Chapter 119 - 84: Locked On

Lin Yue, at their side, said, "Nan."

Liu Jingqi was the name she was given after being adopted by Liu Hao. As it turned out... the three of them still didn’t know what her original name was.

All they had was this one nickname, which they had learned from Cheng Tao.

"Doesn’t she have a proper name?"

Sister Zhang raised an eyebrow, looking at her computer screen, unsure of what to type.

"I mean her official, registered name."

"We don’t have one." Lin Yue shook her head.

"I’ll try running a search, then."

Sister Zhang frowned slightly. She logged onto the "Find-A-Relative" website on her computer, then logged into another internal system, searching back and forth between them.

But unfortunately...

"There’s no record of her."

"Are you sure she went missing in Lianshan County?"

Sister Zhang searched for half an hour but couldn’t find anyone named Nan.

She couldn’t even find anyone who looked similar!

She looked at Xu De, completely baffled.

"Well..."

Lin Yue hesitated. She looked at Xu De, not knowing how to answer.

’Are we sure?’

They couldn’t be.

All information had to be corroborated by objective evidence.

The name "Lianshan County" had come from Cheng Tao, but she hadn’t provided any objective proof.

Therefore, it was possible she had misremembered and Liu Jingqi wasn’t from Lianshan County at all.

"But what if she *was* from Lianshan County?"

Xu De suddenly spoke up, not yet ready to dismiss the information he had.

Instead, he crossed his arms, stroking his chin with one hand. After a moment of thought, he looked up, glanced at the woman’s work ID, and asked:

"Sister Zhang, let’s assume for a moment that ’Nan’ did go missing in Lianshan County..."

"What kind of circumstances would prevent us from finding any information about her?"

He wasn’t one to immediately second-guess himself in the face of a negative result.

After all, the same result can often be reached through different paths.

"Well, there are several possible reasons."

Sister Zhang looked up, her gaze drifting toward the ceiling for a moment in careful thought before she replied.

"First of all, there’s the time frame."

"Lawyer Xu, this photo must have been taken a long time ago."

She looked down at the blurry photograph on the desk and shook her head.

"Has it been seven years?"

Lin Yue answered instead, "Twelve years."

Hearing this, Sister Zhang’s eyebrows shot up. She clicked her tongue and shook her head with an expression that said, ’No wonder’.

"That explains it."

"That’s too long ago. It’s very difficult for the Federation to search that far back."

"If she went missing twelve years ago, the report would have been filed around that time... The Federation didn’t even have computers back then. Of course, they’ve been digitizing old archives over the years."

Twelve years ago would be 1990.

Forget 1990—even now in 2002, most departments still rely on paper archives. Digital systems are few and far between.

"What about paper archives?"

Wang Chao frowned. After a moment, he leaned over the counter with both hands, and asked quizzically:

"Do you have the archives from twelve years ago?"

’If it’s not on the computer, checking the archives is the next best thing. It’s more of a hassle, but it’s worth it if we can find something.’

"Well..."

A slightly awkward expression appeared on Sister Zhang’s face as she explained tactfully,

"We do have paper archives, but they’re very difficult to search. The reports are all filed under proper names. Even if you saw the right one, you probably wouldn’t recognize it..."

But the most crucial point was...

"Besides, the problem might not even be with the archives."

"I think her family never even came to look for her."

Sister Zhang couldn’t help but add with a sigh.

Wang Chao was confused. "What do you mean!?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Generally, if a family wants to find their child, they’ll post for help on the various missing persons websites."

As she spoke, Sister Zhang pointed to her computer.

"Even if the child went missing in 1990, as long as the family is still looking, they would have posted the child’s information online once these websites became available."

The child went missing in 1990.

Even if the websites appeared a decade later, it wouldn’t stop the family from posting the information online, as long as they were still searching.

Take the last case, for example.

Wang Mei went missing in the nineties, when there were no such websites at all.

But that didn’t stop the police from using online information to successfully match their identities a decade later.

So...

"The photo and name you provided don’t appear on any of the major missing persons websites, nor are they in our system."

Sister Zhang shook her head.

’What did that mean?’

"It means the family has never searched for anyone named Nan on any website."

"They might have given up, or they might not have ever looked for her at all."

"If that’s the case... your only option is to go to the police station and pull their records."

She was right.

The family’s attitude determined how widely information about the child was spread.

If they never intended to search in the first place, then the Women’s Federation would have no information. There would only be a "criminal case" on file with the police.

"But..."

"Could you check for these two people, then?"

Lin Yue, unwilling to give up, spoke again from the side.

She took out her briefcase and handed over two previously prepared facial sketches.

"These... I don’t think I’ve ever seen them."

Sister Zhang shook her head after looking at them.

Generally, not many families came to the Women’s Federation looking for their children, as this was just a small county town. If these people had really come in once or twice during the years Sister Zhang had been working here, she would have recognized them.

The only explanation was... they had never come. Or at least, not in recent years!

"I’d recommend you try asking at the police station."

Sister Zhang added helpfully.

"We appreciate your help."

Hearing her words, Xu De and his two companions fell silent and walked toward the door.

CREAK~

The door was pushed open, and the three of them stepped out of the Women’s Federation office.

Xu De stood at the entrance, gazing at the darkening sky, and let out a deep sigh.

’This is tough.’

He had known from the start that gathering evidence wouldn’t be easy, but he hadn’t expected it to be this difficult.