NOS Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Rhododendron Peak (13)

The fluid in the IV bag continued to drip, drip, drip. Yu Chunming turned his head, avoiding the IV line hanging down from above, and saw Guan Yao’s face hidden in the shadows.

He seemed to have cried. The tip of his nose was a little red, his cheeks were chapped by the wind and snow, and even a strand of white hair was faintly visible at his temples.

“Guan Yao,” Yu Chunming called out, “You seem to be getting old.”

Guan Yao laughed in exasperation, “I’m being tormented by you.”

“That’s not right,” Yu Chunming said with his eyes closed, “You already looked this old when I saw you again in June.”

Yes, decades passed in a flash, who could stay young?

When Jiang Xin left, Guan Yao was only fifteen, and now, he was approaching forty.

How many more rings did the old tree on Mopan Mountain gain? How much smoother were the pebbles on the bank of the Ning Nie Li Qi River after being washed by the water? How many times had the grass grown and the orioles flown along the border line stretching for thousands of miles?

The light above the bed flickered a few times, vaguely obscuring the traces of time left on their faces.

“I’m a little cold,” Yu Chunming said.

Guan Yao got up and sat on the edge of the bed, then opened his arms and pulled him into his embrace. Yu Chunming turned over and pressed his face against Guan Yao’s chest.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?” he asked.

Guan Yao slowly tightened his arms, “No.”

Yu Chunming didn’t believe him, “Not a single word?”

“Not a single word,” Guan Yao replied.

“Why not a single word?” Yu Chunming asked muffledly.

“Because…” Guan Yao paused, “Because, it’s enough for me to know that you are Jiang Xin.”

After speaking, he added, “Actually, it doesn’t matter even if you’re not Jiang Xin, because I fell in love with you a long time ago.”

Yu Chunming chuckled and asked, “When did you fall in love with me? How come I didn’t know?”

“The first time I saw you,” Guan Yao replied.

“The first time?” Yu Chunming raised his head from his chest, looking at him with disbelief, “Really?”

“Really,” Guan Yao leaned down and gently kissed his forehead, “Because I’ve never seen anyone as good-looking as you before.”

Yu Chunming smiled, but then his eyes suddenly turned red again, and he said, “Guan Yao, you knew it a long time ago, didn’t you?”

Guan Yao didn’t speak.

A tear rolled down Yu Chunming’s face. He waited quietly, waiting for Guan Yao to wipe away his tears, and then waiting for Guan Yao to say softly, “None of that matters.”

What mattered most?

The sky was about to dawn.

At noon, Wang Zhen rushed to the municipal hospital. As soon as he reached the outside of Yu Zhenshan’s ward, he saw Yu Chunming sitting on a long chair at the door. The man immediately stopped in his tracks, preparing to sneak back the way he came.

But who knew that Guan Yao noticed the “thief” Wang Zhen was trying to be? He raised his eyebrows and called out, “Yo, Chunming, your mentor is here!”

Yu Chunming turned his head and looked over, sizing up Wang Zhen’s hunched back, “Are you trying to steal landmines?”

Wang Zhen chuckled twice and straightened up as he walked closer, “My shoelaces were untied, just tying them, haha.”

After speaking, he said with concern, “Your face looks so pale, why did you get up? Go back and rest.”

Yu Chunming got goosebumps from the cheesy tone. He frowned and handed the evidence bag in his hand to Wang Zhen, “I didn’t ask you to come here to listen to your nonsense. Take a look at this first.”

“The hit-and-run driver’s phone?” Wang Zhen took the evidence bag, puzzled. “Is there any important information in it?”

“There are two text messages, take a look for yourself, they were just sent,” Yu Chunming replied.

Fifteen minutes ago, the young police officer guarding the hit-and-run driver’s ward rushed to find Guan Yao and Yu Chunming, who were preparing to be discharged from the hospital and go home, and handed them these two text messages.

“The first one is ‘Is he dead?’, the second one is ‘Only if he dies will we get the money’,” Yu Chunming said with his arms crossed, “Guan Yao just had his colleagues in the Task Force check this number and found that its location is near Hu Yang Village.”

“Has Min Chao found anything?” Wang Zhen asked after quickly skimming through the two text messages.

“Not yet. Knowing that Team Leader Wang was coming, we decided to wait for you to come and discuss it,” Guan Yao replied.

Yu Chunming pulled over a cardboard box and pushed it next to Wang Zhen, “Just now, the two of us also went through the hit-and-run driver’s personal belongings and found a bank card inside. We called the bank staff and they said that this card was just opened less than three days ago.”

Wang Zhen looked suspicious, “You suspect… someone hired a murderer?”

“Yes,” Yu Chunming nodded calmly, “And the target of the crime should be me.”

Who was the one who hired the murderer?

“Did you call this number back just now?” Wang Zhen asked Guan Yao.

“I did, but they hung up directly, and then it was out of the calling area,” Guan Yao replied, “This morning, Min Chao also sent me a message saying that he didn’t find anything outside Hu Yang Village, and he was planning to go back.”

“What about the tire tracks?” Wang Zhen asked again.

“Tire tracks?” Guan Yao thought for a moment and replied, “It snowed a few days ago, even if there are tire tracks…”

“No, I’m talking about the tire tracks in front of the airport. After the traffic police team collected the evidence, let Min Chao and the others take it and look for it on the road outside Hu Yang Village, looking at the direction and location.”

“Yes,” Guan Yao responded.

Last night, after the accident occurred, the hit-and-run driver, who was initially identified as driving under the influence of drugs, was sent to the municipal hospital by the traffic police team for blood tests. On the way, the hit-and-run driver suddenly fell into a coma, and was later found to have multiple fractures and severe concussion. Now, he was lying on the fourth floor of the inpatient department, only one floor away from Yu Zhenshan in the fifth floor’s cadre ward.

This morning, the results of the blood test showed that this person had not only drunk alcohol, but also taken drugs. His blood contained a large amount of amphetamine, which was the main metabolite of methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine…

Li Guanglai used the equipment of the Tianyun Metallurgical Factory to produce methamphetamine in the first place.

“Perhaps there is really some connection with the suspect we are trying to capture,” Wang Zhen said thoughtfully, sitting in the Task Force meeting room before coming to the hospital.

Liao Haimin had just finished reading all the case files, and he asked, “When you followed Song Chen to investigate his upstream, didn’t you also check who got the methamphetamine he distributed?”

“We did,” Wang Zhen nodded, “We also caught his accomplices, Zhang Hei and Bai Tiao. The anti-drug team also checked their downstream, but they didn’t find this person named…”

“Chen Yupei,” Liao Haimin continued.

“Yes, they didn’t find this hit-and-run driver named Chen Yupei,” Wang Zhen replied, “Moreover, Chen Yupei is a farmer, living in the suburbs of Za Mu Er, working hard facing the loess and with his back to the sky all day long. Last night, Han Chen woke up his son and asked him a lot, but he couldn’t find out anything. His son didn’t know whether his father had met any suspicious people recently, nor did he know where his father had been. He also said that Chen Yupei couldn’t even use a smartphone. He had never even been out of the Northeast in his life, except that he usually liked to drink, he didn’t have any bad habits. His son also vowed that his father didn’t even smoke, and would never touch drugs. Early in the morning, this person made a fuss at the hospital, saying that there was a problem with the test results.”

“What problem could there be with the test results?” Liao Haimin felt incredulous, “I’ve seen it, the amphetamine content is extremely high, it’s definitely methamphetamine.”

“Yes,” Wang Zhen echoed, “But now, none of those drug traffickers know Chen Yupei, his son doesn’t know anything about it, and we searched his house, and didn’t find any traces of drugs except for empty wine bottles.”

“This is strange,” Liao Haimin lowered his head again to flip through the case files, and said, “But I feel like I’ve seen something similar to the name Chen Yupei somewhere just now.”

“Similar?” Wang Zhen was stunned.

“Chen Yujie!” Guan Yao suddenly called out.

“The one who murdered Li Qie with Yu Zeng?” Wang Zhen quickly remembered the interrogation records he had read.

“Yes,” Guan Yao turned sideways and opened the door to Chen Yupei’s ward.

Just now, news suddenly came that the hit-and-run driver’s blood pressure had plummeted, and his life might be in danger. The three of them hurried downstairs and came to his ward.

Two doctors had just finished the rescue, the monitor on the bedside table was still beeping from time to time, Chen Yupei’s limbs still twitched occasionally, but fortunately, he was out of danger for the time being.

The two police officers standing guard at the door said that they had been here all morning, and this person had been rescued no less than five times.

Hearing this, Yu Chunming, who had been running a little too fast just now, felt his legs weaken and almost knelt on the ground, supporting himself on the bed railing.

Guan Yao quickly stepped forward to support him, then pulled over a chair and helped him sit down.

“Who was this Chen Yujie you were talking about just now?” After recovering from this, Yu Chunming looked up and asked.

“Yu Zeng’s accomplice, the murderer who killed Li Qie,” Guan Yao replied, “He used to work at the Tianyun Metallurgical Factory, supposedly as a small foreman. After Li Qie died, he fell to his death in less than two months.”

“How did you think of him?” Yu Chunming asked.

Guan Yao pointed to the person on the hospital bed, “I checked Chen Yujie’s information before. He was from Lan County, Songlan. Twenty years ago, he came to Hua City to work and entered the Tianyun Metallurgical Factory. On the way down just now, I suddenly remembered that when Han Chen checked Chen Yupei’s information yesterday, I glanced at it and saw that this Chen Yupei was also from Lan County, Songlan, but he came to Za Mu Er with the reclamation team thirty years ago.”

“Lan County is a big county, and this alone doesn’t prove anything,” Wang Zhen said.

Yu Chunming still frowned.

Suddenly, beep, beep—

Chen Yupei’s monitor rang sharply again. The two doctors who had just left rushed over immediately to re-examine the patient’s condition.

“It’s still a sudden drop in blood pressure caused by a drug overdose!” one of the doctors said loudly, “Inject adrenocortical hormones!”

Soon, several more medical staff squeezed into the ward, driving out the police officers guarding here.

Standing in the corridor, Wang Zhen lowered his voice and said, “Yesterday, Chen Yupei’s son said that his father’s health was generally poor and he had underlying diseases. A drug overdose is easy to cause death, and now the person is seriously injured, and the amphetamine in his body cannot be metabolized. Sooner or later, there will be problems. If Chen Yupei was tricked into taking drugs, the person who tricked him was probably planning to kill him immediately after hiring a murderer.”

“Forced?” Guan Yao immediately continued, “At present, the entire drug trafficking network in Za Mu Er is focused on one person, that is, Li Guanglai. Chen Yupei’s car accident tonight must be related to Li Guanglai. How did this pickup truck get into Chen Yupei’s hands? How did Chen Yupei get in touch with Li Guanglai? Is there any influence from the Tianyun Metallurgical Factory case more than ten years ago? It’s hard to say.”

“If Chen Yujie is really related to Chen Yupei, Li Guanglai is indeed very suspicious of last night’s accident.” Wang Zhen pulled the ward door shut and glanced inside again, “But we can’t find out anything just by checking their information, and once the person dies, it will be even harder to say whether there is any connection.”

“It has been determined that the pickup truck driven by Chen Yupei was the one Li Guanglai abandoned in Hu Yang Village. Why don’t we take Chen Yupei’s photo to Hu Yang Village and ask the local villagers if they have seen him? Just checking the tire tracks may not be enough,” Yu Chunming said.

“That’s right,” Guan Yao nodded, “Alright, after I send Chunming home, I’ll go to Hu Yang Village for interviews.”

“Don’t run around,” Wang Zhen glanced at Yu Chunming, “You just stay in Za Mu Er. I’ll let Han Chen go. That kid is always playing tricks on me, being lazy and not working, I’ll train him a bit.”

Guan Yao raised the corners of his mouth, and also turned to look at the person still being rescued inside the ward, “We still can’t take it lightly. Li Guanglai is probably desperate now. It’s hard to say what he can do. I’ll call a few patrol officers from our station over this afternoon and let them keep an eye on the person.”

Wang Zhen patted Guan Yao on the shoulder and sighed. He wanted to reach out and pat Yu Chunming as well, but when his hand was halfway there, he suddenly met Guan Yao’s gaze and quickly retracted it.

“Before I leave at noon, Political Commissar Liao wants to find two people to go to the detention center to interrogate Yu Zeng. It just so happens that when you go this afternoon, bring the anti-drug comrades to interrogate him together,” Wang Zhen cleared his throat and said.

“Let Chunming and I go,” Yu Chunming interjected.

“Oh my god, you just don’t…”

“Okay, let Chunming and I go together,” Guan Yao agreed immediately. “This Li Guanglai definitely knows where Chunming himself lives. It’s not safe for him to stay at home alone. It’s more appropriate for him to be with me. It just so happens…”

Guan Yao smiled, “It just so happens that Team Leader Wang will lend me his car, mine… is scrapped.”

After walking to the stairwell, Yu Chunming couldn’t help asking, “Your car… when was it scrapped? Weren’t we just driving it a few days ago?”

“It was scrapped last night,” Guan Yao replied.

“Broken?” Yu Chunming was puzzled, “You didn’t drive it yesterday either?”

Guan Yao put his arm around his shoulder and smiled a little embarrassedly, “I was afraid that the broken car would bump you again, so I had Xiaotian take care of the scrapping yesterday. I’m planning to buy another SUV, but I don’t have time to look at cars.”

Yu Chunming raised an eyebrow, “When did Police Officer Guan become so efficient? I heard from Guan Ning that you love that broken car, driving it from when Guan Ning was in kindergarten until she was in technical secondary school. You wouldn’t replace it even if your butt was about to crack from the bumps.”

“Is that so?” Guan Yao suddenly walked in front of Yu Chunming and squatted down. He said very seriously, “Come on, I’ll carry you.”

“Why are you carrying me? My legs aren’t broken,” Yu Chunming stood still.

“Isn’t your head dizzy?” Guan Yao looked back at him, “Come on up, I’ll carry you downstairs, otherwise you’ll fall again later. I don’t have anywhere to repair this body of yours made of glass bones.”

Yu Chunming was rarely made to blush by this old straight-laced man. He took a step back and said in a low voice, “Even if I’m dizzy, I can walk on my own, there are people all around.”

“What’s wrong with people all around?” Guan Yao asked openly, “I’ve carried you before, and the people in our station have all seen it. I didn’t see you being coy before, why are you shy now?”

“I’m afraid your old arms and legs, what if I crush them… Ow!”

Yu Chunming hadn’t finished speaking, when Guan Yao had already reached behind him, grabbed Yu Chunming’s thighs, pressed the person onto his back, and then stood up nimbly, asking, “Who are you calling old arms and legs?”

Yu Chunming was dizzy and lay weakly on Guan Yao’s back, replying, “I’m talking about myself…”

Guan Yao chuckled and held Yu Chunming’s legs firmly with both hands.

He said, “Remember? When you were eight years old, you sprained your ankle by the river. I carried you all the way home from outside the city.”

Yu Chunming hugged Guan Yao’s neck tightly, and he replied, “Of course I remember. On the way back, you also bought me a meat pie, but when we were going up the steps, we stumbled and fell, and I only ate half of the pie before it fell on the ground.”

“Then you lay on me and cried, so I picked up the pie and ate it myself,” Guan Yao continued.

“You bought me a new one,” Yu Chunming kissed Guan Yao’s temples.

“I bought you a new one,” Guan Yao smiled.

[The author has something to say]

See Chapter 73 for details of the previous plot.