Liang Yingzhang?
The gunsmith, the one Hu Jia had intended to seek out, but the Blade Man got to him first, nearly killing him.
If not for this old woman who suddenly appeared, Li Yang would have completely forgotten about him.
"Old Master Liang is well already?" Li Yang was very happy. Old Master Liang had been recovering from his injuries. He had originally wanted to ask him about the Luger, but then one thing after another happened, and everyone forgot about it.
"He woke up several days ago and has been waiting to see you. I called you several times, but none of the calls went through," said Old Madam Liang.
"Oh dear, I'm truly sorry, we changed our phone number." Li Yang was very apologetic. He had given the Liang family the special operations team's number, but now the special operations team had moved back to the municipal police bureau, so the old phone number was naturally invalid.
Hearing this, Old Madam Liang said nothing. "My old man heard about your situation. He vaguely remembers that gun."
"Alright, I'll go see him now," Li Yang thought. While reminding Xie Xi was important, it wasn't urgent at this moment.
According to Zhang Hangjiang's recollection, he had encountered Mou Jixuan and Hu Jia on the street at the time. Hu Jia mistook Zhang Hangjiang for a helper called by Mou Jixuan and directly stated that the gun was a "big belly box."
Now, what Li Yang wanted most to clarify was why Old Master Liang had determined that the gun used by the murderer was a "big belly box." Had Hu Jia obtained the murder weapon at that time, or had Old Master Liang deduced it from other clues?
One had to know that these two situations represented entirely different implications. If Hu Jia had already obtained the murder weapon then, where was the gun now?
And how did Hu Jia get it?
Regarding the first doubt, Liang Yingzhang, lying on his sickbed, gave a definite answer, "He brought the shell casings at that time, he didn't see the gun."
Liang Yingzhang said that although many years had passed, his impression of that day was still very clear. After all, he had been repairing guns for so long, and he had never seen anyone come to inquire about something with just shell casings.
"Do you remember how it happened then?" Li Yang asked.
"It was a very ordinary transaction. I just remember that after the young man heard it was a 'big belly box,' he was stunned for a long time. He muttered to himself, 'It's actually you.'"
"'It's actually you?'" Li Yang was surprised. What did this mean? It meant that Hu Jia had already deduced, or even confirmed, the killer's identity at that time.
"Was that gun really a police-issue gun?" Li Yang asked.
"'Police-issue gun?'" Old Master Liang paused, then shook his head. "I can only tell what kind of gun it is from the shell casings. As for where the gun came from, I don't have the ability to know."
Li Yang paused, feeling self-mockery. What foolish questions had he asked?
Speaking of which, Old Master Liang thought for a moment, "However, it's very possible that it was a police-issue gun, as you said."
Li Yang was confused. "Why do you say that?"
Old Master Liang smiled. "When that young man learned that the bullet came from a 'big belly box,' he was very shocked, and then very angry. He said, 'It seems this must be the issued weapon.'"
Li Yang understood immediately upon hearing this.
Issued weapon?
What did "issued weapon" mean?
Those street gangs wouldn't describe a gun that way. The only possibility was that Hu Jia already knew the owner of the gun, and that owner was from the police force.
For a moment, Li Yang felt a little flustered.
If the murder weapon came from a police officer, it meant that the police system in our city had already been corrupted eleven years ago.
Who was this person then?
Li Yang had a terrifying guess in his heart. Could it be Qiao Huali?
Li Yang was a little afraid. He feared that his guess was correct.
If Qiao Huali had only turned traitor in the last two years, he felt that even if Hu Jia and the others were uncomfortable, they could still accept it somewhat.
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But if Qiao Huali had already betrayed them eleven years ago, it would mean that both Hu Shilong and Li Zhenhui could have died because of Qiao Huali.
Perhaps, he was the one who committed the crime.
After all, the murder weapon was a police-issue gun.
The more he thought about it, the more Li Yang's heart pounded. For the first time, he wished his judgment had been wrong.
...
Hu Jia and the others had already circled this pond several times but hadn't found anything unusual.
"Could it be at the bottom of this pond?" Everything on the shore was normal. The only place not checked was the bottom of the pond.
Hearing Lü Qingqing's words, Hu Jia was a little unsure. "Impossible. My father couldn't swim. If he hid something down there, he wouldn't be able to get back up."
"Ah, Uncle Hu can't swim? I thought your habit of liking to swim into holes was inherited from him?" Zhan Ruoxuan had heard that Hu Jia hid the key in the secret garden, which involved swimming through a waterway and a hole.
Hu Jia's face darkened. "I understand what you're saying, and I understand every word, but why does it sound so strange when put together?"
"But precisely because of that, he might have hidden it underwater. Because even you don't believe it's underwater, others will believe it even less," Guan Jinsong had a different opinion.
"But who was he hiding it for?" Hu Jia's rhetorical question immediately made everyone give up the idea of searching underwater.
That's right, Hu Shilong hid things for Hu Jia and Ouyang Wen to find, didn't he? Why would he hide something in a place they didn't even believe?
"But if it's not in the water, where else could it be?" Lü Qingqing wondered.
"Up there!" Hu Jia raised his head.
Up there?
Everyone looked up. Above was a waterfall, a curtain of silver water, very majestic.
"You mean on the mountaintop?" Lü Qingqing asked.
"No, behind the waterfall," Hu Jia said. There was actually a cave behind the waterfall.
The reason he hadn't thought of this place at first was that the cave was about 20 meters above the ground. He thought his elderly father wouldn't climb that high.
But now he didn't think so. After all, it was the only place not yet checked.
But in reality, the final result still proved Hu Jia wrong. The cave was very damp and empty, with nothing but rubble.
Now everyone was puzzled. Did they misinterpret the riddle, and Hu Shilong wasn't referring to this place?
After searching for a whole day, everyone was exhausted. Coupled with the lack of any good results, everyone was inevitably a bit discouraged.
Hu Jia wanted to say something encouraging, but he thought that anything he said now would be in vain.
The bigger the pie you draw, the higher the expectations. The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment when unsuccessful.
Never mind, let's just be quiet.
"Shui liao leng hua shang ba xi, chang dao zhu zhi leng yan di." Lü Qingqing murmured the line. "Let's analyze it again. There must be something we've missed in these two sentences."
Lü Xinxin said that they had already reached Ba Xi and seen the water plant (Shui liao) and touched the bamboo. However, two things had not yet appeared.
One was the "leng hua" (cold flower), and the other was "leng yan" (cold smoke).
Hu Jia had already explained "leng yan" as the mist rising from the lake in the early morning. But what was "leng hua"?
"Yes, every sentence of Uncle Hu's, every word in it, has a deep meaning. He wouldn't have suddenly come up with 'leng hua' for no reason," Guan Jinsong also said.
Therefore, to find the real place, they still had to solve the riddle of "leng hua."