soldiers in front

At [-]:[-] p.m. on August [-]th, Zhai Xiaofeng went to Chengxi Bus Station of Weining City and bought a ticket to City B to leave Weining by bus.

After Xia Bingyang got this message, he immediately contacted the police in City B and asked them to block the exit of the passenger station in City B.In order to be safe, they summoned three checkpoints on the expressway and asked the armed police officers at the checkpoints to intercept the bus Zhai Xiaofeng was riding on and arrest Zhai Xiaofeng.At the same time, they sent people to chase after the bus along the track.

After he arranged all the action plans, he learned from the bus driver that there was one passenger missing on the bus, and that person was Zhai Xiaofeng.The driver said that the bus stopped at three rest stops, and the rest time at each stop was 15 minutes. He didn't know that Zhai Xiaofeng got off at that rest stop and never got on the bus again.Coincidentally, the camera on the bus was broken, and the rest stops where the bus stopped were several tea restaurants without monitoring equipment.So Zhai Xiaofeng disappeared on the highway from Weining to City B without knowing it.

Xia Bingyang temporarily changed his strategy and asked the police in City B to control the passengers and drivers in the car first. He sent people to City B overnight to question those passengers and drivers. Maybe some of them had an impression of Zhai Xiaofeng.

After talking on the phone with the police in city B, it was already dawn.When Xia Bingyang came out of the office building, he happened to see a sprinkler truck passing by in front of the Public Security Bureau. The road soaked in water exuded the smell of damp and clear water vapor, and the early morning wind swept the cool water The steam hit him, blowing away quite a bit the chaotic drowsiness brought on by the intense work in his mind all night.

The security guard Xiaoshi was sweeping the yard. Seeing his sleepy face, he kindly said, "Captain Xia, find someone to drive you."

Xia Bingyang didn't speak, just waved his hands, stopped when driving past Xiaoshi, took out some money from his wallet and handed it to Xiaoshi: "Go to the opposite side to buy some breakfast and send it to the office upstairs."

On the way home from the police station, the lights on the street and the sky gradually went out, and the city, which had slept all night, quickly woke up.Looking at the busy traffic and the sea of ​​people in front of him, he suddenly felt that he was a little far away from this world, even a little out of place.Perhaps it was because he was always stationed in the long night, like a person from another world.For a moment, he felt lonely, so he thought of Ji Zheng.He wanted to call Ji Zheng, but felt that it was too early, so he decided to call again when he got home.

When he got home, the first thing he did was to feed the cat, but he couldn't find the egg yolk in the small castle by the window, and he called for the egg yolk a few times but there was no response.While looking for egg yolks in the living room, he went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, only to find a post-it note on the door of the refrigerator, with a few words scrawled on it—Brother, I took the egg yolk away, and I will send it to you tomorrow return.

He glanced briefly at the line of words, then tore off the post-it note and pasted it on the glazed table, took out a can of cold energy drink from the refrigerator and went into the bedroom.He probably didn't have time to go home these days, so Xia Hang helped him by taking the cat away.

He threw himself face down on the bed, buried his face in the pillow and let out a long sigh. After leaning for a while, he turned around and lay on his back. He took out his mobile phone from his trousers pocket. Seeing the hard and smooth piece of paper, I took it out and saw that it was the photo of Wang Yao taken from Zhai Xiaofeng's bedroom.

He held up Wang Yao's photo and put it in front of him, looked at it for a long time, and once again remembered the scene where he personally went to the indemnity room to find Ai Lu after learning that Zhai Xiaofeng had escaped from the bus.

At that time, Ai Lu was sleeping on the sofa in the indwelling room, and he just closed the door when Ai Lu woke up.Ailu leaned against the armrest of the sofa, slightly opened her eyelids, and looked down at the ground without emotion, as if she didn't care who came in.

Xia Bingyang walked to the sofa, squatted down in front of her, looked at her and said, "Zhai Xiaofeng has escaped."

Ai Lu was unmoved, but her eyelashes trembled.

Xia Bingyang asked again: "Aren't you worried that you will come back to find you?"

Ai Lu asked back, "Why are you looking for me?"

"You didn't keep your promise and betrayed him."

"You mean, he's coming back to take revenge on me?"

"Aren't you worried?"

Ai Lu smiled slightly, the smile was very light and shallow, so it looked a little fake: "He won't kill me."

"why?"

"Because...my mother is kind to him."

Xia Bingyang remembered Ai Lu's tone when she said this, very relaxed and calm, it seemed that Zhai Xiaofeng, who was wanted by the police, had nothing to do with her, and the bloody sky dyed red by the three murders she was involved in also had nothing to do with her. She doesn't matter.In her world, the rain has passed.He read out the 'end' signal in Ailu's flat tone.

My mother is kind to him... what does this sentence mean?

Looking at Wang Yao's smiling face that was frozen in the summer six years ago, he suddenly had a feeling in his heart that this girl and her friends might have more unknown secrets.

The phone rang, and he thought it was his work unit or the police in city B contacting him, and he connected without even looking at the caller ID: "Hello?"

"Morning, are you up yet?"

Ji Zheng asked.

Hearing Ji Zheng's voice, Xia Bingyang hadn't had time to feel the sleepless fatigue that surrounded him instantly. He turned around and lay down on the bed, put the phone up to his ear, and let out a 'hum' from his nose first, Only then said: "No."

Today is the last day of the vacation. Ji Zheng sat on the sofa in the living room and watched Aunt Wu go through the rooms to check if there were any personal belongings left. He stroked the egg yolk lying on his lap and said with a smile: "How can I pick up if I don't get up?" Where's the phone?"

Xia Bingyang said: "I didn't sleep at all."

"Did something happen?"

Xia Bingyang told him the latest progress of Wang Yao's case and the other two cases involved in Wang Yao's case, and finally asked the question: "Qin Ping is also dead, and it was all done by Zhai Xiaofeng."

Ji Zheng pressed his brows and was speechless for a while, then he carried the cat to the unoccupied balcony, leaned on the glass railing and said with emotion: "How could it be Zhai Xiaofeng."

Xia Bingyang put the mobile phone up to his ear, closed his eyes and said: "Zhai Xiaofeng killed Yu Bingjie and Liu Changran in order to avenge Wang Yao. And he killed Qin Ping to make Qin Ping take the blame. Because Qin Ping killed Yu Bingjie and Liu Changran Even if he kills Qin Ping, as long as we don't find Qin Ping's body, we will think that Qin Ping absconded after murdering like he did six years ago."

After finishing speaking, he sneered in a low voice: "It's very smart, it's called...Death never tells."

Ji Zheng was puzzled: "Since he wanted to kill Yu Bingjie and Liu Changran, he had plenty of opportunities in six years, why did he wait until now?"

Xia Bingyang said: "We analyzed at the meeting that Zhai Xiaofeng had indeed always had the opportunity to kill Yu Bingjie and Liu Changran. The reason why he waited until six years later was probably because of Qin Ping."

"Qin Ping?"

"Yes, Qin Ping has been wanted by the police for six years. He is an important suspect in Wang Yao's case. As I said just now, before the truth was revealed, everyone believed that he killed Wang Yao. Then he He had the motive to kill the other three children. The reason why Zhai Xiaofeng waited for six years was to wait for a chance that after he killed Yu Bingjie and Liu Changran, he could completely shift the attention of the police investigation to someone else. This person is Qin Ping."

"Then how did he know that Qin Ping would definitely come back?"

Xia Bingyang was silent for a moment, then said: "Maybe he doesn't know, he's just waiting."

"Then have you caught Zhai Xiaofeng?"

Xia Bingyang sighed: "It's difficult." After speaking, he opened his eyes and said in a deep tone: "Now there is still a doubt."

"What doubt?"

"What is the relationship between Zhai Xiaofeng and Ai Lu? No, it should be about the relationship between Zhai Xiaofeng and Ai Lu's mother."

Ji Zheng recalled the scene when he went to Tang Xuehui's home. The first thing he saw was Ai Lu, who gave him the impression that Ai Lu was a well-behaved girl who was strictly disciplined by her mother.Immediately afterwards, he met Ai Lu's mother, Tang Xuehui. Tang Xuehui was a very strong woman, so strong that even the time in the hourglass was not allowed to stop flowing.

She is used to keeping everything around her firmly in her hands, including her daughter.

Ji Zheng asked: "You want to investigate Zhai Xiaofeng and Tang Xuehui?"

"Ai Lu said that Tang Xuehui had kindness to Zhai Xiaofeng, that's why Zhai Xiaofeng let her go. I want to find out what kind of kindness Zhai Xiaofeng received from Tang Xuehui."

After finishing speaking, he pressed his eyebrows sadly: "But Tang Xuehui committed suicide six years ago, I want to investigate—"

Ji Zheng was startled, and quickly asked, "Did Tang Xuehui commit suicide?"

He seemed to know Tang Xuehui from his tone, Xia Bingyang turned his face back and said, "Yes, on August 12, 8, Tang Xuehui committed suicide by cutting her wrist at home."

Ji Zheng immediately looked at the date on the phone: "August 8th, that's tomorrow."

Xia Bingyang noticed something and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ji Zheng said calmly: "I can still see Tang Xuehui now, maybe I can help you investigate the relationship between her and Zhai Xiaofeng."

Xia Bingyang is unwilling to let him participate too much, because Ji Zheng is not a policeman, and investigating murder cases is not his job, and there are certain risks.He was even more worried that Ji Zheng would have accidents in his adventures again and again, and he never forgot that Ji Zheng would also disappear soon.But asking Ji Zheng to help with the investigation is the only breakthrough now, Xia Bingyang hesitated between allowing him to participate and preventing him from participating, and finally decided to put Ji Zheng's personal safety first, saying: "Forget it, I will find a way by myself. "

Ji Zheng didn't think as much as he did, so he was puzzled why Xia Bingyang didn't allow him to continue to help with the investigation, so he asked, "What did I do wrong?"

Xia Bingyang closed his eyes and sighed in embarrassment, and said in a low voice: "No, I... I'm afraid that something will happen to you."

Somewhere in Ji Zheng's heart was touched by this sentence, and after a while he smiled and said: "It's okay, I will take care of myself."

Xia Bingyang muttered in a low voice: "That's not okay, we usually go out to visit in groups of two, and you are alone, and no one will take care of you if something goes wrong."

Ji Zheng thought for a while and said, "That's good. A policeman I know happened to be investigating the case of Zhai Xiaofeng's father. I will act together with him. Is this okay?"

Xia Bingyang was still worried: "Which policeman? What's his name? Is it reliable?"

Ji Zheng laughed: "We are high school classmates, friends for many years, absolutely reliable."

Xia Bingyang thought for a while, and finally let go: "Okay, you pay attention to safety."

Having said this, it will be some insignificant gossip to continue, Ji Zheng said: "I won't bother you, you can rest."

Xia Bingyang responded, but did not hang up the phone.

He didn't hang up the phone, of course Ji Zheng wouldn't hang up first, so he listened to the phone and stayed silent with him for a while.

Xia Bingyang couldn't find anything to say to him, and refused to hang up the phone. He held back for a while and suddenly laughed, as if laughing at his current behavior being a little funny.

Ji Zheng didn't know what he was laughing at, and when he heard his laughter, he laughed with him: "What's wrong?"

Xia Bingyang shook his head where he couldn't see, paused at the end, and said in a low voice, "I want to see you."

Ji Zheng was silent, unable to smile on his face, but the smile shifted to his eyes, and said softly: "Soon."

He didn't speak clearly, but Xia Bingyang understood, pretended not to understand, and deliberately asked: "What is so fast?"

Ji Zheng knew that he understood, and also knew that he deliberately asked this question to make fun of himself, so he just smiled silently without making a sound.

The phone beeped twice, another phone came in, Xia Bingyang took the phone away and looked at the call display of another number, sighed inexplicably, and said: "Then I'll hang up."

Ji Zheng smiled and said, "Okay."

After Xia Bingyang hung up the phone, Ji Zheng stood on the balcony and looked at the sea not far away for a while, then returned to the living room with the cat in his arms.

While having breakfast in the restaurant, he told Bian Xiaoqu and Aunt Wu that he had informed the hotel to extend the check-out time to six o'clock in the evening, and that he needed to go down the mountain due to urgent business, so he asked Bian Xiaoqu and Aunt Wu to wait for him at the hotel , he will be back before six o'clock, and then set off for the return trip.

After breakfast, he drove down the mountain alone, and played Min Chengzhou's phone call on the way.

"You haven't left yet?"

Min Chengzhou asked him.

Ji Zheng held the balance between intimacy and politeness, and said with a smile: "I'm leaving today, what are you doing?"

"Investigate the case, what else can I do?"

Ji Zheng said softly, "Are you looking into Zhai Wengang's case?"

Min Chengzhou instantly became vigilant: "What do you want to do?"

Ji Zheng smiled: "Nothing, I have a clue to share with you."

"What clue?"

"Meet me, where are you?"

Min Chengzhou gave the address, and Ji Zheng arrived in less than 10 minutes.

Min Chengzhou parked the car beside a small road with kerosene residue at the entrance of the alley. He was leaning against the front of the car, wearing sunglasses on his face, and was lowering his head to press his mobile phone. He caught a glimpse of Ji Zheng's car approaching from the corner of his eye, and waved to Ji Zheng.

Ji Zheng got out of the car and walked towards him, seeing him in plain clothes, with a straight nose exposed under the sunglasses, and a confident smile on the corner of his lips, he suddenly saw a shadow of Xia Bingyang on him.It's not that they look like they imagined, he and Xia Bingyang have no similarities at all, the only similarity is that they have the same occupation, and they both do their best in their positions and for their responsibilities.

And Xia Bingyang is as confident, as unrestrained, and as convincing as him.

"Doctor Ji, you might as well change careers. As long as you can pass the civil servant exam this year, I'll let you transfer to an internal editor next year."

Min Chengzhou shook his head, looked at him helplessly and said with a smile.