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墨書 Inktalez
After leaving the Police Chief's office, Lin Mingchang immediately rushed to the scene of the latest missing person case.
It was an ordinary merchant family living in a small courtyard on Zhengxian Alley in the eastern part of the city. As soon as Lin Mingchang stepped through the gate, he heard a woman sobbing inside, presumably the mother of the missing child, Zhang Rui. At the entrance of the main room, the child's father was squatting down, his hands clutching his head as he sighed heavily.
Seeing Lin Mingchang enter, Zhang Rui's father hurriedly approached him. "Officer, do you have any news about my son?"
Lin Mingchang shook his head. "Not yet. I just took over the case and came to gather more information."
"No news yet? The child has been missing for two days! What are you doing at the Police Station?" The man slammed his fist against the doorframe in frustration.
"Calm down!" Zhang Rui's mother rushed over and grabbed her husband's arm. "Officer, please don't take it out on him. I'm begging you to find my son! He’s only ten..."
"I completely understand how you both feel as parents. I will do everything I can," Lin Mingchang said as he took out his notebook. "Please tell me in detail what happened before and after you discovered your child was missing."
Zhang Rui's mother held back her tears and recounted, "Well, originally our family of three lived together in the main house. But recently, Rui said he wanted his own space because he felt grown up. His father couldn't refuse him, so we cleared out that storage room on the west side of the courtyard and made it into a small room for him. He had only been living there for less than three days when..."
"It's all my fault..." Zhang Rui's father interrupted, "I shouldn’t have agreed to it; if we had just stayed together, nothing would have happened!"
Lin Mingchang noted the timeline carefully and underlined the phrase "Zhang Rui suddenly insisted on living alone" several times.
Next, Lin Mingchang went to Zhang Rui's room on the west side of the courtyard. This small room converted from a storage space was cramped and simple; apart from a wooden bed, there was only a low desk with a few old textbooks and an oil lamp on it.
Several wooden pegs were nailed to the wall, holding two sets of clean clothes. In one corner, a wooden shelf held a few simple toys. The doors and windows were intact, showing no signs of being forced open.
"This room was originally filled with clutter; I spent two days cleaning it out and tidying it up," Zhang Rui's father said as he looked around, his eyes reddening again. "Rui said this was his 'little world,' and he was so happy..."
Lin Mingchang did not respond but walked straight to the toy shelf in the corner. There was one item that stood out among all—an exquisite puppet about a foot tall, dressed in bright red clothing with fine craftsmanship that clearly indicated it wasn’t something made casually at home.
Strangely enough, despite its exquisite design, the puppet’s face was featureless—no eyes or mouth carved into it—making it unsettlingly noticeable to Lin Mingchang at first glance.
He put on gloves and carefully picked up the puppet. It felt new; its joints were still movable, and while it was beautifully crafted, that blank face gave off an inexplicable eeriness.
"This puppet..." Lin Mingchang held the puppet and looked at Zhang Rui's parents.
mother Zhang's expression changed dramatically upon seeing the puppet. "This... this isn't ours! We never bought anything like this for Rui!"
"Are you sure? Could it be that the child bought it himself? Or perhaps a friend gave it to him?"
mother Zhang shook her head without hesitation. She had been replaying every moment in her mind since her son went missing, countless times over the past two days.
"I’m sure! On the night Rui disappeared, I came in to put a hot water bottle in his bed, and there was no puppet then!"
Lin Mingchang instructed the accompanying officer to take the puppet away and reassured Zhang Rui's parents for a moment before leaving.
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