Chapter 103

"Captain Lin, is Brother Guo in trouble?" Pang Guang took two steps forward.

The two of them stood in front of the van and began to whisper.

"Sister Luo, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have suggested this bad idea. Now there are more than a hundred branches left." The shop girl lowered her head with some self-blame, and pulled her fingers unconsciously.

Some vendors who came to sell flowers also began to evacuate the street at the request of the special police. The cordon was quietly pulled back to the beginning and end of the street at some point.

However, the flow of people on the street did not decrease. Instead, due to the unusual behavior of the police, the number of onlookers increased.

"I don't blame you." Luo Jingyao retracted her gaze and comforted the girl in front of her, "It was my fault for not thinking things through. It was indeed too hasty to deliver flowers without making sure the explosion scene was stable."

The fire department and public security departments are fighting on the front line with their lives at risk. Their original intention was to do what they could, but they didn't expect to cause a lot of trouble to others for no reason.

"Take these flowers back to the store later and set up a stall outside the store so that passers-by who need them can take them." She instructed the two.

There are only large orders for yellow and white chrysanthemums at special times. It is better to give them to others than to let them rot in the store.

"Okay!" the shop girl responded straightforwardly.

When Luo Jingyao turned around again, the two figures in front of the car were gradually moving away until they completely disappeared.

Without giving it much thought, she turned around and helped the two shop assistants sort out the remaining flowers on the truck. Just as she opened the door and was about to get in, a suspicious female voice came to her ears: "Yaoyao?"

The movement of opening the car door paused, Luo Jingyao turned her neck stiffly and looked at the person who came.

The other person was a middle-aged woman, probably in her fifties, a little over 1.6 meters tall, and slightly plump.

The woman's hair was shoulder-length and permed in the most popular wool curls. Her well-maintained face was fully made up with exquisite makeup. Her hands were also very delicate and painted with bright red nail polish.

If you look closely, you can easily find a familiar look between her eyebrows and eyes.

Seeing the woman getting closer and closer, Luo Jingyao's mouth twitched, and finally she called out unwillingly: "Mom..."

mom?

The female and male clerks subconsciously widened their eyes, looking back and forth between the two of them curiously, and hid aside tacitly without daring to make a sound.

Luo's mother, Mao Peilan, glanced at the flowers on the van and didn't show any unusual expression. "Is the store very busy? How come you don't even have time to go home for a meal lately?"

"I originally thought that you could spend more time with us after returning to your hometown, but now it's not much better than when you were flying around the world!"

"Two months, two whole months, you..."

"Mom!" Seeing that the situation was not good, Luo Jingyao pulled the person aside and secretly signaled the two shop assistants with her eyes to drive back first.

If Mao Peilan hadn't told her, she wouldn't have noticed it. But when she calculated carefully, she realized that she hadn't been home for more than two months, so she felt guilty for no reason.

"Isn't the flower shop just getting on track? If I have time these two days, I will definitely go back to accompany you shopping and dining, and accompany dad for a walk and playing chess!" She spoke as if swearing to the sky, and as she spoke, she pulled her mother's arm to please her and act coquettishly.

Mao Peilan, who was coaxed into a smile, raised her hand helplessly and pinched her waist twice: "Go home tonight!"

"I didn't agree with your suggestion of opening a crappy flower shop before. How much better it would be to become a teacher at Jinshi Sports College? Not only is it close to home, but I can also take regular holidays!"

"At the very least, opening a training club would be better than what we have now, right? At least I haven't lost the skills I've worked so hard on for so many years."

Seeing Mao Peilan started to mutter again, Luo Jingyao interrupted her in time: "Okay, I'll go to the market with you to buy vegetables later. I want to eat the braised pig intestines made by my father."

"And I haven't lost my professional skills yet. I just signed a one-year contract with the Jinshi Public Security Bureau not long ago. I will mainly be responsible for the daily physical training of the police officers."

The work is so little that it takes ten days or half a month to take two proper classes.

Of course, there is absolutely no need to tell the other party these details.

Sure enough, when Mao Peilan heard the name of Jinshi Public Security Bureau, his expression immediately became much better.

Perhaps people of their generation have some obsession with public institutions and formal jobs. No matter what the salary and benefits are, as long as it looks good and prestigious, it's fine.

After finally fooling Mao Peilan, Luo Jingyao breathed a sigh of relief, but she also noticed something was wrong: "Mom, what are you doing here? Did you hear there was a bombing and run across half the city to watch the excitement?"

"It's too dangerous! The police just said that the hidden dangers at the scene have not been completely eliminated!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she realized that Mao Peilan had been staring at her with a caring look as if she was looking at a mentally retarded person.

The next second, Mao Peilan took out two keys from her shoulder bag and said, "We have two houses here. We bought them with the prize money from your first world championship. Did you forget?"

Is...is that so?

Luo Jingyao could not hide her surprise. Before this, she was single and flew around the world all year round. Her bonuses and other things were indeed given to her family to manage, and she had never asked about them.

After all, for her, having enough money to spend is enough, and she doesn't have too many desires.

When Mao Peilan mentioned this, she felt very proud: "When this place was first developed, no one was optimistic about it. The housing prices were very cheap! At that time, I wanted to buy it, but your father didn't agree! Fortunately, I didn't listen to him, that idiot. Otherwise, I would definitely regret it!"

"Look at it now. It's developed so well in just a few years. The housing prices have doubled!"

Although Luo Jingyao has not paid attention to the increase in housing prices in this area, it sounds very impressive.

"So you came here...?" she asked again.

"I received a call at the beauty salon this afternoon. The caller said they were from the Yancheng Police Station. They wanted to conduct a gas inspection at my home. They told me to come back when I had time, with something like the property certificate to prove my ownership of the house."

"I originally thought it was a scam, but when I got home your dad said it wasn't, so I came here." After Mao Peilan finished speaking, she pulled her towards the cordon without saying a word.

After the special police guarding outside the cordon checked the relevant certificates they presented, they lifted the cordon and signaled them that they could enter.

Mao Peilan cautiously confirmed again and again: "Are you sure everything is alright inside? Then why is the cordon extended all the way here? Will we be in danger if we go home?"

"Ma'am, the fire department has just completed the third inspection of the Jiangcheng Spicy Stir-fry Restaurant and confirmed that there will be no new explosions. As for the cordon being pulled here, it is because our superiors have required the flow of people to the explosion site to be controlled. Currently, only residents living in the two nearby communities are allowed to enter and exit to avoid destroying relevant evidence." The special police explained patiently.

Destroy evidence?

It was just an accidental explosion, and only the residential buildings around the stir-fry restaurant were seriously affected. If we want to ensure the integrity of the scene, we only need to block off a few buildings, and there is no need to go to so much trouble.

She inexplicably thought of the strange expressions on Lin Jiafan and Pang Guang's faces just now. Could it be that there was more than just an explosion?

After listening to the explanation given by the police, Mao Peilan was obviously relieved. In addition, the two houses were some distance away from the spicy stir-fry restaurant where the explosion occurred, so she took Luo Jingyao across the cordon and into the blockade area.

A few minutes later, the two arrived at a residential complex called 'Jincheng Mingjun', and after following the winding path they arrived in front of Building 7.

Judging from the surrounding environment and the layout of four households per elevator, this community is not high-end, but because of its good location, there is no problem with renting or selling.

They took the elevator all the way up to the seventh floor. During this time, Luo Jingyao also learned from Mao Peilan about her feat of "spending a lot of money" to snatch two adjacent households on the left and right from another older sister.

"Room 7001 is rented out to a newlywed couple who just had a baby earlier this year. It's so adorable!"

After getting off the elevator, Mao Peilan pointed at the household on the far left, her words somewhat sarcastic: "I even gave them a red envelope when they had their child, and the little girl even recognized me as her godmother!"

"I don't know when I can be promoted to a real grandmother."

Luo Jingyao didn't dare to respond, fearing that saying something wrong would bring trouble upon herself, so she simply looked at 7002 on the right in silence.

Fortunately, Mao Peilan didn't have any extra thoughts at the moment. She walked over and opened the door of 7002 with her key, muttering, "The tenant of this house just moved out two days ago. I haven't had time to hire the cleaner to clean up yet, and suddenly this happened. I don't know if it will affect the rent in the future."

Luo Jingyao walked around the house. It was a standard two-bedroom, one-living room layout. The square layout was open from north to south, so it should be quite comfortable to live in.

Although there were several residential buildings between this place and the exploded spicy stir-fry restaurant, the power of so many gas tanks going up into the sky at the same time was obviously not to be underestimated. She soon discovered several cracks on the windows of the north balcony.

He called Mao Peilan over and gave her some instructions, saying that she would be given some compensation for this kind of loss later.

The two of them waited and waited until they were bored and cleaned the house. The sky outside the window began to darken, but they still didn't wait for the police to come and check the gas.

Later, Mao Peilan called the local police officer, who apologized and said that the workload was too heavy and they might have to wait for another hour or so.

An hour, it will probably be past eight o'clock in the evening by then.

Raising her hand and touching her empty stomach, Luo Jingyao finally decided to go downstairs to the supermarket to buy something to fill her stomach.

After saying hello to Mao Peilan, she went out and came to the supermarket next to the main entrance of the community and bought some cakes, a few bottles of water and some coffee.

The supermarket was quite busy at that time. The boss was telling a few aunts at the cashier counter about the thrilling scene when the explosion happened.

"It just happened that I was counting goods outside the door at that time. There was a loud bang that made my head buzz. When I turned around, I saw a mushroom cloud as big as this." Although it was inevitable to use exaggerated rhetoric, the boss still tried hard to prove the authenticity of what he said.

He pointed at the door and said, "Look, it broke my glass door in two!"

"Isn't it? I was buying groceries at the time and it scared me so much I almost had a heart attack!"

"Oh, I heard from my aunt's son that quite a few waiters were already at work at the restaurant at that time, and they were all blown into pieces. It was so tragic!"

"Oh, I also heard from Sister Liu who lives in the building across from the hotel that someone was blown directly onto the road and was still alive!"

“Is this true…?”

Listening to the gossip that the aunts got from various channels, Luo Jingyao went to the cashier and took the time to pay the bill. Unexpectedly, she bumped into someone as soon as she walked out the door.

"Coach Luo?" Pang Guang opened his mouth in surprise: "Why are you still here?"

"Ah... My family has an apartment here, and we're waiting for the police to come and do a gas inspection." Luo Jingyao replied casually, and caught a glimpse of the police car parked across the street out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you guys not done yet?"

"It's early!" The young man pouted: "Everyone is hungry now, so I thought of coming here to buy something to eat."

"I just happened to buy too much by mistake." Luo Jingyao smiled and handed the plastic bag to him. Seeing his hesitation, she explained, "I bought the last few bottles of coffee in the store. The boss said that because of the explosion, they couldn't restock today."

After hearing what she said, Pang Guang stopped hesitating, took the heavy bag, and ran across the street with joy: "Coach Luo will pay for all the expenses tonight!"

The people in the car seemed to have noticed the conversation between the two of them a long time ago. When Luo Jingyao came to the police car, Lin Jiafan had already gotten out of the car.

Although Guo Zhen and Pan Chang were still sitting in the car, they rolled down the windows and waved to her enthusiastically.

While Pang Guang was distributing cakes and coffee to everyone, Luo Jingyao also took one without changing her expression.

After taking a bite of the soft old-fashioned cake, she looked up at Lin Jiafan, who was drinking water a few steps away. "Is the situation very difficult?"

"Hmm." After finishing the bottle of coffee almost instantly, Lin Jiafan raised his hand and threw the empty bottle accurately into the nearby trash can. Then he turned his head and said, "A spare human hand was found at the explosion scene. Brother Guo examined it. The fractured part of the hand showed no signs of life. It was a post-mortem injury."

In other words, some people had already died before the explosion.

"The police are currently searching for the owner of this hand, but no new findings have been made so far."

really……

Luo Jingyao was not surprised at all. After quickly stuffing the remaining cake in her hand into her mouth, she glanced at the back seat of the police car through the lowered window as if unintentionally.

His eyes fell on the photos Guo Zhen was looking through.

Unexpectedly, her breathing stopped the next second.

It was a hand, the surface was a little charred, and it was broken at the wrist, but the wound was irregular.

Of course, the point is not this. The point is that the skin on that hand is wrinkled, like some old scar.

This morning at the crime scene, she had accidentally touched a part of the body, and it felt the same bumpy texture.