Chapter 102 Xia Bai 2
Zhuo Changdong from the Information Department was stunned after seeing the photo. He recognized the person in the photo. It was Xia Bai.
He didn't ask any more questions, but understood the importance of the matter even more. He immediately uploaded the photos to the system for scanning and retrieval.
After Ling Changye passed the photo to him, he walked behind him.
The name Ji Bai is not uncommon. If you enter this name into the system, you will find that there are many people with this name across the country.
Zhuo Changdong had already searched for this name in the system. Among several pages of Ji Bai, none of them was related to the homicide case, so he needed a photo to search. As long as any department had a photo of Ji Bai in its system, he could search it out and find related events.
Ling Changye stared at the countless photos flashing by, not knowing whether he should look forward to it.
He hopes to help Xia Bai find out his life experience and fill the gap of his first twelve years of life.
He was also afraid that Ji Bai was really related to Xia Bai, and he didn't want Xia Bai to have such a tragic childhood, even though he lived in love most of the time.
The flashing photos stopped.
It stopped on a picture of a boy, a three-year-old boy.
Ling Changye stared at the photo in surprise. The boy in the photo really looked like Xia Bai. He also looked a little dull and didn't like to smile. Because of this cute expression, he was sure at first glance that this was Xia Bai when he was a child.
But why three years old?
Ji Bai should be between ten and eleven years old.
Ling Changye knew it immediately.
This is not Ji Bai, but Jiang Bai.
"Captain Ling, look, this is the missing child from fifteen years ago." Zhuo Changdong said to him excitedly, "It matches... his age, just a few months difference."
Ling Changye took a deep breath. He could see the screen clearly while standing comfortably, but he still leaned closer to the screen.
Fifteen years ago, the network systems of any department were not very intelligent, and the record of this case was very simple, with only the name and phone number of the child's parents, the child's photo, age, and home address. It should have been sorted into the system later without much elaboration.
Jiang Bai was lost in Bac Ninh City fifteen years ago when he was only three years old. His parents reported him to the police on the day he went missing. This is the only information available about the missing person case. There is no follow-up record of whether he was found or not.
But Ling Changye felt that this Jiang Bai was most likely Ji Bai.
He was lost when he was three years old, and was later adopted by the Castle couple, who raised him until he was about ten years old. If he was Xia Bai, then no one knew what he went through after he turned ten, and he appeared in Grandpa Xia's yard when he was twelve years old, and has been growing up until now.
Ling Changye stared at the photo on the page and heard Zhuo Changdong say in surprise: "His father is actually Jiang Qingfeng!"
"Who?" Ling Changye's mind was on Jiang Bai and he didn't react for a moment. When he moved his gaze to his father's column, he remembered who Jiang Qingfeng was.
He had no specific dealings with Jiang Qingfeng and had only bought one of his paintings. Jiang Qingfeng was a very famous painter, the only painter who had to go to an auction to buy his paintings. His wife, Jiang Yitong, who was listed as the mother, had business dealings with the Ling family and was a well-known iron-blooded woman in the business world.
"Jiang Qingfeng? Jiang Yitong?" An elderly man in the study raised his head upon hearing the voice. "I remember it, I remember it!"
Ling Changye immediately looked at him, "Uncle Li, what did you remember?"
Uncle Li said, "I remembered that the Jiang family was indeed related to a murder case."
"Jiang Yitong's husband is a painter, the same Jiang Qingfeng you just mentioned. They have a son. Jiang Qingfeng took his son to sketch outdoors, and the son got lost. They have been looking for him ever since. Later, many years later, the police told them that they had found a boy who might be their son, and asked them to come over."
Ling Changye frowned, "Have they found their son?"
Uncle Li shook his head. "By the time they got there, the kid had disappeared."
"Didn't the police find it?" Ling Changye asked, "How could it disappear?"
Uncle Li sighed, "It just disappeared. At that time, the Jiang family and the local police station had a serious dispute over this matter, but because it was so bizarre, it was suppressed. Only people of the older generation like us knew about it. Madam must know it better."
Ling Changye said, "You continue to search for bizarre murders in Beining City and try to contact the police who contacted the Jiang family back then to find out what happened."
At two o'clock in the morning, Ling Changye finally found the information he wanted.
"Captain Ling, we found the police who were in charge of this case. They did find Jiang Bai at a crime scene. It was in a manor in a forest. This manor was an old manor that was built a long time ago. It was bought by a couple and renovated and raised several children."
"Their entire family was killed by a mentally ill person. Everyone else died on the spot, including the mentally ill person. Only Jiang Bai was sent to the hospital. He was also seriously injured. I heard that he was lucky to be alive."
"When Jiang's family arrived, he had disappeared from the hospital. In that era, surveillance cameras were not so common. The only surveillance cameras were near the main gate of the hospital. No one saw him go out through the gate, and no one saw where he went."
Ling Changye asked: "How old was Jiang Bai at that time?"
The other side said: "If he is Jiang Bai, he should be ten and a half years old."
Ling Changye asked again: "Was it eight years ago?"
The other party replied: "Less than eight years, seven years and seven months to be exact."
Ling Changye's fingers trembled, "Go to Minshi Village and investigate. In which year did Xia Bai first appear in their village?"
The other side agreed.
Ling Changye put down his phone and looked out the window. In the night sky, the white moon and gray clouds overlapped.
Today is the anniversary of my father’s death, seven years ago.
In fact, this day is not necessarily the anniversary of my father’s death, but this day seven years ago was the date of his death.
Before that day, his father had disappeared for more than half a year. If we count accurately, his father disappeared seven years and seven months ago.
Ling Changye sat on the bed and pinched his solar plexus in the dim room.
He took the phone and dialed a number. The phone beeped and the call was connected soon.
"Hello, how are you? Who is this?" A slightly hoarse voice came from the other side.
Ling Changye held the phone in his hand for a few seconds before he laughed, "It's been so many years, and you haven't changed your phone number yet."
"How do you know I haven't changed my phone number? Who are you?" The voice on the other end sounded doubtful and a little defensive.
"I bought one of your paintings a few years ago. I want to buy another one, so I called your mobile phone number."
The voice on the other end turned cold. "I'm sorry, I don't have any paintings to sell. You should find other channels to buy them. Also, it's best not to buy things from people at three in the morning in the future."
"Okay." Ling Changye was very polite, "Thank you for your teachings."
“…”
The call was hung up.
Ling Changye stared at his phone for a while and wanted to call Xia Bai, but when he thought of the teachings just now, he held back.
At this time, Xia Bai was sleeping soundly on a bed of small white flowers.
He slept until noon and the alarm he set didn't wake him up.
He opened his eyes and felt the glare of the sun. He was still a little uncomfortable as it was no longer dim in the castle. He immediately sat up and picked up the phone next to his pillow.
Apart from group chat messages, there was no other specific contact with him.
Xia Bai thought about it and sent a message to Ling Changye.
Dirty Bun: [Captain, I woke up and got up right away.]
: [Don't worry, get up, have brunch, and go to the hot springs. I'll take you to see my dad at 4pm?]
Dirty Bun: [Okay!]
Xia Bai collapsed on the bed again.
It was not until Lin Xiang called him to have lunch together that he got up from bed and washed up.
"Hey, Xia Bai, you don't know, I jumped out of bed as soon as I woke up and went to the study to study." Lin Xiang complained when they went to eat together, "But when I realized it was daytime and in the hotel, wow, I felt a sudden sense of happiness."
Xia Bai: "I'm a little slow to react."
Lin Xiang nodded repeatedly, "By the way, aren't you going to your boyfriend's house?"
Xia Bai: “…”
What boyfriend’s family? Can’t we just talk properly?
Xia Bai asked back: "What about you? Aren't you here to see us on behalf of your parents?"
Lin Xiang said, "I will go in the afternoon. We will go to sweep the graves together at 3 pm. Do you want to go?"
Xia Bai then realized that at 3pm, people who came to pay respect to Ling Changye's father would go for the scan, which would end at 4pm. Ling Changye was going to take him to see his father after they left.
Xia Bai told Lin Xiang the truth, which resulted in Lin Xiang falling silent for a while.
After a while, Lin Xiang uttered a word: "Heh."
Xia Bai had a blank face, pretending not to understand what he meant, and walked towards the restaurant with a confused look on his face.
Ye Jiuyue prepared an elegant private room for them, which was located above a hot spring lake. Walking across the stone bridge and stepping into the door, Xia Bai saw Hua Haoming, Yang Mei, Jing Yan and probably all the players from the Game Management Bureau in the hotel, all looking forward to it.
The Hongmen Banquet.
Xia Bai's foot retreated.
Xia Bai was pushed by Lin Xiang and led into the door.
Xia Bai sat down resignedly, "You guys ask?"
"When did you and the captain get together?"
"What do you like about Captain Ling?"
"Love at first sight or love that grows over time?"
"How far have you come? Is the captain gentle?"
…
Xia Bai: “…”
Xia Bai was stunned for a moment, and said, "I have the right to remain silent and let the captain answer your questions."
“…”
Hua Haoming turned to look at Yang Mei, "Who asked you to ask such a private question?"
After saying that, he looked at Xia Bai, "We just want to know when you and the captain were together? What do you like about the captain? His corpse?"
Xia Bai: "...The one I was with yesterday also liked his corpse."
To prevent them from asking more questions, Xia Bai said, "We really just got together. This is my first time in love. I can't really explain it. Maybe it was love at first sight."
Yang Mei thought of the scene when they first met, feeling a little dazed, "Can we still fall in love at first sight like that?"
Jing Yan and Lin Xiang stretched their necks at the same time, like two curious cats, "What is it?"
Yang Mei: "At that time, the captain and I had just come out of the large orthopedic hospital in Quanguang City. The captain was dismembered by the devil doctor in the game. When the game was closed, his body parts were scattered in a pile of corpses and a sea of blood. It was Xia Bai who pieced the captain back together."
Hua Haoming: "I found the answer. It has to be this way. Otherwise, Xia Bai wouldn't have fallen in love at first sight."
“…”
The feeling of the truth.
Xia Bai tried hard to speak for himself, "Later, I fell in love with the captain's person."
Hua Haoming: "Don't explain. Your explanation reveals your guilty conscience."
“…”
Fortunately, they were about to set out to visit the graves at two o'clock, otherwise if they were questioned for a few more hours, Xia Bai would doubt his pure love for the captain.
Yang Mei asked Xia Bai: "Aren't you going? You are the one who should go."
Xia Bai: "Captain, come pick me up at four o'clock."
“…”
I was caught off guard and ate another mouthful of dog food. Who are they? They are insignificant people who were sent away together with those annoying people. Xia Bai is the most important one, the one who should be brought there specially.
Xia Bai didn't know what the scene was like when visiting the graves at three o'clock.
He only knew that when Ling Changye brought him to the foot of the mountain, there was no one there, the sky was getting dark, the dusk was deep, and there was silence everywhere.
Ling Changye took Xia Bai's hand and led him up the mountain.
Xia Bai looked at Ling Changye's face, which seemed even more handsome in the twilight, and asked him, "Captain, you still don't believe that Dad is gone?"
"I just didn't believe it the year before my father disappeared. Later, it wasn't that I didn't believe he was dead, I was just investigating his sudden disappearance." He turned to look at Xia Bai: "Tell me, is it true that someone can disappear from this world without leaving any trace?"
Hearing him ask this, Xia Bai knew that he hadn't found any clues about his father's disappearance in the past few years, but he still said, "No, there must be traces left."
"If there is no trace now, there must be some reason."
Ling Changye hummed, "I also believe there will be traces."
As they talked, they walked to the halfway point of the mountain and saw white flowers along the way. The fragrance of chrysanthemums and lilies mixed in the twilight, bringing the subtle fragrance of spring and autumn to the cold mountain in winter.
There are white flowers all along the way, and at the end is a cemetery.
Ling Changye felt that Xia Bai's hand was a little tense, and said to him: "Don't be so serious, there is no body of Dad here, he is not here, this is just a place for the living to think about."
Xia Bai didn't relax at all, his body remained stiff, staring straight at the photo on the tombstone.
The last time Xia Bai saw the face in the photo was two days before he entered the game.
He ventilated the gods of joy in the house at night and moved them out to bask in the moonlight with him.
Just before this moonbathing, Xia Bai had drawn them into the family tree, carefully depicting their faces.
At that time, he had not learned to paint properly, so he could only say that the nose he drew was a nose and the eyes were eyes, and he could not tell how similar they were. But he would never forget the faces he looked at carefully.
Later, they disappeared.
Later, he went into the game to find them.
He never found it and asked many people to help him look for it.
When those people asked him who he was looking for, he always said it was the god of happiness in their family.
He didn't lie.
As far as Xia Bai can remember, there has been a God of Joy in his family.
He first saw the bodies and asked his grandfather what they were.
Grandpa said at the time: "They are the gods of joy. The gods of joy are the corpses driven by us corpse drivers. Didn't I tell you that when I was young, I was a corpse driver and drove many corpses. These few were homeless, so Grandpa kept them and gave them a home."
Xia Bai nodded, "Give them a home, and we will be their family?"
Grandpa smiled happily, "Yes, we are their family. When leaves fall, they return to their roots. They also have a home."
From then on, Xia Bai treated them as his family, and from time to time he would take them out to relax and talk.
Grandpa said that their yard was a Feng Shui treasure land that he carefully selected, so these gods of happiness would not be corrupted, so they always looked the same as the first time he saw them, and one of them looked like the person in the photo on the tombstone.
Exactly the same.
Xia Bai's head was rumbling.
Ling Changye’s father disappeared seven or eight years ago. When his grandfather was young, he was driving corpses. It was at least thirty or forty years ago. How could he have driven Ling Changye’s father?
Yes, later they found out that their grandfather was actually a very powerful player who could subdue and control corpses. The gods of happiness in their family were brought out by their grandfather from the game, so they could remain uncorrupted for many years. That’s why they were sucked back into the game world when the game approached.
But that's not right. He had seen those gods of joy since he was twelve years old, which was seven years ago. The Game Management Bureau first discovered the abnormality in the game three years ago.
This was the issue of game time that he had previously ignored and had not confirmed.
Did the game come seven years ago?
When Ling Changye's father disappeared, was he actually sucked into the game? Only when he was sucked into the game would he disappear from this world without a trace.
Then the person Grandpa brought out from the game world was not an NPC but a player who died in the game. Wouldn't Grandpa's skills be similar to his? Is it such a coincidence?
what is going on?
Xia Bai squatted down little by little.
Ling Changye, who was holding his hand, picked him up again, held him in his arms and asked him: "Xia Bai, what's going on? Don't be nervous, tell me."
Xia Bai pointed at the photo on the tombstone in a daze, "Captain, do you remember that I was looking for my family's God of Happiness? That, Dad, looks exactly like a God of Happiness in my family. I think it's not right. There must be something."
"Don't worry."
Ling Changye was also shocked that his father and the god of happiness that Xia Bai had been looking for looked the same, but he also felt that it was reasonable for his father's body and Xia Bai to appear in the same place.
If Xia Bai is Jiang Bai, then seven years ago, almost eight years ago, they both disappeared from this world without a trace.
However, a year later, Xia Bai appeared in this world alive again, while his father became a corpse.
Last night he asked someone to check when Xia Bai appeared in Minshi Village. He got the news at noon today. The earliest time Xia Bai appeared was when Xia Bai had been seriously ill, which was the age of twelve as he mentioned, but in fact he had just turned eleven.
That was one year after Jiang Bai disappeared in the hospital. During this year, neither the Jiang family nor the police found any trace of him. Just like the years when his father disappeared, he disappeared without a trace.
Ling Changye tried his best to stay calm in front of Xia Bai. Under such circumstances, he did not tell Xia Bai what he had found out about Xia Bai's life experience. He said, "Don't worry, we'll start from the beginning."
It was windy on the mountain at night. Ling Changye glanced at the person on the tombstone photo and said, "Let's go back and talk."
Xia Bai nodded unconsciously and watched the photo being taken down the mountain by Ling Changye.
On the road, Ling Changye drove seriously and steadily, without talking to Xia Bai. Xia Bai also did not speak, and kept thinking about this matter.
After thinking about it all the way, he had calmed down when he got off the car.
He took Ling Changye to his room in the hotel and showed him the family tree he had just drawn.
Later, in order to draw the God of Joy more realistically, he specially learned to paint, but the learning time was very short. When he understood painting, he felt that his paintings were not good enough, so he did not give them to others, but only gave one to Lao Qian when he was in Datang City.
In fact, in Ling Changye's opinion, Xia Bai's painting was already very similar. At least he could see on the page about the father in the family tree that Xia Bai's father in the family tree was his father.
Xia Bai: "Captain, didn't the Game Management Bureau first discover the game three years ago?"
Ling Changye nodded, "It was three years ago. Even if the first game wasn't the one with Erwa, it was three years ago. It won't jump four years."
Xia Bai: "That's totally contradictory."
"The Xi Shen has been in my house since I was twelve, which is seven years ago. They should not have been brought out from the game by my grandfather, and they have never even come into contact with the game. Then why were they drawn into the game when the game was closed? Were they just requisitioned by the game?"
He thought about it again, "Maybe they didn't go into the game, but just disappeared? They can't be found in the surveillance, is it because they were stolen by skilled players?"
Ling Changye asked: "Why do players want to steal the God of Joy?"
Xia Bai: "Because they knew that grandpa was a very powerful player, and they probably knew that grandpa could control corpses, and they thought that the God of Joy was a very powerful corpse collected by grandpa. After learning that grandpa was dead, they came to secretly steal the God of Joy away."
That makes sense.
Ling Changye thought about it, and then started to confirm based on this guess, "Are you sure that grandpa is a very good player? We haven't found any evidence that grandpa is a player for such a long time, and even Lao Qian doesn't know about it."
Xia Bai was slightly stunned, "But, the corpse-suppressing talismans."
He took a sip of cold water and calmly followed Ling Changye's thoughts. "At first, I didn't know that grandpa was a player. He was always there when I got home from school, and he didn't have much money. We confirmed that grandpa was a player because of the corpse-suppressing talisman, which was the speculation made by Hua Haoming and the others."
"Okay." Ling Changye took the cold water from his hand and replaced it with a cup of warm water. "Let's start with the Corpse Suppression Talisman."
"Yeah." Xia Bai held the warm water in his hands, feeling much more at ease. "When I entered the first game, I brought some corpse-suppressing talismans with me."
"My grandfather said he was a great corpse-carrier and that the corpse-suppressing talismans could suppress corpses. Before I went to Heping Medical College, the neighboring Quanguang City was sealed off. I just learned that there were strange problems in this world and saw many corpses on the forum. I felt uneasy, so I carried some corpse-suppressing talismans drawn by my grandfather with me."
"On the day we reported, we were drawn into the game. There was a morgue in the game. When it was Lin Xiang's turn to go to the morgue, he was afraid, so I gave him some corpse-suppressing talismans."
"I didn't know at the time that only skills and props acquired in the game can be effective in the game. Hua Haoming told me that even if these talismans could suppress corpses when my grandfather was driving corpses, since they were not skills learned or props obtained from the game, they would not be effective on corpses in the game."
Ling Changye said: "There is nothing wrong with this statement."
Xia Bai: "But when Lin Xiang used the corpse-suppressing talisman in the morgue, it worked."
"Hua Haoming asked me where I got these corpse-controlling talismans. I told him that they were drawn by my grandfather. My grandfather had a cinnabar pen that was specially used to draw corpse-controlling talismans."
"So, they speculated that grandpa was a player, and the cinnabar pen was his prop. He had very powerful prop skills. The God of Happiness in our family should also be brought by him from the game. After grandpa died, when the Quanguang City game next to Minshi Village approached in large numbers, the God of Happiness, like the cinnabar pen, was also taken back by the game."
"At that time, Wugu Village was only the earliest game that the Tourism Administration could confirm. In fact, the game may have appeared earlier. We ignored the contradiction in time and did not confirm whether the game could have appeared seven years ago."
Ling Changye said: "Don't worry about the God of Joy and the game time, let's first determine the corpse-suppressing talisman."
Xia Bai said: "I can confirm that the corpse-suppressing talisman was drawn by my grandfather with that cinnabar brush. I saw it many times with my own eyes, and he also taught me, so I know it very well."
Ling Changye asked again: "Are you sure that the cinnabar pen was taken away by Yougi?"
Xia Bai was slightly stunned. "I really didn't look for it on purpose. I basically believed Hua Haoming's speculation at that time."
At that time, through Hua Haoming and the player communication center, he learned that after the player died, the game app in the mobile phone would disappear by logging out, and the props obtained by the player would also be recycled, so he didn't look for it specifically, nor did he think much about the cinnabar pen.
Ling Changye: "Let's go back now and try to find the cinnabar pen first."
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