Blood Coconut

Chapter 2: Lin Wan's wanted notice

Lin Wan was awakened by thirst.

It was just dawn outside the window, and the faucet in the kitchen was dripping with water. The sound of "tak, ta" was particularly clear in the empty room. She sat up slowly with her waist. The seat next to her was empty, and there was still a little warmth on the sheets, as if Chen Mo had just left.

The lamp on the table was still on, and the light was dim, shining on the spread out pregnancy test report. The fetal heart rate is 156 beats/minute, normal", this line was circled by Chen Mo with a red pen, and next to it was written "like me, jumping vigorously". Lin Wan crossed the word with her fingertips, and suddenly remembered that before going to bed last night, Chen Mo lay on her stomach and listened to the fetal movement. His stubble made her tickle. She said, "When the child is born, I will take a driver's license exam and open an online car, which is definitely better than being on the construction site."

She believed it at that time.

She moved to the living room to pour water and kicked something - it was the blue slippers that Chen Mo often wore. The heels were crooked. He always said, "I'll throw it away after half a year," but he dragged it again and again. Most of the green lotus on the shoe cabinet had withered, and the leaves were rolled into tubes. She remembered that Chen Mo watered it before going out yesterday and said, "This thing is better than me."

The mobile phone vibrated on the coffee table. Lin Wan's heart suddenly raised and rushed over to grab the mobile phone. What is displayed on the screen is "Express Pick-up Reminder", not Chen Mo. She pressed the dial button, and a mechanical female voice came from the handset: "The number you dialed has been turned off."

This is the fifth time she called Chen Mo today. From three o'clock in the morning to now, I hear the same sound every time. Lin Wan stared at Chen Mo's avatar on the mobile phone screen - it was taken when they got married. He was wearing a rented suit and smiling silly, with a cheap red cloth from the photo studio in the background.

She remembered that Chen Mo secretly stuffed the family photo into his wallet before going out last night. She didn't poke it at that time, but just helped him tid his collar and said, "Come back early." Now that I think about it, that sentence is like a curse.

There is still half a piece of bass left in the refrigerator. She specially bought it yesterday to supplement it for Chen Mo. The fish was already a little fishy. Lin Wan poured it into the trash can, and the movement was as slow as if he was doing something. There is also the soy sauce bottle in the trash can. The brown stain is pasted on the bottle, like a blood scab that can't be washed off.

She walked to the balcony, and Chen Mo's dry trousers were still hanging on the rope. When the wind blew, the trouser legs swayed, like an empty shell without anyone. There was a noisy sound from the vegetable market downstairs. Some people were shouting "fresh ribs", and some people were bargaining. These voices once made her feel down-to-earth, but now they are like needles in her heart.

"Chen Mo will be all in trouble." Lin Wan said to the air, humming as softly as a mosquito. Her hand stroked her lower abdomen, where a little life was moving gently, as if responding to her.

*** The glass door of the police station was wiped brightly, reflecting Lin Wan's pale face. She was hugging a copy of Chen Mo's ID card, and her knucles turned white because of the force. Officer Li, who received her, was about forty years old, with deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and he always spoke with a helpless fatigue.

"We don't have the power to enforce the law in northern Myanmar." Officer Li sighed and pointed to the flow chart on the wall. "The process of cross-border cases is complicated. It will take three months to issue a joint investigation notice. The other party... You know, it's not very cooperative."

Lin Wan's eyes fell on the last line of the flow chart: "The case conclusion rate is less than 10%". Her voice trembled: "Officer Li, he didn't go there to play, he was tricked! There must be something wrong with that recruitment text message!"

"We know." Officer Li took out a pile of documents from the drawer, and the words "Brilliant Technology" were printed on the top. "In the past six months, there have been seventeen people who have been cheated by this company to northern Myanmar." He paused and turned over the document. "But there are only two who can be saved at present, and one of them is crazy."

Lin Wan's fingers suddenly grabbed the edge of the table, and his nails were embedded in the wood. She thought of the "work environment map" in Chen Mo's mobile phone. The blue sea and blue sky, suits and leather shoes turned out to be fake.

"What should we do then?" Her voice seemed to be polished by sandpaper, "Look at him..."

"We will issue a joint investigation notice, and we will also contact the local Chinese Chamber of Commerce to help pay attention." Officer Li's voice was very soft, "But you should be mentally prepared. Many people... In the end, even the body could not be found.

When Lin Wan walked out of the police station, the sun was so bright that she couldn't open her eyes. On the bus platform at the door, a man in a cap suddenly bumped into her and stuffed her with a business card. Looking for a man?" The man's voice was very low, and the brim of his hat covered most of his face. "I can help you, the price is easy to say."

There is only one phone number on the business card, no name, and a snake-like symbol is drawn on the back - exactly the same as the symbol at the end of Chen Mo's recruitment text message.

Lin Wan's heart beat wildly. She wanted to throw away the business card, but her fingers seemed to be stuck. The man has disappeared from the crowd, leaving only the smell of inferior tobacco.

*** The mobile phone suddenly lit up three days later. It was not an incoming call, but an MMS.

Chen Mo in the photo was tied to a chair, his eyes were swollen into a slit, and the corners of his mouth were bleeding. There are crooked words written on the card on his chest: "500,000 yuan, fight in three parts, and tear up the ticket if you call the police." Lin Wan enlarged the photo and found that Chen Mo's right hand was curled up unnaturally, as if it was broken.

The sender is a strange number. In the attached account information, the account name is "Wu Kun".

Lin Wan sat on the ground, the mobile phone slipped out of his hand, and the screen hit the corner of the table, cracking a new line. She thought of the man in the cap and what he said, "The price is easy to say", and her back was instantly covered with cold sweat.

She opened her mother's jewelry box, and there was only a shriveled gold bracelet in it, which was stuffed to her by her mother before her death, saying, "Leaving it for the late baby". Lin Wan stuffed the bracelet into his bag and went to the gold shop at the gate of the community. The boss weighed the bracelet and said, "The color is average, and I will give you a maximum of 25,000 yuan."

"Can you give me more?" Lin Wan's voice was crying, "I'm in a hurry to use money to save people..."

The boss glanced at her and pushed the bracelet back impatiently: "At this price, I won't sell it. Recently, many people have come to sell jewelry, saying that they are going to northern Myanmar to redeem people.

Lin Wan's blood suddenly cooled down. She walked out of the gold shop with the bracelet in her hand. The sun shone on it, reflecting a dazzling light, like Chen Mo's torn wound.

In the end, she sold the bracelet and asked a colleague to borrow usury to raise 30,000 yuan. As soon as the money was transferred, the other party sent a text message: "This money is not enough to plug your teeth. Prepare your mother's nursing home, otherwise it will be his finger next time."

Lin Wan looked at his mobile phone and suddenly laughed. He laughed and cried. She remembered that Chen Mo said, "When we have money, we will bring our mother to live together." Now, they can't even keep the house left by their mother.

The green lotus at home has completely withered, and the leaves have curled into a brown ball. Lin Wan threw it into the trash can with the soy sauce bottle, Chen Mo's workwear pants, and the torn family portrait fragments.

She sat in the empty living room, looking at the wedding photos on the wall, and suddenly remembered Chen Mo's appearance when she proposed to her. He knelt on one knee, holding a withered rose in his hand, and said, "I have nothing now, but I will treat you well for the rest of my life."

The mobile phone rang again, and this time it was the message prompt of the "kin search group". When Lin went in late, someone sent out a satellite map of "Brilliant Technology", saying that "the place is surrounded by a crocodile pond, and the walls are equipped with high-voltage electricity"; some people said that "the people inside are treated as slaves, and their organs will be removed if they disobeyed."

An anonymous netizen suddenly sent her a private message: "Don't believe the police, don't believe the snake head, my brother is inside. He said that 'Sister Su in the finance room' is the only one who can help."

Lin Wan stared at the screen, his fingers hung on the keyboard, and did not fall for a long time. It was dark outside the window, and the street lights turned on, shining on the empty balcony. Chen Mo's slippers were still at the door, as if waiting for him to come home.

She found the phone number of the printing shop, and her voice was as calm as herself: "Boss, I want to print 500 wanted notices. Photo... Use this one."

Chen Mo in the photo was wearing a suit and smiling silly. Lin Wan wrote by hand on every notice: "Chen Mo, my baby and I are waiting for you to come home. It doesn't matter if you don't have money. Just live."

When I wrote the 300th sheet, the tip of the pen scratched the paper, and the blood beads oozed out of the fingertips and dripped on the word "live", dizzy into a small red dot, like an unfinished period.