This is the most arduous trek in Liu Chuan's life, a group of four of them drove a coal 10** truck from Qinshui, along the Qintai Highway to the east, after passing Taiyuan, and then turned north, day and night, to the direction of Beijing.

The car was loaded with jet-black raw coal produced by Qinshui, and Lao Fan and his son Fan Xiaokang took turns driving. When the road is flat and uninhabited, Liu Chuan will also drive for them for a while, this kind of extra long goods makes Liu Chuan tremble, so he still sits in the back seat of the cockpit with Shan Chenggong's daughter Shan Juan most of the time, chatting about each other's experiences and families.

Shan Juan said that one of the things she believes in most in her life is fate. She said that she didn't know that he had saved his father when she saw Liu Chuan being beaten by well-off people for the first time in the "Big Rich", but in the dark she felt that this boy with a bloody face seemed to be related to her, and this flash of inspiration prompted her to save Liu Chuan in a nosy way, and took the initiative to run to tell Lao Fan.

Sitting in this big coal truck, Liu Chuan had a chance to see the girl's demeanor and face. Shan Juan is a beauty, dressed plainly, with a plain face, that kind of beauty is different from Ji Wenzhu. Ji Wenzhu is small, gorgeous, pale and delicate; The single juan has a sharp silhouette, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and the hair and skin seem to be never maintained, all by virtue of youthful talent. She usually doesn't talk much, but once she has something to say, she goes straight to the point, and the boldness and composure of northern women are everywhere.

As they got to know each other, the topic of Shan Juan revolved more around his father. Liu Chuan could feel that she was not only very concerned about her father, but also almost adored. She told Liu Chuan that her family had been very poor since she was a child, and her mother was not only sickly, but also short-tempered and obedient, which made her more dependent on her father both in life and psychologically. In the eyes of Shan Juan, her father is a calm, witty, bold, and careful man, and he is her only idol since she was a child. However, since the end of the previous year, her father brought her and her mother from her hometown Dongzhao to Qinshui and handed them over to his sworn brother Lao Fan, and they never returned. At first, there were phone greetings, but then there was no news at all. Later, she read from a newspaper that Lao Fan gave her that her father was involved in a vault robbery and became a famous criminal. Her mother also read the newspaper, but she refused to believe it, and scolded the public security court all day long for wronging the innocent.

However, Shan Juan letter. She believes that with her father's courage and personality, he can do anything earth-shattering.

During the three days and three nights of the journey, Liu Chuan gradually became curious about this girl, not only because she had a firm belief like a man, but also because this belief was completely immoral. He asked curiously, "Your father committed a felony, he robbed the bank and killed the guards. Can you understand him for committing this sin, can you forgive him, and do you still love him as you did in the past? ”

Shan Juan did not hesitate for a moment, and replied unswervingly: "I can understand him, I can forgive him, and I will still love him as much as I did in the past." I know he's done wrong, but he'll always be my dad and I'll always be his daughter. ”

"Every one of us will do something wrong," Liu Chuan said, "but don't you think it's too much to rob a bank?" They robbed more than 12 million dollars, and four of the five of them were killed. Your father was spared the death penalty because he was not directly involved in the murder at the scene of the robbery. What did you think when you first heard that your dad did this, did you never hate him, never felt scared? ”

"The first time I read about it in the newspaper, I remembered that when I was a child, my dad worked as a handyman in a restaurant, and he used to bring me delicious food from the unit," Shan Juan said. Then he was caught by the people in the restaurant, and they beat him, very hard, and when my dad came home with a bloody face, I cried sadly for a long time. But I don't hate my dad for stealing things from the public, I only feel sorry for him. ”

Shan Juan fell silent after saying this, and Liu Chuan fell into the same silence. If it weren't for this conversation with Shan Juan about his father, it might have been difficult for him to appreciate the extreme sensuality of women—any eloquent truth, any clear right and wrong, in the face of the emotions that made them fall in, forever pale and never dismissive.

It's a long journey, and the big trucks pulling coal can't drive fast. When they set off from Qinshui, they had already expected that the car would be on the road for at least three days. The three-day bump was undoubtedly a torture for Liu Chuan, who was covered in injuries. A few days ago, he beat his Xiaokang and his father Lao Fan in the "Big Rich", and they are obviously used to this kind of long-distance journey, they are strong and energetic, unlike Liu Chuan, who has been pampered since childhood.

They sat in the front of the cockpit and chatted while driving. They also talked about the successful case, but the words flickered and the meaning was unclear. Because Liu Chuan was on a mission, as soon as he heard the front seat talk about this case and talked about the success alone, he listened attentively, but the few words he heard in the roar of the truck motor were difficult to sort out how much meaning and what valuable clues he heard for a while.

He only summed up the impression that the father and son of the Fan family were more concerned about the money, the huge sum of 12 million yuan, which was very strange and unaccounted for.

Liu Chuan only resumed contact with Section Chief Jing the day before the coal car set off from Qinshui. He took advantage of Lao Fan's unpreparedness to sneak out and dialed Section Chief Jing's mobile phone in a small post office near Fan's house. He heard that Section Chief Jing was already hoarse about his disappearance, and in the past few days, Liu Chuan also saw from the window of Lao Fan's house that the nearby streets were full of plainclothes from the police. Section Chief Jing asked him why he only talked on the phone once after getting off the train, and why he didn't contact him again. Liu Chuan reflected on himself, when he walked from the iron gate of Lao Fan's house to the "Big Rich" bar, he should have had another phone call with Section Chief Jing, and the outside line of the public security followed him on that street. Liu Chuan thought that Section Chief Jing or the plainclothes of the Qinshui Public Security Bureau would follow the "big rich", and thought that he would be fine if he had a dispute with the Xiaokang gang over the drink money, and his carelessness made him get bruised, and his nose was swollen for two days.

On the evening of the third day after leaving Qinshui, the coal truck finally drove into the border of Beijing. When Liu Chuan stopped for dinner, he used the reflector in front of the car to check his face, except for two large bruises that had not yet receded, and the contours of his facial features had been restored. Even so, he knew that he would definitely not be able to see Ji Wenzhu within three or five days after entering Beijing, and he knew very well that Ji Wenzhu liked him because he liked his face, so he must not let this face be stored in her impression.

It was their last dinner before they entered the city, and it was relatively formal. Along the way, whether it is stopping to eat or resting, Xiaokang cares about Shan Juan very much. It can be seen from Xiaokang's behavior that they are a pair of lovers, and Shan Juan is not smiling at Xiaokang, calling him a brother in his words and acting as a brother. Liu Chuan thought to himself that maybe because Shan Juan's father was still trapped in the capital and did not know his life and death, Shan Juan naturally would not be in the mood to fall in love at this time.

After this dinner, Liu Chuan and Shan Juan did not return to the car, according to the plan determined before the trip, they broke up with the Fan father and son here and took a bus into the city. After they broke up, Lao Fan stayed in the coal car, and Xiaokang volunteered to send them to the bus stop half a mile away, where he watched Shan Juan get into the car with Liu Chuan, and watched the bus drive away slowly in the direction of the sunset.

Although Liu Chuan was born and raised in Beijing, he is not very familiar with the bus routes in the suburbs of Beijing. He took Shan Juan to reverse the car twice and detoured a section of the wrong road before he got into a taxi to the city at an intersection at the junction of urban and rural areas. It was already dark when they arrived in the city, and by the time they reached the door of the small hotel in Fengtai, the whole alley was already silent. Shan Juan hurriedly walked into the door of the hotel with Liu Chuan, she didn't even follow Lao Fan's instructions, first look forward and then observe clearly before entering carefully, but walked straight inside without squinting, and went straight to her father's room. Shan Chenggong's door was locked, and Shan Juan shouted while knocking on the door: "Dad, Dad, it's me, I'm Xiaojuan!" ”

There was an immediate response from inside, and after a burst of footsteps, the door opened. This hut was only about ten square meters, standing at the door enough to have an unobstructed view, Shan Juan saw that in addition to the strange man who came to open the door, there was a woman and a young child on the bed.

Shan Juan was stunned.

Liu Chuan was very calm, he squeezed up and asked, "Hey, where are the people who lived in this house?" ”

The strange man said, "I don't know, we just moved in today." ”

Shan Juan asked, "Who lived here before you lived?" ”

The strange man said, "I don't know, you go and ask." ”

Shan Chenggong was not in the room, and Lao Fan had expected it before leaving Qinshui, because whether it was in Qinshui or on the way from Qinshui to Beijing, they called the room of this small hotel many times, but none of them could find Lao Shan once.

They retreated from their rooms to the door of the hotel and asked the counter where the inhabitant in room 12 had gone. The salesman yawned and said that the man had already left, and no one would tell us anything about it.

They had no choice but to leave the hotel, and when they left the hotel, Liu Chuan talked to Lao Fan's mobile phone, and Lao Fan told them on the phone to find a place to stay in the city first, and then make plans at dawn tomorrow.

Shan Juan was anxious, with tears in his eyes, and followed Liu Chuan out of the hotel and out of the alley. They stopped at the entrance of the alley to discuss where to stay, and the result of the discussion was to walk forward again. They had just walked a hundred and ten meters long when they suddenly heard someone in the distance shouting: "Shan Juan!" Single Juan! "It's not loud, but it's very clear. Shan Juan and Liu Chuan turned back together, and the two saw together that Shan Chenggong was staggering out of a dark shadow across the road.

In fact, Liu Chuan knew from Section Chief Jing before he left Qin Shui that Shan Chenggong immediately quit the hotel room after he left and moved to another nearby hotel to live. According to the observation of plainclothes officers in charge of squatting and monitoring by the Beijing Public Security Bureau, Shan Chenggong spent most of the day running to the opposite side of the alley of the original hotel, mingling among pedestrians on the street, waiting for Liu Chuan to appear. Maybe he was still worried that when Liu Chuan came back, he would not bring Lao Fan, but a group of armed police officers with loaded guns.

Liu Chuan finally appeared, and on the seventh night after Shan successfully transferred his hiding place, he finally saw Liu Chuan at the entrance of the alley and saw that he had brought his daughter. He saw them walk into the alley, and he saw them walk out of the alley, and after confirming that there was no danger, Shan Chenggong walked out of the shadows and called out to Shan Juan.

Liu Chuan saw Shan Chenggong and his daughter hugging tightly on the side of the road, and the father and daughter wept at the same time. Liu Chuan watched silently from the side, he didn't expect that after Shan Chenggong let go of his daughter, he would suddenly stretch out his arms, pull him over, and hold him in his arms.

Shan Chenggong hugged Liu Chuan tightly, and he said: "Son, you go with me, my godfather promised you that he would let you live a good life for the rest of your life!" ”

Liu Chuan motionless let him hold it, and after hugging him for a while, he made a muffled voice deep in his chest:

“…… I want to go home. ”

In the middle of the night, Liu Chuan returned home.

When he opened the door with the key, the house was quiet, and from the shoes in the locker room at the door, he knew that Section Chief Jing had not lied to him, and his grandmother had indeed been discharged from the hospital and had gone home. Now, at this point, it's two o'clock in the night. Grandma and the little nanny have long gone to bed.

After Liu Chuan and Shan Chenggong's father and daughter broke up on the street, they first talked to Section Chief Jing on the phone, and then went to the place designated by Section Chief Jing on the phone to connect with him. The location was in an alley not far from the small hotel, on a van parked in that alley. Liu Chuan met Section Chief Jing and his two cadres in the van, and unexpectedly met his top boss in Tianhe Prison, Section Chief Zhong of the Tianhe Prison Repatriation Section.

They talked for a long time in the car with the headlights black, and Section Chief Jing asked that Liu Chuan must follow Shan Chenggong and Lao Fan and others tomorrow to sneak out of Beijing and return to Qinshui. Shan Chenggong has already regarded Liu Chuan as a life-saving benefactor, and thinks that father and son, this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If Shan Chenggong really knew the whereabouts of the huge amount of money that was robbed, it was very likely that he would reveal it to Liu Chuan and share it with Liu Chuan. At least, when he thinks he is safe, he will be eager to get this huge amount of money and fulfill his promise to repay Liu Chuan. Based on this analysis, this case is not far from the final victory of the stolen goods.

Only then did Liu Chuan understand why Section Chief Jing had invited Zhong Da here so late. Obviously, he had set up to return to Qin Shui before the joint, and there was no specific return date. Liu Chuan had already seen that as soon as he showed the slightest war-weariness and retreat, they would all invite Zhong Da out to persuade and educate.

Although Zhong Da did not educate Liu Chuan on how to obey this time, his expression and words still dissipated Liu Chuan's rebellion and resistance without much effort. When he saw Liu Chuan, he greeted him like a son who had returned from afar, except for chattering about Liu Chuan's grandmother's illness and the situation of Liu's company, he hardly talked about this case. He told Liu Chuan that he had been to the hospital twice in the past few days, and Xiao Ke had been there more than him. Yesterday, Liu Chuan's grandmother has been discharged from the hospital, her lower limbs are no longer numb, and her spirit has recovered well, and she only needs to go to the hospital for acupuncture once a week in the future. Lao Zhong said that considering that her condition had just improved, and considering that this disease was mainly due to a nervous disorder, we just told her that you were going to other places for prison errands, so that she would not be anxious for you, which would not be conducive to recovery. Liu Chuan asked: What about Xiaoke, she also thinks that I went to work for the prison? Lao Zhong was silent for a moment and said: Xiao Ke doesn't know...... Now the people in the prison are rumoring that you are doing something bad in the bar outside and the public security bureau has accepted it, considering the confidentiality of this case, and also for your safety, we have not come forward to refute the rumors. Liu Chuan was stunned for a long time, and suddenly asked: Did Pang Jiandong know that I was accepted by the Public Security Bureau, and did he tell his girlfriend?

This question was so clueless that everyone was stunned, and Lao Zhong was also stunned: Pang Jiandong? Didn't his girlfriend blow it early?

Liu Chuan bowed his head and was silent, knowing that he was out of shape and blurted out.

Lao Zhong continued: I also asked an acquaintance in the court to help you about the situation of your company, and the court is still in the process of coordinating, and they said that your lawyer has been in contact with them, and there will generally be no major moves recently. I went to Wanhe Entertainment City two days ago to take a look, the business is very good, quite normal, I told Section Chief Jing about the situation, so that he has the opportunity to tell you. Now your grandmother has also been discharged from the hospital, and I picked her up from the hospital yesterday. Your company also went to a few people yesterday, and when I got home, the lawyer also came, and I saw them all. The lawyer later went to your grandmother's house and said that he wanted her to sign some authorization documents, and I guess he told your grandmother about the situation in the company. Your grandma was in a good mood when I left yesterday, so I don't think the situation at the company is too bad.

Lao Zhong didn't persuade Liu Chuan much how to cooperate with Section Chief Jing and the like, but Liu Chuan was a soft-hearted person, he couldn't stand a few soft words from others, and he couldn't stand people being a little kind to him, so he lowered his head and was silent for a long time, and finally glanced at Section Chief Jing, and said weakly:

"I want to ...... Let's go home first. ”

Liu Chuan barely slept that night, he didn't wake up his grandmother after he got home, and put hot water in the large tub in the bathroom, so that his bruised body could be soaked in the hot water for a long time. He hadn't had a proper shower in over a week, and his skin and underwear smelled of mold.

Lying in the large snow-white bathtub of his house, he looked up at the soft light from the marble lampshade overhead, which reflected the surrounding finch parquet walls. After taking a bath, Liu Chuan got up from the pool, surrounded his body with two thick white bath towels, and the soft and absorbent fibers of the towel carefully ironed his skin, and his skin was as smooth as a virgin. He stepped out of the smooth marble floor of the bathroom, stepped barefoot on the thick, soft wool carpet of the bedroom, and lay down on the bed in a dry, warm cotton quilt, the comfort that had been lost for a long time made him feel comfortable. In the dead of night, not only did he not feel sleepy, but he also woke up from a nightmare. This nightmare made him savor the happy life that he had always had because he had no sense of it, and he couldn't help but feel a thousand feelings, and the final landing point of that feeling inevitably fell into the delicate arms of a girl, and that girl was Wenzhu. The longing made Liu Chuan try to call Ji Wenzhu's mobile phone no matter how late it was at night, but the expected and cursed phone was still closed. Liu Chuan had called this number many times on the way to Qinshui and in the small post office in Qinshui, but the phone number of this dead face was always "turned off" as it is now.

Liu Chuan got up at five o'clock in the morning and went to his grandmother's room with red eyes that had not slept all night. He tiptoed to his grandmother's bed, who slept soundly and had a slight snoring. Liu Chuan found out for the first time that his grandmother could also snore, he wanted to laugh but at the same time he was a little sad. He carefully looked at his grandmother's innocent face in her sleep, and wanted to say goodbye silently like this, but he couldn't help but be reluctant.

He stood in front of his grandmother's bed for a long time, and it was very fun to watch his grandmother snore when she was sleeping. Before leaving, I remembered that I should leave a note for my grandmother, but I didn't know what to say when I thought about it.

Time did not allow Liu Chuan to think carefully, and he stepped on the moisture of the ground in the early morning and walked out of the house. He appeared at the nearest street to his house at 5:45 a.m., on the opposite side of the street, on the side of the road where the mist was lifting, and the van of the Dongzhao Public Security Bureau was blaring its engine, ready to go like an arrow with a bow. Liu Chuan crossed the street, got into the car, and the car immediately started and shot rapidly towards the west of the city.

The car flew like an arrow, and it did not prevent the car from talking calmly. Section Chief Jing took the trouble to explain to Liu Chuan the contact information and precautions for going to Qinshui, and he told Liu Chuan that he and the reconnaissance team of the Dongzhao City Public Security Bureau would follow him into Qinshui and contact him at any time to coordinate with each other. In accordance with the requirements of the provincial department and the Ministry of Public Security, the Qinshui City Public Security Bureau will also actively cooperate to ensure his safety. However, although Shan Chenggong is charitable on the surface, he is a key criminal who robbed the vault after all, and he is also a suspect in Tong Baolian's murder, and his nature is suspicious and cruel, which goes without saying; His brother Lao Fan, also known as the boss of Qinshui South City, has a lot of villains, and he is a hegemon. How to protect oneself among this group of people requires a lot of thought and care. No matter how we strengthen the protection on the periphery, but after all, the whip is beyond reach, and the more important thing is your own self-protection, don't panic in case of trouble, once your life is in danger, you can immediately stop the mission and get out urgently.

Section Chief Jing kept talking, Liu Chuan listened silently, Section Chief Jing looked at Liu Chuan's expression, and finally stopped and asked, "Do you understand?" You see what else you need to ask, what questions you have, what requirements you have, think about it quickly, we still have time to discuss. ”

Liu Chuan thought for a while and slowly spoke, including Section Chief Jing, no one in the car thought that Liu Chuan actually made an unrelated request. He took out 1,500 yuan from his body, which he had just brought out from home, he handed it to Section Chief Jing and said, "You go to Lufthansa to help me buy a special lighter for smoking cigars, okay, I want a Davidoff brand, about a little more than a thousand yuan, it doesn't matter if it's expensive, if the money is not enough, you can put it on first, and I'll return it to you when I come back." ”

Section Chief Jing was stunned: "You smoke cigars?" How much money did you bring with you this time? Can you still not be exposed like this! Cigar smoking is a high consumption, how can a person like you who hate to sell himself as a duck for money? ”

Liu Chuan said: "I don't smoke, I bought this lighter as a gift." It's the third today, please help me buy it for a girl today, her name is Ji Wenzhu, you remember her phone number. ”

Section Chief Jing took the money and wrote down Ji Wenzhu's phone number. The number and money were handed over to a criminal policeman from the Dongzhao City Bureau in the car, and he was told to do it well. Liu Chuan gave another instruction to the criminal policeman, and asked him to see how Ji Wenzhu said and so on, which made Section Chief Jing and Dongzhao criminal police laugh, and promised to appease each other, saying okay, okay, don't worry! They may all think it's strange that Liu Chuan doesn't like to talk about things, but why is he so mother-in-law and mother for such a trivial matter as buying things for a girl?

The van had reached the edge of downtown Beijing and pulled up in front of a roadside public phone booth. Section Chief Jing got out of the car with Liu Chuan and dialed Shan Juan's mobile phone with this coin-operated phone. According to the agreement between Liu Chuan and the Shan family when they broke up with the father and daughter last night, Shan Chenggong would let Lao Fan's coal car risk waiting until sunrise this morning in the suburbs of Beijing, and whether Liu Chuan went or stayed or not, he must be informed of his decision by phone before seven o'clock this morning. They waited until half past seven at most, and they could not leave for Beijing later than that.

Shan Juan's phone was connected, and after two sentences, Shan successfully answered. Section Chief Jing stood on the side of the phone booth, and he only heard Liu Chuan say into the microphone:

"Godfather, I've thought about it, I'll go with you!"

Liu Chuan took a taxi to the Yanqing county border at 7:45 a.m. that day, and when he stepped out of the taxi and walked to the anxiously waiting coal car, Shan Juan and Xiaokang had just finished an argument. Of course, the focus of the quarrel is still Liu Chuan, Xiaokang saw that Liu Chuan was delayed and was unwilling to wait, urging his father to hurry up. After all, this is not Qin Shui, they are unfamiliar, although Shan Chenggong hid in a modified cabinet under the cockpit cushion, if he stays here for a moment longer, the danger will increase sharply.

But Liu Chuan had not yet arrived, and Shan Juan was reluctant to leave, saying that her father had promised Liu Chuan to wait for him to come and go on the road together. The controversy between the two later turned into a fierce conflict, and even Lao Fan could hear that the theme of the conflict was no longer about the size of the danger, but about the white-faced boy named Liu Chuan.

He heard his son's anger, which was completely out of the kind of enthusiasm that Shan Juan showed for Liu Chuan, and that kind of concern that was no longer a matter of matter made Xiaokang no longer indifferent. When the two young people began to speak ill of each other and belittle each other in anger, when Xiaokang was angry and openly scolded Shan Juan and Liu Chuan for being fucking stinky and shameless, Lao Fan stopped his son sharply.

Lao Fan said: "Xiaokang, you have a clean mouth, you let me stay in the car, it is not your turn to give orders." ”

Xiaokang stopped his mouth at this time, slammed the door and got into the car. Although Xiaokang is vicious, he still has to bow his head to his father. Maybe his father didn't want to turn against the Shan family at this time, so he didn't allow his son to escalate the situation uncontrollably. Fortunately, Liu Chuan came over quickly, and when they set off on the road, Liu Chuan could still see the green tendons on both sides of Xiaokang's head that had not faded.

Shan Juan was okay, the fire went down after seeing Liu Chuan, and he often sat side by side with Liu Chuan in the back seat of the carriage, talking and laughing freely. I don't know if Liu Chuan made her happy, or if he was deliberately angry.

Liu Chuan also found that on their way back, Shan Juan barely had any verbal communication with Xiaokang. He could see that Xiaokang had used his actions to please Shan Juan many times, but Shan Juan always looked like he was ignoring him.

In order to avoid contradictions and stimulate the well-off, Liu Chuan also tried to minimize the solitary conversation with Shan Juan along the way, and he tried to be silent in front of Shan Juan as much as possible. After the car drove into Hebei and Shan Chenggong no longer hid under the seat, he chatted more with Lao Shan. Talk about their future, but also about the past. Talking about the past, Liu Chuan couldn't help but talk about his grandmother, he remembered that when he was in the first grade of primary school, the teacher left homework and asked everyone to use "I am a ......" to form a sentence, and most of the other students caused: I am a Young Pioneer, I am an obedient child, I am a Beijinger who loves labor, etc., the simplest is also written "I am a boy" and so on. Liu Chuan went home and asked his grandmother: Grandma, what am I? Grandma was reading the newspaper and replied impatiently: What are you? You're human! Liu Chuan then made a sentence: I am a human being! As a result, the teacher deducted points severely. Liu Chuan's grandmother went to the school for this matter, and seriously discussed and debated with the teacher: What is wrong with me being a human being, making a sentence is a grammar exercise, and the subject-verb-object can be complete, don't say that "I am a human" is not wrong, that is, write "I am a dog", and it should not be wrong in terms of grammatical structure!

Shan Chenggong also recalled his youth, and his most memory of being a teenager was fighting. and parents, neighbors, teachers, classmates, enemies on all sides. He said that the first person who gave him love and pity was a woman, who later became his wife. Although his wife is now in a bad temper and idle, and has nothing to do except play cards and gamble for money, Shan Chenggong will never forget how beautiful and gentle she was more than 20 years ago. They had a night of ecstasy under a cliff by the sea, where they conceived a single cuckoo. The name was given to the single cuckoo because they saw an astonishing and beautiful tuft of cuckoos blooming on the cliff for the first time in their lives on that ** morning.

Liu Chuan also asked Shan Juan, and Shan Juan's answer to the origin of the word Juan was equally romantic: Before my mother conceived me, I only had that time with my father. My mother's deepest impression on that occasion was the cuckoo on the cliff by the sea. With the rising sun on one side and the cuckoo as fiery red as the sun on the other, my mother decided at that moment to make a promise to live with my dad in this life.

The retrospective of the past shortens the journey considerably, and the rhythmic rocking of the car is as paralyzing and languishing as the innocuous wind and snow. After the car drove through Datong, Shanxi, Liu Chuan suddenly became alert, and he found that they had left the original way they came and took an unfamiliar route. Although there are fewer cars and fewer trucks on this route, the road is rugged and bumpy, which only adds to the fatigue and difficulty of the journey.

After a bumpy day, Liu Chuan finally discovered that their car full of raw coal was heading in the direction of Dongzhao City, a discovery that made him negate his original judgment. It seems that they detoured this route, not just for safety, but to throw themselves at another unknown destination. By the evening of the second day, their car had even deviated from the main road and turned onto a small road that was not even signposted, and after ten minutes of rocking on this path, they saw a wide river. The golden glow of the setting sun illuminated the lava-like river and the otherwise lush banks. The forests on both sides of the bank are dyed, as if it is autumn.

Lao Fan parked the car in front of an abandoned bridge, and there was not a trace of people and birds in the sky and on the ground, so Lao Fan and Lao Shan got out of the car together and strode towards the wooden bridge. "This is the Lusha River!" Shan Chenggong said, "There is no one in this place. ”

Liu Chuan and Shan Juan also got out of the car and followed them towards the bridge. Xiaokang was the last to get out of the car, standing at the front of the car and not moving, and pulled away from them for some distance.

Liu Chuan saw that the two adults had already walked on the crumbling bridge, leaning on the rotten bridge railing to look down. Facing the river rolling away under the bridge, Shan Chenggong was vague, pointing and pointing, saying something to Lao Fan, and Lao Fan's voice was clear and thick, so that Liu Chuan could hear it word for word.

"How many bags did you bury? 12 million tickets, can two be packaged? ”

"I can fit it," Shan Chenggong replied calmly, "one package in US dollars, and the other in RMB." The renminbi is only more than three million, and the dollar is almost more than nine hundred thousand, and the two bags are just full. ”

"Buried over there?" Lao Fan asked with interest, pointing to a bank washed by the river.

"It's buried over there." Shan Chenggong still remembered pointing to a big tree on the shore that had been flooded with its roots, and said: "At that time, the roads and roads in this area were all set up by the public security armed police. They didn't know that the river was in dry season, and after burying it, it suddenly rained heavily for a week, and there was a flood on it, and the place where the money was buried was flooded at once. Later, the third child told me about this place, and I came to see it once, and when I came to visit, the water had already fallen, and the roots of the tree were exposed by the flood? This riverbank was washed away, and it was impossible for the money to be buried deep at that time, and when I saw it, it was already gone. Not to mention that the third child and a few of them died unjustly, after doing such a big job, their lives were all taken, and in the end they ended up with no harvest, which can only be said to be the will of God. ”

Lao Fan seemed to be absent-minded, he squinted, leaned on the bridge railing, leaned out, carefully looked at the big tree with a half-crooked torso, and the barren soil on both sides of the big tree, he asked: "Did you find the right place at that time, is this the place that the third child said?" ”

Shan Chenggong smiled faintly: "Twelve million, will I be confused and find the wrong place?" ”

Lao Fan straightened up, thought about it, and asked again: "Could the third child say the wrong place?" ”

"The third child first said about the bridge, and then said that the crooked neck tree under the bridge, here is such a tree, he can't be wrong."

Liu Chuan watched them muttering and talking, their voices suddenly blurred and clear, and the general meaning was that he and Shan Juan could understand it. Liu Chuan noticed that Shan Juan's expression was slightly nervous, staring back and forth at the faces of the two adults. Those two faces looked warm but not hot on the surface, but I could hear Lao Fan's warm but not hot voice, which was almost a trustless interrogation.

The conversation ended peacefully, and the two adults left the bridge and headed for the truck. Xiaokang also seemed to see that the faces of his fathers were all deliberately hiding some kind of abnormality, and he couldn't help but whisper to Shan Juan who was walking behind, "What's wrong, are you okay?" Shan Juan did not answer. She didn't answer, perhaps simply because she didn't know how to answer.

The coal wagon left the river and continued on its way, returning to the main road. On the main road, they walked another sleepy night, except for one or two transactional whispers along the way, all five people in the same car were silent!

The road at night is dark and quiet like a time tunnel.

Liu Chuan couldn't figure out when he fell asleep, and he couldn't even figure out whether he was sleeping soundly or half-asleep. Sometimes he could feel the car moving, someone talking, and sometimes he felt that everything was in a dream. In the early morning he was sure that he was really awake, and although his eyes were not open, the sound in his ears was so real and close at hand.

When he realized that this was the whispering between Fan Bencai and Fan Xiaokang, he deliberately didn't open his eyes, he still lay on the back seat, staying asleep, breathing evenly, motionless. The voices of the Fan family's father and son seemed a little mysterious, which made Liu Chuan conclude that the Shan father and daughter were definitely not in the car at this time.

Lao Fan's voice: "I have been friends with Shan Juan's father for twenty years, and this time I took such a big risk to come to save him, it would be too interesting for him to hide it from me." I'll look at it for a few more days, it's that foxes always have tails. ”

Xiaokang's voice: "Maybe he really didn't get the money, this case has been tried by the public security court for at least half a year, and Lao Shan should have spit out the money for leniency if he wanted to save his life." ”

Lao Fan's voice: "It's hard to say, we don't know what he said when the court tried him, whether they robbed the money and divided it on the spot or was held by one person, no one can tell, even if everyone divides it equally, there should be two or three million hidden in the old man's hand." I think this kid surnamed Liu may be able to know a little bit of the inside story, otherwise he will not stay in the big city of Beijing and follow Lao Shan to Qinshui to mess around, if he doesn't know that Lao Shan has goods in his hand, what are you going to do? Now these kids, one race and one monkey spirit! ”

Liu Chuan's eyes were still closed, but a cold sweat broke out from his clothes. He heard Lao Fan's father and son talking about themselves. Their voices were softer when they spoke of him, almost as soft as a whisper.

Xiaokang's voice: "Lao Shan is cunning and cunning, he has money in his pocket and even his wife can hide it, how can he show it to this kid." This kid I know, he didn't come to Qinshui with Lao Shan for money at all, he did it for Shan Juan! A few days ago, as soon as you received him to our house, I saw that Shan Juan's eyes were wrong, and you still relied on me to get angry at Shan Juan, didn't I get angry? ”

Lao Fan's voice again: "If you want me to say that you bastard don't grow up at all, you know how to think about a woman all day long, I think you will be ruined if you go down again......"

Their voices gradually increased again, but they were immediately confused by the sound of the car door opening, and it was audible that they had exited the car from both sides at the same time, and as the door slammed shut, there was a sudden silence around them.

Liu Chuan opened his eyes and saw that it was already dawn, the car was parked on the side of the road, and the old Fan father and son in the front seat were indeed no longer in the car. He bowed slightly, looked out quietly through the car window, and he saw Lao Shan and his daughter, who were buying food at a breakfast stall on the side of the road, Lao Fan and his son Xiaokang, greeting them casually, shaking their backs and walking slowly.