Seeing his wife's exhausted face, Li Chu said with concern, "Should I ask you to take a few days off?"

"No need, I slept for a while last night. Qiaoyun's child is really troublesome." As she spoke, Ding Qiunan dozed off.

"Thank you for your hard work, my wife," Li Chu said apologetically, while raising his hand to ruffle her hair.

"Oh dear, we're outside!" Ding Qiunan hurriedly reached out and slapped her husband's hand away.

"If you really can't hold on any longer, go to the examination room and take a nap. I have to go out for a bit. You'll have lunch by yourself."

"Okay, you go ahead and get busy." Ding Qiunan waved her hand dismissively, as if shooing away a fly.

After seeing Li Chu off at the lobby entrance, Ding Qiunan stood there, lost in thought, watching her husband walk out of the hospital.

He had something on his mind, and as his wife who shared his bed, how could she not notice?

The two have been together for four years, and she can understand every little movement, every look, and every expression of Li Chu.

When she came out of the pharmacy, she had already noticed the worry in her husband's eyes, but she didn't ask. Li Chu had never hidden anything from her that she needed to know.

After leaving the hospital, Li Chu boarded a bus heading towards the Grain Bureau.

Wang Ziwen put aside many things in the morning to wait for her brother-in-law in the office.

Seeing that Li Chu had come in without knocking, they closed the door.

"Xiao Chu, what exactly happened?"

Having come to her brother-in-law's place to discuss something, Li Chu recounted everything that had happened the previous night in one breath.

"Brother-in-law, I thought about this for a long time last night. I don't think I've offended anyone. Do you think it could be the enemy agents involved in what happened to our parents back then?"

When Li Chu's parents sacrificed their lives, he had just started university and was intensively studying the basics of traditional Chinese medicine with his master. He only received the news more than ten days later.

After listening to Li Chu's words, Wang Ziwen pondered them carefully for a while, then slowly shook his head: "It's unlikely. That matter happened more than ten years ago. If they wanted to look for him, they would have done so long ago. How could they have waited until now?"

Besides, not many people knew about your relationship with your parents; they were mostly older people from the past.

"Then, brother-in-law, what kind of person do you think this could be?"

Wang Ziwen shrugged and said, "It's really hard to say. Your social circle has always been relatively narrow, so this kind of thing shouldn't have happened."

Li Chu scratched his head in frustration; this feeling was awful.

"Xiao Chu, is it possible that he/she was one of your previous patients?"

"That's impossible. I can't speak for other things, but I'm dedicated to treating patients. In all my years of working here, I've never had a single argument with a patient," Li Chu said firmly.

"Did you feel like someone was following you before yesterday?"

"No, just last night when I was carrying my child home, not long after leaving the hospital, I felt like someone was following me. At first I didn't pay attention, but later I deliberately took a side road, and I didn't expect that feeling of being followed was still there."

When I got home, I opened the door and Xiao Hei rushed out, barking in the direction I came from. Brother-in-law, you know, Xiao Hei never barks unless it's a stranger. When I saw Xiao Hei's reaction, I told it to go and bite, and unexpectedly, someone actually got bitten.

Because I had children, I couldn't go see them at that time, so when I got back to the house, I called my sixth brother over.

"Did you have any sense of time when you came over?" Wang Ziwen asked.

Li Chu shook his head again: "When I came out of the hospital just now, I specifically looked around and didn't find anything."

Brother-in-law, whatever the reason, please be careful during this time. It's best not to let my sister know about this.

"I know, I won't let her worry about it unnecessarily. Do you want to tell Uncle Wang?"

Li Chu thought for a while before saying, "Forget it, let's not talk about it for now. We'll talk about it if we really can't solve it. If we can resolve it smoothly in the next couple of days, we won't have to worry Uncle Wang anymore. He has too many things to do every day."

"Your safety is the most important thing. Don't be reckless. Until this matter is resolved, let Xiao Liu stay with you. He doesn't need to go to work during this time. I'll tell their director later."

After saying that, Wang Ziwen opened the drawer, took something out of it, and threw it over.

After catching it, Li Chu realized that what his brother-in-law had tossed him was a Type 54 pistol, along with a holster.

"This is for me. You can use it for self-defense for the next couple of days."

The Grain Bureau has its own grain protection team every year for receiving and delivering grain, and these teams are armed. It is normal for Wang Ziwen, as a leader, to also be armed.

Li Chu stood up and placed the gun on his brother-in-law's desk: "I don't want this. I have my own. Yours is registered. It would be too much trouble to use it."

Wang Ziwen looked at her brother-in-law in surprise: "Where did you get this? What kind of gun is it?"

Li Chu pretended to pull out a gun from behind his back and handed it over.

When Wang Ziwen took it, he saw that it was the same as his gun, except that there were no serial numbers on the gun or the magazine.

"Where did you come from?"

Li Chu said with a smile, "My master set it up for me before. There are no files or numbers, so even if there are any problems, there's no way to check."

Li Chu felt as if his deceased master had once again taken the blame for him, and he kept apologizing to his master in his heart.

"Okay, since you have it, I'll take it with me for the time being."

But Xiao Chu, although we can't trace that gun, it's best to avoid using it if possible. If a gunshot rings out, it could be a serious matter.

Just like Wu Xiaoliu said last night, although there is no gun ban in China now, any case involving guns is definitely a big case.

“I know, brother-in-law. Sixth Brother also reminded me last night that I won’t use a gun unless absolutely necessary.”

"Think about it carefully again and see if there are any suspicious targets. We can't keep guarding like this all the time. What will happen to Qiu Nan and the child?"

Li Chu took a piece of paper and a pen from his brother-in-law's table and listed out everyone he could remember who he had ever been in contact with.

There aren't many names on this list, only a little over a hundred.

Wang Ziwen was responsible for reporting names, and Li Chu described the general process of their interactions with the person. The two of them used this most basic method to slowly investigate.

I ate lunch at the grain bureau's canteen, but I didn't have much of an appetite. I quickly ate a couple of bites and then went back to my office to continue my unfinished work.

"Xiao Chu" Wang Ziwen held the list and looked it over again before asking, "Why don't I see the names of my parents' comrades?"

“Brother-in-law, if it were one of those people, there would be no need for them to follow me. They all know where I live, so why would they bother to find someone to follow me…”

Li Chu paused here, and he and Wang Ziwen exchanged a glance, seemingly having the same idea.