Chapter 232: Marks

Zheng Tan looks out the car window at the scenery; the car has already left Chu Hua Shi, and he doesn't know where it's headed.

An hour ago Zheng Tan was hurriedly taken out by Er Mao; the call to Jiao Ma was also made by Er Mao in the car, who gave an excuse that they were taking Zheng Tan out to play and might be gone a day or two—just a conservative estimate. From Er Mao's expression and words, Zheng Tan sensed that this matter might take even longer.

When leaving the city, Zheng Tan heard Er Mao give a brief rundown: Hetaoshixiong disappeared while handling a case, and before vanishing he went out with Heijin. The bureau is still keeping Hetaoshixiong's family in the dark, not yet public. Whatever happened, they'll find the person first.

Compared with those people, Er Mao trusts himself more. Just after leaving the city he received a text; a friend helping with the investigation sent several addresses—possible sites of other shady deals the bankrupt company was conducting in secret.

Er Mao isn't interested in those black‑market deals; he's not a police officer nor a superhero, he only looks for people.

Among the few senior brothers, they know each other's little habits, and they once agreed on a behavior: if something seemed very dangerous, possibly life‑threatening, they would carve a certain mark somewhere.

Each of them has his own personal mark and habit; even if others know how they mark, they might not be able to find it.

Zheng Tan saw Er Leng drive the car off the highway and stop in a rather desolate spot. Scattered around were some blue‑brick houses; most of the area was vegetable fields. There were also a few trees.

Er Leng told Zheng Tan to stay in the car while he went down to check.

After Er Leng got out, Zheng Tan leaned on the window and saw Er Leng approach a low blue‑tile house, then stand in front of it, stretch out his hand and gesture—he spread his five fingers palm down, turned his hand eastward horizontally, then a bit west, finally pointing with his thumb. Er Leng ran that way, eyed a not‑tall tree, looked at a branch, then returned to the car and drove toward another spot.

They then went to three more places, repeating the same actions. Each time Er Leng returned disappointed. It seemed Hetaoshixiong wasn't at any of those spots.

At the fifth location, Zheng Tan still watched from the car as Er Leng searched for Hetaoshixiong's mark. There was a small creek here. No blue‑tile houses nearby; farther away lay a large field where people could be seen moving.

While thinking how barren the place was, Zheng Tan saw Er Leng return quickly after checking a tree; unlike before, this time Er Leng's expression was different, lacking the earlier look of disappointment.

It seemed to be here.

He parked the car, got out, and called Zheng Tan to follow.

Walking that way would be inconvenient by car.

"Black Coal, can you smell anything?" Er Leng looked at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan sniffed; he didn't detect much, only a lot of other people's scents and animal odors—too much interference, or perhaps the scent had faded with time. To find it, he'd need to sniff a larger area, but Er Leng seemed in a hurry and had a target route, not relying much on Zheng Tan. Zheng Tan just sniffed where he was and kept up with Er Leng's pace.

Zheng Tan never imagined he'd be used as a tracking dog; in terms of technique, he can't match those "professionally trained" dogs—having the nose skill without knowing how to use it well is useless.

Er Leng wasn't very disappointed with Zheng Tan's performance; he was still looking for the marks Hetaoshixiong left, which would make the tracking faster. He put the black cat on board, just as an extra insurance.

Although Hetaoshixiong's mark looked simple, it contained a lot of information. Out of curiosity Zheng Tan examined a few and found the mark resembled the "single‑person radical" on the left side of the character "He" (何), which is Hetaoshixiong's surname.

Moreover, each mark varied; it wasn't written straight nor a simple direction indicator—perhaps only Er Leng and his few companions could extract the correct info. Seeing Er Leng gesture with his palm there made Zheng Tan realize it was far more complex than he imagined.

Zheng Tan followed not far behind Er Leng; now he didn't need to do anything, just keep up. Er Leng had said earlier he might not ask for help, so Zheng Tan felt little pressure. Still, he sincerely hoped He Tao and Heijin would be safe; although he barely knows them and has met only a few times, because of Wei Leng and Er Mao's connection, Zheng Tan wishes that senior brother to be all right.

As he was thinking, Zheng Tan's steps halted; he lifted his head, sniffed, and looked toward a direction that deviated slightly from Er Leng's path.

He thought it over, then ran that way; as the scent grew stronger, he saw a black worm crawling under his feet. Looking ahead, there were more worms moving on the ground; if not for the fallen leaves covering them, he might have seen even more.

Er Leng, who was following the marks, noticed Zheng Tan's situation and jogged over.

"What's wrong?" Er Leng asked.

Zheng Tan ignored him, kept walking that way until he reached a dried‑out ditch that looked like an old water channel. The surrounding trees were numerous, mostly deciduous. Someone had swept fallen leaves into the ditch, so the leaf pile inside was a bit thick; otherwise the leaves where Zheng Tan had just walked wouldn't have been so sparse. The area with more worms stood out slightly.

Now both Zheng Tan and Er Leng's attention shifted from the leaves to the worms.

"The weather's making the worms so active?" Er Leng frowned; he also smelled something unpleasant.

Zheng Tan watched Er Leng hop into the ditch while he stayed at the edge, not wanting to get too close. Those worms were just like the ones he'd seen in that villa district that Heijin treated as "evidence"; recalling some words he'd heard then, Zheng Tan felt a chill down his spine and grew nervous. What lay beneath those leaves?

Er Leng used a branch to part the leaves and saw the object underneath.

It was a body, almost completely gnawed down to just a skeleton, but the fact that it was shorter than Hetaoshixiong eased Er Leng's uneasy mind a bit.

Zheng Tan glanced at it once and looked away; judging by Er Leng's expression, it wasn't Hetaoshixiong, which gave him some relief. Still, it matched what those people had said—just a skeleton, apparently eaten by the worms.

He forced himself to shift focus, not thinking about the gruesome sight, and walked nearby, then caught the scent of Hetaoshixiong and Heijin.

He'd been too nervous, focusing only on the worms and the ditch's smell, and missed the trace of a person and a dog.

Although Er Leng could trace the general route Hetaoshixiong left, this spot wasn't on that route.

Zheng Tan strained to identify the scents, then followed them to a large tree's back. There was a slope; in poor light, someone lying there would be hard to notice.

It seemed Hetaoshixiong and Heijin had been here, and the scent lingered strongly because of the time elapsed. He inferred that when those people were dealing with the ditch, Hetaoshixiong and Heijin were probably watching from here. After those people left, Hetaoshixiong continued on.

After examining the area, Er Leng took several photos, then covered the leaves again, and followed Zheng Tan back this way; seeing the scene, he could also guess some of the earlier circumstances.

"Well done, Black Coal."

Confirming Zheng Tan found no other clues, Er Leng kept looking for the marks.

He searched along the road for a while, then stopped.

The marks ended here; the last one gave no direction or indication to stop. Perhaps the situation was too urgent, the incident sudden, so Hetaoshixiong didn't have time to leave a mark?

Er Leng didn't know. He examined the surroundings, found traces of people—at least three footprints, some cigarette butts, indicating they'd smoked here, and then… He glanced at a narrow cement road about ten meters away, assuming those people had driven off.

But which way should he go?

The data Er Leng had obtained listed several locations; one was nearby, but at the other end of the road, farther away, there was another place.

Should he check both spots?

Er Leng stood there, thought, was about to send the cat behind him to try, but when he turned, he saw the cat had gone in another direction.

After realizing Er Leng couldn't find a mark, Zheng Tan sniffed around, detecting not only the strangers' scents but also the hard‑to‑detect scent of Hetaoshixiong and Heijin.

Heijin's scent was naturally stronger, and while searching, Zheng Tan also discovered something unexpected and lingered there a moment.

"Something?" Er Leng asked, pulling out a folding knife, crouching to start digging.

After the earlier gnawed‑down skeleton, Er Leng now, whenever the cat paused, wondered what had happened here. He also saw disturbed soil traces, small but visible.

Zheng Tan stepped back several paces, thought, then stepped back two more. He crouched and watched Er Leng dig. If Zheng Tan could express himself clearly, he wouldn't need Er Leng to dig; he'd certainly try to stop it, but now he can't speak and doesn't know how to convey his meaning, and even if he tried, Er Leng would still move.

The soil wasn't packed tightly; Er Leng easily lifted the top layer, and after a few rapid scoops, he saw what was buried below.

A lump of feces.

Er Leng: "……"

Could this be what Heijin left?!

When did that dog learn this habit from the cat? (To be continued…)

ps: (4.21) The wind has been tighter lately, even the "chong" in "chongwu" is now an asterisk.