Chapter 97
Luo Jingyao never doubted Lin Jiafan's words.
In the early morning of Yongzhuang Village, the air is filled with the fragrance of fresh soil. Only at this time does it feel as quiet as a village.
Unfortunately, this rare tranquility was broken by the sudden sound of a police siren.
The police's visits over the past few days have successfully turned the residents of Yongzhuang Village from being curious at first into being accustomed to it. Even the number of people coming out to watch the excitement has obviously decreased. Most people take a sleepy look through the gaps in the curtains, then turn around and go back to sleep.
There was a loud knock on the door. Zhu Xiulan put on her coat and walked across the yard cursing as she came to the door.
"I'm going to die! They come knocking on my door so early in the morning. Can't I sleep...?" He swallowed the rest of his words after seeing the uniformed policemen outside the door.
"Ms. Zhu, we contacted each other on the phone yesterday." Lin Jiafan got out of the jeep, walked to the front, and spoke politely.
"Lin...Officer Lin." Zhu Xiulan was still a little confused, her uncertain eyes sweeping over the people outside the door one by one: "What's going on?"
"This is a search warrant. The police now have evidence to suspect that Tan Hailong is involved in a child death case and a child missing case. Ms. Zhu, please cooperate with us." Lin Jiafan handed over the paper in his hand.
While the middle-aged woman lowered her head to carefully identify the contents on the paper, he waved his hand and several colleagues from the laboratory came in one after another.
"Eh? Eh?!" Zhu Xiulan wanted to stop them, but she was powerless to resist. She could only watch as the police walked straight into the main house.
She looked up at the man in front of her with displeasure: "Officer Lin, you took my husband away so casually a few days ago, which is fine, but today you broke into my home so rudely. Are the Public Security Bureau so great?!"
"Also, what right do you have to say that my man broke the law? Just based on this piece of paper?!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Xiulan tore the search warrant to pieces in agitation.
White paper fragments fluttered around, but before they even hit the ground, Lin Jiafan pulled out another one and handed it to the middle-aged woman. "I brought a stack of copies, Ms. Zhu, feel free to tear them up."
“…”
Zhu Xiulan was caught off guard and was completely at a loss.
Seeing that she didn't answer, Lin Jiafan didn't get angry. Instead, he took out a few photos from his pocket and said, "His name is He Jinzhe."
"His name is Anping."
"His name is Little Potato."
"I wonder if these three names and three faces have any impression on Ms. Zhu?"
Zhu Xiulan's expression was panicked for a moment, but she quickly returned to normal: "I don't understand. How could I know them?"
"Because they are the victims who were once assaulted or even killed by your husband. Ms. Zhu, have you really never seen them?" Lin Jiafan didn't intend to hide it and asked very directly.
"Nonsense!" Zhu Xiulan almost burst into a curse, her neck flushing red. "Where's the evidence? Bring it out!"
Pang Guang, who was standing by, couldn't bear to see her going crazy, so he explained, "We have witnesses and testimony that can prove that your husband did have these three children..."
"Witnesses? Could they be the group of people who rented our factory and secretly did bad things?" Zhu Xiulan calmed down when Lu Deshu and the others were mentioned, but she couldn't hide her sarcasm in her words: "You would rather believe the words of those human traffickers and murderers than believe that my old man, Tan, is a good person?"
"I'm telling you right now, Tan Hailong is a good man, a competent husband and a competent father! You can just grab anyone in the village and ask them, who wouldn't give a thumbs-up and praise my man when they mention him?"
"I advise you not to waste your energy, because it is impossible that he did this." After saying this, Zhu Xiulan turned around and went into the house.
Not long after, she brought the sleepy Tan Tian back to the yard, sat on two plastic stools, and waited angrily for the results of the police's investigation and evidence collection.
Lin Jiafan and Pang Guang had entered the house at some point. Occasionally, yellow leaves drifted in the wind, making the mother and son, who were leaning on each other, look a little desolate.
The next second, a pair of sneakers appeared in Zhu Xiulan's sight.
"Consultant Luo." Lifting her eyelids and taking a look, the woman called out in slight surprise, "Why are you here?"
"Sister Lan, you said I was a consultant." Luo Jingyao replied with a smile, then pulled a chair from the side and sat not far from the two of them.
Zhu Xiulan's expression became a little complicated for a moment, as if she didn't like her identity, but she really couldn't hate her as a person.
At this moment, Tan Tian suddenly struggled violently in his mother's arms. It seemed that the sudden appearance of so many unfamiliar faces in the house had caused him quite a stir.
Following the boy's unwilling roars and bites, Zhu Xiulan finally had no choice but to release her arms around him and let him hide in the utility room on the east side of the yard.
"What a sin I have committed!"
Listening to the suppressed and trembling complaints beside her ears, Luo Jingyao lowered her eyes and pursed her lips: "Sister Lan, haven't you ever doubted..."
"No, Hailong wouldn't do that. He's not that kind of person." Zhu Xiulan raised her hand and quickly wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, then raised her face slightly and denied it firmly.
"So, even though a white cat with a horrific dead look was thrown outside your and Xiaotian's residence, you never suspected why?" Luo Jingyao took a deep breath, turned her head and looked at her quietly.
"A boy named He Jinzhe killed the cat and left it there to scare you. If the police don't intervene now, I wouldn't be surprised by what happens to you and Xiaotian in two years when the boy grows up."
"Now the cat is dead, but what happens next?"
When Zhu Xiulan heard this, her hands on her legs trembled unconsciously and her eyes began to wander unconsciously.
"Sister Lan, have you ever thought about why you have been accompanying Xiaotian in the city for so many years for his rehabilitation, while he has to stay in Yongzhuang Village alone?" Luo Jingyao stabbed the other person's heart again without mercy.
"That's...that's because we have a house here that needs to be taken care of...and he also needs to make a living."
"It won't take long to get back here from the city, right? The bus will only take more than an hour, no more than two hours. Sister Lan, if the tenant has something urgent to do and wants to come back, it doesn't seem as difficult as you think." Luo Jingyao's tone couldn't be any softer at this moment.
But when these words fell into Zhu Xiulan's ears, they were more shocking than the thunder in the sky during the rainy season.
"So, why did he stay alone in Yongzhuang Village year after year?"
Hearing this, the woman's hands trembled more obviously, to the point where she had to hold each other tightly to barely keep steady.
"He must really like children, right? Besides Xiaotian, he seems to care about other little boys very much." Luo Jingyao lowered her eyes to hide the complex emotions in her eyes: "Sister Lan, maybe you sometimes wonder why Xiaotian can't be a normal child? That way his father will like him too."
"But I believe you would rather not like this now."
"Enough!" Zhu Xiulan finally collapsed and yelled, her once rosy lips now pale and bloodless. "Advisor Luo, every word you just said is based on unfounded speculation. I hope you can stay away from me!"
Luo Jingyao, who had tried her best, shrugged indifferently. Just as she stood up, Lin Jiafan walked out of the room.
Seeing that they had empty hands, Zhu Xiulan was relieved and spoke sarcastically, "Hey, have you two officers found anything? I guess you didn't find anything, right? Because my man is not the murderer at all!"
Pang Guang had been annoyed by her unreasonable behavior from the beginning, so he followed suit and retorted, "Whose bad guy has words written all over his face? How stupid must Tan Hailong be to leave evidence of a crime at home, knowing that you and your mother might come back to live here at any time?"
As he spoke, he pulled out a laptop from the house like a magic trick and shook it around ostentatiously: "Ms. Zhu, is this your husband's computer?"
Zhu Xiulan looked wary: "So what?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." The young man shook his head and sighed a few times. "What a complicated password! I bet Ms. Zhu has never successfully entered this computer before? I really don't know what secrets are hidden inside."
With every word he spoke, Zhu Xiulan's face would darken.
"Unfortunately, cracking passwords is my strong point..." As he spoke, Pang Guang held the computer in one hand and quickly tapped the keyboard hundreds of times with the other hand.
"In."
Lin Jiafan took the laptop handed to him by the young man, looked through it for a while, and then turned the screen around without warning.
Looking at the disgusting pictures and videos in the folder, Zhu Xiulan felt her stomach churning. In the end, she couldn't help but ran out of the door and started to retch.
Pang Guang looked out the door cautiously: "Is this okay, Captain Lin? The videos and pictures in Tan Hailong's computer were all downloaded from the Internet. There's no trace of those three children!"
"I see he's very wary of his wife, and Zhu Xiulan doesn't seem to know anything about it."
Luo Jingyao, who was a few steps away, did not hear how Lin Jiafan responded to this, because she took a step forward and was about to check on the woman's condition. Unexpectedly, when she reached the door, she was bumped by a figure rushing out of the utility room and stumbled.
How could Tan Tian have such a stable lower body as her, a martial artist? He was knocked to the ground in a mess.
Seeing this, Luo Jingyao quickly reached out her hand, her mouth full of concern: "Xiaotian, are you okay? Does it hurt? Are you hurt anywhere?"
There was only silence in response to her. At this time, Zhu Xiulan, who was outside the door, rushed in after hearing the noise, and pulled Tan Tian to look at him from front to back and up to down several times.
But in this scene of deep love between mother and son, Luo Jingyao suddenly noticed something.
She opened her mouth but no sound came out. Lin Jiafan keenly noticed that something was wrong with her and took a few steps forward and asked, "Coach Luo, what's wrong?"
Luo Jingyao raised her finger and pointed at Tan Tian's neck.
Lin Jiafan looked in the direction of her finger.
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