Chapter 920

Sizzle...

The lamb with its fatty edges, stimulated by cumin and chili, emitted a charming fragrance.

Jiang Hao rotated the iron skewers of lamb, took a deep breath, and said to Jiang Yuan: "Cumin, this plant, feels like it should have a grudge against sheep. If it didn't specifically grow this flavor, we wouldn't be able to eat so much lamb."

"Maybe its whole family was eaten by wild sheep." Mu Zhiyang moved a chair and sat nearby, taking a sip of beer and a bite of lamb, truly in a holiday state.

Jiang Hao quite liked Mu Zhiyang's style; he took a bottle of beer, clinked it with his, and laughed: "Wild sheep ate the ancestor of cumin, and after years of persistent mutation, cumin finally allowed domestic goats and sheep to be wrapped in a red and prosperous life. It's tragic and beautiful."

"Brother Hao is quite literary. You could consider building a homestay in these mountains. If you encounter someone eating steamed buns with pickles, you could waive the bill and even treat them to some roasted lamb, eventually achieving the reputation of the 'Timely Rain' of Jia Li Zhai."

"Song Jiang Hao, is it? Don't say, this name sounds quite good." Jiang Hao was amused: "Song Jiang was an official in the county, right? I wonder what his rank was?"

Normal people reading *Water Margin* look at the instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards and his beautiful, moving wife; how would good people study Song Jiang's rank?

After the scene went cold for a few seconds, it was the oldest, Meng Chengbiao, who saved the situation, saying: "Song Jiang was a clerk, one rank lower than a deputy county magistrate, but higher than the leaders of the bureaus. Equivalent to a chief secretary of an agency."

"At least two ranks higher than Political Huang Zhengwei." Mu Zhiyang summarized.

The few people present laughed "hehehe" and clinked their beer bottles with a "bang bang." Being able to speak ill of company leaders in this wilderness and pleasant climate is the joy that team building should have.

Song Jiang Hao roasted a batch of lamb skewers and then kicked his feet up to enjoy them. He usually brought henchmen when he went camping; otherwise, he couldn't drive the two camping vehicles by himself, let alone the issue of drunk driving. Roasting meat and such was naturally very happy to do occasionally, but if it turned into work, that would be miserable.

Jiang Yuan was also eating two skewers of roasted meat and drinking a glass of iced light beer. It was rare to have no cases today—the old man Fang Mingfeng's report, as Meng Chengbiao said, was somewhat ambiguous. Mainly because the suspected victim was a young male who loved budget travel, which lowered the importance of the case by more than one level.

Missing persons actually have many types, including unconscious disappearance, active disappearance, and passive disappearance. If it were an elderly person or a patient, the police might need to handle a case of unconscious disappearance, but that is basically the task of the local police station and does not belong to a criminal case, which is what criminal police call a "case."

The situation of active disappearance is more complicated; there are active disappearances of teenagers, and active disappearances caused by family discord, etc. Similar to cases of unconscious disappearance, cases of active disappearance rarely reach the hands of criminal police.

What criminal police really need to pay attention to are cases of passive disappearance, but Liu Yang, as a backpacker, left the homestay voluntarily and entered the mountains voluntarily, so this cannot be called a "passive" disappearance; at most, there might be enticement.

If it were just Liu Yang alone, Jiang Yuan might not even necessarily let Wang Chuanxing pursue the investigation. Wang Chuanxing's life is also a life, and his time cannot be wasted at will.

It is only because there are multiple people in similar situations that there is a basis for investigation.

But it is just a basis. Under normal circumstances, even if this counts as a case, it wouldn't reach Jiang Yuan's cold case task force. Changle City has limited funds and wants to use its best resources where they are most needed, which is why they keep trying to retain Huang Qiangmin and keep negotiating the price.

And even if Liu Yang is missing, to put it bluntly, the possibility of his case receiving top-tier attention is close to zero, unless a body can be found. Or to put it politely, because the possibility of Liu Yang's disappearance is in doubt, even if he is missing, the possibility of being forced to disappear is low, and even if he was forced to disappear, the possibility of death is low, so his case is unlikely to be sent to Jiang Yuan immediately.

If Jiang Yuan's cold case task force invested thousands of man-hours only to find Liu Yang emerging from the woods with his backpack, looking completely bewildered, that would be the real bewilderment.

"Have a skewer of roasted wings." Shen Yaowei brought over his latest achievement.

"Yo, roasted well." Jiang Yuan gave a thumbs up as soon as he saw the crispy yellow appearance.

Shen Yaowei laughed twice and said: "I used to be a player too."

"This doesn't seem to be a good word." Wang Chuanxing walked over, carrying a notebook, and whispered to Jiang Yuan: "The names and phone numbers provided by the homestay owner, the phones can't be reached. I checked, the names and phone numbers match, but the phones of the first two people haven't been used for a while; they basically stopped being used after they went missing. There are no newly registered phone numbers either..."

This extra step Wang Chuanxing took attracted Jiang Yuan's attention.

People nowadays, especially ordinary people, cannot have no mobile phone card of their own under their name. If an old phone number is no longer used, at least a new, usable phone card will be registered. Even if one goes abroad, a domestic phone number is very useful; at the very least, it must be able to receive verification codes.

It can be said that even for the budget travel crowd, they can go to every mysterious and strange corner of the world without a word, can stay away from parents, and leave wives and daughters, but they cannot leave the embrace of mobile phone operators.

"Do you want to investigate this case?" Meng Chengbiao wandered over with a beer and said: "Not necessarily dead, but definitely not in a normal state. Maybe it's a pyramid scheme, or it could be a cult, human trafficking is also possible; could it be drug dealers buying people, or is there black-market mining in the mountains?"

"Organs?" Shen Yaowei wanted to do something big.

Meng Chengbiao said from experience: "Organs are easier to get in big cities, right? In these deep mountains and old forests, entering and exiting is difficult, and if something happens, it's hard to hide. It's just easier to bury people, but they want to make money, not kill people. Many just take a kidney or something... Besides, it's not easy to find a doctor to come over..."

"Old Meng is an honest man." Shen Yaowei handed him a skewer of lamb as he watched Meng Chengbiao analyze it seriously.

"I'll report it to Political Huang Zhengwei and Branch Chief Lang first." Jiang Yuan didn't rush to make a decision. Not to mention that they didn't have the authority to file a case in Changle City, even if it were a case, it wasn't urgent enough to be handled immediately.

Several missing persons were young males who backpacked into the mountains themselves and took transportation to this Jia Li Zhai themselves. On this basis, the case still has a lot of room for change.

Huang Qiangmin and Captain Lang Heng were sitting together. Jiang Yuan made a phone call and reported the situation to both of them.

Captain Lang Heng laughed after hearing it and said: "I'll have someone check it first. If it's a case, I'll send someone to investigate. Jiang Yuan, you don't need to handle this case. If you've rested well, just handle the cases that we ordinary police can't solve."

"I'll go back to work in a few days." Jiang Yuan didn't have anything to do on this trip; he brought his emotional intelligence along.

This case, let alone for Captain Lang Heng, the branch chief of the Changle City Criminal Police Detachment, even for the criminal police brigade of the county bureau below, might not even be ranked. If the normal process is followed, the police station would file the case first, and after investigation, if it is determined to be a case, it would depend on the degree and whether it needs to be transferred to the criminal police team.

If they encounter a few people establishing a new dynasty in the mountains, or recruiting refugees under the guise of traveling to Lin Gao, defrauding believers of their property, and lying that D-Day is coming and everyone is a veteran of the new world, a few police officers from the station going over would cause it to collapse. There's no need for the criminal police team to make a special trip, and they would still have to ask the station police for directions at that time.

After saying a few more words, just as Jiang Yuan was about to end the call, Liu Jinghui's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Do these three or four missing people all stay in the same homestay owner's shop? And this owner is the one who took the initiative to report it. What is special about his homestay that makes missing people all stay there?"

"The price is relatively cheap?" Jiang Yuan said uncertainly: "128 a night, and you can bargain down to 100."

"That's about the price over at Jia Li Zhai." Captain Lang Heng knew a little bit about it.

"In that case... would there be universality?" Jiang Yuan also easily reached this inference.

Liu Jinghui said: "It can be considered an investigative direction. If there is indeed universality, then investigate why these people came and how they came. If there is no universality, then ask what is special about it."

Liu Jinghui said, and added: "Investigating where they went is still hard to check. We have climbed Mount Wu Long together; it's not that kind of case, and unless all other paths are exhausted, there's no need to investigate head-on."

He was worried that Jiang Yuan would enter the mountains while camping. Not to mention how difficult it is to investigate along the way, if there really is a criminal group inside, these twenty-something people don't even have a gun; they might even be hunted like deer.

Jiang Yuan agreed and said: "Then let Branch Chief Lang's side investigate first, and we'll see if we encounter a situation. Division Chief Liu, are you with Political Huang Zhengwei? Do you want to come camping together?"

The meaning of the second half of Jiang Yuan's sentence is roughly equivalent to "Blink if you've been kidnapped."

Liu Jinghui "coughed" twice and said: "Your Political Huang Zhengwei is doing some bundling, and the provincial department has no objections. I'm just following along to listen."

Jiang Yuan laughed and happily ended the call.

The next half day was unremarkable, nothing more than eating skewers, drinking, lying flat, chatting, and scrolling through phones.

By the time everyone was tired of playing and packed up to leave, the sky had already dimmed.

The vehicles were arranged in a long line, and a few poor kids who didn't drink drove them out of the mountains shakily.

Jiang Yuan sat in the car and fell asleep in a daze.

"Team Jiang." Mu Zhiyang called out softly from the side.

"Hmm... are we there?" Jiang Yuan sat up straight.

"Someone is following us." Mu Zhiyang squeezed his empty belt and spoke in a low voice.