NOS Chapter 97

Chapter 97: Border Marker (5)

Chapter 97: Border Marker (5)

Yu Chunming had no way of verifying whether what was said was true or false, but for some reason, he didn’t refute it this time, which was rare for him.

Perhaps Liao Haimin wasn’t wrong. After all, everyone bears the mark of their parents. During Yu Chunming’s long and painful adolescence, he had indeed truly regarded Yu Zhenshan as an unattainable goal. He had admired this elder who had led him out of the sea of ​​suffering and then sent him into it. Naturally, he had also hated him with genuine emotion. However, these intense feelings had gradually become bland and imperceptible as time passed.

Today, hearing such words, Yu Chunming’s heart could hardly stir up any waves anymore.

“If there’s anything at the station, remember to call me,” he said before getting out of the car.

Guan Yao left in a hurry and didn’t take many personal belongings, even his mobile phone was left at the station. Yu Chunming carried the police cotton uniform and undershirt that he had changed out of, as well as a bag of White Rabbit Candy that he had just bought from the small supermarket at the entrance before leaving, back home.

The house was cold and deserted, with a layer of dust on the table. The plate of dumplings that the two of them hadn’t finished eating the day before was still on the kitchen counter.

Yu Chunming put down his things, put the dumplings in the microwave for half a minute, and then stuffed two of them into his mouth randomly, as today’s breakfast.

Before long, Auntie Wang and an old scavenger woman started arguing downstairs. The two argued fiercely, and after ten minutes it turned into a hearty brawl.

Yu Chunming stood on the balcony, opened the window, and flashed his Police ID: “What are you fighting about here? Just for those few scraps of cardboard, fighting and snatching. If you two keep making trouble, I’ll have the station send a car to take you to the detention room to fight!”

Hearing this, Auntie Wang immediately stopped. She spat on the ground and cursed at the old scavenger woman, “Shameless thing!”

Thus, the argument ended, and peace was restored to the Linchang Staff Family Compound once again.

Yu Chunming felt a little nauseous from being choked by the two dumplings. He was about to close the window and pour himself a glass of hot water to soothe himself, but at this moment he suddenly heard a soft “click” in the stairwell, and then someone went out.

Who was it?

Yu Chunming’s mind instantly tensed up. He quickly went to the door and soon heard the sound of leather shoes hitting the ground.

It was Jiang Min, Jiang Min was going out.

Judging from the sound, the woman’s pace was neither fast nor slow, as if she was going downstairs to take out the garbage, but also as if she was planning to go on a long trip.

Yu Chunming looked out through the peephole and saw the flickering screen of her mobile phone.

“Hello, who is this?” Jiang Min answered the phone as she walked downstairs. Yu Chunming noticed that she checked the caller ID with some doubt, and then asked, “Who is it exactly?”

Unfortunately, there was still silence on the other end. Jiang Min cursed under her breath with a meaningless swear word, and pushed open the unit door.

This woman, as always, was dressed very beautifully. She was wearing a red leather jacket with a large fur collar, stepping on a pair of leather boots with exposed fur edges. Her hair was not permed, but neatly pinned on top of her head, just like when she performed on stage. Before leaving, Jiang Min also sprayed perfume and put on brightly colored lipstick, leaving behind a refreshing fragrance after leaving the stairwell.

Yu Chunming followed her, all the way to the entrance of the family compound, watching her hail a taxi, then get in the car and drive away.

The minus twenty or thirty degree weather made Yu Chunming shiver a little. He exhaled a breath of cold air and took out his mobile phone to call Liu Sheng.

“Check a license plate, Song P D5398,” Yu Chunming said.

A few minutes later, Liu Sheng returned the query information.

“Officer Yu,” he called over there, “Two minutes ago, this car left the Ning Nie Li Qi River Bridge and went outside the city, looking…it should be northeast. There is no video monitoring outside the city, this is the latest real-time information that the traffic police brigade can find.”

“What about the owner?” Yu Chunming asked again.

“The owner is a local Za Mu Er driver, surnamed Kong, named Kong Dahui,” Liu Sheng replied.

“Give me his mobile phone number.” Yu Chunming said before hanging up.

According to the route found by the traffic police brigade, Kong Dahui took Jiang Min directly out of the city, without making any stops in between. As for where they went after leaving the city, no one knew.

Yu Chunming took Guan Yao’s red “SUV” key, and drove this small car, which had not yet been sent to the waste motor vehicle recycling center, out of the gate of the Linchang Staff Family Compound.

He went straight to the Ning Nie Li Qi River.

“Officer Yu,” Liu Sheng called again on the way, “Kong Dahui, the taxi driver you just asked me to check, suddenly went out of call range.”

Yu Chunming was being bumped around in Guan Yao’s broken car, and his whole body ached. He was puzzled: “What do you mean out of call range?”

“That means the taxi company can’t locate him anymore, it must be too far from the urban area and the signal can’t be found,” Liu Sheng replied, “This is news that just came in. They said that in the process of checking the information for us, they just discovered it, and they want us to look around and see if there’s something wrong with the driver.”

Yu Chunming frowned tightly, but didn’t say anything.

Liu Sheng was curious: “Officer Yu, aren’t you at the City Branch Bureau? How would you suddenly find out that there’s a problem with this car?”

Yu Chunming felt a lump in his throat. He didn’t answer, and hung up the phone directly. He turned the steering wheel and also went out of the city towards the northeast.

Where was Jiang Min? Thinking about this question made Yu Chunming’s scalp tingle.

Was she going out of the city to find someone, or was she going out of the city to do something? If she was looking for someone, who was she looking for? The northeast… the No. 1 Jinhoushan Patrol Station was in the northeast. Although it was far away, its direction was just right. Could it be that Jiang Min, as Guan Yao guessed, was the support for Qian Guowei’s escape from the country?

These thoughts drilled into Yu Chunming’s mind one after another, causing the hand holding the steering wheel to tremble slightly.

If Jiang Min was really in cahoots with Qian Guowei, what should he do? Was he going to just watch this muddled woman aiding and abetting the evildoers?

Yu Chunming’s brain was in a mess, and he didn’t have time to sort out the completely illogical relationships and causes and effects. He drove all the way across the Ning Nie Li Qi River Bridge, crossed the bridge, and went straight to the cornfield outside the city.

Liu Sheng called again. Yu Chunming hung up casually, and then with a “sizzle” sound, stopped the car on the ridge outside the city.

–On the opposite side of the cornfield, he saw the top of a taxi.

Qin Tian had said that his mother didn’t go home at night because she was going out to meet men. Qin Tian had also said that his mother probably met men by the river, after all, the asphalt roads in the city didn’t have mud on them.

At that time, Yu Chunming didn’t take Qin Tian’s words to heart, but now he suddenly remembered them.

At this moment, in this scene, the ground in this place, didn’t it match everything Qin Tian said?

In the deep winter, the cornfields in the far north had faded from the golden yellow before the harvest. Under the desolate mountains and wilderness, they turned into rows of standing stalks. The stalks were crisp, and the rough branches and leaves were covered with frost. When the wind blew, the white and clear snow sand fell on the plastic sheeting under the field, and then made a light “click, click” sound.

Yu Chunming was filled with a belly of cold wind, and his stomach was in a spasm of pain. When he walked to the taxi, the fingers of his hand holding the baton were a little difficult to bend. In order to open the car door, Yu Chunming gritted his teeth fiercely.

Woo–

A gust of hot air rushed out, causing him to take a step back. But there was no one in the car, only the faint tangerine-scented perfume reminded the visitor that Jiang Min had left here not long ago.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Suddenly, someone shouted from below the ridge.

Yu Chunming’s brow jumped, and he raised his head.

A middle-aged man with a simple and honest appearance was looking at him in surprise. The man was also carrying a hammer in his hand, seemingly afraid that the stranger opposite him would do something untoward.

“Kong Dahui?” Yu Chunming shouted directly.

The middle-aged man was startled by his call: “What’s wrong?”

Yu Chunming closed the car door and hid the hand holding the baton behind him. He asked, “Why did you park the car here?”

Kong Dahui looked quite puzzled, but he still answered honestly: “I took my wife to see my mother at home, what’s wrong?”

“Your wife?” Yu Chunming was suspicious. He put away the baton, walked down the ridge, and came to the man’s face.

Not far away was a two-story building, just outside the cornfield. Behind this two-story building was a small village that looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. Yu Chunming had passed by the village many times, but never thought that anyone would still live in the village.

But Kong Dahui happened to be a villager in this small village. He looked blankly at Yu Chunming, and then looked behind him: “Who are you? Why are you opening my car door?”

Yu Chunming was about to take out his Police ID to prevaricate, but the next moment, the courtyard door of the two-story building opened, and Jiang Min, wearing a red leather jacket and fur-trimmed leather boots, came out.

She was stunned when she saw Yu Chunming, wondering why this person would suddenly appear here.

“Wife,” Kong Dahui said to Jiang Min, feeling emboldened, and pointed at Yu Chunming and shouted, “This person wants to steal my car!”

Jiang Min blinked, her eyes swept over the baton that Yu Chunming had just put away, and she said to Kong Dahui, “It’s okay, you go in, I’ll talk to him.”

Kong Dahui was very obedient. He turned his head to look at Yu Chunming, lowered his voice and said to Jiang Min, “This person looks like he’s not very bright, you should hurry up and come inside with me, let’s call the police, call the police to catch him.”

Jiang Min ignored him. She waved her hand, walked past Kong Dahui, and came to Yu Chunming’s side: “What are you doing here?”

Yu Chunming didn’t speak.

Jiang Min looked at him, suddenly the corner of her mouth curved, and before the other party could ask, she directly opened her mouth and said, “You’re following me.”

Yu Chunming’s eyes narrowed, and his gaze fell on Jiang Min’s face.

Jiang Min looked quite calm and composed. She raised her chin and looked up, her expression as arrogant as when she stood on the stage thirty or forty years ago, so that anyone who looked at her would inevitably ask themselves, had they done something wrong?

Yu Chunming was no exception. He frowned and replied, “No.”

“Then you…”

Ding–

Before Jiang Min could finish speaking, her ringtone rang again. Yu Chunming’s eyes flashed, and before Jiang Min could answer, he snatched her mobile phone.

An unknown call, local number, had called six times. Jiang Min had answered twice and hung up four times.

“Who is it?” Yu Chunming asked mercilessly.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Min replied.

“You don’t know?” Yu Chunming asked back.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Min said with certainty, “This number has harassed me many times. I don’t know how to block it. Can you help me with that?”

Yu Chunming raised an eyebrow. He didn’t listen to Jiang Min, but directly called back, but no one spoke on the other end of the phone. After only three seconds of being connected, it was immediately hung up.

Jiang Min suddenly asked, “You suspect that I’ve been secretly contacting Qian Guowei?”

Yu Chunming was stunned by these words.

“I haven’t been secretly contacting Qian Guowei. I’m not here in Kongjiatun today because of him,” Jiang Min said lightly, “Kong Dahui is my boyfriend who I started dating at the beginning of the year. He drives a taxi and is a decent person. This place is his home. His mother broke her leg a few days ago, and I came to take a look.”

Yu Chunming looked at the unknown number again.

Afterwards, Jiang Min continued: “However, I did have contact with Qian Guowei a few weeks ago.”

The Jinbei van drove along the flat road, and then turned into the silver-clad Jin A Lin Mountain. Guan Yao sat in the passenger seat, turned around and glanced at Wang Zhen, who was dozing off in the back.

The several snakeheads who were being taken to Jinhou Temple were cowering in the corner, and the one responsible for guarding them was an old criminal policeman under Min Chao’s command. The old criminal policeman shook his head at Guan Yao, meaning that the shift change time had not yet arrived.

“Come to the front and rest for a while,” Guan Yao got up and squeezed into the back seat. He smiled and said, “It just so happens that I have a few questions I want to ask the suspects.”

The old criminal policeman didn’t refuse. He handed the baton to Guan Yao and whispered, “Be careful, these people are quite slippery.”

Guan Yao patted the old criminal policeman on the shoulder and sat down in his seat.

Han Chen was also on the side. He didn’t raise his eyes, and was silently watching the mountain forest retreating outside the window.

“Second Mazi?” Guan Yao called after sitting down.

The leading snakehead immediately responded. He nodded and bowed and replied, “Hello, police officer.”

Guan Yao glanced at his face full of freckles and pockmarks, and signaled to Han Chen: “I have a few questions to ask him, you take notes.”

Han Chen frowned, but did not refuse. He set up his mobile phone, and then took out a notebook: “Ask away.”

Guan Yao immediately opened his mouth: “Second Mazi, when you and that ‘Mr. He’ were eating, were there any suspicious people in the restaurant?”

“Suspicious people?” “Second Mazi” thought for a moment and shook his head, “There shouldn’t have been.”

“What do you mean ‘shouldn’t’?” Guan Yao asked.

“Shouldn’t means…” “Second Mazi” was a little embarrassed, “Sorry, police officer, I don’t remember. Everyone was in a chaotic mess at the time. We were smoking and drinking in the private room. When we left, everyone was drunk, who can remember if there were any suspicious people?”

“Then what about suspicious things?” Guan Yao asked again.

“Suspicious things?” “Second Mazi” scratched his head, “I didn’t think there was anything suspicious… Boss He was very straightforward. When we went, he was waiting there, the dishes were already on the table. We went in to eat, and left after eating. There was nothing…”

“Who paid the bill?” Guan Yao interrupted “Second Mazi.”

“Paid the bill? It must have been Boss He who paid the bill,” “Second Mazi” said without hesitation.

“Did you see it?” Guan Yao asked again.

This time, “Second Mazi” hesitated, he recalled: “It seems, it seems I didn’t see it.”

According to his statement, the few people just went to eat a meal, a group of outlaws came in a chaotic mess, and left in a chaotic mess. No one knew whether the person who paid the bill in the end was that “Mr. He.”

And Guan Yao asked so much, but there were no results. In Han Chen’s view, it was simply a waste of energy.

He asked somewhat impatiently: “What’s the use of understanding these things?”

“To see if the suspect has accomplices, the first thing is to look at the flow of his money,” Wang Zhen, who had been pretending to sleep, opened his eyes. He turned his head, sized up “Second Mazi” a few times, and then said, “We sent someone to check that farmhouse restaurant. The boss is old and can’t remember what happened three weeks ago, and there are no video monitors in the store. But after we checked the bank statements, we found that on the day you ate, the farmhouse restaurant received seventy-three yuan more. The meal cost a total of one hundred and twenty-seven, which means that someone may have put two hundred yuan there in advance to pay the bill.”

These words confused “Second Mazi.” He replied blankly: “But we didn’t see anyone besides Boss He.”

“What about before? What about when you went out? What about on the road?” Guan Yao pressed.

“Second Mazi” racked his brains, but couldn’t think of an answer.

However, one of his young accomplices opened his mouth. The man said loudly: “Police officer, on the way to that restaurant, we encountered a very beautiful woman. I think she was coming out of that restaurant.”

“Woman?” Guan Yao’s heart tightened.

“Yes, yes, yes, a woman,” Another snakehead accomplice echoed, “She’s quite tall, wearing, wearing a red cotton jacket, and walks with her chin held up very high.”

These words stirred up a hornet’s nest, and Guan Yao’s expression suddenly became extremely ugly. He gritted his teeth and asked, “How old is this woman?”

“Age?” The snakehead thought blankly, “Can’t tell her age, it seems…about forty or fifty years old, carrying a bag in her hand, I remember it was…a black leather bag.”

Wang Zhen asked Guan Yao: “Do you know any suspicious people who fit the description?”

Guan Yao slowly let out a breath: “I really…know one.”