Pure Darkness

Chapter 14

Plot thickens! Ding Mo is very good at raising tensions. . What new revelation awaits us in this chapter? It's nice to see our three main characters working together, although Fang Qing seems to have grasped the fact that Bo Jinyan-Jian Yao's partner can be a little annoying when they work together!

Sorry for the missed post last Saturday; real life catches up with all of us! Regular posting on Saturday will continue from this chapter (we hope).

Don't forget to join us for our WASFIL fanfic event, as well as the Meraki logo event! Join us on Discord (link to right) to discuss the novel or just to hang out.

Can't find any other fingerprints?

Jian Yao was slightly surprised.

Fang Qing sat down, poured himself a large glass of water, and drank it all in one gulp. “Although Tong Min did not wear gloves back then, she did not leave fingerprints. The fruit knife left in the room should at least have Zhao Xia's fingerprints, but none. Someone has erased his fingerprints, but there are only two people who have that chance, ” Fang Qing said.

“Tong Min. . . and Yao Yuange,” whispered Jian Yao.

“When I was in the kitchen and accidentally met Tong Min, she was not wearing gloves.” Bo Jinyan glanced at Jian Yao, “We mentioned earlier, there are three dubious points.”

Fang Qing also looked at him.

Bo Jinyan was about to speak, but Fang Qing, with sparkling eyes, had already spoken. “First, the place where Zhao Xia fell was not right. According to Yao Yuange's oral confession, Tong Min – we will only call him so for the time being – once he enters the room, he pushed Zhao Xia and took the fruit knife, so he, but Zhao Xia had fallen near the door and landed on his back. It was as if he was not even trying to defend himself. ”

Bo Jinyan kept her face emotionless as she muttered, “Ahem.”

Jian Yao smiled and said, “Second, there is a gap in Yao Yuange's oral confession. He has no proper beginning or conclusion. He started his statement with very specific details and then the details became blurred. It's very possible that he lied. Plus, what he said about Tong Min was strange.”

Bo Jinyan glanced at him with gentle praise in her eyes.

Fang Qing suddenly realized how annoying it was to work with these two people.

Seeing Jian Yao and Fang Qing not saying anything more, Bo Jinyan smiled faintly and said, “Three. . when we were in the courtyard, he said, we saw that Zhao Xia was actually quite sympathetic towards Tong Min. Zhao Xia was probably the only source of warmth for the Tong Minin Yao family. Moreover, that night, when I rushed into the courtyard, I found Yao Yuange's room door open. According to another oral confession, that night he had already gone to Zhao Xia's room to sleep. He always asked the family to turn off the lights and close the room door regularly, so that the door could not be opened by him. No one else would dare to open it. The door was opened by Tong Min – after he arrived at the courtyard, the first thing he did was find Yao Yuange. He's the one he wants to kill. Bo ma'am,

“But why he ..” muttered Jian Yao to himself.

“The knife has no fingerprints and the CTF only gave us two suspects. However, that was not proof that Yao Yuange was the murderer. Furthermore, according to the current situation, Tong Min is still the most likely suspect, ” Fang Qing said.

“If the murderer is really Yao Yuange, why would he want to kill his own wife?” The light in Jian Yao's eyes dimmed. “What really happened that night?”

“Once we know what Tong Min is hiding, we will know what secrets this family is hiding,” Bo Jinyan said in a statement.

The three of them were silent for a moment. The wind whispered softly through the window. Everything was calm, but behind that calmness was hidden an indescribable danger.

“I will immediately send someone to investigate Tong Min's true identity and check her entire background thoroughly,” Fang Qing said loudly as he stood up.

“No need for such a problem.” Bo Jinyan smiled and said, “Ny. Bo, turn on your laptop. We will check it now.”

Fang Qing and Jian Yao were both dumbfounded. “How will you investigate? Don't tell me you can Baidu him? I have sent Tong Min's image through the database, she has no records whatsoever, ” Fang Qing said.

(Baidu: Google China)

Bo Jinyan stood up, slowly pacing around the room, her long and slender fingers lightly tapping behind her back. In the end, his smile still kept a trace of arrogance, seemingly revealing his thoughts: how could you mediocre still not understand this world of geniuses?

She said, “Why is Tong Min, a smart and lonely woman who is approaching the age of 50, hiding her true identity and tolerating persecution from the Yao family by working as their long-term servant?”

“For money? There was no need for him to commit murder. Moreover, Yao Yuange was extremely strict in money management. Pretending to be a servant for the Yao family to mess with money was definitely not a good method. He did not even consider kidnapping Yao Yuange's son in exchange for a ransom. It won't be difficult for him to do it, but he didn't. ”

“Because of his feelings? Yao Yuange was usually aimed at women aged 20 to 30, and Tong Min was definitely not his type. In terms of appearance, he could not compare to his other wives, and he was much older than Yao Yuange's first wife. If they had a relationship dispute in the early years, first, it was impossible for Yao Yuange to not notice it; secondly he did not need to hide in Yao's house for so long, he could directly take action.”

“She's been hiding for so long, surely she's doing it to investigate something. If a woman at this age is willing to suffer so much, and it is not for money, or for feelings, what is the biggest reason possible?

Fang Qing's eyes darkened, and Jian Yao muttered in a low voice, “That's because .

Bo Jinyan nodded once. “There is no difference between him and Mr. Fan, who yesterday almost became a killer. They do it for their kids.”

“Then, how do we confirm his identity?” Fang Qing asked grimly.

Bo Jinyan lowered her head and turned on the laptop, then accessed the internal database of the Ministry of Public Security and handed the laptop to Fang Qing. “He changed his name and last name to hide his identity and deceive the Yao family. Since they didn't even know his face, he didn't need to change his name much. Those who have suffered great losses, and who are alone and unaided, always hope to defend themselves as much as possible. Therefore, he may not have the surname ‘Tong’, especially since people are more sensitive about the surname. However, there is a high probability that ‘Min’ is in his name somewhere.”

“Because her son is the most important thing in her mind, she naturally wanted some way to remember him, and something to hope for. ‘Tong’ is most likely the surname of his son, or on behalf of his son.”

“His birthdate on his identity card was August 12, 1967, and this was a fake identity card he made for him. The year may be wrong, but most likely the date and month are right. That year might even be true. ”

“As I said before, he has shown some skill in evading detection, and is very practical. There is a good chance, because of that case, he was in contact with the police. He may be a witness, or a suspect, or. . . .a family member of the victim.”

“Please search database for fatalities, victims or missing persons with ‘Tong’ in their name. In this person's family, ‘Min’ must be on behalf of the mother, and the mother's date of birth must be August 12. He is the person we know as ‘Tong Min’.

Jian Yao opened her mouth. In the end, he did not speak, and only looked into his clear eyes. Fang Qing paused for a moment, then lowered his head and started searching the database, the fingers of both hands tapping swiftly on the keyboard.

Bo Jinyan raised her teacup calmly and calmly, and took a sip.

After a while, Fang Qing lifted his head and said, “I can't find anyone matching the criteria with the surname ‘Tong’, or with ‘Tong’ in their name.”

Jian Yao was surprised, but Bo Jinyan just looked at him without saying anything.

“But . .” Fang Qing's expression became extremely grim. He turned the computer screen towards them and continued, “I found this.”

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao looked at him. It was an archived missing persons file.

……

Name: Tong* Sheng.

(TN: ‘Tong’ in name ‘Tong Min’, and what Bo Jinyan requested to search by Fang Qing, is the character ‘ ⁇ ’ (meaning ‘anak’). What Fang Qing found was a name with the character ‘ ⁇ ’ (meaning ‘health’). Both characters have the same voice, ‘tong’. ‘Tong Min’ was thinking about his son when he changed his name.)

Female gender.

Date of Birth: 5 April 1987.

Disappearance Date: September – Oct 2010.

Place of Removal: Unknown.

……

Name: Xie Min.

Female gender.

Date of Birth: 12 August 1967.

Relationship with the Victim: Mother-child.

——

“Xie Min, female, 49 years old, from Xiangtan in Hunan, former SD teacher there.” Fang Qing's loud voice rang out as he briefed the criminal investigators in the meeting room. “After inspection, he is indeed the ‘Xie Min’ we are looking for. When her husband died of illness in 2005, her daughter went to university in A province, and she lived alone in Xiangtan. After her daughter went missing in 2010, she resigned from her job and disappeared, leaving no trace.”

“Police in A province lead investigation of Tong Sheng case. From what we can understand from the case records, Tong Sheng was on vacation in the ancient city at that time. After that, there was evidence to suggest that he had left the ancient city for a vacation in another area. However, the provincial A police searched the district without success. They could only classify the case as a missing person case, and it remains unsolved to this day.”

“Currently, why Xie Min is looking for Yao Yuange, and how the Yao family is related to the Tong Sheng case, is still unknown. However, when we search for Xie Min on the mountain, we need to have a good understanding of the situation, and have an accurate understanding of the suspect's soul and way of thinking. ”

“Xiao Zhang, get two more people and join me to investigate Yao Yuange secretly. He is also the prime suspect in the Zhao Xia.” case

——

At noon the same day, in the Yao family courtyard, the atmosphere was silent and stifling.

The waiters had prepared lunch and placed the food in the dining room. Inside and outside of the courtyard, everything was chaotic, and even the dishes looked like they were prepared in a hurry. However, no one cares.

In the end, they all kept up the routine and sat down near the table to eat. However, not a single person spoke. The faces of the women were all gray from gloom. Zhao Xia's seat, which was originally at the end of the long table, had been moved.

Ming Lan's face was extremely calm. His head was bowed, and his movements were slow as he ate food and drank soup. Today, not even she said a word, so no other women, who were all watching her, dared to say anything.

Yao Yuange's face was very calm, and his clothes were neatly arranged, as if no killing had happened the night before. He ate a small bowl of rice, then put down his chopsticks and asked, “Has Zhao Xia's family been notified?”

Ming Lan replied, “Yes, they have.”

Nonchalantly, Yao Yuange said, “Make sure you handle it well. Don't give them a reason to come here and make a fuss.”

“Good.”

Ming Yue bit her lower lip and asked, in a trembling voice, “Why does big sister Tong want to kill Zhao Xia? Zhao Xia was the one who treated him well. Is he crazy?”

“He is obviously crazy,” Yao Yuange replied coldly. “And I haven't even started with you yet, you better take care of your son! I only have one son, and he is very close to being hurt today! If a similar situation occurs in the future, you, mother, do not think you will get away with it easily!”

Ming Yue muttered her approval, and did not say anything more.

“Ya!” Zhang Jufang took the opportunity to speak. “You didn't even take good care of your son. Ming Yue, this time you are really too negligent. This is a heavy responsibility, are you sure you can handle it?”

“You're quiet!” Yao Yuange roared. Zhang Jufang's face changed color, and he fell silent. As if his emotions had finally been provoked, Yao Yuange coldly stated, “From today onwards, no one is talking about Zhao Xia's matter in this household! And the killer! Damn, what kind of little thing is that!”

After her harsh words, she got up and returned to the bedroom. He left behind a group of women, each with overcast faces, not daring to break the charged atmosphere.

In fact, what difference is there?

Who is more loved, who is less appreciated. Who was given more assets, who was given smaller rooms. What difference?

Ever since they stepped into the courtyard, maybe they loved her, maybe they hated her.

However, the emotion they felt the most, under the cold and heartless gaze of the black-hearted tyrannical man, was a faint sensation.

——

The sky was high, and the clouds floated lazily. In the mountains, the sun is huge. The dense forest was so hot and dry that anyone inside seemed to be fading away from the heat.

Tong Min – maybe we should call him Xie Min now. Her clothes were still covered in dried blood, her face and body were covered in mud. This 50-year-old woman, who once lived as an ordinary wife in a quiet and peaceful small town, is now huddled under a large tree, panting from exhaustion.

He's constantly on the run, running away. But, he did not know how much longer he could escape.

He looked up and squinted against the dazzling sunlight. On the mountain slope far below, he seemed to be seeing some more movements. Are the police searching again?

He gritted his teeth, looked at the mud pond next to him and saw that it contained a small puddle. He leaned over and drank some bribes. Subduing his head, he got up and once again headed for the deep forest.

He had to run, he definitely had to run, because he couldn't allow himself to be captured at this moment.

He thought about how, an hour ago, he almost turned on his phone.

He thought about that night, and what the man said back then.

. . . My name is Bo Jinyan. My life's mission is to reveal the truth, to correct all injustices, and to execute all criminals.

He wants to call 110 and look for it. But, in a split second when he was about to press the power button on his phone, he hurriedly stopped himself.

No. gabe. He had to find his daughter first, then call.

The sunlight grows harder. Running in the forest, Xie Min experienced a moment of dizziness.

All that fresh blood, all that sorrowful wailing, terror in the eyes of the dead man, seemed to be swirling in his mind. He felt that he had become numb to these scenes, but, those scenes continued to appear. They bring a feeling of emptiness, but also a sense of happiness.

He opened his eyes wide, until it started to hurt. What else appeared before him was the scene from the previous night.

Bo Jinyan approaches, and her frantic escape in the dark of night. An empty room, a room full of light, men and women hugging.

……

In the end, when Zhao Xia was lying on the ground, panting heavily, he held tightly Xie Min's hand and forced himself to speak clearly, albeit weakly, “Go and look into the mountains. . .” Then he died.

However, the mountains before him were so vast. Where should he go to find his Tong Sheng?

Xie Min felt as if his heart was a burning wasteland, about to be burnt to shreds. He ran into the deep forest without knowing where to go.