Sometimes, wishing is good, but reality is merciless.
For a whole day, Zhao Yu was very confident, but he did not get the same reward as he had hoped. The "Dui" hexagram was worth it. Early in the morning, Liang Huan told Zhao Yu that there was a collector who had set their eye on the old cash, and offered one-million and two-hundred thousand! If he could see the goods the next day, then he could immediately buy it!
One-million and two-hundred thousand! This price was already above Zhao Yu's expectations, but Zhao Yu was very cunning. Seeing such a high price, he did not act overjoyed, but instead considered another perspective.
If someone was willing to offer such a high price so quickly, that meant that the set of old bills must have some hidden value way above its original price. Because this bag of old bills was the ransom money from the famed Mianling Kidnapping Case, if Zhao Yu advertised that, then the bills may be worth far more than this price!
Technically, this money was no longer police evidence and was entirely Zhao Yu's property. If he sold it so quickly, it might not be considered very respectful of the dead! If Mr. Tao knew, it would be quite rude.
"I've already made up my mind to be a good person! How could I do something so immoral?" Zhao Yu thought. "So, let's wait until the case is closed, then worry about selling the money! If we've really managed to close the case, not only could the money be sold with a good conscience, but with some advertisement, maybe it could be sold for two-million instead! Hehehe…"
Zhao Yu explained his thought process to Liang Huan, who could not help but give Zhao Yu a thumbs up, praising him for his wit and marketing sense.
With the money businesses temporarily on hold, Zhao Yu quickly put all of his effort and focus into the investigation. Once again, he started to add more information and evidence onto his six whiteboards!
In order to more clearly understand the case, Zhao Yu asked for Li Beini's help and used a mapping software to note down the important locations and routes at the time. From the mountain roads where the kidnapping happened, to the various routes the kidnappers asked the family to move to, then to the cliff where Mr. Tao threw the money down, and also the cave where the corpses were found, were all marked on the map.
Looking at the entire map, Zhao Yu noticed that even though the original crime locations were all around the mountain area, the distance between each location was huge. Mianling, the cliffside, and Yingpan Town Tunnel formed a perfect large triangle. The furthest area was nearly forty kilometers away.
Zhao Yu could not understand. Why would the kidnappers work in such a large area? What were they thinking back then? Twenty-six years ago, public transportation was not as convenient, so why would the kidnappers waste so much effort?
Could it be…just as he originally guessed, these people were not professionals? Or…were they trying to hide something?
Just as Zhao Yu was thinking hard about the case, Zhang Jingfeng and Liang Feng had more news. They said the DNA database did not have anything on Liang Sisi, so they needed another method.
Even though the result was disheartening, it was within everyone's expectations. Liang Sisi's chance of survival was already low. The chance of her being inside the DNA database was obviously even more miniscule.
Thus, everyone all put their hope on the missing person's portrait. Liang Sisi's 3D image had already been created. In order to raise the accuracy of the portrait, the experts made three possible images of Liang Sisi's adult appearance. They were immediately distributed across the nation and advertised on all major media sources and websites as a missing person's case.
At the same time, Team Leader Qu Ping's investigation continued at its blistering pace, but there was no new information. The amount of evidence for the Mianling case was pitifully limited, the investigation effort was immensely difficult, and they were running into dead ends everywhere.
Other than them, Department Leader Wang Fei of the forensics department also worked non-stop. After a new investigation, they managed to find the same fabric material on the cheekbones of all five sets of corpses. Preliminary speculation was that at the time of the hostages' death, they were blindfolded with some kind of cloth!
It was not hard to guess. If the culprits blew up the tunnel when the hostages were already dead, then…why would they have to blindfold the hostages?
To restore the original condition of the explosion, the forensics department even ran countless impact simulations using the angle of the explosion. The result showed that other than the driver Niu Weiguang, at the time of the four hostages' death, they were in a sitting position in a tight formation. In other words, when the culprit blew up the tunnel, the four children were most likely still alive! They had been killed by the explosion!! The ruthlessness of the killers was truly shocking, completely unforgivable!
Liu Weiguang's corpse was near the tunnel opening, a fair distance from the four children. Based on the fact that his corpse was not as scattered, it could be speculated that at the time of the explosion, he was lying in a face-up position. Thus, it was very possible he was already dead by the time of explosion!
The strange thing was, where Zhao Yu had dug up the ransom money was not only close to the opening of the tunnel, it was only three meters away from Niu Weiguang's corpse. Someone suspected that Niu Weiguang was one of the criminals, and that the ransom money was his share, but when the cave was being blown up, he had been betrayed by his companions and was buried in the tunnel along with the ransom money.
But there were still flaws to this speculation. If the culprits wanted to betray Niu Weiguang, why would they wait until the time of the explosion? They could have just killed him earlier and taken his share of the random money as well!
Not only that, but the forensics department also found the ingredients of the explosives in the ruins, and found that it was a commonly used explosive for mountain demolition. Both the amounts of explosives used and the positioning were perfect. It was clear that the person was familiar with explosives, perhaps an expert!
Added with the complex geography of the tunnel, it would be difficult for unfamiliar people to enter. Thus, the police had plenty of reasons to suspect that the kidnappers had worked in the tunnel and were used to working with explosives!
Miao Ying immediately sent people out again, but this time with a focus. They looked near the Ying Tunnel area to try and find people who matched this description and skill set!
Just like that, the investigation continued without a pause. But even after the entire day there had not been significant progress made.
Zhao Yu was the same. Even though he had gotten the "Gen" hexagram, for some reason, it did not activate. It was not even dark out when he got the ending notification from the system. Since Zhao Yu did not make any money or any progress on the case, his completion rate was not even forty-percent. There were no rewards at all.
But Zhao Yu, who already knew the system well, was not discouraged at all. He knew this was just the beginning. Thinking back to the Lost Hand Case and the Slaughter Case, there was not one that was easy to solve, right? No pain, no gain. Thus, even though there was no success, it did not mean that he should not work hard!
That day, Zhao Yu was the last to leave the office. When he left, the six whiteboards were completely filled up by him. There were also many relationship lines tightly packed on it, there was time, people, and locations. For someone who was unfamiliar with the case, it was almost incomprehensible!
Even when he returned home, Zhao Yu continued to think. He endlessly pondering over the case, hoping to find a single opening out of the countless amount of evidence. But no matter how much he tried, there were no results at all.
In the end, the helpless Zhao Yu had a new idea. Tomorrow he would go to the mountains and investigate the original scene of the crime directly to see if he could get any inspiration, or maybe a miracle?!