I heard that Zhijun had an accident

  Although he didn't spend much time with Wang Zijun, Liu Ziguo was very clear that this brother was definitely worth befriending. Since his family had something going on, as a brother, he should lend a helping hand.

  He took out his mobile phone and dialed Wang Zhijun's number, as with the previous few times, it was still "The user you are calling has powered off, please try again later".

  Liu Ziguang hung up the phone, looking somewhat worried, and asked his colleague: "Aren't you Zhijun's fellow townsman? Do you know his family's phone number?"

  Colleagues shook their heads: "His family has never installed a phone."

  "Do you know his home address?"

  "Although we are in the same county, it's quite far away. The town where Zhijun is located is very remote, I've never been there."

  "Now that you mention it, I'd better go take a look. I seem to recall that we have everyone's ID card photocopies in the company files. I'll go back and search for them. Tomorrow, I'll drive down to the countryside and visit Zhi-jun's home to see what happened."

  Then he asked Ma Chao: "Tomorrow, follow me on a long journey to Nan Tai County, which car do you think is good?"

  Ma Chao said: "Nan Tai County is repairing roads all day, digging everywhere, it's still better to drive a Jieda, it's solid and can handle rough roads."

  "Alright, you drive to the hospital tomorrow morning and pick me up."

  ……

  TV station, news department office, Jiang Xueqing sat on the sofa with a huff, the bald director sat behind the desk with a smile: "Little Jiang, haven't figured it out yet?"

  "I don't get it, the show was done so well, how did it end up failing? What exactly was wrong with it?" Jiang Xueqing shook her head, pouted, and looked angry, which made Director Tu's heart ache.

  "Xiao Jiang, this is what the leader of our department means, you should understand. As journalists, we need to promote the main theme." Director Tu, holding a cup of coffee, walked over with a smile and sat down on the sofa, adjusting his glasses and looking at his subordinate with concern. Jiang Xueqing was leaning forward, her hands supporting her cheeks, wearing low-waisted pants that exposed a large patch of white skin on her lower back, which caught the director's eye and made his heart, which had long lost its passion, start racing like a small deer.

  "Folk heroes are not worth promoting? I think the Taiwan leaders have taken the wrong medicine." Jiang Xueqing, this little girl, once her temper flares up, she doesn't even recognize her own parents.

  "Ah, of course it's worth promoting, but everything has its priorities, you know. The main theme now is to publicize the heroic deeds of the Public Security Bureau, other things can be put aside for the time being. How about this, it's getting late today, I'll treat you to a midnight snack later and we can discuss this issue thoroughly." Director Baldy said with concern, his buttocks shifting a few centimeters closer to Jiang Xueqing.

  "I've lost my appetite, I don't want to eat, I'll leave first." Jiang Xueqing suddenly stood up, turned around and walked away, her small butt wrapped in low-waisted jeans swaying back and forth, exuding a youthful aura that made Director Lao's heart flutter.

  This little girl is a fresh rose with thorns and dew, Director Baldy thought to himself in admiration, while also considering whether to go back to Jin Bi Hui Huang to extinguish the evil fire in his heart.

  ……

  The next morning, Ma Chao drove a white Jetta to the hospital. Liu Ziguang had gone back to the office the night before and retrieved a photocopy of Wang Zhijun's ID card. Together with Zhang Jun, another colleague from Wang Zhijun's hometown, the three set off in their car for Nantai County.

  When Liu Ziguo came out of the hospital gate, he hid under the back seat and didn't dare to lift his head, because the emergency room was near the gate. If Fang Fei saw him sneaking out, it would be bad.

  "Liu Ge, who are you hiding from?" Zhang Jun asked with a puzzled face.

  "Nothing much, I'll just take a rest." Liu Ziguang casually brushed it off.

  Jieda added gasoline and headed south, leaving the city and driving another 40 kilometers. The wide asphalt road finally came to an end, replaced by a dilapidated cement road. Due to the sudden narrowing of the road, traffic congestion occurred here, with several large trucks blocking the intersection, followed by a long string of private cars and small trucks, desperately honking their horns.

  At this time, the superiority of horse riding skills over driving was revealed. With a turn of the steering wheel, the Jieda directly rushed onto the field by the side of the road, drove along the ridge for dozens of meters, aimed at an empty space and returned to the road, then made sharp turns left and right, and broke through this cluster of cars in less than five minutes.

  Not even having time to catch a breath, the front was blocked again. The cement road had been damaged for years, with large cracks and collapses. Now half of it is closed for maintenance, and a large number of vehicles are stuck in front, unable to move an inch for half a day. Fortunately, Ma Chao took a sharp turn onto the lane being repaired, skillfully avoiding various obstacles, and drove to the front to see that the reason for the blockage was not only due to repairs but also because the traffic police had set up a checkpoint specifically to intercept large trucks. In this era of highway transportation, which one doesn't overload? One catches one accurately.

  A traffic police officer who was issuing a ticket looked up and saw the Jetta coming out of the closed area, immediately stretched out his hand pointing at Ma Chao and shouted: "Jetta, pull over!"

  Ma Chao stepped on the accelerator, and the Jetta let out a loud roar as it sped away. The traffic police's Chang'an bread was blocked by a large truck and couldn't get out, so they could only watch as the Jetta escaped, furious but powerless.

  A burst of laughter erupted in the Jetta, and Liu Ziguang patted Ma Chao's head, saying: "You little guy is pretty good, I'll help you sign up for a Dakar Rally or something when I have the chance, it's definitely going to be okay."

  Ma Chao chuckled twice: "I'm just messing around."

  Along the broken and shabby cement road, continue to move forward, now it's not congested, but the road surface is so bad that even a skilled driver like Ma Chao has to slow down, avoiding one big pothole after another. Although there are only 100 kilometers of road, it took two hours to arrive at Nantai County.

  In stark contrast to the broken and messy roads, the county town of Nantai was neat and uniform, with high-rise buildings standing tall. Alongside the six-lane asphalt road were towering palm trees, which left Liu Ziguang somewhat astonished. Jiangbei City belonged to a temperate region, so how could such tall tropical trees grow here? Only upon closer inspection did he understand that these palm trees had concrete trunks and plastic leaves.

  "This is our county's new city, how about it, isn't it beautiful? This is the County Court, this is the County Public Security Bureau, and this is the County Procuratorate." Zhang Jun proudly pointed to the distant tall and majestic buildings, introducing them to Liu Ziguang.

  "My goodness, isn't that the White House of America?" Ma Chao exclaimed, pointing at a large white European-style building by the side of the road.

  "Hey, that's the county committee building, magnificent, isn't it?" Zhang Jun said.

  "Wow, magnificent, awesome." Liu Ziguang and Ma Chao exclaimed in unison.

  The Jetta car drove through the city and continued to head south. Wang Zhi-jun's ID address was Zhuwangzhuang Village, Dahexiang Town, Nantai County. This Dahexiang Town is located in a remote corner of Nantai County, with a relatively backward economy and poorly maintained roads. With the rain from the past two days, the road became muddy and impassable. Fortunately, it was a Jetta that was being driven; if it were a Honda Accord with a lower chassis, it would probably have gotten stuck.

  At around twelve o'clock, the muddy Jetta arrived at Dahexiang. Today was a market day, and the town was bustling with people. Liu Ziguang and others were not in the mood to stroll around, so they asked a tricycle driver on the side of the road for directions to Zhuwangzhuang and drove away.

  Zhu Wang Zhuang is five miles away from the town, and it's a quick drive. This is a typical Central Plains village, with earthen walls outside plastered with various slogans: To get rich, first fix the road; have fewer children and more trees; when drinking water, don't forget those who dug the well; when getting rich, don't forget the Communist Party; one person joins the army, the whole family is glorious; to buy home appliances, come to Zhenfu Rong Commercial Building.

  There is also the dilapidated mud hut, covered with thatch, which has been uninhabited for years, but on its outer wall one can still see the faint outline of a slogan from years ago: "Long live Chairman Mao".

  In the village, green trees shaded the thatched cottages, and yellow cows grazed leisurely on the grass. Dogs of various colors ran in packs, while black pigs strolled about lazily. A peasant woman sat at the gate with a child on her back, and an old man wearing a faded white military uniform sat in the sun, all gazing curiously at this dusty white Jetta sedan.

  Liu Ziguang got off the car and enthusiastically stopped a passing street sweeper, handing him a cigarette and asking: "Uncle, where does Wang Zhijun live?"

  The old man put the cigarette holder on his ear and pointed to a distance: "Nan Tou, that's the one under the big locust tree."

  Liu Ziguang thanked him and was about to get on the bus when a dirty little boy ran over from the side of the road and volunteered, "Are you looking for Principal Wang? I'll take you there."

  Liu Ziguang heard that it was just right, let the child get on the car, and guided Ma Chao to drive towards the south of the village. After a while, a lush big locust tree appeared in sight. Under the shade of the big tree, there were two courtyards, one east and one west. The eastern one was a two-story rural earth building with yellow glazed tiles, concrete walls, and five-colored mosaics. Next to it was a small courtyard made of earth walls, a low bungalow, and a narrow yard, which looked awkward, like a beggar crouching beside a burly man.

  The child pointed at the earthen wall courtyard and said: "This is Principal Wang's home." Then he opened the car door, ran to knock on the door: "Principal Wang, you have a guest coming."

  The gate opened and a woman in her thirties, wearing glasses and dressed simply, looked somewhat similar to Wang Zhi-jun around the eyebrows and eyes. The child saw her and shouted: "Hello, Teacher Wang."

  The woman adjusted her glasses, touched the child's head, and looked at the Jetta with some suspicion. Liu Ziguang got out of the car and said, "Sister, we are Wang Zhijun's colleagues, come to see him."

  "Oh, you're Second Brother's colleague, come on in." The woman hastily invited them into the courtyard.

  Three people got off the car and entered the yard, only to find that Wang Zhijun's family was very poor. The low house was probably decades old, half made of earth and half of bricks. There was also a small pigpen in the yard, but there were no pigs inside, only a few chickens pecking at food.

  An old man with a head of white hair came out from the main room, wearing a crisp Cheongsam, with a pair of reading glasses on his face and a pen in hand, looking like a rural school teacher.

  "Father, this is the colleague of the second child, from the city." The woman introduced.

  "Uncle, hello. We are Zhi-jun's colleagues and friends. He was injured and we haven't seen him yet, so we came to visit him this time. We brought some small things, it's a token of our heart. Uncle, please don't be polite." Liu Zi-guang said, gesturing to Zhang Jun and Ma Chao to put down the gifts: two buckets of Jinlongyu blended oil, a bag of fruit, and two large boxes of ViVi soy milk powder.

  "Ah, rare guests! Old lady, quickly bring out a few chairs. You folks are really something, coming and bringing things." The old man warmly greeted them, inviting Liu Ziguang and the others to sit down.

  Wang Zhijun's mother, a peasant woman in her fifties, carried two stools out of the house and saw that there were guests coming. She had a joyful expression on her face, but Liu Ziguang noticed that the old lady's eyes were red, as if she had just cried.

  The three of them sat down and Wang Zhijun's sister poured tea for them before they started talking.

  "Uncle, where is Zhijun?" Liu Ziguo asked.

  A moment of silence in the courtyard.

  "Big brother, Zhi Jun... was taken away by the local police station." My sister said in a low voice.