Chapter 23 Fossil Village

Zhou entered the academic building with several people in tow.

“They should be questioning the students in the classroom right now. Let’s head over,” he said.

The group nodded and followed Zhou up to the fourth floor.

They stopped at the door of a classroom, its entrance firmly shut and guarded by a police officer. Seals were posted on all sides.

Zhou adjusted his glasses, his expression stern.

“That’s the class where the three missing girls studied—Class 3, Grade 10.”

Through the window, a few students in uniform could be seen, nervously answering questions from the police.

Knock, knock, knock—

Zhou rapped on the door and then opened it.

“Hello, Officer Li, the specialists from the capital have arrived.”

Inside, a police officer in uniform stood up, efficient and brisk.

“Welcome, come in, please.”

Officer Li appeared to be about the same age as Zhou, but his eyes were rimmed with fatigue.

“I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been questioning students all day and still have no leads.”

A laptop rested by Officer Li’s hand, paused on a surveillance video. Han Sheng Gu sat to the side and played the footage.

Shi Yi glanced at the two girls seated below, both prim and proper in their uniforms, nervously picking at their fingers.

She gently tugged Han Sheng Gu’s sleeve, hinting.

“Those two girls are very nervous.”

Han Sheng Gu followed her gaze and nodded.

“I see.” Officer Li set out a few chairs for the newcomers, who sat nearby.

“Xu Yunxi, Liang Qimeng…” Shi Yi said softly.

The two girls raised their hands, trembling.

“That’s us…”

Officer Li whispered beside them.

“They’re classmates of the three missing girls.”

Shi Yi nodded, looking at the girls.

“Were you close with the three of them?”

The two exchanged glances, then shook their heads.

“We weren’t friends. Those three acted wild, like monkeys. They didn’t get along with anyone in the class and didn’t care about school.”

Shi Yi nodded. That much matched their existing information.

“Did the three of them have any other close friends besides each other?”

At this, the girls bit their lips, hesitation flickering across their faces—a clear sign of anxiety.

Han Sheng Gu’s voice deepened.

“The three of them are missing. We don’t know if they’re even alive. You need to tell us everything you know if there’s any hope of rescuing them.”

The girls hesitated before one finally spoke, still picking at her fingers.

“Actually… there was someone who used to be close with them. The four of them were best friends in the class. But that girl dropped out last semester and went home.”

Shi Yi pressed on.

“She dropped out? Why?”

“Her family belongs to an ethnic minority. They were very poor. I heard her father and mother arranged a marriage for her, so they made her quit school and go home to get married. They could get a bride price.”

At those words, everyone’s brows furrowed. Mi Chen couldn’t help herself.

“Married? How old was she?”

“Fifteen.”

Tang Yu spoke up.

“That ethnic group does have a custom of early marriage, but in this day and age? Forcing minors to marry for a bride price is a backward practice.”

From the girls, Shi Yi learned that the one who had been close to the three was named Shi Xiangxiang.

Unlike the others, Shi Xiangxiang was always well-behaved, a model student in the eyes of the teachers. She consistently ranked at the top, and her family lived in a nearby village. They were poor, and her school fees came from her own part-time work.

One day, her parents called her home, demanding she quit school and marry a stranger for a bride price of five thousand yuan.

At first, Shi Xiangxiang refused. She had worked so hard to leave the village, to go to school, and hoped one day, through academic achievement, to see a larger world beyond the mountains.

She didn’t want her life to be confined to that small village.

But her parents threatened her with their own lives, insisting she marry for the money.

At fifteen, Shi Xiangxiang was powerless. She gave in to her family’s demands.

After she dropped out, no one knew what became of her.

Shi Yi felt a pang of sorrow at the story.

Zhou, who had been listening silently, suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed.

“Wait a minute—Shi Xiangxiang’s village is where the first girl disappeared two years ago!”

“What?!”

—

By midnight, after reviewing all the information, the team returned to their hotel.

Han Sheng Gu gathered everyone in his room for a meeting.

Mi Chen shed her dress for comfortable sportswear and played with her hair as she eyed the relationship chart Han Sheng Gu had drawn on the whiteboard.

“Do you think everything traces back to Fossil Village?” she asked.

According to the materials Wang Zhiyuan had provided, there had been repeated disappearances of girls in that village two years ago. But because it was an ethnic minority area, even the mayor couldn’t easily intervene in their affairs, so the incidents never made headlines.

No one expected that, two years later, three girls would vanish from their school in broad daylight.

No one had connected the missing girls from First High School with the cases from Fossil Village. Though there seemed to be a link, without proper authorization, they couldn’t investigate the village freely.

“This is a real bug!” Mi Chen grumbled. “Just because it’s an ethnic minority area doesn’t mean they can do as they please. We’re police officers—shouldn’t they cooperate with an investigation?”

Feng Ming pressed her lips together, her expression cautious.

“Why don’t we check out Fossil Village tomorrow?”

They’d spent the whole day investigating at First High, even scrutinizing the surveillance footage multiple times. All evidence pointed to the fact that the incident hadn’t taken place on campus.

Officer Li had also informed them that they’d searched the mountain behind the school with police dogs, finding nothing suspicious—no one, no bodies.

That meant the girls had never gone up the mountain.