Chapter 50 Chapter 50 A smiling voice sounded from behind...
One day later.
Huashui County is located at the border between Handong and the neighboring province. As the New Year approaches, Chengguan Town is filled with migrant workers returning from their work.
The beef soup restaurant in the town center was crowded with people, and hot white steam was rising from the big pot in the kitchen and floating across the entire store.
"Boss, your beef is terrible!" a customer complained, holding a bowl of soup. "It should be frozen meat! Lianjie Snack Shop in Jiangtan only uses fresh meat, not overnight meat."
The boss was quite good-tempered. "My small business can't compare to Boss Lian's... I want to go to Jiangtan to enjoy my food!"
A burst of laughter rang out in the lobby. The man who was eating noodles in the corner heard the word "Jiangtan" and his ears moved.
Two customers started chatting: "Have you heard the background story of Lian Jie Snack Shop?"
"What? Tell me!"
"I'm so good at cooking because my ancestors were royal chefs! The kind that were hereditary!"
"Yes, didn't they lose a candlestick in that museum theft? I heard they come in pairs, and the other one is in the Lian family's ancestral tomb!"
"That's no ordinary family! No wonder so many people approached her to open branches without even batting an eyelid!"
Song A Lei, who was huddled in the corner, gently put down his chopsticks and listened attentively to their conversation.
"Hey, where is Lian Qiao from?"
"Shannan Town! That place is a treasured feng shui location!" The visitor waved his hand. "There's an old man named Huo over there who always says he found a treasure in the mountains. Remember? There's a mass grave down there. How can a place like that contain so many evil spirits? Of course it's because of its pure yang feng shui!"
"...Fuck, I won't go to the south to work next year. I might as well go treasure hunting in Jiangtan!"
Song A Lei didn't even finish his noodles. He threw a few coins on the table, stood up suddenly, and disappeared into the crowd on the street.
*
“Squeak—”
In an urban village in Jiangtan City, the door of an inconspicuous little house was pushed open.
Song Alei shook off the snow on his body, walked into the house, and took off the woolen hat on his head, the cotton mask on his face, and the fake mole stuck on the corner of his eye.
Fortunately, he was dressed like this, and there were so many policemen on the way into the city that no one suspected him.
"A bunch of idiots." Song A Lei shook his head and sneered, washed his hands and face, changed his clothes, and opened his bedroom.
He decorated this place in an antique style, like the bedroom of an ancient nobleman.
Although the jujube-wood bed and the Hanfu in the wardrobe were made by him, the four treasures of the study on the desk and the tea sets and incense burners on the chest of drawers were all genuine funerary objects.
Song Alei picked up a box of matches, walked to the Buddhist shrine in the corner, and bowed respectfully.
Enshrined on the shrine is an exquisite stone Buddha head, and next to it stands the bronze fairy candlestick.
He placed the lit candle over, and a little flickering flame shone through the vase in the fortune fairy's hand.
"Buddha, please bless my Song family to restore its former glory as soon as possible, and bless me to find the other candlestick safely and smoothly!"
Song A Lei bowed three times and lit a stick of incense before leaving the Buddhist shrine.
*
The moonlight on the night of Lesser Cold seemed frozen, shining on a barren hill in Shannan Town.
Song Alei squatted in a forest, wiped the oil stains from the corner of his mouth with the sleeve of his cotton jacket, picked up the flashlight and shone it over there -
The slightly raised tomb in front of you is said to be the ancestral tomb of the owner of Lianjie Snack Shop.
From a distance, the soil smells fresh, as if it has just been renovated.
No wonder the second bronze fairy candlestick was found.
He has been squatting here for half an hour and has made all the necessary preparations. If the police are lying in ambush here, he can evacuate immediately!
Fortunately, there is no sign of anyone passing by here. Now it is early morning, which is a good time to take action!
Song Alei took out the Luoyang shovel from the bag at his feet and tiptoed towards the brand new stele.
With a "click", he shoveled it down.
The soil was frozen solid and a little hard... After digging for an unknown amount of time, Song A Lei stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He slowly dug out a tunnel that led directly under the tombstone.
Song A Lei threw away the Luoyang shovel, shone the flashlight over there, and saw a solid wooden board underneath.
——This must be the coffin!
Good things are usually kept close to the tomb owner. Song Alei rubbed his hands in surprise and jumped down with a flashlight in his mouth.
The tunnel was not deep, but it was higher than his head. He found a sharp corner on the backboard of the coffin, picked up the saw on his back, pressed it against it, and pulled it back and forth.
The "squeaking" sound sounded particularly terrifying in the silent night.
Song Alei grinned complacently and quickened his movements.
His candlestick, the candlestick from his old Song family, will be in his hands soon!
Just then—
"Cluck, cluck, cluck!"
Suddenly, a strange laugh came from behind!
Song Alei's hand trembled, and he stopped moving. He turned his head and looked up at the cave entrance, and asked loudly: "Who?!"
The night answered him with an empty echo: "Who - who - who -"
Song Alei was stunned for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and thankfully, the laughter didn't return. He weighed the saw in his hand and continued with his previous action.
After a while, the back panel was finally removed, revealing a dark hole inside.
When the flashlight shone, a copper-gold color flashed before my eyes!
"Excellent, my candlestick, my—"
Song Alei was so surprised that he put his hand into the coffin that he didn't notice that there was no bad smell coming out of the coffin. The so-called "corpse" was just a ball of rags wrapped in a straw mat.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck!"
The strange laughter sounded behind him again! And the sound was louder, as if it was getting closer and closer to him, accompanied by creepy, indescribable sounds, making him feel like he was nailed to the spot.
Song Alei stuffed the candlestick into his bag, turned around, stared at the source of the sound, and shouted, "Who's there?"
No one answered, but a bad premonition slowly rose from the soles of my feet. No matter whether it was a human or a ghost over there, I had to run away quickly!
He turned around, headed in the opposite direction, and took a step forward.
However, someone was quicker than him. A tall, burly man, accompanied by several uniformed police officers, suddenly jumped out of the bushes!
"Song A'lei!" Tang Ci's murderous voice rang out in the dark night.
"—You're under arrest!"
…
Ten minutes later.
The dazzling car lights suddenly lit up, illuminating the surroundings.
Xiao Wu hung up the handcuffs on Song A Lei, took out the bronze fairy candlestick from his bag, and shook it with a smile, "We have all the evidence, you can't get away this time."
“…”
Song A Lei stared at the copper-gold object in his hand, and then he realized that the candlestick was actually a very low-quality counterfeit.
"……Fake?"
"Yeah, they're all fake. There's only one candlestick, the tomb is fake, and even the boss isn't from here... But you're so impatient! The news has only been out for two days, and we're all ready to live in this desolate forest for ten days to half a month, and you show up so quickly!"
"...You police officers are deceiving me?" Song Alei turned his head in disbelief. "What was that sound just now?"
——Of course it’s the horror movie sound effects in the five-fold!
Ji Yinhe, who was hiding behind a big tree, had already closed the video and folded it away while no one was paying attention.
Then he put his hands in his pockets and walked out with a smile.
"..." Song A Lei's eyes widened, "It's actually a person?"
"That's enough!" Tang Ci said condescendingly, "Closing the net! Return to the Municipal Bureau!"
*
The Municipal Bureau acted quickly and searched Song Alei's house in the urban village that night before the reporters reported it.
At dawn, all the cultural relics involved in the ten-year theft case in Jiangtan were recovered by the police.
The museum's fortune-attracting fairy bronze candlestick and Huo Zongping's treasured Buddha head were finally found.
Faced with the iron facts, Song Alei did not resist much and confessed his guilt honestly.
…
However, this time, Ji Yinhe did not participate in the interrogation.
There are only two days left until the competition.
Comrade Xiao Ji was standing on the shooting range of the Armed Forces Department, holding a gun and practicing shooting accuracy.
From the beginning, half of the fifteen bullet holes were outside the 8th ring, to now being close to the full ring, her progress can be said to be rapid.
Even Tang Ci joked that Comrade Xiao Ji might be an Olympic seed player.
But the competition is not that simple. The contestants have to cross a herringbone obstacle and run to the 12 target targets in the shooting area to shoot.
Not only does it consume physical energy, but the shooting distance of each target is also different, which is a great test of experience and on-the-spot judgment.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
Ji Yinhe fired the last three bullets, took back the target paper, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the score which was not yet a full ring.
She has tried her best, and now it’s up to fate!
When Comrade Xiao Ji returned to the office, he saw the comrades from the task force leaving one after another with the office supplies they had worked so hard on for the past few days.
The cultural relics they retrieve will be handed over to the cultural relics department.
Ji Yinhe sighed with relief, thinking that the case could be completely resolved.
Unexpectedly, I received a call from Huo Zongping again.
"Officer Xiao Ji, my dear, when will you bring it back to me?"
Ji Yinhe glanced and saw a policeman carefully putting the Buddha head into a wooden box.
"The Buddha head will be sent to the Institute of Archaeology along with other cultural relics."
Huo Zongping was furious. "Hey, how could you be so mean? I picked it up from the mountain with my own hands. I didn't dig up anyone's grave. Why can't you give it back to me?"
Ji Yinhe pinched his brows and said, "Comrade Huo, handing in cultural relics is a legal obligation. If you find a cultural relic and don't hand it in, it is illegal. Moreover, the Buddha head is a sculpture component, and private possession is not allowed."
"...You police officers are going back on your word. I'm going to sue you!"
"Go ahead." Ji Yinhe replied calmly, "I suggest you read the Cultural Relics Protection Law before you go."
"you--!"
With a "click", Ji Yinhe hung up the phone readily.
On the table next to him, Xiao Wu raised his head from the pile of books, revealing two huge dark circles under his eyes.
"Sister Ji, I finally finished reviewing the last round of plans you made..."
Ji Yinhe walked over, flipped through his notes, and asked two questions casually.
Xiao Wu answered all of them successfully.
"Okay, let's meet on the way to the provincial department tomorrow." Ji Yinhe clapped his hands and jumped to pick up the bag hanging on the back of the chair.
"It's only four o'clock. You're leaving so early?" Xiao Wu asked while peeling an orange. "Don't you want to practice fighting with Old Tang again?"
"I still have important things to do." Officer Ji took a few oranges from the stove, went out, turned left and went to find Ye Qing.
The two policewomen's main business was to visit Li Tunan in the juvenile detention center.
When the little girl heard that Song A Lei was arrested by the police because he came back to steal the second candlestick, she spat on the ground in hatred.
"I only now understand that he's a heartless villain!" She touched her belly. "But I've made up my mind. I still plan to give birth to this child and pretend he has no father. After all, I can study here and do some work to earn money and try to get my sentence reduced... When I get out, I want to take the college entrance examination, go to university, and make my way out of Shuangdun Town on my own!"
Ji Yinhe and Ye Qing looked at each other, smiled, and took out a thick stack of books from under the table.
"We've brought all the high school textbooks here for you!"
Li Tunan opened his eyes wide, "Wow!"
Ye Qing smiled and asked, "What do you want to do after you finish your studies? Don't go back to selling sweet potatoes!"
"Of course." The little girl pursed her lips. "I also want to be like you and Captain Shi, and become a powerful adult! ...By the way, Officer Ji, why do you want to be a police officer?"
"Well, well..." Ji Yinhe pursed her lips lightly, "Of course it's to protect more people from being harmed by bad guys!"
As she said this, the cheerful laughter of two girls seemed to echo in her ears.
A quiet face with two pigtails suddenly appeared in my mind.
*
The next day they were going to Jingzhou to participate in the competition. After meeting at the Municipal Bureau, Tang Ci drove the big jeep and the five of them set off.
Jingzhou and Jiangtan are actually not far from each other. After crossing the Qingyi River, you can reach the urban area by driving along the national highway for three hours.
The last time Comrade Xiao Ji came to Jingzhou was more than ten years ago when he came here to travel with Old Ji Lianqiao.
As the capital of Handong Province, this place is much more prosperous than Jiangtan, and the roads are much wider.
Tang Ci said, "We'll be staying in the provincial department dormitory for the next few days. Don't run around. If you need to go out at night, be sure to report it in advance!"
Everyone: “Okay!”
Xiao Wu looked around excitedly, "Wow, there's such a big lake in the city center!" "Wow, there are so many delicious foods on that street. Sister Ji, why don't you ask Boss Lian to open a branch here!" "Oh my god, the buses here are double-decker!"
Ji Yinhe stared at the bustling crowd intently.
——In a big city like this, there must be a lot of bad people and evil deeds hidden!
Cheng Moze asked Ye Qing softly, "The department store we just passed by is bigger than Jiangtan. Do you want to go shopping? We can have a Western meal tonight."
“…” The carriage suddenly became quiet, and everyone held their breath, listening quietly to the young couple talking.
Ye Qing was extremely shy and lowered her head. "Let's talk about it later. The competition is more important!"
…
Twenty minutes later.
The pale golden twilight of late winter spread over the small square in front of the dormitory building. A tent was set up at the gate on the first floor, signaling all participating teams from the municipal bureau to come and sign in.
Tang Ci parked the car, walked over hurriedly, and started chatting with the captain of the serious crime team of Dengzhou City Bureau.
Cheng Mo and Xiao Wu were busy moving everyone's luggage.
Ji Yinhe also jumped out of the car and subconsciously looked up at the provincial department not far away.
On the towering office building hangs the majestic national emblem, and the red flag flutters in the evening breeze.
Comrade Xiao Ji took a deep breath.
——That’s what her heart desires!
At this moment, a lazy, clear, and smiling voice sounded from behind.
"I heard you solved a big case. Congratulations, Officer Ji Yinhe."
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