I had never seen my dad so panicked before. When I heard him say that, I immediately realized that this matter was probably serious! My dad also hurriedly led us to the old house at the east end of the village. Soon we arrived at the old house. My dad kicked the door that was about to collapse to the ground, ignoring the little night cats and dogs inside, and the weeds and dust on the ground, and rushed directly into the only house in the yard.
My father went in first, and Lin Yingxue and I followed closely behind. After we entered the house, which we imagined would be covered with dust and cobwebs, we found that it was actually spotless. Although there was no furniture, there was not even a speck of dust. It was even cleaner than my home.
Could it be that there have been people living here before
Thinking of this, I immediately looked at the house carefully, but I found that there was no sign of anyone living in the house. Even on the smooth floor, there were no footprints. It seemed that it had just been cleaned not long ago.
At the same time, I also found that on the open ground, in a corner, there was a palm-sized wooden board, on which seemed to be the word "one" written with a brush. I didn't know what it meant. At this time, my father's eyes were fixed on the wooden board, and his face was so gloomy that water was about to drip out.
Seeing this, I probably guessed something and asked hurriedly, "Dad, didn't you hide the secret here and someone found it?"
My father slowly turned his head. Although he didn't say anything, his eyes said it all. I guessed right!
At this moment, I finally understood why my father was so panicked, because I knew what this secret meant to my family. If it was discovered and taken away by someone, what awaited our whole family would be an uncertain future full of dangers!
I immediately rushed forward to the wooden board, looked around carefully, and found that the bricks under the board seemed to be loose, so I asked Lin Yingxue for a dagger and pried open the bricks below, only to find that there was a small hole under the brick, but at this time the small hole was empty and there was nothing in it.
It was indeed like this! After learning what happened to us, I became completely panicked. I couldn't predict what our family would face next, but at this moment I just wanted to take my parents and run away quickly, to a place where no one could recognize us!
But the strange thing is, when I turned around to look at my father, I found that although he still looked very gloomy, he was not as flustered as I was. It seemed that what was happening in front of him was not as serious as I had imagined.
"Dad? Say something! What should we do now?"
My dad looked up at me and actually smiled bitterly, saying, "It doesn't matter. If they take it away, they take it away. Anyway, I divided this thing into three parts. It's nothing to worry about if they take one of them."
"Three servings? What's going on?"
My father sighed, took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to me, then sat on the ground and told me in detail what happened. Perhaps he did not regard Lin Yingxue as an outsider, so he told me directly.
It turned out that the evidence my father obtained that year was very mixed. If all of them were collected, it would not only be very troublesome, but might also reveal his tracks. So he recorded all the evidence on a hard drive, and divided it into three hard drives, hiding them in three places. This old house is where one of the hard drives is hidden. Although the hard drives have been taken away now, the loss of one copy is actually not a big deal. But if all three copies are found, things will be much more troublesome.
After hearing what my dad said, I suddenly became curious and asked, "Dad, since it can be hidden in the hard drive, why don't you make a few more copies just in case?"
"You think I don't want to? Now it seems that we live a peaceful life, but in this village, some people you are familiar with are actually monitoring us. Let alone copying the hard drive, when you went to the copy shop to print out the test materials at school, I think someone would search your materials carefully after you left. If I took the hard drive to copy it, wouldn't I be handing the secret to them?"
Then my dad sighed and said, "I'm very curious now, how did they find this place?"
When my dad asked this question, I immediately lowered my head in shame, because after knowing what happened today, I realized how stupid it was for Lin Yingxue and I to come here last night. Because when I was leaving, I seemed to find someone staring at me in the old house behind me. Now that I think about it, there must have been someone hiding in the house and secretly monitoring us, and heard the conversation between Lin Yingxue and me, so he locked the target in this house and found evidence that my dad was hiding here.
But I was very curious, who could know where my father's secret was hidden from a conversation in which I couldn't see any flaws
I told my dad exactly what happened last night, but he didn't blame me. He just said helplessly, "I didn't expect you to betray me unintentionally. No wonder someone found me here. But now that I think about it, I seem to have found a young man in the village these days. Although he didn't show up in crowded places, there are many signs that there is indeed such a person here!"
"Young man? Dad, have you seen him? What does he look like?"
"I didn't see him, but judging from some clues, it should be a young man without a doubt. Moreover, this young man seemed to be quite welcome and polite."
I was really curious about how my father knew this information. Looking at his expression, it seemed that all this was just the result of his speculation. I was already shocked that he could guess that there was one more person in the village. Now he can actually describe some of the other person's characteristics. This makes me wonder, am I his biological child
But I saw that he was obviously showing off to me, so I didn't ask him and said directly: "According to your description, this person is probably Yuan Hao, whom I told you about before! If Yuan Hao is the adopted son of 'that person', then everything makes sense. He must have discovered the secret here and found the hard drive you hid."
My dad nodded and said, "I think so too. Since the things here have been found, I will probably move with your mom soon. After all, I have to guard the secret of the next place myself!"
"Senior, if that's the case, wouldn't that directly expose the place where you hide your secret?" Lin Yingxue asked with some confusion.
My dad smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I've never hidden things very carefully, but they are very hard to find. If I don't guard them myself, they will be discovered sooner or later. Besides, if I don't have anything to protect myself, once 'that person' starts to embarrass me, I will have no shield."
I could understand what my dad said, but I was worried about what Yuan Hao would do to my dad. My dad only took one look at me and knew what I was thinking. He said, "Don't worry. If they want to deal with me, they can't do it openly. They can only set a trap for me secretly. But do you think your dad is someone who would fall into the trap so easily? If the Yuan Hao you mentioned wants to take advantage of the victory, then I welcome him to come, as long as he is not afraid of death!"
When my father spoke, his eyes were full of confidence, and I was also full of confidence in him. After all, with such a monster-like father, Yuan Hao would only be asking for trouble.
Since there was no problem with this matter for the time being, I was relieved. But then I suddenly remembered the past events in my childhood, so I asked, "Dad, who were the woman and child who lived in this house back then?"
It was already noon when we left the old house. When we got home, my mother had already prepared lunch. I hadn't eaten anything all morning, and now that I knew so many secrets from my father, I was naturally in a good mood and my appetite was much better. After eating a lot, I decided to take Lin Yingxue to other attractions and relax myself.
After Lin Yingxue and I went out, before we got in the car, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind us: "Ji Wen, where are you going?"
I immediately turned around and found that the person who was talking was Xiaomei!
Lin Yingxue glanced at Xiaomei, then at me, and turned back to get into the car. I asked in confusion, "Why are you here? Aren't you following the team leader to deal with the rest?"
Xiaomei seemed to be worried. She walked towards me with her hands behind her back. Then she looked up at me and said, "Why, do you think I have to stay with him?"
When Xiaomei said this, I couldn't look at her eyes, so I turned my eyes away, and the atmosphere immediately became awkward. Then Xiaomei took out her hands from behind her back, and I saw that she was holding a string of candied haws.
Our favorite food back then was the candied haws in the village. We would share one every time. Now when I see her holding the candied haws again, it brings back memories of our youth.
"I'm here to bring you some candied haws. Isn't that what you love the most? Do you have time? Let's go out and have a meal together and sit down and talk?"
Looking at Xiaomei's expectant eyes and familiar smile, everything seemed to have returned to the past, except that I no longer have the same feeling of excitement as before. I took the candied haws from her hand with a smile and said, "Thank you very much, but I have to accompany Xiaoxue to play these two days. I'll treat you to a meal when I come back next time. Bye."
After saying that, I turned around and walked into the car behind me. I didn't look back at Xiaomei's expression at this moment, but my heart was very calm at this moment. No matter how worth recalling the past, it has become the past. I now finally understand that blindly escaping and blaming can only mean that she is still in my heart, and a calm smile and a frank attitude show that I have truly let go of the relationship of the past.
When I got back to the car, I found that Lin Yingxue seemed to be talking to someone on the phone. I asked her who she was talking to while fastening my seat belt. Unexpectedly, Lin Yingxue looked at me with some surprise, and after a long while, she said, "It was Chief Bai who called. He said there was a package for you, and asked you to hurry back to sign for it."