198 – Values

Li Yun watched the footage that appeared to be from Ju De's behind as he entered a fancy club. From what he had heard, Zhu Ah Nin was by his side, but she was careful to avoid being captured by the camera and barely spoke. Apparently, they were going to celebrate Ah Nin's birthday.

The video panned briefly on the first floor, which was the dance floor. As it was the weekdays, there weren't as many partygoers. Ju De and Ah Nin followed the waiter up to the second floor of the club, where the private lounges were located. Ju De spent 2500 yuan to reserve a lounge for an hour.

"I hope it's your own money," Li Yun said looking at the expensive decorations inside the club.

Aside from the decorations, there were checkpoints and security guards in key locations, along with security cameras. After partying in the lounge, Ju De took Zhu Ah Nin to the 5th floor hotel room area.

"This isn't a normal club," Ju De explained. "It's a very fancy club called the Midnight Sky Bar. It's owned by Mr. Bai, who was a former judge. He worked mainly behind the scenes, and few people have seen him."

Li Yun had never heard of the bar before, and it was likely an elite type bar. Even after gaining a bit of wealth, he never saw the purpose of visiting expensive clubs. However, he may have to attend one.

"You're doubtful that Mr. Bai will share his camera feed with us, and that he's involved somehow?" asked Li Yun.

"Probably," said Ju De. "If it was a regular club, they wouldn't need to plant a spy camera in the private lounge area."

"How about the hotel area?" asked Li Yun.

"The fifth to tenth floor are all accessible hotel rooms, but the 3rd, 4th, 11th-13th floor are private floors. Our hotel room didn't have any spy cameras, but that doesn't mean other ones are cleaned. It's likely placed sporadically to avoid people from finding them."

"Did you have Bufu look into their system?"

"He tried, but they probably the footage on their internal server."

"So we need to get into their security room and steal the footage somehow," said Li Yun. "We need a plan."

With the four heads focused on creating a plan, they were ready to put it into action. Everyone was still skeptical about the details, but Li Yun thought it was feasible. With a plan in place, Li Yun drove Rouxi home before he started the operation. Rouxi noticed that Li Yun wasn't as riled up about finding the culprit.

"Why aren't you upset about this?" Rouxi curiously asked as she pulled up her makeup kit.

"What do you mean?" Li Yun asked as he sat down in front of the dresser, looking at his reflection in the mirror.

"When I heard what had happened to Zhangmi, I really wanted to rip out the guy's dick. Is it because you don't know Zhangmi that well? Or is it a guy thing?"

Li Yun understood why Rouxi was curious. His reaction after seeing Zhangmi and hearing about what had happened was a bit different from everyone else.

If the same thing had happened to Rouxi, he would have castrated the guy and everyone involved. He knew Zhangmi, but not at the same level as Rouxi. If something happened to Zhu Ah Nin, Ju De would have already blown up the law firm and the club.

People placed different values on different people. Li Yun was like any other person when it came to valuing people who were close to him more so than strangers. It was almost impossible to care about everyone equally. And if the incident had happened to someone else other than Zhangmi, Li Yun might not even investigate the matter. Unfortunate as it was, misfortune happened everywhere in the world and at every moment.

"Can I tell you about it later?" Li Yun asked. "It's a bit difficult to explain now."

Although Rouxi knew he had special abilities, he hadn't told her the exact nature of it.

"All right, promise you'll tell me eventually?" Rouxi took her primer and dabbled some onto Li Yun's face.

Li Yun nodded.

"So, who do you want to look like?" asked Rouxi.

Li Yun pulled up a picture of one of the waiters from Ju De's camera footage. "Him?" he asked.

Rouxi glanced at the picture and began her real work. After an hour, he was transformed into Tua, a waiter who had access to the third floor and the fourth floor, and more importantly, a very similar build to him.

"I should have you do this more often."

"It's not perfect, so try not to stand in the light and get close to other people," said Rouxi. "And don't do anything rash."

Li Yun changed into a plain white dress shirt and black dress pants that looked similar to the ones the waiters had worn. Looking into the mirror, he was sure that even his mother would not recognize him. With everything set, he drove to the club and parked his car several buildings away from the front entrance. For an hour, he watched and listened to his surroundings.

Outside the club entrance, the body-builder bouncer Wong, guarded the front with a stern look on his face that he had cultivated for a few years to intimidate the regular club goers. The line was long, filled with rich college students and white collar workers.  There were a few VIPs who were able to directly pass by bouncer Wong, and most of the workers entered through the side door that was card access only.

Ten minutes before 7pm, he waited for Tua, whose shift was about to begin. As Tua walked past his car, Li Yun got out and casually followed the waiter from behind. His feet traveled lightly, without Tua noticing that he was being followed or pricked by an acupuncture needle. Tua walked into the employee's entrance, swiped his keycard, and entered the side door. As he entered, he looked behind, making sure that no one was there before shutting the door tight.

In the meanwhile, Li Yun approached bouncer Wong.

"Hey Wong, forgot my card," Li Yun said in a muffled voice as he looked at the bouncer Wong.

Wong squinted his eyes, thumbed a "get-in" with his hand, and then crossed his arm back into position. Li Yun thanked him with a nod and walked into the lobby.

Li Yun listened in carefully with his ears, carefully dialing in on Tua's voices. He followed a waiter into the employees-only area, and followed his ears to the sound of Tua's heavy grunting. He moved along the floor with ease. Every time a door opened, his ears picked up vibrations from beyond, allowing him to carefully map out the layout of the employee's area. His destination was the men's bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, Li Yun heard and smelled the waiter in a diarrhetic state, causing his nose to squint. He had smelled worst in the hospital, but his nose was extra sharp. He entered the adjacent stall, stood on top of the stall, and shot another needle at Tua. This time, the waiter dozed off on the toilet. Li Yun jumped over the stall, and took the waiter's keycard and vest. From there, he had 15 minutes to find and collect the security footage.

Li Yun placed Tua's keycard over his neck and casually walked back into the hallway.

"Hey, where's Wejin?" Li Yun asked one of the waiters who passed by him in the hallway. Wejin was a security guard for the club according to his Meibo's page. Some people listed everything about themselves on the internet.

"Shouldn't he be in the security room?" asked the waiter, pointing further down the hallway.

Li Yun walked down the hall until he was near the security room. From the outside, he heard the security guard Wejin playing on his cellphone and casually glanced at the security cameras every time his phone was at the loading screen. A moment later, the phone rang and Wejin picked it up.

"Wejin here, what's up?" Wejin asked.

"Hey Wejin, there's a package for you at the front," said the guy over the phone.

"What? A package, just take it in for me then," said Wejin, the guard. "I'm on duty."

"The delivery guy said it's a special delivery, and you need to sign it."

"Really?" Wejin wondered if someone on the security team had ordered something. "All right, give me a moment." Wejin walked out of the room, since he was only going to be gone for at most 10 minutes, he didn't think leaving the room unattended was a big deal. He did it all the time.

Once everything was cleared, Li Yun entered the room and plugged in the usb drive. He shifted through until he found the files. He copied an entire month's worth of videos onto his drive within a few minutes. They only kept videos for a year, but he didn't have time to copy all the files, and he also needed to scout out the other areas.

The room that stored the spy camera footage was likely located in a different location. There were two possible locations of a security room, which was likely on the 3rd or 4th floor. Although he could map out the floor with his hearing, the ceiling had too many ducts and insulation that blocked off vibrations. He needed to be on the floor to gather more information.

Li Yun quickly arrived on the 3rd floor and pressed his ears against the door. There were two people inside and another door that seemed to lead into a long corridor. He decided to skip the floor and headed up to the fourth floor. Inside the fourth floor was a similar lobby, but there was only one person standing guard.

If he had time, he would wait to gather more information, but he needed to head back to the bathroom. He quickly retraced his step back to the first-floor bathroom and returned the vest and keycard to Tau. As he exited the side door,  he sensed Wejin returning to his post, looking happy that he got a gift and a long love letter from a secret admirer courtesy of Bufu's flowery words and Hunlun's delivery service.

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