Chapter 82: Replication Experiment 6
Under the hypnosis of the super-romantic artistic film, Zhuang Ningyu successfully slept in a 6+6 pattern. At six in the morning, he woke up from a dream of a dry mouth and throat, reaching for the bottled water on the bedside table. The arm that was originally just resting on his waist suddenly tightened, pulling him back to the middle of the bed. Yi Ke wasn’t awake; he was just habitually trying to keep him confined by his side. The airtight heat, the sweat-dampened pajamas, and the obvious presence of the other’s large, inappropriate object all made Zhuang Ningyu feel a “fish on a chopping block” anxiety. So, he propped himself up with both hands on the bed and, like pulling a radish, pulled himself out of Yi Ke’s embrace.
The metal cap scraped against the glass, making a faint sound. Yi Ke propped himself up, looking at him with sleepy eyes, his voice hoarse, “Let me have a sip too.”
Zhuang Ningyu handed him the remaining half bottle of water and sat on the edge of the bed, about to put on his slippers, but was pulled back. Yi Ke gulped down the water, casually placed the empty bottle on the bedside table, and pressed down on him again. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his firm chest was pressed tightly against Zhuang Ningyu’s back. He then used his knees to push his legs apart.
“…”
Hot breath fell on the side of his ear. Zhuang Ningyu closed his eyes and accepted this haphazard nuzzling. When the other couldn’t seem to finish and was whining in discomfort, he even turned his head and gave him a light kiss on the lips.
This move was surprisingly effective. Yi Ke’s arms tightened, his fringe slightly damp with sweat. After a good while, he rested his forehead against his and asked coquettishly, “Want me to help you?”
Zhuang Ningyu waved his hands repeatedly, indicating that it was quite unnecessary. He was too old for this kind of thing, unlike you young people… Before he could finish, he had to tilt his chin up, forced to endure a new round of almost predatory kisses. Yi Ke’s usually gentle hands were like instruments of torture at this moment, but his eyes were so tender they could drip water. His arms firmly encircled the person in his embrace, coaxing him to relax bit by bit.
The sky outside the window was still not fully bright. Zhuang Ningyu lay curled up on his side on the bed. Yi Ke hugged him from behind, his palms kneading him through his pajamas, and then kissed his reddened ears, talking nonsense without a filter, “Give me a baby.”
Zhuang Ningyu casually agreed, “Okay, now?”
“No, no, not now!” Yi Ke was clear-headed about this. “If you give birth now, wouldn’t I be cuckolded!”
Zhuang Ningyu was so angry he laughed. He slapped him away and got out of bed to wash up. His slightly long pajamas swayed as he walked, his two legs straight and fair, the skin at the edge of his underwear still tinged with red. Yi Ke decisively rushed into the bathroom. “Wifey, I’ll wash with you!”
“Get lost!”
…
The Evolver Medical Examination Center adopted Yi Ke’s suggestion and changed the sensitive questions to an online questionnaire with computer analysis. In the afternoon, Zhuang Ningyu was making tea at his desk, while Yi Ke kept offering his opinions from the side. “Why are there only two options for sex life?”
“How many more do you want?”
“Three,” Yi Ke wasn’t greedy. “Yes, no, and a little bit.”
Zhuang Ningyu suppressed a laugh and patted his shoulder. “Stop messing around. Hurry up and finish. We have to go to the investigation team later.”
Yi Ke turned his head and kissed his hand, then quickly filled out the questionnaire. “Let’s go.”
U-Shield had already been picked up from the research group and was now frolicking on the lawn with the borrowed beagle, their “werwer” sounds echoing through the sky. Xiao Zhang felt like he was about to have a heart attack. Five minutes later, his phone chimed with a “ding.” It was a message from the pork stall owner.
“Is this the one in the photo?” Xiao Zhang called him. “It’s over here at Lǜdá Park.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” the pork stall owner said repeatedly. “I’ve already contacted the dog owner. He said it’s the dog. Brother, you have to tie it up well. I’m a man of my word; I’ll definitely give you half the reward.”
“I can’t tie it up. This dog is crazy, and it’s so strong. I don’t know if it has rabies. I’m afraid it’ll bite me,” Xiao Zhang said. “You should tell the dog owner to hurry up.”
“He must hurry,” the pork stall owner said. “Not just him, I’m also on my way. Let your dog play with it for a little longer.”
Based on the dog owner’s recent call records, the investigation team quickly retrieved the dog-seeker’s phone number. As expected, it was still a virtual number. A team member tutted, “He’s careful enough. But while the number can be virtual, the person has to show up eventually. I don’t believe he can send a string of code to make the pickup.”
Forty minutes later, a small van stopped in the parking lot of Lǜdá Park. Xiao Zhang looked at the pork stall owner getting out of the car and asked him, “Why are you alone? Where’s the dog owner?”
“What do you care about the dog owner for? As long as the money is in place,” the pork stall owner said. After checking U-Shield again and confirming that it was indeed the dog from the reward notice, he readily transferred four thousand yuan to Xiao Zhang’s digital wallet. “Alright, I didn’t lie to you, did I?”
“It’s really worth four thousand,” Xiao Zhang said, showing the joy of an unexpected windfall. He then said cheerfully, “How about this, brother? Are you going to deliver the dog to the owner now? I’ll help you. Otherwise, this big dog will be hard to handle alone.”
The pork stall owner was initially reluctant, but seeing the two dogs playing wildly, he figured he wouldn’t be able to handle it alone, so he nodded in agreement. Xiao Zhang first pretended to chase the dogs with him for a few laps, then successfully led U-Shield and the other beagle into the owner’s small van.
“Team Leader, half an hour ago, someone did indeed transfer twelve thousand yuan to the pork stall owner’s digital wallet,” an investigator urgently retrieved the data in the background. “The sender’s name is Yin Xiaoya, female, twenty years old, a student at Jincheng University.”
The police were immediately dispatched. With almost no effort, they found Yin Xiaoya downstairs from the female dormitory. She had just bought snacks from the supermarket and looked very surprised when faced with the female police officer. “Wh… what’s wrong?”
“An hour ago, why did you transfer money to this account?” the female officer asked, taking her into the car for questioning.
Yin Xiaoya had never seen such a scene before and was about to cry. After a long time, she stammered, “Because… because, I had just gone to the school gate to buy food when a car suddenly stopped in front of me. The man in the car said his phone was out of battery and asked if I could help him transfer some money to his friend, and that there would be a reward. I didn’t believe him at first; I’ve seen this kind of scam many times. But he said he wasn’t a scammer and could give me the money first. Then he handed me a plastic bag.”
The man told Yin Xiaoya that there was a total of thirteen thousand yuan in the plastic bag. She only needed to transfer twelve thousand, and the remaining one thousand would be her reward. The bank was right across the street. Yin Xiaoya was skeptical but followed the man’s instructions, taking the money to an ATM to try and deposit it into her card. It turned out to be a successful deposit; it wasn’t counterfeit money.
Yin Xiaoya sobbed, “So I agreed to transfer it for him. I thought a one-thousand-yuan reward wasn’t that outrageous. Maybe he really was in a hurry. I’m sorry, boo-hoo-hoo, I know I was wrong.”
The female officer sighed and handed her a tissue. “Don’t cry for now.”
While listening to their conversation, the investigator had already applied for permission and retrieved the surveillance footage from the self-service bank across from Jincheng University. The footage showed that Yin Xiaoya was indeed telling the truth. Over an hour ago, someone had handed her a bag of money from a car window.
“It’s a car with a fake license plate,” the investigator said. “The traffic police have been notified. They’re trying to track the movements of this black car.”
Zhong Pinghe looked at another small dot on the screen—the real-time location of the pork stall owner’s van. The owner was in a good mood at the moment, even the “werwer” sounds filling the car seemed pleasant to his ears, like heavenly music. He marveled at his recent good fortune. His business was booming, and now, because of this dog, he could earn another few thousand. Speaking of which, this dog owner was really generous. He only needed to make one more trip to deliver the dog, and the reward would increase from eight thousand to twelve thousand. Four thousand yuan—forget delivering it to He Miao Village, it was enough for a round trip to the capital!
He turned on the stereo and started singing along to the “thump-thump-thump” beat.
U-Shield: “Wer!”
U-Shield’s friend: “Werwer!”
Xiao Zhang clamped a hand over each dog’s mouth, forcibly silencing the environment. “Boss, where are we taking this dog? Why do I see you keep driving towards the ring road?”
“We are going to the ring road expressway,” the owner said. “He Miao Village, have you been there? It’s still a bit far from here, a two-hour round trip. You’re not in a hurry, are you?”
He Miao Village? In the other car, Zhuang Ningyu frowned slightly. He had been to this village before. It was very desolate, with less than a hundred households in total.
“Could it be for the convenience of the handover? They’re afraid of exposing their tracks in the city,” Yi Ke said while driving, following the small van from a distance.
Zhuang Ningyu opened the satellite map of He Miao Village on his tablet. Just as he remembered, it was a village located in a desolate mountain area, with a small processing plant mainly producing funerary products. Normal tourists found it unlucky, so even the tourism industry couldn’t develop there.
“From here to He Miao Village, you have to cross more than half of Shiliu Mountain,” Zhuang Ningyu slid the map. “Logically speaking, if he wanted to be discreet, it would be more convenient to trade in the mountains. Why specifically choose such a desolate village?”
“Because the other party has no intention of trading at all,” Zhong Pinghe’s voice came through the earpiece.
Several drones flew over the city. After confirming that no other car was currently following the pork stall owner’s small van, Zhong Pinghe ordered, “Make him stop!”
Xiao Zhang: “Stop the car!”
The owner was still bobbing his head to the music. “Huh? What, stop the car?”
“You’re in danger,” Xiao Zhang repeated. “Stop the car!”
The owner looked at the Order Maintenance Department investigator’s ID card held before his eyes, realized something, and slammed on the brakes!
The two dogs were thrown under the seats, their faces squeezed out of shape, and their yelps grew even more tragic! Amidst the howling, the owner asked, still shaken, “Wh-wh-what danger am I in?”
“Get out of the car,” Zhuang Ningyu said, pulling open the door.
The sunlight shone on him, golden and dazzling, making it hard to open one’s eyes.
