Chapter 102: The Boldest Culprit

2022-05-20

The moment his daughter was brought up, Lin Dafa’s expression turned serious. To him, his daughter meant everything.

“My daughter.” Lin Dafa closed his eyes, his eyelids twitching as his eyeballs darted rapidly beneath them. “My daughter’s life was ruined by someone. Honestly, I wanted to ruin his life in return. Too bad he died too quickly.”

He shook his head, his voice heavy. “Tell me, how can a scumbag’s life be so resilient, while the lives of good people are so fragile?”

He opened his eyes again. “I never planned to kill that man. I just wanted to make sure he’d never hurt another girl ever again. But I later discovered disease could spread through blood as well. Knowledge really is power. If I’d known, I would’ve drained all his blood too.”

Lin Dafa recounted everything that happened four years ago, talking as if he might never get another chance.

“That’s not what I asked you!” Team Leader Shao abruptly interrupted Lin Dafa’s story. “You ever think about this? Your daughter is precious to you like a jewel in your hand. To you, other people’s daughters are expendable? They don’t matter?”

“Tell me, where is Liu Feier now? How many people are you working with?” Team Leader Shao pressed on.

Lin Dafa didn’t answer. Instead he continued, “I only care about my own daughter. Other people’s daughters? What do they have to do with me? I’m not their father! But, to be fair, if her dad came to kill me, I wouldn’t blame him. Still, do you know what he’s up to now? Where he is right now?”

Hearing this, the four of us focused intently on Lin Dafa. His words sounded like they hid another meaning.

Team Leader Shao shot to his feet, pointing at Lin Dafa. “Lin Dafa! What are you all planning?”

While speaking, Team Leader Shao signaled to the people outside the one-way glass, telling them to investigate Liu Yinyan.

Lin Dafa just smiled. “I don’t know what they’re planning. Maybe they just want to have a little fun. Turns out, this world is full of interesting souls. I used to be so ignorant. Only later did I realize, even something like this can become someone’s faith, their very life!”

“Don’t you want to see your daughter one last time before you die?” There was a threat in Team Leader Shao’s words.

“My daughter?” Lin Dafa let out a cold laugh that squeezed through his clenched teeth. “You think I haven’t seen her? Let me ask you, is my daughter in your hands right now? I know your tricks. Trying to get me to talk? Not a chance!”

“The show is just getting started. Just wait and see! That girl Liu Feier, right? Have you found her finger yet?” Lin Dafa’s eyes gleamed with a wild light.

Gu Chen, who’d been silent, couldn’t take it anymore. He shot up and strode right over to Lin Dafa. Without a word, he punched Lin Dafa square in the stomach. “Tell me, where is Liu Feier? Who else is with you? What are you all planning?”

The punch landed hard. I could see Lin Dafa’s face twist in pain, yet even through that contorted expression, he kept on smiling. “I’m not talking. Go on, beat me to death if you want! As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been dead for three years already. These last three years, I’ve lived the way I wanted—got no regrets.”

Gu Chen hit him in the stomach again.

Lin Dafa’s jaw dropped as he gagged dryly. “Come on, keep going. Beat me, kill me if you can!”

Dealing with someone who truly has nothing left to lose, stubborn as a mule, there’s no way to get anything useful out of him. Gu Chen wanted to strike again, but Team Leader Shao cut him off. “Gu Chen, that’s enough.”

Gu Chen shot Lin Dafa a look, then stopped.

“Leave him alone. Let him cool off for a bit.” Team Leader Shao spoke as he led the way out.

We each filed out of the interrogation room, but Lin Dafa was still yelling inside. “Hey! Don’t you want to question me anymore? Come on, kill me! You won’t find anything! You got any leads? Come on, what are you even doing? Aren’t you curious? Someone—come in!”

I glanced in through the one-way glass. Lin Dafa was still struggling against his handcuffs, his face flushed bright red as he curled up, looking like an overcooked shrimp. His hoarse voice was ragged and harsh, like a scrap of cloth whipping in the wind.

Xiao Liu called just then, and Team Leader Shao put the call on speaker.

“Oh no, something’s happened!” Xiao Liu sounded frantic. “I just went to the bathroom for a quick break, and now Liu Yinyan is gone! Not just him—his housekeeper’s missing too. The servants say those two headed out, supposedly coming here!”

“That makes no sense!” Xiao Liu continued, exasperated. “First thing this morning, Liu Yinyan insisted we all pull back. How could he possibly be headed here? I asked several people—they all said the same thing. Claimed they got a call from us, so they left!”

Even calm, collected Team Leader Shao cursed this time. “Lin Dafa coming in might not have been an accident. Maybe this was all on purpose—to get him inside. But why? And why did the phone call come in right after our surveillance of Liu Yinyan’s home was interrupted?”

Lin Dafa’s hysterics in the interrogation room were over the top, but honestly, he didn’t have to act like that. His words actually gave us a lot to go on. Especially that extra hint—he told us to check what Liu Yinyan was up to.

That meant Lin Dafa already knew what was coming even before he was brought in. But supposedly, he only got caught buying hand-rolled tobacco when Gu Chen was waiting in ambush. By any logic, he shouldn’t have expected Gu Chen to be there at that shop.

Suddenly, a chilling thought flashed through my mind.

“Mary, pull up the surveillance around here right away. Find out where Liu Yinyan went.” Team Leader Shao jumped into action. “Xiao Liu, take a team and see if anyone nearby saw Liu Yinyan.”

“Got it.” They both replied in unison.

No sooner had he hung up with Xiao Liu, another call came in on Team Leader Shao’s phone.

Team Leader Shao answered. “This is Shao Shilin. Who is this? If you’ve got something to say, keep it short.”

“Team Leader Shao!” The caller replied, “It’s Captain Wang from Luobei City. Just like you asked, we found Lin Rong’s place. Tried a few times but couldn’t find her. Then we talked to the neighbors, and finally got the scoop from her best friend. Turns out, Lin Rong hasn’t been in Luobei City for a while.”

Team Leader Shao’s brows drew together. “She’s not in Luobei City? Any idea where she is now?”

The caller didn’t seem to notice his serious tone, chuckling as he went on. “Funny thing, her best friend told us Lin Rong said she was heading to Dongxing City a month ago. So she’s probably been in Dongxing City for a whole month now. Does that mean anything to you?”

“The person you’re after is right there in your city. Oh, by the way, let me just…”

Before Captain Wang could finish, Team Leader Shao hung up.

He fell silent for a moment, then said, “It’s very likely Lin Dafa has already seen his daughter. But now she might be in their hands. On the surface, they may treat her well, but Lin Dafa knows if he does anything against them, Lin Rong will be in danger.”

“So what do we do now?” Gu Chen asked, growing anxious. “We haven’t rescued Liu Feier, and now Liu Yinyan is missing. Where do we even start looking?”

No one spoke up after Gu Chen’s question.

I said, “There’s a mole among us.”

Everyone turned to look at me.

I asked Guan Zengbin, “Remember that business card Jesse gave us? You still have it?”

I remembered Jesse had once handed me a business card. I’d stuffed it in Guan Zengbin’s jacket pocket.

Guan Zengbin snapped his fingers. “Got it! I took off my dirty jacket and haven’t washed it yet. The card should still be in the pocket!”

Not long after, Guan Zengbin brought over a card.

Jesse Detective Agency.

Below was a string of phone numbers.

“Go check right now and see if this agency actually exists! Ask Mary for help!” I told Guan Zengbin.

He nodded and hurried off.

I continued, “Every time we find a lead, it gets cut off. This isn’t the first time. The same thing happened with the security guard, with Chen Lin, and even with several calls today. He’s way too smart—and too gutsy. Just look at today, Lin Dafa was clearly delivered straight to us.”

“They took Lin Dafa’s daughter away ahead of time. They knew Gu Chen would be at the tobacco shop!” I tugged at my hair, sorting through my memories. “If we can rule out any of our own team, then only Jesse and his people knew about our moves.”

“A month ago, that car Lin Dafa used—the one with hand-rolled tobacco—was found in the parking lot.” I dug through my recollection. “Not long after, Jesse and our team almost simultaneously caught that lead. But actually, Jesse had hinted about it to Xiao Liu first.”

Everything started coming into focus in my mind. “When we checked out the underground garage, Jesse was there too. Jesse even challenged us to see who’d find the car first. But back then… he must’ve been baiting us on purpose.”

“If Wang Ergou hadn’t been there that day, we’d never have found that tobacco lead. Which means, we never would’ve traced Lin Dafa at all. Honestly, if Wang Ergou wasn’t around, Jesse would’ve found the tobacco and told us anyway.”

“Because—it was all set up by him from the beginning!”

Suddenly, it all made sense.

“Found it!” Guan Zengbin called out from across the room. “Jesse Detective Agency is real, but Jesse himself never showed up!”