Free Web NovelChapter 685: Chapter 653: A Letter from Mr. Hu_1
Zhou Ning paused, causing everyone else in the car to pause and look at him.
"Remember something?"
Zhou Ning pondered for a moment before he spoke,
"I’ve told the story many times. My father came home, found out I was pretending to sleep and picked me up, playing with me for a while. Then he told me that on their trip to the southern borders, they hunted down a wolf and took its fang to make me a pendant.
I remember the tooth was a creamy white, very large, with a screw on top that had a loop, tied with a leather cord. I wore it around my neck, and it hung down to my crotch. My father laughed about it, and right, there were two characters engraved on the tooth—Xiao Ning."
Mr. Zhao slapped his thigh, suddenly interested.
"Everything else aside, this thing definitely isn’t something the opposition could have thought of, why hesitate? Let’s go find the fang!"
Xu Dayuan thought for a moment, but instead of nodding, he waved his hand.
"Get out of the car first; we’ll talk at the hospital. Didn’t you ask Mr. He to check if there was anyone here who knew your mother? Is there any result?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"I’ve been so busy these past few days, I haven’t even seen him. But just now, Mr. Zhao sent a WeChat message to Mr. He; how did he not give you a reply?"
Mr. Zhao grinned with a bare-toothed smile, casually waving his hand as if it were no big deal.
"That’s for you, not for me. I heard that our boxed lunches had cyanide in them. When I called, the first thing they asked was whether Zhou Xiaozhou had eaten any. I told them we were a step behind, and only Peng Shinian took a quick bite, while the rest of us were stopped before it reached our mouths.
Checking into the hospital is also to buy time for the investigation in Qindao. I told him not to come over and let the emergency department’s staff take care of it, since it’s not a big deal for anyone involved. As for Liu Yufei, she’s now entirely depending on her acting skills to maintain appearances.
Mr. He said he didn’t leave and was just taking a nap in the rest room, so we might as well check it out together. Since we’re putting on a show, we might as well make it realistic. We took tests as if poisoned, following the procedure for blood tests, and everyone got busy with their tasks so no one would say anything. I thought it made a lot of sense."
Xu Dayuan nodded, and they all headed towards the emergency room inside, quickly spotting Mr. He. The entire emergency room was filled with people from the special case team, currently lining up for blood tests. Xu Dayuan gestured to a doctor to arrange a room.
"After you’re done with the blood tests, follow this doctor. All of you need to be observed in the hospital for a while. After six hours, you’ll be free to leave. You guys come here for blood drawing."
Zhou Ning and the others quickly followed and entered a cubicle. Just as they got in, He Shancun eagerly took off his mask.
"I’ve found some information about your mom. Should I speak now?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"The leaders here all came over from Qindao, who wouldn’t you recognize? They’re all our people. So, tell me, what have you found out?"
He Shancun quickly spoke up:
"Your mom was transferred from the provincial city in ’86, a genuine graduate from the Medical University. When she arrived at the People’s Hospital, she established the hepato-biliary surgery department and was regarded as a key member of the staff. That’s why she was assigned a unit in the staff apartment building in Ganzhou.
Your dad probably came over before her. Those two people I asked don’t know much about him, but from what they said, your family was quite well-known in the family compound. Your mom was someone who dressed well and even made clothes for your dad and you. They were a family that many envied.
After the incident, everyone sighed over it, but in the end, a whole family just disappeared like that. The hospital’s administration wanted to provide some kind of consolation, but when they checked with the police station, they said your family’s household registration information couldn’t be found anymore, and your home was broken into several times afterward.
At night, people always heard noises coming from your house—soft, intermittent sounds, not sure if they were crying or some other noise, and occasionally, there would be flickers of light. Then the story spread from ten to a hundred, claiming your house was haunted, and it became a well-known haunted house. The weirder the rumors, the more people believed them.
When the house was reassigned, people would rather give up the place than move into your family’s unit. It remained untouched until the housing reforms, and still, no one wanted to buy it. In the end, the unit itself had to step in, or else they couldn’t change the property status for the entire building because of that one household. Afterwards, due to the construction of the reservoir and the resulting sinking, that’s why the demolition took place."
The more they heard, the more everyone stared at He Shancun, and by the end, He Shancun too noticed something was off with them.
"What’s the matter? Does what I said not have anything to do with your investigation?"
Mr. Zhao waved his hand.
"On the contrary, you’ve brought us much-needed help. We were scratching our heads over this, and you’ve clarified quite a bit for us. Thank you, Mr. He."
He Shancun yawned and then casually waved his hand.
"I’ll find a place for you to rest. It looks like you’re planning to leave early, right? We still want people to see that all the police are present."
Mr. Zhao gave a thumbs-up, full of admiration.
"Mr. He, I wouldn’t believe anyone who says you’ve never studied criminal investigation. That analytical ability is simply too good—awesome!"
"Quit the nonsense. Go to the first room around the corner. It’s right next to the ICU. It has six beds and you can exit from the side door. In the morning when I call the nurse to collect the urine samples, I’ll cover for you. What time do you want to leave?"
The group had arrived at the door of the ward, which was indeed empty. They entered, closed the door, and Mr. Zhao glanced at Xu Dayuan, who held up five fingers. Zhou Ning’s face turned sour, but Mr. Zhao waved his hand.
"5:30 am, we’ll leave at 5:30 am. I’ll arrange the car in a bit, just outside this door, so we can slip away unnoticed. Even if someone is watching, it won’t matter."
Zhou Ning turned to Xu Dayuan.
"Leader, do you have any other instructions? If not, let’s get some rest."
Xu Dayuan waved his hand and lay down on one of the beds. He clearly didn’t want to say more about the translation. Mr. Zhao didn’t ask further, as this wasn’t a place for discussion, and everyone rested on their own.
Zhou Ning closed his eyes. Although he didn’t enter that dream, he felt as if he stood on that balcony again, in front of the old red brick building constructed with prefab slabs, not with the reinforced concrete of today. There were quite a few pieces of furniture at home.
However, as He Shancun had said, these people from all sides were searching the place like haunting ghosts, simply to find the clue left by his father, hoping to discover the secret location on the mountain, and perhaps other things. But all returned empty-handed.
So, where could his father have hidden the item?
And was it really hidden inside that wolf tooth? Where could such a large object be hidden without being discovered and yet still seem like a logical hiding place?
Thinking this, Zhou Ning fell asleep.
...
After an unknown amount of time, a ring of a telephone woke Zhou Ning. He reached out instinctively for his phone by the pillow and only upon grabbing it did he realize there were no incoming calls on it.
In an instant, he sat up, his mind clearing, as Xu Dayuan was already out of the ward with his phone in hand. Mr. Zhao and Fang Mu were still snoring, and Tao Zhenshan, like Zhou Ning, seemed to have had a fitful sleep.
Shortly after, Xu Dayuan returned.
Zhou Ning and Tao Zhenshan didn’t ask any questions. They got down from their beds and walked up to Xu Dayuan. Xu Dayuan held up the phone, and Zhou Ning took it to review with Tao Zhenshan. Then Xu Dayuan spoke:
"The translation is on there. From this conversation, it’s not hard to deduce that Minjin and Sapporo have planned a scheme together, comparable to the city-destroying scheme of the ’50s, which targeted a power plant—but this time it involves poisoning the reservoirs around Qindao.
However, the hardest part of this plan is obtaining the toxin. After all, there are over four hundred reservoirs, large and small, in the Qindao Area. The six largest reservoirs, especially Tongshan Reservoir, which is right next to military forces, make the poisoning even more difficult.
In the conversation, the person from Sapporo kept mentioning this issue, while Bai Qishan promised they would handle the toxin’s production and transportation. However, the timing of the poisoning and the confirmation method all require his approval. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
For these reasons, the poisoning plan scheduled for the 11th was temporarily postponed. The agents obtained by the Sapporo side, although water-soluble, are unstable. Rat poison is generally difficult to dissolve in water. On such a large water surface, attempting to disperse a specially-dissolved toxic water would easily be noticed.
Bai Qishan answered that they would handle the manufacturing, not just the preparations, which led me to suspect there is a workshop in Ganzhou that produces this type of poison, controlled by Bai Qishan himself.
The people from Sapporo said their lab technicians had tested the toxin in a small-scale experiment. It was effective and they had also provided some to Minjin for an experimental operation. However, these toxins were expensive, unstable when freeze-dried, and the effects of the poisoning were poor.
Finally, the person from Sapporo mentioned that they had collaborated more than just once or twice. He could see their sincerity, but he stressed that they needed to accelerate the search for the treasure. Their preparations were nearly complete, as believers’ faith had an expiration. Finding the treasure in time would mean he could return to his country. Bai Qishan said he was not a hyena. Recently, their people had discovered some traces and even came upon a burial site with skeletons, carrying possessions that identified them as the twelve members of Minjin and Sapporo who disappeared back then."
Zhou Ning was startled, not expecting the recording to involve so many different matters. It seemed that to better hide himself, Bai Qishan had not left Ganzhou but was continuing his surface life there.
Tao Zhenshan realized:
"Mr. Hu said to verify it, which means there’s truth to what Sapporo said about trying to poison the area?"
Xu Dayuan nodded, glancing at Zhou Ning.
That look made Zhou Ning suddenly realize—could the toxin that had been provided at a high price to Minjin, which was ineffective when freeze-dried, be the same one used to try to assassinate him? He was lucky to have survived, mainly because his heart was hit, and there was an arrow left at the scene. Coupled with He Shancun’s rapid medical assistance, he might have died without any one of these factors.
However, this Sapporo leader seemed to know Qindao very well. Could it be that Bai Qishan primarily hid in Ganzhou, while the people from Sapporo were deeply connected with the Liang Family and the Ren Family, mainly hiding in Qindao? And hadn’t Zhou Ning and his team cleared some of their members inadvertently, like Mr. Ren?
