Han Chu scoffed. He was going to ignore such an obvious attempt at flattery. The name that he had been given was obviously a woman, and she was about fifty. Since it was her physical condition that revealed her unique status, then from the limitation of physique, it was hard to believe a woman would be a martial arts master at her age. Then, with that in mind, the uniqueness in terms of joints and muscles could be ignored. Other than physical prowess, what other offensive capability could it be? It was none other than guns and machinery. Therefore, could it be anything other than something that showed she was good at handling guns? Naturally, no.
"But if that is the case, then we do need to be cautious of this woman." Han Chu jumped right into the topic. "If it's possible, try to interact with her directly or find another person to talk to her on your behalf. The focus should be on her time of appearance as well as her assets and identity… However, if it's dangerous, then you should wait for Tony and the others to finish their investigation."
Before they could continue, the barely-discernible static coming from the earpiece caught Ye Shuang's attention. She ended the call instantly, and on the other end, Han Chu did the same thing once he noticed the static. The appearance of such disturbance meant that someone nearby had activated a similar signal.
Under the condition where all the phones of the guests had been confiscated, the signal most likely did not come from a simple communication attempt. They had probably been discovered, and someone was trying to conduct an investigation.
She pulled out the earpiece calmly and removed the parts from her earlobe. Ye Shuang squeezed her fingers, and when she released them the next second, the receiver in the shape of a pearl and the black transmitter disappeared. She rubbed her fingers, and the small black and white dust was ground into smaller particles that slipped through her fingers. None of the remains were bigger than 0.1 millimeter.
They would have to be dreaming if they thought that they could capture her via the evidence. Ye Shuang blinked and looked around. Then, she pulled Luo Mingxin, who had not discovered the situation, into the dance pool. Just as they swayed their bodies to the music, in less than ten seconds, three men in black suits surrounded the area where Ye Shuang had been standing earlier.
"The last spot of transmission comes from here. There is no mistake about that." Black Suit A looked at his watch, and he said with agitation, "But we did not discover the reaction from anyone along the way, is it possible that they have escaped from the scene?"
Black Suit B frowned and also looked at his watch. "No matter how fast someone is, the signal should remain for several seconds after the communication is cut off. Yet, the signal disappeared out of nowhere, without any warning…"
"Maybe they have taken care of the communicator?" Black Suit C guessed.
Black Suits A and B went into silence before tossing him a condescending look. "We've already said that the signal disappeared suddenly. Even if they handed the communicator to someone else, we should at least be able to trace the signal to its source."
Black Suit C looked repentant. "I'm sorry, I'm still new at this."
Black Suit A and B sighed. They ignored the newbie and discussed the situation on their own. "The dance pool is too small, and it is inconvenient for us to carry more complicated devices. As precise as the coordination was, we at most could limit the range within three meters… In any case, this is definitely the latest location. Should we go upstairs to check the surveillance?"
"The place is so crowded. Since they managed to do this so cleanly, it is obviously an expert. I don't think we can find anything suspicious on the camera… but there is no better option, so let's go." The three disappeared upstairs. Ye Shuang heard their conversation clearly, and after finding out that they were unable to continue their search, she sighed involuntarily in relief. Thankfully, she had noticed the cameras earlier!
Luo Mingxin did not know what had happened and could not hear the conversation, but at least he could see the change of expression on Ye Shuang's face. After the latter relaxed, Luo Mingxin also sighed and said, "It is my honor to be invited to a dance by a lady, but can you explain to me what is happening?"
Ye Shuang sighed again and squeezed her hand that was placed on Luo Mingxin's shoulder as she guided them to a more secluded corner, to introduce some distance between them and the rest. "I initially thought that they confiscated the phone to prevent people from taking pictures, but it turns out the real reason is to conceal the signal… What exactly is going on at this ball? They make it look like it's some sort of international conference."
Luo Mingxin was first stunned by the sudden force on his shoulder, then he frowned when he heard Ye Shuang. "That shouldn't be. There isn't any valuable information that can be found here; this is merely a gathering of the rich and famous. Why do they need to have such a high security?"
"I have the same question." Ye Shuang pouted and asked, "Do you think there could be a powerful individual hiding among us?"
She not only meant influential politicians. In today's society, even for a merchant, if their business was big enough to affect the direction of the world's economy, then their status and importance might not be lesser than a president. Other than that, could there be people who might be facing threats no matter where they were?
…
"In other words, not only did you fail to find the person who used the signal, you couldn't even find the source of the signal." Madam Grace had left the hall calmly and went up to the second floor. Frowning, she raised her head slowly. She accepted the glass of wine from the African American in the room. She sat down on the sofa and repeated the report that had been given to her by the group of Black Suits.
The three sweated profusely because they knew that this woman was no simple character, so they quickly tried to explain. "There are other possibilities for the signal to disappear suddenly. Perhaps they used some method to destroy the signal and its source, like grinding it into dust…"
"Hmm…" Madam Grace released a long sigh without changing her expression. She waited for the three to sigh in relief before raising her eyes to look at them.
The butt of the trio clenched instantly because they heard the lady laugh and say with humor, "So, you're telling me, a signal source was ground into dust, and that's why you're unable to find anything?"
For some reason, it felt like this question was hard to answer.
"Very good." Madam Grace took a sip of the champagne. She swirled the glass before asking again, "Then tell me, how did they manage to grind something that is at least three centimeters to not even leave a trace? Furthermore, let's not forget about the outer casing that is not that easily-destructible."
Even if they destroyed the outer layer, the inner layer would transmitter the signal. These were not things that could be destroyed so easily… The suits finally realized their mistake.
"Prob… probably, they used items like a hammer?" The newbie stammered to find an answer. It stunned his two seniors. The two seniors lifted their heads immediately and looked at the newbie like he had lost his mind.
Madam Grace nodded approvingly. "Good suggestion, then did you find any guest walking around with a hammer in the surveillance?"
Which idiot would do something like that? The newbie finally realized his mistake, and he almost cried under the scrutiny of Madam Grace and his seniors.
Madam Grace's lips opened and closed. She looked at the newbie and changed her mind, swallowing her original words. She smiled and said, "You need special training, stay back tonight."
Then she turned to look at the African American.
The latter nodded, then Madam Grace left the room in satisfaction. The seniors looked at the newbie with pity. After the newbie was saved, they realized that their junior was actually quite good-looking, the typical fresh and boyish type. More importantly, his age was right, twenty going into thirty, the time when men were most 'active'…
The senior patted the newbie's head and sighed. "Eat more protein during dinner and try to hold on as long as you can."
…
The ball ended at 10 pm. Ye Shuang and Luo Mingxin had left earlier, and by then, they had almost reached the apartment. Madam Grace had left earlier than them, and the rest of the guests were of no value, so they had departed soon after. After all, this was Ye Shuang's first foray into Feng Yuan City's social circle—wanting to gain a lot of information on her first try was impossible.
They reached home around 11 pm. Before going back, Ye Shuang knocked on the door opposite. Han Chu was still awake. When he saw that it was Ye Shuang, Han Chu nodded and allowed the girl to enter. The laptop on the coffee table was open, and the complicated data on the screen was flurried enough to confuse everyone.
"Brother Han, do you plan to burn the midnight oil tonight?" Ye Shuang changed into the slippers. With a glance, she knew that the man was not going to sleep that night.
"I'm just going over the information and categorizing so that we can find them more easily." Han Chu did not serve his guest and walked back to his seat. He looked at the computer and said in a collected tone, "We did some digging about this Madam Grace—the identity doesn't look fake, and she has some financial issues that are worth looking into. However, there is an expert who cleared away everything, and we need some time to recover the deleted files. Other than that, there is another hobby of hers that we need to pay attention to… Madam Grace likes men, men of every type. Based on what you said, she has already noticed Luo Mingxin, so you'd better tell him to be careful so that he wouldn't lose his virginity."
Ye Shuang swallowed some blood and only recovered moments later. She gasped in disbelief, "Are you serious‽"