Chapter 143 143 The victim must be more than just Ning Pingan...

Although Guan Xia found a key suspect in the disappearance of Ning Xin and her daughter, no one took immediate action after dinner.

Everyone discussed and divided the work among themselves. Some were responsible for surveillance, and some were responsible for investigation. It was not until after three o'clock in the afternoon that they gave each other some instructions and dispersed.

Guan Xia was not in the same group with Pang Le this time because neither of them had police credentials and did not have much experience in interviews, so they were separated and grouped with Ji An and Wang Yu respectively.

Guan Xia and Ji An's mission was to use the excuse of coming to Shangshuang City for development and renting a house for long-term residence to talk to the people in Geng Jing's community and see if they could find out anything.

When we arrived at the residential complex where Geng Jing lived by taxi, it was not yet four o'clock. The sun still had some time to go down, and it was not yet the evening rush hour. There were not many people in the community, and most of them were elderly people sitting in the shade in groups of three or four. There were only a few young people playing in the community.

Guan Xia and Ji An first walked around the community pretending to look for rental information, taking a look at the roads and infrastructure inside the community, then adjusted their facial expressions and walked towards an elderly man who looked relatively kind.

The old man was sitting under a big tree, chatting with another old man next to him. When Guan Xia and Ji An were about ten meters away from her, she turned her head very sharply and watched the two approaching with a smile.

As soon as he approached, before Ji An could say anything, the old man smiled and said, "You two girls are here to rent a house, right? I've been sitting here watching you for a long time. I even made a bet with Old Tiantou about when you would come and ask us."

Ji An also smiled and said, "Grandma, are there any houses for rent in this community?"

The old man said, "Yes, of course there are some. But you are a little late. If you had left it for a month, it would have been a lot, but now it's not possible. The remaining ones are all old and small, and there are not many for you to choose from."

Guan Xia asked curiously, "Is it because there are so many people traveling recently?"

The old man narrowed his eyes and glanced at Guan Xia, then smiled. "Oh, this girl is really pretty and looks so friendly. How old is she?"

Guan Xia smiled and replied, "25."

The old woman said, "You are still young. Come and sit next to grandma and listen to her talk with you."

As he spoke, the old man pushed the old man next to him with some disdain and said, "Why don't you move aside quickly? You are so tactless."

The old man who was pushed was not annoyed. He happily moved to the side, making room for Guan Xia.

Guan Xia subconsciously turned her head to glance at Ji An. Ji An didn't see anything unusual and even pushed her gently. "Go ahead, don't be shy. Whether we can successfully find a house today depends on you."

Guan Xia dealt mostly with children, and had never dealt with the elderly. She was a little at a loss at this moment, and sat down next to the old man with a stiff upper lip.

The old man first asked her a few questions with a smile, such as why she suddenly wanted to rent a house here, whether the work was hard, and whether she wanted to rent it long-term.

After Guan Xia answered all the questions according to the preset answers she and Ji An had discussed before, the old man said, "I can see from a young girl like you that you haven't been to Shangshuang City very often. Our Shangshuang City is a bit special. Don't look at the extremely high temperature these days, but after a few days, after the 15th or 16th, it will not be so hot. Then there will be more tourists coming, and some elderly people will come here to live and stay until after the New Year."

No wonder there are so many people renting houses. Guan Xia nodded with an expression of "I see."

The old man continued, "If you're looking for a long-term rental, there aren't many options right now. If you're looking for a short-term rental, it's okay. I remember the Huang girl's house in Unit 301, Building 12, 2 hasn't been rented out yet, and it seems Old Zhao's old house in Building 19 is also vacant."

The old man was deep in thought when the old man on Guan Xia's other side suddenly said, "I remember there were two empty apartments in Building 14. They seem to be on the third and fourth floors, not that high, and they have two bedrooms and a living room. Wouldn't that be perfect for them?"

The old man showed a disgusted expression when he heard this. "I told you that you have a bad memory and you don't want to listen. Have you forgotten who lives in Building 14? There are only two little girls like these. If they live in the same building with him, how can we have a peaceful life?"

Guan Xia's heart moved when she heard this. She vaguely knew who the two old people were talking about, but she pretended to be ignorant and curious and asked, "Grandma, who are you talking about? Why can't we live in peace if we rent it?"

The old man immediately regained his kind expression, patted Guan Xia's hand and said, "Don't listen to that old guy. Building 14 is not a good place. You are two little girls. If you rent it, you will definitely be bullied."

Guan Xia was about to ask further when the old man looked around and whispered, "There's a scoundrel living in Building 14. He's irritated with everyone and curses at everyone he sees when he's not happy. We've heard that he seems to have had a head injury when he was young and has some mental issues."

Guan Xia hadn't expected this, and couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Mental problems? Mental illness?"

The old man hurriedly said, "Hush, don't say that, especially if he hears. Otherwise, he'll definitely find your house. This guy has a bad temper. Last month, someone's son said something bad about him behind his back, and he heard it. That night, paint was thrown at the door of his house, and he was threatened with chopping him. Look at his behavior, who dares to mess with him?"

Guan Xia was a little stunned. "Isn't this considered a blatant threat? Didn't anyone call the police?"

The old man said, "Who would dare to call the police? For what he did, at most he would be taught a lesson and locked up for three to five days. But when he gets out, he'll use all sorts of tricks to torment people."

Ji An asked calmly, "He's so brave, but he's never done anything that could get him arrested?"

"Well, who knows?" said the old man beside Guan Xia. "He has such a bad temper that he'll scold anyone who looks at him for even a second. None of us dares to stare at him, but I heard he's kidnapped someone before."

Hearing the word "kidnapping", Guan Xia's eyebrows jumped immediately. She exchanged a subtle glance with Ji An and asked with feigned curiosity, "Kidnapping? How did you find out? Logically speaking, shouldn't people who dare to do such things be very secretive? How could someone discover this?"

The old man looked around for a moment before saying mysteriously, "I heard it from Old Li next door. A few years ago, his son went out of town for a trip. On his way back, he passed a van with a supermarket logo printed on it. He didn't pay attention at first, but then he heard the driver cursing. The voice was very familiar, so he remembered that the driver cursing was the one in Building 14."

The old man looked unconvinced. "Then how did he know it was a kidnapping? There are so many people in this world with similar voices."

The old man was questioned and said angrily, "I heard a child crying in the car. The one in Building 14 hasn't had a relationship since he divorced his wife in 2015. Where did the child come from? Old Li said that his son even drove over to take a look to confirm. It was the one in Building 14, and there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat."

"Woman?" the old man said, "Could it be his divorced wife? Why did they get back together again after the divorce? What's she trying to do?"

"No," the old man said, "Old Li said his son didn't dare look any further for fear of getting into trouble. He only took a quick look and didn't see what the woman looked like clearly, but he was sure she wasn't his ex-wife. She was much prettier than his ex-wife, with fair skin and a big face. She looked blessed."

When Guan Xia heard this, she looked at Ji An calmly again and tried hard to remember what the two old men said.

In the following time, perhaps because more and more people came to the community, the two elderly people were afraid that others would hear them and get into trouble, or perhaps they knew that they had said something out of turn and did not want to talk to Guan Xia and the others anymore. They quickly changed the subject and returned to the matter of renting a house.

It was almost 9 o'clock in the evening and it was dark before Guan Xia and Ji An escaped from the community.

They acted out the whole thing, looked at the house and left the landlord's phone number. They said they would go back and think about it, then took a taxi and went straight back to the hotel.

Instead of going back to their room directly, they went to Wang Yu's room.

As expected, except for Guan Xia and Ji An, everyone else was already in the room eating and discussing.

As soon as the two entered the door, Pang Le asked, "How is it? Is everything going well? Nothing happened?"

As Pang Le spoke, he scanned Guan Xia from head to toe with a worried look on his face. Seeing that Guan Xia was indeed fine, he returned his gaze to Guan Xia's face.

Guan Xia took off her messenger bag and threw it on another empty bed. While drinking water, she said, "It went smoothly. We met two elderly people in Geng Jing's residential complex this afternoon and found a suspected eyewitness to the disappearance of Ning Xin and her daughter five years ago."

These two sentences were beyond everyone's expectations, and everyone's expression was delighted. "We've got something so soon?"

Ji An also drank half a bottle of water in one gulp and said with a smile, "This is all thanks to Guan Xia. I guess her appearance caught the eye of those two old people, so they talked too much without realizing it and took the opportunity to bring up this topic. Judging from their expressions and body movements, there is a certain amount of exaggeration in them, but the story about the eyewitness to the disappearance of Ning Xin and her daughter five years ago is most likely true."

Ji An recounted the two old men's words very accurately.

Zhong Xiaoyu said, "Team Leader Zhou mentioned this during the day: what was Geng Jing's ex-wife's name? Something like Lotus. We're doing well here, but it looks like Team Leader Zhou's efforts have been in vain."

Xu Nian said in a deep voice, "Her skin is very fair, a very blessed face for an old man. If we follow Geng Jing's lead, we should find something soon since five years have passed since the case."

Pang Le was a little puzzled by this and looked at Ji An and said, "Speaking of which, Sister Ji, five years ago, Ning Xin and her daughter were tricked into getting into Geng Jing and his car on the main road. The main road should be covered with cameras. How come Geng Jing and his friends haven't been identified in five years?"

Ji An said: "I watched the surveillance video before and after the incident. The two people had simple disguises when they were on the main road, and their full faces were not clearly captured in the video."

Pang Le said with some confusion: "According to common sense, Ning Xin is in poor health and has a daughter, so she should be very cautious. Why would she not wait for roadside assistance but get into a passing car? I always feel that something doesn't make sense. It's weird."

Guan Xia turned to look at Ji An and asked, "Sister Ji, you later recovered the data on Ning Xin's phone. Apart from the recording, is there anything special?"

Ji An said, "We found many outgoing calls on Ning Xin's phone that didn't go through. The road she was driving on was a main road, so there wasn't a place with poor signal. So we suspected that the section of road where Ning Xin's car broke down must have been blocked by a signal jammer. But later, colleagues from the Nanping Branch searched for Ning Xin's car but couldn't find it."

Zhong Xiaoyu hissed, "What a huge deal! They've even brought out the signal jammers. What on earth are these people trying to do? A four-year-old child is so worthy of their efforts. What could be so coveted about her? Her organs? Selling her heart, liver, lungs, corneas, and the like separately would be really valuable."

Guan Xia was horrified when she heard this and turned to ask Zhong Xiaoyu, "A four-year-old child's body parts haven't fully developed yet. Even if there's an organ transplant, it can't bear the strain of an adult's body."

"That's better than waiting to die," Zhong Xiaoyu said. "I remember seeing a news story about a biological father and daughter, or perhaps a biological father and son. The father had kidney failure and was a good match for the child, so they ended up getting a kidney transplant from the child. But the child wasn't that young; he seemed to be in his teens."

Zhong Xiaoyu's words gave everyone a direction for investigation.

Everyone immediately fell into deep thought. Xu Nian asked, "Sister Ji, did you consider and investigate this aspect at the time?"

Ji An's expression was very grim. He shook his head and said, "Considering that the child was too young, and Ning Xin was only confirmed missing at the time, and not known to be dead, the investigation was more focused on investigating the adults' social relationships."

Guan Xia's expression was equally unhappy. She thought to herself that, it seemed that in addition to Geng Jing, they also had to start their investigation from Ning Ping'an. After all, if it was really organ trafficking, then there would definitely be more than one victim, Ning Ping'an.