Chapter 71

As soon as Chen Pu sat down, he quickly looked around and found that there was no camera installed in the bus. Municipal buses are all equipped with cameras, but this is a township bus, not a regular one.

There were still a few minutes before departure, and the driver was looking down at his phone. Chen Pu typed a few words on his phone and handed it to Li Qingyao:
[Trickster, say Xiang Siling is your cousin.]

Li Qingyao: [Not revealing your identity? ]

Chen Pu: [Handle with caution first. ]

Li Qingyao thought for a moment, and first took off the black T-shirt that affected his image. His voice instantly became tender: "Dawei, I'll give it back to you. I'm not cold anymore."

Chen Dawei Pu: "...Okay."

Li Qingyao looked left and right, and said coquettishly, "My sister said it's fun here, but I think it's just so-so. You can't even get a taxi at night. Hey, Master, are you a local? Why do you always drive this route?"

The driver smiled and replied, "Yes, we run every night. You are not locals, right? I have never seen you before."

Li Qingyao smiled, punched Chen Pu with her little fist, and said, "It's all my boyfriend's fault for not planning carefully. We didn't plan to stay here in the first place, and he has to go on a business trip tomorrow. As a result, there were no cars to go down the mountain at night, so we had to ride bicycles down. We were so tired, so we have to rush back overnight."

Chen Pu said woodenly: "Yes, it's all my fault."

The originally cold and quiet atmosphere in the car has now become warm?
The driver turned around and started chatting with them, saying that this place is quite fun, and many people come here to camp, stay in tents and watch the stars. If you don't stay overnight, it will definitely be a bit disappointing.

Li Qingyao suddenly exclaimed, "Ah!" She was startled and said, "I remember now. My sister took the bus at around 10 o'clock last time. Maybe she also took your bus. What a fate!"

The driver smiled and said, "That must be me. We have three shifts at night, three drivers. I drive from here to the city at 10:5 every day, and drive back from the city at o'clock."

Li Qingyao put his arm on the back of the driver's seat and said confidently, "Then you must have an impression of my cousin, because she is very, very beautiful. Do you remember the Saturday night before last?"

The driver was stunned for a moment, his eyes quickly scanning their faces.

However, Chen Pu was looking down at his phone, as if he was not interested in their conversation topic, while Li Qingyao had a naive look on his face.

The driver turned around, looked at his watch and said, "I don't have any impression. Sit tight, fasten your seat belts, and let's go." He stepped on the accelerator and the car drove out with a "boom".

Li Qingyao didn't believe it: "How is it possible? My sister also rode down here on the Saturday night before last, at the same time. She also praised you for your good driving skills. There were only a few passengers. How could you not remember it?"

"I really have no impression." said the driver.

Li Qingyao seemed unconvinced: "Then I'll send her a text message to ask her, did I remember it wrong? My sister always gets a lot of attention wherever she goes."

She lowered her head and pretended to type on her phone. Chen Pu raised his eyes slightly and saw the driver looking back in the rearview mirror. Chen Pu said impatiently, "It's so late, why are you harassing your cousin?"

Li Qingyao: "It's none of your business. Oh! My sister replied. She said she wore a mask and a hat that day. Now you have an impression, right? It's not common to wear a mask and a hat in the middle of the night. My sister is pretty. She must have taken it for safety reasons."

The driver was indifferent and replied: "I said I have no impression, so I have no impression."

"That's impossible." Li Qingyao muttered, "Ah, my sister sent me another text message. She said she had taken your car several times before, all at this time, and she wore a hat and mask. She also asked me to say hello to you. She still remembers you."

The driver said, "Girl, I really can't remember. I'm old and my memory is not good. I'm sorry to your sister."

Li Qingyao said, "It's okay, it's okay. Look at what you said. I just had nothing to do in the car, so I came to chat with you. My sister happened to say that she had ridden in your car before, and I thought she was familiar with you, so I asked a few more questions."

The driver said nothing.

Chen Pu whispered, "Come on, don't always be against your cousin. No matter how beautiful or rich she is, she is just a relative and has nothing to do with us. Don't be so willful."

Li Qingyao: "You are the willful one! Why do you think I am so petty? Who is jealous of her? Okay, I won't say any more."

Chen Pu coaxed her a few more times before Li Qingyao smiled. After a while, she said she was tired, and the two stopped talking and lowered their heads to play with their phones. Chen Pu looked up again, and the driver kept looking ahead and driving, with no expression on his face.

The night road is still long.

Chen Pu patted her shoulder and motioned for her to sit two rows back. The two of them sat in the back. Chen Pu glanced at the rearview mirror, and the driver glanced back again. At this time, Li Qingyao suddenly let out a short laugh and said in a delicate voice, "You really are..."

The driver quickly looked away.

Chen Pu was really convinced this time, and gave a thumbs up from the back of his seat.

Li Qingyao snorted.

Chen Pu whispered, "Fortunately, you didn't choose this character when you first came."

Li Qingyao raised his eyebrows.

"Otherwise I will leave the team on the first day."

Li Qingyao tried to hold back his laughter.

Although they were at a certain distance from the driver, he would probably think they were chatting quietly, but it was definitely not appropriate to talk about anything related to the case. Both of them fell silent.

Li Qingyao sent a message to Chen Pu: [This driver is lying.]

Chen Pu: [He knows Xiang Siling.] Chen Pu edited a text message and sent the information on the driver's license he had just seen to Ding Guoqiang: [Zhang Chaohua, male, 53 years old, from Yingzhushan Town, driving a night bus, license plate number Xiang AXXXXX, I need all his information and whether he has any relationship with Xiang Siling. Master, urgent!]

Ding Guoqiang quickly replied: [Received, Boss Chen.]

Chen Pu smiled and put down the phone. Li Qingyao also saw the content of the text message. Chen Pu glanced at her and whispered, "Wait for the news."

The car hadn't left the mountain area yet, and the mountain road was winding and shaking violently. Li Qingyao had nothing to do for the time being, her attention was distracted, and her five senses became sharp again. Then she smelled a smell in the car, a musty smell that hadn't been washed for a long time, mixed with the smell of kerosene, sweat, and rotten rice. In addition, the car was shaking again, and soon Li Qingyao's face turned pale and she wanted to vomit.

She turned around and asked, "It stinks, don't you smell it?"

"A little bit, but it's okay."

Li Qingyao: "What's wrong?"

There was a street lamp a long way outside the car, the light was dim and swaying. Chen Pu looked at her and put his hand on her shoulder: "Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"Ah."

Chen Pu hugged her completely out of reflex. Now seeing that the queen did not knock his hand away and looked so weak and vulnerable, his heart began to beat wildly and his palms felt hot. He felt that her shoulders were soft and thin, and wondered how such a slender person could have such strong strength.

He began to think of ways to comfort her, and said in a very low voice: "This is nothing. In the past, your brother and I used to squat in a trash can, that big green trash can. We disguised ourselves and waited for suspects in it. Let me tell you, that smell is amazing. Compared with that, this is really fragrant. You will get used to it as you experience more. Don't smell it, don't think about it, just chat with me, and distract yourself. You can practice it."

Li Qingyao's face turned paler as she listened. Was this idiot trying to comfort her or to retaliate and scare her?

She slapped his dirty hands away and said coldly, "Remember this, never, ever assign me such a task!"

Chen Pu smiled and said, "Okay, okay, I promise I won't distribute it." He put his hand on her shoulder again and said in a serious tone, "If you feel uncomfortable, just lean on me for a while. We are all revolutionary comrades, it doesn't matter."

The light was dim and the car was shaking. Li Qingyao couldn't see Chen Pu's expression clearly. He could only see the outline of his face, which was tough and thin, and the lines of his shoulders, which were tall and broad.

His fingers gently squeezed her shoulders again, without saying anything, his eyes looking at her in the darkness.

Li Qingyao smiled softly, and she leaned her head over, but not to the back of her head, but to bury her face in his chest. Smelling the faint smell of sweat on his T-shirt, and feeling the texture of his skin and muscles through the soft fabric, Li Qingyao breathed a sigh of relief, finally no longer smelling the stench in the car.

Chen Pu's chest seemed to be petrified, his long legs pressed against the narrow seat, one hand holding her shoulder, the other hand grasping the backrest of the front seat. After several seconds, he lowered his head and looked at the delicate head on his chest.

Li Qingyao rubbed his face against it and commented in a muffled voice: "Chen Xiaopu, your chest muscles are nice."

Chen Pu chuckled, hesitated for a moment, and slowly raised one hand to cover the back of her head. Her hair was extremely soft and fine, completely different from a man's hair. Chen Pu gently inserted his five fingers into it and rubbed it a few times.

After a few more seconds, she responded: "Take your claws away."

Chen Pu said nothing and didn't move his hands.

"Then I won't lean on you." She pretended to raise her face.

Chen Pu used force with his hands to immediately press her head back to its original position and whispered, "Why are you so stingy?" Finally, he slowly put his hands down and leaned back in the seat so that she could lean back more comfortably.

"Go get some sleep," he said. "I'll keep an eye on it."

"You just couldn't sleep because you were driving. Let me take over." This time Li Qingyao really remembered it, but his head sank and he was pushed back without any explanation.

"Don't move," he said. "I don't feel like sleeping now, really."

This time it was Li Qingyao's turn to remain silent.

-

Later, Li Qingyao was drowsy and not completely asleep. So when Chen Pu patted her, she opened her eyes and first saw his calm eyes, and then the darkening night outside the window. Feeling the hand around her waist loosen, she sat up straight as if she didn't notice it, and asked in a low voice: "Are we there?"

Chen Pu nodded and shouted, "Master, step on it and get off the car."

The driver looked in the rearview mirror again and parked the car at the roadside stop: Huanhu East Road.

Chen Pu pulled Li Qingyao out, and when they reached the car door, he said with a smile, "Master, you drive very slowly. I thought night buses were fast. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes to get here from Yingzhu Mountain."

The driver replied gruffly, "This car is old and can't go fast. Are you guys getting out?"

The two got off the train quickly and stood on the platform. Li Qingyao looked at his watch: 00:52.

She had searched the navigation system before and found that it would take about an hour and a half to drive from Yingzhu Mountain to Mingya Lake without traffic jams. It was evening that day and many people were out of town, so there was a traffic jam, so it took about two hours to arrive.

Generally speaking, buses are slower than private cars. But if it is a night bus, it often does not stop very often, the road conditions are very good, and the speed is usually very fast, even surpassing the speed of private cars during the day. But this driver took almost an hour longer than during the day.

Li Qingyao recalled again and realized that the driver had indeed been driving very slowly since he got on the car.

Chen Pu took out his cell phone and called an acquaintance in the traffic police department: "Old Li, please do me a favor. It's related to a murder case we're investigating. Please help me keep an eye on a minibus with license plate number: Xiang AXXXXX. See how long it takes to drive from Huanhu East Station to the terminal, the remaining 1/3 of the way. If it takes less than 50 minutes, arrest both the person and the car."

He hung up the phone, looked at Li Qingyao, and suddenly reached out and rubbed her head, with an obviously tired smile in his eyes: "Great smart, the fox is finally going to show its tail."

Tomorrow I will take a 5-hour bus ride from Dali to Kunming, and then take a 6-hour high-speed train ride from Kunming back to Changsha. I will arrive home at 10pm. So I will update 2000 words tomorrow.