Chapter 85

Yunnan border.

It is hot during the day but cool at night.

Chen Pu zipped up his jacket in front of the mirror on the sink with a blank expression. Zhou Yangxin curled up in bed, browsing his phone.

This time, the two of them came with the second team and stayed in a standard room. Five days passed in a blink of an eye, and they finally found out the whereabouts of Lu Xing and Li Meiling.

As expected, the two smuggled out of the country. The smuggler who was caught by the local police admitted that a man and a woman, about the same age as the two, followed their car and crossed the mountain four days ago.

Chen Pu took out the photo and asked the snakehead to identify it. The snakehead recognized Lu Xing. As for Li Meiling, the sun was strong and she was wrapped up tightly, wearing a hat, sunscreen, mask and sunglasses. However, judging from her clothes and figure, she should be the same person.

The police also found the cabin where the two men stayed in the border village. It was in a mess, filled with instant noodle boxes, toilet paper, and several used condoms. The DNA extracted from the scene belonged to the two men.

The next step is more complicated. We need to contact the police of neighboring countries to assist in the arrest. However, the efficiency of the neighboring countries in handling cases is not low. After a whole day, they did not do anything. And it takes time for our police to go abroad to enforce the law.

So this group of expatriate criminal police were stranded at the border.

After Chen Pu finished washing up and returned to the bed, Zhou Yangxin asked, "Pu Zi, do you want to go abroad to handle the case?"

This is also the first time for them.

Chen Pu propped himself up on the bed with one arm, brows lowered, and said, "It doesn't matter. I'll follow your instructions."

Even though Zhou Yangxin was a man, he would still stare at Chen Pu when he occasionally caught a glimpse of his appearance and temperament. For example, now.

The all-black jacket makes Chen Pu's tall and thin figure stand out. Black fabric also makes people look whiter. In fact, when Chen Pu first joined the team, he had fair skin, but he got darker due to the sun and wind. But he is still whiter than the average policeman. Some people just can't get tanned, and they can get white again by covering themselves up a little. It's useless for you to be jealous.

Recently, Chen Pu has always had a sullen face and rarely smiles. Maybe cool men look more handsome. Several young girls from the local police station in Yunnan secretly nicknamed Chen Pu, Chen Bian Mu. Zhou Yangxin thought, isn't this insulting? But when he saw the girls giggling and their eyes wandering, he felt that he didn't understand the girls' hearts - after all, he, Zhou Yangxin, didn't even get the nickname of Teddy.

However, despite his jealousy, Zhou Yangxin still cared about the captain's emotional state. In fact, Chen Pu's behavior was not so obvious. He worked hard, ate seriously, went to bed on time, and actively cooperated with the Yunnan and foreign police. Chen Pu was the first to discover the hut where Lu and Li were hiding.

But who is Zhou Yangxin? He is a criminal psychologist and he soon sensed something was wrong from the clues.

In the past, Chen Pu would play with his phone after work, and occasionally he would be amused and forward jokes to other colleagues. But these past few nights, the two of them lay in bed, playing their own games, and Chen Pu was like a dead body, without making any sound. There were several times when Zhou Yangxin spoke to him, but he didn't hear it.

Even at work, although Chen Pu was still capable and efficient, his eyebrows and eyes always looked like they were about to fall into the soil. If you pay attention, you will find that he is covered with a layer of coldness that keeps strangers away. This situation has never happened before. Chen Pu is a capable and arrogant person, but he is always sincere and generous to his brothers in the team, and he also pays for them.

But yesterday, Zhou Yangxin wanted to eat at the number one hot pot restaurant in the area, but he was listless and said he didn't want to go, saying that hot pot made him feel sick. Finally, Zhou Yangxin reluctantly said, "I'll treat you." He still refused to go, and without changing his expression, he ate up the lunch boxes that everyone had almost vomited.

To sum up, Zhou Yangxin deduced that Chen Pu was in trouble.

Zhou Yangxin then used the process of elimination to confirm one by one:

Regarding the investigation, although Chen Pu had a difficult time in the early stage, Zhou Yangxin had been his colleague for several years. This occasional mistake in the direction of investigation was nothing. Moreover, Chen Pu and Li Qingyao were the first to discover that Lu and Li had escaped, which was considered a small achievement. So it couldn't be a work-related matter.

It is even more impossible economically, as Chen Pu is a recognized large pig farmer.

That only leaves...

Zhou Yangxin looked at him with sharp eyes and said shockingly: "Are you heartbroken?"

Chen Pu was drinking water from a thermos cup and nearly choked. He coughed violently a few times, his eyes cold and bright under his dark brows: "Why do you ask that?"

"Who figured it out?"

Chen Pu turned his head, continued to drink water, and said, "No one, where can I go to meet girls?"

Zhou Yangxin really didn't think of Li Qingyao. She was a teammate, a female criminal police officer. They always treated her as men, not girls.

"Then why haven't you been happy these days?"

Chen Pu smiled: "Is it obvious?"

"The more you try to hide, the more obvious it becomes. There is nothing you can hide."

Chen Pu praised her for being "cultured", took off his coat, threw it on the chair, and lay down on the bed, with his hands behind his head. He said, "It's a family matter, I don't want to say more. It has nothing to do with feelings. I don't have feelings."

Zhou Yangxin believed it, sighed, and said, "Me too."

However, he did not ask more about Chen Pu's family affairs. He did not want to get involved in the feuds among the wealthy families. What did Chen Shuai get more or less tens of millions more had to do with him?

Seeing that Zhou Yangxin had been fooled, Chen Pu put one hand behind his head to play with his phone. Perhaps touched by Zhou Yangxin's words, he couldn't help but click on WeChat.

His conversation with her stopped a few days ago, the day when Li Qingyao went to talk to Luo Huaizheng.

In the morning, he sent a message asking: [Are you awake? ]

She said: [I’m eating noodles today. ]

[Okay, I'll wait downstairs.]

Then, under the big tree filled with sunshine, she trotted towards him for the first time like a graceful deer. At that time, he thought that after a while, he would be able to open his arms and let her jump into his arms. But... Stop, Chen Pu, why are you thinking about it again?
Chen Pu's face became increasingly cold and he was a little angry, but he was angry at himself.

He looked at the dialog box that had been dead for several days, resolutely clicked into the editing mode, and began to click on the chat records between the two one by one, selecting all those that were not related to the case.

After selecting 99 items in one breath, he looked at the screen, his thumb moving slightly, but it never reached the "Delete" key.

He thought again, is Chen Pu childish? We are not boys or girls, so why would you play the game of "if you don't love me, I will delete the chat history"?

No need to delete.

He exited WeChat, ignoring the slight feeling of surviving a disaster in his heart, and raised one arm to cover his forehead.

More than a week had passed, and his emotions had completely calmed down, just like the sea surface where a boat accidentally capsized, the broken boat would eventually drift away with the wind, and the water surface would eventually return to calm after it got completely dark. He admitted that he was really very excited at the time, and the look in their eyes and tears really shocked him. So his mind was full of thoughts that they were the true love, and he was just an outsider who misunderstood the feelings.

When had Chen Pu ever fallen into such an embarrassing situation in his life? For a moment, he was naturally furious.

But now, he calmed down and thought back to the situation on that day. A glimmer of shameful hope grew in his heart: Could it be that Li Qingyao was just reminiscing about the lost love on that day? Could it be that she was just angry at him for not fighting back, so she looked at Luo Huaizheng with such resentment? Could it be that those tears gave her fate, not love? This also makes sense, right?
As for what Luo Huaizheng thought, Chen Pu didn't care at all. Why should he care? Even if other men loved her terribly, as long as she didn't...

But, does she really not love Luo Huaizheng anymore?
This is an unsolvable problem for Chen Pu.

But another fact is before our eyes.

He had been on a business trip to Yunnan for five days, and Li Qingyao had not sent him a single message, let alone a phone call. If she had any feelings for him, she should have asked him a question, right?
She really didn't care at all.

At this time, Fang Kai called.

Recently, Chen Pu was on a business trip, and Fang Kai led the second team. Every other day, the two of them would talk on the phone to exchange information, and Fang Kai would tell him about the work in the team. Today, as usual, after finishing the conversation, Fang Kai said, "By the way, I have something to tell you. Yesterday morning, Li Qingyao greeted me and went to find Lao Ding. She asked to continue investigating Xiang Siling's line after get off work. Lao Ding agreed."

Chen Pu: "Okay, I understand."

"You have been investigating that line, so I told her to report anything directly to you without going through me."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Pu turned the phone in his palm several times.

Li Qingyao is going to act alone now, although it should be safe and Fang Kai will take care of her. But he is her captain, and it seems unreasonable for him to keep silent and give some advice after knowing this. After all, everyone is the captain's responsibility.

He immediately clicked into the dialog box, thought for a while, and sent a message:

[I heard you were investigating Xiang Siling, be careful and report if anything happens.] After thinking for a while, he added: [I will decide on important matters when I come back.]

Very good, impartial, upright and selfless, and close-knit.

Then Chen Pu stopped playing with his phone and didn't sleep. He just lay there, with the phone turning in his hand all the time, from his left hand to his right hand, from his right hand to his face, and then taken off his face.

About ten minutes later, the phone rang, and Chen Pu immediately clicked on it.

Li Qingyao: [This is a task I personally applied for from Team Ding. I will take my own responsibility. It has nothing to do with you.]

Chen Pu stared at the line of words for a few seconds, put down his phone, charged it, covered himself with the quilt, turned off the lights, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

In the past five days, he has been sleeping very well, without any dreams, and always sleeping through the night.

But this day, at around five o'clock, before daybreak, he woke up without warning. The room was dark, Zhou Yangxin was snoring softly in the bed next to him, but Chen Pu felt like he was completely awake and couldn't fall asleep no matter what.

Getting up and washing would disturb Zhou Yangxin, so Chen Pu simply took out his cell phone, turned his back to him, and scrolled through it out of boredom for a while.

The darkness seemed to be able to conceal all the self-degradation of a person. At a certain moment, he suddenly clicked on WeChat again, only to find that there were two new messages from Li Qingyao that he had not read.

His finger paused for several seconds before clicking in. He even laughed at himself. Damn, he was really afraid that she would say something hurtful again.

However, after seeing the content of the message, Chen Pu sat up suddenly.

The message was sent by Li Qingyao at around 3 a.m.

Article 1: [If possible, reply quickly. ]

The second one was a photo taken with a mobile phone, of a person on a table. The edges of the photo were a little yellow, but the image quality was very clear. There were quite a few people in the photo, but the main character in the center of the picture was undoubtedly Luo Hongmin.

Luo Hongmin was wearing a suit and speaking on a podium, revealing half of his body. He looked a few years younger than he is now, and had a radiant face. Behind him, a row of people, both men and women, stood on the stage, each holding something like a trophy in their hands, apparently attending an award ceremony.

With Chen Pu's keen eyesight, he immediately recognized the man standing in the far right corner. From the photo, he was only in his early twenties, very young, handsome, slender, and with a shy smile. He was also wearing a beige suit, and his hair was combed up with a moustache. He looked similar to the man who stood on the podium many years later, but not quite.

That's Liu Huaixin.

Three months ago, the person who died in his own home by cutting his wrists was suspicious and finally concluded as suicide. The young teacher who was full of justice and wanted to find out the truth about Zhang Xiyu's death, the modern ascetic monk who had no desires and selfless dedication, the 28-year-old young man who made the whole school teachers and students feel sad and grief.

I will update more today, because tomorrow I will have to take a bus and then a train, which will take me all day from the grassland back to WLMQ, so I won't have time to write. No update tomorrow.