank card.

Grandma was the only family he had in this life; if he didn't survive in the future, this 100,000 would be money for her retirement.

Just as he walked out of the bank, his phone rang. He opened it and saw it was Grandma.

"Grandma, why did you call me?"

Li Changsheng said into the phone with a smile, speaking loudly. Grandma was a bit hard of hearing, so he always had to speak up.

"Changsheng, my phone just notified me that 100,000 has been deposited. You don't think this is a telecom scam, do you?"

Grandma sounded very happy and chuckled when she heard Li Changsheng's voice.

In fact, Grandma was an intellectual in her early years, born in the 25th year of the Republic of China. She was educated, attended university, and lived through the War of Resistance. In her youth, she had once hidden in an outhouse while hearing her grandfather being stabbed to death by the Japanese invaders with bayonets.

Later, she endured many hardships, including famine. She had hoped that such a long-suffering old lady could live a happy life surrounded by children and grandchildren in her later years.

But a sudden disaster took away her only son and daughter-in-law.

Hearing Grandma's voice, Li Changsheng also showed a knowing smile, but as he smiled, his heart stung a little.

How much longer could he accompany Grandma? What if the System couldn't handle the cancer either?

It looked like he needed to go back for a visit after a while to keep the old lady company.

Li Changsheng quickly composed himself and said in as relaxed a tone as possible: "Grandma, that's not a telecom scam. It's money I, Changsheng, sent for your retirement."

"Hey, you kid, Grandma doesn't need money. Grandma has a pension. Keep your money for yourself, you know? You still need to get married in the future. I heard that buying a house in Shenzhen is very expensive. You won't manage if you don't save up. When you buy a house, Grandma has some money here that you can take, too."

Listening to Grandma's deep, doting love, Li Changsheng really couldn't hold it in.

Grandma used to be a university professor. After retirement, she scrimped and saved every month from her pension.

He took several deep breaths in succession before smiling and saying: "Grandma, it's fine, it's already transferred. Don't send it back; just consider it as you keeping it safe for me. By the way, Grandma, you mustn't treat yourself poorly. You must eat well, drink well, and use good things, you hear?"

"Okay! Okay, okay! Hehe, Changsheng, Grandma will definitely listen to what you say. Now, Grandma even goes out to dance square dances with your Grandma Wang next door every day."

That was just how Grandma was; she was always happy whenever she heard his voice.

"Alright then, Grandma, I have some things to do here, so I'll stop chatting for now. I'll go back to keep you company in a while."

"Alright, alright, you go do your work. Work is important."

Hanging up the phone, Li Changsheng could no longer hold back his sobs.

After a full few minutes, Li Changsheng finally composed himself, though his eyes were still slightly red.

It wasn't far from the residential complex where he lived, so Li Changsheng decided to just walk back.

But he hadn't walked very far, just as he reached the vicinity of an elementary school gate, when he discovered it was packed with people.

Jiang Qianqian was a student at the Nanshan District No. 1 Affiliated Elementary School. This cute, top-performing sixth-grade girl was currently filled with tears.

Because she had been taken hostage.

Looking at the cold, gleaming dagger pressed against her fair throat, Jiang Qianqian trembled in fear.

"Uncle, no... don't kill me... My family has money. My dad is very rich. He will give you money."

Jiang Qianqian said with a crying tone.

"Of course I know your family has money. Which student in this school doesn't come from a family with tens of millions in assets?"

The kidnapper was a middle-aged man in his thirties, wearing glasses and looking refined; outsiders would find it hard to believe that this was actually a kidnapper.

His words made Jiang Qianqian fall silent. Indeed, the fact that this elementary school could be built in a relatively prosperous area of Nanshan District was proof enough.

"Heh, there's no helping it. Uncle can't help it either. If you want to blame someone, you can only blame these police officers. Who told them to chase me?"

The middle-aged man sighed.

He wasn't a kidnapper, and he didn't want to be in this situation either.

He was a murderer who had been hiding his identity for many years. He had been hiding in Shenzhen for ten years. Over these ten years, he had lived in constant fear, but later he gradually relaxed and found a decent job.

That was writing novels. He used his roommate's ID card to register an account and began living like a hermit in their shared apartment, typing away.

At first, every book he wrote flopped, and he could only earn the minimum attendance bonus. Fortunately, his roommate was nice and occasionally helped him out; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to survive in this place where land was worth gold.

But later, he wrote a novel with a villain protagonist, which unexpectedly became a huge hit. Readers especially loved his extremely realistic descriptions of criminal techniques and murder methods.

By the time the novel reached 500,000 words, he had made a million. Just as he was feeling proud of himself and preparing to write a few million words to earn enough for a house in Shenzhen...

Unexpectedly, a police officer saw his novel, and then... it became like this...

Fortunately, he was alert. After sensing that something was wrong when someone checked the water meter outside his door, he jumped out the window and fled.

But he hadn't run far before he realized that the area outside had been sealed off. With no other choice, he circled around and ended up here, leading to this situation.

So many years had passed, and he had long since turned over a new leaf. What happened back then was just an accident.

He really didn't want to kill this little girl, but what else could he do?

He wanted to live, too!

"I'm sorry, little girl. If I can leave here alive, I won't kill you," Zhou Kehua sighed and said.

However, his consolation did not put Jiang Qianqian at ease; instead, she became even more nervous.

"Let that girl go! We can talk about any conditions you have. Don't hurt that little girl!"

A police officer shouted through a megaphone.

"Heh, these tricks don't work on me. I've watched enough cop movies. I won't let go. If you have the guts, find a sniper to shoot me dead!"

Zhou Kehua buried his head behind Jiang Qianqian's and sneered.

"Qianqian! My Qianqian!"

In the crowd, a graceful and elegant young woman cried until her head tilted and she fainted, scaring the middle-aged man beside her, who hurriedly supported her.

"Sir, whatever conditions you have, you can state them. I have a net worth of 100 million and a company. As long as you want it, I will give you everything, as long as you release my daughter!"

The middle-aged man shouted anxiously while supporting his wife.

To this, Zhou Kehua remained unmoved. In this situation, he just wanted to survive.

"Director, this is all my fault. If I hadn't alerted him, this wouldn't have happened."

At this moment, beside several police cars, a young police officer sighed.

"Xiao Zhang, this isn't your fault. He's just too vigilant. After all, he's a serial killer from back in the day. This guy's vigilance is like a wolf's," Director Lu Feiming sighed and shook his head.

He was also to blame. Had his brain gone haywire? He actually let a rookie who had just joined the police station not long ago participate in such an important arrest operation.

"By the way, when will the sniper be in position?"

Hearing this, Police Officer Zhang Wei quickly said, "The sniper is already in position, but the target and the hostage are too close. The sniper says there's no guarantee they won't hurt the hostage."

"That's troublesome."