"En, I seem to be fine, but it's best to get a check-up at the hospital!"
"Yes, it's better to check. Xia Hou and the others will handle other matters. You just need to rest well!" kanδん
"I'll wait for you, dear..."
"I'm almost there!" I said, seeing the direction of the hospital. As soon as I arrived, I went upstairs to find someone. With the help of a nurse, I walked to the door of a treatment room. I was about to go in, but I was stopped by a nurse: "Sir, you can't enter here. You have to wait a few minutes!"
"Is patient Liu Yuning in here?" I asked.
"Yes, it will be just a few more minutes, sir."
I returned to the public seating area and sent a message to Gao Mingqiang to inquire about the situation. He told me that Zhao Mei's parents were very happy and wanted to thank us profusely.
I said that we could talk about that later. We haven't found Du Qitai yet, so who has the mood for that?
When Liu Yuning felt a bit better, I went to her side. However, the doctor wanted her to stay in the hospital for two days.
"Darling, you should go to work first. I can manage on my own."
"En, I'll stay with you a bit longer before I go. He Qing and the others are already searching the entire city for Du Qitai. This scoundrel actually dared to escape from prison, he's simply courting death."
"Hmph, I'm just curious, why is it Du Qitai? So he escaped from prison. But he probably isn't the one who made the bombs. This means he was only doing the live broadcast. Even if we catch him, there's still someone behind the scenes."
"I think there should be more than one. To achieve this kind of terror live broadcast, it requires at least a team, otherwise, such a huge task cannot be completed. I had He Xin search some paranormal websites online before. Although I didn't find any death live broadcast websites, those other websites are supported by huge teams behind them."
"Then it will probably take some time to catch them all."
"I feel the same. This is another long battle."
"You don't have confidence, do you?"
"Of course not. Don't I have you as my backing?"
"En, I will always be your strongest backing!"
I squeezed Liu Yuning's hand and found that Gao Mingqiang had sent me a message. I stood up and said, "Yuning, I have to go to work."
"Okay, I'll call you later when I'm discharged. I can take care of myself."
As I walked out of the hospital, I immediately drove off in a hurry and returned to the police station. Gao Mingqiang told me, "Back at the mine, an armored vehicle picked up Du Qitai. We tracked this armored vehicle all the way to Xin Dong Lu in Fuming City. But we've been there and found that the armored vehicle wasn't there. It seemed to have disappeared into a forest near Wangyue Lake."
"Wangyue Lake? That's a tourist attraction in Fuming City, right?"
"Yes, that's the place. We're about to set off to investigate. Shall we go together?" Xia Hou interjected.
I said okay and brought Xiao Yuande and He Xin. The five of us took a police van and arrived at Wangyue Lake.
From a distance, we saw many old men fishing. I checked the time; it was past 3 AM, and they still hadn't gone home.
Approaching them, I and others dispersed to ask the old men.
I asked an old man with bare feet, "Old man, why aren't you going home at this late hour?"
"Many eels come to the surface here at night. If you come during the day, they go back to sleep."
"Oh? You mean you usually fish here all night?" kΑnshu伍.ξà
"Yes, what's wrong?"
I had reviewed the surveillance footage and found that the armored vehicle disappeared here at 2 AM today. This means these old men might have seen the armored vehicle.
I said, "Did you see an armored vehicle pass by just now?"
"Ay! That reminds me, I'm so angry! I was just about to catch a big eel when that damned vehicle passed by, scaring all the eels back to the seabed. It wasted me half an hour!"
"Was it a black armored vehicle?"
"Yes. I was quite surprised at the time. Could it be special police on a mission? Why was there an armored vehicle so late at night? But I could tell that it looked different from the police's. By the way, who are you people? Asking for information here so late at night? You're not police officers, are you?"
I nodded and showed him the cover of my police badge. The old man's attitude immediately improved: "So you are police officers. That armored vehicle later drove towards the forest over there!"
The old man pointed in a certain direction as he spoke.
I looked up at a mountain forest not far away. There were no surveillance cameras there, which explained why our tracking of the armored vehicle stopped once it reached this area.
I thanked the old man. He seemed quite curious and asked me, "Are you investigating a murder case? It's said that this area is not very peaceful. Not far from here is our Fuming City's famous 'Bewitching Forest,' where many people have gone missing."
I had heard of the Bewitching Forest, but those were mostly exaggerated supernatural legends. As police officers, we naturally didn't believe them.
I told the old man not to be afraid and not to guess wildly. I greeted Gao Mingqiang and the others. They told me that the information gathered from the old men was roughly the same. We grabbed our flashlights and guns and entered the forest.
Following the old men's directions, we soon entered a deep cement road. On both sides were dense mulberry trees and piles of straw. He Xin complained the whole way because the straw rubbed against her skin, making her itchy.
"Does anyone have anti-itch cream?" He Xin suddenly asked.
"No one!" I gave her a look. I knew I shouldn't have let her come, but her technical skills would probably be helpful.
As we walked, Gao Mingqiang suddenly said, "Isn't this reed grass? I heard that if it irritates the skin, it can cause a rash and intense itching!"
"It is indeed reed grass. Don't worry about it, everyone. Let's move quickly. As long as we get out of here, we'll be fine!" I ordered. Xiao Yuande pushed the reed grass aside to clear the path, seemingly unaffected by the itching and walking quickly. Even though the reed grass kept rubbing against his skin, he showed no reaction.
With his help, our path was unobstructed, and we weren't bothered by the reed grass. It took us immense effort to get out of the reed grass area, but when we emerged, we found even more locust trees ahead, and the paths were muddy, which would be difficult to walk on.