Chapter 34
"What?" Teng Zheng said with a puzzled look, "Master, can you speak Mandarin? I really don't understand the dialect."
"What the hell are you mumbling about..."
Half a minute later, Teng Zheng still looked confused. He glanced at me, still mumbling under his breath, until he got back to the topic. "You mean you didn't see me? That's impossible. I was standing on the street in front of the bus station exit. There were two of us with several bags."
From his words I understood the difficulty of the question. I scanned the street like a surveillance camera, and finally saw a car at the opposite corner. I tugged at the clothes of the person next to me.
Teng Zheng grabbed the back of my hand and said, "Hey, I think I saw you. My friend and I will come to find you now."
When Teng Zheng and I passed by, the driver was watching the news with a cigarette in his mouth. Teng Zheng opened the door and told the driver the last digit of his cell phone number. The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror, then turned off the phone and threw it aside.
"Are you two visiting relatives or something?" the driver spun the wheel and backed up. "There aren't many shopping malls or people living in that area. There's only one slaughterhouse that's still around."
I quickly glanced towards Teng Zheng.
The address Wen Liangxi gave me was a park, but the driver said it was a remote place, and the appearance of the slaughterhouse happened to match the background picture of Xiaoju trapped on the Internet.
Teng Zheng also gave him a look: We have found the right place.
"Aha, really..." Teng Zheng gestured to me to silence me. He continued with a playful smile, "My friend gave me the meeting address and told us to go find him here. I've never been here before, but since it's a park, it should be good. I'll ask him."
The driver coughed, rolled down the window, and spat carelessly, unconcerned about the people behind him. He must have been a frequent smoker; his face was darker than the average person's, his pores larger. Especially when he spoke, his voice was like thorns in one's ears—rough and stinging, painful. Even if he spat ten times, it wouldn't have come out clear.
Normally his words were harsh, but now he was raising his voice and sounding sarcastic. "Then you better ask me. I'm starting to doubt your friend's intentions. That park has been abandoned for decades. It's a barren wasteland with no grass. What are you going to do there? To slaughter cows and pigs in that slaughterhouse? Kid, don't be sold and then count the money."
Teng Zheng and I looked at each other for a few seconds, then I looked at the rearview mirror in front of the car and looked at the driver who was looking at us for another second.
This person was extremely oppressive and gave me a terrifying feeling, so I didn't think much about it and just lowered my head according to my heart.
"No way, we've been best friends for years."
"Are you really good friends? Or are you just meeting?" The driver smiled. The car slowly turned up the hill and within ten seconds returned to flat ground. "Are you going to the slaughterhouse or the park?"
I couldn't help but frown, and my eyes seemed to have grown legs at that moment, and I hurriedly ran towards Teng Zheng who was trying to remain calm.
Teng Zheng laughed dryly: "Master, what do you mean?"
The driver tossed his cigarette butt out the window, and the air inside instantly became fresher than before, no longer foggy. Everyone could see clearly, so the driver stopped pretending. "Now that you're on my property, stop talking nonsense. No one told you to give your address nearby. Am I the one who picks up all the taxis? Tell me who introduced you here."
The roads in this small, old town are unrepaired, and cars are rarely seen plying the streets. There are no buses, only a few old taxis. This driver is one of them, and he didn't hide his identity, claiming to be the temporary owner of the slaughterhouse in the abandoned park.
To maintain its legality, the slaughterhouse operated as a legitimate meat supplier, but in reality, it engaged in shady dealings. To keep its secret hidden, the owner monopolized the nearby taxi business, bribing other taxi drivers with large sums of money to assign him all passengers destined for the area near the slaughterhouse.
Teng Zheng and I didn't understand each other at all.
Since the boss has spoken frankly, we will also boldly tell him our purpose.
When the driver mentioned Wen Liangxi's anonymous ID, he suddenly realized something and said politely and attentively, "I know, this is a big boss, but I need to confirm it with him privately first."
He parked the car on the side of the road, no longer caring about us, took out another spare mobile phone from his pocket, and lowered his head to operate it.
A faint lingering scent of tobacco lingered on my nose, and I sniffed uncomfortably. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Teng Zheng flip a switch, and the windowpane slid down. I followed his instructions, and soon the astringent smell of dead grass wafted in, mingling with the scent of earth. If you sniffed closely, you could even smell feces.
I craned my neck out, and the smell of dry grass and a faint stench carried by the wind grew stronger. Fighting the urge to vomit and dig a hole, I covered my mouth and nose, curiously checking the surroundings.
It was similar to what the driver said. I could roughly see the outline of a park nearby. However, with the destruction of the ecology, no one took good care of the park and it became unrecognizable. Weeds grew rampantly, and it was especially terrifying when the wind blew. It was like floating moss on the sea, swaying in waves and entangled with each other. The surrounding trees could not withstand the invasion and bent down in defeat, and then were kicked up by a new round of weeds.
They coiled around the thin trunks, climbed up desperately, and finally entangled themselves on the branches.
This place is like a net, trapping everything.
It also contained my desire to continue observing.
Suddenly, when I was feeling down, Teng Zheng beside me patted my side with the back of his hand, which made me shudder. I raised my glare and was about to attack him, but I saw him pointing out the window with his mouth tightly shut, and then motioned for me to move closer to him: "Look at that brown factory over there, I think that's it."
I leaned forward with my arms, and Teng Zheng leaned against the back seat to allow me to take a closer look.
I stopped at the only habitable place in that wasteland. My eyes suddenly lit up and I wanted to leave everyone behind and go call my friend Xiaoju who had been missing for many years.
"Don't get excited." Teng Zheng gently put his foot on my leg and tripped me, then raised his chin to the driver in the front seat with a stern face.
I sat back in my original seat obediently.
"He said you guys are here to get an orange cat," the master rubbed his brow with a headache, "is it the one with a tuft of white hair on its back? I remember it's already been sold."
After hearing the news that the kitten with Xiaoju's physical characteristics was bought, I glared, my breathing became rapid, and the questions in my chest were about to burst out of my throat.
Unable to speak, I could only babble and gesticulate to express my nervousness and anxiety. I grabbed Teng Zheng's wrist, tearfully hoping he could help me find out Xiaoju's whereabouts.
I looked so pitiful. I had never been like this in front of Teng Zheng before. To be more specific, I had never been so vulnerable in front of anyone. Teng Zheng looked at me with a wilted, gloomy expression, like a flower drenched by rain. His words of comfort were stuck in his throat, unable to come out.
Finally, he solemnly held the back of my hand, and under the driver's puzzled and slightly helpless gaze, he agreed to help me ask.
"Master, do you remember when that little orange cat was bought? Could you please tell me who the buyer was?"
"It's only been three or four days," the master relit a cigarette and held it between his lips. "Who's the buyer? Kid, didn't anyone tell you that if you become famous in our line of work, you'll die?"
Teng Zheng thought for a moment, then changed his tone to a more tactful one and continued to inquire: "So, this is someone from the Internet too?"
The master closed his eyes and nodded: "I came to get it myself."
"Male or female?"
"Hmph," the master opened his eyes and glared at us, sneering drunkenly, "You want to know his face?"
You hit the nail on the head.
Teng Zheng gave an awkward, cold smile.
The master was in no mood to engage in a battle of wits and courage, so he simply said, "He's a man, neither old nor young, probably around forty, and he looks..." His eyes rolled, "He's wearing a mask."
Everything had been said in one breath to this extent, and it was certain that no matter how much I asked, I would not get any more answers. In this remote place, the clever Teng Zheng did not want to conflict with others. He pretended to think for a while and then responded. He turned his head and patted me who was in a daze as if my soul had been taken away, reminding me that I needed to know when to stop.
He asked for my opinion: "Shall we go back?"
I shook my head in despair, felt a swollen and painful force on my thigh, and reluctantly tapped it a few times.
"Master, can you take us back the same way?" Teng Zheng looked around, his gaze lingering for a moment on the dilapidated factory as if nothing had happened. "Is there a hotel nearby?"
Hearing that we wanted to return to where we were, the driver started the car without saying anything and said, "There's a hotel next to the bus station. You can stay there tonight."
I remained silent the entire way. The contrast between my previous joy and my current disappointment was stark. My heart was tossed high into the air, then plummeted to the ground, forming a horrible, rotten mess.
Ever since I found out that Xiaoju was bought by someone else, I felt like I was dead. Now I am like a walking corpse, abandoned in a turbulent corner.
What kind of place could this be? Do you really need to care about pampering an animal if you buy one from here?
What does a pet store do?
In my heart, Xiaoju is in great danger.
When I thought of this, I immediately stopped caring about anything else. I felt numb and didn't want anyone to bother me anymore.
I am a mute, so no matter how active I am like the sun, there will always be silence.
Now, the inside of the car is much colder than usual. The scorching sun shining on the glass is similar to the fog on the car windows in winter. The only sounds around are breathing and the driver's occasional coughing. It is too quiet.
I tilted my eyes and saw Teng Zheng observing me secretly. His mouth opened and closed, opened and closed again, and all the words he wanted to say were silenced by my silence.
He wanted to touch me, and his raised hand calmed down after being eager to try. He still chose to retreat quietly.
Finally, we arrived at the bus station quietly and agonizingly.
The driver didn't park next to the hotel, but instead turned off the engine at the bus station entrance. He opened the window, pointed at the hotel in the distance, and told us: "It's the one nearby."
I looked in the direction the driver pointed. The hotel's decor perfectly matched the local environment, not at all like a swan popping out of a chicken coop. It was tucked away among the noisy, chaotic little buildings, about the size of a shop. Its simple exterior was unassuming, with the red sign being the only eye-catching feature.
No one stopped to look at it, but I still had a question.
Teng Zheng asked this question for me: "This place looks so small. Is there any room for us?"
The driver scoffed. "You're just spouting nonsense. Do you think this place can sustain tourism? Why do you think this is the only hotel they can afford? No one wants to come to this place."
Teng Zheng and I looked at each other, and after paying the round-trip fare, we got off the bus one by one, carrying bags in our hands.
"Bang bang"
The driver reached out the window and slammed the car several times. A cigarette, now a secondhand cigarette, appeared between his lips. He said to us coldly, "Don't interfere with our business. Don't tell me the address, or you'll find out I'm dealing with the boss in the wrong place."
Teng Zheng and I didn't understand what he meant for a moment.
He didn't explain any further, only threatening: "If the police come to your house after you..."
He shook his phone, "All kinds of information, I can find it myself."
My anxious heart instantly rose to my throat.
"If you have anything, please let the boss know and we'll get in touch."
After saying that, he didn't even glance at us, just waved his hand casually, then closed the window and walked away.
"What do you mean?" Teng Zheng was stunned. "Isn't the place he took us to where he hid the cat?"
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