After midnight

"Lu Li, Xin Jun, come to my room." Not long after the incident in Zhaojia Village, He Wendong called Lu Li and Song Xin Jun to his room. "This is a theft case, reported by the Security Bureau. You two go check it out tomorrow, and remember not to be careless."

"Yes, I got it." Lu Li reached out and took the file bag, and the two went out together again.

After Song Xinjun entered the house and closed the door tightly, he walked into the house and said, "What treasure was lost? Why did they come to us?"

Lu Li sat on the stool and read the whole document at a glance. He put the document into a file bag and handed it to Song Xinjun.

"See for yourself."

Song Xinjun took it and looked at it and suddenly laughed, "The lost chicken is the old hen? And they are lost one after another."

"Yes, but the crime scene was in Zhaojia Village, which is still interesting."

"You want to implicate Eleven based on just this one thing? Does the Security Bureau have any evidence?"

"It's not clearly stated in the document. I don't think the Security Bureau would send the information based on just this little information. There must be something unusual at the crime scene. This is probably why the captain asked the two of us to go over there."

"Then get up early and take a walk tomorrow." Song Xinjun handed the information to Lu Li again and turned to go to the bathroom.

Lu Li and Song Xinjun got up before dawn the next day. They arrived at Zhaojia Village just as the villagers got up to make breakfast at daybreak.

"This should be it." Lu Li said, looking at the address written on the paper.

"I'll go knock on the door." Song Xinjun went up to bang on the door. "Is this Aunt Zhao's house? We are from the Security Bureau, and we have been ordered to investigate the theft of your hens."

After Song Xinjun took the photo, he waited for a while but no one responded. Just as he was about to try again, the door creaked open.

"Here, who is it?"

"Aunt Zhao, right? We are from the Security Bureau and we are here to investigate the theft of your hens."

"Oh, that's great, come in quickly. Look, the night before yesterday all the chickens we raised were lost, the roosters and hens were gone. Who could be so heartless? They were all big and fat chickens, and we worked hard to raise them for a whole year! We were counting on them to give birth and sell for money."

"Yes, it's so heartless." Song Xinjun responded and walked into the yard, which was in a mess.

"Lu Li." Song Xinjun called him. Lu Li walked forward, and after a moment of shock, he began to observe carefully. The chicken coop was made of cement, and was originally only half a meter high. Later, bricks were used to build a new chicken coop, which was as high as an adult's height, and even only slightly lower than Song Xinjun, who was 1.8 meters tall.

"I put in some effort to get rid of the chickens one by one the other day, but I didn't expect that..." The man in the house also appeared at this time, and he sighed. The man was tall and thin, and his figure was not out of shape. He looked healthy. So, what he said was very likely true.

Lu Li withdrew his gaze from him and continued to observe. There was still a lock on the fence leading to the chicken coop. The lock was intact. Lu Li reached out and held it to look inside. There was no sign of the keyhole being pried open. Yes, if the lock could be pried open, why bother with this?

The square chicken coop, which was more than one meter high, was cut diagonally into three parts. The cut wall fell to the ground and fell fiercely. By bypassing the broken wall on the ground, one could easily walk into the chicken coop through the gap.

"When did this happen? Did you hear any noise?" Song Xinjun came back after walking around and asked.

"I heard it. It was midnight. But we old people are slow, and by the time we came out, the person was gone."

"Why is the person missing?"

"How would we know that? We didn't see anyone when we came out. The door was locked. We only knew that the man and the chickens in the chicken coop were gone."

"Is there no one else at home?"

"No, just the two of us. The kids went to Xin and don't come back often."

"Oh, I see." Song Xinjun nodded and turned to look at Lu Li who was standing not far away.

Song Xinjun saw Lu Li looking up at the eaves thoughtfully, then walked out the door without saying anything. Is he leaving? Yes, he has seen enough. Song Xinjun turned around and said quickly to the old man and the old woman, "We have understood the situation. We have to rush back to the bureau as soon as possible. If you need anything, we will come back."

"What about our chickens..." Aunt Zhao quickly grabbed his arm and asked.

"Don't worry, we will try our best to get it back. If we can't find it, the Security Bureau will definitely take measures to make up for it."

"Oh, that's good. That's good."

Reassured by the two old men, Song Xinjun also walked out the door quickly. As soon as he went out, he saw Lu Li standing in the alley at the corner not far ahead waiting for him, where the sun was shining. Song Xinjun caught up with him and the two walked towards the village entrance together.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming out?" Song Xinjun complained to him.

"I'm not very good at what you are going to explain to uncle and aunt in the end." Lu Li's words caused Song Xinjun to look at him in surprise.

"It's true. Although I was born in the Lu Mansion, I'm actually not very good at speaking."

"I see. All right. Tell me something you're good at. What do you think about this?"

"It's not something that an ordinary person would do. I think you've noticed that. The cuts on the chicken coop wall are very smooth, and the rubble on the ground is basically caused by impact."

"Yes, this only shows one possibility. The person who came here used pure ability and was very strong."

"Not only is he very strong, there is no broken glass on the eaves of this villager's yard, which means he was able to climb over the wall. But I also looked outside the wall and there were no obvious shoe prints."

"You mean, he leaped onto the edge of the wall in one leap? Using pure energy?"

"If it was eleven, then it's possible. And think about the motive. He came here to steal chickens. Only hungry people would steal chickens."

"So it seems that he is the only one. Didn't we find him here before?"

"Yes, but I'm not 100% sure." Lu Li said again.

"We can't be 100% sure. We can only go back and tell Captain He about the situation."

After telling Captain He, the next step is the key. After thinking it over again and again, He Wendong asked the whole team to thoroughly check the grove on the hill behind Zhaojia Village overnight. But the hill where the grove is located is a branch of Beichuan, which stretches endlessly. It is very easy to hide a person's trace, and it is not easy to find a person's trace. Therefore, the result is obvious.

After searching all day and all night, He Wendong clapped his hands under a tall poplar tree. "I know everyone is tired, and I know everyone is doubting something. In fact, I am also doubting whether this is the right thing to do. But we have no way of knowing and no choice. We can only continue this protracted battle. I hope everyone will not forget what our original mission was."

Song Xinjun remained silent. He did feel a little tired. Playing hide-and-seek with Eleven made him tired not only physically but also mentally. But to him, none of this mattered. He could overcome it as long as he could avenge Lin Xuanfeng.

He Wendong continued, "That being said, we still need to conserve our energy and go all out in the face of the eleventh. Therefore, I have decided to implement a three-group rotation system. When there are two groups working together, the other group will have a good rest. Lu Li and Song Xinjun, you go back first, and come to hand over to Lu Yuan and Zhou Chen in the evening. Does anyone have any objections?"

Song Xinjun really wanted to continue searching, but everyone kept silent. Besides, he was not the only one in the group, and he had to consider Lu Li, so he shook his head.

"Then Lu Li and Song Xinjun, you guys go first. The rest of you can rest here for half an hour before continuing!"

Song Xinjun followed Lu Li back and accidentally saw him looking sideways, so he asked, "Lu Li, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing, let's go." Lu Li said something inconsequential.

The hopeless pursuit began again. As time went on, Lu Li and Song Xinjun became more and more anxious.

"We've been searching for a few days now, but we haven't seen any human figures or even chicken bones. Are we going in the wrong direction again?" Song Xinjun pushed aside the weeds in front of him, and the only response to his search was the rustling sound and the silence of Lu Li. Tonight was their day to rest, but it was already past midnight, and they were still trudging through the wilderness, just for the tiny chance of finding Eleven before others.

The area extending from Zhaojia Village to Beichuan is nothing but farmland and barren hills, with wild trees and weeds shining against each other on the hills. Song Xinjun held a stick broken off from a tree in his hand, and the sound of him pushing away the weeds was rustling.

"Is everything going on with Zhou Chen?"

"Yes, Lu Yuan is inseparable from him."

"Is it the same today?"

"There is no new news, and that should be the case. Lu Li, why don't we go back tonight? I'm also anxious, but we have to endure another day and night." A gust of cold wind blew, and Song Xinjun huddled and hugged himself. He was actually anxious to go back and pass on the latest situation to An Yan.

"That's true. It's not a big place to hide people. I just felt uneasy and wanted to come and take a look."

"Since we are so worried about Song Luo and Lu Yuan, why don't we ask Captain He to change our partners?"

"We might alert the enemy, so just keep a close eye on them." Lu Li shook his head and said.

Song Xinjun nodded, but for some reason, he had a very ominous premonition. He looked at the nameless barren mountain under his feet, which was shrouded in endless darkness. Except for silence, there was eternal silence. At 3:30 in the morning, two hours after falling asleep, Song Xinjun was awakened again by the light of the letter.

As soon as he opened the letter, Song Xinjun woke up completely.

"Wake up! Zhou Chen wrote to say that Lu Yuan is missing!"

"Lu Yuan is missing?" Lu Li turned on the light, got out of bed, grabbed his coat and put it on hastily, "What about Song Luo?"

"Song Luo doesn't know. Lu Yuan and Zhou Chen are looking for it, but I don't think it's likely that they will find it."

"Looking? Where to look?"

"Zhaojiacun?"

"The person is missing, how could he still be in Zhaojia Village!"

"Then where can we find it?" Song Xinjun packed up quickly and was ready to open the door.

Yes, Beichuan is so big, where can they find it? Lu Li looked at Song Xinjun, and Song Xinjun looked at Lu Li. When they were at a loss, another letter came. The recipient of the letter was still Song Xinjun, but the sender was An Yan.

"Open it quickly and take a look!" Lu Li urged, staring at Song Xinjun's hands intently.

"It's a letter from An Yan. An Yan said that Eleven is in Zhangjia Village! Zhangjia Village?"

"Isn't Zhangjia Village the place where we heard about Eleven when we first arrived in Beichun? Is that where Song Luo and Lu Yuan went that time?"

"Yes. But what An Yan said must be right. Let's go quickly." As they said that, they walked out of the room quickly.

"By the way, I have to tell Zhou Chen that he is in Zhangjia Village." Song Xinjun was walking and suddenly stopped and took out a pen and paper.

"Song Xinjun, I think we have fallen into a big trap. We should have gone to Zhangjia Village again if we had known earlier." Lu Li's face became serious as he spoke.

"It's no use saying all this now. Let's go and take a shortcut." After Song Xinjun finished writing the letter, he stepped on the stairs with a clanging sound. The two of them ran out of the inn and headed straight for Zhangjia Village.

The two of them traveled very fast and arrived at Zhangjia Village when it was still dark. But the whole Zhangjia Village was quiet and silent.

"Go directly to the back mountain."

Soon after entering the back mountain, we could see traces of a fight. The branches were chopped into pieces, and the smell of blood lingered in the air for a long time. After searching everywhere but finding nothing, Song Xinjun suggested, "Let's split up and search."

"it is good."

The two of them took two steps apart and heard a terrible roar coming from deep in the jungle. They immediately ran over.

"Lu Li, no matter what you face next, don't forget our original purpose."

"I won't forget."

Song Xinjun felt relieved when he heard Lu Li's promise. His hands were burning, his breathing was rapid, and his mind was full of thoughts of revenge for Lin Xuanfeng. Song Xinjun silently recited Lin Xuanfeng's name and crossed the last jungle.

Coincidentally, the light in the dark night suddenly turned from dark to light, and the two people's vision was completely opened. In front of them, a group of strangers gathered together and tried to subdue Eleven. Eleven was covered in blood and shook from time to time. He looked not very conscious but was still making a final resistance.

"Kill him!" Song Xinjun roared and rushed forward. He could not see anyone else. His hands were shaking slightly, and he could not suppress the anger in his heart. But before he could rush to the front, someone stopped him.

"Sorry, this person belongs to us."

"Song Luo? What do you mean? You don't plan to kill him at all, right?"

"Yes, that's how it was at the beginning."

As soon as Song Luo finished speaking, the wind whistling in the mountains began to blow in gusts.