Wen Lele clearly understood the reasoning behind it. Without hesitation, she was brought back with us. Upon seeing her sister, Wen Lezhang seemed to have anticipated this. Perhaps he had already expected us to seek out his sister. He coldly said to Wen Lele, "Don't think you can change anything. I still won't talk. Some things are not as you imagine, Lele. You should just go back!"
"No, Brother, if you don't cooperate honestly with the police officers today, I won't leave. They said if you continue to resist, the situation will become very serious. All the crimes of these rats will be pinned on you. Do you know what that means? It's clearly not you who did this, and they say you've been brainwashed!"
"I haven't been. Are you going to believe what those police officers say and not what I say? Lele, whose sister are you!"
"I am your sister, but I have long since developed the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Don't think I'm still the child I used to be!"
"That's right, Wen Lele, you've grown up, so I can rest assured. Don't worry, I won't admit to anything I haven't done. The judge will sentence me as they see fit. It's alright!"
"Brother, why are you so foolish? Are you really part of that 'Punisher' group?"
As Wen Lele said this, she was already sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment, I thought, perhaps a leader within the organization had once done some great favor for the Wen siblings, like saving their lives or raising them. I had investigated their past, and they had grown up in an orphanage. Did Wen Lele not know this?
Although such a plot would be melodramatic, I couldn't understand why Wen Lezhang chose to act this way. I shifted my focus and asked He Xin to investigate Wen Lezhang's past. As expected, I found the Zhen Guang Orphanage.
I decided to explore this path, hoping to find some clues.
Liu Yuning and I went to the orphanage. After showing photos and making inquiries, we realized that Wen Lezhang and Wen Lele had stayed there for over a decade. During that time, a person named Cao Yushu had visited. He adopted them, but he didn't take them away. He only came to check on them periodically and provide some supplies.
I looked at Cao Yushu's information and found that his height, weight, and background closely matched that of the scientist.
Now I finally understood what was going on.
The kindness of a benefactor cannot be forgotten.
This was the reason for Wen Lezhang's resistance and deception.
From this, we learned the scientist's true identity. We conducted a thorough search of the household registration department's database and found that this person had indeed appeared in Leicester, Guangming City recently, but then disappeared.
"At that time, he must have been in that ancient castle. But the signal there was poor, so it's normal that we couldn't locate him. Has he not appeared recently?" I said. We were back at the provincial headquarters, researching this person on the computer.
"He knew we would eventually find his identity, so he definitely wouldn't dare to show himself. Based on the current situation, Wen Lezhang probably acted on his own without any instructions. He deliberately created a smokescreen of being threatened to divert our attention. Fortunately, Su Yaxin and the others saw through it, otherwise we'd still be investigating the so-called threatener," Liu Yuning said.
He Xin's fingers flew across the keyboard with her usual speed. "This is difficult! I don't know when we'll find him. We didn't have anyone near him at the time, so we couldn't manipulate him in any way."
"You're talking about those miniature cameras again. They don't work on every criminal, and highly skilled individuals can discover them with ease."
"Father, I know those things aren't foolproof, but they at least have some effect. However, it's a mystery if we can even encounter Cao Yushu this time. Perhaps the police dogs might have better luck."
Following He Xin's suggestion, we returned to the ancient castle. Feihu and Xiaoniu sniffed around. When they found an object used by Cao Yushu, they seemed to have grasped a clue and started walking in a certain direction. This time, there shouldn't be any interference, right? However, not far behind the castle, we encountered a lot of sheep droppings again.
Seeing this scent again, I immediately frowned. Not because the smell was unpleasant, but because it reminded me of the case on the island last time. Weren't there sheep droppings on Mount Qingcheng back then?
Could it be that these things didn't appear there by chance, but were deliberately placed?
I increasingly felt that starting from the island case, the Punishers had been watching us from behind the scenes, and we just didn't know it.
With these distractions, the police dogs' sense of smell was useless. But I didn't give up and continued to explore, moving past a lot of sheep droppings.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is often the safest. Taking a risk, I led many people past the sheep droppings and discovered a narrow goat path on a mountain behind the castle. We saw many footprints on the ground and realized this place was highly suspicious. The police dogs rushed forward again, seemingly having found a reference point this time.
We continued along the mountain path, traversing many winding routes. When we reached the mountainside, we found many stones obstructing our path. Fortunately, we had He Xin with us this time. She took action again, setting off a bomb. She told us to retreat and then maintained a distance herself before covering her ears and counting, "One, two, three!" The stones exploded into pieces.
I gave her a thumbs-up. "That's very powerful. But please, don't commit crimes this way!"
"Hehehe, why would I commit crimes? Isn't this just for your convenience?"
"Just kidding, let's go!"
The entire Punishers team, including Xie Chuchu and Zhang Keying, who were now armed, accompanied us. We proceeded from the obstruction, and after another stretch of road, we finally reached the summit. Upon arriving, we discovered an extremely grand Pharaoh's palace before us. This palace was incredibly deep and winding. Chains hung from the walls, adorned with numerous bones, along with some mummified corpses. Scattered on the ground were many skulls, as well as the bodies of rats.
In front of the palace's main entrance, numerous stone swords were densely inserted, with an immense Polaris array in the center. The tips of these stone swords were topped with skulls!
We approached with our guns, stepping into the Polaris array. It seemed the Punishers were indeed working with Polaris. But weren't they competing in a crime spree? What exactly...