He was supposed to go with me that day, but he ended up not going because he had to follow up on a fraud case. After I returned, he asked me, "How was your check-up?" I didn't dare tell him the truth at the time, so I deliberately told him, "They said there's no problem, I'll be fine after taking some medicine." He was very excited then and said we could finally have a child. But I knew it was impossible. I had thought of many ways back then, like adopting a child from the village? Or faking a pregnancy? In the end, I chose the latter.
Tianhong was naturally happy that I suspected, but as time went by, my abdomen showed no sign of swelling. He began to doubt again and asked me what was going on. Later, I stuffed some things into my abdomen, just like women who faked pregnancies in ancient times, and then said we couldn't be intimate. Tianhong then moved to the next room to sleep.
Later, when I was close to giving birth, I had planned to have Ah Hua from the village adopt a child for me to be my own. But something unexpected happened that day. The child was bought by another family for a high price. Ah Hua told me there were no children available for now. However, Tianhong knew I was due to give birth that day. Thus, the truth was revealed to him. He was furious that day. I had never seen him so sad and desperate in all the time we were together. He raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face. It was the first time he had ever hit me, and it was incredibly brutal, with no trace of marital affection. I then left and temporarily returned to my parents' home. If I hadn't recently learned of his disappearance, I would never have returned to this home.
After pouring out her heart to me, Yin Tianhuai was already in tears. It was the first time I had ever seen a woman cry so much in front of me, so I was a bit at a loss. I mechanically said a few words of comfort, not expecting Yin Tianhuai to cry even harder.
I had no choice but to call He Xin and Zhang Keying to come over. Fortunately, with their help, she finally recovered a little. I took her outside and let her breathe some fresh air. Her mood improved considerably.
"Thank you, I'm much better now. It doesn't matter if we can't be husband and wife in the future. After all, I'm a useless woman. I can't bear children, I'm nothing!"
"Don't say that. Everyone has their own value. Actually, I can't have children either!" Zhang Keying said, I don't know why, but I could tell she was lying to comfort Yin Tianhuai.
"Really? Forensic Doctor Zhang, what's going on?"
"Actually, in the past..."
I didn't want to listen to their chatter. Since Zhang Keying could comfort her, I decided to leave for now and continue visiting other families. However, I asked many people but got no information about the last place Captain Wang disappeared. This was troublesome. If I couldn't figure out where he vanished, how could I find him? There was no surveillance here at all.
Seeing that I would have to stay in Taiping Village for a while, I asked the village committee to find us a house to use as our temporary base.
We stayed here and continued to send people to conduct interviews. For some reason, the writer's editor came over again. He looked very secretive and said to me, "Aren't you Team Leader He?"
"What is it? Do you need something?" I replied somewhat impatiently.
"Of course. Actually, I'll tell you, I saw who took Captain Wang away!"
"What? Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"Hmph, who told you not to help find the killer of the rabbit? How can you be police officers!"
"We are also investigating the case of the rabbit's death, but the key now is that someone is missing. Do you think a person's life is worth less than a rabbit? Is it just because it was a writer's pet?"
"Hmph, you don't know how important that rabbit is to our Prince. Without it, our Prince has been experiencing writer's block recently!"
"Let me tell you, I am also an online writer, and I write crime suspense. But no matter what happens, I won't experience writer's block!"
"Really? Could you be that..."
"Alright, tell me about Captain Wang's whereabouts."
"Do you think I would tell you without any benefit? Officer He!" The editor put on an unpleasant expression, as if looking down on me with disdain.
I was a bit annoyed: "Don't you know that cooperating with the police is the duty of every citizen?"
"Don't give me those high-sounding words. If you don't cooperate with the investigation of the rabbit case, I won't reveal even a shred of information about Captain Wang!"
I could see that this editor was not lying. He probably really knew something about Captain Wang and had witnessed him being taken away. I had no choice but to put aside my pride and say, "Fine, I will thoroughly investigate this case. If we find out who killed the Prince's rabbit, we will deal with it according to the law!"
"No need to deal with it according to the law. Just have him go and apologize to the Prince!"
"That can be arranged. Alright, it's your turn, Editor Zhang. Can you tell me now?"
"Okay, seeing as you have some sincerity, I'll tell you for now! Actually, the Prince and I were surveying near the village that day, just to find inspiration for him. When we came near a factory by the eastern crossroads of Taiping Village, we saw Captain Wang being attacked from behind and then dragged into the factory. After that, I don't know where he went."
"Bastard! Then why didn't you call the police at that time?"
"Both the Prince and I were terrified to see something like that for the first time. If we had called the police, we would have worried that those thugs would retaliate, so we ran away in a hurry!"
"Do you remember what the people who attacked Captain Wang looked like?"
"There were three of them, they looked like thugs, tall and thin, with no hair, wearing hoods, and dressed in black..."
Editor Zhang's description was vague, frankly, it was as if he hadn't said anything. I covered my forehead, "I mean facial features."
"We didn't dare to observe that much at the time, and there was a distance. If we hadn't hidden behind a tree, we probably would have been discovered too. Besides, they were wearing black hoods!"
"I understand. What is that factory called?"
"It seems to be called Aodu Chemical Plant."
"Alright, that's all for now. You can go back. If we have any news about the rabbit case, we will notify you immediately!"
"It's a deal."
If I hadn't said that, this Editor Zhang would probably still be pestering me here. No wonder he was so shameless about coming to the provincial department to report the case before. He really had the nerve.