Madness of the Heart

Chapter 18 Demon Hunting (18)

“I am the editor in charge of Tomb Heart.” A woman wearing a dark blue hip skirt was called by Liu Zhiqiang, “My name is Guo Xian.”

Ming Shu’s gaze swept across her face and smiled: “Please sit down.”

Liu Zhiqiang was obviously unwilling to deal with the criminal police. With a few bottles of mineral water on the table, he quickly left under the pretext of “I still have work to be busy”.

Guo Xian, Ming Shu, Fang Yuanhang, and Liu Zhiqin were left in the small meeting room with three frosted glass walls.

Guo Xian’s image is different from that of the editor in Mingshu’s imagination. She has curly hair that is quite retro, with big eyes and nose, painted with small smoke, flaming red lips, and a pair of thin about 8 cm. With high heels, the whole person looks exquisite and tall, more like a business elite shuttled in a high-end office building, or a secretary of a business elite.

Maybe I’m often misidentified, and I don’t need to ask questions. Guo Xian said: “We publish books, which is actually a kind of business behavior. I never think that I am a rigid editor. I do books, sell books, and engage in marketing. , I am also a businessman.”

Ming Shu didn’t expect that she would say this suddenly, and simply asked, “Marketing? So Tomb Heart’s books are selling so well. Is it the result of your packaging and hype?”

This was a bit provocative and questioning, but Guo Xian raised his chin happily, “Of course, without me, how could his old hat have the current achievements?”

Ming Shu: “Wait, the heart of the tomb is an old hat?”

Guo Xian suddenly raised his hand and covered his lips for a moment, seeming to be annoyed by his failure to speak just now, “No, I’ll just say it casually.”

Ming Shu sternly said: “In my case, there is no such thing as ‘say it casually’.”

“Oh!” Guo Xian groaned, “It’s nothing too much, writer, many real identities are not very decent, so they must be packaged, right. Tomb Heart’s books are written by himself, but his image It’s too bad. My job is to create a mysterious and fashionable character for him. Suspense, the selling point is mystery, and the true identity of the heart of the tomb must not be exposed to the readers, otherwise his compelling style will be smashed. Drop. I just said that I missed my mouth. You heard it here. Don’t just say it outside.”

Fang Yuanhang couldn’t bear this babbling tone, and rolled his eyes.

Ming Shu said: “We are police, not gossip fans. When we go to Xinyun Publishing House, we just want to know the true information of the heart of the tomb.”

Guo Xian pouted, showing a hesitant look of embarrassment, “Can I ask? What’s wrong with the heart of the tomb?”

Ming Shu asked back: “Why do you think so?”

“You don’t always come to investigate him for no reason?” Guo Xian asked worriedly: “Could it be that you have received any report?”

Fang Yuanhang said: “Report?”

“The content is illegal or something.” Guo Xian bit his lip. “It must have been framed by a colleague. I personally check the books I have handled. There is absolutely no problem with the content!”

Mingshu raised his hand, “Don’t be nervous, you tell me what you know. Whether there is any problem with the heart of the tomb, we will naturally judge.”

Startled by Ming Shu’s sudden change of tone, Guo Xian lowered his head, “He… his name is Hou Cheng.”

Hou Cheng, 55 years old, is from Qingyue Village, Los Angeles. He has a primary school education and farming. He has never been married. His parents have died early. He lives alone and strictly pays taxes. There is only a small farmhouse and a field in his hometown of Qingyue Village.

“Fuck! This is different from what we imagined!” On the way to Qingyue Village in the car, Fang Yuanhang flipped through the information provided by Guo Xian. “A suspenseful writer, is a 55-year-old farmer? He has only read elementary school. ?”

“I’ll talk about it when I see people.” Ming Shu looked at the dazzling sunlight outside the window, inexplicably anxious.

Fang Yuanhang’s question is also his. Lu Kun insisted that the heart of the tomb was a woman, although he did not fully believe it, nor did he imagine that the heart of the tomb was a fifty-year-old man.

In the heart of the tomb, Hou Cheng, a pseudonym and a real name, filled with a huge sense of tearing.

Qingyue Town is quiet and peaceful, and the pace of life is very slow. People keep the old habit of taking a break from sunrise to sunset. In the evening, almost no people can be seen on the ridges and streets, and houses with small gardens, The aroma of the food comes out.

Fang Yuanhang parked his car outside Hou Cheng’s house.

Most people in Qingyue Town have the surname Hou, and the houses they build are similar.

But Hou Cheng’s house is different. It is older and older, the windows are black, and the iron door is covered with a thick layer of ash, and it has no breath of life at all.

“Doesn’t Hou Cheng live here?” Fang Yuanhang scratched his head.

Ming Shu pushed open the iron gate without a padlock and entered the hospital cautiously. A figure flashed behind the tree, and a small noise was stomped on the muddy ground.

“Stop!” Fang Yuanhang rushed over like an arrow from the string, and caught the person. He turned out to be a thief-eyed young man.

“Who are you? Let go of me!” the boy struggled.

“Who are you?” Fang Yuanhang shouted: “Why are you sneaking up here?”

“I come here often!” The young man didn’t know the policeman was the one who grabbed him, so he kicked his legs desperately.

“Often?” Ming Shu asked, “Where is Hou Cheng who lives here?”

“I don’t know! It’s been a long time!” The young man stared at Ming Shu and gradually calmed down. “Are you here to find’Hou Hanzi’?”

Ming Shu asked, “Do you call him’Hanzi’?”

“The whole village calls it that way. I’m so stupid, I don’t even know what to say!” The boy said, “Isn’t it what’snooker’ is?”

Fang Yuanhang turned to Ming Shu, “Master, what do you mean? Is Guo Xian fooling us? I have seen the heart of the tomb. It is very aura and delicate. How could it be written by ‘Hanzi’?”

Ming Shu pressed his eyebrows and took a few steps.

The current situation is not entirely beyond his expectation, but it is a very difficult situation.

Hou Cheng is probably just a cover, and the real heart of the tomb has someone else.

This proves from the side that there is really a problem with the tomb core.

“Come and inquire about Hou Cheng, I also want to know where he has been.” The village head Hou Jianjun held a stained tea mug, and his sight stayed on Fang Yuanhang’s lighter for a long time.

The lighter was a birthday gift from Fang Yuanhang to himself. It was unique in shape and expensive at first glance.

“Tell me what you know.” Ming Shu said.

Hou Jianjun sipped a sip of strong tea, showing his yellow-black teeth when he spoke, “Hou Cheng is the most silly person in our village. He has been bachelor for half his life, and he has no relatives, and he is not worried. Young people always say that he is a silly boy. In fact, he’s not stupid, he just ignores people, doesn’t talk, and makes him unresponsive. We all grow watermelons in our village, and he also grows them, sells melons, settles accounts, etc.

“When did he disappear?” Ming Shu asked again.

“Missing?” For people in backward villages and towns, this kind of statement is too new. Hou Jianjun thought for a while, “He hasn’t gone missing, right? He will occasionally leave for a while, and come back for ten days and a half. He never said where he went. , We don’t bother to ask, we can’t control.”

Ming Shu remembered the dust he saw in the yard. The thickness was obviously not enough for ten and a half months.

“When was the last time you noticed Hou Cheng?”

“It’s been a long time this time, more than a month, early June.”

“Who is the person close to him?” Mingshu asked, “The villager or the outsider?”

Hou Jianjun actually laughed, “He, he has always been alone, except for some of our village cadres who have to care about his life from time to time, no one has ever communicated with him. Oh, yes, children sometimes mess with him. .”

“Then, in the past two years, have many people from outside the village come to the village?” When Ming Shu asked, he knew that he could not get a satisfactory answer.

Sure enough, Hou Jianjun said: “There are often people coming, saying more, but compared with your big cities, there are definitely not many. Boy, your lighter, can you lend me a look?”

Fang Yuanhang was inexplicable.

“Hehe.” Hou Jianjun said: “My son is about the same age as you. He is studying outside and he has some prospects, but he doesn’t go home very much.

I will go to see him in the city a while back and give him a lighter to make him happy. ”

When the group returned to Hou Cheng’s house, Fang Yuanhang said, “There is no surveillance in the village. Where did Hou Cheng go and whoever he met, there is no way to check it now.”

“The doubt lies in this Hou Cheng.” Ming Shu said: “Xinyun Publishing signed a contract with Hou Cheng, and the author’s remuneration was also placed in Hou Cheng’s account. After two years, the total amount of 2.76 million after taxes have been removed has been completed in batches. Take it away, the person withdrawing money is Hou Cheng. From the bright side, the heart of the tomb is Hou Cheng, there is no doubt about it. But if Hou Cheng is really the heart of the tomb, why should he withdraw the money that is well deposited in the bank? This money He didn’t use it for financial investment, nor did he buy real estate. Where did the money go?”

“If there is a person hiding behind Hou Cheng, it would be easy to explain-the money was taken out by Hou Cheng and into this person’s hands.” Liu Zhiqin said: “And this person is the real author.”

Ming Shu looked at Liu Zhiqin, “By the way! We can also check the information on the Internet! Isn’t this your strong point? If this person exists, then TA and Hou Cheng must have a communication link!”

Liu Zhiqin shook his head, “I have just checked the network and there is no abnormality. Maybe this person and Hou Cheng are doing some kind of transaction offline. Didn’t Hou Jianjun say that Hou Cheng sometimes leaves Qingyue Village and his whereabouts are unknown. .”

Ming Shu said: “Assuming Hou Cheng is a guise, then he must have given the money to the real heart of the tomb. If this hypothesis is true, how does the real heart of the tomb know Hou Cheng? When Hou Cheng loses the value of use, the heart of the tomb will not meeting…”

Fang Yuanhang said, “So isn’t Hou Cheng very dangerous now?”

Ming Shu looked back, “Do you also think that the heart of the tomb will kill Hou Cheng?”

“Otherwise how to explain Hou Cheng’s disappearance?” Fang Yuanhang said: “Hou Jianguo said that Hou Cheng occasionally disappeared and returned after ten and a half months. I temporarily believe that he met with the heart of the tomb. But this time for such a long time, he might If you encounter an accident, you may be abandoned by the heart of the tomb.”

Ming Shu walked frequently, and then lit a cigarette, “Wait for me, I’ll call Xiao Ju.”