I slept with my sister's classmate, and she turned out to be my boss.

Gu Huaiyuan stayed in the abandoned office building for a full day and night.

He didn't turn on the lights, didn't go out, and didn't even go to the window.

The thin blanket on the cot was still laid out as it had been the night before.

He only closed his eyes for a short while leaning against the headboard in the first half of the night, and then woke up in the second half.

After daybreak, he would sit in that chair, occasionally standing up and walking around the room for a few steps before sitting back down.

He has already spent some of the cash he brought with him.

Pay it to small hotels, bathhouses, and roadside stalls.

He opened his briefcase and counted the money—less than 30,000 yuan.

If we can successfully leave the provincial border in two days, this amount of money can last us a while.

But he dared not imagine what would happen if something unexpected occurred...

He took out his passport and overseas bank cards, looked at them, and then put them back.

He didn't know the extent to which his whereabouts were being tracked, but once he swiped his card, the bank system would leave a record, and the task force could use that record to pinpoint his location.

He could only wait, wait for the person who was supposed to meet him to take him away from the provincial border, and then figure out what to do once he got to another province.

……

Meanwhile, the task force's investigation extended to a more remote area in the south of the city.

This area is even more desolate than the west side of the city, with few buildings and lots of open space. Several semi-abandoned factory buildings are scattered on the overgrown plots of land, and hardly anyone passes by.

Chen Dapeng and Lao Zhou walked along a dirt road. The road surface was compacted soil, and the sides were covered with wild grass that was half a person tall.

As Lao Zhou walked, he scanned his surroundings:

"This area used to be the site of several small factories. Later, the factories moved away, and the buildings were empty for several years. Usually, not many people come here, and occasionally homeless people stay for a few days."

He pointed to a drab, three-story building in front of him.

"That used to be an office building. Most of the windows were broken. I went inside when I was on inspection last year, but no one was there."

Chen Dapeng glanced in the direction Lao Zhou pointed, said nothing, and continued walking forward.

He slowed down when he got close to the building.

The iron gate outside the building was ajar, and there was no dust on the hinges, as if it had been pushed open recently.

Chen Dapeng stopped, pushed the iron gate, and it opened with a slight rusting sound.

He stepped inside. The courtyard was made of compacted dirt with several fresh footprints pointing towards the building.

Old Zhou noticed it too, and crouched down to take a look:

"These footprints are neither mine nor yours."

Chen Dapeng followed the direction of the footprints into the building.

The hallway was dimly lit and smelled very dusty, but there were definitely fresh footprints on the floor.

He walked to the end of the first-floor corridor, pushed open a half-closed door, and found a small room with a thin blanket on the floor.

Several empty mineral water bottles were piled up in the corner, and a key sat on the windowsill.

Chen Dapeng didn't touch those things; he just stood at the door and looked around.

Then he took two steps back, took out his phone, took a picture, and dialed Hu Yuheng's number:

"Director Hu, in the abandoned factory area south of Jinghua Road in the city, we found traces of recent activity in an old office building. There was water, food wrappers, and footprints. It should have happened within the last two days."

Are you there?

"Yes. Old Zhou is here too."

"Don't touch anything inside. I'll have the technical department go and collect evidence."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Dapeng went outside to wait.

He stood at the building entrance for a while, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding ground—

The footprints led to a dirt road behind the building, which led to a more remote area where the weeds were denser and the path was obscured.

Half an hour later, the technical staff arrived, put on gloves, entered the room, and bagged and sealed the mineral water bottles and food packaging paper one by one.

These things can all be used to extract biological information.

If Gu Huaiyuan did indeed stay here, the comparison results will confirm it.

Chen Dapeng stood at the gate of the courtyard, watching the technical staff finish their work and leave.

He turned around and glanced a few times along the dirt road in the distance.

He wondered if Gu Huaiyuan had really lived here, and whether he had already left or moved to a more secluded place nearby.

The current clues are not enough to confirm anything, but at least the direction is right.

……

at the same time.

Yang Xiujiang sat in a chair in the study, with a cell phone lying on the table in front of him; the screen was already dark.

He had just received a message from an unnamed number—

The message was very short, just one sentence: "The situation in the south of the city is almost under control."

He flipped his phone face down on the table, sat in the chair for a while, then stood up and walked to the paper shredder in the corner of the study.

He has already cleared out quite a lot of things, but there are still some things that haven't been dealt with yet, and now he can't put them off any longer.

He took a stack of old documents and put them into the shredder one by one.

The machine hummed for a while, and the scraps of paper fell into the recycling bag below.

He didn't look down; he simply slipped the last piece of paper in.

Once the buzzing stopped, I turned around and walked back to my desk.

He hesitated for a moment, picked up his phone, found the number of a relative in another province, and pressed the call button without much hesitation.

The phone rang a few times before being answered.

"It's me. Are you free tomorrow? I'd like to come and stay for a couple of days."

The other party didn't ask any further questions: "Okay, what time will you arrive?"

"This afternoon, I'll contact you when I arrive."

"Okay, I'll tidy up the guest room."

After hanging up the phone, Yang Xiujiang deleted the call log.

He began packing his things—he only took a small suitcase, packed a few changes of clothes, and placed a few old books on top as a cover.

There was some cash pressed down at the bottom.

He zipped up his suitcase and leaned it against the wall.

My wife is asleep in the bedroom.

He paused for a moment as he passed the bedroom door, but instead of going in, he turned and walked back to the study.

……

In the afternoon, the task force...

Hu Yuheng was looking at a map when the phone rang.

She answered the phone; it was the Nancheng Public Security Bureau.

"Director Hu, a staff member from the bathhouse in the west of the city called and said that a middle-aged man came to stay overnight the night before last. He didn't register his ID card, but the staff member remembers what the man looked like because there weren't many people staying out overnight at that time, and his features were quite distinctive."

Hu Yuheng gripped his phone tightly: "Where is he?"

"He's still at the bathhouse. We're sending someone over to pick him up for questioning. Would you like to come and take a look?"

"I'll be right there."

Chen Dapeng followed Hu Yuheng to the bathhouse.

The staff member was led to a room next to the front desk. The man was in his forties, wearing glasses, and speaking with a local accent.

The man he described—

Tall and thin, about fifty years old, wearing a hat and a gray-black coat, his features perfectly matched those of Gu Huaiyuan.

Hu Yuheng took out his phone and showed Gu Huaiyuan's photos for him to identify.

The staff member came over to take a look and nodded affirmatively:

"It's him. He was carrying a gray-black bag at the time, and he's the same person as in the photo."

Chen Dapeng was standing behind Hu Yuheng. When he heard this, he glanced at Hu Yuheng.

Hu Yuheng didn't turn around, but simply turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket, then turned to the staff member:

Did he say where he was going when he left?

"He didn't say anything. He left before dawn. I hadn't changed shifts yet, but I caught a glimpse of his departing figure."

Hu Yuheng walked out of the bathhouse, stood at the entrance, and made a phone call to Chen Yuanda:

"Director Chen, it's confirmed. Gu Huaiyuan did indeed spend the night at the bathhouse the night before last. He has already left, but we can confirm that he did not return to the west side of the city afterward. He moved in the south of the city."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone:

"Screen the search area to within two kilometers of the bathhouse."

At the same time, temporary checkpoints were installed on all major outbound routes from the southern part of the city, and neighboring cities and counties were notified to assist in interception.

He may still be within the southern part of the city, but could be moved again at any time.

After hanging up the phone, Hu Yuheng turned to look at the shabby sign of the bathhouse, then said to Chen Dapeng:

"Let's go back to the south of the city."

……

That night, Gu Huaiyuan saw a car with its lights on at a distant intersection through a crack in the window.

The car was parked there, the engine running, its headlights illuminating the road.

About 200 meters away from where he was hiding, separated by several abandoned factory buildings, it was unclear whether it was a patrol car or another vehicle.

But no car had ever stopped at that spot before, and now that there's suddenly an extra car there, that in itself is a signal.

Gu Huaiyuan stood by the window for a long time, making sure the car was neither turned off nor driven away.

He waited for an hour, but the car was still parked in the same spot.

He didn't wait any longer, took out his old-fashioned phone and glanced at it—there were no new messages.

The person who was supposed to meet him said that someone would come to take him away in a couple of days.

But it's only the second day now...

He suddenly realized that the situation had changed...

We can't just wait around!

He picked up his briefcase, walked out the back door of the room, and climbed over a wall.

Then, walk south along a path covered with weeds.

He quickened his pace without looking back...