The train driver in the courtyard

It was almost four in the morning when the jeeps and GAZ trucks rolled over the muddy road and arrived at Shuanglong Commune.

Raindrops as big as beans hit the roof of the car, and the mobilized commune militia stood in the middle of the road in the rain.

"From Jinling Weather Station!"

Xing Zhi jumped out of the car and showed his ID.

Seeing this, several young militiamen cheered up and saluted him with all their might: "Secretary Qian is taking your comrades to Chen Quezi's house!"

Li Aiguo sat in the jeep and looked at his watch. He waved to a young militiaman and said, "Comrade, please get in the car and lead the way."

"Okay!" The young soldier, who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, climbed onto the back seat cautiously. As soon as his butt touched the seat, he exclaimed, "Why is it so soft?"

Meeting several gazes, he immediately blushed to his ears, cleared his throat and pointed to the road into the village, "Chen Quezi's house is at the east end of the village, go this way."

Li Aiguo asked with a smile: "Chen the Cripple?"

"It's Chen Shuangquan. He has a lame leg. That's what the villagers call him."

The jeep bumped along in the rain.

Li Aiguo rubbed his face to dispel the sleepiness and asked casually, "What's the young man's name?"

"Chen Jiatian, fifteen years old this year, is the captain of the village militia water team." Seeing the leader's friendly attitude, the young militia also emboldened.

"Water Captain? I've only heard of Militia Captain. Is there a meaning for this title?"

The young militia soldier straightened his chest and said, "Although I am young, I am the best swimmer along the Yangtze River. Liu Huzi is the militia captain of the commune. He commands the army, and I command the navy, so I am naturally the captain of the navy."

Li Aiguo couldn't help laughing, and Zhou Ke interrupted with a smile: "The army corresponds to the navy, so he should be called Captain Hai."

The young soldier asked earnestly, "Is there a sea here?"

Zhou Ke: "."

Li Aiguo patted the boy on the shoulder and said, "Captain of the Navy is a good title. Our militia should be responsible for both land and sea operations."

"You, the great leader, are really reasonable." The little militiaman raised his head.

Zhou Ke: "."

Shuanglong Commune is a village with thousands of households.

The houses in the village were complex and intricate. Led by the young militia, the convoy took more than ten minutes to reach the gate of Chen Shuangquan's courtyard.

It is similar to an ordinary courtyard, with an adobe wall and two crooked adobe houses.

Li Aiguo had not yet walked to the front of the house when he got out of the car when he heard loud cries from inside.

"Old man, I advised you not to bring the old man from the Liu family home, but you didn't listen. Now you've caused trouble."

"How am I going to live after you leave me, an old lonely woman, behind? Woo woo woo woo."

Li Aiguo's heart tightened and he stepped forward quickly.

Captain Qian of the Operations Department of Jinling Meteorological Station had come forward in the rain, raising his hand to salute in the pouring rain: "Commander-in-Chief! Operations team reporting in!"

"How's it going?"

"We are too late. Chen Shuangquan was shot dead, and Liu Huaishu was kidnapped and his whereabouts are unknown."

Li Aiguo walked to the door and saw a body lying on the ground. The bullet hole was in the heart, and it was obvious that there was no hope of saving the body.

Next to her, an old lady in coarse black cloth clothes was squatting beside the corpse and crying loudly.

"She is Chen Shuangquan's daughter-in-law, Chen Zhou. Someone suddenly knocked on the door at night. Chen Shuangquan got up to open the door. Chen Zhou heard the gunshot and ran out. Chen Shuangquan was already lying on the ground. Liu Huaishu, who lived next door, was nowhere to be seen. He must have been taken away."

"When did it happen?"

"The Chen family didn't have a clock, and Chen Zhou was a child bride who couldn't read, so she couldn't figure it out.

It was raining heavily outside today, so the neighbors didn't hear anything, but I just checked the body and roughly estimated that it should have been an hour."

Zhou Ke interjected: "According to the information provided by Chameleon, Ji Huai left the Old Jinling Church two hours ago. It takes only an hour to drive from the church to Shuanglong Village."

"The perpetrator is most likely Ji Huai. Go and invite the militia captain over."

Li Aiguo was just about to gather his comrades from the meteorological station and the militia from Shuanglong Village to look for Ji Huai's whereabouts when a half-grown child came up to Captain Water's ear and whispered in a low voice for a while.

"Did you really see it?"

"I lied to you that I was a puppy!"

Seeing the two children whispering to each other, Li Aiguo shouted, "Captain Shui, do you have any clues?"

"Report!" Chen Jiatian ran forward and saluted, "Team member Chen Erdan discovered that someone went to the rocky beach in the dark!"

Zhou Ke frowned: "Going to the river in the middle of the night? Besides, why didn't this kid report it earlier..."

Before he could finish his words, Li Aiguo stopped him: "Zhou Ke, this has nothing to do with us."

Li Aiguo knew very well that the communes near the river now had special fishing teams and private fishing was not allowed.

Chen Erdan must have been greedy, because he secretly went to the river to catch fish using a bamboo fence while the adults were not paying attention.

Sure enough, after hearing Li Aiguo's words, Chen Erdan, who had a timid look on his face just now, straightened his chest slightly and reported the situation.

At that time, he saw two people walking towards the rocky beach, one in front and one behind, but because the distance was quite far, he couldn't see each other's appearance clearly.

Because he was worried about being discovered by the production team, he sneaked back in the rain.

"Let's go to the rocky beach!"

This is the third change of scene tonight.

The convoy's engines were still running, and upon receiving the order, they immediately turned around and roared towards the northwest through the mud.

The rocky beach was once a berthing spot for fishing boats before liberation. After liberation, the commune built a dock on the west side and this place was abandoned.

In the rain, there was only a small fishing fire on the beach that flickered.

On the fishing boat, the 80-year-old Liu Huaishu rubbed his cloudy eyes and finally recognized the man opposite him: "You... the youngest son of the Ji family, Ji Huai?"

"Mr. Liu has good eyes."

Ji Huai pulled out a dagger from his waist and fiddled with it casually: "The last time we met was thirty-five years ago? No, that doesn't count as a meeting. At that time, you were grinning outside the house, and I was hiding in the cellar listening to my parents screaming."

Liu Huaishu was trembling all over: "Ji Huai... do you still remember what happened back then? You're not..."

"Yes, I believe in God." Ji Huai interrupted him, the blade glowing coldly under the oil lamp, "But you don't know, right? The boy in the cellar who heard his father being stabbed in the stomach with a wooden stick and his mother's tongue being cut off by you has long been split into two halves, one half is chanting in the church, and the other half is taking revenge in the darkness."

Seeing Liu Huaishu's confused expression, Ji Huai suddenly laughed:

"How did your wife die? Do you remember?"

"I went to the temple to burn incense, but the carriage got startled and fell off a cliff..."

"I had someone scare the horse with a poisonous snake."

"Where are your two sons?"

"He died of a disease..."

"The prostitute they were attracted to was a venereal patient whom I specially found from Southeast Asia."

"Where is your grandson?"

The news of the deaths of the previous few relatives still allowed Liu Huaishu to remain calm.

When he mentioned his grandson, his cloudy eyes suddenly lit up.

That was his precious treasure that he held in his mouth for fear it would melt, and it was the only child in the Liu family who was taught by a Western scholar at great expense to him.

"It's hard, is it you who did it?!" Liu Huaishu's eyes widened, staring at Ji Huai, "No, it's impossible, my grandson died of an acute illness, he never left the Liu Family Manor, you can't succeed."

"Is the Western learning teacher you invited surnamed Dong?" Ji Huai admired the other party's suddenly pale face and said slowly, "I have spent a lot of effort to cut off your last bit of incense.

It just so happened that the gambler named Dong was heavily in debt. All he needed was five small yellow croakers to make him mix colorless and tasteless poison into the child's porridge.

If it were you, would you do it? "

After these words were spoken, Liu Huaishu stood there in a daze, as if he had been struck by lightning.

The past was like a knife, cutting him open layer by layer...It turned out that all the "accidents" were murders carefully planned by the man in front of him.

"Beast! You are simply a beast! I am going to fight you."

It’s a pity that he is no longer the strong man who could force a wooden stick as thick as a bowl into a woman’s belly, but an old man who has to gasp for breath even when walking.

Ji Huai just casually reached out and patted him on the shoulder, and his legs went weak and he sat down on the ground.

"Don't worry, I'm not finished yet."

Ji Huai said in a cold voice: "I watched your relatives die one by one, and suddenly I realized that it seemed not enough. You robbed our Ji family's property, and I have to take it back."

"Manager Zhou from Yangcheng...was he sent by you too?" Liu Huaishu's throat tightened and cold sweat dripped down his chin.

The decline of the Liu family was due to the seemingly attractive big business in Yangcheng.

At that time, a trading company in Yangcheng claimed that it was in urgent need of a large amount of high-quality leather and offered a price twice the market price.

Liu Huaishu went to great lengths to get the order, fully expecting that he could use it to expand his business to Guangzhou and then sell the products overseas by sea.

He personally monitored the production process, but on the eve of delivery, all the leathers in the warehouse had rotted into pieces.

Manager Zhou refused to give in and demanded five times the amount of the purchase price as compensation.

Liu Huaishu wanted to use the old method to get the government to drive away this outsider, but he was shocked to find that the other party was backed by the enemy forces.

Not only did they fail to save the situation, the Liu family's real estate, shops, and inventory were confiscated and sold one by one, and in the end even the old house was used to pay off the debt.

"That guy is just a clerk in a foreign company," Ji Huai suddenly laughed. "I hired him for twenty silver dollars. At that time, I was hiding in the dark and watching you jumping up and down like a monkey. It was so satisfying, so satisfying."

Once a person is extremely angry, he will always fall into calmness.

Liu Huaishu was now numb facing this devil.

He stared at the dagger in Ji Huai's hand and said in a hoarse voice, "Go ahead."

"You want to die? You think too simply. I have painstakingly prepared for decades. If I kill you with one shot, will it be worthy of my decades of hard work?"

Before he finished speaking, the curtain was raised and the old woman walked in: "Master, everything is arranged."

"Aunt Bai, please take this old thing out."

Liu Huaishu, who was determined to die, was pulled out of the cabin. When he saw a strange cross tied to the bow, he was a little confused.

"You, what are you going to do?"

He was tied tightly to the cross. Seeing Ji Huai approaching with a dagger, he panicked again: "You..."

"I don't know if you have read a book written by Lu Shi'e." As he spoke, Ji Huai shaved off Liu Huaishu's hair, gestured on it a few times, and repeated: "When we capture foreigners, no matter whether they are soldiers, generals, merchants or civilians, we will all be skinned alive.

The punishment of skinning was the most cruel.

He suddenly laughed, "I have always doubted the authenticity of this method. I have been investigating in the south for several years but have not found any evidence. But today... I can try something new."

"Devil, you are simply a devil!" Liu Huaishu was completely panicked and began to struggle desperately, "You, you already believe in the church, right? How could you do such a cruel thing?"

Ji Huai's dagger, which was about to fall, suddenly stopped and tilted his head to look at him: "Anyone who confesses to the priest can wash away their sins."

He stroked the blade with his fingertips, his expression almost morbidly pious. "I have already confessed my past sins many times, and now I am clean. After I finish dealing with you, I will go to the church to confess once more. God will forgive everything for believers."

If you commit a sin, you can go to the church and confess your sins by paying some money.

Then you can continue to commit crimes and then repent.

This has formed a closed loop of evil logic.

This absurd logic completely stunned Liu Huaishu. He wanted to refute it, but he couldn't find any reason.

Is there such a benefit in emotionally worshipping a church?

As Liu Huaishu struggled desperately, Ji Huai tried several times but failed to cut him, so he shouted to Aunt Bai, "Aunt Bai, hold him down."

Although the old woman was nearly sixty years old, her hands were as steady as iron clamps, pressing tightly on Liu Huaishu's temples.

The old man was suddenly unable to move and could only squeeze out obscene words from his throat, and the curses mixed with saliva sprayed on the back of Ji Huai's hand.

"Master, let me block his mouth." "No need." Ji Huai stared at the old face twisted by fear and became excited. "The scream of the enemy is the most important sacrifice of this ceremony."

"Dad, Mom, today I can finally avenge you."

It was raining heavily.

Lightning flashed.

The blade fell and accurately cut Liu Huaishu's scalp.

Blood flowed into the neck along the wrinkles, but Ji Huai admired it as if he was appreciating a work of art: "For this knife skill, I specially studied human anatomy for half a year. Look, what a neat incision."

Ji Huai picked up the jar full of mercury and was about to pour it down.

At this time, a voice came from a distance: "Stop!"

Ji Huai looked up and saw a GAZ jeep rushing over from a distance. Before the car stopped, several young men jumped out and rushed over here.

"Damn it, how come they came so quickly!" Ji Huai hesitated for a moment.

If he shot Liu Huaishu directly, he would still have time to sail the boat and leave before these people arrived.

If we continue with the execution, we might be caught.

"Aunt Bai, you go drive the boat! If things don't work, start the thing I brought." Years of hatred had already solidified into a solid entity that filled Ji Huai's head. He had no way of giving up the success that was about to be achieved.

"Master? Do you want to..."

Ji Huai raised his head and looked at the old woman with a calm expression: "Aunt Bai, if you don't want to accompany me anymore, start that thing and jump into the river to escape. Use the batch of small yellow croakers I hid in the West Mountain to spend the rest of the year."

"Master! What nonsense are you talking about!" The old woman raised her head suddenly, tears welling up in her cloudy eyes, "Before her death, Madam entrusted you to me and asked me to protect you. This old slave has long sold her life to the Ji family. Now I am so lucky to be able to accompany you to the end!"

After saying that, the old woman looked at Ji Huai reluctantly and rushed into the cabin.

Li Aiguo was running very fast on the rocky beach at this time. When he heard the noise, he quickened his pace.

"I didn't expect there would be audiences today. This is a perfect stage!" Ji Huai smiled at Li Aiguo and others, picked up the can and poured water on them.

Although Li Aiguo didn't know what Ji Huai was going to do at this time, he realized something was wrong. He wanted to shoot, but the boat was drifting on the river and he couldn't aim at all.

Zhou Ke was so shocked that he actually slowed down his pace.

Xing Zhi's only target was Ji Huai. He didn't care what he did, let alone stop him.

The mercury in the jar was poured down.

Next.

Li Aiguo heard the most tragic screams he had ever heard in his life.

This cry comes from the depths of the soul.

The cry was chilling.

Along with the shouting came Ji Huai's crazy laughter.

Screams and laughter intertwined in the heavy rain, and the entire rocky beach was shrouded in a strange atmosphere.

Ji Huai opened his arms, letting the hot blood splash on his face, and his crazy laughter drowned out the sound of rain.

"Did you hear that? This is the sound I've been waiting for for thirty years!"

At this time, the diesel engine had started and the boat began to turn around.

"Captain Shui, go on."

Li Aiguo calculated the distance, suddenly stopped, and threw a grenade at the young militiaman who had already rushed to the shore.

The water captain dived into the river holding a grenade. His figure penetrated the rain like a fish and quickly approached the boat.

Ji Huai was just about to step into the cabin when he suddenly heard the sound of breaking wind behind him.

A wooden-handled grenade rolled along the deck into the cabin. The iron cover had been unscrewed and the fuse was emitting blue smoke.

"boom!"

The explosion sent a column of water soaring into the sky, the diesel engine tank was blown away by the air wave, and wood chips wrapped in sparks hit the river surface.

Ji Huai screamed and was knocked over by the air wave, and his back hit the side of the boat heavily.

"here you go!"

Li Aiguo did not expect that the captain's weapon was so accurate. He put away his pistol and strode over, dived into the water, and approached the boat in two or three steps.

Li Aiguo was just about to climb onto the boat when the old woman ran out of the cabin. Seeing Ji Huai lying on the ground, she first shouted, "Young Master."

"Aunt Bai, is it started?"

"It's activated. I want these people to be buried with us!"

When she noticed Li Aiguo, the old woman pulled out two box guns from her waist and fired at the river surface.

Li Aiguo had seen many people with good marksmanship, but he had never seen anyone as good as the old woman who could almost shoot himself on a bumpy boat.

He picked up the pistol, and taking advantage of the gap between the waves, he pulled the trigger hard, and the bullet hit the old woman's left shoulder directly.

The old woman was also a ruthless person. She didn't even dodge and raised her right hand to fight back.

The gun went off again.

The shot hit the old woman's right hand directly.

This is not over yet.

Another bullet came, hitting the old woman's shoulder hard, and she fell onto the boat.

"An old lady with two guns, huh? I'll cripple both of your hands and see how you can hold two guns."

The old woman was still struggling at this time, and a work shoe kicked down directly. With two bangs, her two arms lost consciousness.

At this time, Ji Huai also woke up. He felt someone approaching and smiled: "You are here."

"I am coming."

"You are late." Ji Huai turned his head to look at the mass of flesh and blood on the cross, and a smile from the bottom of his heart appeared on his face.

"As long as you can come, it's never too late."

Li Aiguo walked over and felt around Ji Huai's body, but he didn't find any guns or daggers.

He subconsciously wanted to touch Ji Huai's mouth.

Ji Huai smiled and said, "No need. I am not one of those chess pieces. I don't need those things."

As he spoke, he lay on the ground and raised his hands towards Li Aiguo.

"I surrender now, please be gentle."

Zhou Ke and the comrades who rushed over thought they were going to have to go through another fierce battle, but now they were shocked by Ji Huai's cooperation.

But this guy has countless secrets in his stomach.

Without having time to think, they went up and tied Ji Huai up with ropes.

"Retreat, retreat immediately!" Li Aiguo's face suddenly changed. While shouting, he raised his right leg and kicked towards Ji Huai.

Although Zhou Ke and his comrades did not understand what was happening, the trust they had developed over a long period of time made them jump into the river when Li Aiguo shouted.

Ji Huai had a faint smile on his face, but when he was kicked into the air, his expression turned furious.

"How do you know? I arranged it."

"boom!"

Before he could finish his words, a violent explosion occurred in the cabin of the boat, this time the power was far greater than the grenade just now.

Standing on the shore, Xing Zhi looked at the boat that was blown to pieces and shouted, "Save people!"

******
Time: six o'clock in the morning.

Location: riverside.

The sky finally cleared up after a whole night of rain, and the rusty morning light appeared in the east.

Li Aiguo took out his cigarette box and found that the cigarettes inside had been soaked by the rain, so he threw them into the river.

A cigarette appeared in front of him.

"Brother Aiguo, how do you know that Ji Huai installed a bomb in the boat?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the old woman holding two guns is the guy codenamed Arsenal."

"That's all?"

"of course not."

Li Aiguo took the cigarette, waited for Zhou Ke to light it for him, took a deep puff and said, "Do you still remember Ji Huai's code name?"

"Saint Peter. You explained to me that this was the name of the most distinguished disciple of the Lord, and a title for the martyr."

"True believers will not commit suicide, because those who commit suicide cannot enter heaven." Li Aiguo flicked his fingertips and the ashes fell into the mud. "But 'martyrdom' is different. It means dying for faith. It is glorious."

Zhou Ke still frowned: "He really believed that? He was willing to put himself in danger?"

In response to this question, Li Aiguo simply said: "Mid-term converts are often more fanatical than original believers."

Zhou Ke was still confused and was about to ask when a shout suddenly came from the river: "Found it!"

"We found Dieter."

Li Aiguo looked up and saw Chen Jiatian, two militiamen, dragging Ji Huai along with them as they broke through the waves from downstream.

Seeing this, the team members rushed to the shore to help. Amidst the splashing water, Ji Huai was dragged ashore and collapsed in the mud like a dying fish.

Zhou Ke stepped forward and punched him on the back several times. Ji Huai coughed violently and spit out river water, then slowly opened his eyes.

“Am I in heaven?”

Before he could finish his words, a nasty face appeared in the sky.

"What do you say?"

Ji Huai closed his eyes and opened them again. After confirming that the person standing in front of him was Li Aiguo, he smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It seems that you won again."

"Yes, I won."

"But you won't be able to win next because I won't confess anything. Please believe in my ability to endure torture."

Li Aiguo's disgusting face gradually approached, almost blocking his entire field of vision.

"Ji Huai, you may also know that Langley has developed a medicine called truth serum."

Ji Huai's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Devil, you are simply a devil!"

"This is a compliment to me." Li Aiguo waved his hand.

Xing Zhi personally led people to tie Ji Huai into the jeep.

Zhou Ke watched the jeep leave, and thought of the long night that had just passed, his heart filled with relief.

Ji Huai could be said to be the most cunning person he had ever met. From Meng Binhong and Butterfly at the beginning, to the truck accident, and then to Chameleon as a substitute, Ji Huai could be said to have planned everything.

If Li Aiguo had not been able to see through his plan in time, they would not be able to catch Ji Huai, let alone even catch the shadow of Ji Huai.

"Thank you, patriotic brother." Zhou Ke said sincerely.

Li Aiguo looked towards the river surface, and saw the surging water rushing away, carrying broken wood and blood foam.

"The darkness will eventually end," he said, his voice mixed with the sound of the morning wind, "because there will always be someone to guard the dawn. Even if I'm gone, there's still you, and there are millions of us."

The golden sunlight pierces through the clouds and shines on the earth.

In the distance, the outline of the new Jinling City has gradually become clear.

(End of this chapter)