"You know this person?" Captain Yan had picked up on something from
"There was a heavy rainstorm last night. One of my employees and Jia Ming's wife got stranded at the station. He called me for help, so I hailed a cab to go pick them up and drove Jia Ming's wife home. That's how I ended up meeting Jia Ming." Jia Ming's situation was somewhat special — it involved the Route 104 night bus — so Chen Ge didn't go into detail. He changed the subject instead. "Could I see Jia Ming's information?"
Captain Yan handed his phone to Chen Ge. On it were not only Jia Ming's photo, but also a list of jobs he had held and evaluations from his former employers.
"Jia Ming once ended up at the police station due to a dispute with a client, so we have his records in our internal system."
Chen Ge took the phone and scrolled through. Jia Ming was in his early thirties. He had come to Jiujiang ten years ago and held many jobs, but none for very long.
However, the reason he kept leaving wasn't a lack of ability or problems with his character. On the contrary, the Jia Ming who had first arrived in Jiujiang was honest and hardworking. If anything, his only flaw was his stubborn inflexibility.
Young Jia Ming had been just like Xiao Gu when he first came to Jiujiang — blunt, thick-headed, and always offending people without realizing it. He had done poorly for himself.
The police station incident, strictly speaking, wasn't his fault at all. He and his wife had both been working for an insurance company at the time. A client had been in a car accident, and the client's family demanded that the insurance company pay out. However, according to the accident report, the client had caused the vehicle to crash through a guardrail due to drunk driving, resulting in the damage. For drunk driving, the insurance company was within its rights to refuse the claim.
Jia Ming followed the insurance company's policies to the letter, but the client's family couldn't accept that. They called every day to hurl insults, and eventually showed up at the insurance company and assaulted the staff.
That client's family had money and influence. The manager refused to see them and threw Jia Ming out as a scapegoat. After being humiliated and beaten, Jia Ming grabbed a pair of scissors from a desk and cut the client in self-defense.
That cut caused a huge problem. The wound was shallow, but the client's family called the police immediately. On-site mediation failed, and Jia Ming was taken to the police station.
The client's family wasn't seriously hurt, but they wouldn't let it go. The insurance company refused to pay the claim, and the whole thing dragged on.
The insurance company could stall against the client, but Jia Ming suffered greatly.
To get him released from the police station, Jia Ming's wife Huang Ling made numerous trips to the station.
After getting out, Jia Ming quit the insurance company in a rage.
From then on, Jia Ming's work history entered a strange cycle — he would find a job, then quit again and again. He grew to hate social interaction and became less and less willing to speak to anyone.
Misfortunes never come singly. Jia Ming was later involved in another car accident that left one of his legs permanently crippled. From that point on, he stayed at home all day and never wanted to work again.
The information provided by the police gave Chen Ge a much fuller picture of Jia Ming. Before being possessed by a ghost, Jia Ming's life had been far from ideal, but his character was decent enough. He didn't seem like the kind of person who would do something like trafficking children.
"Could something be wrong here? Why would the buyer choose Jia Ming's address?" Chen Ge handed the phone back to Captain Yan. He wasn't trying to defend Jia Ming — he was just looking at the situation from a fair and objective angle. "Could this just be a coincidence? The Mingyang Residential Complex wasn't finished at the time, and no one had moved in. Could the buyer have simply picked a random location to carry out the transaction?"
"Hard to say. We'll have someone continue looking into the case tomorrow." Captain Yan put his phone away and led Chen Ge and Li Zheng toward the exit. As they neared the door, they spotted a guard carrying a bag of candy toward the cell where Ma Fu was being held.
"You give criminals candy too?" It was Chen Ge's first time visiting a detention center, and he assumed it was some kind of standard practice.