When I received the text message, I immediately called the phone again, but the sound prompting the other party to turn off the phone made me want to vomit blood.
But this time, I was less angry. After looking at this short message with a few words and thinking about it for a while, I seemed to understand what it meant.
Bedroom, nine o'clock direction, see for yourself, don't tell others...
The temporary hiding place Cao Shi found was an old house with not much space. For the convenience of talking, he and I shared a bedroom. The bedroom in the text message may refer to the bedroom we lived in. As for nine o'clock
Direction is a direction reminder. Combined with the following seven words, I think Cao Shi seemed to have left some mark or something in the bedroom.
The hotel is not far from the hiding place. Go in along the alley diagonally opposite and you can reach it by turning a few turns. I was thinking about whether I should go back and take a look. Cao Shi didn't answer the phone, but deliberately sent such a text message to explain.
What he left behind must be of use to me.
But when I thought about this, another idea popped into my mind that had never occurred to me before. This text message from Cao Shi was probably also a bait to lure me to show up.
If this is the case, then everything will become very complicated. If Cao Shi has a problem, he can set up a trap before I arrive in Jiangbei, and there is no need to wait until now to take action.
I was faced with a difficult decision. On the surface, the matter was simple. It was just to go or not to go. But only I knew that if I followed Cao Shi’s text message to find something or a mark in the bedroom of the old house, it would mean that
I still believe him. If I don't go, it means that I have completely abandoned this person subconsciously and will never believe anything he says.
In other words, whether to go or not actually represents whether to break up or not.
Do I believe this person? Do I believe this person...
I kept asking myself, none of them knew what happened, and Ma Dad asked me first. I stopped and saw Ma Dad’s wrinkled face, and my heart was suddenly touched.
.
My character is very straightforward. If I hadn't experienced these twists and turns before, I would be willing to believe anyone's words. But my character is very bad. In today's society, completely trusting others is a manifestation of being short-sighted and mentally retarded.
But when I saw Ma Dad’s face, I felt that no matter how much times have changed and how sinister people’s hearts are, there are still some things that cannot be contaminated. Ma Dad is so old and timid, but the old man encountered unexpected events.
He returned to Jiangbei without any hesitation.
In fact, he doesn't need to do this.
At this moment, I suddenly felt that I completely trusted Cao Shi again. I believed that human nature would not be completely wiped out.
I decided to go back and have a look. Dad saw that I wanted to go back suddenly for no reason, so he kept stopping me. I asked them to wait where they were, and went straight downstairs towards the alley. After taking only two steps, Mustache followed me.
He didn't say anything and just followed me. I knew he might be afraid of something happening.
Immediately after, the monk also came out wrapped in a very ill-fitting dress and followed us from a distance.
When I walked all the way to the small house where I was hiding, Mustache ducked in first, and then signaled it was safe. I went directly to the bedroom. Mustache was packing up the scattered things outside, and the monk stayed outside the door.
The bedroom was very small. Two beds and a wardrobe almost took up the space. I looked around and couldn't see anything. I looked in the direction Cao Shi told me. That was the bed where he slept, close to the wall. I
I shook off the mattress and everything else, and the musty smell hit my nose. I also looked under the bed, and there were spiders and woodlice crawling around.
I almost dismantled the small wooden bed, leaving only the wall next to the bed. This kind of old house has a lot of moisture. Over time, the walls began to fall off in pieces, so the walls were covered with newspapers. I first
I tried touching it, and then I found a small cross drawn with pencil on the newspaper, which was hidden among the dense type. It couldn't be seen without looking carefully. I reached out and tore off the entire newspaper, and the wall behind it fell off.
It was mottled and even the bricks inside were leaking out.
Soon, I found two movable bricks on the wall. After pulling out the bricks, there was a very narrow gap in the wall behind, with a brown paper bag lying flat inside. I took out the paper bag and patted the dust on it.
The bag is a bit heavy and thick as if it contains books.
This brown paper bag was hidden in the wall by Cao Shi before he disappeared yesterday. I felt strange that he had to leave some written information for me to see if he couldn't talk about it in person.
I opened the bag and found two very thick notebooks inside. When I took out the notebook, a photo fell to the ground.
The photo is in color, and the time of shooting is unknown. In the lens is a man's back, with his face turned sideways. The shooting conditions at the time were not good, which resulted in poor overall photo effects. It can only be seen that the man has a strong figure and a straight back.
He is upright and very energetic. As for the half of his face that is turned sideways, it is really hard to see clearly. The back of the photo is clean without leaving a single word. Not only is the person in the photo unclear, but there are no other hints left.
I felt that Cao Shi would not leave me a meaningless photo, so I looked at the photo very carefully several times and finally discovered two details.
First, at first I thought that the man’s side face in the photo was unclear because of the photo itself, but that was not the case. This photo had undergone some special processing, and the processed part was the man’s side face. I
I have never been interested in these things, and I don’t know how to deal with them, but the overall feeling is like a little word erasing spirit was dropped on the side of the man’s face, causing the picture to spread and fade, making it look blurry.
Second, the photo was taken at dusk, and the background is the backyard of a market under the old man’s name. This market is in Willow Lane. It’s not too big or too small. I used to be among the various market stalls when I had nothing to do.
Running around and having fun, but the stalls are far less fun than the ones in Handicap. The people at the stalls are busier, while the ones in Handicap are much more leisurely. Ordinary patrons only need the waiter on the handicap to greet them, so the old man is in the handicap in Jiangbei.
I'm familiar with them all.
Apart from these two details, no matter how carefully I looked, I didn't find anything else. The mustache over there had packed up the things he wanted to take away, and was sitting on the broken sofa outside the bedroom waiting. I took the photos first
Put it down and look at the two notebooks in the brown paper bag.
When I opened the first book, I knew after only one glance that it was an account book. I had been managing business with Cao Shi for a period of time, so I could certainly recognize this. But after reading a few more pages, I realized that this was not a formal account.
The account book is the original record on the stall, because the account book was checked by the old man himself. Although the original file at the stall has records for each item, it is very messy to remember. It requires a dedicated person to count the payment and sort out a clear account.
I will give it to the old man to look at later, otherwise if I try to fool him with a mess of bad debts, the old man will scold me.
The second book is the kind of formal account book that the old man usually reads. What Cao Shi left for me may be a copied copy. The two account books are synchronized in terms of time, starting from three and a half years ago to last year.
End. I am not naturally sensitive to numbers, and I also have a headache with these things. I will never touch them if I can, so I have to work hard to read them. It will take a long time to read through the two thick account books. I am afraid that the mustache will wait.
I was impatient, but he sat very quietly on the broken sofa, so I decided to read through it hastily.
After finishing the first book, I started flipping through the second one. Within a few minutes, I could see the fishiness between the two books.
From ancient times to the present, everything related to accounting has never been clean. Wherever you go, you can find several unclear bad debts. These two ledgers are no exception. To be precise, the problem lies in the second one.
.
Logically speaking, the first account book is the original record, which is relatively messy. After sorting and transcribing it, it will be the second account book. However, no matter how you organize it, there will be no shortage of goods and money, and there will be no shortage of goods and money. However, these two books
The ledger does not match up at all, and the difference is much worse. The work process of the stall's handkerchief is actually not complicated. After the stall finds the goods, it records and organizes the books, and then delivers the goods to the handkerchief, and the handkerchief checks it.
Everything was correct, so I started selling goods. Both places had their own independent account books. What the old man mainly looked at was the account book of Handicap.
The fact I have seen is that many of the goods recorded in the first account book disappeared from the second account book for no reason. In other words, someone was manipulating both sides of the stall at the same time and pocketed a large amount.
Goods. I didn’t have time to check the specific number, but starting from three and a half years ago, every ten days and a half months, there will be problems in the books. Once or twice, the value may not be too much, but when added up, it will not be enough.
Okay, the number is scary.
In fact, the hands and feet of the people at the stalls are not clean. They often pick up unimportant goods and make a fuss about them. After selling them privately, several people will share the money. This is normal and no one will care about it. Fish are not raised in clear water ponds.
, block all the money paths of the people below, and no one will be willing to work hard.
But the holes in the accounts before us are huge. The word "catty" is no longer enough to describe. Who is so brave to do this kind of lifeless private work for many years? And such private work can never be done by one person. If we really go to investigate
, once caught, a whole group of people is formed.
The most important thing is, what is Cao Shi's purpose in leaving this account book to me? He couldn't simply tell me that someone was using the old man's goods.
I looked outside and saw that Mustache was still waiting quietly. I didn't want to waste too much time here, so I reinstalled the account book, put it in my arms, and then called Mustache and the monk to leave.
I have been thinking about this matter in my mind, a large amount of goods, a sky-high payment, countless people involved... I have a headache thinking about it, and I still can't figure out Cao Shi's motives.