CH 191

Wang Chao thought it was a good thing his boss suddenly realized and took the initiative to see his A’Chen Gege.

In line with the principle of respecting the privacy of adults, Comrade Xiao Wang turned on the 360-degree surveillance cameras in their home without any blind spots, and he even thoughtfully chose a location near the bathroom. He thought he understood this very well.

Unfortunately, when the picture appeared, he thought the surveillance at home was broken, because no matter how he adjusted the timeline, no one had ever entered or left the bathroom. What was more terrifying was that the corridor light in front of the bathroom was never turned on. He swallowed, turned his head cautiously, and said, “Boss, it may be that something big happened. Either A’Chen Gege is living at the police station or he doesn’t like to shower!”

God knew how he came up with such a reason as not liking showering, but Xing Conglian’s face turned ugly.

He instantly pulled up the shot of the foyer on the screen. No one, no one, no one…

As the timeline rewound, the final scene captured by the hallway surveillance camera was actually the footage of A’Chen Gege leaving the house on the night when that dumbass Huang Ze came to their home.

Thinking back to the passionate scene he witnessed that day, Wang Chao’s mind was in turmoil. He hoped that Huang Ze, that idiot, wouldn’t play any tricks like “if I can’t have you, no one can,” and after running through countless scenarios of imprisonment in his mind, Wang Chao’s body was electrified.

Xing Conglian still didn’t speak. When Wang Chao looked back, his boss’ face was so cold that it could freeze the entire rainforest.

He trembled and said, “Boss, take a deep breath first. Things may not be what you think!”

Xing Conglian stretched out his hand and pointed to Lin Chen’s hand on the screen. “Zoom in here.”

Wang Chao followed his orders. There were almost no clues from the picture, but it was faintly visible that the gauze on Lin Chen’s palm seemed to be bleeding.

“What’s the matter, Boss?”

“He went out to bandage his wound.”

“And then didn’t come back?”

When Wang Chao said this, he regretted it. When he mentioned the words “didn’t come back”, he felt like he had fallen into a freezer. If he knew that A’Chen Gege would disappear, then the Dana Rainforest was nothing. His boss would probably tie A’Chen Gege to his belt even if he went to Mars.

“Do you need me to check the surveillance at the entrance of the alley that day?” he asked worriedly.

“No need.” There was no discernible emotion in Xing Conglian’s tone. “Just check the missing persons record.”

Wang Chao’s heart trembled as it overflowed with a bad premonition that he couldn’t press the keyboard. “Boss…”

“If you’re asked to check, then check it.”

Wang Chao nodded and opened the database. He entered the name and pressed the Enter key tremblingly. The progress bar quickly ended. In the list of missing persons, Lin Chen’s name suddenly appeared. His photo was still the same as when he joined the police force. In a white shirt with a blue background, his face was calm, as if it were just yesterday.

Wang Chao choked so much that he couldn’t speak.

“Huang Ze, Meijing, and Xiang Ye; he has offended so many people. It’s my fault for being too careless,” Xing Conglian said indifferently.

Although there wasn’t much emotion in his boss’ tone, Wang Chao had been with Xing Conglian for so many years that he instantly sensed a deep regret in the tone. In short, his boss had always been in control of the overall situation, so regret seemed like the kind of thing that was impossible for him.

Wang Chao turned around, but he didn’t know how to comfort him.

However, to his surprise, his boss took out his phone and called the police station.

On the other end of the line.

Comrade Zhang Xiaolong hadn’t closed her eyes for three days and nights. With Wang Chao absent, they lacked the main force for checking electronic materials, so even she was dragged to watch videos. However, no matter how hard they tried, the minivan disappeared on an unmonitored path like a ghost. So many days had passed that Consultant Lin could be tied up in any corner of the world. According to the on-site investigation, the kidnapper’s methods were so professional that Zhang Xiaolong couldn’t help but think of a bad outcome.

Therefore, when her phone vibrated and the caller ID flashed, she thought she was seeing things that were caused by a few days of sleeplessness.

She picked up the phone tremblingly and heard Captain Xing’s low, hoarse voice coming from the other end.

“Lin Chen is missing?” Was the first thing that Xing Conglian said.

“Xing… Captain…” The police officer shuddered and instantly raised her voice. “Where have you been?!” As she said this, tears flowed out involuntarily.

“On some other official duties. Tell me what happened and send the relevant materials to Wang Chao.” The voice on the other end of the phone was so calm and crisp that she thought she was talking to some robot. But it was probably because the voice on the other end of the line was emotionless that it allowed her to gradually calm down. She talked intermittently for a while, mentioning the weird appointment letter and the staff at the pet hospital who disappeared together with Lin Chen, and finally, there was only the sound of even breathing coming from the other end of the line.

“That’s probably it,” she said.

“I see. Thank you, and I’m sorry.”

Xing Conglian hung up the phone.

Wang Chao had received the relevant materials from the police officer. The police in Hongjing had launched a search force that spanned two provinces, but to no avail. They were far away in Dana, so how could they find clues so quickly?

Xing Conglian was so anxious that he watched the surveillance video outside the pet shop over and over again, but he could only watch Lin Chen’s bound hands in the dark night and the moment he was pushed into the rain curtain. The heavy rain was pouring as Lin Chen’s thin figure disappeared at the end of the alley.

Wang Chao’s eyes were red. He turned his head and saw that his boss had been staring at the screen with a cold expression. His dark green eyes were solemn, but he couldn’t perceive any emotions at all.

“Boss, what shall we do?” Wang Chao rubbed his nose as he asked.

“Let Zhang Long bring twice as many bombs and have him show up before 9 tomorrow. Tell him don’t come if he’s late.”

After he finished speaking, Xing Conglian turned and walked into Dr. Duan’s cabin.

At that time, Kang An and Xiao Wu were walking in from outside. Wang Chao rubbed his eyes and tried to hide his emotions.

“Xiao Wang Chao, why are you crying? Where’s the boss?” Kang An asked carelessly.

Wang Chao looked up and saw the obliviously happy and relaxed face of Kang An, and punched it.

……

Xing Conglian was standing in the hut.

The moon was still clear and cold. Duan Wanshan was asleep on the haystack. Probably because the runned-down room in this dilapidated factory was too quiet, he always felt like the words he had just said to Duan Wanshan seemed to be floating in his ears.

All that “I’ve met someone with determination and perseverance, who even dares to pursue their love” speech now seemed like boastful words coming from a fool.

Xing Conglian clenched his fists and punched the wall.

Powder puffed out, and the noise outside the cabin rose. Xing Conglian was standing by the window. Not far away was the afterimage of the yellow searchlight column sweeping across Zaratul’s camp, and farther away was the eternal night in the rainforest.

Like some slow silent movie, Lin Chen’s thin figure was finally pushed into the rain curtain. He was blindfolded, but he still raised his head and looked around blankly, as if looking for someone.

Xing Conglian unclasped his fists. Originally, he thought that a lifetime was ample time, but now it seemed that things were quite tense.

He was thinking that if the “sorry” he had said to Lin Chen in the square at that time would be the last thing he said to Lin Chen in this life, then how should he live his life in the future?

Thinking about it, he couldn’t imagine that scenario. With no Lin Chen at home on the balcony drinking tea, no Lin Chen in the police station in front of the desk reading documents, and no Lin Chen to go out together to eat breakfast, there was no one to lead the way, which made life dark and meaningless.

He finally understood why Duan Wanshan was so indifferent to death… because there was no point in living.

Xing Conglian glanced at the calm face of Duan Wanshan, who was lying on the haystack after letting go of everything, and walked out.

Wang Chao was pressing on Kang An’s body as he beat him fiercely, while Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu only dared to stand by and watch.

Naturally, with Kang An’s strength, he could easily control Wang Chao, but he only dared to cover his head, afraid that Wang Chao would punch the ground and injure himself even if he dodged.

Looking at the two people on the ground, Xing Conglian said lightly, “Get up.”

Wang Chao’s eyes weren’t the only thing that became red due to excitement and anger; his whole face turned red.

“Boss.” The young teenager lowered his head slightly, and a tear hung on his lower eyelashes. Xing Conglian stretched out his hand, patted him on the head, and said calmly, “After tomorrow, we’ll go back.”

“Is something wrong, Boss?” Xiao Wu asked anxiously.

“It has nothing to do with you,” Xing Conglian said.

……

7 a.m..

Lin Chen slept soundly, but Xing Conglian stayed up all night. The Gaomeng people who were preparing for the great escape were already making final preparations. Wooden boards secured the broken bones of the wounded, and everyone had divided all the remaining food.

Xing Conglian and his former subordinates had their own independent space.

The police captain’s side face was chiseled and covered with growing stubble. His gaze was cold enough to drop ice chips. While everyone in the room was still asleep, he folded up the mine terrain map and the communicator’s red light flashed.

At the same time, a ghostly figure appeared on the banks of the Dana River.

Because the dense branches and leaves blocked most of the light, it was almost impossible to see the face of the person. Only a lean figure could be seen quickly taking off their coat, revealing the matte custom wetsuit inside.

The figure squatted down but didn’t go into the water. Instead, they carefully folded the clothes that had just fallen on the soil and even their socks meticulously. Finally, they carefully stuffed all their clothes into a waterproof bag, looked excitedly at the humid and dark sky of the rainforest, then jumped into the dark Dana River.

……

Langli Bay was located on a tributary of the Dana River. A reinforced concrete and steel bridge built by the French in 1912 spanned the river. The bridge was primarily built to facilitate the transportation of precious wood species and rare metals from the depths of the rainforest. However, control over Langli Bay changed hands several times. Eventually, the rising rainforest overlord, King Zaratul, managed to gain control over Langli Bay Bridge, thus controlling the transportation hub leading deeper into the rainforest.

10 minutes past 7.

The air was filled with the fishy smell unique to the rainforest. Even the rough river water under the bridge couldn’t blow away the stagnant smell.

The soldiers on bridge guard duty began to wait for the shift change as usual. To be honest, although the rainforest was remote, the equipment of the Zaratul Tribe wasn’t too bad. At least in the Dana Region, where second-hand Polish AKs had become standard, the weapons owned by King Zaratul, who acted as a proxy for a great power and had not rusted, were enough to make him dominate this area.

15 minutes past 7.

There was still a quarter of an hour before it was time to change shifts. The soldiers, who had been standing for three hours, had reached their most sleepy moment. One was physical hardship, while the other was psychological slack. After all, in the Dana Region, no one had dared rush into King Zaratul’s military facilities for many years.

The people waiting to cross the bridge had already formed a short queue, when a modified military Hummer attracted the attention of the soldiers guarding the bridge.

There was a cocky young man wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses sitting in the driver’s seat. The seasoned soldier recognized the watch on the young man’s hand as a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, which was extremely valuable and the most important hard currency. Several soldiers guarding the bridge looked at each other and quickly let the refugees blocked in front of them pass through the bridge and onto the iron fence before stopping the Hummer.

The young man driving the car was still cocky. His short hair was fixed upright with hairspray. Facing a dozen AKs, he didn’t lift his head. The first thing he said turned out to be foul-mouthed. “Fuck!”

The soldiers guarding the bridge were scolded in a daze. How could anyone come to Dana dare be so arrogant?

The arrogant young man wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses in the driver’s seat was very casual when faced with the cold barrel of a gun. He lifted his sunglasses over his head and pulled out a pass from the partition, along with some US dollar bills that were also tucked in the partition, which scattered on the ground. The young man impatiently waved away the bills in front of the car and spoke in broken Dana language, “Idiot, have you heard of Anda Mining? Your boss wants to ask my dad to buy biomineral mining technology. Get the hell out of laozi’s way.”

The words “Anda Mining” and “biological mining technology” were like a foreign language to ordinary bridge guards, but it seemed that this was a prince of a certain company that had business dealings with Zaratul. Someone took the pass and immediately reported it to check the identity.

The quick-eye soldier had already opened the car door and retrieved two shiny guns from the trunk. The streamlined gun god and the black, cool gun body made the soldier holding the gun handle cheer happily.

“Poor bastards. Never seen a gun before?” The young man cursed.

The soldier in charge of verification quickly returned, and the excitement of catching a fat sheep was no longer there. He returned the pass and then saluted in an informal manner.

The young man flipped his middle finger to all the black guards guarding the bridge and honked the horn to signal them to open the iron gate.

As the young man stepped on the gas, just before the modified Hummer passed the checkpoint, for some unknown reason, the arrogant prince in the car had a thought, and he grabbed the stack of US bills on the dashboard and threw them out of the window.

“Kneel and call me Dad!” the young man shouted in Chinese.

The picture finally ended with the arrogant laughter of the young man and the smoke and dust rushing out of the exhaust pipe.

So much so that no one noticed that, while all the soldiers were scrambling for the money, a small and inconspicuous directional mine flew out from under the Hummer’s chassis, as if remotely controlled, skimmed across the bridge deck, and closely stuck to the pier.

……

When Xing Conglian saw his neatly dressed subordinate, he was sitting next to Duan Wanshan.

A few minutes ago, the Gaomeng people on night watch reported the news that Duan Wanshan refused to evacuate together.

Sitting next to the doctor, Xing Conglian was no longer as irritable as before and was extremely arrogant and cold. He stopped talking nonsense, took out a pistol from his pocket, loaded it, and pointed at the Gaomeng man in front of him as he said to the doctor, who was more concerned with the Gaomeng peoples safety than helping them, “I know you have many reasons not to want to be a burden to us, but I also have a reason to try to get you out alive. Cooperate well. Otherwise, none of the Gaomeng people here will leave alive.”

Perhaps it was because Xing Conglian’s attitude was so resolute that it was like hardened steel. Even Duan Wanshan, who was about to die, was also aroused with a trace of bloodlust. “I understand.” The doctor nodded hard.

Comrade Zhao Hu had pushed open the door and entered the room in this situation. He saw his boss holding a gun, his eyes full of murderous intent. The first thing he said was, “Boss, whoever you want us to take care of, we’ll take care of them!”

Xing Conglian put down his gun and looked at the equipment on Zhao Hu’s back and said lightly, “I didn’t ask you to come here to talk. Follow me.”

……

Duan Yang got up early. At 5 in the morning, he had already gotten up. The lights weren’t turned on in the lab, so it was still dim. He washed his face with cold water. After checking Lin Chen’s condition, he began the final preparations before their kidnapping operation.

Inside the dissecting room, he turned his back to the surveillance and took out plasma extracted from the body of the rhesus monkey he killed yesterday. Just like the chicken and duck blood cubes in the market, he added sodium chloride to the plasma, which made the blood of the rhesus monkey coagulated into clots. Duan Yang carefully crushed it with force, turning it into a disgusting semi-solid state. He drew a tube of it with a syringe, attached the needle, and remained calm, as if he were conducting the most ordinary scientific experiment.

After doing all this, he began to pretend to be busy. When it was five minutes short of eight, the outermost door opened, and a thin white figure slowly passed through the dense monkey cage. The unlucky monkeys were frightened, causing them to yell.

When the last door opened, Lin Chen groaned in pain before waking up.

The weirdo wearing the porcelain-white mask stood in front of them.

After Lin Chen’s analysis yesterday, Duan Yang suddenly felt that the weirdo, who looked like he could eat human blood raw, was just an unorthodox cheat.

“How’s the progress?” the inorganic electronic voice rang out.

“Because you haven’t seen a real psychopath, the truly terrifying people are always those who seem harmless.”

Duan Yang meditated on what Lin Chen had said to him. According to the original plan, he said to the masked man, “I need to see a paper to study a new purification method.”

He pointed his finger at the computer in the corner of the lab and asked, “Can I use the computer?”

Although he couldn’t see the masked man’s expression clearly, he still sensed that the other party was looking at him up and down with hesitant eyes.

“This is important. No researcher’s work should be conducted without consulting relevant literature,” Duan Yang emphasized.

Finally, the masked man nodded and walked to the computer desk in the corner. “Tell me what you want me to check.”

Duan Yang hung his hand to his side, followed the masked man, and stood with his back to the surveillance.

“Close your eyes!” The masked man sitting in front of the computer said coldly.

Duan Yang turned around as he spoke, and after hearing six simple keyboard tapping sounds, Duan Yang turned his head and put his hand on the masked man lightly.

The masked man trembled suddenly, and a chill ran down his spine to the back of his head. Just as he wanted to move, he felt a needle about to pierce his skin.

The idiot young man, whom he didn’t even want to look at before, was now speaking to him in a very cold and heartless tone. “Don’t move. In fact, the coldness you feel on your back is from a needle.”

The young man paused, then continued to calmly say, “The needle is a disposable product in the lab, but the contents inside are quite special. I guarantee that as soon as you show any reaction to being kidnapped or shout for help, the contents of the needle will be injected into your body within one-tenth of a second. Of course, you’re probably asking, what’s so terrible inside? I can only say, Mr. Masked Weirdo, have you ever heard of Ebola*?”

*A viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infection. The first symptoms are usually fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headaches. These are usually followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash and decreased liver and kidney function, at which point some people begin to bleed both internally and externally. It kills between 25% and 90% of those infected – about 50% on average. The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, such as blood from infected humans or animals.

The masked man thought, ‘I’ve been in the rainforest for so long. Of course I have heard of Ebola. How the hell haven’t I heard of this deadly virus that has ravaged Africa and killed tens of thousands of people?’ But in order to maintain the advantage, he still asked in an extremely calm tone, “Do you think I’m that stupid? This laboratory is completely under my control. Where did you get the Ebola virus from? If you want to make up a story, at least make it more believable.”

“According to your request, when I checked the monkeys yesterday, I found a group of strange sick monkeys. Those monkeys had congested eyes and were dying. Based on some experience, I performed a dissection on one of the monkeys. Of course, your dissection room can’t achieve the level of a Level 4 biochemical protection, so when I found that the monkey’s blood was almost coagulated after it was cut open, it was too late, and I was exposed to the virus. You should know that the blood of the deceased is semi-coagulated, which is a typical feature of the Ebola virus.” There was a faint resentment in the young man’s tone. “I don’t know if I have been infected with the virus, but if I get it, I will drag you down with me, understand?”

The trembling and anger in the young man’s voice made the masked man terrified. He raised his head and subconsciously looked at the dissection room. The door was closed, but through the glass, he could see the horrible monkey corpse lying on the dissection table. As the man said, the rhesus monkey’s blood showed a coagulated dark red color, which was disgusting.

“Calm down!” he said reluctantly. “It may not be Ebola. It can’t be just a coincidence.”

“Cut the crap.” The young man raised his voice and leaned closer to the masked man’s ear. “Of course, you don’t have to believe it, but in any case, we’ll die together!”

The masked man swallowed, and his voice became cautious. “What do you want?”

“I want to make a deal.”

“Do you think you can get out of here alive by killing me with a virus?”

“If we can’t get out of here, you’ll immediately be injected with a needle full of Ebola. The astronomical number of viruses in it will completely swallow you within a week. You’ll bleed and die miserably. Even the shit and urine flowing out of your body will carry coagulated plasma. You can certainly take a gamble,” the young man responded.

There was an imperceptible tremor in the electronic sound. The masked man took a deep breath. “Don’t be impulsive. Everything can be discussed.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” the young man said simply. “Answer my question. Who do you serve? Don’t try to lie.”

“Zara…tul.”

“The armed militants of the Dana Region?”

“Yes…yes.”

“Find the official website of this armed organization online and show it to me,” Duan Yang said.

The masked man trembled violently and opened the NoFacebooK homepage of the Zaratul Tribe.

Duan Yang compared the patterns of the python and jaguar above and nodded.

“Next, take out your phone and record a video.”

“Why?”

“In order to cooperate happily, we must have the appropriate bargaining chips,” Duan Yang said coldly. “Please admit in English that you slept with Zaratul’s wife.”

The masked man felt incredulous. “What did you say?”

At that moment, a weak but rather calm voice sounded from his side. Lin Chen at some point had stood up and was leaning against a table as he explained, “He means that because we don’t speak the same language in the Dana Region and are very afraid of being easily betrayed in the process of being taken out with you, we have to find some leverage on you. I’ll store it in a timed email that, if not resolved within 24 hours, will reveal a video of you and Mrs. Zaratul having an affair with the organization’s official email and message board. If we can successfully escape from this place under your protection, I’ll fulfill my promise to cancel the scheduled email.”

Although the black-haired young man in front of him looked extremely weak and seemed about to collapse, the threat in his calm tone was even more threatening than the one who was holding him hostage with the needle.

“The countdown is three seconds,” the black-haired young man said. “Three…”

“I’ll record it. I’ll record it!” The masked man replied hastily.

With the press of the Enter key, an email that might take his life lay quietly in the mailbox, waiting to be sent out.

The cold needle was finally withdrawn from his back.

“Where is the medicine I asked you to find? Did you bring it?” The doctor holding the deadly virus asked.

“I was just about to say that the Langli Bridge was blown up so the car delivering the medicine… couldn’t get in,” the masked man said in horror.