Yang Lianhai looked left and right, then lowered his head as if he had done something wrong, and deliberately lowered his voice to speak: "Boss, Brother Bei, do you think it could be that thing?"
"What the heck?" Wang Yaobei frowned, looking completely bewildered.
Chu Xiao reached into his pocket, wanting to take out a cigarette. He opened his palm and saw several hard candies of different flavors.
He was taken aback.
Oh, I remember now. I'm trying to quit smoking. Then, I put the lollipop back in my mouth.
"You went to the scene to investigate? Didn't you find even the slightest clue?" Chu Xiao didn't believe it. No matter what it was, no matter how skilled the murderer was, as long as they did it, they would leave clues.
Wang Yaobei found the case file on the table and handed it to Chu Xiao. "Boss, take a look at the photos we took. There's really nothing there. These two people just vanished into thin air."
Yang Lianhai added: "According to Li Anna, Shi Yimeng's classmate, after evening self-study that night, she and Shi Yimeng were walking in the school corridor. At that time, Li Anna's shoelaces came undone, so she squatted down to tie them. But when she finished tying her shoelaces and looked up, Shi Yimeng was gone."
At first, Li Anna thought it was a prank, so she waited for a while. But after almost everyone at school had left, Shi Yimeng still hadn't appeared. She quickly called Shi Yimeng, but no one answered, and there was no signal—it was very strange. Later, Shi's family sent people to search for her for a long time without success, so they finally called the police.
"The two cases are two days apart. What do they have in common?" Chu Xiao flipped through the documents in his hand, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. "Strange, how can someone just disappear into thin air?"
"That's why I was thinking, could it be that...that thing?" Materialist Yang Lianhai couldn't help but think off-topic.
Chu Xiao remained silent with a sullen face.
The minute hand on the wall ticked away, the sound filling my ears, my heart raced, and I felt a deadly, eerie, and chilling sensation.
Yang Lianhai silently wrapped his police uniform jacket tighter around himself.
Just then, the phone on Chu Xiao's desk rang.
The ringtone broke the silence. Yang Lianhai's voice trembled as he said, "Boss, the phone."
"Don't worry, don't worry, you're a materialist, you have science in your heart, and you uphold the core socialist values." Yang Lianhai comforted himself in this way.
Chu Xiao snapped out of his reverie and answered the phone, "Hello? Beijing Criminal Investigation Bureau."
Chu Xiao's expression turned somewhat strange, as if he had just heard something. Yang Lianhai and Wang Yaobei stared intently at Chu Xiao, even their breathing becoming softer.
"The captain of the Songcheng Criminal Investigation Team? Liu Qinghou? The hero who caught Lei Hengshan last time? Hmm, what's wrong? Are the higher-ups worried about this case? Do they want Songcheng to get involved?"
Chu Xiao lowered his eyes and caught sight of two guys trying to eavesdrop. He couldn't resist the urge to kick them both, put down the microphone, and put the phone on speakerphone.
"Chu Xiao, listen to me. Lei Hengshan's case was very strange back then; he also disappeared from prison out of thin air. So this time, listen to me. I got a contact number from Xiao Liu. Call them and ask for their help. Remember, no one can disappear again. The higher-ups are demanding that we speed up the investigation."
A deep, resonant voice came from the phone. Wang Yaobei and Yang Lianhai exchanged a glance, recognizing the voice as belonging to their former boss, who now apparently held a fairly high position.
Chu Xiao snorted coldly, "I know. What kind of charlatan is this now? At his age, still trying to scam people, unbelievable."
The other party laughed and cursed a couple of times, then gave out a phone number.
Wang Yaobei listened while taking notes.
"Hang up."
Chu Xiao was a little annoyed. He said to Wang Yaobei, "Call them and see who they are."
Yang Lianhai joked, "Is he some kind of old geezer who needs our help to go out on missions and investigate clues?"
Wang Yaobei dialed the number and put it on speakerphone.
Two seconds later, the phone was answered, followed by a clear and pleasant female voice: "Hello, who is this?"
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