Old Liu slowly lowered his gun while crying and Old Wang comforted him. "Don't be afraid. One shot to the head and everything will be finished."

"It's just you who’d be finished!" Old Liu protested. "The blood and brain matter would splatter all over me. I’d have so much trauma. I still need to shoot myself too."

"Aiya, who can you blame for your bad luck!"

"Gentleman, gentleman!" Deputy chief Yan asked, "Do we have to solve the problem with death? I want to ask something. How much do you still have to pay for the surgery?"

"Two hundred thousand!"

"Three hundred thousand!"

"That's half a million then. I'll go back and communicate with the hospital. We’ll get the hospital to subsidize half. That’s 250,000! The 250,000 is then divided into two halves. The police will donate half of that to you and then the rest would be afforded by you and your children. Will that work?"

The two old men looked at each other and asked, "Are you really willing to pay that money?"

"We’re the police. Why should we lie to you? If we’ve said it, we’ll do it!"

Old Liu shed tears. "Forget it. It’s better to die. It’s as if we’re here trying to scam this money.”

"Don't do it. Let’s say this is for us. The money problem is easy to solve. There are hundreds of people in the Public Security Bureau and it’s enough if each of us donates a few hundred. It’s better to be alive than dead. You two are only just over 60. You still have a lot of life left in you two!”

Old Wang looked at Old Liu. The two hesitated and deputy chief Yan slowly walked over. "I will definitely solve the problem for you, so put down the gun, okay?"

Lin Qiupu, who was watching this scene behind the door, wiped away the sweat that covered his forehead. The air seemed to freeze, and deputy chief Yan approached slowly while he was comforting them. He walked in front of Old Liu and took the pistol from his hand. Then, he quickly ejected the bullets.

Deputy chief Yan was relieved and said, "Hurry back to the ward!"

"Mm... You’re not arresting us?" Old Wang asked.

"You’re not criminals. Go back. The roof is really cold!" Deputy chief Yan said kindly.

"Thank you, thank you, officers!"

The incident was finally resolved safely. Everyone was relieved, and deputy chief Yan got into Lin Qiupu's car. He lit a cigarette with approval, saying, "In fact, it's not that big of a deal. If it weren't for this gun, we might not have had to come forward."

Lin Qiupu checked the gun. "This is indeed one of the missing guns... Shall we go to the hospital to negotiate now?"

"What for? Let’s go back."

"You just said..."

"Oh, those were just lies. If I didn’t say that, would he put the gun down?"

Lin Qiupu looked at his former teacher in disbelief. "Teacher Yan, this... This doesn’t seem very good. Their problems have not been solved. What if they jump off the building or take drugs later?"

"That is the responsibility of the hospital. It has nothing to do with us." Deputy chief Yan said coldly.

"I'll talk to the hospital!"

"Come back!" Deputy chief Yan stopped him. Realizing that he was acting too cold, his tone became softer. "Little Lin, you’re still too young and have experienced very few things. I see dozens of such suicides every year. Ninety-nine percent of it is due to money. Should we take out our wallets and pay for it every time? In that case, if patients don’t have money and act out a suicide play, what would the police become? A non-profit organization?”

"However, since you agreed, leaving them be would be so pitiful."

"What is the ultimate purpose of negotiation?"

"Resolving the crisis!"

"You remember it very clearly. Besides, now that medicine is so advanced, not everyone can afford this kind of financial burden. If all people have unlimited treatment, any country would go bankrupt. It’s their own business to afford medical expenses. We are just here to resolve the crisis and not solve the fundamental problems for them! I know these words are a bit cruel, but this is our job! Okay, don’t bear the psychological burden and just drive!"

A bitter taste was left in Lin Qiupu’s mouth. He was silent the whole way back. When he returned to the bureau, deputy chief Yan greeted the chief. Lin Qiupu returned to his office and sent a message to the second team. "Donate to those two old people!"

Someone replied, "Didn't deputy chief Yan say we didn't need to donate?"

Lin Qiupu stubbornly replied, "If I say we need to donate, then we need to donate. Everyone needs to donate over two hundred!”

No one dared to complain. They transferred money one after another. Among them, there was a thousand yuan donation from Chen Shi. In the end, there was probably more than 30,000, but it was like using a cup of water trying to save a truck full of hay[1].

Lin Qiupu asked someone to send the money to the old men and asked his subordinates to communicate with the hospital to see if it was possible. If it wasn’t, that was fine. He also asked them to see if they could help them by raising funds through the Internet.

After doing this, he finally felt more comfortable in his heart. The police really couldn’t solve the fundamental problems of society. This was just a little charity from him as an individual.

It was already 2:00 in the afternoon at this time and they could finally have the time to have a bite to eat. Deputy chief Yan was at the lunch table chatting away happily with the second team. Lin Qiupu was still feeling a little sour in his heart, so he silently ate and didn’t talk.

Deputy chief Yan was stationed in the task force for the time being. He was responsible for responding to various critical situations. After all, there was no better negotiation expert than him in the entire city. He was experienced and had handled hundreds of kidnapping and suicide cases.

Amidst these busy days, this afternoon was unexpectedly calm. There were no emergency reports and no gunfire was heard in the city.

Captain Bi of the third team analyzed that the first batch of people who got guns and tried them without thinking were almost all captured. The next group was the most dangerous group. They had guns on them and they had people that they wanted to kill in their hearts. They were looking for opportunities to kill.

At 5:00 in the afternoon, an emergency report was called in saying that there was a shooting situation at a high school and two students were shot. Everyone was startled when they heard the news. They didn't expect it to happen on a school campus.

A large number of policemen were immediately dispatched to the school. At this time, it was summer vacation. Most of the students didn’t come to take classes. Only the students that were in the second grade going onto the third grade of high school had supplementary classes. The school forced this in order to raise their rate of grade-promotion.

Teachers and school workers were evacuating students. A teacher explained the situation while leading the way. The high school student named Wang Xu was armed. The child was in a complicated situation. His father was sentenced to prison-time for robbery before and his mother didn’t hold a serious occupation. His grades were bad, but every time they wanted to meet his parents, his mom would refuse to show up. It seemed like she didn’t care about his school situation at all.

Deputy chief Yan asked, "What about students who were shot?"

"One is called Liu Dong and the other is Ma Fei. They are all students in my class. Liu Dong got a shot in the chest and has been sent to get emergency care. Ma Fei is in the classroom right now. He seems to have also been shot. Wang Xu is also there... I don’t understand where he got the real gun. It scares me to death.”

"When did the shooting happen?"

"During the third class, I heard two bangs and ran over to see Liu Dong falling down outside the classroom, all covered in blood. The children were terrified and ran straight out."

Deputy chief Yan gestured for the other policemen not to come forward. He went to the door of the classroom alone, but the door was closed. He knocked a few times and said, "Wang Xu, I'm a policeman. I want to talk to you. Will you let me in?"

There was no sound inside. The classroom curtains were drawn. Deputy chief Yan put his ears on the door to listen. He heard a boy crying, so it seemed like the hostage was still alive.

1. The strength of it isn’t enough and would be unable to solve the problem.