Chapter 433: Meat-Eater

Hou Tianlong, a chicken in his left hand and a soft-shelled turtle in his right, with a slab of pork belly slung over his shoulder, hummed a tune as he rode his small motorcycle back to his own little courtyard.

The courtyard was enclosed by a fence. Part of the ground was paved with bricks, while another part remained as bare earth. He had built a pavilion and a pond in the surroundings, and with the dry-hung stone house structure, the small courtyard appeared exquisite and beautiful.

Ever since his divorce, Hou Tianlong had moved back to his hometown to live in the old family house. Because his income as a lubricant agent was quite substantial, he had used all the cash he received from the divorce settlement for renovations. He renovated a little bit each month, and he did much of the work himself—not to save money, but for the fun of it.

A pawn moved forward each day, a square meter renovated each day; the renovated old house possessed both trendy designs and retained some symbols from his memories, along with modern conveniences.

Ever since this house was finished, his son and daughter also liked coming back to the hometown to play. His ex-wife, out of necessity, had no choice but to come over to drop off the children. As a result, in the two years since the divorce, his ex-wife had returned to the Hou family's old home more times than she had in the ten years they were married.

"Old Hou, you're back." A neighbor greeted him with a smile.

"I'm back. I got a turtle; come over to the house for a meal later," Hou Tianlong called out.

"Maybe later, maybe later." The neighbor waved his hand and headed home, thinking to himself, who else eats like you do?

Hou Tianlong didn't mind. He cleaned the old turtle right there in the courtyard, then handed it a scallion. While it stretched its neck out looking for a pancake, he chopped its head off with one stroke.

Chop, chop, chop, chop...

The turtle was chopped into pieces, the pork belly was chopped into pieces, and when he remembered the live chicken nearby, it had already been scared silly.

It was also chopped into pieces!

Next, Hou Tianlong skillfully put the pork belly into a heated wok and began to stir-fry it.

The stove in the courtyard was a traditional rural large stove, and the pot was a large one that could hold a whole sheep. Hou Tianlong stretched out half his body, humming a tune while he stir-fried.

When he was at home in the past, he was the one who did the cooking. Actually, cooking was nothing; he had been helping his family cook since he was in middle school. However, compared to sweating in the machine shop, sweating in his own kitchen always seemed hard to get respect for.

And after sweating in the machine shop, having to go to the kitchen to sweat again made him feel doubly unfair. Especially after the admiration of his junior sister was lost and his master's grace had turned into responsibility...

Hou Tianlong was very grateful to himself now, grateful for his decisiveness in using every means to secure the agency for Li Brand lubricants in Qu'an County. This was a "project" he had single-handedly spearheaded back then, and its value had been proven later on. As for the cost...

Hou Tianlong's hand paused...

"Daddy—Daddy!"

A voice, happy to the point of being noisy, came from outside the courtyard.

Hou Tianlong couldn't help but smile. As his gaze swept over, he saw his son and daughter getting out of the car and running in wildly.

Behind the children was the expressionless figure of his ex-wife. Hou Tianlong didn't mind. From his perspective, his ex-wife was much easier to get along with now than when they were married.

Hou Tianlong waved with a beaming smile and shouted, "Dad is stir-frying; be careful not to get splashed by the oil."

"Got it." The two children responded, but in reality, they had already started climbing onto chairs to stretch their necks and look.

Hou Tianlong smiled and didn't pay much attention to it. He waited until the oil rendered from the pork belly submerged all the meat, then added the turtle pieces to stir-fry. Once the turtle pieces turned yellow, he could stir-fry the chicken. Finally, if he liked, he could add some vegetables to braise. The turtle and chicken made this way had flavors that permeated each other, fragrant and tender, but only the fragrance stir-fried in this kind of rural large stove was authentic.

Or rather, it had to be a vessel with high heat storage and stable high temperatures to be stir-fried well.

His ex-wife couldn't stand it at the doorway and had to come in, saying, "You're not watching the children again, letting them climb so high..."

"It's fine, the ground is dirt, it won't hurt if they fall," Hou Tianlong said calmly.

"It's not yours, so it won't hurt if they fall..." His ex-wife muttered a couple of times, and seeing Hou Tianlong ignoring her, she stopped, feeling resentful.

Because her ex-husband's agency business was doing well, the money he earned far exceeded the machine shop she and her father ran. After these few years, she could no longer gain the upper hand in terms of momentum.

Furthermore, her ex-husband was very generous with his spending on their children. With this extra financial support, his ex-wife often couldn't be tough.

Always reaching out for money, she inevitably felt short of breath. She missed the time when the card was in her own hands.

"You finally know how to tidy up these flowers and plants." His ex-wife stood by the green plants on one side of the courtyard, looking down at the messy potted plants, and poked at them with disdain.

Her ex-husband didn't really know how to raise flowers; instead, they were prone to bugs. But he wouldn't listen. Now that he was tidying them up occasionally, it actually made her happy.

Hou Tianlong was stunned. He subconsciously walked over to take a look and saw that the two flower pots in front of his ex-wife had clearly been moved, and the color revealed underneath was completely different from the color of the wooden rack.

Hou Tianlong frowned and asked, "Did you move these?"

"Why would I move anything? Hou, you'd better improve your attitude. Let me tell you..." His ex-wife's shrewish temper flared up instantly.

Hou Tianlong watched without a word for a few seconds, then turned back to stir-fry the chicken, his mood inexplicably low.

After spending the weekend in the hometown courtyard, the children returned to the city laughing and playing. Hou Tianlong couldn't stay still either, so he simply rode his motorcycle back to the city.

His main business now was the Li Brand lubricant agency. Others had advised him to increase his product variety, but he had refused them all. As a result, he was praised by the Li Brand side and obtained quite a few good resources.

Moreover, as he became more familiar with the business, the time he needed to work was also decreasing; he only needed to come over to check on things once a week.

Arriving at the office early today, several employees were still laughing and playing.

Hou Tianlong just hummed, entered his office, and stared blankly at the photo of himself and his children on the desk.

Who knows how much time passed...

Dense footsteps arrived at the office door.

Hou Tianlong focused and looked up, only to see several police officers pushing the door open and entering.

"Are you Hou Tianlong?" The police officers asked while already at Hou Tianlong's side.

Hou Tianlong felt as if he were dreaming; the dream from last night seemed to be exactly this...

He wanted to speak, but couldn't, just like in the dream.

"We are from the Qu'an County Criminal Police Brigade. This is my identification..." The criminal police officers said while bringing Hou Tianlong's hands together.

Hou Tianlong shuddered violently. In the dream, he had struggled hard just like this, and then he woke up from the dream.

However, this time, the dream did not wake up.

Reality was cruel and cold, just like his marriage!

"Let's go." The lead criminal police officer smiled gently.

In Hou Tianlong's eyes, that smile was sharper than turtle teeth.

He suddenly felt a bit of regret and felt even more that it was unfair—the wanton behavior of his reckless youth, the unscrupulous means used to achieve his goals, only to have it backfire at the age when he was most satisfied; it was too unbearable.

Qu'an County Criminal Police Brigade.

Conference room.

Jiang Yuan was still there comparing footprints, but good news had already come out of the interrogation room.

Captain Han arrived at the conference room for the first time. After three long laughs, he exclaimed, "Jiang Yuan from Ningtai, your reputation is well-deserved, well-deserved indeed!"

Qiu Yue, who had been huddled in the corner of the conference room as a background figure for the past few days, had his expression freeze. Having endured his emotions for several days, he finally couldn't hold back anymore and asked impatiently, "Did he confess? Is it really this guy?"

"He confessed. The modus operandi, the source of the explosives, including the details of the explosive device, everything he said is correct." Captain Han took a deep breath and said affirmatively, "It's him!"

Qiu Yue couldn't help but be stunned on the spot, muttering, "It actually turned out to be this guy..."

Honestly, when providing the list of beneficiaries, Qiu Yue had only hoped that Liu Jinghui and the others could quickly rule out their suspicions and then continue moving forward.

Solving a case is a process of trial and error; the special task force was finding the correct path out of countless wrong ideas.

From his heart, Qiu Yue actually tended to believe that the bombing case was aimed at an unspecified majority of people. That is, an anti-social act similar to a terrorist attack.

Murder—Qiu Yue had already discarded this line of thinking when he was commanding the special task force.

Liu Jinghui and the others wanted to do it all over again, and Qiu Yue had no way to object.

However, what Qiu Yue never expected was that this case would actually be solved just like this.

"Was there another incentive? It couldn't just be for a lubricant agency right?" Qiu Yue asked again.

Captain Han sighed, "If you want to know, it really was just for an agency right."

"That agency right wasn't worth much money back then!" Qiu Yue emphasized, "Even eight years ago, Hou Tianlong's family ran an auto repair shop, earning 200,000 to 300,000 or 300,000 to 400,000 a year was not a problem. Selling lubricants was just incidental; they could sell anyone's lubricants..."

"But the Li Brand lubricant agency right was negotiated by Hou Tianlong, and the machine shop belonged to his wife's family." Captain Han spread his hands and said, "It really wasn't worth much money, but Hou Tianlong just wanted it."

Qiu Yue was stunned and asked, "Where did the black powder come from?"

"It was dismantled from a type of cannon (Note 1)." Captain Han replied.

Qiu Yue sighed long and hard, his gaze locked on Jiang Yuan, and after a long time, he said, "To think you guys solved the case like this."

"I didn't expect it either." Jiang Yuan smiled, "I was still comparing footprints."

"Solving cases is like this; there is no case that only has one way to be solved. When you are close enough, there will naturally be a gap that allows you to solve the case." What Qiu Yue said was exactly what his master had taught him years ago. At this moment, it surfaced, making Qiu Yue feel as if it were a lifetime ago.

"Many-to-many footprint analysis is still a bit difficult." Jiang Yuan smiled. If he hadn't discovered those footprints of long-term standing, he might have needed a long time before he would have touched upon Hou Tianlong's existence again.

However, if enough resources were invested in this case, for Jiang Yuan, it would just be investing enough time, for example, three or four months, just like the previous special task force. Then, Hou Tianlong would definitely have appeared in the police's field of vision.

Just like Hou Tianlong had previously appeared on the list of beneficiaries. Criminal suspects will always appear constantly, just like fish in a fish pond; they can unhook themselves countless times, but they will always face the risk of being fished up.

"Are you going to see the suspect?" Captain Han asked Jiang Yuan.

"No, not interested. Oh, take a footprint later, I'll compare it again." Jiang Yuan said quite easily.

He had done many cases.

Captain Han also responded with a beaming smile.

Jiang Yuan withdrew his gaze, took out his phone again, and smiled, "I'll tell Director Huang."

Captain Han's smile, which had just become radiant, collapsed instantly.

Qiu Yue looked at him strangely and asked, "Who is Director Huang?"

"A meat-eater." Captain Han suddenly felt pain all over, and his eyes became crystalline.

Note 1: This case has a prototype, but because the information about the explosives in the report was a bit too detailed, writing up to this point, I feel I should be a bit more restrained, so some specific details will not be described in detail. ===== CHAPTER 434 =====