Chapter 1631: Missing Person
When the students’ activity had come to an end, Li Du’s main task was to accompany Sophie, the mother-to-be, to prepare for the birth of the baby.
He would occasionally go to some auctions, such as warehouse auctions or real estate auctions, and from time to time he went to parties with invitations from all over the place and from different people.
Generally, these invitations to dinner or parties were made by phone, and some were delivered to his house. Li Du was very used to this kind of life and it was considered peaceful these past few days.
It wasn’t until July that an unexpected guest came to his house.
Li Du was examining Sophie’s bulging tummy that day, when Brother Wolf knocked on the door and said, “Boss, someone is looking for you, it is very urgent.”
Li Du asked lazily, “Who is it? What is the hurry about?”
“It is Mr. Steve Tussenberg’s manager, Mr. Elson,” said Brother Wolf.
Upon hearing that the Old Master was coming, Li Du quickly stood up and said, “Where is he? I will go now…”
“I am outside the door,” Elson’s old voice sounded.
When Li Du went out, he saw Mr. Elson’s figure, which was looking older day by day. He smiled and said, “What happened that makes you come to my house in person? You could just make a phone call.”
He had asked Steve for many favors, and usually, it was Elson who did things for him, so he was very polite to the Old Master.
With a wry smile, Elson said, “I had to come myself for this matter. Is there any quiet place? I want to have a talk with you.”
Li Du took him to the study, and then gave Brother Wolf a look and said, “Don’t let anyone in unless it is very important.”
Brother Wolf immediately backed away from the study’s door and blocked the entrance.
When they entered the study, Elson’s mood sank rapidly. He found a chair, dropped into it moodily, and sighed as he said, “We are in trouble, big trouble.”
Li Du said, “If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.”
Elson looked at him and asked, “Li, when was the last time you saw Steve?”
Li Du said, “When I got married on Seagull Island. You were there too.”
Elson asked expectantly, “How about after that? Did you run into Steve again? Or talked to him on the phone?”
Hearing this, Li Du suddenly realized that he had not had any contact with Steve for a long time!
Since his return to Los Angeles, he has hardly taken the initiative to make phone calls. Bill and Lu Guan were the ones who would call him to invite him to attend the auction activities, while Dickens and his men called him to attend the tenant auctions, and some other people would call to invite him to all kinds of social activities.
In other words, his active contact with the outside world was almost nil.
Watching him shaking his head, Elson’s mood sank again and his face turned pale.
Li Du poured him a glass of wine and said, “What happened? Calm yourself first, Mr. Elson. You seem to be in a very bad state of mind.”
Elson drank a big mouthful of wine from the glass. Then he gasped as he said, “Steve is missing!”
“What?!”
Mr. Elson repeated his words heavily again, “Steve is missing!”
Li Du was shocked and said, “How did this happen? How could he be missing? Don’t you know where he has gone?”
Elson sighed and said, “I don’t know. He was doing things without me knowing this time. I had an investigation done when I couldn’t get in touch with him. The result of my investigation was that he went to the Angikuni Lake area in Canada, and all the news about him stopped when he reached there.”
Li Du’s scalp was tingling. He clearly knew the power of Elson, and he guessed that Elson could even move the FBI and the CIA, and with that, he still couldn’t find Steve. It meant that Steve was really missing.
“When did this happen?” he asked.
“The final results just came back yesterday. It has been two months since I last saw Steve, nearly four months since we split up after your wedding. Actually, we separated just after your wedding too,” said Elson as he frowned.
Hearing this, Li Du had some thoughts, “After my wedding? Steve came to me at my wedding and asked me to go on an adventure with him, but I wanted to spend my honeymoon with Sophie so I turned his invitation down.”
Elson looked at him in expectation and asked, “Did he mention any specific place? Was it the Angikuni Lake area of Canada?”
Li Du shook his head ruefully. “I am sorry. I didn’t ask specifically, but it must have had something to do with the so-called fifth-dimensional entrance he has been exploring.”
His words made Elson groaned helplessly. “God, it is still the fifth dimension! Why are the Tussenbergs so fixated on this and not letting it go?”
Li Du said, “Steve is dedicated. He was looking for meteorites in the Antarctic in connection to this matter, don’t you know about this?”
Elson said with a wry smile, “I know about this, but because I was involved in it, I knew it was dangerous. The reason I followed along with Steve was to make him stop his obsession with finding this.”
Hearing him say, “dangerous” instead of “absurd”, Li Du was surprised and said, “Do you also think that the fifth dimension exists?”
Instead of answering directly, Elson rubbed his face, put his hands to his eyes, and said, “You know that Steve’s father is a Tussenberg, and his mother is from the Vanderbilt family, don’t you?”
Li Du nodded.
Elson went on, “But here’s the deal: Steve’s father, Tyson, was a regular Tussenberg man, and his mother, Chiriani, was a Vanderbilt princess!”
“The Tussenbergs are only shipping dealers, and though they have some assets, they are a far cry from the Vanderbilts. You know how much American society values family status in marriage, right?”
Li Du continued to nod. “I know about that, the family status should match. In fact, we also pay attention to this in China.”
“Then, how could an ordinary Tussenberg man marry the Vanderbilt princess?” asked Elson.
“Well, the story of Romeo and Juliet? Oh, that is not right.” Li Du caught the implied message. “Was it the fifth dimension that brought the two together?”
Elson said, “You are right. Tyson and Chiriani met on an adventure of looking for the fifth dimension, and the Tussenbergs led the way in this search. The Vanderbilts wanted to share the Tussenbergs’ findings of the fifth dimension, so they allowed two young people of extremely different positions to come together.”
“The information that was controlled by the Tussenbergs was valuable and the value of it was beyond money, but to continue to get information, they needed money to support it. That is why the Vanderbilts support them!”
“That is to say, for Tyson and Chiriani, their union was because of love, but for the families behind them, it was a kind of deal!”
“All of this, it was all for that mysterious but nevertheless real fifth dimension entrance!”