Chapter 839 - 8: Clues 2

I don't know if I can react quickly enough to dodge bullets now, nor do I know if the lack of significant improvement in reflexes is due to poor modification results or because the modification is incomplete.

Always thinking about finding Ambrose, seeing my physical condition mostly recovered and having some self-protective ability, Chen Zhou changed his strategy and decided not to lie low anymore.

...

In the morning, after getting up from the abandoned house, he first divided all the money and kept it on his person.

Two hundred-dollar bills were kept close to the body, while the remaining change was placed in various pockets according to denomination size, with only coins exchanged last night placed on the outermost.

He tightened his coat and, as usual, wrapped a rag around his head, presenting the image of a destitute vagrant once more, quietly left the house, and walked towards the town avoiding the main road.

Few people were around in the morning, so few noticed this tall new face, and Chen Zhou soon returned to the small shop where he bought bread last night.

The shopkeeper was a chubby old man, quite short, about one meter sixty tall. Even when Chen Zhou hunched over, he had to look up to see Chen Zhou's face.

After a brief conversation last night, the shopkeeper was impressed by this tall and odd man.

Upon seeing Chen Zhou appear at the shop's door, he politely greeted him.

After Chen Zhou repurchased several pieces of bread and soda according to last night's shopping list and took a copy of the latest newspaper, the shopkeeper, finding this giant seemingly quite amiable, curiously asked where Chen Zhou was from, wondering if he was an Indian.

The previous night, Chen Zhou inquired from the shopkeeper but found no clues about Ambrose.

Returning to the same shop today, he had breakfast in mind, but also considered the issue of being noticed by many people.

The more people who have seen him and remember him, the greater the chance of being noticed; choosing to shop at the same place is a good preventative measure.

Now Chen Zhou wants to get a gun, a legal identity, then a car, and leave Prescott to pursue Ambrose.

He was worried about finding a pretext when the shopkeeper started a conversation unexpectedly.

With the intent to gather information, Chen Zhou started chatting leisurely with the shopkeeper while eating bread.

He concocted an identity as a Chinese laborer who used to work on railroads in San Francisco, later spotted by a wealthy businessman and hired as a bodyguard, traveling all the way to Arkansas.

Unexpectedly, the businessman left him at the hotel, claiming to go out for business but never returning. Unfamiliar with the place, unable to find work or relatives, he ended up on the streets.

Chen Zhou was unfamiliar with the United States in 1947, but that did not prevent him from fabricating lies.

After all, the world is full of wonders, and things always happen.

Moreover, given his burly figure, being noticed was not a small probability event, although the disappearance of the businessman was still a bit strange, but delving into it was harmless.

In the mid-twentieth century, the United States had not yet reached its peak, apart from those internationally renowned metropolitan cities, remote mountain areas were still worrisome, plagued by gun proliferation, gangs, drugs, and all sorts of crimes emerging one after another.

Not just in small southern towns, but even in Detroit or Missouri, there have been several incidents this year of police and robbers engaging in shootouts on the streets; these are all things Chen Zhou learned from newspapers.

Thanks to recent newspaper articles criticizing the power of standard police weapons, he learned what kind of guns American police used during this time.

With an impromptu lie, Chen Zhou initially just wanted to fool the shopkeeper, not expecting to find any clues.

Unexpectedly, the story of the "businessman's disappearance" resonated with the shopkeeper, making him sigh in empathy.

The old man, probably due to age, lacking friends around, finally encountered someone he could chat with, even if it was a foreign vagrant, he was quite talkative.

Once his chatterbox was opened, it could not be closed. From his words, Chen Zhou learned that in Nevada County, Arkansas, this obscure little place, disappearances were a frequent occurrence.

Ranging from travelers passing through to neighbors and friends, in the past twenty years, there have been ten incidents personally experienced by the shopkeeper, with many more heard about.

Using the motels and bars on the town's outskirts as examples, their owners are friends of the shopkeeper.

According to the motel owner, over the years, dozens have come to the motel claiming their husbands, wives, children, or friends have gone missing in Prescott.

Searchers had once reported to the police, but the missing persons seemed to have vanished from the earth, never seen nor heard from again.

The southern town's police force is inadequate; lacking clues, they find nothing.

Those anxiously searching have all returned empty-handed; among them, some even disappeared while searching.

The shopkeeper felt deeply grieved over the plight of the missing.

Chen Zhou asked further and discovered that the shopkeeper's son was among those missing.

Six years ago, the shopkeeper's son returned home after graduating from university and went with friends to Stonehaven to watch a football game, only to never return.

After his son's disappearance, the shopkeeper traveled almost the entire state of Arkansas, asking every motel owner from Prescott to Stonehaven along the way, but never found any clues.

Due to this experience, the shopkeeper was highly sensitive to the word "disappearance."

This father, longing for his son, even personally collected data, counting the number of missing persons in Nevada County and other counties in Arkansas, eventually drawing a terrifying conclusion—

The number of missing persons in Nevada County is ten times that of other counties!

Such astonishing differences elicited hardly a ripple, the newspapers constantly publishing reforms and innovations in large cities, celebrity gossip, election trends, or various festival celebrations, while ignoring missing citizens.

To find his son, and learn the whereabouts of other missing persons, the shopkeeper began writing letters from the month his son went missing six years ago.

He mailed letters to the state, even to New York, Washington, to the government and well-known newspapers.

He persisted tirelessly for five years and ten months, without a single reply, as if the entire United States was blind to the events happening here.

Until two months ago, the shopkeeper finally became disheartened, lost hope of finding his son completely, and stopped writing letters.

...

Originally, Chen Zhou just intended to have a casual chat with the shopkeeper, hoping to find clues on gangs or gray forces, never expected such an unexpected discovery.

A perfectly healthy person suddenly disappears upon entering Nevada County and never appears again elsewhere.

If you can't find them alive, then they must be dead.

And the horrifying disappearance rate in Nevada County seems to indicate a hidden family of killers, lurking here, quietly hunting both local and outside prey.

The shopkeeper's letters disappearing without response suggest this family's influence is widespread, likely tied to the upper political circles, suppressing this affair.

The more he listened, the more Chen Zhou felt the clues related to Ambrose were approaching.

He could almost certainly affirm that Ambrose should be near Nevada County, only it should have a more widely known name, not called Ambrose.

If you can't find them alive, then they must be dead.

And the horrifying disappearance rate in Nevada County seems to indicate a hidden family of killers, lurking here, quietly hunting both local and outside prey.

The shopkeeper's letters disappearing without response suggest this family's influence is widespread, likely tied to the upper political circles, suppressing this affair.

The more he listened, the more Chen Zhou felt the clues related to Ambrose were approaching.

He could almost certainly affirm that Ambrose should be near Nevada County, only it should have a more widely known name, not called Ambrose.