The Omniscient

Chapter 6: Peering into Human Hearts

“Let’s be honest, your hand-drawn composite sketching isn’t great,” Wang Meng said, holding a suspect’s sketch.

His colleague, who had joined him to sketch based on Li Fan’s description, shrugged.

“It’s not my fault; the kid’s terrible at describing people. All he says is ‘mean, really mean.’ How am I supposed to draw that?”

The two chatted as they got back into the car, just as two more vehicles arrived in Huazhuang Village. Six people stepped out.

“Whoa!” Wang Meng and his colleague quickly stood at attention. Although the newcomers weren’t in police cars and were dressed in plain clothes, they recognized them as members of the criminal investigation team.

The leader of the group surveyed the area briefly before heading into the Village Head’s house, motioning for Wang Meng and his colleague to join them in the courtyard.

Clearly, some discussions were not meant for the roadside.

However, even in the courtyard, no matter how softly they spoke, they couldn’t escape Huang Ji’s Information Sense.

At this distance, no ordinary person could overhear the conversation.

But for Huang Ji, what he could see, he could also hear—his vision was equivalent to hearing.

“The letter confirms that the criminals are still in Huazhuang! Is there anywhere nearby that’s secluded or rarely visited, where they could be hiding?” asked the middle-aged leader of the detectives.

“You locals must know the area better,” added a younger officer with a buzz cut.

“There’s no one named Lü Zongmin in our village,” Wang Meng stated.

The team leader, referred to as Captain Chen, frowned. “Of course not. That name belongs to a network security expert from JuMei Company in the capital.”

“Do you know ? They sell cosmetics. He’s one of their website’s security specialists,” the younger officer explained further.

Wang Meng scratched his head. “Could it be someone with the same name? Why would an employee of a major company in the capital come here to commit a kidnapping?” 𝙧ä𝐍Ồ₿ΕS

Captain Chen shook his head. “It’s not a duplicate name. He flew to Zhengzhou two days ago and checked into a hotel in Xinzheng yesterday. This has all been verified. City detectives checked the hotel’s surveillance footage. He left his room at 3 AM this morning and hasn’t returned since. Timing-wise, he could very well have reached Huazhuang Village by 7 AM to carry out the kidnapping.”

The officer with the buzz cut chimed in again: “The critical point is that a photo of Liang Yuan was found in Lü Zongmin’s hotel room.”

Wang Meng was stunned. A photo of Dr. Liang? These two shouldn’t know each other—this was damning evidence!

It was baffling. Why would Lü Zongmin travel from the capital to a rural village in Xinzheng to kidnap a doctor? There had to be a hidden reason.

Huang Ji, standing on the hill, already knew what it was.

“For money…” Huang Ji muttered to himself.

It was doubtful that anyone in Huazhuang Village knew Liang Yuan better than Huang Ji did.

A top graduate from the capital coming to work in a rural clinic was odd enough.

Since regaining clarity last week, Huang Ji had observed Dr. Liang’s information multiple times and learned that she was hiding here to evade search efforts.

She had once been involved in an artifact smuggling ring, dragged into it by her adoptive parents.

More precisely, her adoptive parents, as Huang Ji had discerned from readily accessible information, since she was an orphan.

Her adoptive parents took her in, supported her education, and treated her well. She thought she could achieve her dream of becoming a doctor.

But during her university years, her adoptive parents returned to their old criminal activities and dragged her into it.

At first, they only asked her to treat minor injuries. Later, they had her prepare anesthetics. Seeing her compliance, they eventually involved her directly in transporting goods.

Liang Yuan’s dream was to become a doctor, not a smuggler of artifacts, but she was deeply entangled and in great distress.

After resisting for some time, her adoptive parents promised to do one last “big job” before quitting for good.

That “big job” turned out to be a betrayal—they stole 4 million yuan and a Tang dynasty golden Buddha from their own smuggling team and fled.

Liang Yuan was involved in this plan, too. She used anesthetics to incapacitate the other members and reported the gang to the police after they escaped.

The gang members operated anonymously. Only a few had personal ties like siblings, spouses, or parent-child relationships, which allowed them to know each other’s true identities. The rest were kept in the dark.

As a result, when the police raided and arrested the gang, the captured members could only describe the fugitives’ appearances—they didn’t even have photos.

Unfortunately, three members managed to escape: Wang Zhen, Hu Feng, and Lü Zongmin.

Wang Zhen and Hu Feng, being physically fit, woke up earlier and fled before the police arrived. Lü Zongmin, as one of the planners, hadn’t been at the scene at all.

Knowing these three were still at large, Liang Yuan’s adoptive parents took the money and hid in the countryside, planning to leave the country once things calmed down.

They forced Liang Yuan to stay with them, so she ended up working as a small-town doctor in this rural area.

However, she didn’t mind. Being a doctor was her dream, and she had been content living here for six months.

Huang Ji had learned Liang Yuan’s background a few days ago, but he had pretended not to know, choosing not to expose her.

After all, Dr. Liang had been kind to him and, at her core, was a decent person.

But now, there was no hiding it—Liang Yuan had been kidnapped by the very remnants of the smuggling ring.

Wang Meng stroked his chin and said, “If we’re talking about hiding places, there are a few old houses beyond the graveyard. They’re just rundown flats, long abandoned.”

“Uncle, those houses are still there, right?”

The Village Head nodded. “Yes, they’re still there. An old fortune-teller used to live there, but after he passed away, the houses have been empty for years.”

Hearing this, Huang Ji turned his gaze toward the graveyard. From afar, he could see the roof of one of the houses. Querying the information, he sensed that four people were inside.

“They really are there…” Huang Ji chuckled.

With this discovery, it seemed the matter no longer required his involvement.

Captain Chen quickly took out a map and asked the Village Head to mark the location. “Any others?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Village Head marked several more locations, including vacant houses, old air-raid shelters, and even an abandoned well.

Captain Chen sighed in appreciation, “Locals sure know the terrain well.”

The officers promptly began searching each of the marked locations, one by one.

It wouldn’t be long before they reached the abandoned flats near the graveyard.

Huang Ji had already arrived near the site ahead of time, finding a concealed spot to observe silently.

He wouldn’t feel at ease going home until he saw that Dr. Liang was safe.

It was worth mentioning that he discovered several small traps set up around the old house for alert purposes.

They were well-hidden, but Huang Ji spotted them immediately. To him, traps were utterly meaningless.

No matter how well-hidden, the traps’ information clearly told Huang Ji: "I’m a trap..."

However, in the dead of night, the police detectives might inadvertently trigger them, alerting the kidnappers prematurely.

“Good thing I arrived first,” Huang Ji chuckled softly as he moved closer, carefully dismantling the traps one by one.

The traps posed no danger. If triggered, they would merely activate a loud, shrill alarm.

Huang Ji had already seen through their entire mechanism and effortlessly dismantled them without making a sound.

After clearing the path for the police, Huang Ji advanced to a position about 20 meters from the old house, crouching down.

The house was pitch black, but inside, the kidnappers were using their phones for light. The faint glow of the screens allowed Huang Ji to catch glimpses of their silhouettes.

Sure enough, it was them: Wang Zhen, Hu Feng, and Lü Zongmin.

With direct observation, Huang Ji could glean almost all their information, including their memories.

However, the sheer volume of information was overwhelming, and his current sensory processing wasn’t fast enough—or more accurately, he couldn’t compress and package the data.

Huang Ji had once tried to perceive 30 seconds of someone’s memory in one go, compressing it into a single second for his mind to process.

The result was a splitting headache that knocked him unconscious.

He realized that his brain couldn’t handle such an intense burst of information. The human brain was too fragile, and the fainting was a self-protective mechanism kicking in.

At his current cognitive speed, if he wanted to process the entirety of a 20-year-old’s memories, it would require experiencing 20 uninterrupted years of time alongside them.

That was clearly impossible, and Huang Ji didn’t have the time or energy for it.

Instead, he typically conducted targeted queries.

For example, if he wanted to know a person’s most fearful memory, he could retrieve their scariest life experience.

Similarly, he could query their saddest event, their favorite thing, the person they loved most, their most cherished memory...

Or, if Huang Ji already knew about a specific incident, he could check if the person had experienced it.

Huang Ji’s various capabilities allowed him to deeply understand a person with only a brief observation. For most people, even a surface-level grasp of their life history was immensely useful.

It could be said that Huang Ji’s ability enabled him to know everything about anyone.

“So it’s not about the money, but the Buddha statue? Wang Zhen and Hu Feng are still wanted men...”

Huang Ji was a little speechless. Wang Zhen and Hu Feng had been on the run ever since they escaped years ago, living under assumed identities, constantly on edge and in hiding.

The only one living comfortably was Lü Zongmin. When the police cracked the case back then, they hadn’t even known of his existence.

Yet now, for the sake of the Buddha statue, Lü Zongmin had personally entered the fray, wading into these murky waters.

To his credit, he was meticulous in his planning.

He disguised himself with a mask and a new hairstyle and hired a thief named Lin Yong to steal a van.

He then used the stolen van to abduct Liang Yuan, leaving Lin Yong to drive off alone while he and his two former accomplices dragged Liang Yuan out of the van and hid her in the old house.

If it weren’t for Huang Ji’s ability to extract information, the police probably wouldn’t have even filed a case yet.

Even if they had, they’d likely still be chasing the van.

Worst-case scenario: even if the police apprehended Lin Yong, they would find it nearly impossible to trace anything back to Lü Zongmin.

By that time, Lü Zongmin would have already achieved his goal and returned home.

But what Lü Zongmin couldn’t have predicted was that someone had learned his name from a footprint, impersonated him, and even written a ransom note with his real name as the signature.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Liang Yuan, tied up inside the house with a cloth covering her face, was choking as Wang Zhen poured bucket after bucket of water over her.

When the water ran out, Lü Zongmin pulled the cloth off her face, allowing her to take desperate, gasping breaths. She coughed uncontrollably, having inhaled an unknown amount of water.

“Still won’t talk, Little Liang?” Lü Zongmin said coldly. “The police already know you’re missing. I don’t have much patience left.”

Liang Yuan broke down, crying, “I really don’t know! I didn’t touch the money… I don’t know anything about the Buddha statue!”

Disappointed, Lü Zongmin looked at her, and a dark intent began to well up within him—he was considering killing her.

Seeing this, Huang Ji almost couldn’t stop himself from stepping out. He could clearly sense Lü Zongmin’s murderous intent.

At the same time, he knew with absolute certainty that Liang Yuan was telling the truth.

The money and the Buddha statue were with Liang Yuan’s adoptive parents. Lü Zongmin had hastily made his move when he found Liang Yuan, a decision that was a major misstep.

He had assumed Liang Yuan knew the whereabouts of the items and that she, being alone in this rural area, would be an easy target.

But after interrogating her for a full day, he had gained nothing.

From querying the information, Huang Ji knew that Lü Zongmin had been torturing Liang Yuan for nearly ten hours. He had disfigured her face, burned her hands and feet until they were charred, subjected her to water torture, whipping, and even severed one of her fingers.

However, not knowing meant not knowing. They wanted the golden Buddha—what was she supposed to do, conjure it out of thin air?

Poor Liang Yuan had no idea that her adoptive parents had abandoned her. The moment they learned about the situation, the two of them fled without hesitation.

Huang Ji clenched his fists. He sized up his own small frame. Taking on Lü Zongmin alone might be possible, but Wang Zhen and Hu Feng were strong and fit—he stood no chance against them.

“Why are the police taking so long…”

He was just an ordinary person, except… he could see information.

At this moment, all he could do was continuously observe the three men’s information and rack his brain for a solution.

...