Chapter 81 - 80: The Special Dark Figure in the "Dog Cage

Xu Huo paused, his eyes silently fixed on the stack of dog cages. Beneath them lay a mess of feces and urine, emitting a suffocating stench. Flies and mosquitoes were everywhere.

’The human presence... is coming from here.’

"Take all the dog cages down."

Xu Huo said suddenly, causing looks of bewilderment to appear on the faces of those around him.

"The cages? What for?" Qian Hua asked, confused.

"Take them down!" Xu Huo stared intently at a silent spot within the mountain of cages, a section where no dogs were barking.

The men exchanged confused glances, but they still did as he said and arranged for people to move the cages.

With not enough personnel, Qian Hua and Li Jianye started moving things themselves.

The iron cages were covered in a foul odor, as if they hadn’t been washed in ages.

CLANG!

The sharp sound of metal rang out.

One by one, the dog cages were taken down. The police carefully set aside the ones containing stray dogs.

A short while later...

Li Jianye was about to lift down an empty cage in front of him, but when he tried, it wouldn’t budge.

He furrowed his brow.

He used both hands, but still only managed to rock it slightly without lifting it.

’This is... an empty cage?’

’No, there’s something inside!’

Just then, inside the cage that seemed to hold only darkness, a shadow suddenly twitched. Li Jianye instinctively let go, and the iron cage, which had been lifted a few centimeters off the ground, crashed back down.

CLATTER!

The sound drew the attention of Qian Hua and the others.

"What’s going on!?" Wang Hu asked with a frown.

"We’ve got something!"

Li Jianye’s expression was grim as he reached for the flashlight on his belt.

’The weight of this cage... it’s not right!’

"What is it?"

Wang Hu walked over.

"I don’t know."

Li Jianye took out his flashlight, flicked the switch with his thumb, and with a soft CLICK, the next second...

A beam of light shot out.

The beam illuminated the foul excrement in the cage, casting shadows and revealing the stunned, dumbfounded expressions on the faces of all the police officers present.

And at the same time...

...it also illuminated a person.

That’s right, a person.

Inside the dog cage... was a woman.

Startled by the sudden beam of light, the woman in the suffocatingly rank dog cage recoiled in terror. She huddled into a ball, her hair a tangled mess, trying to press herself further into the corner, her eyes filled with raw fear.

She waved her hands frantically, trying to cover her face.

’This is...’

"Zhang Cui!?"

Qian Hua’s pupils contracted. He instinctively took a few steps back, his hand moving to the holstered gun on his waist.

"There’s a small red birthmark on her neck. It matches the description from the train station. It’s definitely Zhang Cui."

Li Jianye’s face was grave.

"Why does she look like this?"

What did Zhang Cui look like?

She was wearing a simple tunic made of coarse cloth, her skin was filthy, and the grease in her long hair looked like it was about to crust over. Her eyelashes were matted with clumps of dirt.

Her clothes and pant cuffs were stained with reeking dog feces.

She looked like a completely broken mental patient, cowering in the dog cage amidst the crowd, trembling uncontrollably, her eyes consumed by terror.

"This woman might really have been abducted."

Li Jianye’s gaze darkened, and he unconsciously clenched his fists, an unidentifiable emotion brewing in his eyes.

What fate usually befalls abducted women?

Sold to be someone’s wife?

In truth, being sold as a regular wife would be considered one of the luckier outcomes.

The saying that desperate places breed desperate people is no joke, and those people are the human traffickers’ main clientele.

Living deep in the mountains, they sometimes practice "wife sharing"...

...a communal wife.

You can...

And in that situation, would the living conditions be any better?

No. Most likely, you’d be thrown into a woodshed and tied by a rope to a bed, forced to eat, drink, relieve yourself, and sleep all within a one-meter radius.

Your entire life would be spent in endless torment, at the hands of not just one person, but many at once.

Pregnancy, childbirth, childbirth, pregnancy—that becomes your daily routine.

If they start to "trust" you a little more, then congratulations, you’ve earned the right to work.

Even when you’re eight or nine months pregnant, you’ll still have to hold a hoe and do the farm work those lazy men can’t be bothered to do themselves.

If, at that point, you show any intention of running away, and you actually succeed—leaving the house and finding a small village to call the police...

...then you’d have been better off not running at all.

Calling the police in a village like that would most likely result in the villagers tying you up and sending you right back.

And this time, you’d face having your nose pierced and a rope threaded through it, tethering you like an ox.

In an environment like that.

Suicide is nothing short of a luxury.

"Where’s Wang Jinbao!?"

Xu Huo took a sharp breath. He wasn’t afraid of Wang Jinyuan getting away.

Linlan City was already on high alert. Even if the suspect anticipated the police’s actions and fled this place, there was no way he could get out of the city.

And as for this case, Linlan City...

...was determined to see it through to the end, even if it meant a city-wide manhunt.

"Inside. In one of the guest rooms."

Qian Hua stood up, not looking at Zhang Cui. His fists were clenched, but he felt a sense of powerlessness, with no outlet for his anger.

Xu Huo said nothing more and walked slowly forward.

Before him was a living room, flanked by a guest room and a master bedroom.

It was already swarming with police officers, all searching for useful clues.

Xu Huo stepped over the threshold and into the guest room.

The furniture here was rather plain. The room was also filled with police officers, and among them was...

...a shabbily dressed man.

His features were average and coarse, with a large, flat nose, a broad forehead, a wide chin, and long, narrow eyes.

"Who... who are you!?"

The man’s face was panicked. He scooted to the right on the bed, dragging his legs.

"Wang... Wang Jinbao?" Xu Huo frowned, squinting as he sized the man up.

"Yes... that’s me.

The man swallowed, speaking with extreme nervousness.

"Where is Wang Jinyuan!?" Qian Hua demanded loudly.

"My brother?"

"What do you want with my brother?"

the man asked worriedly.

"Just answer the question! Don’t ask things you shouldn’t be asking!" Qian Hua barked again.

"Okay... I’ll talk, I’ll talk."

The man said with a tearful expression, "I think my brother left."

"He seemed to have left through the back door!"

’He really ran!?’

’Through the back door...’

Qian Hua frowned. "When?"

"Last night, between seven and eight."

’Between seven and eight?’

Xu Huo frowned, glancing the man up and down. "Why didn’t he take you with him?"

The man swallowed, a hint of confusion on his face. "Why would he take me?"

Xu Huo paused, then ignored him and turned the matter over to Qian Hua.

He walked out into the courtyard and looked up at the moonlit sky.

’Wang Jinyuan escaped?’

’How did he know about the police operation?’

’The police found the clue at five, didn’t lock down the file until almost eleven, and are only now making the arrest.’

’How could he have known?’

’He ran off with information that not even the police had yet. Did he have the ability to see the future?’

’No, that’s not right. Something is very wrong. Logically, he shouldn’t have been able to escape.’

’A police raid is called a raid for a reason. It’s supposed to catch them off guard. But for him to slip away so cleanly...’

’What kind of method did he use?’

Xu Huo fell into deep thought.

’Did someone tip him off?’

’No. If he really escaped, it means he had information levels above the police. How could an insider pass on information that the police themselves didn’t even have?’

’Besides, wouldn’t the person who passed the message know the gravity of this case?’

’Right now, whoever sticks their neck out is committing suicide. It’s that simple.’

After mulling it over, Xu Huo pushed these questions to the back of his mind and looked toward the kitchen in the distance.

That was the dog meat restaurant’s kitchen.

There were a few waiters and cooks here, but the only chef truly in charge of the dog meat was Wang Jinyuan.

Xu Huo walked slowly forward.

Even before he reached the door, a thick, metallic smell of blood washed over him.

Outside the kitchen door was a shed where the dogs were slaughtered and butchered. The ground was sticky with countless dog hairs of various colors.

Several dog heads were hanging to the side, a gruesome sight.

Xu Huo ignored these things and slowly made his way inside.

As he stepped over the threshold, the scene inside the room came into view.

What was in here?

Meat.

Meat everywhere.

It was stored in freezers, refrigerated to keep it fresh.

There was pork and chicken, but what caught Xu Huo’s attention was...

He opened one of the freezer doors and pulled out a slab of pale-skinned meat.

’What does this look like?’

’It’s similar to pig skin, but there are no bristles, and the subcutaneous fat isn’t as thick.’

’Also, there’s very little meat, like a rack of lamb.’

’This is...’

Xu Huo froze. He glanced at the ribs of the police officers around him.

’This case can’t be made public. The fallout would be far too great.’

’At least...’

’...not for the next few years.’

"The victim... they haven’t been dead long and only recently came to Linlan City. That should be easy to trace."

Xu Huo said, then placed the meat back in the freezer and walked out.

Speaking of which, if a funeral home went out of business, its body freezers might be bought by cheap restaurant owners to store meat.

It’s the equivalent of using a coffin to store food, but since the customers don’t know, there’s nothing to worry about.

"Any sign of Wang Jinyuan’s whereabouts?"

Xu Huo walked out of the kitchen, returned to the courtyard, and after a long moment of thought, looked at Li Jianye with a frown.

Li Jianye shook his head.

"No leads. There are no tracks near the back door either."

"It’s like the man... vanished into thin air!"

’Vanished?’

’No, no one can just vanish into thin air.’

’So, Wang Jinyuan... what method did he use?’

Xu Huo frowned, lost in thought.

However, just as he was deep in thought, Zhang Cui—who had been warily cowering in her cage not far away—suddenly erupted into a frenzy.

"What’s going on!?"