A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel by Wenguang Huang Pin Ho Read Free Book Online Page B

public security bureau at the age of thirty-eight. He had received numerous medals and awards for cracking difficult criminal cases. In 2000, while Wang was hailed in the north as an anticrime hero, Wen earned a similar title in the southwest after capturing Zhang Jun, who was dubbed as China’s number-one “bandit” and “monstrous murderer.” Zhang had traversed the countryfor eight years with three partners, stealing 6 million yuan in jewelry and cash and killing twenty-eight people. Despite the nationwide manhunt, Zhang and his partners, who were well-trained in special military skills, evaded police.
    Wen was under tremendous pressure to capture Zhang after the bandit and his two partners seized an armored truck in front of a bank in Changde city in the nearby Hunan province on September 1, 2000, killing two guards and two cashiers while snatching two micro-submachine guns. A witness inside the bank pushed the alarm, forcing them to flee, so Zhang stopped a taxi, shot the driver, and fled empty-handed. Despite his indiscriminate killing sprees, the seemingly invincible Zhang was deemed a hero by many, who applauded him for killing mostly corrupt officials. Some female college students even wrote him love letters.
    Wen had studied and tracked Zhang for six years. Two weeks after the failed armored car heist, Wen zeroed in and captured him with a girlfriend at his hideout in a small town not far from Chongqing. After Zhang was wrestled to the ground, Wen had a picture taken, with one foot ostensibly trampling Zhang’s face. On April 21, 2001, Zhang was executed. A novelist wrote a book about Wen’s legendary career, much as Wang’s story had been told to the wider populace of China through a TV drama.
    WANG AND WEN, two legendary anticrime heroes, met on June 26, 2008. As the Chinese saying goes, “Two tigers cannot coexist on one mountain.” Wang took over the deputy police chief’s position that Wen had held for sixteen years, and Wen was transferred to what was regarded as a less important post: chief of the justice bureau. At the handover ceremony, an official recalled, Wen shook hands with Wang and went on to express support for the party’s decision in his farewell speech. Over the next year, the two remained amicable. But Wang was secretly plotting—he had heard stories about Wen’s cozy relations with leaders of the mafia and his multiple young mistresses. Besides, the impetuous Wen, favored by the city’s previous party chief, was said to have defied orders from Bo.
    Wang made his move on August 7, 2009, sending police to arrest Wen at a conference in Beijing. He was flown back to Chongqing, where Wang was waiting at the airport with one hundred fully armed police officers. Police raided Wen’s home and discovered a plastic bag containing 20 million yuan hidden under a pond in his courtyard. Over the next few days, local and national newspapers carried a series of salacious stories based on information provided by the public security bureau. Wen was portrayed as a godfather figure who had shielded mobsters from the authorities. One article said Wen had attended the birthday party of a mafia leader’s daughter and accepted a huge amount of money. Another article alleged that Wen had asked his subordinates to get him a young girl who was virgin, at the cost of 100,000 yuan. Wen’s sister-in-law had been arrested and detained two weeks before he was, allegedly for running a gambling and drug ring. She was depicted as a nymphomaniac who kept sixteen young men as sex slaves.
    The public outcry against Wen Qiang generated by the lurid media reports effectively blocked any attempts by his supporters in Beijing to intervene. In the end, Wen was charged with accepting bribes up to 12 million yuan and raping a college student. In April 2010, eight months after his arrest, the court sentenced Wen to death. His wife and his sister-in-law got eighteen years respectively for taking bribes, operating illegal