Katzenanhänger 2

Kapitel 1

Foreword

The winter I turned one, my grandfather fell seriously ill. Relatives from the countryside brought word that my grandfather had been struggling to stay afloat until his last breath, and that he desperately wanted to see me one last time before he passed away. I had been running a high fever for two days, and despite going to the hospital for medicine, injections, and IV drips, my condition hadn't improved. Because of my grandfather's words, my parents had no choice but to take me back to the countryside. That same day, it inexplicably started raining heavily. My father recalled that it was rare to see such heavy rain in winter; you couldn't even see someone walking a few meters ahead on the road. We finally made it back to our hometown, where almost all the relatives had arrived. My grandfather was lying in bed, and my father carried me into the room where he was staying. My grandfather looked at me with a smile, and just as he reached out to touch me, he passed away... Miraculously, my fever subsided after my grandfather's passing, and the speed of his departure was astonishing.

Later, some elders in my hometown said that this was God making my grandfather and me fight for life and death. But when my grandfather asked to see me, it meant that he had decided to give his life to me, otherwise I wouldn't have lived for more than a few days.

On the day of my grandfather's burial, the fortune teller Liu, who was choosing a burial site for him, looked at me in my mother's arms for a long time. Then he asked my mother for my birth date and time, lowered his head and calculated for a while before finally saying to her, "This child has a very strong birth chart. Although his life will be full of ups and downs, he is destined for prosperity and good fortune. He will always have benefactors to help him. However, he is destined to have a wife who will bring him misfortune. In the future, he should find a woman with a similarly strong birth chart to him."

I don't know if it's true what Liu the fortune teller said, but since I started school, although things have been going smoothly, I've had a lot of minor misfortunes. But whenever a misfortune struck, someone would always step in to help me resolve it. After graduating from university and entering the workforce, I've worked in many different jobs, from newspaper reporter to TV reporter, then to magazine editor, advertising copywriter, repair shop maintenance manager, insurance company claims adjuster, and marketing. I've held many jobs and changed many positions, but none of them have allowed me to truly settle down and do them with peace of mind. It's like dating. From the time I understood what love between men and women was all about until now, I don't know how many times I've been heartbroken, or how many people I've caused to be heartbroken. According to a fortune teller friend who told me a few years ago, nothing in life is predetermined. What can change your destiny is perhaps just a small thought of your own.

In the nearly 30 years I've lived through, I've always had only a few friends. The only friend I can talk to about anything is Lai Bao. Lai Bao was born in winter. He was born all white, almost the same color as the snow on the ground outside. But on his right hand, there was a small, cross-shaped birthmark. This frightened the doctor and Lai Bao's father. It took a week for Lai Bao's skin color to return to normal for other children. But an old man in Lai Bao's village said that Lai Bao was originally a white horse descended from heaven, and the birthmark on his right foreleg was just a mark that the heavens had branded for the precious horse.

Perhaps it was because Lai Bao and I both carried stories that we couldn't uncover the truth about that brought us together. We started experiencing, exploring, and listening to stories that interested us—stories from the past, the present, and even the future… Of course, this all stemmed from the fact that Lai Bao and I both enjoyed typing out our stories.

Notes I: Copying - Section 1: Interview Task

Reproduction refers to the act of making one or more copies of something through methods such as printing, recording, or copying.

When using a computer, we often use Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V to copy a file from one folder or hard drive to another location. It's simple and quick. The differences between different files are in their size, whether they can be copied, etc. The following story seems simple, but it is actually quite complex. If we really want to delve into it, it will probably take a long time to find out the result.

In 2003, I was working at a TV station in City C. Although I had just graduated from school, I soon realized that the exciting and sensual things I had hoped for in school would never happen to me. For example, meeting a beautiful female host and sparking a romance that would eventually develop into a love story that would move heaven and earth. But in reality, I kept having encounters with male hosts in the media industry, which sometimes even escalated into fights. Gradually, I felt that both work and life were boring and tedious every day. So when I was bored, I would drag my equally bored friend Lai Bao around. We even got drunk and ended up at the train station, where we almost got deported as vagrants.

That year, as autumn turned to winter, the weather was still very hot. I clearly remember that during the National Day holiday, Lai Bao and I were in the largest indoor swimming pool in City C. On the afternoon of the last day of the holiday, I had just climbed out of the pool and was about to change my clothes and go to a bar when Lai Bao was called back by an urgent call from the station. They said they were only calling Lai Bao back, but since I had nothing to do and going back with Lai Bao would save me the cost of transportation, I insisted on going back to the TV station with him.

Back at the station, the director told Lai Bao that we'd have to work overtime that night, possibly very late—at least all night. At that time, Lai Bao and I were on a 315-themed program on that TV station, a program we did with the Industry and Commerce Bureau and other law enforcement agencies to expose and crack down on counterfeit and pirated goods. The director told us that our task that night was to go with the Industry and Commerce Bureau of District X to an underground factory in the suburbs that produced fake duck blood and pig blood. He specifically warned us to be careful when filming that night, because the police and the Industry and Commerce Bureau said that after monitoring the factory, they discovered that the head of the factory was the leader of a local gang with ties to organized crime. Preliminary investigations suggested that they possessed controlled knives, and the possibility of firearms couldn't be ruled out.

After hearing this, Lai Bao and I were quite excited. After all, the programs we had done before were all small-scale. We were basically eliminated before we even turned on the equipment. Lai Bao and I even applied several times to be transferred to the criminal investigation department of the police, but the director forcibly stopped us and scolded us, saying that we wanted to run before we could even walk.

I asked the director again, and he agreed to let Lai Bao and me go. However, he told me that Lai Bao could rest for half a day the next day, but I had to be at work on time. After giving the instructions, the director left the station, leaving me cursing and Lai Bao checking the camera batteries in the corner of the office.

After everything was settled, Lai Bao and I went home, contacted the people from the Industry and Commerce Bureau, and arranged to meet at the X District Industry and Commerce Office at midnight. We then went home, ate something simple, set our alarms for 11 p.m., and went straight to sleep. As I lay down, I kept thinking that I shouldn't have gone with that bastard and had to sacrifice a night's sleep.

When we went to the X District Industrial and Commercial Bureau that evening, we found that in addition to the bureau's law enforcement officers, there were also about a dozen fully armed police officers in standard riot gear. It seems the tip was true; the people in that underground factory were no pushovers.

We stopped on the highway not far from the above-ground factory, and then quietly hid the vehicle in a pre-arranged auto repair shop by the roadside. Everyone then waited, because according to the investigation, this underground factory produced a particularly large quantity of goods, but the raw materials could not be obtained until after midnight. Therefore, we had to wait until around 4 a.m. to start the operation in order to catch them red-handed.

During the break, I quietly asked Lai Bao, "What do you think the raw materials for making those fake pig's blood and duck's blood should be?"

Lai Bao said, "It's blood powder, what else could it be?"

I deliberately gave a very strange smile and said, "I don't think it's that simple. If it were blood powder, this setup wouldn't be necessary. Is it... human blood?" I was interrupted by a staff member from the Industry and Commerce Bureau named Xiao Li: "What nonsense are you talking about? The raw material is cow blood! What human blood... Don't scare people. Using human blood to make this? I wonder how many people would die during this period... Do you think this is human sacrifice?"

I quickly took out a cigarette, and Lai Bao started filming. When Xiao Li saw this, he quickly said, "Don't film me. If you want to film or talk, film our leader."

I quietly asked Xiao Li, "Is it really necessary to mobilize so many police officers just because they're using cow blood to make fake duck blood and pig blood?" Xiao Li told us, "It's true that cow blood is edible, but the cow blood this company is using is very strange. The first batch of cow blood we seized in the market came from a sick cow, but what's strange is that the cow blood we seized all came from the same cow when tested. Do you know how much was in that batch?"

Lai Bao and I shook our heads. Xiao Li mentioned a number that shocked us. That's at least the blood of ten cows, right? Xiao Li said, "That's why it's so strange. Also, we've been staking out this place for quite a while, at least half a month, and they only deliver cow blood every Tuesday night. Then, between 5 and 7 a.m., people come to pick it up. Some come by bicycle, some by motorcycle, some by light truck. In short, we estimated that even if we used the delivered cow blood as raw material, we couldn't make such fake duck blood or pig blood. And the boss of this factory isn't a good guy either. I heard he's made a lot of money from this over the years and even sent his son abroad."

Lai Bao and I found this rather strange. We finally managed to stay awake until 2 a.m., when Xiao Li woke us up. Then, together with the enforcement officers from the Industry and Commerce Bureau and the police, we quietly headed towards the factory. All the police officers rushed ahead. When we arrived at the factory, I discovered that it was actually just a small farmhouse courtyard. The walls around it were quite high, and the courtyard had a roof made of plastic sheeting. The door was a large iron gate, which looked difficult to open. What was even stranger was that the door was locked from the outside, and there was absolutely no sound coming from inside.

Chapter 2 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Chapter 2 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

I whispered to Lai Bao, "Did we go to the wrong place?" Just then, the police had already cordoned off the entire yard in shifts. They started calling out to the inside, but no one answered for a long time. Finally, the police shouted, "If you don't open the door, we'll break it down!" At that moment, the lights in the yard came on, followed by a woman's voice asking, "Who is it?" Then there was no more answer. Seeing that they had no other choice, the police ordered someone to go back and bring the car to pull the door open. Just then, a figure suddenly darted out from the wall. If the shadow had been small, we might have thought it was a cat or something else, but it was clearly a human figure. The figure suddenly appeared on the wall, and then I shouted, "Someone's coming out!"

Just as I finished shouting, the figure suddenly crouched on the wall, then jumped down, disappearing into the field at an incredible speed—so fast that none of us could react. Two policemen had already given chase, and a car arrived shortly after. The door was quickly pulled open, and the police rushed in. I grabbed the flashlight, and Lai Bao, carrying the camera, followed. Once inside, we discovered it was surprisingly large. Behind the yard was a slope, and at the bottom was a pit-like area, almost entirely underground, filled with cement pools filled with blood…cow blood. Standing beside the pools were several seemingly honest workers, stunned by the police rushing in. They stood there, still holding their mixing tools, staring at us in disbelief…

The police then pulled the ringleader out of the small building, and also found two flintlock pistols, several machetes, and a BB gun that he had hidden under his bed. They were neatly placed in the middle of the yard. The police then began an on-the-spot interrogation, but the man, named Zhang Jun, who was nearly fifty years old, only knew three words: "I don't know." He also told the police that he was illiterate and couldn't even write his own name. But when asked about the guns and knives, Zhang Jun remained silent. At this moment, the two policemen who had chased the shadowy figure returned, panting. They said the figure had run too fast, and they were carrying weapons and other items, making them too heavy to catch. However, they were certain the figure was a person. The police leader glared at the officer who had spoken and said, "I know it's a person too!" Then he asked Zhang Jun who the person was, but Zhang Jun just smiled and didn't say a word. Finally, he simply closed his eyes.

After the police had finished their interrogation, Lai Bao used a teacup to write the character "死" (death) on the table and asked Zhang Jun, "Do you know how to pronounce this character?" The man glanced at it, then gave Lai Bao a cold laugh. Lai Bao turned to me and said, "At least he knows the character '死'..." Lai Bao's action amused everyone around, except for Zhang Jun.

Notes Part 1: Copying Notes, Section 2: The Man Who Posted the Missing Person Notice

After finishing the filming that night, Lai Bao and I didn't get home until 7 a.m. On the way back, Xiao Li, who was driving us, kept discussing the cow blood issue. Since we hadn't seen the whole production process, we asked Zhang Jun to demonstrate it for us, but he absolutely refused. We saw that the raw materials only filled the two cement pools, but there were eight other pools of the same size next to them. The strangest thing was that we had been waiting all night, but no truck had ever come to deliver the raw materials. According to the people who had been waiting there before, they hadn't seen anyone deliver the raw materials for at least half a month, but they saw someone come to pick up the goods almost every Tuesday night. Zhang Jun kept quiet about why, but regarding the firearms, he said that they were just stored there by a military enthusiast.

I've never seen a military memorabilia collector collect gunpowder guns before!

In the end, we finally got to the dark figure on the wall. Somewhat sleepy, Xiao Li started to wonder if we had just imagined it. I retorted, "If Lai Bao and I had imagined it, that would be one thing. But you saw it too, and everyone else probably saw it as well. Did we all just imagine it?"

Xiao Li shook his head and said, "No, I mean the speed at which that person ran after jumping down... it was too fast. If he participated in the Olympics, he would at least set a record that would be difficult for others to surpass."

Just when Lai Bao and I thought the matter was over, a man ran into our station and asked to place an advertisement—a missing person ad. Strangely, the man was looking for himself. Our station doesn't usually place such ads, but we've done similar missing person programs before, always because there was a story behind the program. And this man, instead of looking for anyone else, specifically sought out Lai Bao.

That day, Lai Bao and I had just returned from an interview. As soon as we entered the station, Lai Bao was stopped by Zeng Zhen in the office, who pointed to the man outside and said, "This man is looking for you." Lai Bao turned his head and glanced at the man sitting there reading a newspaper, saying, "Why would he want to see me? I don't know him."

Zeng Zhen said, "They said they wanted to put a missing person notice for you."

Lai Bao said, "You want me to do it? I'm not in charge of this area. You think I can just do it whenever I want?"

Zeng Zhen added, "Someone specifically asked for you by name, and they've been sitting here for hours. You should go and ask them; what if they really need your help?"

Lai Bao reluctantly handed the things to me, then went into the office and started chatting with the man. I had nothing to do, so I went back to my desk. I had just sat down and finished a cup of tea when Lai Bao came in with a bunch of things, threw them on my desk, and said, "Look at this, it'll scare you to death!"

At first glance, it was a bunch of ID cards, but upon closer inspection, all the ID cards had the same person's photo on them. However, everything else, including the name and place of origin, was different, but the surname was the same: Zhang.

I watched for a while, and then Lai Bao dragged me to the window and said to me, "This is strange. People like this actually come to our door. So many of them clearly have fake IDs, and some are even criminals who come to our door on their own. Should we receive them? If it really doesn't work, we can take them to the police station later?"

I nodded, and then Lai Bao led the man into the smoking room. Once inside, I took out a cigarette and offered it to him, but he shook his head and said no. Then he immediately asked me and Lai Bao, "Reporter Lai, do you think... we can publish this? I'm in a hurry."

Lai Bao glanced at me and said to him, "Why are you posting a missing person ad looking for yourself? Aren't you right here?"

The man said expressionlessly, "Because...because I've forgotten who I am."

Lai Bao glanced at me again, and I asked, "What's your name?"

The man looked at the pile of ID cards on the table and said, "I don't know, I don't know where these things came from. I found them in my bag when I woke up yesterday morning, along with money, a lot of money!"

When the man said this, my heart tightened. My first thought was of the 2002 movie "The Bourne Identity." I really wanted to ask him: Do you have a gun? Where's your passport?

Lai Bao asked, "How much money do you have?" After Lai Bao asked, both Lai Bao and I stared intently at the man, waiting for his answer. The man thought for a long time before taking out a large wad of cash from his bag. Then he took out several neat stacks of cash, each stack of which looked to be 10,000 yuan. There was at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan in cash. No wonder the man was carrying a hiking backpack.

The man said again, "I've forgotten who I am. I only remember waking up in a small hotel, and then I can't remember anything else."

As the man spoke, I was jotting down the gist of what he was saying. My biggest regret is not having mastered shorthand; otherwise, jotting down such simple information would have been easy. Luckily, I had a voice recorder with me—a professional habit…

After the man finished speaking, he frowned and began to gulp down water, panting as he said, "I really can't remember. Could you please help me place this ad?"

At this moment, Lai Bao took my paper and pen and handed them to him, saying, "Here, write down everything you can remember on this paper so you won't forget it. Think about it slowly."

The man picked up the paper and pen, hesitated, and seemed unsure where to begin. Lai Bao then said to him, "Write down everything you can remember, such as which hotel you were in and how you woke up."

While the man was writing, Lai Bao and I excused ourselves to get some water and went outside. Once we were outside, Lai Bao suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I was so stupid! Why didn't I ask the most crucial question?" I also suddenly realized and said, "Right, why didn't we ask him why he specifically asked to come to you by name?"

Thinking of this, we went back. As soon as I sat down, the man handed the paper to Lai Bao and said, "I really... can only think of the name of this hotel. I don't know how to write anything else. Can you publish it?"

Lai Bao took the paper, glanced at it briefly, and handed it to me, asking, "Why did you come to me to place an advertisement? Do you know me?"

The man touched his head and said, "I... after I woke up, I didn't know what to do, so I watched TV. I saw a program on TV, and your name was on the screen. The place that the program was filming looked familiar to me, like I had been there before. I thought you could help me, so I came to find you. I searched for a long time before I found this place."

As the man spoke, I glanced at the words he had written on the paper. What I saw almost made me scream. I calmed myself down and looked at it again carefully. After confirming I hadn't misread it, I handed the paper to Lai Bao and pointed to the line he had written at the bottom. Lai Bao glanced at it but ignored me. Then I tapped the paper heavily on the table. Only then did Lai Bao take a closer look. After that, he picked it up and examined it closely, then looked at me. I shook my head at Lai Bao, who also looked incredulous.

Lai Bao then handed the paper and pen to the man and said, "Write down my name so I can see if you've got the wrong person."

As the man took the paper and pen to write, Lai Bao and I both stood up and stared intently at the paper. I noticed a scar on the man's right thumb, a scar that looked somewhat like a six-pointed star. After he quickly wrote the name "Lai Bao," Lai Bao and I took the paper and examined it carefully. Then we put the paper down, stared at the man, and asked him, "What...what do you do for a living?"

The reason we asked this is because the handwriting of the man who wrote the hotel name and Lai Bao's name was exactly the same as mine! Back in 2003, my handwriting was notoriously strange; as my boss would say, it was like scribbling nonsense. If I wrote quickly, no one could decipher what I was writing. But the handwriting that man was writing now was exactly the same as the handwriting I wrote down above. It was extremely messy, but you could definitely tell that it was written by the same person!

Chapter 3 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Chapter 3 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

While I was still wondering what this kid did for a living, Lai Bao seized on the key point of the question and asked the man, "Which episode were you watching?"

The man said, "It's the episode that aired at 8:30 last night."

Wasn't that the episode that aired yesterday the one we went to investigate that fake duck blood and pig blood factory that night? How come this man remembers that episode? Lai Bao then said, "Do you remember your last name? Is it really Zhang?" After saying that, Lai Bao glanced at me again, and I immediately understood. The head of that factory was named Zhang Jun. I had heard from people before that this Zhang Jun had a son, but the locals said that he had sent his son abroad to study a long time ago and that he should still be in a country called Australia.

Lai Bao and I began questioning the man about other things, about the fake duck blood and pig blood factory, and about the man named Zhang Jun, hoping to get him to recall something. After all, at this point, I still didn't quite believe that this man had truly lost his memory. It was possible that he was also connected to the factory, but in order to escape responsibility, he deliberately came to the TV station to find Lai Bao and me and fabricated such a bizarre story? But that almost science fiction-like handwriting imitation...

Notes I: The Copying Chronicle, Chapter 3: The Secret of Identity

While Lai Bao and I were questioning the man, I noticed that he started taking a cigarette from the table and smoking. His smoking gestures, expressions, and posture began to resemble those of Lai Bao, who was sitting next to me. If he had changed his tone of voice, I would have definitely mistaken the person sitting across from me for Lai Bao if I wasn't paying attention.

At first, I thought it was just my imagination, so I moved my chair to the other side of the table to observe Lai Bao and the man sitting opposite me. After careful observation, I found that what I had seen before was not an illusion. Every time Lai Bao made a certain movement, the man would start to imitate it about two minutes later. There was a specific delay during this period. Moreover, the man's imitation was not as deliberate as when we joke around. Instead, he started to do the same movements as Lai Bao very casually.

About ten minutes later, the man's movements changed, and he turned his body towards me. I was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously waved my left hand in the air, then rhythmically tapped the table with my right fingers. I then rested my chin on my hand and glanced at the man out of the corner of my eye. About a minute later, the man did the same thing as me and also rested his chin on his hand... I looked up at Lai Bao, who had obviously noticed everything. Then, I made an excuse to Lai Bao that we needed to report this to our supervisor, and got up and left the smoking room to go into the office.

After we sat down in the office, Lai Bao and I discussed whether to hand the man over to the police. Whether it was because he had amnesia or because he was connected to that manufacturing factory, we had no choice but to hand him over to the police. When we went back into the smoking room, we found that the man was no longer there, but the pile of ID cards and backpack on the table were still there. I quickly went out and asked my colleague in the office next to the smoking room. My colleague said that he had just seen the man walk out of there, wander around for a bit, and then disappear. He hadn't seen him come back.

Lai Bao and I quickly searched the station, but after finding no trace of the man, we went outside and asked the security guard at the entrance. The guard said that a man had indeed come out of the station earlier, carrying a bag, and then got into a taxi and left. Lai Bao immediately asked for the taxi's license plate number, but the guard said he didn't remember. However, he heard the man loudly mention the Holiday Inn, which wasn't too far from the station. After hearing this, Lai Bao hailed a taxi and chased after the man. I quickly went back inside to put away the man's remaining belongings. Just as I finished packing, my colleague Liu Gang came out of the office saying that his bag was missing, containing his DV camera, work ID, and other items. I recalled what the guard had said about the man carrying a bag after coming out, and immediately realized that the man must have stolen Liu Gang's bag. So I immediately called Lai Bao to tell him what had happened, and then asked Liu Gang to call the police. After dialing 110, Liu Gang and I went back to the entrance to question the security guard about why he hadn't stopped a stranger from taking things out of the station.

The security guard's explanation was strange. He said, "Isn't that reporter Zhang? The new guy? I've seen him every morning these past few days." Hearing this, I was startled. At that moment, the police arrived at the station. After questioning me, I handed over the man's bag and other identification to the police. The police then asked Liu Gang and me to go back with them to investigate further. Just as we were about to get into the police car, Lai Bao appeared at the station entrance, sweating profusely, saying they couldn't find the man at all. I had guessed Lai Bao wouldn't find him. After all, the hotel was so big; even a thorough search would take a long time. We didn't know what identity he was using, and besides, we weren't police officers. Why should the hotel staff cooperate with us?

Lai Bao pulled me aside and said, "I think this matter is definitely related to that manufacturing factory. Zhang Jun is still in detention. I'll go see if I can get any information from him."

Liu Gang and I were taken back to the station by two police officers. After sitting for a while, another police officer took us to another office and took a detailed statement. Before the statement was finished, another police officer pushed open the door and said that the pile of ID cards we had just seen were very realistic. I hurriedly asked what about the money. The police officer said that the money was real, and that one of the ID cards was genuine, the one with the name Zhang Aimin. He said that the place of origin, home address and residence were all verified to be real, and the name matched. He just didn't know if the person in the photo was the same as the person in the photo.

I thought for a moment and then asked, "What address is written on his ID card?" I already knew what it was when I asked that question. The policeman gave me an address, and I slammed my hand on the table, startling him. That address was the same as the location of the manufacturing factory, meaning this Zhang Aimin must be connected to that factory. I told the policeman everything I knew, including how Zhang Aimin imitated my handwriting and mannerisms. After I told him, the policeman taking my statement found it unbelievable and asked, "Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" I took out the piece of paper from the man's bag and handed it to the policeman. After looking at it for a while, the policeman asked me to write a few words. After I finished writing, the policeman compared it again and said, "It should be written by the same person."

I swear I wrote that line below was definitely written by that Zhang Aimin. If you don't believe me, you can ask Lai Bao, because Lai Bao was there with me at the time. The police put the paper in the record and said, "You can go back now. We will notify you if there is any further information."

Liu Gang and I left the station and were about to rush back when Lai Bao called and said, "Something strange has happened, no, something big has happened. We need to get back to the station right away."

Back at the station, Lai Bao pulled me into the smoking room and pointed to the table, saying, "I...I'm not dreaming, am I? There really was a man sitting here just now, right?" I nodded, and Lai Bao shook his head, saying, "I went to the detention center to find Zhang Jun. As soon as I identified myself as a reporter, a policeman in charge of reception said that another reporter had been here earlier, with a work ID, but because he didn't have any other formalities, the policeman didn't let him see Zhang Jun. Then that person left. What's even stranger is what happened next. I asked the policeman what that person looked like, and the policeman gave me a rough description. It should be the man who was sitting here just now."

I told Lai Bao what I had learned at the police station and about the man's name, Zhang Aimin. Lai Bao lit a cigarette and said to me with a half-smile, "Guess what the policeman said was the name on that work ID?"

Didn't Zhang Aimin take Liu Gang's bag? There were Liu Gang's identification documents in the bag, so it's simple. The work ID must have Liu Gang's name on it. But then I thought about it and realized that Liu Gang is too fat, and Zhang Aimin is too thin. The photo on the work ID obviously doesn't match. So I shook my head.

Lai Bao took a puff of his cigarette and said, "The police said the name on the work ID he saw was Tang Dun!"

What?! I almost fell off my chair. It's my name?! How could this be?! I rushed back to my office, rummaged through my drawer for my work ID, then took it into the smoking room and tossed it to Lai Bao, saying, "My work ID is right here. It didn't fall out. How could this be?"

Then I remembered what the security guard at the gate had said, that he had seen Zhang Aimin at the gate recently. So I went to ask the guard, who said that since last week, the man had been coming to the station from the morning to the evening, and had even chatted with the guard, saying that he was a new reporter who had been transferred from another station. During the conversation, they talked about a lot of gossip that had happened at the station recently. Lai Bao asked the guard to tell me what the gossip was, and the guard gave a brief account. After listening, Lai Bao and I turned pale. The gossip included the incident where Lai Bao and a friend had argued in the office over a trivial matter. How did Zhang Aimin know about this? Lai Bao and I went back to the office and asked about the other things. A colleague confirmed that the gossip that the guard mentioned during the chat had all happened. Lai Bao and I were completely stunned.

We sat in the office for a while, finally coming to our senses. Damn, this was really bizarre, unbelievable! This isn't a movie. Just as we were figuring out what to do next, the security guard from earlier came in with a bag and said, "A kid handed me this bag and left, saying he wanted me to give it to you." Lai Bao and I recognized the bag; it was the one Liu Gang had just lost. We searched it, but since it wasn't ours, we didn't know what was missing. However, we found an A4 sheet of paper inside that read: "I took two hundred yuan. I'll pay it back later." There was no signature, but the handwriting was mine. I quickly put the paper away, and then Lai Bao and I gave the bag to Liu Gang, asking if he had lost anything. Liu Gang was surprised when he received the bag, then immediately searched it and found that apart from some money, nothing else seemed to be missing.

Chapter 4 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Chapter 4 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

Liu Gang asked me and Lai Bao what was going on, and Lai Bao and I said in unison, "We'll talk about it later." Then we called the police and told them what we had just said. The police said that they had looked into it and found that the man named Zhang Aimin was indeed Zhang Jun's son, but according to their understanding, Zhang Aimin should still be abroad and had not returned. They were still checking his immigration records and had no results yet.

After sitting silently in the office with Lai Bao for about an hour, Lai Bao slammed his hand on the table and said, "Let's go find Zhang Jun. He's the only one we can find right now. He definitely knows what's going on."

Notes I: Copying Notes, Section 4: Deciphering the Mysteries

Since Zhang Jun is still temporarily detained, Lai Bao and I could only find Xiao Li from the local industrial and commercial bureau and ask him to help us by saying that our interview was not yet over and we needed to see Zhang Jun. So we went to the office to get a letter of introduction and then to the industrial and commercial bureau to get the relevant documents before rushing to the detention center where Zhang Jun was.

When we saw Zhang Jun, we noticed that he looked much older than he had in just a few days, and his hair had turned quite a bit whiter. Zhang Jun didn't say a word after seeing us. Lai Bao and I exchanged a glance, and Lai Bao spoke first, asking, "When did your son come back?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Jun immediately stood up and said, "You called Aimin? When did you see him? Where is he? How is he now?"

Seeing Zhang Jun's agitated state, Lai Bao and I knew we'd come to the right place. Zhang Jun definitely knew what was going on, so I started talking to him. I explained that his illegal possession of firearms was punishable by up to three years in prison, and we didn't know if the fake pig and duck blood he was selling had caused anyone to be poisoned. If so, his punishment would be even more severe. After I finished speaking, Lai Bao went on to talk about Zhang Aimin's theft and his impersonation of a reporter to deliberately escalate the situation. After about half an hour of this, Zhang Jun finally spoke up. He said, "If you can find Aimin, you must help him. If you don't help him, he doesn't know where to go or what to do. His mind is completely blank."