Three hours earlier.
Gao Yue had not caught on after Su Chen hung up.
Later.
She waited in her office, but the car keys never arrived.
Tomorrow?
Only then did Gao Yue realize that Su Chen had said tomorrow.
He might even have no intention of ever returning the vehicle.
Gao Yue went to ask at the security office.
Su Chen had actually driven away.
Gao Yue was furious.
She called Su Chen, but he would not answer at all.
There was nothing else she could do!
Gao Yue could only go to the police station to report it.
After learning what had happened, the police suspected a wage dispute.
They asked.
And that was exactly what it was!
When a wage dispute caused trouble, they would mediate if they could.
But.
Since Gao Yue was a woman and her attitude was forceful.
The police could only compromise a little.
The police station sent officers Huang Wei and Zhang Xiaomeng to track down his whereabouts.
Gao Yue drove behind the police.
There were cameras along the road.
The police first followed his trail to the supermarket to find out what had happened.
After learning that Su Chen had bought some supplies, Huang Wei asked Gao Yue.
"Su Chen bought some supplies. Could he just be borrowing the vehicle?"
Could it be?
Was that why he had said he would return it tomorrow?
Gao Yue was uncertain too, but she said dismissively, "Whatever the case, we need to find the vehicle!"
Gao Yue only wanted to find Su Chen.
They continued tracking Su Chen's vehicle and arrived at his rented place.
There.
They met Su Chen's former landlady.
Fan Hui.
After seeing the keys at her door, Fan Hui stopped playing dead and immediately took a taxi to the rental to check on it.
The refrigerator was gone?
The air conditioner was gone?
Even the table was gone?
When Fan Hui saw the state of the rental, she felt as though the sky had fallen.
As it happened.
Gao Yue arrived with the police.
"That damned bastard!"
As soon as Fan Hui, a middle-aged woman, saw the police, she threw herself at one of them.
"Ma'am, take your time and tell us."
That one sentence from Huang Wei silenced Fan Hui.
"Who are you calling ma'am!"
Fan Hui immediately lost her temper.
"If you're not a middle-aged lady, who is?"
Gao Yue snapped back.
After all, she had called the police and was afraid this woman would interfere with her business.
"You..."
Fan Hui was about to argue with Gao Yue, but Officer Huang Wei stopped her.
Huang Wei said, "First, tell us what happened."
Distracted, Fan Hui said angrily, "That damned Su Chen! His lease was about to expire, and he hauled away my air conditioner and refrigerator."
"Su Chen!"
Beside them, Gao Yue immediately repeated Su Chen's name when she heard it.
"Yes!"
"That bastard Su Chen."
"I never said I wouldn't return his deposit. I was just playing mahjong and happened to be short on money."
Fan Hui swore and grumbled.
"Exactly!"
"I never said I wouldn't pay his wages either, and he drove off with the refrigerated truck."
Gao Yue deeply agreed.
As their words fell, both women turned their gazes on Huang Wei.
They said in unison:
"I told you, Su Chen is no good!"
Beside them, Officer Zhang Xiaomeng could not help curling her lip when she heard them.
One had fired him without paying his wages.
The other had not returned his deposit.
And they had the nerve to call Su Chen a bad person?
They even thought they were in the right.
So honest people just deserved to be bullied!
However, Huang Wei was assisting with the whole assignment, and she was providing support.
She could only grumble inwardly.
Huang Wei was a professional.
The two women were very noisy, but he had formed a judgment about Su Chen's actions.
He ran off again?
Why did Su Chen's behavior seem so strange?
He had been fired.
Because his wages were owed, he had driven away from the company.
That made sense.
But after buying so many supplies at the supermarket, instead of taking them home, he packed up and kept running?
Didn't that look like a fugitive?
"I'll have my colleagues keep tracking him and see where Su Chen went."
Huang Wei did not want to linger at the rental. He wanted to catch up with Su Chen so he could find out what Su Chen was really thinking.
When Fan Hui heard they were going after Su Chen, she immediately said excitedly, "Find Su Chen and arrest him!"
Afterward, they continued following his trail by car.
Fan Hui got into Gao Yue's car.
The two vehicles traveled one behind the other and also passed Changcheng Special Education School.
Su Chen had already picked up his younger sister.
They were one step behind again.
Afterward.
The two vehicles arrived at Old Yang's Auto Repair.
After getting out, Huang Wei immediately began asking what had happened.
Yang Defa told him everything and also learned that the young man was named Su Chen.
"You said Su Chen bought solar panels and battery packs?"
After learning what had happened, Huang Wei asked in puzzlement.
What did he buy those for?
Was he going to live alone out in the wilderness?
"That's right."
Yang Defa nodded. He could not hide it from the police.
"Did he say anything else?"
Huang Wei had merely asked out of surprise, then continued his questions.
"I joked about whether he was fleeing a famine, and he said he was fleeing a disaster."
"But he didn't say what disaster."
Yang Defa smoked, his face also full of puzzlement.
In short, Su Chen was strange.
"Prison!"
Gao Yue said firmly, "He knows he broke the law, and he's scared."
Yang Defa looked at the police, then at the woman who had spoken.
Had that young fellow really gotten into trouble?
"That young fellow didn't look like a bad person. What did he do?"
Yang Defa asked curiously.
"He stole the company's vehicle!"
"He stole the air conditioner and refrigerator from my rental."
Gao Yue and Fan Hui scrambled to speak first.
"Basically, he drove off with the vehicle because he wasn't paid, then hauled away the air conditioner and refrigerator because his deposit wasn't returned. He really does lack legal awareness."
Zhang Xiaomeng could not help speaking up on Su Chen's behalf.
Calling it theft?
That was going a little too far.
There were clearly some disputes involved, and they would have to find Su Chen to get the facts straight.
Huang Wei, meanwhile, was speculating about Su Chen's thoughts.
He suspected that Su Chen wanted to find somewhere to hide.
That fit the way an honest person thought.
Honest people usually did not dare break the law, and once they did, they felt their lives were over.
So they would stake everything on one desperate gamble.
Su Chen was in his twenties, still young.
He had steeled himself.
And driven off with the company's vehicle.
Then, panicking, he had thought of finding somewhere to hide.
That was logical enough.
Of course, having gone this far, the charges would put Su Chen in a very unfavorable position.
Fleeing to evade punishment?
Now.
The most important thing was to find Su Chen.
There was still time to put things right!
If he found Su Chen and explained the pros and cons, he could still mediate and resolve the matter.
Huang Wei was fairly responsible.
"Which direction did he go?"
Huang Wei asked which way Su Chen had gone.
They needed to hurry now. Once he left the city, there would be fewer surveillance cameras, and he really would not be so easy to find.
Yang Defa did not hide anything, pointing at the road ahead. "He went down this national highway!"
After learning what had happened, he had no intention of getting involved.
Ultimately, he did not know any of them well and was only watching the commotion.
"Are you still coming?"
Huang Wei asked Gao Yue.
"Yes!"
Gao Yue gritted her teeth too.
She felt Su Chen was far too good at running.
A police car and a sedan resumed the pursuit.
Yang Defa watched the police car leave.
Just then, a sturdy woman with ordinary looks walked over.
It was his wife, Wang Xiumei, whom he had married in his youth.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
Wang Xiumei asked curiously.
Yang Defa shook his head. "Nothing. Just met a strange customer."
Thinking back to his encounter with Su Chen, Yang Defa still found it odd.
A young man like that didn't seem so brainless, did he?
He had seemed to have a very clear goal.
Suddenly, his wife's next words made Yang Defa's scalp prickle.
"Honey, the moon came out so early today!"
"And it's red!"
"That's so rare. I'll take a picture!"
The moon?
Red?
Yang Defa looked east. A red moon the size of a wheel hung in the sky.
Within it were twisted shadows.
Looking at it a little longer made his eyes sting.
Yang Defa's heart pounded with growing unease.
"Honey, it's been ages since we went back to the countryside to see Mom and Dad. Why don't we leave now?"
Yang Defa wanted to run too.
He immediately came up with a reason to leave Changcheng.
"Now? What's the rush?"
"It's been ages since we had food back home. If we hurry, we might make it in time."
Before you continue