The Vanished Wife (2)
Everyone hurry inside and follow the old butler.
This time, Qu Chen's vision was limited, and he could only see the flowers and the ground in front of him, so he stopped making a fuss.
The old housekeeper led everyone to the living room, asked them to sit down, and then dialed a landline, saying a few words.
After a while, a man in his thirties, wearing a white shirt and blue trousers, with a refined appearance, came down.
He looked somewhat sad and tired, but still mustered his spirits and said to the players, "Welcome, detectives. You're here to help me find my wife, right?"
Professor Pan said, "Yes. Could you tell me the specifics?"
"My name is Liang Wanhao, and my wife's name is Jin Mingyue. She is the richest woman in City B and has been missing for half a month. I have been trying to find her, but without success. I hope you can bring me good news."
Jian Tanxi stared into his eyes and asked, "You really don't know where Ms. Jin is?"
"Yes, I don't know."
The moment Mr. Liang answered, Jian Tanxi activated her mind-reading ability.
But what she read in her mind was: "I don't know where she is."
His thoughts and answers were consistent, so it seems Mr. Liang really didn't know the inside story.
Jian Tanxi then asked, "Did anything strange happen before she disappeared?"
"It seems not."
"Mr. Liang, could you please recount everything that happened on the day Ms. Jin went missing?"
“Okay… That day, I woke up and found that Mingyue was gone. I searched the villa inside and out, but I couldn’t find her.”
Qu Chen was initially focused on playing with the flower in his hand, but after he had picked all the petals, he started looking around.
When he saw Mr. Liang, he hid behind Qin Man in fear.
Qin Man quickly patted him to comfort him.
Mr. Liang asked, "What's wrong with the child?"
Qin Man said, "He's just a little shy. By the way, Mr. Liang, does your villa have security cameras? Did they capture the moment Ms. Jin left?"
Mr. Liang: "Yes. The surveillance footage shows that Mingyue left at 5 a.m. about two weeks ago. At that time, none of the Jin family members were awake."
Can we see the security footage?
"Can."
Mr. Liang brought out his computer and played the surveillance footage from half a month ago.
Surveillance footage shows that around 5 a.m., a middle-aged woman with curly hair and wearing a green dress left the house. This woman should be Ms. Jin.
She didn't bring any luggage, only a small bag, but she walked quite fast, as if she was in a hurry to leave and afraid of being recognized.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Mr. Liang, didn't you notice when Ms. Jin got up?"
Mr. Liang: "No, I always sleep very well, and I don't wake up until around 7 a.m.
What was the reason for Ms. Jin's departure? Did she reveal it?
"No."
Xie Wei suggested, "Why don't we split up and go find Ms. Jin?"
Qin Man objected: "That's not a good idea. There are only four adults, so we can only search in four directions at most. But what if Ms. Jin is in a fifth direction? Besides, it's too slow for us to search on our own. Ms. Jin might still be alive, but if we delay her, she might be silenced."
Mr. Liang also said, "Going directly to look for them is definitely not a good idea. I have already asked many police officers and friends to help me look, but I haven't found anything."
Jian Tanxi asked, "Does Ms. Jin have any conflicts with the household staff? For example, the gardener or someone like that?"
Mr. Liang said, "There shouldn't be any conflict with the gardener, but she fired a nanny before."
"Fire the nanny? Why?"
"It seems that the nanny, relying on her long service in the Jin family and having taken care of Mingyue's parents, acted like she was above everyone else and often interfered in the Jin family's affairs, always saying that Mingyue was doing something wrong. Mingyue couldn't stand it anymore, so she had a fight with the nanny and fired her."
Professor Pan asked, "Was that nanny vengeful? Was the conflict between Ms. Jin and her very deep, or just ordinary?"
Mr. Liang: "I think their conflict is within the normal range and shouldn't have provoked the nanny to seek revenge. If you suspect that the nanny kidnapped Mingyue or even killed her, I think that's unlikely."
Qin Man said, "Mr. Liang is right. Usually, conflicts between employers and nannies aren't very serious. Have you received any extortion letters or phone calls in the past few days?"
Mr. Liang: "No."
"It seems that the possibility of Ms. Jin being kidnapped is relatively low."
Mr. Liang: "Yes, I also think it's unlikely that I was kidnapped, otherwise the kidnappers would have sent the ransom letter long ago."
Professor Pan asked, "Besides the nanny, has Ms. Jin had any other major conflicts with anyone else?"
"A major conflict... Last month, an old classmate of Mingyue came to borrow money from her, asking for 500,000 yuan, saying it was for her mother's medical treatment. Mingyue didn't lend it to her because she had been scammed many times before using this excuse, and she never got the money back after lending it out."
Unexpectedly, a few days later, that old classmate's mother passed away due to illness, and we then realized that what he had said was true. I think this conflict must be quite significant.
The players were all taken aback.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Did that old classmate contact you again afterward?"
"I don't know... In short, he hasn't contacted me. Whether he contacted Mingyue or not, I don't know."
"What are the names of that nanny and that old classmate? Where do they live respectively?"
"The nanny's name is Wu Yaoyao, and that old classmate's name is Yu Antai. I've marked their addresses on the map."
Mr. Liang took out a map of City B and marked two locations.
Qin Man asked, "Mr. Liang, if something happens to Ms. Jin, is there anyone who can profit from it?"
Mr. Liang asked in surprise, "Profit from it? What do you mean?"
"For example, if she dies, who will inherit her property?"
“Then I’ll count myself… We’re husband and wife, so I can inherit most of her estate. Also, Mingyue previously bought an insurance policy with her sister, Jin Meigui, as the beneficiary. If Mingyue dies, Meigui will receive ten million in compensation.”
Upon hearing this, the players exchanged glances, all harboring the same suspicion.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Where does Miss Golden Rose live?"
Mr. Liang marked a location on the map.
Golden Rose's residence is some distance from her sister's house; it's not close.
Mr. Liang asked, "Are you going to question Rose?"
Professor Pan: "We have this plan... but before that, we would like to visit the villa, focusing on the place where Ms. Jin lived."
“Okay, I’ll have our nanny, Aunt Han, show you around.”
Everyone was a little surprised that Mr. Liang agreed so readily, but they didn't show it.
Mr. Liang called over a nanny, who was one of the nannies who had been cleaning in the hallway earlier. She was Han Ma.
Han Ma led the players on a tour of each room, and everyone looked at them carefully.
However, after checking many rooms, they found nothing unusual.
Next, we arrived at the third floor.
Han's mother explained, "Madam's room and study are on the third floor, as are the gym and movie theater she frequents."
Professor Pan said, "Then we might have to stay on the third floor a little longer."
Han's mother: "No problem."
The group first went to the bedroom. The furniture here was quite luxurious, but it looked rather old.
However, the walls looked freshly painted, which seemed somewhat out of place.
Professor Pan asked, "Has this bedroom been painted recently?"
"Yes, the walls were old and looked bad, so we repainted them. In addition to the bedroom, the study, treasure room and other places were also repainted."
The bedroom was quite large, with several suites, so the players split up to search for it.
Jian Tanxi entered the dressing room, where many high-end clothes were neatly hung, including men's and women's styles, with more women's styles.
Jian Tanxi comes from a well-off family and has never seen many expensive clothes. Today is quite an eye-opener for her.
However, in her opinion, some of the clothes were too old-fashioned and not suitable for young people.
She searched every corner of the walk-in closet but found nothing. There were no people hiding there, nor anything strange.
This was expected, but Jian Tanxi was still somewhat disappointed.
However, she did notice that many of the pieces of jewelry were quite old. Although they were clearly valuable, they had lost their original luster, probably due to lack of maintenance or not being worn for a long time.
She went outside, and the other players returned after checking out their respective suites. They exchanged glances, knowing that none of them had found anything.
Next, Han's mother took them to visit the study.
The study was quite large, and the walls were newly painted. At a glance, there wasn't much place to hide.
Everyone searched carefully to see if Ms. Jin had left anything behind.
After a while, Xie Wei called out, "There's so much dust! Is there a place to wash your hands?"
Han's mother said, "Next, we'll visit the gym, which has handwashing stations."
"All right."
Xie Wei was rummaging through the bookshelf just now, and the dust on his hands must have come from the bookshelf.
After Xie Wei said that, Jian Tanxi looked at her hands and found that they were also covered with a thick layer of dust.
Jian Tanxi asked the others, "Have you all decided? Let's go wash our hands."
Professor Pan said, "Wait a moment."
Professor Pan looked at the desk, pointed to two dents, and asked Han's mother, "How did these two dents come about?"
Han's mother glanced at it and said, "This was originally used to hold photos. It got dented from being pressed down by the photo frames for a long time. Later, when the photos got old, my wife threw it away, but the dents remained."
Professor Pan nodded and opened a drawer in his desk. The first drawer contained some brand-new notebooks and pens. Professor Pan casually flipped through them and found that the notebooks were all blank, without any writing on them.
The second drawer contained a photograph. The photograph was relatively new, showing a woman in her thirties with curly hair, the same woman everyone had seen in the surveillance footage.
Professor Pan asked, "Is this photo of Ms. Jin?"
Han's mother: "Yes, this was taken by my wife not long ago."
"Besides this photo, doesn't she have any other photos? Like a photo with Mr. Liang?"
"Yes, but when she was cleaning the room before, she threw away some of the older photos and only kept this newly taken one."
Jian Tanxi suddenly realized something and asked, "So, Ms. Jin likes to regularly clean out old items?"
Han's mother: "Yes."
"I want to take this photo with me so I can find her."
"OK."
Jian Tanxi put Ms. Jin's photo into her pocket and said nothing more.
Then, Professor Pan said, "I've finished reading, let's go."
Everyone left the study and went to the gym, where they took turns washing their hands.
The gym is quite large, with a lot of exercise equipment, but you can see right through it, so it's unlikely to be hiding any secrets.
As usual, everyone conducted a round of inspections.
The gym walls were quite old and had many black spots.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Has the gym walls not been repainted?"
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