Chapter 3: The Vanished Woman

  It was fortunate that Zhang Qiang hurried back when the old man selling sugar gourds had not left yet, so he asked him what time he last saw the woman selling rice cakes.

  The old man recalled that the last time he saw the woman was in this alley, she wasn't selling at the school gate but inside the alley, however, she wasn't riding a tricycle to sell rice cakes either, so he thought she was resting that day.

  Later, it seemed like a student, a young student, was seen leaving the alley with her, laughing and chatting, and she was never seen again.

  Upon hearing this, Zhang Qiang hastily made a phone call to ask Wu Hui to come over. Wu Hui took out Xiang En's photo and asked the old man to take a look. The old man glanced at it and said: "It seems like it, I don't remember very clearly either, at that time I didn't pay attention, but judging from the appearance, it should be this child."

  Hearing Lao Ye's words, Zhang Qiang had no choice but to believe that Wu Hui's direction of investigation was correct.

  Wu Hui told his discovery to Guo Yining, and through Guo Yining's inspection of several disappearance scenes, the woman's trail was indeed found. Although she had deliberately disguised herself, it was still possible to identify her as the same person.

  It seems that this woman is closely related to these missing cases. Through household registration investigation and visits to multiple parties, the identity of this woman was finally locked in.

  This woman is named Sun Wenping, 35 years old, from Feixiandong Village, Baoluan Town, Fengdu County, Chongqing. Five years ago, she was involved in a murder case and has been on the run ever since. The local police have not been able to catch her until now, when she reappeared in Lincheng and came back into the police's sight.

  When Sun Wenping was 26 years old, all the friends around her were already married and had children, but she was still alone. Her mother also often urged her to get married quickly. Through a friend's introduction, she started dating a man from their village, but after half a year of dating, Sun Wenping felt that they were not compatible in terms of personality and proposed breaking up.

  After breaking up, Sun Wenping came to Chongqing to work and later met a colleague named Zhang Xinyu, who was ten years older than her. Because when Sun Wenping was very young, her father had an affair and divorced her mother. So after seeing Zhang Xinyu, she felt like she saw her young father, and her feelings for him became unstoppable.

  Later, she discovered that Zhang Xinyu was already married, but her feelings for him could not be taken back. So she became Zhang Xinyu's mistress, becoming the role she hated and disapproved of the most - the third party. In the four years she spent with Zhang Xinyu, her heart struggled constantly. Engaging in intense inner turmoil, she wanted to leave Zhang Xinyu but couldn't let go of this relationship.

  Later, she discovered that she was pregnant, but under the pressure of reality, she had to have an abortion. When she was alone in her room crying, she felt like her mother, a pitiful woman, and she didn't want to be that kind of woman. So she confronted Zhang Xinyu and asked him to divorce his wife and marry her.

  At that time, Zhang Xinyu had a virtuous wife and a five-year-old child. He would not abandon his wife and children for Sun Wenping. Sun Wenping said that if Zhang Xinyu did not divorce his wife, she would tell his wife about the two of them. In anger, Zhang Xinyu slapped Sun Wenping hard and stormed out.

  Sun Wenping felt despair, she was unclear why she still wanted to love such a man. Thinking of her unborn child who had not even seen the world before being killed by herself, while Zhang Xinyu could still live happily with his wife and children after hurting her, this was unfair. She wanted revenge for her child.

  One afternoon, she took advantage of Zhang Xinyu's working hours and came to his home. The one who opened the door was Zhang Xinyu's wife, whom Sun Wenping had met at a gathering dinner at Zhang Xinyu's unit.

  Sun Wenping was told by Zhang Xinyu to wait for a while at his home, and he would be back soon. Without any doubt, Zhang Xinyu's wife let Sun Wenping into the house.

  When Sun Wenping entered the house, he took advantage of Zhang Xinyu's wife bowing her head to wash fruit and removed the scarf from his neck, putting it on her bun, pushing her to the ground. One leg was pressed against Zhang Xinyu's wife's back, and both hands tightly grasped the scarf, intending to strangle Zhang Xinyu's wife to death.

  Just then, Zhang Xinyu really came back. After seeing his wife who had fainted, Sun Wenping came out of the kitchen. When Zhang Xinyu saw Sun Wenping, he was startled. Sun Wenping didn't say anything and rushed out the door.

  Zhang Xinyu didn't see his wife, knew something was wrong, rushed to the kitchen, found his wife lying on the ground, quickly called emergency services. After rescue efforts, Zhang Xinyu's wife was not in danger of losing her life, while Sun Wenping escaped from Chongqing.

  Wu Hui watched Sun Wenping in the surveillance video and found that two men appeared with her at the same time. They all appeared around the missing persons multiple times, just following the missing persons and taking pictures of the surrounding environment with their mobile phones, just like tourists, without arousing attention from others.

  By monitoring Wu Hui's guess, it is inferred that the three people photographed should be the surrounding surveillance, finding the blind spot of the surveillance, and then taking action.

  Zhang Qiang thought that perhaps these three people were from a human trafficking organization, "through the abduction and sale of people to see if they could find some clues."

  Guo Yining shook his head, "I've checked and didn't find anything. Among these three people, only Sun Wenping has a record that can be found, the other two have not been identified yet."

  If this is an organized human trafficking, Wu Hui thinks it's impossible that only one place has such cases. "This large-scale disappearance shouldn't just happen in Lincheng, are there disappearances in other places too?"

  Through computer networking inquiries, it was indeed found that similar cases had occurred. "You're right, we contacted the surrounding provinces and cities, they also had cases of multiple people disappearing in a short period of time, which have not been solved yet."

  Wu Hui believes that if these multiple cases are committed by the same group, then the number of people in this group must not be small, and there must be a sales chain. "They kidnapped so many people, they must have a place to sell the loot, take these people away, how to transport them, where to transport them, is their account abnormal?"

  Guo Yining is worried that if these people are transported abroad, it will be much more troublesome to find them. "I have already asked my informants to check and see if anyone has recently left the country or sent goods abroad."

  Wu Hui pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he felt that this case was absolutely not just a simple human trafficking case. "Time is pressing, if there were previous cases also related to them, then the disposal of goods would also be quick, perhaps these people are no longer in Lincheng."

  Wu Hui returned home and locked himself in his room, a habit of his whenever he encountered an unsolved case.

  Zhang Qiang felt bored and didn't want to disturb Wu Hui, so he thought of the woman he met on the plane and called her out, just to kill time.

  Wu Hui repeatedly checked the previous surveillance footage in the house, some of which were unclear due to poor camera quality and couldn't see their movements clearly, while others were relatively clearer.

  The next morning, Wang Si-ting received a call from Wu Hui before she woke up, saying that he wanted to go to the Major Crimes Investigation Division to find him and hoped she could help with something.

  Wang Siting hastily got up, washed and rushed to the Major Crimes Investigation Division. Wu Hui was already sitting in the office waiting for him. Seeing Wu Hui's dark eye circles, he thought that he must have stayed up all night again yesterday.

  "Here, have a drink!" Wang Siting bought two cups of coffee at the café downstairs, not knowing why she did it, but thinking Wu Hui might need one. It seems that women's sixth sense is indeed sharp.

  Wu Hui took over the coffee and said "thank you!"

  Wang Si Ting put her coffee on the office desk, took off her coat and hung it with her bag on the clothes rack, sat back in her seat, "What can I do for you?"

  "It's like this, I saw the surveillance footage and there are a few screens that are unclear, I want to ask for your help to make them clearer. I know it's not your job, but apart from you, I don't know anyone else." Wu Hui discovered the difference and originally wanted to ask Zhang Qiang for help, but Zhang Qiang didn't come back last night, thinking that he must have gone on a date with the woman he mentioned before, so he thought it's better not to disturb him. He waited until morning and then quickly contacted Wang Si Ting.

  "You always arrange things outside of work for me, isn't Zhang Qiang more suitable for this? Why don't you let him help?" Although Wang Siting said it wasn't her job, she still took the file handed over by Wu Hui and inputted it into the computer to analyze herself.

  With Wang Siting's help, Wu Hui stood up and walked behind her, looking at the computer screen together, "That kid doesn't know which girl he's messing with again, didn't come back all last night."

  Wang Si Ting said to Wu Hui, "In this regard, Zhang Qiang is much stronger than you. Look at his life and then look at yours. It's really like the life of a retired old man, too simple and rigid."

  "Really? I'm just over 30 years old, isn't that an exaggeration?" Upon hearing Wang Siting's words, Wu Hui touched his own face, thinking he didn't look that old.

  Seeing Wu Hui's actions, Wang Si Ting laughed and said: "It's not your face, it's your attitude, old man, it's a bit exaggerated, but it's a bit like an uncle, to the uncle!"

  "Uncle?" Wu Hui didn't think "uncle" was much better than "grandpa". Just as Wu Hui was about to retort, he saw the place he was looking for appear on the computer and hastily pointed, "Here, it's here. Zoom in and make it as clear as possible."

  "Good!" Wang Siting was not sloppy about work matters. Seeing Wu Hui find the place where she needed to do things, she quickly pressed the keyboard and slid the mouse, and soon presented what Wu Hui needed in front of him.

  "What is this?" Wang Si Ting saw what was presented on the screen and found it strange. Why would it be like this?

  "It seems we've found another lead, let's investigate along this line." Wu Hui was very satisfied with this.