Wu Yusen noticed the other person's strange look and smiled, standing in front of Lin Fan and the other person. "Fellow countryman, we meet again."
"Oh, yeah." The fellow villager, whose vision was blocked, seemed a little absent-minded. After coming to his senses, he became a little annoyed. "What are you guys hanging around here for?"
"We're not here to wander around. We came here to look for someone, but we didn't see a single person along the way, so we had no choice but to follow the road. And here we meet you, didn't we?" John Woo took two steps forward to explain, forcing his fellow villager to take a few steps back.
"Just keep talking, why are you standing so close to me?" The fellow villager's face turned red, perhaps because he was angry.
"Okay, okay, I'll stay away from you." John Woo took two steps back obediently.
As a result, the villager had unknowingly distanced himself from Lin Fan and the others. Crucially, he hadn't noticed at all. "You said there's no one in the village?"
"Yes, we got off the bus at the threshing ground. The gates were open all the way here, but there was no one there," John Woo replied.
"How is that possible?" The fellow villager first denied it, then looked at the three people suspiciously. "Where are you from? Who are you looking for? Why have I never seen you before?"
After decades of living together in the same village, everyone knows each other's relatives. These three people appeared very suddenly.
"We are not relatives. We are our friend, Ma Baobao, who came to your place to repair the pipeline. Do you know him?" John Woo asked again.
"Ma Baobao?" The fellow villager frowned and shook his head. "I don't know him, but I've heard of him from the pipeline maintenance people. He's been around for about two or three months."
He had called home before and heard about this from his family. They said that someone had come to repair the pipeline, and the Internet and signal would not be cut off so often in the future.
But recently he called home and still couldn't get through.
The poor signal in their village has been going on for more than a year or two, so it's normal that they can't make phone calls every now and then.
They didn't know how many times they called to complain and report the problem. When someone finally came to deal with it, it seemed like it still wasn't fixed.
It just so happened that he was free these few days, so he thought of going back to his hometown.
"Yes, yes, he came here three months ago. We passed by and came to see him, but when we entered the village, we couldn't find him." John Woo smiled and handed a cigarette to his fellow villager.
When the fellow villager saw that the cigarettes he was giving out were good ones, he took them and put them to his ear.
John Woo handed over another one, the lighter in his hand already lit, and went forward to meet him.
The fellow villager half-heartedly let him light the cigarette and took a puff... Hmm, it really was a good cigarette. His face instantly looked much better.
"You said you were looking for someone?"
"Yes, the baby horse that repairs the pipeline, let's go find her."
The fellow villager glanced at the two women standing behind John Woo. They looked pretty, but he didn't know what their relationship was with the man. He was afraid they were not good people.
He curled his lips and replied for the sake of the cigarette. "I just got back, and I don't know where the person you're looking for is. Maybe you can ask the village chief."
"Where is the village chief? Can you show us the way?" John Woo smiled and handed over another cigarette.
"The village chief's house is right here..." The fellow villager took the cigarette skillfully and put it behind his other ear.
I wanted to let them find it themselves, but... the cigarettes were indeed good. "Forget it, I'll take you there."
"Well, thank you so much." John Woo achieved his goal and smiled so hard that his teeth were visible.
Now that the fellow had the good cigarettes, he no longer cared about anything else and took the lead in leading the way.
John Woo followed him and chatted with him from time to time.
Lin Fan and the other person walked behind and listened all the way, and a lot of information was inadvertently obtained.
"Uncle Village Chief! Uncle Village Chief?" The fellow villager led the three of them to a spacious and elegant courtyard with tiled walls and shouted.
Seeing that no one answered and the door was open, he became a little confused.
He glanced back at the three people behind him and strode in. "Uncle village chief? Aunt? Are you home?"
John Woo and the other two had already gone inside for a walk, so this time they just stood outside and waited.
Sure enough, after a while, the fellow villager came out and frowned and said, "That's not right. Even if the village chief uncle is not here, the aunt should be here too."
"Not only is the village chief absent, we've checked all the houses in this area and there's no one there." John Woo didn't want him to find out slowly, so he pointed directly.
"Impossible." The fellow villager looked incredulous, turned around and ran into the next yard.
The courtyard gate was also wide open and there was no one there.
After coming out of the yard, the fellow ran away without saying a word.
John Woo and the other two also ran along.
After running about a kilometer, I saw him rush into a three-story building on the slope beside the road.
"Is this his house?" Lin Fan slowed down when he saw someone enter the house.
"It should be." John Woo also stopped.
They heard footsteps behind them, and when they turned around, they saw Sister Xu catching up with them.
Before they could say anything, the fellow rushed out of the house. "No one's home! Where did everyone go? My child is still young, and my family can't take him away from home."
He looked anxious and clutched John Woo like a lifeline.
"Calm down first!" John Woo tried to comfort him, but failed.
The fellow villager didn't listen to him at all, shook his hand off, and took out his cell phone, "Oh, right, call!"
Lin Fan was standing nearby and heard a busy tone coming from his phone.
"Why can't I get through? Why can't I get through?!" I tried several different phone numbers, but couldn't get through. Finally, I decided to call the police.
When John Woo saw this, he didn't stop him and just stood by and waited.
"Why can't I get through?" The fellow villager's eyes showed confusion. "Shouldn't I be able to get through to the police without a card? Why is it always busy?"
He didn't believe it and called a few more times, but it still didn't work. He started to get angry.
"Calm down. We just tried to get through on the phone, but we couldn't. Otherwise, we would have found the person through the phone a long time ago." John Woo tried to comfort him again.
"What the hell is going on?" The fellow villager felt strange when he saw that no one was at the village chief's house. But when he saw that no one was at his own house, he really started to panic. "Where are all the people?"
"Brother, can we calm down first? In this situation, impatience will not solve the problem. Only if you calm down, maybe you can find clues." John Woo tried to comfort him again.
The fellow villager seemed to have heard it, but he was unable to calm down and kept spinning in place.
Lin Fan looked around and saw what looked like a black hemispherical object stuck to the ceiling under the eaves of the first floor. The glass shell was reflecting light. He asked, "Is that a surveillance camera?"
"There is surveillance at my house!" After she reminded the fellow villager, he remembered this and ran home.
This time, Lin Fan and the other two followed him into the house and into a room, where they watched him turn on the monitor of an old computer.
"Fortunately, I installed surveillance cameras at home last year." The fellow villager's voice was a little shaky, and he didn't know whether he was talking to them or to himself.
This computer is probably old. The monitor is dusty and the keyboard is covered in glue. It's extremely slow to launch software.
Just when Lin Fan thought the computer was going to freeze, the monitoring interface opened.
Quickly open the video.
Not long after, a picture of two elderly people holding a child appeared.
"It's my parents and children. They are fine." The fellow looked at the time and saw that it was two hours ago. He suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and slumped in the chair.
Lin Fan and the others were still staring at the video. After a while, they saw them carrying the child out of the camera's range. It seemed that there were other people with them on the road.
Everyone is moving in the same direction.
"Brother, it's not time to relax yet." Wu Yusen patted his fellow villager's shoulder. "Look, where are they going?"