when the moon whispers

Chapter 412: Accomplice - Old Site (Part )

Six accomplices in the case
The old site of No. 71 (Part 2)

Huang Xingjun picked up the wrinkled evidence bag, which had been tucked in the business trip bag for who knows how long.

Team Leader Huang's cell phone has at least survived the upgrades of the same series of tricycles of the same brand in his hands. The camera is blurrier than presbyopia, and the evidence bag looks gray in the photos that are not well focused. Even after loading the original photos and enlarging them, one can barely make out the three childish figures in the two photos that were burned by fire and soaked by rain and snow, and Song Wanwan's smiling face that has hardly changed since childhood.

Huang Xingjun took and uploaded the photo, then raised his head towards Lin Yu's phone. "You can't tell anything from the first photo. The little boy that Song Wanwan was holding was so blurred that only a pair of shoes were left. Jiang'er, you and Letian'er can look at the second photo. The second photo was dragged into the corner by a mouse. Although there is a piece missing, it is not soaked in water. Xue Yilian can still be seen, and the boy on Song Wanwan's left can also be seen to be roughly his height-"

Jiang Moduan paused while holding the photo, and almost subconsciously thought of the security guard Xiao Song who had a secret relationship with Xue Yilian but kept it a secret. She frowned suddenly, and just as she was about to say something, Lin Yu on the other side of the video had anticipated and intercepted her inference.

"As for whether it is Song Yike, I cannot make a conclusion based on the photos where neither of the two faces can be fully seen."

Jiang Mo raised his arm and handed the photo to Xiao Letian, who had been looking at it for a long time without figuring out what it was. He leaned over to the microphone of his cell phone, whose video signal was a little laggy, and asked, "Has anyone near the old site of the welfare home identified it?"

"I have basically asked all the elderly people who still live in this village."

Huang Xingjun burped after drinking half a bottle of soda. While handing over the bottle, he took the phone and took a selfie while holding it high in front of Jiang Mo and Xiao Letian, showing them how deserted the village was.

"This village used to be next to two small mines, which had been mined privately for many years. After they were closed down, there seemed to be not many people living in the village. In addition, Jinbai County seems to be under the management of the neighboring city. In recent years, the village has been included in the development zone and has been relocated one after another. Those who can knock on the door and ask basically have no impression of Song Yike, let alone those who are not familiar with him... Some people can remember the little boy in the photo, but it is only that he follows Song Wanwan all day long."

Huang Xingjun snorted with his nose turned up to the sky, and pouted his lips in disdain in the direction of the village store. Lin Yu pulled him with a hissing sound, and he restrained a little the disgust that was always on the edge of his mouth: "The current owner of the store was a gangster at the entrance of the village more than ten years ago. At first, he pretended to be stupid when asked about Song Wanwan. Later, I heard from the villagers that he thought she was pretty and harassed Song Wanwan for almost two years, but he didn't succeed in his physical actions. He wanted to bite back but failed. He was almost blinded in one eye by a stone thrown by Song Wanwan, and then he restrained himself. Later, it was the little boy in the photo who always followed Song Wanwan home from school at night."

Lin Yu sipped the bitterly sweet pigmented soda and smacked his lips. Through the video call, he could vaguely hear him giving a few words of advice to the store owner while returning the glass bottle. Then he slowly walked back to the range of the video call, picked up one of the photos wrapped in the evidence bag and shook it in front of the camera.

"Although the orphanage is not far from this village, I heard that Director Song Meiyin is worried that the girls in the orphanage will be targeted by the old bachelors in the village, so they usually won't let them wander around the village. Even the owner of the convenience store is walking around. The people in the village have a shallow impression of Xue Yilian. We can see what Xue Yilian looks like now from his childhood photos, but in fact he has changed a lot, not to mention this little boy. The one or two people who have some memories of him only remember him as a skinny little monkey next to Song Wanwan. After Song Wanwan went to boarding high school, they hardly saw him again-"

Xiao Letian shrugged his face vigorously in the southeast wind that was filled with the smell of grilled cold noodles, barbecued food, and old-fashioned pot-fried pork with vinegar. He listened carefully to the conversation on the video call, hung up the hot phone and put it back into his trouser pocket. He first waved at Zhou You, who was leaning forward at the steps of the Internet cafe and trying to get involved. He turned around and was about to ask more questions with a lot to say, but when he turned around, he heard his senior sister's phone vibrating and buzzing for a long time. As soon as the call was connected, Captain Gu anticipated the questioning of his two precious disciples. "I know what you two want to ask. Old Chen is watching, security guard Xiao Song."

"..." Jiang Mo choked on the words, and saw Xiao Letian staring blankly out of the corner of his eye. He smiled bitterly for a long time, "But Master, from the current point of view, Song Yike is the most obvious suspect."

"No matter how obvious it is, we can't just cuff someone and invite him back for tea - especially for a suspicious person who has shown up here before but has no solid evidence to indicate that he has a criminal motive. Since he was able to evade for three years before, if we alert the enemy, the case may be completely hanging on this..."

Gu Xing was smoking again, and the "click" sound of the lighter relighting rubbed Jiang Mo's ears. "This kid is now doing odd jobs for a living. Chen Rui said that at noon, there were a few leftover lunch boxes at the place where he worked, and Song Yike even delivered the lunch box to Chen Rui's car window."

"So he knows everything about the surveillance?" Jiang Mo frowned and clicked his tongue. "Where is he working now?"

"He's also in Shengbei, wandering around right under our noses - I think he's in the cultural district? Anyway, there's going to be a small music festival in that scenic spot park, and the temporary hosting company has been hiring these people to do the hard work these past few days, moving and unloading that thing called... a truss -"

Jiang Mo was startled and turned his head abruptly to look at the Cultural Street at the end of Huabin Middle Road. After pausing for two seconds, he suddenly turned around and glanced in the direction of Beixi Street across the primary school playground. He grabbed Xiao Letian, who was still in a daze, and followed behind him, Officer Xiao Zhou, who only heard her master's name clearly from chatting with her. They skipped through the narrow streets, broke into the apartment building in the residential area, and rushed straight to the unlocked security door of Tu Siyao's house.

Jiang Mo took a few deep breaths, and placed one hand on the handcuffs at the back of his waist, with his bent knuckles just against the door panel. Tu Siyao, who was holding a bag of garbage, pushed the door open with a "bang", and with a "clang" sound, the door panel was lifted up and hit Jiang Mo's forehead.

"...Eh——" Tu Siyao exerted all his strength on his hands, but his movement to push the door was blocked. He staggered back a few steps, with a look of frustration on his face, as if someone was getting in the way. He was about to speak, but when he looked up, he saw who was coming. He muttered a few complaints in his throat before swallowing them whole.

"Uh... Officer Jiang... Officer Xiao, and - oh, the sister from the police station..."

Tu Siyao covered the hemostatic tape on the back of his hand which he had not yet torn off after the needle was pulled out, and blinked in confusion at the three people's anxious movements.

"Yes...what's the matter?"

Due to work and health reasons, I will be working on another day~
"The heart is filled with mountains and valleys, and the joy is life."