when the moon whispers

Chapter 410: Accomplices - Intertwined (Part )

Six accomplices in the case
Seventy Crosses (Part 2)

The second primary school on Huabin Middle Road organized a study tour on Friday. The half-day trip to the Science and Technology Museum was quite successful, but after returning to the school gate, the group dispersed in a mess. A row of buses picking up and dropping off students were forced to be stuck in the narrow road near the school. The small vendors who got the news about the study tour in advance set up their push cart snack stalls on the night market street in front of Shengbei Cultural District before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, squeezing the Ninghe Street of Huabin Middle Road, which was not very smooth to begin with, into a complete block. The traffic police who were pushing their motorcycles to the center of the congestion had to be evacuated slowly and breathlessly.

Zhou You had just excitedly received a call for assistance from the Municipal Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and had accompanied Jiang Mo and Xiao Letian to carefully visit the route of a suspicious person like Xue Yilian before and after going to the hospital. Then she was caught by her father, the director of the police station, and put in a fluorescent duty uniform. She ran to the middle of the road and acted as a bright human signpost. She worked so hard that her mouth was dry and her mouth was dry that she took off her fluorescent vest and strolled into the residential building behind Huabin Middle Road. She took out a few popsicles from the freezer of the canteen, then squatted on the cement steps of the game room of the Internet cafe next door, picked up a piece of crushed ice while frying beans, and handed it to Xiao Letian, who was going out for some fresh air with stars in his eyes.

"There are usually not many people in this Internet cafe. The game room is mostly occupied by students from the second primary school who come to play after school—" Zhou You tilted his head to glance into the room, lowered his voice and frowned, "When the weather gets warm, the little boy runs around and sweats and gathers in this room. It feels like the smell of a doghouse..."

Xiao Letian held the popsicle against his forehead, suppressed his laughter, and hurriedly waved his hands in a messy voice. He leaned against Zhou You and found a clean brick. He raised his chin and glanced at the fluorescent vest in her arms. "Are you done? I wanted to ask, Officer Chen was seconded to the special case team, why didn't you come to help?"

"What else could it be? Because of my dad. I had already agreed with my master that I would go with him, but Director Zhou felt it was dangerous and secretly talked to my master behind my back. It was annoying - if I had known when I was first assigned, I should have tried my best to get into another station... If it wasn't for my master, I wouldn't have stayed under his nose for so long."

Zhou You sighed indescribably, and complained a few words before he felt relieved. He turned his head to look at Officer Jiang who was sitting behind the bar and checking the surveillance video frame by frame, and frowned in complaint again: "What's going on? I followed that Xue Yilian to this area but couldn't find anyone... I finally got a call saying that they had just cracked the anonymous email that the witness received, so here's the IP address?"

"I also thought that the cracked real IP address would be useful..." Xiao Letian unscrewed the popsicle and took a sip. The ice chips and ice water made his back teeth tremble. He shook his head with his teeth bared, "But I don't think I can find it... Most of the children in this residential building are in elementary school. Many grandparents who don't know how to hand in homework for their children online come here to communicate. The Internet cafe WiFi is placed at the gate, and anyone who needs it can connect to it at any time. Moreover, this is considered to be inside the building complex, and most of the people coming and going are parents and children. Internet cafes now basically make money from game consoles outside, and there are not many people surfing the Internet. Everyone who passes by is familiar with each other, and there is no such thing as checking ID cards-"

Xiao Letian slurped his orange-flavored popsicle and raised his head, vaguely nodding at the camera inside the roll-down shutter: "It's just this one surveillance camera, and it's for keeping an eye on the children's safety. It may not be turned on during school hours. Haven't you reported it to your station?"

"I'm not sure about this..." Zhou You thought for a while while biting his popsicle, "My master and I are mainly in the Nanyang Road area, or I can ask Uncle Deng for help... He should still be at the street corner of the night market--"

"I just said hello to Chief Zhou. I guess I have to check the surveillance cameras on the main road nearby."

Jiang Mo took a few steps with a shaky foot, and walked to the door of the Internet cafe dizzy. Leaning against the edge of the shutter door, she took the square cake that Zhou You had specially left for her to relieve dryness and fill her stomach. Seeing the inquiry in Xiao Letian's eyes, she shook her head slowly: "I found nothing... I'll ask Xiaomi to remotely check the historical logins of this IP address. If it doesn't work, I'll probably have to ask the technicians to come and take a look later."

"But to be honest, the second primary school on Huabin Middle Road is two blocks away from the cultural and tourism street in Shengbei. Although the residential buildings here are all old residents, there are homestays in this area. There are many new faces coming and going. The nearby stores can only keep an eye on the children when school is over. The rest of the time, no matter how unique the cosplay photos are, as long as they stroll over from the other side of the street, no one will take a close look. At most, they will just take a few curious glances." Zhou You sighed while sucking on the popsicle, tilted his upper body to look at Jiang Mo who was eating the square cake as if it were a meal, "Sister, I followed Xue Yilian here before, but there was no follow-up. This road surveillance has been checked to the end... What if there is still no clue?"

"If you can't find it, just leave it alone."

Jiang Mo almost swallowed the ice cream whole before she shuddered with stomachache. She realized it belatedly and left a few bites, staring at the rice cake in the sandwich and thinking for a while, "Yuan Lanyin received the anonymous email at night, and she might not pay attention to it if she was just passing by. But whether it was using the wifi or staying nearby, if a stranger stayed in this area for a short period of time, it would be reasonable to say... that there would be no impression at all. What's more - Xue Yilian sneaked into this area and could not be found, which means -"

"Either she has been there before, or..." Xiao Letian blinked, shaking his head which had been confused by the chaos in the room half an hour ago, "or she is very familiar with this area. But sister, doesn't the Internet cafe owner know Xue Yilian? He has been asking around here just now, he can't be lying, right?"

Zhou You raised his head and was a little slow to react. He suddenly slapped Xiao Letian's thigh, clenched his fist with a hissing sound, and gently tapped his knee: "Besides, sister, I have checked the tenant registration of this street, and I don't see Xue Yilian's name."

"You are familiar with the places you pass by on your way to and from get off work, and the owner of the store you pass by may also be familiar with you, but unless you have met before, he may not be able to recognize you by name..."

Jiang Mo walked down the stairs calmly, finished his ice cream in two bites, and walked straight to the trash can with his hands on his hips. He looked at the endless night market street, turned around and looked at the old residential area that had been renovated and remodeled. The paint job looked familiar. He raised his hands to smooth his messy hair, and suddenly raised his eyelids to look at Zhou You: "Near the Second Primary School...how many residential areas are there in total? If nothing works, let's go through them all."

"There are four near the school. The four sub-district offices in the east, west, south and north are in charge of their own affairs. The three sub-districts in the north, south and east are all under the jurisdiction of our office, so it is convenient for coordination. However, the north and west sub-districts are in the area next door—"

Zhou You shrugged his shoulders and said something in the middle of it. Xiao Letian, who was rubbing his sore thigh and chewing the plastic of a popsicle out of boredom beside him, seemed to be stabbed by someone. He suddenly took out his mobile phone, flipped through the map, zoomed in and out, then was stunned for a few seconds, holding the screen and ran towards Jiang Mo.

"Senior sister, this community in Beixi Street...isn't it——Tu Siyao...?"

Due to work and health reasons, I will be working on another day~
“He who stands on his feet cannot stand, and he who strides cannot walk.”