Chapter 500 - 242: King of the Sky, Deploy

Chapter 500: Chapter 242: King of the Sky, Deploy

"They’re from Yuanzhou."

Wang Anjiu lowered his voice slightly. "The Yuanzhou City Bureau contacted our bureau here and want to request your assistance. Captain Chen Jifeng of their First Division brought his men over. They’re in Minister Jiang’s office at the Donghua Zoo right now."

"They were originally going to pay you a visit in person, but Minister Jiang said you’d already left for Xianlai. So I figured I should give you a call right away and give you a heads-up."

"Yuanzhou City?"

Yang Qi raised an eyebrow.

Yuanzhou City was in the westernmost part of Handong Province, bordering Hanxi Province. It was nowhere near Donghua.

’The police from there came all the way across the city—no, practically halfway across the province—to ask for his help?’

"Do you know what it’s about?" Yang Qi asked.

"Captain Chen told me a little."

Wang Anjiu’s voice grew grave. "In a district under Yuanzhou City, children have been going missing, one after another. The authorities in Yuanzhou are taking this case extremely seriously. They’ve formed a special task force, and the deputy bureau chief in charge of criminal investigations is personally serving as its leader."

For the bureau chief to act as the leader showed just how seriously they were taking this.

’Children disappearing one after another?’

Yang Qi frowned. This was indeed a major incident.

"Alright, I understand. Thanks, Officer Wang. You can have them call me. I’ll find out what the situation is," Yang Qi said.

"You got it. I’m hanging up now." Wang Anjiu hung up briskly.

Half a minute later, a call came in from an unfamiliar number.

Yang Qi answered. "Hello."

"Hello, Advisor Yang. This is Chen Jifeng, captain of the First Division, Criminal Investigation Detachment, from the Yuanzhou City Public Security Bureau."

A hoarse, middle-aged man’s voice came from the other end of the line. "I apologize for calling you out of the blue. I’m currently at the Donghua Zoo, and I just learned from Minister Jiang that you’ve been reassigned to the Xianlai Wild Animal World. Congratulations on the new post, Advisor Yang."

"Thank you."

Yang Qi replied, "Officer Wang just mentioned you have a case involving missing children that you need my help with. Captain Chen, could you please fill me in on the details?"

"Of course."

Chen Jifeng took a deep breath and answered solemnly, "Here’s the situation. In our city’s West Mountain District, there have been six child disappearances over the past week. All the victims are boys between the ages of eight and twelve."

"After the fact, we pulled all the surveillance footage from near the locations where they disappeared. Every single recording caught birds."

"Birds?" Yang Qi’s eyes glinted.

"That’s right, birds. And not your common sparrows or magpies, either."

Chen Jifeng’s voice was low. "One was a fairly large parrot with exceptionally bright, beautiful feathers. The other was a crow, pitch-black, with eyes that seemed to be a little red. Both of these birds were spotted near the locations where the children disappeared."

"Blurry surveillance footage from a roadside convenience store showed one of the children, right before he disappeared. He seemed to be looking up and waving at the parrot in the sky. Then he followed the parrot and walked into a surveillance blind spot, never to be seen again."

"Footage from another intersection also vaguely showed the crow circling over another child’s head a few times. The boy then seemed to follow in the crow’s direction in a daze..."

"A parrot and a crow? Luring children away?" Yang Qi was astonished.

’Kidnapping children using animals?’

’It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, but for certain people, it wouldn’t be difficult at all.’

’The fact that Chen Jifeng was representing the Yuanzhou Police and had come all this way for his help suggested that the chain of evidence was pointing very strongly in this direction.’

"Yes."

Chen Jifeng said in a low voice, "We’ve checked every flower and bird market and pet store in the city and the surrounding areas. There’s no record of a parrot matching that description. And the crow is just a common crow—nothing special about its breed."

"We’ve exhausted all conventional investigation methods, but we can’t find any trace of those two birds’ origins or whereabouts, much less the children."

"We’ve heard that you’re an expert at handling animals, Advisor Yang, and that you can even communicate with them. That’s why we came looking for you. We sincerely ask for your assistance in exposing the mastermind behind this and finding the children. Whatever your conditions are, we will do our utmost to meet them!"

’A parrot, a crow, and a string of child kidnappings...’

Yang Qi’s mind raced.

’Ordinary birds definitely don’t possess this level of intelligence or purpose.’

’They must have been trained.’

’But to train birds to precisely abduct children of a specific age range, and to succeed six times in a row without getting caught... what kind of master trainer could do that?’

’And what’s the motive?’

’Yuanzhou City, in the westernmost part of Handong Province... and just west of that is Hanxi Province...’

’Isn’t that exactly the direction he was planning to go to search for the old South China Tiger?’

As thoughts raced through his head, Yang Qi replied aloud.

"Captain Chen, thank you for your trust. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to find anyone, but I’ll certainly do my best. To do that, I’ll need more details."

"For example, I’ll need to see all the surveillance videos that captured the two birds, especially the clearest footage you have."

"Also, have you done any analysis on the birds’ flight paths? Are there any patterns to their appearances? And what was the general direction they were headed when they disappeared?"

"And what about the missing children’s backgrounds and family situations? Are there any commonalities? For example, did they all like small animals? Or had any of them recently come into contact with any unusual people or events?"

"Thank you, Advisor Yang!"

Chen Jifeng first expressed his thanks, then replied, "All six incidents occurred between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. The locations are scattered across different streets in the West Mountain District, in areas that are relatively sparsely populated."

"The children were all playing near their homes, either alone or in pairs, when they disappeared. We’ve compiled the clearest clips from the surveillance footage, and I can send them to you right away."

"As for the birds’ flight paths, we had experts analyze them. It seems they deliberately avoided the high-definition cameras on the main streets. They all ultimately disappeared to the west of the West Mountain District, heading in the direction of the urban-rural fringe and an old factory district slated for demolition."