"Ah? Didn't you tell me earlier?" The third fat man climbed up from the driver's seat and said dissatisfied: "In this case, why are we still parked so far away? We parked directly next to the food court."
"That's not possible." Officer Jiang explained, "Leader Zhu, you don't know that although those children know that I am monitoring them, it does not mean that they don't care about me. If I get close, some children will even
Stones will be thrown at police cars."
The third fat man blinked and said, "Let me go, are the little brats nowadays not even afraid of the police?"
Officer Jiang gave a wry smile and asked us to continue monitoring the situation over there.
As time went by, the situation outside was indeed as Officer Jiang said. With the food court as the center, many children in twos and threes gradually came from all directions. They sneaked around the food court and no one noticed.
, he found a place and got into the square building.
I did a rough calculation and found that the number of children who entered the food court in the end was no less than forty. This number is really shocking. You know, it is almost two o'clock in the night. At this time, even adults rarely go out.
, not to mention these children whose average age is only about ten years old. What's more, the food court is mostly surrounded by commercial areas. Although there is a high-end community nearby, according to Officer Jiang, most of the children who come here are
They came from a more remote place, in other words, those children walked for more than an hour in the middle of the night, specifically to come to this food court.
What is the charm of a mere abandoned food court that would make these children spend so much effort to come here?
After a while, seeing that almost all the children had gone in, Officer Jiang asked the third fat man: "Leader Zhu, what should we do next?"
The third fat man withdrew his gaze from the telescope, pondered for a while and said, "Officer Jiang, are you sure those children will come here every day?"
Officer Jiang turned around and said, "I'm sure, but not every child comes every day. Most of them come once a week."
I couldn't help but interject: "If one person comes here once a week, doesn't that mean there are more than 300 children coming here every week?"
"I haven't counted the specifics, but when our institute was still paying attention to this matter, we had almost registered the information of two hundred children who had been to the food court."
"Forget it." The third fat man waved his hand, "Since there is still a chance, let's not act rashly today. Let's see how long those children stay in the food court."
As soon as the third fat man finished speaking, Officer Jiang reported a number: "One hour."
"Huh?" The third fat man was stunned for a moment.
Officer Jiang continued: "No matter how many people come or who comes, those children will only stay in there for an hour, and the error will not exceed ten minutes."
The third fat man glanced at Officer Jiang dubiously, and then pressed the timer on his cell phone.
"Have you ever recorded it?"
"Um."
"In that case, let's wait for an hour..." Third Fatty finally suggested.
I opened my mouth. In fact, according to my thinking, I think we should follow those children into the food court at this time to see what they are doing inside.
But now this case is led by Fatty Three, so I have no choice but to swallow my own thoughts and do what he says honestly.
Because it was getting late, this hour could have been quite difficult. Fortunately, during the meal, San Pang was more thoughtful and prepared a lot of canned coffee, and also bought a few packs of cigarettes to refresh us.
Speaking of which, since I partnered with Lin Qianyi, I have almost given up smoking. Now that I have the opportunity to check the smell of cigarettes again, I am a little excited.
The three of them smoked cigarettes and drank coffee and chatted in the car, and the last hour passed quickly.
Just as the timer on my phone rang, Officer Jiang, who was watching with binoculars, suddenly said: "You two, those children are out."
We quickly packed up our things, then picked up the binoculars and looked towards the food court. We saw that the children were exactly what Officer Jiang said. After staying there for an hour, they began to come out of the building one after another. I
After counting in the telescope, there were no more and no less children. There were at least one child who went in and came out one by one.
None of the children seemed injured, and everyone looked the same as before they came to the food court.
But when I observed those children through the telescope, I suddenly discovered something strange: I don’t know why, but on the faces of the children walking out of the food court, everyone was filled with a feeling of happiness.
At first I thought it was because I was dazzled, so I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the result was still the same. The faces of those children were really full of happiness.
I patted San Pang on the shoulder, who was also using the telescope, and told him my discovery. The latter said "Huh" first, then looked back at me and said, "Sijiu, what's going on?
What happened to them in there?"
I shrugged and asked Officer Jiang, but the latter noticed this for the first time and looked confused: "Sorry, I really didn't notice this. It's strange. Where are those children?"
What's going on in there?"
"What's the use of wondering here? Those children have left. Sijiu, Officer Jiang, now it's our turn to take action." After saying this, the third fat man put down the telescope and took it out of the glove box.
A flashlight and walked out of the car.
I followed closely and opened the car door, and asked San Fatty, who had already started walking towards the food court, and shouted, "San Fatty, what do you want to do?"
The third fat man turned around and said, "I didn't say that. Do you still need to ask? Of course I just go in and take a look."
…
Compared with those children, we have an advantage here, that is, we can enter the food court directly from the front with great swagger. What's even better is that Officer Jiang still has the key that was left behind when the police came to seal the door.
Using this key, Officer Jiang opened the iron tiger lock in front of the main entrance of the food court and led us inside.
The so-called food court is actually a three-story commercial building, but the shops inside were originally rented out to restaurants.
When we looked at it from the outside, the food court was already quite dilapidated, but when we walked inside, we found that it was even more dirty and messy. It was pitch dark inside, and even if we had flashlights, we could barely see.
Know what's going on inside.
Looking around, we can see that all the glass in the food court has been smashed. Looking under the flashlight light, we can see that the dust on the ground is several inches thick. However, amidst this mess, we found that in the food court
In the center of the square corridor, there are many footprints that are obviously children. Judging from the footprints and the dust around them, these footprints should be left by the children who came in not long ago today.
Seeing the three fat men moving lightly and trying to follow the footsteps, Officer Jiang on the side said: "Leader Zhu, you don't have to be so careful. I know where those children went."
The third fat man looked back at him and blinked: "You know?"
"Yes, I have also sneaked in to investigate like you, so I know where those little brats went."
With that said, Officer Jiang walked to the front to lead the way, and the third fat man and I followed behind.
The three people walked up an abandoned escalator and arrived at the second floor of the food court. Compared with the first floor, the situation here was much worse, and many burnt marks could be seen on the walls.
.
I asked Officer Jiang: "Did the previous fire happen here?"
"Yes, the fire covered half of the second floor at that time, but fortunately the food court had not opened yet. There were only some store staff on the second and third floors. They quickly escaped from the escape passage, so there was no
casualties."
While following Officer Jiang, San Fatty and I asked each other what we had found from time to time. However, except for the garbage all over the floor and some urine and feces left unknown when, everything here seemed normal, and nothing happened.
Nothing special about it.
At this moment, Officer Jiang, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped, turned back and said to us: "You two, we are here."