Chapter 55

Chapter 55

“Uncle Tan, are you sure it's Zhu Changyong?”

“Cannot be completely confirmed, but it's likely him. Because when the other party applied for the visit, they provided relevant supporting materials and a photo of his mother being a colleague of Zheng Haiyang's mother.”

“Does the mental hospital keep those?”

“No.”

Mental hospitals are indeed stricter in supervision, but that's for the inside, not the outside. And the frequency of outside visits from patients' families is originally very low. Many families hope to forget about a mentally ill person after sending them in.

“Uncle Tan, are you sure it was suicide?”

“Her method of suicide was to cut her throat in public.”

Li Zhuoyuan pulled his collar up a bit. That was suicide; after all, if there were other hidden circumstances or a perpetrator, it wouldn't have presented itself in this manner.

“Uncle Tan, is there any suspicion of Zhu Changyong having induced or instigated the suicide?”

“The law allows for it, but how to prosecute? Zheng Haiyang's mother was originally a mental patient. What the local police station can do is find him for questioning. In his application form, he did leave an address and phone number, but it was for a hotel.”

Li Zhuoyuan looked up at Tan Yunlong; he suddenly understood the real reason for Officer Tan's visit.

“Uncle Tan, you're here to find Zheng Haiyang.”

Tan Yunlong nodded slightly, feeling a wave of relief in his heart. Talking to Xiao Yuan was indeed much simpler than talking to his own silly son.

“Xiao Yuan, Zhu Changyong's hotel address is in our Shi Gang.”

Zheng Haiyang walked out of the school gate at this time. He had eaten lunch with Tan Wenbin and Li Zhuoyuan. In the evening, because Tan Wenbin didn't go to evening self-study with Li Zhuoyuan, he walked alone.

“Bin Ge, why are you still here?” Zheng Haiyang saw Tan Wenbin first and walked over to greet him.

Tan Wenbin nudged his mouth in that direction.

“Oh, Uncle is here too.”

Tan Yunlong naturally also noticed them. He turned his head, pointed at Tan Wenbin, and shouted: “You and Haiyang go to the cafeteria to eat, then accompany him to evening self-study.”

“What?” Tan Wenbin was stunned for a moment. Accompanying his bro to eat was no problem, but not going to early and evening self-study was his special source of pride right now!

Tan Yunlong's gaze glared. Tan Wenbin's knees immediately went soft, and he immediately responded:

“Yes!”

As a son, you can clearly distinguish which times a tiger is feigning anger and you can be a bit lively and naughty, and which times a tiger will truly eat people. A tiger's poison doesn't eat its cubs, and that's also because the young cubs have good eyesight.

“Let's go, Haiyang, we'll go to the cafeteria to eat.”

“Bin Ge, going to the cafeteria now means not only queuing but possibly no dishes left…”

“Don't talk nonsense. If it really doesn't work, we'll go to the school store and buy a few packets of Tang Seng meat. If you don't go with me, my dad might take out his belt and beat me publicly at the school gate.”

When Tan Wenbin and Zheng Haiyang went in, two plainclothes police officers also followed, obviously to protect the target.

During school hours, the school gate security doesn't stop students, but they are more attentive to adults. So those few security guards very enthusiastically greeted the two plainclothes police officers. It's a small town and a small place; you can't help but see each other. These two police officers also often come to the school to do legal education publicity. Letting them go in was also convenient for communication with the teachers and avoided misunderstandings.

Soon, two physical education teachers from the school, Luo Jinwen and Luo Wenhui, were also selected to cooperate with the police action. These two physical education teachers were cousins. One had originally planned to get off work to buy vegetables to celebrate his wife's birthday, and the other was going on a date to watch a movie after getting off work. This plan was now ruined. After the director found them and assigned the task, he also soothed their emotions, comforting them that they were the people the school leadership relied on most. This was a fact; the last time the school sent people to Beijing to investigate Li Zhuoyuan's student status was these two, and they were also the ones who installed curtains and spring beds in the principal's office.

“Let's go, Xiao Yuan, we'll go to the hotel and take a look.”

“The person hasn't checked out yet?”

“The bureau called and asked. The person checked out in the morning, but we still have to go take a look. In addition, I have also arranged for police to protect Zheng Haiyang's home.”

“Uncle Tan, wait a moment.”

Li Zhuoyuan ran towards Runsheng's tricycle, and after explaining a bit to A Li, A Li nodded. Except for the time she discovered Li Zhuoyuan's self-harming hand and resolutely left, at other times, no matter what Li Zhuoyuan wanted to do, she didn't complain. Runsheng then asked if he should send A Li back himself and then bring the equipment over, but Li Zhuoyuan refused.

After saying goodbye, Li Zhuoyuan ran back and sat on Tan Yunlong's motorcycle. The two soon arrived at the hotel. The hotel name was very common, called "Happiness Hotel". To the left of the door was a breakfast shop, and to the right was a hair salon. An ordinary hair salon would at least have an iron barber chair inside, but this one had no chairs, and on the table, there were no scissors or combs. There was only a simple long sofa inside, and two women with heavy makeup were sitting on it, crossing their legs and knitting sweaters. Besides "Haircut, shampoo" pasted on the glass door, there was also "Cupping, foot wash, massage, psa." The last one, Li Zhuoyuan suspected, should have been incorrectly pasted letters.

The hotel sign was very small, just a small staircase going up, and the front desk was also on the second floor. Tan Yunlong took out his ID and asked the other party to provide the check-in records. The bureau had already confirmed when they called earlier that Zhu Changyong had checked in here and requested that the room not be rented out temporarily.

Following the boss towards the back of the hotel, they opened the door and walked in. The space inside was very small, just a bed, a bedside table, and a small tea table, and no TV. Tan Yunlong began to inspect, discovering many water seepage marks on the floor: “What's going on here?”

“I don't know. Water started seeping up last night. All the shops downstairs came to tell me. We knocked on the door to check at that time. The bathroom pipes were normal, and the amount of water on the ground was very large, so we suspected it wasn't from leaking pipes elsewhere.”

Li Zhuoyuan knelt on the ground, allowing himself to get closer to the water stains. Although cleaned, the residual water stains were still somewhat viscous. This was very consistent with the characteristics of overflow water from a dead body.

Tan Yunlong looked at the boss and asked: “After he lived here, besides himself going out, did anyone else come to find him in this room?”

Li Zhuoyuan looked up and also looked at the boss. The boss waved his hand: “No, no one came to find him in this room.”

Li Zhuoyuan saw that the boss's micro-expression showed that he was lying. But Li Zhuoyuan knew that Tan Yunlong could definitely also hear it, because Tan Yunlong was setting a trap when asking the question. In such a deep room, with your front desk outside, how can you be sure no one came to his room? The correct answer should be "I don't know," not to say no for sure.

Tan Yunlong said seriously: “I'll give you one more chance, think clearly before answering. Do you know what crime he committed? If we investigate and you lied today, that's harboring a criminal, even an accomplice.”

The boss immediately panicked, his face showing struggle, but finally he made up his mind and said: “A Mei came in before.”

“Who?”

“Just the one from the hair salon downstairs, she came in before.”

“You introduced her?”

“Not… not really.” The boss's face was very ugly, and he started to sweat. Nowadays, doing this kind of business behind hotels is almost an unspoken rule. Some bosses cooperate and share the profits, while some bosses are simply the pimps themselves.

“Where is she?”

“Just downstairs.”

Tan Yunlong and Li Zhuoyuan walked out and came to the hair salon next door. A Mei was one of the two women sitting on the sofa knitting sweaters. Seeing Tan Yunlong walk in, one of the women very naturally went to pull down the rolling door. Until she saw Li Zhuoyuan following behind, she was stunned and involuntarily laughed: “Little brother, you also came to play?”

“He came with me.”

“Okay, big brother, you choose one of us, and the other will stay to accompany the child and watch TV.” There was a black and white TV in the room, but it seemed to be broken and wasn't plugged in. That was because Li Zhuoyuan was still too young; if he were a few years older, he might have been "received".

“Which one is A Mei.”

“Brother, choose me. Is this your first time? Did a friend introduce me?”

Tan Yunlong took out his ID: “I'm a police officer, I'm here to ask you something. Sit down.”

The two women were scared at first, but the other one reacted very quickly, her charming expression surging again, but under Tan Yunlong's gaze, it instantly died down.

“Did you work at Happiness Hotel last night? Do you remember room 8025?”

“Not… I don't remember.”

“Think clearly before answering. I'm not here to do a sweep for prostitution this time.”

The woman beside her pushed A Mei's arm: “Hurry up and say it, tell the truth, cooperate with the work.”

A Mei also became anxious and said: “I did several last night, I don't know which one was that room.”

The woman beside her immediately changed her expression: “You actually secretly…”

It was very obvious that A Mei had a better relationship with the hotel boss. Generally, in this kind of store, unless a guest specifically asks for someone, when facing strangers, they take turns according to the order. People who come to stay at a hotel are definitely not regular customers, after all, there are small compartments inside the hair salon, and there are beds inside.

Li Zhuoyuan reminded: “The floor in his room was very wet, there was a lot of water, and the humidity inside the room was very heavy.”

“Ah, I remember, it was him. But I didn't do anything with him. He gave me money, but he just asked me to go to the front desk to get hot water and boil water for him to drink. He said he was very thirsty. I boiled him a lot of water, and then he just let me go.”

“Are there any other details, for example, his accent?”

“It seemed like a northern accent. Also, he was carrying a black briefcase. As for the rest, I just don't know, and we didn't take off our clothes.”

“Facial details, try to recall.”

“He was quite tall, about 1.8 meters, very thin, but with muscles. He was wearing a cap, his skin was darker, like he was tanned by the sun, and the back of his hands were peeling. I even asked him if he was sunburned.”

Tan Yunlong nodded. Although there was no direct photo, from the description, it was indeed the person who went to the mental hospital to visit Zheng Haiyang's mother.

“If he finds you again, remember to find an opportunity to report to the police. He is very dangerous.”

“Huff… huff…” A Mei was so scared that she kept patting her chest. Being caught in a prostitution sweep is just detention. People in their line of work are indeed afraid of the police, but they are more afraid of bad people.

Tan Yunlong pulled up the rolling door, took Li Zhuoyuan out, and re-sat on the motorcycle. After driving quite far, Tan Yunlong suddenly said again: “Xiao Yuan, some things can never be completely cleaned up.”

“Ah?” Li Zhuoyuan was surprised for a moment, still thinking Tan Yunlong was talking about the case. He quickly understood and responded: “Uncle Tan, I understand.”

“A room cannot be clean forever, so you have to clean diligently.”

“Yes, Uncle Tan.”

The retired old people in the residential compound also liked to say similar things to him. This meant they truly treated him as a promising junior, hoping to pass down correct values.

The next stop was Zheng Haiyang's home. Zheng Haiyang's home was a very new two-story self-built house. Li Zhuoyuan had only been there the day of the funeral. Originally, Zheng Haiyang's family's financial situation was actually very poor, but Zheng Haiyang's father was good at handling things, and these years working as a sailor with his wife had indeed earned them quite a lot of money, and they had also built a new house.

There were two plainclothes police officers outside. After Tan Yunlong greeted them, he took them into the house together. The two old people were still wiping tears; they should have known about the news from the mental hospital. Actually, they were more worried about their own grandson. In a short time, he had no father and no mother. How would he manage now? The only fortunate thing was that the house was also well built, and over the years, their son and daughter-in-law had sent a lot of money home, which was all saved.

Tan Yunlong explained the purpose of their visit and asked if any strangers had approached here recently. The two old people answered no. But this was obviously impossible, because since Zhu Changyong chose to live in Shi Gang, his purpose could only be here. During the questioning, Tan Yunlong specifically pointed out that this person might pose a danger to Zheng Haiyang. The two old people were very scared and strongly requested that the police catch the bad guy. This was a test, testing that the two old people had indeed not had contact with Zhu Changyong. Sometimes, handling cases will encounter very bizarre twists and turns. What's bizarre is not the case itself, but the people involved in the case. However, in the matter involving their grandson, the two old people also behaved normally, which proved that Zhu Changyong came alone for his own purpose.

After seeking the agreement of the old people, two police officers were arranged to go inside the rooms to check. Tan Yunlong walked to the dam and lit a cigarette, taking a deep drag.

“Uncle Tan, you've had a tough time.” This case was originally not something Tan Yunlong should handle, and it might not even be considered a case.

“Xiao Yuan, what are you saying? Can't we just pretend not to see a possible danger? So, Xiao Yuan, what do you think?” When asking this question, Tan Yunlong's gaze was like a hawk, slowly sweeping around. He had a feeling that Zhu Changyong might be hiding nearby.

“Uncle Tan, is it possible that Zhu Changyong came here, not for the target person, but for a specific item?”

“An item?”

“Yes, he might not have come to kill.” This was Li Zhuoyuan's guess. The person who truly held the real identity information of Zhu Changyong was Li Lan's secretary, Xu Wen. But from hearing Xu Wen's attitude towards Zhu Changyong in the toilet, their relationship was not that of enemies, and might even be somewhat intimate. "To see the living, you must see the person; to see the dead, you must see the corpse..." This isn't a description of an enemy; it's just possibly another extreme. This also indirectly explained Zhu Changyong's identity. Although he also worked on that ship, he was different from Honda and Ashley's two groups. Even if something bad happened on the seabed, he wouldn't go to the extent of stalking the crew's families after coming ashore.

“Then I'll go ask again.”

Tan Yunlong went to ask again. Li Zhuoyuan didn't follow, but learned Tan Yunlong's previous action and scanned the surroundings. Only, what Tan Yunlong was looking for was people, and what he was looking for was a dead body. But the result was still the same, nothing was gained.

Li Zhuoyuan took out talisman papers from his pocket and stuck some on the dam and on the house door. He always carried quite a few in his pocket, and he stuck them all up this time. Tan Yunlong came out: “I asked, there's nothing special, however, this time they might be lying.” Since he saw they were lying, as long as he brought them back to the bureau, using the environment and atmosphere there, it would be easy to get the truth out, but he couldn't do that now.

“Uncle Tan, you can tell Zheng Haiyang and let him go back and ask.”

“Hmm, good method.” Tan Yunlong rode his car back to the school gate with Li Zhuoyuan and ordered two bowls of noodles at a small shop outside.

“Xiao Yuan, what toppings do you want?”

“I don't need any, Uncle Tan.”

After the two finished eating their noodles, the high school evening self-study also ended. The noodle shop also finished its last batch of business for the day and was about to close and rest. Tan Wenbin and Zheng Haiyang walked out side by side. Father and son were connected, and he immediately sensed his father's location.

Tan Yunlong found Zheng Haiyang to talk, and didn't arbitrarily tell him about his mother. He just explained the pros and cons clearly to him. The main point was that there was a bad person watching something at his home, which his grandpa and grandma knew but deliberately didn't tell the police, and this might bring danger to the family. Zheng Haiyang immediately promised to go back and ask his grandpa and grandma clearly.

Then, Zheng Haiyang pursed his lips again and asked: “Uncle, my mother… is she also gone?” As a sailor, his own father was confirmed dead, while his own mother had no news and didn't come back for the funeral. Zheng Haiyang actually had a premonition in his heart early on.

“This, you also have to ask your grandpa and grandma yourself, Uncle doesn't know.”

“Okay, I understand, Uncle.”

After saying that, Tan Wenbin pulled Zheng Haiyang's shoulder outwards a bit, entrusting him between brothers: “Bro, look at my dad and Xiao Yuan Ge standing together. You have to listen, believe me, you can not listen to my dad, but you have to listen to our Xiao Yuan Ge. Not listening to my dad at most gets you jailed, not listening to my Yuan Ge might get you a coffin.”

“Bin Ge, I understand. I just have grandpa and grandma left. I hope the family is well. Also… actually, I feel quite guilty.”

“How?”

“My dad is gone, my mom might also not be here, but as a son, I don't feel very sad in my heart. I feel like I'm not a good person.”

“Sigh, what nonsense are you thinking? Your parents were often not at home, and you only saw them once a year. It's normal for your emotions to be a bit distant.”

“But they were busy working outside, also for me.”

“How to put it, bro, be open-minded, don't be stubborn with yourself. The dead cannot be revived. If your dad and mom could see you, they would definitely not want you to be always crying and unable to move on. They would definitely rather you live healthily and happily. Eat well, drink well, study well, go to university. You still have your grandpa and grandma to take care of in the future.”

“Thank you, Bin Ge.”

Li Zhuoyuan walked over at this time: “Binbin Ge, do you still have talisman papers in your pocket?”

“Yes, this is our anti-counterfeiting mark.”

“Give them to Haiyang. Haiyang, I stuck some talisman papers outside your home. Check if they have changed color when you go back, then stick some on the doors of your and your grandpa and grandma's bedrooms. Don't tell others I gave them to you.”

“I understand, Xiao Yuan Ge. I'll just say it's a peace talisman.”

The next day, after the early self-study ended, Li Zhuoyuan and Tan Wenbin had just walked into the classroom when Zheng Haiyang walked over and said softly:

“I asked my grandpa and grandma last night. They told me that the last time my parents came home, they did bring something back.”

Tan Wenbin quickly asked: “What thing?”

“That, I can't describe it, let me draw it.” Zheng Haiyang picked up a pen, opened a page on Tan Wenbin's notebook, and started drawing.

Tan Wenbin frowned: “What is this ghost thing?”

“I haven't seen it before, I drew it according to my grandpa and grandma's description.”

Li Zhuoyuan said faintly: “Ding.”

“Holy moly, national treasure.” After all, they were high school students, so they naturally knew what "ding" represented. Li Zhuoyuan then remembered what Zheng Haiyang's mother said, that she was there for the first time, but her husband wasn't. So, when her husband was there for the first time, he brought something out.

“But, my grandpa and grandma said this thing is very small…”

Li Zhuoyuan: “Not every ding is very big, some are small. What color?”

“Black and green color.”

Li Zhuoyuan: “That really might be a cultural relic.” No wonder Zheng Haiyang's grandpa and grandma chose to conceal it when Tan Yunlong asked for the second time yesterday. After losing their son and daughter-in-law, the old people obviously valued this kind of thing more.

Tan Wenbin asked: “Did you bring it?”

Zheng Haiyang shook his head: “At that time, this thing was hidden by my parents in the well on the dam at home. I tried to fish it out with my grandpa last night, but couldn't.”

Tan Wenbin: “Then let Runsheng go to your house to fish tonight. Runsheng is a professional.”

Li Zhuoyuan asked: “Have the talisman papers changed?”

“I checked when I got back last night, and checked again this morning when I came to school. They haven't changed color.”

Tan Wenbin breathed a sigh of relief: “Very good, he didn't come.”

Li Zhuoyuan corrected: “He still hasn't come.”

“Then, will our home be okay?” Zheng Haiyang asked very worriedly.

Li Zhuoyuan said: “There are police outside your home.”

Tan Wenbin then said: “They can't stay too long, at most it's just these two days, otherwise the people below will be dissatisfied, after all, no case has been filed.”

“Xiao Yuan Ge, Bin Ge, then I…”

“We'll go to your house tonight.” Li Zhuoyuan said very calmly, “After we fish the thing out of the well, your home will be okay.”

Tan Wenbin asked curiously: “How to handle that thing after fishing it out? This thing looks like a hot potato now.”

Li Zhuoyuan lay on the table preparing to catch up on some sleep. He had drawn little yellow birds for half the night last night. However, the boy still answered casually:

“Hand it over to the state.”

Tan Wenbin carefully asked: “If you find cultural relics in the public sea, it seems you don't need to hand them over to the state, right?” The boy had already adjusted his arm-pillow posture, closed his eyes, and retorted: “Then you take it home.”

“No no no!” Tan Wenbin immediately shook his head in fright, “Still hand it over to the state, give it to the state.”

At noon, the three of them went out to eat. After the meal, Tan Wenbin went to Aunt Zhang's small store to make a phone call, telling Runsheng not to bring A Li tonight, and to bring the equipment. Just as they walked back to the school gate, they saw Wu Xinhan's car driving out. The driver was concentrating on driving, and Wu Xinhan was sitting in the back row waving immersed, talking with eyebrows raised. He was going to a meeting and didn't forget to give himself a final rehearsal on the way.

At school, a banner with good news was already hung up. "Warmly congratulate our school's Li Zhuoyuan on winning the first place in the city math competition!" A very strange operation was that the last three words were originally "first prize", but they were slashed and covered, and "first place" was temporarily added. Because this competition awarded by ranking, there were quite a few first prizes, but only one full score. The banner was made in advance, and the words were also changed as requested by Principal Wu. There was no need to change the banner; this banner was more domineering! This middle school in such a difficult district was really used to being suppressed before. It was a rare opportunity, so they naturally had to vent and celebrate once.

Li Zhuoyuan just glanced at it and then lowered his head to continue walking forward. Tan Wenbin then smacked his thigh, first ran back to the classroom in one breath, and shouted at the poor students in the class:

“What are you still愣着干嘛, get to work! The second book, third book, and fourth book are bound together and sold open. Besides the classmates who receive school poverty subsidies can enjoy discounts, absolutely no bargaining for the rest of the people!”

When Li Zhuoyuan returned, the classroom inside and outside seemed to have become a large publishing house distribution site. People were crowded inside, and more people were squeezed in the corridor outside. As soon as the good news of the math competition was announced, the whole school market boiled over. Those who came to buy exercise books were not only high school seniors, but also many sophomores and freshmen, and even quite a few from the junior high school department came to buy. For schoolmates and younger brothers and sisters, they would use them eventually anyway; the most important thing was that by the time they reached high school, the award winner might not be there, so they hurried to buy them while he was still there to get some good luck. Quite a few people, after buying the exercise set, immediately took out the talisman paper, kissed it, and then carefully put it back solemnly.

Among them, one person's exercise set slid and fell when passing by Li Zhuoyuan, dropping onto the ground. Li Zhuoyuan lowered his head and glanced at the cover, discovering that Tan Wenbin had named the exercise set: "Zhuoyuan Secret Volume".

The hot selling atmosphere didn't end even after the noon self-study bell rang. Finally, the vice principal and class teacher Sun Qing came together and shouted Tan Wenbin out, and the crowd dispersed. After an hour, Tan Wenbin came back. He smiled and sat back in his seat:

“Brother, it will be convenient for us to sell exercise books after this. You can just ask any questions, and the school will help us print and sell.”

“Then why did you take so long?”

“Silly, I definitely have to negotiate the copyright share with the school! 親school clear account!”

“Hmm?”

“We might not only sell this round. Later, we will sell to other schools in the city and other schools in the province. We all have to receive authorization fees or copyright fees. This share has to be negotiated well, even after we graduate and go to university, we can continue to receive it.”

“Binbin Ge, you really have a business mind.”

“What am I? It's mainly because of you, my brother. You are奇货可居.”

“Then after school this evening, will you go sign the contract with the school? We have a school-run enterprise for signing. It was half-dead originally, but now we can utilize it.”

“I authorize you, you go.”

“Brother, you trust me so much?”

“Yeah.”

Li Zhuoyuan had no obsession with earning money. In this respect, he was very similar to Liangliang Ge. Their attitude towards money was always that it was good enough to use. They mainly pursued things at another level. Tan Wenbin spent the afternoon class time organizing his plan book. Li Zhuoyuan glanced at it and found that he was doing a staged plan, somewhat like a betting agreement. For example, for the provincial math competition award, the national level math competition award, and the international math competition award, the corresponding share ratio must also be gradually improved. Tan Wenbin himself had no fate with math competitions, but he understood the competition process very clearly. Besides that, college entrance examination results were also listed.

“Binbin Ge.”

“What?”

“What does Aunt do?”

“My mom? She's an accountant.”

Because he had to go to Zheng Haiyang's home after school, before the fourth period math class, he went to the infirmary, used a small trick to measure a fever, got a leave slip, and handed it to Teacher Yan in the office before going to negotiate. In the fourth period class, Teacher Yan distributed papers for everyone to do. Because he was called by the school leadership to help calculate the contract accounts, he and Tan Wenbin had a teacher-student "meeting".

After school in the evening, Li Zhuoyuan saw the principal's car return. The principal opened the car door and got out, enthusiastically greeting everyone he saw. He was full of spirit and vigor. He was like a long-suffering daughter-in-law who had finally boiled the evil mother-in-law to death one day. Before the principal's gaze swept over him, Li Zhuoyuan and Zheng Haiyang ran out of the school gate and found Runsheng. Tan Wenbin was already waiting here, his left ear red and large again, like Maitreya.

“Xiao Yuan Ge, the contract is successful. After this, you can just ask any questions, and then just wait to count the money.”

“Binbin Ge, your ear…”

“Originally, Teacher Yan just scolded me a couple of sentences when he saw me. After I proposed including the topics you gave the math group in the math exercise set, Teacher Yan was so angry that he pulled my ear while calculating the account with me about my fake sick leave.”

“You've had a tough time, Binbin Ge.”

“It's not tough. We can't let the school take advantage of us!”

The three of them sat on the tricycle, and Runsheng rode to Zheng Haiyang's home. After arriving at the dam, Runsheng started salvaging, but he couldn't fish the thing out. Finally, he simply went down the well himself, dived down, but still didn't find the ding.

Tan Wenbin: “The ding isn't in there, could it be that Zhu Changyong came and took it away early?”

Li Zhuoyuan nodded: “That's possible.” Zhu Changyong had just checked out that morning. Tan Yunlong's bureau only received the request for assistance in investigation in the afternoon. In theory, Zhu Changyong could have come here to take the item away the previous evening and left Shi Gang the next morning.

Zheng Haiyang asked very anxiously: “What do we do if the thing isn't there?”

Li Zhuoyuan: “If he has already taken the thing away, then your home is definitely safe.”

Zheng Haiyang patted his chest: “Right, right, Xiao Yuan Ge, you're correct.”

The sky was already dark. Zheng Haiyang's grandpa and grandma enthusiastically invited his classmates to stay for dinner before leaving. Everyone sat at the table together, and Runsheng lit a cigarette before the meal. Zheng Haiyang's grandpa and grandma were busy in the kitchen and were very happy, saying that Haiyang hadn't brought any classmates home to play before. Then, they kept blaming Zheng Haiyang for not telling them earlier so they could have gone to the market earlier to buy more dishes. Tan Wenbin then skillfully smoothed things over and livened up the atmosphere, not forgetting to remind them to "cook more rice".

After several dishes were on the table, everyone started eating. Zheng Haiyang's grandma laughed: “There's still a head dish, it will be done soon.”

Tan Wenbin raised his chopsticks: “Good good good, I love eating head dish the most.” The head dish was also called Tongcheng stewed three fresh, and also called big mixed stew. It contained ingredients such as fish balls, pork skin, black fungus, egg skin, quail eggs, etc. It was also considered a half-soup dish, and its figure was indispensable at local red and white banquets.

While eating, the light overhead started to flicker, then went out with a "pa" sound.

“Old man, check if the circuit breaker is tripped at home.”

“Come, come, old woman, you move aside first. Everyone don't move. I'll just put the head dish here first, don't get burned.”

“Ding dong…” It should have been the muffled sound of a large sea bowl placed on the table.

“Everyone eat, just like at home. There are enough dishes.”

“Old man, hurry up and see if the circuit breaker is tripped. I see the neighbors' lights are still on outside, so it's not a village power outage.”

“Ai, good good good, I'll go now.”

Before long, the grandpa's voice came from outside: “Old woman, it's the circuit breaker, I'll just switch it back on.”

The power came back on, and the lights came on. At the table, everyone who was holding chopsticks ready to pick up food stopped. Because placed in the center of the table, used to hold the head dish, was… a ding.

Although the light was on, the faces of the two old people turned dark. Standing by the table, they kept waving their hands and saying:

“Eat, hurry up and eat, don't be polite, hey hey hey hey…”

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