Chapter 52: The Blue Circle! The Wrong Direction?

By the dried riverbed!

Hearing Xiong Beibei's speculation, Shen Ting nodded and said, "This is indeed a line of thought. You take charge of it! I also have a new lead now. Gao Ya went to the north of Zhangguan Village, and I want to go have a look over there."

Zhangguan Village?

Why did the focus suddenly shift all the way over there?

Zhangguan Village was certainly not close to this place!

However, Xiong Beibei and Xu Xinyi did not ask too many questions. Because it was the first time they had seen Shen Ting look so anxious. They kept their communication as concise as possible.

Xu Xinyi said, "The gang-related syndicate and the screening of the residential buildings—Xiong Beibei can handle all of that. Shen Ting, I'll drive you to Zhangguan Village for the investigation. You don't have a car, so it's not convenient."

"Alright!"

Shen Ting looked at Xiong Beibei. "Brother Xiong, before Yin Tingxue went missing, she was handing out illicit escort service flyers. If you check which household received those flyers, you should be able to trace her movements from last night. Also, regarding that alley Gao Ya entered earlier—the surveillance cameras there were broken. While you're conducting your checks, look into how those cameras got broken."

"No problem, leave it to me!"

Xiong Beibei slapped his chest loudly, making a thumping sound.

Meanwhile, Shen Ting and Xu Xinyi got into the police car and headed toward Zhangguan Village.

On the way, he opened the crime-solving group chat:

"@kikO, Gao Ya must have received multiple calls at that time. Were they all routed through the same base station?"

kikO: "That's right! Moreover, during those several calls, the location of the SIM card was consistently in the northern part of Zhangguan Village. But a precise location couldn't be pinpointed; only a general area could be determined."

Group Leader: "Good. Then determine the core coverage area of the base station that responded to those calls. Gao Ya must have been within this core area at that time! Also, circle the potential locations of Gao Ya during those calls on the map. I will investigate them one by one!"

kikO: "No problem, on it right away!"

...

The police car sped toward Zhangguan Village.

Along the way, the world was blanketed in silver, and children were playing and frolicking with snowballs, creating a rather lively atmosphere.

However, Shen Ting in the car was completely in no mood to appreciate the scenery; he was consumed by heavy thoughts.

A few minutes later, kikO uploaded an image in accordance with Shen Ting's request.

It was an overall map of the western part of Chaoyang District!

There were two-toned circular zones marked on it!

The red circular zone was very large, and there was only one. At its center was a red pentagram, representing the location of the base station involved in the case. The area covered by the red circle was the core coverage zone of that base station.

Toward the northern part of this red circle, there were several much smaller blue circular zones, all located in the north of Zhangguan Village!

These were the suspicious locations where Gao Ya might have been when Shen Ting placed the calls. Initially, Shen Ting had made consecutive calls, so many of the circles essentially overlapped.

Once Shen Ting received the map, he immediately shared the surveillance footage of the corresponding areas and uploaded the folder.

Group Leader: "Check the surveillance footage corresponding to the blue circles first. If nothing is found, we will have to check the broader red circle area."

Guan Hongfeng: "No problem!"

Forensic Pathologist Qin Ming: "Everyone, let's divide up the surveillance footage, and then cross-check each other's findings afterwards for higher efficiency."

Tang Tan Qin Feng: "I review surveillance footage relatively quickly, so you can assign a larger share to me."

...

Shen Ting also opened the surveillance video, dragged the timeline to around nine-thirty last night, and instantly furrowed his brow.

Last night, Gao Ya entered the alley behind the bus station at 8:43 PM. It would take at least forty to fifty minutes to travel from there to the north of Zhangguan Village.

But the problem was!

By that time, it had been snowing for over an hour.

All the surveillance footage shared by Shen Ting was extremely blurry. The camera lenses were directly covered with ice crystals and icicles, or completely obscured by accumulated snow. The images were utterly indistinguishable!

Shen Ting continuously dragged the progress bar backward until eleven o'clock this morning, when the ice and snow had melted slightly, making things a bit clearer.

Yet, the most crucial dozen hours in between were completely impossible to view.

"It shouldn't be too big of an issue! If this is indeed a homicide, the killer coming to Zhangguan Village would be for nothing more than dumping a corpse or hiding a person..."

Shen Ting directly typed in the group:

"@Kira Yoshikage, @Jigsaw, @Hannibal! Later, I will go to the northern part of Zhangguan Village to investigate, and I will record videos of the surrounding areas and upload them to the crime-solving group. Take a look and see which of these places are suitable for dumping a body or hiding someone!"

"No problem!"

"Alright!"

"I'll do my best!"

...

Xu Xinyi, in the driver's seat, glanced through the rearview mirror at Shen Ting in the back seat and noticed his brow remained tightly knitted. She couldn't help but press down harder on the accelerator.

It was indeed very rare for Shen Ting to be this anxious and urgent.

Shen Ting forwarded kikO's map of the circles to Xu Xinyi:

"Officer Xu, let's go to the blue circle areas first. For each circle, we'll investigate outward from the center point."

Looking at the map, Xu Xinyi asked in surprise, "Are these the suspicious locations?"

"Mhm, these are the places where Gao Ya might have appeared."

How had he determined this again?

Xu Xinyi felt even more puzzled.

Nevertheless, she drove into one of the blue circles and began investigating outward from the center.

As time passed, a familiar feeling crept over her.

It was back!

That feeling of helpless bewilderment was back!

During the last case, when she and Xiong Beibei accompanied Shen Ting to investigate the suspicious areas, they had felt exactly like this.

At that time, both of them felt that Shen Ting was just wandering around aimlessly and wasting time. They completely failed to understand what he was looking at!

Xu Xinyi felt the exact same way now.

Looking out the car window at the mountain forests and rivers covered in thick snow, as well as the newly cleared roads, everything looked pretty much the same from her perspective.

During the previous case, one of the most critical questions in her notebook was how the dumping vehicle location had been determined, but she hadn't managed to ask Shen Ting before it ended. And now, she already had a slew of new questions.

"Officer Xu, stop here for a moment..."

"This circle is pretty much done, let's head to the second circle."

"Let's go back to that abandoned school; it looks rather suspicious, and I want to prioritize investigating it."

"Stop by the reservoir ahead."

"Let's move on to the next circle!"

...

This kind of searching could almost be described as running around like headless chickens.

After initial checks, the trio of Kira Yoshikage, Jigsaw, and Hannibal had indeed marked quite a few locations suitable for body dumping or hiding. But after careful inspection, their suspicions were ultimately ruled out one by one.

The evening glow had already appeared on the horizon.

Throughout the entire afternoon, one could say they had returned almost empty-handed.

"The more important blue circles have basically all been investigated."

Shen Ting hesitated slightly. "Did my deduction go wrong? Did the criminal not come here to dump a body or hide someone? Or perhaps the criminal never came here at all, and Gao Ya came alone? Or did we miss something in the places we already checked?"

When it came to finding corpse-dumping sites or hideouts, Shen Ting didn't have much personal expertise.

However, Jigsaw, Hannibal, and Kira Yoshikage were different. Their observational skills were formidable! Moreover, the previous two cases had already proven that their judgment in selecting corpse-dumping sites was terrifyingly precise...

Yet now, they simply hadn't found any trace of the criminal, Yin Tingxue, or Gao Ya...

"Where did things go wrong?"

As Shen Ting pondered, a new message suddenly popped up in the crime-solving group:

"The two missing persons are indeed in the northern region of Zhangguan Village. At the very least, they definitely came here!"

This message was sent by Qin Feng.

"Why?"

Shen Ting was extremely curious about the basis for this conclusion, and so were the other group members.

Everyone knew that Shen Ting had spent the entire afternoon searching, but under the guidance of Jigsaw and the others, he had found nothing. Therefore, they were all starting to wonder if their current direction was mistaken.

Tang Ren: "Old Qin, are you serious?"

Guan Hongyu: "What's your basis?"

kikO: "Curious.ipg"

Tang Tan Qin Feng: "It's very simple. Once you watch this surveillance clip, you'll understand."

He uploaded an intercepted surveillance clip that lasted less than two seconds in total.

The group members clicked on it individually.

In the video, a sanitation worker was shoveling snow. The timestamp of the video was around 11:30 AM.

By that time, the snow and icicles on the surveillance camera had melted, so the image was quite clear.

However, the less-than-two-second video of snow shoveling left everyone somewhat baffled.

There was nothing at all in this video?!

Wasn't it just a worker doing their job?

What did this have to do with the current case? And how could Qin Feng be certain, based on this sub-two-second video, that the missing persons had indeed been to the northern part of Zhangguan Village?