Chapter 137 What Happened Before

Let's rewind a bit and review what happened before Meng Jingchan contacted Feng Bujue...

It was about 11:20 AM when Chan-ge called Gui Xiao's home. Gui Xiao's mother was home, and after talking, they found out that Gui Xiao had left the company at 7:00 AM, but hadn't returned home or called.

On any other day, they might not have thought too much about it.

After all, Gui Xiao was seventeen, and a boy. Generally, they wouldn't think of kidnapping. Even his family guessed... maybe the kid lost his phone and went to report it.

But this day was not an ordinary day... it was the day of a crucial match.

Meng Jingchan... could vaguely sense that something was wrong.

You can tell from Chan-ge's habit of drinking scalding hot things and his catchphrase, "Don't look at me now, but I used to be this and that," that he's a young man with life experience...

As a precaution, he went to the higher-ups at Order Studio to report the matter...

A star player's words carry some weight, and besides... his suspicion was indeed reasonable.

The leadership at Order quickly realized the seriousness of the situation, and the uneasy atmosphere gradually fermented as time passed...

By 2:00 PM, Gui Xiao was still unreachable. By this point, his family naturally realized something was wrong and became more anxious than anyone else.

So, they reported it to the police.

Chan-ge was Gui Xiao's colleague and one of the last people to have contact with him, and they had a pretty good personal relationship.

Therefore, Meng Jingchan took the initiative to go to the Public Security Bureau to assist in the investigation.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as they had imagined...

It's not like... you report a case to the Public Security Bureau, and an entire team of police officers will immediately rush to your case to collect evidence and investigate, cracking the case quickly in a few hours.

Only robbery and murder cases involving serious violence get that treatment.

As for general property crimes (especially those involving relatively small amounts), and missing persons cases (non-children, male, missing for less than a day), it's a different story.

Do you know how many small property crimes occur every year... no... every day? Some victims don't even report it because they know that even if they do, the items are unlikely to be recovered.

And what about the number of missing people every year... let's just say... the number of living adults who go missing in our country every year is probably as high as the number of lost mobile phones.

In short... in such cases, when you report it, you basically just make a record and then... wait.

How long you wait is uncertain...

Of course, the investigation will still proceed normally, but with limited manpower and efficiency. What? You want them to set up a special task force for your case, sending two teams to watch videos, conduct fieldwork, and analyze the case around the clock? Sure... you just need to know the director, or at least the chief of the police station...

As mentioned earlier, Ma Junxiao's parents were both wage earners, or to put it more plainly, ordinary people. They had no voice or special privileges. And he himself wasn't a big shot. If you insisted on calling him a public figure... the title of "star player" was, in the eyes of the public security department, at best on par with a second or third-tier actor.

In summary, the progress of the investigation was quite frustrating. They had to wait in line for twenty minutes just to report the case; after waiting in line and explaining the situation to the officer in charge, it was almost 3:30 PM, and the police were just preparing to retrieve the street surveillance footage near the Order office building.

Seeing this, Chan-ge had no choice. He had to use his connections... So, he contacted the company's higher-ups again. They didn't hesitate. Wasn't it just about using connections? Don't worry, they had connections... Those who made it to the top of the industry, whether they were wealthy businessmen or local ruffians, inevitably had connections... so-called "guanxi." Gui Xiao's significance to the competition was self-evident, and it directly involved the studio's interests. Even if he was considered an "asset," it was worth using connections.

As a result, less than ten minutes after Meng Jingchan made the call, the special task force... was formed.

These days, as long as you have someone above you, everything is easy. Is there a shortage of manpower? Let the police officers who are resting at home work overtime. Why are they on call 24 hours a day? To serve the people.

After 4:00 PM, the investigation progressed rapidly. The bureau sent seven or eight people to watch the surveillance footage, and Gui Xiao's route before his disappearance was quickly identified. The field team dispatched five police cars to investigate witnesses along Gui Xiao's route home.

Using both approaches, the police quickly narrowed down the approximate time of the disappearance, identified a white van and three suspects, and basically confirmed it was a kidnapping.

However... just as Chan-ge breathed a slight sigh of relief and wanted to sneak into a toilet stall to take a dump and smoke a cigarette... something that made his blood run cold happened.

This incident was truly a coincidence...

Chan-ge liked to squat when doing his business, but the toilet he went to had only sitting toilets, so this guy unethically squatted on the edge of the toilet.

As soon as he squatted down and prepared to light a cigarette, he heard a sound outside the stall, as if someone had entered the toilet.

The person was already on the phone when he came in, lowering his voice and saying, "Why are you calling now? I'm at the bureau... It's not convenient to talk..." As he spoke, he walked in and locked the toilet door from the inside without thinking.

After locking the door, he took a few steps to the side and peered under each stall to see if anyone was inside...

Perhaps because he had a guilty conscience, the person instinctively held the phone in one hand and covered his mouth with the other to block the sound, which meant he couldn't free up a hand to turn the stall door handle... If he didn't turn the handle, he couldn't open the stall door... and since he couldn't open the stall door, he looked from underneath...

And Chan-ge... was squatting on the toilet, so his feet couldn't be seen from the outside.

By chance, Meng Jingchan was able to eavesdrop so easily...

"Okay... no one's around, you can talk..." After the man finished checking, he stood by the sink and raised his voice slightly.

When Meng Jingchan heard the man's first two sentences, he thought the man had received a call from his mistress.

But... after listening for thirty seconds, Chan-ge was shocked.

The man standing outside the stall was surnamed Zheng, the deputy director of this branch, and the unknown person calling him... was instructing him to delay the investigation.

Judging from Deputy Director Zheng's tone, he had either taken a bribe from the person or had been caught red-handed... In short, he seemed prepared to comply.

In any case, delaying the investigation wasn't difficult to implement, and the risk after implementation... wasn't great either. Because such behavior is difficult to define afterward... What do you call delaying? Delaying can also be called being cautious. Can being overly cautious and causing delays be called delaying? Even if it really led to some bad consequences in the end, what evidence do you have to say that this "delay" was intentional?

About two minutes later, Deputy Director Zheng finished his call.

And Chan-ge in the stall... was half-undressed, with both feet on the edge of the toilet, half-squatting, with a cigarette in one hand and a lighter in the other... maintaining this posture, not daring to breathe.

Forget about his cigarette craving, he had even suppressed his urge to poop...

After hanging up the phone, Deputy Director Zheng washed his hands at the sink, looked in the mirror, and then turned around...

"Hmm..." Perhaps due to his years of experience in criminal investigation, or perhaps due to his suspicious nature, he suddenly thought of opening all the stall doors and checking again...

Click—

Soon, he opened the door of the stall next to Chan-ge and glanced inside.

No one...

Then, his footsteps came to the stall door in front of Chan-ge...

In that instant, Meng Jingchan's heart was in his throat. The only thing he could think of was... to pretend to be deaf and mute, and try to fool him for now...

Bang, bang, bang—

Just as Deputy Director Zheng was about to open the door of the second stall, the toilet door was knocked on.

"Hey! Who's in there! Open the door!" a man's voice came from outside. "Who locked the toilet door? Open it quickly!"

Judging from his tone, he seemed to be in a hurry...

Hearing this, Deputy Director Zheng curled his lips and quickly walked over to open the toilet door.

"Move, move..." The person who came in wasn't a policeman, nor did he recognize the deputy director in front of him. This guy rudely pushed Zheng aside and headed straight for the first stall, cursing as he closed the stall door, "Locking the door in a public toilet! F*ck your mother!"

Then, thunderous sounds rang out from the stall, accompanied by a life-threatening odor.

"Ah—" A few seconds later, that brother exclaimed in relief.

Before he could finish, Deputy Director Zheng had already covered his nose and fled the toilet...

And Meng Jingchan, with the help of this "urgent brother"... narrowly escaped.

............

Back to the present, the waiting hall of the police station.

It had been nearly forty minutes since Feng Bujue and the others arrived. During that time, Meng Jingchan first told them about his previous experiences and what he knew, and then took Jue-ge and Xiao Tan to greet Gui Xiao's parents, introducing them as "Xiao's friends."

Then, Feng Bujue went to make a few phone calls on his own...

At 6:20 PM, a black Phaeton car stopped in front of the police station again, and a person got out of the passenger seat.

The man was wearing a black suit, with a handsome face and a serious expression.

As he walked past Xiao Tan's silver Porsche, he glanced at it sideways before continuing on his way.

Before long, he entered the waiting hall, and his eyes met Jue-ge and the others.

"Yo, Judge Bao, you're here." Feng Bujue smiled and greeted the secret agent from Division Nine.

"I say..." Bao Qing didn't stand on ceremony with him, replying directly, "Is that Porsche outside Xiao Tan's?"

"Yeah." Xiao Tan replied immediately.

"You know you'll get a ticket if you park there, right?" It turned out that Bao Qing was concerned about this matter.

"Uh... Jue-ge specifically told me to park there..." Xiao Tan replied.

"Don't worry, Lao Bao." Feng Bujue laughed. "The fancier the car, the less likely someone is to give you a ticket when you park in front of a law enforcement agency."

"Although your relationship with law enforcement has always been strained, is it really okay to slander them like this while standing in their office building..." Bao Qing complained, narrowing his eyes.

"Hehe... then let's do a social experiment when we have time to see who's willing to give me one," Feng Bujue shrugged. "I'm telling you... whoever dares to give me one is a pillar of society."

"Alright, alright..." Bao Qing waved his hand, not wanting to argue with him. "Let's take care of business first."

Long story short, after a brief chat, Feng Bujue introduced Bao Qing to Chan-ge. Then, Bao Qing showed his credentials to a police officer...

Five minutes later, the four of them were sitting in the director's office...

After entering the room, Bao Qing simply greeted the director and showed his credentials again, then... handed over a mobile phone.

After taking the phone, the director walked into the next room.

By this point, Meng Jingchan was basically in a state of mental short-circuit. He couldn't look at Feng Bujue and the others with the same composure.

"This... Brother Bao." Chan-ge asked curiously, "May I ask where you work?"

"Civil servant." Bao Qing only answered three words.

"Uh..." Naturally, Chan-ge wanted to follow up on this answer that was as good as no answer. "Specifically, I mean..."

"Civil servant." Bao Qing smiled, looked at Meng Jingchan, and repeated the three words with emphasis.

With Chan-ge's intelligence, he understood that there was no need to ask any further.

"Speaking of which... who's on the other end of the phone?" Feng Bujue also turned to look at Bao Qing at this time.

"On the other end of the phone is someone who has the power to decide many things." Bao Qing replied. "And that person who has the power to decide many things just had a conversation with a 'mutual acquaintance' ten minutes ago."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue said, "So he's now coming to chat with the director..."

"It seems they've already finished chatting." As Bao Qing said this, the director pushed the door open and returned from the next room.

"Chief." The director walked up to Bao Qing with a serious face. "What are your arrangements next?"

Before Bao Qing could reply, Feng Bujue, who was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, interjected, "Pack up all the investigation materials to date and transfer them to the computer here. Also, have the guy surnamed Zheng wait in the interrogation room..." He finished quickly and added, "Oh, right, don't forget to confiscate his mobile phone immediately."

"Hey, hey... That's too arrogant..." Seeing this, Meng Jingchan looked at Jue-ge with astonishment, complaining in his heart.

But the director didn't react much. After listening, he just looked at Bao Qing in silence.

"Sigh..." Bao Qing sighed and said to the director, "Just do as he says..."