Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 638 Hope
Luo Xianjin harbors resentment towards the police because his once 'perfect' home has been turned into this state.

Even though he knew that his own son was the one who had really done wrong, and even though he knew that he himself was also responsible, Luo Xianjin now only thought that his family had been ruined and that he was no longer respected in the village because of the police's meddling.

Even if the son is wrong, why can't we be lenient with him when we see the family in this state?

right?
If you want to arrest people, just arrest Luo Jianlin. Why do you have to arrest everyone in the village who did wrong? How can he live in the village like that?

Luo Xianjin glared at Zhang Ke and Sun Chang with dissatisfaction, then turned his back to them, completely ignoring them.

"excuse me."

Zhang Ke and Sun Chang didn't insist on being entertained. After greeting Luo Xianjin, they went straight into the house. They looked around to assign tasks and began trying to find valuable clues.

Lin Ge also strolled in slowly, glanced at Luo Xianjin, and then ignored him.

Lin Ge's initial opinion of the old man was somewhat lenient. However, after learning everything about Ai Yun, Lin Ge gradually developed a dislike for him. After all, if the old man hadn't failed to discipline his son, Ai Yun and Luo Jue wouldn't have ended up like this.

Even if you paid money to buy your daughter-in-law, you better treat her well, you bastard!
"Ow!"

Lin Ge roared at Luo Xianjin in annoyance, startling the old man.

Ignoring the old man who had given up, Lin Ge followed Zhang Ke and Sun Chang and began to carefully search the house. This time, their goal was to see if they could find what Ai Yun had been carrying before she arrived.

However, Lin Ge only needed to sniff the room briefly to know that there was no trace of Ai Yun in it.

She fell ill after Luo Jue was taken away, and a few years later she was sent to Yongshi for treatment. In total, she hadn't been in this house for at least six or seven years. Given that she hadn't returned for so long, it's understandable that her presence was absent. Furthermore, it's worth considering that after her illness, Ai Yun gradually became a burden to the Luo family, suffering various forms of disdain and abuse. Therefore, although this was where she used to live, not a single item belonging to her could be found at the scene.

The fact that he didn't even have a single old piece of clothing was truly astonishing to Lin Ge.

He briefly strolled around the house and found it to be a mess, completely different from when he last visited.

Garbage was everywhere, and the air was thick with foul odors. Dried chicken droppings were scattered on the ground, and empty bottles were strewn about. The kitchen was a complete mess. Inside the rooms, unwashed clothes were everywhere, and even a few pieces of farm tools were hanging on a pile of piles of farm tools in the corner.

The environment was so terrible that it was practically uninhabitable, but Luo Xianjin chose to leave it as it was and didn't intend to clean it up. He just noticed that Sun Chang and Zhang Ke didn't want to talk to him, so he lazily returned to his room, lay down on the bed, and started whimpering.

As for stopping Zhang Ke and Sun Chang from working, he didn't dare. Although he was only subject to supervision and punishment, he finally understood the power and authority of the police.

"It looks like it's not in the house. Let's look for it in the yard."

After a quick search of the wardrobe and boxes, Zhang Ke found nothing of value in the house. Seeing Mimi with her tail drooping and unwilling to come inside, he understood Lin Ge's meaning and signaled to expand the search area.

After entering the backyard from the kitchen, I found that the yard was also a mess.

Weeds grew rampant everywhere, and the ground was covered in mud with footprints stuck in it; chairs lay overturned haphazardly around, as if they had been the target of some kind of emotional outburst. Furthermore, the pigs and poultry that had once been kept in the earthen house in the yard had all vanished, leaving only the stinking, empty house and a thick layer of manure piled in the corner. Lin Ge even saw a chick in one corner of the yard, its head bitten off, likely killed by a weasel or some other animal.

Even so, at least the open space provided more footholds than the house; Lin Ge sniffed the air, forcing himself to endure the unpleasant smell, and began searching the yard.

He knew very well that, given Luo Jianlin's attitude towards Ai Yun, it was highly unlikely that he would properly store Ai Yun's belongings. Most of her personal items had probably already been disposed of immediately; now it was just a matter of whether he could find any oversights.

Then... after working hard for more than half an hour, Lin Ge made an unexpected discovery.

Finding nothing in the clean areas, Lin Ge, suppressing his germaphobia, entered the pigsty and successfully discovered a silver bracelet, faintly scented with Ai Yun's fragrance, in a dried-up pile of manure in a corner. The bracelet was completely deformed; whether gnawed by pigs or by human hands was unknown, it was broken, twisted beyond recognition, and covered in bite marks. It was even encased in pig dung, and it took Zhang Ke considerable effort to barely clean it and restore its original color.

"This... is it a steel stamp?"

After taking a picture of the bracelet with his phone and zooming in, Zhang Ke examined it carefully and finally saw a faint, blurry mark in one of the twisted parts.

"Perhaps we can find out which jewelry store made it?"

Sun Chang's eyes lit up.

"First, we need to determine when it was bought. Maybe it was a gift from Luo Jianlin to Ai Yun?"

Zhang Ke sneered, joking with Sun Chang.

"Wearing this at your wedding?"

Sun Chang showed a disdainful expression, of course she knew what Zhang Ke meant. Moreover, in her opinion, after knowing what Luo Jianlin had done to Ai Yun, she didn't believe that Luo Jianlin would be willing to spend a single penny on Ai Yun.

As expected, when Zhang Ke took the silver fragment to Luo Xianjin for questioning, he received a disdainful sneer. Faced with Zhang Ke's repeated questioning, Luo Xianjin stated that after Luo Jianlin bought Ai Yun, he had no intention of holding a wedding, nor did he treat Ai Yun as a normal wife. Aside from buying her some everyday clothes, he hadn't bought her anything else! Forget about pocket money or daily expenses! As for jewelry?
Hehe... Luo Jianlin would rather buy these things for the village idiot and try to get a little bargain than buy Ai Yun any cheap items.

"In other words, this silver bracelet is either something Ai Yun always carries with her, or something she found by accident, or something someone gave to her. There is very likely no fourth possibility."

Zhang Ke made the judgment.

"Is it possible that someone accidentally dropped it here?"

Sun Chang looked at Lin Ge.

Lin Ge understood Sun Chang's meaning and shook his head, indicating that although the bracelet had been covered by pig manure before and had been cleaned by Zhang Ke, it still retained Ai Yun's scent.

The only question is, if it was something Ai Yun carried with her, why didn't Huang Guimei take it away?
Perhaps only Huang Guimei herself would know the answer to this question.

One piece of evidence might not be enough, so Lin Ge continued searching the yard for a while longer. This time, he didn't find anything of value, and after lingering a bit longer, dusk gradually fell.

Thus, the search for Ai Yun's "home" in Tuqiao Village yielded only this one clue. As for the most sought-after items—Ai Yun's personal clothing and other belongings when she was abducted—it was impossible that they had been left behind.

With this rare piece of evidence, the two men and the cat returned to the hotel to report the situation to Zhang Yong.

At the same time, it was learned that the Yongshi Municipal Public Security Bureau's search for the victim was not going smoothly. Although they already knew that Huang Guimei was Sister Mei and that she had been active in Yongshi, it was still the same old story: crimes committed more than ten or twenty years ago are not easy to find now.

However, news of Sister Mei's arrest has spread to the outside world through the efforts of organizations searching for trafficked children and through mutual reminders from the families of various victims. Those who were previously unaware of Sister Mei's identity now know that such a heinous and wicked human trafficker exists in China. When it was learned that the number of trafficked victims involved exceeded double digits, public opinion in China immediately turned outrageous. Some applauded, some sympathized, and of course, there were those who criticized the police for taking so long to arrest her, putting even more pressure on the police.

Of course, it's not just a matter of pressure. At least after the matter became known, more people were willing to get involved and report suspected targets.

In just two days, the domestic police system received over two thousand 110 emergency calls, all concerning speculation and suspicion of suspected human trafficking victims. However, apart from two cases where the parents couldn't produce birth certificates or specify the hospital of birth, all the others turned out to be false alarms. Of course, not all calls were invalid; at least ten suspects were identified as illegitimate children, which certainly added some excitement for certain individuals.

On the other hand, as public opinion spreads about human trafficking cases and people's sympathy for trafficked persons and their families, various charitable organizations have received a lot more donations during this period, and it seems that the whole country has started to pay attention to this issue.

Meanwhile, the silver bracelet that Lin Ge had painstakingly found was restored at the Yongshi Municipal Bureau's Technical Center.

The bracelet did indeed have a stamp, but it came from an informal company, probably a private workshop or a similar custom-made agency. After seeking help from the industry and commerce department, it was learned that there were a total of 37 registered workshops called "Guming Silver Jewelry Processing" across the country, located in various provinces and cities from south to north. The closest Guming Silver Jewelry Processing workshop to Yongshi was located in Zhuzhou City, only a little over 100 kilometers away, which happened to be a place Lin Ge was familiar with.

This news is neither good nor bad; after all, no one can guarantee that things will happen by such a coincidence.

However, after Zhang Yong took the initiative to call and added the workshop owner on WeChat, he received some unexpected news from the owner.

The silver bracelet that regained its shape was a custom-made piece!

It is not a regular bracelet style, but rather part of a companion silver jewelry project that this Guming Silver Jewelry Workshop carried out for a period of time more than ten or twenty years ago.

What does that mean?

This bracelet is a type of children's bracelet. Once a child wears it, the shop suggests that they don't need to take it off. It can be worn from childhood to adulthood, with the size adjusted as the child grows, symbolizing a lifelong companion.

Of course, in reality, this thing is mostly a gimmick, but the bracelet fragment that Zhang Yong sent over was indeed a handmade product of Zhuzhou Guming Silver Jewelry.

It was only sold for a few short years before gradually losing its market due to the high cost of craftsmanship, the drop in silver prices, and the rise of craft products such as platinum and colored gold, and eventually disappeared from the products of this Guming Silver Jewelry.

But that's enough. At least one clue related to Ai Yun has been confirmed!

This news brought immense joy to everyone.

Lin Ge hadn't expected such a coincidence to actually happen. Ai Yun was very likely from Zhuzhou City, or at least she or her parents or relatives had been there. In short, like a bolt from the blue, the clue had appeared.

"Then let's leave now?"

Li Siyu was extremely excited.

These past few days, Zhang Ke, Li Yiduo, and Sun Chang have all been busy outside, while she has the least workload, spending most of her time taking care of Ai Yun. As they spend more time together, her sympathy and pity for Ai Yun grow stronger. Although she herself is orphaned and alone, at least she has relatives far away and people who remember and care about her. But what about Ai Yun? She doesn't know who her parents are, where she's from, or what her past was like. She's even become a mentally ill patient with a high risk of relapse, and only her one son by her side—it's heartbreaking to think about.

"The day after tomorrow! Tomorrow I need to deal with some other issues. A person with a criminal record who was caught by Yongshi police ten years ago for forging documents came over this morning to report that he had made several hundred fake documents for someone suspected to be Huang Guimei."

Zhang Yong remained calm at this moment. The more critical the moment, the more he needed to deal with it calmly. He couldn't let clues lead him astray and end up running around aimlessly without achieving anything.

"What kind of fake certificates? Why does Huang Guimei need so many?"

Zhang Ke found it somewhat difficult to understand.

Zhang Yong glanced at him and said indifferently, "Fake birth certificates, fake abandonment certificates, fake orphanage adoption certificates, a complete set of fake income certificates. Back then, with these things, and by pulling some strings, getting a household registration was a piece of cake."

"..."

Zhang Ke kept quiet. These kinds of things, involving personal relationships and illegal operations, always made them, as police officers, feel uncomfortable.

Violating regulations might feel good in the short term, but it will lead to disaster later! Many cases are actually not complicated to investigate, but it is precisely because of the illegal behavior of certain individuals that the suspects cannot be found, which is disgusting.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the fact that a person with a criminal record has voluntarily confessed to having had contact with Huang Guimei is a significant leap forward for the entire case.

He was a forger of documents; in other words, all the documents Huang Guimei needed had to go through him. This meant he knew exactly what the children whose documents required fake certificates were, which orphanage they were from, and who the adoptive parents were. Even though he might not remember much after all these years, just recalling one or two names of trafficked victims or adoptive parents would be enough to find the person through the police records.

In other words, the more information this person remembers, the more trafficked victims could potentially be found! Undoubtedly, this is exciting and promising news.

Sure enough, the next day, a man named Zhao Zilong was found in the household registration files of the Yongshi Municipal Bureau.

Thirteen years ago, he legally adopted a baby boy, whom he renamed Zhao Wen, through forged documents and personal connections. The person who forged the documents remembered him clearly because Zhao Zilong's name sounded like Zhao Zilong, making it memorable. The name Zhao Zilong was not common in Yongshi, and he was the only person with such an adoption history. That same afternoon, Yongshi police came to his door, and after numerous excuses, he reluctantly confessed.

What left the police speechless was that, because Zhao Wen was a trafficked child bought under the guise of adoption, he knew from a young age that he and Zhao Zilong and his wife were not biologically related. Whether due to poor upbringing, laziness, or something else, Zhao Wen disliked studying, was disobedient, mischievous, and had a terrible temper from a young age. In junior high, he skipped classes every day and stayed out all night. Now, at seventeen, he has dropped out of high school and become a useless person.

When the police found Zhao Wen in an internet cafe, he was completely engrossed in online games, ignoring the police's requests and not caring what would happen to Zhao Zilong.

When the police asked him if he needed to find his biological parents, he directly and decisively refused, citing that he was already an adult.

This child who was abducted back then has become this kind of person.

“I don’t dare to criticize him, and I can’t beat him in a fight! Every time I say something harsh, he says he’s going to go back to his original parents and doesn’t want me to take care of him. He says he’s not my son, we’re not related by blood, and we’re not father and son, so he has no intention of taking care of me in my old age!”

With his hands handcuffed, Zhao Zilong, though only in his fifties, looked as old as someone in his sixties or seventies.

Facing police questioning, he expressed regret for his past crimes and remorse for not raising Zhao Wen properly. If Zhao Wen hadn't been abducted and had stayed with his biological parents, would he be in this state now?
A child's fate and future were completely altered because of the heinous act of a kidnapper.

Just like Ai Yun and Luo Jue.

Without Huang Guimei's involvement and influence, Ai Yun's life would definitely be completely different! She would never have suffered from this mental illness again, she would never have lost her 'Luo Jue', and she would definitely be living a very happy life!

Of course! Even after more than ten years of misfortune, Ai Yun was still very excited when she learned that she would soon be able to find her biological parents, and even showed a look of great anticipation.

This guy had been harassing Lin Ge ever since he got on the bus, making Lin Ge regret getting on the lady's bus. He should have gone to ride with Zhang Ke and Li Yiduo!
Although those three bastards over there like to smoke and make the car smell like smoke, at least they won't harass him!
(End of this chapter)