Chapter 60
Tang Ruxin's mind raced. Han Yixiao's presence here probably had nothing to do with catching her eavesdropping. She took a deep breath and said calmly, "What for?"
"I'm waiting for you here at your car. You sent me in jail for so many days, so I have to express my gratitude. Right?" Han Yixiao said as he took a step closer, looking down at Tang Ruxin with his height advantage.
Tang Ruxin didn't retreat. She looked up at him with a half-smile and said, "The detention center's education program is quite a failure. Or perhaps you weren't there long enough?"
Han Yixiao punched the roof of the car beside her, his face fierce, "You don't really think I dare not hit you?"
Tang Ruxin laughed out loud, "You don't really think that if you hit me, nothing will happen to me, do you?"
"Why don't you try and see if I will leave any evidence for you." Han Yixiao took another step closer, almost touching the top of Tang Ruxin's head with his head down.
Tang Ruxin subconsciously looked around. There was only one surveillance camera on the telephone pole in front of the dormitory gate, and it was facing the dormitory gate. The place where she parked was a blind spot for the surveillance camera.
"No need to look, I know this place better than you."
As Han Yixiao spoke, he reached out, grabbed Tang Ruxin's neck, and pushed her against the car.
Tang Ruxin clutched his wrists tightly, unable to pull them free. She tried to scream for help but couldn't, and her breathing became increasingly labored. Instinctively, she struggled, kicking him between the legs. Han Yixiao dodged with a slight shift of his body. He was undoubtedly far more experienced in fighting than Tang Ruxin.
He raised his other hand and was about to slap it hard when a voice behind him called him.
"Xiaozi! What are you doing? Let go!" Liu Wei pulled away his hand that was pinching Tang Ruxin's neck and slapped him on the forehead. "What are you doing? You're crazy, in public."
Tang Ruxin was finally able to breathe and immediately squatted down and started coughing violently.
"No one!" Even though he said that, Han Yixiao didn't continue to attack. "If it weren't for her, would I have been in jail for so many days? And she didn't even let me vent my anger..."
Liu Wei squatted down to help Tang Ruxin up. After seeing her clothes clearly, he hesitated for a moment, then leaned close to Tang Ruxin's face and looked at her. "Were you eavesdropping at my door just now?"
"Who are you? Do I know you? You're sick." Tang Ruxin stroked her neck, which was pinched so hard that it hurt. She rolled her eyes at him in annoyance, then pointed at Han Yixiao and cursed, "Just wait, this matter is not over today!"
While swearing, she pulled open the car door and raised her foot to get in.
Liu Wei grabbed the hood of her down vest and pulled her away from the car door. The inside of the vest was black, the same as the one he saw the eavesdropper wearing.
"Ha, you're pretty quick...did you throw away the hat and wig?"
Tang Ruxin sighed, closed the car door as if giving up struggling, clasped her hands in front of her and stood in a posture ready to be beaten.
"She eavesdropped?" Han Yixiao asked, "What happened?"
Liu Wei turned around and was about to answer when he was suddenly pushed away by a huge force, falling backwards towards Han Yixiao. Tang Ruxin turned and ran after pushing him.
Han Yixiao caught Liu Wei who was rushing towards him, but Liu Wei was much heavier than him, and the two of them fell into a ball.
"Catch her quickly, she heard the conversation between me and Sister Tong." Liu Wei was still holding the down vest that Tang Ruxin had taken off in an instant. He was so angry that he threw the vest away, jumped up and chased after her.
On the evening of Lunar New Year's Day, the streets were sparsely populated, and the chemical park itself wasn't as crowded as the city itself. Aside from rush hour, there were few people wandering around during the day.
Tang Ruxin ran, looking around for a supermarket, restaurant, or even a bank ATM shelter that was still open. However, it was New Year's Day, and no one was open. She couldn't see any bank signs along the street.
Liu Wei was short and couldn't run fast, but Han Yixiao was tall and long-legged, so he quickly caught up with her. Tang Ruxin's breathing became rapid, knowing that this day might not end peacefully.
She pulled out her phone and hurriedly dialed Yu Lei's number. Before she could say anything, Han Yixiao grabbed her shoulders and dragged her backwards. The phone fell into the snow beside the road, and she couldn't tell if the call went through.
"Let me go, help...ah——"
Tang Ruxin immediately struggled and shouted. What she regretted most now was that when she was a child, Tang Jiulin asked her to learn Sanda, but she did not endure the hardship.
Han Yixiao locked her arms around her shoulders, his other hand covering her mouth. Liu Wei, panting, caught up, and the two of them dragged the struggling Tang Ruxin into a dark alley. Tang Ruxin struggled so hard that even two people could barely hold her down. Fearing further trouble, Han Yixiao punched her in the forehead.
"What should we do now?" he asked Liu Wei, panting.
Liu Wei didn't know what to do. He licked his lips, which were dry from running, and said, "First, get it back. We haven't received the money yet, and we can't leak a single word of what she heard, otherwise we're finished."
"What, what should I do? This is too conspicuous. There are colleagues living nearby. What if someone gets bumped into...how am I going to explain it?" Han Yixiao said worriedly as he looked at the unconscious Tang Ruxin.
"Go find a bottle of wine." Liu Wei said.
"That's right!" Han Yixiao's eyes lit up. "You won't be noticeable if you reek of alcohol. Brother Wei, you're really smart!"
Two hours later, a police car with red and blue lights flashing stopped on the side of the road in front of the dark alley.
After a thorough search, Chen Jingzhou came to Yu Lei with the phone he had found in the snow and said solemnly, "Sister Tang might have been in trouble."
After unlocking his phone, Yu Lei briefly checked the call logs and WeChat, but found no useful clues, so he put the phone into the evidence bag.
"Go check the surveillance. Lao He, take people to visit the nearby residents."
As soon as Yu Lei finished speaking, another police officer came running over and said that he had found Tang Ruxin's car.
The white Audi was parked quietly on the roadside across from the Donghe Refining and Chemical employee dormitory, unlocked. Yu Lei turned on his flashlight and squatted down to carefully inspect the area around the car.
"The footprints are messy, with traces of smearing. There might have been a physical confrontation, but it wasn't intense." Chen Jingzhou said as he took photos using the flashlight: "He left the car door unlocked. It's likely he didn't have time to do so..."
Yu Lei stood up and looked at him gloomily. Chen Jingzhou immediately shut up, took out his flashlight and went to the other side to collect evidence.
A moment later, a police officer found a wig, a peaked cap, and a pair of black-framed glasses without prescription from the green belt across the road. Yu Lei sniffed the wig and found it faintly smelled of Tang Ruxin's shampoo.
"Go get the police dogs."
"yes!"
An hour later, the police dog led them from the Audi to where the phone had fallen, then turned into a dark alley. The German Shepherd, ears pricked up, sniffed the ground, then sat still for a moment, its tongue hanging out, staring at the group.
"The scent is interrupted here," the police dog trainer explained.
"How could it be interrupted suddenly? Can people disappear out of thin air?" Yu Lei frowned.
"There are stronger odors that mask the human scent, such as," the police dog handler said, lying on the ground and sniffing, "alcohol."
Yu Lei punched the wall beside him with a terrifyingly sinister look.
In the year since he started, Chen Jingzhou had never seen Yu Lei look like this. He subconsciously took a step back, not daring to speak, not even to look Yu Lei in the eye. Those eyes were filled with murderous intent, almost overflowing with it.
Chen Jingzhou had no doubt that if the person who kidnapped Tang Ruxin stood in front of him at this moment, Yu Lei would draw his gun.
*
It has been more than ten hours since Tang Ruxin made her last call.
Apart from confirming that she drove to the Donghe Refining and Chemical dormitory area by herself and sat in the tea restaurant opposite the dormitory for the entire afternoon, there were no other useful clues.
The person who took her away must have been very familiar with the location of the cameras in that neighborhood, as they were almost always walking in a blind spot. Only Tang Ruxin's figure as she fled was visible in the far corner of a traffic surveillance camera, while the person who pursued her was not shown, only her lower body was captured.
There are two pieces of information that can be obtained from this surveillance video. There were two people chasing her at the time. One was wearing Donghe Refining's sea-blue overalls and brown cotton work shoes, and the other was wearing gray casual pants and black sneakers.
Yu Lei didn't sleep all night and watched the surveillance video countless times.
"Captain Yu, I've found Liu Wei's information." Chen Jingzhou hurried into the office, clutching a few pieces of paper. "He, Han Yixiao, and Tong Jiayu all joined Donghe Refining in the same year. Liu Wei and Han Yixiao both hail from Tong'an, Pingbei, and came from the same orphanage. Their parents' information is unknown... Captain Yu? Captain Yu, what's wrong with you?"
Yu Lei snapped back to his senses, stood up, and took the information from Chen Jingzhou's hand, examining it again and again. His eyes were filled with panic, and his face was filled with a rare look of shock and bewilderment.
"Is there something wrong?" Chen Jingzhou asked nervously, and came over to take a look.
"Are you sure it's Tong'an? Tong'an Township in Pingbei?" Yu Lei's voice was unstable and his breathing was rapid. He held Chen Jingzhou's arm tightly and asked anxiously.
"Yes, I think so. We checked the police system...it can't be wrong, right?" Chen Jingzhou became even more nervous after being asked this by Yu Lei. For a moment, he began to doubt the personnel information in the police system. "Sister Tang asked you to check this person yesterday. Why? Is there something wrong with him?"
Yu Lei did not answer, but just stared at the words on the document in his hand.
——Tong'an Township, Pingbei Town, Zhao Zheng’s hometown.
【Fanfiction】The Daily Life of Cows and Horses
This fanfiction, written by Ye Baoer, a close friend of the Bodhisattva, is incredibly entertaining. It kept me entertained from beginning to end, and I had a blast. Thanks, Ye Baoer!
Chen Jingzhou watched the car window in front of him roll down, and his hand, which was eating a skewer, stopped involuntarily.
"Hello, Officer Chen," said Song Mu, Assistant Safety Director of Donghe Refining and Chemical, leaning out of the car window with a typical professional fake smile. "What a coincidence, meeting you here."
Chen Jingzhou's brain raced for two seconds before he decided to swallow the food first. While his teeth were grinding against his flesh, Song Mu had already pushed open the door, exited the car, and approached him.
"Have you just finished your night shift? You've worked hard." Song Mu said politely and sat down opposite him.
Chen Jingzhou didn't even bother chewing, and swallowed it all in one messy gulp, saying, "Someone just vomited on that chair."
Song Mu suddenly jumped up. Chen Jingzhou said again, "I did wipe it clean... I was just worried it would bother you."
The other person gave him a fake smile, the corners of his eyes twitching. "If you don't say it, I won't be disgusted."
Chen Jingzhou waved his hand, picked up the bottle on the table, gulped down the contents, threw the bottle on the table, and said straight to the point, "You're looking for me because of your Tang Ruxin, right?"
Song Mu's gaze lingered on his hand for a moment before he retracted it and replied irrelevantly, "So Officer Chen loves to drink tea."
A light breeze blew by, knocking over the iced black tea bottle that Chen Jingzhou had just smashed on the table. The plastic bottle rolled off the table. Chen Jingzhou leaned back impatiently, fished out a cigarette case from his pocket, and cracked it open. "Want a cigarette?"
Song Mu's gaze drifted back to him, and he smiled, "Thank you, I don't smoke." He paused and added, "Mr. Tang doesn't like it."
Chen Jingzhou whistled and said unconsciously, "She's on a flight tomorrow, arriving at Jinan Airport. She'll stay for three days and then come back."
Song Mu maintained a frozen calm throughout the entire process—you didn't need professional criminal investigation expertise to see how nervous he was. Chen Jingzhou sighed and said, "Don't worry, Captain Yu and I are right here with you. We won't give you, Mr. Tang, a scratch."
He specifically brought up the scrape, and sure enough, the person on the other side shuddered. The flowerpot incident might have been a minor incident in their professional eyes, but for an average person like Song Mu, it was a mental burden like being afraid of the rope for ten years.
Chen Jingzhou understood, and because he did, he didn't want to burden the other person any further. Besides, he'd only attended police academy for a few years and then taken a technical investigation internship. All he could do was become numb to the danger he was in, which was completely unrelated to helping a victim. Besides, Song Mu had long seen what kind of person Tang Ruxin was. While he should have helped his brother as a fellow ox and horse, thinking of his own captain, he felt the waters were too deep. To avoid drowning himself, he had to let go of his animal-helping complex and respect Song Mu's fate.
As he thought this, he stared at the other person without missing a single frame, and it seemed that he had accidentally made the other person feel uncomfortable.
Song Mu cleared his throat, and Chen Jingzhou regained his composure.
"With two police officers following me, I feel at ease," said Song Mu.
The words were spoken in a serious tone, but Chen Jingzhou, the epicenter of gossip, could hear the gnashing of teeth between the lines. Curiosity about gossip and fear of Yu Lei battled each other in his mind. Finally, he plucked at the cold grilled pork tendons on the iron plate and said, "I want to heat up some skewers. Would you like something to eat?"
Song Mu declined, saying they had just happened to meet by chance and stopped to chat, not wanting to take up his off-work time. As he was about to get up, Chen Jingzhou's gossipy spirit came up and reached across the table to stop him.
"I know," he said, his hand not actually touching hers. It was strange to see two grown men tug at each other on the street. But the other man stopped, fully aware of what he was talking about. He grinned, his self-satisfaction almost asking for a slap. "I booked your plane ticket, Ms. Tang. I know her ID number."
*
At this time the next day, Chen Jingzhou recalled what Song Mu had told him the night before and couldn't help but slap himself in the face. Because at this time, Tang Ruxin was crying across from him.
He called Yu Lei in despair, then thought about it and raised his hand to send a message to Song Mu.
"Mr. Tang, don't you like celebrating your birthday?"
After the message was sent, the other party replied immediately, "Yes. Did you let it slip?"
Tang Ruxin's mood swings had been severe recently, and Song Mu had come all the way to find him just to prevent him and Yu Lei from stepping into a minefield and making things worse. Although he hadn't fallen for Sister Tang's tricks, he wasn't so foolish as to knowingly commit a crime.
"No, then is there anything else that's bothering her?"
After typing this, Chen Jingzhou mentally slapped himself. Tang Ruxin hadn't had a good time lately, but when it came to persuading her, neither Chen Jingzhou nor Song Mu could be relied upon; Captain Yu had to step in personally. So he deleted every word and changed it back to a simple "No."
This time the other party did not reply immediately.
Chen Jingzhou put down his phone and heard a loud bang through the door. His mind went blank for a second, and he immediately rushed back to the room. As he entered, he found Tang Ruxin tugging at the coffee table, shaking several takeout boxes on the coffee table. The tissue box that had been placed there before had fallen to the ground and broken open. He was stunned and asked, "Sister Tang, what's wrong?"
The coffee table was too heavy for Tang Ruxin's thin arms to lift, but she didn't let go. She replied, holding her breath, "It's blocking the way."
"Hey, let me do it." Chen Jingzhou rushed to take over. Tang Ruxin was probably tired, so she walked around the coffee table and sank back onto the sofa.
By the time Chen Jingzhou had pushed the coffee table far to the wall as she instructed, she had already turned on the TV and expertly switched to a TV series. He glanced at it, having never seen it before, and couldn't make out what it was about. He stood against the wall for a while, racking his brains, before pointing at the takeout and asking, "Sister Tang, are you still eating?"
Tang Ruxin stared at the TV, patted the sofa, and asked him, "Watching TV?"
Chen Jingzhou wanted to say, "I'm not going to watch it anymore, I'm going back," but he couldn't leave Tang Ruxin, so twisted and sullen, alone in the room. He glanced reluctantly at the braised pork and walked over to sit down next to her. The hotel had a complete set of sofas. Tang Ruxin occupied the long side facing the TV, while Chen Jingzhou sat upright on the single sofa to the side, tilting his head to watch a TV show for a while, feeling a part of his brain was being polluted.
Tang Ruxin was watching something like "The Overbearing CEO Falls in Love with Me." For a solid ten minutes, the male and female protagonists stood in their 400-square-meter apartment, smashing things and yelling at the top of their lungs. Chen Jingzhou was already at his limit after watching a minute and a half of this. After ten minutes, he felt like storming out of the room. But he couldn't just stand up and leave. He could only sit there, feeling uneasy, counting down the seconds on his phone. After a minute that felt like an eternity, he decided to divert his attention and sent a WeChat message to Song Mu.
"Mr. Tang, are you a picky eater?"
"It has to be light, with protein, no spicy food, and I hate cumin." Another quick reply. "No beans in salad." Another quick reply. "What's wrong?" he asked finally.
Chen Jingzhou raised his hand and said perfunctorily, "I'll order takeout."
The other party didn't reply again. Chen Jingzhou rolled his eyes at his phone, thinking, they're both similar in their disposability. He didn't know if Song Mu was just like that, or if he took after his master. But he wasn't annoying, and he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
Chen Jingzhou would flicker on his phone, then glance at a TV show, but he couldn't hold on for more than half a minute before returning to his phone, occasionally dealing with a few insignificant work WeChat messages and chattering in the group chat. Meanwhile, Tang Ruxin curled up on the couch, quietly watching a TV show. The room was silent except for the slightly hoarse bubbling voice of the overbearing CEO. As Chen Jingzhou contentedly exited a group chat and clicked back to his conversation with Song Mu, he caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye. He looked up to see Tang Ruxin quietly standing beside him, staring down into his eyes.
If the lights hadn't been on in the room, he would have been frightened to death.
"Tang... Sister Tang... what's wrong?" He stuttered and pressed keys on his phone, but the more anxious he became, the harder it was to exit the dialog box.
Tang Ruxin's eyes swept across his screen, his expression unchanged. He thought to himself that this was a true veteran. Song Mu was older than Tang Ruxin, but his acting experience was still a step behind.
"Would you like some water?" Tang Ruxin asked lightly.
Chen Jingzhou subconsciously shook his head and said, "I'm not thirsty." It took him a second to realize what his leader meant, so he jumped up and said, "I'll go boil some water."
Tang Ruxin still had no expression, just nodded and went back to sit down.
There was a kettle in the living room, and Chen Jingzhou poured two bottles of the hotel's paid mineral water into it. As it boiled, he observed Tang Ruxin's expression. She looked tired, but she was calm and detached. Her eyes were fixed on the TV, fixed with unwavering concentration. But he couldn't tell if she was paying attention, because no matter what the men and women on TV were saying, she always looked distant, as if her eyes were simply fixed on the screen because she didn't know where else to look.
The water boiled, and Chen Jingzhou added half a cup of cold mineral water before handing her a glass of warm water. She thanked him softly and took it, then placed it on the coffee table, never touching it again. A few minutes later, she came over and called him, asking him to call room service to pick up the takeout containers. He couldn't sit still anyway, so he simply ran over to pick up the boxes himself, grabbing a couple more bites of meat. After a flurry of cleaning, he managed to survive another ten minutes.
Chen Jingzhou didn't notice it when he was busy, but when he settled back on the sofa, that feeling of helplessness returned. Ultimately, it was because Tang Ruxin was too quiet. Normally, when he saw her, she was either busy working or sparring with Yu Lei. But now, she wasn't busy at all, not even moving, like a giant, completely closed clam, gloomily oppressing the atmosphere in the room.
Originally, Chen Jingzhou, with his insensitivity, would have been completely oblivious to this repression. But with Song Mu's reminder, he knew this wasn't Tang Ruxin's happiest day. And knowing the reason, he was even more unsure of what to do. Hesitantly, he picked up his phone again, wanting to ask Song Mu for help.
At this time, Tang Ruxin suddenly said, "It's almost done."
Chen Jingzhou was so scared that he threw his phone away.
Looking up, Tang Ruxin was still staring at the TV.
"Sister Tang?"
Tang Ruxin didn't look back, but Chen Jingzhou didn't dare to fiddle with his phone anymore.
Five minutes later, Yu Lei finally pushed the door open and came back. Chen Jingzhou saw the salad takeout bag in Yu Lei's hand, gave him a painful and complicated expression, then ran away and closed the door.
Two days later, Chen Jingzhou and his group landed in Donghe City. When Chen Jingzhou returned home, he received a package containing a box of expensive-looking Lapsang Souchong tea and a full box of iced black tea.
Chen Jingzhou raised his hand and sent a message to Song Mu, saying, "Where's your explosive settlement reward?"
Song Mu didn't reply.
END
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