Chapter 30: Critically ill? Just a mental illness!
The truck was driving through the morning mist, its headlights splitting the indigo sky. Xiaobai was steering with one hand, and throwing peanuts into his mouth with the other hand. Xiaodao's dull face was reflected in the rearview mirror.
"What?" She suddenly asked, her voice mixed with the roar of the engine, "Are you scared of killing someone for the first time?"
The boy snapped back to his senses, his watch chain jingling from the bumps.
He stroked the "dao" mark on the back of the dial and suddenly laughed: "My brother always said that revenge should be taken while it's hot..."
His fingertips slid across the cracks in the watch glass. “Now that this day has really come, it feels like a dream.”
Xiaobai glanced at his trembling fingertips and suddenly turned the steering wheel. The truck braked suddenly and stopped on the side of the road, startling a flock of sparrows.
"Get off the bus." She threw a cloth bag over to him. "There's money, tickets and food in it. Go ahead."
Xiaodao took it blankly, "Sister..."
"Long live freedom! Get away from here." Xiaobai didn't know how to comfort people. He only knew that even ants love to live and people yearn for freedom.
Xiaodao raised his head, tears welling up in his eyes, "Sister, my brother said that his greatest wish is for me to live an upright life!"
He climbed back into the car and said, "I won't leave. My brother had to rob people because of my mother's illness. Now I'm the only one left. I must remember what my brother said. Besides--"
Xiaodao paused, smiled bitterly and said, "I don't have a travel permit, so I can't go anywhere. I'll be arrested sooner or later. It's better to confess and get a lighter sentence."
"Your brother is right." Xiaobai tapped the steering wheel with his fingers, "Live with dignity..."
She suddenly looked puzzled, "But what do you mean you can't go anywhere without proof?"
After Xiaodao's explanation, Xiaobai realized that in this world, when going out, one needs to bring a letter of introduction issued by the unit or commune, which is equivalent to a pass.
No wonder!
Xiaobai took out the cooperative investigation work certificate from his pocket and took a look at it.
This was given to her by Tang Jingmo before they set out.
This old fox!
......
At the gate of the Municipal Machinery Factory, Security Chief Lao Zhou looked at his watch for the eighth time.
Suddenly, a familiar engine sound came from afar - the missing Jiefang truck was parked intact at the factory gate, and the parts stacked in the truck bed were even neater than when they were lost.
"What the hell..." Lao Zhou opened the car door tremblingly. There was a note on the driver's seat -
【The jade is returned intact to Zhao, the reward has been taken, and both parties are clear. 】
Lao Zhou looked at the fuel tank and saw that it was empty.
At the same time, at the gate of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Zhang Jianguo, the police officer on duty, was yawning and pushing open the door.
In the morning mist, a tall and thin boy stood quietly, with a pile of account books half a person's height at his feet.
"Comrade," the boy raised his bandaged hand, "I'm here to turn myself in."
He shook open the top account book, and there was a photo on the inside page - Xu Laoer was carrying a precision machine tool onto a train, and the blurred station sign in the background read "Provincial Capital West Station".
The morning light penetrates the clouds and illuminates the reborn watch on the boy's wrist. The dial glass has been repaired and the second hand is moving briskly towards a new day.
——
The veins on the back of Tang Jingmo's hand bulged as he held the old crank phone. His father's roar in the receiver was so loud that it scared away the sparrows foraging at the door.
“…must return to the team immediately!”
Tang Jingmo frowned and said calmly, "Sorry, I haven't finished my sick leave yet."
There was a slamming sound on the table from the other end of the line: "You're on sick leave and you're still going to clear out bandits! Are you kidding your father?"
"Well," Tang Jingmo glanced at Ma Dongxue who was eavesdropping at the door, "I just helped Gu Zhongzhang a little bit..."
“Click.”
In the aftermath of the phone call, the shadow at the door suddenly shook.
"Comrade Ma, may I ask which department sent you to be in charge of the monitoring work?"
Ma Dongxue looked up and met Tang Jingmo's cold gaze - like icicles in winter, freezing her hands and feet numb.
She swallowed involuntarily, "I, I'm just helping you guard the door. I don't mean to eavesdrop."
"I'm a soldier, you know that. Eavesdropping on soldiers' conversations is a crime. I have reasonable suspicion that you..."
“No, no, no, no!” Ma Dongxue’s face turned pale with fear. “I promise there won’t be a next time.”
Before he could finish his words, he had already stumbled a hundred meters away.
When the village party secretary heard the noise, he rushed out of the meeting room, with beads of sweat on his forehead glistening in the warm autumn sun.
"Staff Officer Tang, that... is just one of our clerks, temporary! I informed her this afternoon that she doesn't need to come."
He had warned Ma Dongxue the last time she spread rumors about Xiao Bai. He didn't expect that she would not change her bad habits and even eavesdropped on Chief of Staff Tang's phone calls. If it weren't for her uncle's face, he would have let her go last time.
Tang Jingmo nodded, indicating his approval of Lin Shan's arrangement.
His whole mind is now on the "little fox" who is still sleeping at home, which gives him a headache!
Acting on your own! Not following orders! No rules or regulations!
It seems that even with a new shell, the character remains the same.
He now has to meet with Gu Zhongzhang and help her with the final work.
Thinking of this, Tang Jingmo quickened his pace.
"Tang, Staff Officer Tang..." Lin Shan seemed to have something else to do. He rubbed his hands and followed all the way. The soles of his cloth shoes rustled as they rubbed against the gravel road.
"Please speak frankly if you have something to say." Tang Jingmo suddenly stopped and turned to ask.
Lin Shan almost bumped into his back and stopped in a hurry.
"Yeah, it's nothing. My father is seriously ill and wants to see Xiaobai. What do you think?"
"Your father?" Tang Jingmo reacted, "Lin Wu? The old village chief?"
"Yes, yes," Lin Shan rubbed his hands, feeling a little nervous.
"I'm afraid my father...I'm afraid he won't make it through this month." Lin Shan's voice choked with sobs, "He keeps talking about wanting to see Comrade Xiaobai, but..."
His rough fingers grabbed the corners of his clothes, tearing the patches apart.
He didn't know why his father was so worried recently, especially after hearing that the higher-ups were investigating the matter of Longshen Mountain, he became even more uneasy.
He kept nagging at home to see Xiaobai, but when he arrived at someone's door, he didn't dare to go in. He went back and forth all the time and eventually fell ill.
"Okay, I'll go back and tell Xiaobai that I'll accompany her to visit the old village chief later."
——
The earthen kang in the old village chief's house was filled with a strong smell of medicine.
Xiaobai wrinkled her nose as soon as she stepped over the threshold - she was too familiar with this smell. Those people who were determined to die in the apocalypse would exude this kind of decadent smell.
"Old village chief?" She approached the emaciated old man on the kang, with a puzzled look on her face. It had been such a long time since they last saw each other, how come he had become so thin? He looked so lifeless.
The dying old village chief suddenly opened his eyes, and a bright light burst out from his cloudy pupils: "Xiaobai, you are here, it's good that you are here."
"Dad," Lin Shan came over holding the medicine bowl, "Drink the medicine first, then talk slowly, there's no rush."
The old village chief took the medicine back and said, "You go out. I want to talk to Xiaobai and Comrade Tang alone for a while."
After the door was closed, the old village chief struggled to climb down from the bed and was about to kneel down, but was stopped by Xiaobai.
"Old village chief, are you afraid that the incident at Dragon God Mountain will implicate your family?"
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