Chapter Ten: The Missing Case

  Fan Ze was once a teacher at Lincheng University, where he was Liu Hui's supervisor. At that time, Liu Hui was 24 years old and had a very good impression of Fan Ze, who was knowledgeable and elegant.

  So she was always finding different excuses to talk to Vance, and soon Vance became interested in this young, beautiful and lively girl.

  In 2000, a year that spanned centuries, it was also a year that spanned centuries for Liu Hui and Fan Ze. Liu Hui became pregnant.

  When she got the test results, she felt so happy inside. It was the crystallization of her and Fan Ze's love. She fantasized that when Fan Ze saw the test results, he should feel just as happy as she did.

  But contrary to her wishes, when she handed the test results to Fanze with excitement, she saw shock and fear in his eyes. Yes, it was fear. Fanze was afraid of the child in her belly, afraid of their child together.

  Fan Ze didn't hesitate and suggested that Liu Hui have an abortion. At that moment, Liu Hui's eyes widened in shock, she couldn't believe it, this man who was usually so warm-hearted could say such a cold-blooded thing, this is their child after all.

  When Liu Hui walked into the private clinic alone, she still didn't understand what it was all about. As she lay on the dirty and cold operating table, gasping for breath, she didn't know what she had done wrong.

  A 25-year-old woman in her prime, on a warm afternoon, lay on the cold operating table and left the world.

  Until Liu Hui's funeral, Fan Ze did not show up, and Liu Hui had mistakenly devoted her short life to the wrong person.

  It's been 15 years since Vanse's incident, and the new teachers at Lincheng University don't even know who he is. Those who can still remember who Vanse is are now leaders of Lincheng University.

  Fang You and Yang Rong came to the principal's office to ask about Fan Sai, the principal was obviously on guard against the two people, because previously they had come to ask about the school selling / prostitution, now they came to ask about a teacher from their own school who went missing more than a decade ago.

  "Principal, we just want to ask about the disappearance of our teacher Fan Ze back then. Don't be nervous." Yang Rong felt the principal's wariness towards them, which further deepened her suspicion of him.

  "Ah, Fanze, that was 15 years ago, he was a teacher at our school, and back then we shared an office. He was very popular among the students, tall, handsome and charming, just the type young girls liked." When the principal mentioned Fanze, although his face didn't show anything, it was easy to hear from his tone that he didn't like Fanze, or rather, was jealous of him.

  "Does Fan Ze have a girlfriend?" Fang You remembered the phone call between Fan's mom and the village head, he suspected that Fan Ze should have had a girlfriend at that time, after all, he was already 36 years old.

  "This I'm not very clear about, but I do often see him making a phone call to someone, and judging from the tone of his voice, it should be a woman on the other end. But whether or not she's his girlfriend, who knows? Back then, Fan Ze being single was a strange thing, even now, if a 36-year-old man doesn't have a girlfriend, others will gossip about him."

  "What was his relationship with the female student?" The files from that year were not well-preserved, and many places in Fan Ze's case had already been lost. Fang You guessed that perhaps by investigating among colleagues at the time, one could find out about the connection between Fan Ze and Liu Hui.

  "This... how to say it, I don't have any evidence, it's not good to talk nonsense." When Fang You asked about Fan Ze and the female student, the principal's sharp little eyes revealed a hint of a smile. "However, back then there really was a female student who got very close with Fan Ze, many people said they had an unmentionable secret between them. Later I also heard that the girl died, the cause of death was due to excessive bleeding."

  "Do you know what that female student's name is?" The person who died from the abortion, Fang You knew, back then Liu Hui had died from a massive hemorrhage after an abortion, could it be that the principal was talking about Liu Hui?

  "It was said that her name was Liu Hui, and after Liu Hui's death, Fan Se disappeared too. Everyone said that Fan Se couldn't bear the blow and died for love." This incident was quite sensational in school at that time, and it was said that Fan Se was a man with great passion and loyalty.

  "Does the principal also think that Fan Se died for love?" Yang Rong had been silent all along, observing the principal's every move. When he mentioned Fan Se's death for love, she saw a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.

  "This is hard to say, but I don't think Fan Ze is that kind of person. From a man's perspective, I think Fan Ze doesn't really like Liu Hui, he's just pretending." He had seen the two walking together at school several times and could tell that Fan Ze wasn't sincere towards Liu Hui.

  "Why did Fansy leave school back then?"

  "I don't know, not even a resignation letter was written, nothing was taken away, just disappeared like that. The police investigated back then, but in the end, it was all for naught." A case from over a decade ago, the principal wouldn't worry about it at all, and it doesn't affect his reputation during his tenure either.

  There were two people in the school who asked several older teachers and principals, they either had little impression of Fan Ze or were unclear about what happened at the time, only knowing that Fan Ze disappeared inexplicably back then.

  Other people's business is a story, their own business is an accident, things that don't concern themselves, they won't pay attention to anyway.

  Former colleagues, former teachers, disappeared for so many years, everyone gradually forgot about him, if it weren't for Fang You's investigation, they would have forgotten that there was a person named Fan Ze.

  Looking at the people running on the playground, Yang Rong felt that things had changed and it was a bit sad. 15 years ago, Fan Ze might have also run in this place, Liu Hui might have been in some corner of this place, pretending to chat with her classmates while secretly observing Fan Ze. When night fell, the two of them might have also walked shoulder to shoulder on this playground, talking about their own secrets.

  Yang Rong stole a glance at Fang You standing beside her. This man who didn't talk much, she didn't know why, but Yang Rong felt that standing beside Fang You was a very pleasant thing, even if they weren't speaking.

  She had once fantasized about one day being able to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the person she liked on the school playground, not needing to say a word, just walking in circles like that.

  Fang You had no idea what Yang Rong was thinking in her heart. He kept walking around the playground because he was thinking about things, wondering where Fan Ze had gone all those years ago, whether Liu Chong had killed him, and if so, what had happened to his body. Would it still be possible to find Liu Chong's remains after all these years?

  For some reason, the scene of Fan's mother sitting in the yard always appeared in Fang You's mind, and that picture kept hitting his heart deeply.

  Although they think differently, under the sunset, a handsome man and a beautiful woman are also a very beautiful landscape.

  Wu Hui and Guo Yining have been studying the surveillance footage they brought back from 2046 in their office. As expected, they saw Liu Xilei on the footage, each time entering with a few people. After watching so many scenes, they only found that Liu had rushed in once, and his entry time was half an hour before and after Liu Xilei.

  However, there was one thing that made two people feel very strange. Every time Liu Xilei entered 2046, she would play until late at night, and even when 2046 closed, no one saw her come out. The few people who went in with her had already left after 2 o'clock in the evening.

  "Every time I go in, I don't see her come out. How did she come out?" Guo Yining thought to herself, wondering if she had left through the back door.

  "The front door didn't come out, indicating that 2046 has other doors. What's strange is that Liu Chong never came out either." Wu Hui suspected that Liu Chong had been following Liu Xi Le all along, but he found Liu Chong's whereabouts to be somewhat strange as well. Could it be that he wasn't following Liu Xi Le, but instead stayed with her in 2046?

  However, when 2046 closed, there should be no one inside. Where would Lau hide and in which direction would he leave 2046 without being discovered by the shop's employees?

  "Liu Xilei was the prostitute and Liu Chong was the client, that's why the two of them didn't come out." Guo Yining slapped the table, he finally understood the relationship between the two.

  "This explanation makes sense, but what about Wang Rulan? She wasn't seen in the surveillance footage. How did she enter 2046, or was she also selling sex in 2046?" The two people watched a day's worth of surveillance footage and didn't see any sign of Wang Rulan. Was there something wrong with their guess about Wang Rulan?

  "You said that most prostitutes don't like to work locally, they're worried about running into people they know. Can we think of it this way: Wang Rulan wasn't in 2046, but was taken somewhere else by someone. Didn't her dorm roommate say she often didn't live on campus? Wu Hui understood why Wang Rulan hadn't appeared in 2046 - because this wasn't where she worked."

  "Car? Wait for me, I'll have someone go check the surveillance at all toll booths right now." Guo Yining picked up the phone and had Wang Hua from the team go check the surveillance at the toll booths.

  As expected, through the toll station's surveillance, Wu Hui discovered that several cars almost every day left Lincheng in the afternoon and returned to Lincheng in the morning. By closely observing these vehicles, Wu Hui found a few places worth noting.

  Although there is no one on the co-pilot seat of these cars, a person can be seen in the back seat. The face cannot be seen, but it can be inferred from the clothes whether they are male or female, and most of them are women. Of course, sometimes there are men too.

  In one of the cars, Wu Hui found Wang Ruolan. From the clothes on her body, Wu Hui discovered that several sets were exactly the same as the clothes in Wang Ruolan's bedroom. From her figure and sitting posture, it could also be seen that this person was indeed Wang Ruolan.

  Recently, a surveillance showed that on the evening of November 29th, Wang Rulan left the city and then returned by taking the same car the next morning. After getting the license plate number, Guo Yining asked Wang Hua to lead people to find this car, while he and Wu Hui decided to visit Liu Chong.