Chapter 301: Chapter 299: Something Happened to Tian Ming

"All the streets run east-west. Besides the patrols moving back and forth, we have one person stationed at the east end of the street and another at the west end. They stay in one spot," Duan Wenrui said. "The guards switch shifts at 2:00 AM. If someone... how could they leave? If the patrol is heading west, and they’re on the west side, the person definitely wouldn’t go west, right? But if they go east, they’ll run into the person stationed on the east end."

"What if this person turned on the stereo and then hid in a corner somewhere?" Lu Zhishen said. "The music didn’t start for another minute, which is plenty of time for him to hide. When we first arrived, all the patrol officers on this street were gathered at this front door. Let’s say the person was hiding somewhere next door. Couldn’t they have slipped away while everyone was distracted at the door? Besides, if you go east past two houses, you’re at the mountain."

"That’s way too risky. What if the stationed guards didn’t come over?" Duan Wenrui said. "Then the person would be trapped, wouldn’t they? Would they just stay hidden forever?"

Lu Zhishen didn’t reply.

The risk was indeed too great.

Someone had to have pressed the button on the stereo, but where did they go afterward?

Duan Wenrui told the officer next to him to take some men and search every house on the street, and also to expand the search area up the mountain.

"Captain Duan, it looks like Tian Ming isn’t in the village. We checked with the house where he played cards the night before last, and he hasn’t been there today. There are no other places to play cards in the village. We got a few leads on card game spots in other villages and have sent people to check them out."

"Understood." Duan Wenrui had just heard Tian Ming’s name being called over the loudspeaker. "You go with them and help search. See if you can find any tracks of someone heading up the mountain."

"Yes, sir."

Su Miaoyi watched as the police handled the stereo, all of them wearing gloves.

No fingerprints were lifted from the stereo or its buttons.

The entrance was paved with wooden planks that had been swept clean, leaving no footprints.

Su Miaoyi looked up again at Tian Min and Yue Hong.

Yue Hong sat on a chair, her expression wooden. The terror hadn’t completely left her eyes, and her face was pale.

Tian Min stood nearby, clutching her phone with her shoulders slumped, listening to them talk. Just a moment ago, her hands had been shaking as she typed.

A moment later, Tian Min typed on her phone again and showed it to Su Miaoyi: [Why was it put outside my house? Did they want to kill us?]

"Did you hear any strange noises before the nursery rhyme started?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min thought carefully, then shook her head.

Su Miaoyi looked at Yue Hong.

Yue Hong was silent for a moment before saying, "I went to bed early tonight. If it wasn’t for this girl running over and shaking me awake, I wouldn’t have heard the nursery rhyme at all, let alone any other noise."

[Can you arrange for someone to protect us? You came quickly tonight, but we might not be so lucky next time.] Tian Min held up her phone for Su Miaoyi to see.

Su Miaoyi looked toward Duan Wenrui.

Duan Wenrui said, "We’ll assign someone."

Tian Min bowed to Duan Wenrui and the others to thank them.

Chu Xingrou helped steady her.

After they had asked all their questions, Su Miaoyi and her team didn’t leave. They waited for news at Tian Min’s house.

Almost thirty minutes later, Duan Wenrui received a call.

There was news from the team searching for Tian Ming in the other villages.

Tian Ming had indeed gone to a house to play cards that afternoon.

But the game broke up after dark, and Tian Ming had headed back.

They checked a few other places afterward. The people there all knew Tian Ming, but he hadn’t been to any of them today.

They also busted a group for gambling.

Several of them knew Tian Ming and said he owed them money.

One of them had seen Tian Ming walking in the direction of Yanjing Village around nightfall.

They were now searching for any sign of Tian Ming along the road.

Tian Min and Yue Hong were sitting together. After hearing the update, Tian Min typed on her phone, stood up, and walked over to Su Miaoyi to show her the screen: [Will my father be okay?]

"They’re already looking for him," Su Miaoyi said. "Let’s wait for more news first. Do you know where he likes to go besides the card games?"

Tian Min shook her head again.

"Who knows where he’s off fooling around all day? He probably got drunk and fell into a ditch somewhere," Yue Hong said. "It’d be better if he just died out there. He’s nothing but a nuisance when he’s alive."

Tian Min looked at Yue Hong and started signing at her.

They couldn’t understand, but it seemed like she was telling Yue Hong to stop talking.

Yue Hong retorted, "What? Am I wrong? Playing the good guy now? I never see you acting all chummy with him, but now you’re defending him? Fine, fine, you’re all one big happy family, is that it? I’m the outsider! I’m the bad guy!"

Tian Min signed frantically, her hands moving incredibly fast.

Duan Wenrui had sent someone to find an interpreter, but they hadn’t returned yet.

All they could do was watch.

Yue Hong watched her sign for a moment, then turned her head away, refusing to look.

When Tian Min saw that she wasn’t looking, her hands gradually slowed to a stop. If Yue Hong wasn’t watching, there was no point in signing.

Whether from indignation, fear, or worry, Tian Min suddenly burst into tears.

Su Miaoyi and Chu Xingrou led her to a seat and handed her a tissue.

"Cry, cry, cry, that’s all you know how to do! You’ve been crying over every little thing since you were a child. It’s so annoying!" Yue Hong scolded. "What’s so great about that rotten man? It’d be better if he just died, save us all the trouble. Have you forgotten when he was about to sell you off? He didn’t give a damn about you then, so why are you worried about him now? If he died, I’d laugh my head off. That good-for-nothing only knows how to gamble, buried under a mountain of debt."

"If the Sheep Horn God doesn’t kill him, who else would he kill? That bastard deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces. He’s done nothing for this family. Instead, he drags us all down so we never have any money, year after year. Any cash we get, he gambles it all away. Useless piece of trash, he never wins."

"What are you crying for? I’m the one who should be crying. All these years, I’ve suffered so much here. If it weren’t for you three kids, I would have left this place long ago. Your younger brothers will be old enough to marry soon. What decent girl would marry into a broken family like this? If he dies early, we can save some money, keep a good reputation, and it’ll be easier for your brothers to find wives."

"Alright, that’s enough," Duan Wenrui said.

Yue Hong fell silent.

After crying for a while, Tian Min stopped too.

Another twenty-odd minutes passed before Duan Wenrui’s phone rang again. He answered it immediately. As he listened to the person on the other end, his expression turned grim.

Su Miaoyi and the other two exchanged a look, all sharing a bad feeling.

Duan Wenrui grunted a few responses and hung up. He first looked at Tian Min and Yue Hong, then announced, "They found Tian Ming’s body in a cornfield a hundred meters outside the village."

Hearing this, Yue Hong shot up from her chair.

Tian Min froze for a moment after hearing the news, then started crying again.

She wept, grabbing Su Miaoyi’s arm and looking at her.

She couldn’t speak, only gaze at her with a tear-streaked face.

Su Miaoyi sensed that she was asking why.

....

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