My Wife is Actually a top-tier Soldier King?!
Chapter 397 - 397 397 Mysterious Disappearance!

397: Chapter 397: Mysterious Disappearance!

397: Chapter 397: Mysterious Disappearance!

Orphanage.

Wu Jie drove into the compound.

Lin Yuan and several staff members were exchanging case details with the police.

Seeing Wu Jie approach, Lin Yuan gave him a grateful look.

She knew her relationship with Tang Xiao wasn’t particularly close, but she was desperate to find Yuan Zihan, who was still missing.

So, she called Wu Jie, actually hoping to leverage the help of the Tianyuan Tang Family.

The effect was astonishing!

Previously, when they called the police, only a patrol car came to take a statement, collected the file information, and said they would arrange a search as soon as possible.

But now…

Communication command vehicles, wheeled armored vehicles, riot control vehicles…

A large force of police had already started a carpet-style search around the orphanage as a center.

They were knocking on doors, asking questions, and distributing flyers everywhere.

All the surveillance footage they could find from the time of the incident had been collected for analysis.

What’s more important…

A large number of intelligent and sharp police dogs had been brought in.

The dogs sniffed Yuan Zihan’s clothes and bedding to memorize her unique scent and immediately started searching the vicinity.

With such a scale, it was comparable to a manhunt for a serious fugitive.

Without substantial power, who could mobilize such a scene?

Wu Jie went to the command vehicle and listened to the latest updates on the case.

Airports, train stations, long-distance bus stations…

even amusement parks.

Investigations and searches had already been arranged everywhere.

And the latest facial recognition search technology was being used to comb through massive amounts of video surveillance data for a match.

As long as Yuan Zihan appeared on camera, they could quickly identify her characteristics, and determine the time and place she was seen.

Unfortunately…

Up to this point, there had been no discoveries.

And the surrounding area investigations had so far yielded no leads; no one had seen Yuan Zihan.

Dean Zhang had already cried herself to a state of distress.

She kept emphasizing that all the orphans had received safety education, which was given daily.

Even the most mischievous child knew not to leave the orphanage without permission, not to get into a stranger’s car, or to eat anything given by strangers…

Among all the orphans, Yuan Zihan was especially well-behaved and obedient.

Yet…

The one who least should have been lost, was precisely the one who went missing.

If she had simply wandered off, how far could a little girl go without a destination?

The area had already been thoroughly searched, and no sign of her had been found.

Thus, the greatest and only possibility was that she had been abducted.

The group once again came to the collapsed hole next to the orphanage.

The orphanage’s walls were very high, topped with barbed wire.

The purpose was to prevent brazen child traffickers from snatching children from the orphanage.

However, last night’s torrential rain caused a collapse behind the walls.

After the soil layer collapsed, a hole formed between it and the wall.

Adults couldn’t fit through, but a child could.

The hole appeared natural with no signs of deliberate digging.

Beyond the wall was a small slope.

The ground, soaked from last night’s rain and dried by today’s scorching sun, had become somewhat loose, making it easy to leave footprints.

The forensic experts repeatedly surveyed the scene and concluded that Yuan Zihan had crawled out of the hole and walked a few meters toward the road, but she seemed to hesitate there.

She didn’t head towards the road but instead turned towards a nearby thicket.

According to accounts from the other children, they were playing hide-and-seek at the time.

Yuan Zihan probably intended to hide far away after crawling out, to avoid being found by her friends.

She was kidnapped near the bushes.

There were no small footprints leading back, but there were some left by adults.

The crowd followed the slope down to a bumpy, decrepit road.

On one side of the road was a high red-brick wall, behind which lay the long-abandoned fertilizer factory.

This road also used to be a private factory road when the factory was thriving but got worn down through heavy use.

Now, the only ones who use this road are the residents of the dilapidated factory housing area awaiting demolition.

In such a desolate, ruined industrial area, how could there be any surveillance?

Moreover, those currently living there are mostly old people holding out for relocation, refusing to budge.

As soon as they heard that the orphanage had lost a child, they all gathered on the road, chattering nonstop.

But after listening to their stories, it seemed that no suspicious individuals had been seen loitering around recently.

Store owners from a few side road junctions also came by.

They all said they hadn’t seen the pretty little girl from the photos; after all, someone that young and lovely would be hard to miss.

They also provided some information.

The potholed road was so uneven that low-chassis cars couldn’t possibly enter.

In the past, thrill-seeking young men and women used to enjoy driving their off-road vehicles to the abandoned factory area for fun.

But after the demolition office built high walls around the factory area, no one came anymore.

Even truck drivers hauling cargo hardly ever used this route, as the road was just too poor.

It was so bumpy and uneven, not only bad for the cargo but also causing excessive wear on the trucks themselves.

It was better to take the wider asphalt road outside, adding just two or three hundred meters to the journey – in fact, it saved time.

So, from morning till night, hardly any vehicles passed along this broken road.

Then…

how did Yuan Zihan disappear?

The person who took her must have acted swiftly and efficiently.

They didn’t allow Yuan Zihan to scream, to let the other children at the orphanage know.

They were even more cunning in their deception, using some form of transport to take her away silently without anyone noticing anything amiss.

Who could it be?

A large number of efficient police forces immediately began to investigate and ask questions on the spot.

From the time she went missing in the evening, they recorded anything and everything seen – any person, any vehicle.

Then they expanded the search to include the available surveillance footage in the surrounding area for comparison.

Meanwhile,

Even more manpower and resources were poured into the investigation, very much like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Any conceivable method of finding Yuan Zihan was attempted, yet no clue was to be found.

Tang Xiao reported the situation to Wu Jie every half an hour.

They couldn’t find anything on the Skynet surveillance, and after comparing large datasets, Yuan Zihan’s physical characteristics simply hadn’t appeared anywhere.

But their current actions were largely focused on the hospital.

Taking advantage of the night when the new mothers were resting, someone was stealing.

Following and surveilling people to their homes, looking for opportunities to strike.

The case had become truly brain-racking at this point.

Last night’s downpour was a coincidence!

The wall collapsing and creating a hole was an even bigger coincidence!

Yuan Zihan playing hide-and-seek with the other kids, and then being the only one to crawl through the hole and mysteriously vanish, was the most coincidental of all!

So, it’s almost certain that deliberate kidnapping is out of the question; instead, the focus is on checking past traffic.

Perhaps someone driving by happened to see Yuan Zihan, found her pretty and cute and took the opportunity to kidnap her.

Could that be the case?

Wu Jie, in the area around the bushes where Yuan Zihan was suspected to have been taken, carefully inspecting the surroundings by the light of the searchlamp.

Suddenly!

A very distinctive smell wafted into his nostrils…