Chapter 1106: The Motel's Ghost Story and Unease

At the Interstate Highway Branch, the operator looked at the ringing phone in front of her and answered it somewhat impatiently.

The interstate highway was very long, and there were many branches. The scope they seemed to manage might look like just that small piece on the map.

But in reality, in this small area, besides the main road, there were many branch roads, managing roads of all sizes with a total length of perhaps thousands of kilometers, and some remote and inconvenient places.

It wasn't just the frontline highway police who felt irritable about the alarm phone. On one hand, they might spend the whole day rushing about. On the other hand, the cases that happened on the interstate highway were basically murder cases, and the danger level was very high.

So this also led to everyone not liking the alarm phone.

"This is the 22nd Highway Branch. What can I help you with?" Although the operator didn't like this call, she still tried her best to complete her work.

"Uh... I am the owner of the Big Hot Dog Motel. Do you know the Big Hot Dog Motel?"

Speaking of this motel, the operator immediately thought of their specialty in her mind—a big hot dog with a bigger, thicker, and longer hot dog sausage, plus more fillings and big hot dog bread. They were still considered quite famous in the jurisdiction.

Even in the surrounding cities, some people would specifically come over to buy hot dogs, just because they took a fancy to their fame.

"Yes, I know. Your hot dogs are delicious!"

Discovering that the operator was still her customer, the owner's mood eased quite a bit. "Thank you for your support."

"Then... have you encountered trouble now?" asked the operator.

The owner was a bit hesitant and didn't know how to say it. The operator asked patiently, "Is someone robbing you there?"

"Or did you find a corpse or something in the room when you were checking the rooms today?"

"No matter what happened on your side, if you need our help, it's best if you can tell me what happened, so I can arrange for police officers to go over and help you."

Perhaps it was because the operator's tone was very gentle, or perhaps it was because of some other reason, the owner asked, "I heard before that we are checking out-of-state vehicles here?"

The operator didn't react for a while. "Why check out-of-state vehicles?"

But soon her gaze fell on a work notebook beside the phone. She seemed to have thought of something, flipped to a page she had written in the past few days, and found the relevant content inside.

"I mean... yes, we are looking for out-of-state vehicles. Do you have any gains?"

The owner of the motel stood by the window and looked at the vehicles parked in the parking lot downstairs. "Just now, some people came here, out-of-state people. The cars they were driving all had license plates from Jin State, and they looked very panicked."

"Now they are still in my motel. They seem to have opened rooms. I'm not very clear."

The operator immediately pressed a button and picked up a pen at the same time, starting to record this important information. "How many people do they have?"

"I'm not sure. About thirty or so?"

"I didn't count carefully. Should be that many."

"I heard... reporting them would have a bounty. Can I ask how much this bounty is?"

This was the purpose of his reporting. He had heard the police who came to patrol say such a thing before. If he caught the "wanted criminal" with a bounty, there would be a large sum of bounty money.

Usually, such bounties were only obtained by those bounty hunters. They would specifically look for various statistical information in the wanted columns of the branches and then try to cash in this information.

He hadn't taken it to heart either, until he saw these out-of-state people appearing in his motel in a panic. He felt that he might not necessarily not have this opportunity to get that bounty.

The operator glanced at the content in the notebook and said softly, "Five thousand dollars."

"Holy... you'd better be able to come faster. Do I need to prepare anything?"

"No, no need. Someone will contact you soon..."

At night, a group of people tasted the specialty here and returned to their rooms to lie down.

Everything that happened today made them physically and mentally exhausted. The shock and fear made them not even have the idea of resting for a while. After filling their stomachs, they entered dreamland early.

After ten o'clock at night, more than a dozen cars drove in from outside, and there were also a few police cars and some pickup trucks.

After they parked quietly, everyone got off the cars without a sound.

The leader and a police officer went to the owner's office. There was another room in the office, which was a bedroom. He usually slept here.

When the knocking sound sounded, the owner subconsciously took the pistol under the pillow into his hand.

Operating motels, restaurants, and the like on the interstate highway, they actually weren't that kind of simple people.

"Who is it?" He got up and walked to the door, but didn't open it.

"It's me."

After hearing this familiar voice, the owner breathed a sigh of relief. He opened the door a crack. The guy outside the door stood under the porch light, and he could see his appearance. It was the police officer who often came here.

"I thought you weren't coming."

There were two other people beside the police officer. He smiled and said, "This bounty isn't our responsibility. It's these two beside me. If you want to get that bounty, you have to cooperate a bit."

The owner looked at the two people beside him through the crack in the door for a while. "I don't know you."

The police officer took the initiative to introduce, "These two are from the Lansi family. The people who moved into your motel are enemies of the Lansi family. Do you still need me to say it more clearly?"

The motel itself also had a small bar. People in the branch knew this, but this matter had nothing to do with them.

Although the police had the power to investigate smuggling and the sale of alcohol, this wasn't their main work. And if no one reported it, they basically wouldn't come to interfere with the bar here.

Sealing up taverns and the like didn't have bonuses for them, and it was only considered ordinary work and credit. And it would also offend the locals, which was actually quite uneconomical.

Moreover, sometimes they would also change into casual clothes and come over to drink two glasses after work.

Who could refuse to drink two sips when tired from work?

Where did the motel's alcohol come from? Of course, it was bought. It wasn't far from the Lawrence Farm here, and buying alcohol was very convenient, and the price wasn't high, so he was very familiar with the Lansi family and the Lawrence Farm.

Hearing that the other party was from the Lansi family, the owner immediately closed the door, then canceled the insurance, and opened it completely.

He was very clear that if the other party was really from the Lansi family, then his locking the door and opening the door wouldn't make any difference if they intended to do bad things.

"What do I need to do?" He became much more sensible. The smile on the police officer's face carried a little sarcasm, but he didn't care.

One of them said, "I need the room numbers where these people are staying, and the spare keys."

The motel owner didn't have the slightest resistance. One had to know that at this time, many motels claimed that they didn't have spare keys for the rooms. Social stability was very poor, and theft cases occurred frequently.

To make their motel have a safer and more reliable image, they claimed that every room only had one key, and this key would be given to the customer to use after the room was rented out.

But in reality, it was impossible for them to only have one key.

A few minutes later, when a room door that should have been tightly closed was slowly pushed open, the dim light of the porch light couldn't shine into the room, and the entire room was shrouded in shadows.

Several people entered the room lightly. Perhaps it was the light and dark changes they brought when walking in the room, a guy lying on the outer bed suddenly opened his eyes in a daze.

He widened his eyes and looked at the two people standing at the head of the bed, but his brain didn't seem to have woken up from deep sleep yet. The only thing that woke up was his body.

The next second, his expression suddenly became alert. Just as he was about to shout, the guy standing at the head of the bed pressed his mouth shut and pressed the weight of his entire body onto his head.

Immediately after, he felt something pierce into his chest. The strength that had just risen in his body also kept passing away in the stabs one after another.

Before dying, he struggled to turn his head to look at the bed next to him. His companion also had his throat cut in his sleep.

In an inconspicuous small black hole in the corner of the room, a mouse witnessed everything that happened. When a person's gaze shifted over, the timid mouse instantly disappeared behind the hole.

"What's wrong?" someone asked.

The guy looking at the corner shook his head. "Nothing, maybe a mouse."

After a simple conversation, they began to wrap these corpses with bed sheets, rolling them into a shape like a zongzi, and then wrapped them with a layer of waterproof cloth to avoid blood flowing everywhere.

During this period, the motel didn't make any intense sounds, but there would always be some sounds that were unplanned but expected.

For example, the sound of leather shoes stepping on the floorboards and the like.

There would always be some people sensitive to such sounds, waking them up from their dreams.

They stood behind the curtains and watched those people, who didn't know who they were, throw things that looked like rolled-up carpets onto the pickup truck, and then pull them away car by car.

During this process, no one made screams or shrieks, and there was no sound of fighting. Although many travelers felt very strange, they didn't make any more excessive actions.

They also saw some police standing under the streetlights. Perhaps this was the reason they chose to remain silent.

But after this matter, the Big Hot Dog Motel had some "ghost stories." These ghost stories were heard, processed, and spread by passing travelers, gradually becoming a special culture in the local area, attracting explorers from the federation who were full of curiosity.

Even in the future, the owner of the motel would arrange for some employees to periodically play these people to increase the fun of the motel.

But at this time, the owner of the motel hadn't realized this point. He was counting money.

People from the Lansi family directly gave him ten thousand dollars. This money was a lot, but it wasn't much. For the owner of the motel, it was definitely a large sum of money.

He counted five hundred dollars with some heartache and stuffed it to the police officer who was preparing to leave.

The police officer looked at the roll of banknotes in his hand. More smiles gradually appeared on his face. He patted the owner on the shoulder and didn't say anything.

But both of them knew that the relationship between them had deepened.

Looking at the highway where those people could no longer be seen, and looking back at the motel that had returned to peace, the owner's mood was excited and his heart was surging. With such a large sum of money, this might be an opportunity to change his life! Because it wasn't just because of the money, he also maintained a better relationship with the police officer and also established a relationship with the Lansi family and the Lawrence Farm.

If he could grasp this opportunity, perhaps...

More than a thousand kilometers away, in the old city, Bob lay on the bed and couldn't sleep. The positive effect brought by his decision a few days ago was continuously declining.

A few days ago, because he first proposed to consolidate manpower and strengthen defense, the attack effect of the Lansi family became very poor. People felt that his decision was effective, and many people's feelings toward him became quite good.

But these past two days, his counterattack idea hadn't been able to take effect. Although he did indeed take back some small industries, those were industries the Lansi family didn't intend to keep at all.

Like some large nightclubs, they were still in the hands of the Lansi family until now. Their defensive power was also very strong. The most critical point was that the police stood on their side.

Now the plan to go to Likai State to prepare to give Lansi's base camp a surprise and force their attention not to be all placed here had also failed, which gave Bob a feeling that was hard to describe.

He wasn't as smart as he imagined, or rather, he wasn't as capable as he imagined! He sat up, and this action startled his wife lying on his bed.

His wife was seven or eight years younger than him, but she was his original wife. He turned on the bedside lamp, took a cigarette from the bedside table, lit it, and smoked it.

His wife immediately lit the bedside lamp on her side too. She sat up and looked at Bob. "What's wrong?"

"Are there troublesome things?"

Bob smoked, looking at the wall opposite, which was covered with beautiful and exquisite patterned wallpaper.

He didn't answer this question. After about ten seconds, he said, "Take the two youngest children and go out for a trip during this period."

His wife was still young and was at an age that liked to play. Originally she was very happy, but immediately the expression on her face changed from a smile to nervousness.

She hugged Bob's arm. "Is the problem this time very severe?"

Ever since she married into the Perez family, she hadn't encountered such a thing. The Perez family had never been so severely provoked and attacked!

Severe to the point that she actually had to take the children out for a trip to avoid the danger that might appear!

Bob didn't explain, just looked at her, reached out and hugged her shoulder, and stroked her collarbone. "Just for peace of mind."

"We are the Perez family. There have been many challengers over the years, but in the end, the one who disappeared was never us."

He patted his wife's shoulder. "I just don't want family matters to make you feel bad. And there are so many people coming and going in the family, all carrying weapons, which has a great influence on the children."

He explained a lot, but couldn't make the worry on his wife's face disappear. Fortunately, his wife wasn't a vase who didn't understand anything, and she agreed.

She hugged Bob's waist and said softly, "When you make any decision, please remember, you still have your family, have me."

No words were spoken all night.

Early the next morning, Bob came to the office. He rubbed his temples, and his brain jumped.

People in the family also gradually came here. The successive setbacks these past few days made them feel obvious impatience and discouragement. No one spoke, and the atmosphere in the room was exceptionally oppressive.

After a good while, someone said, "Actually, our strength is much stronger than the Lansi family, but the problem now is that the police don't know why they stood on the side of the Lansi family."

"Once our people are arrested, they have to be locked up for a long time, but people on the Lansi family side are arrested and released very quickly."

"Now the speed of the police responding to the alarm is also very fast. The gunshots just rang out here, and the police came over there. We didn't even have time to take back those industries."

The person who spoke walked out of the crowd. Most people's gazes were focused on him. He walked to the desk, supported the edge of the table with one hand, and tapped the desktop with the other. "What we need to do now is to fix the police side first."

Bob nodded. "Of course I know I need to fix the police side, but that old dog Hel doesn't listen at all now, and the mayor doesn't want to communicate with me much."

"We need more advanced power now...", he was silent for a while. "Don't move these few days. I'll go visit Fran and ask him what to do."

Bob had also known quite a few upper-class people following Fran these years, but he didn't have the contact information of these people. Of course, the most important thing was that he hadn't established a real friendship with these people, let alone any human favors in their hands.

This was also the biggest difficulty he wanted to replace Fran.

If Fran didn't hand over these interpersonal relationships to him, even if he really became the head of the family, it would be very difficult to maintain the current scale.

The human favor society of the federation was much more complex than people imagined. Without these interpersonal relationships, these human favors, the Perez family would soon be reduced to an ordinary role, or even a role that wasn't in the stream.

This time the police station stood on the side of the Lansi family to target them, which made him feel this point.

In the past, when the police stood on their side, they could do whatever they wanted without scruples. But once they stood on the opposite side, he felt how bad this kind of suffocating, tied-up feeling was.

After he simply gave some orders, he immediately took a car to the hospital to see Fran.

Fran was still lying on the bed, opening his mouth slightly every time he breathed, seeming very strenuous.

He was watching TV, and the TV was also reporting some turmoil in the old city recently. The municipal government spokesperson said they would protect the city and people's lives and property safety as much as possible, and crack down on criminal acts... ===== CHAPTER 1107 =====