When the police found him, he seemed a little flustered, but when questioned, he insisted that he had seen Li Jingjing that day.

In this situation, an experienced police officer could tell at a glance that he was lying.

However, Zhou Qingbei seemed to be afraid of something, and no matter how the police tried to scare him, he wouldn't say anything.

In the end, the police had no choice but to secretly investigate Zhou Qingbei's route that day.

The search yielded a considerable amount of information.

According to numerous witnesses, Zhou Qingbei was seen in the park with several people that day, about seven or eight in total, including both men and women.

The reason why everyone remembers it so clearly is because this group of people looked very flamboyant and all looked like children of officials.

Among these people, one girl's description was very similar to Li Jingjing's.

Therefore, it can be confirmed that Li Jingjing was with them that day.

With the evidence in hand, the police interrogated Zhou Qingbei again.

This time, Zhou Qingbei was much calmer and admitted it directly after being questioned by the police.

It is said that Li Jingjing was indeed with them that day, and there were two women and four men with them, all of whom were his friends.

He was originally supposed to have a date with Li Jingjing that day, but he ran into her friends on the way and went with them. The group spent the day together, and then parted ways to go home in the evening.

The reason he had kept it a secret before was because he was afraid his family would find out that he was dating.

The police, of course, didn't believe him and asked him for more details about where he had gone. However, he couldn't explain many of the details clearly, only saying that he went to the park and then strolled around the streets before they parted ways.

After that, Li Jingjing went home by herself, but he didn't know whether she actually made it home.

This statement is clearly contradictory; if they had only done these things, it would have been impossible for them to not separate until evening.

Zhou Qingbei insisted on this, and because there was no evidence, coupled with pressure from Zhou Qingbei's family, the police had no choice but to release him first, and then begin investigating and interrogating those who were with them that day.

However, the investigation revealed that these people were not simple individuals; their parents were either leaders or high-ranking officials. When the police wanted to interrogate them, they could not be too forceful.

Fortunately, everyone cooperated well at the beginning, but what they said was similar to what Zhou Qingbei said.

Among the group of five men and three women, including Zhou Qingbei and Li Jingjing, there was a young couple who separated from them after leaving the park. They were not sure what happened after that, but everything before that matched up.

However, since it was the first time the two had met Li Jingjing, they were not familiar with each other and didn't know much about each other.

Although the others were said to be Zhou Qingbei's friends, they weren't actually that close to him. It seemed that Zhou Qingbei was the one who was always trying to get close to them.

These people were also meeting Li Jingjing for the first time, so they didn't know much either. Their answers seemed to be consistent: they all said that after leaving the park, they strolled around the streets and then, feeling that it was getting late, they went their separate ways.

Therefore, the police did not obtain any useful clues after the first interrogation.

However, due to their identities, the police at the local police station could not detain them or interrogate them indefinitely without evidence.

There is no conclusive evidence that Li Jingjing's disappearance is related to these people.

So even though they knew there might be something wrong with what these people were saying, they didn't dare to be too forceful.

So the case got stuck there and had to be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division.

...