Seeing Li Hua suddenly appear, all of us present, except Bai Qi, had expressions of disbelief on their faces. But Li Hua didn't care at all. He still looked at us with the contemptuous expression that used to appear on his face so often, and walked slowly towards us step by step.
Before, I heard the sound of wood knocking on the ground outside the door. It was the crutch in Li Hua's hand. Apparently his leg injury had not healed completely, and he had to rely on the crutch to support his body. Looking back, the last time I saw Li Hua was when I just came to the special case team. That time, I had no choice but to follow Bai Qi to the hospital to visit Li Hua once, and I never saw him again. I even almost forgot about him.
Li Hua at this moment seemed a little more aged than before, but he was still tall and handsome. After he came in, he first glanced at all of us with his disgusting eyes, and finally fixed his gaze on Lin Yingxue, who was beside me.
I knew earlier that Li Hua seemed to have been pursuing Lin Yingxue, but Lin Yingxue had never given him a good look. I didn't have any thoughts when I heard the news, but now for some reason, I actually started to worry a little and immediately turned to look at Lin Yingxue's expression.
Lin Yingxue seemed to feel Li Hua's gaze, her face instantly darkened, and she turned her head to look out the window, with no intention of paying any attention to Li Hua. However, this small action of Lin Yingxue made me feel a sense of peace of mind for some reason.
I quietly asked Bai Qi, "Why is he here? Isn't he supposed to never come back again?"
Bai Qi sighed and said, "He asked to return to the team himself. He knew about the situation here because of Tang Qingfeng's death. He called me today and asked to return to the team. I really had no choice but to agree. Now one more person means one more strength. Li Hua is also capable. With the two of you working together, I believe this matter should be resolved as quickly as we expected."
If it were in the past in Zhongwei City, what Bai Qi said might have come true, because Li Hua did not have such a great hatred towards me at that time, and he and I had indeed cooperated several times, and the cooperation was quite pleasant. But now it is different. I can clearly feel his hateful gaze, and that gaze even makes me sense a hint of murderous intent from him.
Bai Qi had seen countless people, so he could naturally tell that the atmosphere was a little off. He coughed lightly and then said, "Li Hua has returned to the team now, so our special case team will be temporarily divided into two teams. Long Fei, Lin Yingxue and Ji Wen will form one team, led by Ji Wen. Li Hua, Pan An and Ding Yang will form another team, led by Li Hua. The two teams will act separately, and no one should interfere with the other team's affairs. However, intelligence must be shared in a timely manner. What we are facing now is very serious. If anyone dares to cause trouble for me at this critical juncture, don't blame me for being rude!"
Bai Qi's words were obviously meant for Li Hua to hear, and after hearing them, Li Hua looked unwilling, but he finally suppressed his resentment and nodded slightly.
I am very satisfied with the proposal of this team investigation, but seeing Pan An and Ding Yang's unwilling expressions, it seems that they don't like to be in the same team with Li Hua. After finishing the discussion of the team, Bai Qi continued: "Continuing with the previous topic, how should we follow Tang Qingfeng's line?"
I ignored Li Hua's look and said, "In my opinion, we should focus on investigating why Uncle Tang left alone tomorrow. Uncle Tang is very smart, I have never doubted this. I think he must have discovered some clues about the gang of criminals, and even if he has died, I think he can still leave us some clues, so tomorrow I plan to look for clues that Uncle Tang might have left behind."
As soon as I finished speaking, before Bai Qi could say anything, Li Hua sneered, "No matter how smart Tang Qingfeng was, he has already been killed. Judging from the state of his death, he had a fierce fight with someone before he was strangled to death. Even if he wanted to leave clues at the time, he probably didn't have the time. You are just wasting your efforts by doing this."
I was already having a headache, and Tang Qingfeng's death was a big shock to me. I was already very upset. Facing Li Hua's constant provocation, I finally got really angry and sneered, "Really? Then what do you think we should do?"
Li Hua didn't care that I was already angry. He still looked at me sarcastically and said, "In my opinion, this group of criminals are just like that. They must be unable to endure this kind of hiding life, or their superiors or buyers have begun to urge them, so they chose to kill Tang Qingfeng at this critical moment. Therefore, I think that Tang Qingfeng did not leave alone because he found out something, but was lured out alone by the criminals using some method!"
"What you just said about the reason for luring out Tang Qingfeng and killing him is quite good. First, we can use the news about Tang Qingfeng to tell their superiors or buyers about their situation, so that they don't have to worry and can meet them outside. Second, we can achieve the purpose of making a show of force and frighten the police, so that they will hate us and increase the search in the urban area and gradually relax the inspection at the border. In this way, they can take advantage of the weakness of our checkpoints to find a breakthrough and escape from Dengfeng City!"
When Li Hua said this, the smug look on his face became even stronger. He stared at me sarcastically and said, "So I think that the focus should still be on the border checkpoint. If you follow Tang Qingfeng's clues, you should be able to find out why Tang Qingfeng was lured out at that time, but do you think those criminals would be so stupid as to stay in the same place as before? Of course, this is all your team's business. I'm just kindly reminding you."
Faced with Li Hua's series of questions, even Bai Qi began to hesitate. It was apparent that other people were also somewhat biased towards Li Hua's side because of Li Hua's reasoning. "I will naturally not let such a thing happen," he said, staring at Li Hua with a sneer.
"Inside and outside? That sounds good. You take our special police too lightly, don't you? Not to mention just a few of them, even if you let a real army fully armed break through the checkpoint, they may not be able to break through before the rescue arrives. Don't forget that this is our country's territory. How can we let these foreigners be so presumptuous? Your plan is indeed correct. After all, the ultimate goal of this group of people is to leave Dengfeng City, and to leave Dengfeng City, they must pass through those checkpoints. It's just that by the time they are really ready to pass, they have already made sufficient preparations. Even if you have found out their true identities at that time, I'm afraid you won't have time to stop an escape plan that has been arranged long ago!"
"Uncle Tang is also someone you underestimated. Uncle Tang is not as stupid as you think. He was easily lured out, and he was alone! I can guarantee that the reason Uncle Tang went out alone is definitely because he found clues about the gangsters! Even if the gangsters have changed their hiding place, we can still find many new clues by following Uncle Tang's discovery to find their previous hiding place!"
"As for the checkpoint, since those criminals are all smart people, they naturally understand that what they have is of great value. Smart people are suspicious and will not easily hand over their things to strangers to help take them out, unless they do it themselves. As long as we can find out the method they use in advance, we can stop all this. Going to the checkpoint now is a real waste of time!"
Li Hua and I stared at each other, neither of us willing to back down. I also found that there were no electric light effects in our glances as seen in TV dramas. We were just staring at each other quietly, sticking to our respective points of view.
When we stared at each other, no one around us spoke. After nearly a minute, I felt my eyes were about to shed tears because I hadn't blinked for a long time. Li Hua finally sneered and said, "In this case, why don't we continue the bet and stick to our own ideas to see who can catch the gangsters first. But this time, I hope there will be a bet."
"What's the stakes?"
Li Hua glanced at Lin Yingxue who had completely ignored him beside me. His eyes were filled with more anger. He lowered his voice and said, "If I lose, I will leave the special case team and never show up again. If you lose, I don't expect you to leave the special case team. You just need to leave Lin Yingxue. She is the woman I have chosen, and you don't deserve her!"
Hearing Li Hua's words, Bai Qi immediately glared at him fiercely, while Bai Longfei's eyes instantly turned cold and he already had the urge to attack. Lin Yingxue beside him had a gloomy face that seemed to be dripping with water. It seemed that she deliberately didn't want to pay attention to Li Hua, but she couldn't ignore Li Hua's insult to her.
I reached out and patted Lin Yingxue and Bai Longfei on the shoulders, signaling them not to be impulsive. Then I stood up and said with a smile, "I can participate in this bet, but I don't acknowledge the bet. It's none of my business whether you leave the special case team or not. I don't even care if you let me leave. But can you please not use Xiaoxue as a bet to satisfy your petty vanity? She is a living person, not an object, let alone a weight for you. You are destined to have no friends if you don't care about other people's feelings."
"Friends? I don't need that kind of cowardly thing! Xiaoxue? After not seeing each other for a few months, you're still so affectionate? You're really a pair of dogs and bitches! Don't talk to me about those useless things. I just want to ask you one question. Do you dare to accept this bet?"
I stared at him coldly and said, "I told you, I can accept bets, but I absolutely cannot accept using Xiaoxue as a bet!"
The atmosphere, which had been improving somewhat under Bai Qi's adjustment, now became explosive again. Facing the strong Li Hua, I could only respond with a stronger attitude. In this regard, I still chose to follow my principles.