Chapter 47: Foolish Brother

  The first two recordings, the ghost spoke very calmly, but then he started coughing, especially on the fifth day's recording, he was literally reporting while coughing.

  It's nothing special in everyday life, just ordinary flu, but when it comes to the death of officials, I suddenly thought of a virus.

  I'll ask one more question and see what the person in charge has to say about it.

  The contact person put away the recorder and told us, "There have been such speculations within the organization. The forensic doctor also extracted viral specimens from the deceased and transplanted them into small white rabbits for experimentation. However, according to the experimental results, although the virus can cause respiratory failure, it will not cause a cold or cough, nor is it so easily contagious."

  Since there is experimental evidence, I am not so particular about it either.

  Lu Yifeng asked a few more specific questions, all about the whereabouts of the first two special informants. The contact person provided some written materials, and after a while, we both came out.

  Our current task is twofold: one is to find the cause of the official's death, and the other is to find those two special informants, either alive or dead.

  I thought about it and felt that we should start from where Xiao Gui and Dao Ke passed through to see if we can make any new discoveries.

  Lu Yifeng thought of another aspect and even felt a different approach, he said to take us two to the village last night to see, starting from the mother and son.

  Seeing Panzi and I looking puzzled, Ahfeng explained, "We haven't been here for a few days, the organization must have checked all possible guesses, we want to directly play normally, no doubt it's twice the effort, since that woman's family has a suspected poisoning experience, we can try to break through from this aspect."

  I'm convinced by Lu Yifeng, he said that and it really gave me an epiphany.

  We no longer had any disputes and sat in the sedan together. Along the way, I reminded Lu Yifeng to be careful and beware of followers.

  However, according to Lu Yifeng's observation, everything went smoothly along the way.

  When I arrived at the village, it was already morning. Everyone in the village was busy, some working in the fields and others going out to sell goods, but there was one exception - that foolish old man.

  He was carrying a wooden stick, wandering around the street, walking slowly and muttering to himself while swinging the stick.

  When he saw the rickshaw coming, he giggled and ran over with a hop.

  When we got off the bus, he happened to be blocking Panzi's car door and said that strange strength. When Panzi opened the door, he exclaimed and slammed the door shut again. This made Panzi angry, because this way, he couldn't get out.

  In the end, Panzi got off from the other side and looked at the foolish guys. He hummed and said, "Hey! Foolish big guy, go play on one side for me!"

  The silly old men didn't pay attention to Panzi, he carried a tree branch around the sedan chair, muttering softly, "Good looking, too good looking!"

  I don't know what he means by "looks good", but that stick is very close to the car, if we get scratched, we'll be out of luck.

  Pan Zilai got angry and wanted to forcibly drive these foolish guys away, I gave him a signal with my eyes and shook my head. In my opinion, this foolish guy is mentally weak, if we beat him as soon as we enter the village, it will easily cause public outrage, saying that we bully the mentally weak.

  I took out a 10-yuan note from my pocket and asked the silly old men, "Hey, is there a supermarket in your village? I heard that a new type of potato chips has arrived. Can you buy a bag for me to try?"

  The silly old men heard there was food and were delighted, ran over to take the money, but he didn't take that 10 yuan note, instead pulled out a 50 yuan note from my hand and ran away.

  I'm fed up, wondering if this guy is really stupid or just pretending to be. He even knows which tickets are expensive, and he's already run away, I don't want to chase after a fool to get my money back.

  I had no choice but to admit defeat. Without the entanglement of those silly old men, the two of us quickly got down to business.

  We first went to the mother and son's home to take a good look around, recording any suspicious-looking places, then wandered around the village entrance for a while, asking a few passing villagers.

  According to them, this woman's family is very reclusive and the old masters in the city work, let alone farming and selling goods. Normally, they don't come into contact with other people at all. As for the "gui gui" in the orchard, these villagers all shook their heads and said they hadn't seen it before. This is somewhat inconsistent with what the foolish masters said, but this "gui gui" isn't our main investigation target, so we temporarily skipped over it.

  After investigating a big circle, we finished work, but when I came to the sedan, I saw the silly guys squatting beside a wheel hub and scratching randomly, don't know what they were scratching.

  I'm getting a headache with him blocking the way, we can't even move. Panzi actually had an idea and told me, "Xiaobai, go get rid of that big fool."

  I glared at him and thought to myself, "After spending 50 bucks, you still want me to donate blood? Does my money grow on trees?"

  I just pulled him one pull, this time let him go.

  Pan Zi definitely didn't want to spend money, but he had a trick up his sleeve. He took me and Lu Yifeng over and said to the foolish old men, "Brother, do you know how to play hide-and-seek? We'll play this game, you hide well, and we two will find you. If we can't find you, I'll take you out for a good meal."

  The silly old men nodded vigorously and even applauded with glee, apparently convinced that we wouldn't be able to catch him.

  The two of us deliberately turned our backs and counted, he hurriedly ran away. In fact, I saw him clearly through the rearview mirror.

  He really put in effort, striding forward with big steps, even losing a shoe on the way and picking it up again while staring at us, afraid we'd turn our heads to sneak a peek.

  He didn't hide in any secluded corner, but ran all the way home. I guess he hid behind the door. I didn't consider whether what we did was deceiving his feelings or not. Anyway, as soon as he left, we quickly got in the car and sped away.

  Next afternoon, we went to the places where Xiguai and Daoke used to haunt according to normal thinking, and indeed, there was nothing big found as Ahfeng guessed.

  In the evening, we arrived at a residential area and moved into a room specially provided for special informants. This time the conditions were slightly worse, it was a one-bedroom apartment with three beds lined up in the bedroom, making it a bit cramped to live in. But this was just a temporary residence, so we didn't mind.

  We didn't want to go out to eat either, so we ordered a few dishes and had a good meal in the living room.

  After dinner, Ah Feng took his equipment to the bedroom to make a report. Panzi and I didn't want to disturb him, so we stayed in the living room watching TV.

  Panzi ate his fill and was very happy, watching TV and laughing, but I was a bit distracted, thinking about this task in my mind.

  Just then, someone knocked on the door, "Bang, bang, bang".

  I don't know who it was, but I was quite vigilant and walked over to take a peek through the peephole. It was a young punk with hair dyed black and yellow.

  "Who is it?" I asked through the door.

  The little rascal replied, "Delivery." Then he raised his hand again.

  I saw him carrying a plastic bag, and suddenly I thought of the mysterious package and the mysterious person. Every time there's a new task, he'll give us hints. I wondered if he was bringing another hint this time?

  I opened the door and Xiao Zamao immediately handed me a plastic bag.

  But as I looked at all those skewers sticking out of the plastic bag, I was confused. This is obviously barbecue. What does this mysterious person mean by sending this?

  The little rascal saw that I wasn't taking it and impatiently stuffed the plastic bag over, then said, "Dude, it's a total of 80 yuan, pay up!"

  I was even more puzzled and thought it was impossible for a mysterious person to send us things and ask for money.

  Look at this expression, the little rascal raised his head suspiciously to glance at the door number plate, and then cursed, "Damn it, is this 87? Not 78? I walked into the wrong one."

  He snatched the plastic bag back and turned around to leave.

  I was teased by this little rascal for a while, but I couldn't say anything about it. Sending the wrong takeout is also understandable.

  I closed the door again, but just as I was about to walk into the living room, I caught a whiff of something fishy and even sniffed my nose again to confirm.

  We two finished dinner, put the lunch box in a black bag and threw it beside the door. I remember eating fish at night, but it didn't smell fishy when we ate it. How come after putting it by the door, the leftover soup smells so fishy?

  I didn't bother much either, I think it's not worth digging through trash for this little thing.

  I accompanied Panzi to watch TV for another hour, and then we both went to bed in the house.

  I'm by the window, next to Panzi, and Lu Yifeng is next to the door. This way, if something unexpected happens, with Yifeng blocking the way, Panzi and I can be a bit safer.

  I'm really tired and want to sleep until dawn, but around midnight, I encountered a strange thing in a daze.

  It's as if someone is whispering in my ear, he's saying a phone number, 1504162XXXX, and repeating it over and over again.

  I gradually woke up, opened my eyes and looked around. The room was quiet except for the sound of snoring. I thought to myself, could it really have been just a dream?

  But anyway, it's quite interesting to dream of a phone number. My phone happened to be beside my pillow, so I picked it up and wrote down the number, just for fun.

  I got out of bed for a drink of water and then went back to sleep.

  This time no mobile phone appeared, I dreamed that I fell into an ice cellar, and the despicable beast Panzi was laughing on top of me. He not only didn't save me but also used a iron scoop to sprinkle ice slag on my body.

  I was abruptly "frozen" awake, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself chilled to the bone.

  I turned around and saw that the bedroom window was open. It's late autumn, and cold air is pouring in from outside.

  I think Panzi and Afeng are quiet, probably because I'm leaning against the window and I'm afraid of the cold, so I couldn't help it.

  I quickly got up and closed the window. However, I had just woken up and my hands and feet were a bit clumsy. There was a mineral water bottle on the windowsill, which I accidentally knocked over.

  I was still wondering, thinking that one of them must have carelessly left the water there. When I got up, I saw a row of numbers written on the wall under the windowsill.

  If you don't squat down, you won't notice it even if it's right in front of you.

  I was curious and wanted to see what the number was, so I took out my phone and shone its screen upwards.

  As soon as I could see clearly, I was completely awake, and my head was buzzing because the number written on it was the mobile phone number that appeared in my dream!