94 A Present

 

Actually the person Song Ze hated the most was Zhang Yunhu. Zhang Yunhu had manipulated Song Ze’s financial problem to gain popularity while kicking Song Ze into the depths of hell. Song Ze did consider taking revenge but whenever he saw Zhang Yunhu’s smiling face, his heart would soften. Zhang Yunhu was already friendly with him during his first year of university, technically he was Song Ze’s only friend. Song Ze would sometimes take a step back and reflect on his thoughts. Perhaps he was being unfair to Zhang Yunhu.

“I’m sorry.” After hearing what Song Ze had to say, Zhang Yunhu stood up and apologized sincerely to Song Ze. Song Ze shook his hands. After the secret was out, he was no longer as nervous as before and was more open around us. There were many manifestations of love and Song Ze had chosen the most despicable and lowliest one. But ultimately, he had not hurt anyone, he just kept himself in the shadows. It was both pitiable and laughable.

“It’s fine.” Song Ze closed his eyes and said nonchalantly. “This world is filled with unfairness, I’ve learned to accept it.” Zhang Yunhu didn’t say anything but stood up to give Song Ze a tight hug. Zhang Yunhu smiled brightly, the kind that reached his cheeks but there was a flash of derision in his eyes that I managed to catch. After a long time, the boys parted.

“If there’s nothing else, Zhang Yunhu, you can leave now. If there’s any update, we will inform you.” I told Zhang Yunhu. The latter nodded, and left. I looked at his departing back and felt sorry for the young man. Guan Zhenglin opened her mouth to say, “Song Ze, now that everything's out in the open, we’ll cut to the point. Since you follow Liu Fei’er that much, you must have known that she has gone missing.” With the mention of Liu Fei’er, the word ‘concern’ immediately crossed Song Ze’s face. “I know, it’s all over the internet now. There are all kinds of conspiracies that come with it. I only found out about it yesterday. Originally I thought she took a day’s break from school but I soon realized that was not the case.”

I looked sternly at him and asked, “Then what theory do you have? Do you think it could have been done by Hou Yao?” Even though I had already eliminated Hou Yao as a suspect, I had nothing to lose to get another person’s perspective. Song Ze shook his head vehemently, “It can’t be Hou Yao. She might be a little bit brash but she isn’t capable of something like this. I know she did say that she would make Liu Fei’er disappear but that was only because she assumed Liu Fei’er had seduced Zhang Yunhu away from her. After I told her the truth, and that the incident with the drugging had been exposed, Hou Yao left it be. Furthermore, until recently, Hou You was still drowning herself in alcohol and nightlife to get over her break-up. She wouldn’t have the time or energy to arrange something like this.”

“Then do you have any other suspects?” I pressed. Song Ze nodded as his pupils darted to the right. Psychologically speaking, that was a sign that the person was thinking. Someone said when a person was lying, they would not dare to look you in the eye but that had been disproved. In fact, when a person looked right at you, it was because they hoped that you would believe what they said as what they said was mostly false.

Moments later, Song Ze lowered his head and uttered, “When I felt particularly lost in my life, I once stalked Liu Fei’er, hoping that her presence could provide me with guidance. At that same period, I saw a man following Liu Fei’er too. But I didn’t get a good look at him because he was too far away.”

“There was a man who was stalking Liu Fei’er?” I asked to confirm.

Song Ze scratched his chin in thought. “That was probably about 2 to 3 months ago. Since Liu Fei’er would be accompanied by her group of bodyguards whenever she went home from school, we didn’t dare to get too close. The man was about 1.8 metres tall. He was always dressed in black, that’s all I know.”

I held my chin. A man was tailing Liu Fei’er 2 to 3 months ago, could this be the man sent by the kidnappers to scout out Liu Fei’er’s habit? Based on their actions, that was highly probable. But the kidnappers probably didn’t expect a lovelorn student to spot their scout.

Song Ze continued, “At first, I didn’t think much of it, because there are literally thousands of people who have a crush on Liu Fei’er. I could follow her so others could as well. But now that this incident happened, only then I realized how suspicious that man was!”

“You didn’t see his face at all?” I pressed.

Song Ze shook his head. “I didn’t dare to go too close, I only watched her from afar. The man went closer than I did so I only managed to see him from the back. Oh, but I did notice something. The man might be left-handed.”

“Oh?” My eyes lit up. “How could you tell?”

“When a normal person opens a bottle, they would hold the bottle in their left hands and twist the cap with their right.” Song Ze gestured as he explained, “But that man held the bottle in his right hand and twisted the cap with his left hand. I believe only a left-handed person would do that.”

I snapped my fingers. “You’re right, the grain of the bottle cap was meant to go anti-clockwise because it’s more convenient for the right-handed who are the majority in the world. If that’s the case, then your speculation is most likely correct.”

Song Ze pleaded, “That’s all I know. I hope you’ll find Liu Fei’er as soon as possible.” Then his face closed down like the world was lost to him. Perhaps Liu Fei’er was indeed his whole world, but this world never realized that someone had built his whole life around her. Since there was nothing else to say, we let Song Ze go and informed him to call us if he could think of anything else.

After Song Ze left, Guan Zhenglin said, “Do you think he’ll still have the face to stay with Zhang Yunhu? After how he treated that fine young man?” I sighed heavily. I wanted to say something but I decided to hold my tongue. Was Zhang Yunhu really sincerely concerned about Song Ze? Did he really see Song Ze as his best bro? At least I personally didn’t think so. From that fleeting gaze, I saw derision and disgust in Zhang Yunhu’s eyes. Furthermore, with Zhang Yunhu’s social experience and upbringing, he should be able to handle Song Ze’s fragile ego more sensitively. Even Liu Fei’er knew that it was uncouth to expose Song Ze’s family background because it would harm his pride but Zhang Yunhu practically dug it all up for everyone to enjoy. He had no care at all for his ‘best bro’s emotional well-being. I believed Zhang Yunhu was doing all the ‘charities’ for his own gain. Being good to Song Ze, holding the fund-raising ball, was all to raise his own reputation. After all, the prince would shine brighter with a pauper companion. That was his way of creating this kind, handsome and wealthy image before girls like Liu Fei’er.

But what was the truth? Only the man himself would know. I hoped that I was being cynical, so I didn’t share my thoughts with Guan Zhenglin. The world deserved more hope.

After a simple lunch, we returned to the station. Sister Mao appeared to have left. When she saw us, Mary said, “You’re back? Based on the clues provided by Sister Mao, we located around 5 to 6 places which might carry this kind of Davidoff mixed tobacco at Dong Xing City. Gu Chen has already left to visit them, we’ll get a lead soon.” I nodded. “That’s good. As long as we catch one alive, we’ll get the rest of them.”

“Also.” Mary resumed, “I’ve used a software to reconstruct the kidnapper’s voice, it was male with a rasp in his voice. He sounds like he is between 20 to 25, the rest I can’t tell anymore.”

20 to 25, so young but so experienced, that was a rare combination, who could this be? I shook my head and put this aside for now. I reported Guan Zhenglin and my findings to Captain Zhao and a person’s name was removed from the white board. Hou Yao wouldn’t do something like this. So our next interview target was either Zhao Dongfa or Cao Jie. To interview Zhao Dongfa, we might face a team of lawyers so we decided to visit the soon-to-be bankrupt Cao Jie first.

Just as we were about to leave, Mary called after us, “The kidnapper is calling again!” The kidnappers just called this morning so I assumed we wouldn’t be receiving another call so soon. I really had no idea what the kidnappers were up to. All of us sat back in our seats. Everything was the same, Captain Zhao could see everything at Liu Yinyan’s bungalow.

The call began with a big yawn like the speaker just woke up. “Hello, my friends. So Boss Liu, have you figured out what you’ve done yet?”

“Just ramble on about some random incidents, keep him talking.” Captain Zhao advised. Xiao Liu repeated the order.

Liu Yinyan answered, “I, I don’t know what you mean. Why, why don’t you give me a hint?”

The kidnapper sounded disappointed. “Liu Yinyan, this is no fun. When I was six, I had a friend that I liked to play with. One day, I was playing a computer game at home. I couldn’t solve the puzzle and was stuck. At that moment, he walked in, and gave me the answer to the puzzle, and…” The kidnapper suddenly turned sharp. “Guess what happened next.”

“What?” Liu Yinyan answered.

The kidnapper laughed, “I smashed his head into the computer! People who give unsolicited hints are horrible people but even more horrible are those who dare to ask for hints instead of working hard for the solution themselves. So you’ve run out of chances. But we’re very fair. I’ll mail a present to you. Be happy.” Then the call ended. We looked at each other, we had no idea why the kidnappers had said these things.

Half an hour later, someone knocked on Liu Yinyan’s door.

The butler walked in. “Elder Liu, just now a toy plane dropped this box in our lawn. This is written on the surface—A present for Liu Yinyan.” We immediately understood this was the present the kidnappers referred to earlier. Liu Yinyan opened it immediately. Captain Zhao yelled. “Don’t! It might be a bom…” Before Captain Zhao was done, Liu Yinyan already undid the box. The present was not a bomb but a finger.

A long and fair truncated middle finger, that came with a bow tied nicely around it. Liu Yinyan only took a glance before he toppled backwards. The finger fell to the ground and happened to lean against the wall like it was giving everyone present the middle finger.