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Meng Zhuang looked at the booklet in my hand and reached out to snatch it away. I quickly pulled my hand back and said, "What, do you still want to take it by force?" This made Meng Zhuang a bit anxious. "I'm really not lying to you! I'm just following the company's orders. Isn't that booklet in your hand the employee manual?"
"Employee manual? I didn't know about that. The company I work for with Liu Zhong doesn't go by that name." As I thought about it, I felt that this matter was becoming increasingly suspicious. Throughout our conversation, Meng Zhuang had shown no signs of trying to set me up; instead, he gave off the impression of a straightforward person.
"Could it be that even he is being used by someone? Have I misunderstood him?" At this point, even my own heart began to waver. I coughed a couple of times and pressed on, "Since you don't know anything about this whole situation and are just following orders, then tell me who gave you those orders?"
As soon as I finished speaking, the name 'Liu Zhong' popped into my mind, but Meng Zhuang replied, "The one who told me to do this was Wu Bin from the company, Manager Wu. I swear this isn't something I did! Shen, you have to believe me!" From his words, I could sense his anxiety, unease, and fear—completely unlike someone who would exhibit such cunning.
Even so, I couldn't bring myself to trust him completely. I continued to tuck the so-called employee manual into my pocket and pondered for a moment before asking him, "So what do you plan to do now?" By this time, Meng Zhuang was already pacing anxiously in place. "What else can I do? If there's no other way out, I'll just have to turn myself in..."
Hearing him say this, I quickly interrupted, "No way! You can't turn yourself in right now. Maybe someone wants you to do just that, which is why they set up this whole scheme. If you really didn't do anything wrong, what good will turning yourself in do? Did you kill those three people? Where did it happen? How did it happen? Why did it happen? Can you explain all that?"
Meng Zhuang was already overwhelmed as it was; my questioning only made him more frantic like an ant on a hot pan. Watching him flounder helplessly made me smile and further convinced me that he couldn't possibly be the one who had plotted against me.
"How about this? Let's find a place to eat first, then get some sleep. We'll go report to the police first thing in the morning. For now, try to tell me everything you know so we can make better judgments." With that, we casually found a nearby restaurant.
After ordering our food and sitting down at the table, Meng Zhuang said to me, "Here's how it went: I've only been at the company for a little over half a month when the manager called me into his office and asked me to deliver some goods. If I did well, I'd get promoted right away—he was being all mysterious about it. When I asked him where to deliver them, he wouldn't tell me..."
I nodded thoughtfully as he spoke and gestured for him to continue. Meng Zhuang lit a cigarette and continued, "Then just before I was supposed to leave, he told me that you liked ghost stories and suggested that I share some with you on the way. He said if you enjoyed them, you might even promote me. At the time, I didn't think much of it; even though I'm scared of ghost stories myself, this was for a promotion after all, so I chatted with you about ghost stories all the way."
As he reached this point in his story, I quickly raised my hand to interrupt him. In my mind, I tried to connect all the clues together. "If all of this was orchestrated by that so-called manager, then what exactly is his motive? Is it for that box of gold? But why would three corpses suddenly appear? If it was just for the gold, wouldn't leaving those three bodies behind only complicate things?"
Suddenly struck with inspiration, I hurriedly asked Meng Zhuang, "Do you remember that night in Changde?!" Meng Zhuang thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, what about it?" I pressed on, "That's good! That night I heard you talking on the phone about money matters with someone; it seemed like you were having a conversation with someone before you went out through the door. If you want to clear your name of suspicion, you must tell me everything honestly—what exactly happened?"
Meng Zhuang scratched his head, seemingly trying hard to recall, "Uh... that night I received a call from Manager Wu. He told me he would arrange for someone to be on the road where we had the accident, and then I was to pretend to encounter a ghost. After crashing the car, I would get a sum of money. I thought it might endanger my life, but after he promised me three hundred thousand once it was done, I finally decided to help. As for the sound of the door opening and closing, that was also something he instructed me to do before hanging up."
As soon as Meng Zhuang finished speaking, the waiter brought over the dishes we had ordered. I gestured, "Let's eat something first, we can talk after." Meng Zhuang didn't seem very hungry, while I was already starving since I hadn't eaten anything at noon.
After a hurried meal, I burped and asked, "Are you full?" But Meng Zhuang still wore a worried expression. "People have died; how can I have an appetite? We might even end up being accused of murder for no reason."
Perhaps because I had seen so many dead bodies recently, I wasn't as anxious as when I first encountered them. I smiled and reassured Meng Zhuang, "Da Zhuang, the more you act like this, the more suspicious you become. Since you're sure you didn't do it, there's nothing to fear. As long as we uncover the truth, we can clear your name." Seeing my confidence seemed to ease his worries a bit.
After settling the bill, we found a hotel to stay in for the night without further discussion. The next morning, after checking out, Meng Zhuang and I planned to report the incident. Just as we stepped out of the hotel door, Meng Zhuang suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly called out to me, "Shen, here's your phone... Manager Wu told me to do this too." With that, Meng Zhuang pulled my phone from his pocket and handed it to me.
I took the phone and glanced at it, muttering to myself, "Manager Wu really thought of everything. If it weren't for losing my phone, maybe I wouldn't have left there; perhaps even that driver was arranged by him..." With that thought in mind, we headed straight for the police station.
After explaining our situation to the on-duty officers, we followed their patrol car back to the scene of the incident. As I got out of the car, I thought to myself, "If I'm not mistaken, there surely won't be any bodies left in this compartment now."
Sure enough, just as one of the officers took out the key and opened the cargo door, it was completely empty inside; even the foul stench had been thoroughly cleaned away.
"Good thing I didn't report any bodies; otherwise seeing this empty cargo hold now would leave me speechless," I thought. Just then, my phone rang. Looking at it, I saw it was Liu Zhong calling...
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