Chapter 11 Missing

"Those are their two missing companions," Jiang Cheng said, stating the obvious.

Director Qiao nodded, subconsciously licking his lips, which were dry and peeling. "Exactly those two. They, like the people in the train car, were standing with their backs to the door, guns in hand, as if on guard duty."

"The remaining companions tentatively called their names a couple of times, but there was no response. To be precise, not even the slightest reaction."

"Finally, someone mustered their courage, gun in hand, and walked in. First, they patted one of them on the shoulder, and when there was no response, they steeled themselves and yanked his arm."

"But unexpectedly, that yank directly pulled the person down. He fell straight backward onto the ground, and the moment they saw his face, the person who pulled him screamed, almost fainting from fright."

"His face was pale, his eyebrows were raised exaggeratedly, the corners of his eyes were turned up, and his mouth was stretched open, revealing half of his teeth." Director Qiao described with lingering fear, "I've been in this line of work for so many years, and I've never seen such a strange smile."

"That's not an expression a living person could make. He was already dead. Everyone in the train car was dead."

"Everyone had the same expression."

"How did they die?" Jiang Cheng asked. He had already guessed the outcome when he heard that everyone was standing with their backs to the door.

"I don't know," Director Qiao said, exhaling and shaking his head.

"You don't know?" Pan Du frowned. "Although the matter is strange, so many people died. Surely it was necessary to examine the bodies."

He had long heard that officials in the old days treated human life like dirt, and now he was finally seeing it firsthand.

"Of course we examined the bodies, but there were no external injuries. They... they seemed to have died in an instant, extremely happily." Director Qiao's voice was trembling. "We selected a few people for autopsy, but we didn't find anything strange."

"Apart from malnutrition, their bodies had no major problems. Some of them had fresh food in their stomachs, which hadn't had time to digest."

"Wait," Jiang Cheng interjected, interrupting Director Qiao. "You said everyone on the entire train disappeared?"

Director Qiao nodded. "That's right."

"Then the last car couldn't possibly hold everyone on the entire train, right?" Jiang Cheng asked, looking at Director Qiao.

Director Qiao looked at Jiang Cheng, and after a moment, nodded. "Young man, you're right. Apart from the disaster victims we found dead in the last car, the rest of the disaster victims have disappeared."

"Those who disappeared are the majority; those in the last car are only a small part of them."

After a moment of thought, Huai Yi said, "Could it be that the crisis spread from the front cars, and by the time it reached the last car, the people inside were prepared, so they locked the door? But they didn't expect that they still couldn't escape it."

"But compared to the people who disappeared, at least the bodies were left behind," Huai Yi analyzed.

"No," Director Qiao said affirmatively. "The people in the last car weren't all originally from the last car."

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng looked up, looking at Director Qiao, and asked, "How do you know?"

After all, in that era, Jiang Cheng didn't believe that Director Qiao and the others had the patience to count the positions of the disaster victims on the train one by one. At most, they would just count the approximate number.

When the country was on the verge of collapse, human life was as cheap as grass.

Director Qiao didn't hide anything about this. He looked into Jiang Cheng's eyes and said, "We didn't count the exact positions of the disaster victims, but the corpses that died in the last car were all old people and children."

"Those young adults, and women, have all disappeared," Director Qiao lowered his voice.

Only the bodies of the elderly and children remained. The young adults and women were missing. This situation was truly beyond everyone's expectations.

As of now, the May Train Incident can undoubtedly be classified as a paranormal event, meaning that all of this was done by ghosts.

But why did the ghosts only kill the elderly and children, leaving their bodies behind, while the young adults and women disappeared?

No one doubted whether the missing people were still alive. They were definitely dead, and Jiang Cheng knew that they had died particularly tragically.

Because everyone had already met when they came.

That's right, it was on the May 5th train.

Those severed limbs, and even people missing half their bodies, were those missing young adults and women!

A conjecture vaguely emerged in his mind. Jiang Cheng had previously wondered why there were so many empty seats when he first got on the train, but later, people sat in them.

Now it seemed that those empty seats were reserved for these missing young adults and women.

These were originally their seats.

But why did they disappear?

And why did they die so tragically?

That was what they needed to find the answer to. After solving this mystery, they could clear the mission and return to the real world.

Of course, he didn't plan to tell Director Qiao about this conjecture.

Because... he still had another crucial question that hadn't been answered.

"This case has been a cold case for so long, why did you suddenly find us and insist on solving it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

How many people died in the war years, thousands upon thousands? Moreover, they were just a group of starving disaster victims. Was it really worth Director Qiao being so concerned?

Several years had passed, and he still insisted on the truth?

Moreover, anyone could see that this matter was unusual. Wasn't he afraid of stirring up trouble?

No matter how you looked at it, the water here was very deep. Jiang Cheng didn't mind wading through the water, but he didn't want to be kept in the dark.

Director Qiao's eyes slowly changed as he looked at Jiang Cheng. "Not bad, young man. It seems I was right to find you."

Director Qiao stood up and walked towards the door, signaling Jiang Cheng and the others to follow.

They went all the way downstairs and stopped at the entrance to a basement. The basement had an old-fashioned black iron door.

Even through the door, they could feel the chill emanating from the cracks.

The young police officer who had brought Jiang Cheng and the others' "charges" earlier handed over a leather jacket with a fur collar with great perceptiveness.

Director Qiao took it, draped it over his shoulders, and then ordered the young police officer to open the door.

After a series of clanging keys, the iron door opened, revealing a dark room with no lights, only a few white candles.

After entering, they realized that the room was larger than expected. A white cloth was spread on the ground, and a human figure vaguely appeared underneath it.

The head, face, body, legs, and feet were all very clear.

Combined with the extremely low temperature in the room, it could be guessed that this was probably a place like a morgue.

Director Qiao walked forward and slowly lifted the cloth covering the corpse's face.

In the cold, pale candlelight was an extremely eerie smiling face.