"Don't you like my boss?" Li Jing didn't speak when he was shopping for groceries, I guess he hated my boss a little, and his attitude was very clear last time in the company.

"Nope. Why do I hate him? "Li Jing doesn't look at me.

"You still say that you don't hate it, you ignore me for a long time."

"I didn't." Li Jing grimaced.

"You have." I was upset, "If you don't want me to get off work with him, you can say that it's completely hypocritical for you to ignore me like this." I ignored him and walked on my own.

Li Jing caught up with me and asked, "I said I didn't want you to commute with him, did you really refuse him?" ”

I turned my head and saw his nervous appearance and laughed, but immediately straightened out: "Of course, although he is not a big husband, he is still a man who is hard to chase." I won't be in his car again. ”

The corners of Li Jing's mouth rose slightly: "You're not afraid that you will be resigned by your boss?" ”

"He won't be as stingy as you." He grimaced. Li Jing's face darkened again, and I hurriedly comforted him: "I'm just teasing you, if he really quit me because of this kind of thing, then I'll go, anyway, I just wanted to help at that time." Then I'm looking for a job. Don't you think I'll be able to save the day every time? So don't worry about me! Why didn't you buy carrots? ”

"Want carrots?" Li Jing asked me.

I nodded: "I want to drink carrot juice." Li Jing went back to the stall of the old man who often bought vegetables, picked three carrots and two tomatoes, and then bought two catties of apples at the exit of the market. Carrot juice alone is not delicious, so it is best to squeeze it with other vegetables and fruits to make a mixed juice to taste good. Li Jing carried the ingredients and went home with me.

"It's really delicious." After dinner, Li Jing handed me the juice.

"What did you find?" Li Jing asked me.

"Really." I took out the contact list from my bag, "Although I can't contact the other people, the last person on the contact list is still doing the original business." And I found out their transaction history. ”

Li Jing blinked, a little unsure of the meaning of my words.

I opened the shopping app on my phone: "I just went to try it, and then found his online store, although the price of the goods is relatively high, but the sales are still good." And I found this. ”

I dropped the information of the shopping software to show him, and this store has a feature, even if the works are sold, they will still leave a category for display. In which category I saw works of the same style that I had seen in Mr. Guo's gallery, although I am not sure if they were paintings by artists who disappeared, but the date of the last transaction was almost always within six months, and it is difficult for me not to relate to Mr. Guo's experience. “

Li Jing nodded appreciatively: "The location of his physical store should also be inquired, right?" ”

"Hmm. To ask the way you asked, I didn't say anything about someone going missing before. "I finished my last sip of juice." What about your side? Did you find anything about Gorgeous? ”

"If the vanishing artists were conveying the truth, then the dead youth could have been murdered mercilessly." Li Jing's expression was stern.

"Huh?" I had expected that such a result would be possible, but I was shocked to hear it in person.

Li Jing took out the paintings and explained to me one by one: "We are too obsessed with seeing what the flowers are hiding and not paying attention to the painting itself. We knew yesterday that these words were shadows of reality, so let's see what they draw. Snow, changes in the surface of the lake in different months, banyan trees, seats. But there are no buildings. Do you remember the cause of the child's death that Shi Hao said yesterday, jumping off the building and committing suicide. Yesterday we went to the Art Village, if it is really like what Mr. Guo said. If the art village is just a factory renovation, the highest height of those factories is only 6 meters, and it is a sloping roof, if it is a jump down, it is only 5 meters high, aside from the reason for the accidental death of this height, do you think a child who wants to die will pick such a height to jump off the building? If you want to kill yourself, you will choose a higher place. If he hadn't committed suicide, these words would have explained it very clearly, only people found him dead, but no one noticed whether he had jumped from the stairs or not, so there was no trace of a factory in these paintings at all. To validate my thoughts. I went to Shi Hao to retrieve the police records at the time of the child's death, and found that no one called the police to stop the child before the child jumped off the building. By the time they received the call, the child had already been found dead at the scene of the murder. But in later police confessions, almost all of them said that the child committed suicide by jumping off the building. I asked the officers who had taken on the case at noon, and they had the same questions as me. But no evidence was found, because almost all of the people investigated said that the child was suicidal, and there was no evidence for suspicion, so the case has been shelved as a suspect. So, I think after all, someone wants to know the truth about this child's death. No matter what his relationship with this child is, he is searching for the truth of the matter as much as we do. And what he did was just threatening us to help him find the answer he wanted. So, what these painters are painting is really what they saw that day, what they experienced at that time, in a way, they were delaying their time, because they knew that when they finished painting everything they saw, they would also die. So in their paintings, we can only see a single thing, but each painter's painting is connected to a complete story. I think even the first paintings with distress signals were painted at the request of the kidnapper, didn't you say yesterday that he was not afraid that people would recognize him and call for help? In fact, what he hopes most is that people will find out and find him and re-investigate the teenager's case. ”

"Them." I hesitated, but then said what was in my mind, "They committed perjury? ”

Li Jinghao nodded without hesitation: "That's right." I asked Shi Hao to send me those who participated in the investigation back then, which basically coincided with the missing person. I don't need to say much about the rest of the matter, right? ”

"So that's what you meant yesterday when you said that reality is more complicated than movies?" I asked Li Jing.

Li Jing smiled and nodded: "That's right." But I'm not sure when these missing people will finish their story about the case, so I'm not sure if they're about to be in greater danger and I want to get them out before the kidnappers make a more irrational decision. ”

Li Jing spread out the painting: "So, the first thing we need to do now is to investigate that case anew." We now have a lot of clues, and these are the paintings. ”

Li Jing sorted the works according to the painters: "Xiaozhi, let's look at the author of the snow scene first. You see the shadows in his paintings form the outline of the boy, I asked Shi Hao to verify that the day of the boy's death was indeed when it was snowing in winter, so he saw the child on the day of the boy's accident, and the child should have been alive and well at that time. This painter was the first to be kidnapped. So he also presents more content. Let's take a look at his other works, there is a separate scene of the seats in the rest area, as well as the swings and slides in the children's area of the third phase of the art village. He drew two pictures of the same location, one time it shows that the boy had stayed here for a long time, and it can also be said that he seems to have discovered the kidnapper's intention to deliberately delay time, his last work is an artificial lake, but if you don't look carefully, you can't see the appearance of an artificial lake at all, these boats should be small boats folded with paper, indicating that the boy did go to the lake, but the painting we see is the thriving surface of the lake, if it is the scene they saw on the day the boy died, Then it is very likely that those lotus flowers and koi fish in another painting are not the scene in the artificial lake at all. It's landscaping indoors. Because in the sub-zero temperature of the northern winter, it is impossible to have a summer scene of lotus leaf koi swimming outside, but the artificial landscaping inside can do this, indicating that another painter has seen a boy in a studio. So I spread out all the drawings and marked them on the map, and you see, aside from these interior scenes, the map shows that the boy is actually getting farther and farther away from the place where he was last convicted of suicide, indicating that the person who committed suicide wanted to leave the art village. However, the boy's body ended up in a location that was completely opposite to the path the boy was traveling. ”

"So what we want to find out is who did the teenager come into contact with in his last moments? Words outdoors. Even murder is very easy to expose yourself, but indoors, there are many opportunities for the murderer. I thought about it and concluded.

Li Jing nodded: "That's right, now we have two directions. Today, Mr. Guo has gone to the police station to report the case, because almost all of his friends are missing in cars, so Team Xiao is looking for the whereabouts of these cars, and then deduce where they disappeared. And we're in charge of the other direction, to find out the boy's last whereabouts. ”

"So the next step should be to go back to the gallery and ask Mr. Guo if he still remembers the teenager." I guessed what Li Jing was thinking.

Li Jing breathed a long sigh of relief: "It's not just Mr. Guo. We still need to visit the studio you contacted. ”

"And when are we going?" I asked Li Jing.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I exclaimed, "But I have to go to work tomorrow?" ”

"Did you forget?" Li Jing glanced at me with a smile, "The quid pro quo I proposed at that time requires you to unconditionally cooperate with me in the investigation of the case." ”

It seems to be true, but will the boss take Li Jing's words as a joke? I just gave me a good face today, if I have to take an inch and ask for leave tomorrow, will I be torn by the boss? With apprehension, I called my boss, and to my surprise, the boss didn't get angry after hearing the reason for my leave, but just paused for a few seconds and said to me, "Go ahead." Boss Guo has also helped me a lot before, even if I repay the favor this time. ”

"When the case is closed, I will make up for the leave." I said on the phone.

The boss didn't say anything over there, and I thought he was still angry, but I didn't want to hit him and just said softly: "Be careful." He hung up. The boss is so strange today, it can't be a bad stomach.

I also confirmed the time of tomorrow's visit with the studio that I contacted at noon, and Li Jing told me not to reveal my identity until I had to, we didn't know where the boy went last, and there were no other hints in the painting, so we could only grope for the clues we wanted.

The next morning, Li Jing and I went to the studio as promised, and neither of us mentioned the reason for the visit too much, just wandering around the studio. Li Jing finally picked an impressionist work and asked for the price, but the other party said that the painting had already been booked. Li Jing pretended to be unhappy and asked, "Booked?" So why put it out? ”

"Huh." The other party exaggerated his surprised expression, "Sir, you may not know that this painter's works have been favored by many people recently, and every time he arrives at the store." It will be booked, but sometimes the buyer doesn't have time to pick it up, so we keep it in the store. ”

"Oh?" Li Jing made a surprised look and set his eyes on the painter's name. The painter's name is Shen Ze, and he is on the list of missing painters. It seems that I was not wrong in what I guessed yesterday, and this studio is also constantly receiving paintings by missing artists.

Li Jing gave me a look, and I stepped forward and asked, "Who is this painter?" Nova Nova? ”

The other party obviously really thought that we were the customers who came to buy the paintings, so they led us to the lounge area and sat down to turn on the computer to show us: "Sort of." Although he is not very famous, there are many people who are willing to buy his paintings at a high price, you see this is the sales record of our online store, the highest price is his paintings, and his works are hard to find, only one set a month, and they will be booked within a few hours of time after they are newly launched. No matter how high we set the price, the piece will be sold in the end. ”

"So powerful?" I pretended to be surprised and said, if I remember correctly, Li Jing once said that the person who bought the paintings just didn't play a different identity, and his purpose was to let these paintings enter the public's eye, so no matter how high the price was, he would buy the paintings, and this kidnapper was really not bad for money.

"It's really good luck to paint only one picture a month and then be able to buy it for such a good price." I continued to chat with each other. But at this time, the other party stopped talking, and saw that his eyes suddenly looked in the direction of the door. I followed his gaze. A man in a peaked cap walked in with several boxes.

The other party glanced at his watch and said, "It's really punctual." “

I looked at Li Jing and saw that his gaze was also fixed on the box. I walked over and gave him a sneaky tap on the shoulder, but he motioned for me to stand still.

After signing the order, the other party returned to our position: "I'm sorry, it was the express delivery to the store just now." ”

"Did the painter send you all your words?" Li Jing asked the other party.

The other party nodded: "That's right." Some paintings are inconvenient to take directly and express them to us. ”

"Can you see your new paintings?" Li Jing asked the other party.

Although the other party leaked a look of embarrassment. But in the end, he led us over, unpacked the packages one by one, and when the last package was unpacked, the other party suddenly called out "ah".

"What's wrong?" I walked over, but the shopkeeper put the painting away, and we could only see the back of the frame.

"Nothing." The other shook his head. But the look of horror on his face can't deceive.

Li Jing and I looked at each other for a while, it was not normal, but the other party seemed to be determined to hide the painting, knowing that if we didn't see the painting clearly at this time, maybe we would never have the chance to see it again. What to do, whether to reveal my identity or not, I was struggling in my heart, and Li Jing suddenly turned up other paintings.

"Boss, can you make a bid for this painting?" Li Jing pointed to one of them and said.

I glanced at it, my eyes widened instantly, fortunately I was facing away from the shopkeeper, so he didn't see my expression, he walked to my side and glanced at the words, I turned my head sideways to find that his forehead was covered with a dense layer of fine sweat, his mind didn't seem to be in the remaining paintings, just impatiently quoted a price.

"Where do you think you've seen this painting?" Li Jing muttered to himself.

The shopkeeper glanced at us, suddenly snatched the painting from Li Jing's hand and said, "I'm sorry, our store is closed today, if you need to come back in a few days, I'm really sorry." "The owner's behavior was very abrupt, and it made me want to know more and more about the content of the painting.

"Are you alright?" I looked at the shopkeeper and asked, "You don't seem to have a very good face, do you?" Doesn't it matter? ”

The shopkeeper didn't speak, just pushed me and Li Jing to walk out the door, I saw Li Jing purse his lips, he likes to purse his lips when he is in a hurry, I just want to see that painting too, right?

At this moment, two gentlemen not far away ran towards us, the shopkeeper didn't pay attention, just lowered his head and pushed us away, knowing that the two gentlemen suddenly spoke: "Hello, we have something to ask for your help." Then he took out his police ID cards from his inner pocket and showed them to us

The shopkeeper's hand behind our back jumped for a moment, and then he wanted to lock the door of the store, Li Jing suddenly turned around and was in the middle of the door, he looked at the shopkeeper with a smile: "Sir, it seems that the police are also very interested in your shop." ”

The studio is in a furniture city, probably afraid of bad influence, although the shopkeeper has a very bad expression, he still let us in, he seems to guess the real intention of our visit today, glanced at the two of us, and sat on the sofa by himself.

"What a coincidence that the police came." I'm glad I said that if they hadn't come, I don't know if I'd ever had a chance to see that painting again.

Li Jing smiled: "When he exclaimed, I had already sent a text message to the team asking him to send someone over, yesterday I told him where we were coming, he should have already deployed, otherwise, do you think we are really just lucky?" ”

Although the smile is very flat, I really admire the thoughtfulness of the plan and the ability to judge the situation. The shopkeeper sitting across the couch had a look on his face that was by no means relaxed, and his eyes were always on the oil painting that was lying upside down in the corner.

"Can we take a look at that painting?" The two police officers also saw that something was wrong with the shopkeeper and asked.

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, obviously not very reluctant, but suddenly laughed slyly: "Then please take out your search warrant." (To be continued.) )