Afraid of being spotted, Li Long did not dare follow too closely. The man ahead carried a bag and hurried along, glancing from side to side now and then, looking a little furtive.
Li Long followed from fifty or sixty meters away, occasionally using other people to shield himself from view. The man did not notice him.
But once they left Old Street, the man immediately turned into an alley. Li Long hurried after him, only to find that the man had vanished by the time he entered it.
There were only a few households nearby. Li Long went through the alley to the main road on the other side, where the view was more open, but still saw no sign of him.
Li Long doubled back, slowly pushing his bicycle through the alley and listening carefully outside each house.
One house was locked, leaving three of the four as possibilities. He heard children in one of them and guessed that probably was not the place either.
The other two stood diagonally opposite each other. Li Long heard nothing as he passed them, and it would not do to barge in. He walked back and forth several times, decided this was not a good idea, and returned to Old Street.
He parked his bicycle at the milk tea shop and thought things over while eating nang.
If that really was Gu Ermao, what was he doing carrying such a large bag of things?
He certainly did not look as though he was up to anything legitimate.
Unfortunately, Li Long had lost him and did not know exactly which courtyard he had entered.
Li Long had originally planned to finish catching fish today and head into the mountains tomorrow, leaving the fishing and selling to his elder brother and Tao Daqiang.