Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared
Chapter 83 Searching for Clues

Chapter 83: Chapter 83 Searching for Clues

Everyone waited until the world turned dark, yet Lv Wei was nowhere to be seen. Worry began to gnaw at many, but as he had been missing for less than twenty-four hours, they couldn’t alert the police yet.

Gu Fan, realizing that Lv Wei was likely not showing up, was taken aback by the audacity of whoever had struck at the earliest opportunity.

According to those who had been in a team with Lv Wei, after completing the ninth task, Lv Wei had rushed to the location of the tenth task, leaving his exhausted team behind and advancing on his own.

Gu Fan examined the map, which showed the route connecting the ninth and tenth tasks. If Lv Wei had disappeared, it was highly probable it had occurred along this path.

"I refuse to believe that in broad daylight, amidst the hustle and bustle, you’d dare to kidnap him," Gu Fan muttered, anger boiling within him as he embarked on a search along the route, joined by Lu Yi and Jie.

According to the map, there were multiple shortcuts between the ninth and tenth task locations due to the considerable distance between them. Therefore, the choice of route was not singular.

This left Gu Fan in a quandary. If he didn’t know which route Lv Wei had chosen, he wouldn’t know where to start searching. But one thing was certain: if someone wanted to kidnap Lv Wei, they would choose a deserted road.

Armed with this understanding, Gu Fan decided to investigate every possible route, looking for a deserted path while avoiding surveillance cameras.

Despite spending roughly three hours, Gu Fan, Lu Yi, and Jie found no such route. Despite the lateness of the hour, all the roads were still bustling with activity. No criminal would dare to abduct Lv Wei in plain sight.

"Damn it, what method did these bastards use," fumed Gu Fan. Being manipulated and treated like a pawn filled him with rage. He was tired of all this.

At this point, Lu Yi suggested, "If there’s nothing wrong on the main routes, perhaps something happened that made Lv Wei deviate from his route to a less crowded place."

After pondering Lu Yi’s words, Gu Fan thought it was indeed a possibility. If the perpetrator had carefully laid a trap, they might have been able to make Lv Wei change his route.

Thinking of this, Gu Fan wondered how he himself, if he were the kidnapper, could lure Lv Wei to deviate from his path. Lv Wei, so desperate to win, so eager to prove himself—what could cause him to abandon his course?

Unable to come up with any leads, he had no choice but to give up and prepare to report it to the police. He phoned Su Hui, explaining the situation.

Then, following Gu Fan’s suggestion, Du Jun obtained a photo of Lv Wei and sent it to Gu Fan’s phone. Undeterred, Gu Fan brought Lv Wei’s photo to some shops along the road, hoping to gather any possible sightings or unusual behavior. This was his only hope.

Yet the possibility seemed slim. The road was busy; who would pay attention to a stranger, one not as noticeable as the beautiful Lin Xi?

Then, a sudden inspiration struck Gu Fan—he realized the crucial detail that although many people were passing by, only Lv Wei seemed to be running. So he changed his questioning approach, asking if any shop owners saw Lv Wei, identifying him as someone rushing by.

However, contrary to Gu Fan’s expectations, a shop owner responded that several groups of people, who appeared to be students, had been running back and forth, and he had no clue as to what they were up to.

It turned out that before Lv Wei, several other groups had been rushing between different task locations, which diminished the shop owner’s impression of Lv Wei.

With this in mind, Gu Fan altered his approach once more by asking the shop owners if they saw someone running alone, as opposed to groups of five, like the others.

Some responded that they had only noticed groups of people passing by and had seen no individuals running alone.

At this point, the trail seemed to go cold. Without a shred of evidence, Gu Fan contemplated giving up. Yet, an odd feeling nagged at him. It was as if everything had been meticulously planned by someone, not just for Lv Wei, but for everyone involved.

If not for his concerns about Lin Xi, there was a high chance that Gu Fan would have stayed with Lv Wei. Lv Wei wouldn’t have disappeared then, but Lin Xi might have been the one to go missing instead.

"Wait a minute, what if the initial target was Lv Wei, and the aim of involving Lin Xi was to divert me from Lv Wei’s side," Gu Fan considered, shuddering at the thought. If the perpetrator was indeed that calculating, they must have had an intimate understanding of Gu Fan’s group.

Why, out of Lin Xi, Du Jun, and Lv Wei, was Lv Wei the one selected? Because the perpetrator knew of Lv Wei’s competitive nature, and that he would inevitably hurry to his destination. They knew Gu Fan was physically strong enough to keep up with Lv Wei, so they found a way to divert him—through Lin Xi, a person Gu Fan cared about deeply.

Although Du Jun didn’t have any reliable companions around, he was never in a rush when he traveled, thus there would always be someone following him. Hence, he was not an ideal target.

Lin Xi had Jie, a dependable companion, and hence was not the easiest to catch off guard either.

"Wait, if the perpetrator is considering this scenario, they would have to know about our group arrangements, and the actions and directions of each group, perfectly well. The only feasible person to be this superficial seems to be the staff in charge of the group training," Gu Fan thought about a possibility and was horrified as he did so.

Upon further consideration, Gu Fan felt this was unlikely. If the conspirator really intended to target Lv Wei, they could’ve manipulated the situation to separate Lv Wei from his group; instead of going through all the trouble to put Gu Fan and Lv Wei together, and then come up with a plan to distract Gu Fan.

Gu Fan couldn’t figure out what was going on. In the end, he decided to leave the matter to the police.

Just as Gu Fan was about to leave in disappointment, he noticed a black motorcycle coming his way. The driver was asking, "Hey, buddy, where do you want to go? I can take you there!"

"I don’t need it, I’m very close." Gu Fan replied, turning to leave. Then, something occurred to him which left him utterly shocked, causing him to turn back to look in the direction of the motorcycle.

Gu Fan’s face turned serious as he started to look around earnestly, leaving Lu Yi and Jie puzzled over what he thought he had stumbled across, as it seemed like he had found a clue.

Indeed, a potential scenario was playing out in Gu Fan’s mind. Lv Wei was human, and like any human, he had his limits. He might have wanted to reach their destination faster in order to win. So when he was exhausted, and the black motorcycle came calling, Lv Wei was likely to hop onto it and only realize too late he had been brought to a terrible place.

But this was just a hypothesis of Gu Fan’s. Several black motorbikes were seen passing through, the existence of black motorcycles in this area was not uncommon and hence it was not possible to find a lead from their presence alone.

"Brilliant, they used Lv Wei’s strong desire to win, offering him transportation when he was exhausted, it would have been hard for him to refuse," Gu Fan inferred.

Next, Gu Fan changed his approach to investigate, he started inquiring shopkeepers in the surrounding areas, asking them if they had seen someone running by before hopping onto a black motorcycle.

Although it would take time to repeat the process, Gu Fan wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of this approach and his determination also inspired Lu Yi and Jie, hence all three proceeded with their individual investigations, speeding up the post.

Fortunately, after interviewing around fifty people, there really was someone who saw a person running, then a black motorbike appeared looking for passengers. However, as the shop owner was busy with his business, he didn’t continue to pay attention to what happened next.

With the accounts coinciding with Gu Fan’s hypothesis, they now had an approximation of the location where Lv Wei disappeared. Narrowing down the area of investigation made tracking more efficient. As long as they find out where Lv Wei boarded the bike, they could uncover a great deal more.

Now that they had clues, Gu Fan, Lu Yi, and Jie headed back. It was almost nine at night, Lin Xi was very anxious waiting.

On seeing that they had returned, Du Jun was even more anxious than Lin Xi, he hurried over to ask, "How is it, how did it go?"

Gu Fan shook his head, "We didn’t find Lv Wei, but we did get some leads." He then elaborated on his hypothesis - how it might help them find Lv Wei. The rest was up to the authorities.

Du Jun heaved a sigh, "Yes, I hope the police can start the investigation as soon as possible, the sooner the better."

At this moment, Su Hui drove a police car with her colleagues. No need to wait for Lv Wei to be missing for 24 hours to report the case. Given the disappearance of several university students, Su Hui believed this time Lv Wei was truly missing. After requesting permission from the higher-ups and finishing the other important tasks she had at hand, she headed here right away.

Having heard what Gu Fan surmised, Su Hui couldn’t help but admire, "Kid, you really have quite the imagination, thanks for offering a direction for the investigation, we will start immediately."

Right, time was of the essence. The sooner they took action, the more hope they had of finding Lv Wei. Once they found Lv Wei, they could expose the operatives behind the scene, retrieve all the missing students, and completely break the deadlock.

But Gu Fan had a feeling that it might not be so smooth. After investigating, they may end up empty-handed, having wasted half a day. It wasn’t that Gu Fan wanted to be pessimistic, but given the repetitive nature of these occurrences, could it really all be overturned this time?

Another question that puzzled Gu Fan was how the culprit managed to follow their every move, considering every action they made, and then executed their plans accordingly.