Shadow 380,000 Level 17 Suspended Spirit Hurricane Arrives

Chapter 10

She didn't dare to act recklessly in front of the police station, but now that she's ridden so far, her joy has finally burst forth. While there's certainly some relief at not being there herself, it's probably mostly for my sake.

I was somewhat moved, but I could only shake my head silently at her words and continue riding forward.

Kou Yun quickly got on his horse and caught up with me in a few moments.

"What's wrong, bro? You're not happy that there's no arrest warrant?"

I sighed into the wind: "It would be normal if there were an arrest warrant. I just looked at it, and the one that was torn off should be the one for me. The current situation is actually very abnormal; it's more of a curse than a blessing."

In fact, what Liang Yingwu said yesterday already explained the problem. Now, compared with the police's wanted notice, it further shows that this murder case that occurred on the high seas has extraordinary inside stories, which makes it impossible for the police to treat it as an ordinary murder case.

Fourth, the removed arrest warrant (4)

The arrest warrant was issued by the Provincial Public Security Department, so where did the order to lift the arrest warrant for me come from?

No matter how I think about it, I can't believe that the task force would let me go unpunished. The reason they withdrew the arrest warrant was to prevent local or ordinary police forces from getting involved. In other words, the pursuit of me was being carried out in secret. Once I'm caught again, it will definitely be difficult for me to contact the outside world.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine.

At this moment, I began to wonder if going to Beijing was like walking into a trap.

I briefly explained the situation to Kou Yun. She knew my background, so she remained silent for a while. However, she quickly cheered me up and encouraged me, saying that she would definitely help me clear my name. I couldn't help but smile; I was just grateful that she wouldn't cause me any trouble.

I passed another police station on the way and stopped again to check the wanted poster board to confirm that I really wasn't on the wanted list. This at least meant that I wouldn't have any problems with accommodation or transportation.

The two of them rode for nearly ten hours under the sun, following the map they had bought, from cities to towns to farmlands, heading north along the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. Kou Yun chatted and laughed, occasionally making minor mistakes; she finally tripped and fell again, scraping her elbow. She was intentionally trying to comfort me, which made me feel much lighter. Whatever awaited me ahead, I was determined to face it. If I were so easily framed, I would truly be a coward.

When the night had completely driven away the sunlight, we rode to Shakou, a small station on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, which is more than 100 kilometers away from Guangzhou.

Kou Yun's initial enthusiasm for bicycles had long since worn off; it had gone from play to pure physical labor, and he had been listless for the past few hours. So I decided to take the train to Beijing from here. We weren't wanted, and this was a small station, so it shouldn't be dangerous.

Cycling to Beijing would be absolutely impossible for Kou Yun, especially considering the remote and impoverished areas he would pass through, and the potential for unnecessary danger. Using a bicycle as transportation would indeed make him harder to track, but as a novice with no counter-surveillance training, I believe that even with all my efforts, I wouldn't be able to detect him in front of a true expert. Therefore, it's better to take the train to Beijing a few days earlier, trading limited risk for limited time to conduct my own investigation and try to clear my name before being caught by the police.

We bought tickets at the ticket office of the small station, and there was still more than an hour before the train arrived. We found a hotel near the station, paid fifty yuan for a room by the hour, and washed away our sweat.

I'd throw my bicycle down in the small square in front of the station, and I bet it'd find a new owner in less than a week. The train came screeching in, snorting loudly, ten minutes late. Trains that stop at small stations aren't express trains; this was a regular train, arriving in Beijing by tomorrow evening.

There weren't many people boarding the train, just a few here and there, all carrying a lot of luggage. Only the two of us were truly relaxed. I was carrying a newly bought canvas bag, mainly to conceal my small purse containing money, and also some drinks and snacks. That was all I had.

The conditions in the hard sleeper carriage weren't great, but that was relative; people released from detention centers didn't care about that anymore. It was late, and the hard sleeper carriage only had a small light in the aisle. After finally finding my berth, I found that the people next to me were already asleep. It wasn't convenient to chat here, so Kou Yun took the lower berth and I took the middle one; time to sleep.

Before going to bed, I sent Liang Yingwu a text message: I will arrive in Beijing at five o'clock tomorrow.

Clutching my bag, I slowly sank into silence in the turbulent darkness.

I woke up many times. It seemed like I knew how Yang Hongmin died in my dream, but I forgot it as soon as I woke up. When I tried to recall it, I fell asleep again. This went on and on, and the night outside the car window gradually faded away.

When I realized it was getting late, I checked my watch and it wasn't even 7:00 yet. I struggled to fall asleep again, and then it was 7:30. Someone next to me got up to wash, and the sounds of movement and talking began to fill the carriage. After a while, I finally opened my eyes. The first thing I did was tighten my grip on my bag—it was still there. There are a lot of thieves on the railway, especially on slow or ordinary trains; this is my life-saving money, I can't let it get stolen.

I peeked out onto the lower bunk; the little girl was fast asleep. I took out a wet wipe from my bag, wiped my face, and then popped two strips of chewing gum into my mouth instead of brushing my teeth.

There was a text message on my phone from Liang Yingwu. I thought I was a light sleeper, but I didn't even hear the notification sound.

"Yang Hongmin, a native of Nanjing, is 67 years old. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a senior engineer at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and a member of the expert group for China's lunar landing program, responsible for providing technical guidance on space launch vehicles. His work location is the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the headquarters of the Beijing Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Before boarding the Pacific Emerald, he had not taken a vacation for three years. His work schedule in Beijing and Jiuquan is roughly 60/40, and he has been provided with accommodation in both locations. His family members all live in Nanjing, so Yang essentially lives alone. For the previous four months, Yang had been in Beijing, residing at XXXXXXX. His residence is currently vacant. Please be mindful of your actions and avoid overexertion."

I laughed. He and I really had great chemistry; he found Yang Hongmin's address in Beijing so quickly.

"Received, thank you," I replied casually.

Liang Yingwu didn't reply; he's probably still asleep. He sent me this message early yesterday morning.

I was still planning what methods I could use to get Yang Hongmin's address, but now Liang Yingwu has brought it to me, saving me a lot of trouble.

However, although I was wrongly accused, I'll inevitably have to do some illegal things in Beijing this time. The few skills I learned from the tomb-raiding expert Wei Hou will have to be put to the test in practice.

With a long way to go before arriving in Beijing and nothing much to do, I finished my bread on my bunk, lay there lost in thought for a while, and then drifted off to sleep. This time, however, I slept even more soundly and deeply than last night.

In my drowsy state, I suddenly felt an itch in my ear. I reached out and slapped it, only to grab a soft, tender hand. I opened my eyes and saw that Kou Yun had plucked a hair from my head and was tickling me. I grabbed his hand and he grinned mischievously.

I let her go, looked at my watch, and realized it was almost eleven o'clock.

"Dude, you can really sleep! Are you not a pig?"

“I got up this morning, you were still asleep and blowing bubbles,” I retorted immediately.

"Tch~~" Kou Yun shrugged and tilted his head to one side.

The upper bunk was empty, and the three strangers on the opposite bunk, perhaps because I was in a bad mood, looked uninteresting and I had no desire to chat with them.

My younger sister kept pestering me to tell her more about herself, so we sat on a small folding chair in the aisle, and I casually picked out some interesting interview experiences. Kou Yun had only been out exploring the world for three months and had only seen a small part of it. What I told her intrigued her greatly, and she frequently interrupted with questions. For example, when I mentioned going undercover to interview people who recycled swill oil to cook crayfish, she asked what crayfish was, what the "Thirteen Spices of Xuyi" were, and what it tasted like, then swallowed hard with longing. Another example was when I told her about interviewing an EU economic official, but since my English wasn't good and I didn't have a translator, I tried to act cool and spoke to her in Chinese. The official stammered and broke out in a cold sweat, and she then asked me what the EU was, how many people were in the EU, and who the leader was. She even asked me to say a few words in English, and after listening, she concluded that my gibberish wasn't as good as the birds in her hometown forest.

I bought an expensive and unpalatable boxed lunch on the train at noon. After eating, Kou Yun climbed back into bed for a nap. I think she might be experiencing mild motion sickness.

With a "beep," I took out my phone; it was a text message from Liang Yingwu.

"I've learned something strange, and it's somewhat related to you."

"What is it?" I replied to him immediately.

"The Special Affairs Division of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Bureau has intervened in the investigation of your prison break case. Because it is newly established and lacks experience, they have asked our branch there for assistance." He quickly sent a new message.

"Could this not have been an accident?" I wondered to myself as I sent this text message. This sensational prison break happened because a large chandelier suddenly fell, knocking out a guard. Could it be that the chandelier falling wasn't just a coincidence?

"The initial investigation suggests that it was a mysterious incident."

I was extremely annoyed after reading this text message. This guy was trying to keep me in suspense with the text; couldn't he just say it directly? I typed a question mark and sent it to him directly.

"The chandelier was held together by a series of interlocking iron rings. The reason it suddenly fell was that one of the rings suddenly broke, and the power cord could not withstand the weight of the chandelier and was pulled apart. However, it was later discovered that all the iron rings were intact."

The iron ring is intact. What does this mean? I couldn't figure out the mystery behind it for a moment.

"Explain in more detail."

Fourth, the removed arrest warrant (5)

"If the iron rings broke due to wear and corrosion over time, then one of the two iron rings at the very end of the half of the chain still hanging from the ceiling, or at the very end of the chain that fell to the chandelier on the floor, would definitely be broken. Only in this way could they be separated. Another possibility is that the originally tight joint of the iron rings was pulled open. But that's not the case now; all the iron rings are intact."

I stared blankly at the small screen on my phone.

Liang Yingwu felt the explanation wasn't detailed enough, so he quickly sent another supplementary message.

"It's like these two iron chains were originally separate. To reconnect them, you have to pry open the seam, string them together, and then forcefully close them again. In the current situation, either one of the iron rings suddenly evaporated like water vapor, and the two iron rings that were originally connected to it naturally separated; or one iron ring suddenly pierced through the other iron ring. Neither possibility can be explained by physics."

"It sounds like a magician's ring toss trick."

"Yes. It is currently uncertain whether this mysterious phenomenon occurred naturally or not."

Unnatural occurrence? That means it was man-made. The person closest to the scene at the time had a cleft lip and was the direct beneficiary, but by all accounts, he didn't seem like someone with that kind of ability.

"But I don't see how this has anything to do with your case, so just take it as gossip. Does that make you feel a little more relaxed?"

"Is this your unique way of comforting people?"

We bantered a few more times before ending this long text message conversation.

His last words to me were, "Remember to pay me back soon."

My final reply was, "I appreciate your shy, hesitant concern."

After getting off the train, I took Kou Yun to KFC for a big meal. That's when I realized it wasn't that she had a small appetite, but rather that she had been quite considerate of me that day. This time, knowing I had money in my pocket, she devoured five pairs of chicken wings, and finally, she slowly shuffled out the door, clutching her stomach with both hands.

"Please give me your ID card."

"Well……"

My successful check-in in Guangzhou without a valid ID made me lower my guard. I thought that I wouldn't need an ID to find a small hotel in Beijing, but I didn't expect that this is the capital city, where the rules are much stricter than in Guangzhou.

"All you need is an ID card, it doesn't matter which one of you," the receptionist told me again.

"Plop," a drop of water fell on the counter, then another drop.

My heart skipped a beat, already feeling guilty. Could it be that I was sweating? I didn't even feel it.

The young waiter's expression also changed slightly.

I turned my head and saw that Kou Yun was already in tears.

"We...we..." she sobbed, unable to finish her sentence.

"Don't cry, don't cry," I comforted her, but I felt calmer inside. I hadn't known this girl for long, but I knew her quite well. This crying was definitely not a ruse.

Sure enough, Kou Yun leaned into my arms and said, "Brother, you said there was no problem. What are we going to do now? Damn thief! Waaah, we're going to have to sleep on the street."

"Our small bag was stolen at the train station. We still have some money left, but all our documents are gone," I told the waiter.

"But...but we have regulations," he said, looking troubled.

"Hmph, they're all bad people, bad people!" Kou Yun poked her head out from my arms, her red eyes staring at the boy.

Her imposing presence was so strong that the boy stepped aside, his face turning red.

"Or... or... do you still remember your ID number?" He hesitated for a moment before finally giving in.

Five minutes later, Kou Yun swayed as she walked into the hotel's standard room first, and sat down on the bed triumphantly.

"It's all thanks to me!" she said, pouting.

"It's all thanks to you, you little liar."

She lay on the bed, rolling around as if being called a little liar was the highest praise. Looking at her like this, I suspect the villagers were probably quite relieved that she had run away from home.

"I'm going to visit a friend, I might be back late, you should go to sleep first."

Kou Yun sat up abruptly.

"Going out so late? Where are you going? Can we come together?"

I shook my head: "I'll go by myself."

The little girl's lips immediately pouted so much they could hold an oil bottle.

"Sweetie, I'll take you to buy pretty clothes tomorrow."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up immediately.

"Okay, by the way, you'll sleep in this bed, don't keep changing it." Seeing that she had made a mess of the bed in just a few moments, with even the sheets wrinkled up, I quickly made sure to let her know.

"Brother, you're not planning to sneak off to Yang Hongmin's house, are you? If so, I want to go too!"

"No, no, I'm really just meeting a friend."