Chapter 298: No coincidences happen
After not seeing each other for a long time, Huo Jianguo naturally wanted to have a drink with Zeng Shengqiang.
Su Mei took out the fruit wine she had brewed with grapes and poured it for the two of them. This kind of wine had a low alcohol content and a light taste, and would not affect Huo Jianguo's health.
The meal ended quickly after some chatting.
After finishing his meal, Zeng Shengqiang had to go to the newspaper office. The journal “Science Lectures” was under the Yenching Daily, and he wanted to find out the publishing process of Dong Tian’s magazine.
Huo Jianguo watched Zeng Shengqiang leave in a hurry, and thought that he had nothing to do anyway, so he might as well accompany Zeng Shengqiang to take a look.
"Shengqiang, wait for me, I'll go with you." Huo Jianguo shouted.
Zeng Shengqiang looked back, nodded, and the two of them went to the magazine agency together.
When they arrived at the magazine office, Huo Jianguo was waiting outside, while Zeng Shengqiang walked in alone.
He found the receptionist and started chatting.
The receptionist was young, pretty, and eloquent, and the two of them had a very pleasant chat.
But Zeng Shengqiang knew in his heart that he could not ask Dong Tian directly, so he could only ask indirectly, hoping to find out some useful information.
Unfortunately, after chatting for a long time, he didn't get any valuable clues.
He was a little disappointed, but he couldn't find anything useful, so he could only leave. Just when he was about to go out, his ears suddenly moved and he stopped, as if he heard something important.
"Hey, what do you think we should do with that batch of discarded magazines?" asked an employee in the collective office.
Another employee responded in a leisurely voice: "I don't know. It's been so long that I thought they had dealt with it. Anyway, just let them smash it. Someone will be responsible for the losses."
Zeng Shengqiang was moved and thought to himself, how could such a good magazine be abandoned? What was the cat's peeve in it?
He was about to ask when a third employee interrupted, "Oh, by the way, why were those magazines scrapped?"
"Hey, don't mention it. Last month, when the magazine was being printed in the middle of the night, the management suddenly called and said that they wanted to change the printing log to a few days ago. They also said that an article was lost. As a result, the more than 5,000 copies of the magazine printed in the first half of the night were all wasted." The first employee explained.
Zeng Shengqiang frowned slightly when he heard this. He seemed to realize that the manuscript that those employees were talking about, which was temporarily stuffed into the magazine, was the article that Dong Tian had sent out.
At this time, the first employee picked up the phone and called the printing factory.
The call was quickly connected, and the first employee said to the other end of the phone: "Hello, this is from the Science Lecture Office. This morning you called to ask about the disposal of old magazines. I have just confirmed that you can just dispose of the batch of magazines on your own."
Zeng Shengqiang couldn't hear the voice on the other end of the phone, but he heard the employee pause and then continue:
"I'm sorry to bother you. Just crush them today so that we'll have room to put them when we print the new issue tomorrow. OK, OK, thank you!"
Smash it today? Zeng Shengqiang was very anxious when he heard this. He immediately stopped listening to what the girl at the front desk was saying to him. He waved his hands at the girl a few times and ran out of the magazine.
When Zeng Shengqiang rushed out, he bumped into a middle-aged woman who was wearing a suit and dressed very smartly.
Fortunately, the woman held onto the door next to her so she wasn't knocked to the ground by him.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Zeng Shengqiang didn't expect that he would bump into someone. He hurriedly apologized to the middle-aged woman and stretched out his hand to help the woman.
The woman's hand dodged without leaving a trace. She pulled the door handle and stood up straight, with a professional smile on her face:
"It's OK."
"It's good that you're okay, it's good that you're okay." Zeng Shengqiang was anxious and didn't feel like talking to the woman any more. He bowed to the woman and ran away.
The woman frowned as she looked at Zeng Shengqiang's anxious back. She walked to the front desk and asked the receptionist:
"Who was that man who just ran out in a hurry?"
"Editor-in-Chief Gao, that's the captain of the criminal police team, Zeng Shengqiang." The receptionist responded.
The woman called Chief Editor Gao frowned even more when she heard this: "Why are the criminal police team here in Science Magazine? We don't report on homicides here."
"He said he wanted to publish a forensic science article and asked about our publication process." This is what Zeng Shengqiang made up.
"Oh~" The woman nodded, turned around and looked deeply in the direction where Zeng Shengqiang left.
.......
Outside the magazine office, Zeng Shengqiang had already run up to Huo Jianguo.
"Jianguo, hurry up, we have to go to the printing factory!" Zeng Shengqiang said breathlessly.
Although Huo Jianguo didn't know what had happened, he guessed from Zeng Shengqiang's expression that something serious must have happened. Without asking any more questions, he decided to go to the printing factory with Zeng Shengqiang.
But it was not time to get off work, and they walked around outside the magazine office but couldn't find a tricycle to take them.
During this process of walking around in circles, Zeng Shengqiang repeated to Huo Jianguo what he had heard.
Considering the urgency of the matter, the two did not insist on looking for a car. They decided to run all the way to the printing factory just like they did in the army.
Fortunately, the location was not far from the printing factory, so the two did not have to run for long.
When he arrived at the gate of the printing factory, Zeng Shengqiang found that there was a guard standing guard at the gate and he could not get in without a search warrant.
Zeng Shengqiang looked at the factory inside anxiously, feeling secretly worried.
"What should we do? We can't just sit there and watch the evidence being destroyed!" Zeng Shengqiang said anxiously.
Huo Jianguo pondered for a moment and immediately made a decision.
He turned to Zeng Shengqiang and said, "Brother Qiang, if the open way doesn't work, let's try it secretly. We have to find a way to get in. The wall here is not high, so why don't we just climb over it and check the situation."
Zeng Shengqiang nodded when he heard this, and the two of them walked to the wall.
They helped each other to climb over the wall, carefully avoiding the employees walking in the factory.
In the printing factory, the two began to search separately for the batch of magazines that were about to be destroyed.
They shuttled between the factory rooms, sometimes bending down to avoid the workers, and sometimes holding their breath for fear of being discovered.
Fortunately, the factory was not very big, and after searching for a while, they actually found a machine that was shredding magazines.
However, there were only a few magazines left next to the machine.
Zeng Shengqiang felt nervous when he saw this. He knew that he and Huo Jianguo had to act quickly, otherwise they would probably lose the last piece of evidence immediately.
Huo Jianguo naturally knew this truth.
Although the two men had been separated for many years, the tacit understanding they had in the army was still there. They exchanged glances, Zeng Shengqiang stretched out his hand again and made a knocking gesture, then pointed at Huo Jianguo and then pointed inside the factory.
Huo Jianguo nodded without giving it much thought and made a received gesture to Zeng Shengqiang.
Then Zeng Shengqiang stood up and threw a piece of steel at the door of the factory, making a loud noise that quickly attracted the attention of the people next to the machine.
"Who?" The man next to the machine looked back, and seeing no one answered, he frowned and walked towards the place where the sound came from.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when he was away, Huo Jianguo rushed over quickly, picked up a magazine, and quickly dodged, leaving the factory with a few forward rolls.
After the success, the two men immediately left the printing factory, climbed over the wall and returned to the street.
"Huh, I finally got it." Huo Jianguo said, panting.
Zeng Shengqiang also breathed a sigh of relief. He patted Huo Jianguo on the shoulder and said with a smile, "What a coincidence. I happened to check today, and they happened to say that they had destroyed it today. We also happened to have snatched back two of the last three magazines.
What a coincidence! Take a quick look, is the content different from the later issue?"
Huo Jianguo was about to open the magazine in his hand to confirm whether the content was different from the version published later.
At this moment, a dark shadow suddenly rushed out from the corner, snatched the magazine from his hand at an extremely fast speed, turned around and ran away.
Huo Jianguo and Zeng Shengqiang reacted almost at the same time. They looked at each other and immediately ran after him.
Both of them have first-rate physical fitness, especially Huo Jianguo, who was once famous for his speed and endurance in the army.
They quickly closed the distance between them and the man.
The man seemed to be aware of the threat behind him. He quickened his pace, but still could not get rid of the pursuit of Huo Jianguo and Zeng Shengqiang.
Just when Huo Jianguo was about to reach out and grab him, a black car suddenly rushed out and rammed straight into Zeng Shengqiang.
Zeng Shengqiang was unable to dodge and was hit by the car, flying out and falling heavily to the ground.
Huo Jianguo cried out in surprise. Just as he was about to catch the man, he had to stop immediately, turn around and rush towards Zeng Shengqiang.
He anxiously helped Zeng Shengqiang up, only to see that Zeng Shengqiang's face was pale and a trace of blood was flowing from the corner of his mouth.
"Brother Qiang, how are you?" Huo Jianguo asked anxiously.
Zeng Shengqiang struggled to open his eyes. He looked at Huo Jianguo, then at the man and the car that had already fled the scene in the distance, and said with difficulty: "Don't worry about me, chase them quickly..."
Huo Jianguo hesitated for a moment. He knew the importance of the magazine. Without the magazine, he might lose the final chance to prove Su Mei's experimental results.
But no matter how important a magazine is, it is not as important as a person. He couldn't just watch Zeng Shengqiang get hurt.
However, Zeng Shengqiang's attitude was very firm. He struggled to push Huo Jianguo away and urged: "Go quickly, I'm fine, you can catch up with him..."