Flowerpot (three)
The strong feeling of weightlessness lasted only for a moment, and the scream and the sudden grabbing of the arm by the person next to me came almost at the same time.
Zhang Tianyi was the fastest. He leaned most of his body down from the rooftop, grabbed my shoulders, pinned me under the armpits, and pulled me up.
Only then did I realize that I had fallen and was outside the building. I immediately grabbed Tianyi with my backhand and didn't dare to move.
Xu You and Zhang Jia also came to help me. It was easy for three strong adults to pull me out. I was soon back on the rooftop. The moment I stepped firmly on the ground, my feet were a little shaky.
I have to admit that the moment of life and death is always terrifying. It is hard to get used to it no matter how many storms you have experienced. Although the time I was suspended in the air was short, it still made me shudder with fear.
I sat slumped on the dirty tiles on the rooftop for two or three minutes before I had the energy to think about what was wrong and turned to look at the "crime scene".
At this moment, extremely slowly, we all heard a long and faint bang, as if something smashed on the ground downstairs.
I waved my hand to tell the guys beside me not to help me, and I stood up and walked to the edge of the roof. I took a deep breath and looked down despite the slight dizziness brought by the height.
As expected, there was a broken flowerpot on the ground, with slightly dark red soil and broken porcelain pieces scattered all over the ground.
Huobin had already rushed over from the RV, not daring to breathe, looking up and trying to tiptoe towards us. When he saw me reappear, he wiped his face vigorously, obviously still in shock. At the height of seven floors, Huobin's figure below was neither big nor small. In the insufficient natural light around us, he and I looked at each other from a distance again, and my heart skipped a beat.
I found myself not being able to see the fight clearly.
This time the eerie feeling of closeness was gone. I checked again and looked into the distance. The RV was originally parked in a small park near the community. In order to pick up the fainted old man, it was driven to the bottom of the first building at the entrance of the community in a hurry, occupying a row of parking spaces of someone else's.
We should be in the third building, diagonally opposite to the RV, so there is still some obstruction and distance. He was said to be downstairs, but in fact he was at least 50 to 60 meters away from us when the incident happened. Plus the parallax caused by the height, how could we see the subtle changes in each other's expressions?
As I was thinking, the sound of the flowerpot falling to the ground might have alarmed passers-by. Someone noticed our RV that was in the way and was not happy about it. He started to fight with us with a sullen face.
Huobing had no energy to argue with him. He just looked at me nervously, unable to say a word to the man. Both of them seemed to be on the verge of a quarrel.
I waved my hand and made a phone call gesture, indicating that I would come downstairs to talk to him as soon as I finished dealing with the matter, and told him not to worry and to communicate well with the residents.
On the other side, Xu You couldn't stand it anymore, so he grabbed my collar and pulled me back to the iron door that was pried open at the entrance to the rooftop corridor without saying a word before letting go.
This time, without waiting for me to ask, everyone surrounded me, fearing that I would grow wings and suddenly fly away.
One of the guys shouted nervously, "Advisor, why did you kick the flowerpot and jump out just now?"
Well, in his eyes, this is the situation? That's really a "voluntary" jump.
I just felt my temples throbbing, so I asked him:
“Do you see how many flower pots are there?”
The guy was puzzled and started counting to me subconsciously, "two, four, six, nine..." He got stuck and his face turned pale. He stammered and couldn't continue counting.
I understand his confusion, because when I looked over, there was only one pot missing from the neatly arranged row of flower pots on the rooftop, and that gap had been there before today.
Apparently, I had just luckily avoided all the flower pots blocking my way and managed to fall through this gap in an extremely cunning way.
Looking at the others, everyone had a different expression, and they probably all noticed that something was amiss here.
In addition, I also noticed a small detail that Zhang Tianyi's arm seemed to be scratched.
He should have just leaned over from the gap in the flowerpot to save someone. He was not injured, but his elbows and palms were vaguely stained with some scattered dirt. The amount was not much, but the dark red sheen still made people feel uncomfortable.
After rescuing me, Zhang Tianyi didn't say anything. He touched the red mark on his elbow and looked at his palm as if he was thinking about something.
I also felt something was a bit strange. Since he started at the hospital, Zhang Tianyi had been distracted and talking less and less. Could it be that something was wrong and he was no longer able to do what he wanted?
Don't blame me for being a jinx. It's just that this guy used to smile and make fun of others whenever he could breathe. When I saw him being so quiet, I couldn't help but suspect that he was hiding something big.
Just as I started to complain, I suddenly remembered something. I quickly reached out to grab Zhang Tianyi's arm and looked him up and down carefully.
This made me feel really nervous. I almost swallowed my saliva subconsciously and asked the guys around me:
"I have a question. Did you wash your hands on the second floor just now?"
This question was a bit confusing, so team leader Zhang Jia wondered, "Why should we wash our hands if there's nothing wrong?"
I had some sweat on my forehead, so I dragged the person down the rooftop and ran to the second floor.
A group of people followed me quickly down the stairs, all of them completely confused.
I really didn't have time to explain, so I went to the second floor, pushed Zhang Tianyi into the room, and asked him to recreate the scene when we first met in the room today.
He thought about it, suddenly smiled, looked at his hands and went to the bathroom.
After a while, I knocked on the door to show that I had arrived, and then I heard something in the bathroom creaking, but it probably didn't work. After a pause, Zhang Tianyi came out and met me, his hands covered with dark red dirt.
I stopped him and asked him solemnly, "What were you planning to do just now?"
"Wash your hands. But there's no water."
He answered, turning sideways and pointing to the restroom, "This faucet is old-fashioned, and many villages still have it. There is a key slot on it, so when not in use, you can unscrew the faucet valve together to prevent others from stealing water."
I followed his gaze and found that the faucet connected to the simple water pipe was incomplete, and a copper key head was missing.
The faucet is locked, so of course you can't use water.
The guys next to us were confused and looked at each other, not knowing what we were talking about.
I sighed and explained, "When I walked in today, I saw traces of dirt on Zhang Tianyi's hands. Later, when you said you had just checked the flower pot, I didn't take it seriously. I just thought he had just touched the flower pot and was about to go to the bathroom to wash his hands when I interrupted him."
Xu You's expression also changed a little, and he looked at one of the more mature guys.
The middle-aged guy seemed to be a local agent as well. He looked unfamiliar and immediately frowned and said:
"No, in fact, we wore gloves when we checked and searched those flower pots, and we were very careful when we restored them. In order to protect the evidence and avoid contamination, we did not have direct contact with the flower pots."
He pointed to his companions behind him and said, "The discarded gloves have been collected. According to the rules, we will dispose of them together afterwards."
I sighed again and asked the middle-aged guy, "Yeah, where did the dirt marks on Zhang Tianyi's hands come from?"
Zhang Tianyi seemed to be thinking about something, then laughed and said, "That's now."
The room suddenly fell silent for two seconds. The middle-aged man's face turned pale and then red. It took him a long time to find his voice. He smacked his lips and said:
"But... it's the other way around, right? He's just got mud on his hands from saving someone, how come he's already in your hand when you meet him in the morning? It's already ten in the morning!"
I rubbed my eyebrows and thought, yes, what kind of time-based mystery is this? The cause and effect of things here seem to be happening backwards in a very paradoxical way, first showing us the result, then letting us go through the process, and finally seeing the cause of the matter.
Xu You also realized that something was wrong, and suddenly asked the middle-aged man coldly:
"You were the ones who investigated Lao Lin's case. Didn't you say there were two witnesses at the time?"
The middle-aged guy was stunned for a moment, nodded and said that they had checked the local surveillance footage and the rumor about the quarrel between the lady watering the flowers and the student actually happened more than a year ago, but because some idle people took some photos and posted them on the news, they falsely attributed the incident to the incident and made it up to increase the impact and authenticity of the rumor.
The actual witnesses only captured the outlines of the two people's backs under the incomplete surveillance. But it can still be identified from the video that the two people did look in the direction of the rooftop, and pointed at the rooftop and argued about something when they were excited.
"Based on the blurry features of the video, we found one of the witnesses, a resident of the building next door, who was out to wash his car that day. He told us the later version of the story, and you, the content consultant, also know it.
He said that he was startled by a falling flower pot during the argument, and vaguely saw a face sticking out from the rooftop, which frightened him so much that he had nightmares for several days. We showed him photos of Lao Lin and others, and he pointed out that it was indeed Lao Lin, so he was not mistaken. "
As I was saying this, my phone rang. It was Huobing who called me because he was worried that I hadn't come for a long time.
I answered the phone, and the voice of Huo Bie sounded a little uneasy. After hearing that I was safe, he still shouted that he wanted to come over to see me.
I told him to be patient, saying that the old man was still unconscious and needed someone to watch over him. I would not feel comfortable if someone else took his place.
When I told him about the fight, he felt a little ashamed and immediately said that he had returned to the car and the old man was fine. Then he remembered and was embarrassed to explain to me that he didn't mean to scare me. He was distracted and heard the sound of something heavy falling, and he saw me falling downstairs. As a result, he hurried over and saw that I was fine. It seemed that I was scared by him and my feet slipped, and I almost fell down.
I was turning on the loudspeaker, and I saw the middle-aged guy's eyes widened and his face looked extremely ugly.
"...witness, I found another one for you as well." I controlled the chill in my heart and said slowly, "The quarrel between the witnesses happened just now. But the one who fought saw me fall down the stairs first, and then he shouted at me in shock."
"Where's that resident? He just had an argument with Huo, so even if he went home, he probably didn't go far. Take your people to the original address to see where he is. His perspective seems to be different from Huo's, so we may need to start from him to figure out how Lao Lin jumped off the building."
The middle-aged waiter was regretting his decision, but he nodded heavily at me without saying a word, and immediately led the two young waiters out quickly.
I was now paranoid and had no time to relax. I confirmed with the team leader Zhang Jia and asked him where the person assigned to him by the Zhang family was when Lao Lin asked for help, and whether he had any contact with Lao Lin.
Logically, they should have figured out and summarized these things as soon as possible, so how could they be so confused that they are still unclear? It is normal for a person to make mistakes, but they are all experienced people and they are not so stupid.
On the other side, I went to question Zhang Tianyi about what was going on here. Didn't he say that he knew roughly where the homeless people's lair was? We didn't go directly to the so-called waterless land, but followed the old man's restored map for a long time, and finally ignored the map and ran to this residential building to investigate the jumping case.
It's not that the current clues and anomalies are not important. I can indeed feel the intricate connections underneath. But when I come to my senses and think about it, there is a ready-made road to heaven, but I don't take it, but instead come back to look for the original clues. Am I going back in time as I live?
Before Zhang Tianyi could answer, Zhang Jia responded and subconsciously went to look for the transfer records. Suddenly, he paused and shouted as if he had seen a ghost:
"No, why am I so stupid! The ones who have contacted Lao Lin and are here to meet us are the ones who just left!"
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