Chapter 1253 — There's a Lead!

"Not bad. The fact that you thought of all that proves you've analyzed it seriously," Yang Huaijun said with a nod. "But haven't you noticed that all these missing people share one thing in common?"

"What common ground? Their professions, their ages — none of it matches. They don't even know each other..." Qiu Lingshan was briefly taken aback.

"They're all laborers at the very bottom of society. Not one of them is well off!" Yang Huaijun tapped the case files on the dossiers. "None of these families are wealthy. And if that's so, then we can hazard a bold guess!"

"Why do these people run after beating and injuring someone? According to the records in the files, the victims in every one of these cases suffered only minor injuries — or less than minor. At most, the suspect would have to bear civil compensation. If they had money, they'd just pay a little and be done with it. So why run?" Yang Huaijun went on. "Of course, that's only the surface. Analyze it more deeply: the circumstances of these crimes and flights are almost identical, so surface reasons won't explain them. Let me make a bold hypothesis. If I were the mastermind, and I needed certain people to do things for me, to achieve some end, and once the work was done those people would very likely be silenced — then before each of them disappeared, I too would manufacture an illusion, to mislead the police and the public, to make it seem that these people had simply absconded of their own accord, entirely reasonable and plausible!"

"Mmm... So you're saying these disappearances were orchestrated by someone, and the missing even cooperated willingly — a play staged with the suspect lurking behind the scenes?" Qiu Lingshan was startled. She had sensed before that something was off, yet could never put her finger on what. Now that Yang Huaijun had said it aloud, understanding broke over her all at once.

"Yes!" Yang Huaijun nodded. "Without the missing people's cooperation, the mastermind alone could never stage it. Simply beating and injuring someone, then choosing to flee — how many people do you think would actually do that? Even if one did now and then, it would be an extreme exception. How could so many of them run off all at once?"

"Then why would they... cooperate? Driven by profit, perhaps?" Qiu Lingshan was no fool; the crux of it came to her in an instant.

"Which brings us back to the common ground I mentioned earlier: none of them come from well-off families. Offer people like that a chance to make money, sweeten it with gain, and perhaps half of them will take the bait!" Yang Huaijun nodded. "So I think, in your investigation, you shouldn't put your main energy into hunting down these missing people. If my guess is right, they are either dead or locked away, and any trail you find will be faint indeed. Your main energy should go into visiting the grassroots of society, asking around whether anyone has recently been lured by profit into doing something. I don't believe the suspect could persuade every last person; there must be some who refused. And it's from those who refused that you should dig for clues!"

"Ah! Yes... Brother Yang, hearing you say it, I suddenly feel everything has opened up before me!" Qiu Lingshan said, the scales falling from her eyes.

"Heh heh, it comes with time. These are really very simple questions — I've simply seen a great many of them," Yang Huaijun said with a smile. "I think once you get back, if you investigate along these lines, you won't be far from cracking the case."

"Mm, thank you for the guidance, Brother Yang!" Qiu Lingshan said in sincere gratitude.

"Let's set that aside. Tell me about you and the Yu family — since you're betrothed to the Yus, then what of Wei Zhao...?" Yang Huaijun was still rather worried about Wei Zhao. The Yu family was powerful and wealthy, after all; if a conflict broke out over this, it would be bad. "The Yus carry themselves like tyrants. If they learn of Wei Zhao's doings, I fear they'll move against him."

"Move against him?" Qiu Lingshan's expression turned somewhat strange, and she smiled bitterly. "Brother Yang, you're a man of the great families yourself. Haven't you heard of the great affair that shook Songshan City a while back?"

"What great affair?" Yang Huaijun was taken aback. "I've been buried in cases these days, busy from dawn to dark, dizzy with it. I haven't followed what the great families are up to. And our Yang family, at every gathering of the great families, does no more than hold on to a seat among the Five Minor Families. So long as our Yang family's old ancestor lives, our standing won't be shaken. So I haven't paid it much mind..."

"Wei Zhao and the Yu family are already bound by a deadly feud. Wei Zhao crippled the Yus' Yu Kun and killed Yu Kun's father, Yu Bide... He and the Yu family have long been irreconcilable, sworn to mutual destruction..." Qiu Lingshan smiled bitterly. "Do you think that even without this business, there was ever any chance of a reconciliation between the Yus and Wei Zhao?"

"You can't be serious!" Yang Huaijun rose from the bed in astonishment. He had never expected Wei Zhao to be so fierce. In only a few days since arriving in Songshan City, he had taken out two of the Yu family's finest — and the Yus were the foremost of the nine great families. That was a touch too formidable.

Earlier, Yang Huaijun had worried that Wei Zhao would come off the worse in a clash with the Yus — who could have imagined that it was the Yus who had come off the worse! Yang Huaijun could not help sighing. "A captain is a captain. If anyone else had taken out two of the Yus, he'd be dead by now — and the man leading the whole thing walks away without a scratch. Truly a man of force!"

"Yes!" Qiu Lingshan could scarcely believe it either. But it was a man like this who suited her taste. Were he timid and cowering, dodging the moment trouble came, she would not care for him at all.

"Forget it, I'll keep out of it. Your affairs are far too tangled..." Yang Huaijun smiled bitterly. "Will you stay here tonight? Let me treat you to dinner."

"No need. I'm already itching to get back and set to work on this case!" Having found a direction for the investigation, Qiu Lingshan was naturally impatient.

"All right, next time, then. Time's tight on my end as well!" Yang Huaijun sighed. "Next time you come, bring Wei Zhao if you can. We'll have a proper talk — I have something to discuss with him... Never mind. I'll call him about it myself!"

"All right!" Qiu Lingshan had no idea what Yang Huaijun wanted with Wei Zhao, but she did not press him. She left the hotel quickly.

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