Chapter 97 The dog that hijacked me is lost
Lin Zhuyue took the phone from Shi Can's hand, turned on the screen, and looked at the time - 10:30 in the evening.
She initially thought that perhaps the students and parents who came to the tutoring class had too many questions, and that Ni Hongjing might have left his phone in the car, which was why he came home late and didn't answer the phone. But even with Nanyao City's vibrant nightlife, parents and students wouldn't stay at the tutoring class until 10:30 to discuss issues.
Lin Zhuyue asked, "Is there surveillance in the tutoring class?"
Du Liyun replied: "Yes, it has just been adjusted."
Du Liyun handed her phone to Lin Zhuyue:
"This camera is installed on the top of the wall facing the door on the first floor. It can record every time the door is opened and closed."
The door of the tutoring class can indeed be seen on the surveillance footage.
The surveillance footage Du Liyun retrieved showed three people: a woman, a tall teenager, and a man. The man was Ni Hongjing, and the woman and teenager were likely the parents and high school students who had come for consultation.
The three people seemed to be still talking as they walked towards the door one after another.
Walking last, Ni Hongjing turned off the lights in the tutoring room and walked through the door, immersing himself in the night lights of Nanyao City. The rolling shutter slowly closed, completely blocking Ni Hongjing's figure from the surveillance camera.
Lin Zhuyue glanced at the time, it was 8:47.
Lin Zhuyue asked: "Is the tutoring class far from here?"
Du Liyun shook her head and replied:
"It's not far, or rather close. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive there, and most of that time is spent going in and out of the community."
So, Ni Hongjing left the tutoring class at 8:47 and had not returned home until 10:30, so something must have happened.
Although she didn't know the whole story yet, Lin Zhuyue subconsciously connected this matter with the mission she and Shi Can were carrying out, and had a feeling that things would not be simple.
Lin Zhuyue lowered his head, thinking about what to do now.
"Call the police and contact the Spiritual Master's Mansion."
Lin Zhuyue hung the towel on her head aside, tucked her slightly wet hair behind her ears, and said to Du Liyun,
"Ms. Du, could you please send me the location of the tutoring class and mark the route Mr. Ni often takes. If we go look for him now, maybe we can still make it."
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can each walked to the two ends of the corridor, one responsible for calling the police and the other responsible for contacting the Spiritual Master's Mansion.
The police call was quickly connected.
"Hello, hello, what happened?"
Lin Zhuyue said briefly: "Someone is missing."
The female voice on the other end of the phone said:
"Don't worry, just wait a moment. The police station in the corresponding jurisdiction will call you back shortly."
Lin Zhuyue said okay and hung up the phone.
Two minutes later, her phone showed an incoming call. The caller number was the area code plus a short number. The phone automatically added a note showing the Qingyuan District Police Station.
Lin Zhuyue answered the phone and described in detail to the police the suspected disappearance of Ni Hongjing.
The policeman asked, "Would you please come to the police station?"
Lin Zhuyue said: "Okay, we'll be there right away."
Lin Zhuyue hung up the phone and turned around, only to be met with Shi Can's gloomy expression.
Shi Chan put the phone to his ear.
After a while, a busy tone came from the receiver:
"Hello, the number you dialed cannot be connected at the moment, please wait..."
Shi Can hung up the phone and dialed Ye Yangjia's number. After the call was connected, he asked:
"What happened at the Spiritual Master's Mansion? Why is no one from the Logistics and General Affairs Departments answering the phone?"
Ye Yangjia's voice came from the receiver:
"Someone was using a microwave to heat up a carton of milk. The microwave exploded and set the Spiritual Master Mansion on fire. The staff inside the building evacuated according to the emergency manual."
Shi Can said, "I have something urgent."
"No matter how urgent it is, you have to wait."
Ye Yangjia looked up at the Spiritual Master Mansion building with billowing smoke and said to Shi Can on the other end of the phone,
"It's burned so badly that all the functions of the Spiritual Master's Mansion are paralyzed. It may not be restored tomorrow."
Shi Can got angry when he heard Ye Yangjia's lazy voice, and asked rudely:
"Hurry up and find a solution for me!"
After hanging up the phone, Shi Can took a deep breath and suppressed his emotions. He knew that getting angry was useless. Even if the Spiritual Master's Mansion was razed to the ground, he had to remain calm. Only in this way would there be no excessive mistakes in the mission.
Lin Zhuyue suggested: "Then... shall we go to the police station first?"
That's all we can do.
Shi Can drove Lin Zhuyue and Du Liyun to the Qingyuan District Police Station.
The policeman who had called Lin Zhuyue back earlier was in the lobby, instructing a young man who had just been assigned to the area to take a statement from a victim about a fraud case.
After Du Liyun arrived, the police asked her to sit down and wait. Apparently, considering she was pregnant and it was difficult for her to find her husband at this time, the policewoman who was sorting through the documents put down her work, brought Du Liyun a cup of hot water, and comforted her softly.
But what Du Liyun needed wasn't hot water; she needed to find her husband as quickly as possible. She knew the longer someone was missing, the more likely something would happen and the harder it would be to find them. If they found Ni Hongjing quickly, there would be a better chance of him being safe.
"Mr. Ni has only been missing for two hours. It won't attract much attention. We won't be able to file a case until at least tomorrow. The video footage might be available soon, but the police station doesn't have many cameras, so there might be some missing."
Shi Can crossed his arms and whispered to Lin Zhuyue,
"If the Spiritual Master Mansion could intervene, we would have used the Sky Eye System long ago."
If humans could be as fast as ghosts, Shi Can would flash back to the spiritual master's house and beat to death the bastard who used the microwave to heat the milk box.
"You stay here with Miss Du."
Shi Can didn't want to wait here any longer, so he put down his arms, picked up the car keys and walked out, saying,
"I'll follow the route Mr. Ni usually takes when he goes out and comes home. If I look carefully, I might be able to find him."
Lin Zhuyue nodded and said, "Be careful."
In the following time, Lin Zhuyue accompanied Du Liyun to take a statement, and then went upstairs under the guidance of a young policeman, sat in front of the computer, and checked the surveillance footage.
As Shican said, before the case was filed, the police station had few cameras to call upon.
Some roads are clearly urban arteries and should have a lot of surveillance equipment, but the police station is unable to retrieve them, and almost all the surveillance footage of the entire road is missing.
Coincidentally, Ni Hongjing's car seemed to have disappeared on this road.
Lin Zhuyue opened the map, pondered it carefully, and said:
"There are quite a few shops here. The shop owners may have installed cameras at the entrances of their shops. They might be able to capture the conditions on the road and the roadside. We can go and ask them."
“At this time, most shops are closed.”
The young policeman paused and changed the subject.
"But there's a Snow King on this street that's open 24 hours a day. The convenience store next to Holiland seems to be open all the time too. We can go over and ask now."
Du Liyun immediately stood up: "Then I will..."
"I'll go over."
Lin Zhuyue grabbed Du Liyun and said,
"Ms. Du, it's not convenient for you to move around, so please wait in the police station for a while. I'll be back as soon as I finish asking questions, okay?"
Du Liyun looked worried and nodded in agreement.
Lin Zhuyue immediately left the police station and headed towards the main road.
The police station is not far from the destination and can be reached on foot.
The night is deep and the bustling lights are gradually going out.
Lin Zhuyue walked quickly on the already deserted street under the glow of street lamps, with riders in yellow clothes passing by on their bicycles.
When Lin Zhuyue arrived at Snow King, the staff was busy and three drivers were waiting to serve food. She looked up to make sure there was a surveillance camera facing the road overhead before stepping into the store.
The busy clerk said to Lin Zhuyue:
"Beauty, you can order on your phone."
"I want a glass of lemonade, less ice, 70% sugar."
Lin Zhuyue pulled out a chair, sat down, and asked,
"Can you help me retrieve the footage from the security camera at the entrance of your store? I came home from my night shift and found my dog missing. I just checked the footage at the police station and it showed me heading this way. The police station said they couldn't retrieve the footage from this side and asked me to find out if there are any stores around here that have installed security cameras."
The clerk asked, "What kind of dog?"
Lin Zhuyue replied: "Big."
The Meituan guy sitting next to me sighed:
"Ah, Big..."
The clerk asked, "I'll help you adjust the video when I'm done, okay?"
Lin Zhuyue thanked him politely: "Okay, thank you."
The clerk methodically made and packaged the drinks, sent the drivers out the door, took out the store's phone, found the app associated with the camera, retrieved the video stored in the cloud, and asked:
"What time do you start watching?"
Lin Zhuyue said, "Half past eight."
The clerk adjusted the time to 8:30 and drove at eight times the speed.
At 8:35, the camera screen suddenly went black.
"broken?"
The clerk dragged the video progress bar back, and the screen lit up again. She said depressedly,
"Is it okay? Let me see... the screen was black for about ten minutes? Let's skip this and watch the rest first."
That's all we can do.
After skipping the ten minutes of black screen, Lin Zhuyue started watching the video again at eight times the speed.
As time passed, the number of vehicles in the video gradually decreased. Lin Zhuyue observed every car as best he could, but Ni Hongjing's car remained invisible. The more he watched, the more he felt that Ni Hongjing's car had disappeared in those ten minutes.
When the recording time reached 11:10 pm, Lin Zhuyue suddenly paused the recording.
Almost all cameras now have night vision functions, but the night videos are not very clear, and the objects captured are basically not in colors other than black, white and gray.
But Lin Zhuyue was very sure that the gray car that entered the camera range at 11:10 in the video was his red BMW X5.
It was originally driving on the driving lane close to the roadside, but a Buick overtook it from the left rear. After overtaking it, it immediately brushed to the right and forced it to stop on the roadside.
After the BMW stopped, the Buick also stopped in front.
The driver's door of the BMW opened and Shi Chan got out.
The Buick's door also opened, and four strong men came out and surrounded Shi Can.
The five of them gathered together, their conversation unsettled. Shi Chan turned and walked to the backseat, opened the door, and climbed in. Two burly men climbed onto the backseat, one on each side, seemingly trying to sandwich Shi Chan between them. Of the remaining two, one climbed into the driver's seat of the BMW, the other back into the Buick. The two cars drove forward, one behind the other, then turned right and drove into a side alley.
Lin Zhuyue frowned.
She didn't know what the purpose of those strong men who didn't look like good people was, but she understood Shi Can.
Shi Can was a master in both physical fitness and martial arts, and with his incantations and spiritual skills, these four formidable-looking men were no match for him. The only reason he was able to be controlled by them was because he had chosen to be tricked.
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