Chapter 156: Guarantee with Identity

Yu Xiangnian returned to the room after her bath, and soon after, Cheng Jingmo came back, bringing lunch with him.

“Let’s rest at the guesthouse this afternoon, and we can go out for dinner,” he suggested.

Yu Xiangnian agreed, asking, “When are our bus tickets for?”

“Tomorrow morning at ten. We should arrive at the county town around eight in the evening.”

“Let’s hurry and eat, then you can take Xiao Jie for a bath,” Yu Xiangnian said.

After lunch, Cheng Jingmo took Xiao Jie to the bathhouse, washing their underwear and hanging it outside the window to dry. Outer clothes wouldn’t dry in time, so they’d have to wash them at home.

Yu Xiangnian used the time to get some work done, working until it was time for dinner.

The three of them went to a state-owned restaurant in Su City for dinner.

At the restaurant, Yu Xiangnian noticed a man at a nearby table with a dark gray aura above his head.

She was now certain that people with this color aura were usually bad news.

Yu Xiangnian subtly indicated the man with a nod, “Cheng Jingmo, I think that man is suspicious.”

Cheng Jingmo glanced at the man, who appeared to be in his forties, wearing a dark blue outfit and eating noodles. He didn’t see anything suspicious.

“What makes you think that?” he asked.

“It’s just a feeling,” Yu Xiangnian said. “Let’s follow him and see what happens.”

Cheng Jingmo trusted Yu Xiangnian but knew it would be inconvenient to bring both of them along. “You and Xiao Jie should go back to the guesthouse. I’ll follow him.”

Cheng Jingmo quickly finished his noodles, and when the man left, he signaled to Yu Xiangnian and followed the man out.

The man rode a bicycle, and Cheng Jingmo jogged behind him to the outskirts of town.

The man entered a stone quarry.

At this hour, the workers had already gone home, and the quarry was nearly deserted.

The man seemed to be the person in charge, as he patrolled the area before entering a dormitory.

Cheng Jingmo snuck around the quarry but found nothing unusual, just stones everywhere.

He returned to the guesthouse.

As soon as he walked in, Yu Xiangnian asked, “Did you find anything?”

Cheng Jingmo explained what he had seen.

“That doesn’t seem right!” Yu Xiangnian furrowed her brow, deep in thought.

She then asked several more questions, and Cheng Jingmo answered them all, but nothing sounded suspicious.

“Nian Nian…” Cheng Jingmo called her softly, his eyes filled with longing.

The first night they left home, Yu Xiangnian hadn’t let him touch her, saying they had to get up early.

For a man who had just started to experience passion, three days without intimacy felt like three years!

Ignoring his longing look, Yu Xiangnian said, “Take me there to see!”

Cheng Jingmo sighed, “Alright.”

They returned to the quarry, which had no gate or even a surrounding wall.

With such large stones, it would be difficult to steal anything, so there was no need for theft prevention.

Using a flashlight, they searched the area but found nothing.

Could she have been wrong?

Unwilling to give up, Yu Xiangnian searched again, eventually arriving at a warehouse door.

“Cheng Jingmo, can you climb into the warehouse and check?”

Cheng Jingmo replied, “I already did earlier. It’s full of tools and stones.”

“Stones?” Yu Xiangnian began to analyze, “Why would some stones be kept in a warehouse?”

Cheng Jingmo said, “Maybe they’re reserved for someone and stored separately to avoid confusion.”

Yu Xiangnian asked, “Can you unlock this padlock?”

Cheng Jingmo found a thin wire nearby, inserted it into the lock, and twisted it.

With a click, the lock opened.

They gently pushed the door ajar and tiptoed inside.

Just as Cheng Jingmo had said, there were only some tools and stones of various sizes.

Yu Xiangnian shone her flashlight on the stones, carefully observing them.

“Cheng Jingmo, what do you think this looks like?” she asked, holding the flashlight in one hand and pointing at the patterns on the stone with the other.

Cheng Jingmo thought for a moment and hesitantly said, “It looks like a big insect?”

“Yes! It looks like an isopod!”

Yu Xiangnian then pointed to another stone, shining the flashlight on it, “What about this one? What does it look like?”

This time, Cheng Jingmo was more certain, “It looks like a fish.”

Yu Xiangnian and Cheng Jingmo continued to examine several stones, each bearing unique patterns.

“I suspect these are fossils of ancient organisms,” Yu Xiangnian said.

“Fossils of ancient organisms?” Cheng Jingmo repeated.

Although he hadn’t heard of them before, he could understand the term.

“We need to report this to the police,” Yu Xiangnian insisted. “These fossils are incredibly valuable and take millions of years to form.”

They headed to the Su City Public Security Bureau without hesitation.

The officer on duty hadn’t heard of ancient organism fossils and thought they were overreacting. Patterns on stones weren’t unusual, after all. Besides, it was already one in the morning. Who would want to go that far for a few stones?

The officer dismissed them with a few perfunctory words, telling them to go home.

While they were at a loss, a man in his twenties entered the office, looking tired. He had a blue-yellow aura above his head, indicating he was trustworthy, like Cheng Jingmo.

The man sat on the wooden sofa, rubbing his forehead, and asked the officer about the situation.

The officer explained, and the man didn’t seem concerned.

“I know that quarry. There’s no issue. You two should go home,” he told Yu Xiangnian and Cheng Jingmo.

Yu Xiangnian refused to give up and explained the details and suspicions again.

The man frowned, still skeptical. “Just because of a few patterns, you’re convinced these are precious fossils that took millions of years to form?”

Yu Xiangnian nodded emphatically.

The man asked, “How can you be sure?”

Yu Xiangnian was at a loss for words.

Cheng Jingmo took out his military ID from his pocket, “I can vouch for it with my identity. Those stones are definitely problematic.”

He trusted Yu Xiangnian completely.

He was wearing civilian clothes on this trip because Yu Xiangnian had thought his uniform would be inconvenient.

Yu Xiangnian had even mentioned, “If someone insists on switching seats with you, you can’t refuse if you’re in uniform.”

She had been right. They did encounter someone trying to force them to switch seats!

Yu Xiangnian felt a warm glow in her heart as she looked at Cheng Jingmo, serious and righteous.

They had reached a point of unconditional trust in each other.

The man examined Cheng Jingmo’s military ID, his weary face growing more serious.

He returned the ID to Cheng Jingmo and instructed the officer, “Go get Xiao Wang. We’re going out on a call.”

“Captain Gong, you haven’t slept in two days. Let me and Xiao Wang go.”

“Stop arguing and get going!”

Captain Gong drove, taking Cheng Jingmo, Yu Xiangnian, and Xiao Wang to the quarry.