traces of all things

New Year's Eve, Quanhe City, Jiang Province, one o'clock in the afternoon.

"Quanhe is coming soon. Where's the person who said to get off at the side of the road just now? Get out of the car!"

The bus driver spoke with a Jiang province accent and shouted without looking back.

It's the end of the new year, and it's almost the end of the new year. The tide of returning home has come to an end. Airplanes and trains are no longer enough to meet the needs of the mighty migrating army. Even the buses in this province are full of people. Catch the last bus home for New Year's Eve.

In order to make it easier for passengers to go home, and also to speed up the turnaround, some bus drivers would stop on the side of the country road before reaching the bus station in violation of regulations. Everyone has long been used to it, and everyone is not surprised.

Hearing what the driver said, a tall male passenger with only a small bag on his back stood up from the front row, protecting his bag in his hand and holding a small stack of old newspapers in his other arm, and hurriedly squeezed through the crowd. past.

"Squeeze what! Don't you have eyes!" A bad-tempered man was uncomfortable being squeezed and yelled.

The tall man turned his head and glanced coolly.

With a hat on his head, he couldn't see his facial features clearly, but the bad-tempered man lost his temper inexplicably.

Just...at that moment...he felt a very dangerous breath.

Just as he was getting goosebumps, the bus had restarted, and the tall man had disappeared.

The car roared past wrapped in sand and dust. There were no people on the road, only rows of greenhouses standing on both sides in the cold winter, and a figure wearing a hat on the side of the road.

Rui Chengye opened the newspaper in his hand, and his eyes naturally fell on the headlines on the front page.

This is a Quanhe city newspaper, and there are not many readers on weekdays. It is often thrown everywhere, as waste paper for wrapping things, or cleaning glass or something. There is a line of large characters printed on the small page.

"The young policeman was persistent in searching for his hometown, and after 25 years, he caught the murderer of his mother with his own hands!"

He shook his head silently, not knowing what he was thinking, reconfirmed the address of the crime mentioned in the newspaper in his hand, and walked towards Dashui Township, Quanhe City.

It's night time.

Tonight is New Year's Eve.

Yujia Village is brightly lit, and there are joyful scenes everywhere. The small village has just snowed two days ago, and the soft snowdrifts set off the small wooden farmyard. Coupled with the red letters and red paper in front of the gate, it looks very warm. .

The windows of every household reveal a happy family atmosphere. Some children who are not afraid of the cold are still happily setting off fireworks and firecrackers outside the door.

"This is fun, let's light it in the yard!" A brat put a second kicker on the snowman at the gate of the yard, and lit the fuse.

With a loud bang, the second kicker ran across, hit the door of the family's house, and exploded.

The beautiful big brown-red iron gate was dented.

"Little bastard, you're still a demon during the Chinese New Year!" The adult who heard the sound picked up the broom and beat up the brat.

"Do you still dare? Huh? Does it hurt?" The adult beat him twice, and he felt sorry for himself. Seeing that the bear was full of tears, he sighed helplessly, put down the broom in his hand, and put down the broom in the place where the bear was beaten. I rubbed my buttocks.

Sobbing, the brat crawled into the adult's arms, trying to act coquettishly.

Rui Chengye stared at this ordinary picture of mother and child getting along from a distance, and did not move for a long time.

The little bear was tired from crying and started to hiccup. His big red eyes had doubts: "Mom, hiccup, that one over there has been looking at us, hiccup, who is uncle?"

"Where?" Mother turned her head to look in which direction, but there was no one in the white snow.

**

New Year's Eve, Quanhe City, Jiang Province, eleven o'clock in the evening.

The light of the flashlight hit the iron railing in front of him.

This is the halfway up a hill near Yujia Village. It is said that it is the cemetery with the best conditions around. In the middle of the night, there was no one on duty in the cemetery. With a flick of his back, he rolled over the railing as lightly as a swallow.

Walking through the long corridor, he soon found the target.

An exquisite stone tablet with the names of two people written on it.

"Yu Shuisheng, Cuiping"

There was something that looked like a photo pasted on the name, and Rui Chengye lit it with the flashlight that came with his mobile phone, and found that it was not a photo, but a beautifully drawn portrait.

He sat on the ground in front of the tombstone, looking at the portrait quietly, his eyes gradually became more steamy.

"Dad...? Mom...?"

A barely audible murmur dissipated in the cold air of the cemetery.

The surroundings fell into silence again.

Until six o'clock in the morning, the sky was twilight.

A figure with some dew on his hair quietly turned over the railing of the cemetery.

**

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, in the provincial capital of province A, one o'clock in the afternoon.

For the first time in the community where Lu Zheng lives, the property management has started patrolling the middle of the corridor.

"Hey, thanks to the police officer for reminding us to pay attention, the recent small advertisements are indeed a bit too much." The property staff and the security brother next to him said, as they walked, they went from house to house, cleaning up all kinds of door handles in the cracks small ad.

"There are also advertising stickers on the wall." The big security guard looked depressed: "After one wave is cleared, there will be another wave. I can't control it."

"I can't help it. Someone has an opinion, so we have to improve it." The property manager muttered, and looked up at the door in front of him: "Hey, Cao Cao is here, isn't this the police officer's house? Oh, what? There are so many, they are all full!"

In front of Room 201, there were a lot of paper stuffed in the crack of the door and in the handle of the door.

"I didn't have time to clean it up. Police officer Lu seemed to be working overtime last night. I didn't see him come back." The security uncle helped to take out all the pieces of paper and put them into the garbage bag in his hand: "I was on duty and heard the siren all night. , don't know what happened."

"Tsk tsk, don't be the serial killer or something in the previous news, it's scary."

The property owner looked terrified, and after cleaning up the doorways of the last few houses, he and the security guard threw the plastic bags full of various garbage advertisements into the full trash can in the community.

A gust of wind blew through, and several sheets of paper rustled, and one of them was blown away by the wind, fluttering and falling on the ground outside the trash can.

There are a few lines of dense and messy handwriting on it.

"...Brother, I only have you, please, help me..."

"...If you want, see you at the east gate of Chengbei Park at [-]:[-] p.m.

A wild cat "meowed" and jumped on the paper and scratched it a few times. The paper was broken into small pieces and blown away in the wind.

**

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, in the provincial capital of province A, at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Lu Zheng dragged his tired body back to the community.

Because of the suspect's blood relationship with him this time, it's not easy for him to intervene too much, but Tang Shaoyuan still needs someone to help watch over the case. Both of them spent their thirties in the ward.He just stayed up in the middle of the night yesterday, and he was a little sleepy at this time.

"Hey, Police Officer Lu." The security guard at the door waved enthusiastically: "All the small advertisements in the corridor have been cleaned up!"

Lu Zheng was surprised.In fact, at the beginning, he asked the security guard and the property owner to help him pay attention to the small advertisements in order to find out the mysterious person who sent him the message. It seems that the security guards were wrong and thought that Lu Zheng felt that these advertisement papers needed to be cleaned up.

But now the identity of this mysterious person has been revealed, and there is no need for clarification, and his work is quite hard, so Lu Zheng nodded and sincerely thanked him for leaving.

After bidding farewell to the enthusiastic security guard, Lu Zheng went upstairs to go home. Just as he closed the door, he heard the phone ringing in his coat pocket.

When I picked it up, it was an unknown number.

"Hey?"

"Mr. Lu Zheng? This is the management office of the Dashui Town Cemetery."

The call came from an unexpected person. When Lu Zheng heard this, his heart tightened. He was afraid that there was something wrong with his parents' cemetery, so he hurriedly asked what it was.

"It's like this. Our administrators went to patrol the cemetery this afternoon and found that there was a bouquet of small white flowers on your parents' cemetery, and there was a hat in front of the tombstone. That flower looks very fresh. Yes, but we didn't open the door on New Year's Eve yesterday, so we suspected that someone had entered the cemetery and done these things, so we came here to ask you."

Lu Zheng understood now, and the subtext was: "Did you come to sweep the grave? Don't climb over the wall when the door is closed, it's an example!"

But... a hat?

Thanks to the recent bloody life, Lu Zheng instinctively developed some special sensitivity to such accessories.

"I haven't been there. What does that hat look like? Can you describe it to me?"

"Oh, yes!" The management staff over there were also very surprised when they heard this: "It's the kind of round hat with a short brim, and then black, what's it called? Ah, yes, a fisherman's hat!"

Fisherman's hat.

These three words resounded like a heavy bomb in my heart.

Lu Zheng felt his palms were sweating.

He was sure that the person who appeared in the Jiang province cemetery was definitely Ah Zhi!

But how did he escape the police encirclement in the provincial capital?All trains and planes are being monitored, so the only way to exclude the private cars that have been carefully interrogated is the long-distance bus!

Thinking of this, he quickly called Wei Xiongfeng.

"No problem, leave it to me!" Wei Xiongfeng was overjoyed when he heard this: "I'll contact my colleagues in Jiang Province to see if they can get the surveillance!"

**

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the provincial capital of Province A, 05:30 in the afternoon.

Time passed little by little while Lu Zheng waited anxiously, and finally, Geng Zhizhong brought back good news.

"Lu, there are clues. According to the bus driver's investigation, a bus driver remembered that this passenger once took a long-distance bus he drove, and got off near Quanhe City in the middle. According to the time node provided by the cemetery, I found the conductor who once sold tickets to Rui Chengye, and according to the estimated time of buying the tickets, Rui Chengye is likely to arrive in the provincial capital soon!"

"Don't go on this operation, Lu." Geng Zhizhong changed the subject and said, "Relax at home and recharge your spirits."

Lu Zheng responded in a low voice, hung up the phone, covered his eyes with the back of his hand, and fell on the bed.

**

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, in the provincial capital of province A, at six o'clock in the afternoon.

A police car roared past and rushed towards the north of the city. Soon, they made preparations near the long-distance passenger station and took up their positions.

A young couple stood at the east gate of Chengbei Park opposite the long-distance passenger station, looking at the police car in front of them in surprise.

"God, dear, what's going on here? I've never seen so many police cars dispatched together." The girl said a little scared.

Originally, the two of them were going on a date at Chengbei Park.

Looking at this posture now, it seems that something extraordinary has happened. For the sake of safety, the young couple quickly walked away, away from this land of right and wrong.

In a hidden alley opposite the east gate of the park in the north of the city, a tall and thin man put on the hood of a jumper, looked at the police cars whizzing by in front of him with an unfathomable expression, his face was cold, and he bit his lip.

**

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, in the provincial capital of province A, it's three o'clock in the afternoon.

The arrest operation last night ended in failure, and the entire city bureau was filled with a decadent atmosphere.Most of the police force was mobilized, and they waited for a whole night near the long-distance bus station, but they didn't see anyone who looked like Rui Chengye appear.

Just as Xue Yiwei was sitting in the office sorting out materials with a depressed face, there was a knock on the door suddenly.

"Come in!"

The one who walked in was Xiao Li who was in charge of the reception in the reception room. He was accompanied by a thin and withered old man with a nervous and apprehensive expression on his face.

For some reason, Xue Yiwei felt that this old man looked familiar.

"Officer Xue, this old man just appeared in the reception room and said that he has something important to report, and it's about Team Leader Lu of the Provincial Department. I don't have the contact information of Team Leader Lu, so I had to come to you."

Is it related to Team Leader Lu?

Xue Yiwei couldn't help frowning, and pulled the stool in front of him: "Please sit down, old man."

After the little old man sat down, as if he couldn't hold back, he asked eagerly, "Officer, do you have Xiaolu's cell phone number? I don't have his phone number, so I can't reach him, and he's not at home."

Xue Yiwei was even more confused now: "I have, is there anything urgent you need to do with him?"

The little old man nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes, can you make a call for me? Just say that Lao Zhou, who sells pancakes, has something to do with him."