Chapter 47: Fuqiang Flour Mill

While Liu Hui was looking for Lü Yang everywhere, Lü Yang was actually nearby watching her. He saw her reunite with her family and let out a long sigh of relief. At this point, he had finally completed the entire rescue mission. Although exceeding the mission by safely bringing Liu Hui to Donkey Tail Town didn’t earn him extra Eerie Points, it at least gave him peace of mind.

Lü Yang had originally been waiting outside for Liu Hui, planning to say a few words to her before leaving. But he didn’t expect her family to arrive so quickly. Lü Yang wasn’t sure if the kidnappers were connected to these people, so he didn’t want to meet them, to avoid bringing more trouble into his already complicated life.

After Li Tingting’s convoy left Donkey Tail Town, Lü Yang set off again. This time, he was heading to the Fuqiang Flour Mill in Lutou Town to find the hidden IOU and the mobile phone with the recording, seeking justice for Sister Mei’s murdered husband.

The Eerie Computer had given Lü Yang only one week to find Li Fuqiang and obtain the IOU and the recorded evidence from the mobile phone. Two days had already passed. He needed to hurry, otherwise he wouldn’t get the five Eerie Points for the task and would even lose five more, which would be a huge loss.

He needed to make a plan. Being dragged into Liu Hui’s kidnapping case for no reason, Lü Yang had now lost both his mobile phone and his wallet. At the moment, he was penniless. He estimated that he might be stuck here for about a week. Without money, it was almost impossible to get anywhere.

Should he exchange Eerie Points for money?

Lü Yang found a secluded spot, closed his eyes, and started examining the Eerie Cards again.

Money Card: One Eerie Point exchanges for one thousand Chinese Yuan.

“Using a Money Card, I can exchange one Eerie Point for one thousand Yuan. But can I exchange one thousand Yuan for one Eerie Point?” Lü Yang tried asking the Eerie Computer with his thoughts. If that worked, then saving up one hundred thousand Yuan would allow him to quickly exchange for one hundred Eerie Points to rescue Yi Yi.

“No. However, after exchanging Eerie Points for Yuan, you can buy them back within one week using Yuan, but you must pay an additional twenty percent handling fee,” the Eerie Computer replied to Lü Yang immediately.

“Damn! The handling fee is way too high, isn’t it?” Lü Yang cursed silently. A weekly interest of twenty percent was worse than a loan shark’s rates.

Lü Yang urgently needed money now. He had no choice but to use one Eerie Point to exchange for a Money Card. After using it, a stack of ten hundred-Yuan bills immediately appeared in his hand. At the same time, the Money Card in the Eerie Computer didn’t disappear; instead, a one-week countdown timer appeared on it.

There were also some written instructions, basically saying that within one week, if he held one thousand Yuan plus two hundred Yuan as a handling fee, he could use this Money Card again to buy back that Eerie Point. If the countdown ended without the buyback, the Money Card would disappear on its own.

After getting the money, Lü Yang went to a roadside restaurant and bought a boxed meal to fill his stomach. Then he bought a bus ticket and took the bus to Lutou Town.

…

Donkey Tail Town and Lutou Town weren’t too far apart, with a straight-line distance of only about five or six kilometers. But the mountain roads weren’t easy to travel, and the bus took nearly an hour to get there.

As soon as he arrived in Lutou Town, the voice of the Eerie Computer sounded in Lü Yang’s mind again, informing him that a new Task had been released.

Moreover, it was a Yellow Text Mission.

“Mission Objective: Before Zero Hour tonight, peek at at least five Lutou Town young women taking a bath. Mission Reward: 2 Eerie Points. Failure to complete deducts 2 Eerie Points.”

“Damn! Can the Tasks you release get any more perverted?” Lü Yang cursed loudly. Last time, it made him touch a young woman’s butt in the Women’s Restroom. This time, it wanted him to peep at young women bathing… Would it not stop until it turned the kind, honest, and pure Lü Yang into a pervert?

But cursing was useless, and the Eerie Computer didn’t seem to care about being cursed at all.

Having completed many Supernatural Tasks before, especially the last time when he accidentally completed the Task by touching Xia Yan’s butt, Lü Yang guessed that maybe he didn’t need to actively look for opportunities to complete this kind of Task. He might be able to finish this perverted Task while searching for the IOU and the mobile phone recording.

If not, actively seeking out young women bathing and managing to peep at five Lutou Town young women would be an extremely difficult and dangerous thing to do.

He would take one step at a time.

…

The Fuqiang Flour Mill was considered a ‘big enterprise’ in Lutou Town, or even a ‘star enterprise.’ There were many advertisements for the Fuqiang Flour Mill on the town’s streets. Lü Yang was very familiar with Lutou Town. Even though the town had changed a lot over the years, with streets widened and many new buildings constructed, the layout of the main streets hadn’t changed much. Lü Yang quickly found the location of the Fuqiang Flour Mill.

The flour mill was not what it used to be, and Li Fuqiang was also not what he used to be; he was now a notable figure in Lutou Town. Getting close to him and investigating clearly who he handed the Iron Box to wouldn’t be an easy task.

Lü Yang’s timing was quite lucky today. The Fuqiang Flour Mill was hiring laborers. Disguised as someone simple-minded, slow of speech, but looking strong, Lü Yang was easily hired. After all, his authentic Lutou Town accent was genuine and didn’t raise much suspicion from the hiring staff.

Once inside the flour mill, it became much easier to inquire about Li Fuqiang. To Lü Yang’s surprise, he actually found a photo of the woman from the video on the flour mill’s propaganda wall! She was the woman to whom Li Fuqiang had given the Iron Box.

This woman wasn’t Li Fuqiang’s wife, but the flour mill’s Finance Department deputy manager and accountant, Chen Juan.

Using a pack of cigarettes and asking around, Lü Yang quickly learned that there was no family relation between Li Fuqiang and the female accountant Chen Juan, and there were no rumors of an affair between them. However, Lü Yang was certain that the relationship between the two must be unusual. Possibly, Chen Juan was Li Fuqiang’s long-unexposed secret lover.

After identifying Chen Juan, Lü Yang pretended he wanted to ask her for a favor to get a relative into the Finance Department as a cashier. He asked his workmates about Chen Juan’s situation. After handing out a few packs of cigarettes, he easily gathered the information.

The most important piece of information was that Chen Juan had three siblings in total. She was the youngest. Besides two older sisters, she had an older brother named Chen Yonggui. Based on the workmates’ descriptions of Chen Yonggui’s appearance, Lü Yang could basically conclude that Li Fuqiang’s Iron Box must have been given by Chen Juan to her older brother Chen Yonggui.

As for the Safe, Lü Yang guessed that it was very likely in Chen Yonggui’s house. Having progressed this far, the next step was to find where Chen Yonggui lived and figure out a way to sneak in, find the Safe, and get the IOU and the recorded mobile phone.

Things were surprisingly smooth for Lü Yang. One workmate said he knew Chen Yonggui and even gave out the Chen family’s address. The town’s folkways were relatively simple. People didn’t take these things too seriously or consider them private matters, so they easily told the seemingly simple-minded Lü Yang.

Chen Yonggui’s house was located along the main road extending from Lutou Town’s Second Street. It was a three-story building. The townsfolk mostly lived along the streets. There were many such three-story buildings, one next to another along the street, making them very easy to find.

After pinpointing where Chen Yonggui lived, Lü Yang made his way there. By the time he arrived, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon.