CH 34

Going all out to kidnap a bus full of hostages just for an answer, if that was not smart, then what was?

But the crux of the matter was: what was the ‘answer’?

Seeing both Lin Chen and Xing Cong Lian deep in thought, the chairman couldn’t help but ask once again. “Mr… Mr. Lin, what does the kidnapper mean by that?”

“He probably wanted to say that he’s giving you an hour to find what he wants, or he will start killing people after 90 minutes has passed…” Lin Chen wanted to pick up his cup, but his hand was held by Xing Cong Lian before he could do so.

“What?! Kill?!” In an instant, the chairman could feel the cold sweat running down his back. “That is utterly atrocious, insane! Didn’t you say he wouldn’t hurt those children?!”

Lin Chen shook his head, avoiding the question. He called Huang Ze’s phone again.

“How is it?” There was a slight tension in Huang Ze’s voice.

“The kidnapper took the initiative to reveal his location. Wang Chao will send you the coordinates.”

“What do you mean ‘took the initiative’?”

“He took the initiative to reveal his position because he wants you to bring the reporters along to the location. Also, he had called me Mr. Jiang,” Lin Chen recounted calmly.

“Why did he call you Mr. Jiang?” Huang Ze turned to look at the expert Jiang who was sulking in the car and suddenly understood Lin Chen’s meaning. In fact, when all those reporters happened to ask for an interview about the “Candy Robber” earlier today at the same time, he already thought it was a little strange. Although the case had attracted a lot of attention, having reporters from over ten television stations come down all at once seemed to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

“I suspect that the kidnapper might have used Jiang Zhe to trick those reporters into going to the highway. The reason is very simple. When things reach its climax, he needs reporters to be present. As for how he used Jiang Zhe, I think you’d better talk to Mr. Jiang face-to-face about that.”

Lin Chen’s half-joking tone made Huang Ze pause for a moment.

“Did the kidnapper ask for anything?” Huang Ze headed to the car with his phone in hand.

“He wants an answer.”

“What answer?”

“He didn’t say.”

“So from beginning to end, you guys still don’t know what his demands are?”

Lin Chen looked at Xing Cong Lian and said, “I can guess that because he has the ability to weave such an elaborate plan, he must have laid out all the clues for us beforehand.”

As a matter of fact, the clues and answer weren’t within Huang Ze’s scope of concerns. He was only concerned with how the case would be solved and whether or not the outcome will be under control. Therefore, he didn’t ask any questions regarding those two things. Walking to the side of the car, he said, “Tell Xing Cong Lian that Hong Jing Police’s Special Force is on the way and ask him to give the kidnapper’s location to me. I will send a copy to the captain of the special force.”

Huang Ze hung up once he finished talking. He looked at the messy-haired expert Jiang sitting in the back, then bent down and knocked on the window. 

Inside, Jiang Zhe reluctantly turned around. Once he saw it was Huang Ze, expectations flashed in his eyes. Huang Ze opened the door and entered.

Lin Chen held onto the phone even after Huang Ze finished talking.

Well aware of Lin Chen’s worries, Xing Cong Lian asked, “What did Inspector Huang say?”

“He asked us to send him and the captain of the Special Force the kidnapper’s location…”

The conversation between the two was brief and was also tacitly cut short.

Xing Cong Lian understood without any further explanation. He went to Wang Chao and knocked on his head. “You send the location to Inspector Huang, then go to the scene to assist with handling the case.”

“Fuck!” The pen in Wang Chao’s mouth fell out. “I’ve made so many contributions to the organization, you can’t do this to me!”

After Xing Cong Lian stopped joking with Wang Chao, his expression turned serious. “After you dealt with the tracking, did you figure out where the Feng Jing School’s tour bus stopped?”

“Oh, wait a bit,” Wang Chao said, before switching to another window. He compared the phone tracking results with the vehicle’s positioning results. “Eh, Ah Chen ah, the driver said that they got off the bus after Yin Chuan’s north exit, right? He’s an old liar indeed heh.” Wang Chao put the pen back into his mouth and tapped out a series of commands. Then, on the screen, the lost Feng Jing School’s tour bus sped past. Wang Chao switched to the next surveillance camera in position, but the bus didn’t appear.

He looked at the coordinate parameters between the two monitors and moved the mouse to a point on the map. “It’s 30 kilometers north from Mei Cun, far from Yin Chuan.”

“Okay, send the range of possible locations the bus could have stopped along with the kidnapper’s location to Huang Ze. Then ask Lao Peng and their special force team to send someone to pick you up and go there together,” said Xing Cong Lian, rubbing Wang Chao’s head.

“Is the driver an accomplice of the kidnapper… and if so, what about Mr. Jiang?” At this moment, the manager of the transportation company who had been listening for a while finally couldn’t help but ask Xing Cong Lian.

Xing Cong Lian didn’t answer as he realized that there was another person in the room who had been following him along. “Manager Yang, sorry for this, but you need to go back on your own.”

Having said that, Xing Cong Lian picked up his car keys to leave.

Lin Chen also stood up at the same time. With hardly any verbal communication or eye contact between the two, he walked out the door with Xing Cong Lian, leaving the people in the office to stare at each other.

As a matter of fact, Jiang Zhe never thought things would turn out this way.

He admits that he is a greedy man. Jiang Zhe was greedy for money and fame, but he never felt that he was a bad man for doing so. However, he also never thought that he would become a so-called accomplice.

But when Huang Ze sat down next to him with a livid expression, and locked the door, Jiang Zhe realized that things had really gotten out of hand.

“Jiang Zhe, as you know, it’s not illegal to forge your resumé. But I can assure you that being an accomplice for a kidnapping is most definitely a crime.” A man in Huang Ze’s position wouldn’t carry around a pair of handcuffs like Xing Cong Lian did. He just needed to cross his legs, maintain a cold expression, and use heavy words to scare the other person into pissing their pants.

“In… Inspector Huang…” When Jiang Zhe opened his mouth, he found that his voice trembled. “What did the kidnapper and Lin Chen say?”

“The kidnapper said that he hoped that Mr. Jiang would bring the reporters to meet him. The question is, the caller was clearly Lin Chen, so why did the kidnapper think he was you?”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhe understood that the thing he feared most had happened. In fact, he already had a bad premonition when he first met Lin Chen. It was precisely because of this that he kept hindering Lin Chen from participating in the investigation. All of this was because of a simple, harmless agreement. He helped a borderless organization make an artistic declaration on a certain behavior. In the negotiation that would take place after the kidnapping, the other party would make a declaration in front of the reporters he brought, then get persuaded by him to release the hostages.

What a happy story this was supposed to be. He never thought there would be such a deviation in his plans. Although he never met the other party, the other side always kept their promises and acted according to the agreed script. Except for the fact that the caller was changed to Lin Chen, everything had been going fine. So the problem was Lin Chen. Jiang Zhe thought this way, but was still hopeful. “Do you know where the kidnappers took the children to? Take me with you. I know I can definitely persuade him to release the hostages!”

Huang Ze just coldly stared at him and said nothing.

Huang Ze didn’t need to ask who the kidnapper was or what kind of deal they made. He just needed to ensure the proper resolution of this case and the kidnapper’s life wasn’t included in the word “proper”. 

However Lin Chen had to find the answer as he had already promised the teenager.

“You can say things you couldn’t say in front of the others now.” After going downstairs, Xing Cong Lian didn’t go straight to the car. Standing under the camphor tree, he leaned against the trunk, ready to smoke.

“Has anyone ever told you that being too smart isn’t a good thing?”

Xing Cong Lian laughed at this. His eyes were willful and unrestrained. “Just now, Director Chen asked you if he would hurt those children but you didn’t answer. However, that question is also important to me, so I hope I can hear your answer.”

Lin Chen’s voice was small but firm. “No.”

“Why?”

“Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?”

“Some psychological phenomena that made hostages have feelings for their abductor and even develop dependency on them?” Xing Cong Lian’s heart was drumming. “That old driver who lied had Stockholm Syndrome?”

“I just asked Huang Ze to do a small test. He deliberately told the driver that the special forces had found the kidnapper and were planning to soon kill him and rescue the hostages. The driver panicked and pleaded with Huang Ze not to hurt the kidnapper. If that wasn’t Stockholm Syndrome, then what is?”

“That brat is quite amazing. In just a short time, he was able to make the hostages trust and obey him?”

“That’s because he’s too smart.” Lin Chen almost sighed ruefully. “In fact, if the driver didn’t lie, I might not have been able to guess why he hijacked buses again and again and asked for candy every single time.”

Xing Cong Lian didn’t reply but his gaze on Lin Chen was fiery.

“Actually, he’s doing the Norm.”

“Norm?”

“Norm is a concept in psychological measurement. You can understand it as a standard average. That is, what most people’s general response to a certain test is…”

“The reason why he kept hijacking those buses was so that he could evaluate how people reacted to a hijacker? He took those hijackings as a psychological test?”

“It’s very important to test, evaluate and re-test. In the process of this cycle, he wanted to make it such that the hostages would not only not hate him, but also to trust and help him…”

“That’s a little crazy…” Xing Cong Lian opened his cigarette pack and realized that he had smoked them all, so he put it back into his pocket. “I admit that he’s attractive and acts in a proper and dignified manner. Most people wouldn’t think that such a young man who hijacked buses for candies would do real harm. Instead, they would think he’s interesting and quite cute… But would the driver be willing to lie for him and the children willing to follow him for just this?”

“Of course charisma and brute force are indispensable in accomplishing all this. But above all, it’s the reason he used to persuade those hostages.” Lin Chen lowered his head, watching the damp soil under the tree root. “I guess the answer he wants is the reason he used to persuade the hostages. And this reason must be heavy, so heavy that everyone is willing to help him.”

Lin Chen took a deep breath. The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if everything was enveloped in a fog, feeling both wet and cold.

“Huang Ze must not be made aware of this.” Xing Cong Lian’s resolute voice interrupted Lin Chen’s thoughts.

The wind blew through the dense camphor leaves. Lin Chen raised his head, incredulous.

“Right now, that boy, us and Huang Ze are all in a delicate balance.” Xing Cong Lian strode with his long legs. “That boy knows that we’re looking for the answers, Huang Ze knows that he’s restraining a criminal, and we know that neither of them dare to act rashly. This is the best balance, but it will only give us a very short time to find the answer.”

Such a straightforward and clear summation of the whole picture was better than a thousand words.

Looking at the tall mixed-race man, Lin Chen was surprised, finding himself wanting to ask where Xing Cong Lian learned the techniques of restraint and how to weigh his options.

Translator(s): Kuro

TL Checker(s): Zryuu

Editor(s): Namio

Proofer(s): Celine