"You are the heart of the grave."
It was just a sentence that was slowly spit out, but it was loud, as if a sentence was pronounced.
"You... what are you talking about?" Hou Cheng took two steps back uncomfortably and sat on a wooden bench, "I'm not the heart of the tomb."
Xiao Yuan's eyes were unfathomable, "Really?"
Hou Cheng shook his head one after another, "Really not!"
Xiao Yu'an stared at him for another half a minute, as if he had believed, "The book in the heart of the tomb may be used by criminals, and it has been temporarily sealed. Until the case is investigated, Xinyun Publishing House will no longer charge taxes to your account. Pay later."
Hou Cheng looked blank, "Oh, this has nothing to do with me."
"Why doesn't it matter?" Xiao Yuan said: "There is no payment in your account, which means that the tomb will not come to you again in a short time."
Hou Cheng thought for a while, and didn't want to look at Xiao Yu'an, "It's okay, it's okay, he has already given me a lot of money, it's okay if he doesn't come to me. After this summer is over, I'll tidy up my fields. I can grow melons, but I don't have to rely on him."
Xiao Yuan sighed, "You don't seem to understand what I mean."
Not to mention Hou Cheng, even Mingshu didn't quite know which show Xiao Yuan was playing.
"What do you mean?" Hou Cheng asked anxiously.
His complexion was sallow, and his emotions were not easy to show from his face. But Mingshu noticed that his gully-like wrinkles were trembling slightly.
It stands to reason that he is not so nervous.
"Don't you understand?" Xiao Yuan said, "If the tomb heart doesn't come to you anymore, then you won't be of much use to our police."
There is a bit of arrogance in these words, neither the tone nor the wording is Xiao Yu'an's style.
But inexplicably a little emotional.
Mingshu made a "tsk" in his heart.
"I don't understand." Hou Cheng stood up, "What are you trying to do to me? What do you mean by 'not much use'?"
"Your name is still on the security detachment." Xiao Yu'an said: "Because you have to cooperate with us in handling the case, you don't have to accept punishment for the time being. Since the tomb won't come to you again, then you can go back to the security detachment and stay."
Hou Cheng obviously did not expect things to develop like this, and panicked for a while, "You didn't say that a few days ago!"
"A few days ago?" Xiao Yuan smiled, "Have you seen me the other day?"
Hou Cheng swallowed hard and shook his head.
"That's right. It was my subordinate who let you back a few days ago." Xiao Yu'an said and glanced at Mingshu, who immediately stood up in cooperation.
Xiao Yu'an retracted his gaze and said again: "He seems to have made a mistake, I will correct it."
Hou Cheng rubbed his hands awkwardly, "But you can't make fun of me like this, Nong, are the rural people easy to bully?"
"Rural people?" Xiao Yuan said slowly: "If you have to give yourself an identity, okay, then I ask you - fellow villagers who are also rural people are busy in the fields, why don't you mind you field?"
Hou Cheng hesitantly said, "Didn't you say that, the tomb gave me money, and I don't want to do farm work this year."
The sound of parking came from outside the yard. Mingshu walked to the door and saw that it was a police car from the Los Angeles City Bureau.
He didn't call it, it should have been arranged by Xiao Yu'an.
"The car is coming?" Xiao Yuan asked.
Mingshu said, "Come on."
Xiao Yu'an looked at Hou Cheng indifferently, "If you have anything else to say, I'll talk about it when I get to the security detachment."
Hou Cheng looked like he dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, "Now, are you leaving now?"
"Yes, now." Xiao Yu'an said, "The police car is just outside."
"Then I'll clean up." Hou Cheng turned around and wanted to enter the room.
Mingshu took a few steps forward and stopped him directly, "The security detachment has the daily necessities you need."
"I still have to clean up..." Hou Cheng dodged his eyes, trying to push Mingshu away, but where was Mingshu's opponent.
"Do you want to clean up, or hide things you don't want to be seen by me?" Xiao Yuan asked.
Hou Cheng's eyes were sharp for a moment, and then dull again.
It's like being in a dark room when a sudden flash of light briefly illuminates the dirty truth in the room.
This look is enough.
Hou Cheng was taken away by the security detachment that arrived, and he was already very anxious when he got into the police car.
Mingshu stood outside Hou's house, watching the police car drive away, and then asked, "Brother, what did you find?"
"If my guess is correct, then Hou Cheng is the heart of the tomb." Xiao Yu'an said: "He is very good at covering up, and even made up a person to lead us all astray."
Mingshu was surprised, "cover up? No, we first suspected that he was not the heart of the tomb. At that time, we hadn't had actual contact with him. How could he cover it up?"
"Think about it again." Xiao Yu'an said, "Why do we suspect that he is not the heart of the tomb?"
Mingshu's eyes gradually became calm, and after a while, he said, "He doesn't look like a writer at all."
"It's here - he doesn't look like a writer, this is the prejudice caused by his identity. He also emphasized just now - he is a farmer." Xiao Yuan spoke slowly, looking into Mingshu's eyes, "One who writes suspense A writer, what kind of person would he be in reality?"
Mingshu pursed his lips and did not answer immediately.
A figure in his mind turned from blurred to clear. Although he couldn't see his face clearly, he could vaguely see that it was a young man.
Mingshu suddenly realized that he was affected, this man was clearly a young man like Hou Ximei and others.
Xiao Yuan said: "In many people's inherent cognition, suspense writers are mostly male, most of them are in their twenties to forty years old, they may wear glasses, and they have come into contact with people with many occupations and personalities. He has either read a lot of books or went to He has been to many places. Generally speaking, he is a person with rich social experience and strong logical reasoning ability."
Mingshu frowned, "Yes."
Xiao Yuan added: "If we find such a person based on the clues provided by Xinyun Publishing House, then there is no doubt that we will immediately believe that this person is the heart of the tomb. Right?"
Mingshu thought for a while, "Yes! There is another writer hiding behind a writer, which is very unlikely. If the person I found matches my imagination, I will no longer doubt whether there is a writer behind him. A true grave."
"And what kind of person is Hou Cheng?" Xiao Yu'an continued: "A farmer, in his fifties, with a primary school diploma, living alone, withdrawn, and not good at words, he lives in a small backward place like Qingyue Village, and makes a living by farming. , even the surrounding villagers rarely have contact with him, and the children nearby even call him 'dumb' and 'dumb'. This kind of person may not even be able to recognize many words, let alone write."
It was clearly a dog day, but Mingshu felt a chill on the bottom of his feet.
"Anyone who sees Hou Cheng probably won't think he is a suspense writer." Xiao Yu'an narrowed his eyes, "From the very beginning, he used his identity to mislead us. Let us think that he cannot be the heart of the tomb, Then trace who is the tomb."
Ming Shu finally followed Xiao Yu'an's train of thought, "I don't think Hou Cheng could be a writer, let alone the grave heart who wrote the words 'some people deserve to die'. So I subconsciously thought that he might It's not the real heart of the tomb, the real heart of the tomb is still hidden in a place I don't know about."
"It's not just you, I think so too." Xiao Yu'an's tone changed, "Once we all think so, in fact, we have already fallen into Hou Cheng's trap. We must dig deeper and deeper, trying to find the real heart of the tomb. The fact that the tomb hides his identity just proves that our suspicions about him are reasonable, and there must be a ghost on him."
Mingshu took a deep breath, "If that's the case, Hou Cheng's prostitution is also acting, he wants us to believe that he is just a low-level civilian who has no brains and is mad when he gets money, and then during the interrogation process, he spit out the heart of the tomb step by step— It was me who forced him to admit that he was not the heart of the tomb! Fuck me, he is too capable of going around like this."
"Don't forget, the heart of the tomb was originally written with suspense." Xiao Yu'an said, "It is not a difficult task for him to set up this bureau. If you get rid of prejudice and look at Hou Cheng again, why can't a lonely farmer be able to Writing books? He just didn't go to much school, but he's not illiterate. Whether a person can write a book or not depends on his thinking, his knowledge, not his level of education."
Mingshu shook his hair, calmed down for a while, and then said, "But it doesn't make sense. The first person who reported to us that there was a handsome young man living in Hou Cheng's house was not Hou Cheng himself, but the villagers near his house. Hou Ximei and Wang Youqun saw it all. They have no reason to act with Hou Cheng."
"It's very simple, because there was indeed such a person who lived in his house." Xiao Yu'an said, "And in my opinion, it was the appearance of this young man that inspired Hou Cheng to come up with this incredible idea. Think back on it. , when the villagers told you that a young man lived in Hou Cheng's house for a few days, who had always been isolated, did you immediately think that this man is the real heart of the tomb?"
Mingshu paced frequently, "Yes!"
Xiao Yu'an added: "This man may just be a person who happened to pass by. After three years, it is impossible to investigate now. Hou Cheng insisted that this person is the heart of the tomb, and the testimony of the villagers almost confirmed that he was just a victim of the tomb. People who use their hearts."
"I think of a bad possibility." Mingshu suddenly said, "Hou Cheng dares to insist that the man who appeared is the heart of the tomb, why? He is not worried that the man will appear again and expose his lies?"
"Two possibilities." Xiao Yu'an said: "First, he is gambling; second, he knows that the man will never appear again."
"Already dead." Mingshu pressed his right hand to his chin, "killed by him."
"I can't rule out this possibility." Xiao Yuan suddenly smiled, "Is that persuaded by me?"
Mingshu's eyes were sure, "Huh?"
Xiao Yu'an stepped forward, holding Mingshu's face with both hands, "I was caught in my logic."
Mingshu frowned, a little angry, "Because it's you!"
Xiao Yu'an let go of his hands, "Just think about it calmly, does my analysis make sense?"
Mingshu thought about it for a long time and asked: "I just want to know, if Hou Cheng dug a hole for us, how did you jump out of this hole and think about another line? I asked myself that I don't have such great ability. I might doubt it after a while, but not as quickly as you do."
"Like you, I also believed what Hou Cheng said." Xiao Yu'an said, "Until Liu Zhiqin told me, he found no trace of the tomb's heart on the Internet."
Mingshu suddenly understood.
"You have been in the special operations team for a year. You should know what level of network security expert Liu Zhiqin is." Xiao Yuan continued: "If others can't find out the problem, I can understand that the tomb's heart is too well hidden. Liu Zhiqin is powerless, and with me, there is only one possibility - the heart of the tomb that Hou Cheng said does not exist at all, he is the heart of the tomb! I came here today to verify this guess."
Mingshu said, "You just cheated him."
"More than that." Xiao Yu'an said, "I have read all the books in the heart of the tomb, and one of them described melon fields in great detail and other rural features."
"If what is written in the book is similar to Qingyue Village, it means that the heart of the tomb is Hou Cheng?" Mingshu thought quickly, "That's not necessarily true. According to Hou Cheng and the villagers, the young man happened to pass by Qingyue Village. After living in Hou Cheng's house for a few days, it makes sense that he can describe the style of Qingyue Village."
"It doesn't make sense." Xiao Yu'an shook his head, "Whether it's the villagers or Hou Cheng, it's clear that the man lived in Hou Cheng's house and didn't come out, so he couldn't observe the style of Qingyue Village at all. Step back ten thousand steps, Hou Cheng said this If a man travels around, he must have visited more than one village in Qingyue Village. Then why is the village in the tomb inscription a microcosm of Qingyue Village and not a microcosm of other villages?"
"This..." Mingshu thought about it for a long time, but couldn't find a point to refute, "Then what should we do now?"
Xiao Yuan rubbed his head, "You are the leader of the serious crime team, what should I do?"
"Don't mess with my hair!" Mingshu shook his head in dissatisfaction, "If Hou Cheng is the heart of the tomb, then he will take the payment from the bank... Where will the money go?"
Xiao Yuan did not answer.
"You think it's here?" Mingshu said, "Hou Cheng directly hid more than two million yuan at home?"
"Have you noticed the expression on his face when he was taken away by the security detachment just now?" Xiao Yuan said, "There must be his secrets in this old house, it may be money or something else. not carefully."
"I'll arrange a new round of search immediately." Mingshu paused, suppressed his ruffled hair, and said, "Although Hou Cheng went to prostitutes, it can mislead us into thinking that there is someone else in the tomb, but in fact there are still It's superfluous. Both Lu Kun and Li Hongmei committed crimes after the tomb heart's book. We can suspect the tomb heart, but with the existing evidence, we can't control the tomb heart. After all, his books are published by regular publishing houses. Publishing, readers commit crimes, we have no reason to restrict his personal freedom as an author. But now he is suspected of buying prostitution, and the security detachment detains him for legal compliance. He is simply shooting himself in the foot.”
"When people are setting up a bureau, the more they think they are smarter, the more likely they will make some critical mistakes, especially this kind of constantly reversing bureau." Xiao Yu'an said: "The same is true of many murder cases - the murderer wants to erase it and stay at the scene. However, the act of 'erasing the traces' itself can provide clues to the police. The more you do, the more clues will be revealed. Hou Cheng has already revealed his flaws. When I return to Los Angeles, I will Go and interrogate him."
"Wait." Ming Shu grabbed Xiao Yu'an's wrist, "Brother, you just learned from me."
Xiao Yuan's eyes were half-curved, "Huh? What am I learning from you?"
Mingshu said: "You learn from my bandit, you don't usually talk like that."
Xiao Yu'an smiled, "You don't have enough time to learn from me? You are only allowed to imitate me, and I am not allowed to imitate you?"
"I imitated you because you were amazing." Mingshu raised his face, "Your tone is very bluffing. And..."
"And what?" Xiao Yuan asked.
"And I've admired you since I was a child, so it's not like you don't know." Mingshu's tone was a bit intimate and fierce, "What's wrong with imitating you!"
Xiao Yuan snorted lightly, and was about to speak when he heard a commotion outside.
Many residents gathered around a tricycle, talking about the village chief Hou Jianjun's house.
"Hou Pao really has no filial piety. How can he go out to study and not recognize his old father?"
"Raising children to prevent old age, raising children to prevent old age, I don't think raising children can prevent old age! Old Hou is really pitiful. He worked so hard to pull Hou Pao up, and in the end, Hou Pao was disliked!"
"Hou Pao is actually right, Lao Hou is quite embarrassing for him."
"You can't say that! Who among us is not a peasant? Hou Pao is a peasant himself, but he just went to the city to study, so he looked down on his father who was a peasant? Not this father who is a peasant, who will pay him to study?"
Mingshu had met Hou Jianjun before, and was deeply impressed by the village chief because of the lighter. After listening for a while, I almost understood what was going on—
Hou Jianjun has a son named Hou Pao, 24 years old, studying for a master's degree at Los Angeles University. Hou Jianjun lost his wife when he was young. He is both a father and a mother, and he has to worry about the village. Hou Pao studied in the town from elementary school to high school, and his relationship with Hou Jianjun was not too close.
At the age of 18, Hou Pao was admitted to Los Angeles University. Hou Jianjun was so happy to invite the whole village to dinner, but Hou Pao, the protagonist, did not attend, and he saved Hou Jianjun's face in front of all the villagers.
Hou Jianjun's loss was seen by everyone.
Over the years, Hou Pao had hardly ever returned to Qingyue Village, but Hou Jianjun ran to Luocheng whenever he had time, even to see his son.
But many times you can only eat behind closed doors.
This time, Hou Jianjun took the more than 1,000 yuan he saved and bought one for Hou Pao just like Fang Yuanhang's lighter. He wanted to please Hou Pao, but he still couldn't see anyone.
Hou Pao didn't answer his phone and didn't open the door for him.
Dejected, Hou Jianjun returned to the village, where the outrageously expensive lighter finally crushed his spine like the last straw.
He found pesticides and wanted to commit suicide. Fortunately, he was discovered by a village cadre who came to him to discuss the matter. This did not lead to a tragedy.
Pesticides were knocked over and dripped all over the yard.
Most of the villagers were enthusiastic, and many put down their work and rushed to comfort Hou Jianjun.
Xiao Yuan and Mingshu stood behind the villagers and watched Hou Jianjun from a distance.
"He really doesn't want me as a father." Hou Jianjun burst into tears, almost crying, "He doesn't even want to see me, he wants to cut off ties with me!"
"Every family has a hard-to-read scripture." Xiao Yuan patted Mingshu's back, "Let's go, don't read it."
Mingshu stood there, and suddenly remembered his family that he seldom remembered.