The air inside was visibly cold, like ice.

Suppressing her nervousness, Shang Wanting pressed the green button to connect. Before she could speak, an indistinct male or female voice came from the other end: "Chairwoman Shang, hello?"

Chairman Shang asked, "Who are you? What do you want with me? If there's nothing else, I'll hang up."

The other person said, "Don't you want to know where your daughter is?"

Shang Wanting's expression immediately changed, and she frowned as she asked, "Where is Nana? Did you kidnap her? Tell me! Who are you?"

The other party's voice was calm: "Chairman Shang, don't get so agitated! I'll give you three hours to raise 300 million yuan, and I'll release your precious daughter. Is that alright?"

Shang Wanting shook her head and said, "How is that possible? Where am I supposed to find so much funding in such a short time? Are you kidding me?"

The other party retorted without further ado: "Shang's Group has a market value of over 5 billion, you hold more than 30% of the shares, and you have over 2 billion in cash on hand. You're telling me you can't raise 300 million in 3 hours? You don't want to save your daughter, do you?"

Shang Wanting quickly explained, "Don't get excited. Cash is different from stocks. Even if you raise cash, it will take time."

The other party replied, "I don't care! If you don't see the money in three hours, you won't see your daughter."

Shang Wanting immediately softened and hurriedly said, "Okay! Okay! I'll try my best to raise the money, but it's really difficult in such a short time. I can raise 100 million in 3 hours, but more will take much longer. Even if I were to buy stocks, I would have to wait until the afternoon, right?"

The other party seemed to be processing the news, and after a moment said, "Two hours, one hundred million in cash, the rest can be extended to tonight."

Shang Wanting said, "Okay, okay, I'll raise the money right now. Please don't hurt my daughter, please don't hurt my daughter."

The other person's tone suddenly rose as they asked, "You didn't call the police, did you?"

Shang Wanting shook her head and said, "How could that be? Only two or three hours have passed since we discovered our daughter was missing. Even if I called the police, they wouldn't open a case."

The other party, relieved by this, said, "You'd better not call the police, or don't blame us for being impolite."

Shang Wanting nodded, then said, "Wait a minute! Are you sure my daughter is in your hands? Have you hurt her? I need to make sure my daughter is safe first, otherwise how will I know if you're lying to me?"

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, followed by the voice saying, "Wait a moment! I'll send you a multimedia message in a bit, you'll see when you see it."

"No! I want to see her in person! How can you guarantee that she's my daughter?"

Shang Wanting shouted, not wanting the other party to hang up the phone.

Snap!

Without waiting for a reply, the other party hung up the phone, leaving Shang Wanting with nowhere to vent her prepared remarks.

She looked at Guan Feng with some frustration and asked, "Captain Guan, what do we do now?"

Looking at the panicked Shang Wanting, Guan Feng comforted her, saying, "Judging from this conversation, your daughter is safe for now."

Shang Wanting asked, "Are you sure?"

Guan Feng nodded and said, "Although the other party used voice-changing software, it is still easy to distinguish the uncertainty when asking if you want to call the police. Therefore, the other party is most likely unaware of this. In other words, we are temporarily in the dark, which also makes us more vigilant in our next work."

Shang Wanting thought about it and realized that made sense, so she immediately said, "You just said that my daughter is safe for the time being?"

Guan Feng said, "That's right! When the other party asked you to raise funds, they said they would kill her. When they said that, their tone was steady and their words were firm, so it's highly likely that your daughter is not in any danger."

Shang Wanting said, "Thank you, Captain Guan! What should I do now?"

Guan Feng said, "Didn't they say they wanted to send a multimedia message? Wait a minute."

Shang Wanting patiently looked at her phone.

Guan Feng continued, "The other party is very familiar with your situation and knows about your news. The most urgent thing is for you to release relevant information, such as the company issuing an announcement saying that the major shareholder is preparing to reduce its holdings due to personal matters."

Shang Wanting sighed and said, "But this will change the company's stock price?"

Guan Feng cautioned, "Is short-term fluctuation in the company's stock price more important, or is your daughter's safety more important? The fact that the other party can quote the company's market value and your shares means that he has recently checked the relevant information. We must convince him that we are really raising funds so that we can buy more time."

Shang Wanting said, "I understand! I'll call the board's office now."

Guan Feng nodded encouragingly.

Shang Wanting dialed the board office and recounted Guan Feng's request, saying, "Xiao Zhang, contact the China Securities Regulatory Commission and issue an announcement stating that due to personal reasons, the major shareholder is preparing to reduce its holdings, with the reduction ratio not exceeding 5 percentage points."

The board office seemed somewhat surprised and reminded them, "Chairman, such a large reduction in shareholding may affect the company's stock price."

Shang Wanting said, "I know, just issue the announcement according to this."

The board's office didn't say anything more, just said, "Okay, then I'll issue an announcement here."

Guan Feng nodded and looked away, waiting for the other party's MMS message while turning to the communications department and asking, "How's it going? Any leads on the number tracking?"

The communications technician shook his head and said, "No! This server is located overseas. It should be one of those three manufacturers. It has its own satellite signal and special encryption signal, which we cannot crack at the moment."

Guan Feng frowned.

Those three companies have world-leading satellite encryption technology, comparable to the level of several major domestic telecommunications operators.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!