Chapter 93

"What are you looking at? Have you found what you were looking for?" Lin Jiafan came to her side at some point and looked in the direction her gaze curiously.

Coming back to her senses, Luo Jingyao shook her head: "I didn't find it."

"But Officer Lin, do you think it's possible that He Jinzhe and Little Potato have had some connection?"

Lin Jiafan frowned and thought seriously for two seconds. "Before this, He Jinzhe had never appeared at the Qingshan Rescue Association. Zhou Zhichao also said that this was the first time he had seen He Jinzhe."

The implication is that this possibility is not very high.

"Unless... unless it's as Brother Dao Wu Qiang said, and they brought Little Potato back here before." He said this with a look of regret on his face. "That was half a year ago. I don't want to say anything bad, but the relevant evidence should have been destroyed by now."

"Take your time. A living person won't just disappear out of thin air." Luo Jingyao raised her head and tried to make her tone cheerful.

The wrinkles between Lin Jiafan's brows did not smooth out at all. There was a hint of inquiry in his eyes as he looked at her. He seemed to be puzzled as to why she cared so much about Little Potato when there were at least dozens of missing children in this case.

After coughing twice, he was about to ask something, but was interrupted by Luo Jingyao's next words.

"What is Officer Guo doing?" She widened her eyes, as if she was really curious about Guo Zhen's every move at the moment.

Lin Jiafan turned his head to take a quick glance and explained, "When performing a detailed autopsy on the victim who died the shortest time ago, although the soil will decompose human hair, skin, and muscle, it will also preserve some evidence from being eroded."

"The climate here is dry year-round, and the underground humidity is low. From another perspective, we're lucky. It's been six months, and the body hasn't completely turned to bones yet; some flesh and tissue still remains. I hope he'll be brave enough to speak up for himself this time."

"I hope so." Luo Jingyao shrank her neck and put her chin into the collar of her baseball jacket.

This year's autumn seems to be particularly short. With this temperature, I'm afraid winter is coming soon... She began to have wild thoughts.

Lin Jiafan, who was standing by, also withdrew his gaze at this moment. What he saw from the side of her face was her big, unfocused eyes staring at him, as if she was daydreaming.

The slightly pink lips were hidden under the stood-up collar of the baseball jacket. Because she had not had any rest for two consecutive days, the delicate lips were even a little chapped.

Lin Jiafan turned his gaze away expressionlessly and quickly continued to do his work. When Luo Jingyao came to her senses again, she saw his busy figure constantly moving around in the yard.

After about twenty minutes, Guo Zhen, who had been squatting there, waved at the man: "Captain Lin."

Lin Jiafan quickly came to the front of the small corpse, lowered his head and signaled the other party to continue with his eyes.

Guo Zhen pointed vaguely at several spots on the victim's body. "Captain Lin, thankfully the unusually dry soil in the yard slowed down the body's decay. I was able to detect signs of abuse on these relatively intact areas of flesh. The wounds show signs of life, indicating they were sustained during life."

Abuse.

Lin Jiafan straightened up slightly, his eyes sweeping over the other completely skeletonized corpses one by one. "Is it possible that Lu Deshu and others used this method to force the abducted children to obey?"

"I can't rule out this possibility, but..." Guo Zhen paused, then continued with great difficulty, "The locations of these abuse injuries are truly overly sensitive, mostly concentrated around the victim's groin, chest, and inner thighs. From a criminal psychology perspective, they're a form of sexual release."

"As for whether the remaining victims experienced this, we probably have no way of knowing."

Any evidence that could not hurt the bones has disappeared silently in the long river of time.

Pedophile?

Lin Jiafan gritted his teeth and cast a sharp gaze on Lu Deshu and others at the other end of the yard, so who could it be?

Luo Jingyao, who was originally hiding under the wall and shivering, heard most of the conversation between the two. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but the temperature around her seemed to drop a few degrees.

She took a few deep breaths, but the stuffy feeling in her chest still did not ease. In desperation, she could only choose to temporarily stay away from those silent victims.

This was the first time she knew that silence could be so deafening.

After walking out of the yard, Luo Jingyao was not surprised to see three cordons outside the door that had been set up at some point.

Outside the cordon, many villagers gathered in groups of three or four. Some of them were cracking melon seeds while pointing in the direction of the factory, their saliva flying with excitement.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman came straight from the back of the crowd. After pushing her way to the front, she even tried to break through the cordon.

Fortunately, two police officers responsible for maintaining order discovered the incident in time and successfully stopped the man.

"Why are you stopping me?! I want to find your leader! I want to ask him what crime my man has committed. You just say take him away and you take him away?!" The middle-aged woman, who failed to get what she wanted, kept shouting, attracting the attention of the onlookers nearby.

"Ma'am, this is the crime scene inside. Non-police personnel are not allowed to enter." One of the policemen said politely.

"I don't care! If you don't let me in, then call out your leader! You must give me an explanation today!" The middle-aged woman was still furious. She accidentally glanced at Luo Jingyao who was standing outside the factory gate watching the excitement, and pointed at her.

"Is she a police officer? She doesn't look like one to me. Why can she go in but I can't?!"

The police officer in charge of maintaining order looked back and said, "Coach Luo is a special consultant in our bureau, so naturally..."

"You've said all the nice and bad things, you're just trying to fool me, right? You won't let me in but insist on going in, let's see what you can do to me!" After the middle-aged woman finished speaking, she simply started to throw a tantrum on the spot, which really made the two policemen at a loss for a moment.

Suddenly, a clear female voice rang out: "Since this elder sister has raised objections to this, can I leave?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Luo Jingyao bent down and crawled out from under the yellow warning line.

The action was so neat and efficient, without any delay, and it directly blocked the middle-aged woman's unreasonable words before she could even come out.

The scene was very embarrassing for a while.

Fortunately, the other party was also flexible. Seeing that there was really no reason for her to show off, she snorted angrily: "I'm waiting here today. You, the Public Security Bureau, must give me an explanation!"

Seeing her look like she was going to accuse someone, Luo Jingyao became curious. She didn't know whose relative this person was among Lu Deshu's gang, and whether she was involved in the case.

She really wasn't being overly suspicious. When her husband did bad things outside, the woman at home would more or less notice it, and some might even be accomplices.

Quickly gathering her thoughts, Luo Jingyao tilted her head and looked at the other person.

He looked to be in his early forties, with large patches of black showing at the roots of his slightly yellow hair. He was about 1.55 meters tall and slightly thin.

"What are you looking at?"

Her scorching gaze made it impossible for the woman to play dumb. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, she turned around, glared at him and questioned him out loud.

"Sister, who is your man?" Luo Jingyao asked with a smile.

Perhaps it was because her attitude was so good, and she looked sweet and smiling, that the other party couldn't say anything unpleasant even though he moved his mouth.

"Tan Hailong!" After hesitating for a while, the middle-aged woman finally uttered a name. Then, as if she had thought of something, she leaned closer to her: "Didn't they say you were a consultant for the police? Have you seen my man?"

Tan Hailong? Lu Deshu's landlord?

Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Luo Jingyao nodded. "Yes, Mr. Tan mentioned you. Shouldn't you be in the city with your children studying? Why are you back?"

She thought carefully, did Lin Jiafan and the others notify the family?

This was the original plan, but Tan Hailong himself refused to provide his family's contact information. In addition, the case has not yet been concluded and there is a possibility of changes, so the police may have chosen to send the notification by mail.

"If I don't come back, this family will fall apart!" The middle-aged woman clapped her hands. "The night he was taken away by the police, his second aunt caught him red-handed. If his second aunt hadn't called me yesterday, I wouldn't have known anything about it!"

"Counselor, please judge for yourself. What did we ordinary people do wrong? We just rented a house. If even renting a house is illegal, why don't they arrest everyone in Yongzhuang Village?!"

Hearing the name blurted out by the other party, Luo Jingyao unconsciously pursed her lips and tried to suppress the corners of her mouth that were twitching wildly.

"As far as I know, Mr. Tan has not yet been charged with any crime, and he has actively assisted the police. He went back to the Public Security Bureau that day to better cooperate with the police's follow-up investigation. Maybe he will be back in two days?" she said soothingly.

"Really?" The middle-aged woman was skeptical.

"Well, no matter what the result is, the family will definitely be notified in the end." Luo Jingyao continued to persuade: "It's so cold today, and some human bones have been dug up in the yard. You should stop standing here."

It would have been fine if she hadn't mentioned it, but once she did, the other person actually felt the wind around them carry a unique chill. Recalling the mutterings of the onlookers, the middle-aged woman finally relented, "Alright then, I'll go home and wait for news."

"It's just right. I want to go to the supermarket at the entrance of the village to buy a bottle of water." Luo Jingyao found an excuse and followed him.

On the way, the two chatted casually, and she also learned that the woman's name was Zhu Xiulan.

When they arrived at Tan Hailong's house, as expected, Zhu Xiulan warmly invited her in for a drink of water. After pretending to refuse, she followed him in with a heartfelt thank you.

It was still the familiar yard and the familiar living room, but what was different from that night was that the originally cold living room had a bit more messy atmosphere of life, and there was a half-grown boy curled up in the gap between the sofa and the coffee table, scribbling on the paper with a colored pen.

"Consultant Luo, please sit wherever you want." After saying this, Zhu Xiulan turned around and went to the kitchen to pour water.

Luo Jingyao walked lightly to the boy's side and glanced at the drawing paper in his hand as if unintentionally. She was stunned after just one glance.

There was a picture of a cat on the paper, a white cat that had been cut into pieces and blood was all over the ground.