Chapter 68

The Zhou Clan's official website had crashed, and nearly simultaneously, Lang Qiao had arrested the person posting the videos for the kidnappers. The internet police were racing against the clock to use the incoming and outgoing e-mails to track down the sender.

But now the delicate balance and communications channel between the kidnappers and the police had been severed.

The entire internet was extending its antennae, sailing mightily against the current through time and rumor.

In this instant, Zhou Junmao was no longer a person. His whole life, his experiences and his sex scandals, had become an open book, every punctuation mark of it publicly circulated, laid bare before the gazes of the multitude, supplying material for people to sob and chew over, their judgments running rampant—

"It holds together. Who is this illegitimate son that the Zhou Clan has officially acknowledged?"

"An account of Zhou Junmao's mistresses."

"Zhou Clan A-shares tumbled when the market opened; an inquiry into the different regulations for A-shares in the Hong Kong market."

"Why did the Zhou Clan's mysterious other founder die young?"

"Zhou Junmao's original name was Zhou Dalong; his whole life was the rise of an underdog."

"Was Zhou Junmao's late wife actually his cousin's widow? Famous wives in history."

"An illegitimate son took out a hit on his father. It's almost like the plot of Oedipus."

…

And so on and so forth, without exception, covering heaven and earth. Aside from prohibiting the character "Zhou," expelling it from the Book of Family Names, there was no way to delete all of it.

On the kidnappers' countdown, zero minutes and zero seconds flashed incessantly. After the Hengda Conglomerate's shit-stirrers had been arrested, the kidnappers had shut their mouths to the outside world, inauspiciously maintaining silence.

Countless pairs of eyes were fixed on the unmoving webpage.

Luo Wenzhou lifted Yang Bo's chauffeur's collar. "It's been a long time since I've seen a criminal bold enough to pass secret messages right under the noses of the police. Friend, you're the embodiment of valor!"

The chauffeur was around thirty, with regular features that looked rather proper. But they were "regular features" that were entirely unmemorable. He'd evidently come in with Yang Bo, but it had been ages before anyone had noticed him.

Now that he'd suddenly been seized, the chauffeur's legs were trembling so much he could hardly stand up. "I… I didn't do anything, I just…posted on Weibo…"

"Using a newly-registered account to post thieves' cant. Who's it for?" Luo Wenzhou swiftly handcuffed him. "Are you keeping a diary, or expressing your feelings towards empty space?"

Fei Du took a few steps back to avoid impacting Luo Wenzhou's dramatic capabilities. He shook his head, full of sympathy. "I know the person who incited you is in this house. Perhaps he's even watching you. Think clearly, sir. If Zhou Huaijin has an accident now, your situation will change. What did he give you that you're willing to give up your own life to take the blame for him?"

When he'd spoken, someone called, "Captain Luo, the kidnappers are moving again."

Luo Wenzhou: "…"

They acted as soon as he'd mentioned "having an accident." Fei Du was amazing. If it were only possible to sew his crow's mouth shut, Luo Wenzhou thought he would have filed an iron bar down into a needle.

Lacking the Hengda Conglomerate's technical support, the kidnappers seemed to be at their wits' end. In turmoil, they posted a fourth video.

This time, it was only a few dozen seconds long. The camera was shaking furiously, focused on a man in silhouette. The man appeared to be one of the kidnappers. He was wrapped head to toe in black cloth, not showing a single strand of hair. He held the camera with one hand, filming his other hand—that hand was holding a boning knife.

Zhou Huaijin was desperately curled up, the terror in his voice about to solidify. "I don't know, I don't have anything to do with the Asian business, my dad and President Zheng handled all of it, I really don't understand anything about the funds… Stay away! Stay away from me—ah!"

Just then, another voice came from outside the frame. It seemed to be the knife-holding kidnapper's accomplice. His voice, through the voice changing machine, was hurried. "Stop filming, hurry up! They'll catch up soon!"

The knife-holding kidnapper completely ignored him, slowly lifting the knife in his hand.

Zhou Huaijin seethed like a live fish, at last managing to stand on his legs, which were tied to two legs of the chair. He tottered backwards, but unfortunately this young master's hind-brain wasn't very well-developed. He tripped on something and lost his center of gravity. He screamed and fell to one side, out of the frame.

In the moment he fell, the camera lens flashed, as if the knife-holding kidnapper had struck.

Everyone's hearts thumped, including Luo Wenzhou's.

The next instant, the camera steadied again. Because Zhou Huaijin had fallen, the knife had narrowly missed him, cutting through the black cloth firmly covering the walls of the trailer, suddenly cutting a fissure in it with a tremendous ripping sound, as if it had had the force to cut a person apart.

The knife-holding kidnapper clicked his tongue, seeming rather regretful.

Behind him, his accomplice was rushed. "Hurry up! Aren't you finished yet?"

Luo Wenzhou immediately raised a hand to block Fei Du's line of sight—

"No! No! Slow down! I'll tell you, I'll tell you… You're right! You said everything right!" In the video, Zhou Huaijin was panicked enough that he wasn't choosing his words carefully.

Hearing this, the knife-holding kidnapper paused, gently tilting his head.

His flustered accomplice swore. He turned his head and seemed to open the trailer's doors. A ray of light shone in, falling on Zhou Huaijin's miserable face.

Zhou Huaijin's eyes were blinded by the sunlight. He struggled futilely to climb up the wall as he breathlessly said, "Domestically, there's three, three public welfare funds, only one is properly operated to fool people, the others are cover for money laundering and tax evasion. Cross-border supervision of funds is full of holes, it's hard to investigate. This is absolutely true, I have proof! What else do you want to know, I'll tell you everything!"

The knife-holding kidnapper patiently waited for him to finish and nodded in apparent satisfaction. Then, without warning, he stabbed.

"Ah!"

A heartrending scream came from the image. Before the anxious watchers could see what had happened, the whole trailer shook violently, as if the vehicle had suddenly started to move. The video came to an abrupt end.

Fei Du patted the back of Luo Wenzhou's hand and turned to the handcuffed chauffeur, spreading his hands towards the terrified man. "You see? What was I saying?"

The chauffeur's eyes rolled up. He was trying to faint, but unfortunately Luo Wenzhou was categorically unwilling to give him the opportunity. He took him by the neck, lifted him, and gave him a shake. "I'll ask you again. Who are you working for? If you keep holding back, you'll be one of the principal offenders."

The chauffeur's eyes flickered all over the place. He was frightened out of his wits. "I…I…"

Luo Wenzhou let go immediately and loudly said, "Look into his personal accounts, assets, and close relatives, including children, as well as everyone he's recently contacted on his cell phone, landline, and social media—I don't fucking believe this!"

"President Yang! It was President Yang!" the chauffeur cried out. "Don't go after my kids, we don't know anything! It's all what President Yang ordered me to do!"

"President Yang?" Fei Du calmly leaned on a rosewood table. "Yang Bo? You mean that kidnapping Zhou Huaijin and revealing his own identity as an illegitimate son was a performance put on by Yang Bo? What did he tell you to do?"

The chauffeur collapsed listlessly onto a chair, his elbows resting on his knees. Looking for a hole to crawl into, he held his head with his cuffed hands and quietly said, "He…told me to register a new account and post status updates to tell them 'over there' what you guys were doing, so they could run in time."

When he spoke the words "in time," Fei Du's eyes narrowed slightly.

Luo Wenzhou quickly followed up, "So do you know where the kidnappers are?"

"N-no… I don't know."

"Nonsense!"

"I really don't know, really! I've always worked for President Hu, I'm not one of President Yang's people. He couldn't trust me entirely. I posted whatever I heard, let them judge for themselves whether it was right or not. I only know they're still in Yan City, because a truck could be searched going out of it, the risk would be greater. It was better to hide in plain sight. Any, anyway…"

Fei Du said, "Anyway, there was you to pass information to them."

The chauffeur looked up at him, then quickly avoided his gaze. "They said they'd find a suitable place and drive the truck with him in it into the river, and the kidnappers themselves would break out of the windows and go ashore—they'd run away towards some deserted wild place. When they'd crossed the water, not even a dog would be able to find them, and no…no one would be the wiser."

Luo Wenzhou turned away and picked up his phone. "Tao Ran, look for a truck with about a two-ton trailer, from last night to early this morning. Eliminate passing vehicles… Right, the kidnappers are still around the Baisha river basin, eliminate the places within a ten-kilometer range where the water is shallow, eliminate villages and inhabited places, eliminate places with relatively level terrain…"

Tao Ran quickly said, "Then there's only the shelter forest in the northeast, less than a kilometer from me."

Luo Wenzhou said, "Blast the sirens. There are two kidnappers. It's easy for them to disagree in a stressful situation, perhaps the hostage still has a chance."

"This does sound like a rather satisfying story. Yang Bo is the illegitimate son Zhou Junmao refuses to acknowledge. He schemes his way into the upper levels and find a suitable opportunity to dispose of Zhou Junmao, then kidnaps Zhou Huaijin, forcing the Zhou Clan to officially recognize him as an illegitimate son, legitimizing him as an heir to Zhou Junmao's legacy." Fei Du took off his glasses and wiped them, continuing to question the chauffeur. "Bear with my curiosity. What did Yang Bo promise you?"

"My son…" The chauffeur forced the words out with difficulty. "My son had to go abroad for medical treatment, I had no money and no connections…"

Fei Du shook his head in apparent disappointment. "That old chestnut—"

Luo Wenzhou put the phone down and gave him a warning glance to make him mind what he said.

Fei Du's tone changed. "I'm saying, Yang Bo could give you what you needed, but can it really be that Zhou Huaijin couldn't? Even Zhou Huaixin would do. Why would you rely solely on Yang Bo? When you flap your lips and say Yang Bo incited you, how are we to know that you aren't framing him?"

Luo Wenzhou immediately followed with another question. "Colluding with outsiders, publicizing the Zhou Clan's scandals, beating down his own company's stock price—what benefit is there to Yang Bo? Is he harming others without benefiting himself?"

"N-no!" The chauffeur shook his head wildly. "As soon as they acknowledged that he was an illegitimate son, the official website would crash—if it didn't crash on its own, they'd find someone to make it crash. No one would be able to get on when the time came, or post any statement. No matter what the kidnappers asked, the company wouldn't admit it, and it would be an opportunity to get rid…get rid of P-president Zhou. Otherwise, why wouldn't the kidnappers make them post the announcement on the company's official Weibo?"

"Afterwards, they'd only need to grieve for Zhou Huaijin's demise, denounce the demented kidnappers, put down all those unanswered questions as slander. After the masses had finished making merry, they'd remember 'political correctness' and would of course get in line to condemn violence and sympathize with the victims. The company wouldn't really suffer a serious injury. With Zhou Junmao and Zhou Huaijin gone, the only one left would be the little skeleton Zhou Huaixin, who isn't worth mentioning. There's no need to say whose hands the company would end up in." Fei Du spread his hands. "It makes perfect sense. I suppose it sounds very satisfactory."

The chauffeur stared numbly at him, feeling that there was something behind Fei Du's words.

"Take him away, back to the bureau!"

In the Baisha River Valley, a motorcade of police cars howling fit to send the mountains tumbling down divided up, heading swift as the wind towards the shelter forest in the northeast, producing almost an atmosphere of siege in the peaceful open country.

After the autumn rain a few days ago, the uninhabited open country was full of mud, the soil having soaked in all the water.

"Deputy Tao, there are fresh tire tracks!"

Tao Ran wiped some sweat away. "Follow them!"

The water in the Baisha River had risen slightly, and the sound of the water grew louder and louder as they followed the river. The indistinct tire tracks quickly led them to the riverbank.

"There!"

"In the water, in the water!"

A white truck was bobbing up and down in the Baisha River, slowly sinking towards the depths as it was pushed along by the rapid current—

In the Zhou residence, aside from Yang Bo, who had been taken away for individual interrogation, everyone held their breath and concentrated, waiting to hear word. Everyone's expressions were different; everyone had an axe to grind. But Zhou Huaixin, displaying his true feelings, tightly clutched the arms of a wooden chair, his non-mainstream long fingernails gouging the wood, making it creak.

Each second seemed to be drawn out two weeks long.

"Captain Luo." Just then, Tao Ran's voice came somewhat indistinctly from among the sounds of rushing water. "We've gone into the container, and he isn't there. I don't know if the kidnappers took him or if the water swept him away."

Zheng Kaifeng's face sank slightly. Hu Zhenyu's back stiffened.

Zhou Huaixin stood up at once, banging his hip against the solid wood table but not feeling it at all. There was no trace of blood left in his lips, like a pale clown on the morning after.

"Keep looking," Luo Wenzhou said heavily.

"Deputy Tao, look there!"

The kidnappers must have been alarmed by the police sirens, driven the truck into the water and ran. The container hadn't been tightly closed, and Zhou Huaijin, inside it, had floated out along with the wooden chair under him. Like a shoddy life buoy, the wooden chair was drifting like a leaf among a storm, dragging a man who may have been dead or alive.

"I've got him!"

"Hold tight, hold tight! Don't let go! Wait a minute… He's still breathing!"

Twenty minutes later, the news that Zhou Huaijin had been rescued arrived at the Zhou residence—the knife had cut Zhou Huaijin's leg, but luckily it hadn't hit anything vital. The panicked kidnapper hadn't allowed his accomplice to carefully attend to murder and dismemberment. He'd been alarmed by the distant police sirens and impatiently stepped on the gas, driving the truck into the Baisha River. Then the two kidnappers had fled in an unknown direction, and Zhou Huaijin had floated out into the river.

Hu Zhenyu heaved a sigh of relief. Zheng Kaifeng silently closed his eyes, perhaps reciting a prayer or something.

Zhou Huaixin collapsed onto the ground and couldn't get up for a long time. Then he tottered into the bathroom and was violently ill.

Someone came through the door after him. Zhou Huaixin thought it was the housekeeper. Gasping, he closed his eyes and reached out a hand, hoarsely saying, "Get me some water."

An opened water bottle was placed into his hand.

Zhou Huaixin poured it into his mouth, then heard the person behind him speak. "That bad, Zhou-xiong? Didn't you already know the outcome?"

Taken by surprise, Zhou Huaixin gulped the mouthful of water he was using to rinse his mouth.