The voice was too shrill to belong to any human, it was obvious that it had been adulterated by a voice-changer. Mary was using some kind of software that I didn’t understand to triangulate the caller’s location. In less than a few seconds, a projection of the situation at Liu Yinyan’s bungalow appeared on the wall. This was a livefeed. Gu Chen and Liu Yinyan were sitting on the couch. The latter held a phone tightly in his hand. Gu Chen had a mic in his ear and it was directly connected to a line at the office. Gu Chen had one of his hands on Liu Yinyan’s shoulder, telling him to calm down. Xiao Liu sat on the other side with a severe expression. Captain Zhao said into the phone, “Tell Liu Yinyan that he has to draw out the conversation with the kidnappers. Regardless of the request, he needs to prolong the call as long as possible. He mustn’t promise anything too easily.” Gu Chen relayed the exact words to Liu Yinyan.
“Who are you? Where is my daughter? What do you want?” Liu Yinyan fired off 3 questions consecutively, it was directly what Captain Zhao told him not to do. Captain Zhao sighed as a frown settled on his face. Liu Yinyan was concise and to the point but in this case, it was just reckless.
“Why the need to hurry?” The shrill voice replied, “We have to be calm under any circumstances, isn’t that your life mantra? Your daughter Liu Fei’er is with us, do you want to hear her voice?”
Before Captain Zhao could say anything, we heard Liu Yinyan respond nervously, “As long as my daughter is fine, I will satisfy any condition you want. I will give you as much money as you want, there’s only one condition, do not hurt my daughter! And let me hear her voice now!”
“Nope, nope, nope.” The voice replied, “You’ve already lost the chance. You should have jumped on the chance when I asked you earlier. Why waste time with all the platitudes? I know the police can triangulate my place within 3 minutes so it’s not my fault but yours. Furthermore, why would you think I want money?” When the kidnapper said that, everyone’s expression shifted. I frowned as I pulled at my hair. This proclamation by the kidnapper was definitely unexpected. Normally speaking, a kidnapping was done for ransom but this kidnapper didn’t want money? Then what did they want?
“What, what do you mean?” Clearly Liu Yinyan didn’t expect that as well. The person howled with laughter, it sounded unhinged through the voice distortion. The laughter echoed around the room like it came from everywhere. After the laughter ended, the man said, “You know what you have done! Think about the sin you have committed in your life! I will come greet you again in the near future. In the meantime, think, think, think! Goodbye, my brave risk taker, have a nice day.”
“Who the hell are you people?” Liu Yinyan practically shouted into his phone.
The man chuckled. “Why so serious? Life should be happy. After all, the game is only beginning.” Then the call ended. The call was perfectly maintained within 2 minutes, it meant that Mary failed to get the caller’s location. On the projection, we could see the phone slip from Liu Yinyan’s hand and fall to the ground. The man slumped helplessly back onto the couch. He looked lost, and aged like years in just the course of a few minutes. Gu Chen didn’t say anything. He silently picked up the phone, stood up from the couch, walked over to the side and whispered into his earpiece. “So what do we do now?”
Captain Zhao sat back down in his chair and told Gu Chen. “Try to appease Liu Yinyan and calm him for now. This group of kidnappers is not as simple as we think. We don’t even know Liu Fei’er’s current condition and the kidnappers have shown how unpredictable they are. Watch Liu Yinyan closely, I’m afraid he might do something stupid.”
“Understood.” Gu Chen answered, before he hung up, Captain Zhao added, “By the way, where is Detective Jessie and his team? Where are they?” Gu Chen shook his head. “I don’t know. They left before the call came. They haven’t returned.”
“Okay then.” Captain Zhao concluded, “Later Wu Meng and the rest will go over there to talk to Liu Yinyan. You and Xiao Liu wait there for now.” After hanging up, Captain Zhao swivelled in his chair to ask me. “Did you pick up anything from the call?”
I nodded and pulled a chair over for myself, “I picked up a lot. Even though the kidnapper didn’t say much, it was more than enough for us to work with. First, it looks like the kidnappers know Liu Yinyan, or else they wouldn’t have listed his quote right back to him so easily. Either the kidnappers know Liu Yinyan, or they have done a lot of research on the man.”
Captain Zhao’s lips stretched into a line. “Indeed, the kidnapper didn’t want money but instead wanted Liu Yinyan to think about what he had done. This proves that the kidnappers are familiar with Liu Yinyan’s past, maybe they are, or their clients are, part of his past. In that case, the question becomes, what exactly has Liu Yinyan done to warrant something like this?”
I didn’t know the answer. Instead I turned to the pictures of the 4 people on the white board. Moments later, I said, “Zhao Dongfa and Cao Jie are both Liu Yinyan’s business competition and they have been bullied by him for decades. Even a saint will be mad after the treatment they’ve taken. Furthermore, from the info I saw, Liu Yinyan is quite a vengeful person. He might have done more than just taking their share of the market.”
Captain Zhao picked up his cup. “Indeed. But Liu Yinyan didn’t get to his height today by being charitable and kind. People say you’ll mellow out with age but even in his 60s, Liu Yinyan is still as recalcitrant and irritable as a child who doesn’t get what he wants.”
“He does have a tempestuous personality.” I turned to Guan Zhenglin. “Come on, let’s go. Perhaps we’ll find out about Liu Yinyan’s past from the man himself.” Then I turned to Sister Mao, “Sister Mao, do you mind staying here? If you come up with anything, just tell us.” Sister Mao understood my intention and tossed me an appreciative gaze. Guan Zhenglin and I drove to Liu Yinyan’s bungalow. When we arrived, there was a gauntlet of reporters at the gate. When they saw us, they crowded around us like flies. We ignored them and drove right into the compound. The moment we parked, we heard rather than saw the person we were looking for.
“What? You got nothing?” Liu Yinyan’s voice travelled far and wide. “I got you here to help me find my daughter, not for you to come on vacation! You can’t even do that, so why do I need you people for? This is already the 3rd day, 3rd day! And you tell me you have nothing? What is this lack of efficacy? What have you people done with the taxpayer’s money? It’s all in your pockets, isn’t it?!”
Even from a distance, we saw the crowd at the front door. Liu Yinyan was pointing his finger angrily at Gu Chen, none of the words that left his mouth was good for the ears. Seeing how red Gu Chen’s face was, I knew this was not going to end well. Gu Chen was already indignant that we had to waste so much manpower because Liu Yinyan was someone powerful and rich. Now, he was being scolded and insulted before so many people. The Gu Chen that I knew would not stand for this much longer. “Gu Chen!” I shouted, hoping that he wouldn’t do anything dumb.
But I was still too late. I saw Gu Chen slap Liu Yinyan’s hand away and pointed back at him. “I call you Elder Liu because you are older than me, but do not bully me with your age. Every single penny that I earn, I earn it from honest work. But what about you? And who do you think you are? Ordering people around like you’re an emperor, all just because you have money? I can go home and sleep peacefully at night because I have done nothing wrong but what about you?” Gu Chen stressed. “Is your conscience quiet? Have you really not done anything that might come back to haunt you? Have you not sinned for the sake of money?”
Ever since he got his rocket rise in success, no one had dared to point and scold Liu Yinyan to his face anymore, much less someone who was at least 40 years younger than he was. Liu Yinyan was so stunned that he could only look at Gu Chen in shock. Noticing the explosive tension in the air, Xiao Liu quickly hurried over to mediate. “Elder Liu, please don’t be mad. He’s still too young and doesn’t know what he’s saying. He’s only saying this because he too is concerned about the case.” Xiao Liu hurried to find excuses for both parties, “Please don’t take him too seriously. Gu Chen, would you please quiet down already?”
But Gu Chen didn’t give Xiao Liu face at all. “Liu Kai! It is because there are too many people like you who always bow to power and wealth that the world is the state it is today! Have you been blinded by money? Is that why you’re taking his side?”
Liu Yinyan finally came to his senses and he exploded, “Fine, get lost, get the hell out of my house! Is that how the government trains the police? I’m telling you, this is not over! After this incident is over, I will make sure that you’ll never find a job within the force anymore.”
Gu Chen sneered and said, “I’ll be waiting for you.” Then he turned to storm off.
I didn’t expect things to escalate like this. I quickly hurried over to accost Gu Chen. When he saw me, he gave me a smile that looked harsher than a frown. I patted his shoulders and comforted. “Don’t worry, leave this to me. You should go back to the station first. Don’t be mad for no reason. Compared to the kidnappers, Liu Yinyan is already one hell of a good man.”
Gu Chen was still angry. But at least, he had stopped grumbling. The only thing he said was, “I was being unfair to Xiao Liu earlier. Help me apologize to him. I’ll be going then.” I nodded.
Liu Yinyan saw me and thus turned his anger to me instead. “What is wrong with your people? Do you not know how to train them?’
I waved my arms and cut him off. “Now is not the time for this. Don’t forget that the kidnappers still have your daughter. If you want to find your daughter, please cooperate with us. Why would the kidnappers say those things on the phone? Have you done anything wrong to others? Or do you have some unsavoury history you’re not telling us?”
Liu Yinyan glared at Gu Chen who drove away. Then he huffed and said, “No, I have not done anything wrong, I don’t know what those people meant. Why are you interrogating me when it is my daughter who has gone missing?”
Evasion, the typical sign of a lie. Well, that was a problem if there ever was one.
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