At five o'clock in the morning, Lu Sheng and Xiao Zhu finally arrived in Huangzhou City.
There are more and more people walking on the street. There are pedestrians who are rushing home from work after staying up late, and there are also migrant workers who are busy making a living and going to work after getting up early.
Because of them, the world began to be full of vitality, but at the same time, just because of human existence, sorrow, joy, strife, and weirdness never stopped.
The morning light slowly begins, and the whole world is looking forward to a wonderful day.
After the food in their stomachs was consumed overnight, both master and apprentice felt empty in their stomachs. Lu Sheng drove for a while, and just after passing the rehabilitation center, he saw a breakfast shop in front of him.
This breakfast shop is one of those temporary shops that set up a shed on the roadside, fry fried dough sticks, and sell some soy milk and porridge.
Lu Sheng parked the car nearby and walked out with Xiao Zhu.
The two masters and apprentices had already walked into the breakfast shop. There were not many people there now, so they found an empty seat and sat down. After ordering breakfast, Lu Sheng said to Xiao Zhu:
"It's still early now. After dinner, I'll call Lin Xi."
Almost at the same time that Lu Sheng finished speaking, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind the two of them.
"First give me a bowl of hot soy milk."
When the breakfast shop owner saw that he was an old acquaintance, he smiled and said, "Lao Zhang, how much did you drink yesterday?"
"hehe…"
Master Zhang, the eldest son of the rehabilitation center, did not reply. He just smiled innocently, found an empty table, pulled out a stool, and sat down on the side.
A strong smell of alcohol began to slowly spread around with Master Zhang as the center.
The breakfast shop owner brought over a bowl of soy milk and placed it on Master Zhang's table, "I drank too much the day before, so I need to drink something hot the next morning."
Master Zhang closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids with his thumb and index finger. He didn't know whether he was still awake or was cleaning out the feces in his eyes.
He opened his eyes, and the two people beside him, who were just back figures just now, now slowly turned around.
Master Zhang was stunned, as if he was stuck there, while Lu Sheng and Xiao Zhu sat down next to Master Zhang with breakfast.
Lu Sheng greeted warmly, "Good morning, Master Zhang."
Master Zhang took his hand away from his face and immediately put it under the table. Then he brought it up again and went to drink the bowl of soy milk. The edge of the bowl was still very hot, so he subconsciously withdrew his burned hand.
Master Zhang smiled awkwardly and said to Lu Sheng, "Comrade police, is it so early?"
Lu Sheng also had a smile on his face, his eyes quickly passed Master Zhang's hand, and his eyes immediately returned to Master Zhang's face, "Master Zhang, are you going home from get off work?"
When he reached the center of the smell, Xiao Zhu sniffed it gently with his nose and looked at Master Zhang with a smile.
"Well, let's leave after eating." Master Zhang responded to Lu Sheng's words. He was now a little cautious again. After thinking for a while, he continued, "You are not here to see me, right?"
Xiao Zhu asked from the side, "What are you looking for? Did you remember something again?"
"No, no, I told everything I know."
Lu Sheng noticed Master Zhang's unnaturalness and deliberately emphasized, "Don't be nervous, Master Zhang. We are just passing by here, let's chat casually."
"Oh, haha, I'm not nervous..." Master Zhang said, "Comrade police, how are you? Is there any news?"
Lu Sheng still smiled and signaled to Master Zhang that the soy milk had cooled down, "Uncle Zhang, we can't talk about this outside."
"Oh, hehe, look at me, I'm just asking these things that I can't ask."
The first time he met Master Zhang, Lu Sheng smelled a faint smell of alcohol. At that time, Lu Sheng also found that Master Zhang was unusually reserved. Today, when he met Master Zhang again, he smelled of alcohol all over his body, which inevitably made Lu Sheng feel uncomfortable again.
I began to confirm my original suspicions.
If Master Zhang is really an alcoholic, and if their family... I'd better talk to him, and we should be able to get a rough idea, Lu Sheng thought to himself.
"Uncle Zhang, you're already old. Stop doing this. It's quite hard to do the night shift. Go home and take care of your grandson."
The breakfast shop owner listened to the conversation of several people and also knew the identities of Lu Sheng and Xiao Zhu. However, after hearing Lu Sheng's words, he couldn't help but feel a little disgusted with him. He thought, if the family's conditions allowed, who would be willing to work hard.
Xiao Zhu was curious about what Lu Sheng said. Master rarely chatted with others. What happened today?
"My body and bones are not bad. Besides, this work is not tiring. I just need to sleep." The bitterness in Master Zhang's heart flashed past, but Lu Sheng finally saw it.
"Uncle Zhang, how many years have you retired?" Lu Sheng continued chatting. He knew that he would be sure of some things soon.
"Retirement?" After hearing this, Master Zhang smiled helplessly, shook his head and said, "I have no land and no job. From young to now, for so many years, I have just worked as a coolie."
Lu Sheng was now very sure. He wanted to clarify his words, but looking at Master Zhang's weathered face and his spine that had been beaten by time and began to bend, he held back.
"Uncle Zhang, you should drink less wine from now on." Lu Sheng had already stood up and paid Master Zhang's money.
Lu Sheng and Xiao Zhu walked to the door, and Lu Sheng suddenly stopped. He did not turn around, but said softly, "Sometimes I fall asleep and I miss something."
Hearing this, Master Zhang was suddenly startled. He looked at the two people's retreating figures, and suddenly had mixed feelings in his heart.
"Xiao Zhu, you should drive."
"Master, what you and Master Zhang were talking about just now must not have been a casual chat." The two of them got into the car one after another, and Xiao Zhu knew that he must have discovered something just now.
"Well, Liu Fei was most likely left through exit D, which was guarded by Master Zhang."
"You mean, Master Zhang is an accomplice?"
Lu Sheng looked at the back of Xiao Zhu's head with some disgust, "Does it look like him to you?"
"It's not like that!"
"Then you are asking such a stupid question."
Xiao Zhu didn't care at all about a lesson of this level. He continued to ask, "Master, how did you find out?"
"It's easy to be discovered if you leave through Exit E. The risk is too high, so if you want to avoid being discovered as much as possible, just don't be discovered by Master Zhang."
"Well, the monitoring of port D is not turned on either."
Lu Sheng continued, "The person who kidnapped Liu Fei must have made careful plans and arrangements. He must have known that Master Zhang likes to drink."
"Then how can he guarantee that Master Zhang will fall asleep and will not be able to find him?"
"He probably thought of a way to successfully make the alcoholic Master Zhang drink, and he also succeeded in making Master Zhang fall asleep."
Xiao Zhu was still a little confused as to why Master Zhang wanted to hide it.
"Even if this is true, why didn't Master Zhang tell us about this?"
"Master Zhang may really know nothing. Apart from falling asleep before midnight, he really said everything he needed to say. He was just trying desperately to keep his job."