Chapter 55#

Chapter 55: The Rising Storm

When Gu Chenzhou drove to the northern suburbs, it was already 11:30 at night.

As soon as he got out of the car, a blast of cold wind blew away the heat in his mind.

The night was quiet. The streetlights stood quietly in the corner, their thin, bamboo-like poles mottled and old. Under the dim yellow light, a swarm of insects and moths circled, their tiny wing beats faintly audible to Gu Chenzhou.

This was an old residential building. He had just taken two steps forward when he saw a motorcycle shed built of bricks next to the main entrance. Next to the shed was a garbage can, where a cat was rummaging for food. When it noticed someone approaching, it turned its head warily, its orange-yellow eyes particularly striking in the night.

“Young Master Gu, you’re here.” At this moment, a bald man waiting at the main entrance came forward, shook Gu Chenzhou’s hand quickly and forcefully, and then nodded to the man in military uniform behind Gu Chenzhou before saying, “Let’s talk inside.”

“Okay.” Gu Chenzhou answered simply and walked towards the staircase with the bald man. This was a long, narrow, and cramped corridor with many cobwebs on the ceiling and the walls on both sides plastered with small advertisements. They went up the stairs to the fifth floor. The two guards following Gu Chenzhou entered the room first, quickly checked it, and then nodded to Gu Chenzhou.

The bald man who brought Gu Chenzhou up was not angry, as if he was used to it, and spoke to Gu Chenzhou as if to himself: “Young Master Gu, look.” He took out a few wrinkled photos from his trouser pocket and handed them to Gu Chenzhou. After Gu Chenzhou took them, he walked through the iron gate, rummaged through the wooden table in the living room, and soon sorted out a stack of materials, put them in order, and handed them back to Gu Chenzhou.

Gu Chenzhou took them again, but did not look at them carefully immediately. Instead, he first glanced around: a very ordinary rented room, with an electric fan in the corner, a laptop on the sofa, and the coffee table piled with various snacks, newspapers, and magazines. And in front of the window, besides the drawn curtains, there was also a standing telescope.

Gu Chenzhou walked to the table and sat down, focusing his attention on the materials in his hand.

The two guards who followed him in stood like sentinels in the corner. The bald man didn’t pay attention to them either, chose a seat opposite Gu Chenzhou, and waited for Gu Chenzhou to ask questions.

The first thing Gu Chenzhou noticed were the few snapshots of Peng Youchun’s mother and the tall woman.

The woman in the picture was wearing red high heels, a beige bat-sleeved top, and a black sequined knee-length skirt. She had curly hair and wore sunglasses that covered half of her face. Just looking at this outfit, she seemed to be in her late twenties or early thirties.

Gu Chenzhou compared this woman with the Shi Shan in his memory—but this was of no use. They were too young and Shi Shan was too young back then. And for a long time afterwards, this woman was almost as insignificant as dust in his memory.

Gu Chenzhou flipped through these photos again and found that the horse-riding photo he got from Sun Peiming was also thoughtfully included for comparison. Gu Chenzhou looked at both carefully and felt that the women in the two photos were not alike. He asked the other party, “Are you sure this is Shi Shan?”

The bald man explained, “The bone structure of their faces is very similar. Plus, they appeared in the same case. I’m 80% sure they are the same person. If Young Master Gu wants to be more certain, we can also input the pictures into a machine for overlapping comparison.”

Gu Chenzhou shook his head: “No need, I believe in your professional ability!” He placed the few photos in his hand on the table one by one. From the photos, the tall woman and Peng Youchun’s mother seemed to have only had a very accidental contact: they were walking among the many people buying vegetables, and then accidentally bumped into each other. Peng Youchun’s mother’s vegetable basket fell, and Shi Shan bent down to help her pick it up.

“We installed a listening device in Lin Shufang’s vegetable basket.” Lin Shufang was Peng Youchun’s mother, the bald man said, “But we didn’t overhear anything. Maybe Shi Shan didn’t speak, or maybe Shi Shan spoke too softly. It’s also possible that Shi Shan directly gave something to Lin Shufang.”

“Didn’t follow the person?” Gu Chenzhou’s expression was a little grim.

The bald man didn’t argue, but just stated the situation: “I’m sorry, Young Master Gu, we were negligent in this aspect—she was very cautious. Not long after she left the farmers’ market, she entered a large shopping mall. We immediately followed, but we couldn’t find her.”

Gu Chenzhou closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself down, and then looked at the stack of materials. This stack of materials was about Lin Shufang’s various situations in the past six months.

Gu Chenzhou roughly flipped through it and found that all aspects of this stack of materials were very normal. But if the other party was really normal—how could a sixty-year-old woman be involved with Shi Shan?

“Did you find anything unusual?” Gu Chenzhou said.

The bald man pondered for a while: “Young Master Gu, to be honest, we have been watching this old lady for half a year. At first, we were afraid that someone else was paying attention here and didn’t dare to make contact. Later, we found that there was no such person. We just pretended to be staff and entered the other’s door, and installed many surveillance cameras inside and out. But except for this time today, there was nothing unusual about this old lady.” He paused and then said, “By the way, a sum of money is regularly deposited into her bank account every month, not much, just 1,500 yuan a month. This money is regularly sent by the gang that Peng Youchun participated in.”

“Thank you for your hard work,” Gu Chenzhou said, “Continue to follow this line. This breakthrough is very important. I will give you a big bonus this month to thank you for your hard work for half a year.”

The bald man smiled: “I know Young Master Gu is generous! Don’t worry, Young Master Gu, what line is not a line? We brothers will definitely do our best to handle this matter.”

Gu Chenzhou nodded and stood up to leave.

The bald man saw Gu Chenzhou to the door and wanted to see him down the stairs, but was stopped by Gu Chenzhou. He followed the two guards downstairs. When he reached the car, he said to the two men, “Someone come and drive this car.”

The guard on the left agreed, took Gu Chenzhou’s key and sat in the driver’s seat. Gu Chenzhou opened the back door and got in, raised his hand to rub his eyebrows, and took out his phone to call Wei Xiangjin.

One, two, three… after countless calls with only the beeping waiting tone, the car stopped in Tianrui Garden. Gu Chenzhou woke up with a start, took the hot phone from his ear, flipped through the dialed records, and found that he had unconsciously made more than fifty calls along the way.

Too impatient.

Gu Chenzhou shook his head secretly. When he got out of the car, his face had returned to calm. He exchanged a few words with the two people who had been running around with him in the middle of the night and let them go back. At the same time, he suppressed the initial plan to tell Gu Xinjun and Wei Chengbo about the matter immediately. Instead, he went directly back to his room to wash up and rest. After tossing and turning for half the night, he found Gu Xinjun, who was also up and ready to go to work, in the early morning of the next day.

After hearing this, Gu Xinjun’s face changed as expected: “Have you told your Uncle Wei about these things?”

“I was just about to go over.” Gu Chenzhou said.

“Go quickly.” Gu Xinjun said, “Your Uncle Wei should still be at home now.”

Gu Chenzhou nodded and didn’t delay any longer. He walked out of his house, crossed the driveway, and came to Wei Chengbo’s house.

At this time, Wei Chengbo had already put on his military uniform and was about to go out. When he saw Gu Chenzhou coming, he was slightly stunned and said, “Chenzhou, what’s the matter?”

“It’s about Xiangjin, Uncle Wei.” Gu Chenzhou got to the point in one sentence, and then added in more detail, “I had someone watch Peng Youchun’s mother. Yesterday, Peng Youchun’s mother met a woman suspected to be Shi Shan in the farmers’ market. The people I entrusted followed, but lost her.”

Wei Chengbo’s expression immediately became serious. He took the materials from Gu Chenzhou’s hand, roughly flipped through them, and especially looked at the photos carefully before extending his hand and pressing hard on Gu Chenzhou’s shoulder: “Xiangjin has a brother like you, that’s enough!”

“Uncle Wei, this is also my fault.” In front of his elders, Gu Chenzhou’s expression was richer. He said with a rare bitter smile.

“This is aimed at the Gu family and the Wei family. Without this matter, there will be the next. There are only thieves who steal for a thousand days, how can there be people who guard against thieves for a thousand days.” Wei Chengbo said this calmly, then put the materials in his hand and said, “Leave the Shi Shan line to me to investigate. The people you entrusted can also continue to watch.”

After hearing this, Gu Chenzhou knew what he should do: “I’ll let them go back. With the police involved in the investigation, this matter will be much easier to handle.”

Wei Chengbo said, “Okay, I will have someone contact them and understand the matter from all aspects.” He pressed Gu Chenzhou’s shoulder again, “I know you and Xiangjin have been close since childhood. If there is anything recently, remember to discuss it with me and your father. Don’t be too impulsive.”

“Yes, Uncle Wei.” Gu Chenzhou agreed. He watched Wei Chengbo get into his special car and leave before turning around and going back to his own house.

While Gu Chenzhou and Wei Chengbo were talking just now, Gu Xinjun and Zheng Yuelin had left one after another.

Gu Chenzhou sat back on the sofa, turned on the TV, and flipped to the morning news.

Shi Shan, who had disappeared for several years, suddenly appeared and had contact with the mother of Peng Youchun, who had once hit Wei Xiangjin with a car.

The Peng Youchun line, have they not dug deep enough, or is this just a smokescreen released by the enemy?

The matter had a turning point, and the investigation could continue. Gu Chenzhou felt that he should be relieved. But in fact, from half a year ago when he deployed his men and had been waiting for today, although Gu Chenzhou had waited, he felt that the matter was even more incomprehensible.

Who is behind the framing of the Gu and Wei families?

Is it the He family, which has already shown hostility, or someone else hidden deeper in the darkness?

What is the purpose of Shi Shan’s appearance at this time? What actions will she take, and what impact will she bring?

A breakthrough must be found. Gu Chenzhou lowered his eyes in thought.

Not the Shi Shan line, but another line. In politics, all choices are for the final benefit…