Chapter 126 part1

Yu Hao made a backup of all the photos and texted Situ Ye to tell him that the photos were all on the cloud now and asked him to view them himself. The office had a shared cloud drive that Lin Ze had applied for. Although Jin Weicheng didn’t agree with this type of work method and preferred submitting the photos with the ma.n.u.scripts, he couldn’t make Lin Ze change his mind.

After all, the memory card is a reporter’s second life. After Lin Ze finished buying furniture that day, he threw a camera memory card into his desk drawer —— so that under any circ.u.mstances after they were seized, it could be collected and used on-demand.

“We’re different from other reporters,” Lin Ze once said, “We need to be very careful of the cops. As long as the other party doesn’t have a gun, we don’t need to fear them, just run. Also, unless absolutely necessary, do not get invited for tea. As soon as you enter the station, your memory card will be gone.”

Yu Hao always kept in mind the doctrine that ‘the memory card is a reporter’s second life’. As soon as he had the time and the Internet, he would find a way to backup his information in the cloud.

Lin Ze wore short sleeves, underpants, and flip-flops as he scrutinised the photos Yu Hao uploaded at home.

“What’s this?” Lin Ze turned his head sideways and looked at the pregnant lady’s medical record and form.

Situ Ye held a cup of warm milk and drank as he clicked the mouse. He selected the image, rotated it 90 degrees, enlarged it and pulled it onto the photograph.

“Holy s.h.i.t.” Lin Ze laughed. He switched to the next one, looked at the medical record, then at the form, and kept switching between the two, “This kid’s intuition is amazing.”

Situ Ye said, “He can’t have uncovered a human trafficking case ba, do we report it to the police?”

Lin Ze said, “Let me take a look. The home address isn’t complete, there’s no more after the village. Fortunately there’s a contact number. We’d need to find those at the top in the Guangxian Munic.i.p.al Bureau and check this number.”

Situ Ye said, “You’d better confirm it first.”

Lin Ze wanted to call Yu Hao. He took his phone, looked at the time, and hesitated.

“I’ll tell them tomorrow.” Lin Ze said, “Don’t wanna hold them up now.”

When Yu Hao woke up, it was snowing outside. The first snow in the North came so early this year. The Siberian cold current whistled down Inner Mongolia, sweeping through the whole northern lands. Jin Weicheng didn’t return for the night. Yu Hao got nervous and called him; he had actually fallen asleep in the bathhouse.

Yu Hao rummaged around for the meat floss bun he bought yesterday and ate one. He turned on the TV to watch the weather forecast; there would be heavy snowfall in North China today, but this snow didn’t seem too heavy.

“Check out first and take some pictures of the hospital entrance.” Jin Weicheng said, “We’ll set off at 10 o’clock and go to the village for an interview first, We’ll go to the processing plant in the afternoon. I’ve already contacted the pet.i.tioners.”

Yu Hao uttered an “un“. After finishing his breakfast, he checked out of the hotel, then made his way to a cafe. He wanted to take another photo of Guangxian People’s Hospital in the daytime. He wore his fur cap, and when he walked by the road, he suddenly had a strange sensation —— across the road, someone was watching him.

Yu Hao decided not to take this camera out first; later on, this move of his would prove to have helped him successfully avoid a series of troubles. He sat down in the cafe and started using his phone. The two who were watching him from afar pushed open the door and came in.

“Where are you from?” One of them asked, “Show us your ID.”

One of them sat opposite Yu Hao, while the other sat next to him. Yu Hao immediately realised: plain clothes.

Yu Hao looked at them doubtfully, took out his ID card, and showed them his student card as well.

“Huazhong Inst.i.tute of Education Psychology Department?” The plain clothes said, “What are you doing all the way out here?”

“I’m here to find my girlfriend.” Yu Hao said, “She wants to break up with me.”

“Where does your girlfriend live?” Plain clothes asked again.

Yu Hao remembered the aunt who desperately tried to arrange a blind date for him on the train’s bunk and immediately reported the address near her home. He couldn’t remember which building or unit it was exactly, but he remembered that her family had three houses and was part of a demolition household.

The information matched up. The plain clothes returned him his ID and student card and didn’t ask anymore questions, then left.

Yu Hao heaved a sigh of relief. He took his camera out, and after he determined it was safe, took a picture while he was still in the cafe. This camera was too awesome — once he adjusted the lens, everything would become clear no matter how far away it was. He couldn’t help but rejoice that Zhou Sheng had bought him this camera, otherwise, if he took a micro camera to the hospital entrance for a photo, he would be caught by plain clothes every minute.

“There are plain clothes.” Yu Hao called Jin Weicheng, “Laoshi, be careful.”

“The one who got a foot ma.s.sage with me last night was a plain clothes.” Jin Weicheng motioned to Yu Hao from outside, “It’s okay, let’s go.”

Jin Weicheng and Yu Hao left the county first and hitched a ride to the village. The land here was already polluted by waste containing lead and cadmium. There was a river behind the village. Jin Weicheng took a recording pen and looked for people on their way to the address he had, and went to the home of the pet.i.tioner for an interview.

The pet.i.tioner had already been taken to the county town for questioning, and no one knew when they would be released. Jin Weicheng told them where he was from, and the other party let them in.

Yu Hao heard incessant coughing from the inside and went to look at the patient — there were two patients in the family who were suffering from chronic cadmium poisoning, one was old while the other was young. The father and son pair lay in bed, and they used to work in the battery plant.

“Can I take photos?” Yu Hao asked Jin Weicheng, who was recording with his pen.

Jin Weicheng motioned for him to take photos, so Yu Hao went in to take a few. He took a photo of the interviewee, who was an old woman in her seventies.

Jin Weicheng pointed to the outside. Yu Hao took his camera and left the house, then went to the village to take photos of the surroundings, and then took pictures of the river behind the village. The daughter-in-law of a family was washing clothes by the river. The weather was bitterly cold, and her frozen hands were red through and through. When she saw Yu Hao kneeling on the roof to find a view, she stood up and wiped her hands on her ap.r.o.n, looking as if she wanted to say something.

“Ai!” That woman called two men over and called out to Yu Hao in dialect.

Yu Hao made a ‘shh’ gesture. If possible, he didn’t want to startle anyone, but the village was full of people so he couldn’t avoid it.

The other party was very enthusiastic and kept waving at him, asking him to come down to drink some ginger soup to warm himself up. She asked him all kinds of questions, and asked if he was a reporter. Yu Hao understood her, but he answered, “I don’t understand.”

“My sis-in-law said that she wanted to ask you to report on your family’s situation!” A young girl who knew how to speak Mandarin came over, “Look at my big brother.”

Yu Hao took a picture of her big brother and asked, “Are you all employees of the battery plant?”

“They are.” The girl showed Yu Hao a work permit, as well as a compensation contract. Yu Hao said, “Could you make a copy for me?”

There was no photocopier in the village, so Yu Hao could only take pictures of the contract page by page. The villages packed red envelopes and stuffed them into Yu Hao’s hands. Yu Hao didn’t dare accept them of course, and went back to look for Jin Weicheng. Jin Weicheng had already finished his interview.

“We’ll stay with them tonight.” Jin Weicheng said, “Pack light to set off. We’ll go to the plant first, let’s go.”

Jin Weicheng didn’t let anyone lead the way, so they walked to the battery plant that was two kilometers away.

“News of the pet.i.tion has already travelled here.” Jin Weicheng said, “It’ll be obvious with too many people.”

The wind was so strong that Yu Hao’s head was about to be blown off. He followed Jin Weicheng. The two of them observed the battery plant situated by the river.

“Climb in?” Yu Hao asked.

Jin Weicheng took out a telescope and looked into the battery plant. He said, “Take note of the surroundings, don’t get caught by the cops.”

Yu Hao, “Don’t worry, there’s n.o.body here.”

They’ve walked for quite a while from the bus stop. Their surroundings were bare, and the fields were deserted with only half-dead trees left behind. A gust of wind blew. Within a one-mile radius, there was nothing at a glance, except for the intermittent white smoke that curled out of the battery plant’s chimney.

Jin Weicheng muttered, “The sewage is discharged at the back.”

“We don’t know where the sewage treatment pond is.” Yu Hao said.

“I don’t think there’s even anything like that.” Jin Weicheng said, “Look, is that a cop?” As he spoke, he handed the telescope to Yu Hao, but what Yu Hao saw was a bridge on the other side.

“We can take photos from there.” Yu Hao said.

So the two of them hurried over. Jin Weicheng would look through his telescope from time to time, as if they were thieves.

“Laoshi look out below!” Yu Hao said.

They got on the bridge, Jin Weicheng took his mirrorless camera out to take photos, “I can’t, it’s too far.”

Yu Hao rotated his lens and instantly pushed it nearly 300 meters closer and let Jin Weicheng take a look. Jin Weicheng said, “Take it just like this!”

The battery plant was discharging turbid sewage straight into the river. Yu Hao said, “This angle isn’t good. Laoshi, pull me……”

Jin Weicheng said, “The wind is too strong, don’t fall in.”

The bridge was halfway through its repairs. Yu Hao let Jin Weicheng pull his backpack. He stepped on the outside of the steel frame with one foot and tilted his whole body over with his left foot as a pivot, and was suspended in midair beyond the bridge. Even Jin Weicheng, who has always had a lot of guts, couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. He kept urging Yu Hao to hurry up. Yu Hao took several photos in succession, then they went round the river to take a picture of the front.

Jin Weicheng said, “If we can take a photo of their waste treatment workshop, those guys wouldn’t be able to get away with anything.”

Yu Hao observed the outer wall that was filled with gla.s.s, and it was truly quite difficult. But no plain clothes patrolled the side overlooking the river, most of the manpower had been a.s.signed to the front gate.

“Let’s try ba.” Yu Hao said.

Jin Weicheng couldn’t decide either, “Try?”

Yu Hao nodded and handed his bag to Jin Weicheng. He took off his down jacket, ran a few steps onto the mound behind the wall, stepped onto the bare wall, and flung his down jacket out towards higher ground, hooking at the top. He forcefully tugged on the sleeve of his jacket, and his jacket hung on the broken gla.s.s at the top of the wall being slowly torn apart.

Yu Hao kept kicking about with his feet and climbed up with a lot of difficulty. Jin Weicheng was so nervous his mouth was slightly agape. It was not until Yu Hao found stable footing at the top of the three-metre high wall and bent over before Jin Weicheng threw the bag up.

Yu Hao carried the bag on his back, surveyed the interior beyond the wall, and everything was instantly quiet for.

Below him lay a black mongrel dog that was about one metre-long.

Jin Weicheng motioned to Yu Hao, who also motioned back to Jin Weicheng. He threw his down jacket down. Jin Weicheng tied his jacket and Yu Hao’s together, then threw it back up. Yu Hao pulled Jin Weicheng up and dragged him onto the wall. Jin Weicheng had just managed to find a stable footing when the dog heard the noise and instantly looked up.

Yu Hao was already prepared. With keen sight and deft hands, a meat floss bun flew over like a shooting star. That dog uttered an “aowu” and jumped up, catching the bun in midair, then shook its tail and ran back to his nest to eat it.

Jin Weicheng, “……”

Yu Hao, “Hurry up and go!” He thought it was fortunate that it was just a mongrel and not a police dog.

They quickly jumped over along the wall and landed on the second floor of a plant building. The workers were currently on their noon break. Yu Hao climbed down a fire escape and used his phone to take pictures of the emergency evacuation map. The two of them studied it for a while. Jin Weicheng pointed at the sewage treatment pond at the back, so the two hid behind the foot of the wall and quickly made their way over.

Security in the plant was very weak, most of it was concentrated at the main entrance.

Why aren’t there even a few security guards? Yu Hao thought. But normally, no one would think that there would be two f.u.c.king idiotic reporters who would actually climb over the wall and enter from the riverside……

Jin Weicheng said, “We reacted too quickly. The pet.i.tioners came to us the day before yesterday, yet we’ve already arrived today.”

Jin Weicheng suddenly b.u.mped into another mongrel , and Yu Hao immediately threw out another meat floss bun to make it leave.

Jin Weicheng, “Phew……”

Yu Hao, “Phew……”

Yu Hao quietly climbed up the ladder, and the worker’s dormitory was behind them while the open air treatment pond was outside. When he took photos, he had one foot on the building while his other was balanced on the fire escape ladder. Jin Weicheng said, “Definitely do not fall down, there’s sulfuric acid down there.”

Yu Hao only found out after he finished taking photos, and fortunately Jin Weicheng didn’t tell him at the start, otherwise he would have surely trembled.

“Can you take a photo of the front gate?” Jin Weicheng asked.

“I can’t.” Yu Hao said, “There are plain clothes outside.”

Jin Weicheng, “Take one from afar then. Your camera’s good, just zoom in all the way.”

Yu Hao found another place where they could climb over the wall and vaulted right over with one foot. Jin Weicheng slipped and stepped into a puddle of mud.

“Come on.” Yu Hao pulled Jin Weicheng up; he’ll just wash up after getting back. After they withdrew safely, both of them heaved a sigh of relief.