I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 259: Chapter 257: The World Stood Still...

Su Miaoyi drove to the factory in the suburbs, her mind racing the entire way as she tried to come up with a plan.

She didn’t drive directly to the factory. Instead, she parked nearby and snuck up to it on foot.

She cautiously approached the factory, positioning herself in a blind spot with cover in front and behind her, then called out a few times toward the inside.

There was no response from within, not even a single sound.

It was too quiet. It felt like there was no one inside at all.

Su Miaoyi called out a few more times, then slowly walked forward, leaned against the wall, and pushed open the factory door.

The old, heavy iron door let out a muffled groan.

She checked for a response again, but the inside remained silent.

Standing at the entrance, she could see everything inside clearly.

The interior was quite empty, save for a pile of items in one corner, all covered in a thick layer of dust.

The floor was also covered in a thick layer of dust.

As a result, the footprints in it were exceptionally clear.

There were two sets of footprints in total—one leading in and the other leading out.

Judging by the footprints, they belonged to a woman, and only one woman.

The height, weight, and gait all matched the person from the hospital’s security footage.

’The little boy didn’t come in here. So where did the kidnapper take him?’

’And why give me this address?’

Su Miaoyi stood at the entrance, keeping an eye on what was behind her while carefully scanning the factory one more time.

The sky was gradually darkening, making it even darker and murkier inside the factory.

Su Miaoyi had good eyesight. In the eastern part of the factory, several wooden crates were stacked together.

The footprints led in that direction.

From the doorway, the wooden crates didn’t look at all special.

But they were the only clue in the entire factory.

Su Miaoyi stared for a few seconds, then turned and kicked the heavy iron door several times until it broke.

"What’s wrong?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked when he heard the noise, his voice low and tense.

"It’s nothing," Su Miaoyi said in a low voice, giving the door another kick.

Now that it was completely broken and couldn’t be closed, she followed the footprints inside, cautiously making her way to the wooden crates.

She had been worried that if she went inside, someone might lock the door from the outside, trapping her.

That’s why she broke the door.

The dust on the crates was still thick, making the marks on top very obvious. Following them, Su Miaoyi lifted a plank from one of the crates and found a voice recorder pen taped to the underside.

She checked to make sure there was nothing else, then took the voice recorder and followed the footprints out of the factory. As she walked back to her car, she scanned her surroundings and examined the device.

The recorder worked. When she turned it on, the voice that came out was the same one from the recorder at the municipal police department.

"I have the kid. Leading you on a little wild goose chase isn’t too much, is it? Are you angry? Then hurry up and find me. This kid is so annoying, always crying. If you’re late, you might just be collecting his corpse. He’ll have died because of you. Happy?"

An address followed, but it wasn’t a detailed one—just the address of a bus stop.

After that, the recording went silent.

Su Miaoyi got in her car and first told Zhuang Yanzheng about the situation.

Then she drove to the bus stop.

Although it was a bus stop, it was a rather remote one.

It was at the edge of town, where the urban area met the countryside.

To the west of the bus stop were buildings; to the east, past the stop, were the single-story houses of the countryside.

At this time of night, there were quite a few cars on the road.

Buses, private cars, and some large cargo trucks came and went.

Su Miaoyi parked her car at the bus stop.

Zhuang Yanzheng and his team were also on their way.

She scanned the area around the bus stop, circling the sign once one way and once the other. She then widened her search to the surrounding area but found nothing.

She stood by the side of the road and looked at the bus stop sign on the opposite side.

It was the sign for the same stop.

This road had no crosswalks or traffic lights.

She waited by the roadside for cars to pass, then started walking across the street.

The road was wide and the traffic was fast, so she had to watch for cars as she crossed.

But just as she crossed the centerline and reached the other half of the road, she suddenly froze in the middle of the street.

The light in her eyes dimmed. Her entire body was fixed to the spot, completely motionless, without the slightest reaction.

Passing cars blared their horns, but Su Miaoyi still didn’t react at all.

Just then, a large truck appeared in the distance, speeding toward her. It was almost upon her, yet its speed didn’t decrease in the slightest.

And Su Miaoyi remained motionless.

People at the bus stop shouted.

The sound of honking horns grew louder and more frantic.

Two cars pulled over, their occupants getting out, and people waiting at the bus stop tried to pull Su Miaoyi away, but it was too late.

The truck was about to slam into her.

The people who had gotten out of their cars and those at the bus stop all squeezed their eyes shut in fear.

Hit by a truck that large at that speed, a person would surely be sent flying. They couldn’t bear to imagine the scene of her hitting the ground.

But just as the truck was about to collide with her, a flash of light streaked across the night sky.

Immediately after, every car on the entire road came to a halt.

The people waiting at the bus stop and those who had gotten out of their cars also froze, stuck in their poses of shutting their eyes and covering their ears.

Even the drivers stopped, frozen in their original positions.

The truck that had been hurtling forward just a moment ago was now stopped beside Su Miaoyi, its front bumper only two or three centimeters away from her.

The entire world had frozen. Even the flowers and grass by the roadside and the second hands on people’s watches had stopped moving.

With everything at a standstill, a single moving figure was exceptionally conspicuous.

A woman in a long robe, her ink-black hair cascading past her waist, walked with a light gait, step by step, from the other side of the road toward Su Miaoyi.

Her posture was erect, her steps elegant, each one perfectly graceful.

But... after five or six steps, she sucked in a breath and rubbed her lower back.

She had come in too much of a hurry and strained it.

She walked up to Su Miaoyi, stood before her for a moment, then suddenly leaned in close to her face. She looked from the left, then the right, before reaching out and poking her cheek.

The two were so close their faces were almost touching.

And her face, to a certain extent, looked a lot like Su Miaoyi’s.

After observing for a moment, she nodded, seemingly very satisfied.

Then, she wrapped her arms around Su Miaoyi’s waist and lifted her. As if moving a statue, she carried Su Miaoyi to the bus stop sign on the other side of the road.

After setting her down, she dusted off her hands and sighed. "Couldn’t you have seen it at any other time? You had to see it right now. If that truck had sent you flying, this body I worked so hard to create would have all been for nothing."

She patted Su Miaoyi’s shoulder again. "You still need more practice."

After she finished speaking, she decided Su Miaoyi’s loose hair looked messy, so she found a hair tie, wove her hair into a braid, and tied it up.

Then, holding her lower back, she walked away, step by step, and disappeared...