The rain was getting heavier! Raindrops splattered on the car window, and nothing other than the pale headlights could be seen outside. The excavation team had already been in the mine pit for more than two hours, but there were still no news from them. Zhao Yu and the dog sat in the backseat of the car whereas Dafei from Team A sat in the driver's seat. Dafei had joined a year before Zhao Yu and was only one year older, but he kept a bushy beard and looked like a nearly fifty-year-old artist.
"Bro Yu!" Dafei said to Zhao Yu out of boredom. "It's been twenty-six years! I'm only twenty-four this year. If the kids who were kidnapped are still alive, they should be quite old, yeah?" Zhao Yu remained quiet, but Dafei had made him start thinking about the case.
In his past life, Zhao Yu knew a thing or two about kidnapping. He personally thought that if the hostage was not sent back after the ransom had been paid, the possibility of the hostage being killed was already ninety-nine percent! Although no one wanted to think of the worst case scenario, Zhao Yu felt that misfortune had already struck the kidnapped children! Since the five hostages were all children, this case had caused a big stir in Qinshan when it appeared.
"Bro Yu!" Dafei kept stroking his own arms due to the cold weather. "Why do you think the ransom money appeared inside a collapsed mine pit?" Unexpectedly, the car door suddenly opened just as Dafei finished his question, and a drenched Liang Huan climbed into the passenger seat.
"Oh my goodness, the rain's getting…" He brushed off the water on his body and stretched out his hand to Dafei. "Got cigarettes? Gimme one!" Due to the importance of this case, the leaders had made a decision to temporarily transfer Liang Huan and Zhang Jingfeng, who were familiar with this case, back to Zhao Yu's Cold Case team and join in the investigation. In other words, after being gone for a quick two weeks, these two men were miraculously back on the Key Case Investigation Unit.
"Yes, yes, yes…" Dafei quickly took out a cigarette, but Zhao Yu roared from the backseat, "Hey, what cigarettes? The windows can't be opened, won't we choke to death?" The old Zhao Yu was a die-hard smoker, but now he did not even cared for a puff. Not only did he not smoke, but he was also against others smoking!
"Ah!" Liang Huan did not care and took over the cigarette. "I'll just lower the window a little, won't that do? It's just a cigarette, it's not gonna kill you!"
"Woof woof woof…" The dog in the backseat suddenly barked at Liang Huan.
"See that?" Zhao Yu started to say, "I'll get the dog to bite you if you dare to smoke! Go outside if you wanna smoke!"
"Tsk tsk…" Liang Huan looked at the dog and Zhao Yu before putting the cigarette into his pocket reluctantly.
"Liang," Dafei quickly continued, "what's happening inside? Any development? It's almost one!"
"You're asking me?" Liang Huan said with despondency. "The leaders are all waiting back there! What should we be anxious about?"
"Liang," Dafei asked again, "do you think anything can be dug out from inside the mine pit?"
Liang Huan clucked his tongue and said, "How would I know? Zhao," Liang Huan turned to ask Zhao Yu in the backseat, "you were the one who found the item, why didn't you follow them inside? They'd better not search the wrong place again!"
"I've gone in once!" Zhao Yu said, "They told me I was not needed, so I came out again! It can't be wrong. When I received aid that time, I recorded the coordinates!"
"Oh…" Liang Huan laughed wittily. "Young man, are you secretly hoping that there is more money under the rocks? You wrote down the coordinates so you could go in and again?" Zhao Yu laughed wickedly and stuck his middle finger at Liang Huan.
"It's really strange! Bro Yu actually dug out a bag of money!" Dafei took a glance at Zhao Yu and said, "Tsk tsk...why do you think the ransom money from twenty-six years ago was inside there? This is really odd. This place is a great distance from where the kidnappings took place. What exactly happened that year?"
"You better save it!" Liang Huan waved his hand, "It's also possible that they dig nothing out! The case has not been solved after twenty-six years, which proves that the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment!"
"Eh?" Dafei suddenly lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I used to hear the older generation say...this case was very strange..."
"Hey! Enough!" Liang Huan cut him off immediately and scolded him, "You're making it sound like they were ghosts! To put it simply, our police force was incapable of catching them, and the kidnappers took advantage of that! If today's technology was available back then, any case would have been solved!"
"Yes, yes, yes…" Dafei nodded repeatedly.
"Zhao!" Liang Huan turned his head and said to Zhao Yu, "Don't be disheartened. According to our country's 'Lost Property Law,' there's also a certain validity period for lost items. Zhang Jingfeng has already started the application for you at the Missing Persons Department. Who knows, you may have a share in the two-hundred thousand RMB!"
"Ah?" Zhao Yu suddenly straightened his neck. "Really? Really? There's such a thing?"
"Yes!" Liang Huan laughed. "After it's settled, you will be able to get over a thousand RMB!"
"Holy sh*t!" Zhao Yu patted the dog's head and shouted, "Poop expert, bite him!"
"Woof woof woof!" The dog seemed to understand and wanted to jump onto Liang Huan, but luckily there was a partition between the front and back seats of the police car.
"Ah!" Liang Huan got scared and quickly opened the car door. He ran off as he shouted, "I better get into another car to take a puff!" The moment the door opened, a gust of cold air blew in, and raindrops fell into the interior of the car. It was only until Liang Huan closed the car door that peace was restored.
"Beep beep...beep beep…" At this moment, Zhao Yu's phone beeped and it was a message on WeChat. It was already one o'clock in the morning. Why was someone sending him a message? Could it be...there was news in the mine pit? Zhao Yu quickly unlocked his phone to check. The message was from Captain Miao Ying, and it was a few voice messages in a row.
"Huh? It's her!?" At that instant, Zhao Yu seemed to have felt something and excitement grew inside him. Beep! After the first voice message was opened, Miao Ying's bright and clear voice spoke, "Zhao Yu, I need to tell you something. We've caught Mi Aijun! What we had not expected was that when he was being arrested, and without any official interrogation, Mi Aijun confessed that he killed Jian Wenli…"
"What...really...holy…" Zhao Yu clenched his fist in agitation and quickly tapped on the next voice message before he could complete his exclamation.
"As we had speculated," Miao Ying's voice continued, "when Liu Pengfei went to his shop to duplicate the keys, he recognized Liu Pengfei and felt that he could gain something from it. He secretly kept the mould of the key and duplicated a set, waiting for the chance to rob them.
"A few days later, he heard from his cousins that Jian Wenli's garment factory was receiving a shipment that night, and the couple had to be there to receive the stock. Therefore, he decided to sneak into Jian Wenli's house on that stormy night.
"However, he had not expected Jian Wenli to be resting at home as Liu Pengfei had arranged. Jian Wenli heard some noise and bumped into Mi Aijun who was stealing stuff in the east bedroom! Mi Aijun wanted to escape, but his appearance was too obvious and Jian Wenli recognized him immediately! Mi Aijun became angry and strangled Jian Wenli to death before putting her back in the bed!
"After returning home, Mi Aijun was afraid that he would be found…" Before Zhao Yu could finish listening to the voice message, the walkie-talkie in the car suddenly rang and someone shouted loudly from it, "Attention all units, attention all units, we have news! They have found something!"
Ah!? Zhao Yu got a shock. Before he could react, the system in his brain suddenly rang again, "The current adventure has been completed, the completion rate is ninety-eight percent…"