Chapter 152: The Sneaky Kidnappers
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The children that were kidnapped were all children from rich families in Mianling Town. Take Sir Liang Wangan as an example. He used to be the one of the richest people in Mianling town and now was even more incredible. As a boss who owned two massive real-estate businesses and tens of industrial companies, he was one of the biggest names in the Qinshan business world. Twenty-six years ago, the six-year-old girl, Liang Shuhan, who was kidnapped, was his only daughter.
Liang Wangan only managed to have this one precious daughter at the age of thirty-seven, and always saw her as the jewel of his eye. He had never expected such a tragic incident to happen. After the kidnapping, the daughter’s fate was unknown for twenty-six years. The family was completely devastated. That they had finally obtained news about their daughter, but it was only to find her skeleton! How could they not be completely crushed? Death would have been preferable!
Mister Tao, who gave Zhao Yu a bag of cash, was not only the executive director of Qinshan Bank, but was also an important member of city council. His son, Tao Xiao, was one of the victims, and was only eleven when he had been kidnapped.
Other than those two, the elderly Mao Die was one of the victim’s, Liu Hongxiang, grandfather. Mao Die was the boss of the Mianling Agricultural Company, and owned tens of textile enterprises.
The other two victims’ families were not as famous as the other three, but were all rich in their own right, having millions to their name.
Thus, when Liang Wangan encouraged the police’s efforts and offered two-million as a reward, the other four family did not even hesitate. The reward for finding the culprit reached an astonishing ten-million yuan! Along with the five-hundred thousand yuan police reward for closing the Mianling Kidnapping Case, the reward was now 10,500,000 yuan, and without tax as well!!
Zhao Yu was already dumbfounded. He held the leather case of money that Mister Tao had given him and almost felt a bit awkward. This bag of two-hundred thousand yuan almost felt too light!
"Holy sh*t…10 million yuan?! This was no joke!! Zhao Yu…Zhao Yu, Zhao Yu!!" He kept calling his own name, trying to clear his head!
"Seriously, I have the Miracle System! If I can close this case like the other few and catch the culprit before the others, then…I won’t have to worry about money for the rest of my life!"
Strangely, at first Zhao Yu did not even fantasize about what he could do with all of the money. His first thought was rather random, "If I have money, then I can buy a Volkswagen Phaeton and show it off in front of Miao Ying. Then what would Miao Renfeng say about, right?!
"It’s over, it’s over! This is lovesickness!" he quickly realized. Zhao Yu could not help but be angry at himself. Even at a time like this, how was he still thinking about Miao Ying? "Could it be…I really have fallen for her?" he wondered.
...
Ever since reopening this massive case that shook Qinshan, Rongyang Branch became the focal point of the citizens overnight. Reporters crowded outside of the police station, and the inside was even more chaotic. From investigators to higher-ups, every department was completely swamped with work.
The branch office had meeting rooms specialized for case analysis, but the Key Case Investigation Unit rarely used them. Usually, they simply gathered in Team A’s office and briefly spoke over a whiteboard. But this time it was obviously different. Due to the severity of this case, many higher-ups came to the office. Thus, the case analysis was organized in the biggest meeting room in the police station.
Right at 10 a.m., the meeting officially started. Due to the influence of this case, all the higher-ups were basically bantering right at the beginning of the meeting.
Vice-Bureau Chief Luan Xiaoxiao first introduced all of the city level officials and gave her warm welcome. Then, the Vice-Bureau Chief of the city station, Liao Jingxian, who had recently been promoted to Head Criminal Investigator started speaking. Bureau Chief Liao noted that the higher-ups were very focused on the case, and hoped that the people of the Rongyang Branch could uncover the truth and bring justice to the victims!
Immediately after, it was the leader from the branch office, Bureau Chief Zhou Andong’s, turn to speak. He first welcomed the higher-ups, then mentioned that since Rongyang Branch had such a huge mission, they must focus and work hard, etc. He encouraged all of the investigators, urging all of the departments to band together and quickly solve the case!
In the end, he very seriously warned all the police officers, noting that this case was quite influential, and asked all the investigators to keep this case confidential. They could not let any information leak, not even to their relatives!
All in all, the higher-ups spoke well. Not only did they give everyone a direction to work towards, but also motivated all of the investigators. After, when the higher-ups had left, the case analysis for the Massive Mianling Kidnapping and Murder Case had officially begun.
Bureau Chief Luan Xiaoxiao acted as the main director and took care of the higher-ups. The Key Case Investigation Unit Captain, Liu Changhu, was obviously the main organizer of this analysis meeting. Even though the investigators were already very familiar with the case, according to the rules they still asked Team Leader Qu Ping to describe the scenario of the kidnapping case over again.
Twenty-six years ago, the driver, Niu Weiguang, drove a Changhe van, taking five students from the Guangming Elementary school in the city. They disappeared on their way back to Mianling Town. Three days later, the criminal called the victims’ houses and asked for two-hundred thousand yuan from each family as ransom, and threatened them not to call the police.
Originally, the family had not called the police the police. They had planned to simply sacrifice the money and bring back the five children. But the disappearance of the five children raised much attention, and the information quickly spread. Before long, all of Mianling Town knew.
Also, since the kidnappers had not mentioned the driver Niu Weiguang over the phone, Niu Weiguang’s wife became worried about her husband and had already called the police. In the end, the police arrived anyway and was involved.
At the time, the police took a traditional approach and theorized that since the kidnappers had aimed for the children of the rich family, it meant that they were looking for money, and that the possibility of killing the children was rare. Also, they were very careful about their involvement, and believed the entire situation to be under control.
On the day of the ransom exchange, the police not only placed agents all over the target area, but also put a tracking device with the money. They asked Mister Tao and another two parents to head toward the location.
Unexpectedly, once they arrived at the designated area, Mister Tao suddenly got a phone call from a public phone booth. The kidnapper asked them to change the money exchange area, and that they must do so in a short amount of time. Mister Tao could not do anything but rush towards the new location with the other parents. The police officers that were undercover could not do anything but also change the route of their ambush.
Then, once they arrived at the new location, Mister Tao got yet another public call, asking them to move to another location. Just like that, the kidnapper swapped locations four times. They even requested the same location twice, completely confusing the police officers.
Mister Tao was very angry and started threatening the criminals. Yet, through the phone suddenly came the sound of his son, Tao Xiao’s, cries. With that, Mister Tao no longer dared to disobey their commands. He took the bag of money and continued toward the meet-up location described by the kidnapper.
In the end, just as the sun set and the area was about to be enclosed in the darkness of the night, they finally bought the money to a uninhabited cliff side as instructed by the kidnappers. Then, a phone that was placed under a rock suddenly rang. The kidnapper requested for Mister Tao to take all the money and throw it from the cliffside!
The cliff was sixty meters high, and there was no way to go down from there. At that time, the sun was already setting. Other than the tightly packed trees down below, they could not see anything at all!
At the time, Mister Tao could not imagine how the kidnappers would be able to get money, and hesitated as he was going to throw the money. But once he remembered his kidnapped son, his love for his son won, and he threw the money off the cliff!