Chapter 1052: Chapter 1052

Upon hearing He Ao’s words, the youth paused slightly. He looked up at He Ao, then lowered his gaze back to the hot dog in his hands, which was almost finished, and said softly,

"You’re about to die."

He Ao was slightly taken aback, looking at the youth with interest, "Why do you say that?"

"You came here for that travel agency, right?"

With his head down, the youth continued to eat his hot dog, speaking slowly, "These days, all the outsiders who came looking for that travel agency ended up disappearing."

He Ao watched the youth, his gaze pausing for a moment, then smiled, "Perhaps they were taken by the travel agency on a tour, out of Feklay. You don’t see them here, but it doesn’t mean they have disappeared. Maybe after a while, once their trip is over, they’ll come back."

"That won’t happen. They’ll never appear again."

The youth spoke slowly, "That travel agency has no tour guides and no normal comings and goings, apart from you ’tourists’ from out of town, no one else comes looking for them. Moreover,"

He paused, as if wanting to say something, but ultimately continued in a low voice, "Anyway, those who have come into contact with this travel agency will most likely never come back."

"Have you been watching this travel agency all along?"

He Ao smiled as he looked at him.

The youth looked up at him, didn’t speak, and finished off the last bit of his hot dog.

He Ao watched the youth, continuing to smile as he spoke, "You followed me to find out how ’they’ made me ’disappear’? You want to discover their secret?"

The youth glanced at He Ao and paused for a moment before slowly standing up, "I’m full now,"

"Here is your hot dog and ham."

At that moment, the Boss brought over two plates, placing a hot dog and a large slice of ham in front of He Ao.

The youth’s gaze was inadvertently attracted to the steaming hot dog and ham, but then he quickly shifted his gaze back to He Ao.

That’s when he noticed the fresh blood on the handkerchief paper that He Ao was using to wipe his hands. He paused for a moment before saying softly, "You should leave here quickly, or you might never be able to return. I’m leaving too."

"Didn’t eat your fill?"

He Ao didn’t respond to him but instead pushed the two plates toward the youth.

As the youth looked at the food on the plates, his voice faltered for a moment before he quickly added, "And I don’t accept charity."

Looking at the youth’s thin frame, his coat frayed at the edges with some tears, his faded old shirt, and his white-washed jeans, He Ao calmly said,

"That’s the fee for the information. Didn’t you say I was about to die? You give me deeper information, and this is what I’m paying you."

He slid the two plates even closer to the youth.

The youth watched the two plates, swallowed, and after hesitating for a second, he sat down.

However, he did not reach for the food on the plates but sat up straight, looking at He Ao, "What do you want to know?"

"There’s a lot I want to know,"

He Ao finished wiping the blood off his hands completely, looking at the youth with a smile, "I want to know everything you know. For example, how do you know there’s something wrong with this travel agency, and why are you concerned about those missing people? It seems that these serial ’disappearances’ are not so simple in this city?"

The youth looked down at the hot dog in the plate, hesitated slightly before picking it up, "There are many disappearance cases in this city, every day some people mysteriously vanish, never to return to this world again. But if you ask me who the murderer is,"

He paused, then said in a softened tone, "Then I don’t have an answer either."

After saying that, he held his hot dog and started eating it in small bites.

"Aren’t you in a hurry to eat?"

He Ao didn’t ask any questions about the intelligence he had mentioned. Instead, he glanced at the boy and then at the surrounding diners who were eating heartily, and asked gently.

"My brother taught me," said the boy, pausing before slowly continuing, "he said that eating in small bites makes it easier to digest, and also more filling."

"It sounds like your brother was a very outstanding and gentle person."

He Ao continued the conversation.

The boy looked up at He Ao and then down at the food on his plate. Finally, after a brief hesitation, he slowly began to speak,

"He was a gendarme. Our parents died when we were very young, and our relatives didn’t care for us two burdens. My brother has been working and earning money from a young age, always taking care of me."

As he spoke, his tone lowered slightly, then he placed the hot dog back on the plate and looked at He Ao, "About the disappearance cases, is there anything else you would like to know?"

He Ao looked at the stubborn and earnest boy in front of him and asked softly, "Actually, I’m curious about why you are interested in these disappearance cases. With your age and strength, it seems like you shouldn’t get involved in these kinds of incidents."

The boy lowered his head, looking at the half-eaten hot dog in his plate, silent for a moment.

Then he spoke slowly, "Because of my brother."

He Ao watched him with a calm gaze.

"After my brother became a gendarme, he was in charge of the public security of a small area near Pine Forest Street."

The boy’s voice slowed down, becoming somewhat low and husky, "Those bastards who make people disappear usually target those who don’t have family or those from the slums who seldom contact their relatives. It’s much less likely for these cases to be noticed when choosing such people.

"But there are still risks involved. Not long after my brother started, he received several missing person reports.

"Pine Forest Street is a large area with a high population and a mix of good and bad people. All sorts of cases emerged endlessly, yet the number of gendarmes assigned, including my brother, was very few.

"I would like to say my brother was very capable, but indeed his ability was limited. All he could do was make a simple record of the disappearances, report them to the gendarmerie, and then try to help find the people. In the end, the results were mostly the same; nothing was found.

"My brother’s colleagues told him not to bother with these cases. In fact, unless it was a particularly big murder case, they didn’t really get involved.

"But as my brother received more and more missing person reports, he gradually realized that this was not some sort of ’random’ criminal activity."

"Then he started to investigate deeper?" He Ao interjected.

"Yes," the boy nodded lightly, continuing, "At that time I was attending school and didn’t know what my brother was doing, just that he had been frowning for several months.

"One day, I couldn’t bear it anymore and asked him what exactly was happening, but he didn’t want to tell me,

"After that, not long after, I would often hear him arguing with someone who seemed to be his superior on the balcony. His superior seemed to be telling him not to investigate these things anymore.

"Then, a few months ago, the gendarmerie suddenly called the school, telling me that my brother had committed suicide."

The boy’s voice gradually lowered, sinking into silence.

He Ao gazed at him, not responding, letting the silence linger quietly.

After a brief silence, the boy spoke again, "They said my brother took black money from a gang and committed suicide out of fear of crime. By the time I got to the gendarmerie, my brother’s body had already been cremated.

"I only had time to take his ashes and some personal belongings,"

"There’s no compensation for a suicide out of fear of prosecution."

The youth’s tone fluctuated, then he took a slight breath and regained calmness.

"My brother’s salary wasn’t high, we didn’t have much savings, and I had to move out of the place we rented into a smaller one. During the move, I found the files my brother kept at home."

"Did you look at those files?"

the youth nodded slightly, turning his head to glance at the noisy crowd around him, "The files listed all sorts of missing person cases from recent years, densely stacked into a thick pile.

"There were also some handwritten investigation notes by my brother.

"In this city, every day, many people disappear without a trace, never seeing the dawn of the next day, especially around Pine Forest Street."

"Do you think there was something fishy about your brother’s death?"

He Ao looked at the youth.

"I don’t believe my brother took dirty money from the gangs,"

the youth returned his gaze to He Ao, "We went through various hardships since we were young, I don’t believe he was someone who’d commit suicide out of fear of prosecution."

"So, this is why you’re investigating these missing person cases?"

the youth nodded gently, "Before his death, my brother was likely investigating these disappearances, cases that his superiors had stopped him from looking into, and this might be the real reason for my brother’s ’death’. I need an answer, the gendarmerie can no longer be trusted, and I have no other choice."

"Don’t you think this matter is very dangerous?"

He Ao gazed at him, "Those behind these disappearances, if they could make your brother ’commit suicide’ inside the gendarmerie, could also make you vanish silently at any time. The reason you’re still safe now is that you are too insignificant, not even enough to catch their attention."

"My brother knew the dangers when he was doing this,"

the youth picked up a hot dog from the plate, took a bite, "There needs to be someone to reveal the truth, and someone to clear my brother’s name. I am still weak now, but one day, I will get close to that truth."

"So have you found out any clues?"

He Ao looked at him, asking quietly.

the youth shook his head, replied, "But I roughly figured out their criteria for selecting victims,

"At first, following my brother’s files, I noticed they prefer people with weak ties to society, whose disappearances wouldn’t raise concern.

"Besides the previously mentioned lonely old folks, tourists from small countries, illegal migrants, the destitute from slums who’ve sold all their personal information, and people in debt are all their targets.

"Following this clue, I soon found some new missing person cases that went unnoticed because no one cared, some have been missing for many days.

"Pine Forest Street has the highest number of cases, so I decided to observe the disappearances in this area.

"At first, I didn’t find any specific pattern, just identified a few people who seemed to fit their criteria and I tried to warn them, but they thought I was crazy and chased me away.

"Some of these people disappeared, some did not, so I kept refining and observing their selection criteria."

"So you haven’t had any income for the past few months?"

He Ao looked at him and asked.

"I found some odd jobs around here, but because I have to spend a lot of time observing and visiting every day, and the pay for these jobs is very low, I can just barely keep from starving."

The youth finished his hot dog and paused, glanced at the nearby ham, then looked up at He Ao. Only after seeing He Ao’s slight nod did he hesitantly pick up the fork from the plate of ham.

As he twirled the ham onto his fork and put it in his mouth, he continued, "Just a few days ago, I roughly figured out their pattern for choosing victims, but then they stopped making people disappear for many days in a row.

"Then I discovered that travel agency and confirmed it was connected to the hidden hands behind these disappearances,

"But before I could further investigate, the travel agency ran away overnight."

He looked up at He Ao and whispered, "You were the last person to come looking for this travel agency, and you also fit the profile they look for, so I wanted to see if you would encounter anything."

"Do you also plan to check out that photo studio I went into?"

He Ao seemed to recall something and turned his head to look at the shutters of the photo studio behind him.

The youth was slightly stunned, then lightly nodded, "Yes, I’ve noticed that photo studio for a while. The Boss hasn’t been back for a long time, and it seems like a disappearance, but not the sudden kind. If I hadn’t met you, I was planning to go in and have a look soon."

"You’re quite lucky, kid."

He Ao gazed at the boy before him and chuckled hoarsely.

If He Ao hadn’t been there today, solving the bloody monster inside, this kid would likely have ended up as one of those Dry Corpses hanging in there.

Strictly speaking, the kid was indeed lucky.

From the travel agency fleeing at the slightest hint to the gangs silencing people without hesitation, it shows those behind the disappearances are very alert.

This youth was likely only spared because he was young and hadn’t actually discovered any significant information, escaping the attention of those behind the scenes by a narrow margin.

And then, he was fortunate to meet He Ao.

Of course, this is also survivorship bias; over the years, certainly more than one or two people have stumbled upon these disappearances.

Among those investigators, only the luckiest one would live to this day and meet He Ao.

He Ao waited quietly as the youth finished the ham, belched softly, then slowly stood up, looked at him, and said with a smile, "Let’s go."

The youth was a bit startled, looking at He Ao in confusion.

"Didn’t you say you’ve found their pattern for selecting people?"

He Ao continued gazing at him calmly, "I just happen to have a few lists."

"You want to lure them out?"

The youth’s eyes widened in awe, he stared blankly at He Ao, "But..."

He paused, voiced the same question He Ao had asked him, "Aren’t you afraid?"

His voice trembled slightly, "They’ve captured so many people, the gendarmerie, and even those in charge of it all, could all be their people..."

He Ao looked at the youth before him, smiling gently and calmly.

That peaceful voice seemed to possess an invisible magic, soothing his Soul.

The youth raised his head, gazing at the serene and composed Central Earth youth before him.

At that moment, he suddenly realized.

It shouldn’t be them who are afraid.