"I was on a business trip in Canada yesterday. I hurried back when I heard what had happened, and on the way I heard that Huaijin-dage had…" Yang Bo couldn't quite finish what he was saying. He rested his elbows on his knees and scrubbed at his face, taking several deep breaths. "Sorry, it's too sudden, I sort of… I really don't know what to do…"
The criminal policeman sitting across from him scanned Yang Bo with an appraising look. He opened a little notebook and didn't beat around the bush. He spoke rudely, saying, "Mr. Yang, in order to understand the circumstances, I won't beat around the bush with you. There are some rumors suggesting you and the Venerable Zhou were father and son. Could I ask if that's true?"
Yang Bo had long been accustomed to approaching people circuitously; for a time he couldn't adjust to this rather rude direct throw. His cheeks tensed suddenly. "What did you say!"
Then he rapidly said, "It's all complete nonsense. It's an insult to my capabilities, and to my mother and the Venerable Zhou. I don't know where you heard these lies and slanders. You're…"
He glared furiously at the police officer across from him, biting down hard on his tongue, just managing to bite back the words, "You're relying on malicious gossip to solve this case?"
Hearing these words, Zhou Huaixin, who had been calmed down with difficulty, once again showed a tendency to erupt like a volcano. He breathed deeply from the diaphragm and issued a long-distance, "I spit on you!"
The saliva accompanying this "spit" hadn't yet touched the ground when Luo Wenzhou indiscriminately called over another criminal policeman and pointed to the stunned Zhou Huaixin. "Separate them and question them individually. With Zhou Huaijin kidnapped in Yan City, anyone who could benefit from his demise is a suspect, including relatives."
"What? I'm a suspect? Are you crazy! Are you blind!" Two policemen, brooking no argument, "invited" Zhou Huaixin to get up. So angry he was about to hit the roof, he turned to Fei Du, who was looking sympathetic but powerless to assist. "Master Fei, what's going on with this cop? What's he's talking about? I'm going to lodge a complaint against him! You think you're so fucking great? Look out or I'll get you for this. You dare treat me like a suspect, I'll… Don't touch me!"
On one hand, Yang Bo, brimming with restraint and fury, said, "My mother and the Venerable Zhou were in fact old friends. It was because of that connection that I had the good fortune to get a job at the Zhou Clan, but I've only gotten this far because of my own hard work. It's not the filthy thing you're imagining."
On the other hand, Zhou Huaixin was thoroughly ignoring all propriety. "You've got some nerve, you were born in filth—"
Yang Bo could stand it no longer. He sarcastically retorted, "I really don't know what standards you drinking-and-driving, indiscriminately promiscuous, weed-smoking people use to judge 'filth.'"
Watching these two young masters ripping into each other in front of a roomful of police, one spouting off as soon as the other was under control, the veins at Hu Zhenyu's temples were about to burst. He would have loved nothing better than to stick both of them in a pot.
Fei Du was looking on with great interest. He was just about to pick up his cup of tea when Luo Wenzhou slapped his hand away.
Fei Du: "…"
Luo Wenzhou said, "You came here on purpose to drink tea? Put away your nasty habits. The Criminal Investigation Team isn't your house. I don't care if you're a temporary liaison who's not on the payroll or whatever. You're here, so you'll obey orders. If you won't do your work, then you can beat it."
Naturally, Fei Du had his own aim in using every conceivable means to find his way into the City Bureau. But while taking on all kinds of roles that made it suitable and proper for him to appear at crime scenes, he'd still as a matter of course regarded himself as an "outsider." Suddenly meeting with this unexpected slap, he couldn't quite collect himself.
In his whole life, President Fei had never before been bawled out like an errand-running lackey. For a time he didn't know what expression he should use to respond to Luo Wenzhou. He froze in place for a while, then finally, at somewhat of a loss, said, "Oh, so what should I do?"
Fei Du was then dragged into a pile of technicians. Luo Wenzhou told him to enlarge each frame of the kidnappers' videos and analyze them pixel by pixel.
Compared to Tao Ran, combing over the Baisha riverbanks, and Lang Qiao, rushing around all over the place, sitting and analyzing a video was comparatively light work. But Fei Du was still irritated with it after a few minutes—light as it was, it was still work. Issuing a beautiful conclusion based on minute traces was a perfect intellectual exercise, but sifting out minute traces from a huge quantity of repetitive information was very dull.
Fei Du had just spent a night traversing the evil seas of money. He'd only closed his eyes for a few minutes before rushing to the Zhou house to get in on the action. He'd already been tired; it wasn't long before his eyelids began to struggle.
Fei Du tried a few times and found that he really didn't have the makings of a lackey. He stood up and strolled around in place to wake himself, overhearing Luo Wenzhou asking Director Lu for guidance about whether he should delete the video.
If they didn't delete it, it was tantamount to letting the criminals lead them around by the nose; it would look really bad.
But seeing as they had no line on the case, if they deleted the video and kidnappers really did take up their knife, that was tantamount to putting the hostage into a more dangerous position. Human life was of supreme importance; they absolutely couldn't do such a thing.
Even Lu Youliang was hesitating.
Fei Du put his hands behind his back, yawned furtively, and said sleepily to Luo Wenzhou, "If it were me, I'd delete it."
Luo Wenzhou shot a glance at him out of the corner of his eye, hastily said a few words to Director Lu, and hung up the phone.
"Look here." Fei Du beckoned to him, opening the kidnapper's video and going forward to the part where the kidnapper drew blood and wrote on Zhou Huaijin's chest. Fei Du bonelessly leaned on his arm, propped on the table, and said to Luo Wenzhou, "The kidnapper made a cut first, then picked up a brush and dipped it in the blood to write. Don't you think that's a little too reasonable for a criminal? If it were me, I'd simply have carved the words onto Zhou Huaijin's chest."
Luo Wenzhou, hand resting on the back of his chair, heard these words and looked down at him expressionlessly.
Fei Du used him as a bracing measure, returning his gaze in odious high spirits. "Ordinarily, when a beautiful man looks at me like that, I assume he's asking me to kiss him."
Luo Wenzhou didn't answer him. He very calmly followed up, "You're right, the kidnapper's actions really are a little extraneous. So?"
"So I think this kidnapper doesn't want to hurt Zhou Huaijin at all. He only wants to exchange his hostage for something. He doesn't want to become a wanted murderer. Furthermore, judging from the way he's treasuring his hostage, it's likely Zhou Huaijin is the only bargaining chip he has. Even if you delete the video, perhaps he won't do anything to the hostage. It's better for everyone to go ahead and try to get to the bottom line."
"Oh, 'perhaps,'" Luo Wenzhou said quietly, looking at him. "When I go to write up my report, I'll tell everyone, 'I judged that the kidnapper perhaps wasn't planning on harming the victim, so I decided to try deleting the video to see whether Zhou Huaijin would die or not.' President Fei, is that what you mean?"
Fei Du hadn't yet answered when Luo Wenzhou put a hand on the back of his neck, bent down, and said into Fei Du's ear: "My good student, when we do this job, we don't get by on brain-teasers. Everything we do has to have grounds and reasons, has to be legal and in compliance with regulations. If there's any part of those words you don't understand, you can ask your shixiong anytime.—I told you to extract information from the videos in order to determine the kidnapper's location. I didn't tell you to cheat the criminals at 'Fight the Landlord!'"
The boneless Fei Du was taken entirely unawares; under the pressure, he nearly knocked his chin against the table.
Luo Wenzhou, standing over him, pulled back his hand and said with a false smile, "You misunderstood. I wasn't planning to kiss you. Just now, that expression meant I wanted to hit you a little. Remember it next time and dodge."
Fei Du had yet to voice any protest against his barbarous conduct when there was an uproar near them.
"Boss, there's a new video!"
Luo Wenzhou temporarily let Fei Du off and accepted a pair of headphones. The whole Zhou villa, including those still under suspicion, held their breaths and concentrated, waiting for word from the kidnapper.
In the video, Zhou Huaijin had woken up, but he was in a much sorrier state than before. His perfectly cut and styled hair was in total disorder, as if he'd struggled and been put down. There were bruises on his face and body, and his expression was of mingled rage and alarm. The ropes had been tied tighter, and the blood from the wound on his neck had stained his shirt. His chest was rising and falling nonstop.
Outside the frame, a voice distorted by a voice changer said, "Read it."
Zhou Huaijin's gaze hardened slightly, and veins stood out on his neck. "You guys…"
He'd only said two words when he was kicked to the ground along with his chair. Then the person holding the camera beat the victim. The camera flashed wildly for a while; there were only the sounds of fists and feet hitting a body, and dull moans of pain. Then the screen went black.
Over at the internet police, the atmosphere was thick; they still had nothing.
Zhou Huaixin's legs folded at the sight. He had no more attention to spare to exchange curses with Yang Bo. He clutched at the clothes of the people next to him. "I'll pay! We'll get some hackers, all right? As much money as it takes, as long as they'll come. My brother… My brother…"
In the pre-recorded video, the temporary black screen passed and there was an image again; the camera focused on Zhou Huaijin, lying on the ground. The hoarse voice said again: "Read it."
Zhou Huaijin's lips trembled a few times. This man born with a silver spoon in his mouth knew very well how to protect himself. He easily made the choice to submit. He struggled to look at a prompter held up somewhere, then stammeringly read, "I'll ask you a question, and you'll have…ten, ten minutes to answer. Post the answer on the Zhou Clan's homepage. I…I already know the answer, if…if you dare to lie, I'll…"
Zhou Huaijin panted twice, a whimper coming out of his throat. "I'll…cut a part off of President Zhou. We're going to…peel off a certain person's s-skin and have a look.
"The first question: is Zhou…Zhou Junmao a sanctimonious hypocrite, brazenly keeping his illegitimate son by his side, cultivating him as an heir? Is this…this paternity report real… You stole my… Ah!" Having read to this point, Zhou Huaijin came around, his expression becoming agitated. A kidnapper kicked him in the back of the head, and he gave a sob, gently twitching. Then he didn't move; he may have fainted.
A wrinkled paternity report appeared on the screen.
The kidnapper, using that hoarse, ugly-sounding voice, said, "Ten minutes."
After he spoke, the video ended, and a timer counting down from ten minutes appeared.
For a moment, the whole Zhou house was deadly silent. Everyone looked at the countdown as though they were looking at a monster. At the same time, a bomb had been dropped onto the fiber-optic-crossed virtual world, blowing up a wide swath of roaring mountains and tsunamis—
"Zhou Junmao's illegitimate son!"
"The Zhou Clan's heir has been kidnapped!"
"We're in the middle of a wealthy family drama!"
Within a minute, Luo Wenzhou's cell phone and those of the Zhou family members, along with the residence's landlines, all rang at once, the whole Zhou residence turning into a hotline, the whole world trying to get first-hand information.
Luo Wenzhou looked down. He couldn't not take Director Lu's phone call. He hadn't gotten the word "hello" out of his mouth before Director Lu hurried ahead. "What's going on? The kidnapper's done all this and you still haven't found him? Are there no clues? If you don't have enough people, get some transferred over! You've got to find the bastard, even if you have to dig all the way down! My office phone is about to blow up!"
Before Luo Wenzhou could report his progress to his superior, Zhou Huaixin had already jumped up and seized Hu Zhenyu's collar. "Answer him, answer him! Hu-dage, post a notice at once answering him yes! Yes, it's true! That paternity report is real, that Yang is the shameless illegitimate son!"
Yang Bo's fair face went white, as if he'd been struck by lightning. He froze under everyone's gazes.
Hu Zhenyu said, "Huaixin, calm down a little."
"My brother got people to do the paternity test in secret, he showed it to me earlier, it can't be wrong. That report must be the one they took from my big brother's bag. It's irrefutable proof, there's nothing to quibble about, Hu-dage! Didn't they say they already knew the answer before they asked! My dad is dead, the dead don't care about their reputations. Forget about not washing your dirty linen in public, my brother's safety is the most critical thing!"
Luo Wenzhou's left ear was full of Zhou Huaixin's screams, while in his right ear, Director Lu was categorically ordering, "You have to contain this at once, or you'll be writing me a self-examination when you get back!"
Zhou Huaixin pushed aside a police officer next to him and went to snatch his own tablet, lying on a table. "If you won't post it, then I will!"
"Huaixin!"
"Don't be rash, Mr. Zhou!"
In the whole scene, only Fei Du remained aloof, wholly uninterested in whether Zhou Huaijin lived or died, indifferent to pressure exerted by any superiors. He was neither stressed nor impressed; he calmly looked up and said to Zhou Huaixin, "Zhou-xiong, I advise you not to ask or answer anything, or afterwards it won't be a matter of this sort of immaterial little question. What do you think of that?"
Zhou Huaixin said blankly, "Then…then what do I do?"
Fei Du ignored him, saying quietly to a technician next to him, "Isolate the audio from when Zhou Huaijin was kicked down. I think I just heard that the 'floor' sounded hollow."
Hearing this, Luo Wenzhou paused at once and hung up on Director Lu without a word. He strode up to the screen in one step. "Let me see the whole thing from the beginning!"
All the images once again quickly flashed across the screen.
Fei Du said, "Aside from when the screen went black, the camera lens was very close to the victim. There wasn't a single full-body shot. It could be that there isn't enough space, and if they filmed anywhere else, it would easily reveal the victim's location… Oh, the camera lens only moves side-to-side in a rather limited scope."
Luo Wenzhou again had the video stop at the part where Zhou Huaijin was kicked to the ground; the camera had only pointed down at him!
Luo Wenzhou put his hand on the shoulder of the technician next to him. "Can you estimate how far the camera moves side-to-side?"
"About a meter fifty… Not over a meter eighty at most."
"Captain Luo, listen to this bit!"
When Zhou Huaijin fell along with his chair, there was a very strange banging sound, hollow, with a faint echo.
A hollow 'floor,' only a meter-something wide…
Fei Du spread his hands. "Is it impossible it's in the trailer of a truck?"
Before he'd finished, Luo Wenzhou was already contacting Tao Ran. "The kidnappers may be in the trailer of a truck that's stopping and starting. Search the security cameras around Baisha, put up a roadblock on all exits out of the city, stop any suspicious trucks and search them."
Without putting down the phone, he called Lang Qiao on another one. "How's it going over there?"
Lang Qiao quickly said, "I've locked in on the Hengda Conglomerate. Hengda's position is close to the Zhou Clan's. They're a major local power, and there's been serious conflict between the two companies since Zhou Junmao moved operations back into this country. The only time they attempted to reconcile and collaborate on a project, Zhou Junmao quashed it midway. Hengda has a subsidiary fund. Last night, they made no moves, as if they hadn't reacted yet, but first thing this morning they suddenly went into action in the foreign markets, planning on the Zhou Clan stock falling…"
Before Lang Qiao had finished her report, Hu Zhenyu loudly cried, "What are you doing!"
Luo Wenzhou turned his head. Hu Zhenyu had been distracted, and Zhou Huaixin had snatched his phone away while the screen hadn't yet locked after being used and quickly used Hu Zhenyu's account to access the Zhou Clan's official website.
By the time he was held down, he'd already posted the word "yes."