Chapter 1: The Missing Case

  Although it's Monday today, because it's not rush hour, there aren't many people at the subway station.

  Among the many people entering the subway, there was a young woman, about 25 or 26 years old. After entering the subway station, she saw an empty seat and walked over to sit down.

  To her right was a man who looked quite stout, wearing somewhat dirty clothes. To her left was a woman in her forties who seemed very gentle. So she deliberately sat to the left because she didn't want the dirty clothes of the man on her right to touch her own clothes, and he had a strange smell that made her feel sick.

  After sitting down, she took out her phone and started playing with it. Just as she was getting engrossed in the game, she felt like something had bitten her neck. She reached up to touch it, but didn't find anything. Maybe it was just her imagination, she thought. It's too cold for bugs to be around, so she continued playing on her phone.

  After passing two stations, she heard the announcement of the station and put her mobile phone in her bag, preparing to get off. The woman sitting next to her also stood up, seemingly getting off here too.

  After walking out of the subway station for a few steps, she felt a bit dizzy and her footsteps were unstable. What's going on? Could it be because of the dieting and weight loss over the past few days, resulting in some malnutrition? It seems like I need to eat something when I get back.

  "Miss, are you okay?" She felt someone supporting her swaying body and speaking in her ear.

  She turned around and saw that it was the woman sitting next to her, just about to say nothing, when she saw the woman's face becoming more and more blurred, after which she lost consciousness.

  Early in the morning, Guo Yining knocked on Wu Hui's door and plopped down on the sofa, too lazy to take off her coat. "Water, get me water."

  Seeing Guo Yining in a very wretched state, Wu Hui brought him a cup of water. Guo Yining picked it up and drank the entire cup in one gulp.

  Zhang Qiang emerged from the bathroom with a messy head of hair, toothbrush still in his mouth. "Captain Guo, what's going on? Are you evacuating?"

  "When did you come back? Almost. Have another cup." Guo Yining just realized that Zhang Qiang was back, and handed the cup to Wu Hui, who didn't ask either, turned around and went to pour water again. Only then did Guo Yining have the strength to take off his coat, which was still casually on the sofa.

  Zhang Qiang brushed his teeth while saying, "I just arrived last night, I was thinking of you guys, so I hurried back."

  Wu Hui handed the water cup to Guo Yining, and Guo Yining took it and drank. Wu Hui then walked over to Guo Yining's side, picked up his coat that was placed there, and hung it at the entrance hall.

  Guo Yining beckoned Wu Hui over and placed a file bag on the coffee table. "Take a look!"

  As soon as Guo Yining entered the door, Wu Hui saw the file bag in his hand and thought that it must be a tricky case, otherwise it wouldn't have exhausted Guo Yining to this extent.

  Zhang Qiang happened to finish washing up and walked over, sitting opposite Guo Yining with a curious expression.

  Wu Hui sat beside Guo Yining, flipping through the documents in the file bag, somewhat puzzled. "Is the Major Crimes Investigation Division so idle now that it's also handling missing persons cases?"

  Guo Yining held his cup and took a sip of water. This morning had been so busy that he hadn't even had time to drink a mouthful, "Let's talk about it later!"

  Wu Hui flipped through the files, all of which were missing persons cases. The missing people included both adults and children, men and women, and especially this week, there were 8 reported missing persons cases. How did so many people suddenly go missing?

  Zhang Qiang also picked up a few cases and took a look, "What's going on? Black hole? Alien visitor? How can people just disappear when they say they're lost?"

  "Is it a kidnapping? Is there a ransom call?" Wu Hui flipped through these cases. The missing persons all disappeared without warning, some went out to sell vegetables and never came back home, some went out to eat and then disappeared, with no signs beforehand.

  Kuo shook his head, where did these people go? "No, I thought it was a kidnapping case before, but after so many cases, it just started to attract attention, and the missing persons just disappeared without any follow-up."

  "Has anyone checked their religious beliefs, have they recently believed in any sects?" Wu Hui remembered that there were some cults before, after brainwashing the followers, the followers would unconditionally believe them, and then they would do some crazy things. So after seeing so many people missing, Wu Hui's first thought was this point.

  "We've checked and there was nothing unusual before he went missing." Wu Hui said this, but they had already thought of it, however after checking, they didn't find any religious beliefs.

  Zhang Qiang looked at the photos of missing persons in the file and didn't find any pattern, "It's strange, 13 people have gone missing in just one month, how is this possible?"

  After drinking two glasses of water, Guo Yining finally didn't feel thirsty. Upon hearing Zhang Qiang's words, Guo Yining said: "Right? I also find it strange. Where did these people go? Did they evaporate into thin air?"

  Wu Hui found that the places where they went missing were all crowded areas with schools, bus stations, car stations, train stations and light rail stations. "The places where they went missing are all relatively densely populated areas. If someone took them away, they should have struggled or run away, so there should be people who saw it. Why doesn't anyone remember?"

  Guo Yining sighed, they had been discussing for many days and still no new clues appeared. "Yes, we can't figure it out either, that's why we came to ask you, see if you have any ideas."

  Wu Hui pointed to several places, "They were in densely populated areas and important locations, there should be surveillance, didn't they capture any clues?"

  Regarding the surveillance, the Major Crimes Investigation Unit has been working on it for days. After collecting all possible surveillance footage of the missing person, they spent whole nights reviewing it but to no avail. "All we got were images of them before they went missing, and there was nothing during the time they actually disappeared. Some managed to evade the cameras, while others coincidentally had their nearby cameras malfunctioning. What can we do?"

  Zhang Qiang put down the file and leaned on the sofa, "If he's not a local, then he must have personally checked the surveillance area before, and it's not just one time that he appears in the surveillance."

  Although we know Zhang Qiang's method is correct, it's really difficult to implement. "We also knew about your idea, but the population mobility in these areas is too large. To find people who appear in this place multiple times, it's simply too many. Can't check one by one, when will we finish checking?"

  Wu Hui knew that Guo Yining had been busy with other cases recently, and now he had added a missing person case to his workload. The serious crime investigation department was definitely overwhelmed. "I'm free, and Zhang Qiang is also available, let's go visit the places where these people went missing and see if we can find any useful clues."

  Zhang Qiang, with a head of hair that hadn't been combed yet, looked extremely displeased. "Come on, it's not even over the New Year's holiday yet, I just got back last night and my jet lag hasn't even worn off, why is life so tough?!"

  Wu Hui looked at Zhang Qiang with a somewhat amused expression. He disliked running around outside the most. "Don't complain so much, just think of it as going out to have fun, change your mindset, and maybe you'll feel better."

  Zhang Qiang didn't understand, it was just a missing person case, why did he have to go and investigate in person? Moreover, he had met a beautiful woman on the plane yesterday and had planned to ask her out for dinner tonight, now it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. "You're clearly suffering from Ah Q mentality, deceiving yourself like this, isn't your life also too pitiful?"

  "Alright, no more complaints. If you really don't want to go, just stay home and I'll go check it out." Wu Hui put the file away, he always felt that this matter wasn't so simple.

  Zhang Qiang couldn't believe Wu Hui's words, he didn't know Wu Hui well enough. Although he said so, the underlying message was "I'm going myself, if you don't follow me, you'll regret it later". Since Wu Hui had spoken, Zhang Qiang reluctantly went back to his room to tidy up his messy curly hair.

  After sending off Guo Yining, Wu Hui tidied up a bit and called Zhang Qiang, who was still complaining, to head to the location of the first missing person. The place was a school, where 11-year-old student Shang En had gone missing. Shang En was the class monitor and always ranked top in his studies. On the day he went missing, he happened to be on duty as the class supervisor.

  The teacher at the school recalled that after school, Shang En and his group stayed behind to clean up, and after sweeping the classroom floor, Shang En was responsible for dumping the trash. After he returned, the teacher inspected the cleanliness and then let them go home.

  Later that evening, Shangkun's mother called to ask if he was still at school, and it wasn't until then that they realized he had gone missing, so they reported it to the police.

  Classmates who went home with Sang-en together recalled that after Sang-en parted ways with them, he crossed the road and walked in the direction of his home, but what happened afterwards was not very clear.

  Shang En's parents were migrant workers from other places, and the place they lived was also a cheap rental house. The place was shabby and chaotic, not to mention surveillance cameras. The last time Shang En appeared on surveillance footage was when he entered the alleyway leading back home.

  Wu Hui stood at the entrance of the alley, which was over a hundred meters long and had a bend in the middle. It seemed that Shang En should have entered this alley and disappeared from view.

  Although this place is a small alley, there are many people coming and going. Shang En is already a fifth-grade elementary school student and should have the ability to protect himself. If someone tries to take him away by force, he will definitely shout loudly to attract the attention of passersby. However, after asking several residents living at the entrance of the alley, no one heard any cry for help.

  Wu Hui walked back and forth in this alley, he wanted to know what had happened in this alley at that time.