Chapter 301: That Year I Was Locked Up by Someone

So all that knowledge of his was learned during his imprisonment.

As for exactly how he learned it, there's no need to speculate—just go ask Fang Peng himself.

Yu Dazhang mulled it over for a while longer, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt this was the most likely possibility.

But there was still one question he couldn't figure out.

If Fang Peng had been imprisoned by someone, why didn't he report it to the police?

If he had filed a report, there would definitely be a related record in his personal file.

Two possibilities.

One: after reporting to the police, for some reason no case was filed.

Two: he didn't report it locally in Songhai.

Or, both possibilities could be true.

Yu Dazhang wrote down the two keywords—imprisonment and police report—in his notebook again.

Staring at the word "imprisonment" in his notebook, another question popped into his head.

What was there about him worth imprisoning?

The purpose behind Fang Peng imprisoning girls was obvious at a glance.

But what would someone else want to imprison him for?

Having to provide him with food and drink during the imprisonment—it just doesn't add up no matter how you look at it.

Questions like this can't be answered through speculation, and there's no need to guess either.

Closing the notebook and tucking it into the bag he carried, Yu Dazhang stood up and stretched.

Assumptions are done—time to verify.

He took out his phone and called Ma Jian:

"You and Liu Miao go to the detention center now. We'll meet there."

Twenty minutes later.

The three of them met up at the detention center and saw Fang Peng.

Two days without seeing him, Fang Peng looked much older—the man was utterly haggard, his eye sockets sunken, his complexion a waxy yellow.

After he was cuffed to the interrogation chair by a guard, Yu Dazhang finally asked:

"Sick?"

Fang Peng shook his head without speaking.

"That's good, then." Yu Dazhang let out a breath of relief, then asked:

"How have you been thinking things over these past two days?"

Hearing this, Ma Jian and Liu Miao both couldn't help but glance at him.

Isn't it obvious enough?

One look at Fang Peng and you can tell he's sleep-deprived—worry has worn him down to a shadow of himself.

"Am I beyond saving?"

Fang Peng raised his head, looked at Yu Dazhang, hope in his eyes:

"After I went back last time, the guys in my cell helped me analyze it. They said with my situation, it's definitely a death sentence."

They weren't wrong... Yu Dazhang replied with a solemn expression:

"Don't listen to other people's nonsense. If what they said counted, what would we need a court for?"

Right now, he could only comfort Fang Peng in this casual, small-talk sort of way.

The most popular topic of conversation in the detention center is Guess the sentence.

Because everyone locked up inside is awaiting sentencing, so naturally the outcome of their own verdict is what interests them most.

There's a fascinating phenomenon—it's often the people locked up inside who guess their sentences most accurately.

Many real cases have proven that their estimates are more precise than what a lawyer says.

"You mean, there's still a chance for my case to turn around?"

Hearing Yu Dazhang's words, Fang Peng's spirits lifted, and color seemed to return to his whole face:

"Whatever you need me to do, just say the word. I'll definitely cooperate."

Western medicine gave you a death sentence, but Chinese medicine can give you a second life... Yu Dazhang suddenly felt like a man leading a donkey along by a carrot.

"The reason I'm here this time is that I do have some things to ask you. I hope you'll answer honestly."

As he spoke, Yu Dazhang took out his notebook from the bag he carried, flipped it open, glanced at the keywords recorded inside, and then asked:

"What did you do in 2009?"

He had expected Fang Peng to need a moment to recall, but to his surprise the man answered immediately:

"That year I was locked up by someone."

Guessed right!

A surge of excitement welled up inside Yu Dazhang.

Ma Jian and Liu Miao, on the other hand, wore puzzled expressions.

As far as they were concerned, when Fang Peng said he'd been locked up, it should have meant being caught by the police and held in the detention center.

Yet there was no related record in his file.

"Go into more detail." Yu Dazhang pressed:

"Who locked you up, and where were you held?"

The three elements of an event: time, place, person.

Right now he only knew the year of detention—2009—so naturally he had to prioritize asking about the place and the person.

"I don't know." Fang Peng's expression was somewhat blank:

"I still don't know to this day who the people were that locked me up, let alone the address."

He doesn't know anything?

Yu Dazhang stared at him, trying to find traces of lying on his face, but unfortunately failed.

The blankness on Fang Peng's face wasn't put on; it was the kind of emotion that surfaces only after thinking yields no results.

"Then tell me about the process of how you were locked up."

He could only settle for the next best thing now; first he'd get the sequence of events straight, then talk.

"Can you give me a cigarette?" Fang Peng made his request.

You really know how to pick your moment to reach out… Yu Dazhang fished a pack of Huazi from his pocket and handed it to Liu Miao, who was sitting nearby.

Before long, Fang Peng had a cigarette dangling from his lips and took a deep drag.

"In '08 I quit my job driving the factory shuttle. Even though driving for the plant was easy, the pay was too low."

His eyes fixed on the curling white smoke rising from the tip of the cigarette, he said in a calm tone:

"It happened to be the end of the year, so I didn't rush to look for work. After the New Year, I went to Yangcheng in Province d. I'd heard jobs were easy to find there and the pay was good."

"The result was, the moment I stepped out of the train station, I was taken away by someone. No—more accurately, I was forcibly dragged onto a vehicle."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang couldn't help but interrupt:

"Hold on a second. You mean the people who picked you up didn't know you, there wasn't even any exchange between you, and they just dragged you straight onto the vehicle?"

That sounds absolutely crazy, and it doesn't hold up logically.

Even human traffickers kidnapping people don't grab them right at the exit of a train station.

Out in the open, under everyone's watchful eyes—how big would their nerve have to be to dare do something like that?!

"It wasn't that there was no exchange at all."

Fang Peng said, recalling as he spoke:

"They were all talking over each other, saying things like, 'We've got you,' 'We've been waiting for you for ages.'"

"I remember saying several times, 'You've got the wrong person.'"

"But they acted as if they hadn't heard. Two burly men, one on each side, hoisted me up and onto a minivan."

Still not right… Yu Dazhang interrupted again:

"There must have been surveillance cameras at the station exit. For such a brazen crime, they should have been caught long ago."

And with so many people watching, someone was bound to have called the police.

When the time came, the police could trace the people and the vehicle through the surveillance footage.

"Of course it wasn't at the station exit." Fang Peng explained:

"When I said 'just out of the train station,' I meant I'd already walked beyond the station's perimeter."

"Before going, I'd looked up hotels near the train station online and picked one that was relatively cheap."

"I was dragged onto the vehicle on the way to that hotel."

"After I got on, they put a cloth bag over my head. I struggled at first, but all I got in return was a beating."

At this point.

He picked up the cigarette and took a deep drag, a hint of pain and despair crossing his face.

It was clear that the experience had been a very painful memory for him—so much so that even now, recalling it still left him shaken.

"Where they dragged you onto the vehicle, were there many people around?"

The moment the words left Yu Dazhang's mouth, he realized he'd missed something, so he immediately added:

"Did they cut you off with the vehicle, or did they park it on the side of the road and only move once you got close?"

This question was important.

From Fang Peng's answer, he could judge whether those people had committed the crime on the spur of the moment, or had been lying in wait with premeditation.

"It happened so suddenly, I didn't notice the people nearby."

Fang Peng thought for a moment, then answered:

"But there probably weren't many, because by then I'd already left the train station's perimeter."

"Also, they didn't cut me off with the vehicle. I walked closer, and only then did they swarm me and drag me onto it."

Yu Dazhang's eyes narrowed slightly after hearing this.

Waiting by the tree stump for a rabbit!

(End of chapter)