Play bone

In the end, An Huawen offered 8000 yuan to buy the two photos shown by the proprietress, and got Chen Zhong’s address by the way—a few years ago, he built a breeding base for rare flowers and trees in the mountains a short distance from the town. By the way, the house was also moved there.

After eating, the four of them bid farewell to the proprietress and left the restaurant.Back in the car, the sharply shrinking space condensed the distance between people, and the atmosphere became awkward.

Goudan sitting in the front row winked at An Huawen, An Huawen rolled his eyes back, put on his sunglasses, and started the car.

As if taking advantage of the sound of the engine's vibration, Shen Xing chose to lean slightly towards Lu Li.

"Xiaoli..."

"Ok?"

Lu Li, who had been lowering his head in thought after getting into the car, raised his head in a daze.

Unlike Shen Xingze's presumed situation, Lu Li's expression at the moment is calm, even a little dazed.This kind of behavior actually choked Shen Xingzhuo's words to comfort him in his throat.

The two of them stared at each other silently for a few seconds, and Shen Xingze finally found his voice.

"……Let's go back."

His voice even made An Huawen involuntarily slow down the car.

"I don't want to continue the investigation, let's go back to Shanghai."

Goudan silently opened his mouth wide in the passenger seat, and the calmness on Lu Li's face was finally broken.

"Do not make jokes."

But he just said this softly, as if a tiny pebble had been swallowed by the surface of the lake, and soon returned to the strange calm that was no different from before.

The vehicle is driving on the small road in the village that is not spacious.According to the direction directed by the proprietress, I left the big tree and stone bridge at the entrance of the town that I passed yesterday, and turned to a fork at the foot of the mountain 100 meters ahead.

According to the road signs, this two-lane mountain road should lead to Linzhen.After turning a few sharp bends, the view suddenly opened up—the hillside turned into a flat land, and on the flat land was an endless and colorful flower field.

Because of the distance, they couldn't see the specific flower varieties, but the colorful colors that covered the earth were enough to make people feel refreshed.An Huawen simply opened the car windows and sunroof, letting the warm wind with a slight fragrance of flowers blow into the car.

After advancing along the road on flat ground for a few minutes, the vehicle circled back to the mountainous area.However, the flower fields are still spreading - the former terraced fields have been transformed into a row of flower belts, roses, hydrangeas, peonies, poppies... May is the season when all kinds of flowers are in full bloom, and occasionally you can see sketch painters sitting In the flower field.

"Chen Zhong's house is right on top of this terraced field!"

Goudan pointed to a simple road sign made by the roadside.

Lu Li turned his eyes to the farther halfway up the mountain, and indeed he saw a blue roof looming under the shade of green trees.

He wanted to take a closer look, but someone interrupted his thoughts.

It was Shen Xingze who pressed his hand.

"Xiaoli."

This time, Shen Xingze didn't plan to say anything else, he just leaned over suddenly and kissed Lu Li on the cheek.

Lu Li was taken aback by his new short beard, and looked innocently at the man who made the surprise attack.

"what are you doing……"

Because of the disguise, Shen Xingze looked at least fourteen or fifteen years older than his actual age.But this calm and dignified face is showing a kind of uneasiness like a child or a small animal at the moment.It seemed that if Lu Li remained indifferent to his overtures, then he might really want to cry in the next second.

This sharp contrast made Lu Li a little horrified at first, but the horrific soon turned into absurd, absurd became ridiculous, and ridiculous finally turned into pathetic.

This is Shen Xingxuan, a man who never shows weakness in front of anyone.But now he does not hesitate to show his most helpless expression.

Lu Li's heart also softened, and this softness softened his calm eyes.Just like the West Lake water in April, the most beautiful moment is when it is wrinkled by the spring breeze.

Just when the two of them were looking at each other speechlessly and affectionately, the vehicle had nimbly turned a few turns on the mountain road, and soon approached the blue-roofed buildings.

----------

The proprietress was right, Chen Zhong's family looked very good - a brand new villa-like small bungalow with solar photovoltaic panels and a satellite cauldron on the roof.In addition to agricultural vehicles, there are also brand-name cars with local license plates on the roadside.Two Alaskan husky dogs were lounging and dozing in the hallway.A flock of free-range chickens is cooing in the garden.

Although it was a bit abrupt to visit rashly, the four handsome strangers led by mixed races and well-dressed were still warmly received by their hosts.

But by coincidence, Chen Zhong escorted a batch of flowers to the provincial capital a few days ago, and he will not be able to return until tonight at the earliest.It was his wife who received the visitor.

Thanks to the boss lady's strategy, everyone has a general understanding of Chen Zhong's family.It's like the Mrs. Chen in front of me is named Zhang Xia, who was a teacher in the town's primary school more than 20 years ago.She and Chen Zhongyu have a son and a daughter. The daughter is in a boarding school in the provincial capital. The son has just graduated from university and is currently helping with the flower business at home.

After the two parties sat down and exchanged a few words of pleasantries, An Huawen directly cut to the topic, took out the photo bought from the proprietress, and wanted to ask about the past.

As soon as she saw the photo, Zhang Xia's expression immediately became subtle.Although she hasn't spoken yet, anyone with a discerning eye can already confirm what she must know.

Therefore, when she shook her head and said "can't remember", An Huawen didn't even hesitate for half a second, and immediately asked her to help and try to remember.

"Actually, we were entrusted by Wu Sheng in the photo. He has now settled abroad."

He explained their reason for coming in this way, and then told some trivia about the town in Shen Xingze's memory.In the end, Wu Sheng wanted to thank his benefactor who helped him back then, but he was too young at that time, and his mother passed away unexpectedly, so he failed to do so. It was not until recently that he asked someone to investigate Chen Zhong's address.

Zhang Xia was dubious, and her expression became more and more complicated.Although those old events also made her look nostalgic, her doubts did not disappear.

An Huawen winked at Goudan, and Goudan immediately took out his mobile phone and opened the photo album knowingly.

In his photo album, besides Shen Xingze's childhood paintings sent from the United States a while ago, there are also some remakes of old photos.They were all photos of Shen Xingze when he was a child, or of his mother.

Zhang Xia stopped after flipping through a few photos, then raised her head again, squinting her eyes to look at Goudan.

Lu Li, who was closest to her, quickly understood the thoughts behind these glances - Goudan and Shen Xingze's mother are sisters, and he is so young, the corners of his eyes and brows must be somewhat similar to Xiao Wusheng back then. .

He simply pointed out the relationship between Goudan and Wu Sheng.Zhang Xia suddenly realized and nodded, the fulfillment of her intuition obviously pleased her subconsciously.

Taking advantage of this joy, An Huawen continued to make sincere requests, hoping that Zhang Xia would lend a helping hand.Of course, in return, Wu Sheng will provide a considerable amount of money to repay them, just like his mother did back then.

I don't know whether it is reason or money that moved Zhang Xia.She hesitated for a while, and expressed embarrassingly that she would make a phone call first to ask her husband's opinion.

So she took out her mobile phone, got up and was about to go out.Just at this time, a few dogs barking came from outside the house, and a young man walked in surrounded by Alaska's affectionate friends. He suddenly bumped into four strangers in the living room, and seemed to be taken aback.

Zhang Xia hurriedly introduced that this is Chen Cong, the son of her and Chen Zhong.He was born in the same year as Lu Li, so he was just 21 years old.The young man was indeed handsome, but in terms of facial features, he had no resemblance to Lu Li back then.

Zhang Xia left her son to greet the guests, and ran out to make a phone call by herself.The 21-year-old boy didn't know what to say, so he shyly poured water for all the guests.Fortunately, Zhang Xia came back soon, and waved her son up the stairs.

"My husband said, yes."

She looked embarrassed, but she threw out good news: "However, he asked me to confirm with you again and again that he is really a member of Ms. Wu's family. After all, we are also kind, you can't harm us!"

An Huawen nodded and answered, of course, Goudan next to him even took out his temporary residence permit for foreigners from his bag, and pointed to the pinyin of the surname on it to prove that his surname was indeed Wu.

In fact, Zhang Xia knew very well in her heart that after all these years, there was no direct way to prove their identities, so she hesitated for a while, and finally convinced herself.

"It's been more than 20 years, so it shouldn't matter if I talk about it for a while..."

------

That was exactly 27 years ago.The more specific time was December of that year, when the second heavy snow fell in the small town at the end of the year.

Around five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was already groggy, and the street lights were on.A thin layer of fresh snow lay on the deserted streets.

Chen Zhong, who was still a small flower farmer at the time, was riding a bicycle slowly.He was going to pick up his girlfriend Zhang Xia from get off work at the only elementary school in the town.

In order to take care of the parents who work from [-] to [-], the school has set up difficult classes in the first to third grades.Young and unmarried teachers like Zhang Xia became the main force in taking care of difficult classes in turn.Around five o'clock, the difficult class was basically over, and Chen Zhong planned to take Zhang Xia to a nearby restaurant for hot pot.If the atmosphere and Zhang Xia's mood are good enough, they can even talk about the future of the two of them.

The snow was falling heavily, and the northwest wind blew on the face, giving the illusion of a knife.Chen Zhong shrank his neck and rode forward against the wall of the alley.Turn two more turns and you will reach the entrance of the primary school, where you can meet Zhang Xia and eat hot pot...

But after riding less than 100 meters, he stopped.

There are people on the side of the road.

To be more precise, it looked more like a mass of human silhouettes.In the dark corner where the street lights can't reach, it seems to be still moving slowly.

Chen Zhong was taken aback, and instinctively slowed down the car to look carefully.He soon discovered that it was the old lady in the Wu family's mansion at the west end of the town.

The grandma is not familiar with Chen Zhong, that is to say, she has been to Chen Zhong's house several times and played mahjong with his grandma.But in the past few years, the Wu family has had a moth, and the grandmother has said bad things behind her back more than once, and she has gradually become estranged from the Wu family's grave relatives.

But estrangement is estrangement, and one cannot help but to see death.Reluctantly putting his girlfriend and hot pot aside temporarily, Chen Zhong hurried forward to help him up.

The old man seemed to have been lying in the snow for about 10 minutes, his whole body was frozen, he just kept talking about what kind of car he was hit by, and he couldn't explain the rest for a while.

It was 2003, and mobile phones were not so common yet.Instead of calling 120, Chen Zhong helped the old man onto the bicycle and rushed all the way to the town hospital.

After almost 10 minutes, he sent the old man to the emergency department of the hospital.Unexpectedly, the troubles were just the beginning.

After recovering, the old man began to beg him to help pick up her little grandson from school—this was Wu Sheng's public identity.Thinking that his girlfriend was still in school anyway, Chen Zhong nodded in agreement.

By the time I left the hospital, it had been a long time since five o'clock.Chen Zhong, who was worried about his girlfriend's complaints, speeded up and walked through the heavy snow.

The surroundings are groggy and pitch black, and the school is like a lighthouse on the vast sea, waiting for his arrival.

However, when he actually rode to the school gate, he saw a dark high-end car parked at the school gate, and the child of the Wu family was being led into the car by two tall men in suits.