I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 252: Chapter 250: Someone is Missing

The hospital’s surveillance footage was retrieved, and a list of everyone who entered and exited the rooms of Chang Yong and Xing Chang during their hospitalization was compiled.

They questioned the patients who were still in the hospital, as well as the family members who had stayed by their bedsides. For those already discharged, they called the out-of-towners and paid home visits to the locals to gather information.

After questioning everyone at the hospital, they found no suspicious individuals.

It was almost eleven o’clock at night.

They returned to the municipal bureau.

The surveillance footage sent back to the bureau had already revealed a suspicious person.

The footage covered the several hours from when Xing Chang and Chang Yong were admitted until their deaths. Not many people entered or exited the doctors’ office, which made the screening process relatively straightforward.

They identified two people of interest from the video.

One person’s face was captured clearly. He was glancing around suspiciously and stayed in the office for a long time, having entered while the doctors were out for a meal.

The other person kept their head down, so their face wasn’t captured. They went in at night when the on-duty doctor was visiting another room and came out a short while later.

They immediately ran checks on both individuals.

The person whose face was captured was quickly ruled out.

As for the person with their head down, no information had been found yet. They checked all the hospital’s surveillance cameras but couldn’t find any footage of how she left the hospital.

Just then, news came from Qi Feng’s side.

Qi Feng and his team had been out for a long time.

Zhuang Yanzheng had already asked them for an update while at the hospital.

Qi Feng had said they couldn’t find Feng Ruihao and were waiting for news.

Now, they were back.

Feng Ruihao had vanished.

At first, they just couldn’t locate him.

He wasn’t at the building materials factory, nor was he at home.

His wife, child, and parents-in-law were all at home.

According to his wife, Feng Ruihao had left the house an hour before Qi Feng and his team arrived.

He had said something came up at the building materials factory and went over.

However, the police had sent teams to Feng Ruihao’s home and the factory simultaneously.

Zhuang Yanzheng was worried Feng Ruihao might flee if he was involved, so he had Qi Feng take a team to Feng Ruihao’s house while Brother Zheng took another to the factory. They acted in concert.

Brother Zheng told Qi Feng that Feng Ruihao was not at the building materials factory.

Qi Feng got the license plate of the car Feng Ruihao had driven that day. He contacted the traffic police department to check surveillance cameras along the roads, trying to find out where the car went.

Then, Qi Feng spoke with Feng Ruihao’s wife and parents-in-law to learn more about him.

Because they weren’t certain if Feng Ruihao was connected to the case and only suspected him, Qi Feng simply said he might be related to the investigation.

After he said this, Feng Ruihao’s wife became very agitated, insisting it was impossible and that Feng Ruihao would never get involved in such things.

She said she was very clear on every single one of the factory’s financial transactions.

She knew about all the accounts under Feng Ruihao’s name and was aware of exactly how much money he had. She insisted it was impossible for him to have any illegal income.

Although she wasn’t involved in the factory’s business, she was still very clear on how much money Feng Ruihao had.

She said the factory was very profitable and the family was quite wealthy. She didn’t have to work, and neither did her parents; they just had to stay home and take care of the child. There was absolutely no need for him to do something like that.

Feng Ruihao’s parents-in-law said the same thing.

They said Feng Ruihao was a very good man—good to them as elders, good to his wife, and very devoted to his child. With such a wonderful family, he would never throw it all away to do something like that.

Seeing that they genuinely didn’t know anything, Qi Feng had Feng Ruihao’s wife call him on speakerphone.

When the first call went through but no one answered, Qi Feng felt a pang of nervousness.

Feng Ruihao’s wife grew anxious as well.

However, the second call connected almost immediately.

His wife visibly relaxed, a smile appearing on her face. "Honey..."

Just as she called out to him, a woman’s voice came from the phone: "Are you coming back tonight?"

Then, a man’s voice: "I am. When have I ever not gone back?"

Judging from the expressions on the faces of Feng Ruihao’s wife and his in-laws, Qi Feng knew the voice belonged to Feng Ruihao.

"We always have to be so secretive every time we meet," the woman’s voice complained, a hint of coquettishness in her tone. "We only ever get to spend two or three hours together."

"When have I ever come here and not brought you wads of cash? And you’re still not satisfied," the man said. "Know your place. Take the money and do what you’re supposed to do."

"Am I not as good as her?"

"She’s my wife."

"If you married me, I’d be your wife too. We’ve been together for so many years."

"Feng Ruihao! Where are you!" his wife suddenly shouted, her voice booming.

The other end of the line went silent instantly.

His wife was trembling with rage. "Feng Ruihao! Where are you! Get your ass back here right now! Right now!"

"Qin Qin? Why are you—?" Feng Ruihao answered.

"Get back here! Now!"

"Okay, I’ll be right back. Right away. Don’t be angry, it’s not what you think. I’ll be right..."

His wife hung up and threw the phone.

Qi Feng and the others remained silent.

Her parents tried to console her for a moment before they too fell silent.

But Feng Ruihao never came back.

According to the information Qi Feng and the traffic police had gathered, Feng Ruihao left his home and drove to another residential complex.

It was a fifteen-minute drive from his house.

They also found surveillance footage of Feng Ruihao driving out of that complex. He left shortly after his wife hung up on him.

Judging by his route, he was heading home.

However, the surveillance footage showed that halfway there, he answered a call, then made a U-turn at the next intersection and took another road. Ten minutes later, his car turned into an intersection and vanished from the cameras.

Qi Feng sent people to that intersection.

The car was parked on the side of the road, but Feng Ruihao was gone.

Later, using the surveillance from the complex Feng Ruihao had visited, they identified the exact building and apartment number.

But when Qi Feng and his team went to the address, the apartment was empty.

The property was registered under the name of a woman named Yuan Man.

According to the complex’s surveillance footage, Yuan Man left not long after Feng Ruihao.

After leaving the complex, she disappeared under a security camera.

"Disappeared under a security camera?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"Yes." Qi Feng pulled up the footage on his phone. "Look. She walks into this part of the camera’s range. Because there’s a streetlight here, this spot on the feed is extremely bright—so bright you can’t see anything clearly. Yuan Man walked into this bright area. Logically, she should have been visible again after walking out of it, but there was nothing."

"It’s like she walked into that bright area and was just absorbed by the light."

The group stared at the surveillance feed.

It was just as he described.

Yuan Man walked into the brightly lit area, and then she simply vanished.

"This is freaky," Qi Feng said. "I’ve watched it over and over. I thought I was watching some kind of magic trick."

...