Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

Li Feng sat in a chair, rubbed his face with his hands, trying to calm himself down. After thinking carefully for a moment, he slowly said, "Our village only has about thirty households, not many people. Most of them are elderly people and children. The young people either go out to work or move to the city. In the past half month, I haven't heard of anyone going missing. Except for me, most of the young people in the village have gone out to work. Some only come back for the Spring Festival, and some don't even come back for several years. The rest are elderly people who stay at home to farm and take care of children. They rarely go out, so there's no way they would go missing."

"Then think again, in the neighboring Lijia'ao Village, or Wangjiawan Village to the north, have you heard of any missing men?" Wang Shuai continued to press, "especially those whose clothing matches the deceased's description: wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt and dark blue jeans, and aged between 30 and 40. Also, have you heard of any recent cases of people who went out to work suddenly returning home and then going missing again?"

Li Feng frowned, pondered for a long time, then shook his head and said, "I occasionally visit Lijia'ao Village and Wangjiawan Village, and I haven't heard of anyone going missing in the past half month. As for people who went out to work suddenly returning home, I haven't heard of that. In the surrounding villages, young people who go out to work usually only come back for the Spring Festival. It's rare for them to return home midway through the year, since it's troublesome to travel back and forth, and the places where they work don't easily grant leave. However, there is a person from Lijia'ao Village who went out to work last year. His name is Li Yongbao, he's about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, about 175 centimeters tall, and he usually dresses quite simply. I don't know if he's come back; I haven't seen him recently."

"Li Yongbao?" Wang Shuai's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, writing the name down in his notebook. "Brother Li, could you tell me more about this person? How old is he? What is his height and build like? What is his usual style of clothing? When did he go out to work last year? Where did he go to work? What kind of work did he do? When was the last time you saw him?"

“Li Yongbao was 38 years old this year, about 175 centimeters tall, of medium build, neither fat nor thin, with slightly dark skin. Because he worked away from home for many years, he usually wore simple, dirt-resistant clothes, mostly dark T-shirts and jeans, which are somewhat similar to the clothing characteristics of the deceased you described,” Li Feng recalled carefully and said slowly. “He went out to work last spring. I heard he went to a construction site in the south to work as a bricklayer. I don’t know which city exactly. I only know that after he left, he rarely contacted his family and I never heard of him coming back. The last time I saw him was during the Spring Festival last year. He stayed at home for a few days, and then went out to work again. I haven’t seen him since, and I haven’t heard anyone else in the village mention him coming back.”

A sense of unease immediately arose in Wang Shuai's mind. Li Yongbao's age, height, build, and clothing style all closely matched the deceased's characteristics. Moreover, he had gone out to work last year and shouldn't have returned home midway, yet he had suddenly disappeared without a trace, which inevitably raised suspicions. However, Wang Shuai did not rush to conclusions. As an experienced member of the investigation team, he knew the importance of "rigor." He couldn't simply conclude that Li Yongbao was the deceased based on a simple match of characteristics; further verification and confirmation were needed.

“Brother Li, do you have the contact information for Li Yongbao’s family? Or do you know who his family members are and where they live?” Wang Shuai continued to ask. “We want to go to their home to find out more about the situation, verify Li Yongbao’s specific information, and see if he has shown any signs of returning to his hometown recently. Also, please think carefully about whether there are any other people whose situations are similar to Li Yongbao’s, or anyone you think is suspicious. You can tell us any details you may have.”

“Li Yongbao’s house is at the east end of Lijia’ao Village, a detached house. He has an elderly mother who is almost 70 years old and in poor health, and a wife named Liu Mei, who is two years younger than him. She usually takes care of his mother at home and occasionally does odd jobs at a nearby workshop. They also have a son who is in high school in the city and doesn’t come home often,” Li Feng said. “I don’t have his family’s contact information, but I can tell you the exact location of his house. You can go there first thing tomorrow morning and you should be able to find his wife, Liu Mei. As for other suspicious people, I can’t think of any right now. I’ll contact you when I remember them.”

“Okay, thank you so much, Brother Li. This is a very important clue for us,” Wang Shuai quickly thanked Li Feng, while also carefully noting down the exact location of Li Yongbao’s house, marking it as a key target for investigation. “If you think of any suspicious clues later, whether they are about Li Yongbao or other people, please call us immediately. This is my contact information. Also, please keep this confidential and do not tell anyone else about our search for missing persons, so as not to affect our work.”

After saying goodbye to Li Feng, Wang Shuai led his team to continue their investigation in Lucao Gou Village. They visited each of the remaining villagers' homes, knocking cautiously and patiently inquiring about the situation. However, most villagers stated that no one had gone missing in the past two weeks, they hadn't seen any strangers entering or leaving the village, and they hadn't heard of any migrant workers suddenly returning home. A few villagers reported hearing faint arguing sounds from the west end of the village three nights ago, but the distance was too great to hear clearly, and they didn't know if the sound was coming from the abandoned farmhouse where the body was found. This was consistent with the villagers' accounts during their earlier on-site visits, and no new valuable clues were provided.

The door-to-door search in Lucao Gou Village didn't end until around 2 a.m. Wang Shuai led his team to summarize the findings. Aside from the lead provided by Li Feng regarding Li Yongbao, no other missing persons matching the deceased's description were found. Afterwards, Wang Shuai arranged for his team members to take turns resting, while he and two other team members rushed to Lijia'ao Village that night. Although it was late and the villagers were asleep, Wang Shuai wanted to first check the area around Li Yongbao's house to confirm if anyone was home, and also to familiarize himself with the environment of Lijia'ao Village in preparation for the detailed search the following day.

Lijia'ao Village is adjacent to Lucao Gou Village, and is less than two kilometers away from the abandoned farmhouse where the body was found, about a 20-minute walk. In the dead of night, Lijia'ao Village is even quieter than Lucao Gou Village. The village roads are narrow and rugged, lined with dilapidated farmhouses, most of which are dark, with only a few houses at the western end of the village still having faint lights on. (End of Chapter)