Chapter 120 - 84: Locked On

All the negative factors were stacked against them, leaving absolutely no openings.

The family wasn’t looking for her, there was no internet in the 90s, and the missing persons networks had no leads...

"Are we supposed to go to the police station, then?"

Wang Chao asked hesitantly.

"But if we go to the police... it’ll take at least three months for the case to go to trial, right...?"

Lusen City didn’t have a large police force.

If you go to the station, you have to give them a legitimate, legally sound reason to open an investigation.

If you can’t provide one, they can’t investigate.

To get the files, we’d have to contact the Lusen City local police. But they’re most likely still investigating the orphanage and can’t spare any officers.

The orphanage case... that’ll take a city-wide investigation of at least two months, plus a trip to the provincial capital.

How could they possibly spare anyone to investigate Liu Jingqi?

Especially since Liu Jingqi isn’t a flight risk and the case isn’t considered urgent...

All their manpower would naturally be focused on the more pressing trafficker case.

"Three months... That would be March of ’02,"

Lin Yue’s voice was tinged with conflict.

"And with the New Year coming up, the case would be put on hold. We’d be lucky if they finished the investigation by April."

"And for Yang Huan’s New Year..."

Bringing Liu Jingqi to justice before the New Year wouldn’t make everything perfect, but at least it wouldn’t be tainted by such strong feelings of resentment.

But if the case dragged on without a resolution, our client Yang Huan’s New Year’s Eve... would probably be miserable.

"So we’re stuck in a dead end."

"If we want to close this case quickly, we can’t involve the police."

Wang Chao felt a surge of frustration, his thoughts a tangled mess.

"But without the police, we can’t move the case forward. This is..."

The two of them fell silent for a long time before finally looking to Xu De.

As for Xu De...

His mind was racing, his brow furrowed in concentration as he burned through brain cells.

He muttered to himself.

’Liu Jingqi was trafficked. The trafficker’s identity is unknown, so we can’t start there...’

’What about her family? We have the sketch now, but going village by village... No, not enough time.’

’The trial starts around the 28th. It’s already the 21st. Factoring in travel time and rest, we only have six days to investigate.’

’Covering the entire county in six days is obviously impossible...’

The only option left for the three of them...

...was clearly the most brutish method: a grid search.

Of course, if they had enough manpower, it would actually be the fastest and smartest way.

But with just the three of them, they were clearly short-staffed.

If that was the case...

What else could they do?

Xu De’s brow furrowed slightly. It felt like a great weight was pressing on his chest, making it hard to take a full breath.

He felt like he was missing something.

But for the life of him, he couldn’t recall what it was.

’What was it?’

’Trafficking... 12 years ago... Nan... Lianshan County...’

In a flash,

Xu De froze. A piece of information surfaced in his mind.

’It seems Nan committed a crime...’

’Wait, 12 years ago!?’

In that instant,

Xu De’s eyes shot open, his pupils constricting. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind before converging on a single point.

He blurted out instinctively.

"Liu Jingqi ran away 12 years ago. Fleeing after committing a crime usually means the crime happened right around the time she fled."

"I don’t know when she fled, but I do know when the old director, Zheng Tong, bought Liu Jingqi: February 10th, 1990!"

"Traffickers sell children quickly, so the journey from Your Province to Lusen City would have taken ten days at the most!"

"In other words..."

"Liu Jingqi must have found the trafficker near the end of January 1990, and whatever made her run away must have happened around that same time!"

"How did she find a trafficker so quickly? Unless... she already knew them, or had some other way to contact them."

"Of course, that part isn’t important. What’s important is... something must have happened in January."

"Something that would make her run... It was most likely something big!"

Putting the pieces together...

Suddenly, Xu De’s expression changed as if he’d figured something out. He spun around, pushed the door open, and went back inside the Women’s Federation office.

In the main hall,

Sister Zhang, who had been getting ready to leave for the day, heard the commotion and looked up. She was stunned to see Xu De returning.

"You..."

Sister Zhang started to speak, but before she could get the question out,

Xu De cut in.

"Let me ask you something. Were there any major cases in Lianshan County at the end of January, 1990!?"

Sister Zhang paused, about to wrack her brain, but before she could speak,

another woman beside her, also getting ready to leave, overheard the time frame. She froze, then a second later, asked in surprise,

"You mean around Chinese New Year in ’90?"

"Isn’t that when that three-year-old boy went missing?"

The New Year’s holiday was a memorable time, and the case of the missing boy made it stick in everyone’s mind. It’s just...

"Why are you asking about that?" Sister Zhang asked, confused.

Xu De let out a huge sigh of relief inside, the exhaustion vanishing from his body. He didn’t answer her, just exhaled slowly and asked his own question.

"That case... where did it happen?"

Sister Zhang said,

"...Taocun Village!"