Chapter 20: The Desire of Food and Bite

"Sir, it was my mistake."

Yang Zhao's eyes were red as he quickly led him to the gate of Huajiang University, where Chen Shuang was busy retrieving access control and surveillance records from the school.

"No need to say more, let's bring her back as soon as possible." Du Yanze walked hurriedly.

He had a hunch that this matter was related to FA, or more directly, to Han Huai. He had just caught a glimpse of Han Huai in Country G when this happened here.

But if these two things are related, then the SDD interior is not entirely trustworthy.

"I clearly saw her scan the door to enter the school last night. But her roommates clearly stated that she was not in the dormitory, and she was not in the door control and surveillance records in front of the dormitory building."

Du Yanze glanced around the gates of Huajiang University. This was the west gate of Huajiang University. It was not the main gate and was not close to the snack street and business district. It was not close to the dormitory building, but you could quickly walk to the back street by taking a shortcut from here. Deng Shan usually walked this way.

Du Yanze walked from the school gate all the way to the back street, paying attention to several surveillance cameras along the way.

"Have all the surveillance cameras outside been retrieved?"

Yang Zhao responded in a deep voice, and some of the police officers under Chen Shuang were checking the surveillance along the way.

Missing cases are not like clear-cut murder and trafficking cases. Normally, they cannot be filed in such a short time. However, Du Yanze reported Deng Shan's special identity to the police in advance, so that special cases can be handled specially.

Du Yanze walked all the way to the alley and stopped. The surveillance cameras above his head were all off, and some of them had their heads obviously tilted, and some were even just frames left.

"The surveillance cameras here have been broken for years. There was one camera that could be used before, but due to the recent continuous rain, the cameras that could be used have fallen into disrepair and are basically broken."

Du Yanze didn't say anything, he just walked in. The alley wasn't too narrow, but some of the paths were a little crowded, and there were electric cars coming from behind, so pedestrians had to stick close to the wall to let them pass.

There are several small paths with few gates, and many of them are pure courtyard walls. In the wide areas, you can even see the battery sheds built by the families themselves.

But in order to make it look good, the overall paint tones and styles are highly similar, and you will get lost just by looking at the house numbers.

Du Yanze and Yang Zhao had both received professional training, and it was daytime, so they naturally would not get lost. They explored around and quickly found their way out.

"The population structure here is not complicated. Neighbors in the old city all know each other well. There are few houses here for rent or sale, and most of the residents are elderly people."

It was morning now, and the rain had stopped for a while, but the clouds were still there, the sky was dim, and everything was gray. Du Yanze stood at the exit and looked inside. The dark and intricate streets were like a maze.

"I don't understand why Deng Shan came out again. Her close friends are limited to students in the same major. She usually goes out to eat and go shopping with her roommates. There is no reason for her to go out in the rain at night."

They are not sure where Deng Shan was offended, but fortunately they can confirm that she has not made any new friends recently, friends whom she could call out alone on a rainy day.

Du Yanze didn't make any speculations, but just kept observing the terrain and asking a few questions from time to time.

He turned around and walked into the alley again, and said to Yang Zhao as he walked:

"There are students and security guards at the school gate. The road leading from the school is a main road with shops and vehicles passing by. There are also surveillance cameras, so the possibility of violence is very small. But it is very likely here."

“How many openings are there here?”

"There are four ports. The monitoring of this port is broken. The other three are normal. We are adjusting the monitoring."

It seems that Chen Shuang has also focused here and is moving quickly. I think there will be results soon.

"It rained all night last night, and I was afraid..." Yang Zhao took a deep breath and didn't even notice that his hands were shaking.

She is from SDD. Although she is a newcomer with a low rank and has not investigated many cases, she fully understands what will happen to Cake if she falls into Fork's hands.

Not everyone is like Du Yanze, who can escape unscathed from Fork's clutches. Most of them are missing limbs after being rescued.

Lin Ye, who was rescued from the Feng You case, has not yet regained consciousness. He is not awake for a whole day and screams and hides when he comes into contact with strangers.

She used to be a girl like Deng Shan, complaining about being too tired at work and grumbling about overtime, but she could still have fun watching some abstract videos for a long time, and occasionally she would dress up to go out for dinner and dates.

Her life wasn't supposed to be like this.

Du Yanze did not comfort her, but asked her to follow him in a deep voice: "Calm down, Deng Shan is not as fragile as you think. They will not act so quickly, we still have time."

The alleys were crisscrossed, Du Yanze and Yang Zhao explored separately, and soon Chen Shuang, who had just finished her investigation at school, also rushed over. She assigned a group to follow the two to investigate, while another group visited the people.

The roads in the neighborhood are paved with cement, and many places are not even that flat. After it rains, there are even shallow puddles on the ground.

The walls, the ground, and even the tiles on the eaves were washed clean by the rain.

Du Yanze frowned and looked around, and suddenly asked a police officer beside him: "Do students from Huajiang University often walk here?"

The police officer thought for a while and replied, "This is the shortest way to the back street and the central commercial street. Students should all go this way."

Du Yanze thought for a moment, took out his mobile phone, opened the commonly used map app and searched for the route.

At this time, a police officer on the side saw his action and suddenly said: "My sister is from Huajiang University. She seemed to have mentioned that this area is notoriously easy to get lost. Every year, freshmen who want to go out to play will go the wrong way even with a navigation system."

"After that, many seniors in the Huajiang University freshman group will make a special guide. It's hard to say for other people, but students from Huajiang University should not get lost and wander around here."

What he meant was that Deng Shan was a student at Huajiang University and should be familiar with how to get around, and the incident might have happened on the road she most frequently took.

Du Yanze neither agreed nor refuted, but just led them back to the original entrance and walked again along the route Yang Zhao told him.

In fact, Du Yanze and Yang Zhao had just taken this road and did not notice anything unusual, but Du Yanze suddenly called out to the police officer: "Can you find the guide?"

"It's not difficult. I'll just ask my sister for it."

Du Yanze opened the guide, which had text descriptions and real-life pictures, but it was obvious that the pictures were not new, as the walls in the pictures had not been painted.

"Newbies, please make sure you look for this sign. Go straight along the first section until you see house number 8. Don't hesitate and turn left at the next intersection..."

Du Yanze followed the guide and paid attention to the house numbers along the way.

These house numbers are not hung high on the walls of the houses. Here are even bungalows with yards. The house numbers are small rectangular signs nailed to the protruding wall pillars.

Du Yanze walked all the way to No. 8 and stopped. They had checked here several times and everything was normal. This time, Du Yanze moved closer to the wall, frowned, put on gloves and touched the edge of the house number.

Du Yanze moved closer to the doorplate and touched the edge of it with his finger. This doorplate didn't seem to be as tight as the others.

A few presses with fingers would still cause some water to leak out, and Du Yanze could remove a corner of the nail with just one pull.

"Sir, the residents said they didn't hear any noise."

Du Yanze nodded, pointed at the sign, and called another police officer to go back with him.

Du Yanze touched the house number 7 twice again and found that it was hammered very tightly, almost flat against the wall. Du Yanze used his fingers to poke a few times but couldn't even pull the nail head out.

Du Yanze quickly gave up and continued to move forward.

In front of house number 6, the situation is somewhat similar to that of house number 8. Du Yanze can even tear it down completely.

“When was this place renovated?”

The police officer following him immediately replied, "It started last year and just ended this spring. The house numbers were also installed this spring."

Most of the newly installed door numbers should be nailed as tightly as No. 7 after a few months, but No. 6 and No. 8 are different. When they are taken down, you can still see the damp wall behind them.

Du Yanze did not jump to conclusions. He just asked everyone in a deep voice to pay attention to the house numbers. No one mentioned the issue of loose house numbers.

When Yang Zhao heard the news, she rushed over quickly. Without saying anything more, she took her men to carefully check the area around No. 6.

This place was only searched once before, without any focused investigation.

Yang Zhao walked to the alley on the left to check, not even sparing the battery-powered car that was casually placed aside. From the traces, it seemed that the car should have been placed here in the morning. Yang Zhao squatted down and looked at the wall.

A blue bead with a special pattern lay quietly in the corner, soaking in the puddle.

Yang Zhao's pupils shrank, the clicking sound of the cell phone chain from last night seemed to still be in front of his eyes.

“Found it!”

"These are the beads on Shanshan's new phone chain. She showed them to me yesterday. She said these beads are very special. Each one has the same color but a different pattern. She picked them out on purpose."

Yang Zhao knew this was too pale, just like Du Yanze found that the house number was wrong, but he did not easily draw conclusions, but just tried to focus on the search...

"Are there a lot of beads?" But Du Yanze chose to believe her and asked her to put them in an evidence bag and take a photo of it to everyone, asking them to keep an eye out for similar ones.

Yang Zhao tried hard to recall and nodded quickly. With a specific goal and direction, the result came quickly.

"Map." Du Yanze took the map in a deep voice and marked the locations he found.

A route with an almost closed beginning and end unfolds before everyone.

If their guess was correct, Deng Shan's route last night should have been walking around the alley again and again and getting lost.

This could only be intentional on Deng Shan's part. She might have realized something was wrong when she got lost.

Du Yanze and Yang Zhao have been intentionally or unintentionally instilling some self-help methods in her. They also told her how to report the incident via text message, and repeatedly reminded her that it is better to misunderstand than to regret.

Deng Shan sometimes thinks they are nagging, but now it seems that they can at least think of it at the critical moment.

"If it's confirmed that the incident happened in the alley, they could only have gone out from the side where there's no surveillance?" A police officer immediately made this guess.

At this time, Du Yanze's cell phone rang. It was Chen Shuang who returned to the police station to check the surveillance.

"I think you need to come and see it in person." Chen Shuang's tone made everyone's heart sink.

Du Yanze didn't waste any time, but before getting in the car, he said to Yang Zhao who was going to follow him, "Go to the store and check the surveillance footage from yesterday, especially pay attention to whether there are any suspicious people."

Yang Zhao was stunned for a moment and understood what he meant.

They speculated that Deng Shan came out of school and walked back to the store, passing by this block. Someone deliberately changed the house number, causing Deng Shan to get lost, and then took her away.

If so, that says a lot.

Deng Shan's return was a spur of the moment decision.

There are students living here every day, and changing the house number in advance is easy to be discovered. But the other party is very sure that Deng Shan will go back today and pass by here.

This is contradictory, unless they did something that forced Deng Shan to go back today.

Then maybe you can find something if you check the store’s surveillance.

The rain outside gradually began to fall, and Du Yanze sorted out the clues in his hands.

"The surveillance camera captured a blurry shadow passing by at the north alley. After reconstruction, it was confirmed to be Deng Shan."

Du Yanze looked intently, but the surveillance camera was slowed down, so he could only see a shadow holding an umbrella passing by in the lower corner of the screen, and his arm could be vaguely seen.

"We compared the clothes she wore that day and were basically sure it was her. We reviewed the surveillance footage from other angles repeatedly, and this was the only one that was captured."

No one spoke for a while, and no one thought this was a breakthrough. This little scene...

"However, we can confirm that she is not alone. The angle of the umbrella and the proportion of the screen can be confirmed by our colleagues in the technical department. It is unlikely that Deng Shan is this tall. She is probably about 1.8 to 1.9 meters tall."

Chen Shuang gestured to bring up another video clip.

"This is the video footage from the northern alley exit."

The police officer tapped the keyboard to freeze the picture, which was gradually analyzed successfully, revealing a smiling face.

It’s Han Huai.

"With this, we can bring him in for questioning. You know the rules. One day at most."

Chen Shuang said too much. According to common sense, the most she could do was to bring people to visit and inquire.

Du Yanze let out a breath slowly and looked at Han Huai's smiling face on the screen as he turned his head to look directly at the surveillance camera.

"Sir, I think I know why Deng Shan returned again."

At this time, Yang Zhao called and sent a surveillance video.

In the picture, Deng Shan is looking at the computer at the counter. She does most of her homework when no one is in the store. After a while, she pulls out the USB drive and puts away the computer.

Not long after, Han Huai appeared. It was just around five or six in the afternoon, when people were getting off work.

Gradually, more people came into the store, and Han Huai walked to the counter to help her. Because of Du Yanze's instructions, Deng Shan didn't talk much to Han Huai.

Han Huai quickly took the USB drive away and hid it naturally in a potted plant on the side.

Du Yanze sent the video to Chen Shuang, but he knew in his heart that it was better than nothing.

Du Yanze let out a long sigh and was sure that since it was Han Huai, Deng Shan was relatively safe. At least Han Huai would not be in a hurry to hurt Deng Shan.

He turned aside and pulled out his phone to message Oliver.

Han Huai has already torn his relationship with Tang Zhilu, and there should be movement from Tang Zhilu soon.

*

Just as they expected, Han Huai came in and came out safe and sound within a day.

Du Yanze stood at the door of the police station looking at the rain, holding a cigarette in his mouth, which was rare. The strands of hair on his forehead were blown by the wind, revealing a pair of cold eyes.

Han Huai walked over quickly with a smile, stood beside Du Yanze and greeted him: "Long time no see, Mr. Du."

Du Yanze was holding a cigarette in his mouth. He just smiled when he heard the words and had no intention of responding.

Han Huai didn't care. He took out a lighter from his pocket. It was very unique in shape. It was black with only two cursive letters in gold: "FA"

Han Huai lit the cigarette skillfully, and a flame sprang up. He reached out to light it for Du Yanze. Du Yanze just glanced at it and asked him to light it as usual.

"This lighter belongs to my father, but he didn't give it to me. He told me that he only likes the best children and would only give them things."

"It seems that you are lacking fatherly love." Du Yanze sneered.

"You're right. I'm neither his biological child nor the one he considers to be the best." Han Huai's face, which always showed a smile, suddenly went blank.

He turned to look at Du Yanze, with an inorganic indifference in his eyes, which was different from Tang Zhilu's relaxed look as if everything was under control. It was a bloodthirsty threat.

"But soon I will be."

Han Huai turned around and left, but Du Yanze laughed and said softly: "I killed him with my own hands, and you still want to fight for the favor of a dead man?"

Han Huai turned to look at Du Yanze. The expression on his face twisted for a moment, then slowly and strangely calmed down.

"Because I am different from you. I will not choose to betray my father."