Chapter 72 Tracking

Wen Yue was in a meeting when she learned about Zhou Mingtang's accident. She was listening attentively to the report of the regional manager Zheng Zi Ah on the work situation of the past quarter.

So when the system sounded, Wen Yue did not react for a while.

In the original book, Zhou Mingtang's accident happened on January 10, so when she got up that morning, she immediately told the system to keep an eye on Zhou Mingtang's situation.

Before leaving work in the afternoon, she learned that Zhou Mingtang had returned home. Wen Yue breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had passed the test.

Even if the "Zhao Zikun" group still planned to make a fortune before the New Year, they would turn to other wealthy people. After all, Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife had spent a lot of money to hire a lot of bodyguards as early as the "Dongjiang Entertainment News" announced that they would make a comeback.

Although they were hired temporarily, they were all affiliated with the bodyguard company, with clean backgrounds, and they all had parents and children, so the probability of being bribed was low.

After hiring these bodyguards, Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife separated the old and new bodyguards. Now Zhou Jiahao and the three children of the Zhou family have at least eight bodyguards around them.

The kidnapping gang usually does not have too many members.

First, the more people there are, the less money they can get after getting the ransom; second, it is difficult to control a large number of people. If someone in the middle is temporarily stage-frightened, the boss may not be able to find it in time; third, it is difficult to hide with a large number of people. Unless you go to the mountains and ridges, it is easy to be discovered and reported. In addition, those who

can be bodyguards are either burly or very skilled. They may not win even if they are outnumbered, not to mention that they are not in the advantage of numbers.

As long as Zhou Mingtang doesn't do anything stupid and get rid of the bodyguards like in the original novel, the probability of him being kidnapped is not high. Instead of continuing to keep an eye on him, it is better to shift the target to those wealthy people who don't take the notice seriously.

Although many wealthy people heard the news after the newspapers under Dongjiang Newspapers issued a notice, the price of bodyguards suddenly skyrocketed. But as time went by, Hong Kong was still peaceful, so they relaxed. Those

who had snatched the bodyguards in the front would not return them, but those who didn't snatch them basically didn't continue to snatch them, and those who didn't like to bring so many people with them when going out would go back to their old ways.

Kidnapping these people is easier than keeping an eye on Zhou Mingtang.

Who knew that after just two days of relaxation, she still heard the news that Zhou Mingtang was in trouble.

Wen Yue's first reaction was to check her watch. It was only 2:15 in the afternoon. Zhou Mingtang should be in class at this time.

She was in a quarterly meeting at this time. The shareholders were all there. It was not good to interrupt the meeting because of personal matters. She had to control her expression and asked: [What's going on? Isn't it class time now?]

Although bodyguards cannot enter the school, Wen Yue never thought that Zhou Mingtang would be taken away in the school. So when she learned that he was in trouble, her first reaction was that he skipped class.

But Wen Yue knew that after the last phone call with her, Zhuang Shaoyun had a frank talk with Zhou Mingtang and said that he would not stop him from contacting his deskmate.

At the same time, Zhuang Shaoyun also said that she hoped they could remember that they were just children, so it was best not to do anything beyond the boundaries. At the same time, she reminded him not to get rid of the bodyguards at any time to do dangerous things. She and her husband arranged bodyguards to be by his side to protect him, not to control him.

Zhou Mingtang felt ashamed and embarrassed after hearing what his mother said. Thinking of how he had tried his best to hide from his parents that he liked girls in the past few months, and hesitating whether to get rid of the bodyguards to buy gifts for his deskmate, he felt very guilty.

After feeling guilty, he promised Zhuang Shaoyun that he would never hide anything from her again, and promised that she would bring bodyguards with her wherever she went.

Wen Yue was a little confused. Apart from falling in love early, Zhou Mingtang was not a rebellious child. But it had only been a few days since the mother and son had a heart-to-heart talk. How could he forget his promise to Zhuang Shaoyun so quickly?

Wen Yue was thinking about it when she heard the system say: [He did not skip class. He suddenly felt a stomachache after class, reported to the toilet, and fainted in the toilet. ]

[Fainted in the toilet? ! ] Wen Yue asked again in disbelief.

St. Paul's Secondary School, where Zhou Mingtang studied, was at least ranked in the top three among many schools in Hong Kong. Students who could enter St. Paul's Secondary School were either very good in grades or came from wealthy families.

With so many children from wealthy families in the school, the school will naturally not take security lightly. When recruiting personnel, they would like to check their ancestors thoroughly, and anyone with any problems will not be accepted.

There are also security teams inside the school, which will patrol regularly. The walls are all electrified, and there are only two doors in and out, and there are people guarding the guard room at all times, so it is not easy for kidnappers to enter the school, and it is even more difficult to get people out of the school.

If you really want to cooperate inside and outside, you definitely need to bribe more than one or two people, and the corresponding cost will not be low.

And kidnappers are usually short of money.

The reason is simple, being a kidnapper is not a good job. At the very least, you can escape and live a life of misery, and at the worst, you will be killed during the capture process.

Anyone who can make a living will not easily enter the industry to do such things.

Not only do they lack money, they also do not have the ability to bribe so many people. Even if they can find the residence of the school staff, they dare not easily go to their door to discuss cooperation with them. If the person they find has evil intentions, it will be fine. If he is an honest person, he may report them back.

And if they cannot achieve internal and external cooperation, they will definitely not go to the school to confuse people. What can they do if they sneak in? It is useless if they cannot bring people out.

It is easy to achieve internal and external cooperation when St. Paul's has been established for so many years and there has never been a student missing in the school.

It is not only St. Paul's, but other schools with high tuition fees are basically like this, otherwise these rich people would not dare to send their children to study. Moreover, after the newspapers under Dongjiang Newspaper Group issued the notice, basically no one in the wealthy circle asked for leave for their children, including Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife, who only added bodyguards for several children.

It can be seen that they all believe in the safety of the school and have never thought that their children would get into trouble in school.

But the system gave her a positive answer: [Yes, Zhou Mingtang had an accident in the toilet. ]

Wen Yue intuitively felt that there was something fishy, ​​but now was not the time to get to the bottom of it. She asked: [Is Zhou Mingtang already confused? Where is he now, is he still in school? ]

[He is still there, but they have reached the door! ] The system said "Ah", [They have already gone out! ]

[Were they let out directly? ]

[Yes! The people in the guard room seem to be sleeping? 】The system can only see images, and can't go into the guard room to check the situation, so it's not sure, "They got in the car!"

Hearing this, Wen Yue knew it would be difficult to stop them at school, so she asked quickly: "What kind of car? What's the license plate number?" "The

license plate number can't be seen. The car is a Nissan Baning van, gray, with black cloth covering the windows," the system's voice changed, "It's over, host, the windows are covered, Zhou Mingtang is in the back seat, and can't see the scenery outside the car!"

Without being able to see the scenery outside the window, it is difficult to know the kidnappers' driving route, and correspondingly it is difficult to locate the kidnappers.

This is something Wen Yue had never thought of. She could not help but tighten the pen on the table, pursed her lips and thought for a moment, and said: [It doesn't matter. The kidnappers can't drive around all the time. As long as they take Zhou Mingtang out of the car, we will always have a chance to see the surrounding scenery. ]

The system suddenly understood and responded: [Yes! ]

Although Wen Yue still has a chance to let the system find their hiding place through the surrounding scenery after the kidnappers take Zhou Mingtang out of the car, it is definitely better to intercept the kidnappers on the road than to wait for them to take Zhou Mingtang to their lair.

At this time, calling the police is definitely the fastest way.

But Wen Yue would definitely lose time if she went out to find a public phone booth now, and if she used her own phone to call, it would be difficult for her to give a reasonable explanation when the police questioned her.

If she was outside now, she could still make an excuse that someone had slipped a note to her, and even if she was alone in the office, she could come up with a crude reason.

But she happened to be sitting in a conference room at this moment, under the watchful eyes of the public, even if she said she would take out the note, no one would believe her, and they might think they had encountered a supernatural event.

Excluding calling the police, there was only one way in front of her, and that was to let the system send a letter.

But letting the system send a letter would easily delay time, and even if the envelope was not put into the mailbox, it would be difficult to choose the right time to put it on the recipient's desk when the recipient was not paying attention.

If the recipient is sitting behind the desk when the envelope is delivered, it is easy to be caught, and it will become a supernatural incident and be passed on by word of mouth. If the recipient is not at his seat when the envelope is delivered, it is fine if the recipient returns in one or two minutes. But if the recipient is away for an entire afternoon, the envelope may be cold when the recipient returns.

Wen Yue thought for a long time and said: "Tong, can you put the photo of the kidnapper taking Zhou Mingtang out of the school and getting on the bus directly on the ground of the reporting center when no one is paying attention? It is best to put it in a conspicuous position, without the envelope, and just put the photo on the front. 】

【Okay. 】

...

Because she likes to watch police and gangster movies, Zheng Xiaolian has had a dream of becoming a policeman since she was a child, and she has been working hard for her dream.

But there is a gap between dreams and reality. After graduating from university, Zheng Xiaolian failed to enter the serious crime squad of her dreams, nor did she become a uniformed police officer. Instead, she became an ordinary civilian police officer.

Now she works at the police reporting center, and her main job is to stand behind the counter, waiting for citizens to come to her to report crimes.

People who have not experienced this may think that this job is very interesting, and they can meet all kinds of people every day and hear all kinds of bizarre cases.

But when you really do this job, you will know that there are no bizarre cases, but you can meet amazing people every day.

Because of the urgency of the case, both the victims and the enthusiastic public are more inclined to call the police. Even if they don’t have a phone, as long as the location is not so remote, they are more inclined to ask the uniformed police for help.

Only those cases are not urgent and those who have time will choose to report the case.

Since the case is not urgent, it is definitely not a big case. Being robbed at home is considered difficult. Most of them complain about noisy neighbors or trivial matters such as missing cats and dogs.

People are magical because you meet more people, and it is inevitable that you will encounter one or two difficult people. No matter how you talk, you can’t move them. They dare to make trouble in front of the police, which is very troublesome.

So after only six months of employment, Zheng Xiaolian is already a little tired of her current life.

Of course, she is still very serious about her work, never late or leaving early, and is very patient with citizens who come to report crimes. Only when people behind her want to cut in line will she sternly warn them not to cut in line.

This is what happened at this moment. When Zheng Xiaolian was telling the old lady in front of her step by step how to sue someone for not paying back their debts, the team behind her started to riot.

Looking up, she saw a middle-aged man cutting in line. She said unhappily, "Please obey the order and don't cut in line!"

"No!" the middle-aged man said, holding up a photo, "I just picked up a photo, and it's not right!"

Zheng Xiaolian was stunned and asked, "What's wrong?"

The middle-aged man immediately squeezed to the front, slapped the photo in front of Zheng Xiaolian and said, "Look at this photo, it's a school, right? The child who was taken away in the photo seems to be unconscious!"

As the middle-aged man finished speaking, Zheng Xiaolian also saw the content of the photo clearly, her face changed and asked, "Where did you get this photo?"

"I picked it up," the middle-aged man turned his head and pointed to the door. "I saw this photo as soon as I entered the room. I thought someone had lost it. I picked it up and found that there were words on the back of the photo. The child who was taken away in the photo seemed to be from St. Paul's Middle School."

Zheng Xiaolian listened and turned the photo. She saw that there was indeed a line of words on the back - St. Paul, Zhou Mingtang.

"Madam," the middle-aged man came over and asked, "Look at the child named Zhou Mingtang in the photo. Was he kidnapped and taken away?"

Zheng Xiaolian had a vague guess in her heart, but she didn't dare to make a conclusion. She had to ask the person in front of her to wait for a while, and she went to the back to find her boss to talk about this matter.

Not many people in the outside world know Zhou Mingtang's name, but when Zheng Xiaolian saw the photo and heard that he was a student of St. Paul's School, she immediately guessed that his identity might be extraordinary, and hurriedly called the Chief Superintendent to report the matter to him.

People who can become Chief Superintendents usually have good connections.

This is not to say that they rely on connections to get to the top, but after they reach this position, most wealthy people will be willing to make friends with them, so they will be more informed than ordinary people.

Grassroots employees like Zheng Xiaolian, because they know nothing, even if they see Zhou Mingtang's name, they can't guess his identity.

But the Chief Superintendent of the Central Police Station is different. He knows that most of the Zhou family's children study at St. Paul's School, and he also knows that the names of the younger boys in the Zhou family all have the word "Tang" in their names.

So as soon as he heard the name, he guessed that the person who was taken away might be a member of the Zhou family, or even the eldest grandson of the eldest son.

So after asking the other party to send the photos to his office, he hung up the phone, took out a phone book from the drawer of his desk, opened it and found Zhou Jiahao's phone number. But

before making the call, Superintendent Lu was a little hesitant.

Although the reporting center had just received the photos, he did not think that the incident had just happened, but tended to think that the incident had happened a day or two ago, but the hostage's family did not call the police because of the threat from the kidnappers.

If this was the truth, his call might not be very popular.

But such a big thing happened in his jurisdiction, it would be fine if he didn't know, but he certainly couldn't ignore it if he knew, so after hesitating, Superintendent Lu still made the call.

After the call was connected, Superintendent Lu went straight to the point and said that someone at the reporting center had picked up a photo of a student named Zhou Mingtang from St. Paul who was taken away after being knocked unconscious. He asked Zhou Jiahao if he knew the person.

Zhou Jiahao's face changed suddenly on the other end of the phone. If the caller was not the Chief Superintendent of the Central Police Station, he would probably think that the other party was a scammer.

It was precisely because he knew the other party's identity that Zhou Jiahao's face turned ugly in an instant. He said that his son went to school normally this morning. He would call the school later to confirm the situation. He hoped that the police could take action as soon as possible to find out where the car went.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Jiahao called the principal's office of St. Paul's. The other party was very angry at first, saying that this was a frame-up. St. Paul's has been established for so many years, and there has never been a student being taken away by a dizzy person in the school.

But facing Zhou Jiahao's strength, he did not dare to ignore it. After hanging up the phone, he went to Zhou Mingtang's class and asked if he was there.

St. Paul's is a small class, with 20 students in a class. But no matter how small the number of students is, it is impossible for the teacher to pay attention to whether one of the students has gone to the toilet and has not returned during class.

Therefore, it was not until the principal came to ask and saw Zhou Mingtang's empty seat that he realized that Zhou Mingtang had been in the toilet for a long time. But he didn't know that Zhou Mingtang had been kidnapped, so he didn't think much about it and just said that he had gone to the toilet.

The principal did not know Zhou Mingtang, so he asked the teacher to take him to the toilet to look for him. As a result, they searched all the toilets in the building, but could not find any trace of him.

The teacher did not know the situation, and asked when he could not find him: "It shouldn't be, Zhou Mingtang is a well-behaved child, he has never skipped classes, how can we not find him?" It would have been

better if he did not say this, but as soon as he said it, the principal's face changed, and he quickly told the teacher to arrange students to look for him on campus, and he hurried back to the office and called Zhou Jiahao to tell him that he was really missing.

After receiving the news, Zhou Jiahao quickly called the Chief Superintendent of Central District, and learned that the other party had already made arrangements and agreed to meet at the police station later.

…

Although the police acted quickly, there were few places in Hong Kong with cameras during that period, and it was difficult to quickly find a car whose appearance was only known by manpower.

Superintendent Lu was only the Chief Superintendent of the Central Police Station. He could quickly mobilize all personnel in his jurisdiction, but it was not so easy to mobilize so many police officers to intercept cars outside his jurisdiction.

He could only make phone calls one by one to explain the situation. Although the people on the other end of the phone were willing to give convenience when they heard that the people kidnapped were members of the Zhou family, it was very time-consuming.

In the end, although they found the car, there was no one in it.

Wen Yue was the first to know about their change of car, but it was not easy for her to inform the police of the news. As before, making a phone call was the first option to be ruled out.

Sending the photos to the police station's communication room is not an option because it is easy to be drowned by other letters.

Finally, Wen Yue asked the system to repeat the same trick and put the photo at the entrance of the police reporting center again.

But this time they were not lucky. After the photo was put there, no one came in or out for more than ten minutes. When someone finally picked up the photo after reporting the case and was about to leave, this person was shy. There were only two people in front of him and he could just shout, but he was embarrassed and just stood at the back waiting. It was not

until Zheng Xiaolian, who was sitting behind the counter, saw that he looked familiar and asked him casually if there was anything else that he picked up the photo and explained.

Zheng Xiaolian had already had experience. After getting the photo, she stopped reporting the case without saying a word and went to the back to find her leader. Her leader did the same. When he saw the photo, he directly contacted the Chief Superintendent and quickly sent the photo over.

Although the process went very fast, the process was delayed for too long. When Superintendent Luk got the photo, he learned that the kidnapper had changed cars and they had missed the best time to catch him.

It was also at this time that the police officers below were a step behind and found the empty car abandoned on the roadside.

Upon learning the result, Zhou Jiahao, who had already rushed to the police station, was so angry that he smashed the wall with his hands and grabbed his hair and said, "Just one step! Just one step!"

Superintendent Luk was also helpless in his heart. In fact, with the photo sent by the mysterious person, it was really much easier for them to catch the kidnapper. Unfortunately, their luck was still not good enough. After the photo was discovered, it was delayed for a long time.

Superintendent Luk did not dare to say this directly. Wouldn't it irritate his family?

He pondered for a moment and said, "Mr. Zhou, I know you are worried about your son, but we have now confirmed that the vehicle went to the Shatin area. With this photo, we will definitely be able to determine the approximate range today and rescue your son as soon as possible, but..."

"Just what?"

"As far as I know, St. Paul's has always been very strict in terms of security, not to mention that the kidnappers brought a living person like your son with them..." Superintendent Lu guessed, "I suspect this is not a simple kidnapping case."

Zhou Jiahao was naturally aware of this. If it were not for the security of St. Paul's, he would not feel at ease sending his son to school. In St. Paul's, even if parents want to enter the school during class, they must register and verify their identities.

Moreover, from the photos, these kidnappers did not climb over the wall at all, but walked out of the back door with people in a dignified manner. Apart from other things, the security guard on duty at the back door today is highly suspicious.

But the kidnappers bribed more than just the security guard.

Zhou Jiahao already knew that Zhou Mingtang went to the toilet because of a stomachache, and then was taken away in a daze.

Obviously, the kidnappers had been guarding in the toilet.

But if they didn't tamper with Zhou Mingtang's food or water, how did they know that Zhou Mingtang would definitely have a stomachache? And he couldn't even wait for the class to end, and would apply to go to the toilet during class?

After all, if he went to the toilet during class, there would definitely be a lot of people, and it would be difficult for them to do anything.

So the question is, where do a group of poor and desperate people get so much money to bribe people? Or, if they wanted money, instead of spending so much time and money to kidnap Zhou Mingtang, it would be more in their interest to give up on him and kidnap other wealthy people who are easier to kidnap, right?

So even before going to St. Paul's Middle School, Superintendent Lu and Zhou Jiahao had already guessed that this kidnapping was unusual and the kidnappers were likely instructed by someone else.

Before, because he was worried about Zhou Mingtang's comfort, Zhou Jiahao didn't think too deeply about it. It was not until he was reminded by Superintendent Lu that he thought about the seriousness of the matter. It would be

fine if the kidnappers wanted money, because the Zhou family has money, and as long as they can save their son, they can give any money!

But if the kidnappers were instructed by someone, unless the person behind the scenes is found, I am afraid that no matter how much money he pays, it will be difficult to buy back his son's life.

Thinking of this, Zhou Jiahao walked up to Superintendent Lu, bowed to him and said, "I beg you, please save my son!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhou, our police have set up a special operations team, and will do our best to rescue your son. It's just that we may need you to provide more information about the mastermind behind the scenes," said Superintendent Lu, "Who have you offended?"

Hearing this question, Zhou Jiahao sat down dejectedly and covered his face.

Seeing him like this, Superintendent Lu sighed in his heart, thinking that it would be difficult to find the mastermind behind the scenes.

The mastermind behind the scenes is indeed difficult to find.

In the business world, there is no such thing as being kind to others. There are many people who steal business and land. Some time ago, he had a quarrel with someone because of competing for a piece of land.

But no matter how unhappy it was, he would not let the other party instigate someone to kidnap him. After all, they just lost a piece of land to buy, and they were not forced into bankruptcy by Zhou.

What's more, they are all rich people. They will meet each other sooner or later. Moreover, if you kidnap someone else's children today, who knows if someone will kidnap your children tomorrow? How can you never stop the cycle of revenge?

Therefore, unless they are mortal enemies, few people will be so extreme.

If the scope is narrowed down to deadly enemies, Zhou Jiahao can't think of any suspicious targets. His methods are not gentle, but he has never killed anyone, so he should not make deadly enemies with people.

However, people's hearts are unpredictable. Even if he can't think of anyone, he can't guarantee that these rivals in the business world are completely free of suspicion. So if he wants to investigate, the scope is not small.

In addition to competitors, there is a circle of people who are suspicious.

And this circle is full of Zhou Jiahao's relatives.

Zhou Jiahao doesn't want to suspect his relatives, but people die for money and birds die for food. How many brothers have fought to the point of bloodshed for a little more property, not to mention that the Zhou family is different from most of the wealthy families in Hong Kong.

Most wealthy families in Hong Kong only favor sons over daughters. If there are several sons, the property is either divided equally or the favored or capable son gets more.

But in addition to favoring sons over daughters, the Zhou family also favors the eldest son. Their main industry will only be passed down from generation to generation in the eldest son. Others, regardless of gender, can only get a small amount of shares and unimportant industries.

Although Zhou Jiahao thinks that this distribution method is not very good and it affects the relationship between brothers and sisters, it is not easy to express his opinion before he can change this point, because no matter what he says, it will be regarded as a vested interest.

At the same time, he is also very clear that there are more than one people in the Zhou family who are dissatisfied with this distribution of property.

That's why his uncles and cousins ​​have been living in the Zhou family's old house even though they have money and real estate.

There is also his half-brother. As he gets older, his reluctance to be born two years later becomes more and more obvious, and the relationship between the brothers becomes more and more strained.

Therefore, under the seemingly harmonious family relationship of the Zhou family, there is a surging undercurrent.

And this is also the main reason why Zhou Jiahao insisted on moving out after getting married.

In recent years, he has always paid attention to protecting his wife and children, and he dared not take it lightly even when he returned to the old house, but he did not expect that his son would still get into trouble.