151: Chapter 151 Bounty Hunting Grounds

After polishing off six skewers of kidneys and wiping his mouth, Lin Ning continued strolling through the streets of Erenhot.

Since he was "stranded" in this border city, he might as well treat it as a temporary bounty spawn zone and catch a few more red-named fugitives.

He was already here, so making a little extra money on the side wasn't too much to ask, right?

The sky gradually darkened, and the streets grew even livelier than during the day. Tourists held up their phones to photograph the night view, merchants dragged suitcases along in a rush, and several men in Mongolian robes carried large bundles while chatting loudly in Mongolian. Stylishly dressed young women passed by him, laughing and talking.

Turning a street corner, he saw several police officers on duty, stopping passersby to check their ID cards.

Lin Ning paused for a moment.

This wasn't happening a few days ago; what happened? It seemed border control had tightened again.

He stood on the side of the road for a while, then turned around and headed back to his hotel.

After locking the door, he lay on the bed, opened his laptop, and pulled up the map of Erenhot.

The main streets, large hotels, and the customs port—these were the places where border police checked the most strictly. Fugitives would definitely not walk straight into the line of fire; even with fake IDs, the risk was too high.

His fingers moved across the map, precisely circling several areas.

The old town on the edge of the city, with its clusters of dilapidated buildings and bungalows, hid a large number of small family-run hotels where one could stay without an ID card for ten or twenty yuan a night—exactly the kind of place fugitives loved to hide.

And outside the city.

He zoomed in on the map; several small villages were scattered around the outskirts of Erenhot, right up against the border line.

He had heard from the elders that "some people" would go there to find herdsmen to guide them, looking for illegal herding trails or damaged wire fences to cross the border into Mongolia.

The Gobi Desert was vast, and it was difficult for border defense to detect them immediately.

Lin Ning stared at the map and narrowed his eyes.

Erenhot was his natural bounty hunting ground.

The next morning, Lin Ning parked his car on the outskirts of the old town and walked deep into it.

The buildings here were at least thirty years old, with peeling plaster and plastic sheets pasted over the windows.

Downstairs were all kinds of small shops: shoe repair, vegetable vendors, and second-hand appliance recycling.

Hidden deep in the alleyways were hotel signs, some written directly on cardboard: "Lodging 20 Yuan."

Lin Ning strolled leisurely through the alley, his peripheral vision precisely scanning the top of everyone's head.

Just as he reached the end of the alley, a man walked out of a small hotel.

He was around thirty, wore glasses, and looked quite refined, but he was wearing a Mongolian robe—a standard Han face paired with a Mongolian robe, which looked incongruous.

Deep red [Ma Xuan, Unemployed].

As he passed Ma Xuan as if nothing were amiss, he glanced at the hotel's entrance sign and then turned into the small shop next door.

"Give me a pack of Hongtashan."

After scanning the code to pay, Lin Ning opened the pack of cigarettes and handed one to the shopkeeper.

"Mind if I borrow your small table for a second? I need to send an email to my company."

The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with a rough complexion; he chuckled and lit the cigarette, saying, "Go ahead, go ahead."

He opened the public security wanted list website and entered "Ma Xuan."

The page redirected, and a wanted poster popped up.

The man in the photo was younger and didn't wear glasses, but the facial features matched perfectly.

Class B wanted, fraud, involving over three million yuan, with an 80,000 yuan bounty.

Lin Ning pursed his lips, suppressing a smile.

Alright, Ma Xuan, your codename is now—Eighty Thousand.

Putting away his laptop, Lin Ning started chatting with the shopkeeper.

"Which place around here has good food?"

"Which hotel is clean and cheap?"

A few minutes later, Ma Xuan appeared at the entrance of the alley, carrying a takeout box and walking back slowly.

By this time, Hao Hong had already become the disgusting friend in Lin Ning's story who invited friends from out of town for a wedding but wouldn't cover their food or lodging.

The shopkeeper pursed his lips, "Your friend is no good!"

Lin Ning nodded frantically in agreement.

Watching out of the corner of his eye as Ma Xuan ducked back into the dilapidated, filthy little hotel, Lin Ning ended his slander and defamation, said goodbye to the shopkeeper, and left.

After walking a safe distance away, he immediately took out his phone and dialed Zhao Jianguo's number.

"Captain Zhao, old town, XX alley, XX hotel, Ma Xuan, Class B fraudster, he's in his room eating right now."

There was a two-second silence on the other end: "...Received. Redemption password?"

"888888."

Hanging up the phone, Lin Ning continued walking forward, found a shaded spot by a residential building, and curled himself into a corner.

Less than twenty minutes later, an unmarked van pulled up silently in front of the hotel.

Several plainclothes officers quickly got out and rushed in. A moment later, Ma Xuan was escorted out in handcuffs.

Lin Ning nodded with satisfaction.

Eighty Thousand, order confirmed.

At noon, Lin Ning found a Mongolian restaurant and ordered hand-grabbed mutton, milk tea, and milk skin.

The hand-grabbed mutton was fatty and tender; dipped in a little chive flower sauce, it was incredibly flavorful. The milk tea was soaked with roasted millet and milk skin; drinking it hot made him feel completely comfortable.

As he ate, he scrolled through his phone and noticed that Officer Li Feng had sent two more 60-second voice messages.

Lin Ning glanced at them, with absolutely no intention of clicking to listen.

What kind of bad habits did this group of people around him have? Didn't they understand what not answering the phone meant? They just kept harassing him with voice messages; they had zero sense of boundaries.

Lin Ning noticed the times they were sent—1:02 AM and 2:38 AM—and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Serves him right!

In the afternoon, Lin Ning drove out of the city, heading toward those scattered small border villages.

The road grew worse as he traveled, the asphalt turning into gravel. On both sides was empty wasteland, with an occasional mud-brick house visible. In several open spaces, trucks were parked, people were herding cattle and sheep, and others were pitching tents...

Lin Ning parked his car some distance away and walked inside.

He circled around but found nothing.

A few herdsmen were organizing goods, a few merchants who looked like Han people were counting stock, and a few children were playing, chasing each other. They were all ordinary people.

He continued walking to more remote areas, where there were fewer and fewer people.

The further he walked, the more desolate it became, and there was no one else around.

Lin Ning frowned slightly; was he overthinking it? How could a fugitive hide in such a godforsaken place?

Just as he was about to turn back, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of blinding red light.

A woman, in her thirties, leading a five or six-year-old little girl.

— — Deep red [Li Mei, Unemployed]

Lin Ning's heart tightened, and his gaze landed on the little girl's small hand gripping the woman's.

A deep red name with a child... His first thought was of the human trafficker from last time.

Damn it!

He slowed his pace, pretending to just be passing by, while his Psychic Power locked firmly onto Li Mei.

He "saw"—

The woman crouched down and wiped the food residue from the corner of the little girl's mouth.

The little girl looked up and smiled at her.

The woman kissed her cheek, and the little girl giggled, hugging her neck.

The little girl opened her mouth to say something. Lin Ning didn't even need to use lip-reading to tell—it was "Mommy."

They were mother and daughter.

The tension in Lin Ning's heart eased significantly.

He stood next to a few horses, pretending to look at them while continuing to observe.

The little girl was exceptionally clingy, wanting to be held one moment and kissed the next, and the woman responded patiently to all of it.

She braided the little girl's hair and took half a biscuit from her pocket, breaking it into small pieces to feed her. As the little girl ate, she suddenly held a piece of the biscuit up to the woman's mouth; the woman was stunned for a moment, then smiled and took a small bite.

She looked just like a gentle and loving mother; why was she a deep red name?