Chapter 8: Suspicion

Chapter 8: Suspicion

Lan Mu finished his IV drip just before noon. He got out of bed and searched for a long time but could not find his charger.

His personal items were in the bedside table. After living in the deep mountains for seven days straight, he had no idea where his charger had gone.

With no other choice, he ran to the nurse’s station to borrow a charging cable and urgently charged his phone.

Then, while thinking, he went to the cafeteria to eat.

After eating and drinking his fill, he went to the toilet and was still thinking: why exactly was he blocked? Even if he really was fired, Editor-in-Chief Liang didn’t need to do that!

Although his relationship with Editor-in-Chief Liang was usually just average, blocking him directly was clearly meant to cut off all ties.

“I can’t figure it out! I’ll ask Cheng Ming later what happened at the newspaper.”

Walking out of the toilet was the corridor outside his ward. He saw several burly men enter his ward. Just from their appearance, he could tell they were up to no good, and he was immediately startled.

“I don’t know anyone in Fuzhou at all. Besides the police and reporters looking for me, who else could it be?”

Lan Mu thought of a bad possibility and wanted to check the time, but realized he didn’t have his phone.

But now it was probably around one o’clock. About two or three hours had passed since Qin Yu left.

People suddenly looking for him at this time, if not the police or reporters, could only be that group…

“For crying out loud, now I understand why the anonymous letter was sent to Metropolis. It seems the person who sent it also knew sending it locally would be useless.”

“That group of Poachers were let in by the ranger himself. They likely have a network in Fuzhou—either connections in the media or the police, or maybe both! That’s why the anonymous letter was sent to Metropolis. This also explains why the poaching situation, unknown locally in Fuzhou, was something I found out about in Metropolis instead.”

Lan Mu took a deep breath, quickly turned, and left, going downstairs and out of the inpatient building.

He dared not return to his ward. Who knew what that group wanted with him.

First, he left the hospital, found a small shop, first located a Fuzhou City News newspaper, then used the number on the paper to call Qin Yu’s newspaper from the shop’s phone.

He first claimed, in the name of being Qin Yu’s classmate, that he had a news tip. After being transferred a few times, Qin Yu was finally on the line.

“Hello, are you Mr. Lan?”

“This is Lan Mu. Are you alone?”

“Uh… no, everyone is busy.”

Lan Mu said immediately, “Come to me alone right now. I want to properly thank you.”

Qin Yu was taken aback and said, “Uh, that’s not necessary, it was just a small favor…”

“You must come!” Lan Mu’s tone was firm, as this concerned his life.

Qin Yu was confused by Lan Mu’s firmness and could only say, “Alright, I’ll be right there.”

“Do you know where I am?”

“Huh? Aren’t you at the hospital?”

Hearing this, Lan Mu was basically sure Qin Yu herself was not a problem. Come to think of it, otherwise she wouldn’t have needed to save him back then.

Moreover, Lan Mu’s feeling told him that Qin Yu was a very simple person and couldn’t be connected to the Poachers.

“When you submitted the material, who else knew? In other words, who else at your newspaper knows I’m at this hospital?”

“Editor Yu knows, the Editor-in-Chief definitely knows too… and two of my colleagues also know. What’s going on?” Qin Yu had no idea what was happening.

“I’m at the small shop across from the hospital. Tell these people my location, no need to say more, and come over immediately! I’ll give you a big news story!”

After saying that, Lan Mu hung up. However, he couldn’t leave the small shop because he had no money on him.

The shop owner looked at him suspiciously, as he was wearing patient gowns.

Lan Mu smiled apologetically and said, “My friend is coming right away to pay. Sorry about that.”

After speaking, Lan Mu squatted down in the small shop, staring intently at the hospital.

After about ten minutes, the group of burly men who had entered his ward earlier walked out of the hospital.

Lan Mu stared at them closely, his right hand clenched into a fist, very tense.

But then he relaxed, because that group didn’t even glance this way and directly got into a black Toyota.

“Whew…” Lan Mu let out a sigh of relief. He could basically rule out a problem with the newspaper.

But because of this, he became even more afraid to call the police. Originally, if he contacted the police directly and said a suspicious group of people were looking for him, the police would definitely protect him as an important witness.

But who knew if there were problems within the police?

After that Toyota left, Qin Yu finally arrived, a bit late.

Originally, Lan Mu wanted to follow that group, but now it was definitely impossible, so he simply gave up.

First, he asked Qin Yu to pay for him, then the two returned to the hospital, cautiously approaching the ward.

“What on earth is going on? What big news?” Qin Yu followed Lan Mu in a daze, still not knowing the situation.

Lan Mu shushed her, first peeked into the ward, and after seeing no one else was there, walked in.

He hurriedly grabbed his phone and took his clothes, even though his shirt and pants were already tattered and torn.

He wanted to be discharged. No matter how he thought about it, the hospital felt completely unsafe.

Previously, in the hands of the Poachers, he had really narrowly escaped death. The threat of death had shocked him too much, so in this unfamiliar place, he felt far too insecure.

“Sigh, nowhere is safe. Thinking about it now, back in the deep mountains was the most carefree and comfortable.”

Lan Mu somewhat missed the time when he was the White-maned Lion. Just as he was about to leave the ward, he suddenly heard his only roommate hiding under the covers and crying.

The crying was very soft, but he still heard it.

“Huh?”

Lan Mu suddenly thought of another possibility. Stiffly, he walked to the hospital bed and asked, “Why are you crying?”

The person stopped crying but didn’t speak. He just peeked his head out, timidly looking at Lan Mu. For a man, he looked extremely pathetic.

Lan Mu asked again, “That group just now… weren’t they here for you, were they?”

The person wiped his tears and slowly nodded.

“Darn it!” Lan Mu’s mouth twitched, and he slapped his own forehead.

He was speechless, knowing he had made a huge Wu Long (mistake). Luckily, he hadn’t actually gone to follow that group.

At this point, Qin Yu was still confused and pressed, “Mr. Lan, what exactly is the big news?”

Lan Mu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and said, “I… this… the big news…”

He rolled his eyes, then immediately pointed at the roommate and said, “Ask him! Just now, a group of fierce-looking people came looking for him. Maybe he’s being threatened!”

Both of them looked over. The man was startled, his eyes seeming to say, how did you know?

Lan Mu curled his lip, thinking to himself, just as I thought. So he said, “Reporter Qin, he probably has gotten into some trouble, being threatened by some underworld force or something. This is a firsthand interview for you… Well, I’ll call the police first.”

The man anxiously sat up and shouted, “Don’t call the police!”

“I’m calling the police for myself, it has nothing to do with you.” After saying that, Lan Mu walked straight out of the ward.

Officer Xiong had left his number with him. It was answered shortly.

Lan Mu went straight to the point, saying directly that he felt the hospital was unsafe and hoped to be discharged immediately. He also told Officer Xiong about the anonymous letter.

Officer Xiong thought it over and agreed, but it had to be arranged by the police. After all, Lan Mu was an important witness and couldn’t just disappear or go missing.

Lan Mu casually asked about the case’s progress. From Officer Xiong, he learned that the ranger Xiao Tang had been detained immediately. Following the leads, they had caught four Poachers. Unfortunately, they seemed to have been prepared; besides cages, the truck had nothing. These four men appeared to be just ordinary truck drivers, but they strongly matched the descriptions.

Hearing the case had made significant progress, Lan Mu felt relieved. He’d leave this to the police; he didn’t need to worry about it anymore.

After hanging up, Lan Mu leaned against the doorway of the ward. Now he just needed to wait for the police to pick him up.

He was seen making a call to his colleague Cheng Ming on his phone, while listening inside the ward to Qin Yu persistently questioning the man.

However, Cheng Ming’s phone call was never answered. Lan Mu felt troubled and decided to temporarily set aside matters regarding the Metropolis. He would deal with the problems here first.

Returning to the ward, he assisted Qin Yu in interviewing the man. With his help, they quickly extracted all the details.

It turned out the man had offended someone, who hired local thugs to beat him up. Not only that, but they also threatened him for fifty thousand yuan and warned him not to report it to the police.

The man was utterly cowardly. He was scared from the beating and truly dared not go to the police.

“Qin Yu, once you expose this matter and use public opinion to pressure the police, it will be easily resolved. Your name is Li Zhou, right? Don’t be afraid. The more you fear such things, the more troublesome they become. They’re only demanding fifty thousand; it’s not a big deal. You don’t need to pay a single cent. They should even compensate you for your medical expenses.”

Lan Mu had seen many cases like this. Often, the victims feared the other party and ended up paying to settle things. In the past, in the Metropolis, he had used public opinion many times to help victims. As soon as the police got involved and took it a little seriously, it was resolved—these were never major cases.

After handling this matter, he used it as an explanation for why he had been in such a hurry to call Qin Yu over. Still, Lan Mu felt he had been somewhat of a bother to Qin Yu. After all, she was his lifesaver. If he weren’t penniless right now, he really would have liked to thank her properly.

Lan Mu asked for Qin Yu’s phone number and made a promise to treat her to a meal once the poacher case was resolved.

As a gesture of apology, Lan Mu accompanied Qin Yu all the way to the ground floor of the inpatient building.

Qin Yu didn’t mind at all. “No need to see me off. I told you it was just a small favor. I only took you to the hospital, and I actually learned a lot from following you! Please, no need to be so polite!”

Lan Mu smiled, thinking Qin Yu was a good person—pretty and kind-hearted. But a life-saving favor was still a life-saving favor. Lan Mu never liked owing favors to others. He felt that treating her to a meal was far from enough. He would repay this kindness gradually in the future.

After sending Qin Yu off, Lan Mu simply sat down to rest in the hospital’s small garden. All the earlier commotion had just been him tormenting himself.

“I was being too paranoid. Right now, those poachers are probably still struggling to figure out how to escape Fuzhou. How could they possibly track me down to the hospital? I must have been out of my mind.”

Lan Mu smiled self-mockingly, feeling his professional instincts were a bit too strong, leading him to overanalyze. He wasn’t a police officer or a detective, so why bother being so suspicious?

He wasn’t an expert in such matters and didn’t need to get involved. He could just leave it to the police; all he needed to do was provide testimony later on.

Shortly after, the police arrived. An officer stepped out of the police car and had just entered the hospital when Lan Mu spotted him.

“Over here!” Lan Mu called out and walked toward him.

The officer was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. As soon as he saw Lan Mu, he said, “Brother Xiong sent me. Let’s go. The station has a medical room where you can rest and recover.”

“I see…” Lan Mu checked the officer’s credentials. He was indeed a policeman, named Wang Jinghu.

“Officer Wang, don’t we need to complete some discharge procedures or something?”

Wang Jinghu replied, “No need for that much trouble. We’ll handle everything. You’re an important witness, so just come back to the station with me as soon as possible.”

Lan Mu nodded. He didn’t have any luggage to take, so wearing his hospital gown, he directly got into the police car.

As the police car drove away from the hospital, Lan Mu sat in the passenger seat. Out of habit, he probed, “How’s the case going? Have you caught anyone yet?”

“We just arrested a few. They basically match the sketches. We’re waiting for you to identify them in person now!”

Following up, Lan Mu asked several more questions, but unfortunately, Wang Jinghu remained tight-lipped and showed little interest in responding.

Lan Mu smiled without caring, thinking to himself that the police in Fuzhou were quite good at keeping secrets.

The police car drove for half an hour. Lan Mu stayed quiet most of the time, but when he noticed the car leaving the city and heading into the suburbs, he finally sensed something was wrong.

He wasn’t a local, so naturally he didn’t know the roads of Fuzhou, but he could still tell when they were driving out of the city center.

“Officer Wang… is the Fuzhou Municipal Police Bureau in the suburbs?” Lan Mu cautiously asked.

Wang Jinghu’s expression didn’t change as he casually replied, “Of course not. We’re temporarily holding a few suspects at the Zaolin District Branch. Didn’t I say we’re taking you for identification?”

“Oh…”

Lan Mu didn’t ask any more questions. Wang Jinghu’s words were consistent and didn’t contradict themselves.

He thought he should stop being so paranoid. He had seen police credentials countless times, and Wang Jinghu’s credentials were absolutely genuine; they couldn’t be faked.

So, Lan Mu held back from further comments and sat quietly in the vehicle.

However, just a few minutes later, Lan Mu regretted his decision.

Because the police car drove into a gated villa community…

Lan Mu hurriedly tried to open the door, only to find it locked. He turned to Wang Jinghu and said, “You…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Wang Jinghu honked the horn three times. The iron gate of a villa’s courtyard swung open, and the police car drove straight in.

Watching the iron gate slam shut with a heavy thud, Lan Mu forced himself to stay calm, but his heart sank completely.

Several strong-looking men who had been waiting for a while now stepped directly up to the car doors. Lan Mu had no way to escape.

Lan Mu was taken out of the car and surrounded by the men.

“Is this the branch you mentioned?” Lan Mu sneered, clenching his teeth. He never imagined that even the police couldn’t be trusted.

Wang Jinghu completely ignored him. With a stern face, he said to one of the men, “I’m heading out. I won’t bother seeing Boss Zhao.”

“Hurry back! Tweak the dashcam footage and traffic surveillance a bit; don’t leave any suspicions,” the man said before opening the iron gate.

“I don’t need you to tell me!” Wang Jinghu drove off in the police car and quickly disappeared.