They met again in a vast mountain rain
When leaving the villa, Leng Sui immediately followed, which was indeed more of a surveillance than a protection.
Wen Zichuan scoffed, too lazy to argue any further, and asked casually, "What has Aldridge been doing recently?"
"Planting flowers." Leng Sui added, worried he hadn't explained clearly enough, "Mr. Aldridge said the flowers here are different from anything he's seen before, and he wants to plant some himself."
Others may not know this, but Wen Zichuan knows very well that Lin Hanzhen likes to grow flowers. No matter how poor or miserable their lives were, the balcony at home was always filled with fragrance, and the terrace at the Pinault family was even more beautiful.
The family seemed to have a natural love for growing flowers. Even if they had never met each other, they had each maintained their interest and habit over the years.
Since I plan to go to Longji Mountain and avoid Wen Duo, I must get rid of Leng Sui.
Wen Zichuan used his alone time before bed to make a detailed guide to the mountains, and sent the purchased equipment and spare medicines to a collection point near the Second Sound, ready to pick them up when he was ready to set off.
Finally, he found an extremely remote old photo studio in the north of the city, developed a few photos, and said they were gifts for Wen Duo, and asked Leng Sui to pick them up and send them to him.
The night before departure, he received another video from Cheng Sizhou.
The video background changed to a gym. Cheng Sizhou said that he had resumed exercising and felt that he was getting better and better. He also gave a big smiley face at the end.
Facing his smile, Wen Zichuan could hardly take his eyes off him. He kept pressing the play button and watching the video back and forth until his thoughts were interrupted by a phone call.
"Teacher Wen, I'm sorry to bother you so late." A particularly dull male voice came from the receiver. "Cheng Sizhou is missing. Is he with you?"
"Officer Zhou? What do you mean when you say Cheng Sizhou is missing?" Wen Zichuan was watching the video and was almost unable to react when he heard this.
"This afternoon, his family searched everywhere for him but couldn't find him. They asked his workplace, and he said he was not feeling well and had taken a week off. They went to the property management and opened the door, but he wasn't at home either... I only found out about the situation after the Cheng family reported him missing. Do you know where he went?" Zhou Han was clearly very anxious, but his tone remained restrained.
"I... don't know. We haven't met recently." Wen Zichuan also began to panic. Cheng Sizhou was clearly still sending him videos, going to work, exercising, everything was normal, how could he suddenly... disappear?
"I understand." Zhou Han was about to hang up when he keenly noticed the change in his breathing rate. "There's one more thing I want to tell you. Before going to Jiqing, he attempted suicide twice. If you know his whereabouts, please tell me. As long as he's alive, there's still hope. You should understand this."
"Officer Zhou! I didn't lie. It's just that he recently sent me a few videos that made me mistakenly think he was living his life as normal. I really don't know where he went!"
"Send me the video."
Wen Zichuan did not dare to delay and immediately forwarded the chat record containing several videos to Zhou Han. Not long after, Zhou Han pointed out the problem. The videos that seemed to be sent on several days were actually recorded on the same day.
"Look at the first video. He's in a hospital gown, even though he'd already been discharged that day. In the gym video, he's wearing a tank top. In the previous video, he's wearing a shirt over a tank top. And in the next video, he's wearing the same shirt, but because it's cooler in the recovery room, he's wearing a jacket. Cheng Sizhou is such a fastidious person. How could he wear the same clothes for several days in a row in the middle of summer?"
After Zhou Han's reminder, Wen Zichuan also discovered that Cheng Sizhou played a little trick to create the illusion of "starting a new life" for him.
From this perspective, he definitely did not disappear accidentally, but deliberately hid his whereabouts from everyone.
Where would he go? Where would he want to go? Where would he go without saying a word, alone?
"I got a call, maybe it's news about Cheng Sizhou. I'll talk to you later."
Zhou Han hung up the phone, leaving Wen Zichuan alone at a loss. He no longer indulged in the illusion, but tried hard to recall whether there was anything unusual in what Cheng Sizhou said or did during this period.
A few minutes later, Zhou Han replied, "I found out. Three days ago, he bought a ticket from the bus station, changed trains at Huaili, and arrived at Mutao Town."
"Mutao Town... He is going to Longji Mountain!" Wen Zichuan didn't expect that their plans coincided.
"I'll ask the Huaili police for assistance to confirm his location and ensure his safety. We'll leave tomorrow morning and pick him up as soon as possible."
"Officer Zhou, can you take me with you?!"
"Let's go together. If you don't go, I'm afraid he won't come back."
When Zhou Han arrived the next day, Wen Zichuan had already packed a slightly exaggerated backpack and stuffed it into the trunk.
"You've prepared so many things?" Officer Zhou's eyes were sharp. "We're not going camping."
Wen Zichuan moved his lips but said nothing. After getting into the car, he realized there was someone else in the back seat: "Xu Jiaxuan? Why did you follow me?"
"Of course it's because I'm gifted and can help you solve the case." Xu Jiaxuan crossed his arms, his face full of pride.
"He found some more things in his father's belongings and said he wouldn't hand over the clues if we didn't take him with us." Zhou Han stepped on the accelerator. "I don't have time to waste with him. Wu Meng guaranteed that he would be obedient after we left, so I took him with me."
"But he's still a student. This is too dangerous." Wen Zichuan frowned and stared at him. This little kid has absolutely no sense of propriety.
"I'm over eighteen years old and an adult with civil capacity." Xu Jiaxuan pouted, very dissatisfied.
"Do you really think I'll let him run all over the mountains and plains?" Zhou Han sneered. "The Huaili police officer assisting with the mission is my old classmate. When you get there, just stay put in the police station. Do you understand?"
"No! I haven't broken any law, you can't detain me!" Xu Jiaxuan was not afraid at all.
It takes at least seven hours to drive from Dengyuan to Mutao Town. It is inevitable to be tired during a long journey. Zhou Han deliberately teased the child, and the two of them were bickering with each other.
Wen Zichuan listened absentmindedly, wondering over and over where Cheng Sizhou was. He had left early, so he should have reached Mutao Town long ago. Had he gone into the mountains? Had he already reached Beiling Village and met Wu Heng and the others?
He seemed to fall asleep in the bumpy and swaying ride. Not far away, there was a very familiar figure waving for him to come over.
Wen Zichuan felt it was not real. Cheng Sizhou had not been so enthusiastic towards him for a long time, but he seemed to be out of control in the dream and ran towards him without thinking.
They hugged each other naturally, feeling the familiar yet strange breath from each other.
For a moment, there was water in front of me and mountains behind me. Dusk was all around, and clouds stretched for thousands of miles. The sky and earth seemed vast and endless.
The car was driving on a bumpy mountain road. Half asleep and half awake, Wen Zichuan slowly realized that this was a dream, but he still didn't want to wake up. He wanted to stay close to him longer and stay in the deserted corner longer.
Cheng Sizhou was indeed sitting in the twilight at this moment, with a plate of authentic mushroom stuffed meat cooked by Mo Ming himself in front of him.
"Try it," Mo Ming said, sitting down across from him with a glass bottle of his own medicinal wine in it. "My parents have been gone for over a decade, so I'm sure this dish won't be as delicious as theirs, but at least it's about 80% as good."
Cheng Sizhou hadn't enjoyed his food for a long time. He picked up a piece with chopsticks to try it, and it tasted really good. The fresh food from the mountains is different from the one in the city, and the aroma is particularly strong.
"Delicious." He looked up and smiled at Mo Ming.
"Right? The key to stuffed meat with mushrooms lies in the mushrooms, not the meat." Mo Ming took a sip of his wine. "The rain is about to come again! If you want to enjoy something this delicious again, you have to wait until the rain is over."
"Does it rain a lot here in the summer?"
"Look at what you're asking! Didn't you tell me that the archaeological team came here over 20 years ago because heavy rain washed out a lot of... porcelain fragments? Of course, summer rain..."
Before he could finish his words, a flash of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, and the distant thunder drowned out the rest of his sentence.
Mo Ming put down his wine glass and said anxiously, "Oh no! It's going to rain! Let's go inside!"
We all learned in school that the climate in the mountains is complex and changeable. Cheng Sizhou was just lingering on the sunset glow spreading across the horizon, but while he was eating a bite of food, dark clouds swept across most of the sky, and a strong wind blew away, blowing the neat and clean courtyard into pieces.
"Don't just stand there! Go in, come in quickly!" After moving the tables and chairs, Mo Ming pushed him again.
Cheng Sizhou still didn't move. He raised his head and stared at the giant dark mountain behind the town, his heart pounding.
If Longji Mountain could speak, it would surely know who entered Beiling Village over twenty years ago? Who provided cover for the tomb-robbing gang? How were the stolen artifacts transported out of the mountain? Why didn't anyone discover or report it?
Mo Ming braved the strong wind and struggled to open an umbrella. Raindrops as big as beans hit the umbrella, as if they were going to make several holes in it.
"What's wrong? What are you looking at?" He was shorter than Cheng Sizhou and had to hold up his umbrella to shield him from the rain. He wondered if Mutao Town was some kind of weird place. Why did this young man who had just arrived also look like he was possessed by a demon?
"Doctor Mo, you go back first. I want to go into the mountains and take a look." Cheng Sizhou's eyes wandered, and lightning cast strange reflections in his pupils.
"Are you crazy?! Going into the mountains in a rainstorm is seeking death!" Mo Ming grabbed him tightly and fell into a stalemate.
The thunder numbed people's hearing, and the entire Mutao Town seemed to be wrapped in thick ink soup. As soon as Zhou Han drove into the town, he was poured with endless rain on his head.
They were unfamiliar with the place and should have found a safe place to stay as soon as possible, but something unexpected happened in the car - Wen Zichuan got stressed.
"Teacher Wen! Teacher Wen!" Xu Jiaxuan had never seen him like this before. He pressed his hands tightly against his abdomen, his face so pale that he had difficulty breathing. "Uncle Zhou! Teacher Wen seems to be dying!"
Zhou Han struggled to steer the car up the hill, not having the energy to be distracted. "There's water in the trunk. Take it out and give him some! The clinic is just up ahead. Hang in there, we'll be there soon!"
The rainy season in Shannan has always been an extremely terrifying existence in the minds of local people. As soon as the sky darkens, people will immediately stop their outdoor activities and return to the house to avoid the wind and rain.
Zhou Han finally met a man who was running. He said that the hospital was only in the county, and there was a pretty good clinic that had just opened in the town, just on the slope behind.
The car arrived at the clinic. The buildings looked very old. The right side was the consultation room, and the left side was the residence. There seemed to be people still in the yard of the residence.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Zhou Han covered Wen Zichuan with a waterproof tarpaulin, carried him away, completely ignoring the fact that he was soaked.
When Mo Ming heard the shouting, he thought it must be another emergency, so he simply stuffed the umbrella handle into Cheng Sizhou's hand, picked up a colander and put it on his head, then ran out of the yard to meet the call.
The tarpaulin blocked Wen Zichuan's face, so he didn't recognize him. He just asked everyone to go into the house first.
The moment they passed each other, Cheng Sizhou's eyes met Zhou Han's and Xu Jiaxuan's. It was almost self-evident who they were supporting.
“…Zichuan,” he hurried in, squatted down, and when he looked up, he saw the face that had lost its color due to fear and pain, “Zichuan——!!”
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