Chapter 4: Escape

  The remaining horseman did nothing, climbed to the top of a farmhouse attic and looked out, watching from afar as several police cars left the main road, turned onto the farm's dirt road, shocked and lost color, jumped down from the attic and ran into a room for storing fodder, picked up an oil barrel in the room, desperately pouring gasoline on the fodder pile.

  "Look, a fire!" shouted Xiao Bin as he drove and saw a thick smoke rising from the distant farmhouse.

  Lao Wei looked up and urged: "Hurry, hurry!"

  Xiao Bin stepped on the gas, ignoring the bumpy road, and sounded the alarm. When the police car rushed into the farmyard, only one person was seen running out of the feed warehouse, glancing back, and diving into a nearby cornfield.

  Xiao Bin couldn't care less about the car not being stable, he pushed open the door and jumped out, taking off in a sprint. Several police officers saw the situation and followed Xiao Bin into the cornfield. Old Wei quickly directed the remaining police officers to put out the fire, but with only a few fire extinguishers from the car, it was impossible to have any effect, and they could only watch as the warehouse turned to ashes.

  The dense cornfield had poor visibility, and Xiao Bin could only grope for the direction of the escaped person. By the time he ran out of the cornfield, the person was already gone without a trace. Xiao Bin kicked a stone in frustration: "Damn it! He got away again!"

  Xiao Bin returned to the farm when the fire brigade also arrived, extinguishing the remaining flames. Old Wei was leaning against the police car, staring blankly at the busy firefighters. Xiao Bin walked over and said in a low voice, "Boss, the person got away."

  "Oh." Old Wei responded briefly.

  "The trail has been cut off again." Xiaobin's chest was suffocated with a burst of air, and he kicked the wheel in frustration.

  "Wang Licheng didn't escape at the first opportunity? Ran to this place... It seems that this is the warehouse... The tracking signal on the other side has been lost again... Wang Licheng wants to run!" Old Wei seemed to mutter to himself.

  "Uh...do we need to crouch down a bit more?" Xiao Bin asked.

  "You bring a few people here to stake out, I'll go back to the team and sort it out again." Lao Wei thought for a moment, although Wang Licheng's chances of returning to the farm were slim, he couldn't relax, so he had to trouble Xiao Bin and several police officers.

  "Alright, Head, your injury isn't serious, is it?" Xiao Bin asked with concern.

  "It's okay, if someone comes back, try to control it as much as possible. I think Wang Licheng might send Ma Rui back to take a look."

  "If he dares to come back, I'll definitely not let him get away!" Xiaobin thought of the suspect who got away earlier and his anger hadn't been vented yet. If the suspect dared to come back, he would beat him until he couldn't recognize his own mother!

  Xiao Bin and several police officers were hiding in a farm that had been ravaged by fire, not daring to park their cars nearby for fear of arousing the suspect's suspicion. The police could only crouch in the cornfield or pigpen, waiting for the suspect who was unlikely to appear. As midnight approached, the temperature suddenly dropped, and the police were shivering with cold. The pigs in the pen had lost their owner and were oinking loudly from hunger, causing everyone a great deal of distress. Having no other choice, Xiao Bin and one of the police officers rummaged through the ruins to find some unburned feed, temporarily taking on the role of pig herder to tend to the pigs before finally managing to catch a few winks.

  The next morning, the forensic police came to collect some samples and left in a hurry. Xiao Bin did not receive the order to withdraw from the stakeout, so he continued to squat there.

  At noon, a farm vehicle "rumbled" into the dirt road. Xiao Bin, who had been tired all night, was suddenly refreshed and said on the intercom: "Attention, there is an object appearing!"

  The agricultural vehicle saw from a distance that half of the farm had been burned down. After a brief pause, a police officer muttered: "Have they discovered us?"

  It's okay, the agricultural vehicle continued to drive over and stopped in the farm. A woman got out of the passenger seat, circled around the farm, ran into the pigpen, and shouted while strolling: "Is anyone there? Old Six! Are you there?"

  The man in the driver's seat looked a bit impatient and got out of the car, shouting: "What are you yelling about? He's definitely not here. Call him on the phone!"

  "The phone is connected and I'm still yelling?" The woman also seemed impatient.

  "I've told you, no need to run, but if you insist on running, people will be gone, are you going to use pigs to pay the bill?"

  Xiao Bin watched as they quarreled and walked into the encirclement, and with a command in the intercom: "Action! Don't let them escape!"

  Xiao Bin jumped out from his hiding place and shouted: "Police! Put your hands up!"

  The two saw a person suddenly jumping out of the ruins, and they were startled. They turned their heads to see that several people had already blocked their way back. The woman asked in a trembling voice: "You... what do you want to do?"

  Xiao Bin took out his police badge and flashed it: "Police, please cooperate with the investigation."

  As soon as he heard the word "police", the man muttered: "I told you this woman is unreliable... now she's even brought the police here."

  The two did not run, nor were there any radical movements, and they still cooperated. Xiaobin's wish to beat the suspect into a pig head was not realized. The result of the interrogation made Xiaobin somewhat disappointed - the two were husband and wife, running a feed store in the town, delivering feed to this pig farm. The previous batch of feed had not been settled, and it was estimated that the feed would soon be finished. However, the phone of Old Liu, who managed the farm, could not be reached. The wife thought of pulling over a batch of feed and running an errand to settle the payment. Unexpectedly, when they arrived, they found that half of the farm had been burned down, and the police were waiting...

  The police definitely couldn't give them money for feed. After a brief trial, Xiao Bin had vented most of his anger. These two people seemed to really not know the mystery behind this farm. After explaining things, they stared at the police with wide eyes. The woman asked: "Officer, can we go now? We haven't eaten lunch yet..."

  A police officer irritably added: "We haven't even had breakfast yet!"

  The two of them shut their mouths obediently and watched as Xiao Bin ran to one side to make a phone call.

  According to the procedure, the two should be taken to the police station for a record, and there is no need to continue with this stakeout. Xiao Bin asked if they should withdraw from the stakeout, and Lao Wei thought for a moment: "You take them to the police station for a record first, I'll coordinate with the police station on the stakeout, you all can return to your unit today."

  "What about those pigs?" Xiaobin suddenly thought of this problem, there were still dozens of pigs in the farm waiting to be fed.

  "Everyone is busy, and you're still worried about pigs?" Old Wei said with a bad tone.

  They took the person to the police station in town to make a record, and after going back and forth, the sun was already setting in the west. The couple only knew that the person who usually worked on the farm was called Old Six, but they didn't know his specific name. Occasionally, when the farm was busy, they would hire some temporary workers, but it seemed that they were not good at managing the farm either. The corn was planted half-dead, and the pigs were raised to be neither fat nor thin. Their own intersection with the farm was only to deliver feed occasionally.

  After messing around for half a day, Xiao Bin felt that only the phone number of the one called Lao Liu might be useful. Xiao Bin sent the number to the technical investigation team to conduct communication locationing. After finishing the transcript, the woman said to Xiao Bin: "Hey, if you find Lao Liu, remember to tell him that he still owes me a few thousand yuan for feed..."

  "Alright, alright... you guys go back first." Xiao Bin could only appease them, thinking to himself, "Lao Liu has been nowhere to be found lately, enjoying his freedom, and now he's asking for feed money?!"

  Xiao Bin has been busy running around all day, while Wang Licheng hasn't been idle either. Last night, he traveled overnight on a small road and arrived near the border, where he met with an intermediary. Today, he went back and forth to several places and is now just one step away from crossing the national border.

  "Brother Cheng, shouldn't you contact Liu Zi about this?" Cong Zai thought that the outcome was uncertain if they went down this path.

  "Let's talk about it after seeing Zhu Jie." Wang Licheng was thinking about how to deal with Zhu Jie and plug up the hole, and couldn't care about Old Six at this time.

  The off-road vehicle was bouncing on a newly dug dirt road, almost shaking Wang Licheng's soul out. After two hours of bumpy ride, Wang Licheng thought he should find something to talk about and said to the middleman in the passenger seat: "Uh... this... when we arrive at Zhu Jie's place, brother, please say a few good words."

  "That's between you and Zhu sister..." The middleman remained noncommittal.

  Wang Licheng's face was slapped with a cold buttock, but he couldn't get angry. Behind him, there was a younger brother of an intermediary who didn't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, and all the way, he held a handgun to wipe it clean, almost wiping off the bluing on the gun without stopping.

  "Zhu sister... person... how is it?" Wang Licheng's face was full of smiles, and his hot face stuck up again.

  "You'll know when you see me." Still a cold butt despite the warm face.