Just then, Lei Bin walked over in displeasure, standing to one side and saying in an unfriendly tone, “You are interfering with my work.”
“Captain Lei, you exaggerate. You have not known me for just a day, and getting past my eyes is not all that easy.”
The young policeman watching the battle curled his lips, seemingly looking down upon someone so conceited. Unexpectedly, this subtle facial expression change was caught. Zhuang Zhuoyi turned his head and asked with a smile, “Do you think I am very conceited, rookie?”
The junior officer was just about to retort when he was fiercely glared at by Lei Bin, causing him to shut his mouth dejectedly.
“Captain Lei has disciplined his men well,” Zhuang Zhuoyi laughed. “Let me guess. You brought my brother in under the name of assistance, yet you still have not released him, nor will you let a lawyer intervene. You must have found some rather important evidence. For instance…”
“What?” Lei Bin asked with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Things belonging exclusively to my brother appeared at the scene. After all, the body was found by the roadside, so leaving something behind is hardly surprising.”
“Stop talking nonsense!” The young officer finally caught a chance to strike back. “The body was found on the beach. Don’t think you are so capable.”
Puff—he let out an untimely laugh. Right as Lei Bin’s face turned livid, he laughed very happily, exaggerating his look of sudden realization a bit. “Oh, so it was on the beach.”
This infuriated Lei Bin, who glared at the young policeman for messing things up. Only then did the officer realize that Zhuang Zhuoyi had set a trap for him and that he had let slip what he shouldn’t have.
Without waiting for Lei Bin to say anything, Zhuang Zhuoyi turned back to look at the woman. “I find it strange. The road is quite a distance from the beach. How did you discover the body?”
Lei Bin grabbed him by the arm, his expression stern. “That is quite enough. You have no right to question the reporting witness here.”
Faced with Lei Bin’s thoroughly unfriendly attitude, Zhuang Zhuoyi lowered his eyes to look at his captured wrist, then raised his head with a smile. “I remember you grabbed me just like that last time, Captain Lei. Do you enjoy having physical contact with me so much?”
Lei Bin’s old face flushed red all at once. He released his grip and even took a step back.
Zhuang Zhuoyi slightly arched his eyebrows, took out a handkerchief to wipe his wrist, and with a flick of his hand, the pristine white handkerchief landed right in the trash can before the eyes of all the gathered officers.
Lei Bin was the second person today who wanted to strangle him!
Having successfully provoked Lei Bin, Zhuang Zhuoyi merely smiled and casually said, “Very well, I will be leaving then.”
Leaving? Everyone looked at him in astonishment, finding it strange that he hadn’t even brought up a request to see Zhuang Zhuoran.
“What do you think he came here for?”
“Reconnaissance,” Lei Bin scoffed. “Have someone monitor him twenty-hours a day.”
The young policeman uttered an “oh,” then turned to look at the conference room, still seemingly unable to understand why the captain refused to budge and let Zhuang Zhuoran go. Even if there were a few suspicious pieces of evidence, detaining a suspect like this was hardly appropriate. Zhuang Zhuoran was considered a prominent figure in the city, with the Zhuang financial group backing him up from behind; offending him was by no means a celebratory matter. Furthermore, this man had a hair-raising younger brother.
“Captain, what should we do with the suspect?” the young officer asked.
“Hold him for another two hours, then release him.”
What kind of baffling strategy was this? The junior officer felt that the captain’s audacity was even stronger than his brains!
Standing in front of the elevator, Zhuang Zhuoyi’s expression was not nearly as leisurely as before. With his eldest brother mixed up in such an incident, it would inevitably implicate Haotian Group’s reputation. While a full-scale mobilization of the Zhuang family wouldn’t happen, there would surely be some ripples in the business community soon. His grandfather had better make preparations early.
Thinking of this, the elevator doors chimed open, and coming face-to-face with him was Director Luo of the police station. Before Zhuang Zhuoyi could open his mouth to offer a greeting, he suddenly noticed a shoulder-length-haired man standing behind Director Luo.
His narrow eyes were large, filled entirely with sharp radiance. A tight-fitting black short-sleeved T-shirt vaguely outlined a lean yet resilient physique. Just with this single glance, Zhuang Zhuoyi noticed that the outer corner of the man’s right eye had faint wrinkles, while the left eye had none. Inwardly, he was secretly startled: Is this man a sniper?
Director Luo had known Zhuang Zhuoyi for a long time, and seeing him naturally brought to mind Zhuang Zhuoran’s case. The seasoned veteran smiled candidly: “Isn’t this Young Master Yi? Here for Zhuoran?”
Old fox! Zhuang Zhuoyi secretly disparaged him in his heart, while on the surface smiling just as freely: “Just came to take a look. I won’t disturb your work any longer.”
As they brushed shoulders with the long-haired man, the man’s imposing aura washed over him. Indeed, he was no simple character. For no particular reason, Zhuang Zhuoyi sensed the scent of a natural predator.
Without dwelling on it further, Zhuang Zhuoyi took the elevator and left the police station. Meanwhile, Director Luo and the young long-haired man had already walked into the criminal investigation squad.
Lei Bin was about to continue playing mind games with Zhuang Zhuoran when he saw the director arrive and turned to greet him.
Director Luo did not inquire about Zhuang Zhuoran’s case, simply stating, “The matter I mentioned to you before has been handled by Interpol; they have sent someone over. This is Officer Tan Xiaoqing, who has been in charge of the Black Web case for over three years.”
At first glance, Lei Bin did not look down on Tan Xiaoqing, greeting him with a beaming smile. Inwardly, however, he was already cursing up a storm: Damn it, Interpol is running over to stir up trouble too. They sent a single person to investigate a case—aren’t hunting down some damn mercenary group in Europe enough for them to toss around? Why run over to our domestic soil to cause a racket?
Tan Xiaoqing was a straightforward man. He directly produced a portrait: “This is the person I am looking for. I must trouble Captain Lei to help investigate.”
Taking the portrait and looking at it, Lei Bin’s nose nearly went crooked with anger. The facial features on the portrait were blurry and indistinct; the only part that could be clearly made out was the chin. Captain Lei controlled his facial muscles to prevent any twitching, saying, “It is very difficult to find someone with a portrait like this. Is there a clearer one?”
“No,” Tan Xiaoqing said solemnly. “I am the only one who has ever seen him, and I only saw him once.”
How was one supposed to investigate this? No real name, no facial features, just a nickname like “Madman” to track someone down? Tch, what a headache.
Meanwhile, after leaving the criminal investigation squad, Zhuang Zhuoyi contacted his college best friend and current lawyer, Sun Chen.
In truth, Zhuang Zhuoyi’s request was quite excessive—quite excessive indeed! But upon hearing that Zhuoran was in trouble, Sun Chen still bit the bullet and agreed, promising to give him a reply within three hours.
“Hold on,” Zhuang Zhuoyi added. “By the way, help me investigate the head of Haotian Group’s planning department.”
Sun Chen fell abruptly silent on the other end of the line, and following that silence came an explosion: “Zhuang Zhuoyi, do you think I am Ultraman or Sun Wukong?”
He curved the corners of his lips slightly, his long eyelashes drooping to form a playful smile, and asked, “Will you have nightmares tonight?”
The out-of-the-blue question left Sun Chen baffled. After a good long while, he asked, “I sleep quite well. Why do you ask that?”
“Nothing. I just heard that your ex-lover attempted suicide after being dumped.”
“Your news travels way too fast,” Sun Chen’s voice sounded as though it were mixed with bitter water. “We agreed from the start that it was just a game. When the feelings faded, we would break up; he’s the one who refuses to let go and insists on backing himself into a corner.”
With a faint smile, Zhuang Zhuoyi said, “That is precisely why I asked if you will have nightmares tonight.” Having said that, he leaned back in his chair and watched the bustling crowd outside the window. “Would you like me to go to the hospital to visit him in your place?”
“Zhuang Zhuoyi! You really know how to squeeze every last drop out of me! Hurry up and find another assistant. Ever since the last one left because he thought he had multiple personality disorder, you have been enslaving me. Seriously, Zhuoyi, you really ought to find an assistant who can protect you.”
An assistant—Zhuang Zhuoyi felt that an assistant was even harder to find than a lover.
Zhuang Zhuoyi’s car sped toward his family residence. Halfway there, he received a phone call from Xiao Liu.
Xiao Liu was someone who ran in the underworld circles, having gained a bit of reputation at a young age. Because he owed Zhuang Zhuoyi his life, he willingly let himself be ordered around by him. By this time, he had already located the dilapidated warehouse in the outskirts, but due to running into some complications, he had no choice but to contact Zhuang Zhuoyi. As soon as the call connected, Xiao Liu said in displeasure, “Workers nowadays are all martial arts masters.”
“What do you mean?” Zhuang Zhuoyi did not take it as a joke and asked seriously.
“I found that warehouse you mentioned. Well, my subordinate brothers found it. The warehouse matches the conditions you described, except there is a porter living right next to it. My brother has a hot temper, and after a few misaligned words, they started a fight.”
“And then?”
“Damn it,” Xiao Liu cursed in annoyance. “That is the strange part. None of my seven or eight brothers suffered major injuries, but the arm joints of every single one of them were dislocated. Zhuoyi, that porter is no simple guy.”
A porter? Zhuang Zhuoyi remembered Director Liu saying the person who let him out was a worker. Could it be this person Xiao Liu mentioned? Thinking of this, Zhuang Zhuoyi instructed Xiao Liu not to approach the warehouse any further, and called Director Liu to ask, “What time did you say you left the warehouse this morning?”
“It was at 05:20 in the morning. I checked my watch.”
“When you came out of the warehouse, someone opened the door for you. Do you remember who that person was?”
Liu Tie hurriedly replied, “He said he was a porter from the nearby freight yard, living right near that warehouse. He even lent me fifty yuan to take a cab.”
Hanging up the phone, Zhuang Zhuoyi decided to go meet this not-so-simple porter.
Arriving at the location mentioned by Xiao Liu, he parked his car in the distance and walked on foot to the vicinity of the warehouse. By then, a few of the brothers left behind by Xiao Liu ran over from afar, saying they were ready to help him. Zhuang Zhuoyi did not stand on ceremony with Liu’s brothers and asked them where the porter lived. One of them pointed to a row of makeshift houses ahead and said, “The one with clothes drying in front of the door is it. That fellow seems to have gone out; he’s not around.”
Good that he’s not around. Zhuang Zhuoyi nodded and set off.
Upon reaching the entrance, the underworld-dwelling brothers rudely kicked the door open. Zhuang Zhuoyi saw that the interior was chaotic and cluttered; the floor was covered with old pots, pans, and all kinds of trash, even shards of broken wine bottles.
“Don’t move!” Zhuang Zhuoyi suddenly shouted.
His shout made the people around him instantly tense up. He ignored their probing gazes, carefully navigated around the items on the floor that would clang at the slightest touch, and walked up to the bed.
Crouching down to check under the bed, he found it exceptionally clean with no dust at all. Turning his head to look at the window, he saw that the old window had four panes, and the latch appeared to have been tampered with, tied down with a thin piece of iron wire. Scanning the entire room next, he could find nothing that could prove the owner’s identity.
He stood up and smiled. “He claimed to be a porter from the nearby freight yard. As far as I know, there is only one freight yard around here, located to the east. If he lived here and walked east, he would never pass by the warehouse where Director Liu was trapped. I cannot figure out why he would walk five hundred meters west early in the morning to go to that warehouse.”
The men stared blankly at him, having no idea who he was talking to. Continuing as if speaking to himself, he murmured, “I suspect he is connected to the person who kidnapped Director Liu. Therefore, let us test things out.”
He arranged the men respectively around the door, windows, and other positions. Afterward, he placed the pots, pans, and garbage he had disturbed back in their original spots and walked outside alone.
The wait was not particularly long. Ten minutes later, a tall, slender man wearing a windproof cap entered his line of sight. The man was hunchbacked and kept his head down, making it impossible to see the face beneath the cap. Zhuang Zhuoyi was well-concealed, and soon he watched as the man pushed open the door and stepped inside.