Chapter 128 Xueer
◎Endless hope rose in Mu Gang's heart◎
Zhao Xiangwan, Ji Zhao and Zhu Kang returned to Xing City Public Security Bureau, and Xu Songling was beaming with joy.
First, once Ji Zhao's portrait painting skills were confirmed, the bureau could immediately start investigating several missing children cases that had been dormant for many years.
Second, Wei Liangfu from Yao City used to show off whenever he saw Xu Songling, but this time he couldn't stop praising Zhao Xiangwan and Ji Zhao, and was completely convinced.
Double happiness.
Although he was happy, Xu Songling did not forget his work.
The Xing City Public Security Bureau designated December this year as the Anti-child Trafficking Month. It sorted out all child trafficking cases, conducted a city-wide investigation, and assigned the task of finding missing children to the serious crime team.
The simulated portrait room where Ji Zhao worked became the busiest place in the Municipal Bureau.
The parents who received the phone call from the Public Security Bureau were overjoyed. They came to Ji Zhao with photos of their children and chattered about their children's personality, temper, hobbies, physical condition, etc. before they went missing. Ji Zhao then drew the child's current appearance based on their description.
The serious crime unit took these portraits and reissued a warrant to conduct a nationwide search and comparison.
The parents who lost their children looked at the pictures of their children who had grown up and burst into tears: "The child has grown up and become a big child. Where are you, child? Where on earth are you?"
They looked at Ji Zhao as if he were a god. Although the child was not found, for these parents who have experienced the pain of loss, a portrait can comfort their anxious hearts a little.
Every day, Ji Zhao works like a high-speed computer, listening, pondering, calculating, drawing, and finalizing.
Now, his life is very fulfilling and busy every day.
The looks from those parents made him feel needed and gave him a sense of mission. At this moment, he finally understood what was driving Zhao Xiangwan to keep working hard and never complain even when it was hard.
Ji Jinmao was very pleased to know that his son had joined the police system and played an important role in the missing child case. Zhou Fangxi personally brought a nanny to the house to help his grandson and future granddaughter-in-law with logistics and solve Zhao Xiangwan's worries.
The other major crime teams reopened old cases very smoothly, but Zhao Xiangwan's team encountered difficulties.
The case is a long time ago. The person who reported the case was Mu Gang, who reported it five years ago, on June 1, 1990. The missing child is a girl. She was five years old when she went missing. Now she is ten years old, so she must have changed a lot.
The contact person on the report form was Mu Gang, and the phone number left was the office number of a lighting factory. After calling, we found out that Mu Gang had already resigned and his whereabouts were unknown.
Zhao Xiangwan and Zhu Kang went to the address left five years ago, but found that the house was empty and another family had moved in. The new tenant was a new employee of the lighting factory, who did not know Mu Gang and knew nothing about him.
It's winter now, and it's chilly.
It's a rare day with sunshine today, and a few old men and women are sitting downstairs in the old dormitory of the lighting factory, basking in the sun.
Zhao Xiangwan walked over to them to inquire about Mu Gang's news.
As expected, the old people knew a lot. When they heard that they were looking for Mu Gang, they all shook their heads and sighed.
"Oh, it's so pitiful. Ever since the child was lost, the family has been looking for him like crazy, pasting photos of the child everywhere. Mu Gang used to be a driver in our unit's fleet, and had a good job, but he quit his job to look for his child and started driving a taxi. He would ask everyone he met if they had seen the child. Later, he seemed to have received many complaints from passengers, and he couldn't drive a taxi, so he rode an electric tricycle to do some small business. He would go wherever he heard there was news. I don't know how much money he wasted."
"As soon as Mu Gang quit his job, he had to vacate the house that was allocated to him by the company. His wife had a big fight with him and they divorced. I heard that his wife was fine. She remarried and had a son, and gradually forgot the pain she had suffered. But Mu Gang was like a madman. He refused to listen to anyone's advice and insisted on getting his daughter back."
"The kidnapper is so hateful! Mu Xue'er is such a lovely child, she is really as lovely as Bai Xue, she calls she sees, she is so well-behaved, everyone in our yard, young and old, likes her very much. Don't say that Mu Gang is reluctant to part with the child, anyone who has such a beautiful daughter would also be reluctant to part with her."
"It was useless for his wife to scold him. She blamed him for not taking good care of the child. Mu Gang also blamed himself. She said that day was Children's Day and Mu Gang took a special leave to take the child to the park. Who knew there would be so many people? Who knew the kidnapper would target Xue'er? Alas! I can only say that the kidnapper is too hateful and the police are too incompetent."
Zhao Xiangwan exchanged glances with Zhu Kang, not minding their accusations against the police, and asked, "Then do you know where Mu Gang lives now?"
An old lady pointed to the small store at the end of the alley and said, "Go ask there. Mu Gang posted missing person notices everywhere, and the phone number he left at the beginning was the public phone number of the small store. The owner of the store, Mr. Huang, is a good man, so help him write down all the information."
Zhao Xiangwan and Zhu Kang thanked them and went to the canteen.
This small shop was originally the west end of the first floor of the dormitory building of the lighting factory. A door was opened on the west gable and it became the storefront. The storefront was very small, just a small room filled with things, doing some neighborhood business. There was a pay phone on the counter, and people often came to make calls.
A frail old man with gray hair was dozing off in a worn-out armchair. Hearing the noise, he slowly raised his head, looked at the tall Zhao Xiangwan in front of him, and asked slowly, "Girl, what do you want to buy?"
Zhao Xiangwan showed his police ID: "Hello, I want to ask you about someone."
The old man was in a good mood. He grinned, revealing a few missing teeth. "Oh, the police. Who are you looking for?"
Zhao Xiangwan said: "Mu Gang."
The old man said "Oh" but didn't stand up. He raised his hand and pointed to the brick wall next to the store: "There it is. Look for yourself."
Only then did Zhao Xiangwan notice that the brick wall was covered with various small advertisements, among which were three missing person notices.
When I got closer, I saw that the missing person notices were already rusty from the sun and rain, and the words and pictures on them were a little blurry. The latest one should have been posted last week, and the date was probably written on it to distinguish it, November 28, 1995.
The latest missing person notice has a photo of Mu Xueer when she was five years old. Because it is a black and white photo, the lines are not clear after processing and printing. But the chubby little face, big round eyes, long eyelashes, straight nose, and two dimples when she smiles make her lively, cute, and innocent, which makes people happy at first sight.
The words on the missing person notice are all in bold, and look very thick, dark, and large, making people feel heartbroken after reading it.
"My baby Muxueer is lost. She went missing on June 1, 1990. She is now ten years old."
"Big eyes, long eyelashes, two dimples, very fair skin, a small black mole behind the left ear, and a crescent-shaped scar on the right wrist."
"I beg all kindhearted people, if you see a child with similar features, please contact Mu Gang, pager number: XXXXX, I will reward you handsomely."
The final signature is, Sad Dad: Mu Gang.
Zhao Xiangwan took out a small notebook, wrote down Mu Gang's pager number, and walked back to the old man: "I'm calling you."
The old man nodded: "One dollar."
Zhu Kang handed the old man a dollar, and Zhao Xiangwan called the paging station: "Please call XXXXX and have him call back."
While waiting for Mu Gang to call back, Zhao Xiangwan asked the old man, "Uncle, are you familiar with Mu Gang?"
The old man nodded again: "Yes, I know him from the time he came to work at the lighting factory. He was a good guy, but unfortunately, he had a bad fate. When his child was lost, his soul was lost too."
Zhao Xiangwan asked: "Still no news about Mu Xueer? No one has seen her?"
Although the police have issued a warrant for cooperation, the coverage of the postings is limited. Mu Gang posted so many posters at such a high frequency and clearly marked a high reward, maybe there will be some important clues?
The old man sighed, "At first he left the phone number I have here. After he posted it, the phone never stopped calling. One person said where he saw the person, another said whose house he was staying at. Each one of them made his claims very convincing. When Mu Gang came over, they asked for money before they were willing to take him to see the person. But...none of them was right. They were all scammers."
Zhu Kang gritted his teeth and said, "Damn it!" Providing false information and asking for money was another second time of harm to Mu Gang. These people were so wicked.
The old man looked up at Zhu Kang and said, "Young man, you are kind-hearted. Don't you know that there are many bad people in this world, people die for money and birds die for food."
Zhao Xiangwan asked: "Are you sure it's all fake news?"
The old man shook his head and sighed as he said, "They are all fake! None of them are true, they are all scams. Poor Mu Gang, all the money in the family was used to look for the child. He didn't want to eat or wear anything, so he bought a small tricycle and drove around the streets, hoping to run into Xue'er one day. Last month, he just came back from Q Province, and a bastard said that the person was in a mountain ravine in Q Province, tricked him over, and cheated him out of 600 yuan. In order to save those few hundred yuan, he worked hard for a year to transport passengers and goods. These people... their consciences have been eaten by dogs~"
Zhao Xiangwan frowned slightly, feeling very unhappy.
She had never handled a missing child case before. This was her first time handling the case today. When she heard that Mu Gang had spent all his family's money looking for his child, and had been cheated out of all his money and was living a miserable life, the same distress she had felt when she saw the missing person notice became even stronger.
Those damn kidnappers, they kidnapped a child, destroyed the child's future, and destroyed a family!
A human-powered tricycle came running from a distance.
The man riding the bike was of medium height and sturdy build, with messy hair and unshaven beard. He wore a patched dark blue cotton jacket and a pair of tattered Liberation shoes.
The man was so excited that he pedaled quickly. Before he arrived, his loud voice had already sounded: "Old Huang, you're looking for me. Do you have any news?"
Old Huang stood up from his chair and pointed at Zhao Xiangwan and Zhu Kang: "The police are looking for you."
When Mu Gang heard the word "police", his face immediately fell.
He stopped the car and walked up to Zhao Xiangwan: "What's the matter?"
Zhao Xiangwan asked: "Mu Gang?"
Mu Gang raised his hand and wiped the sweat off his face: "Yes, it's me."
[The police were really funny, asking me to call back, free calls? I saw the call back number on my pager was from Lao Huang, so I thought there was news, so I ignored the call and went straight here. Alas! My happiness was in vain.]
[The police are useless! When you ask them to find a lost child, they ask you to fill out a form, provide information, and then send a few people to the station to pretend to have completed their mission.]
[In the two years after Xue'er was lost, I wanted to go to the police station every day, but was it useful? It was useless! They always told me to wait for news, to wait for news, but where was the news? ]
Zhao Xiangwan heard Mu Gang's inner thoughts and remained silent.
She was not clear about the five-year case, which should have been transferred to the Public Security Bureau by the local police station. She did not know whether there were any errors in the work of the police station, but there were indeed difficulties in investigating missing child cases.
Why are missing child cases filed quickly but difficult to solve?
Firstly, because of the high population mobility in cities, when parents report the case, the traffickers have often already taken the children elsewhere. Unless the scene is immediately sealed off and all external traffic hubs are controlled, the children can be kept in the city. In this case, the police force used may be over a thousand. Which police station or public security bureau can mobilize so many people?
Secondly, because children are small and lack the ability to protect themselves, if they are held in the arms of a trafficker and given sleeping pills, it will not attract the attention of passers-by at all.
The case of missing children in Yao City was solved by mobilizing all police forces in the city and comprehensively monitoring crowded places. Only after catching one gang member could they lead to the arrest of a whole group of criminals.
For example, after Hu Die was arrested, she gave away the information about Granny Dong, and from Granny Dong, a large number of abducted children were rescued.
Maybe there will be some news there?
Thinking of this, Zhao Xiangwan said to Mu Gang, "Our Public Security Bureau has launched an investigation into missing children cases. Mu Xueer's missing case is now being handled by our Serious Case Team 1. I hope we can work together to find your daughter as soon as possible."
The fire that had been extinguished in Mu Gang's heart was rekindled: "The serious crime squad is taking over my Xueer's case? Are you really willing to help me find my child?" No matter what, the police were willing to take the initiative to help. For Mu Gang, who had been deceived countless times and had already been penniless, it was really a timely help.
Zhao Xiangwan nodded: "Please trust us."
Mu Gang's eyes sparkled with a bright light: "Okay, okay, your police officers in the serious crime squad are really good, much better than those people in the police station!"
Zhu Kang coughed at the side and said, "Let's not compare this."
Mu Gang glanced at him and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, no competition, no competition. What do you want me to do?"
Zhao Xiangwan said, "Bring Mu Xueer's photo with you and let's go to the bureau together."
Mu Gang immediately pulled out a few photos from the upper left pocket of his cotton jacket and stuffed them into Zhao Xiangwan's hand: "Yes, yes, I have the photos. I haven't seen them for five years, and I was afraid that Xue'er wouldn't recognize me when I saw her, so I brought them with me."
The edge of the photo had turned a little yellow, carrying Mu Gang's body temperature.
In the color photo, Mu Xueer's skin is as white as snow and as tender as a flower.
Among them is a photo of a family of three, with Cher snuggling in her mother's arms, and the mother and daughter look very similar.
The three of them came to the Municipal Bureau together and went straight to look for Ji Zhao.
When Ji Zhao saw Zhao Xiangwan bringing outsiders over, he immediately understood what was going on. He put aside all the things he was doing and skillfully spread the sketch paper on the easel.
Ji Zhao extended his hand toward Zhao Xiangwan.
【photo.】
Zhao Xiangwan sent three photos.
Ji Zhao scanned the photos one by one and put them aside.
[Ask him to tell you how old the child is now? What are his living habits? How is his physical condition? What is his temperament and personality like? Does he have any special favorites?]
Zhao Xiangwan repeated Ji Zhao's words, leaving Mu Gang confused. He didn't quite understand what simulated portraits were. Did he need to know all these things to draw a portrait? However, since it was about the child, he didn't dare to neglect it and began to tell Mu Xueer everything in earnest.
"She is a very good child. She has been obedient since she was young, loves to laugh and doesn't cry."
"When she was still in her cradle, she loved to be clean. When she needed to pee, she would turn her neck from side to side and make a whining sound. When she needed to poop, her face would turn red, her head would arch, and she would make a humming sound."
"When she grew up, she wanted to do everything by herself, putting on her socks, shoes and clothes by herself, and keeping herself clean every day."
"My mother died early, and my father was not in good health. Xue'er's grandparents had many children and could not take care of her, so I raised Xue'er by myself. She was in good health and had never been sick. But when she was about four years old, she fell in kindergarten and her right wrist bled, leaving a crescent-shaped scar. I don't know if the scar is still there now that she is ten years old."
"She looks like her mother, not me. I'm a rough guy, but her mother is a delicate beauty with an oval face, big eyes, long eyelashes and a cherry mouth."
"She likes to eat peanuts. When she was little, I didn't dare let her eat too much for fear of getting her trachea stuck. Later, when she grew up a little, I let her peel them and eat them. If I let her go, she can eat a pound of peanuts at a time. I laughed and said she was a little squirrel..."
At this point, Mu Gang finally couldn't hold back his inner pain anymore, and a grown man burst into tears in the studio: "Wuwuwu, Xueer, where are you? Daddy misses you so much."
Mu Gang was crying there, and Ji Zhao started painting.
Zhao Xiangwan did not comfort Mu Gang.
His longing also needs a channel to vent, so let him cry his heart out.
Half an hour later, Ji Zhao stopped writing.
On the drawing paper, a ten-year-old girl was sitting on her knees in a corner with a look of panic on her face.
The chubby face has become much thinner, revealing a pointed little chin.
With big eyes, long eyelashes, a straight nose and a delicate little mouth, she is a real beauty.
Her hair was tied into two small braids, with some loose hair on her forehead, and tears were shining in her eyes.
Although the girl's clothes were shabby, her collar was buttoned neatly, and her pants, socks, and shoes were all clean. A mouse crawled past her feet.
Oh, this photo made Zhao Xiangwan feel extremely uncomfortable.
Zhao Xiangwan approached Ji Zhao and said, "Just, can't you draw something more festive?"
Ji Zhao shook his head.
[She was abducted and must have suffered a lot in the past five years.]
[She loves cleanliness. Even in the dirtiest environment, she will try her best to keep herself clean.]
[She is very gentle and pretty. Children like her... are prone to suffering.]
Zhao Xiangwan knew that what Ji Zhao said was right, but emotionally she couldn't bear it.
As a woman, Zhao Xiangwan felt very uncomfortable seeing such a beautiful girl fall into the hands of a kidnapper and endure suffering that she shouldn't have to endure at her age.
"You, you wiped that rat away."
Ji Zhao followed her instructions and replaced the real mouse that crawled through the dirty corner with a cloth mouse woven with white hand-woven silk.
The picture finally has a little more childishness.
The uncomfortable feeling of failure also decreased a lot.
The draft was finished. Mu Gang, who had been crying on the table, finally stopped crying. He took the tissue handed to him by Zhu Kang and blew his nose and wiped his tears. "Is the drawing done?"
Ji Zhao handed the portrait to him.
Mu Gang took the portrait and looked at it, tears streaming down his face again.
Zhu Kang reminded him: "Hey, don't dirty the portrait, or we'll have to issue a warrant for investigation."
Mu Gang quickly raised his sleeves to wipe his tears and howled: "My Xue'er, this is my Xue'er! My Xue'er, you have grown up."
He stood up, carefully placed the portrait on the table, knelt on the ground with a thud, and kowtowed: "You are gods, you can draw what Xue'er will look like in five years, then you must know where Xue'er is! I beg you, please save her, my Xue'er, she has suffered so much!"
Zhao Xiangwan helped him up: "Don't worry, just listen to me."
Mu Gang was a strong man, but now he was crying and kowtowing for his child, making everyone in the room feel sad.
Zhu Kang said, "Since we have found you here, we want to help you. We cannot guarantee whether we can find it in the end, but there is strength in numbers. If you search alone, it will definitely not be as efficient as if everyone searches together, right?"
Zhao Xiangwan said to Mu Gang, "The portrait is done. Xue'er looks very different now than when she was a child. The photo on the missing person notice can be updated, right?"
Mu Gang nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, yes."
Zhao Xiangwan said: "On the one hand, we have issued a missing person notice, and on the other hand, we have interrogated the main suspects of several kidnapping cases in the province to see if they have seen Xue'er. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we must find Xue'er back."
Mu Gang nodded resolutely: "Yes, yes, yes."
Zhao Xiangwan asked, "I saw in the police report that you said that there were many people in the park at that time, and an old lady was squeezed and fell to the ground screaming, so you bent down to help her up, and then Xue'er disappeared, right?"
Mu Gang: "Yes, yes. If it wasn't for helping the old lady, I wouldn't have let go of Xue'er's hand. If I hadn't let go of Xue'er's hand, she wouldn't have gotten lost. Xue'er's mother scolds me every day for this, scolding me for bullying good people, not being able to distinguish the serious from the serious, and scolding me for being crazy and not caring about strangers."
Zhao Xiangwan asked: "Do you still remember what that old lady looked like?"
Mu Gang nodded heavily: "Remember!"
Zhu Kang asked: "It's been five years, do you still remember it?"
Mu Gang gritted his teeth and said, "After I called the police and returned home, I felt something was not right. Why did that old lady fall down in front of me and keep grabbing my pants? She must be the kidnapper's accomplice! I tried my best to remember her and memorize her every night. I wanted to remember her appearance firmly in my mind so that I could recognize her at a glance when I saw her in a crowd."
Zhao Xiangwan said: "Just remember it, this is also an important clue. You said he painted it, so hurry up and simulate the portrait."
Endless hope arose in Mu Gang's heart.
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