Liu Yuning flicked her hair and said confidently, starting the car engine. She had recently bought a new car and insisted her male friends witness her driving skills. We decided to wait and see.
"Otherwise, I think this club must have problems. The minister's reaction alone shows it. But we have no evidence now. If we investigate them like this, they won't admit anything. We need to observe secretly. Xiahou, Xiao Yuande, you two keep an eye on this place, especially that minister."
"Understood!" The two replied and got out of the car. The rest of us returned temporarily. However, Liu Yuning floored the accelerator, and the rest of us men were almost thrown forward by the inertia. Fortunately, we all managed to grab onto something to steady ourselves.
My dear aunt, after all these years, your driving skills are still the same! How can your cooking improve, but your driving skills remain unchanged?
I couldn't help but grumble internally as I saw the car's edge scrape against the concrete wall by the roadside several times.
We sped back to the provincial department. The 110 alarm center received another report, this time from a woman named She Yitong, who reported her daughter missing. When she stated her daughter's age, a sense of unease settled in our hearts.
We arrived at She Yitong's house and learned that her husband was still on his way back. Liu Yuning, Lu Chusheng, Ma Biao, and I went to the victim's home. When we asked She Yitong about her daughter's situation, we discovered that her daughter shared similar characteristics with Zhang Huihong and other missing persons: before disappearing, she liked to wear various clothes, enjoyed dressing up, her personality had completely changed, she was indifferent to her parents, and she started staying out all night, eventually not returning at all.
She Yitong stated that her daughter, Huang Jin Fang, had been missing for 48 hours. She had started looking for her yesterday, but knowing that she couldn't report it so soon, she only filed the report now. I asked her, "Did you receive any calls from kidnappers?"
"No, our family isn't very wealthy, so they wouldn't be after our money. I also asked Old Huang, and he hasn't offended anyone. It's really strange. Who could have done this? Could it be that Huang Jin Fang ran away on her own? Like some girls online, she ran off with someone she met online?"
"Ms. She, you don't need to speculate wildly. We are already investigating the specific situation. Fortunately, Huang Jin Fang has a mobile phone, and she hasn't been missing for too long. We will find her by using her phone signal, surveillance cameras, dashcam footage, and ID information!" I said.
"Thank you all. Please find her as soon as possible!"
Just as Huang Jin Fang was speaking, someone entered the house from outside. A bald man, presumably Huang Jin Fang's father.
Seeing us, the man said, "What's going on? I've only been out on business for a few days, and something has happened at home?"
"Old Huang, I told you long ago that our daughter has been acting strangely lately, but you said not to worry about it. Now look, she's missing!"
"I really didn't know. I've been busy with work lately. Sigh, it's all my fault, my fault for not paying enough attention to her."
"What's the use of saying that now? You only care about your work. Have you ever paid attention to us all these years?" She Yitong stood up and hit the man in front of her, looking extremely wronged. The man couldn't retort and was hit like this. She Yitong began to sob in front of him. We could only comfort her. At this moment, an urgent phone call came in.
She Yitong was completely flustered and quickly looked at the phone on the coffee table.
She quickly picked it up and answered, "Who?"
"She Yitong, right? Don't be so nervous. Your daughter is actually with me. So, you don't need to look for her anymore. If you want to find her, bring 2 million yuan. Remember not to call the police, or we'll kill her! Understand?"
A kidnapper's call? I was quite confused at the time because She Yitong's phone was connected by our technical police, so we all heard the entire conversation. She Yitong glanced at us and then said, "I haven't called the police!"
"That's good. When you have the money ready, take it to the parking lot behind Fuda Hotel, the fifth trash can. Remember, the blue one! Tonight at 9 o'clock."
"I understand." The other party hung up. But I felt something was fishy. Could this just be an ordinary kidnapping case, unrelated to our previous investigation? After all, neither Zhang Huihong nor any other girls had been involved with any kidnappers.
But why did Huang Jin Fang show similar signs before disappearing? Could this just be a coincidence? Then we would have made a huge mistake.
We thought another similar victim had appeared.
Noticing my troubled expression, Liu Yuning said, "No matter what, let's deal with this case first!"
That's all we could do now. I even wished this were just an ordinary kidnapping case, and those girls were simply taken by the current kidnapper. However, so many years had passed; the kidnappers must be different people. Perhaps because Huang Jin Fang's disappearance was recent, I mistakenly associated this case with the previous ones.
Thinking about this, I became somewhat absent-minded. I temporarily handed over the matter to Liu Yuning and continued to investigate Zhang Huihong's information. I asked He Xin to give me the most detailed information about her, from her birth to her schooling and before her disappearance. After several checks, He Xin and Yuan Hezheng successfully obtained a relatively complete document and printed it out.
I looked at Zhang Huihong's past academic performance. This child always seemed to be outstanding. No matter which school she attended, she was always at the top of her class and had won numerous scholarships. Her achievements could be described as those of a prodigy.
Her situation remained the same until her senior year. However, after her senior year, she began to focus on her appearance. I coincidentally looked at Huang Jin Fang's detailed information, which I had asked He Xin to compile while gathering Zhang Huihong's data.
Upon checking, I found that Huang Jin Fang was very similar to Zhang Huihong. They were almost the same type of person from childhood until their disappearance. And just before their disappearance, their personalities had changed drastically. This was something Huang Jin Fang's mother had told me.
I combined the whereabouts of these individuals before their disappearances, hoping to find a connection. If they had all been to certain places together, it would be very likely related to the case.
However, upon further investigation, we discovered that Huang Jin Fang had also been to that Les club.
When I saw her coming and going from the club in the surveillance footage He Xin had obtained, I immediately picked up my phone and called Liu Yuning: "Yuning, it seems this case is related to the disappearance of the previous victims. Huang Jin Fang also went to the Les club; she's a regular there!"
"Then let's handle it separately. We're preparing to have She Mengtong deliver the ransom to the kidnappers."
"I'm coming over too. I'll have Xiahou handle the club. Zhang Keying will assist him to make sure he finds any clues and forces the minister to reveal something."
When we arrived at She Mengtong's house, she had already packed the money into boxes as per the kidnapper's instructions. However, before leaving, we found the last known location of Huang Jin Fang's phone, which turned out to be that club, vastly different from the Fuda Hotel the kidnapper had mentioned. She Mengtong asked us, "What do we do now? Should we still go to the hotel?"
"He asked you to put the money there, but Huang Jin Fang is elsewhere. It's probably a diversion. But if they find out we don't follow their instructions, they'll cause trouble. I'll have a group of police officers follow you discreetly. You leave the money in the parking lot and leave. Our people will be ambushing near the parking lot. You'll receive instructions from us on the specific situation."
"I understand!" She Mengtong's expression was somewhat downcast. She left with the money, looking dejected. Liu Yuning watched her dispirited figure and couldn't help but say to me, "Do you think she'll really do as we say?"