"Certainly not," I said, showing my police badge to the balding fat man. Seeing that we were police officers, his brow twitched, and he stepped back slightly. "Uh, how could that be?"
"Boss, are you alright?" Zhang Keying probed cautiously.
"F-fine!" The balding fat man wiped sweat from his forehead and pretended to be calm.
"Fine, why are you so nervous?" I asked, my tone deepening.
The balding fat man quickly shook his head and explained, "Police rarely come to this place. When you two showed up, I was just curious. Are you like the police from before? Here to investigate the case from back then?"
"Police from before? Have many police officers come here?"
"Ah, it seems you really are inexperienced. At least five groups of police have come here to investigate. Each time, there were several officers, and they all had guns. But guess what happened to them later?" The balding fat man deliberately put on a very mysterious expression.
We all responded with impatient indifference, "Tell us quickly!"
"They never left Dongyu Town. It's said they all disappeared in some corner of this town, vanished suddenly. Not even a strand of their hair was found. *sniffles* Just thinking about it gives me the chills!"
Although the balding fat man claimed to be scared, I noticed a hidden hint of schadenfreude in his eyes.
This guy seemed to be hiding something, but his act was too poor and easily seen through.
I still didn't reveal my thoughts and continued, "Then you still dare to stay here?"
"As I said, this is my family's business, and I will not leave! I'd rather die than leave!"
"Alright!"
We temporarily abandoned our questioning. After walking a considerable distance, ensuring the balding fat man couldn't hear, Liu Yuning said to me, "That balding guy is definitely suspicious!"
I crossed my arms and pondered deeply. "Yes, based on his accent and the traces in the shop, he's not a local, nor is he the owner. More importantly, when the mansion was mentioned, he clearly knew about it but deliberately acted as if he was seeing it for the first time, showing fear."
"Exactly. This boss, if I'm not mistaken, is likely a lookout. Once we revealed our identities, he's probably already alerted the people in the mansion."
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't have revealed our identities."
"If someone was watching nearby, they might have spotted us when we stopped the police car."
"I regret not bringing the police car now."
As they were discussing, I coughed. "Do you two still want to go back for it? Never mind, let's keep going. I believe we'll find that mansion soon. Didn't that balding guy say many police officers disappeared after coming here? This Dongyu Town is becoming increasingly mysterious."
"Then shouldn't we call for backup? Just the few of us is too dangerous. Aren't you afraid of ending up like those people before?"
Liu Yuning was right. I took out my phone and dialed Li Fan. He promised to come immediately, but we couldn't wait. Before they arrived, we pressed on.
After walking for a while, we realized Dongyu Town was quite large. It took us several hours of trekking without finishing. Furthermore, in the distance were continuous rows of houses, many dilapidated dormitory-style buildings, extremely old, distributed on both sides of a deep alley. This area was likely inhabited by the poor. Each unit was probably less than 20 square meters. We went upstairs, pulled open a few unit doors, and peered inside, only to find that these units had no windows.
Forget about summer, even in winter, people confined in such cramped spaces would feel incredibly uncomfortable. It's hard to imagine what kind of dark and desperate environment the people living in Dongyu Town at that time endured.
We felt incredibly suffocated within these small rooms for less than two minutes before quickly running out. Then, we glanced down the corridor a few more times, found nothing, and had to come down to continue our progress.
Near a certain alley, we found many trash cans piled together. Lined up, they looked somewhat messy. A lot of household garbage was placed on top of the lids, and more was piled on the ground. A gust of cold wind blew, swirling up paper scraps and soda cans. It was already late at night. I checked my phone; it was past two in the morning. We had only intended to explore a bit, but it had turned into several hours. If we continued like this, who knew when we would reach our goal.
Since we searched for a long time without finding the mansion, I began to wonder if it had already been demolished.
I checked the photos on my phone again, comparing them with the environment inside. I meticulously compared every corner of Dongyu Town. I decided to deploy a drone. It would be a waste of such powerful technology not to use it.
So, I first contacted He Xin. Then, Li Fan's team found us. He seemed to have some experts with him. Together, we launched the drone. My little 'Dou Dou' was soaring in the sky. Even the police dog unit was dispatched. I refused to believe we still couldn't find it.
We searched an area of ten kilometers around Dongyu Town, but we really didn't find any mansion. When we returned to the balding guy's eatery, we found his shop closed. Many police officers surrounded his eatery and knocked several times, but there was no response.
When we forced the door open and went upstairs, we discovered he had already fled. I said, "This guy is definitely suspicious. He's probably in hiding. But where on earth is that mansion? Could it be a basement? Or perhaps a back mountain, ruins, or something similar?"
"Even so, if we search aimlessly like this, who knows how long it will take!"
Seeing everyone looking exhausted, Liu Yuning suggested we retreat. I couldn't say anything else and could only agree.
After we left Dongyu Town, I was in the police car and picked up my phone to call Xia Hou again. However, the situation was still the same. How could this be?
I immediately asked Liu Yuning to drive me back to the provincial department to inquire about Xia Hou. Everyone at the provincial department stated they hadn't seen any trace of him. At the same time, Xiao Yuande also became unreachable.
We were all seized with panic, fearing that they too might have disappeared like the balding guy mentioned earlier. However, they hadn't gone to Dongyu Town, which made it even stranger. I truly worried that something had happened to them.