Chapter 96 Kidnapping
Tu Lanxun understood. No wonder the remains of the Dameihua Village settlement in the middle could be seen from the east and west sides of Yeshan.
"Is there really no one living there?" Xiao Zhang asked curiously.
Captain Luo said, "No. After the incident, the two or three remaining households were also evacuated. But they said a while ago a livestreaming team came to Dameihua Village to scout for footage in the surrounding towns, mountains, and desert plains. They stayed there, but only returned every two or three days. We haven't been able to contact them yet."
It can’t be such a coincidence, right?
An Feng suddenly jumped up and pointed towards the distant plain, "Hey, look, is that a car?"
"Is that team of anchors back? Let them come over quickly." someone said.
Xiao Zhang clenched his fists. "What? That car was heading away from the wild mountains!"
The dot was indeed getting smaller. Looking through the telescope, it was a SUV with a brightly colored logo. Captain Luo said, "Oh no! It's the logo of that anchor team."
Judging from the direction, the car came out of Dameihua Village. It may have been hiding in a blind spot behind a big rock, but now it is rushing forward like a mad horse.
"Catch up, catch up!" Xiao Zhang shouted excitedly.
The SWAT team leader reported a few words into the communicator, and less than half a minute later, the helicopters that had been circling the mountaintop spun around like giant black dragonflies, circling and encircling them. The response team at the foot of the mountain followed closely behind them in their cars.
Tu Lanxun saw a flash of light appear in the rear window of the SUV. It looked like a container with a plastic shell. She suddenly grabbed the SWAT team leader's clothes and said, "Be careful of the explosion!"
N couldn't move beside her, but ghosts like Mikhail and Lu Jiahui had already leaped over and were rapidly approaching the fleeing SUV.
Sure enough, a flash of fire lit up at the rear of the SUV, and the trunk opened slightly, spitting out a strange thing made of tape, a plastic gasoline barrel and a black plastic bag.
The next second, the thing exploded, and flames and explosions filled the plain. The three special vehicles chasing behind turned quickly and barely avoided the impact of the explosion.
Immediately afterwards, the helicopter seemed to be pulled by an invisible big hand, and the fuselage plunged two meters, almost losing balance, but fortunately it was quickly pulled back to its original position.
The SWAT team leader's earpiece rang out, and he immediately said to Tu Lanxun and the others with a sullen expression, "The helicopter pilot was disturbed, and the co-pilot took over."
They began their journey towards the plains, losing time climbing down the hill. Once they were in the car, the seats lifted Tu Lanxun and the others' backs as they sped forward. Through the windshield, they could see that several of the pursuing special forces vehicles had also been disrupted, making sharp S-shaped turns.
But fortunately they were prepared and the worst did not happen.
"Why is the SUV driving to the side?" Xiao Zhang suddenly said. She half stood up in the car, but Captain Luo pushed her back down. "Sit tight, fasten your seatbelts, are you trying to kill yourself?"
Xiao Zhang looked at Captain Luo a little aggrieved. Captain Luo himself didn't wear a seat belt and was ready to rush out to provide support at any time.
The road ahead began to bumpy, and the SUV rushed across the plain. Finally, the steering wheel seemed to fail and it rushed straight towards a protruding stone tablet, which was the boundary marker of the Golden Continent Desert.
"Bang!" The stone tablet was hit and the SUV completely lost its balance. It rolled several times on the sandy ground before it stopped with black smoke coming out.
Police cars surrounded the accident scene. Special police approached with guns in hand, only to find that the driver's window was smashed, and a gun barrel slowly emerged from inside, which was a submachine gun.
Everyone approached cautiously, but the gun did not fire. Finally, the car door was pried open, and a hand holding the gun handle swung and fell softly beside the seat. The wrist was two circles thinner than the cuff of the dark green windbreaker.
Wan Amei collapsed in the driver's seat, her eyes closed, her head facing the ground and her legs up in the air. There was a wound at her hairline, but no blood was flowing, only a thick fluid was oozing out. When the SWAT officers removed her from the overturned car, her finger was still on the trigger, but it came loose with just one push.
Tu Lanxun was shocked: she looked nothing like the photo on the wanted poster, even more outrageous than Zheng Dabao and Diao Jinlong, with sunken cheeks and a skinny body like a piece of firewood. She could not even hold up her clothes when she was hung in her clothes.
"Don't move, step back!" Tu Lanxun suddenly said, "There's something on her!"
To be precise, there is something in the body.
Wan Amei's eyelids trembled and suddenly opened, but the exhaustion in her whole body made her unable to move even her fingers.
The one looking at them now was not Wan Amei, but the monster carried by the fugitive, which controlled Wan Amei's body.
"It's coming out!" Tu Lanxun whispered, not to the special police team, but to Lu Jiasui and Mikhail next to him.
A man's face lifted up from behind Wan Amei's neck, as if it had grown out of her back and was slowly separating. He had an unpleasant half-short haircut that covered his eyebrows, ears, and the back of his neck, giving him a suffocating, stiff look.
But the lower part of this strange body was not rigid at all, and was extremely flexible. Its hands and feet twisted softly like snakes, crawling in different directions. Tu Lanxun felt his stomach churning.
Several ghosts rushed over and held him down. He couldn't escape, but instead of beating or scolding them, they smiled from the bottom up and stretched out their long tongues to lick their hands.
Mikhail couldn't help but punch him, "Pervert, get out!"
The thing was finally caught. Tu Lanxun asked the SWAT team leader to continue. Two white-coated people jumped out of the ambulance that arrived behind them. They squatted in front of Wan Amei, stretched their neck and tilted their eyelids to listen to her heart rate. With a hiss, they said, "It's over."
The officer pulled a large backpack out of the back of the SUV, flipped through it, and said, "It's all in there!"
Wan Amei was taken to the hospital, and the mural was sent to the Cultural Relics Research Institute of Xi'an University. After the criminal police collected evidence, it was handed over to relevant experts for rescue and restoration. Tu Lanxun, dragging the disgusting snake-like ghost, silently followed back to the police station.
No ghost was willing to carry the snake-shaped ghost because it would lick its hands. N was the first one to stand far away. Mikhail wanted to hit him when he saw him, but Lu Jiasui thought of a way. She tied the snake-shaped ghost's limbs into knots and stuffed it directly into N's backpack.
Mikhail agreed.
N sat aside, with a cold face, watching them put the snake-shaped ghost into his bag with persecuted eyes.
But when the bulging backpack was stuffed into Mikhail's hands, N's expression finally became happy.
Mikhail yelled, "Why me again! He licked me!"
Tu Lanxun listened to this farce silently, wondering how to deal with the snake-shaped ghost in the end. The black and white ghosts didn't come out. I don't know why. Maybe the snake-shaped ghost's business is not over yet?
The police officers in the police station were busy running around. Tu Lanxun went to the water dispenser and filled a paper cup for himself, and then took a cup each for Xiao Zhang and An Feng.
Xiao Zhang wiped the sweat off her forehead and said, "I'm so thirsty that my throat is hoarse." She raised her legs and tapped them twice.
"What's the situation with those three fugitives?" Tu Lanxun asked.
"Zheng Dabao is dead, Diao Jinlong is still being rescued, and Wan Amei, who was sent there last, is stable but has not woken up yet." An Feng continued.
It probably wouldn't be possible to get a confession from them today. Tu Lanxun didn't understand what these people in the bureau were busy with, so he asked Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang was so angry that her nose was almost crooked. "Sister - no, sister, this is a special case directly supervised by the provincial department. The people have been arrested, but there are still a lot of things waiting to be done. You can just enjoy your free time!"
Tu Lanxun said innocently: "I am a non-staff consultant, and you don't pay me."
"Why not send it?" An unexpected voice came from behind. Wen Chong was still as tall and straight as before, but apart from his imposing demeanor, he was not dashing at all in casual clothes. It would be hard to find him in a crowd. Only when he appeared next to you and you took the initiative to look at him would you be startled, just like a leopard suddenly appearing behind you.
Tu Lanxun was stunned: "What?"
"Who said we won't give you an allowance?" Wen Chong handed her the supplementary terms of the agreement. It contained a rather generous figure, almost as much as the official base salary. "You participated in the case, contributed manpower and effort, and achieved such great results. How could you work for nothing?"
Tu Lanxun happily took it and suddenly had no confidence to refute Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang was extremely excited and began to direct Tu Lanxun to help her complete the written materials.
Wen Chong stretched out his hand to stop them, "Hey, stop it, you guys do your thing, I have something to do with Xiao Tu."
Xiao Zhang could only let go of Tu Lanxun and reluctantly handed her over to Wen Chong, loudly hinting, "Please treat me to dinner tonight. I'm not picky, just spicy noodles will do."
Tu Lanxun made an OK gesture and walked over.
Wen Chong brought Tu Lanxun back to his temporary office, closed the door, and before even sitting down, he said, "Have you caught that weirdo?"
She knew that Wenchong was not at the scene, but might be in the command center. Even if he was not there, Wenchong had a way to know the whole story, especially her part.
"I caught it. Should I give it to you now?" Tu Lanxun asked.
Ghosts such as N and Lu Jiahui stood by and watched.
Wen Chong nodded. "I've heard of the Fourth Treaty. It's okay. Just take it out." He placed a small card-shaped transmitter on the table. The top of the transmitter lit up, then went out. "Alright."
"What kind of high-tech is this?" Tu Lanxun asked, "Did you research it?"
Wen Chong seemed to have heard something ridiculous, and his expression fell. "Don't you have a good memory? Wait, please tell me how the people in Bi Hai Chao Sheng performed soul transformation surgery, and why Suoniya was not killed by Ji Jingyan. Ji Jingyan can see her day and night."
Tu Lanxun frankly said: "I don't know."
"Forget it, forget it." Wen Chong pinched his brows, trying to tolerate Tu Lanxun's intelligence. "Just remember, with this thing present, in a small, enclosed space, the Fourth Treaty will be temporarily invalidated. But this only applies to a total number of human ghosts under five."
Tu Lanxun discovered that this transmitter is of great significance. If humans master it, it will make it possible for humans and ghosts to interact with each other.
But if the evil ghosts, known as weird ones, control it, it means they can harm people at no cost and cause greater panic.
And she always felt that Wen Chong's half-spoken words might be a hindrance to N who was beside her.
"Okay." A backpack materialized out of thin air in Tu Lanxun's hands. Wen Chong put on a pair of glasses. At the same moment, N vanished into thin air. Tu Lanxun felt the silver chain in his pocket go cold.
The snake-shaped ghost was covered in blue and fell onto Wen Chong's desk. It was tied up into a ball, but it still tilted its head and looked at people with its eyes tilted, its mouth corners raised high, and its long tongue stretched out, ready to lick Wen Chong's hand on the edge of the table.
Wen Chong frowned, and Tu Lanxun said helplessly, "It's disgusting..."
"It was it that helped the fugitive smugglers evade customs and various inspections. It was also responsible for the sudden shift in attention of the pursuers. It also helped Wan Amei, Zheng Dabao and the others erase their footprints... Well, it has the ability to suck the energy and vitality of living people." Tu Lanxun gave a brief report.
Wen Chong seemed to know everything, both those mentioned and those not mentioned in the report. She asked, "The police officer who suddenly lost his focus outside the Yeshan Mountain area yesterday was also distracted by it?"
"No." Tu Lanxun finally seized the opportunity and told Wen Chong about the ghosts living in Fenghua Ancient Village. The latter sighed deeply.
"Okay, I understand. I'll find a way to resolve this matter." Wen Chong said, "Thank you for your roundabout way of seeking benefits for them."
"You're welcome." Tu Lanxun said shamelessly.
The snake-shaped ghost was handed to Wen Chong. She didn't say what she was going to do with it. Instead, she asked Tu Lanxun to sit down and poured her a glass of water.
"Xiao Tu, do you still remember what happened seven years ago?" Wen Chong asked.
Tu Lanxun was a little confused, "Seven years ago?"
Wen Chong smiled slightly. "It was about six or seven years ago, around your sixteenth birthday."
Tu Lanxun fell silent. His fingers trembled slightly as he clutched his sleeves. He remained silent for a long moment. Wen Chong took off his glasses, the silver chain still chilling in Tu Lanxun's pocket as he breathed.
"What do you want to say?" Tu Lanxun said in a steady voice, "I don't know what this has to do with the current case."
Wen Chong soothed him, "Don't be nervous, I just want to talk to you about this."
Tu Lanxun admitted: "I don't want to recall this incident."
"I completely understand how you feel. This incident would be a huge psychological trauma for anyone." Wen Chong pulled out her office chair and sat down across from Tu Lanxun. Her eyes were filled with kindness as she looked at him gently and said, "But Xiaolan, if you want to accomplish the things ahead and resolve the issues at hand, you have to face things you don't want to face."
Tu Lanxun asked quietly, "Is it related to the series of events we're in?"
Wen Chong smiled: "It's related."
Wen Chong took off his glasses, and N quietly appeared in a corner of the room, as if his presence could give Tu Lanxun some strength. Tu Lanxun was somewhat touched, but when he saw N's expression, he realized that he had guessed wrong.
N was silent, wanting to say something but stopping himself. He just looked at her with a tickling, watery gaze, as if he wanted to gently catch a butterfly with the net of his gaze.
Tu Lanxun gloomily told Wen Chong, "I was kidnapped the day before my sixteenth birthday."
Wen Chong politely expressed surprise and asked encouragingly, "And then?"
"I was kidnapped by a group of people I don't know who they were. Maybe they were my mother's business rivals at the time? It was a Sunday evening and I had just come out of cram school," said Tu Lanxun.
Wen Chong livened up the atmosphere, "I thought you were the type to hire a tutor."
"I went with Tao Si, a former friend of mine," Tu Lanxun explained. "She fell in love with a boy in the cram school who was from the school next door, so we both signed up for the class."
Once the topic was opened, the rest of the story came out easily. Tu Lanxun blurted out, "Tao Si asked that boy out for milk tea, and I went home alone. I took a taxi. As soon as I got in the car, someone blindfolded me..."
"My phone has a button that can trigger the alarm, so I pressed it, but for some reason it didn't work. Anyway, they took me away, blindfolded the whole time. I later learned that it was a warehouse on the outskirts of Lucheng."
"That's all." Tu Lanxun concluded.
Wen Chong didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he sighed and said softly, "Would you like to watch a video with me?"
Tu Lanxun thought there was nothing wrong with it, "Okay."
Wenchong turned on the TV and inserted a USB drive. There was only one video file in it, which was an interrogation video.
The protagonist is Hu Haisheng, and there are two policemen that Tu Lanxun does not know.
The video was cut short, leaving only a ten-minute segment. Hu Haisheng, handcuffed to a chair and wearing a detention center vest, said dejectedly, "I don't understand what you're talking about."
Police: "You are accused of participating in the planning of a kidnapping six years ago in Lucheng. The target of the kidnapping was the only daughter of the chairman of the Tu Group. Why don't you confess the crime?"
Hu Haisheng was silent for a moment. Perhaps he felt powerless under the repeated interrogations and had given up struggling, or perhaps he didn't think it was a big deal. He said irritably, "Yes, I participated. They kidnapped a sixteen-year-old girl, but I didn't do anything. Later, the girl ran away on her own. Damn, what a bunch of losers."
Police: "She ran away? How did she run away? Where did you kidnap her? Why did you kidnap her? What conditions did you set?"
"Wait, wait, wait, I have a headache." Hu Haisheng raised his hands and covered his forehead before groaning, "I want to smoke. Can you give me a cigarette?"
He didn't get the cigarette, but under the serious gaze, he slowly exhaled: "Kidnapped her, it actually has nothing to do with me."
Police: "Tell the truth."
Another police officer: "It has nothing to do with you? The kidnapped person is being held in a warehouse owned by your company!"
Hu Haisheng looked even more depressed. "Our company has so many warehouses, some of which are rented or mortgaged to others. That warehouse was rented to Dong Tianlong at that time. It's none of my business—"
His voice stopped abruptly.
"Dong Tianlong?" The police officer stared at him. "Dong Tianlong is Dong Yijian's son, 38 years old. Do you often interact with him?"
Hu Haisheng shouted, "Comrade police, you must distinguish right from wrong. His father is my buddy, and my eldest nephew rents a warehouse from me. Do I have to watch him every day? And... and..."
Police: "Six years ago, this kidnapping case was solved, and the principal offender, Jin Kun, was sentenced to prison for kidnapping and extortion. Six accomplices were also sentenced. They were all members of Dong Tianlong's gang."
"Why, do you suspect that Jin Kun and the others were kidnapped by Dong Tianlong?" Hu Haisheng became arrogant again, tilting his head and closing his eyes. "Go find whoever you suspect. I'm not familiar with Jin Kun and the others..."
The police slammed the evidence on the table and said, "You can't hide from this. Someone has now accused you of being deeply involved in the kidnapping, and they've even produced evidence that you instructed your men to destroy surveillance cameras and hide your whereabouts. You'd better confess the truth."
Hu Haisheng stared up in shock for half a minute before finally accepting his fate and saying, "Alright. Actually, it's very simple. Jin Kun and the others approached me and said they wanted to use the warehouse Dong Tianlong rented for some business, and asked me not to tell Dong Tianlong. I didn't think too much of it at the time, thinking they were just doing some sneaky reselling of "three-no" products, or at most bringing some handsome men and beautiful women to the warehouse for a party, so I agreed."
"Then what?"
"Then I thought more and more that something was wrong. It happened to be the day they kidnapped someone, so I wanted to go to the warehouse to check if they were doing anything illegal. I didn't tell Dong Tianlong because I was afraid of scaring the child..."
Police: "You're 32 and still a child."
Hu Haisheng curled his lips. "Sometimes, a person's maturity isn't determined by age, but by their heart. Hey, officer, I see you're old enough to start a family. Will you spoil your children?"
The policeman said coldly: "Go on, what did you do in the warehouse?"
"No, it wasn't me. When I arrived, they had already kidnapped the man and were offering the conditions. I was terrified." Hu Haisheng glanced at the police with a cunning look. "Guess what? They actually asked for an exorbitant amount of money from that Tu woman, half the value of her group. I said at the time that this was a sin against her virtue, and her company's cash flow was cut off, which was no different from bankruptcy. They were just trying to destroy her foundation."
Police: "Injure Yin De? You are doing soul transformation work in the Rising Blue Sea, so you don't injure Yin De?"
Hu Haisheng unexpectedly softened and laughed, "You can't generalize. Ghosts don't have human rights. Can you tell me which law protects ghosts? I haven't broken any law. And after all, I'm responsible for transforming ghosts. They were all dead when they came here. So how they died before that has nothing to do with me?"
Another officer interrupted, "Keep talking about the kidnapping."
Hu Haisheng agreed, "Okay. I told Jin Kun to stop and release the man. I said I'd pay him to get away, and as long as no one was killed, everything would be fine. But Jin Kun refused. He said he was short of money and had to make a killing so he could live happily abroad. He even asked me to get him a boat."
"Of course I can't agree to this, but they're all Jin Kun's men there, so I don't dare act rashly. I'll just go check on the kidnapped girl. I'm really afraid they'll kill her." Hu Haisheng tapped the chair with his fingers. "Officer, can you give me a drink of water?"
Policeman: "Go on." Another policeman stood up and handed over a glass of water.
Hu Haisheng drank it hastily and breathed a sigh of relief, "But I didn't see the tied-up little girl."
"Didn't see it?"
"She ran away."
"How did you run away?"
"No one let her go. She tricked a jerk who was guarding the gate into letting her loosen the rope, then knocked him unconscious and ran away."
"Where did he run from? We've been to that warehouse before. It was like a maze. How could he get out?"
"Of course he ran away! That kid is so cunning, I don't know where he got the courage from. There are all kinds of things inside and outside the warehouse..."
The policeman immediately grasped the key point and said coldly, "What is it?"
Hu Haisheng's voice was weak and mysterious. "There are ghosts! This soul-transforming thing is not something I advocated. I don't understand it, but I know that Jin Kun and the others seem to have a warehouse full of ghosts. They are invisible, but each one is more ferocious than the other. Anyone who encounters a ghost will end up in trouble. That's why I'm so scared. Isn't it strange that a little girl in her teens could actually slip away from those ghosts? If I were that age, I would have fainted from fear."
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