DLRAS Chapter 114

Chapter 114: Will definitely get him this time

Chen Wengang first went to the subsidiary where Huo Niansheng held a position, meeting with the general manager and others to ensure the staff’s morale remained stable. He also looked into the investors, managers, and partners behind Huo Niansheng.

Afterward, he returned to the Huo Group headquarters to wait for news. The group headquarters was relatively stable, but a stifling atmosphere hung over the office area, with everyone speaking in hushed tones.

In truth, Chen Wengang would have preferred to buy a ticket to Southeast Asia immediately, but he received a call from a hidden number, warning him to stay put and not leave the city without permission. On the phone, Li Hongqiong comforted him: “I received the same call. We aren’t all people who were on Wang Qiming’s boat, are we? There was no camera in the game room; who can prove who participated? They definitely have to investigate everyone one by one.”

She added, “None of us had large capital transfers with him before or after the event. It’s fine; we just have to wait a while.”

Chen Wengang hung up, feeling an urge to smoke. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and headed to the 19th-floor open-air terrace. Huo Lingchong and a few other young masters were already smoking and whispering together, but they fell silent when they saw Chen Wengang approach. Whether Huo Lingchong wanted to mock him or not, his own backer had fallen, and he wasn’t in the mood, so he turned and walked away.

Five or six cigarette butts accumulated in the ashtray. The phone rang again, and Chen Wengang hurriedly pulled it out, only to see it was Director Liu: “I’m sorry, Wengang, I’ve been bothering you a lot lately. Taotao’s condition has worsened to pneumonia. It’s quite serious. Are you busy right now?”

“Me?” Chen Wengang hadn’t returned from his trance-like state and couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying.

“If you’re busy, never mind,” she assumed it was inconvenient. “Taking care of your own affairs is more important.”

“Oh… it’s okay,” Chen Wengang finally came to his senses. “I have nothing to do here anyway.”

He grabbed his coat and went to the underground garage. He knew Director Liu must be short-handed to keep calling him.

For the next two days, Chen Wengang went to the Children’s Hospital. Taotao, the boy in the ward, had ADHD; at the orphanage, he usually liked to chase and hit other children or exhibited uncontrollable behavior that constantly gave the staff headaches. Now, the child lay limp on the bed, motionless, as if all his vitality had been drained—a strange feeling.

Chen Wengang looked through the glass, and Director Liu noticed his restlessness: “Is something wrong?”

Chen Wengang smiled, but before he could speak, his phone rang.

At that same moment, he felt an inexplicably panicked sensation, as if he had a premonition.

Due to severe weather, many flights were grounded at the airport. Huo Niansheng’s colleagues discussed it and planned to return by boat. Huo Niansheng alone disagreed; for some reason, he didn’t want to travel by water and insisted on booking a flight, no matter how long the delay at the airport might be.

However, he never even made it to the airport. The car he was traveling in met with an accident midway, and the driver and all passengers on board disappeared without a trace.

After hearing Amanda’s words, Chen Wengang felt his ears buzz and the world go black; for a moment, he thought he had lost consciousness. He opened his mouth, feeling the room spinning, and remembered his past life—how she had delivered the same thunderous, devastating news in just this way.

The elderly nurse next to him gasped: “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Xiao Qiu, go help him!”

Chen Wengang’s legs didn’t feel like his own. He had to reach out and steady himself against the public benches, cutting his hand on a protruding screw. A young nurse came to support him, but he only felt suffocated, a terrifying pressure on his chest. She cleaned his wound and suggested a tetanus shot. He looked at his hand, watching the bright red blood seep out, yet he felt no pain at all.

Director Liu ran over with the bill: “Xiao Chen? Are you alright?”

The dim sky outside the window was reflected in his eyes, layered with gray-black clouds.

Chen Wengang knew where his ominous premonition had come from all along.

Huo Niansheng had gone missing.

Amanda had intended to take the plane with her boss. But for some reason, they weren’t in the same car—they were one after the other—and the car Huo Niansheng was in never arrived. She said they had already reported it to the local police, but due to the power outage and the efficiency of the local authorities, things were bogged down in bureaucratic delays. She clearly wasn’t optimistic about their progress.

To put it bluntly, there was zero progress and no news.

When Yu Shanding received Chen Wengang’s call, the first thing he heard was Chen asking if there was any way to help him leave the country. Chen Wengang sounded very calm, but Yu Shanding was skeptical. Having spent years in the gutter, he did have some wild connections and knew people from all walks of life; in a worst-case scenario, it wasn’t impossible to help someone escape the country.

But he didn’t think it was necessary for Chen Wengang right now: “Listen to me, don’t get into a dead end, don’t take extreme measures. Instead of looking for these back-alley ways, it’s better to clear your name, prove you are innocent, and leave the country through official channels…”

The two met at the Medusa Nightclub. Chen Wengang’s face was as pale as a ghost.

Yu Shanding poured him a cup of hot tea. Chen held it, shaking his head: “Huo Niansheng was already a suspect. Now that he has disappeared without a trace—no body, no person—others won’t necessarily believe it was just a car accident. Since I have a close relationship with him, I probably can’t get out even more.”

Yu Shanding adamantly disagreed: “Then we can think of other ways. President Huo asked me to take care of you; don’t take this risk.”

Hearing this, Chen Wengang’s gaze slowly shifted to him: “Did he say that? When?”

Yu Shanding thought for a moment: “Just… the last time it rained, when I took my mother to the hospital and you had a fever, he told me that when he went away on long trips, I should keep an eye on you. In any case, don’t overthink it. No news is good news; it doesn’t necessarily mean something happened.”

Chen Wengang felt a bitter taste in his heart. If Huo Niansheng were fine, he wouldn’t fail to contact him.

Yu Shanding was loyal; without a word, he retrieved a passport, booked a flight, and agreed to go check it out himself. Chen Wengang felt slightly relieved and thanked him: “Do you remember? It was right here, in this place, that you took me to find him.”

Yu Shanding recalled it and had teased Chen Wengang back then: “Hey… at that time…”

Chen Wengang said in a low voice: “Actually, back then, I didn’t care at all whether you were playing with me. Once I saw Huo Niansheng, I had eyes for no one else. I was actually quite smug, thinking I would definitely have him. Now that I think about it, was I too full of myself?”

Yu Shanding was cautious, not even daring to breathe loudly for fear of saying the wrong thing. He was afraid Chen Wengang would do something foolish, so he coordinated with Lu Chenlong and the nanny to keep a 24-hour rotating watch on him while he was abroad.

Even Chen Xiangling took leave from her cram school and returned to Jiangchao Street with her backpack. She knew something had happened but didn’t know the specifics. When she asked Lu Chenlong, he couldn’t explain it clearly either. Chen Xiangling was actually afraid in her heart; her cousin was her shield against the outside world. When she entered and saw how much weight he had lost, her nose stung, and her eyes reddened.

Chen Wengang acted normally in front of her, smiling gently: “You’re not studying properly—who called you back?”

Chen Xiangling wiped her eyes: “It’s almost vacation time anyway, and I’ve finished most of my review. I can just bring my homework home to do it.”

Chen Wengang patted her furry head: “Don’t worry, I won’t have any issues.”

She said: “I haven’t cooked in a long time. What do you want for dinner? I’m really good at making scallion oil chicken, and I’m craving it.”

Dinner was scallion oil chicken and rice porridge. The siblings ate face-to-face. After cleaning up, Chen Wengang said: “Lingling, come here for a moment.”

Chen Xiangling followed him into the bedroom: “What’s wrong?”

Chen Wengang’s expression was formal: “I have written a will. The primary beneficiary is Huo Niansheng, and you are the second. That is to say, if both he and I have an accident, most of my property will be donated, but I’ve left a portion for you; it should be enough for the future.”

This made Chen Xiangling nervous, and she hugged him: “Don’t say that, I don’t want to hear it!”

Chen Wengang reassured her in a gentle tone: “Don’t imagine things; I’m just telling you this is a thing that exists.” He remembered something else: “By the way, you might not have met her yet, but Huo Niansheng has a younger sister, two years younger than you, though she can be a bit willful sometimes. Last time at the beach, I wanted to introduce you two. Once you enter society, it’s good for two girls to be companions for each other.”

His gentleness was precisely what made people afraid. Chen Xiangling didn’t sleep soundly that night, checking every two hours to see if he was still in the master bedroom. Chen Wengang stayed in the room the whole time, not going anywhere, holding on until morning when Lu Chenlong finally came to change shifts.

Lu Chenlong bought soy milk, fried dough sticks, and water chestnut cakes for breakfast.

For Chen Wengang, dealing with the rotating shifts of people taking care of him meant he didn’t even have a moment to break down or let out a cry of grief. He was like a machine, continuing to operate normally according to its pre-programmed settings. After hearing the news, Jiang Cai sent him a message, and he even remembered to call Jiang Cai’s homeroom teacher to ask them to keep a close eye on her and not let her skip class again.

Three or four days had passed since Huo Niansheng went missing. Chen Wengang no longer had the heart to go to the Huo Group and pressure Huo Zhenfei.

That day, he said to Lu Chenlong: “Why don’t you accompany me to the law firm?”

When the two arrived at Lawyer Zhu’s office, Lu Chenlong waited outside while Lawyer Zhu received Chen Wengang: “Still no news on Mr. Huo?”

Chen Wengang smiled and shook his head regretfully: “I came to handle some business.”

During this visit, besides reconfirming the terms of his will, he heard Lawyer Zhu mention something else: “That Miss He Wanxin—when she was in school, she associated with many punks outside campus—which is normal, as she needed backers to bully her classmates—but after she became an adult, she seemed to still be in contact with them. It was through these channels that she paid them to commit violence and harm others. We have already gathered a lot of evidence.”

Chen Wengang’s expression turned serious: “You mean you can hold her accountable now?”

Lawyer Zhu explained: “If it involves criminal activity, it becomes a public prosecution case; we must hold her accountable, sooner or later. Actually, I didn’t want to add to your worries at this time, but I recently heard that the He family wants to send her abroad to avoid further trouble. If we wait until she leaves, it will be much more troublesome, so…”

Chen Wengang understood: “Don’t worry about my situation; just do what you need to do.”

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