BTTC Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Jiang Ting declined the compliment: “I’m not a criminal investigator, I’m only responsible for picking up the bourgeoisie’s wool.”

The deeper you go into the mountain forest, the stranger the postures of the trees become. In mid-air, the big trees hanging by countless aerial roots were like giants, standing slumped to block the sunlight. Under the ground, the crisscrossing ground roots were spiraled, covered with slippery moss and lichens, forcing people to be careful and steady with every step they took, or they might slip and fall if they were not careful.

“Hiss.”

As soon as he heard the gasp behind him, Yan Xie immediately stopped: “What’s the matter?”

Jiang Ting stopped rubbing the palm of his hand, only to see a long line of ants crawling on the tree trunk he had just helped up.

“I told you not to come, you’ll be bitten.” Yan Xie grabbed Jiang Ting’s arm, forcing him to lean on himself, and reprimanded in a low voice: “I told you not to follow but you didn’t listen. What will I do if you slip and fall? I’ll have to rush you to the hospital — so delicate.”

Jiang Ting frowned and said, “It’s not that much, and I’m not a little girl.”

“Aiyo, little girls are not as delicate and expensive as you!”

“Why do you talk so much?”

“What I said is the truth summed up by countless lessons of blood and tears…”

The two quarreled like this and walked forward with big and short footsteps. Not far away, the criminal police led the police dog to clear the way in the dense forest, and the intermittent sound of cicadas was heard above their heads.

“Vice-Captain Yan!” The policeman trotted forward from the front and said loudly: “We have reached the limit that the police dogs can track, and we can’t be sure if we should go any further!”

Yan Xie stood still, placed Jiang Ting, who was delicate and expensive, should not be fallen or touched, and had to be careful not to be bullied by ants, on the flat and soft fallen leaves, and then looked around.

It was true that there was no village or river nearby, and surrounded by towering trees and bushes the signal of ordinary mobile phones had been lost. Since the police dog could no longer track them down, presumably Shen Xiaoqi and Bu Wei did not stop here, nor left a particularly strong smell among the trees or on the stones.

The police dog hurried over while breathing heavily. Yan Xie took out a few handfuls of beef grains from his pocket and peeled them to feed him. However, the obedient police dog turned its head and refused to eat it.

“Yo, well trained.” Yan Xie boasted casually and threw the beef grains to the trainer.

The trainer smiled and fed it again, and the police dog ate it.

“How could the two little kids turn to this terrible place?” Yan Xie narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses and said thoughtfully, “This is not the way down the mountain.”

“Not only that, but it’s also very far away from the only way to go down the mountain!” Ma Xiang came out from behind the big tree and held up a map of the forest area: “—Look, they have been walking deeper into the forest. If you count the normal pace of fifteen or sixteen-year-old children, it will be dark when they get here, weren’t they afraid?”

“Are there any villages, rivers, and such ahead?”

“There is no such thing, but there are wolves or foxes I believe.”

The trainer half-held the police dog who couldn’t stop wagging its tail. He was squatting on the ground and staring at the policemen, and one could see that it was trying its best to help: “Are they lost, or did someone really kidnap them?”

Yan Xie did not speak and walked around for a while before stopping.

“—It’s all possible. What do you think, police flower?”

Jiang Ting was holding his arms and turned sideways to avoid the ants everywhere. Hearing this, he said “um”: “It’s really hard to speculate at the moment, there are both possibilities.”

Ma Xiang couldn’t help but ask: “What did you say police… Consultant Lu?”

Yan Xie immediately glared at him, there was a warning in his eyes which meant ‘Only I can call him Police flower, you mustn’t even think about it’ and the innocent Ma Xiang shrank his head.

“If they were kidnapped, when did the kidnappers start targeting them, and why did they go deeper into the woods instead of the more mobile roads? It doesn’t make sense. If they get lost, the direction they walked was very straight, and there are not too many signs of going around in circles. It does not fit the normal trajectory of getting lost in the wild.” Jiang Ting stopped finding the ants that climbed on him, and then changed the topic: “But the above two possibilities cannot be ruled out, maybe the kidnappers deliberately want to take the children to an inaccessible place, which is hard to say.”

Ma Xiang was puzzled: “Why did the kidnappers do that?”

Jiang Ting didn’t answer and asked, “Is Bu Wei’s uncle rich?”

“Uh… after looking at the information, I found that he has been doing gallery intermediary business in other places all year round…”

“Rich enough to come up with two hundred million?”

“That’s definitely not possible,” Ma Xiang winked and elbowed Yan Xie: “The only one who can take out two hundred million is here.”

Yan Xie immediately said: “Stop! What are you doing with your hands and feet?”

Jiang Ting turned a blind eye to their little actions and said, “That’s right. If the kidnappers asked for ten million or even twenty million, it could be said to be for the money. However, the astronomical ransom didn’t leave any room for counter-offering, which only means that from the very beginning, his purpose was the two children themselves, which is the worst of all predictions.”

Although he had a hunch in his heart, but when Jiang Ting said these words, Ma Xiang couldn’t help but shudder: “—Tear up the ticket^[1]?”

Jiang Ting said, “Execution.”

Behind them, more policemen who followed one after another began to spread to the surrounding area, searching and trying to find clues such as footprints. Yan Xie watched the backs of the dark blue uniforms disappear into the bushes, and suddenly murmured and repeated these words: “Execution.”

He turned his head and looked straight at Jiang Ting from behind his sunglasses: “Execution is an act of punishing a convicted criminal, that is to say, a crime must be committed before punishment — what is the crime of the Shen family?”

“Hey!” Ma Xiang raised his hand first: “White-tailed sea eagle?”

No one could blame these criminal policemen for always mentioning the white-tailed sea eagle. Indeed, the blood of this first-class state-protected animal stimulates them too much, making them think in that direction when they had nothing to do.

“Why do you keep mentioning…” Yan Xie frowned, and before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Ting interrupted him without any hesitation: “No, it has nothing to do with Shen Xiaoqi’s parents.”

“What?”

“If I were the kidnapper, what would I do if I wanted to punish the Shen family for something?” Jiang Ting paused in Ma Xiang’s confused eyes, “I would have kidnapped the child first and asked for the ransom which could make the Shen family go bankrupt but not give up directly, for example, 8 million. After the Shen family smashed the pot and sold the iron to collect the 8 million. Then I’d have cut off Shen Xiaoqi’s finger and sent it to them, and then raised it to 12 million. There were also his grandparents, seven aunts, and eight aunts… After everyone had gone bankrupt and collected 12 million, I’d cut off one of his ears, and the price would have been 15 million.”

“The so-called boil frog in warm water, is to let the frog watch me add firewood to the fire. Do you still want the child to live? If you want him to live, keep adding more money. 8 million, 12 million, 15 million, 20 million… The Shen family would gradually be pushed to the point of incomparable madness, despair, and grief. But they would never know whether they would take back the child or continue to receive a certain part of the child after collecting the ransom next time. “

Yan Xie said, “He can also use psychological means.”

“Yes,” Jiang Ting agreed. “If the kidnappers used psychological means, then we can be sure that the target is an adult, but now it is obviously another situation.”

“……” Ma Xiang held back for a long time, and finally squeezed out a sentence: “Consultant Lu, you are too scary…”

Jiang Ting laughed: “Actually there would be no such case. But at least you can be sure that the kidnapper is not me.”

“Then let’s assume that the target of the kidnapper’s punishment is Shen Xiaoqi himself, including Bu Wei.” Yan Xie’s thinking changed: “Two students who have just finished their high school entrance exams; Shen Xiaoqi just got his ID and Bu Wei hasn’t even reached the age of sixteen. Their social participation is very limited. What crime could they possibly commit that they deserve to be executed?”

This question hit the spot.

The few people didn’t speak. The police dog trainer blinked his eyes and said tentatively, “Didn’t you just say that the little girl had lost both her parents and was adopted by her uncle… Could it be that the little girl’s social relationship is more complicated? Something to do with the murder?”

Yan Xie and Jiang Ting looked at each other, and both saw the hesitation in each other’s eyes.

There were so few clues and so little time, that even if Holmes were alive again, it would be hard to do anything.

“Although Bu Wei is described by her classmates as a well-behaved girl, this possibility cannot be ruled out. After all, her appearance is relatively rare in the crowd.” Jiang Ting stomped his feet to shake the ants off, raised his head, and asked: ” Has Bu Wei’s guardian been contacted yet?”

Yan Xie spread out his hands, turned around, and shouted, “Old Gao—!”

Gao Panqing was in the command vehicle in a distance: “Hey—!”

“It’s really not easy for you criminal investigators.” The police dog trainer looked at them back and forth with admiration: “Look at this brain, it’s like taking part in a psychological battle every day.”

Jiang Ting didn’t care, “I’m not a criminal investigator, I’m only responsible for picking up the bourgeoisie’s wool^[2].”

Trainer: “Huh?”

“Brother Yan!” Gao Panqing stuck his head out of the command vehicle’s door: “The city bureau has found Bu Wei’s guardian and is using a police car to send him to the farmhouse! Director Huang also sent Shen Xiaoqi’s computer search records!”

At least the work on the technical investigation side has made a little progress, and everyone’s spirits were lifted.

“Well, our profession is not search and rescue, and it’s also very inconvenient here. Let’s go back to the car.” Yan Xie said, “Look at your consultant Lu being drowned by ants.”

Jiang Ting was displeased: “It’s all because of the bean paste buns you bought in the morning…”

“Stop saying nonsense,” Yan Xie sneered while forcibly hooking his shoulder: “You eat sweets all day to attract bees and butterflies. What does it have to do with me?”

At 2:30 in the afternoon, the command vehicle staggered and crashed in the forest, like a drunk man, making everyone miserable.

“All records of mobile phone communication, WeChat payment, social software chat, web browser search, etc. are all here. Originally, this file had hundreds of megabytes. Fortunately, Director Huang, who rescued the poor, gave us the key points.”

Gao Panqing opened the compressed file package and handed the notebook to Yan Xie.

Sure enough, the screen was full of dense data, all the secrets in Shen Xiaoqi’s computer were spread out in the sun as if a corpse had been carefully dissected. Whether it was the heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys, or any other hidden parts that were hard to tell, anyone on stage could watch.

Ma Xiang poked his head from the back seat, followed Yan Xie to read a few pages, and sighed: “This is the biggest worry in my heart since I became a policeman.”

The city bureau driver was driving ahead. Yan Xie was engrossed in browsing the search records. Jiang Ting was frail and prone to motion sickness. In the whole car, only Gao Panqing responded to Ma Xiang: “Oh, you also have hidden worries?”

“Old Gao, you look down on people so much. Do I not look like a young boy at heart?”

Gao Panqing said, “Okay, what are you worried about, boy? Your buddy will help you solve it.”

“You don’t need to solve it. Just promise to help me with something.” Ma Xiang coughed and said with emotion: “Those who do this line of work depend on each other, and life and death are unpredictable. In case one day I sacrificed myself heroically to protect the people and fight crime, please don’t let out colleagues in technical investigation touch my computer. Especially my DEFGH disk and several TB of various resources… …”

“…” Gao Panqing squinted at him from the corner of his eyes for a while: “Then I’ll burn it for you?”

Ma Xiang covered his chest with his hands and had tears in his eyes. After thinking for a long time, he solemnly said: “Before burning, you can give a copy to Vice-captain Qin next door. After all, everyone is an old teammate who has been in the dark for many years. I can’t live without leaving a spiritual legacy for this society.”

Gao Panqing couldn’t help nodding with an “Oh!” expression on his face. After a while, he turned his head and murmured, “…Play a love game and you are still in dark.”

“Old Gao, this search record won’t be missed because of turning on the private mode or instant cleaning?” Suddenly Yan Xie asked in a loud voice.

“Director Huang said no, what’s the matter?”

“That’s kind of weird.”

Ma Xiang and Gao Panqing approached curiously, only to see Yan Xie pointing at a row in the densely packed record: “On May 9th, Shen Xiaoqi searched for the first time using Tianzong Mountain guide as the keyword. There is no search record on tourism, not even keywords such as ‘Scenic spot for summer’, ‘Attractions around Jianning’, or ‘cheap travel’. He did not pay attention to any accounts such as Jianning Scenery, Jianning lead story, and Beautiful Jianning on Weibo. The search records on Weibo cannot be recovered, but the browsing records did not find anything related to Tianzong Mountain. It feels like this child suddenly came up with the idea of ‘I am going to Tianzon Mountain’. Like no other options exist, and there is no hesitation at all.”

“Well…” Ma Xiang, a young Internet addict, said with experience: “Children these days basically use mobile phones.”

Gao Panqing also agreed: “What if I read the recommendation from WeChat Moments?”

Yan Xie shook his head, and before he had time to say anything, Jiang Ting in the front row replied: “Jianning is a famous tourist city with a lot of surrounding attractions. Even if you read the recommendations, you won’t completely ignore any other options, unless he has some kind of obsession with Tianzong Mountain.”

Yan Xie crossed his legs, winked at Ma Xiang and Gao Panqing, and whispered, “Learn from others.”

Ma Xiang replied in the same low volume: “I know you two are a loving couple, so stop showing off.”

Gao Panqing is more upright: “Obsession? What might be the situation, Consultant Lu?”

Jiang Ting kept his eyes slightly closed. His chin was slightly tilted, his head resting on the back of the chair motionless.

“Consultant Lu?”

“……”

Everyone’s eyes were burning, and at the end of the line of sight, consultant Lu’s weak voice slowly came: “There are many kinds of situations. Maybe there is a saying about Tianzong Mountain among the classmates, maybe important relatives and friends have been there, or…”

He suddenly snorted and opened the window.

Everyone: “???”

Yan Xie was suspicious and was about to go forward to check, but suddenly he saw Jiang Ting stick his head out of the window with lightning speed, and then: “Yuck—”

Everyone: “……”

Consultant Lu, who had always been elegant and calm, was finally knocked down by motion sickness.

……….

The farmhouse compound’s breakfast hall was converted into a temporary operation office.

“I really don’t know anything, are you sure my niece was kidnapped?”

A fat man in a suit and leather shoes sat in front of the two policemen, his face was covered with hot sweat. He kept wiping his face with a handkerchief like a cultured person:

“No, I didn’t receive any blackmail messages at all—yes, I really haven’t seen her since the day before yesterday. But I usually call this child almost every week when I’m out of town, and I’m not her father! What? You said the kidnappers wanted 200 million?! F*ck, they really dare to ask for that, I don’t even have 2 million! No!—killing? No, you don’t understand. Police officer. I’m not her legal guardian. I have a good conscience and usually pay for her tuition fee …”

Squeak—

Suddenly the door was pushed open, and the two policemen stood up immediately, only to see Ma Xiang entering the house with a chorus of voices: “Where’s the water? Where’s the water? Get the ice water! Quick, quick!”

Ma Xiang opened the way, Gao Panqing followed with the fan, and Yan Xie personally supported the pale-faced Consultant Lu. The scene was like a few people picking up a wild panda on the way back. Yan Xie supported Jiang Ting till he sat down on the chair.

“Why isn’t there enough ice?” Ma Xiang took the water that the police officer hurriedly handed over, and turned to Yan Xie. They saw that the fearless and the well-known second generation of the rich in the public security system, Vice-CptainYan hurriedly rolled up his sleeves, and personally served Jiang Ting with water.

The police officer asked carefully: “What’s the matter?”

“Motion sickness.” Ma Xiang explained in a low voice, covering half of his mouth: “Vice-Captain Yan’s personal consultant is responsible for the IQ of this case. The case analysis was halfway through but he wasn’t able to finish the second half of the sentence.”

“Oh…” The policeman had a stern expression on his face.

Jiang Ting waved his hands weakly, signaling that he would not drink more, and rubbed his brows tiredly.

Only then did Yan Xie screw up the mineral water cap, and motioned Ma Xiang to lift the vertical electric fan and blow it against Jiang Ting so hard that Consultant Lu could be resurrected with full blood. So that the kidnappers could be removed from the vast mountains and forests in a dozen minutes. Then he finally got up and asked the police: “How is it?”

“Vice-captain Yan!” The police saluted and pointed at the fat man in a suit: “This is the uncle of the kidnapped girl Bu Wei, Wang Xingye, who was sent by the city bureau in a car just now.”

In other words, in addition to the crying parents of the Shen family, this case finally reached a key family member.

Yan Xie said two sentences politely and just reached out to hold his hand when suddenly he saw that the fat man named Wang Xingye had a wrong expression.

——His hands froze in mid-air, his gaze crossed Yan Xie, and he stared straight at Jiang Ting not far away; for a moment, his eyes seemed to have seen a ghost alive.

Unprepared, Yan Xie’s heart sank slightly, and then he tightened his grip on Wang Xingye’s hand:

“Mr. Wang?”

“Ah… ah? Officer?”

Yan Xie stared at him calmly, and after a while asked softly, “What are you looking at?”

Translator's Note:
1. Tearing up the ticket: killing someone. ^
2. Picking up the wool: One gets the benefit, but the price has been paid. / Nothing comes for free. ^

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