The instant noodles had swollen, soaked full of broth. Xiao Li held his bowl. The shock on his young, tender face couldn’t be hidden. In the silence of the group, he was the first to connect it to something else.
“So Luo Hong; that is, Zhang Han, teamed up with Zhang Baoli to create the kidnapping case. If Lin Zong’s four-person group was involved in abducting, harming, or trafficking Shen Hui back in ’89, then now in 2007, eighteen years later, they kidnap those four again, also at the station; does that count as equal retaliation? Or is it also a warning to us?”
They were all police. Criminals were naturally on the opposite side. But once you handled enough cases and saw all kinds of offenders, if it was someone like Luo Hong and the masked Zhang Baoli, who clearly wanted to use the police to reopen an old case, and who could obviously kill Lin Zong and the others but left them alive, then it meant there was something else behind those four.
Human trafficking?
“The word ‘trafficking’ seems unrelated to the earliest 1991 Snow Spirit Path five-case chain, and unrelated to this year’s 2007 315 Qi Meijuan case and the kidnapping. But the people inserted into the middle, and the side cases attached, are all connected to it. If we pull out the person most deeply involved; Huang Xiuling becomes the key figure. In ’84 Chen Shengnan disappeared; Huang Xiuling was seventeen and in the first year of middle school. In ’89 Shen Hui disappeared; Huang Xiuling was twenty-two. In ’91, Huang Xiuling left Baimu Town.”
The female officer did technical work and was good at extracting and summarizing information. After she said that, Chen Liao asked:
“Shen Hui’s mother mentioned trafficking. Was that just a pure guess, or something else?”
The case file wasn’t in Baimu Town or Changlin, so they didn’t know much about them. But Zhen Wuyu had a good memory. The moment he got Lin Zong and the others’ information, he thought of this matter, so he definitely remembered the mother’s details clearly.
Zhen Wuyu said, “Shen Hui’s mother, Luo Zhen, is a very ordinary rural woman. She became a single mother early and raised her daughter through hard farm work. She’s extremely tough at her core. For her only daughter, she firmly believes she was trafficked. One reason is a mother’s hope that her daughter is still alive, rather than killed. Another reason is your region’s history of human trafficking… it seems to be a severe hotspot.”
He wasn’t a local. But because he had studied in Changlin, he knew some of this place’s history.
In the meeting room earlier, the “yellow” Liu Duan and the bureau chief hesitated to speak about; behind it were other chaotic dirty matters.
One of them was gambling.
But the root was poverty. With “yellow” and “gambling,” there came an even more evil kind of poverty.
This evil poverty circulated faster than money; more completely. It fed directly into people’s souls.
So back then, one of the high-profit criminal industries became human trafficking, and the hardest-hit targets were naturally women and children.
Because she was local, Luo Zhen had formed a stubborn understanding of this place since childhood, or maybe she sensed something in ordinary life. So she believed her daughter’s unexplained disappearance had a reason.
“First, Shen Hui was a good person and a good doctor. There had basically been no medical disputes or accidents. Because of her job, locals respected her; she had a certain social standing. She was busy at work and lacked social life. In her limited social relationships, there weren’t conflicts or hidden dangers. That doesn’t stop her from being targeted, but when the investigation had none of those leads, it was hard to trace a motive. Luo Zhen told me that Baimu Town and the surrounding areas under Changlin had these things from the very start of economic development. They were cracked down on. They went quiet for a while. Then reforms happened, the economy crashed, and these things revived.”
When the economy was best, with complicated populations, more outside labor, and the convenience and bustle of railways and van routes, it nurtured the “operating conditions” for that kind of trade.
When the economy was worst, there was no income. No conditions; you created conditions. People dared to do anything.
So from Luo Zhen’s perspective, her hope and suspicion had real-world support.
But the police didn’t find it. Back then it indeed ended as a missing-person cold case. At that time, nobody knew Huang Xiuling and the others even existed. It was very possible that when the police interviewed people at the station, they stood in the busy crowd watching coldly, like the most ordinary onlooker cracking sunflower seeds.
“So for Luo Hong and Zhang Baoli to gather four people at the station and take them all at once, it required planning ability and time cost. And if anything went wrong; like someone couldn’t come, and with current station management and surveillance much better than before, they still did it. Their purpose is strong; it’s to tell us about what happened back then.”
“Human trafficking.”
“Wait; could the 315 case and the ’91 Snow Spirit Path also be related to this?”
The more Chen Liao thought, the more anxious he became. But Zhen Wuyu settled instead and said calmly, “This is our subjective speculation. We can’t forcefully link all cases based on assumptions. Whoever is in our hands, we investigate. Whichever case has the most leads, we investigate that case. Don’t get distracted.”
This was really advice for frontline detectives. They didn’t have enough manpower or mental bandwidth. So many cases came at once, tied to old cold cases and past disappearances. The threads were complex. It was easy to lose focus, and then miss leads when doing ground investigation.
That would waste time.
Sorting the case threads, pointing investigators to key details, and seizing the core of the case as fast as possible; that was what the leaders needed to do.
“I’ll sort the leads for the cases and people we have right now.”
“First: on the surface, Lin Zong and the other two are victims, but look at this knot method. Bureau chief, you look too.”
To investigate them, they needed a reason; a reason that held up legally.
Zhen Wuyu already had it.
He posted several photos and sheets of white paper on the standing whiteboard.
“This is the most complete knot left on the bound hands in the third Snow Spirit Path case, the Jar Medicine Granny. The material and the knot method match… This is the connection point. We can interrogate them with this. But before interrogation, we need preparation. They’re good at disguising and colluding. We have to force them into a corner.”
So he moved to the second point.
“Second: Lin Zong’s four-person group mixed up their professions from the start. That’s their self-protection. But I find it strange: in such a dangerous situation, not knowing the masked man’s identity or purpose, Chen Qing’s first reaction was to fake his profession. In 1991, none of them were involved in the case. He’s an unemployed drifter. In that sense, he’s completely safe. Why would he think he needed to fake a profession to protect himself? We need to analyze his personality: among the four, Chen Qing is the lowest level; the worst mental resilience; the easiest to crack. His self-righteous disguise is actually self-exposure.”
“Profession is indeed the hidden point for the four of them, and also their capacity for crime.”
“I checked. Lin Zong, as a primary school teacher, worked at the school where Chen Shengnan and Liu Mei studied. You could say he knew information on all the town’s children, even girls.”
“Zhang Cheng, an apprentice in Chinese medicine. A large portion of his clinic’s clients were women and children. In the old doctor’s time, the clients were local regulars. After he took over, locals said he ran it poorly and shut it down. But he didn’t. He moved the clinic to another area; the lower city, where outside laborers were concentrated. That area had lots of people and mixed elements. Rent was cheap, but fees dropped because those laborers had less money. That shows he deliberately shifted his business toward outsiders, locking onto those workers’ wives and children.”
“Huang Xiuling. At that time she was a rickshaw driver. Her gender was actually an advantage; most women were more willing to ride her rickshaw.”
“As for Chen Qing… he looks like he has no profession, but he’s the key.”
Everyone was startled. The bureau chief suddenly said, “A gambler?”
Zhen Wuyu nodded. “Human trafficking isn’t especially hard to investigate, because it requires human involvement and transportation. A living person can’t vanish into thin air. Silently trafficking someone is actually harder than killing.”
“But locals privately believe many people went missing; girls and children were trafficked. Yet in official records there aren’t many cases. Why?”
Liu Duan frowned, then sighed. “Because most who lost wives and children were gamblers? People like that can’t even take care of themselves. They lack moral bottom lines and self-discipline. If they’re also outside laborers with no relatives locally, the probability they persist in reporting and pushing an investigation is low. And if they’re even more heartless; because they owe gambling debts and fear being charged or found by creditors, they might refuse to report at all, and just run.”
Zhen Wuyu said, “Right. Chen Qing’s group of four handled the first step; surveillance and selection. They chose targets that were easiest to deal with and easiest to take.”
“And the time they moved to that area was close. And they all lived alone.”
“They bought their houses in full, all with high walls and courtyards.”
“These are photos of the outer walls.”
When those wall photos were singled out, there was something off. Liu Duan glanced at them.
“They renovated and raised the walls?”
“Yes. And they used the same batch of bricks. Even the bricklaying workmanship is similar. Maybe the masons they hired were the same crew. When sealing the wall tops, they cut the bricks into triangular cones. It could also be because the area is small and there aren’t many crews, but it’s a shared point. Check it.”
Liu Duan nodded. Like the bureau chief, he felt Zhen Wuyu’s current analysis had substance. At least they wouldn’t go interrogate Huang, Lin, and Zhang empty-handed.
“Looking at it this way, after Chen Qing got taken away, Huang Xiuling is the easiest to crack.”
“If Chen Shengnan’s disappearance is connected to her, she was only seventeen back then and already tied to this business. She wouldn’t have been as seasoned as now. She must have left flaws. Interrogate her first.”
That basically set the interrogation route. Liu Duan now had a plan. But Zhen Wuyu wrote the next line on the whiteboard.
Third: 315, Qi Meijuan, Baimu Town casino.
Everyone froze.
“Qi Meijuan’s murder can’t be a coincidence. According to other testimonies in 315, she was already a veteran gambler before 1991, and she often went to the Baimu Town casino. Don’t you think there’s a high chance she knew Chen Qing?”
Zhen Wuyu capped his marker and lifted his eyes across everyone.
“Luo Hong’s group used a soy sauce bottle from the kidnapping scene to connect to the 315 case; that’s not baseless.”
“When you contact Chen Qing’s wife, ask for the exact casino location. The local gambling regulars in Baimu Town, and Qi Meijuan’s son; he studied in Baimu Town too. See if the two casinos are the same one.”
These people had been connected long ago.
They split into three groups.
Liu Duan and the bureau chief handled interrogating the three.
The female officer and Zhen Wuyu went to Huang Xiuling’s home to check on the children and examine the residence.
Chen Liao and the others went to Baimu Town to investigate the casino.
The female officer had strong rapport and was suited to dealing with kids, but Zhen Wuyu went along as well. They chose to do an on-site check of Huang Xiuling’s home rather than bring the children in.
The children lived in Changlin City; Huang Xiuling’s current residence. Luckily Changlin wasn’t far from Baimu Town.
Liu Duan’s group also prepared to go to the hospital.
“She’s still at the hospital. They said her condition has improved, but they’ll probably put on an act; pretend they’re unwell or unconscious. We need all tests done and the reports in hand before it’s convenient to question them. Maybe by then you’ll be back too.”
If they weren’t prepared, and those three crafty people turned around and filed a complaint, it would be trouble.
Liu Duan didn’t nitpick Zhen Wuyu’s earlier offense in the meeting room. One, the other man’s rank was higher and he came from the Provincial Bureau. Two… Liu Duan couldn’t exactly stand on moral high ground.
“Wuyu.”
He called out to Zhen Wuyu. Zhen Wuyu turned back. Liu Duan wanted to say something, but in the end he didn’t.
Zhen Wuyu pulled the car door open. Before getting in, he glanced back at Liu Duan, then got in.
An hour and a half later, they arrived at the edge of Changlin City.
Every city had its own “slum.” The place Huang Xiuling had lived in these past years was in the old district. There were many residential houses, dense and messy, full of young people in slippers with frizzy hair.
Zhen Wuyu, neatly dressed and cleanly built, walked there like an outsider. If an outsider like that also had two police officers with him, it looked even stranger.
They knocked. The door opened. A nineteen-year-old boy stared at them through the gap of the chained safety lock.
His eyes were cold; fixed tightly on them.
Nineteen wasn’t that young, but in this era he was still just a high school student with no financial ability.
The file showed he was currently in the third year of high school.
“Who are you?”
The female officer stepped forward with a friendly smile. “We’re police. We’ve already found your mom. She’s at the hospital. She’ll be better soon. We’re here to look after you.”
Hearing his mom was fine, the boy’s brows relaxed at once. Inside, two timid children also instantly became lively, shouting as they ran behind him, yelling Mom, Mom…
After the door opened—
Xu Zhicheng was fairly tall but very thin. He was also polite. He made tea and brought water for the three of them. It seemed that Huang Xiuling, despite not being a particularly respectable figure, had still raised her children with manners.
The home was very clean.
On the desk were neatly stacked textbooks and study materials. The three children’s homework was still spread out; they had clearly been doing homework.
Zhen Wuyu glanced once and confirmed the three kids’ moods were relatively steady. The handwriting was clear, and the answers were correct.
“You’re very well-behaved. Even with Mom not home, you can still finish your homework. The neighborhood office has also taken good care of you.”
Zhen Wuyu said this on purpose. The youngest child suddenly said, “That’s not true. Nobody here takes care of us. Big brother takes care of us.”
Xu Zhicheng frowned, patted his little sister’s head, and looked at Zhen Wuyu. “Mom didn’t come home, so we were worried too. But my younger brother and sister are still small. I can’t leave them to go looking. I could only have them do their homework first and wait for the police to help us find Mom.”
Zhen Wuyu: “You reported it?”
The female officer’s eyes flickered. They hadn’t received any report call from this boy.
This nineteen-year-old…
Xu Zhicheng: “Not yet. I first asked Mom’s company. They said Mom took passengers and drove out. There were several passengers, maybe it was a long trip. In a blizzard, coming back isn’t easy. They told us to wait. I was already prepared; if Mom still had no news today, I would report it.”
Because of Huang Xiuling’s job, leaving early and returning late was common.
That explanation sounded normal. Later they could ask the company whether Xu Zhicheng had contacted them.
By now Chen Liao saw everyone as suspicious. Even if the person in front of them was just a kid, Huang Xiuling herself wasn’t normal.
Zhen Wuyu: “Then did she often do this before?”
“Occasionally. Passengers differ. The places she drives to differ through the year. Mom works very hard. We can’t ask for more.”
Xu Zhicheng said so.
Zhen Wuyu: “Oh. Then this time she told you in advance she was taking passengers to Baimu Town, and she might not be sure when she’d be back, so you shouldn’t worry. That’s why you bought several days’ worth of food in one go?”
The female officer turned her head and looked at the cutting board food in the kitchen, and the various bags in the trash can; vegetables, meat. After buying from the market, some parts with color were stripped and tossed, then the food was sorted and stored. Most sweet potatoes and potatoes were stacked in the corner.
All of that proved something.
She looked at Xu Zhicheng and saw the tension of a teenager who hadn’t yet been worn down by society.
Huang Xiuling and Lin Zong’s group went to Baimu Town prepared, targeting Su Li. Huang Xiuling likely told Xu Zhicheng where she was going so he wouldn’t worry. But Xu Zhicheng’s earlier statement was that he had worried that very night and even contacted the transport company.
Whether he really contacted them or not—
In reality, he bought several days’ worth of food, which meant he had prepared.
He lied.
And it was a targeted lie, right in front of the police.
He definitely knew something.