Chapter 64: Diverting the trouble
There is probably nothing more despairing than "discovering that the bride-to-be is missing on the engagement day". At least for Shaw, confirming that the eldest daughter is really missing -
The news that he might have even run away the night before was truly shocking to everyone.
After trying various methods for a long time, they found that the only clue to find the young lady was the terminal positioning. However, after searching for a while, when they finally locked the terminal, they found that the positioning kept changing. Near the afternoon, the positioning went in a certain direction and never returned.
But they found nothing when they looked for her, and there was no trace of the young lady when they checked the surveillance footage. When they were at a loss, they discovered that the terminal positioning appeared in the Hezhang Street district in the completely opposite direction.
What are you doing?!
Almost everyone had similar thoughts in their minds, and they easily suspected that "the terminal had been tampered with", and they also thought that this might be a prank played by the eldest lady.
But since it concerns the whereabouts of the young lady, they would rather make a wasted trip than ignore it - especially since the positioning this time showed that it was only wandering in a small area, without any jumping around. Moreover, after searching, they found that the last location was actually in an entertainment venue, which made everyone terrified. While praying that their prayers would be in vain, they sent people to rush to the location address.
Think about it again, although the eldest lady also likes to joke, her jokes are all harmless. In essence, she is still gentle and submissive. She rarely even goes to places like bars where young people often gather, let alone adult entertainment venues in remote areas.
If you really go here, what will happen is too much to imagine.
Finally, Director Shao’s secretary Du Yusu personally led people there. After arriving at the destination, he notified the local security personnel to follow them in.
Jin Wanman, the owner of Jinmi Happy City, is a brother-in-law of the current director of the security station. As soon as Du Yusu left the security station with the director, someone leaked the news that "Miss Shao is missing and is suspected to have been last seen in Jinmi City" to Jin Wanman.
This is simply a disaster from heaven!
While Jin Wanman asked someone to check the surveillance to see whether Miss Shao was in Jinmi City, he rushed to the scene to comfort the visitors.
More than ten minutes later, the staff of Happy City sent a message confirming that Miss Shao had not appeared in Jinmi City. This made Jin Wanman breathe a sigh of relief. While secretly cursing which damn enemy spread such rumors to harm him, he swore that Miss Shao's disappearance had nothing to do with them and there must be some misunderstanding.
Du Yushu didn't intend to listen to his nonsense words of assurance:
"Whether it's a misunderstanding or not, we'll know after we check it out."
Less than twenty minutes after Jin Wanman finished speaking, Miss Shao's terminal was fished out of the gold pool in the hall.
And it is a terminal that shows signs of modification.
It wasn't just the location that was tampered with, all the content on the terminal was cleared out, and the contact interface with parents and younger brother also had very polite and perfunctory chat records. Compared with past conversation habits, it was obvious that the stranger was unsure of the attitude, so he sent messages in the way of "less talk, less mistakes" and "it's always right to be polite".
The reason for the inaccurate positioning seems to have been revealed.
Du Yushu placed the terminal on the white silk cloth beside him, raised his head and looked at his boss, his expression delicately maintaining a balance between anger and calmness, revealing a standard, yet at this moment, creepy smile:
"Boss Jin, do you still need to quibble?"
Finding the terminal but not finding the person... is much more serious than finding nothing, especially in a crowded entertainment venue like Jinmi City, which is almost equivalent to confirming that someone is in trouble.
If he didn't have the self-knowledge to think that a small local tyrant like himself was not worthy of being taken seriously by Shaw Brothers, Jin Wanman almost suspected that Shaw Brothers was deliberately setting him up - the surveillance camera didn't capture Miss Shao entering or leaving Jinmi City, so how could her terminal be in the pool of Jinmi City? If this wasn't a frame-up, what could it be?
Jin Wanman suppressed his anger and quickly complimented him:
"This is truly a misunderstanding. How dare we defile the young lady here? If someone really came, they would have been sent back to the mansion long ago. If you don't believe me, let's check the surveillance footage and you'll know."
Without waiting for Du Yushu to refuse, he immediately asked someone to retrieve the surveillance footage, and then said cooperatively:
"You can check from any time period you want. We will cooperate."
Du Yushu looked at him for a while, sweating profusely, and finally spoke:
"After nine."
It was confirmed that the terminal had been motionless after 9:30, but just to be on the safe side, the time was moved forward by another half an hour, but it was of no avail.
Night is the busiest time in the Golden Mystery City. The gold-gathering pool in the hall is the treasure of the store, which was specially built after being viewed by an expert. Its exquisiteness and luxury are commendable even in the upper-class wealthy circles of the imperial capital. It attracts many people to watch every day, and many people even come here specifically to appreciate it.
In the past, Jin Wanman felt extremely proud to see so many people gathered around the pool, but today he wished he could clear all the people around the pool so that he could carefully find out who threw the terminal into the pool.
But everyone in the room watched from nine o'clock until the end, and no one noticed anything unusual - even if they found someone's behavior suspicious, they would deny it after slowing down the video and magnifying the details.
Time and time again, one after another was rejected... Gradually, no one dared to speak anymore. The room was dead silent, with only the sound of breathing coming up slowly or quickly.
Finally, Jin Wanman spoke angrily:
"This, this, this, how is this possible! Keep moving forward! Hey, I don't believe I can find this guy who dared to kidnap the young lady and frame me!"
"alright."
Du Yushu stopped his exaggerated performance and said calmly:
"I personally don't think it's that difficult to modify the surveillance."
Jin Wanman wanted to say something, but he couldn't refute it - in the past, there were countless times when people came to cause trouble and wanted to check the surveillance, but they always found nothing. He was already familiar with modifying the surveillance records or simply claiming that the surveillance was broken, but he never thought that there would be a day when he would be slandered for modifying the surveillance.
I swear to God, I really didn’t modify the surveillance footage or do anything tampering with it this time!
Jin Wanman immediately had the person in charge of the surveillance camera called over and confronted him repeatedly. He even used his family and friends to swear that the surveillance camera was absolutely normal and guaranteed that it could be checked at will.
Du Yusu watched coldly as they performed emotionally in front of him. He had seen countless cases of modified surveillance. Since this was related to the safety of the eldest lady, he really thought he could get away with it.
Rather, this attitude makes people doubt whether he really did something to the young lady, so he didn't dare to bring her out to meet her, and could only act around the issue. Maybe he knew that nothing could be seen in the surveillance, so he dared to adjust the surveillance so calmly.
He would not make the mistake of being fooled by a few words. Even if he had to dig up the entire Golden City, he would find the young lady.
"I just want people."
Finally, Du Yushu made his final, irrefutable decision:
"You'll have one day to return Miss Shao. If you don't see her by this time tomorrow, you can wait for the search warrant the day after tomorrow at eight o'clock. If we retrieve all the files on your Golden Mystery City, I think we'll find a lot of interesting discoveries. What do you think?"
It was just the most basic routine checkup, and reviewing it was definitely not something that could be described as "interesting."
Jin Wanman wanted to say something, but Du Yusu had already stood up, wrapped the eldest lady's terminal in a white handkerchief and put it away, then left without listening to any explanation.
The room was filled with people staring at each other in bewilderment. After a long moment, someone spoke cautiously:
"Could it be, could it be..."
"Could it be that she was sent to Xiangwu Villa a few days ago... I heard that Miss Shao is an omega..."
This speculation frightened everyone. Jin Wanman's face turned even uglier than before, but he still had a little bit of rationality to ask the most crucial question:
"It's been several days, when did Miss Shao disappear?"
A group of people looked at each other and shook their heads. Several people spoke up and said a few numbers, but they were not exactly the same.
The news heard from various channels seems to have only happened in the past one or two days, but who knows the real situation? It is possible that he has been missing for a long time and has just been kept secret.
If he had really sneaked into the Golden City for some reason, and was mistakenly sent to the villa as an omega, and was sent to the villa by accident, it would be like the sky falling.
Without further ado, Jin Wanman immediately contacted the villa, gave a brief account of what had happened, and then hurriedly asked whether the omega sent over a few days ago was Miss Shao.
"Who is Miss Shao?"
"Who else could it be Miss Shao? Of course it's the one right above you. You haven't seen the photo I sent you. Check to see if this person is among the people I sent over a few days ago."
"Are you an idiot? The last time someone was sent here was a week ago, and Miss Shao disappeared in the past two days. The timelines don't match at all. What are you so afraid of?"
"Are you sure she really disappeared in the past two days? But the people from the Shao Group said they will bring Miss Shao back tomorrow. What should we do?"
"We can't find Miss Shao, and we can't find who threw the terminal into the pool. The terminal will be completely inoperable after being soaked in water for three days at most. With so many employees in Jinmi City, even if we deduct every frame, we can deduct everything from three days of surveillance. If we can't deduct anything, then we can only say that you are extremely unlucky. You should also follow Miss Shao's example and pack up and run."
…
In the silent night, from the closed windows and doors of the vehicle, everything that Jin Wanman and the others talked about after they left could be clearly heard. When a certain keyword was mentioned, Du Yushu asked directly:
"Fragrant Mist Villa?"
Someone nearby immediately retrieved relevant information, mixed with the sounds coming from the bug, and showed him what they had found:
"That's probably what you're talking about. It's built in Yitai District, a three-hour drive from here. The records are in the name of Zhong Weizhao—the richest man in Yitai District. He seemed to have been caught up in the controversy surrounding the disappearance of an omega a few days ago, but based on what they just said, it seems the young lady really has nothing to do with him."
The only sound inside the eavesdropping device was a series of shouts urging people to check the surveillance cameras. Du Yushu sneered and said:
"How do you know? Did they detect a deliberate lie after being wiretapped? Prepare the information for the search, including information on Zhong Weizhao. Send people here and to stake out Xiangwu Villa. If nothing unexpected happens, we'll take action tonight."
Regardless of whether there is any result or not, since the snake has been alarmed, we must see where the alarmed snake will swim to.
***
Facts have proved that people should not say anything absolute casually.
Lin Guantang didn't plan to ask Huo Shizhen for help, but in the end he still needed remote support.
[Haitang]: Can you find someone who can modify terminals to help me? I want to change the positioning of a terminal.
[Huo Shizhen]: Looking for Hexi.
[Haitang]: Senior, if I say that I want to install eavesdropping software on the terminal that will not be discovered by others and will automatically destroy itself if discovered... can this Hexi also do that? Is there such software or something like that?
[Huo Shizhen]: Tian Ye will arrive with the relevant items in half an hour, and you can communicate with him directly.
[Haitang]: Dear senior, can you really satisfy whatever I want?
[Huo Shizhen]: Not in the imperial capital.
Lin Guantang: ...
I didn’t say I wanted to see you now!
Seeing his last four words in reply, although Lin Guantang felt that he was being completely self-indulgent, he suddenly felt guilty. Finally, he withdrew his gaze from the terminal in a rather indignant manner. As a result, when he looked up, he met Ding Ruize's eyes full of satisfaction and kind smile. Lin Guantang shuddered and said with disdain:
"Your expression is disgusting."
Ding Ruize restrained his smile and briefly returned to his cold and cool expression, saying disapprovingly:
"How can you talk like that, kid? This is clearly—"
It's clearly an expression of sincere blessing and relief that says, "The young lady is so dependent on the young master that she will take the initiative to ask him for help when she encounters problems. It seems that they have a very good relationship. This old servant is relieved and doesn't have to worry about the breakdown of their relationship leading to his unemployment. As the relationship between the young master and the young lady warms up, he may even get a promotion and a raise, and reach the peak of his life."
But it didn't seem good to say it so bluntly - previously, because I didn't want Lin Guantang to feel too guilty about causing trouble for me, I simply used the reward to explain that I didn't feel implicated.
As for now—it was obvious that the young lady was a very independent and self-reliant person. In that case, Ding Ruize continued very smoothly:
"This is clearly a sign of my senior's admiration and satisfaction for Lin-san for coming up with such a brilliant idea."
You probably wouldn't even believe what I said.
Lin Guantang was too lazy to complain about his nonsensical words.
But he was wrong about this. Although Ding Ruize's words were sarcastic, he was genuinely surprised by his way of shifting the blame. He didn't expect that someone who looked innocent and harmless could do such things so easily... He and the young master were indeed a perfect match.
After waiting for about half an hour, Tian Ye, the student nominated by Huo Shizhen, came over.
When he came over, he almost got into a fight with Ding Ruize - Tian Ye really looked even more rough and wild than in the photo, tall and mighty. In comparison, Ding Ruize was a refreshing, harmless, sunny boy.
If someone like this walked over with a ferocious look on his face, anyone would subconsciously think that he was looking for trouble - and that he would be a very violent one.
But in fact, Tian Ye has a very good personality. He rushed over without saying a word when help was needed. When he was misunderstood, he just complained about how his senior could judge people by their appearance. After receiving Ding Ruize's apology, he easily chose to forgive him.
After a brief banter and getting familiar with each other's identities, Tian Ye immediately began to modify the terminal belonging to Shao Qingzhu, connecting it to the Hexi system and being prepared to correct the positioning at any time, as well as the eavesdropping software - which was directly delivered through a thin card the size of a fingernail. Once it was under the jurisdiction of the system Hexi, no loopholes could be found unless it was connected to a more advanced system.
But at present, there should be no such possibility.
Then, the plan was officially implemented - Lin Guantang entered the hall and stayed there under normal and appropriate reasons, and then caused chaos - in such a place, it would be very easy for a beautiful and weak young man to attract attention and then cause a commotion.
Then, in the chaos, the bodyguard took the opportunity to throw the terminal wrapped in a photochromic and soluble outer film into the water. This is a special material that becomes almost colorless under strong light after being applied, but is easily soluble in water and will almost completely dissolve after soaking in water for ten to twenty minutes.
The gloves on Lin Guantang's hands are just a decoration to attract people's attention. Unusual details often attract special attention from careful people. After subconsciously finding the suspicious object, people will correspondingly pay less attention to the behavior of other people at the same time.
Of course, if it goes unnoticed, it doesn't matter; it's just a minor distraction.
Originally, Ding Ruize should have gone with them, but Lin Guantang was worried that his appearance would be recognized. According to what Chen Huan said before, Ding Ruize had been listed as a suspicious person, and - they always had to drive the car back to let everyone know that they had gone back and were irrelevant to the subsequent events, so as to reduce their presence.
On the other hand, Tian Ye is quite adept at doing this kind of delicate work and can throw the terminal out more cleverly than Ding Ruize.
After completing this series of actions, what follows is a long wait.
When he heard that people were going to be sent to search Xiangwu Villa, Lin Guantang immediately made a decision and rushed to Xiangwu Villa with Tian Ye. It was another very strong premonition that the person he wanted to find must be in the so-called Xiangwu Villa.
In order to avoid being noticed, he changed lanes to disguise the situation. It took him nearly four hours to finally reach the vicinity of Xiangwu Villa.
If the Golden Mystery City is already a very luxurious place, then the so-called Fragrant Mist Villa can be described as a palace.
Standing on the higher hillside nearby and looking down, you can only see a continuous stretch of bright lights, as if there is no end.
Trying to find someone in a place like this is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Tian Ye and Lin Guantang both marveled at the luxury of the villa, and then they both became troubled by how to find someone. Before they could come up with a good idea, they decided to wait and see, and then look for an opportunity to see if they could sneak in.
That is to say, the search personnel sent by Shaw Brothers to find the eldest daughter also arrived at the door of the villa one after another with official search warrants - with such a large industry, it is impossible to say that there is no loophole at all.
Therefore, even though everyone knew that the purpose was to find Miss Shao, the fact that the investigators did not mention Miss Shao's name at all made it difficult for people to argue that Miss Shao was not here, but they had no way to refute it.
but--
"If my guess is correct, I feel like these people have misunderstood the meaning passed down from above."
Lin Guantang watched the negotiations between a group of people at the foot of the mountain and felt that these people sent to search were really unreliable. Judging from the eavesdropping information alone, the person who gave the orders should have intended to let these people stand by and wait for the people in Xiangwu Villa to make any unusual movements before acting according to the orders, rather than taking the initiative to attack rashly, which would alert the enemy.
But that's not necessarily the case. Maybe he just wants to scare the snake to the point of scaring it off.
Later, the conversation between the people sent by Shaw Brothers to find the eldest lady was beyond the range of eavesdropping because they also set out to Xiangwu Villa. Lin Guantang did not continue to listen.
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