Chapter 986: The World Has Grown More Corrupt

Jiang Ran’s face was full of shock. His eyes widened. “What?!”

“You…”

Jiang Ran had guessed that these people had come to see him about Huo Yunyun. He thought they would confront him face-to-face about having run into Huo Yunyun that morning, but he hadn’t expected them to ask him to go look for her with them.

After steadying himself, he looked at them.

“Li Hu, did Huo Xiaoxiao ask all of you to come?”

Li Hu nodded.

Jiang Ran looked at Huo Xiaoxiao, meeting her gaze. “Not bad. You actually managed to round up so many people?”

“Especially since you’re all high school classmates. It’s been so long since you were close.”

Li Hu explained, “Huo Xiaoxiao’s parents and mine are coworkers. They’ve been friends for decades.”

“Anyway, I went fishing with Xia Long and Yu Xiaobo today. The three of us heard that Huo Yunyun had gone missing, so we came over to help.”

Jiang Ran then looked at the three men.

From the original owner’s memories, he knew that Li Hu and Xia Long really had been on good terms.

They’d been close in high school, good buddies, practically brothers. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have earned that kind of nickname.

But Yu Xiaobo…

Yu Xiaobo noticed Jiang Ran looking at him and seemed a little confused.

Jiang Ran remembered that Yu Xiaobo hadn’t seemed this close to Li Hu and Xia Long in high school. How had he ended up with them now?

What Jiang Ran didn’t know was that, during the castle treasure hunt, he, Li Hu, Xia Long, and Yu Xiaobo had joined forces against the Armored Man. They’d shared life and death.

After that, the bond between the three men, excluding Jiang Ran, had grown tremendously.

That was why they could go out together to have fun and fish.

“You’re making too much of this. It’s only two o’clock. It’s been just a few hours. How can you say Huo Yunyun is missing?”

Jiang Ran thought it would be understandable if she’d been gone for seven or eight hours, or even more than ten.

But it had only been a few hours!

Huo Xiaoxiao said urgently, “Jiang Ran! Please believe me! It may only have been a few hours, but my sister really is missing!”

He didn’t want to argue with Huo Xiaoxiao. At least for now, she seemed sincere.

“Fine. Let’s say Huo Yunyun is missing and you want to look for her. There are already four of you. Do you really need me?”

Li Hu nodded. “We do, because you were the last person to see Huo Yunyun before she went missing!”

“That’s not right,” Jiang Ran said. “The last person to see her should’ve been the tattoo shop owner.”

“I went to ask the owner,” Huo Xiaoxiao said. “He said she left after getting her tattoo, just before noon.”

“Did you call the police?”

Li Hu rubbed the back of his head helplessly. “Do you think the police would pay any attention to us when she’s only been missing for a few hours and we don’t have any specific evidence?”

“Then where are you planning to look? And how?”

“We’ll have to discuss that, but the four of us definitely aren’t enough. When you’re looking for someone, the more people, the better. That’s why we came to you. One more person means one more helping hand.”

Jiang Ran thought for a long while, then said, “Have you checked the surveillance cameras at the tattoo shop, or the cameras on that street?”

“The tattoo shop doesn’t have cameras,” Huo Xiaoxiao said. “As for the street, ordinary people like us don’t have the authority to check its footage.”

Huo Xiaoxiao was getting anxious. “Jiang Ran! Please, help us look for my sister!”

“I know my sister and you haven’t gotten along! But could you help me, just this once?”

Jiang Ran was speechless, grumbling inwardly, “Your favor?”

Just then, Li Hu, Xia Long, and Yu Xiaobo all chimed in. “Jiang Ran, do it for us, too.”

Jiang Ran was even more speechless. This wasn’t asking for help. It was practically an ultimatum.

If he refused, these people would probably pester him to death.

“Fine. Here’s a lead.”

“Although we’ve had the serial rape-murder case and that stray-cat-and-dog killing case in Nancheng City, things are still relatively peaceful.”

“Besides, it’s broad daylight. A living person can’t just vanish without a trace.”

“Listen to what I’m about to tell you. If you believe me, go do it. If you don’t, there’s nothing I can do.”

Vice Monitor Yu Xiaobo said, “Go ahead. We’ll hear you out.”

Jiang Ran grabbed a stool and sat down, too.

He looked as if he had some secret to share. Once seated, he leaned forward, lowering his head toward them.

In a low voice, he said, “If Huo Yunyun really is missing, don’t waste time looking anywhere else. It’ll get you nowhere.”

“Go to that tattoo shop. The owner definitely has something to do with Huo Yunyun’s disappearance.”

This was based on the Danger Warning, as well as the human skin and the Human-Skin Thangka he’d seen inside that tattoo shop.

Although the owner claimed it was artificial skin, Jiang Ran didn’t believe him.

So Huo Yunyun had very likely caught the owner’s eye because of her skin.

After all, Huo Yunyun was beautiful. Jiang Ran hadn’t seen the skin on her back, but he imagined it must be fair and lovely, too.

Just as expected, Vice Monitor Yu Xiaobo asked, “Huh? How can you be sure Huo Yunyun’s disappearance has something to do with the owner?”

Jiang Ran was speechless. “That’s why I said, believe me and go do it. If you don’t, there’s nothing I can do.”

Vice Monitor Yu Xiaobo was about to say something else when Xia Long, a big, burly man, scratched his head and said, “I get what Jiang Ran means. Is he saying that because Huo Yunyun’s so pretty, the owner got carried away by lust and locked her up?”

Vice Monitor Yu Xiaobo froze. “Seriously? He saw a beautiful woman, got carried away by lust, and locked her up? This is a city! It’s not some remote village in the middle of nowhere. Would anyone really do that?”

Sports Committee Member Li Hu thought it over. “I think Little Long’s analysis makes sense. As for what you said, Xiaobo…”

“Sure, from a subjective point of view, something like this might seem unlikely in a city. But after all the crazy news we’ve seen over the years, how many cases like this have there been? Things like this happen in cities all the time!”

“Take the Little Red House in Magic City years ago. Who would’ve thought something like that could happen in Magic City, one of the most expensive places in Hua Country?”

“That was an organized operation. There was also an individual case. I remember something about a man who used a job offer as a pretext to trap and torture a young woman looking for work for five hours, then brutally murdered her and dumped her body.”

“So I think Xia Long has a point. We have to consider every possibility.”

“These days, people’s hearts aren’t what they used to be. The world is terrifying, and people can be cruel.”