Chapter 5 Section 2 Exploration 2

  The Land and Resources Bureau will periodically use remote sensing satellites to observe the ground, in order to monitor disasters such as floods, landslides, and forest fires. The satellite remote sensing maps they have should be the latest ones. Now the satellite technology is far beyond what it used to be. Old Wei hopes that he can find something useful from their remote sensing maps.

  After listening to Lao Wei and Xiao Bin's intentions, after checking their documents, a section chief of the Land Resources Bureau received them and warmly introduced: "During the frequent natural disasters in spring and summer, we will conduct remote sensing once a month on the ground. Now in this season, we usually conduct remote sensing once a quarter. However, nothing abnormal was found in these two remote sensings."

  "What we are looking for is not a natural disaster, but a road," said Old Wei.

  "Road? Now various navigation software updates roads faster than us." That section chief was somewhat puzzled.

  "The road we are looking for is unlikely to be in the navigation software because it may be a privately dug road," Lao Wei explained.

  Although this explanation still didn't make the section chief understand, he nonetheless pulled out recent satellite remote sensing maps for Old Wei to review.

  When the huge screen called up the remote sensing map, Xiaobin's eyes were filled with red and green, the remote sensing map was different from ordinary satellite maps, with different colors marking different vegetation, danger points, etc., soon Xiaobin's eyes blurred.

  He brought out a remote sensing map. The section chief had something to attend to and left first, leaving Lao Wei and Xiao Bin there to find what they were looking for themselves.

  On the hundreds of kilometers long border, it's not easy to find a way. Two hours have passed, and Xiaobin's eyes, which had been staring at the big screen, can no longer work normally. He turned his head to look out the window, and even the flowers and grass outside seemed to be printed with red, orange, yellow, green and other colors, giving off a sense of a distant map.

  "Head, how many years will it take to find it?" Xiaobin looked at the red and green on the big screen and complained.

  Lao Wei slowly moved the map, calmly saying: "A path is shown on this map, roughly the width of a toothpick, carefully find the different points on the map."

  This is simply a large-scale "Where's Waldo"! Not looking for it would be impossible, so Xiao Bin had no choice but to rub his tired eyes and continue staring at the clusters of red and green on the screen...

  After staring at the screen for two days, Lao Wei and Xiao Bin finally found a clue on the map. A few months ago, a remote sensing satellite image captured an excavator working in the mountains. After asking professionals from the Land Resources Bureau, they explained that sometimes to prevent natural disasters, excavators are organized to clear some mountain bodies. However, when it came to the location of this particular excavator, even the professionals were unclear. Lao Wei carefully compared all the maps from the past few months and found that the excavator appeared intermittently, seemingly not clearing the mountain body but digging a road!

  Is this the secret passage for smuggling drugs abroad? Similar road excavation projects are often done by many mine owners and timber merchants, and no report is required. Once the road is used up, it will be abandoned. However, what's suspicious is that there is no sign of logging in the nearby mountains.

  Of course, nothing can be seen on the map. Lao Wei noted down the coordinates and said to Xiao Bin: "Let's go and take a look."

  "Should we call for reinforcements?" Xiaobin didn't have much hope for this road being a secret passage, but from a safety perspective, he still suggested it.

  "No need, go take a look first, if it's suspicious we'll call for backup."

  "Oh..." The emotions of young people are easily fluctuating.

  Lao Wei noticed Xiao Bin's low mood and asked: "Xiao Bin, what are you thinking about now?"

  "I had a strong premonition that I would find what I was looking for at the National Land Resources Bureau, but when the map was placed in front of me, this feeling vanished into thin air." Xiao Bin said listlessly.

  Lao Wei smiled and didn't say anything.

  Sitting at home can't solve the case, many clues need to be found on the scene, so that they can prove whether their judgment is accurate or not.

  Lao Wei and Xiao Bin drove, from the highway to the secondary road, and then from the secondary road into the township road. They bounced around until evening before finding a small village near the coordinates. This place was almost isolated from the world. The villagers relied on the mountains for their livelihood. When Lao Wei told the village chief that they came to find a newly built mountain road, he stared at them for half a day, thinking they were looking for trouble - to cut down trees, mine or do something else. Didn't building roads seem like a normal thing?

  Lao Wei, of course, couldn't say that this road might be a smuggling route for drugs, nor did he say he was a police officer. He made up an excuse to fool the village chief and stayed in the village overnight. The next day, the village chief arranged for a villager to take Lao Wei and Xiao Bin to find this road.

  For logging, there are many winding roads in the mountain forest near the village. If it weren't for the locals leading the way, it would be easy to get lost inside. Lao Wei held a GPS device to locate the coordinates, while Xiao Bin drove the car, turning left and right under the guidance of the villagers, but after several hours of driving, they were all dizzy and still hadn't found that road.

  This road is not it, that road is not right either. The villagers think these two people seem to be really looking for trouble with nothing better to do. But considering they were hired as guides for 350 yuan a day, they can only suppress their anger. Half a day has passed and the GPS coordinates still don't match the actual location.

  "Hasn't there been any newly repaired road recently?" Xiaobin also got a bit impatient.

  "How would I know? If there's going to be logging, the timber boss will build a road, but I haven't seen any timber bosses coming recently." The villager replied.

  "What's with that road?" Old Wei saw a road appearing and disappearing in the distant canyon.

  "This road?" The villager thought carefully again and looked around at the surrounding terrain: "I remember there wasn't this road."

  Xiao Bin had already fainted on the mountain road, and he didn't even know if he had taken that road before. When he heard the villager say this, he asked in pursuit: "Are you sure we haven't taken that road?"

  "Absolutely not! I've lived here for over 50 years, which corner of this mountain don't I know?" The villager was very dissatisfied with Xiaobin's suspicion.

  "Let's go take a look." Old Wei said while estimating in his mind.

  "This will take a while, probably a couple of hours. Why don't we come back tomorrow instead?" The villager looked at the time and saw that it was already past 4 pm, almost dinner time. With all this back-and-forth fuss, they would be late getting back to the village anyway."

  Lao Wei quietly pulled out a 100-yuan bill from his pocket and handed it over. The villager took the money and immediately smiled with joy.

  "Does this road lead to your village?" Old Wei asked with a sidelong glance.

  "Look at the direction, it shouldn't be, going in that direction is going to Goudong Village." The villager replied.

  "The names of the villages here are very interesting." Old Wei handed him a cigarette, and the villager took it, taking a puff: "Hehe, good smoke! Good smoke! Boss, you're joking, this poor place, from ancient times to now, no one cares about anyone else's business, we don't have culture, so naming is just casual, look at our village, next to Stone Mountain, it's called Stone Mountain Village, and the one outside our village, on the edge of Stone Mountain, is called Stone Gate Village, and Gou Dong Village, there are many mountain valleys and caves nearby..." With the stimulation of good cigarettes, the villager's words began to flow more freely.

  "Has anyone from outside come by recently?" Old Wei thought of getting more information.

  "Boss, let me tell you, we rely on the mountain to eat and rely on the water to drink. Here, there are still some bosses of wood and mining who come frequently. Ah, those bosses, they come to dig a road, cut down trees, pat their buttocks and leave. The river in our village used to have clear water, but now after a rain, it's all yellow!"

  Lao Wei didn't want to talk about environmental protection, to be honest those foreign bosses never considered this place as their home, in order to save costs, who would care if the river in front of Shishan village is clear or yellow?

  Listening to the villagers' endless chatter about the village's history, the car rattled and shook on the bumpy mountain road for nearly two hours before Lao Wei and Xiao Bin finally arrived at that road. Lao Wei took a look at the GPS, this should be the road he was looking for.

  "When was there a road here?" The villager also found it strange, looked again and again, but this section of the road is obviously not leading to Shimen Village. He suggested that Lao Wei go to Goudong Village to ask if any timber bosses had been there recently.

  Lao Wei got off the car and took a look at the tire tracks. If it was a lumber truck that passed by, the tire tracks should be deeper, and the road surface would also be bumpy. However, although the road surface clearly showed signs of vehicle passage, they were actually left behind by off-road tires.

  Time was no longer early, Old Wei raised his head to look at the remaining half of the sun on the mountain line and felt that he should follow the villager's suggestion to borrow a night in Goudong Village and come back tomorrow to take a closer look.

  Lao Wei took out his camera and took a few photos to keep as memories. Xiao Bin drove the car, following the villagers' directions, heading towards Goudong Village. However, the road was winding and narrow, passing through several mountains and forests. After a while, the sky quickly darkened. The villagers were surprised to find that the road did not lead to Goudong Village, but instead connected to Lishan Town after passing through a field, outside of Goudong Village!

  The tractor road was obviously not suitable for heavy trucks carrying wood to pass through, passing through the fields. Lao Wei asked Xiao Bin to stop the car on the township highway, get out of the car, light a cigarette, and look at this piece of farmland fell into contemplation - who would spend so much money to repair such a road?

  "Just now, were there several forks in the road?" Old Wei asked a villager.

  "There are many, I tell you, the roads here are like this, leading to all directions..." The villager had been jolting in the mountains for a whole day and looked somewhat tired. What he wanted most now was to find a place to have a good meal and then take a nap!

  Lao Wei nodded thoughtfully and got on the car, telling Xiao Bin: "First find a place to rest."

  Xiao Bin glanced at the car's fuel gauge and said softly, "Boss, how much savings do you have left? The reserve fund is used up, and the car needs to refuel again..."

  "Take it away......" Old Wei took out a few banknotes from his pocket: "Save some money, that's all."

  "Boss, there's not much money left, what are you going to do now?" Xiaobin looked at the few thin banknotes and calculated how many more days he could hold on.

  "Let's stay overnight and check it out tomorrow, I reckon..." Old Wei glanced at the villager, looked around to make sure no one was listening, pulled out his thing while urinating without noticing himself: "I reckon this is the passage we're looking for."

  "Really?" Xiaobin got excited: "Then... should we report and ask for reinforcements?"

  "We'll go take a look first, and probably need to squat for a while when the time comes." Old Wei saw that the villagers had finished solving the problem, so he changed the subject and said: "Let's go eat first."

  "Alright alright......" The villagers had been waiting for this moment for a long time and got on the car without any hesitation.