Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 183 The Unchanging Self

The bald man's left hand was on the Bluetooth headset, while his right hand held a gun and pointed it at the figure in front of him.

For some reason, the other party seemed to have eyes in the back of their head, anticipating his movements. The first shot was dodged with incredible speed, causing only a minor scratch.

The bald man was no ordinary person; after his first shot failed, he quickly prepared to fire a second.

"Ah!" the figure cried out in pain.

The screams of the figure stunned the bald man.

"This sound..."

The bald man seemed to be thinking about something, watching the figure run towards the back of the RV without making any move.

He didn't care at all about Jiang Kaiji's random gunfire.

On the African battlefield, shooting down enemies under heavy machine gun fire was a common occurrence, let alone the fact that Jiang Kaiji's pistol was fired from a completely different direction from his location.

The chance of hitting yourself is almost zero.

The bald man glanced at the RV, hesitated for a moment, and finally chose to put away his pistol, slowly retreating into the deep forest and disappearing from sight.

The three people beside the car were unaware that the bald man had already left.

They felt trapped, unable to move forward or backward, leaning against the RV.

Now that the enemy is in the dark while we are in the light, it is extremely unsafe to stay near the RV. No one knows whether the other side will actually get behind them.

Even so, the three of them did not dare to make any rash moves.

Fortunately, the RV door was on their side, so Tian Hao decided to get into the RV first, since the inside of the RV was much safer than the outside.

The bald man couldn't keep fighting them indefinitely; their victory would come once the police reinforcements arrived.

The RV door wasn't closed properly. Tian Hao was in front, Jin Ping'an was in the middle, and Jiang Kaiji was at the back.

The three of them got into the RV one after another. There were no accomplices that Tian Hao was wary of, only a large iron barrel lying on the ground, which looked out of place with its surroundings.

A girl wearing an oversized T-shirt was lying on her side on the floor of the RV, her arms covered in bruises.

The sound from the car just now must have been caused by that metal drum falling over.

Tian Hao and Jin Ping'an immediately stepped forward, pulled the girl out of the iron bucket, and gently placed her on the sofa.

Tian Hao touched the girl's forehead; it was burning hot to the touch. Anyone who had received compulsory education from Asia Union could tell that this was a high fever caused by inflammation of the eye socket.

"Old Jiang! Call an ambulance!"

Tian Hao shouted.

Upon feeling the stranger's touch, the girl instinctively began to struggle, but her struggle was as weak and feeble as that of a cat that hadn't eaten for three days.

With a slight tilt of her head, her delicate and youthful face was revealed.

She had no scars on her face and looked to be a year or two younger than Jin Ping'an.

Jin Ping'an was worried that the hair would fall into the girl's mouth, so he gently brushed the strands of hair aside for her.

"what!"

Bang.

Jin Ping'an let out a startled cry, and was so frightened that he took half a step back and bumped into the closet.

The girl's left eye socket, hidden by her hair, was a large hole with no eyeball inside. The optic nerve was clearly visible, and some of the nerves were inflamed.

It was clear that after the girl's eyes were forcibly removed, the group did not take any further action.

After a brief moment of shock, anger, violence, and grief welled up in Jin Ping'an's heart.

The shock he had just experienced, multiplied many times over, transformed entirely into anger towards Hu Yingshao.

Cuckoo, coo coo, cuckoo, coo coo.

Outside the car, the cuckoo continued to call, as if lamenting the girl's fate.

…………

Fifteen minutes later, police reinforcements arrived. A large number of fully armed special police officers were scattered in the grove, and a helicopter was circling in the sky. The three were finally able to get out of the car.

The girl was carried by medical staff to an ambulance.

Jin Ping'an wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

He turned around, looking at the RV in front of him, and images flashed through his mind.

There was Ansien, who chose to commit suicide by poisoning herself with a smile; there were the victims in the criminal investigation team, each with a numb expression like a doll; and there was that one just now, with empty eye sockets that left an indelible impression on me.

All of these people have been directly or indirectly harmed by Hu Yingshao.

Jin Ping'an felt both resentful and frustrated. He was resentful of Hu Yingshao's actions, but frustrated that he couldn't produce any evidence.

After Tian Hao had the medical staff stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound on his shoulder, he and the technical staff gathered around the iron bucket and watched as they scooped out a bunch of blackened stuff from it.

The liquid in the bucket was diluted sulfuric acid. Judging from the absence of undissolved penholders and inkstones, the dark substance in the bucket was very likely paper.

During Tao Jun's previous interrogation, he mentioned that Hu Yingshao would use the victims' bodily fluids to grind ink for writing.

Therefore, his special works, brushes, and inkstones must contain the DNA of the victims.

however……

After being soaked in sulfuric acid, the DNA on it was completely destroyed. In other words...

All the crucial evidence is gone.

Even though Tian Hao had already guessed this outcome when he approached the grove, he still couldn't help but clench his teeth.

After finally getting this information from Tao Jun, finally finding the right direction for the investigation, and finally catching up with the RV, this is the ending we get.

"Take it easy, Lao Tian."

Jiang Kaiji walked over and patted Tian Hao's arm: "At least we rescued a child, which is already pretty good."

After speaking, Jiang Kaiji specifically pointed to a large barrel of concentrated sulfuric acid and a small barrel of hydrogen peroxide that had been found inside the RV.

The purpose of the other party bringing these things is self-evident. Anyone who has done chemical experiments knows that the bald man intends to prepare a (censored) solution.

Ahem, I'm going too far again.

Jiang Kaiji was right, but Tian Hao was still very annoyed.

Even if they arrived just five minutes early, they could still snatch some paintings and calligraphy that the bald man couldn't destroy in time.

That's when the evidence to convict Hu Yingshao was available.

"I'm not suicidal, it's just that this physical evidence was just presented to us like this..."

"Old Tian! Old Jiang! Captain Liu is calling you two." A member of the criminal investigation team ran over and interrupted their conversation.

The two had to put the topic aside for the time being and headed towards Liu Garden together.

Liu Yuan and Jin Ping'an stood together on the other side of the RV.

This is where Jin Ping'an was shot.

At this moment, Liu Yuan was wearing a riot helmet and holding a riot shield, looking serious and capable, a far cry from his usual cheerful and sociable self.

He was asking Jin Ping'an, "Were you shot right here?"

Jin Pingan nodded: "At that time, I went around to the back of the RV, intending to subdue him from behind with a stun gun, but I found that there was no one behind the RV. I was just about to stand up when I felt a chill down my back. I instinctively dodged to the side and just happened to avoid a bullet."

Jin Ping'an vividly recounted the thrilling events of that time.

Liu Yuan raised her hand and touched her chin, saying, "Show me the pose you struck back then."

Although Jin Ping'an didn't know what Liu Yuan wanted to do, he still obediently stood up.

Liu Yuan first examined the location of the wound, then turned and walked into the woods, carefully searching for something with his helmet light, while Jin Ping'an and the other two obediently followed behind him.

Not long after, Liu Yuan found the broken, withered branch on the ground to the southeast.

Liu Yuan carefully examined the broken layers of the dead branch, and then observed whether there were any scratches on the surrounding bark.

Just then, the walkie-talkie crackled to life: "Team Leader Liu, there's a lot of mustard powder scattered in many places in the woods, the police dogs can't handle it..."

Liu Yuan said seriously, "I understand. Don't send out the police dogs yet. Stay put."

"Yes!"

Liu Yuan continued to follow the direction of the broken, withered branch, but as he walked, the sound of a cuckoo ahead made him frown.

He turned to the three of them and asked, "Has this bird call been going on the whole time?"

"It's always been there, but it seems to have stopped for a while..."

Jiang Kaiji scratched his head, recalling carefully: "The bird calls stopped for a while when the grenade exploded, then stopped again when we were exchanging fire, and then..."

Jiang Kaiji, who had fired several shots, was in a state of high tension and couldn't remember whether the bird calls stopped or not.

Tian Hao added from the side, "That's right, the birdsong only stopped when we fired our guns. After the three of us met up by the RV, the birdsong was basically continuous."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuan immediately took out her phone and opened the surveying map.

After watching for a while, he picked up the walkie-talkie: "Tell the police dogs to chase in the southwest direction."

"why?"

Jin Ping'an asked, puzzled, "Isn't this the southeast?"

Liu Yuan maintained a serious expression and said in a very solemn tone, "This prisoner is very cautious. It must have taken quite a while from the last time you saw him on the surveillance footage to getting to this grove of trees, right?"

"……Yes."

As Jiang Kaiji said, it was already a very good result that they were able to save one victim.

The other party came to destroy the evidence; it's a miracle the victim is still alive after such a long time span.

“During the time you’ve been here, the prisoners have been setting up the scene almost constantly.”

Liu Yuan picked up the broken branch: "There's a small pond in the woods, and the air humidity is high. How could there be a branch that's this dry?"

I believe there must be many more of these small branches nearby.

This killer's vigilance has reached a pathological level; while you were on your way here, he must have been preparing these counter-surveillance traps.

Even if he didn't know for sure whether his whereabouts had been exposed.

To be honest, I suspect the perpetrator is likely a retired mercenary who has seen combat, or someone who has served as a reconnaissance soldier.

Although his counter-surveillance techniques were simple, they were sufficient to deal with the vast majority of ordinary police officers; he was very familiar with police investigative methods.

But... what does that have to do with your judgment that he ran southwest?
Jin Ping'an thought to himself.

Why use the phrase 'even if he doesn't know whether his whereabouts have been exposed'?
Tian Hao became suspicious of this statement.

However, after rambling on for a while, Liu Yuan quickly got back to the main topic.

“You came from the north. You should have noticed on the way that there is a large area of ​​wasteland to the north. If you go north, the helicopter will take a look and there is nowhere to hide. So he could only run south into the mountains.”

The cuckoo's continuous calling meant there was no one in that direction, so after he shot you, he definitely didn't run southeast. The outcome is obvious.

"What if he bypasses the cuckoo?" Jin Ping'an insisted on asking.

Liu Yuan's serious expression vanished instantly, and she reverted to her cheerful and sociable self.

He shrugged: "If they escaped, they escaped. It's just a guess. I'm not a god, how could I accurately predict the direction the prisoner escaped?"

Jin Ping'an originally thought that Liu Yuan would give a long list of arguments like the messenger or Ai Liang, but he said something like this instead.

Is this the meaning of "it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality"...?

Jin Ping'an sighed and, while the three were discussing the follow-up matters, secretly returned to the RV.

He placed his hand on the wall of the RV, clearly intending to use backtracking.

This time, Jin Ping'an intends to go back to the source thoroughly. Since the RV was used to imprison the victims, Hu Yingshao will definitely appear in the footage.

Just find all the places the RV has been and stopped at, and then check them one by one.

He didn't believe that Hu Yingshao could completely and thoroughly eliminate all the evidence.

Jin Ping'an randomly picked the nearest room and went inside. He would have to go into all these rooms sooner or later, so it didn't matter which one he went into first or last.

"Old Tian, ​​Old Liu, when will this case ever be over?"

Jiang Kaiji put a cigarette in his mouth but didn't light it: "Including the time Ping An spent conducting his own investigation, it should have been more than a month in total."

“We’ve investigated long-running cases before, what’s the rush?”

Tian Hao also had a cigarette in his mouth but didn't light it.

Jiang Kaiji sighed: "I'm not in a hurry, it's just that this case is really too devastating."

Since Lao Mei, you, and I took down that illegal operation not long ago, we've been getting new leads every day, but every lead gets cut off in half.

From the very beginning, selling that small fish, to the big fish like Tao Jun, Wang Youcai, and Hu Yingshao, including this time, every single time they've managed to destroy crucial leads before we even arrive.

Tian Hao remained silent, but he too felt a sense of defeat.

Ever since those criminals from Nevada City arrived in Thousand Flower City, that carefree, peaceful tourist town has disappeared.

The cultivation of good people requires years of education, while the birth of bad people often happens in an instant.

The three men puffed on their cigarettes, and none of them spoke again.

They were all old colleagues, and Jiang Kaiji didn't expect them to comfort him; he just wanted to vent.

After all, I've been feeling really stifled lately.

"Old Tian... ugh..."

Jin Ping'an swayed as he got off the RV.

Tian Hao knew immediately what the kid was up to. He stepped forward and helped Jin Ping'an up, saying, "Didn't you say you'd tell me before using Rewind?"

"We'll have to use it anyway... Ugh... It's all the same whether we say it sooner or later..."

Jin Ping'an forced himself to speak, suppressing his nausea.

The aftereffects of the full regression were not as severe as those of being ejected from the consciousness space, but after two or three times, there would still be stinging and nausea.

"Find someone named Li Rong... He bought the RV... Ugh!"

Jin Ping'an finally couldn't hold back and spat out a mouthful of viscous liquid.

This outburst stunned Liu Yuan and Jiang Kaiji, who were standing not far away.

The cigarette that Tian Hao had been holding in his mouth fell to the ground and was stained dark red by the pool of liquid.

That's right, what Jin Ping'an vomited was not stomach acid, but a mouthful of blood.

After spitting out the blood, Jin Ping'an fainted.

A chill ran down Tian Hao's spine. His pupils constricted, his mouth opened slightly, his heart trembled violently, and the arm he was holding onto Jin Ping'an became incredibly stiff.

"Ping An! Hello! Ping An!"

Tian Hao kept slapping Jin Ping'an's face, but the other party did not react at all.

"Old Jiang! Get the ambulance back right now! Quickly!" Tian Hao shouted uncontrollably.

Jiang Kaiji didn't dare to delay and immediately called an ambulance.

Liu Yuan and Tian Hao together carried Jin Ping'an to a flat grassy area and laid him down.

He looked at Tian Hao and questioned, "What's wrong with him? Why is he suddenly vomiting blood?"

Tian Hao kept apologizing, "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have made you do that, I'm so sorry..."

At this moment, Tian Hao realized that he had never changed over the years.

He is still the same person he always was.

Tian Hao, who subconsciously ignores the need to sacrifice as long as he can solve a case.

Tian Hao, who only sheds a couple of fake tears when the consequences are irreversible.

Returning to the underworld, I'll try to write more...

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(End of this chapter)