Xie Qing and Li Ke came out of the guesthouse, turned right, and entered the alley behind.

There was no scenery in the alley, and the buildings were old, but it was full of smoke and fire. The smell of food from each family quickly attracted the attention of the two, and their bad mood was relieved.

Li Ke pointed to a big door in front, "Qingqing, look, the apricot blossoms in that house are blooming, and they are quite beautiful."

Xie Qing said, "'Last year at this time, the face of a man and the peach blossoms reflected each other. The face of a man..."

"'I don't know where the person has gone, but the peach blossoms are still smiling in the spring breeze.'" Li Ke continued, "Why, you don't even remember this poem? Besides, these are not peach blossoms, but apricot blossoms."

Xie Qing said, "This is the only poem that came to my mind at the moment."

Li Ke ran under the tree, pinched the flower branch and smelled it, "That's true. When it comes to ancient poems with apricot blossoms, the only one I can think of is 'The shepherd boy points to the apricot blossom village in the distance.'"

A girl in school uniform rode a bicycle out of the alley on the right and rode slowly for a while. After a while, two teenagers came out of the other two alleys one after another. The three of them greeted each other familiarly and rode forward together.

Li Ke looked at their backs for a while, "Some people envy them, but I don't, studying is too hard."

Xie Qing said, "You are not old enough to envy them yet."

Li Ke laughed, "Yes, yes, I am only eighteen."

Xie Qing suddenly had a new idea, "Keke, do you think it is possible for Chao Xiu to know a girl like this? The girl's home is near his house, and he often meets her on the way to and from school, but they are not in the same school."

Li Ke said, "It is possible. I liked a boy in this way at the beginning, but it was a pity that we were not in the same school. I could just observe him secretly for a few days. Qingqing, don't think about it. Go to the county bureau tomorrow to check the files and find the girl named Ye Wan, right?"

"I'll listen to you and stop thinking about it." Xie Qing turned around, "Let's go back to eat melon seeds and read novels."

...

On the third day after arriving in Lishan, the group went to the county bureau again.

Qian Ju handed over the work to the household registration department, and Xie Qing and Li Ke went to look for the girl named Ye Wan. The

person in charge of this work was a female colleague in her thirties, surnamed Zhang. She worked very patiently, looking bit by bit, and after more than an hour of hard work, she found two people named Ye Wan, but one was too old and the other was too young, and neither of them matched Chao Xiu's age.

Li Ke said, "Could it be a pen name or a nickname?"

It is not impossible, but if so, this line is tied to a dead end.

Xie Qing thought for a moment, "Sister Zhang, is it possible that someone is dead?"

Sister Zhang was a little embarrassed, "This... may not necessarily mean that he is dead. We have only used computers to save files for a few years. Files have been lost in various grassroots units. They can't report it, and we can't record it."

"Well... this is indeed the case." Xie Qing thought of the scene when they were walking last night, "Please trouble Sister Zhang again to find the place where Chao Shi's family lived, and the Ye family near his home."

...

Xie Qing copied down the information she found and went to the conference room to gather with Tan Yi and others.

As soon as they entered the door, everyone looked at them expectantly.

Li Ke lowered his head awkwardly.

Tan Yi asked, "Have you found them?"

Xie Qing said with a stiff face, "One is six years old, and the other is fifty-three years old, which is equivalent to not finding them."

"It's okay. If this way doesn't work, try another one." Huang Zhenyi smiled and stood up, "Director Qian, I won't bother you anymore. Let's work together and do both."

Director Qian sighed, "Let's try it as long as we can."

The Ben family case seemed to have a glimmer of hope, but in fact it had reached another dead end, and everyone was in a bad situation. A

group of people withdrew from the county bureau and returned to the conference room of the guesthouse. Some smoked and some drank tea.

The whole conference room was filled with clouds and mist, like a fairyland.

Xie Qing didn't want to torture herself by inhaling second-hand smoke, so she said, "Captain Huang, Li Ke and I want to go for a walk near the Chao family."

Huang Zhenyi said, "That's a solution, go ahead."

Tan Yi said, "Li Ji and I will go with you."

Huang Zhenyi waved his hand, "More people means faster speed, everyone go, call us if there's anything."

...

The four of them took a tricycle and first went to the area near the crime scene.

This place is the same as the back of the guesthouse, with bungalows, and the houses facing north and south are arranged in a straight line.

The road surface is all dirt, and when the spring breeze blows, clothes and faces are damaged.

The Chao family is a small courtyard with one entrance, and currently a family surnamed Wang lives there.

In order not to offend others, the four did not go in to disturb them, and directly retreated from the alley.

They walked around the main street against the wind - the business here is not developed, and there are almost no other shops except the canteen.

Everyone went into the canteen.

Tan Yi bought water, and Li Ji asked for directions.

The shop owner answered carefully, "It's around 200, not here. Go through our alley and then go west through another alley and you will find it. You can ask around and you will know. It's around 400 on the other side of the road, go out of this street, and ask around."

There were only two people with the surname Ye in the area, and they were far away from the Chao family. Not only was there no romantic atmosphere, but there was also no distance for romance to survive.

But in order not to miss any clues, the four people still walked around again without getting tired.

After they were sure that there was no such person as Ye Wan, they gave up and went to the Chao family's residence in the west city.

This is an older residential area, close to Shuguang Primary School, where Chao Xiu studied.

This is a more prosperous area, with canteens, bookstores, stationery stores, clothing stores, vegetable stalls, etc.

The four of them followed the same method, first went to the original site of Chao Shi's house to take a look, and then looked for the Ye family.

Unfortunately, the nearest Ye family was also a mile away, and there were boys in the family.

The other Ye family was not close either, and there was no girl of Chao Xiu's age in the family.

After coming out of the last house, Li Ji joked, "You've given up this time."

Xie Qing said, "What if you don't give up? Forget it, I don't want to think about it. You all have accompanied me for so long, I'll treat you to lunch."

Tan Yi smiled and said nothing.

Li Ke said, "Who accompanied you? Stop being so conceited. I'll treat you. Let's eat at the spring pancake shop over there."

Xie Qing's eyes lit up, "This is good, but I haven't eaten it for a long time."

Everyone hit it off and quickly headed for the spring pancake shop.

The shop was not big, but there were many people. Only one table outside next to the door and window was empty.

Xie Qing walked in and sat across from the door. Li Ke sat next to her, and the two boys sat across from

her.

As soon as the four of them sat down, the door opened and another customer followed in.

Xie Qing subconsciously looked at the door and then stood up.

Tan Yi was opposite her and immediately turned his head to look over. He saw a small audio-visual shop opposite with the words "Rent Books and CDs" written in black brush on the door.

He also stood up, "It's not impossible."

The proprietress who came over to greet them was a little surprised, "What are you looking at? Do you want to order food?"

Tan Yi asked, "Who opened the video store opposite? Is the boss's surname Ye?"

The proprietress shook her head, "Not Ye, but Chang."

Xie Qing said, "What about seven or eight years ago?"

The proprietress said, "I don't know about seven or eight years ago. I heard that the boss has changed twice."

Tan Yi asked, "Does anyone know?"

"Of course." The proprietress called a waitress who was older than her, "What was the surname of the boss of the video store seven or eight years ago?"

The waitress said, "His surname was Qiu, and later someone named Zhan came."

Xie Qing sat back, "It's still not Ye." The waitress said, "None of the bosses have the surname Ye, but seven or eight years ago there was a girl who looked after the store with the surname Ye." The four people's eyes lit up together, "How old was the girl?" The old waitress asked, "How old was the girl?" The old waitress