Chapter 9: A Long-Planned Conspiracy

  Ding, ding, ding. I was woken up by the urgent ringing of the phone, and after rubbing my eyes, I got out of bed to answer it: "Hello"?

  "Hey! Younger brother! It's Old Zhou here? Looks like you've lost a lot, younger brother!" The voice of Old Zhou came from inside. Copy the address to browse: http://77.77.77.2e62.69.71.69.2e6d65/

  A sudden flash of inspiration ran through my mind and I said in response to Old Zhou's words: "Old brother, look at me, I've been tormented by this matter all night!"

  Old Zhou chuckled on the phone and said in a serious tone: "Don't worry, little brother. The thing you asked me to do, I've taken care of it."

  "Really?" I asked with a happy tone. Old Zhou laughed again and said: "Old brother, I wouldn't deceive you. Liu Lao's movements over the past few days have been thoroughly investigated by me. This old man changed several buses two weeks ago, left Beihai City, went all the way to Nanning Airport, bought a ticket to Beijing, and only returned after a week. Brother, this old man is so mysterious, it seems his intentions are not small!"

  It's true that Old Liu asked for leave two weeks ago, I thought he had something important to attend to so I approved it. After all, if not for this matter, I always thought Old Liu was a decent person. What he did in Beijing and who he met with, I have no idea. I pondered for a moment before saying: "I know about this matter, Old Liu asked for leave at the time and just returned two days ago, brother you say I really didn't know that old thing would miss my shop's things."

  "Don't worry, little brother, when I investigated Liu Lao Tou, I found something even more interesting. What is Liu Lao Tou's real name?"

  I don't understand what Old Zhou meant by saying "Liu Kuang Yi".

  "Hmm... this person has been dead for 30 years and there is no record of him in the county police department's files."

  What! There's no such person?! My mind was in a daze, it can't be! It's possible that Old Liu is an unregistered resident too! I told Old Zhou what I had thought of, and after a long time, Old Zhou slowly said: "Younger brother, you haven't understood my meaning. What I meant to say is that he really died, not that he's an unregistered resident!"

  "Is he dead? As soon as I said this, my mind was filled with countless unexpected thoughts, and I really couldn't understand Old Zhou's words. A person who had been dead for over 30 years had been by my side for several years! I took a deep breath and asked: "Then what about the old man Liu in my shop?"

  "Brother, you still don't get it, the current Liu old man is not dead. I, your brother, spent a lot of effort to help you investigate and found out that Liu old man's real name is indeed Liu Guangyi, who was from Pingpo Village twenty years ago."

  Boom! My head suddenly exploded, I didn't expect that there was still someone surviving in Pingpo Village, and he had been by my side without me noticing. This person is too terrifying, as for who he met in Beijing, I have no idea. From the beginning, he set up trap after trap for me, but what is his purpose? Kill me? No! It's impossible, there are two reasons to prove it: First, most directly, Liu and I had no grudges or conflicts, on the contrary, I took good care of him, such as when his legs were not good, he would limp when going down the stairs, and I would always ask Hei Zi to go up and support him. Second, I did not infringe upon Liu's interests, but rather he made me unbearable! I was extremely shocked in my heart and asked Old Zhou: "Old brother, do you know where Liu went these past two days?"

  Lao Zhou thought for a moment and said, "The day before yesterday, Liu Lao led a group of people into Er Long Mountain, about five people, very mysterious, looks like they're up to something big!"

  Er Long Mountain? How could it be there, I'm getting more and more suspicious, but in order not to arouse Old Zhou's suspicion, my tone remained unchanged: "Thanks, little brother, this time thanks to big brother. In two days, I'll definitely treat you well and send a large red brick head over to you."

  On the other end of the phone, Old Zhou laughed so hard that his mouth couldn't close and finally reminded me saying: "Younger brother! People in our line of work have seen this kind of thing many times. From what I see, this old guy must have received someone's order to secretly infiltrate your place and do some espionage. If you can't handle this kind of person, I'll help you take care of him and make the rest of his life miserable in prison."

  I thanked Old Zhou and hung up the phone, of course, everyone understood that it wasn't me who hung up, but rather Old Zhou who did. As a government official, he had to maintain some dignity and make a show of it. This subtle action was not easily noticeable to others!

  Liu Lao went to Er Long Mountain, for what purpose is unknown. Oil Water Belly also went to Er Long Mountain, to find the treasure of some demon king. It seems that both groups should have a common goal. Let's take a look at Liu Lao's itinerary for the past two days, it appears they are already close to their destination. And who exactly are those mysterious five people? Why does Liu Lao want to get in touch with them? Countless questions are swirling in my head. I haven't read many books, so naturally my brain isn't as clever as a university student's. But having been taken advantage of and enlightened by society, I've become more astute. Forget it, let's put things aside for now!

  I walked into Hei Zi's room, gently opened the door, and saw him bouncing up and down on his bed. Young people probably understand what I mean, and I didn't dare to go over, so I just cleared my throat softly.

  The floating motion of the quilt stopped, Hei Zi lifted up the quilt and was playing a racing game on his new Huawei Honor 6. I guess he had turned on the gravity sensor, so even I thought it was wrong. In order not to cause embarrassment, I tried my best to maintain my original tone and said: "Let's go out and buy some things, after we fill up with gas, we can head to Er Long Shan".

  Hei Zi's expression was a bit down, it could be seen that last night's conversation with Ali wasn't very good. Hei Zi went "oh" and put on his shoes to leave.

  It's not that I'm too cold-blooded, it's just that I have no emotions to begin with, so there's no reason to convince Hei Zi. It's easier to pretend to be clueless instead.

  At noon, Oil Barrel arrived at my shop on time, wearing a Li Ning sportswear. Due to his fat belly, he couldn't button up the buttons. In the past few days, his face had more oil and his weight seemed to have increased by several pounds. When walking, his body would shake slightly. Behind him were still the two young men, Da Fu and Da Gui. They also took off their suits and changed into casual winter wear, a sweater and jeans, looking very spirited. Each of them carried a large equipment bag on their back, which was bulging with an estimated weight of over 100 pounds. However, there was no sign of fatigue on their faces, and they seemed to be seasoned professionals with quick movements.

  Two young people nodded and greeted me. I ignored them and said indifferently to the fatty who came forward, "Let me check the things on them."

  This guy, You Shui Du, is actually not very annoying when he's telling the truth. He just likes to smile like Lao Zhou, but while Lao Zhou's smile can be intimidating, You Shui Du's smile is more like a dead man's smile. I only saw him smiling as he spoke to me in Mandarin with a Cantonese accent: "Since Brother Lu has his guard up, no problem! I'm a businessman, and for the sake of our future cooperation, Brother Lu can check everything!" After finishing speaking, he snapped his fingers loudly, and the wealthy-looking men behind him put down their equipment bags and opened them all up. I walked over, squatted down to inspect, while You Shui Du stood behind me.

  The equipment pack was nothing out of the ordinary, just some water and food, mountain climbing tools, wolf eye flashlight, batteries and so on. Both equipment packs were like this, with an astonishing amount of food. I checked them up and down, and indeed there was nothing strange in the equipment pack, maybe I was just being paranoid.

  I stood up, nodded to You Shui Gu, and You Shui Gu understood, waving his hand for Da Fu Da Gui to zip up the equipment bag. It seemed that Hei Zi should also be back soon. I led You Shui Gu into the living room on the first floor of the shop, asked him to sit down, and sat in the armchair myself, brewing a pot of tea, pouring a cup for You Shui Gu, who didn't know who I was waiting for and said: "Lu brothers, you see now it's almost time, if we don't go, tonight will be blackened on the mountain".

  I looked at him and said slowly: "I ordered the guys under me to buy some stuff, including food and things we need for climbing the mountain. I estimate it will take us two or three days on the road. Of course, you can rest assured that I would never cheat you out of a fortune that doesn't exist."

  "You're a straightforward person, Brother Lu, that's great!"

  Around one o'clock in the afternoon, Hei Zi came back with a big bag of things. I opened it and took a look: water, compressed biscuits, dried beef, tent, wolf-eye flashlight...

  The kid had finally learned to bring external wound medicine. I remembered four months ago, when we went into the mountains to hunt and got into a lot of trouble. We encountered a golden leopard and a black bear. Despite my good skills, I still got hurt badly. The black bear's sharp claws ripped open two long gashes on my chest, over 20 centimeters long, almost exposing my ribs. At that time, the kid didn't have any external wound medicine with him, and he was also injured. I had to rely on myself, step by step, carrying the kid on my back until we returned to the store at dawn. Due to excessive blood loss, I fainted and was rescued by the shop assistants. They washed and bandaged my wounds, stopping the bleeding, but couldn't send me to the hospital because our kind of people would definitely cause trouble there. I was unconscious for three whole days, and everyone thought I was going to die, but miraculously, I came back to life. Thinking about it now, it's amazing how much willpower it took to survive back then...