Chapter 222: Chapter 218 Marks Chapter 222: Chapter 218 Marks Zheng Tan looked at the scenery passing by the car window, the car had already left Chuhua City, but he didn’t know where it was going.

An hour ago, Zheng Tan was hurriedly taken out by Ermao, who also made the phone call to Jiao Ma in the car, making up an excuse about taking Zheng Tan out to play, and saying it might take a day or two. This was a conservative estimate. Judging from Ermao’s expression and words at that time, Zheng Tan felt that the matter could very well take even longer.

As they left the city, Zheng Tan heard Ermao briefly explain the situation, simply mentioning that Senior Hetao had disappeared while working on a case, and he had left with Black Gold. The bureau hadn’t yet informed Senior Hetao’s family and hadn’t made it public. Regardless of what had happened, the priority was to find the person first.

Compared to those people, Ermao trusted himself more. Right after leaving the city, he received another message; a friend helping with the investigation had sent over some addresses. These were potential locations of undisclosed transactions made by the company that had declared bankruptcy.

Ermao wasn’t interested in those shady dealings; he was neither a policeman nor Superman. His only concern was finding the person.

The several brothers in their group understood each other’s little habits quite well. Moreover, they had once agreed on a practice: if they felt that a situation was very dangerous, or even potentially life-threatening, they would leave a certain mark in a place.

Each of them had their own unique symbols, and their own habits. Even if others knew what the marks looked like, they might not be able to find them.

Zheng Tan saw Ermao drive the car off the expressway and stop in a rather desolate place. There were a few sparse brick houses around, mostly vegetable fields, and some trees too.

Ermao told Zheng Tan to stay in the car while he got out to check.

After Ermao got out of the car, Zheng Tan, peering from the window, saw Ermao approach a low brick house. He then stood in front of it, made some gestures with his hand, the meaning of which was unclear. His hand was open with the palm facing down, rotating horizontally to the east, then slightly towards the south. Finally, the direction his thumb pointed in was where Ermao ran towards, focusing on a not so tall tree. He glanced at a particular branch and then returned to the car, ready to head to the next place.

Afterward, they went to three more locations consecutively, repeating similar actions. All three times Ermao returned disappointed, indicating that Senior Hetao was not at any of these places.

When they arrived at the fifth location, Zheng Tan still watched from the car as Ermao looked for the marks left by Senior Hetao. There was a small stream nearby, no brick houses, and some distant fields where some people could be seen moving about.

Just as he thought how desolate the place was, Zheng Tan saw Ermao quickly return after checking a tree, different from the previous times; there was something unusual on Ermao’s face, not the disappointed look he had before.

It seemed they were in the right place.

Ermao parked the car, then called for Zheng Tan to follow.

It wouldn’t be convenient to drive in that direction.

“Black Coal, can you smell anything?” Ermao asked Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan sniffed, but he didn’t seem to smell anything specific; instead, many other people’s scents, as well as those of other animals, were overwhelming. Either the scents had dissipated over time or the interference was too strong to discern anything. To search effectively, he would have to sniff a wider area, but Ermao seemed hurried and had a targeted route in mind, not relying much on Zheng Tan, who just sniffed around the spot and followed Ermao’s steps.

Zheng Tan had never thought he’d be used as a tracking dog one day. When it came to technical knowledge, he truly couldn’t compare to those “professionally trained” dogs. Even if you had the sense of smell, but didn’t know how to make the best use of it, it was just as useless.

Ermao wasn’t too disappointed with Zheng Tan’s performance; he was still looking for the marks left by Senior Hetao. Tracking in this way was faster. Bringing the black cat along was just an added precaution.

Although the marks left by Senior Hetao looked simple, they contained a lot of information. Out of curiosity, Zheng Tan had looked at a few and found that the marks resembled the radical for “person” on the side, which was part of Senior Hetao’s surname “He,” the left side of the character.

Moreover, each mark varied; they were not written straight nor simply indicated a direction. Perhaps only Ermao and their group could decode the correct information from them. The complexity was evident by the way Ermao gestured with his palm, much more intricate than Zheng Tan had imagined.

Zheng Tan followed not far behind Ermao. At the moment, he didn’t need to do anything, just to keep up. On the way, Ermao had said that he might not ask for help, so Zheng Tan didn’t feel much pressure. However, he sincerely hoped that He Tao and Black Gold were safe. Although he wasn’t very familiar with them, having met only a few times, due to his relationship with Wei Leng and Ermao, Zheng Tan hoped that Senior Hetao would be all right.

While thinking, Zheng Tan paused mid-step, raised his head to sniff, and looked in a certain direction, which was slightly off from Ermao’s path.

After a moment of thought, Zheng Tan ran in that direction. As he detected a stronger scent, Zheng Tan saw a black bug crawling on the ground beneath his feet. Looking ahead, there were more bugs crawling on the ground; if not for the cover of dead leaves, perhaps even more would be evident.

Ermao, who was following the trail of marks, noticed the situation with Zheng Tan and turned to jog over.

“What’s going on?” Ermao asked.

Zheng Tan ignored him and continued walking until he reached the side of a dried-up “ditch” that looked like it had been used as a water channel. The area was surrounded by trees, mostly deciduous, and someone had swept the fallen leaves into the “ditch,” which is why it seemed thicker than the layer that Zheng Tan had walked over earlier. The place where there were more bugs looked slightly raised compared to the rest of the surroundings.

Now, both Zheng Tan’s and Ermao’s attention wasn’t on the leaves but on the bugs.

“Bugs this active in this weather?” Ermao frowned, sensing some unpleasant smells.

Zheng Tan watched Ermao walk towards the “ditch,” while he stayed at the edge, not wanting to get too close. The insects were similar to the ones he had seen in that villa district, which Black Gold had considered “evidence.” Remembering some of the words he’d heard then, Zheng Tan felt a chill run down his spine, and his heart tightened with tension. What was under those leaves?

Ermao had poked aside the leaves with a stick and saw the object beneath.

It was a nearly skeletonized body, gnawed to the point of almost nothing left. However, what slightly eased Ermao’s anxious heart was that the person was shorter than Senior Hetao.

Zheng Tan glanced over and then looked away; judging by Ermao’s expression, this wasn’t Senior Hetao, which relieved him a bit. But it was just as those people had said, only a skeleton remained. It seemed it was indeed gnawed by those insects.

Forcing himself to shift his focus and stop thinking about the horrifying scene he’d just seen, Zheng Tan walked around the area and then caught the scent of Senior Hetao and Black Gold.

Having been too anxious earlier, he had focused solely on the insects and the smell near the “ditch,” missing the trail of the man and the dog.

Although Ermao was able to find the general path that Senior Hetao had left behind, this area was not on that general path.

Zheng Tan tried to discern the scents and followed them, arriving behind a large tree, where there was also a slope. If the light was poor, someone lying here would not be easily noticed.

It appeared that both Senior Hetao and Black Gold had stayed here, and the smell they left behind was relatively strong due to the longer time. By this deduction, when those people were dealing with the “ditch,” Senior Hetao and Black Gold must have been watching from here. Then, after those people left, Senior Hetao must have continued following them.

After inspecting the area and taking a few photos, Ermao covered the leaves back up and followed Zheng Tan over. Seeing the situation here, he too could guess at what had happened at the time.

“Well done, Black Coal.”

Confirming that Zheng Tan hadn’t found any other clues, Ermao continued to search for those marks.

After searching along the way for a while, Ermao stopped.

The marks ended here, and the last one didn’t tell Ermao where to go next or indicate to stop. Could it be that time was so tight back then, and something sudden happened, that Senior Hetao didn’t have time to leave marks?

Ermao didn’t know. He looked around carefully and found traces of people having been there, as well as several footprints, of at least three different people, and some cigarette butts. These people had smoked here, and then… Ermao’s gaze fell on the narrow cement road about ten meters away, and those people likely drove off from there.

But which way should they go now?

Among the locations listed in the information Ermao had, there was one nearby, but on the other side of the road, and not too far away from that, there was another place.

Should they check both places?

Ermao stood there, thinking for a moment, then was about to ask the cat behind him to try, but when he turned around, he found the cat had gone off in a different direction.

Once Zheng Tan realized that Ermao couldn’t find the marks, he sniffed around and, apart from the scent of strangers, detected a faint whiff of Senior Hetao’s and Black Gold’s scents.

Black Gold’s scent was somewhat more distinct, and while searching for scents, Zheng Tan also made an unexpected discovery, pausing there for a moment.

“Found something?” Ermao asked, taking out his foldable knife and starting to dig at the ground.

Given the near-complete gnawed skeleton they had found earlier, now seeing the cat pause made Ermao think something had happened here. He noticed signs that the soil had been disturbed, although the area was small, it was detectable.

Zheng Tan backed away a few steps, thought for a moment, and then backed away two more steps before crouching down to watch Ermao dig. If Zheng Tan could express himself clearly, he wouldn’t need Ermao to bother digging; he would certainly have tried to stop him, but as it was, Zheng Tan couldn’t speak and didn’t know how to express himself, and even if Zheng Tan tried to stop him now, Ermao would surely have dug anyway.

The soil was not buried tightly, and Ermao could easily lift the topsoil. After quickly digging a few times, Ermao saw what was buried underneath.

A pile of poop.

Ermao: “…”

Could it be that Black Gold did this?! Since when did that dog start picking up cat habits?

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep