Chapter 88 - The Scale

AUTHOR'S NOTICE- Chapters from 84 to 87 are edited. I apologize for the inconveniences caused by me.

My family and I are going through a tough time and I barely get time to write. I want to take a break and follow a regular update schedule. But unfortunately, I'm unable to do so.

I just hope everything will be alright very soon, so that I can focus on the story. 

Thanks for understanding, my dear readers. 

Thanks for choosing this story!!!

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"Try to contact the crime records bureau and check if there are any criminal case or unnatural death related to Shu Li Li and her family," Wan Yi Jun ordered as he stormed inside the mansion, along with the rest of the team.

"I'm on it, captain." Lao Yating volunteered as he fished out his phone, quickly switching to his working mode.

"Let me get the laptop," Wan Yi Jun suggested and rushed towards the stairs only to run into Han Ze Min and Ming Yue who happened to be descending the stairs together.

Even though, he wasn't very happy to seem them together, he decided to ignore it, since they got more important job than warning his good for nothing cousin to stay away from Ming Yue. 

"Help Senior Fei to sort the reports from Shu Lili's hometown." He instructed in an authoritative tone and gave a cold glance at Ming Yue who stood next to Han Ze Min, 

"I don't think I will be able to come home today, so lock the doors and sleep where you slept last night."

"Where are you-'"

Even before Ming Yue could respond to his order, Wan Yi Jun climbed the stairs in lightning speed as of he was trying to avoid a conversation. 

"Where is he going?" Han Ze Min wondered and looked at the people in the living room, busy with their phones. "What exactly happening here?" 

"Officer Han, we got a new breaking point for the case." Bing Wen whose eyes were buried onto his phone screen replied without even making an eye contact with Han Ze Min who stood there confused. 

"It's just a guess, but there is a high chance that it would turn out to be true." Shen Junru stood up from his seat and went towards Han Ze Min to give a briefing about Wan Yi Jun's hypothesis of Shu Lili having a criminal record. 

By the time, they finished discussing, Wan Yi Jun returned with his laptop, to ease their work. 

"It's just a hypothetical situation. Don't waste time searching for Shu Lili's criminal background." Han Ze Min adviced as soon as he saw his team captain setting up a temporary office room for the eagle team in his living room. 

"Even if we waste time, I don't want leave any possibility unchecked." Wan Yi Jun said as he sat down with Bing Wen who started cross checking their inferences of the investigation so far.

"Captain, I got a reply from Crime records bureau." All of a sudden, Lao Yating informed them as he hold onto his mobile. 

"There aren't any unnatural death or crimes that are related to Shu Lili, but there is an inactive man- missing case where she has been recorded a witness."

"Ask them to forward a report summary to us." Wan Yi Jun requested and logged on to the common mail address for the eagle team. 

Within seconds, the notification for the new mail has popped up on the screen and Bing Wen who opened the mail, started to read the summary.

"Song Jia, a 19 year old high school student, went missing on her way back home."

Bing Wen stopped reading and looked at Wan Yi Jun whether to read the rest of the document, 

"According to the statement of Shu Li Li, a classmate and the last person who saw the victim, 

stated that the witness saw miss Song walking in the direction of the east Gui Xiang, towards national highway road. When the witness tried to talk, miss Song shouted the other to go home before the rain. Since it was about to rain, the witness didn't pay much attention and went home.

On Thursday morning, after two days of this incident, Mr Song informed the village head that his daughter had ran away from home. Since miss Song lived with an abusive father and has previously tried to run away from her home, the local police has closed the case as an act of eloping instead of man missing after conducting two month long investigation." 

"That's it?" Wan Yi Jun asked in a disappointed tone. 

"Apparently, yes." 

"The cases of rebellious teens leaving their houses were a huge issue back then...and it's a girl too, there is a high chance that she ended up somewhere worse than her own house." Fei Yan sighed heavily, as if he was reciprocating to Wan Yi Jun's disappointment. 

"I told you, it just waste of time." Han Ze Min commented and stood up from his seat, 

However, right at that time Lao Yating's phone rang in the room, gathering everyone's attention all at once. 

"It is from the Bureau." He excitedly picked up the call and put it on the speaker mode, 

"Officer Lao, the previous enquiry report showed up when I searched with 'Shu Lili' and 'West Gui Xiang' as keywords. It's an old report from six years ago, but just now I tried looking for any follow up cases regarding the Song Jia's missing and I found that someone has reopened the case two years ago, when some hikers found skeletal remains from the Tai Shan mountain area in West Gui Xiang itself."

"Is it hers?" Han Ze Min asked in a hurried voice, as if he couldn't control his urge to know the rest of the report. 

"The investigator at that time tried to cross check the DNA samples from the man missing cases from forensic department's repository. Since the skeleton was of a woman in late teens, there was a talk in the village that it was Song Jia. They cross checked Song Jia's DNA with her father's, but it came out negative."

As soon as the inference heard in the room, the anticipated look on everyone's face vanished in a glimpse.

"Since her parents were dead by the time, there wasn't anyone to pressurize the police department to find out the truth, and eventually the local police had to close the case due to lack of evidence and tag the skeletal remains as unidentified." The officer in the other side of the call, concluded the report. 

"Hmmm. Thank you so much, officer." 

"No problem. Should I send the detailed case report, officer Lao?" Lao Yating tilted his head and looked at his senior for further order, 

"Yes, please." Wan Yi Jun requested before ending the conversation, leaving everyone in utter disbelief. 

"Didn't you hear it? It's a dead end. There is no point in dragging an unidentified corpse into this hot mess." Han Ze Min suggested when he heard his captain's resilient order.

"I too think the same, captain. We already have enough in our plates." Even Lao Yating who was so pumped up to find the truth, discouraged Wan Yi Jun from committing another mistake. 

"Ding!!!" 

"They have sent us the detailed report." Bing Wen who held the laptop pointed out as soon as he saw the notification for a new mail. 

"Let's see if we can gather information about Song Jia and Shu Li Li' s relationship in their school." Wan Yi Jun proposed as he dragged the cursor and began to go through the case report. 

The very moment, the victim's photograph appeared on the screen, Han Ze Min leaned in to get a better look. 

"No offence. But, even in the school uniform, she looks like a law breaker, some sort of delinquent." Han Ze Min commented as soon as he saw the photograph of Song Jia with dyed, unkempt hair and numerous piercings on ears and nodes. 

"From the statements of her classmates and neighbours, she is indeed a delinquent and outlaw." 

Wan Yi Jun said without lifting his eyes from the screen. 

"Good luck finding anything common between a class topper and a delinquent." Han Ze Min casually remarked with a mocking tone. 

"You are searching in the darkness, Yi Jun. Stop wasting everyone's time." 

However, Wan Yi Jun completely ignored him and went ahead presenting the inferences to the rest of the team members. 

"From the report, it was said that Ji Ya's personality was a bit problematic as she maintained relationships with various men, especially vendors who came to Gui Xiang for buying fishes and all. So people just assumed that she must have eloped with one of them." 

"If she is eloped with someone, there will be some kind of documents to prove that she is alive...like medical records or proof of name change etc etc." Fei Yan shared whatever came up with one of the possibility to support his claim. 

"Does organ traffickers ask for identity documents?" 

A familiar cold voice echoed in the room, interrupting the conversation. 

When the eagle team's line of sight got focused on the tall and slender figure who stood at the corner of the room, they were literally left dumbfounded. 

They completely forgot that there was some one else in the room, listening to their discussion. 

"What did you just say, Xiao Yue?" Han Ze Min smilingly asked the girl, as if he didn't hear her properly. "Organ traffickers in this country?"

"I know it's a bit difficult for some of you to accept it. But you are talking about a missing case that happened in the rural coastal Village, that too six years ago. I don't know what was the situation in imperial, but there were enough groups of organ mafia looking out for runaway cases." Ming Yue explained as if she was well versed in this subject. 

"Since she got a questionable personality, everyone just tagged her missing case as simple act of thoughtless eloping... Who cares if she live or die? She is a bad apple in everyone's eyes, rotten to core...

She paused for a moment and glanced across the curious and surprised faces in the room, only to settle on Wan Yi Jun's sullen face, 

"Something that can't be saved...."