Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

The next day, Yu Qiutang spent the whole day arranging the following matters.

He also specifically discussed with Mi Wenzhong about the subsequent decoration matters. If he came back late, he would have to rely on Mi Wenzhong to take care of it.

Fortunately, the relationships he had accumulated before came in handy at this time, so he was not too worried. Being away for ten days or half a month would not affect his life at home.

Before going to bed at night, Miyali asked him to have a good rest, but the worry about what would happen next still made him extremely stressed. In the end, Miyali calmed him down and he fell into a deep sleep exhausted.

The next morning, he brought Yu Qiujiang to the town, parked his motorcycle in the shop, and went straight to find Wu Meifen.

Wu Meifen happened to be coming from home, so she asked the prepared people and cars to come over.

It turned out to be a Beijing Jeep.

The car was about 70% new. The driver was a sturdy man in his 40s, with thick eyebrows, big eyes and a red complexion.

"This is Lao Qin, a retired soldier. He was an expert in the army. He has no problem driving. If there is any accident, he can help you."

Wu Meifen introduced the strong man.

The sturdy man nodded indifferently, still quite cool.

Wu Meifen pulled Yu Qiutang aside and took out an envelope and stuffed it into his clothes.

"Take these two thousand yuan with you. You can't carry too much cash when you go out, but you can't have no cash either. Lao Qin is quite skilled and has experience outside. You should listen to him more and don't be reckless.

No matter what happens, you must be cautious and think carefully before making a decision. Don't rush into things without thinking about the consequences. In the end, you may not find the person, but get yourself into trouble."

Yu Qiutang smiled and said, "You don't know me yet, sister. I am always very calm."

"Calm down shit!"

Wu Meifen recalled that Yu Qiutang had been in her shop before and had a fight with some thugs over a disagreement. In fact, it was not that she was unable to handle the situation at that time, but she just started to think about not causing too much trouble here and that it would be best to solve the problem peacefully, so she endured it for a while.

It was also because of those things that made her understand that there was no way to swallow her anger in this place. From then on, she began to lay out her own foundation, and sure enough, she developed well later on.

"Okay, you guys should leave early. It will probably take you half a day to a whole day. I gave you my phone number before. Call me if you have any questions."

Yu Qiutang nodded: "Thank you, sister."

"Thank you, there's no point in saying that."

Wu Meifen patted Yu Qiutang on the shoulder, and went over to tell Lao Qin to take good care of his little brother while he was away. Lao Qin nodded in agreement.

Ten minutes later, the three of them arrived at the provincial road.

Yu Qiujiang sat alone in the back seat, while Yu Qiutang sat in the passenger seat.

After Lao Qin got in the car, he fastened his seat belt, put on his sunglasses, and drove without saying a word.

During the process, Yu Qiutang tried to talk to Lao Qin several times, but he just responded with simple responses and had no intention of expanding the topic.

Yu Qiutang didn't get any information out of him. He found that Lao Qin might really not want to communicate with them, so he didn't force him. He leaned his chair back slightly and closed his eyes to rest.

The provincial roads are very difficult to travel on at this time.

To get out of Rongcheng, one has to go through several mountains, and the winding mountain road makes him dizzy.

I passed several toll booths in a daze, but didn't look carefully where they were. I didn't open my eyes until I felt the car stop. It turned out that we had reached the service area.

"Go to the bathroom."

Lao Qin turned around and said.

"it is good."

Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang both got up and got out of the car, and followed Lao Qin into the service area. The three of them went to the toilet and came out. Yu Qiutang saw various foods being sold on both sides, so he invited Lao Qin to have a simple meal together.

But Lao Qin refused.

"Wait until a certain time to eat. It's easy to fall asleep after eating."

Although Yu Qiutang knew that this was indeed the case and that it was easy to feel sleepy after eating, he did not think it was so exaggerated.

Lao Qin didn't want to eat, and he and Yu Qiujiang felt embarrassed to eat too, so they had to buy some drinks and some fruits to bring to the car.

However, because of his kindness just now, Lao Qin took the initiative to speak after driving again.

"We arrived around 7pm. The Liukou Mine you mentioned is not a regular mine, but there is a Zhongyi City over there, and there is a town called Liukou Town below. Let's go there first and try our luck."

Yu Qiutang nodded gratefully: "Thanks to your extensive knowledge, otherwise we would really be like mice in a bellows, wandering around aimlessly."

"nothing."

Lao Qin looked ahead and said calmly, "I've heard from Xiaofen about your matter. It's not easy to handle and may not be accomplished. You should be mentally prepared."

Yu Qiutang nodded and said, "Of course I understand this principle, but no matter whether it succeeds or not, I have to go and take a look."

"You can take a look, but once you get there, you have to be careful. The situation there is very complicated. Every coal mine has its own background, and often forms an industrial chain and information network.

Many villages are actually just a large coal mine. Every villager there, from the old men and women in their eighties and nineties to the children who are only a few years old and still wearing open-crotch pants, is their information agent.

The village will distribute money to them regularly so that everyone can benefit. Otherwise, why do you think these coal mines cannot be completely rectified despite so many incidents from the higher-ups?

It is because of these guys that the entrances and exits of the coal mines are built very secretly, like a tunnel warfare. Outsiders are not clear about the situation, and even if they come to the scene, they often get nothing.

This is not a big deal. The biggest problem is that some local prominent people may also be the umbrellas of these coal mines. Tipping off information is a small matter. Even if something happens, they will worry about their own interests being damaged and are in cahoots with these coal mines.

In short, we must be careful when we get there. If things go wrong, it will be just like what Xiaofen said, we won’t find the person, but will get ourselves involved.”

Lao Qin's words made Yu Qiutang feel cold in his heart.

It’s not that he didn’t understand the complexity of this, but he had a vague idea in his mind, but when the cold water was poured on him, he couldn’t help but shiver.

Cooler than expected.

Yu Qiutang hesitated for a moment and said, "Brother Qin, we have never seen the world, so we will need your guidance when we go out."

"I will say what I need to say, but you have to listen to me. Even nine bulls can't pull back a ghost who wants to die. Let me be frank with you. If you really don't listen and insist on doing it your own way, and something goes wrong, I will not risk my life to help you."

"Of course you are. You are right."

Yu Qiutang made the guarantee very sincerely.

Yu Qiujiang, who was standing behind, remained silent throughout the whole process and did not say a word.

He was not good at speaking, but he had gotten a little better recently because of the preparations for opening the store. However, he felt that he could not get involved in such a topic in the car. He thought that if something happened, he would definitely take action, but in terms of reason, he should leave it to Qiutang.

Because Lao Qin had been driving in the army and his driving skills were quite solid, he arrived in Zhongyi City before eight o'clock in the evening.

My car was running low on gas, so I asked around and found out there was a gas station near the bus station, so I drove over.

At that time, because cars were not very popular, the number of gas stations was far less than in later generations, and there was no navigation. Sometimes when you were in an unfamiliar place and wanted to find a gas station, you really had to ask around.

Moreover, gas stations are not like those in later generations, which will definitely choose to stay away from core areas to ensure that there will not be too many safety accidents after accidents.

At this time, gas stations will only consider whether they are easy to use and how much traffic there is. In order to better meet the convenience of drivers in refueling, there are quite a lot of gas stations close to bus stations.

The farthest distance will not exceed a few hundred meters.

There is a square to the west of this gas station. Further west is the short-distance bus station in Zhongyi City.

Bus stations in this era were also divided into long-distance and short-distance. Relatively speaking, short-distance business was much better than long-distance business.

The main reason is that people seldom go out at this time, and the travel range is only a few dozen kilometers around, resulting in many long-distance buses only having one trip a day, or even only one trip every few days.

When I arrived at the gas station, I found that there was only one window for gasoline, and the rest were for diesel. After asking the staff, I learned that many of the vehicles refueling here were transport vehicles, mostly diesel, and there were very few vehicles actually refueling with gasoline.

After the three of them finished filling up their tanks, Lao Qin asked about their next plans. Yu Qiutang thought for a moment and said, "Let's find a hotel to stay in first and ask around about the situation in Liukou Town."

Lao Qin also felt the same.

Yu Qiujiang basically doesn't make decisions. As long as Yu Qiutang says something, he will obey and do things according to Yu Qiutang's ideas.

The three of them drove to find a hotel that was a little distance away from the car to stay in.

The hotel was not very luxurious, and it only cost two yuan a day, but meals were not included. After settling in, the three of them prepared to go out for dinner and look around.

I have to say that for three people from the northwest, coming to Shanxi is the right place. The noodles here paired with the local vinegar taste extremely authentic.

In addition, the three of them had not eaten on the road and were extremely hungry. Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang ate three bowls of knife-cut noodles in one go.

But Lao Qin only ate two bowls and was unwilling to eat any more.

If you ask the reason, it’s still the same reason: eating too much will make people dull and they may not be able to perform to their best when encountering things.

According to Lao Qin himself, he has always eaten until he was 70% to 80% full for half of his life. If he has a mission or encounters an important matter, he may even not eat for half a day.

Yu Qiutang could only sigh that people have different physiques.

If he didn't eat for half a day, he wouldn't be too hungry, but his physical strength would still decrease, his spirits would be insufficient, and his mobility would be weakened.

After dinner, Yu Qiutang suggested taking a walk around the bus station.

There are people coming and going there, and there are also vehicles going to various towns, so you may be able to get some information there.

They first found a copy shop and made many copies of the photo. They kept the original photo close to their body. This was the only memory that Liu Shufen's husband left her. Nothing could go wrong, otherwise how could they explain to Liu Shufen when they returned?

When they arrived at the bus station, Lao Qin told Yu Qiutang and the other man in advance not to trust anyone at the station.

He was also given some knowledge about the station's "red, white and black colors".

It is said that there are four types of people active at the bus station.

The so-called red refers to the industry, represented by middle-aged women in their forties or fifties, who hold a sign of accommodation in their hands and keep their eyes fixed on every passenger.

As soon as they find out that someone is from another place, they will immediately approach him to solicit customers, saying that they have very cheap accommodation, which is often more than half the price of hotels outside.

But in fact, these people are basically not staying in serious hotels.

They often trick people into coming over, provide them with mediocre services, or even no services at all, and then directly set them up to take away their money and valuable personal belongings, and then kick them out.

Being unfamiliar with the place, outsiders have no choice but to endure this kind of thing when they encounter it.

This is called "red".

The only thing is the flour business. This kind of thing is rare in many cities and is mainly concentrated in a few provinces and cities where people are stupid and have a lot of money. It is also very popular in places like Zhongyi where coal is as valuable as gold.

As for "black", it does not refer to Heisehui, but coal mines.

In this era, there are a lot of people coming from all over the country to work in coal mining every day, so the station has recruiters from various formal and informal coal mines.

These people undoubtedly talked nonsense, saying that by working hard in the mine for two or three years, they could not only save enough for the bride price to marry a wife, but also earn enough money to build a new yard.

Although the wages for coal mining here are indeed very high, because the workers are outside for a long time and feel lonely and empty, they often use the money to enjoy various services or gamble.

Everything else is fine, but once you get addicted to gambling, you will basically be stuck in the quagmire with no chance of turning things around.

There will be people in the mine who specifically trick the workers into gambling. If they lose, they will be given a high stakes. Before they know it, the workers will owe a lot of money, and eventually become complete slaves at the bottom of the mine, relying on mining coal to make money to pay off their debts. The interest on the money keeps growing, and it will be impossible for them to pay it back forever.

Of course, this situation is also due to the workers' lack of self-discipline.

If workers remain unmoved no matter how others tempt them, they can still make money and take it home.

This is a relatively formal mine.

As for some coal mines, it is even worse. They often have some illegal nature. Once people enter the mines, their freedom is basically restricted. They are locked up and forced to work like animals. If they don't work hard, they will not be given food or they will be beaten.

This is the worst situation.

But this situation is not uncommon.

It is said that in this era, many outsiders who came here were taken directly in, losing their freedom from then on, and some even died before they could leave the coal mine.

As for the last kind of color, it’s better not to explain it. Those who understand will understand.

As soon as Yu Qiutang and his two companions approached the station, the touts who were hiding somewhere came over one after another.

Men are more reserved and basically come over and ask questions, but women are not subtle at all and just come up and pull the arm.

Among the three, Lao Qin looked difficult to deal with at first glance, with his burly figure and sunglasses. Yu Qiujiang had a dark face the whole time, as if he didn't want anyone to approach him.

In comparison, Yu Qiutang looks much more pleasing to the eye.

So he is the main target of these people.

Yu Qiutang thought that the other two people looked like strangers were not allowed to enter, and had a stern face, but he couldn't find any clues. He had to endure the psychological discomfort and pretend to be nice to these people to collect the information he wanted. (End of this chapter)