After writing "The Three Teams", he wrote another story of chasing the murderer

New Weekly

2024-04-24 15:03Published on the official account of Guangdong New Weekly

(Photo/Movie "The Three Teams")

The ending of the movie "The Three Teams" goes like this:

Cheng Bing, the former captain of the criminal police team played by Zhang Yi, finally sent Wang Eryong, a criminal who has been at large for many years, to prison. Cheng Bing's eyes were red and swollen, full of fatigue, and when he dragged his steps towards the intersection, every companion who was chasing the murderer flashed around him, and they said to Cheng Bing one by one, "It's hard work." Walking to the intersection, Cheng Bing stopped, the light poured on his face, and he smiled. Soon, he was disappearing into the traffic.

(Photo/Movie "The Three Teams")

Similar to the image presented on the screen, Cheng Bing in reality did not return to his original unit after completing this pursuit of the murderer that spanned many years, nor did he try to prove or ask for anything. For him, the suspense was over, and after that, he hoped that his old colleagues would try not to contact him again, implying that "I should do something else in the future."

Such a story, Shenlan, who used to serve as a grassroots policeman, can hear a lot every day, and sometimes moved, but more of them are still puzzled. As an undergraduate, majoring in Chinese language and literature, he decided to pick up the pen again and write their stories.

At the end of 2016, Deep Blue noticed the call for papers in NetEase's "Human World" column, and immediately submitted the first article. The protagonist of the article is an empty nester who raises three productive children. However, there is a rift between the children, and when it comes to supporting their fathers, they seem to only have money in their eyes. After the manuscript was released, Deep Blue looked through the comments of netizens, and people's thoughts were divided into two factions. The arguments of both factions seem to be reasonable, and Deep Blue still hasn't gotten an answer.

"Deep Blue Story" series.

8 years have passed in a flash, and now Deep Blue has published three non-fiction works and two novels. He positions his works and himself as "a police officer who writes a police story, a police officer who writes a story".

On the occasion of the publication of Deep Blue's latest suspense novel, "The Abyss", we interviewed him. The following is Deep Blue's own statement.

What is real is often "dramatic"

When I was a child, I was particularly fond of the police profession. However, during the college entrance examination, I did not get into the police academy. I thought that my connection with this profession was just about "liking". Later, I went to take the civil service examination and found that I happened to meet the recruitment requirements of my former unit (a public security bureau).

That year, I was actually admitted to two places, one was here, and the other was the Agricultural Bureau in my hometown. With little to no trade-offs, I went to work as a police officer.

I have consulted many colleagues, and when they first joined the Public Security Bureau, their social experience was very limited. The scene that I had only seen in books and on TV suddenly became something that we had to face directly, and I was both apprehensive and curious. For the first half year of my career as a police officer, I was very excited every day. The police call is at the west end of the first floor, and I usually go to the east end of the second floor, and as soon as the phone rings at the bottom, I will run over from the house, whether I am on duty or not, I want to follow to see what is happening.

As a grassroots policeman, Deep Blue has been to the police many times, and has also witnessed all kinds of people and things during the period. (Photo/provided by the interviewee)

In my later works, there are a lot of things that seem to be quite plotty, but in fact, I didn't process them, I just wrote about what I saw and heard in a straightforward way. Because the real things that can cause trouble to the police are often "dramatic". "Dramatic" may not be the right word, but I really can't find a better way to describe it.

Soon, the freshness passed. My perception also began to change as my work progressed. As far as the police are concerned, the most trouble-free thing to do is to follow the letter of the law in full form. However, this is not the case, and each case needs to think about the cause and effect, and correspondingly, there will be completely different ways to deal with the problem.

(Photo/Movie "The Three Teams")

Another point is the change in perception brought about at the level of education. I grew up in an ordinary working family, and my parents taught me "what to do and what not to do". But after I went to work, I found that many people are not like this - there are parents who do not support their children, and there are children who do not support their parents, which is completely different from my past cognition.

All of this is what this job has brought me.

Why Write Nonfiction?

Before answering the question "What did I start writing nonfiction about?" I would like to talk about a few cases. They are not the so-called "shocking cases" that catch serial killers, but just common cases in everyday life. However, for the police, the crises they face often exist in these "trivialities".

The first case was a fight between two people. When my colleague and I arrived, we persuaded the two to leave, and the man went back to the house, but the woman continued to talk after she stopped pestering. My colleague and I persuaded her, saying things like "two people live together, and it is inevitable that there will be some quarrels". But no one expected that at this time, the man passed by us without saying a word, walked into the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife, and began to cut people without saying a word. In the process of dodging, my colleague was stabbed.

(Photo/Movie "The Three Teams")

The second case occurred during the Chinese New Year in one year. On the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year, we received a call to the police that there was a fight at a food stall. When the police arrived at the scene, we found that there were two groups of people: one group was seven or eight people from relatives and friends who had returned from other places, and the other group was a local family gathering. The children on either side of the table were arguing around the table, causing a quarrel.

Catalyzed by alcohol, both parties behaved extremely irrationally. After mediation, the situation has eased somewhat, and everyone is no longer so impulsive. But at that moment, a young man came over with a kitchen knife and slashed at my shoulder. Afterwards, I asked him, "You are a sophomore and have no grievances with me, why did you split me?" and he replied: "I don't know what to think, I was too drunk at that time to control myself." ”

In the third case, a police report was received that someone attempted to commit suicide by turning on the gas at home. We tricked the woman into opening the door, and the moment we entered, my colleague pounced on her and snatched the lighter from the woman's hand. After the matter was settled, my colleague and I walked back, and halfway through the car, he suddenly cried. He said to me, "We almost broke down here today, my child is just three months old, and I haven't seen him yet." ”

I said that these three examples are directly related to the idea that I wanted to write something.

Cases that can't be investigated may be more valuable for writing

When I was writing the novel "The Abyss", I was listening to a radio drama adapted from Keigo Higashino's "White Night Walking". I think a novel should be able to make people think. It occurred to me that my original work was actually about the human heart, human nature, and some deeper propositions. So, I conceived in my mind a former policeman named "Xin Jiran", and in the process of getting to know him, the "I" in the novel was involved in an old case.

"The Abyss" by Deep Blue

Chunchao Nov+ ∣ CITIC Publishing Group, 2024-2

Attentive people may find that when writing novels, I tend to set the story in an earlier era. In addition, the process and difficulty of criminal investigation in different periods are completely different, and the previous technology cannot be reached, so there will be omissions.

Xin Jiran in "The Abyss" has a trait that is very similar to Cheng Bing in "The Three Teams". The two still insist on chasing the murderer after many years because they are obsessed. My former leader once said a sentence that I remember today: "When people look for a job, some people take it as a job, some people take it as a career, and some people take it as a career." ”

Therefore, for this industry, whether the case can be solved or not depends largely on whether the police are obsessed. Every police officer knows that the victims and their families have hope and trust in them. From this point of view, probably every good policeman has a "hurdle in his heart".

The protagonists of Deep Blue's chasing after the murderer are all obsessed and have their own "hurdles that they can't get over". (Photo/Movie "The Three Teams")

Going back to the story of "The Abyss", I still have something I want to express. No matter how complex the case is, I still hope that readers will see that there is more about human nature. For example, in the face of accidents, how do you deal with the emotions between your relatives, and how do you deal with life? Because in many cases, tragedy can be avoided. The same is true of evil, don't wait for the seeds of evil to blossom and bear fruit, and then reflect on why people can be so bad.

In a previous interview, I said that in addition to being a police officer, I also wanted to be a teacher. At that time, I thought that the essence of the two professions was the same, but now that I look at it, I feel that there is still a difference between the two professions. Schools need to distinguish between right and wrong in their children's education, because it is difficult for a child to understand the so-called "middle ground", and rigid indoctrination may lead him to deviate from his values, while in the work of the police, how to balance the relationship between "law" and "people" to the greatest extent is the most important. Looking back, teachers have the duties of teachers, and the police have the mission of the police. I guess the same is true of my writing.

· END ·

Author丨L

Editor丨Tan Shanshan

Proofreading丨Meet

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