Chapter 433: The Meat Eater

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

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

Ever since his divorce, Hou Hou Tianlong had moved back to his old family home. Because his income from acting as an agent for engine oil was quite substantial, he had used all the cash he received from the divorce settlement to renovate the place. He renovated a little bit each month, and he did much of the work himself—not to save money, but for the pleasure of it.

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

Ever since the house was finished, his son and daughter liked coming back to the old home to play. His ex-wife, out of necessity, also had 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 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 Hou Tianlong invited.

"Maybe later, maybe later," the neighbor waved his hand and headed home, thinking to himself, *Who else eats like you do? *

Hou Hou Tianlong didn't mind. He cleaned the turtle right there in the courtyard, then offered it a green onion. As it stretched its neck out to look for a pancake, he chopped its head off with one blow.

Chop, chop, chop, chop...

He chopped the turtle into pieces, then the pork belly into pieces. When he remembered the live chicken nearby, it was already scared silly.

He chopped that into pieces too!

Next, Hou Hou Tianlong skillfully put the pork belly into a hot oil pan and began to stir-fry it.

The stove in the courtyard was a traditional rural large stove, and the pot was big enough to hold a whole sheep. Hou Hou Tianlong stretched out half his body, humming a tune as he stir-fried.

Back when he lived at home, he was the one who did the cooking. Actually, cooking wasn't a big deal; he had been helping his family cook since he was in middle school. However, compared to sweating in the machine repair shop, sweating in his own kitchen never seemed to earn him any respect.

And after sweating in the machine repair shop, having to go and sweat in the kitchen felt doubly unfair. Especially after his junior sister's admiration had faded and his master's favor had turned into responsibility...

Hou Hou Tianlong was very grateful to himself now, grateful for his decisiveness in using every means to secure the agency for Li-brand engine oil 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 Hou Tianlong's hand paused...

"Daddy—Daddy!"

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

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

Behind the children was the expressionless figure of his ex-wife. Hou 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 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 replied, though in reality, they had already started climbing onto chairs to stretch their necks and look.

Hou Hou Tianlong smiled and didn't pay it much mind. He waited until the oil rendered from the pork belly submerged the meat, then added the turtle pieces to stir-fry them raw. Once the turtle pieces turned golden, he could stir-fry the chicken. Finally, if he liked, he could add some vegetables to braise them. The turtle and chicken cooked this way would have flavors that permeated each other—tender and fragrant, but only the kind of fragrance that could come from a rural large stove.

Or rather, it had to be a vessel with high heat retention and a stable, high temperature to stir-fry well.

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

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

"They aren't yours, so it doesn't hurt if they fall..." his ex-wife muttered twice. Seeing that Hou Hou Tianlong ignored her, she shut her mouth in frustration.

Because her ex-husband was doing well with his agency, the money he earned far exceeded that of the machine repair shop she and her father ran. Over these few years, she had lost her 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 bring herself to be tough.

Always reaching out for money, she inevitably felt short of breath. She was starting to miss the days when the bank card was in her own hands.

"You finally know how to tidy up these flowers and plants," his ex-wife said, standing by the greenery on one side of the courtyard, looking down at the messy potted plants and poking at them with disdain.

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

Hou 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; the color revealed underneath was completely different from the color of the wooden stand.

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

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

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

After spending the weekend in the courtyard at his old home, the children laughed and played as they returned to the city. Hou Hou Tianlong couldn't stay still either and simply rode his motorcycle back to the city.

His main business now was acting as an agent for Li-brand engine oil. When others advised him to increase his product variety, he refused them all. As a result, he received praise from the Li brand and gained many good resources.

Moreover, as he became more familiar with the business, the time he needed to work decreased, and he only needed to come by to check on things once a week.

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

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

Who knows how much time passed...

Dense footsteps arrived in front of the office door.

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

"Are you Hou Hou Tianlong?" the officers asked, already at Hou Hou Tianlong's side.

Hou 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 officers said as they brought Hou Hou Tianlong's hands together.

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

However, this time, the dream did not end.

Reality was cruel and cold, just like his marriage!

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

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

He suddenly felt a bit of regret and felt even more that it was unfair—the reckless behavior of his youth, the unscrupulous means he used to achieve his goals, only to have them 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 at the first opportunity. After three long laughs, he exclaimed, "Jiang Yuan from Ningtai, his 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 held back his emotions for several days, he finally couldn't hold them in 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 checks out," Captain Han took a deep breath and said with certainty, "It's him!"

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

To be honest, when he provided the list of beneficiaries, Qiu Yue was only hoping that Liu Liu Jinghui and the others could quickly rule out their suspicions and continue moving forward.

Solving a case is a process of trial and error; the special task force was finding the right path by wading through countless wrong ones.

Deep down, Qiu Yue actually tended to believe that the bombing was aimed at an unspecified majority. In other words, 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 Liu Jinghui and the others wanted to try it 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 that.

"Was there another motive? It couldn't just be for an engine oil agency, could it?" Qiu Yue asked again.

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

"That agency wasn't worth much money back then!" Qiu Yue emphasized, "Even eight years ago, Hou Hou Tianlong's family ran an auto repair shop. Earning two or three hundred thousand, three or four hundred thousand a year wasn't a problem. Selling engine oil was just a side business; selling any brand would have been fine..."

"But the Li-brand engine oil agency was negotiated by Hou Hou Tianlong, and the repair shop belonged to his wife's family," Captain Han spread his hands and said, "It really wasn't worth much money, but Hou 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. After a long while, he finally said, "To think you guys actually 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 has only one way to be solved. When you get close enough, there will naturally be a gap that allows you to solve it." 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 a lifetime had passed.

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

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

Just as Hou Hou Tianlong had appeared on the list of beneficiaries before. Criminal suspects will always keep appearing, just like fish in a pond. They can get off the hook countless times, but they will always face the risk of being hooked.

"Do you want to go see the suspect?" Captain Han asked Jiang Yuan.

"No, not interested. Oh, get a footprint sample later; I'll compare it again," Jiang Yuan said quite relaxedly.

He had done many cases.

Captain Han also responded with a beaming smile.

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

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

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

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

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