If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

Navy Pier is 15.9 miles away, Chicago International Freight Port.

The weather is very clear tonight. There is no wind or rain in the cargo port near Lake Michigan. Groups of stars can be seen in the sky, and the lake reflects the rows and piles of blue and red containers piled on the shore.

The bright floodlights hung from the pendant shed a cold white light on the port area, making the mud-gray dock bricks on the ground give off an incredible cold feeling. The container area was crowded and orderly, with red and blue containers. Piles cover the port, and the curved lines on the surface are reminiscent of the dense holes of a honeycomb.

The unloader sitting on the forklift passing by the container area was holding the steering wheel and his eyelids were shaking. The time reminder on the forklift was that it was already late at night. The workers at the port were basically off work. At this time in the port area, only night shift patrols could be seen. There was a security guard figure, but tonight I don’t know why it was extra quiet. The entire port area seemed to be asleep with only the sound of wind and water.

Your buddy who never knows how to patrol skipped work to play cards again, right? The unloader, who had already driven half of the container area without seeing anyone, was thinking boredly.

Why don't you go to the security room after this trip to see if they are attacking Texas again, and get involved in it? Anyway, my salary will be paid in two days, and I still have some leftover energy in my wallet to play with.

Suddenly, the unloader, who was drinking coffee to refresh himself, heard an unusual noise in the cargo box area. He paused and turned to look in the direction of the noise, but he could only see the white light of the tower crane between the cargo boxes. shadow path.

The unloader hesitated for a moment, stopped the forklift, put the thermos cup with coffee in the slot, took out the flashlight, locked the forklift, got out of the car, and walked to the container area. He stopped outside the path between the containers and held the Shine the flashlight in.

Recently, I heard from the security guard in the cargo port area that there is a group of guys from the mixed neighborhood in the south of the city who are very restless. They often ride around on skateboards outside the barbed wire fence in the port unloading area, or directly stand on the barbed wire fence and look in. It seems that they are Before illegal activities, the brothers on the night shift should be vigilant. If something goes wrong, just tell people not to attack them, otherwise they might accidentally get shot.

I scanned along the circle of light spread by the flashlight. The trail led straight to the shore of Lake Michigan. The white light cast a cold scale on the lake. The unloader saw nothing but his own shadow.

But he didn't just turn around and leave. Instead, he suddenly turned sideways and listened carefully. The sound of water and lake breeze blew through the path. Among the white noise, he seemed to hear vague voices, which were somewhat erratic. It's as unreal as being stuck on spider silk.

"Is anyone there?" the unloader hesitated and shouted.

It was such a loud shout. Before he could wait for anyone in the container area to reply, the rows of barbed wire isolation belts behind him suddenly made a clattering sound. He was so startled that he immediately turned his head and looked over.

The unloader has sharp eyes. No one with sharp eyes can do this kind of night job. He saw a young boy flipping down from the barbed wire isolation belt at a glance. However, he seemed to have been slapped in the throat by himself during the flipping process. I was so frightened that I slipped and fell inside, but I didn't fall completely. The waistband of my pants got caught on the barbed wire fence, and my whole body was hung there like a salted fish.

"You! What are you talking about? What do you want to do!" The unloader picked up the flashlight and turned around and ran towards the barbed wire fence, roaring angrily as he ran.

The boy hanging on the barbed wire obviously didn't expect that he had been outside peeping for so long without seeing anyone, and now he was suddenly frightened by someone popping up. He flamboyantly got himself off the barbed wire and was about to fall. He was still as dexterous as a cat on all fours when he was on the ground. It seemed that he had specially practiced this skill, but at this time, the unloader had already rushed to him and grabbed him by the collar.

The face of the gangster climbing over the barbed wire was immediately exposed to the light source. The unloader was stunned. He originally thought he was holding a black man, but he turned out to be a Chinese kid. I don’t know if it was because of his preconceptions. He looked suspicious. , opened his mouth and said in accented English: "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! I'm not here to steal anything!"

"You're not asking for trouble, are you?" The unloader looked at the boy with disdain, and then carefully looked at the open space behind the barbed wire fence, "Where are your accomplices? You can't just be alone, right?"

"It's just me. I'm not here to steal things, I'm here to find people."

"Looking for someone? Who are you looking for in Hong Kong in the middle of the night?"

"Find a woman!"

The unloader looked at this guy with even more contempt. He was probably thinking that if he came to the port to find a woman at night, why don't you go to Millennium Park and the dog alley in downtown to fool the ghosts here?

"Brother, you are a good citizen. You are not here to steal anything. This is my student ID card." The gangster took out a small book from his bag and handed it over. The unloader glanced at it and was stunned, because this thing is really The student ID card seems to be a serious Ivy League university student ID card. It is clearly written on it [Casel College·Class of 2009·Department of History·MingFei Lu]

It seems like he is really a top student? This made the unloader loosen the collar in his hand, take a step back and look at the boy suspiciously, compare him with the photo on the student ID card, and after confirming that it was correct, his attitude changed a little: "You... What are college students doing here at night?”

"Looking for someone, looking for someone, really looking for someone. Brother, have you seen my friend here?" The other party gasped and took out his mobile phone from his arms, pulled out a photo and handed it to the unloader.

The sly-eyed boy was Lu Mingfei. Just as he said, he climbed over the barbed wire fence and entered the port area to find someone.

Twenty minutes ago, Su Xiaoqiang and Chu Zihang discovered the place where Shao Nanqin might be detained through the phone recording. However, it is still too difficult to find people along the lake and in containers. Chicago has two port areas along the lake and four major ports. , combined together to form a 10,000-year-long dock shoreline. With such a huge search range, they could only temporarily start searching at the most eye-catching points.

Lu Mingfei drove all the way to this cargo port. This was his main search place. Xia Mi and Chu Zihang both went to more remote ports to search, because the more remote the place, the higher the possibility of hiding people. On the contrary, the international cargo port that Lu Mingfei was searching for was filled with people almost every night, and cargo ships would unload cargo to the port area late at night. If they were kidnappers, they would never take the huge risk to hide the hostages in In a place like this, the container holding the hostages might have been accidentally thrown onto a ship and sent into the Atlantic Ocean.

Lu Mingfei didn't mind his trip in vain, because he felt that the delicate job of finding someone was best left to someone who was attentive. He felt that Chu Zihang was quite attentive and could make inferences from the phone recordings. There is so much useful information, but I am too careless in comparison. I am trying my best to be a good dog and run errands to eliminate the furthest wrong answers.

"Is this your girlfriend?" The unloader took a look at the photo handed over by Lu Mingfei, and then his eyes lit up, because the photo was a beach photo taken on the beach during the day. The heroine was wearing a bikini, and her figure was The unloader's appearance made the forty-year-old unloader couldn't help but give a thumbs up in approval.

"Friend, ordinary friend, she. She is missing. Judging from the last phone call, she may be locked in a container, so I came here to look for someone." Lu Mingfei didn't have the quick wit to make up a better lie. Come on, you can only follow the teachings in the executive department's thick emergency response manual that can be used as a brick to hit people. Telling only half the truth is an impeccable lie.

"My friend is missing?" The unloader was a little surprised and frowned. He looked up and down at the child in front of him who was about the same age as his own.

If someone had said this to him normally, he would have called the police crazy and walked away, but now he hesitated and continued to ask: "Did you call the police?"

"It must have been reported." Lu Mingfei thought that since everyone from the execution department was on board, this should be considered a report to the police, right?

"Are you sure your friend is locked up in the container?" The unloader brother turned his head and glanced at the container area, seeming to think of something, and said with an unsightly expression, "Your friend will not encounter anyone carrying 'hidden goods'" Is it the introduction?"

"What?" Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment, not understanding the unfamiliar local slang of the unloader brother.

"Human smuggling. I heard that there are gangs involved in this area in the Southern District. They trick women into selling them to Southeast Asia for the skin and meat trade. Their usual method is to stun people and hide them in containers and deliver them to the ship. The women eat and drink along the way. Lazarus is all in the container. Last time, our brothers and security guards caught a batch of problematic boxes. After opening them, the smell almost took us away." The unloader brother said with a frown.

As he said that, he turned to look at the container area where he heard the abnormal noise before, paused and said, "Boy, when did your friend lose it?"

"yesterday."

"Yesterday? That's too late." The unloader brother shook his head, "I don't know how many ships have gone by since yesterday."

"I want to look for it, and I will definitely not touch anything inside. I will just call out my friend's name in the box area and walk around to see if there is any movement!"

"I told you it doesn't really count." The unloader hesitated, but he glanced at the girl's photo on Lu Mingfei's phone, and thought of his own daughter who was about the same age and was also studying in college, and waved his hands irritably. "Forget it, come with me. I'll drive a forklift to take you around twice. You shout louder and leave quickly if there's no movement. Just leave this kind of searching thing to the police. Don't waste your work. If you really encounter someone with a police officer, Guy, your life is at stake here, your parents didn’t send you to the Ivy League to learn how to investigate crimes, so don’t waste your life.”

Anyway, on the way here, I saw that all the security personnel had gone to play cards and skipped work. Let this kid howl at the port without delaying anything. If he really found the person, he could call the police and go to the Chicago Police Department to solve the case. Or something, maybe he can get an extra bonus when his salary is paid in two days.

"Thank you, brother." Lu Mingfei was overjoyed. He didn't expect to be able to get on the forklift.

The unloader brother took his word seriously and turned around and took Lu Mingfei onto the forklift. The forklift that was going to the return point stepped on the accelerator and turned to the container area with its headlights on.

Lu Mingfei also took a deep breath and shouted the name "Shao Nanqin" vigorously, his throat was filled with smoke. His voice echoed in the quiet port area. The unloader brother in the driver's seat turned his head left and right to see if there was anything there. The security guard who was summoned was always ready to explain the origin of the kid next to him.

The forklift circled the container area for a long time, and Lu Mingfei also shouted for a long time. Seeing Lu Mingfei yelling at the top of his lungs, the unloader brother seemed to remember something again, and turned the steering wheel to drive the forklift towards the side. The direction of the shipping port.

The forklift drove over slowly. Lu Mingfei shouted his name until he coughed. The unloader handed him a thermos cup with coffee to soothe his throat. Lu Mingfei said thank you and while he was drinking coffee, the forklift suddenly stopped. He stopped, and the push on his back almost made him put the coffee in his nose. Before he could cough, he heard the big brother next to him making a confused voice: "Huh? This container."

Lu Mingfei grabbed the thermos cup and followed his brother's line of sight. He saw a large red container stacked by the lakeside at the unloading port. He subconsciously asked: "Brother, what's wrong?"

The unloader brother waved his hand, pulled on the handbrake of the forklift, pulled out the flashlight from his waist and got out of the car. Lu Mingfei quickly put down the thermos cup and followed, watching the unloader brother turn on the flashlight and shine it on the crimson container. Sweeping.

"Is there anything wrong?" Lu Mingfei looked at the container. "AMSB (American Shipping Company)" was painted in white on the front, and he couldn't see any difference from others.

"Why is there no box number?" the unloader said with a frown.

In addition to the company name, a normal container has many numbers and letters on it, which usually consists of three parts: four English letters representing the container owner, operator, and loading tool, a six-digit registration number, and a container type code. But there is nothing on this dark red container, and it looks particularly new. I don’t know when it was placed here.

"Security room, security room, this is John, can you come to Port 11 in Area B? There seems to be something going on here. I want to check the registration information of some containers with the management department." The unloader brother picked up the intercom Said while holding down the button.

Lu Mingfei immediately became energetic when he heard this, but he didn't act rashly. He just waited for the unloader's explanation.

But after a moment passed, there was no response from the walkie-talkie in the hands of the unloader. After repeating the call two or three times, there was still no response.

"Damn it, they skipped work so completely? Everyone ran outside the port area?" The unloader brother muttered, put down the walkie-talkie, walked to the door of the container, and looked at the intact lock. Common sense He knocked on the iron sheet with his flashlight and shouted, "Is there anyone inside?"

There was no movement.

The unloader brother turned back and glanced at Lu Mingfei. According to this kid, his friend was locked in the container. Everyone knew the answer to knocking and shouting like this. If there was really no movement inside, he wouldn't dare to do it casually. Opening this box, even if the box has no code, looks weird, but opening the box privately is a taboo in their industry. If something goes wrong, they may lose their job, or in the worst case, they may have to go to court to demand compensation.

"Hey, kid, it's not that I won't help you." Just when he turned his head and wanted to say something to Lu Mingfei, the container in front of him actually responded to the slight knocking sound from the inside out!