"Yes, what's wrong? Doesn't he get picked up by his father every day? That day was the same! Because our school has to queue up to leave together, the homeroom teacher arranges for students to leave the campus in batches from each class. I only go back to the office after I've watched all the students leave the campus!"
"Did you see him get into a car?"
"Yes, you'd better go find Huang Xingchao's parents. He would definitely see them rather than us." Ms. Zhang explained.
I pondered for a moment and found Ms. Zhang's suggestion reasonable. Besides, he couldn't offer us any more information by staying. So, I had to temporarily withdraw with Liu Yuning.
As we left the school, Liu Yuning asked me, "He Sheng, do you think Ms. Zhang is okay?"
"He shouldn't have any motive. However, if you're not satisfied, you can find someone to confirm it. After all, we're not short of police force now!"
"Alright, then let's check on that principal too."
I didn't refuse. Although investigating a case requires focusing on priorities, that's when manpower is insufficient. But we are at the provincial department now, with a large number of people. If they're not given tasks, they'd probably spend their days playing games on their computers. This is the difference between the provincial department and the municipal bureau.
After we assigned tasks, we had He Xin help us find the address of Huang Xingchao's parents, which was Huang Xingchao's former home. Upon seeing them and inquiring about Huang Xingchao's situation, the couple were horrified and said they knew nothing.
I didn't waste time and directly announced Huang Xingchao's death. The parents, upon learning that their young son had died, immediately hugged each other in grief and sobbed uncontrollably.
"Am I dreaming? Police officers, has our Huang Xingchao really died?" Huang Xingchao's mother suddenly asked us, like a child, in a naive way.
"Of course, the police wouldn't say such things without reason. Please don't be too upset. What you need to do now is to tell us some information about Huang Xingchao."
After Liu Yuning said a few opening words, I got straight to the point: "As far as we know, Mr. Huang, you took the child home that evening. Did he leave on his own later?"
"After we took him home, his cousin took him out. They often went out to play together. There was also his daughter. The three of them would go out to eat and things like that. It was usually fine. Who knew that night, when his cousin came back, he told us Huang Xingchao was missing. We originally wanted to report it, but seeing that it hadn't been 24 hours, we planned to look for him ourselves. Of course, we couldn't find him. We only found out he had already died when you came to look for us. When can we go to the Public Security Bureau to identify the body?"
"The body is in the morgue at the provincial department. It will be ready after we finish our forensic examination. Don't worry. Did his cousin say how he went missing?"
"They were eating together at Xihong Restaurant. He just stepped away to use the restroom and found Huang Xingchao was gone. Oh, and his daughter was also missing."
"What?"
If Huang Xingchao's father hadn't said this, we wouldn't have known. It seems the girl might have also been murdered. According to the timeline, the cousin should have reported it by now.
I asked for his name. Huang Xingchao's father said it was Wan Bolong. I sent a message for He Xin to check and found that this person was already 22 years old. I curiously asked Huang Xingchao's father, "Wan Bolong's daughter is very young, isn't she?"
"He and his girlfriend had a child before they got married. She's over 3 years old now. He said he originally asked Huang Xingchao to look after her, but then both of them disappeared."
We had a general understanding of the situation. We bid farewell to Huang Xingchao's parents and found Wan Bolong's workplace, an ordinary decoration company. When we asked him, he said he had already reported it and wanted us to go and check the surveillance footage at Xihong Restaurant together.
This is crucial, as the surveillance footage might show who took the two children away.
After arriving at the duty room, with Wan Bolong's recollection, we found the corresponding time. Soon, we saw where the two children were sitting. Before 7:30 PM, they were still there. But at 7:35 PM, a man wearing a waiter's uniform suddenly said something to the two children, and they obediently stood up and followed him.
Wan Bolong slammed the table and exclaimed, "It must be this scoundrel!"
"Didn't you check the surveillance footage before?"
"They said they wouldn't show it to me without police involvement!"
"It's okay now, we will investigate immediately."
After giving instructions, I first asked Wan Bolong to leave, and then Liu Yuning and I returned to the provincial department. Now, we can only hope for luck and see if the technical police can find that suspicious person. Although his face wasn't clearly captured, he looked very thin and short, wrapped up like a zongzi. If I hadn't seen his appearance, I would have thought he was a woman, as I had never seen such a frail man before.
Using Sky Eye to scan and track his path, we discovered that this person had drugged the two children outside the restaurant and put them into a license-less Volkswagen.
The footage of how he drugged the children and put them into the car was all captured. This guy didn't seem to be trying to avoid being seen. Perhaps he thought he was so well-covered that he didn't need to be afraid.
This person should be one of Guo Dafu's former subordinates. Now that the bosses have been arrested, he's starting to work alone.
I'm curious, why did he abduct two children? What's his motive? If it was random, why did he choose them?
I retrieved the previous surveillance footage from Xihong Restaurant and reviewed all the footage before Wan Bolong arrived. The result was that shortly after he entered the restaurant, the skinny man had already arrived. He seemed to be a regular here, as he followed them in with ease.
Comparing his actions when he left, I guessed he must be a frequent customer here.
I shared my thoughts with Liu Yuning. She nodded, "Let's go back to the restaurant and ask. Maybe we can find out this person's identity."
When we found the restaurant's front desk, she immediately recognized the screenshot from our surveillance footage and said, "This man is called Xiao Li Si. He's a regular customer. He likes to drink here and is our VIP client. Do you need him for something?"
"How did you recognize him so easily?" Liu Yuning asked.
"This guy looks so thin and small, like a woman. It's hard not to recognize him! Even if others saw him once, they would remember him!"