NOS Chapter 45
by VolareChapter 45 The Setting Sun Prairie (8)
Jiang Min, he said he had seen Jiang Min’s performance.
Yu Chunming repeated this sentence ten times in his mind, and the cold sweat that had just subsided on his back broke out again.
When Guan Yao received the call and came out of the Municipal Branch Bureau, he happened to see him standing pale-faced at the door, and his heart skipped a beat.
“What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?” Guan Yao asked.
Yu Chunming glanced at the gate: “Where’s Wang Zhen? Didn’t I tell you to call Wang Zhen out too?”
“Oh, Wang Zhen, he…” Guan Yao turned his head back, “We just came back overnight from Baihua’s place, and we collected a room full of evidence. Wang Zhen is busy with the criminal technicians. We just found a major breakthrough. If you have anything, just tell me…”
“Ai Hua is still alive.” Yu Chunming walked directly past him and into the Municipal Branch Bureau.
“What did you say?” Guan Yao didn’t react for a moment.
Of course, anyone who hears this news will instinctively disbelieve it.
——How could someone who has been dead for more than thirty years appear alive in front of everyone? Either it’s a case of mistaken identity, or there’s another secret hidden in the fire that year.
And Yu Chunming firmly believes the latter.
He walked all the way into the temporary meeting room of the Task Force of the Municipal Branch Bureau, ignored Han Chen who was about to greet him when he saw him, went straight to Wang Zhen, and then took out the computer, mobile phone, and the newly printed photos and monitoring screenshots from his bag.
“Around 6:30 this morning, I ran into a person at the entrance of the Linchang Staff Family Compound. This person’s appearance is highly similar to Ai Hua. I just went to the Traffic Police Brigade to retrieve the monitoring videos of the entrance and intersections of the Linchang Staff Family Compound for the past week and discovered his movements.” Yu Chunming spread the photos and monitoring screenshots on the conference table, then turned on the computer and brought up the monitoring video.
Wang Zhen wiped his face and belatedly understood what Yu Chunming was saying. He asked strangely, “Who is Ai Hua? What does his being alive have to do with our case?”
Yu Chunming looked at him and answered solemnly and seriously: “Ai Hua was one of the victims of the 9.24 fire thirty-three years ago. The person that the Grinding Stone Mountain dismemberment case’s killer wanted to investigate, Qian Guowei, was Ai Hua’s good friend back then.”
Wang Zhen’s eyelids twitched, and he went up to take the things Yu Chunming handed over and read them from beginning to end. After reading them, he said thoughtfully: “It’s strange, it’s really strange. At this juncture, an Ai Hua who has come back from the dead suddenly appears. This is really…”
“Could it be that Chunming is mistaken?” Han Chen interjected at this moment.
“Impossible,” Yu Chunming resolutely denied, “Master, you have to believe my eyes.”
Wang Zhen chuckled. He looked at Yu Chunming and smiled, “You’re calling me master now, how can I not believe you?”
After speaking, Wang Zhen handed the monitoring video and photos to Na Fei: “Go, your trace group and image group should hurry up and compare them.”
At this time, Yu Chunming spoke again, he said: “Master, there is one more thing that I have to tell you separately.”
Wang Zhen was stunned, then quickly nodded: “Okay.”
After last year, Yu Chunming had hardly called him “Master” once. Now that he was suddenly so respectful, Wang Zhen knew as soon as he heard it that he was not going to the Three Treasures Hall without a reason.
Sure enough, after entering the office and closing the door, Yu Chunming immediately said: “You have to ask Deputy Director Yu if he has ever heard of this Ai Hua.”
Wang Zhen’s eyes widened: “Ask Deputy Director Yu, why?”
Yu Chunming answered calmly: “That Ai Hua, in all likelihood, had a close relationship with Jiang Min back then, and it is written in his diary that he once went to Songlan to see Jiang Min. Looking at the date, when Ai Hua went to Songlan to see Jiang Min, Jiang Min should not have divorced Deputy Director Yu yet.”
Wang Zhen’s head buzzed from hearing this. He calmed down for a long time, and finally asked hesitantly, “Are you asking me to go to Deputy Director Yu to talk about this?”
“He may have seen Ai Hua, or he may not have. You go and confirm it.” Yu Chunming looked like a leader assigning tasks to his subordinates. He said it without changing his face, and then he vaguely felt a pang of conscience, so he added as a remedy, “Sorry to trouble you, Master.”
“Trouble, this is not a trouble…” Wang Zhen touched the “matchmaker mole” on his chin and replied with a smile, “Chunming, this is not a trouble at all, because this is a matter of life and death.”
Yu Chunming ignored him. He turned around and took out the analysis report of the suspect’s escape route that he had written last night from his bag and handed it to Wang Zhen: “I have finished writing this. Take a look. I think the possibility of the third route is the greatest. If you think so too, it is best to hurry up and send more people along the way from Eighteen Mile Village to Qianjinping. The suspect has a high probability of staying near there.”
Wang Zhen took the report, his smile stiff.
But Yu Chunming turned around and left, but after walking halfway, he didn’t know what he thought of. He stepped out of the door with his front foot, and then turned back and asked: “Hey, Guan Yao just said that you found a major clue in the evidence you took back from the health center, what does that mean?”
“This is an internal matter of our Task Force.” Wang Zhen said with a resolute face.
“Oh.” Yu Chunming didn’t have the desire to inquire further. He closed the door without looking back, and specially asked Guan Yao when he passed by the conference room, “I asked your apprentice to track down this suspected Ai Hua, do you want to come along?”
Wang Zhen “bang” opened the door and poked half of his head out, staring at the person with a face full of resentment.
Guan Yao quickly glanced at the person with a face full of resentment, and then replied happily: “Okay, let’s go.”
At the moment, Meng Changqing, who was arranged by Yu Chunming to track down the suspicious person, was squatting in a car that couldn’t turn on the heat on a street corner while shivering, and taking pictures with his mobile phone.
When Guan Yao and Yu Chunming opened the door and got into the car, the kid was startled, and the mobile phone almost smashed the car window glass.
He said anxiously in a low voice: “Master, be gentle!”
Guan Yao “Ouch” said, and stretched his head to look: “Why did you stop so close?”
Meng Changqing probed his head and answered: “I didn’t expect him to stop here. If you go a little further out of this road, you will be on the Ning Nie Li Qi River Bridge. I thought he was going out of the city.”
This place is a fork in the road going north to the ring road. Except for a few low, squat houses, the distance is full of endless cornfields. If Meng Changqing had not stopped the car in time and followed him, he would probably have crossed the bridge and left the suspect behind, and he would have gone out of the city himself.
“Why did he stop here?” Yu Chunming was also very strange, “There’s no village in front and no store behind, shouldn’t he have discovered you?”
“It shouldn’t be,” Meng Changqing replied, “Just now I saw him get out of the car to smoke and make a phone call, and he went up again just now, probably waiting for someone.”
“Waiting for someone?” Guan Yao was slightly surprised, “Did you see clearly that it was the person you were told to track, are you sure it’s him?”
“Master, you underestimate me too much. He even changed a car in the middle, but I didn’t follow the wrong way.” Meng Changqing said unconvinced.
“Changed a car?” Yu Chunming paused, “Did you send the license plate to the vehicle management office?”
“I sent it,” Meng Changqing was rarely clever once, he handed the mobile phone to Yu Chunming and said, “Officer Yu, the vehicle management office just replied, saying that this car belongs to Huifeng, the largest car rental company in our Za Mu Er. It was rented three days ago by a person named Wu Jiao. Just now our police station replied that this Wu Jiao is from Baishan and lives in Fanggang all year round. He came to Za Mu Er by train at the end of last month, that is, two weeks ago.”
“Baishan? Fanggang?” Yu Chunming frowned, “I know Fanggang, that place is on the border, and you could run into North Korean defectors every now and then before.”
Guan Yao also frowned: “This Wu Jiao looks like a very decent person, what is he doing in our compound…?”
Yu Chunming replied: “The noodle shop owner said that he went to see Jiang Min. This person claimed that he had seen Jiang Min’s performance and had always been thinking about it.”
“What the hell?” Guan Yao was taken aback.
While a few people were talking, the person who had just finished smoking, made a phone call, got into the car, and waited quietly restarted the car, and turned around at the end of the road, turning to another fork in the road.
“There are not many cars on that road, do you still want to follow?” Meng Changqing hesitated a little.
“Follow.” Yu Chunming made a decisive decision, “If we don’t follow now, are we going to let people run away? If he finds us, just go up and press the person down.”
Guan Yao’s temple jumped, he wanted to say that Yu Chunming was being too careless, but after thinking about it, he agreed with this careless approach: “Follow, it’s best to find clues by following him. If you can’t find them, he himself can become a clue.”
Hearing this, Meng Changqing took a breath and stepped on the accelerator.
Before long, the two cars drove out of Za Mu Er’s urban area one after the other, and turned to the low-lying original ridge to the north. The highway narrowed, and the undulating cornfields on both sides gradually turned into white birch forests with brittle yellow leaves.
Soon, they plunged into the Jin A Lin Mountain.
But the car in front didn’t speed through the mountains for too long. Twenty minutes later, a One Zero Three Forest Farm patrol station appeared on the side of the road. Behind the patrol station, there were several warehouses and dormitories that had been abandoned.
“Stop further away, walk over there, Xiao Meng stays in the car, and report immediately if there is a problem.” Guan Yao said.
Yu Chunming took out a telescopic stick from under the car seat and put it on his body. He said to Meng Changqing: “Send the address here back first, and let the police station send someone immediately.”
Meng Changqing nodded repeatedly.
After preparing, Yu Chunming and Guan Yao got out of the car one after the other. They abandoned the shortcut and decided to detour in from behind the patrol station.
“If it’s really Ai Hua, have you thought about why he came back?” Guan Yao asked in a low voice, stepping on the fallen leaves covered with frost.
Yu Chunming didn’t answer.
“It’s impossible that he really just wanted to see Aunt Jiang?” Guan Yao paused, and then said, “And, at this juncture, when Lin Zhimin died inexplicably, and the killer hired someone to investigate Qian Guowei.”
“Qian Guowei may also be alive.” Yu Chunming said suddenly.
Guan Yao’s footsteps stagnated, and he couldn’t help but look back at him.
Yu Chunming raised his hand at this moment, signaling him to be silent and lower his body.
Guan Yao immediately became nervous, he retreated to the right side of Yu Chunming, and the two of them looked towards that side along the base of the wall.
They had already arrived near the patrol station. No one had set foot here for a long time. Whether it was the warehouse or the dormitory, they were surrounded by clumps of weeds. But now, a van, a white car that they had just tracked, and several suspicious figures appeared in the patrol station that should have been empty.
“The advance payment has already been paid.” Someone said.
Yu Chunming and Guan Yao couldn’t see who was speaking, but they could clearly hear the voice. The two of them lightened their steps and moved slowly closer.
“500,000, is a little too little.” Another person replied.
“Is 500,000 still little? When I take North Korean defectors through the southern route, the advance payment is only 500,000.” Someone answered.
“Another 100,000,” the person who spoke earlier said, “You have to know that it’s not winter now, and the river is not frozen yet. The risk of crossing the border is too high. We can only take people on fishing boats. This thing earns money by licking blood from the edge of a knife. The border police just caught three people fishing illegally across the border last month, so if you get involved with us after you pass, we have to take some compensation fees as well.”
After saying this, there was a long silence. Yu Chunming and Guan Yao waited outside for a long time before waiting for a reply: “Okay, but we have to choose the time and date.”
“No problem.” The person who just asked for the price said.
After hearing this exchange, Guan Yao immediately reacted. He pulled Yu Chunming and whispered: “It’s the snakehead on the border.”
Yu Chunming’s eyes narrowed slightly: “Snakehead? Are there still snakeheads in Za Mu Er now?”
“It’s not like before. People used to run out to live a good life. Now, those who cross the border are basically fugitives who have several lives on their backs.” Guan Yao said, “Last year, we followed a suspect who had fled from Shunyang to Za Mu Er and destroyed three border snakehead gangs. At that time, they were hiding in the mining area of Jin A Lin Mountain.”
Yu Chunming thought for a moment and realized something was wrong: “Is this suspected Ai Hua planning to help someone cross the border?”
“It’s mostly gone,” Guan Yao replied, “Listening to what he meant, he himself is a big snakehead who helps North Korean defectors cross the border. This time he came to Za Mu Er, maybe he took someone’s order.”
Yu Chunming lowered his head and glanced at the time: “Wait, they are counting money now, so they shouldn’t be able to leave for a while. Wait for the police station to come and press them all down.”
Having said that, the two of them should have hurried back, but at this moment, there was a “click” sound from above.
“Who’s outside?” A loud voice rang out from above.
Guan Yao reacted faster. Before the voice rang out, he pushed Yu Chunming away.
The next moment, the bullet was loaded, the trigger was pulled, and a gust of wind attacked the two of them.
“Be careful!” Guan Yao shouted.
Yu Chunming didn’t have time to think too much, so he rolled on the spot and hid under the container at the corner of the wall. Then, two loud bangs came, and shrapnel exploded, brushing his face.
“Damn, it’s an air gun.” Guan Yao gritted his teeth.
Yu Chunming took the opportunity to raise his eyes and saw that the person who fired the gun at the window on the second floor of the patrol station had flashed away, but the few people who had just conspired “important matters” were also alarmed and were about to evacuate.
Yu Chunming didn’t think too much and was about to rush in.
“Wait, wait!” Guan Yao grabbed him in a hurry, “Meng Changqing is still outside, we must not…”
Before he could finish speaking, the roar of the car engine had already sounded at the door, and the group of snakeheads was about to escape.
The two quickly chased out of the patrol station, intending to dial the Linchang Police Station’s phone and ask where the people were now, but at this moment, a black SUV rushed out of the forest at the intersection and crashed straight into the fleeing suspects.
Guan Yao took a breath and cursed in a low voice: “Meng Changqing, you kid is really…”
Dong——
Before he could finish speaking, the two cars had collided in the middle of the road, and a cloud of smoke rose up, splashing mud everywhere.
Clang! The small van that had been hit three feet away flipped over and fell into the forest on the side of the road. One of the people who hadn’t fastened his seat belt was thrown out of the front windshield.
Yu Chunming and Guan Yao hurriedly ran forward quickly and tried to pull open the seriously deformed car door. At the same time, the white car that was originally following behind the van was preparing to turn around and escape in the other direction.
But coincidentally, three police cars were roaring from a distance.