BTTC Chapter 51

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Chapter 51

“I took you by my side, not because I believed in you, but because I hoped to believe in myself.”

“What are you looking at?”

Yan Xie’s voice was soft, but as soon as he finished speaking, Wang Xingye’s expression was as if he had been caught stealing something on the spot, and he retracted his gaze in a panic.

“No, no, I saw it wrong, look at my eyes…”

“You saw it wrong?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Wang Xingye clasped Yan Xie’s hand with both hands: “You just said that my niece has been kidnapped? What do you mean, I’m confused?”

Yan Xie smiled and patted him on the shoulder with a little force. The fat man surnamed Wang had to follow him to the side door on the east side of the breakfast hall.

Originally, this deserted homestay didn’t have many guests, and across a small corner was the kitchen that had been emptied by the police. Yan Xie casually pulled a chair and sat down, motioning Wang Xingye to sit down as well. Then he took out a cigarette from a cigarette case and handed it over to the other party.

Wang Xingye was worried: “Officer Yan, look for my niece…”

“What did you see wrong just now?”

Wang Xingye was stunned.

Under Yan Xie’s straight and thick sword-like eyebrows, a pair of half-smiling eyes stared at him. He asked slowly, “Who did you think our police consultant was just now?”

The flesh on Wang Xingye’s fat face couldn’t stop shivering, his complexion suddenly turned blue and then red, and beads of sweat slid down his face again.

“It’s okay, it’s just you and me here.” Yan Xie smiled slightly, but every word he said was extremely clear: “It doesn’t matter what you say, we police can find out everything.”

“……” Wang Xingye repeatedly rubbed the soft Chinese cigarette in his hand. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it, opened it and closed it again. He repeated this action several times then pulled out a trembling smile that was even more embarrassing than crying: “Actually… it’s nothing. It’s just… It’s been several years…”

Yan Xie’s smile did not change, but the bottom of his eyes sank.

“I was doing the gallery intermediary business. I used to have money in my hand and had little relationship with resources. The female painters I know were—” Wang Xingye’s face flushed, and he said hesitantly: “I had booked a long-term hotel room. Who would have known that the police would kick the door open and rush in during the crackdown on prostitution and pornography…”

Yan Xie’s face stiffened.

“Vice-Captain Yan, you are also a man, you can understand. I was frightened at that time, and that scene was like my entire life….” Wang Xingye wanted to say more but he stopped.

Yan Xie was silent for a long time, then suddenly asked, “Where did all this happen?”

“Guangdong!” Wang Xingye slapped his thigh: “Of course, it can’t be the same police officer. But when I looked at him just now, he really looked a bit like him. At that time, I felt like I saw a ghost!”

Was there such a coincidence?

Yan Xie narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the fat man in front of him without any emotion. Wang Xingye seemed to still have some lingering fear. He put the cigarette that was rubbed out of shape in his mouth, lit it up with his trembling hands, and immediately took a deep breath.

“……” Yan Xie pressed down his thoughts and also lit a cigarette.

A front-line Deputy Chief-level Criminal police officer of the anti-drugs would not even publish his photos anywhere, let alone show up casually. Even after sacrifice, not just anyone could log on to the public security network to check photos and information; they had to have a considerable level of authority.

That is to say, Jiang Ting’s identity was not so easy to reveal. Not to mention the obvious changes in appearance, body shape, and aura around him after being in a coma for three years.

“—Don’t worry. We are the Criminal Investigation Unit. We don’t care about prostitution and pornography.” Yan Xie suddenly smiled and changed the subject: “You already know about your niece?”

Fatty was relieved that the thing about prostitution was finally revealed and said: “Yes, yes, I was running a gallery show in the south yesterday…”

“Is Bu Wei your own niece?”

“Hey, since you’re a police officer, I’ll just say it straight—that child really isn’t. I’m just putting on the name of a guardian at her school.”

No?

A beautiful girl, and a male “guardian” who was not related by blood. Yan Xie’s imagination ran and he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.

“No, no, it’s not what you think.” Wang Xingye waved his hands with the cigarette: “Let me tell you the truth. Her father was like my brother in my early years. He died in a car accident with his wife. It happened almost three or four years ago. Her father once had some financial involvement with me and gave me money when I was in difficulty, so I paid for her to go to school. Anyway, the nine-year compulsory education, the tuition, and living expenses are not much, and after graduation, she can go to any high school that doesn’t cost much money. I will consider it as my benevolence and righteousness…”

Yan Xie flicked the cigarette ashes and said casually, “You are really a good person.”

“Hey, there is a saying that you don’t need to be a good person, you just need to be worthy of your conscience.”

“I just heard outside that you didn’t receive an extortion call from the kidnappers?”

Wang Xingye said, “Don’t mention the extortion phone call, I didn’t even know she was kidnapped. When I received a call from the Public Security Bureau in the morning, I thought it was a scam!”

“Why, you don’t usually have much contact with your niece?”

“It’s really not much…”

“Why?” Yan Xie became interested: “You’re her uncle. Could it be that you just pay and don’t care about her?”

Wang Xingye took a few puffs of cigarette confidently and said: “How do you want me to answer this question?”

Yan Xie didn’t answer and looked at him with a half-smile.

“When Bu Wei’s parents first had an accident, she was only twelve or thirteen years old. This age is really troublesome. If she was younger, she could be half a daughter, and she would help me in the old age and death; if she was older, even if eighteen or nine years old, maybe she could become a little daughter-in-law.” Fatty smiled without embarrassment: “But at twelve or thirteen years old, she wasn’t leaning on both ends and was about to enter the rebellious period. It doesn’t matter how much I care about her, what if people think I’m a pervert who likes little girls?”

Yan Xie nodded to signal him to continue.

“Besides, this girl lives on campus, and I usually go out of town to run art exhibitions. If I want to care about her, there is nowhere to start. A phone call in a week or two is not bad.” Wang Xingye spread his hands and said, “Do you think this reason is credible?”

His explanation was indeed reasonable.

Yan Xie asked, “Then do you know that Bu Wei and a boy disappeared at the same time?”

“That’s Shen Xiaoqi, right? I just saw that couple outside, they cried a lot. But to be honest…”

Wang Xingye paused, and Yan Xie made a “please talk” gesture: “It doesn’t matter, there is no one else here except you and me. If you have any doubts, you can raise them with the police.”

The unembarrassed look on Wang Xingye’s fat face reappeared: “I don’t want to mention this in front of the couple, but I’ll say it straight to you. The kidnapper who did the phone call to extort 200 million yuan only called them. It means that the target is their son, and it has nothing to do with my niece, right?”

“……”

“That is to say, my niece was only accompanying him from the very beginning. If she hadn’t been with their son at the time, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped, right?”

Yan Xie neither affirmed nor denied, just kept silent.

“Although she’s not my own niece, I have raised her for three or four years anyway. If something happens to the little girl, their son will be at least half a murderer! Just now, both husband and wife had the nerve to ask me for the money, and wanted me to raise the money to pay the ransom? What did they think?”

Wang Xingye got emotional while talking, Yan Xie quickly put out the cigarette, and patted him on the shoulder calmly: “I know it’s not easy to make money these days, please trust our police…”

“You say, how can someone behave like that? Don’t say 200 million, it’s hard for me to even pay 200,000! And why should I help his family collect the ransom? Who knows what wicked things this family had done to attract the kidnappers, and also implicated my niece?!…”

Fatty was probably nervous to a certain extent. As soon as the swearing box was opened, he couldn’t be stopped. Yan Xie comforted him politely and took out his mobile phone to see if there was any update from the Municipal Bureau. All of a sudden, the door was knocked gently twice.

When he looked up, he saw Jiang Ting standing by the door frame, with one hand in his trouser pocket, wearing a mask on his face, only revealing a pair of black and calm eyes:

“The kidnapper just called, and he wants the police to pick it up.”

Yan Xie was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted. In a few words, he got rid of Wang Xingye, who was about to criticize and ordered the police to come and take care of the family members of the kidnapped. Then he immediately got up and rushed out of the kitchen.

……….

“My poor Xiaoqi—! What should your mother do? What should I do—!…”

From far away, he could hear Father Shen’s desperate roar and Mother Shen’s hoarse cry from the command car. Tan Shuang and the other students huddled at the gate of the homstay. They were also hugging and crying into a mess.

“Who told them to crowd here?” When Yan Xie saw this scene he got angry. He dragged a criminal policeman to scold in a low voice, “Take the minors away! Don’t let so many people around the command car!” Then he strode into the command car.

The technical investigators and negotiators urgently dispatched by the Municipal Bureau were sitting in the car wearing headsets. Everyone’s expression looked as if they were going to face a great enemy. Gao Panqing had just eaten two bites of the cold lunch, and as soon as the phone rang, it was all spilled on the seat of the command car. But at this moment he didn’t care about it; he held the mobile phone solemnly and said: “Captain, looking for you.”

He deliberately didn’t call out Yan Xie’s surname.

Yan Xie took a look at it and saw that this was Father Shen’s phone, and the screen showed that the call was in progress.

——This mobile phone had already been synchronized in real-time by the Technical Investigation Department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Hundreds of kilometers away, Huang Xing and the others were racing against time to try various methods to crack and locate them in the vast ocean of data, trying to find a faint hope.

The negotiation expert silently made a few lip gestures to Yan Xie: Delay time——

Yan Xie nodded to indicate that he knew, then turned on the speaker and said in a deep voice: “I’m Yan Xie, Captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, what do you want to do?”

He just gave out his name directly!

Before he finished speaking, Gao Panqing silently said “F*ck!” and mouth gestured to him angrily: “You f*cking want to die?!”

Yan Xie raised his hand to stop him, it was an extremely decisive and severe gesture.

“Two hundred million.” A dull and ruthless electronic voice came from the speaker, and asked, “How is the preparation going?”

Yan Xie looked at the negotiator, and the old professor nodded at him while staring at the technical investigator.

“Money is not a problem, but I need to know the safety of the hostages first.” Yan Xie paused, his tone very strong: “The two hundred million ransom, family members of the hostages can’t afford it. Even if they want to collect it, it must be reported to the province or even the ministry for approval. If you have already killed the hostages, the country will pay 200 million yuan for nothing. At that time, even if you run to the ends of the earth, the Ministry of Public Security will not let you go!”

Mother Shen let out an intense breath.

Several criminal policemen immediately rushed to hold her. Unable to care about anything, they covered her mouth and forcibly dragged the family members who were about to go crazy.

The electronic voice made a soft sound, which seemed to be a mocking chuckle, and said, “I’m right here, come and catch me. I’ll wait for you.”

“How will you get the money if you get caught?”

“If you can’t get the money, It means you don’t want this child’s life!”

—this child.

Everyone’s eyelids jumped when they heard these words, and Yan Xie almost blurted out: “There is also a girl? The object of your blackmail is the Shen family, can you return the girl?”

There was a sudden silence on the phone.

Yan Xie and the negotiator looked at each other, and it seemed that even the latter had no idea, so he could only gesture for him to wait patiently.

Three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds.

Yan Xie felt the sweat drop down from his refined temple hair, smeared across his cheeks, and converged on his chin, causing a subtle itching.

He almost subconsciously shifted his eyes and looked out of the car. Jiang Ting was standing beside the car door, not looking at him or anyone. His eyes were half-closed and his head was slightly tilted.

In an instant, Jiang Ting’s silhouette made Yan Xie feel as if he was capturing some kind of slight vibration in the air, perhaps the voice of the kidnapper on the other side of the speaker—some kind of sound wave that no one heard or paid attention to; it was almost imperceptible.

For some reason, his isolated and sober attitude made Yan Xie strangely feel a sense of stability.

“That little brat was unlucky, so he is tied up.” Suddenly the eerie electronic voice came again, with a ruthless arrogance: “Do you want to spare one without spending money? Dream on!”

The negotiator gestured violently and Yan Xie immediately understood: “It takes time to prepare 200 million in cash! We are willing to provide you with transportation and banknotes without consecutive numbers. But it will not be possible before 8:09 tomorrow evening! You have to relax your time to—”

The negotiator typed a few numbers in a row, Yan Xie stared at his hand closely, and shouted to the phone: “At least at twelve o’clock in the evening in three days, the cash on our side can be…”

“Before the execution time,” the electronic voice from the phone interrupted him coldly, without any fluctuations in the tone: “Twenty-nine hours.”

“It will take three nights at the earliest—”

The call ended.

Yan Xie’s voice stopped abruptly, and everyone looked at the computer screen at the same time. The time in the upper right corner of the screen silently changed to 15:09 pm.

The interior of the command car was eerily quiet.

—Execution time, tomorrow night at 8:09.

“I…” Yan Xie wanted to throw the phone away. But at the critical moment, he restrained himself, and gently put the phone back on the table with the blue veins bulging on the back of his hand.

The negotiator gave the technical investigator a meaningful look; the technical investigator understood, and immediately called Director Huang of the Municipal Bureau to inquire about the positioning results.

Yan Xie took a breath and forced himself to calm down. Then he took out a cigarette, lit it, took a big puff, and spit it out. In the curling white mist, he forced himself to close his eyes, his handsome face stretched with sharp edges and corners. When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the shrewd, strong, and fearless Vice-Captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit like in the past.

“There’s still time.” His voice was hoarse and low: “Tell the technical investigators to step up the investigation of Shen Xiaoqi’s rental car company and send someone to the Forestry Bureau to assist in tracing the line of white-tailed sea eagles. In addition, take the ‘Tianzong Mountain’ as the keyword to conduct a comprehensive screening of the hostages’ parents and family members, relatives and friends, school teachers and classmates, browser search records, etc. I don’t believe that this tourist destination fell into Shen Xiaoqi’s mind from the sky. Whether it was him or Bu Wei who first proposed the idea of coming to Tianzong Mountain, the two children must have been strongly influenced by some kind of information!”

“Yes!”

Gao Panqing couldn’t care about eating anymore and quickly ran out with a group of criminal policemen.

Yan Xie finished smoking a cigarette in two or three sips and had just snuffed out the cigarette butt when he was suddenly patted on the back of the shoulder.

“……” He turned around suddenly, only to see that Jiang Ting at some point got into the command car; standing beside him, he said, “Let me listen to the recording again.”

“What?”

“The kidnapper’s phone call just now, the technical investigators should have recorded it.” Jiang Ting said, “I suddenly had a… immature guess just now.”

Yan Xie didn’t quite understand what he meant, but he knew the legendary criminal investigation capabilities of Captain Jiang. So he immediately greeted the white-haired negotiator, asked the technical investigator to retrieve the recording, and brought Jiang Ting to the computer together.

“Two hundred million, how are you preparing?”

“I’m right here, come and catch me… If you can’t get the money, it means you don’t want this child’s life… Want to spare one without spending money? Dream on!”

“Before the execution time… Twenty-nine hours.“

—The rustling of the electricity stopped, and the recording was interrupted.

“How is it?” Yan Xie asked in a low voice.

Jiang Ting did not answer and clicked on the replay button.

“…Want to spare one without spending money? Dream on!”

“Before the execution time… Twenty-nine hours.”

……

“Two hundred million, how are you preparing?”

“Ha!”

……

“Very weird.” Jiang Ting suddenly pressed the pause button and muttered.

Yan Xie looked at him: “What’s wrong?”

The two of them were head to head together, Yan Xie turned his face slightly, and it just so happened that Jiang Ting also looked over. The two were very close, even their eyelashes seemed to be close to each other, and they could both see the tired red threads in each other’s eyes.

“The kidnappers seem to be two people.” Jiang Ting said softly, “Or, he deliberately showed two completely opposite personalities in front of the police.”

Yan Xie’s sharp brows twitched again: “Huh?”

“Do you trust me?” Jiang Ting asked suddenly.

“……”

There was complete silence for a few seconds as if no air was flowing, and the noise outside the command car became more and more distant.

“I took you by my side, not because I believed in you,” Yan Xie said in a low voice, “but because I hope to believe in myself.”

Jiang Ting stared at him with his beautiful eyes. After a while, he said, “Then listen, my next analysis may shake the entire investigation direction of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.”

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