If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon

Chapter 971 Containers

Navy Pier 15.9 miles away, Chicago International Freight Port.

The weather tonight is very clear. There is no wind or rain in the cargo port next to Lake Michigan. Groups of stars can be seen in the sky, and the lake reflects the rows of blue-red containers piled up on the shore.

The bright spotlights hang on the hanging tower and cast white cold light on the port area, which makes the marl-gray wharf bricks on the ground feel unbelievably cold. The container area is crowded and orderly, with red and blue containers The harbor is paved in piles, with a curved surface reminiscent of the densely packed holes of a honeycomb.

The unloading staff sitting on the forklift and passing the container area held the steering wheel eyelids and fought a little. The time on the forklift reminded that it was already late at night, and the workers in the port were basically off work. At this time in the port area, only night shift patrols could be seen. The figure of the security guard, but I don’t know why it is extraordinarily quiet tonight. The whole port area seems to be asleep, only the sound of wind and water.

The buddy who can't patrol has skipped work to play cards again, right?The unloader who had already opened half of the container area and saw no one was thinking boredly.

Why don't you go to the security room after this trip to see if they are playing Texas again, and get involved in it by the way?Anyway, the salary will be paid in two days, and the wallet still has a little aftertaste to play with.

Suddenly, the unloading man drinking coffee to refresh himself heard a strange noise in the container area. He paused and turned his head to look in the direction of the sound, but he could only see the white light of the tower crane between the containers. shadowy path.

The unloader hesitated for a moment, stopped the forklift, put the thermos cup with coffee in the slot, took out the flashlight and locked the forklift, got off and walked to the container area, stopped outside the small passage between the containers, took The flashlight shone in.

Recently, I heard from the security guard in the freight port area that a group of guys from the south of the city are very restless. They often walk around on skateboards outside the barbed wire fence in the unloading area of ​​the port, or directly look inside the barbed wire fence. Before the illegal activities, let the brothers on the night shift be more vigilant, and tell them not to go hard when they encounter something wrong, maybe they will accidentally get shot.

Sweeping along the diffused light circle of the flashlight, the path leads straight to the shore of Lake Michigan. The white light shines on the lake surface with cold scales, and the unloader sees nothing except his own shadow.

But he didn't just turn around and leave. Instead, he turned sideways and listened carefully. The sound of water and the wind from the lake passed by the path. He seemed to hear faint voices in the white noise, some erratic. It's as unreal as being stuck in a spider's silk.

"Is anyone there?" the unloading man hesitated, then shouted.

It was such a loud shout, and before he could wait for anyone in the container area to reply, the row of barbed wire isolation belts in the distance behind him suddenly made a rattling sound, which made him turn his head and look over.

The unloading man's eyes are sharp, and people without sharp eyes can't do this kind of night work. At a glance, he saw a young boy who was trying to fall off the barbed wire fence, but he seemed to be slapped by himself just now in the process of turning over. I was so frightened that I slipped my foot and fell into it, but I didn't fall completely. The waistband of my trousers was hanging on the barbed wire, and my whole body was hanging there like a salted fish.

"You! Talk about you! What do you want to do!" The unloading man picked up the flashlight, turned around and ran towards the barbed wire fence, roaring angrily as he ran.

The boy hanging on the barbed wire obviously didn't expect that he had been peeping outside for so long and hadn't seen anyone for so long, and now he was startled by a person who jumped out suddenly, flaunting his claws to get himself off the barbed wire, and was about to fall He was as dexterous as a cat on all fours in front of the ground, which seemed to have been specially practiced, but at this time the unloading man had already rushed to him and grabbed him by the collar.

The face of the bastard who turned over the barbed wire was immediately exposed to the light source. The unloader was stunned for a moment and thought that the one he caught should be a black man, but he was a Chinese boy. I don’t know if it’s because of his preconceived ideas. , Opened his mouth in English with an accent: "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! I am not here to steal!"

"Don't tell yourself, right?" The unloader looked at the boy with contempt, and then carefully looked at the open space behind the barbed wire, "Where's your partner? You can't be alone, right?"

"It's just me. I'm not here to steal, I'm here to find someone."

"Looking for someone? Who are you looking for in the port area in the middle of the night?"

"Find a woman!"

The unloading officer looked at this kid with even more contempt, probably thinking about finding a woman to find the port at night, why don't you go to Millennium Park and the dog alley in the downtown area and come here to play tricks on ghosts?

"Brother, good man, I'm not here to steal anything. This is my student ID card." The bastard took out a small book from his handbag and handed it over. The student ID card seems to be a serious Ivy League student ID card, it is clearly written on it [Kassel College·2009·Department of History·MingFei Lu]

It seems that he is really a high-achieving student?This made the unloading worker loosen the collar he was holding on to, took a step back and looked at the boy suspiciously, comparing him with the photo on his student ID card, and after confirming that it was correct, his attitude changed a bit: "You What are college students doing here at night?"

"Looking for someone, looking for someone, really looking for someone. Brother, have you seen my friend here?" The other party gasped and took out his mobile phone from his arms and took out a photo and handed it to the unloader.

The kid with snarky eyebrows and mouse eyes is exactly Lu Mingfei, just like what he said, he really came to look for someone after climbing over the barbed wire fence to enter the port area.

Twenty minutes ago, Su Xiaoqiang and Chu Zihang found out the place where Shao Nanqin might be detained through the recording of the phone call, but it was still too difficult to find people along the lake and in containers. Chicago has two port areas along the lake, and four major ports. , combined together to form a 10-long wharf shoreline, with such a huge search range, they can only temporarily start searching from the most conspicuous point.

Lu Mingfei came all the way to this freight port by car. This is his main search place. Xia Mi and Chu Zihang both went to search in more remote ports, because the more remote the place, the more likely Tibetans are. The bigger it is, on the contrary, the international cargo port they asked Lu Mingfei to search is filled with people almost every night, and there will be cargo ships unloading to the port area late at night. If they were kidnappers, they would never take huge risks to hide hostages in In this kind of place, maybe the container holding the hostages was accidentally thrown on the ship and sent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Lu Mingfei didn't mind his trip in vain, because he thought it was best to leave the delicate work of finding someone to a careful person. He thought Chu Zihang was very careful, and he could infer from the phone recording. To produce so much useful information, compared to myself, I was too sloppy, and I was doing my best to be a good dog and run errands to eliminate the furthest wrong answer.

"This is your girlfriend?" The unloader took a look at the photo Lu Mingfei handed over, and then his eyes lit up, because the photo was taken on the beach during the day, and the heroine was wearing a bikini. With such good looks, the [-]-year-old unloading man couldn't help giving a thumbs up to show his approval.

"Friend, ordinary friend, she. She disappeared. From the last phone call, it seems that she may be locked in a container, so I came here to find someone." Lu Mingfei has no haste and can't make up a better lie. Come on, I can only follow the teachings in the thick emergency response manual of the executive department, telling half the truth is an invulnerable lie.

"My friend is missing?" The unloading worker was a little surprised and frowned, looking up and down at the child who was about the same age as his family.

If someone said this to him normally, he would have scolded him for being crazy and turned his head away, but now he hesitated and continued to ask: "Did you call the police?"

"It must be reported." Lu Mingfei thought that the people from the executive department were all on board, so this should be regarded as calling the police, right?

"Are you sure your friend is locked in the container?" The elder brother of the unloader turned his head and glanced at the container area. He seemed to think of something, and said with an uneasy expression, "Your friend will not meet someone who takes 'dark goods'." Primer' right?"

"What?" Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment, but he didn't understand the uncommon local slang of the unloading man.

"People smuggling. I heard that there are gangs involved in this area in the southern district. They trick women into selling them to Southeast Asia for skin and meat business. Their usual method is to hide people in containers and deliver them to the ship. Those women eat and drink along the way. Lazard is in the container, last time our brothers and security guards caught a batch of problematic boxes, and the smell almost took us away after opening it." The elder brother unloading said with a frown.

As he said that, he turned his head and glanced at the container area where he heard the abnormal noise before, paused and said, "Boy, when did your friend lose it?"

"yesterday."

"Yesterday? That's too late." The unloader brother shook his head, "I don't know how many boats have passed since yesterday."

"I want to look for it, and never touch the things inside. I just call my friend's name twice in the box area and walk around to see if there is any movement!"

"It doesn't count if I say it." The unloading man was a little hesitant, but he glanced at the photo of the girl on Lu Mingfei's phone, and thought of his own daughter who was about the same age as she was in college, and waved his hand irritably. "Forget it, come with me. I'll drive a forklift to take you around twice. You shout louder, and leave quickly if you don't move. Just leave it to the police to find someone. Don't work in vain. If you meet someone with a You have to confess your life here, your parents didn’t send you to the Ivy League to learn how to investigate crimes, so don’t waste your life.”

Anyway, along the way, I saw that the security personnel had already gone to play cards and skip work. Let this kid howl twice at the port without delaying anything. If you really find someone, you can call the police and go to the Chicago police station to solve the case. What, maybe he can get an extra bonus if he pays his salary in two days.

"Thank you, brother." Lu Mingfei was overjoyed, he didn't expect to be able to ride on the forklift.

As soon as the unloader brother said it, he turned around and took Lu Mingfei onto the forklift. The forklift, which was going to the return point, stepped on the accelerator and turned to the container area with its headlights on.

Lu Mingfei also took a deep breath and shouted the name "Shao Nanqin" vigorously. His voice was full of smoke, and the voice echoed in the quiet port area. The security guard who was summoned was ready to explain the origin of the kid beside him at any time.

The forklift made half a circle around the container area, and Lu Mingfei also yelled for a long time. Seeing Lu Mingfei yelling with all his might, the unloader brother turned the steering wheel and drove the forklift towards the next door. The direction of the port of shipment.

The forklift wobbled past, Lu Mingfei shouted his name until he coughed, and the brother unloader handed him a thermos cup filled with coffee to moisten his throat. Lu Mingfei said thank you. While drinking coffee, suddenly the forklift came He stopped, and the feeling of pushing his back almost made him put the coffee up his nose. Before he coughed, he heard the big brother next to him make a puzzled voice: "Huh? This container"

Lu Mingfei grabbed the thermos and followed his elder brother's line of sight. He saw a large red container piled up by the lakeside at the unloading port, and subconsciously asked, "Brother, what's wrong?"

The brother unloader waved his hand, pulled on the handbrake of the forklift, pulled out the flashlight on his waist and got out of the car. Lu Mingfei quickly put down the thermos and followed, watching the brother unloader turn on the flashlight and shine it on the crimson container Sweeping.

"Is there something wrong?" Lu Mingfei looked at the container, the front was painted with "AMSB (American Shipping Company)" in white, and he couldn't tell the difference from the others.

"Why is there no box number." The unloader elder brother frowned.

In addition to the company name, there are many numbers and letters on a normal container, usually consisting of three parts, four English letters representing the owner, operator, and loading tool, a six-digit registration code, and a container type code.But there is nothing on this dark red container, and it looks very brand new, and I don't know when it was placed here.

"Security room, security room, this is John, can you come to Port No. 11 in Area B? I seem to have some problems here, and I want to check the registration information of some containers with the management department." The unloading brother picked up the walkie-talkie Hold the button and say.

Lu Mingfei immediately regained his energy when he heard this, but he didn't act rashly. He just waited for the unloading man's brother to say.

But after a while, there was no response from the walkie-talkie in the hand of the unloader, and there was still no response after repeating the call two or three times.

"Damn, they skipped shifts so thoroughly? Everyone left the port area?" The unloader brother muttered and put down the walkie-talkie, walked to the container opening by himself, and looked at the undamaged container lock, common sense He knocked on the iron sheet with a flashlight and shouted, "Is there anyone inside?"

There was no movement.

The big unloader glanced back at Lu Mingfei. According to this boy, his friend was locked in the container. Everyone knew the answer to knocking and shouting. Now that there is really no movement inside, he dare not just Opening this box, even if it looks weird without a code, it is a taboo in their business to open the box privately. If something happens, they may lose their job, or even have to be sued in court for compensation.

"Hey, kid, it's not that I won't help you." Just as he turned his head to say something to Lu Mingfei, the container in front of him actually responded to the slight knocking sound from the inside out!

(End of this chapter)