Chapter 383 It’s going to rain
It's almost Qingming Festival and it's going to rain.
On a gloomy afternoon, Zhang Liushun, an old man, sighed on his way back to Jiangchuan City: "A rain around Qingming Festival is as good as a scholar passing the imperial examination. This year, their Huafeng farmland has another good harvest."
Today, Old Man Zhang is not only a member of the board of directors of the Yunxi Village Collective Shareholding Cooperative, but also serves as the agricultural supplies manager of Huafeng Company. He is also the gossip center of Yunxi Village as the "old chairman of Liansheng Group". He has both substance and reputation, and lives a happy and comfortable life in his hometown.
Old man Zhang's job is mainly to take care of the entry and exit of fertilizers, seeds, feed and other agricultural materials of Huafeng Company. He has two young and strong men to help him. He mainly counts the number and signs, and his work is very leisurely.
This old man who couldn't stay idle would go to Wang Jingshan from their company whenever he had nothing to do. As time went by, the old and the young became very close.
Wang Jingshan is an agricultural technology expert hired by the company's general manager Tan Shenghe from Xiangnan Agricultural University. He is young and promising, has a cheerful personality, and most importantly, has strong abilities.
Old man Zhang followed him around every day, studying agricultural expertise, such as how to efficiently fertilize ducks at the base, when is the best time to breed old sows, how many hens should a rooster mate with to achieve the best fighting power...
After studying these, Zhang was no longer interested in doing rough farm work with the farmers in the village. He followed Wang Jingshan every day, rooted in the piles of chicken, duck and pig manure, and was fascinated by him.
I don’t think about Jiangchuan’s home anymore.
He only returns once every half a month.
This time the old man was back and it was close to Qingming Festival. Zhang's mother, the head of the Zhang family, wanted to invite her children to have a family gathering to have some fun and discuss the tomb sweeping this year.
On weekdays, everyone in the Zhang family is busy with their own careers, so it is no longer easy to have a reunion dinner together. For this matter, Zhang's mother had already informed the eldest son Zhang Yunfeng, the second son Zhang Qiulan, and the third son Zhang Yunqi.
Zhang Yunqi was cooking at home that day.
This was the first time he helped his mother in the kitchen since New Year's Eve.
While cooking, Aunt Zhang kept saying, "The eldest and second sons are here today. It's rare for the family to have a meal together. Third son, why don't you drive over to pick up your sister? Even if she has to take care of a friend in the hospital, she should have time for dinner, right?"
Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "I went to the hospital this morning and talked to Chunlan. She told me that her classmate Peng Li was in very poor health. If she left, there would be no one to take care of her. She will not come tonight. When Peng Li's parents come, she can go home and live there immediately."
Aunt Zhang sighed: "What's wrong with this girl?"
Zhang Yunqi didn't say anything else, and buried his head in washing, cutting, and cooking vegetables...
The boss Zhang Yunfeng and Zhang Xiaonan arrived at around six o'clock.
Zhang Xiaonan was pregnant with a big belly.
Zhang Yunfeng was dressed in a suit and a famous watch, looking very energetic. After entering the house, he gave an Omega watch to Old Man Zhang. The father and son didn't say a word before Zhang Yunfeng walked into the kitchen. He wanted to chat with Zhang Yunqi, who was cooking, about the Yuxianli tourist night market.
Zhang Yunqi did not want to cause complaints, so he submitted a report to the city regarding the street vendor rectification campaign, pointing out the need to strengthen and standardize the management of urban supervision personnel, and proposed that Zhangji Catering provide relief and resettlement to some of the mobile street vendors in need.
Although this was a cut of Zhangji Catering's flesh, Zhang Yunfeng did not explicitly oppose it. It was just that this relief resettlement had to have a limit and a bottom line. Which groups? How many vendors? How much money was exempted? How long was the rent? And so on and so forth... These scales were related to the opinions of the city, and he wanted Zhang Yunqi to give a general explanation before he could deal with it.
The second child, Zhang Qiulan, her husband Niu Fen and their two-and-a-half-year-old nephew come rushing over every day, carrying large and small bags of brand-name clothes and nutritional supplements.
After putting the things on the ground, Niu Fen pulled Zhang Yunqi to talk about the Longjingyuan Industrial Park he runs. Liansheng's canned food processing and production industrial park located in Yunxi Village is no longer satisfied with only producing a series of canned products. Even the name was changed to Longjingyuan Agricultural Industrial Park.
Li Jilin, general manager of Liansheng, was planning to develop horizontally in the direction of Jiangchuan specialty snacks and beverages. Naturally, Niu Fen couldn't help but take advantage of his proximity to him and inquire about the situation from his brother from his mother's side.
Zhang Qiulan also asked Zhang Yunqi to discuss the important matter of the newly established United Times Electronics Company. The sales of gaming electronic products of Lianzhong, which she led, had reached a bottleneck period. The VCD project that Zhang Yunqi was about to launch was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Lianzhong to achieve greater success. She needed Zhang Yunqi to clarify the major issues regarding the agency, and also wanted to understand the operating methods of United Times.
It was not until dinner time that the brothers and sisters realized that there was someone missing in the family.
Aunt Zhang said Chunlan was in the hospital taking care of her classmate who was undergoing surgery.
The brothers and sisters then drank red wine from their wine glasses and continued to talk to Zhang Yunqi about work on various fronts.
At this time, Zhang's father and mother had no say at all. Mother Zhang fed her grandson who was becoming more and more spoiled every day, while Father Zhang drank plum wine brewed in his hometown alone. He wanted to go back to the vast countryside where he could sink his feet deep into the thick soil.
Zhang Yunqi drank a lot of wine.
After seeing his family off, he lay in bed, not feeling sleepy at all.
The atmosphere at this family dinner was strange, as if no one could understand anyone else. His brothers and sisters were focused on their careers, his parents were focused on the family ties, and his mind was entirely on his sister, Chunlan.
Two days had passed since he received the call from Brother Dao. If he couldn't find Chunlan, it would be hard for him to find a suitable excuse to fend off his family. However, Wang Guibing had prepared the ransom of 300,000 yuan, and Ma Shi had grasped the clue of Wang Jinshan and was getting closer to the truth. This matter should have a good result soon.
Even with this in mind, Zhang Yunqi still couldn't calm down. He was waiting, waiting in agony as each second passed, until the lights on the houses far away outside the window went out one by one and darkness completely enveloped the earth. Then, his cell phone finally rang in the silent room.
Zhang Yunqi went out and went downstairs.
The Mercedes was parked downstairs and the driver was Wang Guibing.
After Zhang Yunqi got in the car, Wang Guibing said, "There is an employee named Abin under Ma Shi. He followed Wang Jinshan to find Dao Ge's hiding place and Chunlan, who was in the shantytown of Hongshan Lane. But halfway through the call, Ma Shi heard a club sound coming from Abin's side, and then there was no movement. I guess Abin was ambushed. Now Ma Shi has sent people to look for him."
Zhang Yunqi nodded: "Go ahead."
Wang Guibing stepped on the accelerator and drove his Mercedes out of the community and into the dark night.
******
Hongshan Lane shantytown.
The staff of Lianzhong's Foreign Affairs Department were the hardworking leeks of the 1990s. In the dead of night, they were all dragged by their boss Ma Shi to this remote place to work overtime.
Things have reached a point where there is no solution.
The only clue they have now is what Abin said on the phone: "Chunlan has been found, in the shantytown of Hongshan Lane."
Ma Shi gave a death order, digging three feet into the ground, and the person must be found tonight!
However, Hongshan Lane is so big, and it was the middle of the night. They were not police officers and had no official reason, so it was really difficult for them to deal with this matter.
However, Ma Shi couldn't care less, as he was fully responsible for the matter and was under great pressure. What he was most worried about now was not that Abin was missing and the clues were broken, but that the enemy had been alerted and Chunlan's safety was greatly threatened!
Since they had already alerted the enemy and there were no other clues, they had to use the dumbest method. More than 40 people were divided into more than 20 groups by Ma Shi, each group was responsible for an area, and they searched door to door from the edge of the area. Although this might alarm the enemy and make them run away, there was no other way. They had already alerted the enemy and they should run away if they wanted to. At least they had to find out the specific place where the enemy was hiding.
In order to find a reasonable excuse for disturbing the residents in the middle of the night without being cursed by the people, the smart Wang Guibing came up with an idea. He called Li Jilin, who was sleeping in bed and had no idea about the matter, and woke him up, and asked him to send people to haul several trucks of Longjingyuan's gift canned goods.
Then, the seven-foot strong men from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transformed themselves into Santa Clauses and delivered New Year gift packages in the middle of the night.
The Mercedes-Benz was parked at the entrance of Hongshan Lane.
Zhang Yunqi and Wang Guibing sat in the car and smoked.
Zhang Yunqi lay on the rolled-down chair, gazing at the messy streets. Hongshan Lane in the dead of night was like a dark prison, with the solid skyline hidden in the impenetrable mist.
Time passed by little by little, and no one knew how much time had passed, until the black sky turned light blue, until the smoke in the Mercedes-Benz was as thick as fire, and a young man ran over from a distance: "Boss, I found it!"
The cigarette butt flew out of the window and Zhang Yunqi pushed the door and got out of the car.
After crossing the muddy dirt road, the group soon arrived in front of the three tiled houses.
Pushing the door open, what caught my eye was the peeling grey-white walls. A light bulb was hanging on the beam covered with cobwebs. Under the dim light from the bulb, there were four bullet casings found by Ma Shi and pools of blood that had not yet completely dried.
Everyone was silent.
Everyone looked at Zhang Yunqi with an expressionless face.
Ma Shi followed behind: "Boss, it's my fault..."
Zhang Yunqi waved his hand and interrupted Ma Shi.
He squatted down and picked up a piece of cloth from a messy pile of straw. It was a piece of blue shirt cloth that had been torn off with great force and was stained with blood.
He sat down in the straw pile, close to the right wall, glanced at the cloth in his hand, then looked at a bullet hole on the opposite wall that was made by someone unknown. After thinking for a long time, he asked Ma Shi: "Do you have the address of Zhao Shiming's mistress?"
"Yes." Ma Shi nodded.
"Pry all the dirt out of her mouth!" Zhang Yunqi stuffed the blood-stained cloth into his pocket, got up and went out. A cold wind blew, and the sky was gloomy.
It’s almost Qingming Festival and it’s going to rain!
******
(End of this chapter)