Chapter 130 Emotional Manipulation: Record Screening, Every Second Counts
Zhao Jingxin from the technical team sampled the wiping marks specifically pointed out by Fan Wei and verified that they were caused by repeated friction from the elbow. Combined with the intense language in the diary, it can be reasonably concluded that Sun Wei's emotions have been unstable recently, and there is a high probability that she has run away from home.
Sun Guodong was furious and berated the police for their inaction, saying that his daughter could never have run away from home. Li Shufen, with tears streaming down her face, grabbed Zheng Yu's hand and pleaded, "Weiwei is a good girl. There are only two months left until the college entrance examination. She could never have run away from home. She must have been taken away by bad people. Please search carefully and find her."
Now, the key is to find out where Sun Wei went after leaving school.
Lei Xiao mobilized six criminal police officers and assigned them the task of checking surveillance footage.
Zheng Yu led her team to continue their investigation near the school, hoping to find witnesses who had seen Sun Wei the previous night. Surely someone would notice a teenage girl walking down the street with her backpack around 9 PM?
Without ruling out the possibility of retaliation or kidnapping, Fan Wei investigated the social relationships of Sun Wei's parents and searched for suspicious individuals.
Time was of the essence, so Jiang Ling convened an emergency meeting overnight to mobilize all staff at the data center.
Li Bin, along with several technicians, entered Sun Wei's photo into the system and reset the parameters, attempting to find footage of Sun Wei that might have appeared between 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM last night. This was the first time Li Bin had done such a challenging technical task; his eyes were glued to the screen, his hands flying across the keyboard, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
On the other side, Jiang Ling and the portrait team sat on a whiteboard where Sun Wei's ID photo was enlarged and pasted on.
Meanwhile, her near-perfect grades in all subjects, her book borrowing records from all three years of high school, and detailed on-site reports and interviews supplemented by Zheng Yu were laid out in sequence.
Jiang Ling stood in front of the whiteboard, her gaze calm, her voice clear and powerful, drowning out all the noise in the computer room.
“Sun Wei’s disappearance, her schoolbag and documents vanished without a trace, seems like she was preparing to leave, or rather, running away from home. However, the wiping marks on the desk, the desperate tear stains in her diary, and the cries for help indicate that it was not her own choice. It’s contradictory, isn’t it?”
The members of the psychological profiling team have a thorough understanding of criminal psychology over the past few years. After carefully reviewing all of Sun Wei's investigation materials, they began to express their opinions.
Li Zhenliang: "Yes, it is indeed contradictory. It may be an involuntary runaway, that is, being tricked into leaving home."
Liu Haoran strongly agreed with Li Zhenliang's assessment: "Yes, this is an atypical kidnapping. Sun Wei is a good child and a good student. She's only 18 years old this year, and even good children can have rebellious tendencies. Her reading is mainly literature, including 'The Sorrows of Young Werther,' 'Anna Karenina,' Duras, Haruki Murakami... The themes of these books almost all point to emotional loneliness and escaping constraints. It's very possible that she ran away from home under special circumstances and was then controlled by someone."
Zhou Wei's tone was urgent: "Haoran is right, the victim may be in some kind of special and dangerous control relationship! We must find the person controlling her as soon as possible, otherwise her life will be in danger."
An 18-year-old girl is at the age when she is just beginning to blossom. The missing Sun Wei may have been trafficked, imprisoned, or even tortured, abused, or even... murdered by some pervert.
Currently, there are limited clues, and there are too many possible motives for the crime.
It may have been for sexual exploitation and gratification. The suspect took advantage of the girl's emotional dependence and helplessness, gradually pushing her physical boundaries and using sexual acts as proof of "love" or a demand for "obedience."
It could be a desire for power and control. The suspect may not simply be seeking sexual gratification, but rather indulging in the sense of power to completely control another person's mind, emotions, and behavior. Destroying the independent will of an excellent and pure young girl and molding her into a completely dependent and obedient "doll" could bring him immense, morbid satisfaction.
It could be about emotional dependence and possessiveness. The suspects may have serious emotional deficiencies, such as loneliness, low self-esteem, or an inability to form normal intimate relationships. They see the girls as "perfect partners" or "emotional anchors," using abduction and manipulation to achieve a pathological "complete possession" and satisfy their distorted emotional needs. They view the victims as "private property."
It's possible that it was for economic gain. They might have kidnapped her to extort ransom, forced her to engage in illegal activities for profit, or sold Sun Wei to others.
It could be revenge or a form of social catharsis. The suspect may have had some kind of grudge against Sun Wei's family, such as financial disputes, workplace conflicts, or personal grievances, and abducted Sun Wei to take revenge on her parents and cause them pain. Alternatively, the suspect may harbor resentment towards society or specific groups, such as high-achieving students like Sun Wei, and devise a plan to abduct and destroy them as a way to vent their frustrations about social injustice or personal failure.
Another possibility is fulfilling a specific fantasy or ritual. This motive is relatively rare in China, but it is more dangerous. Suspects may have specific sexual fantasies, religious beliefs, or paranoid beliefs, requiring a particular type of girl, such as purity, a student-like quality, or a specific appearance, to fulfill their rituals or fantasies. Abduction is a crucial step in realizing these fantasies.
The existence of six criminal motives makes the three-pronged investigation method extremely complex.
Jiang Ling also sensed the predicament: "Based on the existing evidence, Sun Wei's departure from home showed signs of cooperation and willingness, but also patterns of struggle and resistance. Analyzing Sun Wei's psychological characteristics, she is introverted, highly sensitive, and a perfectionist. Beneath her obedient exterior lies immense psychological pressure. Her father is domineering, and her mother is weak; her father may have been abusive, and she longed to escape her family of origin. The suspect likely exploited these psychological traits, exerting psychological influence on her, engaging in mental manipulation, belittling, and even control. This is not coercion; it is a covert form of emotional manipulation and violence!"
Liu Haoran was the first to speak: "Director, you're right! Look..."
He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a red pen, and wrote as he spoke: "This kind of emotional manipulation is terrifying. The core is to establish emotional dependence and create isolation, such as cutting off her normal contact with relatives and friends. Sun Wei's teachers and colleagues have all reported that she has been very silent, unable to concentrate, and her grades have declined recently. This behavior perfectly confirms this point."
Li Zhenliang's daughter is in junior high school this year. Hearing that her child was being controlled by emotions, he was heartbroken and gritted his teeth, cursing, "Shameless! Despicable!"
Liu Haoran continued, "His methods generally involve repeatedly belittling and denying her value to destroy her self-confidence, deliberately creating a sense of guilt by exploiting Sun Wei's psychological weakness of pursuing perfection, and using emotional blackmail by saying things like 'If you don't do what I say, it's your fault.'"
Zhou Wei slapped his thigh: "Isn't this exactly the PUA that Director Jiang mentioned in the Chen Anping case!"
Liu Haoran raised his hand and pointed at Zhou Wei: "That's right, emotional manipulation is PUA. Sun Wei took away her personal belongings, showing abnormal compliance, but left behind a diary as a distress signal because of her true inner struggle. This state of 'superficial cooperation, inner collapse' shows that this manipulative relationship is extremely dangerous!"
Li Zhenliang grew anxious and slammed his hand heavily on Sun Guodong's interrogation record: "Sun Wei's family environment—her father is domineering, her mother is weak and submissive—creates a very oppressive atmosphere, which is why bad people were able to exploit the situation. Now, the key is how to find the person who manipulated Sun Wei! How do we find them?!"
Jiang Ling's gaze swept across the room: "To find the suspect who controls Sun Wei's thoughts and behavior, we must first look for suspicious people around Sun Wei, including teachers, classmates, friends, relatives, neighbors... Don't let go of anyone who may have come into contact with Sun Wei."
Li Zhenliang said, "Team Lei is working on this, but it will take a long time! Visiting and investigating requires a huge amount of manpower and resources, but we can't afford to wait any longer."
After pondering for a while, Jiang Ling slowly said, "Then let's update the method! We can't afford to use manpower, so let's use computers to do it."
Li Bin looked up from the screen at this moment, and upon hearing Jiang Ling's words, he was startled: "Director, what are you trying to do? I'm not even familiar with the current program yet, I can't afford to try any new methods..."
Jiang Ling's mind flashed back to her past life, to the scenes of tracking down victims' information—phones, QQ, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu… any trace left online would be thoroughly investigated by the police, and even if you deleted it, it could be recovered through technical means. In the face of big data, everyone is transparent.
“Sun Wei is on the verge of a breakdown. The longer she goes missing, the greater the danger she becomes,” Jiang Ling said firmly. “Immediately begin searching for Sun Wei’s personal information.”
Li Bin closed his eyes resignedly: "Director, what do you want to search for?"
The more serious the situation, the calmer Jiang Ling remained: "Import all traceable communication records prior to their disappearance: Sun Guodong and Li Shufen's home landlines, pager messages, including—"
Jiang Ling suddenly remembered that QQ was launched in early 1999, and Sun Wei might have applied to use it.
"Requesting urgent access to user registration information and possible login records and associations for Tencent QQ 1999 Beta version. Tencent is a startup company with extremely limited server capacity, but this is still a possibility."
The people at the data center looked astonished. QQ? Even they hadn't used it before!
Jiang Ling glanced at the bewildered crowd and sighed, "Alright, I'll ask Jiu Shan for help with this."
Li Bin breathed a sigh of relief: "Alright, alright, let Jiu Shan do it. The younger generation knows more about this."
Jiang Ling picked up the phone and said a few words. Liang Jiushan's voice, still a little sleepy, came from the other end: "Okay! Sister Ling, wait a moment. Send me Sun Wei's basic information, and I'll contact QQ right away to find the user list."
Jiang Ling glanced at her watch; it was already one in the morning.
Jiang Ling felt a little guilty for waking Liang Jiushan up to work at this hour: "Jiushan, it's so late for you..."
Before Jiang Ling could apologize, Liang Jiushan interrupted her: "It's alright, police matters are of utmost importance, I understand! Don't worry, I'll investigate right away."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Ling turned her gaze to Li Bin.
"Here!" Li Bin immediately straightened his back.
"You lead the technical team to screen communication records; every second counts!"
"Okay! We'll get started right away," Li Bin assured, patting his chest.
The data center buzzed louder.
Li Bin, accompanied by several young technical police officers, scanned the massive lists of telephone communications and pager messages on several old computer screens with his eyes moving rapidly up and down, while constantly muttering the codes and last digits of the numbers.
"Damn! This landline record is like an old woman's foot binding cloth. Xiao Zheng, pull out all the numbers that went in and out of the Sun family's landline in the last two weeks according to the timeline, and highlight those who are not acquaintances and those who call late at night. Be quick!"
Young police officer Zheng's fingers flew across the keyboard, his forehead beaded with sweat: "Brother Li, the raw data the telephone company just sent is out of format! I, I'll fix it right away." His voice trembled with anxiety, and the dense numbers on the screen made him dizzy.
"We have to get this sorted out, even if it's a mess! This is life-saving data! Hurry!" Li Bin roared, his eyes never leaving his screen. He knew that trying to find evidence from this pile of data was like finding a needle in a haystack. But even the smallest needle had to be found!
Time is life.
The phone rang; it was Liang Jiushan calling.
Jiang Ling answered the call quickly.
"Sister Ling, I tried connecting to Tencent OICQ's servers to find an account registered under Sun Wei's name. The registration date was March 15, 1999, only two months ago. However, access to chat messages is restricted, requiring higher privileges or company support."
Liang Jiushan's voice was very calm.
Jiang Ling felt reassured by the confidence and clear logic characteristic of technical personnel. She nodded and said, "Okay, write down the registration date. I will immediately apply for technical coordination with Tencent under the pretext of an emergency investigation by the Municipal Bureau."
"Okay, I'll wait for your message." Liang Jiushan hung up the phone.
The data center was brightly lit.
Everyone is working hard to find the missing Sun Wei.
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