One Song, One Echo

Mo Qiong led the police into the hotel. Along the way, they could see traces of fighting in the living room, a cleaver and an iron rod on the second floor, and the children standing motionless against the wall.

As for the situation at the scene, Mo Qiong only needed to tell the truth.

While examining the children, the police also discovered that they were somewhat withdrawn. Only the oldest child finally spoke after everyone repeatedly comforted him.

When asked why the children would not speak, the child said, "We can't talk, and we can't cry... If we make a sound, we'll be beaten..."

They were beaten once for every sentence they said, and beaten even after they cried. No matter who it was, after being beaten a hundred times for crying a hundred times, none of them would dare cry a hundred and first time.

It was simple, crude, and effective. They had been transported all the way from the north to the south, yet even with passersby around them, not one child made any extra sound.

This child revealed that he had been transported the entire time, but unfortunately, that was all.

As for where his family lived, which cities they had passed through, and who had been involved in the transport, he knew nothing at all.

Of the family information for these children, Mo Qiong had provided information for five of them. He had written down all the details about their parents and registered residences.

At that moment, he had not only taken the initiative to notify the parents of the five children, but had also provided the relevant information to the police.

"Not bad, young man. You remember all these things so clearly?" a police officer asked.

Mo Qiong smiled. "Because a friend's younger brother was abducted. It's been four years, and they still haven't found him. So I've paid special attention to this kind of thing. I read several posts on the forums looking for missing children. They were all posted within the past few months, so I remember them especially clearly."

The police officer nodded and patted Mo Qiong on the shoulder. "There are a lot of cases like this. As for the kind you mentioned, where the child hasn't been found after four years, he's definitely no longer in the traffickers' hands. The child's situation... is complicated too."

Mo Qiong said, "Some of these children came from the north. They were sent all the way here, so they must have been transferred through several places. I think we can uncover a whole lot of other criminal groups behind them."

The police officer said, "Definitely. The higher-ups will step up the interrogations. Maybe your friend's younger brother was taken by this group too."

"I think so too. Um, I have a few questions I'd like to ask them. Would that be all right?" Mo Qiong asked.

"If you want to ask, ask them here. Once they're taken away, they won't be my responsibility anymore," the police officer said.

Mo Qiong paused. "Why?"

The old police officer smiled. "We're only a county station. We can't possibly lead an investigation into a criminal group operating nationwide..."

He gave a brief explanation, and Mo Qiong understood.

It was impossible to trace everyone behind the group just by catching these few people. Therefore, they would all be sent to the city, where people from several Special Investigation Teams would interrogate them and investigate them alongside similar cases from other regions.

The information from traffickers caught across the country had to be compiled. The Special Investigation Teams would analyze it carefully, identify which groups were actually the same organization, and combine several related cases into one. Once the investigation was complete, they would close the net with nationwide arrests and rescues.

The county station would only handle them for now, conduct a rough interrogation, and then transfer them to the city.

That was precisely why the rules here were not so strict. When several officers heard that Mo Qiong wanted to ask about a child who had been missing for four years, none of them minded letting him question the traffickers.

At the county station, a trafficker sat in a chair, loudly demanding to be taken to the hospital.

"Hey, hey... Take me to the hospital..." The trafficker was the one whose teeth Mo Qiong had knocked out on one side with a single blow. He could barely speak now. The police had only given him basic treatment, but the pain was still unbearable.

With a creak, the door opened, and Mo Qiong entered with a police officer.

The trafficker fell silent the moment he saw him, shrinking into the chair.

The police officer sat at the table and spread open his notebook, while Mo Qiong walked straight over to the trafficker and looked down at him.

"What... what's going on... Is he an undercover agent?" The trafficker was terrified of Mo Qiong and trembled all over.

Seeing that Mo Qiong could enter the interrogation room, he assumed that Mo Qiong was also a police officer.

The police officer said nothing and did not formally give the trafficker the routine speech before an interrogation. That actually showed that this was not an official interrogation. In theory, the trafficker could refuse to say anything.

But the trafficker did not know that, and no one told him.

"Have you seen this before?" Mo Qiong took out the Longevity Lock.

The trafficker looked miserably at the Longevity Lock and shook his head. "I haven't..."

Mo Qiong said coldly, "Think carefully before you answer."

The trafficker shuddered and hurriedly looked it over again, but still said, "Big brother! Don't hit me... I... I really don't recognize it."

Mo Qiong was disappointed. The trafficker probably was not lying. When he looked at the Longevity Lock, his eyes had not changed at all.

Of course, perhaps he had forgotten, or perhaps he was a deeply calculating man. Mo Qiong could not tell.

After thinking for a moment, Mo Qiong changed the question. "How did you transport the children? Where were you before coming here?"

The trafficker answered honestly, "We came from Feixi... We used a van."

"Before that? Don't make me pull the answers out of you one drop at a time!" Mo Qiong glared at him.

The trafficker stammered twice, then hurriedly confessed the entire route he knew.

The police officer listening nearby stared in astonishment at the suddenly obedient trafficker and quickly recorded the large number of leads he revealed.

Generally speaking, unless someone was a genuine old fox, violence could destroy a person's will to resist.

Just as they had used violence to make the children obedient along the way, the trafficker now acted like a chick in front of Mo Qiong.

They were not afraid of the police. They were afraid of ruthless men.

There were things some police officers might not have been able to get out of them, yet they told Mo Qiong everything now. Their psychological resistance had completely collapsed.

The police could also beat such a confession out of someone, but that would be extracting a confession through torture.

Mo Qiong, however, was not a police officer, and the impression of his ferocity had been formed before they were arrested.

What happened then could not be considered coercive interrogation. He had merely been subduing them.

Beating someone before arrest and beating them after arrest were two different matters. Their nature was different.

Mo Qiong did not hit him again now, but that impression had already been deeply planted in the trafficker's mind.

This trafficker had previously had half his teeth smashed out by a single blow from Mo Qiong, so he had developed a genuine psychological shadow from being beaten by him. He was terrified the moment he saw Mo Qiong.

Mo Qiong only had to stand in front of him to make the trafficker hide nothing.

After confessing almost everything, Mo Qiong continued asking, "Anything else? I still have to ask the others. If I find out that you held something back... Well, I have a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I can't stand asymmetrical things."

As he spoke, Mo Qiong looked at the trafficker's remaining teeth.

Tears welled up in the trafficker's eyes as he begged, "Big brother, I really have nothing else to say. I'm just a small-time player. They really may know more than I do, but this is everything I know. Please let me go."

Mo Qiong nodded at the police officer, indicating that this was enough.

The police officer smiled at Mo Qiong, led the man out, and brought in another one.

Several hours later, Mo Qiong had interrogated all four traffickers, and the process had been unbelievably easy.

Looking at the detailed confessions, the police officers confirmed that this was a huge criminal group spanning seven provinces and involving at least several hundred criminals. Unfortunately, these confessions had no formal legal validity, and the four men only knew a tiny fraction of the truth. Perhaps the information could be combined with other trafficking cases and analyzed as a whole, but that would be the Special Investigation Teams' job.

"Not bad, kid. You got so much out of them," the old police officer said with a smile.

Mo Qiong smiled. "Confess and receive leniency. They've all been caught, so it makes no difference who asks them."

"Isn't it just bullying the weak and fearing the strong? Men like them need someone ruthless like you to deal with them. By the way, I noticed you kept asking about this Longevity Lock, but none of them seemed to recognize it," the old police officer said.

Mo Qiong nodded. "According to their confessions, they all joined within the past two or three years. Of them, only one might know about something from four years ago."

"Right, there's still one at the hospital. If you're going to ask, you might as well ask everyone," the old police officer said.

He was the only trafficker who had been sent to the hospital for treatment.

Mo Qiong personally went to the hospital to find him. By then, he had already undergone surgery.

"Hello. I'm here to see you." Mo Qiong entered the ward with a police officer.

"Don't come over! I was wrong, I really was wrong!" The trafficker burst into tears the moment he saw Mo Qiong.

Mo Qiong walked straight over and sat beside him. He took out the Longevity Lock and asked, "Do you recognize this?"

The trafficker paused. "The Longevity Lock."

"Do you know whose it is?" Mo Qiong asked with a smile.

"Qin Liang. It says so on it," the trafficker said softly.

Mo Qiong sneered. Compared with the other four men, this man's answer seemed normal, yet that was precisely what made it strange.

He clearly knew what Mo Qiong wanted to ask, but he deliberately gave an answer that was practically useless. The other four had simply said they did not know. Unlike this man, they had not pretended to be stupid.

"Were you the one who threw it into a scrap recycling station in Heifei?" Mo Qiong suddenly asked.

"Not me..." The trafficker froze after saying it himself.

Mo Qiong pressed him. "Then who was it?"

The police officer also looked at him, because it was obvious that he knew.

The trafficker remained silent.

Smack! Mo Qiong kicked him straight off the bed.

The trafficker let out a miserable cry and looked at Mo Qiong in terror. "I... I've already been arrested! Aren't the police going to do anything?"

The police officer who had entered with Mo Qiong hurriedly grabbed him. "Don't hit him. This is a hospital."

Seeing that the police officer had indeed intervened, the trafficker relaxed. He never expected Mo Qiong to kick him again.

He cried out in pain. "What gives you the right to hit me again?"

Mo Qiong said calmly, "Because I'm willing to accept mediation."

The trafficker froze, while the police officer beside them laughed helplessly.

"I'm sorry. I just found him irritating and acted impulsively. Sorry for the trouble, brother. Could you mediate this for us?" Mo Qiong said to the police officer beside him.

The police officer blinked. "If it's just an assault caused by a verbal dispute, we can mediate if possible... You can compensate him for some medical expenses."

"All right. No problem," Mo Qiong said.

"I refuse!" the trafficker hurriedly said.

Mo Qiong asked, "What happens if the other party refuses mediation?"

The police officer frowned. "Then you'll have to be punished. For a minor offense, it's a five-hundred-yuan fine and up to five days of detention."

After hearing that, Mo Qiong kicked him again.

As the trafficker wailed, Mo Qiong said, "Sorry, I acted impulsively again... Sorry for the trouble, brother. Please mediate for us."

"I won't—"

The trafficker was about to speak, but when he saw Mo Qiong raise his foot, he immediately changed his mind. "I accept, I accept..."

Seeing him back down, Mo Qiong squatted in front of him and said, "Tell me where you sent this child, Qin Liang, four years ago... I want to know everything about him."

"You've all been caught, so just confess. You can choose not to speak, but I won't let this go."

"Don't worry. I won't make things difficult for the police. I'd rather accept detention than stop until I've beaten you into being unable to care for yourself."

Hearing that, even the police officer was stunned. "You're still a college student, aren't you? Detention goes on your record."

Mo Qiong said calmly, "I don't care."

The police officer said admiringly, "You've got guts! I'll go write a self-criticism right now and say I failed to hold you back."

"I'm really sorry about this," Mo Qiong said.

"No big deal. Have them write mine too. If I'd acted personally, it wouldn't have been as simple as writing a self-criticism," the police officer said with a smile.

Watching the two of them sing the same tune, the trafficker completely broke down.

One was willing to be detained, and the other was willing to write a self-criticism. It was utterly despairing.

"Big brother, I'll talk. I give in, I really give in..."

P.S. Fictional. Do not imitate.