The two shook their heads, looking solemn as if they had just returned from a memorial service, “We"re not kidding!”
Ji Xiaonan suddenly felt like sitting on pins and needles, and a cold sweat broke out behind his back.
“Uhmm, is there a temple nearby?”
“Quite a lot.” Geng b.u.mei replied, this place was as familiar to him as his own home.
“Which is the most spiritual?”
“Jade Buddha Temple!”
With a snap, Ji Xiaonan slapped the tabletop heavily with his chopsticks, making an important decision, “I"ll go kowtow early tomorrow morning!”
Geng b.u.mei felt that it was still necessary not to wait for tomorrow, and on the spot, arching his hands, made a bow: “Oh Buddha, Oh Bodhisattva, please bless that girl who must be unmarried and childless, and preferably a virgin!”
Wei Bao and Ji Xiaonan heard the latter half of this sentence with a look of contempt.
Geng b.u.mei blushed and explained, "What do you guys know, if anything goes wrong with that girl, I will be the one who"ll suffer the most. You don"t have to spend all day with him, but me?"
He is Kang Xi"s agent and belongs to the subordinate relationship. As long as Kang Xi is unhappy, he suffers minute by minute.
“No way, I"m going to the Jade Buddha Temple tomorrow too.”
The more people, the more powerful, and burning a few more incense sticks is better than none.
A meal fraught with gloom was finished and the three went to the hotel. Early the next morning, they all decisively went to the temple together, their pious sentiments almost moved the abbot to tears.
After that, Wei Bao and Ji Xiaonan went back to S City.
Ji Xiaonan immediately unveiled his professional skills and started his search.
At the same time, a switch turned on in S City. The eighth victim of kidnapping appeared, his body was found by sanitation workers, and another young life was brutally snuffed out. His death was still similar to the other corpses. He was kidnapped and torn apart, but the murderer was still at large, leaving no clues. The case was like a boulder thrown into a lake, arousing an uproar.
The media"s coverage flattened all corners like a whirlwind, with Weibo, WeChat, and mainstream websites taking the matter to the front page overnight as if by appointment, raising the matter on the front page.
Eight children and eight families were also pushed to the top for public scrutiny.
Some even set up dedicated forums to discuss this matter.
Streets, alleys and residential areas were filled with bounty notices all over the place.
The subtlety is that the bounty notice does not contain any clues about the suspect, but more like searching for eye witnesses. The amount of the bounty was getting higher and higher, and parents with children became even more aggressive, fearing that their children will be the next victims.
The Munic.i.p.al Public Security Bureau set up a special task force to investigate the case, but they weren"t able to dig out anything.
Late at night, in the illuminated public security bureau, a choking smell filled the small conference room. Jing Sa was already used to being in such an environment. Although she does not smoke, the police profession has always been with more men than women. There are always a few old smoking guns, who can not hold it and take a few puffs.
For the police, the smoking ban is just a sign on the wall.
The whiteboard in front of the desk was plastered with photos of the victims before and after their deaths. The childish and lovely faces that were used to be so bright and cute were in stark contrast to the photos on the other side, which were gray, bloodless and expressionless, weighing down on people"s emotions.
Notes in black and red markers were written underneath, along with dates.
For example: When did they go missing? Where did they go missing? As well as forensic identification of their time of deaths, the interpersonal relationships of the child"s family, etc.
Further down, some more place names were written for places where the children had disappeared. They were all big shopping malls and department stores all over the city.
There was no connection between the eight families, and the children all attended different schools. Except that they"re all boys, they never had intersections. These children were accompanied by their mothers or grandmothers in shopping malls or department stores, where they took lessons in some educational centers. These centers offer cla.s.ses such as piano, calligraphy, mental arithmetic, Sudoku, etc., with nothing particular in common, nor were the educational centers different.
From the surveillance footage of these malls, it appeared that the children were not abducted, they have all suddenly gone missing, but no kidnappers were caught on camera at all.
The ransom demanded by the kidnappers also ranged from large to small, but none of it was considered to be a lion"s share; and in terms of the amount, it could be said to be a very reasonable figure, at least the victims" families were able to raise it in a very short time.
After these children were abducted, the family was given a letter with information about the ransom amount, the time of the transaction, the exchange method, a video tape indicating that the child is still alive, as well as a warning that the parents were not allowed to call the police.
The letter is printed. The tape is very ordinary, and the child appears in the video for a minute or two, curled up in a corner somewhere, too bound to move with his mouth covered with tape, and all that can be seen in their eyes is panic and crying.
This gave me the chills, my imagination would run wild especially when translating it at night…
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