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墨書 Inktalez
The old lady let us into her home, her gaze dim as she looked toward a corner, seemingly lost in thought, or perhaps thinking of nothing at all. Before she began to tell us her story, she suddenly smiled and said, "It's been a long time since we've had guests here, and I don't have much to offer you. I'll boil some water so you can at least have a warm drink."
We quickly insisted that we didn't mind not having water, but the old lady was persistent and determined.
Watching her hunched back and the calloused hands, I could tell that she had done hard labor in her youth; simple household chores were certainly within her capabilities. However, looking around the house, dust covered every corner, and things were strewn about haphazardly. In some places, cobwebs had already formed. This home had clearly not been cleaned in a long time.
Her appearance was equally disheveled; her clothes hadn't been washed in ages, and even her gray hair was left unkempt. If it weren't for the fact that her son was still alive, one might think she had completely given up on life. The sorrow of a heart that has lost hope is profound; indeed, the old lady seemed to have lost hers.
I thought that if she didn't know her son was still alive, she might have simply jumped from the upstairs window. The pain of betrayal can be more agonizing than death itself. Although I had never personally experienced such anguish, my years of solving cases had exposed me to many similar stories. That emptiness and numbness can be terrifying.
As the water boiled on the stove, the old lady turned back and slowly said, "Actually, a few years ago, our family still resembled a family..."
Thus, the story began several years prior.
The old lady's son was named Wei Feng. He worked as a laborer in a state-owned factory. Though his job required physical effort, he earned a decent living—about seven or eight thousand a month—which was considered good in this city.
Wei Feng was no longer young; it was time for him to consider marriage. After several matchmaking attempts, he found a suitable girl. She worked as a cashier at a supermarket; although her salary wasn't high, she was gentle and kind-hearted. The two fell in love at first sight.
After a year of dating, they got married. A year later, they welcomed a chubby baby boy into their lives. Their household transformed from two to three. After the birth of their son, Wei Feng's wife quit her job to take care of the child while Wei Feng worked even harder to provide for his family.
The old lady was delighted and moved in to help care for her grandson and daughter-in-law. There were no conflicts between them; they got along like a real family. They spent three happy years together as Wei Feng's son grew older and became more understanding. Anyone who saw this family couldn't help but give them a thumbs-up.
They were all kind-hearted and down-to-earth people who believed that treating the world with kindness would yield kindness in return. However, one day five years ago, Wei Feng took his child to the park to play. When his son wanted ice cream, Wei Feng went to a nearby convenience store to buy some, leaving his child playing on the swing.
It took less than five minutes for him to make the trip; he didn't think much of it. But when he returned, both his son and the person he had brushed past earlier were gone. Wei Feng assumed his child had wandered off while playing but after searching everywhere without success, he suddenly realized that his child might have been taken by a trafficker.
The ice cream fell to the ground and shattered into pieces—just like Wei Feng's heart.
The family immediately reported the case to the police, but since there were no surveillance cameras in the park and only Wei Feng's account to go on, it was difficult to catch the kidnapper. Thus began an agonizing wait for news about their missing child. They posted flyers seeking information but received no responses at all.
Six months passed in this manner; during this time, the entire family quit their jobs and devoted all their energy to searching for their son/grandson. Yet after half a year—besides their dwindling savings, increasingly gray hair, and hearts breaking further—they found nothing at all.
The wife could no longer bear such a blow and became mentally ill. What was once an enviable family instantly turned into a source of dread. She would ask everyone she met, "Have you seen my son? Have you seen my son?" She had become a living embodiment of Xianglin's Wife, devoid of the tenderness and grace she once possessed.
In her desperate search for her son, all their savings were exhausted, leaving no money for treatment.
The family was utterly shattered.
Not long after, the mentally ill wife ran onto the main road and was crushed by a truck, leaving behind nothing but a mangled mess—no complete body remained. The news of her death reached her family, and her mother, unable to withstand such relentless blows, suffered a heart attack and died without recovering her breath.
Her father also could not bear the weight of such tragedy. His grandson had been abducted by human traffickers, and now both his wife and daughter had died because of it. What was the point of living in this world? On the seventh day after both his wife and daughter passed away, he drank pesticide and followed them into the afterlife.
The entire family of the wife had perished.
Such a blow was something no one could possibly accept. Yet Wei Feng accepted it because he knew that his son might still be alive or sold somewhere, waiting for him to find him. If something were to happen to him, his son would never be found again. It didn’t matter if he died; what mattered was that he couldn’t let his son suffer. He had to find his son—he must.
As she spoke, tears streamed down the old woman's face, and she made no effort to wipe them away. I had thought her tears had dried up, but a person's tears are endless; each memory is like another knife stabbing at the heart, creating more wounds.
The old woman said, "I understand that kind of pain. If it weren't for my son, I wouldn't want to live either. But I can't leave my son alone; he would be too lonely, too lonely. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I feel as if everything that has happened is just a dream."
"I always thought that when I woke up, I would see my grandson sleeping beside me, see my daughter-in-law doting on him, see my child coming home from work so we could sit together in the kitchen for dinner. But now I see nothing—it's all gone, empty... nothing left..."
Six months later, Wei Feng finally found a photo of the human trafficker he had nearly brushed past before. However, this photo depicted not just one person but Twelve People. Wei Feng was overjoyed; he believed he had found a lead—if he could locate this trafficker, he could find his son.
Excitedly, Wei Feng rushed to the police station, hoping they would investigate this person. However, based solely on Wei Feng's word, how could the police believe this individual was a trafficker? When Wei Feng requested access to this person's registration details, the police denied his request. If anyone could come to the station and claim someone in a photo was a criminal while freely accessing others' records, society would descend into chaos.
Thus, the police merely stated they would look into it, but the matter faded away without resolution.
At this point, Wei Feng began to distrust the police entirely; he believed they were ineffectual and merely collecting paychecks. This is why he spoke to us in such a tone over the phone—he felt that it was all due to the police's negligence that traffickers roamed free.
Consequently, Wei Feng decided to take matters into his own hands; he would catch that trafficker himself and find his child.
The story stops here abruptly because by this time, it had been nearly a year since the old woman had last seen her son. Although she did not know what happened next, based on our investigation, we should be able to deduce what followed.
After that, Wei Feng somehow learned about the organization behind everything. He decided to join this organization, hoping to leverage its power to find his child. Over the course of four years, he dedicated himself to the organization, and in return, they provided him with leads.
Not long ago, perhaps a few months back, the Killer obtained all the information on the Twelve People from the photograph and planned the Zodiac Murders case. Perhaps tired of life within the organization or unwilling to serve such a group any longer, Wei Feng kidnapped those individuals while simultaneously devising a scheme to draw us in.
It was certain that he had not found his child; after all, he could not bring his child along while committing murder. This meant that his child was likely sold off somewhere, possibly becoming part of an organ trafficking ring and already killed.
The Killer knew that relying solely on his own abilities and knowledge would not be enough to complete this task. Therefore, through some channel, he kidnapped Geng Shaofei. In order to ensure the safety of himself and his family, Geng Shaofei recommended our special case team to the Killer. Thus, the Killer committed murder and sent us the first Human Skin Map letter.
This led to a series of subsequent cases.
Listening to this story left me with an indescribable discomfort. When a trafficker abducts a child, it harms not just that one child but devastates several families—indeed, dozens of people. Many demand the death penalty for traffickers, and it is not without reason. If a person cannot guarantee basic safety, then where in this world can one truly feel secure?
After finishing her story, the old lady noticed that the water on the stove had boiled. As she poured us some water, she asked, "Officer, may I ask what you are here for? Have you found my grandson?"
It turned out that she mistook us for members of a child trafficking investigation team. How I wished I could say yes! But circumstances prevented me from speaking up about our true purpose: we were here to apprehend her son. After all, her son had become her only motivation for living.
A senior high school student was kidnapped along with a leggy school beauty and a busty third-tier celebrity, trapped in an abandoned cabin after mistakenly eating unknown wild fruit, feeling feverish in the middle of the night.
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