Seeing the crime scene flashbacks made me the darling of the police station.

Chapter 298 Did Not Return
Su Miaoyi had met Tian Ming before. Although this personality did not know what Tian Ming looked like, she knew that Tian Ming was Tian Min's father.

There are only two women in this family.

What about Tian Ming and Tian Min's two younger brothers?
"Where did Tian Ming go?" Su Miaoyi asked the woman.

But the woman was a little stunned. She sat in the chair for a long time, unable to come to her senses, and wouldn't say anything when asked.

So they looked at Tian Min.

Tian Min kept gesturing anxiously with her hands, but they couldn't understand her.

Duan Wenrui said, "No abnormalities were found at the front or back doors."

This means that the incident didn't happen at home and someone else took him out.

After he finished speaking, he said to the policeman next to him, "Go out and find someone who can understand her sign language."

The police went out.

Chu Xingrou asked, "Can I type this on my phone?"

Tian Min suddenly realized something, quickly looked for her phone, went to another room to get it, and came back to type.

My dad went out to play cards this afternoon and hasn't come back yet.
Duan Wenrui read aloud what she had typed: "Why didn't you tell the police about something so serious? Aren't you worried about him not coming back?"

Last night, before nightfall, I went door to door to give them my instructions.

Tonight, we didn't go door-to-door to check on everyone. We just broadcast a message over the loudspeaker, telling everyone not to go out after dark, and then we started patrolling after dark.

“It would be better if he died out there,” the woman sitting in the chair suddenly said. “He’s often out all night, never coming home, and disappearing all day long. It’s the same whether he’s in the house or not. Who knows if he’ll come back or not? He’s not afraid, he doesn’t care. So he might as well die out there. Who cares about him?”

Everyone looked at her.

Tian Min typed: [This is my mother, Yue Hong.]
My father often doesn't come home at night; he's probably playing cards at someone's house. If he doesn't come back at night, he should be back during the day.
"You still dare to go out and play cards at a time like this?" Duan Wenrui said. "Call him back."

“I don’t have his phone number,” Yue Hong said.

Tian Min found Tian Ming's phone number and dialed it.

The first ring will automatically disconnect.

The second one also rang until it automatically disconnected.

Tian Min typed again: [My dad doesn't answer the phone when he's playing cards; he finds it annoying.]
"Do you know where you went to play cards?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min shook her head.

"Go to the village committee's loudspeaker and tell them whoever is at home and to go home immediately. Go ask at the house we visited last time," Duan Wenrui instructed.

"Could they have gone to another village?" Lu Zhishen asked.

“Drive to the surrounding villages and look around,” Duan Wenrui said. “It should be quite obvious who’s playing cards so late at night. The noise should be pretty loud, and the lights should be on. Go and ask them all.”

"What if it involves gambling?"

"Arrest them and take them back immediately."

"Yes."

"Where are your two younger brothers?" Su Miaoyi asked Tian Min.

Tian Min: [They all work in the city; they're not home.]
Lu Zhishen said, "I saw bedding in the small room on the west side. Whose is it?"

Tian Min: [My dad, he often doesn't come home at night, and when he does come home during the day, he sleeps in that small room. Occasionally he comes home in the middle of the night, but my mom complains that he's noisy. They've been living in separate rooms for over ten years.]
"Can you tell us what happened?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Tian Min: [I don't know either. I was sleeping when that lullaby suddenly started playing outside. It was very loud, and I was terrified. I came to this room to call my mom, and we were both very scared. Then someone knocked on the door, and we thought it was a murderer. We were so scared that we locked the door to the room and hid in the closet together.]
“When I came over last night, I left my contact information and told you to call if you needed anything,” Duan Wenrui said. “We were terrified, who would have thought to call?” Yue Hong said.

Tian Min stood aside without typing.

"What's the situation on the street?" Su Miaoyi asked Duan Wenrui.

Duan Wenrui looked at the police officer beside him.

He said, "We patrol in pairs, walking back and forth on this street. According to the time, it should have been only two minutes after we left this house when the song suddenly started playing."

“We all ran back as fast as we could. The speaker was in the haystack by the door, and the volume was already at maximum. We took it out of the haystack, turned it off, and put it on the ground. Since it was right in front of his house, when Captain Duan arrived, he knocked on his door directly.”

"Didn't see anyone suspicious?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"No. We've been patrolling back and forth, and we can be sure that no suspicious people have appeared. There were also no footprints or other traces left at the scene."

“They put the speaker in the haystack. They’re still patrolling back and forth. If they put it on tonight, it’s too obvious, and they’ll definitely be discovered,” Chu Xingrou said.

"Was it already put in?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"What's this haystack for?" Lu Zhishen asked.

Yue Hong remained silent.

Tian Min typed: [It's used as kindling. We need it for cooking. But now that we have gas, we use it less. The hay has been piled up for almost a year and we haven't used it all yet.]
Su Miaoyi looked at Tian Min, then at Yue Hong, and asked Duan Wenrui, "I see that many families in the village have firewood on hand. Are they all using it for cooking?"

“There used to be more firewood burning, but now there’s more gas. In the summer, when it’s hot, we don’t burn firewood as much. In the winter, we burn more firewood,” Duan Wenrui said.

Su Miaoyi was silent for a moment.

So the person who installed the stereo knew that this kind of firewood wasn't used much.

However, you can probably tell from the surface of the haystack whether it is frequently used for firewood.

“But this kind of speaker needs to be played manually, right?” Chu Xingrou said. “It needs someone to press a button to play. But we haven’t seen any suspicious people around.”

The speaker is about twelve inches in size.

Su Miaoyi and the others put on gloves and turned on the speaker.

The sound suddenly became extremely loud.

The noise was even louder, especially when they were indoors.

Tian Min and Yue Hong were so frightened that they covered their ears.

Su Miaoyi turned the volume down.

After some investigation, it turns out that the only way to play music is by pressing the power button on the speaker; there is no remote control function.

As they studied, songs played continuously.

The song was played seven times in total before it stopped.

Then it loops, playing from the very beginning.

The speakers were silent for almost a minute before sound came back on.

“After it was turned on, there was no sound for almost a minute before the music started,” Lu Zhishen said. “After the patrolmen passed by the door, the speakers were turned on, and the people left. A minute later, the music started playing. The patrolmen heard it and ran over. There was a time difference, which allowed the murderer to leave.”

　Goodnight everybody

　　(End of this chapter)