Chapter 19: Clever? Foolish?
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The kidnappers are surprisingly kind?
Staring at Kira Yoshikage’s message, Shen Ting was utterly stunned.
Kidnapping, cutting off ears!
Then roasting them, eating half!
As for Liu Furen and the others, it’s highly likely they were killed to silence witnesses!
And yet, kind-hearted?
kikO: “(꒪⌓꒪) What are you saying? I don’t get it at all.”
Tang Ren: “Are you out of your mind? The kidnappers kind-hearted?”
Guan Hongyu: “The kidnappers’ actions hardly seem to have anything to do with kindness, right?”
Kira Yoshikage, however, appeared quite calm:
“Of course they’re kind!
As kidnappers, they didn’t kill the ferryman’s family.
They even asked for a new boat for them in the ransom note.
Isn’t that kindness?”
Suddenly, Shen Ting understood what Kira Yoshikage meant.
This was also the peculiar point he noticed while reviewing the information.
During the kidnapping, the kidnappers first seized the ferryman’s boat.
Afterwards!
They doused the boat with gasoline and burned it to sink it!
Though the ferryman’s family was quickly subdued and did not see the kidnappers’ faces,
they might still have provided some details to the police, leading to the kidnappers’ capture.
Therefore, from the kidnappers’ perspective, eliminating all traces by killing the ferryman couple and their infant would have been the safest option.
Judging by later acts like cutting off ears and killing witnesses, they were certainly capable of such deeds.
Yet, contrary to expectations, the ferryman’s family remained safe and sound.
Moreover, the kidnappers requested a new boat as compensation in the ransom letter.
Absurd!
If it were the usually cautious Kira Yoshikage, the entire ferryman family would have been eliminated without hesitation.
Guan Hongfeng (elder brother): “The kidnappers are ruthless to Liu Furen but lenient to the ferryman’s family.
This is the first major contradiction!”
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The second major contradiction lies between high intelligence and low education.
The kidnappers are undoubtedly very clever.
Otherwise, this case wouldn’t have remained unsolved for twelve years, passing through multiple task forces.
But at the same time!
From the ransom note, the kidnappers’ literacy seems to be quite poor.
The note contains only a few dozen words, yet multiple characters are circled and corrected, with a total of eleven mistakes!
Even simple characters like “our” and “door” were misspelled.
More absurdly, the character for “report” was initially correct but was later changed to “embrace.”
Also, the lack of punctuation is a sign of low education.
Could such people design a kidnapping plan so flawless as this?”
Hannibal: “The culprit’s not only poorly educated but also lacking in taste.”
Haha, looks like he’s still bothered by the culprit’s act of roasting ears and eating them!
Shen Ting couldn’t help but laugh and wrote:
“The contradiction between high intelligence and low education has many possible explanations.
It could be a ruse!
Perhaps the culprit is a highly educated intellectual but deliberately drew circles and made mistakes in the ransom note to confuse the police.
Lowering their estimate of the culprit’s abilities!
Or!
The kidnappers are clearly a group; otherwise, taking down Liu Furen’s two professional bodyguards and driver would be impossible.
Maybe the mastermind of the team is very intelligent and designed the kidnapping plan.
But there are less educated members in the group, which explains the ransom note’s poor writing.
However!
Very smart people usually don’t want to work with very dumb ones, since it drags them down.
This theory is doubtful!
Alternatively!
Maybe the culprit is indeed intelligent but has had little schooling, hence the low literacy.
This is not contradictory!
In any case, there are too many possible scenarios.”
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Qin Feng: “There’s… one more suspicious point!
In my opinion, it’s the biggest doubt in this case!
Why didn’t the kidnappers contact the Liu family or the newspaper again to demand ransom?
Remember, the Liu family really prepared ten… ten billion gold certificates!”
This was indeed very strange.
Kidnapping is for money, right?
Yet the kidnappers never demanded ransom again.
Even a month after the incident, when the kidnappers hadn’t made contact and the police had no leads,
the Liu family risked going public in the newspapers, declaring they would increase the ransom if the kidnappers released the hostages.
No matter what injuries Liu Furen sustained, as long as he was alive, they wouldn’t pursue the kidnappers.
They also hinted they would exclude police involvement in the ransom delivery.
They even published pictures of the ten billion gold certificates in the paper!
But even so, there was still no news from the kidnappers.
kikO: “Maybe something happened to the hostages?
Perhaps they died?
Since the kidnappers cut off ears, they probably treated Liu Furen badly.
Maybe they beat him too hard and killed him by accident.
Without hostages, they stopped demanding ransom?”
Jigsaw: “That’s unlikely.
From what I know about kidnappers, they are ruthless for money.
Even if the hostages died accidentally, they would still demand ransom.
After all, outsiders wouldn’t know the hostages’ fate.”
Guan Hongyu: “Then what’s going on?
The kidnappers surely wouldn’t suddenly grow a conscience and refuse ransom?”
Guan Hongfeng: “Is it possible the kidnappers’ original goal wasn’t the ten billion gold certificates?”