You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 306 The Root! (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!)
The jeep suddenly stopped on the road, kicking up a cloud of dust from its rear.

Duan Yi stared intently at Yang Jinwen, asking incredulously, "You... how did you know?"

Judging from his expression, the answer was obvious.

Without a doubt, Yang Jinwen and his team had come all the way from An'nan City and were getting closer to the truth, finally finding out the identity of the deaf-mute woman.

Yang Jinwen took out a photo of the deaf-mute woman's corpse from his notebook and handed it to him.

"Take a look, is it her?"

Duan Yi quickly took it, his face filled with astonishment: "You...how do you have her photos..."

The background of the photo is an autopsy table, taken from above by a forensic doctor.

"She...she's dead?"

Yang Jinwen nodded: "She died on the night of January 22nd in Danan County, An'nan City."

"how come……"

Yang Jinwen said to him, "You drive first, and I'll explain to you slowly."

After half an hour.

After hearing this, Duan Yi swallowed hard: "Huang Xiaolan isn't the murderer?"

Yang Jinwen shook his head: "She is not. The murderer you are looking for is the same person we are looking for. She is in our An'nan City, using the alias 'Yin Hong'. Her real name is Zhang Chen."

Upon hearing this name, Duan Yi was about to slam on the brakes again.

He operated the steering wheel with one hand and used the other to lift his briefcase from under the seat.

"What are you looking for? I'll get it for you."

Yang Jinwen was afraid that he would drive the car into the ditch. By this time, they had left the city. There were drainage ditches on both sides of the road, and then there were large areas of green rice fields.

Duan Yi said, "I have a notebook in my briefcase with a photo of someone named Zhang Chen in it. Captain Yang, can you check if it's the same person?"

Yang Jinwen unzipped his briefcase, took out his notebook, and flipped through it briefly. He saw that it was filled with densely packed text, all of which was related to the investigation of the 125 murder and arson case.

The investigation began on January 29th. Photos of the victims and suspects were pasted into a notebook. Some suspects' photos had an X drawn on them with a pen, meaning they were ruled out.

Duan Yi filled an entire notebook with detailed notes, even noting the exact times of his visits and investigations.

At the end of the notebook, Yang Jinwen saw a family photo of five people.

Yao Weihua, Maozi, and Cai Ting, who were sitting in the back seat, also raised their buttocks and stuck their heads over.

They saw that the background of the photo was in front of a house high in the mountains, with a series of mountains behind the house.

On the open ground on both sides of the photo are bamboo frames, on which freshly pressed noodles are drying.

Yellowish-brown noodles hang down from bamboo poles, layer upon layer, taking up most of the scene.

In the middle, a family of five stood.

Standing at the very front was a little boy, grinning from ear to ear.

Behind him were two women wearing floral shirts, their expressions serious and blank.

Yang Jinwen recognized her at a glance: the shorter woman was the deaf-mute woman, and the taller woman was 'Yin Hong'!
"Holy crap!" Yao Weihua exclaimed, "It really is them! We've finally found them!"

Cai Ting quickly took out the photo of 'Yin Hong' and handed it to Yang Jinwen.

He already had photos of the deaf-mute women, so he took them and compared them with the two people in the family photo. They looked exactly the same, except that the two people in the family photo looked younger.

Behind them stood two men.

The older man, holding welding fumes, had deep wrinkles on his face, revealing yellow teeth; he must be Li Fuzhong.

The young man was very tall, wearing a blue sleeveless vest. He had three-white eyes and a somewhat sinister look in his eyes. When taking the photo, he seemed to be glancing at the 'Crimson' next to him out of the corner of his eye.

Seeing that Yang Jinwen didn't say anything, Duan Yi simply stopped the car and leaned over to take a closer look.

Upon looking at the photos for comparison, he let out a deep breath: "They're exactly the same, it's the two of them!"

Yao Weihua sighed, "See? You still won't cooperate with us. If we hadn't come all this way to find you, you would still be treating Huang Xiaolan as a murderer."

"Captain Duan, now you have nothing to say, right?"

Duan Yi nodded heavily: "It's not that I'm unwilling to talk about it, but I can't take the blame for this. You know, I only met you all today."

"That's your Li team leader's fault."

"Sigh..." Duan Yi sighed and brought the topic back to the case: "I really didn't expect the case to be like this."

It was clear that Duan Yi had a general idea of ​​the case. After all, he had investigated for half a year and, after identifying the real culprit, he had pieced together the whole case.

Yang Jinwen asked, "What do you mean?"

"Let's talk as we drive," Duan Yi said, starting the car.

"Do you know the 'Yin Hong' you're talking about, who is Zhang Chen, and what her relationship is with this family?"

Yao Weihua urged him, "Stop keeping me in suspense." "Okay! At first, I couldn't find anyone named Zhang Chen. I thought Li Fuzhong's family consisted of five people: him, his son and daughter-in-law, and their two children."

After the incident, we conducted interviews and investigations and learned that Zhang Chen was bought by Li Fuzhong from human traffickers.

That was ten years ago. Zhang Chen had just come of age then, and Li Fuzhong was afraid she would run away, so he locked her in the house…”

Cai Ting asked, "Trafficking? What's the name of this Li Fuzhong's son again?"

"Li Mian".

"Yes, Li Mian has a wife. You mean Huang Xiaolan?"

Duan Yi sighed: "It wasn't bought for Li Mian to be his wife."

Yao Weihua was startled: "Could it be that Li Fuzhong bought her back to be his wife?"

"Right, that is it."

"Holy crap!" Cat glanced at the photo in Yang Jinwen's hand, and his blood pressure spiked. "This old man must be sixty by now, right?"

Duan Yi nodded: "Yes, that goes without saying. Anyway, Zhang Chen has been chained up for several years. Li Fuzhong beat and scolded her, and she has also had several miscarriages."

Back then, whenever the villagers went up the mountain to make noodles, they would see her sitting on the doorstep, looking out at the mountains, and they all thought she was crazy.

I heard from the villagers that not only Li Fuzhong bullied her, but even Li Fuzhong's son, Li Mian, bullied her.

In other words, this father and son...

Before Duan Yi could finish speaking, Yang Jinwen, Yao Weihua, Maozi, and Cai Ting all felt as if their hearts had been gripped by something, making it difficult for them to breathe.

"Captain Yang, I have a picture of a little girl in my notebook. Take a look. She's not in the family photo. Her name is Li Mengmeng."

Yang Jinwen found this photo, which shows two people.

The deaf-mute woman, Huang Xiaolan, stood in front of the house, holding the little girl in her arms. The little girl's face was dirty.

Duan Yi said, "This child belongs to Huang Xiaolan. When we first started investigating, Huang Xiaolan and her daughter were missing, so we thought she was the most likely suspect in the murder. But now that Huang Xiaolan is dead, where is this little girl?"
Could it be in Zhang Chen's hands? That's what we'll be investigating next.

Only by finding Zhang Chen can we find this child.

Yang Jinwen asked, "Wasn't Li Fuzhong's house burned down in the fire? Where did you get these photos?"

"I found it from a photo studio in Gaowa Township. The owner of this photo studio goes to the countryside every year to take photos for the villagers and then charges a fee."

Such a big case is unknown to outsiders, but the villagers near Gaowa Township all know about it.

The photo studio owner had these negatives, so I asked him to develop them for me, and that's when I saw what Zhang Chen looked like.

I'd only ever heard the villagers say she was pretty, but I never imagined she really was.

As Duan Yi spoke, he glanced at the photo in Yang Jinwen's hand.

The photo was taken from Zhong Aihua's home. 'Yin Hong' is wearing a khaki trench coat and the photo was taken in an outdoor park.

In the photo, she is smoothing her wind-blown hair and smiling brightly at the camera, looking completely different from her appearance in the family photo.

Yang Jinwen stared at the photo, feeling as if the 'Yin Hong' in the photo had come to life, its deep eyes fixed on him.

"What year was Li Mengmeng born?"

Yang Jinwen looked at Duan Yi, who frowned slightly: "I don't know about that."

Cai Ting said, "Didn't you say she was four years old? So she was born in 94?"

Yao Weihua's eyes widened: "'Yin Hong' fled to Dannan County in early 95."

Cat continued, "The deaf-mute woman took paraquat and desperately searched for 'Crimson,' abandoning everything to return to Zongjiang County, and even murdered Li Fuzhong's entire family. So her motive for killing them couldn't be..."

Yang Jinwen pondered for a moment and said, "Li Mengmeng is very likely 'Yin Hong's' daughter, but who is the child's father?"

"Damn it!" Yao Weihua exhaled.

Duan Yi was also frightened by their speculation and couldn't help but step on the brakes again. Yao Weihua and the others leaned forward, but they didn't pay attention.

Duan Yi said, "I checked the time when Zhang Chen escaped. The villagers said that after the beginning of 95, when they went up the mountain to make noodles, they never saw Zhang Chen again."

“That’s it!” Yao Weihua said, “This Li Mengmeng is definitely a ‘Yin Hong’ child.”

She was able to escape because the deaf-mute woman must have helped her. That deaf-mute woman, Huang Xiaolan, raised the girl as her own child. As for why she ingested paraquat and was determined to find Yin Hong even at the cost of her life, it was probably because of this child.

Hearing this, Duan Yi swallowed hard and said, "This is terrible. This case is too complicated. If you hadn't come, I really wouldn't have been able to handle it."

Yang Jinwen said, "Even now, there are still details that haven't been investigated. There are only a few of us, and we don't have enough manpower..."

Duan Yi interrupted him: "I'll call the team right away."

As he spoke, he stopped the car and took out his mobile phone.

Yao Weihua couldn't stand it anymore. He had been braking more than a dozen times along the way, which almost made him throw up. He quickly said, "Captain Duan, you sit in the back. I'll drive. You just give me directions."

(End of this chapter)