Midnight Bookstore

When you think you are a unique victim, you feel very comfortable.

You think that God is against you, that you have been abandoned and isolated by the world and society.

But when you find that you are next to an identical hapless person, you feel much better and think that God is not bad, at least he has left you a companion.

This is human nature. Most people who grew up in the countryside should have heard from their grandmother or grandmother when they were young that they should not go near a pond or river to play. They said that they warned you that there was a child here who had fallen into the water and become a ghost, they wanted to pull you down to be a scapegoat.

These were just words to scare the children away from dangerous areas to play. But it was precisely these most primitive words that often reflected many simple and deep things.

Zhou ze lit his cigarette,

he was no longer flustered,

he was no longer flustered,

previously, he was still worried that there would be any future harm from this chain,

however, when he saw that the police officer beside him who had a noble and righteous aura also had one, he was really not afraid at all. He was no longer worried.

“What do you do?”Zhang Yanfeng asked as he blew out a smoke ring.

“It’s not convenient for me to tell you this. Let me explain it this way. Your job and mine are to fight for the construction of socialist modernization and strive for social harmony.”

Zhang Yanfeng frowned.

“If you encounter a case that is difficult to handle in the future, you can come to the bookstore and ask me to help you take a look. That’s all I can say. Some things, if you know more, may not be a good thing for you.”

Zhou ze reached out and patted Zhang Yanfeng’s shoulder,

“It’s good to continue being your good cop.”

After Zhou Ze retracted his hand,

zhang Yanfeng also stretched out his hand and patted his shoulder.

The two of them looked at each other and smiled.

“I don’t believe that there are ghosts and gods in this world. I’ve never believed it.”

“Continue to hold on to this belief.”Zhou ze heaved a long sigh of relief. “Just treat it as a dream that I came to look for you tonight. Now, we can get to the main topic. Tell me about this chain of yours. When did that dream start?”?

“Oh right, didn’t you say that it has been more than twenty years?”

Zhang Yanfeng nodded. “Yes, it has been more than twenty years. My father is also a criminal police officer. Our family can be considered a police family. My Son is also studying in the police academy now.”

“Impressive.”

Zhou Ze did not think that this was nepotism. Who would be so bored that a nepotism would call their entire family to become a police officer or a criminal police officer?

“I remember that year. It was the year my father sacrificed himself.”

Zhang Yanfeng spoke very calmly.

Zhou ze also listened very calmly.

“At that time, I had just joined the workforce for two years. My father’s sacrifice was a great blow to me. To be honest, I was a little depressed and a little afraid.

I was really afraid. I was afraid that one day, I would also sacrifice myself.”

“The police are also human,”Zhou Ze said.

“But it’s different. It’s really different. I feel ashamed for my fear.”

Zhang Yanfeng shook the ash off his cigarette and continued:

“The first time I had that dream was also that year. I stayed up late to deal with a case file and fell asleep in my office. That night, I had a very, very long dream. Even now, that dream was still so clear. I could even remember every scene at that time.

I stood in a cold corridor,

i heard the sound of chains dragging on the ground,

that place was very cold, really very cold. I experienced the deepest chill in my life. It was that one time, and it was in a dream, Hehe.”

Boss Zhou dug his ears. He hugged the female zombie, Bai Yingying, to sleep every day,

he had long been immune to the word “Cold.”.

Normal people could not stand the yin energy emitted from Bai Yingying’s body, but Zhou Ze was willing to endure it.

“I saw a man in white walking from afar. He walked very slowly, step by step

“There was a pair of anklets on his feet, locking his ankles. With every step he took, the chains on the ground would make a ‘crash’sound because they were being dragged.

That sound, for more than twenty years, kept echoing in my dreams.

He came from afar,

passed in front of me,

i could not see his face,

his hair was a mess,

but when he came to me, I did not feel cold, I even felt a warmth.

Then, he went, as if he did not see me at all, and went on until the end of the corridor;

Then..,

he disappeared.

After that, the dream woke up.

There were no waves, no twists and turns. In fact, it was a very ordinary dream. But it was precisely because the dream was too real, so real that it seemed as if it had really happened. So, I always remembered it. I remembered it for more than twenty years.

After that, when I dreamed again, no matter what I was doing in the dream, no matter what kind of dream it was, I would have this anklet on my foot.

“That anklet, which should have been on the white-clothed man’s foot, appeared on my body.”

Zhang Yanfeng took a deep breath and exhaled heavily,

“I once asked a psychiatrist for the convenience of my work, but his answer did not satisfy me very much. Do you know what he said?

“He said that I was guilty, that I was afraid, afraid that when I would be exposed, when something would happen, Haha…”

Zhang Yanfeng smiled and threw the cigarette butt on the ground. He stepped on it hard,

“In my life, I’ve lived up to the national flag and the police badge. Do you know that on the day of my father’s funeral, he was wearing a police uniform and the national flag on his body?”

“I believe it.”

Zhou Ze looked at officer Zhang. To be honest, he reminded him of the chief who had bought books in his bookstore.

It was like on Weibo, where the Chengguan had bullied an old woman. There would be a lot of people retweeting this kind of news, and those firemen or policemen who had died in the line of duty were few and far between.

In fact, in this world, it was still mostly good people. Otherwise, this society would have been in chaos long ago.

The two of them were silent for about a quarter of an hour before Zhou Ze took the initiative to break the silence.

“I need to find a way to resolve this matter.”

Zhou ze pointed at his feet and stood up.

Opposite the small park was the police station. Zhou Ze suddenly asked,

“When you had that dream more than 20 years ago, were you also in this police station?”

“Yes, but the police station wasn’t that big back then. About 10 years ago, the police station was renovated and rebuilt.”

“The address hasn’t changed, right?”

“No.”

Zhou ze nodded. “Do you know how to draw?”

“No,”officer Zhang answered straightforwardly. “Do you want me to draw the scene from that dream?”

“Yes, I want a more direct reflection.”

“The police station does have experts in this field. I can call him over.”

“Won’t it affect his rest?”

It was late.

“Young people should train more,”Zhang Yanfeng replied.

In a trance..,

zhou ze seemed to see himself training those intern dogs to death in his previous life.

He didn’t go back to the police station. This was Zhou Ze’s request. He always felt that it was strange to stay in the police station and talk about this kind of specious matter. Moreover, in that place, there would always be a vague pressure suppressing him.

Everyone came to a cafe next to the police station. The young policeman also came with his notebook. His face was full of acne and he looked very young. He first walked to Zhang Yanfeng and greeted him:

“Hello, Captain Zhang.”

Zhang Yanfeng nodded.

Then, the young policeman looked at Zhou ze and asked, “What’s Your Name?”

“Suspect.”

Zhou ze introduced himself.

“…”the young policeman.

Zhang Yanfeng glanced at Zhou Ze, then gestured for the young policeman to sit down next to him.

Then, the young policeman opened his notebook and began to draw according to Zhang Yanfeng’s description.

This also opened Zhou Ze’s eyes a little. Perhaps, in the eyes of many people, the police were all experts in criminal investigation, but in reality, there were more and more professionals joining the police force, especially in the past few years.

It was just like how the once-famous financial swindler was recruited by the FBI after he was imprisoned.

While the small police were busy..,

zhou Ze was playing with his phone.

After about two hours..,

zhang Yanfeng nodded, indicating that it was about time. Then, she turned the laptop around and pointed at Zhou Ze, pointing at the screen:

“It’s about this scene.”

Zhou ze stared at the screen for a while,

a man in white, wearing anklet..,

walked forward numbly,

on both sides, there were dark things. Behind him, there was also a dark area,

this was an extremely narrow space.

Zhou Ze looked at Zhang Yanfeng and said, “Can you recall some more details?”

“What?”Zhang Yanfeng couldn’t understand.

“For example, here and here.”

Zhou ze pointed at the two sides of the picture. “These two sides are walls, but what is this dark area after that? If It’s a wall, why don’t you just stretch it out?”

“I’m not sure, but I remember that the wall in this place in my dream was broken and not connected together.”

“So, according to Captain Zhang’s description, I emphasized the difference between light and shadow here,”the young policeman explained. “I originally wanted to paint this place as a wall, but Captain Zhang said it wasn’t like that.”

For some reason, Zhou Ze was very concerned about the black shadows beside the walls on both sides, but he didn’t pay much attention to the person wearing white clothes and anklets.

Zhou ze raised his head and kept thinking.

He thought of the scene in the detention center. The sound of the chains approached from afar, and he was standing in the railing, pacing back and forth, trying to find his tracks..

Suddenly..,

zhou ze seemed to have thought of something. He pointed at the dark areas on both sides of the screen and said,

“This isn’t a wall. Could it be an iron railing?”

As he said that, Zhou Ze gestured with his hand again. “Have you seen the old movies? Do you remember those old-fashioned prisons?”

The young policeman immediately turned the notebook around and started to modify it again. Zhang Yanfeng, who was beside him, fell into deep thought.

“Is that so?”

Soon, the young policeman pushed the notebook toward Zhou Ze and Zhang Yanfeng.

In the picture..,

the originally dark and blurry area was changed into iron railings. The inside was still black and blurry, but with the addition of these few railings, the entire picture became clear and three-dimensional, even the information contained within was revealed at once.

In a narrow prison corridor..,

a prisoner dressed in a white prison uniform..,

his feet were shackled,

he was walking numbly,

beside him were other prison cells. Perhaps, there were still many eyes watching him.

Zhang Yanfeng immediately picked up the phone. Zhou Ze was not sure who he was calling, but Zhang Yanfeng’s voice was very clear. He did not avoid the two people present:

“Old Wang, it’s me, Zhang Yanfeng. Help me check immediately what the location of our police station used to be.

Didn’t you tell me that the old police station was built on an old building? Check this out for me. Find out what it is and what it used to be.

What, you want something more specific?

All right,

just check it out,

it used to be,

at which point,

was it used in prison?”