Chapter 49 Tonight, she has no way to escape...
The rain was torrential, and the village of Bishui was shrouded in a hazy mist at night.
On the winding, muddy country road, dozens of black luxury cars drove in like an undercurrent, their bright white headlights illuminating the fine rain curtain in the night.
The convoy stopped in front of the archaeological institute's dormitory. Huo Lan looked out the car window, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
The dilapidated tile-roofed houses served as temporary dormitories for the archaeological institute's staff.
When heavy rain hits, you can almost smell the mold.
“Mr. Huo, this is it.” Jiang Chen bowed and held the umbrella in front of the car door. “According to the information, Sister Shi Yuan should be living here.”
The yard wasn't paved, and as Huo Lan bent down to get out of the car, the soles of his leather shoes immediately sank into the wet, sticky ground, the sensation almost unbearable.
He already had a slight case of mysophobia, and the potholed, waterlogged country roads, the earthy smell in the air, the houses with peeling paint and scattered clutter made him feel an unbearable disgust.
Is this the place she's hiding in?
To avoid him, they were willing to suffer.
Huo Lan took the black umbrella that Jiang Chen held up for him, ignored the dirty mud, and went to the door of a dormitory, where he knocked.
There was a commotion inside the house, and soon someone opened the door for him. It was a woman who looked very kind and knowledgeable.
He guessed that this must be the person in charge of the archaeological project. On his way here, he had already sent someone information about the Bishui Village archaeological project.
"Hello, is this Teacher Cheng Yinghua?"
It was raining that night, and there weren't many entertainment options in the village, so Cheng Yinghua went to bed early.
Hearing the noise, she hurriedly got up and opened the door. When she saw Huo Lan and the group of people behind him holding black umbrellas in the night rain, she couldn't understand what had happened.
Seeing that Cheng Yinghua remained silent and was merely observing them, Huo Lan spoke first: "Excuse me, is Jiang Shiyuan doing an internship here? Is she here now?"
Cheng Yinghua frowned, only now regaining her senses.
She thought it was Jiang Shiyuan's family who had come looking for her, and was still hesitating whether to tell him.
At that moment, Shen Yiyi, who was in another dormitory across the street, heard the sound.
She put the novel she was holding aside and looked out the glass window at the scene not far away.
"Get up, stop playing!" Shen Yiyi shook Xia Mo, who was still playing a single-player game. "I think it's Shi Yuan's family coming over..."
Shen Yiyi leaned closer to the window and looked more and more familiar with it.
Xia Mo sat up in fright and rushed to the window. "Wow, is it really that big of a commotion?"
Xia Mo stared in disbelief. "Shi Yuan's family seems to have quite a fortune. Which young lady from Wancheng is here to do some archaeological digging?"
Xia Mo rubbed her eyes and continued watching. Ever since she learned that Shen Yiyi was the second young lady of the Shen family in Wancheng, she thought she was used to the rich and powerful, but she was still shocked by the extremely oppressive scene in front of her.
Shen Yiyi felt something was off the more she looked. "It feels like... someone from the Huo family. That person looks a bit like Huo Lan."
Xia Mo wished she had a telescope right now so she could see things more clearly.
Shen Yiyi hurriedly put on her raincoat and rain boots. "I can't see clearly from here, I'll go out and take a look."
Xia Mo tried to stop her but failed, so she put on a raincoat and ran out with her.
Faced with Huo Lan's questioning, Cheng Yinghua still couldn't say a word, only saying that Jiang Shiyuan had already left.
Huo Lan almost lost his balance, but still calmly asked, "She left? Do you know where she went?"
"What business is it of yours where she goes?"
Shen Yiyi's voice came from behind him. The closer she got, the more certain she became that he was Huo Lan.
"It really is you, Brother Huo Lan!"
Huo Lan never expected to run into Shen Yiyi here. He had heard that she was studying archaeology, but he never expected it to be such a coincidence.
He wasn't thinking about anything else right now, and upon seeing her, he immediately asked, "Have you seen Jiang Shiyuan?"
Shen Yiyi was completely unguarded around this older brother she had known since childhood, and immediately said, "Of course we've met. We slept together for almost half a month. What's wrong?"
Huo Lan couldn't hide the look of ecstatic joy in his eyes. "Now, where has she gone?"
Shen Yiyi shook her head. "I don't know. She said her parents might find her, so she left early."
"parents?"
Huo Lan was furious. What excuse had she made up to hide their relationship?
"Has anything else happened in the past few days?"
The heavy rain showed no signs of stopping, and although Shen Yiyi was wearing a raincoat, she still got quite wet standing in the rain.
"Brother Huo Lan, why don't we go inside and talk?"
Shen Yiyi frowned and looked around at the numerous bodyguards, feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Huo Lan didn't want to waste a second. "I don't have time. Tell me, has anything unusual happened recently?"
There must be something special going on, otherwise why would they sell the necklace and leave so quickly?
“Something special…” Shen Yiyi thought for a moment and remembered, “Once we went to the antique market in town and were cheated out of money by the stall owner.”
Huo Lan was startled. "They cheated Shi Yuan out of her money?"
Shen Yiyi was surprised by Huo Lan's intimate way of addressing Jiang Shiyuan, but she didn't have time to ask.
“I didn’t cheat her out of her money, but Shi Yuan did take out a necklace that looked very valuable to compensate me. I didn’t make her pay, and I paid that unscrupulous boss eight thousand yuan out of my own pocket.”
Shen Yiyi was furious again when she thought about this.
Just as she was about to say something more, she saw Huo Lan already holding an umbrella and turning back, with bodyguards following closely behind.
Without any further explanation, the convoy arrived in a grand manner and departed in a grand manner.
Cheng Yinghua quickly went back to her room and called Jiang Shiyuan. The call was answered within seconds.
Jiang Shiyuan had just returned to her room when she suddenly received a call from Cheng Yinghua, and she had a bad feeling.
Mu Xin had already told her that the Huo family knew about the necklace, and although she didn't know whether they had obtained it, it was enough to make her tremble with fear.
Jiang Shiyuan answered the phone, "What's wrong, Teacher Cheng?"
The echoes of the departing convoy still lingered on the other end of the line, causing Jiang Shiyuan's heart to leap into her throat. "Has something happened?"
Cheng Yinghua went inside and closed the door, isolating herself from the sound of rain and noise.
"Shiyuan, a group of people came looking for you just now. The one in the lead was a handsome young man in a suit and tie. Is he a member of your family?"
Shi Yuan suddenly felt dizzy and couldn't even hold her phone steady.
After calming down a bit, she replied, "Teacher Cheng, did you tell him where I am?"
“I don’t know where you are now, but Yiyi told me about how you were scammed at the antique market.”
Jiang Shiyuan tried to calm herself down. Judging from the sounds over there, they must have just left.
If Huo Lan were in a great hurry, they could probably find this place in just fifteen minutes.
Fortunately, they don't know she's at the guesthouse yet.
Meanwhile, Huo Lan instructed the driver to get to the town as quickly as possible and to send more people to begin searching the entire town.
The private investigator quickly delivered the relevant information about the antique market vendors to Huo Lan.
The number of people, the location of their hideouts, and the common scams and thefts are all clearly known.
Huo Lan was both excited and angry, the veins on the back of his large hands were bulging, and he was trying his best to control his trembling.
"No wonder this necklace ended up in the market intact; it was stolen."
Huo Lan tensed up, closed his eyes, and tried to suppress the anger that had already ignited within him.
He untied the small sandalwood beads from his wrist and unconsciously increased the speed at which he twirled the prayer beads, but he still couldn't calm his mind.
Amidst thunder and rain, the convoy stopped outside a residential courtyard in the town.
Huo Lan stood by the car, holding a black umbrella that obscured his face, revealing only his tall and slender figure in a suit.
A series of piercing screams came from inside the house, seemingly about to be drowned out by the thunder and torrential rain.
After a long while, Jiang Chen arrived and reported the progress to him.
"We checked with the people on the list, and one of them managed to escape during the chaos."
"Have people continue the pursuit; none of these people should be let go." Huo Lan's voice was calm, revealing no emotion. "And Shi Yuan, we must continue searching for her. She's in this town; she hasn't left."
Jiang Chen didn't know why Huo Lan was so certain, but he believed everything Mr. Huo said.
"Okay, I will definitely find her tonight! I promise Mr. Huo!"
After Jiang Chen made a pledge, he hurriedly led his men to the town to find Jiang Shiyuan.
Before long, the sound of sirens came from afar.
Soon, the police surrounded the entire house and took over the fraud gang from the Huo family.
Half an hour ago, the police station received a tip from the Huo family, saying that a group of people in the town were committing fraud and had been causing harm for a long time.
The local police naturally knew who the Huo family was referring to. They didn't understand why the Huo family, who lived far away in the city, had suddenly started to take charge of things in the town. They just said that they were willing but powerless, and that they had arrested people many times but in the end they always released them and nothing came of it.
Unexpectedly, after they hung up the phone, all the evidence of fraud and theft at the antique market was sent to the police station's email address, with the total amount of theft and fraud reaching tens of millions.
The police were outraged and immediately dispatched officers to arrest the man.
Huo Lan returned to the car, his movements of turning the prayer beads slowing down. He was now just waiting for his men to bring news of Jiang Shiyuan's exact location.
Tonight, she has no way to escape.
After hanging up Cheng Yinghua's call, Jiang Shiyuan immediately put her backpack back on, opened the door, and went out.
Mu Xin was peeling lotus seeds under the eaves, preparing breakfast for the guesthouse the next day.
She had finally managed to coax Jiang Shiyuan back to rest, but when she saw her rushing out again, she was extremely anxious.
"Shiyuan, it's not that serious. Get a good rest tonight so you'll have the energy to continue trying to get the necklace back tomorrow."
Jiang Shiyuan hurriedly walked outside without stopping.
"I'm not looking for the necklace anymore. I'm leaving tonight."
Mu Xin put down her work and quickly took two steps to stop her.
“It’s raining so hard outside, and you’re just a young girl with no money. It’s hard to get a taxi. Where can you go?” Mu Xin pushed Jiang Shiyuan toward the backyard again. “Just listen to me and get some rest tonight.”
Just then, there was a knock on the front door of the reception area, seemingly from guests who had come to stay the night.
Jiang Shiyuan looked nervously towards the door, afraid that Huo Lan's men had come looking for her, and immediately ran into her room.
"Sister Xin, please don't tell them I'm here!"
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