Yu Hao opened his eyes and saw two policemen walk into their room. His heart almost stopped instantaneously.
Zhou Sheng made a gesture, poked Yu Hao, and sat up from the bed. He looked irascible as he frowned, “What are you doing?”
“Get up!” The police said, “Take your ID cards out for an inspection!”
Yu Hao said, “How did you guys get in?”
There were another two policemen standing in the living room of the suite, while there were two more guarding outside. Chen Yekai was on the sofa when he got woken up by them, but his expression was extremely calm as he looked at the police.
In the bedroom, the policeman lifted the blanket and the Golden Crow Wheel fell out of the blanket and onto the carpet. Yu Hao immediately got off the bed barefoot and stood beside the bedside table. Zhou Sheng immediately went to pick up the Golden Crow Wheel, but the police shouted sternly, “Don’t move! Put your hands up! Don’t force me to handcuff you!”
“Zhou Sheng!” Chen Yekai wanted to come in, but he was stopped.
“Zhou Sheng!” Yu Hao shouted.
Zhou Sheng was still quite a distance from the Golden Crow Wheel. He said, “Okay, okay. I won’t move.” Then he raised both hands up.
Zhou Sheng was wearing only his underwear and stood just like that. A policeman said, “Both of you, put your clothes on.” Then he took out a transparent forensic bag and placed just the Golden Crow Wheel inside of it.
Chen Yekai, who was outside, had his phone taken away. Along with Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng’s phone, they were all packed into several forensic bags. The police had caught them unprepared. Yu Hao didn’t know at all what had gone wrong; they had obviously been very careful on the way here. Zhou Sheng though, threw him a glance, then shook his head imperceptibly, so Yu Hao calmed down.
“Go.” The police said, then the six policemen separated, and two police guarded over each of them. They let Yu Hao walk first, Zhou Sheng in the middle, and Chen Yekai at the back. They were taken away from the hotel and into police cars. There were three cars, and they were driven to the district bureau.
This was Yu Hao’s first time entering a bureau seriously for tea. In the isolation room, a police officer interrogated him alone with his camera in hand.
“What’s the password?” The officer asked.
Yu Hao reached out and unlocked it. The police officer started examining it, and there were only a few pictures inside: meals in the business class, the scenery along the highway, street scenery in the city…
“What did you come here for?” The officer asked again.
“Investment and inspection.” Yu Hao knew that he couldn’t hide it from this group of people, so he spoke calmly, “Here with my boss.”
“What are you inspecting?” The officer obviously didn’t care too much about him. He dug his ears with his fingers and turned the camera off.
“Distribution of health care products.” Yu Hao said.
The officer answered, “You can’t right now.”
Yu Hao said, “You guys brought us in for questioning for no reason; did we provoke you guys somehow?”
The police officer said, “Kid, we can’t help it either. We should understand each other.”
Yu Hao frowned deeply, “Please show me your badge.”
The officer wasn’t afraid in the slightest. He threw his police badge straight at Yu Hao. Yu Hao took his camera, took a photo of the badge, and observed the police officer’s expression — the other side really was fearless, emboldened by the support of a backer. He wasn’t afraid of a possible complaint to the public security system at all.
He’s a criminal investigator, Yu Hao thought. He didn’t record Yu Hao’s testimony, didn’t ask any other questions either, and seemed to be waiting. What was he waiting for? How the hell did the news leak? Yu Hao recalled the entire process from the time they left to come to Nanlu and didn’t sense that anything was off at all. Could Zhou Sheng have been discovered when he went to buy takeout yesterday night? But Zhou Sheng was such a cautious person, so that didn’t seem right.
Yu Hao couldn’t contact Lin Ze, who was in Beijing, and the other party didn’t let him leave. They had left the hotel at 5 AM, at the first glimmer of dawn. How long would they detain them for? 24 hours? Remembering Zhou Sheng’s actions, Yu Hao suddenly shivered: this bunch of guys weren’t here because of their assignment!
Could what they want be the Golden Crow Wheel?! And they were taking advantage of the opportunity of their trip to Nanlu to arrest them? If that’s the case, then it’s too dangerous…Fu Liqun was still trapped; they had to find a way to get out of this!
It was very quiet in the isolation room. The other party opened up a book and started writing something. Yu Hao glanced at it, the content had nothing to do with him, it was a local police log.
“Don’t look around.” The police officer said.
Yu Hao shifted his gaze and started thinking about who could have transmitted the news in Beijing. At present, the only ones who knew they had come to Nanlu were his colleagues in the newspaper office, and it shouldn’t be them. When Zhou Sheng took leave, he didn’t tell his colleagues where he went.
Ou Qihang shouldn’t have either, Fu Liqun was the one who had saved his life.
To be this efficient in contacting the local police directly…there was only one possibility — Huang Ting.
When he thought of this, a chill ran down Yu Hao’s spine. Time passed by bit by bit, and it was extremely difficult to endure. There was no clock in the bureau, and it was impossible for them to tell him the time. Lin Ze reminded him before that when being interrogated, time would always feel like it’s passing by very slowly, and that he must adjust his state of mind properly.
Within the silence, Yu Hao recalled Zhou Sheng’s words “Do you trust him?” What if it was Chen Yekai? Yu Hao squinted as he remembered his conversations with Chen Yekai. No, it wouldn’t be him. Firstly, he has no connection with the public security system. If he wanted to take the chance to seize the Golden Crow Wheel, he would have had to do it through Huang Ting. However, once the Golden Crow Wheel landed in Huang Ting’s hands, Chen Yekai may never be able to get it again.
Unless they’re colluding…but even if he thinks of Chen Yekai in the worst way possible, Chen Yekai would at most analyse the Golden Crow Wheel through the STA. He wouldn’t let it fall into the hands of the state, the risk would be too great.
Also, Yu Hao has always trusted Chen Yekai. He couldn’t explain why. Maybe it was because in a certain sense, that flying scalpel symbolised Chen Yekai’s ‘courage’ that was transformed from his totem, and he had once held it. Based on this one point, he and Chen Yekai had a faint connection, just like the phrase ‘our souls have a faint resonance.’ Intuitively speaking, although it wasn’t as strong as the concordance between him and Zhou Sheng who wielded his shield, at the very least, he couldn’t sense Chen Yekai’s betrayal. He couldn’t even feel the slightest trace of it.
“Has Nanlu City been enjoying good economic development in recent years?” Yu Hao began to take the initiative to attack as he spoke to the police officer.
The police officer continued to seriously write his dispatch report and didn’t answer Yu Hao.
Yu Hao continued, “Don’t be like that, relax a little?”
The officer closed his book and said, “How long do you guys plan to stay here for?”
“Depends on the host, we haven’t gotten in touch yet.” After Yu Hao had figured out a certain connection, he didn’t feel as worried anymore. Before coming, the three of them had consolidated their testimonies. If they got caught by the cops, then their stories had to match. If the one hiding in a dark corner was detaining them for the Golden Crow Wheel, then they probably wouldn’t interfere with their plans to save Fu Liqun, and at most would just want to take the Golden Crow Wheel away.
The police officer asked again, “What’s your company called?”
“Yun Lai Chun.” Yu Hao had never been afraid of causing a little trouble for Zhou Laichun.
The police officer started ignoring Yu Hao again. Yu Hao waited listlessly for a bit, then held his camera up to take a picture of him. The police officer immediately said, “Don’t take pictures! Delete it!”
At this moment, someone knocked on the door a few times. The police officer looked at Yu Hao delete the photo before bringing him out. Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai were both there, and they had been released. Yu Hao felt like half a day had passed, but after looking at the time, only fifty minutes had passed.
Everything was enumerated in detail and returned. The other party exhorted Chen Yekai a bit and could clearly tell that he was the most reliable one. Yu Hao glanced at the forensic bag that was retrieved. The Golden Crow Wheel was still in the bag, and his phone was returned as well. The three of them stood at the entrance of the district bureau, hailed a cab, and went back to the hotel.
No one spoke along the way. Chen Yekai just sent messages on WeChat. Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng, and Zhou Sheng nodded.
When they passed the front desk, Zhou Sheng turned around and went straight up to the front desk as he wanted to cause trouble for them. Chen Yekai said, “Forget it, forget it.”
The room still looked like how it did when they left. Chen Yekai showed the other two his phone, and there was a row of words on it:【Beware of any wiretaps and surveillance in the room.】
Yu Hao said, “What the hell do those guys want?”
Chen Yekai answered, “They asked a lot of questions and asked what we’re here to do. They should have started watching us the moment we entered the city.”
Zhou Sheng went around the room to inspect every corner. He checked to see if there were any cameras on the ceiling, shifted the TV to check behind it, and looked at the bedroom wall. He said, “A bunch of lunatics, don’t know how the hell we provoked them.”
Chen Yekai drank some water and started checking the bedroom with Zhou Sheng. Both of them were very detailed in their inspection, but they still weren’t very certain in the end. Zhou Sheng came over and sat side by side with Yu Hao on the bed. He took out a forensic bag and poured out the Golden Crow Wheel that the other party had returned.
Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng. Chen Yekai frowned deeply and walked over as well, coincidentally forming a blind spot that would block any line of sight. In this way, no matter where the surveillance may be, it wouldn’t be able to take shots of Yu Hao’s movements.
Yu Hao bent over slightly and carefully felt about in the gap between the bedside table and the wall to take out another Golden Crow Wheel. He placed it in Zhou Sheng’s hand; Zhou Sheng clenched his hand and put it in his trousers’ pocket.
Chen Yekai’s expression relaxed. “Since we woke up early, let’s go out?”
Zhou Sheng uttered an “un,” fully preoccupied with doubt. He took another fake Golden Crow Wheel and turned his head to kiss Yu Hao. Chen Yekai went to pack his things, then went down to check out. Yu Hao knew that his conjecture had probably come true.
Zhou Sheng looked for a KFC, and the three of them sat down to have breakfast.
“Was it switched out?” Chen Yekai asked.
“Un.” Zhou Sheng frowned deeply.
