I struggled hard, and suddenly a thin, short man wearing an animal skin appeared before my eyes. He held a bow and arrow in his hand. I thought he was going to attack me, but unexpectedly, he whistled, and a monkey ran over from not far away, directly breaking the vine tied around my neck!
Only then did I realize that it was a vine that had bound me. My eyesight was really failing me.
The monkey quickly came to the man's side, and I was saved. I immediately pounced on him, and the guy yelled, "Hey, hey! What are you doing? I saved you, and you're repaying kindness with enmity!"
I took out my police ID: "Police, why are you here?" Although my ID was an advisor's card, even just the cover was enough to scare the man in front of me.
"I'm a hunter here, why can't I appear? So you're a police officer, I didn't know. I thought you were a wild boar just now!" The man chuckled, not nervous at all.
He didn't seem like a suspect, so I let go of him and said, "Don't wander around here. By the way, why are there so many gravestones in this place?"
"This is a graveyard. There's a place called Taifu Village nearby, and I live there. Officer, would you like to take a look?"
The man seemed quite polite, and I thought he wouldn't harm me, so I said, "Sure, you lead the way!"
"Oh, forget it. I was going to hunt some game, but since I met you today, let's go back!"
I followed the hunter away from the graveyard. For some reason, once he led the way, I found it very easy to get out.
We walked along a small mountain path and arrived outside a small village not far away. The man said, "My name is Yang Liangchou, and I'm from Taifu Village. Officer, why did you come to such a place alone?" Read here.
I said I was investigating a case and got lost in the pine forest. Yang Liangchou didn't ask much, just said "Oh," and then led me into the village.
The man in front of me looked completely different from Shi Jing, the person we were looking for. There was a village nearby, could Shi Jing also be from here?
I guessed, carefully following behind Yang Liangchou. From his appearance, he should be unaware, but it's also possible that this guy has strong psychological resilience and is just pretending. In any case, I have to proceed cautiously. I pressed my walkie-talkie. Although I didn't speak into it, I knew Liu Yuning could find my location.
Once I secured a way out, I was no longer afraid of this Yang Liangchou. In fact, I had already noticed something was off about him.
But I calmly followed him to a house in the village. He shouted inside, "Old woman, I've brought a guest today! Take care of him, I'm going to the back to feed the cows!"
As Yang Liangchou spoke, a woman in farmer's clothes cautiously opened the door and said, "Huh? Who is this?"
Before I could speak, Yang Liangchou took the initiative to say, "He's a police officer, you take good care of him!"
"Police." My eyes flickered, and I noticed that the woman in front of me showed a hint of almost imperceptible panic.
But she quickly recovered and said, "Okay! Please come in!"
I followed her inside, and Yang Liangchou left. After entering the house, I found that although the house looked very simple from the outside, the furniture inside was brand new, likely high-end. I sat on a sofa and sent another message on my phone, then deliberately said, "Madam, your family seems quite wealthy?"
"Where is it wealthy? This is all government subsidies."
"Subsidies? Are rural subsidies so high now?" I said, feigning an inquiry.
The woman was pouring me tea. Although her back was to me, I noticed she seemed to have put something into the cup.
When she turned around and put down the cup, I saw that her fingers were calloused. She politely said to me, "Officer, please have some tea, don't be polite."
Unexpectedly, I slammed my hand on the table: "Heh, you're trying to poison me?"
"What? Officer, don't talk nonsense!"
"You put arsenic in the cup just now!" I said decisively.
"H-how did you know?" The woman was stunned and quickly took two steps back. However, I didn't give her a chance to escape. I pounced on her, subdued her, and handcuffed her behind her back: "Now I suspect you of drug trafficking and murder. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!"
"Don't do anything rash, I haven't trafficked drugs or murdered anyone!"
"Heh, you can explain that to my colleagues!"
At the same time, the siren of police cars could be heard from outside the village. I knew the SWAT team had arrived, as their sirens were slightly more urgent than regular police cars due to their armored vehicles.
The moment I pulled the woman out of the village house, Liu Yuning, Gao Mingqiang, and others, along with the SWAT team, had subdued all the villagers and discovered a large amount of opium near a vast grassy area behind the village.
Yang Liangchou knew he had been tricked. As he was being taken away by the SWAT team, he cursed at me, "You damned cop, you did this on purpose!"
"Heh, did you really think I didn't know what you were up to?" I stood straight with my hands in my pockets, smoking a cigarette, and said confidently.
"I won't let you go! You just wait and see!"
"Shut your mouth and get in the car!" a SWAT officer cursed, throwing Yang Liangchou into the armored vehicle like cargo.
Villager after villager was taken away. After the village matters were sorted out, Liu Yuning curiously asked me, "Consultant He, you're truly amazing. How did you know they were trafficking drugs here?"
"The moment I saw Yang Liangchou, I noticed the scratches on his fingers from medicinal herbs. I didn't know what kind of herbs they were, but when I sniffed, I smelled opium on him. Then I came to their house and found that although it looked poor from the outside, the furniture inside was high-end, proving they were actually quite wealthy. If I'm not mistaken, every house in the village is like this. Also, the woman's fingers were calloused, which is left from constantly handling knives or wooden roots. She also tried to poison me, so she must be a drug lord. If I couldn't figure this out, wouldn't I be too stupid?"
My long explanation left Liu Yuning speechless, and she fell into a daze. After a while, she gave me a thumbs-up and said, "Impressive. But how did you know we could find this place?"
"Heh, I left markings on the trees, and I deliberately spat a few times. Even if you couldn't find it, the police dogs definitely could!"
As soon as I finished speaking, a dog's bark could be heard from not far away...