Serial crimes
On the way back, Chen An thought a lot, but he still couldn't figure out the purpose of Han Ming's doing this, so he had reservations about Xun Muke's opinion.
Only five days had passed since he was busy all the time. The serious crime squad was on break and there was no need for him to go to the bureau. He drove around the city and decided to pick up Jiang Li after class.
"Why are you here?"
Today is Friday, Jiang Li packed a few books and ran out.
"To pick you up from school."
"Oh, that's thoughtful." Jiang Li smiled and took his arm. "Did you go to see Sister Xun today?"
"Yeah." Chen An restrained his smile and frowned again.
Jiang Li pressed his brows and said, "You've frowned more in the past year than in the past few days."
Chen An held his wrist and squeezed it. When he heard Jiang Li's voice and felt someone was around, he felt much more relaxed.
The two of them walked around the vegetable market and bought some vegetables. Jiang Li peeled the tenderest piece and fed it to Sunflower Seed.
Guazi is very smart. When someone approaches it, it will climb up the cage and stare at you with its little eyes. It seems to have figured out that humans will definitely open the door for it, so it stays there.
"Guazi, you are so cute."
No one can resist pets. It seems that everyone will automatically switch to clamp mode when talking to pets, and Jiang Li is no exception.
He held the melon seeds in his hand and played with them, then held them up to show Chen An, "She's so cute." This earned Chen An a smile.
"What's this?" Jiang Li pulled out a piece of paper from Chen An's coat pocket, looked it over, and finally confirmed, "It's an address."
When Chen An saw the note, he remembered that when he was investigating Ji Xiangyang, he found a reporter and this was the address of the newspaper.
"Yes, the address of the newspaper." Chen An said.
"Newspaper? What are you looking for? Aren't you guys on hiatus?"
Chen An hasn't told him about the temporary leave yet.
"How did you know that?"
"Oh, Han Ming told me." Jiang Li put his hands on his hips and pretended to be angry. "Why, you can't tell me? I'm a family member, shouldn't I know?"
Chen An smiled and said, "Yes, yes, of course."
"So, are you looking for this newspaper?" Jiang Li got back to business.
Chen An thought about it and nodded.
Anyway, there is nothing to do at this stage. Maybe I can find new clues by going there.
"I'll go with you!" Jiang Li's eyes sparkled. After a pause, she realized Chen An was about to refuse and immediately started to act coquettishly. "You don't know how boring classes are. They're all textbook knowledge, or training. It's not fun at all."
Chen An thought that he would have to learn it anyway, so it didn't matter who taught him.
"OK."
The next morning, the two of them set out on the road to Hongshi Town. Jiang Li sat in the passenger seat. It was a sunny day and the scenery outside the window was nice. The road conditions here were not as bad as they had imagined. After driving for a while, they arrived at the address on the note.
After getting off the bus, they only saw the closed newsstand. Jiang Li compared it for a moment and said, "That's right."
The two went up and knocked on the door. After a while, a window on the second floor was opened. "Who is it?"
"Let's look for the owner of the newsstand," said Chen An.
"What do you want to see him for?" The bearded uncle leaned on the window sill and looked them up and down.
"I need to ask you something. Do you know where he went?"
"It's me, wait a minute." After saying that, he came down from the second floor and opened the door of the newsstand.
The owner of the newsstand is surnamed Huang. He has been working in the print media. After the newspaper was disbanded, he returned to his hometown and opened a newsstand. It is small, but he is very satisfied.
Huang Quanzhong poured them a glass of water and said, "You two are from out of town, right? You came all the way here just to find a small newsstand?"
Chen An revealed his identity and got straight to the point, "We're here to inquire about someone, Chen Fuzheng, a former reporter at the newspaper."
"I remember a policeman called me a couple of days ago. Didn't I send some newspapers over? Is there a problem?"
"No problem, we just want to know about Chen Fuzheng, including what articles he has published and why he disappeared?" The night before departure, Chen An picked out some things he could say and gave Jiang Li a summary of the previous situation. Here, he naturally took the right to speak.
Huang Quanzhong was deeply impressed by Chen Fuzheng. As the newspaper's owner, his articles were reviewed by an editor, and everyone else's manuscripts were easily published. However, Chen Fuzheng's reports, which often focused on social chaos and were sharp-tongued, easily got him into trouble. His editor had repeatedly told him to find someone else to handle the situation, but running a newspaper was a small business, and writers with Chen Fuzheng's writing skills were hard to come by. Huang Quanzhong had tried to persuade Chen Fuzheng to change his direction, but he always fooled him, agreeing to publish a good article a few days later. There was nothing he could do about him.
"He's incredibly stubborn." Huang Quanzhong felt a headache when he mentioned him. "He knows the truth, but he just won't do it. He's published articles several times and even after being warned, he still refuses to stop."
After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the cabinet behind him. After the newspaper went bankrupt, he brought back all the sample issues published over the years. This newsstand was not frequented by many people, so he just wanted to find a place to store these memories.
Huang Quanzhong struggled to pull out a file bag from the bottom layer. The cotton rope had turned yellow and was wrapped in circles.
"These are the articles he published in the last six months. Actually, something was wrong with him since his wife disappeared."
Huang Quanzhong said that Chen Fuzheng was not from Hongshi Town. He joined this newspaper right after graduation and has worked there for many years. However, he would not stay in Hongshi Town for long. Most of the time, he would travel around to follow up on the reports.
I had heard him mention his family before. He got married very early. His wife was a nurse and they had a lovely son. Chen Fuzheng had even shown them a photo.
"When did his wife disappear?" Jiang Li asked.
Huang Quanzhong hissed and sighed, "That was a long time ago, almost twenty years. He got married quite young, and his wife worked in the hospital, so they were both busy. Their son went to live on campus very early. Technology wasn't as advanced back then, so Chen Fuzheng would go back home once a month. It wasn't until he went to the hospital to inquire about his wife's disappearance that he found out she hadn't been back for a long time."
"Since then, Old Chen has gone a little crazy. His wife disappeared for no apparent reason, and there was no response after he reported the case. It would be strange if he didn't collapse."
"Did you get any news about Chen Fuzheng later?" Jiang Li asked.
Huang Quanzhong shook his head. "No, he resigned about half a year later. I don't know where he went."
Here, Chen An saw the back of the stained newspaper. It had the large headline [Searching for Wife for Months, Reporting Case to No Result, Only to be Blocked by Police!] Pasted on the back was a portrait of his wife, with medium-length hair and a gentle smile.
"Do you know where his wife works?"
Huang Quanzhong wrote down an address for them from memory. "This is the hospital where she worked at the time. I don't know much about the others."
The two came out of the newsstand and took some publications that they thought were important.
Jiang Li asked, "Do you think his wife's disappearance has anything to do with him? Boss Huang said he likes reporting on social unrest. Could he be being targeted by these people for revenge?"
Chen An straightened up the newspaper and said, "It's possible."
"However, if it was revenge, why didn't they just capture Chen Fuzheng's son, but instead made his wife disappear?" Jiang Li frowned, looking puzzled. Chen An chuckled twice at his serious look and continued to listen to his analysis.
"In 2005, his son was only ten years old, still a student, and in boarding school, his parents didn't pay much attention to him. It seemed like it would have been easier to attack his son."
Chen An affirmed, "You're right. If it was revenge, they could have just targeted his son. Why is it his wife who disappeared? This is an anomaly."
"I just saw a familiar place mentioned in his report." Chen An pointed to it and Jiang Li read it out, "Changping County..."
The report said that in 2005, a group of multinational businessmen entered Changping County. They stayed in Changping County for several months. Later, they were found by the police to have entered the country illegally and were subsequently deported.
"What's the big deal? Changping County is so close to the border, illegal entry is common." Jiang Li didn't see anything wrong.
Chen An patiently explained, "Do you remember the address Boss Huang told us? The hospital where Chen Fuzheng's wife works is right next to Changping County, less than half an hour's drive away."
"You mean, her disappearance might be related to these illegal immigrants?"
Chen An nodded, "It's possible."
Although Chen Fuzheng has published many articles criticizing social chaos, there are also many unscrupulous manufacturers among them, but these manufacturers either went bankrupt within a few years, or continued to grow and become stronger and did not care about these negative news. When it comes to revenge, the motives are still relatively small.
"If it's true, just ask and you'll know!"
Jiang Li pulled him into the car, and the two of them set off for Chen Fuzheng's hometown.
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