Chapter 90: No Ransom Demanded

2022-05-20

The voice coming through was sharp and distorted, that kind of artificial sound you get from a voice changer. Mary was busy working on some software I couldn’t make heads or tails of, trying to pinpoint where the call was coming from.

Barely a few seconds later, a live feed of Liu Yinyan’s villa flickered onto the projector in the office. It looked like a real-time connection.

Gu Chen and Liu Yinyan were sitting on the sofa, with Liu Yinyan gripping his phone so tightly his knuckles were white. Gu Chen wore an earpiece wired right back to us in the office, his hand placed firmly on Liu Yinyan’s shoulder—a silent signal to keep calm. Xiao Liu sat to the side, his face set in a serious expression.

Team Leader Shao made a snap decision and told us, “Tell Liu Yinyan to stall for time. Whatever they ask for, don’t agree right away, just drag it out as long as possible.”

As Team Leader Shao spoke, Gu Chen relayed the instructions to Liu Yinyan.

“Who are you? How’s my daughter? What do you want from me?” Liu Yinyan fired off three questions in a row. Clean and direct, but definitely not following Team Leader Shao’s advice.

Team Leader Shao just spread his hands, face grim. Liu Yinyan was nothing if not decisive, but in moments like these, acting without thinking is just reckless.

“Why so eager?” the sharp voice replied. “No matter what you do, you should stay calm. Isn’t that what you always say? Your daughter Liu Feier is in our hands—want to hear her voice?”

Team Leader Shao didn’t even get the chance to answer before Liu Yinyan blurted out, “As long as she’s safe, I’ll agree to anything you want. Name your price, I’ll pay! Just don’t hurt her! Let me hear my daughter’s voice, now!”

“No, no.” The sharp voice interrupted. “You missed your chance. I just asked if you wanted to hear her, and you babbled on forever. You know, it only takes three minutes to trace my location. So, looks like you blew it. Besides, why are you so sure I want money?”

Everyone in the room stiffened at those words. I frowned and ran a hand through my hair. That question came out of nowhere, taking us all by surprise. By common logic, someone pulling this kind of stunt would want money. But now they were saying money wasn’t the real motive. So, what was?

“What… what do you mean by that?” Liu Yinyan stammered, clearly not expecting this and scrambling for an answer.

The person on the other end burst out laughing—a weird, shrill sound thanks to the voice changer, so sharp it felt like it was echoing from all sides.

When the laughter finally died down, the caller continued, “Can you really promise you’ve never done anything wrong in your life? You know exactly what you’ve done! I’ll get in touch again after a while. Really think about it until then. Goodbye, brave investor. Hope you have a pleasant day.”

“Who are you people, really?” Liu Yinyan all but shouted into the phone.

But the other side just chuckled. “Why so serious? Try lightening up, would you? The game’s only just begun.”

With that, the caller hung up.

The whole call was kept under two minutes. Mary still hadn’t finished tracing the location.

Once the call ended, we saw on the projector that Liu Yinyan’s phone slipped from his hand and hit the floor. He sank back against the couch, looking lost, weighed down by helplessness and confusion.

Gu Chen didn’t say a word. He quietly picked up the phone from the floor, then walked aside and asked us, “So what now?”

Team Leader Shao sat back down and told Gu Chen, “Just try to keep Liu Yinyan calm. Whoever these people are, they’re not nearly as simple as we thought. With Liu Feier’s life hanging in the balance and these people acting like they want nothing at all, we need to keep a close eye on Liu Yinyan. I’m worried he might do something reckless.”

“Got it,” Gu Chen responded.

“Right,” Team Leader Shao added, “any idea where that detective Jesse and his group ran off to?”

Gu Chen shook his head. “Not sure. They left right before the call. Haven’t seen them since and there’s no news yet.”

“Alright, we’ll leave it here for now. Wu Meng’s group will come over to investigate in a bit. You and Xiao Liu just hang tight,” said Team Leader Shao.

After hanging up, Team Leader Shao turned to me and asked, “Did you catch anything interesting from what they said?”

I nodded, pulled over a chair and sat down. “Actually, there’s a ton of information, even though they barely said a word. First, it definitely sounds like they know Liu Yinyan. When he said, ‘No matter what you do, stay calm. Isn’t that your favorite saying?’—it means this person must know him, or at the very least, dug up a lot about him.”

Team Leader Shao grinned a little, then said, “Exactly. Not asking for money, and telling Liu Yinyan to think hard about what he’s done? Whoever this is, they definitely know something about his past. Maybe they know on their own, or maybe someone with a grudge hired them and told them everything. So what exactly has Liu Yinyan done?”

I didn’t answer right away, instead looking at the names of four people listed on the whiteboard. After a moment, I said, “Well, Zhao Dongfa and Cao Jie were Liu Yinyan’s old rivals, and he’s kept them down for decades. Even the most patient person has a breaking point. And from what we’ve read, Liu Yinyan isn’t exactly forgiving—he might have pulled some underhanded tricks.”

Team Leader Shao took a sip from his teacup. “Yep, but when you look at how Liu Yinyan clawed his way to where he is, none of that should be a surprise. A guy who started a company by selling his own kidney to buy in was always going to have something stubborn and off about him. Still, to carry that much anger into your sixties—he really lives up to his name.”

“Yeah, a man with a fiery temper.” I turned to Guan Zengbin and said, “Let’s pay him a visit, see if we can get him to talk about what he’s really done.”

“Sister Mao, stay here for now. If we find out anything, we’ll let you know,” I told her.

She understood right away and shot me a grateful look.

Guan Zengbin and I drove out to Liu Yinyan’s villa district. There were a few reporters lingering outside hoping for updates, and as soon as they saw us, they swarmed around our car. We ignored them and drove straight in. The moment we parked, we heard the shouting before we even saw anyone.

“What? You couldn’t find anything?” Liu Yinyan’s voice rang out. “I hired you to find my daughter, not sit around on vacation! You can’t even pinpoint the location—what am I paying you for? It’s been three days! Three days! Have you found a single shred of information?”

From a distance, we saw a noisy crowd gathered at the entrance.

Liu Yinyan stood there, jabbing a finger in Gu Chen’s face, his curses flying loud and clear. Judging by Gu Chen’s flushed cheeks, I could tell things were about to go south. He’d already been frustrated about so many people being pulled in for this case, thinking it was unfair—and now, getting publicly berated like this, it was clear things were about to blow up. You can’t expect a man with pride to just take that.

“Gu Chen!” I shouted, hoping to stop him from making things worse.

But he wasn’t having it. Before I could reach him, Gu Chen pointed right back at Liu Yinyan and said, “I only call you ‘Old Liu’ out of respect, but don’t think you can push people around just because you’re older. I earn my wages fair and square, and my conscience is clean. But what about you? Think money puts you above everyone else? Ordering people around like you own them?”

“Every cent I make, I can account for. Can you say the same? Can you swear you’ve never done anything to be ashamed of? That every cent you’ve made was earned fair and square?” Gu Chen pressed him again.

After turning thirty, no one dared talk to Liu Yinyan like this, let alone someone forty years younger. He just stared at Gu Chen, too stunned to react.

Xiao Liu quickly tried to defuse the tension. “Old Liu, don’t get angry. He’s young, doesn’t know the full picture. He’s just stressed from the lack of progress, that’s all. Don’t take it too personally. Gu Chen, tone it down.”

But Gu Chen wasn’t backing down. “Liu Kai! Don’t play the good guy here. It’s because there are too many people like you, always sucking up to whoever’s in charge, that the world is the way it is. With the way you’re always buying lottery tickets, are you just obsessed with money now?”

That was enough for Liu Yinyan. “Fine, get out! Get out of my house! This isn’t over, you hear me? Once my daughter’s found, I’ll make sure you never work again.”

Gu Chen just smirked. “I’ll be waiting for you to take my badge.”

He turned and marched off, not looking back.

I hurried over to meet Gu Chen. When he spotted me, he managed a forced, miserable smile. I clapped his shoulder and said, “Let me handle this. Go drive back and don’t let it get to you. Compared to the folks we’re up against, Liu Yinyan’s not so bad.”

Gu Chen was still fuming, but didn’t say anything more. He did add, “Maybe I was too harsh to Xiao Liu earlier. Say sorry for me, will you? I’ll head back now.”

I nodded.

Seeing Gu Chen drive off, Liu Yinyan turned his anger toward me. “Is this how your team operates? Where’s your professionalism?”

I waved him off, cutting in, “Now isn’t the time for this. Don’t forget, your daughter’s still in their hands. If you really want to find her quickly, you’ll need to cooperate. So, have you done anything you regret or stabbed anyone in the back?”

Liu Yinyan shot a glare at Gu Chen’s retreating car, then took my cue and said, “No, I haven’t done anything. I have no idea what they mean. You guys should be focusing on my daughter, why do you keep coming back to me?”

Something about this situation just doesn’t add up.