CH 126

When Lin Chen woke up, he thought it was already dawn.

There was a misty white light in his vision as he opened his eyes slightly, and it took him a while to realize that they had arrived at the first stop of their trip—the “Royal One” clubhouse.

Unlike the Tianren Club, where they went when they were in Yongchuan, “Royal One” was truly a place that matched its name. After all, the preferences of the rich would also be different. It was resplendent here, with white Roman pillars, gilt lintels, and fountains that sparkled under the ambient lights.

If decoration was just the hardware of a club, the “software” here was also quite good.

There were two rows of people standing around the golden revolving door in the hall. A row of “princesses” on the left and a row of “young masters” on the right. The princesses and young masters were so tender that you could easily pinch out water*. Judging from their attire, Royal One was probably not that serious of a place.

*(掐出水来) Idiom referring to immature.

Lin Chen retracted his gaze and looked at the two people in the front passenger seat.

Xing Conglian looked forward a few times, apparently noticing the two rows of people in the hall dressed scantily. He turned his head and said to the teenager, “Wait for us to go in. You’ll act as backup in the car. Take out two wireless headsets.”

Wang Chao looked at the rows of stilettos and puffy dresses when he heard this and gave Xing Conglian an aggrieved look. “Why?!”

Upon hearing this, Xing Conglian smacked him on the head. “Have some class, okay?”

“I don’t like this!” Wang Chao stated grudgingly. As he spoke, he moved his gaze back to his boss’ face and seemed to sober up. “Wait, Captain, what back up?! Do you mean you’re going undercover? You’re going clubbing to pick up girls, right? Why aren’t you taking me?!”

“Because there’s more important things for you to do in the car. Very important things,” Xing Conglian heavily emphasized.

Wang Chao was coaxed and became happy again. “What is it? Let me at it!”

“First, check on the surveillance records of this club the night Xu Ran was sexually assaulted. If there’s no video, try to find the on-duty records or work logs around that time. Since Xu Ran changed her testimony and said Royal One was the scene of the crime, if she didn’t lie this time, judging from the scars on her body, Li Jingtian’s actions must not be small, so even if we can’t prove she was tortured here, at least we can find some witnesses to prove that Li Jingtian and Xu Ran were here at the same time on the night of the crime.”

“Ah?” Wang Chao was stunned. “It’s been half a month. It’s highly unlikely that they kept the surveillance records.”

“That’s why I also ask you to find the work logs.”

“You mean anyone that was working on the night of the incident?” Wang Chao was still confused.

When Lin Chen heard this, he couldn’t help but glance at Xing Conglian as he said to Wang Chao, “He’s asking you to find out if anyone related to Li Jingtian opened a private room here on the day of the incident and what ‘special services’…”

Wang Chao was stunned again. “A’Chen, you understand well!”

“Consultant Lin seems quite experienced,” Xing Conglian added.

“It’s just a trivial social experience.” Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian and said, “Moreover, my experience tells me that it’s not very appropriate for Captain Xing to make an ‘unannounced visit’ to this club in such an outfit.”

Xing Conglian smiled and pulled down the rearview mirror to look at his face. “There’s nothing I can do if I’m born upright and awe-inspiring.”

At that time, Wang Chao was already clacking on the keyboard to check the things that Xing Conglian had instructed him to do. Hearing this, the teenager glanced up at him and said, “Captain, your shameless words today are a bit over-the-top. Restrain yourself.”

Xing Conglian ignored Wang Chao.

Lin Chen saw him touch the stubble on his chin and then turned his head and asked through the gap between the seats, “Does Consultant Lin have any good ideas?”

The neon lights outside the car were shining with various colors, but the light inside was dim, causing Xing Conglian’s eyes to shine like jewels.

Xing Conglian was looking at him seriously.

Lin Chen sat forward a bit and grabbed his shirt collar perplexingly. Xing Conglian moved slightly at that time when Lin Chen had already unbuttoned the first collar button, so he whispered, “Don’t move.”

As Lin Chen spoke, he unbuttoned the second button.

They were so close that Xing Conglian’s breath brushed against his ear. When he lowered his head, he could feel the warmth from Xing Conglian’s body through his shirt as the ends of the fingers touched his skin.

In fact, the time it took to unbutton three collar buttons wasn’t long, but Lin Chen wished that time would pass more slowly. After all, there weren’t many opportunities to take advantage of his sweetheart so openly like this.

“Put out your hand.” After unbuttoning the collar, Lin Chen said this to Xing Conglian with some intent.

Xing Conglian stretched out his hand generously. Things like cufflinks could be undone by him, but at that time, Lin Chen and Xing Conglian probably weren’t thinking about it.

Lin Chen held Xing Conglian’s wrist with one hand as he slowly unbuttoned the cuff links and carefully rolled it up.

“Found it!”

Suddenly, Wang Chao roared.

Lin Chen withdrew his hand as Xing Conglian unbuttoned his other cuff, rolled it up naturally, and turned around and asked, “What did you find?”

“I found some clues on the day when the crime happened!” Wang Chao said while raising his head. He looked at Xing Conglian’s open neckline and was stunned. “Captain, why are you unbuttoning your shirt? Did A’Chen Gege help you unbutton them so you’d look better?”

Lin Chen sighed.

Xing Conglian pulled the rearview mirror to take a look again and said with satisfaction, “He did. I also think, with the angle of the neckline, it makes me look quite good, no?”

“It’s particularly immodest.” Wang Chao concluded. He then returned to his work. “First, I checked, and the surveillance was deleted that day. Second, on the day of the incident, there’s a record of a credit card of a PR director from Li Jingtian’s company, CA Entertainment, that was used at Royal One, totaling 184,115 yuan.”

“Pretty good,” Xing Conglian said.

“Yeah, then I checked all his credit card records. It seems that Royal One is a designated consumer merchant of CA Entertainment, and a man named ‘Li Gaoqiang’ is the one that pays the bill, so it’s very possible that this person is waiting to pay for Mr. Mu Zhuo’s celebration. You can find him!”

Xing Conglian glanced at Wang Chao and asked, “What else?”

“Oh, also, the salary records at Royal One are quite detailed. I have read them. On the day of the crime, Li Gaoqiang opened an extra-large private room No. 441. They ordered five princesses and two young masters. One of them has a work number of 3341 and is named Lily. Who is now standing at the door.”

As he spoke, he pointed his finger at the girl, who was near the end of the row.

Xing Conglian nodded, took out an electric shaver from the glovebox, and started to shave. Lin Chen didn’t know why this person kept almost all the necessities of life in the glove box but never cleaned himself up.

He watched the stubble covering the cheeks and lips be neatly trimmed. The moment Xing Conglian looked back at him again, just like in a novel where a scruffy young man with heavy bangs covering his eyes took off his heavy, thick glasses, and changed into a well-tailored suit, turning into a completely different person.

Although this was a bit exaggerated when putting it into words to describe Xing Conglian, the sudden sense of amazement didn’t change.

At this time, Wang Chao had just dug out two sets of transparent headsets from his backpack. When he saw Xing Conglian’s clean-shaven face, he was stunned again.

After a while, he murmured, “Captain, you’re really here to pick up girls, right? A’Chen Gege is at a disadvantage with you looking so handsome and coquettish!”

Lin Chen took the headset, pressed them to his ears, and then looked at Xing Conglian from top to bottom. “As the chauffeur of the young master, I’d better keep a low profile.”

After he finished speaking, he got out of the car, opened the door for Xing Conglian, and made a gesture of invitation.

Xing Conglian understood and happily stepped out of the car.

……

Probably, because they were acting, they couldn’t take it too far.

As they walked into the revolving door, before they could finish enjoying “Hello Boss” from both sides in unison, two heavy, thick security guards stepped forward and stopped them.

It seemed that they weren’t regular customers, or perhaps when they walked in from the parking lot, the security guards noticed that the Jeep they were driving wasn’t high-end, so they got suspicious.

Lin Chen saw one of the security guards press their headset, glanced at them, and said, “Sir, we’re a members-only club. Please show me your membership card.”

Lin Chen was taken aback. He really didn’t expect that there would be such a “threshold” here.”

“You still need a membership card for a lousy place like this?” Xing Conglian reacted quickly, and he spoke arrogantly.

He didn’t know if it was because of Xing Conglian’s performance or if he was born with an aura of a dandy that looked down on everything, but in short, after Xing Conglian said that, the security guard didn’t throw them out but changed his tone, emphasizing more respect. “I’m sorry, sir, we’re a membership only club. Please show your membership card, or please complete the membership application after being recommended by two members and making a purchase.”

“So troublesome?” Lin Chen looked at the ‘young master’s’ face and wondered if he should retreat first.

However, Xing Conglian just raised his chin and said to him, “You wait here.”

After saying that, Xing Conglian went out, leaving him alone in the glorious hall to stare at Mr. Security Guard.

This period of time was quite difficult. Lin Chen felt that Xing Conglian might have left him and just ran away, but the young master was true to his word, and soon, the familiar footsteps sounded again.

He turned his head and saw Xing Conglian with his neckline open, walking gracefully to the front desk in front of the two security guards, took out a thick stack of things from his pocket, slapped it on the table, and slowly wiped it away.

Lin Chen looked over and saw Xing Conglian had opened various cards, large and small.

There were gold, silver, and black cards among them, and even some cards that didn’t have any logo on the surface, but judging by the texture of the card’s surface, it didn’t look like a cheap supermarket membership card. One category, without exception, no matter how the color of the cards changed, the identity on the card surface was top-level, Super VIP; diamond cards, black gold cards, and so on that it created a dazzling spread.

“Go on~ Find your membership card yourself.”

Xing Conglian’s voice rang out slowly and methodically.

Lin Chen looked up, completely dumbfounded.

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