“A truck?” Tao Ran said into one of Luo Wenzhou’s ears. “Lao Luo, it’s unavoidable for vehicles coming into the outer ring to pass through Baisha. It’s all trucks coming and going. Should we search the ones coming into the city or the ones leaving? The kidnappers spirited him away in a vehicle—do you think Zhou Huaijin is still in Yan City?”
Lang Qiao meanwhile said into his other ear, “Boss, should I bring the person in charge back to the City Bureau now, or investigate their outgoing and incoming e-mails first?”
Behind him, a flustered and exasperated Hu Zhenyu was pointing at Zhou Huaixin. “You… You… What are you doing?! You’re too impulsive!”
Next to him, Yang Bo’s face and neck were all red. “I’m going to report you for damaging my reputation!”
Luo Wenzhou: “…”
Chicken Soup for the Soul often posed the question, “Why do humans have two ears and one mouth?” Now he thought he’d understood—even if they’d had four ears, it wouldn’t necessarily have been enough.
Fei Du’s gaze flitted over Hu Zhenyu, then fell on Zhou Huaixin.
Zhou Huaixin straightened his neck. On his opium-addict’s face, aside from the eyeliner, something else appeared, indistinct and indescribable, that made him actually appear rather human.
“I’m not worried about what they say outside, and I’m not worried about any… what do you call it… any losses of market value on any markets—I don’t understand those things, Hu-dage, and I don’t want to understand them. I only know that I have no one close to me but my brother.” Having finished this proclamation, Zhou Huaixin’s voice fell away, and he stared into Hu Zhenyu’s eyes.
Hu Zhenyu for some reason avoided his gaze.
Zhou Huaixin turned up the corners of his mouth in a half-smile; it was unclear whether he was mocking others or himself. “This won’t sound good, but there are some things that if the old man did them, there would always come a day when they’d be dug up. Paper can’t contain a fire. You don’t really think you’ll have eternal glory?”
Hu Zhenyu in all likelihood had never in his life experienced elegant words coming out of Zhou Huaixin’s mouth. For a time he was speechless.
“Can you find my brother within ten minutes?” Zhou Huaixin’s gaze swept over the surrounding police. “Then go look for him! What the fuck are you all staring at me for? I’m the old man’s legitimate son, and I’m also one of his heirs. I’m deciding to let the dead be sacrificed a little for the sake of the living. Don’t I have that right?”
These words rather sounded like they made sense.
“As long as my brother is all right,” Zhou Huaixin proclaimed, his eyes red, “I’ll announce that my dad’s an asshole. A person has to be adaptable—so I’ll be an asshole’s spawn. Even if my father is conscious underground, he’ll know who wanted to hurt him, who wants to hurt our family. The blame won’t fall on me!”
Hu Zhenyu’s forehead broke out into hot sweat.
Just then, someone coughed heavily at the door and a voice coldly said, “Your family really does belong to you two brothers, but the conglomerate doesn’t. How many business partners and small shareholders does such a large operation involve, huh? Even the old man didn’t dare to make peremptory decisions while he was living. What are you supposed to be, wretch?”
Luo Wenzhou turned his head and saw several Zhou Clan employees scatter in a flurry from the door and an emaciated old man slowly walk in. He was less than 1.7 meters tall and a little stooped, making him look smaller and skinnier. Profound wrinkles came down from his nose to split his chin into three parts. The corners of his mouth hung down heavily, as if he’d never smiled in his life.
Seeing the newcomer, Hu Zhenyu subconsciously stood up straight. “Venerable Zheng.”
Yang Bo sucked in a deep breath and quickly walked over, curling up his tall and strong body like a little eunuch to lean close to the man. “You’re here at last, President Zheng.”
Zhou Huaixin stared at the old man with a sneer on his face, saying nothing.
Luo Wenzhou understood that this was Zhou Junmao’s deputy, Zheng Kaifeng.
Zheng Kaifeng treated the Zhou house as his own territory, disregarding the roomful of police, unhurriedly coming in. He looked all around and in a glance understood who was in charge of the scene. He went straight up to Luo Wenzhou and reached out a hand towards him. Very heartfelt, he said, “This is a disgrace. It has put you into so much trouble.”
On first meeting, Luo Wenzhou was choked by Zheng Kaifeng’s presumption—originally it had been the police investigating a case, and the whole Zhou Clan, including Zheng Kaifeng, were suspects. With a few words he’d twisted the situation to make it seem as if the Zhou Clan was opposing a nameless evil, and they’d happened to find a crowd of police officers to act as hired thugs.
Luo Wenzhou shook his hand rather perfunctorily and calmly twisted the subject back around. “Pernicious criminal cases are within the scope of our duty. It’s just work, no question of trouble or no trouble. Our first aim now is to rescue the hostage. With that as our foundation, we’ll also do our best to reduce this case’s social impact. When it’s necessary, we’ll have to trouble the family members to cooperate with us.”
The corner of Zheng Kaifeng’s eye twitched faintly, and his expression became heavy.
Luo Wenzhou was naturally capable of dealing with everyone; he was immune to all kinds of high positions of power. Wholly uncaring, he drew back his hand and turned to Zhou Huaixin. “Especially young Mr. Zhou. We understand the family’s feelings. If there’s really no other way, for the safety of the hostage, there’s no harm in giving way to the kidnappers. But I hope that’ll be the last step. Your announcement should wait until the last moment of the countdown.”
Zhou Huaixin gave a sharp snort.
“And then there’s President Hu.” Smiling, Luo Wenzhou turned to Hu Zhenyu. “President Hu says that young Mr. Zhou is too impetuous, but you’re pretty hasty yourself. You were already logged into the website’s back-end.—As I see it, everyone should stop talking all over each other and go give your statements.—Let’s have some people over here to separate them and take them away.”
A few criminal policemen came up at this and, brooking no argument, separated the crowd of people constituting the real power in the Zhou Clan.
In this air-conditioned room in early autumn, it seemed that the sweat at Hu Zhenyu’s temples couldn’t be wiped away.
Zheng Kaifeng looked coldly at Luo Wenzhou. “Young man, you’ve got some style.”
Luo Wenzhou grinned at him. “I think so too. Thank you for the praise, though in my capacity as a person in charge of handling major criminal cases, I don’t look forward to serving you again. Sir, please come this way.”
Having disposed of this crowd of people doing more harm than good, he turned his head and met Fei Du’s not-quite-smiling gaze as he stared at him. Encountering his eyes, Luo Wenzhou’s heart constricted. He felt that Fei Du’s unmatched peach blossom eyes really were supernaturally endowed; give him a powerful enough telescope and he’d be able to look up Chang’e’s skirts.
“Say something useful,” Luo Wenzhou said exhaustedly to Fei Du. “All those wishing to praise my good looks or express their infatuation can line up in the back.”
Fei Du said, “I wanted to pass on that the internet police have a lead on the people who posted the video.”
Luo Wenzhou had been prepared for a protracted campaign against psychotic kidnappers. Hearing this, he froze. “So fast?”
“That’s right, so you’d better not have any grand expectations.” Fei Du paused; then some mood caused him to add, “Shixiong.”
Luo Wenzhou: “…”
How could he use such an ordinary tone of voice to speak such an ordinary form of address and yet make it sound so sexual? It was really incomprehensible.
While the internet police were excitedly crying out, “We’ve got him!” the kidnapper, secure in the knowledge of his own security, uploaded a third recording.
This time the camera lens had actually been drawn further away, showing Zhou Huaijin’s whole body, and at the same time letting those watching understand the hostage’s location at a glance.—The whole space was plastered with black plastic cloth. It was less than 1.8 meters wide, and the height was also very limited. At a visual estimate it was only the height of a grown man. It really did look like a truck’s trailer!
Fei Du stared, thoughtfully rubbed his chin, and looked up at Luo Wenzhou. Luo Wenzhou understood what he meant at once; he frowned slightly.—Before, the kidnappers had filmed very close to Zhou Huaijin, carefully avoiding anything that could provide a clue to their surroundings, including during the segment when Zhou Huaijin had been beaten.
Only when they’d determined that the kidnappers might be in the trailer of a truck did the other side send them a film like this…
Had the kidnappers used their magic powers to install listening devices in the Zhou house, or was someone in the room in real-time contact with them?
Luo Wenzhou said quietly to the people next to him, “Get everyone in the house under control, including the cook, housekeeper, gardener, and anyone else going in and out. Hurry!”
In the video, Zhou Huaijin was looking even sorrier than before. Someone had splashed cold water all over his face, and it was dripping down; however firm a temperament he may have had, he couldn’t work his courage up anymore. He seemed to have been disciplined into submission. This time, he didn’t waste any words. Staring in the direction of the screen, he flatly read out the kidnapper’s letter. “It’s good now that you can admit it. I’ll ask you the second question. Same rules, ten minutes. Why was the famous entrepreneur and ‘philanthropist’ Zhou Junmao so public-spirited? Are the three public welfare funds under his name for grandstanding or for laundering money? Did Zhou Junmao—Zhou Dalong really think he could change his name and become a nobleman and that no one would know what was under his skin?”
The malicious video cut off abruptly, and the countdown returned.
The atmosphere in the whole Zhou residence instantly tensed. Everyone, including the household staff, was separated.
At the same time, the internet police finally locked onto the transmitter of the video. Lang Qiao, just then at the general headquarters of the Hengda Conglomerate, received the news. She only glanced at it, then took a pair of handcuffs out of her pocket and put them on the person in charge, who had been leading them in circles. “They can’t escape responsibility. Search!”
Ten minutes was both very short and very long. In reality, it was only long enough for people to walk up a few flights of stairs, but on the internet, it was long enough for information to travel around the globe countless times.
In a short time, all kinds of information sprang up, the true and false hard to distinguish. There were people who stood up to solemnly swear that Zhou Junmao’s former name had been Zhou Dalong; they even posted photographs, attaching beneath them the whole story of Zhou Junmao leaving the country to seek refuge with family, running errands and doing manual labor for distant relations, and starting a collaborative enterprise with his first savings. In the end, the most curious thing was why the other founder of the Zhou Clan had vanished from the scene.
Next, the topic moved from Zhou Huaijin’s kidnapping back to Zhou Junmao’s unusual car crash. The old philanthropist’s noble and prestigious image of many years came tumbling down in the wake of one video. Some were saying he laundered money, some were saying he was a traitor to his country, and there were even some saying he had engaged in cross-border human-trafficking… It was a competition of the powers of the imagination of urban legend.
As a focal point of attention, Dong Qian, the responsible driver in Zhou Junmao’s car crash, of course couldn’t escape unscathed. People had quickly gone back through eight generations of his ancestors. It was as if the seeds of conspiracy were buried in each strand of his hair.
“Captain Luo, it’s nearly been ten minutes.”
“Take over their official website’s bulletin board and issue a response to the kidnappers under the name of the police force.” Luo Wenzhou paused. “Say that the financial investigators have already gotten involved in the investigation and are currently verifying the relevant circumstances. Ask them not to spread unfounded rumors. If they have definite proof, they’re welcome to report it. Warn the kidnappers to surrender themselves before they bring about any grave consequences.”
“That won’t work, boss! The number of visitors to the Zhou Clan’s official website skyrocketed, it’s crashed!”
Luo Wenzhou: “…”
The kidnappers’ countdown was down to the last minute.
A call came from Lang Qiao. “Boss, we’ve found the e-mail where the Hengda Conglomerate bought the promotion, and a portion of the payment vouchers. It really was them uploading the kidnappers’ videos…”
Luo Wenzhou said, “Don’t tell me they don’t know who the kidnappers are.”
“They say they don’t know who the kidnappers are,” Lang Qiao said quickly. “This morning, after Zhou Huaijin disappeared, Hengda’s public relations department received a mysterious e-mail with a few blurry photographs attached. They thought it was a fake at the time. They’re not very fastidious over at Hengda. With Zhou Junmao dying yesterday, they wanted to take the opportunity to muddy the waters…”
“Then the person who sent them the videos said the images were composites. They believed it and posted them. At most they’re guilty of malicious commercial competition, right?”
Lang Qiao said, “…ah, that’s what they say.”
“My ass! What are they doing using so many anti-tracking measures for a practical joke? Bring in everyone related to it! Keep tracking the person who sent the e-mails!” Luo Wenzhou glanced at the countdown. Like flowing water, the time was passing unfeelingly. The Zhou Clan’s official website was still in a state of paralysis, wholly unmoving!
“Look, boss, we found this on the chauffeur who drove Yang Bo here.”
Luo Wenzhou accepted a cell phone. He saw that the suspicious chauffeur was logged into an obviously newly-registered Weibo account. The most recent status update openly read: “The police know that the ‘meat’ is in a truck.”
The countdown hit zero—