Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 257 The Missing Policeman (10,000 words, please subscribe)
The boys did not react appropriately after discovering the cat.

The kid leading the group was undoubtedly a mischievous one. He climbed up to this side of the wall and stood on tiptoe to try and catch the cat, but unfortunately, he wasn't tall enough and had to give up.

Then, under the 'mocking' gaze of the four cats above him, the kid looked around and picked up a few small stones. After a quick aim, he threw them at the cats without hesitation. With him leading the way, the other kids followed suit, searching everywhere for things to throw and targeting Lingo and the three little ones.

They smashed things while laughing loudly, which made the little tortoiseshell beside Lin Ge panic and also made Lin Ge's face turn ugly.

Lin Ge quietly crouched down, intending to jump down and teach them a lesson.

"Meow!"

The little tabby suddenly rang out excitedly, and it leaped into the air and caught the clod of dirt that the leading boy had thrown up in its paws.

Amidst the surprised exclamations of the kids below, Little Tiger lowered his head and placed the clod of dirt on the wall. He looked at the motionless object, feeling that it had no appeal, and casually pushed it down, which landed squarely on the forehead of the leader.

"Ouch!"

The little devil screamed in pain, clutching his forehead with both hands and his eyes turning fierce.

Lin Ge knew that this kid was about to go even further.

"What are you doing!"

A familiar voice came from behind. It was Zhang Yining, who had three stripes on his shoulders, leading a few spirited little girls as they walked over.

Upon hearing the sound, the mischievous boys immediately cowered like mice before a cat. Even the leader, who was still plotting revenge against the little tiger-striped boy, quickly pretended to be nonchalant, whistled, tilted his head back, and turned to leave.

"Hmph! If you don't line up properly next time you do exercises, I'll deduct your class's conduct points!"

Zhang Yining's imposing reprimand left none of the boys daring to argue back.

The girls behind her looked at their leader with expressions of admiration and seriousness. They all admired this cool idol who dared to criticize even older boys from the bottom of their hearts.

Lin Ge watched this scene with a smile. He saw Zhang Yining wink at him with a straight face, and then return to the playground surrounded by a group of girls. She stood at the back of all the classes and patrolled diligently, recording the exercise situation of each class.

"Wow, this girl is so popular at school!"

Lin Ge watched Zhang Yining's retreating figure with a sigh, and instead of bothering her any longer, urged the three little ones to return to the police station.

After that experience, the little tabby became much bolder. Knowing that this was a new map that Lin Ge had opened up for it, for the next few days, the little tabby would run to the oil town primary school every day and play until evening before going home.

It seemed to have taken a liking to the game of throwing things down from the top of the wall, so it would repeatedly squat on the top of the school wall, waiting for a kind person to throw something up so it could throw it down again. Unfortunately, perhaps because of Zhang Yining's warning, no more naughty kids at Youcheng Elementary School dared to mess with Little Tiger. Even the boy who had been showing off before pretended not to see Little Tiger, rendering all of Little Tiger's pitiful enthusiasm futile.

The little guy played at school for a few days, but eventually got bored.

After all, the way those little guys made a ruckus was quite frightening to the cat, so the little tabby obediently continued to stay at home and play with the lame one, and then go around messing around with the snowclaw tabby.

To be honest, this was the right thing to do. After all, Zhanghe Police Station wasn't exactly small, and there were many places even Lin Ge hadn't explored. For example, the interrogation room and cell blocks, which still seemed magical to Lin Ge, were quite attractive to him as well.

We haven't even had enough fun here yet, what's the point of thinking about running away all the time?
Time passed slowly, and Lin Ge eventually caught up with the tail end of the joint operation, being dragged by Nie Guoqiang to patrol the streets for a day.

Not only did he become an eyesore to passersby, but by the time he got off work, Lin Ge felt completely exhausted and almost collapsed. He didn't want to go through that again, so the next day he unhesitatingly slipped away to Zhangzhou University. He decided to stay there with Liu Junshu for a few days, taking a break until the joint operation was over before returning home.

"Mimi, stay where you are, I'll have Zhang Yong come get you!"

However, just as Lin Ge was lazily lying in the university sun, the phone around his neck suddenly rang. Nie Guoqiang's voice was very serious. He gave Lin Ge a brief and urgent message and then quickly hung up.

"What... what major event has happened this time?"

Lin Ge was startled, suddenly recalling the discussion he had overheard that night involving Yu, Nie, and Zheng. Nie Guoqiang insisted that a criminal gang was lurking in Zhang City; could it be that he had been quietly operating without attracting attention these past few days, but had actually already found clues?

Lin Ge unconsciously drifted into this thought, his body obediently squatting in place. He was usually mischievous and disobedient, but when it came to serious matters, Lin Ge never acted recklessly or willfully.

Just like that day when Nie Guoqiang led him on patrol, didn't Lin Ge have a chance to slip away? The rope that Nie Guoqiang tied to the cat vest was just a joke to Lin Ge.

But the truth is, Lin Ge obediently followed Nie Guoqiang for a whole day.

Even when he was so tired at night that he could barely get out of bed, he did not back down in any way.

Ah!
The fact that he skipped work the next day was a different matter altogether.

"The evil forces!"

This term, which he had only heard of but never seen before, filled Lingo with both excitement and trepidation. He flicked his tail, then looked down at his sharp claws, feeling that in terms of attack power, he should at least be able to defend himself.

"Mimi!"

Soon, Zhu Jun rode with Zhang Yong to a secluded corner of the university and found the cat crouching on the grass, eagerly waiting.

"Come up!"

Zhang Yong didn't get out of the car, but just waved to Lin Ge.

Then Lin Ge rushed over without hesitation, leaped into the air onto Zhang Yong's outstretched arm, landed on Zhang Yong's thigh, went around to the front of the motorcycle, squatted on the fuel tank, and looked up at the two men in police uniforms in front of him.

"Xie Lili has gone missing." Zhang Yong gestured for Zhu Jun to drive, then slowly explained to Lin Ge.

Who is Shirley?

Lin Ge didn't react at first, then after a long pause, he suddenly realized and stared wide-eyed at Zhang Yong. What did that mean? Xie Lili was missing or had she been kidnapped? She was a police officer, after all; how could anyone be so audacious as to attack her?

Could it be that Zhangzhou City really is...

“She skipped work today, and I haven’t been able to contact her. Just now, one of her friends came to the police station to report that Xie Lili is missing.”

As Zhang Yong spoke, he hurriedly led Lin Ge to the monitoring room.

"The last time Xie Lili was seen on the surveillance footage was at 9:11 pm last night. She went to a rock bar near Wanda Plaza with another woman, and there has been no footage of her coming out since then."

Several people had already arrived in the monitoring room, including Nie Guoqiang and Yu Zhengwei. They watched quietly as Li Yiduo rapidly operated the keyboard and mouse, focusing on the fast-forwarded surveillance footage of the Happy Shake Bar entrance displayed on the screen.

The group watched quietly as Xie Lili, smiling happily, staggered into the bar.

"How much did this guy drink?"

Nie Guoqiang frowned, suspecting that Xie Lili might have passed out drunk somewhere, which was why she had lost contact with the police station and wouldn't answer her calls.

"Xie Lili has a good alcohol tolerance; at least in the video, she shouldn't be unconscious."

Zhang Yong spoke calmly, with a hint of dissatisfaction in his voice.

Since Xie Lili came to Zhanghe Police Station with Sun Chang and Bei Bei, Nie Guoqiang treated Sun Chang and Bei Bei like treasures, but dumped Xie Lili on him like trash. During this period of joint operations, Zhang Yong always took Xie Lili with him. However, this useless woman, who was good for nothing, would whine and complain even when it was just patrolling. Her phone was constantly buzzing with messages, and she would frequently need to go to the toilet, sometimes staying there for half a day at a time.

Incidentally, Zhang Yong had witnessed Xie Lili's drinking capacity firsthand. This girl could get completely drunk on the first night and then come to work reeking of alcohol the next day. After washing her face and changing clothes at the police station, she showed no signs of anything amiss. Except for the lingering smell of alcohol when she burped, her case reports were still error-free, even excellent, showing no signs of being intoxicated. It was precisely because of this ability that Zhang Yong had tolerated this drunkard until now.

Then, the drunkard finally got into trouble.

With a sigh, Zhang Yong looked at Nie Guoqiang: "Boss, shall I take some men to Happy Rock Bar to investigate? Since there's no video of Xie Lili leaving, then there's no doubt that the probability of her having an accident at the bar is the highest."

"What is the status of Xie Lili's phone?"

Nie Guoqiang asked Li Yiduo.

Li Yiduo did a few operations on the computer and showed the results to Nie Guoqiang: "It's shut down! Below is the network traffic usage record of Xie Lili's mobile phone number that I checked. The data traffic stopped at 5:45 a.m. today, which proves that this is the time the phone was shut down."

"Does the stoppage of data usage prove anything? Even if the phone screen is off, it won't consume data, right?"

Zhao Zhigang couldn't help but question why this poor guy hadn't been able to take sick leave because of his sprained ankle and had been limping to work these past few days, bringing Feng Yi along to help the traffic police brigade.

Li Yiduo confidently stated, "As long as the phone isn't turned off, simply turning off the screen won't completely shut down data usage. Many built-in apps and the carrier's data will still continue to interact with a small amount of data. At least in the background, the brand is reluctant to disable its own apps as well, so it just hides them in the background and continues to secretly transmit data. Of course, this data consumption is very small, so most people will hardly notice it."

"That is to say, 5:45 a.m. is the time when Xie Lili's phone was turned off, or at least when her mobile data was turned off."

Nie Guoqiang understood.

He expressed great satisfaction with Li Yiduo's new technology that can pinpoint the status of a target mobile phone without consulting the operator.

"Her phone was switched off for no apparent reason, and she hasn't reappeared since, let alone returned to the police station. Based on the existing clues, Xie Lili is definitely involved in something wrong, and we must find her as soon as possible!"

Yu Zhengwei made a decision.

"I'm going to that Happy Shake Club right now!"

Zhang Yong turned and left.

"No need. I already sent Xie Hua and Qian Wei over before I brought Mimi back."

Nie Guoqiang waved his hand, then turned to face the crowd with a serious expression: "If anyone dares to lay a hand on Xie Lili, that's a provocation against our police! Xie Hua hasn't sent any news yet, so the probability of Xie Lili still being free in the bar is low. Most likely, she's been taken away by someone. Zhang Yong, you take Mimi and go first, focusing your search on the parking lot near the bar and surrounding main roads. The rest of you, conduct a full search of the area around Wanda Plaza, leaving no hotel or inn unchecked! If the suspect took Xie Lili away without getting into a car, he couldn't possibly have avoided all the surveillance cameras! Li Yiduo, you and Chu Ting are responsible for searching the surveillance footage in the area! If there aren't enough clues, continue searching towards Longquan and Baimiao!"

"Yes!"

Everyone bowed and left to receive their orders.

"If a suspect did something to Xie Lili, could it be related to her police officer status? But I think it's unlikely. To put it jokingly, it's hard for the average person to see any police aura in Xie Lili. Maybe she was just targeted by chance?"

Yu Zhengwei looked at Nie Guoqiang.

Nie Guoqiang's lips twitched slightly; he really didn't know how to respond to Yu Zhengwei's joke. Shaking his head helplessly, Nie Guoqiang could only say, "Regardless of whether it's related to their police status, the fact remains that women have been threatened, and we still have to do our best."

"Hopefully, no bad news will come!"

Yu Zhengwei sighed.

"Well."

Nie Guoqiang remained silent, offering no comment.

(End of this chapter)