Three days ago, Jiang Yuanye was found at 7 a.m. in the elevator on the fourth floor, covered in injuries and unconscious. Someone called 120 and had him sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.
When the ambulance arrived, the bodyguards immediately sensed something was wrong and split into three groups to rush to the hospital, the surveillance room, and the hotel room.
The bodyguards who went to the surveillance room learned that the surveillance had been attacked by an unknown force, making it impossible to find out how Zhou Chaosheng was harmed or the specific time it happened.
Gu Qingqiu and Zhao Xiaohui, who were also staying at the hotel, were soon woken by knocking sounds. After searching around, they confirmed that Zhou Chaosheng had completely disappeared.
At 8:30 in the morning, the Zhou family received the news and felt like the sky was collapsing. Afterwards, the Zhou, Gu, and Zhao families united to increase police and manpower to search the hotel and nearby surveillance areas.
Before starting the search, the Zhou family also found out that the investor behind the hotel was the Liu family, and then sent someone to contact Liu Chaotian at Shengxing headquarters.
The bodyguards prioritized searching several exits in the basement. Because the surveillance was completely down and the hotel offered free parking that day without requiring registration of passing vehicles, the bodyguards couldn’t find any useful information in the security room. In the end, the bodyguards had to contact the owners of several cars parked at the exits and checked their dash cam records to determine which vehicles had left during the early morning.
Over a dozen car owners were forced out of their dreams early in the morning and dawdled for quite a while. Only when the police came to urge them did they hurriedly come downstairs to cooperate with the investigation. After more than an hour of screening, the police finally found a suspicious vehicle at Exit B of the hotel.
Then, based on the suspicious vehicle’s license plate, they conducted a large-scale search across the city. After tracking for a while, they traced it to the outskirts. Since there was no surveillance in the suburbs, they had to send out personnel to search manually. Another half hour later, the police found that suspicious vehicle at an abandoned factory, but by that time, it had already been five hours since Zhou Chaosheng disappeared.
Those people had vanished without a trace, as if into thin air. Not even a single strand of DNA was left in the car.
The Zhou family didn’t give up and continued to send people to search door to door in the vicinity of the suburbs. Three hours later, they finally pried some information out of a villager—those people had abandoned the car and headed for Beishan.
At this point, the Zhou family never expected that the kidnappers would spend so much money to bribe the villagers, nor did they expect that the kidnappers could mobilize a helicopter without reporting it to the Civil Aviation Administration.
Helpless, the Zhou family could only use their connections to reach the head of the aviation bureau, and tried to locate the helicopter that disappeared in Beishan using satellite signals, GPS, and other methods.
Generally speaking, all registered helicopters can have their flight paths tracked, but that helicopter was unregistered, meaning it had been independently developed through unknown channels. Moreover, it was equipped with the most advanced jamming device from Country M, causing the global positioning system to be unable to detect its radar data or exact location.
Afterwards, the Zhou family continuously sent people to search Beishan and nearby mountain villages, while Gu Qingqiu and Zhao Xiaohui also used their own connections to investigate the hotel's surveillance situation.
Because it was too suspicious.
Why was the surveillance conveniently under maintenance that day? Why was the surveillance attacked by an unknown force on that specific day? Why was the underground garage offering free parking, making it impossible to trace the vehicles that came and went through the system?
Zhou Chaosheng’s father, Zhou Yuanbo, also noticed this and paid a visit to the Liu family in person, trying to indirectly probe whether Liu Chaotian had a hand in Zhou Chaosheng’s disappearance. Liu Chaotian had been in the business world for over ten years, but when faced with an old fox, he instantly reverted to a rookie, sitting nervously and awkwardly across from Zhou Yuanbo, as if he were the guest and Zhou Yuanbo was the actual owner of the house.
After several rounds of probing, Zhou Yuanbo confirmed that Liu Chaotian did not know about Zhou Chaosheng’s disappearance, but he got a relatively useful piece of information—the hotel was actually a property under Liu Huaichuan, Liu family’s illegitimate son.
Liu Huaichuan had only returned to the country two years ago and didn’t have much contact with Zhou Chaosheng, but out of caution, Zhou Yuanbo still had someone investigate Liu Huaichuan.
What he didn’t know before came to light, Liu Huaichuan had a complicated background and had been tampered with in many ways. But since the investigation results hadn’t fully come out yet, Zhou Yuanbo couldn’t rashly conclude that Zhou Chaosheng’s disappearance was related to him.
—
Two days after Zhou Chaosheng disappeared, Jiang Yuanye finally woke up in the hospital. As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard a flurry of footsteps and voices around him. The noise made his ears buzz, and as his consciousness returned, he suddenly remembered the attack on him and Zhou Chaosheng in the elevator.
“Jiang Yuanye, Jiang Yuanye, are you okay...”
After the dizziness passed, Jiang Yuanye followed the familiar voice and looked up. Besides the busy doctors and nurses, two people were standing by his bedside—Zhao Xiaohui and Gu Qingqiu.
“...I’m okay. Where’s Chaosheng?”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiaohui and Gu Qingqiu both frowned. “Don’t you remember? Chaosheng and you were attacked in the elevator. He’s now missing...”
Jiang Yuanye froze for a moment, then tried to get out of bed, but was held down by the doctors and nurses. “Sir, you can’t get up yet, you’re still on an IV drip...”
“You said Chaosheng... what happened to Chaosheng?” Jiang Yuanye asked in a trembling voice.
Zhao Xiaohui was already irritable. Seeing Jiang Yuanye clueless like this made his anger flare for no reason. “I said he’s missing, he’s been kidnapped, do you understand?! You’re asking me, I should be asking you! You were the one picking him up to go home, how did you lose him? If anything happens to Chaosheng, I’ll never forgive you for the rest of my life...”
Jiang Yuanye lowered his head and said nothing.
In the end, it was Gu Qingqiu who spoke up to ease the situation: “Alright, alright, what’s the use of saying this now? Let’s have him think about what those people looked like, or if there’s anyone suspicious.”
Jiang Yuanye came out of his self-blame and quickly asked the nurse, “My phone, where’s my phone?”
Gu Qingqiu said, “Your phone was taken for investigation. The results showed that the call you answered before the incident was AI-generated. The police also summoned Gao Zeming, and from him they learned that his phone was hacked that day and his WeChat was stolen. The person who did it must know you and Chaosheng well—your habits, your friends’ personalities. So Jiang Yuanye, do you have any suspects?”
After calming down, Jiang Yuanye carefully recalled people he and Zhou Chaosheng both knew and who might bear grudges against Zhou Chaosheng. But the more he thought, the longer the list grew, and he still couldn’t find a motive. Even if there were grudges, those were business disputes—nothing serious enough to resort to kidnapping, something so harmful to others without benefit to oneself.
Besides, Zhou Chaosheng had the Zhou family behind him. Anyone with a brain wouldn’t dare touch him.
So who was bold enough and desperate enough to do this?
Clearly, they were determined to go against the Zhou family.
This kind of action could only be explained by a deep, irreconcilable hatred.
“Please get me a computer. I want to see if I can locate Chaosheng,” Jiang Yuanye said.
“The police already failed to locate him. Don’t waste your time,” Zhao Xiaohui mocked.
Jiang Yuanye was anxious and his tone was harsh: “Just get it, why so much nonsense?”
“You—”
“Enough.” Gu Qingqiu stopped his hot-tempered friend, then turned to the bodyguard nearby. “Bring him a computer.”
After speaking, Gu Qingqiu asked Jiang Yuanye, who was frowning deeply on the bed, “Chaosheng’s phone was thrown away by those people halfway. How do you plan to locate him?”
Jiang Yuanye hesitated. “That…”
Gu Qingqiu: “What?”
At the critical moment, Jiang Yuanye couldn’t care too much and had to confess everything. “I installed a tracker in a bracelet I gave to Chaosheng.”
Gu Qingqiu: “……”
Zhao Xiaohui: “……”
“What the hell.” Zhao Xiaohui stared at Jiang Yuanye in disbelief. “Are you a pervert?”
“I was just worried about him…” Jiang Yuanye tried to explain.
Zhao Xiaohui: “Don’t explain, you’re just a pervert.”
Jiang Yuanye: “....”
Gu Qingqiu rubbed his brow. “Fine. As long as it’s useful.”
Five minutes later, the bodyguard brought over a computer.
Jiang Yuanye opened the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard. Lines of unreadable green code quickly ran across the screen. Soon, a map appeared in front of the three of them, with a red marker blinking continuously in the Jianghai area.
Seeing this, Jiang Yuanye frowned even more tightly. “Not good, the tracker’s been found.”
Zhao Xiaohui leaned in and looked, his tone turning serious. “So you mean, the tracker was scanned? Based on the past two days, this looks like a premeditated kidnapping by someone familiar, and the motive doesn’t seem to be money. It’s more like…”
Zhao Xiaohui paused, then got scared by his own outrageous thought and quickly shook his head. “No way, no way, that can’t be it...”
Gu Qingqiu turned his head. “What can’t be?”
Zhao Xiaohui clicked his tongue. “Nothing. I just feel like the kidnapper wouldn’t do anything bad to Chaosheng. At least they wouldn’t take his life. That’s what I think…”
Jiang Yuanye had no time to deal with Zhao Xiaohui’s guesses and directly asked, “What about the hotel surveillance? Did it catch anything?”
“There wasn’t any. The hotel claimed the surveillance was under maintenance that day and also suffered a hacker attack, so nothing was recorded,” Gu Qingqiu said.
“Hacker attack?” Jiang Yuanye fell into thought. “Did you try to recover the footage?”
“Of course we did. Surveillance was the only lead. The Zhou family hired several renowned tech experts, but it was useless. The footage was wiped completely clean,” Zhao Xiaohui replied.
Jiang Yuanye thought for a moment. “Who owns that hotel?”
Gu Qingqiu: “The Liu family. Why?”
“The Liu family…”
Jiang Yuanye suddenly remembered a résumé he had seen in his office two months ago. At the time, he’d already found it suspicious that the timing of Zhou Chaosheng’s car accident was less than a day apart from Liu Huaichuan’s return to China. What caught his attention was that Zhou Chaosheng had just gotten into the accident, and Liu Huaichuan’s arrived in Jinzhou right afterward, despite having no apparent reason to be there.
“What do you think of Liu Huaichuan as a person?” Jiang Yuanye asked.
Gu Qingqiu looked surprised. “Uncle Zhou asked us that same question just yesterday.”
“What, you suspect him too?” Zhao Xiaohui thought for a moment. “Wait… now that you mention it, isn’t his background a little too clean?”
Gu Qingqiu had a contemplative look. “Yes, you’re right. There’s almost no information about his life before the age of sixteen. Before he was officially claimed by the Liu family, we don’t know if he was adopted or spent his life in an orphanage. There might be something fishy there. But... this doesn’t seem related to Chaosheng. The three of us grew up together. If Liu Huaichuan knew Chaosheng, we’d at least have heard of him. But neither Xiaohui nor I had any impression of him except during the period after his return.”
Jiang Yuanye pressed on: “And during that period? Did he ever try anything shady, like messing with Chaosheng’s company?”
“No,” Zhao Xiaohui said. “On the contrary, he was surprisingly considerate. When Chaosheng had amnesia and the company’s stock price plummeted, Liu Huaichuan didn’t take advantage of the situation. He even visited him at the hospital multiple times. I remember one time he peeled apples for Chaosheng. Back then I thought they must’ve been friends abroad. But once Chaosheng got his memory back, we realized Liu Huaichuan was just trying to cozy up to him. Still, thinking about it, there was really no need. With the resources the Liu family gave him, backstabbing Chaosheng would’ve been more profitable than playing the good guy.”
Despite everything, Jiang Yuanye couldn’t shake his gut feeling. He was now certain something was wrong with Liu Huaichuan.
“Liu Huaichuan’s background is suspicious. And more than that he might be connected to Chaosheng’s car accident,” Jiang Yuanye stated.
Zhao Xiaohui raised an eyebrow. “Based on what?”
Jiang Yuanye: “You don’t get evidence until you investigate.”
Zhao Xiaohui was about to retort sarcastically, but Gu Qingqiu spoke up first: “I agree with your suspicion. Here’s the plan, Xiaohui and I will look into Liu Huaichuan. If we find anything, we’ll inform you immediately. Your job is to rest, recover, and stay put. Don’t wander off or do anything reckless. The bodyguard will stay here with you, got it?”
Jiang Yuanye felt like he was being treated like a kid. “Bro, I’m twenty-seven. Do you have to sound like someone’s mom?”
Gu Qingqiu gave him a deadpan look. “You think I want to? If it weren’t for Chaosheng, I wouldn’t bother.”
Jiang Yuanye couldn’t hold back a chuckle, his first smile since waking up. “Thanks.”
“What for? Chaosheng’s our important friend too. We’re off, get some rest.”
After the two left, Jiang Yuanye’s smile faded. His eyes fell on the screen.
Zhou Chaosheng was shackled at the ankle with an iron chain, leaning against a headboard, dressed in a simple white sweater and black trousers. The stark contrast of black and white in that extravagant, luxurious room made him look like a pure soul defiled, a caged bird stripped of freedom.
Jiang Yuanye fought down the searing rage rising in his chest, restrained the urge to smash the computer, and forced himself to focus on tracking the signal. But he was still too late.
His fingers curled into a fist in frustration as he stared at the message that had just flashed on the screen:
Tomorrow, 5 p.m. No. 35 South Ring, abandoned factory, outskirts of Jingzhou. Come alone, or you won’t see him again.
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