original sin
Jiang Li was startled when he opened the door. Two dark figures appeared out of nowhere, bowed to him and shouted, "Boss!"
After seeing who it was, Jiang Li rolled his eyes in the dark and said, "Go turn on the light."
One of them ran into the room and turned on the light, while another brought a chair and said, "Boss, please sit down."
Jiang Li threw his schoolbag aside and sat down. "Didn't I tell you not to come to me casually?"
"It's him! It was Ji Mao who said he would come." He Dou pointed at Jin Mao.
Jiang Li turned his gaze to Jin Mao without saying a word.
Jin Mao waved his hand to clarify, "No, Boss, how could I dare to bother you! It's the higher-ups..."
After hearing what he said, Jiang Li's eyes darkened and he suddenly felt irritated.
Jin Mao and He Dou had been with him since they were young, so naturally they didn't know him very well.
He Dou punched him and lowered his voice, "It's all your fault. You must have made the boss unhappy!"
Jin Mao felt innocent. They were clearly sent by the higher-ups. "I... I wouldn't dare to do that even if I had ten guts."
After a while, Jiang Li said in a deep voice, "What do you want to do here?"
Jin Mao said, "They asked you to take care of it." He observed Jiang Li's expression and said, "Uncle Tai wants you to help his son."
Jiang Li frowned. "Didn't I tell him not to make any moves recently?" He glanced back at them, his tone tinged with anger. "He's dishonest, and if I keep protecting him, he'll eventually be punished."
He Dou didn't understand what he said, so he asked cautiously, "Then... don't care?"
Jiang Li reached out and twisted his ear, causing He Dou to howl in pain. He then pulled him over to him and asked, "How come you haven't made any progress after following me for so long?"
Jin Mao gloated and agreed, "That's right."
Jiang Li raised an ambiguous smile, "Then tell me, what do I mean?"
Jin Mao immediately broke out in a sweat. He opened his mouth and uttered a flattering tone, "How dare I casually guess what you mean, Boss..."
Jiang Li found it boring and waved his hand, saying, "Let Nan Jiaxu find a corner to hide for two days. I won't take care of anything else."
Jin Mao nodded respectfully, "Yes."
Jiang Li saw that they had no intention of leaving, "Anything else?"
Jin Mao said, "The Council of Elders has learned that you've been very close to a police officer named Chen An recently."
He understood what he meant. Even though he came to Changping County, they did not relax their "surveillance" on him.
"Do you want me to send someone to get rid of all those spies?"
Jiang Li said, "No, I won't feel at ease if I don't let them keep an eye on them."
"Then, that policeman?"
The scene of Chen An interrogating him during the day was still in his mind. He didn't know how much Chen An believed in that awful play. To him, Chen An was indeed a threat.
When the words came to his lips, he just said "No need".
After saying this, the unknown emotion slowly emerged in his heart. Jin Mao saw that he seemed to be shocked as well, and tried to confirm it again, "No need for what?"
Jiang Li lowered his eyes, half of his face hidden in the darkness, making it difficult to see his expression. After a few minutes, he raised his head and said, "He's just a local police officer. Let's keep him."
Jin Mao nodded, "Okay." It was getting late, so he said, "Boss, if you need anything, please contact us. We'll withdraw first."
Jiang Li waved his hand, signaling them to leave.
After they left, he was the only one left in the yard. The wooden door, which was not closed tightly, creaked in the breeze. Jiang Li closed his eyes and listened to the rustling sound of the locust tree above his head. Chen An was not the only one who was shaken in this competition without gunpowder.
At 11 o'clock in the evening, Chen An asked the Trace Inspection Section for Liu Hanxiao's cell phone. Team leader Yu of the Trace Inspection Section said that her cell phone was too old and had been buried in the soil for several days and was no longer usable. Chen An nodded, then dragged himself tiredly back to the residence arranged for him by the county.
When he lay on the small bed in the hotel, he couldn't help but think of the strange email again.
Before Liu Hanxiao got into trouble, someone sent an email to his private mailbox. There was no signature, no address, and no source. The email only contained a few short words.
Someone is missing in Changping County.
He didn't know who sent the email, but he was also working on two missing persons cases at the time.
The first incident occurred in early April and involved Xu Qiuqiu, a junior high school student at the city's No. 3 Middle School. The second incident occurred very close to the time when Liu Hanxiao's body was found and involved Cheng Minli, also a student at the No. 3 Middle School and a sophomore in high school.
At that time, there were very few clues in these two cases. Xu Qiuqiu and Cheng Minli were both taciturn, and there was nothing suspicious in their interpersonal relationships. If you had to find similarities, the only one would be their backgrounds.
Xu Qiuqiu's mother died early, her father owed a lot of gambling debts, and her grandparents also passed away two years ago. She lives alone in an abandoned old neighborhood, and her basic living expenses are supported by online donations. For this reason, her class teacher always pays attention to her. The day before she disappeared, the class teacher kindly invited her to spend the weekend at home, but Xu Qiuqiu declined.
When she didn't attend class on Monday, her homeroom teacher anxiously contacted her father, but he didn't seem to care about her and hung up after a few perfunctory words. The homeroom teacher was deeply worried about her and called the police as soon as she'd been gone for more than 24 hours.
Cheng Minli, an orphan, grew up in the Jiale Welfare Home. She has a withdrawn personality and had just visited the welfare home before she disappeared.
Before he came to Changping County, the two cases mentioned above had come to a standstill and no more clues could be found. He could only say that this unknown email appeared at a very timely moment. Before he arrived in Changping County, he heard the news that a body had been dug out from the old teaching building of Changping No. 2 Middle School.
The only suspicious point in Liu Hanxiao's case is the appearance of Yuan Yi.
Speaking of being a trainee, Chen An had heard Xun Muke mention it before. Xun Muke had his favorite stars, so naturally he knew more about the entertainment industry than them.
The office of the municipal bureau was much more spacious than that of the county bureau. At that time, they had just finished a case and the captain gave them a holiday. Xun Muke was so excited when he heard that.
"I can finally go see Linlin!"
The Lin Lin she mentioned was a newly popular young star whose full name was Lin Ran.
"Sister Xun, how many celebrities have you changed?" Bai Shuo rubbed his eyes and asked with a baby face.
Hearing what he said, Xun Mu Ke actually started counting on his fingers. After sorting it out for a while, he realized he couldn't make sense of it and simply ignored it. "Oh, keep changing it to keep it fresh. If you change it quickly, you'll never catch up with me."
Bai Shuo gave a thumbs up, "Great."
The new intern on the team said, "Since Sister Xun is always chasing celebrities, she must know a lot about the inside story of the entertainment industry, right?"
Xun Muke snapped his fingers and said, "Hey, you've hit the nail on the head. Just ask whatever you want to know."
"I've been really fond of a group lately, but I'd like to ask if it's safe for such a group to debut, and if there's any risk of the group collapsing."
"Let me see." Xun Muke pretended to count on his fingers and said, "Yes, and the risk is extremely high!"
"Listen to my analysis. Regarding the debut of a girl or boy group, if they sign with a good company, there won't be any major problems, just the fans will be a little tired. But if they sign with a bad company, anything can happen. From my past experience handling cases, there's no shortage of cases where hundreds of young people are signed at once and then dirty deals are carried out behind the scenes."
The casual conversation had stuck in his mind. Chen An had never handled a case like this before. If Yuan Yi's artist agency was engaged in dirty dealings, as Xun Muke claimed, then why had Liu Hanxiao been returned intact? If not, why did Yuan Yi disappear after Liu Hanxiao's death?
Liu Hanxiao and Jiang Li wanted to be trainees because they were short of money. Zhou Fuyuan came from an average family and wanted to be a trainee to save herself a way out. And what about Qu Mengting's disappearance...
Qu Mengting likes to chase stars!
She comes from a decent family, so is it possible that she wants to enter the entertainment industry because of her idol pursuit?
Chen An sat up from the bed and quickly wrote down this speculation. When he closed the pen, he thought, an agency cleverly and closely connected a group of seemingly unrelated people. Perhaps by finding Qu Mengting, he could find out the secret behind Xiaoqun.
The next morning, Chen An synced up with Xie Hongfei, and his guess was pretty much correct. Qu Mengting's friends often heard her say she wanted to sign with an agency and debut after graduation. At first, everyone thought it was just her fantasy, but then one day, they suddenly heard her say she was going to be a trainee at R&E and would be signing with the company soon.
No one believed it at first, until she took out the electronic contract, everyone started to cheer her on.
The person who said this was a girl in Qu Mengting's class. Chen An found her again and asked, "Are you sure she said that?"
Feng Xiao nodded, "Yes, she brags about it every day, and Qiu Ci and the others praise her every day, calling her a big star."
The dissatisfaction in her tone was too obvious, so Chen An directly pointed out: "You don't like her."
"I..." After being seen through, Feng Xiao struggled for a moment and admitted, "So what? I really don't like her, but I didn't kill her!"
"How do you know she's dead?"
"She's been gone for so many days. If she's not dead, how can she crawl back?" Feng Xiao said unhappily, crossing his arms. "She's relying on her family's wealth to buy all sorts of merchandise and go to concerts every day. She already has a lot of fans, and now she's saying she wants to be a trainee. Now she has even more followers."
Chen An didn't comment too much on her attitude. It was normal for students of this age to compare with each other.
"Does Qu Mengting have a boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend?" Feng Xiao frowned. "I don't know about that, but... she seems to particularly enjoy hanging out with people outside of school. A couple of days ago, a guy came to our class looking for her. We told him Qu Mengting was missing, and then he left."
The man she was talking about should be the one Jiang Li mentioned earlier as Qu Mengting's boyfriend.
During the interrogation, Captain Xie learned that Zhou Feng had indeed dated Qu Mengting for a period of time, but they broke up a few days ago because Qu Mengting said she was going to be a star and could not have a disgraceful boyfriend.
When she said this, Zhou Feng was so angry that he almost hit someone. It was not because he liked her. He was with Qu Mengting just for her money. But these words were belittling him. How could he, an adult who had entered society, be belittled by a little girl?
When they broke up, Zhou Feng naturally asked for some hush money, Qu Mengting gave it to him, and then the two had no contact.
After learning about this, Chen An went downstairs along the stairs. There were many green plants outside the window. Opposite was Mingli Building. He had heard from Jiang Li that Mingli Building was full of repeaters. As expected of a key middle school with great financial resources, they had a separate building for repeaters.
But when he was supposed to be in class, he saw a familiar figure downstairs.
"elder brother!"
Jiang Li ran over and stood shoulder to shoulder with him: "Let's go."
How could the person who was crying yesterday because she doubted him act as if nothing had happened and call him "brother" today?
"Where are you going?"
"Investigating a case." Jiang Li blinked, looking serious.
"Does the investigation have anything to do with you?" Chen An pressed him towards Mingli Building, "Go back."
Jiang Li twisted his neck and broke free from his restraints. "No, I want to investigate the case with you so that you don't have to doubt me every day."
Chen An laughed and leaned against the edge of the flower bed. "I doubt you every day? I'm asking, every time I doubt you, what is it about you that is not worthy of suspicion?"
Jiang Li was very dissatisfied, "So I want to go with you."
Chen An was just joking with him, so he softened his tone and said, "I don't doubt you anymore. Go back to class."
Jiang Li was stubborn with him, "I won't!"
"go back."
"I don't!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
