Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

Chapter 1305 Finally Found It

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Li Xiangqian immediately moved the flashlight beam towards the oilcloth bag. It was lying casually in the corner, covered with dust and stains, and it seemed that no one had touched it for a long time. But he knew in his heart that this was just a disguise.

He walked over, squatted down, and carefully reached out to open the package. Under the beam of light, a black leather bag was revealed in the oilcloth, which was the one he saw when He Yuzhu and Xu Damao were trading.

"Finally found it..." Li Xiangqian's heartbeat quickened and his hand slowly reached for the zipper of the bag.

But just as his fingertips touched the zipper, a sudden sound came from the wellhead - it was the sound of the soles of shoes rubbing against the ground!

Someone's up there!

Li Xiangqian's heart sank suddenly, and he withdrew his hand in an instant, quickly turned off the flashlight, squatted against the wall, and held his breath. He could feel his heartbeat roaring in his ears, as if his hiding place could be exposed at any time.

"Click——" the manhole cover was slowly pushed open.

Li Xiangqian stood still, his eyes fixed on the darkness above. In the thin moonlight, he vaguely saw a figure standing at the mouth of the well, seemingly observing the situation below.

"Who's there?" the man suddenly asked in a low and hoarse voice.

Li Xiangqian frowned, and quickly judged the other party's identity in his mind. The voice didn't sound like He Yuzhu, nor did it sound like Xu Damao. It sounded like someone he was not familiar with.

"It must be the helpers they found..." Li Xiangqian cursed in his heart, clenched his fists, moved a few inches close to the wall, and tried his best to hide himself in deeper shadows.

The figure at the wellhead stood there for a while, seemingly not noticing anything unusual, and muttered in a low voice: "Maybe it's a cat..."

Hearing this, Li Xiangqian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could catch his breath, he heard the man suddenly start to climb down the iron ladder.

"Damn it..." Li Xiangqian's mind was working fast. He knew that if he didn't take action quickly, he would be blocked here sooner or later.

He quietly reached for the bag, confirmed its weight, and quickly stuffed it into the inner pocket of his coat, zipping it up. Then, he quickly scanned the surroundings and found a narrow crack in the well wall close to the ground, barely enough for a person to crawl in sideways.

Without thinking too much, he lowered his body, quietly moved to the crack, curled up little by little, and tried to hide himself more secretly.

Soon, the man had stepped down the iron ladder to the bottom of the well. With the moonlight, Li Xiangqian saw the man's face clearly - a thin middle-aged man with a shallow scar on his face and sharp and alert eyes. The man had his left hand in his pocket and held a folding knife in his right hand, which was flashing with a cold light.

"It's really not a cat..." The man glanced at the bottom of the well, and his eyes gradually fell on the bricks scattered in the corner. He walked over, lowered his head and looked carefully, and suddenly his face changed, and he turned his head sharply to look around.

"Who's here? Come out!" He growled, gripped the folding knife tightly, and slowly groped around.

Li Xiangqian curled up in the crack, his heart beating like a drum, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. He knew that if this man searched here, he would have no chance to escape.

The man's footsteps were getting closer and closer, and every step seemed to step on Li Xiangqian's nerves. He held his breath, quietly stretched his fingers to the ground, touched a fist-sized stone, and held it in his hand.

The man finally walked to the crack and stared at the shadow suspiciously, as if he had noticed something. He raised his folding knife and slowly reached over.

"A little closer..." Li Xiangqian counted silently in his heart, raised the stone in his hand slightly, and stared at the other party's movements.

A little closer... a little closer...

Suddenly, he gritted his teeth, swung the stone and smashed it hard on the man's wrist!

"boom!"

The man felt pain and the folding knife slipped out of his hand, falling to the ground with a clang. Li Xiangqian took advantage of the situation and slammed open the cracked wall, then he hunched over and rushed towards the well ladder.

"Don't run!" the man roared, covering his wrist and staggering after him.

Li pushed forward with his feet and quickly climbed up the iron ladder. Just as his fingertips touched the edge of the well, a hand suddenly grabbed his ankle!

"Let go!" Li Xiangqian roared, raised his leg suddenly, and kicked the man's wrist hard with the sole of his shoe. The man let go in pain, and Li Xiangqian took advantage of the situation to climb out of the wellhead, dragging his exhausted body and stumbling into the alley.

He heard a man's roar and messy footsteps behind him, but Li Xiangqian did not look back. He gritted his teeth and rushed into the darkness with all his strength until he completely got rid of the pursuers behind him.

He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, the leather bag in his arms pressed against his chest, the heavy weight reminding him that this storm was far from over.

Li Xiangqian panted heavily, leaning against a damp brick wall, trying to calm himself down. The leather bag in his arms was pressed tightly against his chest, and he seemed to be able to feel the dangerous and disturbing atmosphere inside it through his clothes.

"What the hell are they doing?" His mind was churning as he thought back to everything that had happened before.

The furtive transaction between He Yuzhu and Xu Damao, the pursuit of the man with the folding knife, the carefully hidden bag under the manhole cover... All of this was far more complicated than he had originally imagined. Li Xiangqian had a vague guess in his mind, but the real answer might be hidden in the bag in his hand.

He knew that the bag must not be opened outside. It was not safe here and he had to find a secluded place.

Li Xiangqian took a deep breath, tried to calm down, and walked quickly towards an abandoned warehouse that he was familiar with. The location there was hidden, the door lock had long been broken, and he would occasionally go there to avoid the limelight.

After arriving at the warehouse, he checked around to make sure no one was following him, then he closed the door and placed the bag on a scrap wooden table. The surface of the bag was stained, and there was some dirt hanging on the zipper. It was obvious that Xu Damao had deliberately soiled it before, trying to disguise it as a discarded item.

Li Xiangqian stared at the purse, reached for the zipper but hesitated for a moment.

"What if there is something dangerous inside..." He felt a little uneasy, but then he shook his head. He couldn't back down at this time.

He slowly unzipped the bag, revealing thick stacks of papers and a small flat iron box.

"What is this?" He frowned, reached out and pulled out the stack of papers, and found that it was densely covered with numbers, symbols and some scribbled notes. The pages were yellowed, obviously not new.

He flipped through a few pages and vaguely understood some clues. Those numbers and symbols seemed to be an account record, but the destination of each payment had been complicatedly disguised, and some even had misleading notes added deliberately.

"Is this money laundering?" Li Xiangqian muttered in a low voice.