T138 departed from Shanghai at 3:08 p.m. on July 6, passing through Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Nanjing along the way, and finally arrived at Bengbu at 7:56 p.m.

When Ma Ming and Xiaonuo stepped off the train, it was already dark. Ma Ming saw that it was getting late, and suggested that it would be better to find a place to settle down first, Xiao Nuo asked if there was a familiar hotel, Ma Ming shrugged and replied: "They will take the initiative to come to the door, and we will not do it." Sure enough, as he said, as soon as he walked out of the train station, several people immediately surrounded them, asking them if they wanted to stay in the hotel, which could provide cheap and good hotels, and some even pulled them directly, and the attitude was a little excessive. Ma Ming bargained with them for a long time, and finally chose a hotel called "Xiangrui Hotel", two single rooms, 20 yuan a night, not including food.

The waiter of the Xiangrui Hotel was overjoyed to see the guests, Ma Ming asked her how far away from the train station, and she replied, "Not far, one stop, one stop." Then he took it upon himself to stop a three-wheeled motorcycle. As a result, Ma Ming and Xiaonuo sat for fifteen minutes before they saw the big red signboard of "Xiangrui Hotel".

"You're talking about trains."

When he got out of the car, Ma Ming said to the man, half mockingly, half dissatisfied.

After entering the hostel, the two paid the money to register, and received the key to see the house. These two rooms are a little broken, but they are quite clean. Arnold went back to his room, put his luggage, turned on the TV, and loosened the hair that had been coiled around his head in the mirror. At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door, and then Ma Ming walked in, holding a thick book in his hand.

"How? Are you tired along the way? Ma Ming asked as soon as he entered the door.

"It's okay, it's only been four hours, and I'm not tired." Arnold replied with a smile as he combed his hair with a comb.

"It's almost the same today, starting tomorrow, we'll go to the Public Security Bureau."

"Do you know how to find it?"

"Oh, I just asked for the yellow pages of Bengbu City at the service desk, and the address on it is very clear." Ma Ming shook the thick book in his hand, "It's easy to find the map I bought at the train station." Bengbu is much smaller than Shanghai. ”

Xiao Nuo nodded, let his long hair fall over his shoulders, and then walked to the window, it was dark outside, and he couldn't see anything clearly, only faintly hearing the noise of the city in the distance.

"We're in the same city as Zishan now." She looked out the window and suddenly said, unable to tell whether it was emotion or sigh.

"That's right, it's really amazing to say, although we have been investigating the members of the Remnant Star Building, but among them, the only one you have really seen is your cousin Tang Jing, and I haven't even seen her."

"Is it to the Internet, or is it to blame?" Arnold turned his eyes to the TV screen, where endless advertisements were playing.

"It's not too early, let's go to bed early."

Ma Ming stood up and patted her on the shoulder.

Early the next morning, Ma Ming and Xiaonuo got up at nine o'clock, and the two found a small restaurant to eat a basket of xiaolongbao, and then set off.

"So...... I look at the map, we should take No. 16 to Zhongrong Road first, and then transfer to No. 13...... Walk south......" Ma Ming stood on the street, buried his head in the map, and said something in his mouth. Xiao Nuo looked amused on the side, touched the map and said, "Hey, in fact, you don't have to be so troublesome." ”

"Huh? Do you know how to get around? ”

"I don't know, but of course someone does." Xiao Nuo blinked at the bewildered Ma Ming, stretched out his hand, and a passing taxi stopped, "It's okay to take a taxi, big fool." ”

"Inverted ............"

The two got into the car and told the taxi driver to go to the Bengbu Telecommunications Bureau. The driver didn't hesitate at all, turned around and left, it seemed that he was a veteran who was very familiar with the path. The driver was very talkative, and he could see at a glance that the two of them were outsiders, and he began to brag about the major tourist attractions in Bengbu along the way.

"What? Are there any tourist attractions in Bengbu? Sitting in the car, Arnold asked in surprise, "I only knew that this was a railway hub." ”

"It's a lot, Bian Hedong, you know? It is here that He's Bi is produced; There are also the former residence of Lusu, Tang and the tomb, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the ruins of the ancient battlefield in the Xiaxia, and Tu Mountain is not far away, do you know Tu Mountain? ”

"Is it the Tu Shan who gave birth to a son of Dayu's wife Tu Shan?" Ma Ming suddenly asked.

"Yes, there is still Yuwang Temple on the mountain. Two, it's a pity to come to Bengbu and not go there. ”

"I'll definitely check it out when I have time."

"You can charter my car, I'll give you a cheaper, 100 yuan a day, you can run anywhere."

"En'en......" Xiao Nuo and Ma Ming both nodded perfunctorily, they came to Bengbu, but they didn't have extra time and interest in sightseeing.

While talking, the car stopped, and the Bengbu Public Security Bureau was next to it.

When the two of them walked into the Public Security Bureau, they were a little uneasy, after all, according to common sense, good citizens rarely set foot here. The big words of the Bengbu City Public Security Bureau are particularly stressful, which makes people feel awe-inspired.

More dignified than the big letters at the door are the police here. Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo imagined things too simple. When they explained their intentions to the police at the reception, the policeman's face immediately fell, and he said coldly to the two of them: "No, this is a confidential unit, and only insiders with a letter of introduction from the provincial public security bureau can inquire about it." ”

"Can you be accommodating, we have something important."

"No, it's not good, this is the system, there is no accommodation!"

The refusal was categorical, Ma Ming and Xiaonuo had no choice but to walk out of the Public Security Bureau, and it was only less than five minutes before and after.

"Oops, so what now?" Arnold asked in frustration.

Ma Ming frowned and clasped his hands on his chest: "Let me think about it, this is really difficult." My friend is on a business trip, but it's not much use to find him......"

Xiao Nuo looked at the pensive Ma Ming anxiously, and suddenly a voice came from behind.

"Hey, it's me, yes, I'm Xiao Han, the incident I mentioned to you last time............"

When Xiao Nuo heard this, she hurriedly turned around and saw a young man in his twenties standing behind her on his mobile phone, this person was of medium height, looked very lean, wore a white shirt, and had a press card on his chest. Judging from the voice, Xiao Nuo immediately remembered that he was Han Fei, the reporter who reported Su Xuejun's suicide in Shanghai.

Why did he come to Bengbu?

Thinking of this, little Nora pulled Ma Ming's sleeve, leaned on his ear and whispered to him that Ma Ming was first stunned and turned his head to look at the man.

Xiao Nuo walked in front of Han Fei, waited for him to finish his mobile phone, and then asked in a low voice, "You, is that Mr. Han Fei Han?" ”

Han Fei saw an unknown girl walking in front of him, and called her name, and couldn't help but show doubts: "Yes, I am Han Fei, you are ......"

"I'm Xiaonuo, don't you remember me?"

"Arnold...... Xiao Nuo ......" Han Fei frowned, repeating the name repeatedly, still at a loss.

"Even last month, I called you to ask about Su Xuejun's suicide case."

"Oh~~~ Oh~~~!" Han Fei patted his head, "I remembered!" Come to think of it! ”

I don't know if he really remembered it or was perfunctory, but he can't be blamed for it, it's not easy to force a reporter to remember a person who only called once half a month ago.

"Why did you come to Bengbu too?"

"Oh, I'm here to collect style, Taili wants to make an Anhui tourism album."

Probably because Xiao Nuo was cute and sweet, Han Fei quickly opened the conversation box and began to talk endlessly, while Ma Ming kept standing next to him silently. When Xiaonuo heard Han Fei say that he had an old classmate working at the Public Security Bureau here, his heart moved, and he hurriedly chose a suitable time and begged Han Fei to help them check that IP address.

"Huh? ......" Han Fei was silent for a while when he heard Xiao Nuo say this, "It's not difficult, my classmate happens to be in charge of this department." But why are you looking up? Don't be F/L/G or any other messy website. ”

"Why, no. It's a netizen of Xuejun, and we want to find him. Xiao Nuoxin said that this could not be considered a lie.

"Did he cheat money or people? In recent years, the use of online deception has been a common occurrence. Could it be that Su Xuejun's jumping off the building has something to do with him? Internet sentiments? ”

Han Fei was born with a sense of news, and a series of questions fully showed his professional instinct, and Xiao Nuo couldn't say anything to ask him.

"So be it." Han Fei took out his notepad and said with a smile, "Let's make an exchange, I'll help you check the IP address, and you tell me this news, how about it?" ”

“…… Belch...... Is this..."Xiao Nuo turned her eyes for help to Ma Ming, who made a gesture of approval, so she nodded to Han Fei, "Okay." ”

So Han Fei asked them to wait at the door, and he walked into the public security bureau alone. Xiao Nuo and Ma Ming stood in the shade of the tree on the street, waiting for him to come out. The weather was very hot that day, there were cars coming and going on the street, the heat wave was rolling, Xiao Nuo couldn't bear it, so he ran to the side of the road to buy an ice cream and came back to eat, Ma Ming was still bored leaning against the trunk of the tree.

"Hey, by the way, why did you just ask me to agree to let Han Fei write the news?"

"Only then will we be able to obtain the necessary information."

“…… But...... Do you really want to tell him the truth............" Arnold asked suspiciously.

A sly light flashed behind Ma Ming's glasses.

"Hehe, even if you tell him, no TV station will broadcast this kind of news anyway. Midnight Fierce Q ?

This is a story that is only suitable for weekend theater. “

After about an hour, Han Fei walked out of the Public Security Bureau.

"Ah, that's the details of that IP address." Han Fei handed a tore note from the memo to Xiao Nuo, "Don't forget our agreement." ”

"No, I've left my phone for you. When we find that person, we will tell you what happened. ”

"Then, I'll take my leave."

After Han Fei finished speaking, he summoned a taxi and left. Xiao Nuo and Ma Ming opened the note in their hands, which read: "Heaven and Earth Internet Cafe, owner Zheng Shengli." ”

The next action is naturally to go to this Tiandi Internet café. The address on the note was clearly written, and it didn't take much effort for Xiaonuo and Ma Ming to find it smoothly. If that IP address is correct, then this is the place where the Internet is on the mountain.

This is a small privately owned Internet café, opened on the first floor of a residential building, the wall facing the street has been torn down and replaced with a gate, the house is about the size of a bedroom in an ordinary house, with a total of eight computers and a desk, which at first glance is a converted private house. Behind the table sat a middle-aged fat man, presumably the boss here.

In order to establish a good relationship first, Ma Ming and Xiaonuo paid an hour's money first and each found a machine to surf the Internet. At this time, it was almost 12 o'clock at noon, and there were still very few people coming, so Ma Ming deliberately chose a computer by the table, so that it was easy to talk to the boss.

After casually going online for a while, Ma Ming pretended to be chatting casually, turned his head and asked the boss: "Hey, boss, this Internet café is good, how long has it been open." ”

"Of course, I'm willing to pay for it." The boss was very happy to hear the flattery, and replied proudly, "I have been here for more than a year, and I have a reputation near and far." Keep up with the pace of the times at any time, and pretend to be whatever is popular, "Dragon Family", "Stone Age", "King of Kings", you can play anything you want. ”

"So there are a lot of people who come here often?"

"It's not bragging, I have one or two hundred regular customers here, to say the least."

"Did you know that there is a network named Zishan here?"

“…… Belch...... Haven't heard of it. ”

Ma Ming hammered his head and scolded the stupid man, "Zishan" is the ID only used in the Remnant Star Building, and there are no more than seven people who know it, how can the owner of this Internet café understand. So he paused, and then asked, "Then did you know that there is a screen name called Cold-faced Flying Fox?" ”

"Cold-faced Flying Fox" is the public ID used by "Zishan" in an inn, maybe the boss will know something.

"Huh? Cold-faced flying fox? Are you talking about Xia Weiyi? ”

The boss asked casually, Ma Ming's heart froze, and Xiao Nuo's hand holding the mouse next to him also trembled.

"Boss, this Xia is the only one who uses the name of a cold-faced flying fox to go online, right?"

"Yes, I've seen it, and he used to use it a lot."

“…… So...... Is he still here? ”

"Alas, I committed suicide more than two months ago, quite a good child."

".................." Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo glanced at each other, tacitly. Jinghong, Liuli, Ming, and Shengzhou all died on June 16, and today is July 7, less than a month later, and Zishan committed suicide two months ago.

"So......" Ma Ming adjusted his breathing, "do you know why he committed suicide?" ”

"Who knows, inexplicably, when others tell me, I don't believe it, that girl is usually very aggressive, how can it be like a suicide."

Hearing this, Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo were taken aback and stood up in unison.

"Zishan is a woman?!"

The Internet is an illusory world, and it is also a huge mask that can completely and completely conceal the identity in reality. Online, no one knows you're a dog, and gender misalignment is all the rage. They actually ignored this possibility, and were misled by the setting of the Remnant Star Tower, and always thought that Zishan was male.

“…… You...... Do you know the address of her home? "This time it's Xiaonuo who asks questions.

"Oh, it's the family building over there, the second unit, the right side of the third floor. Her parents and I are acquaintances, and their family is just that, alas. The boss's tone was full of emotion, and the newspaper in his hand rustled.

The two of them stopped surfing the Internet at the moment, immediately thanked the boss, and walked towards Xia's only ————that is, Zishan's house.

The information obtained this time was too unexpected, and the speculations made by Ma Ming and Xiaonuo before turned out to be wrong.

Zishan is not male, nor did he die on June 16. This shocked the two of them.

The family building looked like it was from the seventies and eighties, old, with mottled walls and a musty smell. The corridor is very dark, and there are sundries piled up on each floor, so it is very narrow. Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo carefully walked upwards and soon came to the third floor.

The door of the house on the right was closed, the security door was locked, and a faded word "Fu" was crookedly pasted upside down on the door. Xiao Nuo knocked on the door, but there was no movement, it seemed that the master had gone out.

"What to do? Do you want to wait? ”

Ma Ming asked, and before Xiao Nuo could answer, he saw a person walking up from the upstairs slowly, but the corridor was very dark and he couldn't see his face clearly.

The man walked to the corner staircase on the second and a half floors and stopped, because he saw Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo.

"You ...... Who to look for? ”

At this time, the two of them saw clearly that the person who came was a middle-aged woman, with gray hair, many wrinkles on her face, wearing a light gray blouse, blue flower sleeves on her hands, and a bundle of cabbage in her hand.

"May I ask if this is Xia Weiyi's home?"

Hearing this question, the cabbage in the middle-aged woman's hand fell to the ground with a "snap", she hurriedly bent down to pick it up, and Xiaonuo hurriedly ran down the stairs to help. Although the corridor was very dark, she still noticed that the middle-aged woman's hands were trembling slightly when she was picking vegetables.

She welcomed the two into the room, and whispered, "Sit down, I'll pour you a cup of tea."

Ma Ming and Xiao Nuo sat on their chairs and looked around. This is a very ordinary family, the living room is very small, a single-door refrigerator and a five-bucket kitchen occupy nearly half of the area, and the sitting clock on the five-bucket kitchen is still a quartz clock in the eighties; The chair is very old, and the edges are all ground white; On the wall is a large family portrait of three people: a middle-aged couple and a girl, all three of whom are smiling happily.

"You...... Is it Natsu's only mother? Xiaonuo asked, because she saw the middle-aged woman in the family photo, but the photo was much younger than now.

"Yes, you are the only friends."

Xia Weiyi's mother brought two cups of hot tea, and Ma Ming and Xiaonuo took it with both hands.

"Well, we wanted to find out, she...... Belch...... How did he die. ”

Ma Ming deliberately avoided her question, neither he nor Xiaonuo wanted to lie to such an old man, but they couldn't tell the true purpose of their trip. The three of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then got to the point.

Xia Mu sat on a chair opposite them, looked up at the family photo, her eyes were red, as if she was about to cry. After a short while, she lowered her head, took off her sleeves, and began to speak slowly.

"Two months ago, on the Fourth of May. The only place where the child came back from out of town and his father went to pick it up. When she came back, the child's father said that she was in a bad mood. At the time, we didn't pay attention to it, thinking that she was too tired from the journey. Two days later, on May 6, she said she was going out early in the morning, but she didn't come back in the evening.

My father and I searched everywhere, but we didn't find him. Later, the next day, the police called my home and said that in the woods of Zhanggongshan Park – oh, this is a park in Bengbu City – a young girl who had committed suicide by taking sleeping pills had been found, and that the rescue had been ineffective. She found a phone book with the phone number of her home. We rushed over to take a look, and sure enough, it was the only ...... I...... I don't know why that kid ......

At that time, I wish I had found out that she was not in the right mood...... Why can't you think about it like that...... For the past two months, I've been... It's always been..."

Speaking of this, Xia Mu lowered her head and sobbed. During the whole process, Xiao Nuo and Ma Ming didn't interrupt her words, and when they saw this crying mother, they were sad in their hearts. Xiao Nuo seemed to see Tang Jing's mother and Su Xuejun's mother, and superimposed them with Xia's mother.

"So......" Ma Ming was the first to speak, "did you leave a suicide note, or did you have a habit of keeping a diary?" ”

Xia Mu shook her head.

"Does she have a computer?"

"The child's father was laid off last year, and the family has been very poor, where can I have the money to buy a computer. It's just that this child loves the Internet, I think she usually doesn't pick food or clothes, and the child's hobby must always be satisfied, so let her go to the Internet café opposite, the boss is our acquaintance. ”

"By the way, you said that the only time you came back from the field on the Fourth of May. Do you know where she went? ”

"Shanghai, she said she was going to meet a friend. Later, on May 9, her friends in Shanghai called to look for her, but at that time, ......"

Ma Ming nodded, glanced at Xiaonuo, and the two of them thought of the photo of Tang Jing and Su Xuejun on May 1, and the third person outside the photo must be Xia Weiyi.

"The person who called, do you remember her name?"

"It's like ......" Xia Mu put her fingers on her temples, trying to recall, "I remember whether it seems to be called Qinghong or Qinghong...... Sorry, I don't remember exactly. ”

All the clues are connected.

When I came out of Xia Wei's family, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Although Xia Mu kept them for dinner, they politely refused. The two walked to the bus stop facing the street, Ma Ming looked carefully at the stop sign and the road map, and suddenly said, "I think it is necessary to go to Zhanggongshan Park to have a look." ”

"Huh? Where to go? Do? ”

"It's important for us to confirm one thing." Ma Ming took off his glasses and wiped them, and said with a solemn face.

"Xia Weiyi's death?"

"Let's just say that, in fact, when I saw that Zishan's post was deleted by the Remnant Star Building forum, I had a suspicion. Now, all the things considered, this suspicion is even more worthy of attention. Go to Zhanggongshan Park, just to do the final confirmation. ”

"Do you want to go now?" Arnold asked.

"Wait a little later, the map says that Zhanggongshan Park won't close until half past seven. It's only 3 o'clock now, and it's broad daylight, so it's not easy to find. ”

Although Ma Ming said it with a smile, Xiao Nuo shuddered for no reason when he heard that "it is not easy to find it in broad daylight".

"So, let's find a place to rest first, are there any bookstores around here?"

"Gee, why do you want to go to the bookstore everywhere!"

"It's not to kill time, this is a necessary preparation before going to Zhanggongshan Park." Ma Ming shook his index finger mysteriously, "Besides, what's wrong with young people absorbing more knowledge." ”