As the saying goes, unusual things must have a cause.
Originally, I wasn't very sure, but now, listening to Chief Han, I became more certain of my conjecture.
From my observation, as soon as we got on the highway, all the willow trees on the side of the road were covered with a thick layer of white lime. Only the section of the road where the bus had the accident wasn't, but once we passed that section, the willow trees on the roadside were covered with lime again.
This seemed illogical. If it was just for pest prevention, how could they leave out this several hundred-meter stretch? Could it be that the problem lies with the lime on these trees?
Thinking this, I quickly had Chief Han stop the car on the emergency lane and carefully observed the willow trees by the roadside.
Zhang also got out of the car, looking at the trees and asked in confusion, "Doesn't seem like there's anything unusual, right? It's just a layer of lime for pest prevention. Maybe it's just a coincidence..."
"But that's too much of a coincidence, right?" I shook my head. While I also couldn't see the reason, I believed that the problem definitely lay there! How could there be so many coincidences in the world?
After some contemplation, I jumped over the guardrail and came to a willow tree. I lightly scraped off a layer of white lime with my fingernail and sniffed it. Soon, a trace of a smile appeared on my face, as if I had suddenly realized something, "I see!"
As the facts revealed, my conjecture was almost entirely correct. The problem indeed lay with this white powder! This wasn't lime for pest prevention at all, it was a kind of saltpeter powder.
Saltpeter, also known as niter, is a bitter-tasting, white crystalline mineral, also referred to as "North Emperor's Black Jewel" in ancient texts.
Knowing that this white powder was actually saltpeter, my many doubts were resolved almost instantly!
With the Daoist perspective, willow trees are considered yin and are said to be a favorite of spirits. Many mature willow trees are often hiding a large number of spirits. This is why elderly people often warn children not to stay under willow trees after dark.
But once saltpeter powder is applied, it's a completely different story. Because saltpeter belongs to the yang, its effect is even better than cinnabar. Once applied to these willow trees, it will immediately form a yang fire, and ordinary spirits wouldn't dare to come close.
No wonder the previous sections of the road were safe. The spirits in the bus were trapped by the saltpeter applied to the trees on both sides of the road! It wasn't until the accident site, where only this section of the highway's willow trees hadn't been painted with saltpeter, that if I were a spirit, I would also choose to "break out" here!
Seeking fortune and avoiding disaster is not just the prerogative of humans, even spirits do so.
Strictly speaking, those willow trees painted with saltpeter could barely be considered a formation. It's just a very simple formation whose sole purpose was to keep the spirits in the bus trapped on the main road, unable to escape.
At this point, I couldn't help but sigh. The man named Sima Yinfeng truly had grand plans! After all, from Qianyang to Dafang County, it's at least a hundred kilometers! Roughly estimating, the distance between adjacent willow trees is about ten meters. So, adding up the willow trees on both sides of the road, there are nearly twenty thousand!
Excluding the trees at the accident site, to apply saltpeter to every single willow tree in the remaining stretch of the highway, what a colossal project it must have been?
However, I soon realized the key to this. To accomplish this, he didn't necessarily have to do it himself!
Let's assume that the highway department needed to apply lime for pest prevention to the willow trees in the near future, and he knew about this in advance, couldn't he simply replace all of the lime with saltpeter powder?
By doing so, wouldn't the staff of the highway department end up applying saltpeter powder to all the trees for him for free? Later, he would only need to remove all the saltpeter powder from the trees at the accident site, and his plan would be accomplished?
In this way, the workload would be reduced by hundreds of times!
After considering it thoroughly, I became even more convinced of my hypothesis! Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible for him to accomplish this on his own!
Of course, there's also the possibility that he could have asked the devotees of the Red Lantern Sect for help, or more likely, their members had infiltrated the highway department's internal organization! This is why the matter was brought to a head!
"Ding Ling Ling..."
Just as I was lost in thought, Chief Han's phone suddenly rang loudly. Chief Han quickly answered the call, but after a few words, his face turned a bit unpleasant.
"What's wrong?" Seeing this, I stopped my train of thought and asked in bewilderment, "Is something wrong?"
"That bastard, that kid actually managed to contact Commissioner Li!" Chief Han cursed, then with an impatient look, continued, "Just now, Commissioner Li's secretary directly sent a letter of demand to the traffic police department of Dafang County, ordering them to let the bus pass immediately!"
"Grass!"
Upon hearing this, both Zhang and I couldn't help but curse and quickly climbed over the guardrail, returning to the car.
"What do we do now?"
Zhang was already feeling uncertain, and when he heard Li, he was even more taken aback. He seemed to shrink back and weakly asked, "Should we still chase?"
"Of course! Why not?"
Even though I knew the chance of catching up to Sima Yin was slim, I said firmly.
Regardless of whether we catch up or not, both Zhang and I have to go to Dafang County, right? We've already come this far, we can't let Director Han send us back and take the bus again, can we?
After the experience just now, I felt that Zhang might have a lifelong shadow over buses.
"Alright!"
Director Han was decisive, and as soon as he spoke, he stepped on the gas, and with a rumble, we rushed forward again!
As expected, we still couldn't catch up to the bus. By the time we reached the toll station, it was already more than an hour later, catching up was like chasing a ghost!
Either way, it was expected, and we weren't discouraged. After getting off the highway, Zhang took over driving, and after a bumpy road, we finally arrived at Zhang's home - Babao Township.
What I didn't expect was that Zhang's family actually lived in a Miao village!
How did a Northeastern man end up in a Miao village?
Later, through Zhang's introduction, I learned that his grandfather chose to settle here because his grandmother was Miao. Later, his father also married a Miao girl. So, living in this Miao village became a matter of course.
Entering the Miao village, Zhang greeted the people inside warmly, speaking in a language that neither I nor Director Han could understand.
The Miao people were hospitable, and upon seeing Zhang bringing back two strangers, they immediately surrounded us, waving and greeting us continuously. Two little girls, aged seven or eight, even ran up and grabbed my clothes, directly opening their hands in front of me.
The little girls spoke fluent Chinese, which I could understand. They were asking for candy.
However, in my hurried rush coming here, even my luggage fell off the cliff with the bus, so where would I get any candy from? I could only helplessly shake my head at them and tell them I didn't have any candy with me.
But the two girls still clung to my clothes, and I subconsciously pointed to Director Han next to me and asked, "Why not ask this uncle?"
To my surprise, one of the little girls just said one word to dismiss me, "Scared!"
Alright, you win, so it turns out even kids think I'm easy to bully...
Of course, this is not hard to understand. Director Han has been a criminal police officer for half his life, just like a rock in the river, experiencing all kinds of storms. Naturally, he carries with him an aura that ordinary people don't have. It's reasonable for the two little girls to be scared of him.
After five minutes of persuasion, the two little girls finally let go of me disappointedly. Seeing their disappointed eyes, I couldn't help but have some sympathy. I thought for a moment and took out two hundred yuan bills from my pocket, giving one to each of them.
It's not that I'm generous, but I felt for a long time and couldn't find any change. Helplessly, I had to pretend to be generous...
The little girls took the money in surprise, said thank you, and quickly disappeared from my sight, as if afraid I might take it back.
After sending the two little girls away, I breathed a sigh of relief and was about to follow Zhang into the house. At this moment, a skinny old man suddenly squeezed in.
"Oh, there are visitors in the village again?"
He also spoke in Chinese, so both Director Han and I understood. We hurriedly nodded to greet him, and Director Han even handed him a cigarette. The old man returned a polite nod.
The old man took it without hesitation, then brought two bowls of rice wine, and handed them over, saying, "Here, you've traveled so far, must be thirsty? Drink this bowl of rice wine and quench your thirst..."