Chapter 616: This Line Broke Long Ago

Too arrogant!

This was Hua Team's first reaction.

He had never seen such a brazen fellow who was buying women under 35 nationwide.

He had never even heard of it.

But upon closer thought, the other party had only dared to spread the word within the human trafficking circle—not exactly open and bold.

Nationwide...

He carefully recalled various incidents in the country in recent years, trying to find cases similar to the current situation.

Mass disappearances tied to trafficking—recently, the most common were overseas high-salary traps.

It was 2015; the telecom fraud rings in northern Myanmar had just emerged.

The reason was that domestic crackdowns on telecom fraud had forced many gangs to flee overseas.

After establishing bases abroad, they lured young people nationwide to go there for work.

This led many to travel in groups, and the vast majority eventually lost contact, vanishing without a trace.

In those years, many traffickers switched to becoming snakeheads, as so many people fell for it and the profits were enormous.

Especially during the peak two years, rumors even claimed that drug trafficking earned less than smuggling people to northern Myanmar.

Hua Team thought carefully, then compared the two cases, and ultimately dismissed them.

Compared side by side, the northern Myanmar telecom fraud was far more rampant, bordering on outright brazenness.

This current case, by contrast, was far more low-key.

Twelve missing people here seemed like a lot, but compared to the tens of thousands missing in northern Myanmar, there was no comparison at all.

Another unique aspect of this case was that all twelve abducted women were intellectually disabled.

Let me put it this way: even northern Myanmar didn't want such people.

First, they couldn't fetch a ransom; second, they couldn't participate in fraud.

Making them call people to scam them would be a pure waste of phone credits—unless the victim was also intellectually disabled.

"Call your contact now."

After some thought, Hua Team still decided to follow the trail and pursue this lead:

"Say you've found another batch of women under 35, and this batch is even better quality—tell them to come for the handover."

He believed this was the only way to lure the other side out.

Ye Haiqiang had already transacted once with his contact; they had established mutual trust, so this time they would definitely be drawn out.

"Okay." Ye Haiqiang agreed readily:

"I need to use my own phone to call them."

Hua Team nodded:

"No problem."

Soon, an officer brought Ye Haiqiang's phone into the interrogation room.

"You know better than I do how to make them take the bait." Hua Team handed him the phone:

"If you make a major contribution, your future really is uncertain."

He couldn't promise Ye Haiqiang anything—after all, the sum of his crimes would surely mean a bullet to the head.

So he could only offer vague hints to subtly remind the man.

"I understand."

Ye Haiqiang replied immediately:

"Don't worry—I'll cooperate fully. Even if I can't get a reduced sentence, I hope my last days can be comfortable."

He was reminding Hua Team in return.

For the provincial bureau, making a suspect's life in detention slightly more comfortable was easy enough.

After Hua Team nodded in agreement, Ye Haiqiang opened his phone's contact list and dialed a number.

He had just placed the phone to his ear when he immediately pulled it away.

"Off?"