Chapter 82 Desperados
Chu Zhen spent several days "stationed" at the farmers' market, posing as a restaurant owner. However, he did not find any problems during his "purchases" over the past few days, and the fake beef disappeared from the market. But on the day Chu Zhen was not there to stake out the market, the citizen who had previously reported the fake beef bought it again, which was very strange.
"How about I follow up on this? You don't look like someone who runs a restaurant at all."
"You're going to go? Showing up at the wholesale market at four in the morning with a big belly, what do you think people will think?"
"You're being a bit discriminatory against pregnant women. Besides, I'm barely showing. Nobody offers me a seat on the bus." I touched my belly, and there was no sign of pregnancy at all. Apart from my face being a little rounder than before, my limbs and belly were not much different.
"Take the bus?"
I blurted it out.
"Explain when you took the bus."
"Well, that time I came to work by myself that morning~"
"You even lied to me back then. Don't do that again, do you hear me?" Chu Zhen's expression was stern, a look he usually only showed when someone crossed his line. "Also, I'll be doing this undercover investigation myself. You're not allowed to make any rash moves. Things are different now. You're not alone anymore, understand?"
"Hmm~" I understood what Chu Zhen meant. Back then, when I was undercover investigating gutter oil, I acted rashly and managed to escape by chance.
The pregnancy came so unexpectedly, disrupting my original plans. Now that I can't fight alongside Chu Zhen, I've focused more on the car accident. Every time Chu Zhen goes out, I feel uneasy, as if something is about to happen.
"Lin Dang, since you're here, could you give this to Chu Zhen? He asked me to take a picture of the stall at the farmers' market." I get hungry very easily during pregnancy, and I happened to run into Song Huai when I went to buy yogurt.
"Chu Zhen sent you to follow up on this?"
"Yes, he hasn't made any progress in following up. Maybe it would be different if someone else were to do it. When the time comes, you can have him contact Section Chief Li to see if there's anything wrong with the beef we bought today."
"Section Chief Li?"
"That citizen who reported it was originally the head of the inspection department at the Quality Supervision Bureau, which is why he was so sensitive. I have to go home and catch up on some sleep now. Ugh, I can't stand your Chu Zhen; working hours like this are inhuman." Song Huai yawned and left. I took the USB drive back to my office.
Previously, after Chu Zhen finished an interview at night, he would go home to rest after a morning meeting the next day. But now, while I'm still at the office during the day, he just lies on the sofa in the office for a while. Seeing that he was sleeping soundly, I didn't wake him up and instead plugged in a USB drive to watch videos.
Everything in the video seemed normal. Vendors started coming to pick up their goods around 4:30 a.m. They all seemed to be regular customers. After they arrived, the owner gave them the pre-packaged beef. However, one person came and went twice without taking anything. Instead, he looked out of the store. I played the video several times. The more I looked at this person, the more familiar he seemed. I felt like I had seen him somewhere before, but I didn't have a strong impression of him.
"Yan Yan, have we met this person before?" I took a screenshot and sent it to Huang Yan Yan. We usually go out together, so if I know her well, she must know her well too.
"Big sister, you have such a wonderful man like Master Chu, yet you're still eyeing this plain-looking uncle!"
It seemed she hadn't seen him before, but where exactly had she seen him? This person didn't have a typical appearance; he looked to be in his fifties. Despite his simple clothes, his demeanor was undeniable, and he even had a scholarly air about him.
"Where did you get these photos?" Chu Zhen's tense voice suddenly came from behind me. I was so engrossed in looking at them that I didn't even notice he had woken up.
"This is a video of the farmers' market that Song Huai filmed. I took a screenshot of it. This person seems a bit strange." I showed the video to Chu Zhen.
Chu Zhen, like me, looked back and forth several times at the spot where the man had appeared.
"This man looks familiar, but I can't figure out where I've seen him before. Chu Zhen, have you seen him before?"
"Familiar? Lin Dang, think about it, where have I seen you before?" Chu Zhen suddenly asked me nervously.
"I can't remember, he just looks familiar. What's wrong? Do you know him?" I sensed that something was off with Chu Zhen.
“Amy’s biological father, Li Guoqiang.”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. Amy's biological father? How did he end up in City A, and even in the place Chu Zhen had been investigating? Chu Zhen hadn't noticed him when he was there before, but he appeared when Song Huai took over, and his expression was completely different.
"Chu Zhen, I remember now, the car accident scene." Perhaps the tension had stimulated my brain cells, and I finally remembered where I had seen him before—it was in the video of the car accident scene. Ever since I learned that it might have been arson, I had looked at everyone in the photos over and over again, which is why I felt so familiar with him.
I quickly turned on the news video of the car accident scene, and sure enough, he appeared in the crowd, standing there calmly.
"Chu Zhen~" I nervously grasped Chu Zhen's hand; his face had grown increasingly dark.
"From now on, no matter where you go, don't leave my sight. If I'm not at work, someone must accompany you to the restroom or the cafeteria." Chu Zhen stared at the video, watching it again and again. "Let's go, let's go home for today."
There was still some time before I got off work, but I knew Chu Zhen definitely had something to say to me, so I grabbed my bag and followed him home.
"Chu Zhen, was he targeting you?" My guess was right; the car accident last time was probably aimed at Chu Zhen.
“I don’t know for sure right now, but he’s a desperate criminal, so you’ll have to be careful in the future.”
"Desperado?"
"He was a gambler, addicted to gambling in his younger days, accumulating a large debt in the south. At the time, Amy's mother was working odd jobs at my father's factory. Li Guoqiang would frequently come to the factory demanding money, physically abusing Amy's mother. Once, my father couldn't stand it anymore and intervened, but he was labeled an adulterer. Li Guoqiang became even more brazen in demanding money, vandalizing the factory equipment. Eventually, my father had no choice but to pay off his gambling debts, which brought a period of peace. Later, I heard he was arrested for drug trafficking, and while in prison, he and Amy..." "Mi's mother got divorced. My dad took care of Mi's mother, which made her grateful. Over time, they got together. My mom has a strong personality and couldn't accept a man's betrayal, so in the year we met, they went through with the divorce. I was abroad at the time. My grandma was worried about my mom and resolutely severed her relationship with my dad, treating my mom like her own daughter from then on." Chu Zhen spoke calmly, as if telling someone else's story, but I was deeply shocked. This kind of plot from a TV drama was actually happening to someone around me, to the man I loved most.
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