Returning to Beijing, Li Cu was in the warehouse, completely unaware that he had entered a vast system. He was only pondering the matter of having the entire expedition team cut up and sent to him. Li Cu carefully sorted this out in his mind: Shen Qiong’s father ran a logistics company, which had been extended from a certain department of his father’s factory and contracted by Shen Qiong’s father. Many of the factory’s operations, which had developed from a downturn to some improvement, relied entirely on Shen Qiong’s father’s logistics company. There was definitely something fishy about this, but that detail was no longer important.
In this situation, if there were any relatively secret projects at his father’s factory, they would likely use a logistics company they trusted. In other words, unlike other external logistics companies, Shen Qiong’s father’s company turned a blind eye to many sensitive matters. This was why the guns and bodies could be delivered to him without difficulty. This was not a good sign.
Shen Qiong’s parents were found in this ice coffin, and their bodies had been dismembered, meaning they transported the remains of their own boss. Damn, who knows if there was a discount? All the dry corpses should not have been excavated from the civilized world, though it couldn’t be completely ruled out; the possibilities were just too numerous.
Li Cu wanted to know from which direction these items had been sent. Since it was Shen Qiong’s father’s company, if he could find his father, perhaps through his father’s connections, he could take a look inside the factory and investigate. His father’s current situation was also quite strange, making him a bit uneasy. Could it be that his father was a key point in all this? If that were the case, it was a fate he did not wish to see. Now that he had his father’s contact list, perhaps things would be easier from here on out.
He found an old subordinate of his father’s in the directory. This person’s surname was Rong and he was now the head of the technical department in the factory. This was one of the few profitable departments in the factory, so he should have some real power. Li Cu quickly dialed the number and explained his thoughts.
Director Rong readily agreed. Li Cu thought to himself that this indicated their cooperation with Shen Qiong’s father’s company was still quite active.
He arrived at the factory around 8 a.m. the next morning, and Uncle Rong had a vehicle sent to take him to Shen Qiong’s father’s company. Surprisingly, the company was still operating as usual. Once inside, he saw several employees who had delivered goods the day before. The company was not large; it was just a very small outlet in Beijing. He had over thirty such outlets in Beijing, but this one was likely the largest distribution center. All items arriving in Beijing should be categorized and redistributed here.
Upon entering the express room, he explained his purpose.
The person on the other side looked at him and said, “Do you know our boss?”
Your boss is currently lying in my freezer, Li Cu thought to himself.
He blew up his relationship with Shen Qiong’s father and then said, “I have a shipment that doesn’t have the recipient’s address; I don’t know who sent these items. Can you help me find out?”
The employees exchanged glances and said, “That’s not possible. Generally, the boss can check that himself; we don’t have the authority.”
He thought about how to extract information, but as a high school student, it was indeed difficult for him to threaten them. After some contemplation, he said, “Actually, I have a pretty good idea in my mind. What you guys are doing isn’t particularly serious. I’m not asking about your specific methods or who your clients are; I just want to know where these things are being sent from. Just give me a direction. If you don’t tell me, I will have to report it to the police, and they will come knocking on your door, which will cause you a lot of trouble.”
The few of them exchanged glances and said, “We’re just workers.”
“I know, so you don’t want to take the blame, right?”
The other side looked at him and said, “I know what you’re referring to. I remember your face. All these things are sent from Inner Mongolia.”
Li Cu asked, “All of them?”
The other party replied, “All of them. Our system is quite complete. Many of these goods cannot be exposed to light and cannot go through security checks, so all our goods are transported directly by truck. These trucks should have left Inner Mongolia three days ago and will arrive in Beijing three days later.”
Li Cu asked, “Why is it so slow?”
The other party said, “We can’t risk taking the highway.”
“If we take the national road all the way from Inner Mongolia to Beijing, won’t there be places to load and unload goods along the way?” Li Cu continued to ask.
The other party shook their head and said, “We all have seals. The seals from Inner Mongolia are intact and have not been opened. If we were to load and unload goods halfway, we wouldn’t be sharing trucks for this type of cargo. The transportation costs for these goods are very high, and we absolutely cannot cut corners; it has to be direct. We can’t save money on this. If even one item is lost, it will definitely cause big trouble.”
Li Cu nodded and asked, “So where is your boss now? Do you know?”
The few of them looked at each other and said, “Isn’t our boss on vacation?”
Li Cu asked, “Where is he traveling?”
The workers shook their heads, “We don’t know that. How can we know everything about our boss? We heard he went to the desert. Apparently, there’s a project over there. Isn’t your dad familiar with our boss? Maybe your dad knows too; this project is from their old factory.”
Li Cu rubbed his chin; things were pretty much as he had suspected. This matter was indeed related to his father’s factory. Shen Qiong’s parents had entered the desert with her—could it be the Danba Jilin?
Li Cu returned to the warehouse and saw Yang Hao and Su Wan sitting outside, both smoking.
Li Cu asked, “Are you guys willing to come back?”
Su Wan and Yang Hao exchanged a glance and said, “Mr. Li, we indeed lacked loyalty yesterday, and we looked down on ourselves. After some consideration, I decided to come over, and coincidentally, Yang Hao came as well, so we waited here for you. You have to understand us; this is our first time experiencing such things. Now, Yang Hao has decided that he will no longer be the leader of our little group; you will take on that role, and we will follow you. Yang Hao said that no matter how good he is at organizing and fighting, when it comes to smuggling arms and dismembering bodies, he cannot compare to you.”
Li Cu said, “Damn it, I didn’t do any of that. I just received these things.”
Su Wan replied, “Whether you did it or not, the fact that you can piece everything together so quickly and neatly is something we can’t even hope to achieve. So, boss, Da Li, we’ll follow you from now on, as long as you don’t dismember us.”
Li Cu kicked him, “Shut up! I don’t want to joke around with you right now. Since you really see me as the boss, does that mean you’ll listen to me?”
Su Wan and Yang Hao nodded, “As long as you don’t touch the bodies, we’ll listen to you.”
Li Cu said, “Alright, I’ll handle the bodies, and you help me carefully examine those boxes and all the little details inside. Check if there’s any hidden information or anything else I might not know.”