When Qingmu returned to the main room, Yu Meiren and Old Enkun were eating porridge, while Shi Dazhuang had just woken up, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
Yu Meiren noticed the empty bowl in Qingmu's hand and asked curiously, " Lemao Yeye it?"
Qingmu smiled, put the bowl on the table, stretched, and said, "That's enough for now!"
Yu Meiren didn't understand what "considered" meant, but she was never one to talk much, so she didn't ask again.
Old Enkun finished his porridge, picked up his pipe again, tapped it on the table a few times to empty the ash, filled it with fresh tobacco, lit it, took a puff, and said, "A leopard can't change its spots!"
Shi Dazhuang, confused, asked, "What happened?"
Old Enkun remained silent, Qingmu merely smiled slightly.
Yu Meiren looked left and right, and finding no one to explain to her uncle, she whispered a few words in Shi Dazhuang's ear.
Shi Dazhuang stared at Qingmu in astonishment, as if he had discovered a treasure, and said, "You can even cure drug addiction?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "I'm not taking the blame for this!"
At this moment, Lemao swayed his thin, bamboo-like body as he entered. He glanced at everyone, said nothing, lowered his head, took an empty bowl, and scooped a bowl of porridge from the kitchen.
The dining table in the main room is a square eight-immortal table.
Yu Meiren quickly stood up to offer Lemao a seat. Lemao, however, refused to sit down. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks, ate some pickled vegetables, and squatted down in a corner to eat by himself.
He ate quickly, put down the bowl, wiped his mouth, and then squatted there, hugging his knees, staring blankly at his feet, lost in thought.
Old Enkun, puffing out smoke, said, "Changed his nature?"
Shi Dazhuang also said, "Yes! Qingmu, what trick did you use? If you have a good trick, you should share it with the country; that would be a great deed!"
Qingmu shook his head and smiled wryly, "You've been a narcotics officer for so many years, you should know more about drug addiction than I do. I just helped him overcome some psychological barriers and gave him some confidence to quit. As for whether he can quit, that depends on him."
Old Enkun nodded. "That makes sense!"
He exhaled smoke, and his eyes held a hint of gratitude as he looked at Qingmu.
Yu Meiren suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, Lemao Yeye!"
When they looked over, they saw that Lemao was crying and sniffling again. Soon after, he started convulsing, lying there looking at his old father with pleading eyes, uttering some indistinct words.
Old Enkun shook his head and sighed, "It's difficult!"
Shi Dazhuang said, "No, we still have to tie him up." He asked the Beauty to find a rope, and in no time at all, they tied up Lemao.
Once Lemao's condition improved a bit, Qingmu said to Shi Dazhuang, "The air here is nice, let's go for a walk outside."
Shi Dazhuang said, "Alright, I'll show you the evening view in the mountains."
It was already dark. The people of Kuaziba were used to going to bed early, and apart from the occasional bark of a dog, the whole area was quiet. The numerous stars in the sky were so low they seemed within reach, and their light cast a silvery veil over the surrounding mountains.
Standing at the mouth of the dam, Shi Dazhuang pointed to the sky and said, "You can't see such a low-hanging starry sky in the city."
Qingmu chuckled, "Do police officers like to look at the stars too?"
Shi Dazhuang said, "Every living thing on Earth has the right to look up at the stars, even a rat living in a gutter."
"A mouse?" Qingmu looked at Shi Dazhuang with a puzzled expression, not understanding why he would make such a remark. In his mind, besides philosophers and artists, only children were interested in the starry sky.
Shi Dazhuang said, "Although I'm just a policeman, I know that the earth is rotting, and only the starry sky is humanity's hope for the future. But most people only care about the land beneath their feet and whether their desires in this life can be satisfied. As for the future—that's a matter for the future! In reality, humans are not much nobler than rats in the gutter."
Qingmu said, "I admit you have a point, but aren't you being a bit too biased towards rats? Even if you used ants or bedbugs as comparisons, they wouldn't be any worse than rats."
Shi Dazhuang took out cigarettes, lit them for Qingmu and himself, and then said, "I once infiltrated a drug cartel just like Yu Gang. You guys are used to calling us 'undercover agents,' but here, everyone calls us—'rats'!"
Qingmu suddenly realized, "No wonder! So you're a mouse that gazes at the stars!"
How could someone who has been working undercover within a criminal organization for years survive in a dark, filthy, and corrupt environment if they didn't have unwavering faith, if they didn't look up at the stars, and if their heart wasn't filled with hope?
He could imagine that Shi Dazhuang and Yu Gang back then must have often spent nights similar to today, in the opium fields of Masuba, or lying on top of trucks loaded with opium, smelling the opium while gazing at the stars and longing for a world without drugs and crime.
Now, one of them has been transferred to the north, and the other lies buried underground.
Old evils have diminished because of their past heroism and sacrifice, while new evils are still emerging.
Qingmu took out the small piece of paper and handed it to Shi Dazhuang.
Shi Dazhuang glanced at Qingmu with a puzzled look, then lit a lighter and used the light to read the words on the note. He was a policeman, the head of the criminal investigation team who had handled countless cases, and he immediately understood what had happened after just one glance.
"Where did you come from?" Shi Dazhuang asked.
Qingmu said, "That fair-skinned woman put it in my food."
Shi Dazhuang immediately took out his phone and made a call, "Check for missing persons cases in cities around Three Wu and Shenzhou, Tushu for a woman in her twenties, about 1.6 meters tall, from about two years ago. The keyword is ' Wutong 9,' which could be a place name or other landmark, such as a sycamore tree or a building related to sycamores. Get back to me as soon as you find it!"
After hanging up the phone, Shi Dazhuang stubbed out his cigarette on the ground and stood silently facing the mountain shadows in the dark night for a long time.
Qingmu knew Shi Dazhuang was in a difficult position, so he offered him a cigarette and said, "Is there a police station in Mangdian?"
Shi Dazhuang took a drag of his cigarette and said, "She's already asked you, a complete stranger, for help; she couldn't have tried other ways to escape. Kuaziba isn't a cage. Although there are only two paths in and out of the dam, it's not that difficult for a grown person to run away..."
Shi Dazhuang didn't finish his sentence, but Qingmu understood what he meant.
A woman who has been trafficked to a remote mountain village, unfamiliar with the area and penniless, will inevitably seek help from the police at the local police station as her first priority upon escaping.
But two years have passed, and she still hasn't escaped. Instead, she has to resort to this method to ask a stranger, Qingmu, for help. What this says is self-evident.
Just then, Shi Dazhuang's phone rang.
Shi Dazhuang answered the phone, listened for a few minutes, grunted in response, and hung up. He then glanced at his WeChat on his phone, handed it to Qingmu, and said, " 9 Wutong Road, Jin'an District, Shenzhou. This is a disappearance case from two years ago. The missing woman's name was Yang Lijuan."
The phone screen displayed a photo of a woman. Although she looked younger and more fashionable, she was still easily recognizable as the fair-skinned woman who had served Qingmu his lunch at noon.
"What should we do?" Qingmu asked.
"What to do? Save them, of course!" Shi Dazhuang straightened his chest, turned around, and walked back. "I'm a policeman!"