Chapter 129 Disappearance: A 17-year-old high school girl has gone missing.
On a May morning in Yancheng, the gray sky hung low, brewing a long-awaited rain.
The phone rang suddenly in the office of the First Brigade of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Municipal Public Security Bureau on this dull morning.
Lei Xiao grabbed the receiver, but before he could even say "hello," he heard Wang, the homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 12 at Yancheng No. 1 High School, shouting almost in a broken voice: "Old Lei, Sun Wei! We can't find Sun Wei from our class! She didn't come to class yesterday, and her dad just said she didn't come home last night either!"
Ms. Wang was once Lei Xiao's son's homeroom teacher, and the two were very familiar with each other, so she immediately asked him for help.
An hour later, the screeching of police car brakes shattered the tranquil morning reading atmosphere of the school. Lei Xiao, along with several investigators, jumped out of the car first and strode towards the senior high school building.
At the entrance of the honors class, the homeroom teacher, Ms. Wang, looked haggard, while the grade director, who was pale-faced, stood beside her.
"Team Leader Lei, you've finally arrived!" Teacher Wang's voice was choked with tears. "Sun Wei, she's one of the top three in the grade, a promising student who's expected to be admitted to Tsinghua or Peking University. From the first year of high school until now, she's never been late or left early, let alone skipped class or stayed out all night. But she didn't come home last night, something must have happened to her!"
As parents, they couldn't bear to see their children suffer. Lei Xiao's face turned ashen as he quickly ascertained the situation.
Sun Wei, female, 18 years old, is a top student in the senior year of high school. Last night, after evening self-study ended at 9:30 PM, she left school as usual, carrying her schoolbag. Her mother, Li Shufen, worked the night shift yesterday. She returned home this morning to prepare breakfast and wake her daughter, only to discover that her daughter hadn't come home at all last night.
Li Shufen hurriedly contacted the homeroom teacher and asked several of her daughter's close female friends, all of whom said they had not seen Sun Wei that night.
After understanding the situation, Lei Xiao immediately contacted Fan Wei, the captain of the first brigade, via walkie-talkie: "Old Fan, something's wrong!"
The case of the missing girl must be handled quickly!
Fan Wei, with his extensive experience, immediately assembled his team and told Lei Xiao, "Team Leader Lei, I'll take some men to Sun Wei's house for a thorough investigation right away. The technical team will be here soon. You coordinate with other police forces to check the area around the school and major traffic intersections throughout the city."
Sun Wei's home is in a semi-new, semi-old residential compound near the school. It's not big, and the decoration is simple but very clean.
Sun Wei's bedroom is less than ten square meters. Her desk is placed against the wall, with neat stacks of test papers and exercise books piled on the corner. A photo frame stands on the bedside table. In the photo, a girl in a school uniform has curved eyebrows and eyes, a neat ponytail, and a shy yet bright smile.
The technical team's professional flashlights carefully swept over every inch of the room.
Under the bright light of the survey kit, Fan Wei's gloved fingers traced the edge of the desk inch by inch. The desktop was clean, and near the right corner, on the light-colored plywood corner, a small, irregular area was faintly visible in the light, its color slightly darker than the surrounding area, and its texture slightly rough to the touch.
"Xiao Zhao, look here." Fan Wei looked at Zhao Jingxin from the physical evidence team, his voice low, "It looks like it's been wiped hard. Look closely and see if you can find anything."
Zhao Jingxin carefully took out his tools and began scanning and sampling the area.
Fan Wei opened the drawer, which was unlocked. Inside were neatly categorized stationery items, with a hardcover diary at the bottom.
Fan Wei took out his diary and gently opened it.
At first, the diary entries were just ordinary, everyday records, with occasional ventings of a young girl's emotions, but nothing unusual. But as it went on, the handwriting became more and more illegible, and the emotional language increased.
Especially on the last page, the font forcefully cuts through the back of the paper, and the entire page of text exudes an unusual anxiety and pain.
"I'm so tired."
"I'm having some difficulty breathing..."
"Why me?"
"Someone save me... Don't touch me!"
The last sentence, "Someone save me... Don't touch me!", was written in crooked and distorted characters, and the paper was blurred with a dark color by water stains, which must have been the traces of tears.
Fan Wei's heart sank.
His daughter is also in high school, and just like Sun Wei in the photo, she is pretty and innocent. He can't imagine how devastated he would be if his daughter were carrying so much suffering inside!
Fan Wei looked up at the top of the desk; the hook where his schoolbag should have been was empty. The usual English and math/physics review materials were also gone from the bookshelf—everything looked just like when Sun Wei left for school.
But why would its owner leave this diary, a personal item containing the intense struggles of Sun Wei's inner world, at the very bottom of a drawer? Was she certain no one would rummage through the drawer, or did she deliberately place it there hoping someone would see it?
The investigators shifted their focus to the windows.
The old-style aluminum sliding window had a simple latch. The technician examined it closely with a magnifying glass but found nothing unusual. There were no signs of disturbance on the windowsill, either inside or outside the narrow window sill. There were no fingerprints, no footprints, and certainly no signs of forced entry. The door was also intact.
Zheng Yu, standing to the side, frowned deeply: "It seems like no outsiders came in. It looks like she left on her own, or like she was taken away without resisting. Why did this little girl disappear?"
Fan Wei remained silent, his gaze sweeping across the small room once more. His intuition told him that this girl's situation was more than just running away from home.
Sun Wei's parents, Sun Guodong and Li Shufen, were questioned separately in different rooms.
Sun Guodong, in his forties, was the deputy director of a workshop at Yancheng Machinery Factory. Slightly overweight, he wore a worn-out factory jacket. In the living room, he appeared unusually agitated, pacing back and forth in the cramped space with his hands behind his back, his face flushed with a mixture of anger and anxiety. Each step he took had a compulsive rhythm, as if he were desperately suppressing something.
"Officer, my daughter would never date so young, much less run away from home!" Sun Guodong slapped his thigh forcefully, his voice rising with an authoritative tone that brooked no dissent. "You have no idea how well-behaved Weiwei is. She's always been number one in her class. Her only flaw is that she's too honest and timid. It must be some thugs and hooligans targeting her. You need to focus on investigating thugs and kidnappings! I demand that a case be opened and all the thugs in the city arrested and questioned!"
Zheng Yu voiced her doubts: "Where were you last night? Why didn't you notice our daughter wasn't home in time?"
A teenage girl didn't come home all night, and her parents didn't find out until the morning. How could they be so careless?
Sun Guodong glanced at Zheng Yu: "I was drinking with friends last night and came back late. I saw that Weiwei's room door was closed, so I assumed she was asleep and didn't pay attention." As he said this, he raised his hand and smacked his head. "Sigh! I should have opened the door and checked. Weiwei is very well-behaved and never locks the door at home."
Zheng Yu continued to ask, "Mr. Sun, has your daughter's mood changed in the past few months? For example, has she become more silent than usual? Or has she mentioned any troubles to you? Does she have any male teachers or people outside the school with whom she has a close relationship?" She tried to keep her tone calm, but her eyes were sharp as she captured every subtle reaction from Sun Guodong.
Sun Guodong's facial muscles tensed up instantly.
He abruptly stopped pacing, his sharp gaze fixed on Zheng Yu, a hint of offended annoyance in his eyes. He said decisively, "No! What's wrong with her mood? Everyone feels this way during their senior year of high school. There are only two months left until the college entrance exam; it's normal to feel a little pressure. Teachers? They're all very good. Who could she possibly know outside the school? I'm very strict with her!" His words flowed rapidly, as if trying to shut down any further questions.
At this moment, the policewoman who had been questioning Li Shufen in the inner room came out to pour her water, as Li Shufen, who had been silently weeping and trembling slightly, was being accompanied. When Li Shufen saw her husband, she instinctively shrank back. Her face was pale, and her lips trembled as if she were mustering the courage to say something.
"I... I noticed that Weiwei hasn't been sleeping well at night lately. Sometimes she would just sit there holding that little bear and stare blankly..." Her voice was weak and barely audible, and she sounded a little hesitant.
"What nonsense are you spouting!" Sun Guodong suddenly roared, interrupting his wife. He strode up to Li Shufen, his imposing manner drawing her attention, and pointed at her, berating her: "I think you've ruined your brain with all this overthinking! She can't sleep because she's holding a doll? What high school senior doesn't stay up late? Don't talk nonsense, you're just making things worse for me!"
His voice was so loud that Li Shufen trembled all over, her tears fell even harder, and she swallowed back all the words she was about to say.
Zheng Yu's gaze, however, fell precisely on the inside of Sun Guodong's right wrist, exposed as he raised his arm, the instant Sun Guodong excitedly pointed at Li Shufen. There was a ring of faded marks there, an uneven yellowish-brown, darker than the surrounding healthy skin, like an old bruise that hadn't completely faded, or like pigment that had settled in the skin during the healing process.
Based on his years of experience as a criminal investigator, Zheng Yu determined that it was an old tooth mark.
Sun Guodong seemed to realize something and quickly pulled down his sleeve to cover himself.
Zheng Yu remained expressionless, her gaze slightly darkening.
Strange, Sun Guodong showed absolute control over the family, Li Shufen acted like a submissive wife in front of him, and Sun Wei was obedient and sensible. Who would leave such a tooth mark on Sun Guodong's hand?
Zheng Yu wanted to speak with Li Shufen alone for a few more minutes, but Sun Guodong stopped her: "You've asked everything you needed to ask. Hurry up and go find her! I've already said, my daughter is very obedient. She must have been taken away on her way home tonight. You police officers shouldn't waste time here. Every minute that's delayed, Weiwei is in greater danger!"
Zheng Yu insisted, "Mr. Sun, our police have procedures and regulations for handling cases. Team Leader Lei has already conducted a search of the surrounding area. We need to understand your daughter's social connections."
Sun Guodong yelled at Li Shufen in frustration, "It's all your fault! You insisted on going to this lousy job. I told you before, it would have been so much better if you had quit and stayed home with Weiwei and did some housework. Now that Weiwei is gone, are you happy?!"
Li Shufen was brought to tears by her husband's outburst, her emotions nearly collapsing. She kept pounding her chest, crying, "It's my fault! It's all my fault! I shouldn't have worked the night shift, I should have picked Weiwei up from school..."
Seeing that he couldn't get any information out of her, Fan Wei left some people at Sun Wei's home to comfort and reassure her family, while he, along with Zheng Yu and others, visited the neighbors to inquire whether Sun Wei had shown any unusual behavior recently.
By evening, everyone had gathered their thoughts and found the situation extremely difficult.
Sun Guodong did indeed drink with some friends last night, and the party didn't end until around midnight. His colleagues also said that Sun Guodong was very satisfied with his daughter, Sun Wei, and often praised her in front of his colleagues and friends, saying that she had good grades, was obedient and sensible, and would definitely be successful in the future.
Li Shufen did indeed work the night shift, finishing her shift at six in the morning and returning home. According to neighbors, she doted on her children.
Although Sun Guodong acted extremely domineeringly and the family atmosphere seemed very oppressive, the couple would never do anything to harm their child.
The school teachers reported that Sun Wei's grades had dropped recently and she was not concentrating in class. However, given the intense pressure of senior year, it's normal for her to be a little distracted sometimes.
Sun Wei's classmates said that Sun Wei was introverted and rarely talked about her own affairs. She usually did nothing but study. The day she went missing was no different from any other day.
Sun Wei's neighbors said that the child was very obedient and well-behaved from a young age. She would go to and from school on time regardless of wind or rain, and was a role model for all the children in the residential area.
Lei Xiao asked people to inquire about Sun Wei's journey home, including street vendors, security guards at her workplace, and elderly people chatting by the roadside, but to no avail.
Sun Wei, the well-behaved and good student in everyone's eyes, mysteriously disappeared during evening self-study.
Apart from the unusual venting in her diary, everything else seemed normal.
The group was utterly frustrated, but Zheng Yu, being young and quick-witted, finally said to Lei Xiao, "Last time you caught those robbers, didn't you rely on the data center's monitoring and early warning system? Did Sun Wei pass by a bank on her way back? Banks usually have surveillance cameras at their entrances. Could you request data support to check the surveillance footage?"
His words were a wake-up call for everyone!
Lei Xiao immediately picked up the phone and called the data center: "A high school student has gone missing. We need the center's support!"
This phone call immediately mobilized everyone at the Municipal Public Security Bureau's Criminal Information Data Center.
On her way home, Sun Wei discovered two surveillance cameras, both connected to the data center. Li Bin quickly retrieved the footage and searched for recordings from 9:30 PM to 10:00 PM the previous night.
Unfortunately, Sun Wei was not seen in the footage.
This indicates that Sun Wei did not go home after school, but went elsewhere instead.
Where exactly did they go?
Surveillance cameras were not common in the 1990s, only installed at the entrances of banks and key institutions, and the images were extremely blurry. The precise facial recognition systems of later generations had not yet been developed; people had to rely on the human eye to find faces.
Liang Jiushan was able to quickly detect the anomaly from the surveillance footage last time because Zhang Qiang and his two companions repeatedly lingered in front of the bank without any reason, and their images matched the information in the database, which activated the warning conditions set in the system.
However, even if all surveillance footage is reviewed, it's possible that Sun Wei wasn't captured on camera, or that she was only briefly seen in the footage, making it impossible for either the human eye or a machine to identify her. Trying to find Sun Wei using this method is like searching for a needle in a haystack.
An 18-year-old girl suddenly disappeared. Where did she go?
Was it due to family reasons or academic pressure that she ran away from home?
But after asking all his relatives and classmates, he still couldn't find any news about Sun Wei.
Were they kidnapped or trafficked on the way?
It's only a ten-minute walk from the school to Sun Wei's home, and there are many shops along the way. Kidnapping and trafficking would surely make some noise, right? But no one noticed anything unusual.
Everyone's heart was in their throats.
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