NOS Chapter 100

Chapter 100: The Boundary Marker (8)

Chapter 100: The Boundary Marker (8)

After the gunshot, a shadow fell into the snow.

The hunter holding the gun was stunned. He stared in the direction where the shadow disappeared and muttered to himself, “Did I see things?”

After saying that, he turned and left the forest.

Before long, the fallen shadow rustled and struggled to its feet. It was actually a person, a young man with a tattered cotton coat and frostbite all over his hands and cheeks.

“Where did he run off to? Hurry and find him!” An hour ago, under a hill not far away, a boy said anxiously.

“I want to find him too, but the mountain gullies are so big. What if he gets eaten by a tiger? Where are we going to look for him?” the boy’s older brother replied.

The boy stifled a breath and shouted, “It’s all your fault! That person clearly said before he left to quickly put the medicine in his food, but you just wouldn’t listen. You insisted on waiting until he was almost starving, just to see him wolf down his food. Now look, he’s run away! If that person comes back, we’re both in big trouble!”

“So what if we’re in big trouble?” The boy’s older brother was fearless. He said, “Even if that person puts medicine in our food, I’ll smash the bowl!”

The shadow huddled on the hillside blinked a few times. He lowered his head and vigorously rubbed his hands, which were festering with frostbite, then breathed on them, trying to warm up his stiff limbs. But unfortunately, the effect of this breath was negligible. He was still cold to the bone all over.

Where is this place?

This is a desolate wilderness.

The sun in the sky was slightly westward. Perhaps before long, he would see the North Star that could guide him. When that time comes, when that time comes…

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a phone.

Meng Changqing sighed deeply. He had finally escaped, but he didn’t have any communication tools.

This was the thirty-fifth day since he was kidnapped by Li Guanglai.

Meng Changqing counted the days, afraid that he would forget the specific date and be unable to calculate his latitude and longitude. His mind was very clear, arguably clearer than ever before. Meng Changqing understood that only by staying constantly alert could he have a chance to survive.

“Master…” After the two boys left, Meng Changqing silently uttered two words. He called out, “Master.”

Guan Yao might be nearby, or perhaps he was still in Za Mu Er. After desperately sending out that message, Meng Changqing hoped every moment that he would open his eyes one day and see his master and colleagues kick open the door that locked him up. But until today, Guan Yao had not appeared.

Meng Changqing was not discouraged. He knew very well that he could not be discouraged. He still had to bring the suspect to justice.

“What are you doing?” Thirty-five days ago, Fang Wang, who had injured his head, lay on the snow and asked blankly.

Due to the concussion, he was experiencing short-term memory loss and couldn’t understand what was being said.

Meng Changqing held his breath. He helped Fang Wang into the car and said, “I’m going to bring the suspect to justice.”

“Huh?” Fang Wang didn’t hear clearly.

Meng Changqing tried to find paper and a pen, but after searching the car for a long time, he only found his phone, which had a black screen due to the low temperature, and a walkie-talkie crushed under the passenger seat.

“Brother Fang, I’m leaving you here. You wait for rescue. I’m going to follow those two people and see what’s going on!” Meng Changqing said.

Fang Wang answered vaguely, not knowing what he was saying.

Meng Changqing continued, “When we entered the village just now, I felt that the person who stopped us was suspicious. The tall one… the tall one looks a lot like the suspect Yi Jun!”

Fang Wang could no longer hear Meng Changqing’s words. His eyes were half-closed, and he lightly “mm”ed.

Meng Changqing gritted his teeth and said, “Brother Fang, don’t worry, I’m just going to follow them for a look, to see where they’re going. Once I figure it out, I’ll come back immediately. You wait for me here.”

After saying that, Meng Changqing pulled out his baton and stun gun and plunged into the birch forest outside Qianjinping.

Then, he never returned.

“This kid has guts.” When his hands were tied and he was stuffed into the car, Li Guanglai said coldly.

This was the first time Meng Changqing had seen a murderer’s face so closely. He pursed his lips, clenched his teeth, and stared with wide eyes.

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?” Li Guanglai asked in a sinister tone, looking at his expression.

“Don’t, don’t kill people.” At that time, Li Ying shrank to the side and said timidly.

Li Guanglai snorted coldly, pulled out a homemade gun from his waist, raised his hand, and put the barrel against Meng Changqing’s forehead: “He’s a policeman. If I don’t kill him, am I going to let him go back and arrest me?”

“But…”

Click—

“I know the shift change times at the border post!” Meng Changqing suddenly shouted loudly.

Li Guanglai paused his cocking action and lifted his eyelids to look at him.

“My master was a border soldier. He told me about the shift change patterns and times. You, if you want to run away, you can take me with you. I’ll help you.” Under extreme fear, extreme courage is born. Meng Changqing himself didn’t know how he said these words. He guaranteed with certainty, “I can take you out. Even if we get caught, you can use me as a hostage to force the border guards and armed police to let you leave!”

These words instantly aroused Li Guanglai’s interest. He raised the corners of his mouth, put down the gun, and turned to Li Ying and said, “It is said that Qian Guowei is already dead. If this bastard is really dead, maybe keeping this kid will be useful.”

Li Ying swallowed a mouthful of saliva, still looking timid and guilty.

He asked, “What if Qian Guowei isn’t dead?”

“If Qian Guowei isn’t dead,” Li Guanglai said lightly, “then I’ll kill this kid and then go kill Qian Guowei.”

So, Meng Changqing was locked up by Li Guanglai in an abandoned patrol station outside Qianjinping.

At first, this captive was very obedient and even offered advice and suggestions for Li Guanglai’s escape. But soon, when Li Guanglai discovered that Qian Guowei had neither been caught by the police in Beilin Village nor died in the wilderness, and was even planning to hire a snakehead to escape the country, Meng Changqing became an eyesore.

He first planned to kill and dismember him on the spot, then throw Meng Changqing’s flesh and bones to the wild dogs, but Li Ying, who rushed over, stopped Li Guanglai’s actions. Meng Changqing took this opportunity to escape from the abandoned patrol station and fled all the way to the mountains of Qianjinping. At the pass, he left markings with the fabric and blood from his police uniform pants.

But unfortunately, just as he was about to meet the rescue team, Li Guanglai and Li Ying found him. The two of them worked together to stuff him into a pickup truck, which Li Guanglai drove away from Qianjinping.

Although this fight provided the police with a lot of clues and locked onto a rubber shoe footprint left at the pass, which in turn determined the identity of the suspect, Li Ying inexplicably committed suicide a week later, cutting off the only breakthrough for the police in solving the case.

And Meng Changqing could only continue to play it small and follow Li Guanglai to the more distant Huyang Village.

There weren’t many villagers in Huyang Village. Meng Changqing glanced around roughly when he got out of the car and didn’t find any chance to escape. He was Bet being locked up by Li Guanglai in a warehouse that had been unoccupied for a long time. Except for going out to see the sky when he needed to relieve himself, he didn’t even have any opportunity to move around.

But by chance, Meng Changqing met two boys from a hunter’s family. They climbed over the wall into the warehouse one day and happened to run into Li Guanglai, who was sitting under the window cleaning his gun.

“You said, if we let the thief run away, will that person also drag us into jail?” Walking on the way home, the younger boy was a little scared.

His older brother said with a straight face, “Don’t worry, he won’t. That person said he was a policeman. Policemen don’t arrest children.”

“What if…”

“What if what?” The older boy was bolder. He shouted, “That person said he was a policeman. Do you really believe he’s a policeman? In my opinion, he’s not a policeman at all. Maybe that person is just teasing us, making us help him guard the bad guy!”

The younger brother frowned and lowered his head to play with the hammer that Li Guanglai had given him earlier: “Isn’t guarding bad guys what policemen do? We let the bad guy run away. If he comes back to steal things again, and Mom finds out that the bad guy stole the phone she just bought you last year and broke it, what will we do?”

These words made the older brother nervous as well, but he was still pretending to be brave: “Don’t be afraid! He wouldn’t dare come back.”

Just then, a man leaning against the entrance of the village asked, “Who are you saying wouldn’t dare come back?”

The two boys were startled and looked in the direction of the voice together.

Guan Yao smiled, adjusted his dog skin hat, squatted down, and asked very kindly, “Who were you talking about just now? Can you tell me?”

Under the Jinbei van parked outside Huyang Village stood several men smoking cigarettes. Among them, one with a face full of pockmarks and potholes was smiling obsequiously, lighting cigarettes for each of the men holding them.

“Are you familiar with Huyang Village?” One of the middle-aged men, whose face was as black as charcoal and had a “beauty mark” on the corner of his mouth, asked, “I see you… know your way around.”

“Second Pockface” nodded and bowed: “Familiar, familiar. I’m very familiar with this area. Many people inside… are my relatives. They don’t do smuggling business, but there aren’t any secrets between us.”

“Relatives?” Wang Zhen spat out a mouthful of smoke. “Then before, a thief came to the village here. Do you know about it?”

“Thief?” “Second Pockface” shook his head. “After I took Boss He’s order, I’ve been squatting at Jin Gou Temple. I really don’t know what’s been happening in Huyang Village recently. I only know that someone is asking around about whether anyone is planning to leave the country recently… Hey, Boss, if you want to ask anything, I can have my brother-in-law come over. My brother-in-law is the one who sells tofu in this village.”

“No need,” Wang Zhen flicked the cigarette ash. “We already know almost everything. It’s just that we’re not clear…”

“Master, the detailed address has been confirmed.” Han Chen, who was sitting in the car, suddenly poked his head out.

Wang Zhen slapped him on the head. “Idiot, what did I tell you before?”

Han Chen paused and quickly changed his words: “Uncle, there’s a phone call from home.”

Wang Zhen chuckled at the “Second Pockface,” his face turned stern again, and he took the phone handed over by Han Chen: “What’s the detailed address?”

“Still Huyang Village, but the location has changed to near a watchtower about two kilometers northeast of the village. There happens to be a base station there, so it’s relatively easy to locate,” Han Chen replied.

“Great.” Wang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

Ten minutes later, Guan Yao returned, with two teenage children in tow.

He smiled at Wang Zhen and said, “Uncle, do you have any spare change in your pocket? Give these two kids fifty yuan. They want to eat spicy hot pot for lunch.”

The younger one clung close to his brother and said loudly after hearing this, “My mom said we can’t take money from strangers!”

Wang Zhen had just hung up the phone. He glanced at Han Chen, who was about to speak, squeezed out a smile, and said, “Where did this kid come from?”

“From the village,” Guan Yao replied. “I just heard them say something on the road that didn’t sound right. I wanted to ask them a few questions, but these two kids are money-grubbers. If you don’t give them some interest, they won’t open their mouths.”

“Oh, okay, Uncle will give you a hundred. Do you want it?” Wang Zhen was very generous. He pulled out a red bill from his pocket. “Enough for you two to eat five bowls of spicy hot pot.”

“I want it!” The older one took the money without hesitation. “Ask whatever you want. I know all the big and small things in Huyang Village!”

“You know everything?” Wang Zhen squatted down, narrowed his eyes, lowered his voice, and asked, “Then… have you heard that a thief came to this place before?”

“Of course I’ve heard of it,” the older one immediately replied. “Not only have I heard of it, but I also helped the policeman who was guarding him!”

“The policeman who was guarding him?” Guan Yao was surprised.

According to the two children, more than a week ago, the two of them climbed through a window in the middle of the night and jumped into the back room of an empty warehouse in the village, where they met a middle-aged man cleaning a gun under the window.

This middle-aged man claimed to be a policeman who was escorting a thief who had committed a crime to the border.

This was quite a glorious and righteous matter, and for teenage boys, it meant eliminating harm for the people and punishing evil and promoting good.

So, the two boys, who were only eight and ten years old this year, saw the gun in this man’s hand and immediately believed him. They even volunteered to guard this “thief” who didn’t look like a thief at all for him when he had to go out.

“What did they look like?” Wang Zhen asked.

“The police uncle was very tall and strong, and his face was quite long. The thief… was a bit small, dressed in rags, and all dirty.” The younger brother replied.

“What about their accents? Are they local?” Wang Zhen asked again.

“Probably.” The two boys, who hadn’t been out of Huyang Village much, couldn’t be sure.

“Then do you know where they are now? Still in that warehouse?” Wang Zhen continued to ask.

“Not there anymore,” the younger brother replied. “They left several days ago. The police uncle said that this thief has a gang behind him, and the people who stole things with him want to rescue him. He told us to guard the entrance of the village. If we see outsiders coming in, we have to tell them immediately. Last Friday night, we saw a big group of people, all dark and murky, sneaking in from outside, so we immediately reported the news. The police uncle took the thief to… to a watchtower outside. Uncle said that you can see cars coming from the south on the watchtower, so they can evacuate at any time.”

“Evacuate at any time?” Guan Yao frowned. “What about now?”

“Now, now… the police uncle is gone, and the thief is also…”

“Hey!”

Before the younger brother could finish speaking, he was poked by his brother, and the two of them immediately fell silent, and neither of them was willing to open their mouths.

Wang Zhen smiled: “I’m your police uncle’s colleague. I’m also here to catch the thief. If you tell me where the thief went, we’ll help you catch him back, okay?”

“Really?” The older brother didn’t believe it.

Wang Zhen raised an eyebrow and pulled out a police ID from his pocket as if by magic: “Look, what’s this?”

Seeing the police ID, the two of them were only half-convinced.

At this time, the younger brother said, “Huh, why didn’t the previous police uncle show us this thing? Could it be that he’s really fake?”

“Well…”

Bang! Before Wang Zhen could finish speaking, there was a sudden loud noise in the distance, and everyone tensed up and looked up.

“That’s a gunshot.” Guan Yao said in a deep voice, “Someone is shooting in the forest.”

[Author’s Note]

I’m so confused, what is sensitive in this chapter?

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