Chapter 98
On Tan Tian's slightly forward-leaning neck hung an inconspicuous red string with a walnut kernel attached to it.
Lin Jiafan's eyelids twitched, and he subconsciously lowered his head and looked at the person next to him.
Luo Jingyao nodded affirmatively. "Little Potato also has that red string. I've seen it in the photo hanging on the wall of the Qingshan Rescue Association."
Giving her a reassuring look, Lin Jiafan walked over and squatted in front of Zhu Xiulan and her son. "Xiaotian, be careful when you walk next time, okay?"
The middle-aged woman cautiously hugged Tan Tian in her arms, trying to scare him away with her fierce eyes.
Unfortunately, Lin Jiafan stretched out his hand as if he didn't notice, and gently picked out the red rope around the boy's neck that was half hidden in his collar with his index finger.
"What do you want to do?!" Zhu Xiulan was afraid of scaring her son, so she could only shout in a low voice.
"Nothing, I just want to ask Ms. Zhu, where did this thing your son is wearing come from." Lin Jiafan smiled and looked at the middle-aged woman with a little scrutiny.
Zhu Xiulan thought about it carefully at first, and suddenly the muscles on her face became stiff, but she still insisted: "I prayed at the temple, for safety."
Lin Jiafan refused to let her go: "Oh? Which temple did you pray for this? I'll go get one when I have time. After all, safety is the most important thing in our line of work."
"That's right...that's right..." Zhu Xiulan felt her mind went blank, because she knew that her lies would be exposed, so she couldn't open her mouth.
"Let me guess, was it sent by Tan Hailong?" Lin Jiafan said it was a guess, but there was unquestionable certainty in his words.
Zhu Xiulan lowered her head dejectedly, tears streaming down her face without her knowing when, and she obviously agreed.
Luo Jingyao couldn't help but hold her breath when she heard this answer, and then her hands and feet felt cold.
Giving the personal belongings of the child he molested to his own son? What kind of pervert is Tan Hailong?!
With Zhu Xiulan's approval, Lin Jiafan untied the red rope around Tan Tian's neck and placed it in the evidence bag. Then, with a serious expression, he continued to ask, "What else did Tan Hailong give Tan Tian?"
"How could I remember this clearly? He is Xiaotian's father, and he gave me so many gifts!" Zhu Xiulan responded in a crying voice. Her mind was in a mess at the moment, and the feeling of nausea did not ease at all.
Seeing this, Lin Jiafan first guided the other party to take a few deep breaths to calm down a little, and then said in a deep voice: "It's like this red rope, with an unknown origin, which makes you feel a little confused."
While sobbing, Zhu Xiulan frowned and recalled carefully: "It seems that there really is."
"Do you still have those things?"
The middle-aged woman hesitantly said "hmm", then turned and went into the house at Lin Jiafan's request. After a while, she dragged out a large box from under the bed in the bedroom next to the living room.
From large items like half-new clothes, gray sneakers, and a baseball cap to small items like an Ultraman card, a glass marble, and even a cartoon watch.
There were not just one or two things, but the entire floor of the bedroom was filled with them.
Zhu Xiulan sat on the edge of the bed with her hand against her forehead, tears having not stopped since the beginning. Watching the police checking those things bit by bit, she suddenly raised her hand and slapped herself hard.
Bang!
Under the stunned gazes of the crowd, the woman finally broke down and burst into tears, "I'm so stupid... I never suspected that every time he brought these rags back to give to Xiaotian, I thought he was just being overly frugal, but he still cared about his son."
"As a result, now you tell me, these things are... are..." At this point, Zhu Xiulan couldn't hold it in any longer and rushed out of the bedroom and ran to the kitchen to vomit.
The violent retching sounds echoed in everyone's ears.
Looking at the things scattered on the ground, even the knowledgeable Pang Guang was a little surprised: "We have to go back and carefully check the fingerprints and DNA to find out which things belong to He Jinzhe, Anping and Xiao Tudou."
Luo Jingyao believes that she will never underestimate the evil of human nature, but every time, Tan Hailong's actions will repeatedly refresh her cognition.
"Apart from the three of them, whose are the rest of the things?" She seemed to be asking, or muttering to herself.
Lin Jiafan bent down, picked up a glass marble with his gloved hand, and examined it. He then turned and walked to the door, gazing out at the increasingly lively Yongzhuang Village. His expression was puzzled. "So, why do you think Tan Hailong is so obsessed with guarding this place?"
"Yongzhuang Village has a large population of migrant workers. Naturally, parents working away from home tend to neglect their children. Add to that the high population turnover, and some tenants will move out after living there for three or six months. For Tan Hailong, this place is simply a paradise."
In other words, there were far more than three victims, and the number was much greater than the police had expected!
And judging from the current situation, there are even many potential victims, and it will be difficult for the police to find them.
Child molestation cases are incredibly difficult to solve because the victims are often too young to even comprehend that what is happening to them is a crime.
A considerable number of victims only gradually realize the fact that they have been molested during their growth process, but basically by then the case has passed the statute of limitations. Even if it is still within the statute of limitations, it will be left unresolved due to the lack of relevant evidence.
There is also a small number of cases where the victims are aware that they have been violated, but their parents force them to remain silent due to face and rumors.
Suppressing the discomfort rising in her heart, Luo Jingyao came to Lin Jiafan's side: "Tan Hailong already has He Jinzhe, Anping, and Little Potato, why would he want to attack other children?"
"He's a pedophile, a criminal. Do you still expect him to protect a child and have no moral composure?" Lin Jiafan's tone was filled with subtle helplessness. "Every time he attacked a child, Tan Hailong would take home a 'trophy' and give it to Tan Tian, allowing him to continue and repeatedly savor the pleasure he felt while committing the crime."
"From this behavior, it can be seen that he is a person with a strong desire for control."
Luo Jingyao felt something was amiss. "Since Tan Hailong is so controlling, he wouldn't allow anyone else to get their hands on his spoils. So why would he give them to his son? This is a bit too contradictory."
"There's no contradiction. If Tan Hailong thinks that Tan Tian is the same kind of person as him, then everything makes sense." Lin Jiafan said, his eyes falling on the small figure in the yard.
"He probably thought that giving the spoils to Tan Tian was a form of inheritance in form and spirit, similar to a hereditary title."
Luo Jingyao parted her lips slightly, and after several seconds, she barely digested the message revealed in these words: "But...but Xiaotian has autism?!"
Tan Tian may be irritable, but given his difficulty communicating with others and his insensitivity to external perceptions, the probability of him committing a crime is extremely small, and he is destined not to become Tan Hailong's ideal "successor".
Although she did not understand what was so good about inheriting the career of "pedophilia", past experience taught her not to try to figure out the mind of a psychopath.
"For someone like Tan Hailong, who is so controlling and conceited, it would be better to kill him than to make him admit that his offspring is a failure." Lin Jiafan's expression became a little strange when he said this. "So he will definitely try his best to train Tan Tian into his ideal."
Before she could close her mouth, it opened even wider. She was so shocked that she started stuttering, which was a rare occurrence for Luo Jingyao.
"You...you...meaning that Tan Hailong brought Tan Tian along...?"
"Maybe the situation is not as bad as we thought." Lin Jiafan withdrew his gaze and walked towards the kitchen.
Looking at Zhu Xiulan lying powerlessly beside the sink, he carefully asked, "Ms. Zhu, how often can you and Tan Tianping come back?"
"If Xiaotian's classes are not too tight, he'll come back once a week. If the school has any special arrangements, he'll occasionally come back only once every two or three weeks." Zhu Xiulan wasn't sure why he suddenly asked this, and her hands clenched into fists nervously on the marble countertop.
"It's probably because of the environment. Xiaotian seems to prefer the city, where it's quiet. Every time he's in the village, he always becomes particularly irritable."
Hearing this, Lin Jiafan raised an eyebrow subtly: "Will Tan Hailong take Xiaotian away for a while during this period? An hour? Two hours?"
Before she finished speaking, Zhu Xiulan's face turned pale at a speed visible to the naked eye: "Officer Lin, you mean... that... he also attacked Xiaotian?!"
"Tan Hailong!!! You beast, you will not die well!" After a scream, the woman's legs went limp and she knelt on the ground.
Seeing this, Luo Jingyao rushed into the kitchen and, with a little force, helped the other person to a chair nearby. "Sister Lan, Officer Lin didn't mean that. The police just suspect that Tan Hailong might have taken Xiaotian to the place where he was holding those children."
"Really?" Zhu Xiulan's somewhat unfocused eyes slowly regained some brightness.
After a firm 'hmm', Luo Jingyao asked again, "So do you know where he usually takes Xiaotian?"
"It doesn't matter. Sometimes they say we're going to the fields, sometimes they say we're going to the tenants' homes." Zhu Xiulan felt very sorry for not being able to help. "Actually, I didn't agree with him taking Xiaotian out with him in this situation, but he's the child's father after all, and he confidently said that Xiaotian needed more contact with others so he could better integrate into society, so I was convinced."
"I really don't know where he kept the child. Before today, I never thought about it..."
Patting the woman's back soothingly, Luo Jingyao silently asked Lin Jiafan who was standing at the door with her eyes.
After sitting there in silence for a long while, Lin Jiafan suddenly raised his head and asked, "Tan Tian seems to like painting. Do you still have his old paintings at home?"
"Yes! Yes!" Zhu Xiulan stood up instantly and rushed into another bedroom in a panic.
Not long after, she came out holding a thick stack of drawing paper.
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