Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 140 Restarting
There were three police cars parked at the entrance, all equipped with snow chains. Listening to the officers chatting, two of the cars belonged to the criminal investigation team. There were only three officers on duty at the police station, and they were all there; apparently, the station itself was locked.

Yan Hui and the two porters went to the police station together. Yan Hui was the victim. The police questioned him carefully for more than an hour before he signed the papers and left.

After Yan Hui came out, he waited for a while, and both porters had been questioned.

At this moment, a policeman came over to Yan Hui with a knife: "This knife is physical evidence. Although it's not illegal for you to take a knife, you probably can't take it with you. As for the money, you can come and collect it after this case is finished."

Yan Hui had no intention of collecting the forty-odd yuan, so he immediately shook his head and said, "I don't want this little bit of money."

As they were chatting, the door to the police station opened, and a tall policeman came out. He was very happy to see Yan Hui. "I'm the station chief here. You're a good kid. The most important thing is that you were robbed of more than 40 yuan. That's great. Come on, I'll give you 50 yuan personally. Just throw this piece of evidence here."

"Huh?" Yan Hui didn't quite understand.

"Take it if you want. There's no one to take you back later, so you'll have to rent a car in town." The station chief looked pleased, stuffed the money into Yan Hui's hand, and turned to leave.

"This is..." Yan Hui looked at the policeman who had spoken earlier, very puzzled.

"The worst thing about robbery is when you don't steal a single penny. But if you do steal something, even just 40 yuan, the nature of the crime changes! Anyway, these three are caught red-handed, so the station chief will definitely be happy. Take the money I'm giving you." The policeman explained simply and went back to his work.

It was almost dawn by then. Yan Hui searched the town for a long time before finally finding a minivan. He spent 50 yuan to take the two porters back to the forest farm from the town.

Along the way, Yan Hui was really sleepy and almost fell asleep in the car. After returning to the forest farm, Yan Hui found a place to wash his face and wanted to find a packet of instant noodles in his bag to eat, but found that the instant noodles had also been taken away.

I rely on!

These people stole instant noodles, yet they didn't confess to anything!

The night's events left Yan Hui exhausted, but he still managed to find the deputy director to talk about what happened yesterday.

The deputy director looked very unhappy, but his reply was the same as yesterday: they had to wait for the director to return, which would probably be around 10 a.m. Hearing this, Yan Hui bought some food and went back to sleep for a while.

Perhaps something was on his mind, Yan Hui woke up around nine o'clock. With nothing to do, he went to the convenience store and sat there reading.

The deputy manager wasn't at the convenience store, so Yan Hui was the only one there. It wasn't until around 10:30 that the deputy manager returned. Upon seeing Yan Hui, he sighed, "Young man, you should leave. This deal is off."

"Hmm?" Yan Hui was somewhat prepared. "Can I ask what kind of question it is?"

“Our manager is quite superstitious. As for what happened yesterday, let me put it this way: according to his habits, even if you pay him the full amount, he still won’t do business with you. There’s nothing we can do about it.” The deputy manager looked very upset.

"Excuse me for asking, what brings you here?" Yan Hui could only ask indirectly.

"Those three people yesterday poisoned all the dogs in the forest farm. They used a few pieces of roast chicken." The deputy director was unusually depressed.

Yesterday afternoon, he even took Yan Hui to identify the dogs. At that time, Yan Hui felt that the deputy director had a good relationship with the dogs in the forest farm, and the dogs were all obedient. He never expected that something like this would happen last night! "Did you tell the police? Poisoning is a serious matter!" Yan Hui said hurriedly.

"Our manager drove to the police station. Those dogs were raised by him; I never expected this..." The deputy manager didn't say much, just waved his hand. "This isn't your fault. You can go now. This is over."

"It's a great pity, alas." Yan Hui knew that the matter was completely hopeless, so he could only slung his bag over his shoulder, cup his hands in a fist salute, and say goodbye.

"Goodbye." The deputy director waved weakly.

Yan Hui slung his bag over his shoulder and walked step by step out of the forest farm, looking in the direction of the train station.

His last glimmer of hope was completely destroyed by a few robbers. As a native of southern Fujian, he knew very well what the forestry station manager was thinking. Last night's events were typical bad luck, something business people always avoid.

If Yan Hui were the head of the forest farm, he would not have chosen to cooperate.

On the way back, Yan Hui wasn't discouraged at all. This wasn't the same as having a gun pointed at his head before; back then, he had encountered a ruthless person, and he was somewhat afraid. But this time, Yan Hui handled everything quite well from beginning to end. He only lamented his bad luck and didn't think he had done anything wrong.

Yan Hui walked back to the train station, bought a ticket, waited for several hours, and then took a train back to Tangwanghe.

It was already evening when he returned. He walked to a nearby hillside, where he sat and stood, pondering many things. He took out paper and pen and wrote down a lot of things until the sun set and the stars and moon shone through, before finally returning to his inn.

Yan Hui didn't tell Lao Guo about his return this time. He went back to his room to rest and wrote and mailed letters. Lao Guo didn't know he was back until he was having breakfast at the hotel the next morning.

When Lao Guo came downstairs, Yan Hui had already finished eating. Lao Guo wanted to ask Yan Hui if there was anything wrong, but Yan Hui said there was nothing wrong, and then he picked up his bag and rushed off to catch the bus.

Old Guo watched Yan Hui's retreating figure for a while, continuing to stare until Yan Hui left for half a minute before he finally snapped out of his reverie and started eating breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Yan Hui kept thinking about a question: what kind of person is suitable to cooperate with him?
He only had two paths before him. One was to give up and seek cooperation with his fourth uncle or eldest uncle, or borrow money; the other was to continue looking for partners.

If he wants to take the latter path, he must find a manager who is decisive, courageous, and capable.

First of all, the forestry station manager certainly can't be a "good person." Yan Hui has already offered to "stay here if this money doesn't come back," but most forestry stations shook their heads at that. How easy is it to control an outsider? You can't exactly tie him up with ropes, can you?

He wanted to "mortgage himself," but he needed to find someone willing to take it.

After much thought, Yan Hui realized that only the forest farm where he had taken the gun back then absolutely had the strength and courage to do so.

In that case, let's go again!
Once back on the train, Yan Hui sat down and took out what he had written on the hillside the night before.

A long wind howls, snow blankets the sky, a lone figure pierces the mountains, stepping on a rainbow at dusk. Thorns cover the ice, yet the heart burns ever brighter, stars and moon illuminate the path. Undeterred by towering cliffs, the body finds its way across the winding icy river. Gazing afar at the road beyond the vast clouds, a journey of ten thousand miles leads into the distant winter.

(The next chapter is estimated to be released at 3 PM)
(End of this chapter)