Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 171

Hearing this, Jiang Chao became very nervous. “Isn’t that a mentally ill person? He said he had a bug in his head, but he was just putting on a show?”

“Yes. When I first heard he went to the neurosurgery department to ask the doctors to remove the bug from his brain, I also thought it was typical delusional schizophrenia, but in fact, I ignored one of the most critical details.”

“What?”

“Why would he agree to exchange hostages?” Lin Chen asked rhetorically.

Mrs. Jiang seemed to agree with what he said and nodded accordingly.

Lin Chen looked at the other party. “Mrs. Jiang, how did you persuade him to exchange hostages?”

Mrs. Jiang replied, “I said I was the director here and I would be more valuable as a hostage.”

“Is there something wrong with that, honey?”

“This is a conclusion based on statistics. The vast majority of the crimes committed by the mentally ill have no prior plans and little preparation. They usually happen suddenly and are crazy in nature, such as randomly killing people on the street. Of course, there are also a number of mentally ill people who can commit premeditated and planned crimes effectively, but the number is extremely low and generally only happens to paranoid or delusional mental patients. However, often the target of the delusional mental patient is their ‘enemies’.” Lin Chen propped his head to one side, held the paper cup between his fingers, and turned it gently for half a circle. “He showed ‘craziness’ when he raised his knife and slashed wildly, but whether he hid the watermelon knife and entered the hospital to commit murder, or allowed the exchange of hostages, or even asked to take the bug out, they all showed meticulous ‘premeditation’. There’s a certain contradiction between ‘madness’ and ‘premeditation’. He even revealed that the police were the ones he believes implanted the bug, so the target of his revenge should be us, right? Why is he looking for a doctor? What’s more, he went to a doctor specializing in neurosurgery and didn’t ask for treatment. He simply held the doctor at knifepoint, which meant his preparation wasn’t thorough.” Lin Chen showed a cold smile on his lips. “To summarize, I think the assailant who took Director Li hostage was pretending to be mentally ill to commit a crime in order to escape legal sanctions.”

After Jiang Chao listened to him, he didn’t speak for a long time. In the end, Mrs. Jiang patted the back of her husband’s hand. Vice Captain Jiang shivered. “Fortunately, you were there, Consultant Lin!” After he finished speaking, he hurriedly looked to his side. “Honey, have you offended anyone recently?”

Mrs. Jiang was calm. “We’re doctors, so there’s always someone that will be offended.

Jiang Chao opened his mouth as if he didn’t understand, so Mrs. Jiang pinched her husband’s earlobes and said softly, “We see many patients begging us to save them, but we’re not miracle workers. We’ll always offend some patients and their families.”

“But do you know the deceased, honey? Is it a family member of a patient you once treated?”

Mrs. Jiang shook her head. “Even if it is, I can’t remember.”

“Then you have to be careful. Do you want to take a few days off?”

“Are you going to protect me at home if I ask for leave?”

“I will, honey. Trust me!”

Lin Chen listened to their meaningless but happy conversation. The sunlight from the window fell on the couple, who had almost experienced life and death. He finally took a sip of the warm water in the cup he was holding.

“Jiang Chao.” He spoke suddenly.

Jiang Chao was taken aback. “Consultant Lin, yes?”

“Protect Mrs. Jiang well.”

“I know Consultant Lin. You also think that those who want to target my wife won’t give up, right?”

“It’s better to investigate the identity of the deceased first. This will allow us to clarify his motives.” Suddenly, Lin Chen felt a stabbing pain in his head, as if someone had picked up a hammer and smashed it into his temple. After a while, he reluctantly said to Jiang Chao, “Sorry, my condition isn’t very good. I’m afraid I can’t follow this case.”

Jiang Chao said nervously, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll send someone to stitch up the wound.”

“No need.”

Lin Chen stood up, supported himself on the wall, and walked out of the office.

Mrs. Jiang grabbed him and said, “You’re injured badly. I’ll sew up your wound immediately. Where are you going?”

Lin Chen turned his head and replied calmly, “I want to go home.”

……

Xing Conglian was sitting in an open-top Jeep when he suddenly looked forward. They were driving on the vast loess at the moment, heading southwest to the rainforest.

There were sporadic huge advertisements standing on the loess. At the top of the huge advertisements was the gray-blue sky. In the distance, there were light gray clouds on the top of the Xazi Mountains, as if a torrential rain was brewing, ready to sweep over the world.

The humid and hot monsoon at the edge of the rainforest hit his face, but the wind couldn’t blow away the irritability in his heart. He felt something bad was happening, but he couldn’t explain why. As if by telepathy, Wang Chao also looked over at him. They looked at each other and instantly understood each other’s concerns.

Wang Chao spoke in a serious tone. “Boss, don’t you feel it too?”

Xing Conglian pressed his hand on his phone, almost impulsively making a call, but he also knew very well that this wasn’t the best choice.

“Wang Chao…” he said lightly. “There’s surveillance at home, so bring up the real-time monitoring.”

Wang Chao was holding his laptop with a sad face and didn’t respond to this request for a while. Soon, the teenager understood what he meant and abruptly slapped his thigh. “Boss, although it’s a bit perverted, that’s a really good idea!”

While speaking, Wang Chao quickly brought up the surveillance video at their residence, Unit 6 on Yanjia Lane. If Lin Chen was present, he would be surprised at the kind of surveillance that had no blind spots.

The rags in the kitchen, the fruit tray in the living room, the fish swimming in the courtyard, and the bedding in the room; everything in the house was intact, but no matter how time kept changing, the scene in the surveillance was completely fixed.

Xing Conglian glanced at Wang Chao. Wang Chao was desperately changing feeds at different angles as his frown became tighter.

At this moment, Kang An also leaned over and asked, “Boss, what are you looking at?”

Xing Conglian got annoyed hearing Kang An. “Get away,” he said to his former subordinate.

However, Kang An seemed to have filtered his words and moved even closer, even blocking his sight. “Hey Captain, is this your house? The flowers on the balcony are almost dying in the sun. How long has no one lived there?”

Wang Chao froze the picture on the coffee table in the living room and then zoomed in. The water glass on the coffee table was still the one that Lin Chen drank before they set off to Yongchuan that night. The table was dusty, and the flowers and plants were withered. It was obvious that Lin Chen had never returned home.

“Damn that Jiang Chao! Did that bastard leave my A’Chen Gege in Yongchuan to investigate the case?!” Wang Chao turned to Xing Conglian and asked.

Although he knew that this was of course the only possibility and that, with Lin Chen’s personality, it was difficult for him to give up clues and continue to track them down, when he thought of Lin Chen’s mental state when he left, Xing Conglian became angry.

Are you kidding me? What Lin Chen needed most was rest and complete psychological treatment. If he continued tracking down Song Shengsheng’s case, Lin Chen would collapse, even if he had an iron will.

“Verify your guess,” he said to Wang Chao.

“Yongchuan Second Bureau, right?” Wang Chao immediately began invading the surveillance system of Yongchuan Second Bureau. They were abroad, so there was no psychological burden, so Wang Chao was even quicker than before. When he pressed enter, the image lit up.

Wang Chao quickly dragged and dropped the timeline, and as expected, Lin Chen’s figure appeared in the big office of Yongchuan Second Bureau. The light outside the window turned from dark to bright and then dark again. Xing Conglian counted the time. Lin Chen hadn’t slept for over 48 hours.

Xing Conglian stared at Lin Chen, seeing him sitting quietly in front of a computer checking information. He would raise his glass of tea from time to time and then put it down. Xing Conglian wished he could put some sleeping pills in the glass so Lin Chen could quickly go to sleep.

“Boss, who are you looking at?” Kang An’s voice sounded again.

Xing Conglian had the urge to kick this guy out of the Jeep. “Get your head away from my sights,” he said aggravatingly.

Kang An hurriedly moved his head away. The moment the annoying head was cleared, Xing Conglian saw Lin Chen get up.

Lin Chen seemed to be checking something. He stood up with a determined expression, holding a water cup, and walked to another office.

Wang Chao immediately switched the monitoring angle. He watched as Lin Chen walked into the Network Surveillance Department and talked to the police inside. The police officer suddenly became energetic and started tapping on the keyboard. After a while, Lin Chen seemed to have thought of something as he shook his head suddenly, causing the porcelain cup to smash into the ground. The video only had images and no sound. Although they didn’t know what happened, he could guess from Lin Chen’s painful expression that their new discovery must be related to Song Shengsheng’s case.

Lin Chen squatted down, trying to pick up the broken porcelain pieces on the ground, but suddenly he gripped one of them tightly in his palm. He watched as the blood dripped from Lin Chen’s hand, watched as Jiang Chao nervously brought the medical kit, and watched as Lin Chen unconsciously poured disinfectant on his hand.

Lin Chen’s face showed a calmer expression after the pain became numb. Xing Conglian calmed down and said to Wang Chao, “Can you find the file records of that computer? What exactly did they find?”

“Give me a minute!” Wang Chao snapped his fingers and quickly opened one of the documents. The results were horrifying. He finally knew the reason for Lin Chen’s gaffe. The murder motives of Xiang Ye and Meijing turned out to be related to MSC Doctors Without Borders and AIH Insurance.

Xing Conglian raised his head. They were sitting in a Jeep at this moment, and they happened to pass by a huge roadside billboard for AIH Insurance.

When he looked back, Lin Chen was no longer in the video.

“Boss, do you want to keep watching?” Wang Chao tentatively asked.

“Continue,” Xing Conglian said.

“But what are we looking at?”

Xing Conglian recalled the last scene. “Did Jiang Chao take him out?”

“Yes.”

“Switch the monitoring to Yongchuan Second People’s Hospital.”

“Eh?”

“Jiang Chao’s wife is a doctor there. He most likely took Lin Chen there to suture his wound.”

Although Wang Chao was doubtful, he still pulled up surveillance of the hospital. The number of people in the emergency hall was large, which made it difficult to distinguish Lin Chen’s figure in the vast sea of people.

“Boss, do you know what department Lieutenant Jiang’s wife belongs to? Will he directly take A’Chen Gege there for treatment?” Wang Chao asked.

“Neurosurgery,” Xing Conglian replied.

Wang Chao nodded, and the screen switched to a shocking scene.

The corridors of the neurosurgery ward were a mess, and there were security guards surrounding the door of an office. The doctors and patients looked panicked, and Lin Chen…

Lin Chen stood in the corner of the corridor. He took a gun handed over by Jiang Chao and loaded it without hesitation. He walked out of the picture and walked into the office, surrounded by security guards.

“Fuck me, why did that idiot Jiang Chao give A’Chen Gege a gun? Can’t he do this himself!” Wang Chao was so enraged that he couldn’t help but raise his voice. “I’ll try to adjust the camera on the opposite floor to see if I can see this office clearly…”

“Negotiation,” Xing Conglian replied.

Before his voice fell, the screen switched. Sure enough, someone in the office was holding a female doctor hostage with a blade in his hand, and Lin Chen was holding a gun as he slowly walked step by step towards the hostage.

Because of the distance, Xing Conglian couldn’t see Lin Chen’s face clearly, but he only felt that his heart was about to stop beating. In the blink of an eye, Lin Chen decisively drew his gun and shot. Blood splattered everywhere. Wang Chao couldn’t help but yell and cover his eyes.

Xing Conglian couldn’t look away. He kept his eyes open and watched as Lin Chen lowered his hand, as if nothing had happened. He turned around and walked out of the office.

The picture cut back to the corridor again. Lin Chen’s expression was numb, like an old man who was dying. There were many people around him. Whether it was the police who came to deal with the incident or the doctors, nurses, and patients in the hospital, it created a noisy scene. At the moment, Xing Conglian clearly felt that Lin Chen couldn’t perceive what was happening around him. His consciousness had been completely separated from his body, as if he were dead.

He just watched Lin Chen pass through the horrified crowd and be taken into an office.

Because of the reflection of the glass in the other office, they couldn’t see what was going on inside.

Time passed minute by minute. Wang Chao wanted to fast forward, but Xing Conglian stopped him.

There was silence all around, as if he were experiencing a long silent movie. The picture was then fast-forwarded. A group of medical staff rushed from the end of the corridor to the office. When the office door opened, Lin Chen was being carried out on a stretcher.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 170

Hearing this, Jiang Chao pulled him aside. “Bug, Consultant Lin?” Jiang Chao paused, then asked nervously, “This isn’t Xiang Ye’s and Meijing’s group messing around again, is it?”

Lin Chen shook his head. “It doesn’t look like that. Listening to the expressions in their words, it seems to be a typical type I schizophrenia* symptoms. The symptoms are primarily hallucinations and delusions. If he’s not a patient at Yongchuan’s Second People Hospital, then check the recent medical records of Yongchuan Guangwen Hospital.” After he said this, Lin Chen found that there was no response around him. He turned his head only to realize that Wang Chao wasn’t by his side at this time and that no one would give him an immediate answer. He wanted an answer, but conventional investigation methods still required a lot of time, and he was afraid Jiang Chao’s wife wouldn’t have that much time.

*Schizophrenia is categorized by various types. Type I schizophrenia is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and formal thought disorder, with a presumed underlying dopaminergic dysfunction.

“Is he mentally ill?” When Jiang Chao heard this, he became even more nervous. “Then wouldn’t my wife be in more danger? Do you want to enter the negotiation right away? But talking to a mentally ill person may not be all that useful!” As Jiang Chao was speaking, he thought of something, took out his Bluetooth headset from his pocket, and handed it over. “The special police should arrive within 10 minutes. Wear this headset so we can communicate.”

Looking at the oval Bluetooth headset handed over by Jiang Chao, Lin Chen refused. “The hostage-taker suspects that he has a bug in his head, so he’ll be afraid of something that looks similar.” After he said this, Lin Chen took out his phone and called Jiang Chao’s number. Jiang Chao pressed the answer button subconsciously. “We’ll use our phones. You can hear the conversation between me and the hostage-taker.”

“But Consultant Lin, how should we coordinate our actions?”

“Two plans. First, wait for the special forces to get the micro-headsets. Second, I’ll go in first.” Lin Chen glanced out the window. The building opposite the hospital was covered with a navy-blue glass curtain wall. “At that time, the sniper positions of the special forces should be placed on the upper floor of that building. The telephone communication may have poor sound quality, but you should be able to see me from there.”

“But you don’t have binoculars. You won’t be able to see us!”

“I don’t need to see you.” While speaking, Lin Chen walked towards the office entrance and made a secret gesture to Jiang Chao in the corridor. “When you see this gesture, kill the suspect immediately. Do not hesitate.”

Jiang Chao was taken back. “Please handle with caution. It’s my wife inside. The last time our bureau dealt with a hostage-taking crisis, a police officer shot and killed the hostage taker but was questioned for his action by the media. In the end, the officer was reprimanded.”

Lin Chen knew Jiang Chao was reminding him for his own good, so he replied seriously, “If you choose to appoint me as an expert in negotiation, then please trust my judgment in this matter on whether to kill the hostage taker or not.”

Jiang Chao nodded and stopped talking.

“Please give me a gun,” Lin Chen said. “Just in case.”

Jiang Chao was stunned again.

Suddenly, the hostage-taker roared in the office. “What are you holding in your hand? Put it down! Put it down!”

“Hurry up!” Lin Chen urged.

Jiang Chao immediately took out his gun and handed it over.

Lin Chen patted Jiang Chao on the shoulder and loaded the pistol. “Please rest assured. I am a professional, and I will rescue your wife.”

Jiang Chao was still as nervous as before, but when he heard this, his eyes suddenly flushed, and he nodded vigorously.

Lin Chen turned and walked to the neurosurgery office, surrounded by a circle of security guards at the front of the entrance.

After he approached, he discovered that it was the walkie-talkie in the hand of the security captain that stimulated the hostage-taker. The walkie-talkie would make noises from time to time, which frightened him.

He patted the security captain on the shoulder, showed his ID, and said, “I am Lin Chen, a psychology consultant for the police. I will be in charge of this negotiation. Take your people and withdraw immediately.”

His voice wasn’t loud enough for the encircled security guards to hear clearly. At this moment, the hostage-taker by the window also realized he was there.

“Who are you? Go away! Go away! All of you, go away!” the hostage-taker shouted.

The security guards withdrew one after another. Lin Chen took a step forward and finally saw the appearance of the kidnapper clearly.

What was different from his imagination was that it looked like a social elite around 40 years old. He was still wearing his business suit and an ash-colored plaid tie. His hair was combed back and held with gel, revealing his forehead. Although his clothes were messy, his entire body looked shiny and smooth. The only thing that didn’t match his entire outfit was the long-handled watermelon knife in his hand. The blade was stuck to the neck of a white-robed female doctor. That should be Mrs. Jiang.

Lin Chen nodded at the other party. Although the tables and chairs in the office were overturned and looked chaotic, Mrs. Jiang didn’t seem panicked. She had her hands in her pockets and looked extremely calm.

“Negotiator?” she asked.

“I’m Lin Chen,” he replied.

Lin Chen saw Mrs. Jiang’s eyes light up. She wanted to say something else, but at this moment, the hostage-taker became manic again when he heard them speaking. He used the watermelon knife and pressed it against Mrs. Jiang’s neck and angrily said, “Who let you talk?! Who?!”

Lin Chen looked at the watermelon knife, then scanned the office again, but he didn’t find anything like a briefcase. The hospital security guards were neither blind nor stupid. It was impossible to miss a mentally ill person wielding a watermelon knife without stopping him. This showed that the “elite” in front of him used some special method to bring in the knife.

Lin Chen frowned. The other party showed obvious criminal intent, organizational behavior, and even certain concealment, which was somewhat inconsistent with the symptoms of patients with schizophrenia.

Only then did he realize that the current situation in the office could have some problems compared with his previous speculation.

He looked at the clock. Two minutes had passed.

“Sorry, I was just confirming the safety of the hostage,” he said to the hostage-taker. “I am the police negotiator in charge of this negotiation. My name is Lin Chen. You can tell me anything you want. I will try my best to meet your requirements.”

“Negotiator? You’re not here to negotiate with me. I don’t want to talk to you. It’s you police who put it in my head. I know you’re here to kill me!” The hostage-taker stuck the blade together to Mrs. Jiang’s neck. “Back, back, back to the door.”

Lin Chen was unmoved. His tone changed as he said sternly, following the words of the hostage-taker, “Since you’re clear that we police installed a bug, then you should know that only we can take it out. If I leave now, you won’t be able to take that thing out for the rest of your life.”

“You’re threatening me. Believe it or not, I’ll kill someone and then commit suicide. I’ll commit suicide!”

“I advise you to cooperate with the police.” While Lin Chen was talking, he took two more steps forward. The hostage-taker backed away again and was forced to take a position close to the window. “We all know what you’re thinking. You can’t escape.”

“Don’t come closer!” The hostage-taker exerted force on his hand, causing Mrs. Jiang to groan in pain. Traces of blood finally appeared on her neck.

Although her life was threatened, Mrs. Jiang was still calm and composed. Lin Chen could clearly see that at the moment when a trace of blood appeared on her neck, Mrs. Jiang narrowed her eyes and shook her head slightly at him.

Of course, the chief doctor of the neurosurgery department also had the ability to judge and identify schizophrenia. Lin Chen thought that Mrs. Jiang had already noticed something.

He looked at the time again. It would take five or six minutes for the special forces to arrive at the fastest. He was afraid it would be too late.

Upon seeing this, he pretended to be successfully intimidated. He backed away again and said to the hostage-taker, “Since I can’t come closer, can I back up?”

The hostage-taker breathed a sigh of relief, then quietly looked out the window.

Lin Chen said, “You’re really the smartest subject I have ever seen. When did you find out that we installed a bug in your head?”

“Half a month ago. I heard your secret call. You said that you want to control me and steal our company’s secrets!” While speaking, the hostage-taker began to beat his head violently with his hands.

“But…” Lin Chen smiled slightly. “We installed a bug in your head, not a microphone. How can you hear us?”

Hearing this, the hostage-taker was obviously stunned. His eyes rolled slightly, then he suddenly raised his voice and said nervously, “Radio waves. I can receive your radio waves!”

“Your ability is really beyond my imagination,” Lin Chen mocked.

At this moment, he saw the window on the opposite side finally open. Jiang Chao had poked his head out. Even though he couldn’t see Jiang Chao’s expression, he was pretty sure that if he were wearing a Bluetooth headset at this moment, Jiang Chao would probably be desperately telling him not to irritate the hostage-taker.

Lin Chen withdrew his gaze, spread his hands, and comforted him. “But, if we want to take away the bug, we have to operate on you, and the neurosurgeon you’re holding hostage is the best neurosurgeon in this hospital. How about you let Director Li go and we take you for surgery?”

“No, no, no!” The hostage-taker moved another step back and finally sat on the window. “Don’t lie to me. You can take it out as you put it in. If I let this woman operate on me, how will I know you’ll really take it out or you might just kill me on the operating table!”

“That makes sense.” Lin Chen nodded. He put his hand in his pocket and took a few steps forward. “Okay, then I’ll help you take the thing out now, okay?”

Before the hostage-taker could speak again, Lin Chen quickly took out the gun from his pocket.

The moment the hostage-taker saw the gun, there was an obvious moment of shock.

“We usually inject it with a hand-held gun. If you shoot yourself in the head, the bug will be destroyed, and you’ll no longer be under our control.”

He held the handle of the gun, pointed the muzzle towards the hostage-taker’s position, and looked at him.

There was a moment of hesitation in the eyes of the elite.

Lin Chen was getting closer to the hostage-taker. He made a gesture to hand over the gun, and the hostage-taker also stretched out his hand suspiciously.

However, at the moment the other party’s hand was about to touch the gun, he clearly saw an extremely fierce look in the eyes of the hostage-taker, and the silver blade swung in an instant. Lin Chen grabbed the other party violently and pulled the trigger decisively, shooting the elite in the temple.

……

Within about three minutes after he shot, he felt that the person who died was him. His thinking and consciousness seemed to be detached from his body and dissolved into the surrounding environment.

Lin Chen didn’t know whether he was standing, sitting, or kneeling, or whether the color of his sight was blood red or dark black. It took a long time for screaming, vomiting, and whispering to return, but those sounds were very indistinct to him. The gunfire caused severe tinnitus. His eardrums were ringing, and he was in a state of confusion.

But when he could feel pain, it meant that he was alive.

Lin Chen shook his hands gently, and then realized that his resilience was stronger than he thought. He began to be able to see the bloody wound in his palm that was shaken by the recoil of the gun. It had opened up and was bloody and disgusting.

He looked around. Surrounded by snow-white walls that had posters of things like human anatomy diagrams and operation instructions pasted on them, he realized that he seemed to be sitting in some kind of office.

The sound of running water from a water dispenser bucket sounded. Lin Chen looked around and found a lady pouring water. After he looked carefully, he found that it was the hostage that he had rescued just now.

“Consultant Lin, drink some water first.”

Mrs. Jiang put one hand in her pocket and walked towards him, holding a paper cup.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

The beautiful and strong lady nodded. “Thank you for saving me, but I feel that your problem seems to be more serious than mine.”

Lin Chen took the water cup. The smell of blood coming from him made it impossible for him to swallow anything. “Sorry.”

So he held the water but didn’t drink it. The temperature from his palm made him recover gradually, and he found himself covered with a thin blanket at some point.

At this moment, the door to the office was pushed open. Before he could see the figure clearly, Jiang Chao’s voice came ringing in his ears. “Consultant Lin, that was too dangerous just now. Thank God for your quick action!”

Although he usually felt that Jiang Chao occasionally talked too much, such a familiar voice now sounded extremely warm.

“Mm,” he said lightly.

“I thought you would have a good negotiation with him, but I didn’t expect you to provoke him again and again. This is a bit different from your style.”

“Because I made a mistake in my judgment at the beginning. I’m afraid the hostage-taker target has always been your wife. He just wanted to use schizophrenia to escape legal punishment after murdering your wife.”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 169

All issues pointed directly to AIH, but it still took a lot of time to investigate the true motivations of Xiang Ye and Meijing, which was something they couldn’t rush.

Besides, until now, all they could do was inform AIH to pay attention to financial risk and dissuade Song Shengsheng fans from attending large-scale gatherings. In addition, Lin Chen couldn’t think of what else they could do in this short time.

After the inquiry work was over, Jiang Chao forcibly drove him to the Second People’s Hospital next to Yongchuan’s Second Bureau. According to Vice Captain Jiang, his beautiful wife worked in the neurosurgery department. Naturally, a wound suture like his wouldn’t need the deputy chief physician of neurosurgery to address it, so Lin Chen went to the urgent care department by himself.

The one who stitched up his wound was a young doctor. As soon as Jiang Chao sent him to the treatment room, he slipped away under the pretext of buying water.

Lin Chen suspected he was just taking this opportunity to greet the leader of his family, but a good relationship between husband and wife was still enviable.

He sighed softly and suddenly heard the doctor ask, “How did you get hurt?”

Lin Chen was distracted and was just about to speak when the doctor poured hydrogen peroxide to wash his wound. This was probably the standard procedure for the hospital, but the disinfectant was so painful that he couldn’t even scream.

“Cut myself on porcelain pieces,” he reluctantly replied.

“Ah, it’s pretty bad,” the doctor said as she began to use a soft brush to clean up the debris that might still be stuck in his wound.

It still hurt. Compared to this doctor’s skills to Xing Conglian’s, Xing Conglian’s could be considered gentle.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked at the two scars on his arm. The knife wounds had healed, and new flesh had grown out. Some of the red scab hadn’t yet fallen off, and it was mixed with the white of his skin, looking a bit off putting.

Most likely, it was because he was looking at the knife wound on his arm that the doctor also looked over. The doctor then raised her voice as she asked, “What do you do?”

Lin Chen thought for a while and answered truthfully. “I do consulting work for the police.”

The doctor breathed a sigh of relief and said, “No wonder. I thought you looked too gentle, and this didn’t seem like it was due to a fight.” She paused, picked up the needle and thread with tweezers, and prepared to sew his wound. “Police work is very dangerous.”

Lin Chen nodded and said nothing more.

At this moment, there was a sudden noise outside the room. The door wasn’t closed, so the sound floated in from the corridor. A team of security guards were running through the halls, causing all the surrounding patients to stare.

Lin Chen frowned. At the same time, his phone suddenly rang.

The ominous premonition in his heart became stronger. The doctor was busy stitching up his wound, so he glanced at the other party and picked up the phone with his other hand.

Jiang Chao’s anxious voice came from the other end. “Consultant Lin, Consultant Lin!” There was an easily detectable tremor in his voice.

“I’m here. What’s wrong?”

“My wife is being held hostage with a knife on the fifth floor in the neurosurgery department. Can you be a negotiator?”

The clinic room was too quiet, so Jiang Chao’s words were easily heard by the doctor. “What… How could this happen?!” the doctor said anxiously.

“I’ll be there soon.” After Lin Chen finished speaking, he hung up the phone. “Cut the thread,” he said to the young doctor.

……

10,000 kilometers away in the Republic of Angodo, which was adjacent to the Dana Rainforest, Xing Conglian was looking at the Xazi Mountains to the southwest. Thick, dark clouds covered the mountain tops, and the entire Dana Valley seemed to be shrouded in a humid shadow of death.

Of course, the so-called shadow of death was just his inner thoughts. After all, since he was sitting in a small bar hundreds of kilometers outside the rainforest and witnessing mercenaries with live ammunition wandering around outside, it would bring him an inexplicable sense of displeasure. He had been away from such a life of gunfire and explosions for too long, and now he had just returned to his old job, so it was inevitable that he would need time to adapt.

The lights in the bar were dim. Unlike the luxurious bars in developed countries, Dana’s bars only needed to provide three things: alcohol, sex, and, of course, drugs. These three things were also the most common payment methods here, besides gold. Piles of beer were stacked behind the bar, and the wooden shelves were filled with spirits in simple packaging. A kerosene lamp was the only light source in this bar. The decorations in the bar were all ivory, and the precious ivory was crudely carved. Seeing the precious ivory being roughly carved and hung on the wall so casually, Xing Conglian only felt pain.

Across from him sat the owner of the bar named Garstini. Garstini meant python in Dana, which wasn’t a good word. Usually, bars were always equipped with beautiful and flirtatious proprietresses and tough thugs, but the rules in Dana were different. The owner of the bar was a mighty and majestic Gaomeng man with a shaved head and mustache, which didn’t match his body shape, while his bodyguard was a thin girl who wasn’t any taller than 1.6 meters. Xing Conglian’s gaze swept over the muscle lines of the female bodyguard as well as the guns fixed with black belts to her arms, waist, and thighs. It was clear that a woman who could survive in Dana must be extraordinary.

Behind him, Kang An put down his backpack, took out three gold bars from it carelessly, and patted them on the table.

Gold touched people’s hearts, and it didn’t need any verbal guidance. The bright color emitted by the gold alone made the idle mercenaries outside the window look over subconsciously. The soldiers showed a malicious, bloodthirsty gaze, but when they saw the Gaomeng man sitting across from them, they quickly narrowed their gaze, changed from a jackal to a wilting mole, and left bitterly.

The bar owner also retracted his gaze from out the window. The interesting actions of the mercenaries obviously satisfied his vanity. He glanced at the gold on the table again; his eyes revealing clear satisfaction, but he said, “Boss Xing, usually this amount is enough, but now, it’s not.”

Xing Conglian had fought many times with the most cunning people from the Gaomeng tribe in Dana for a long time, so he didn’t say a word but looked back at Kang An. In the short time he stood up, Mr. Kang had already stuffed the gold bars back into his backpack.

The next moment, the boss’ female bodyguard drew her gun and pointed the muzzle at Xing Conglian’s chest. Xing Conglian lowered his head slightly and glanced at the slender woman in front of him, avoided the muzzle indifferently, and continued to walk out.

“Stop!” he heard the female bodyguard shout in the Gaomeng language.

Before her voice fell, Kang An had already grabbed the bodyguard’s gun with lightning speed and pulled the trigger.

The bullet passed through the woman’s ear and shot out the window. The floor-to-ceiling window of the bar cracked in response, and the glass shattered. The bar owner hugged his head in despair, but his bare head was still pierced by some of the glass fragments.

Xing Conglian couldn’t help but glare at Kang An and scold, “Why are you so violent?”

“Boss, I… This is not… I… got angry when I saw her pointing the gun at you!” Mr. Kang shouted righteously.

Xing Conglian didn’t say anything else to Kang An. He pointed to the stool at the other table and motioned for Kang An to bring him another one.

He sat down opposite the bar owner again. Although the situation had reversed, the bald Gaomeng man still raised his head. “Boss Xing, I’m afraid it’s not good for you to be so violent at my place, right?”

“I can do as I want. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Xing Conglian glanced at the wound on the top of the other man’s head as he spoke casually.

“Even if you kill me, I can still guarantee that neither you nor your subordinates will be able to get out of this area safely.”

“I’m here to buy things, not kill people. Are you Gaomeng people so delusional?”

Hearing what he said, the owner seemed to have misunderstood. He slammed the table heavily and said arrogantly, “You don’t have the attitude of buying things. Double the price or there will be no discussion!”

Doing business in this kind of three-way zone was so troublesome.

Businessmen had no integrity, and they would never negotiate if they could grasp it clearly.

Xing Conglian leaned back in his chair and glanced at the young man who had been hiding in the corner.

Wang Chao swallowed and emerged from the shadows timidly. “Boss, can you not speak with such harsh words?”

Xing Conglian knocked on the armrest impatiently, causing Wang Chao to bow his head to the bar owner and look like a meat mountain. He spoke in fluent Gaomengnese. “Hello, Mr. Moda Nar. I am the chief secretary, attendant, and sidekick of Boss Xing. I’m ordered by my boss to inform you that your eldest son, who’s studying finance in Italy, and your younger son, who’s in his sophomore year of high school, are under our control. We know that you have lost your fertility due to an infectious disease, so the two of them are your only offspring. If my great boss and his two subordinates can’t reach your tribal settlement smoothly, you can say goodbye to your family.” As he said this, he took out his phone and brought up two candid photos. Two equally majestic and might Gaomeng teenagers appeared on the phone screen.

The face of the bar owner turned blue at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Xing Conglian let out a low cough. Wang Chao hurriedly put away his phone, bowed, and said, “I sincerely wish your family all the best.”

The laws of the jungle were as such. Unreasonable people could live longer than reasonable ones.

After Wang Chao retreated, the bar owner, who was the second son of a distant cousin of the leader of the Gaomeng tribe, quickly changed tune. His eyes were full of anger, but his mouth was as sweet as honey. “Handsome Boss Xing, the son of Qi Naer of the Gaomeng tribe, is willing to help.” While speaking, he clapped his hands and said to his bodyguard, “Kanachal, go get my most expensive wine. I want to have a drink with our most distinguished guest.”

The moment the bar owner bowed his head and softened his attitude, his bodyguard instantly turned into a tender little woman.

Hearing that she was going to get the wine, the woman with muscles as hard as iron gave him a meaningful look, then swayed her figure and walked towards the bar.

The owner of the bar spoke again. “Honorable Boss Xing, it’s not that I don’t want to lead the way for you, it’s just that today’s rainforest isn’t like yesterday’s. The god of the rainforest has sent down a punishment from heaven. Anyone who trespasses will not be spared.”

Hearing this, before Xing Conglian could speak, Wang Chao said “so stupid” behind him.

Fortunately, Wang Chao spoke Chinese. Otherwise, if the Gaomeng man heard this, they would most likely have another fight.

Xing Conglian narrowed his eyes slightly, leaned back in his chair, and asked, “Can you tell me specifically what this ‘divine punishment’ is?”

The bar owner trembled. He leaned over quietly and said gloomily, “It’s death.”

“There has to be a way to die or some form of death?”

“No one knows. No one knows… The world falls into madness, and dead bodies pile up like mountains. Ashes will be everywhere, and even the Xazi Mountains will turn snow-white.” The bar owner clutched his chest devoutly, closed his eyes, and recited, “This is a prophecy—a prophecy of the end of the rainforest.”

When the Gaomeng people talked about things like death, they revered it as mysterious and mystical. Xing Conglian curled his lips, but Kang An and Wang Chao were visibly nervous.

“Boss!” Kang An grabbed the shoulders of his shirt tightly.

Xing Conglian thought for a moment and frowned. “What does madness mean? Does it mean that many people in the forest have gone crazy and disappeared? And what does it mean that corpses are burned to ashes? Did the Gaomeng people give up on burial?”

The bar owner closed his eyes tightly and kept his mouth shut, refusing to say another word.

When Xing Conglian wanted to press the issue, a sweet female voice came from his side.

“Distinguished sir, your drink.”

The bodyguard put down the wine tray, and there were two glasses of pure black spirits in the goblet. Before he could react, the woman took one of the glasses and turned around to sit on his lap.

The other party hooked his neck, pressed on his shoulders with her plumb breasts, and gently rubbed her ass between his legs.

The owner of the bar laughed loudly. “Mr. Xing, my Kanachal rarely likes someone. You might as well stay a little longer. I’ll let her accompany you. I guarantee that her skills in bed are some of the best in Dana.”

Xing Conglian looked at the woman snuggled in his arms. He looked into her amber eyes and said lightly, “Get off.”

His words were straightforward. The woman in his arms leaned back, spilling half of the spirits in the goblet and splashing it on his snow-white shirt. Xing Conglian looked at the stain on his chest and said coldly, “Don’t make me say it again.”

The woman who had been softened into a puddle of spring water instantly turned back into a tough female bodyguard. She slammed the goblet down so hard that Xing Conglian suspected she would pull a gun from somewhere on her body and shoot him in the head.

But he didn’t care about it. He bypassed the spilled glass of wine, picked up the glass belonging to the bar owner, and took a big sip.

The strong wine was extremely spicy. Mixed with the long, wet breeze from the window, Xing Conglian let the wine pass through his mouth. Such a strong taste made him think of Lin Chen when he kissed him hard. He could clearly feel Lin Chen’s hot body under his shirt, as if it were about to burn.

He looked at the liquid in the cup as deep as night. The dark color was like Lin Chen’s beautiful eyes.

He suddenly wanted to recklessly take Lin Chen to his side, in spite of everything. He didn’t know how Lin Chen was doing; whether he would encounter new dangers in dealing with the follow-up issues, and he didn’t even know if that idiot Huang Ze would harass Lin Chen again while he was away. Simply put, the reason he wanted Lin Chen to be here was only because he needed him to, not because Lin Chen needed his protection or for some other reason. This kind of thing that was beyond his reach and seemed to be out of his control hadn’t happened to him for many years.

In the distance, sporadic crossfire sounded, and further away, was the sound of mortars.

Xing Conglian sighed. He certainly couldn’t bring Lin Chen.

In a field of glass ballast, amidst the sound of gunfire, he took another sip of wine. He subconsciously looked to the southwest, but his vision was obscured by the Xazi Mountains.

‘I hope you are well in my absence,’ he thought as he gently set down the goblet of pure black liquid.

……

While Xing Conglian was wishing him well, Lin Chen’s situation wasn’t good.

This wasn’t because he was forced to cut the suture short and rush up to the fifth floor after he just got stitches, nor was it because of the hostage situation he had to deal with that involved Jiang Chao’s wife, but because the hostage-taking situation itself was far worse than he imagined.

Although Vice Captain Jiang Chao was already as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, urging him to enter the neurosurgery doctor’s office to start the negotiations, Lin Chen stubbornly stood outside, listening in detail to the interns who had just escaped from the office.

There was no Xing Conglian and no Wang Chao, so he didn’t have the invisible wireless headset or surveillance that could be retrieved at any moment. He could only use the most primitive method of inquiry to get a better grasp of the situation.

In front of him, a male intern looked so nervous as if he was about to be overwhelmed.

“Let me sort out my thoughts. Just now, a man with a knife entered the office and just started slashing for no reason. Then he took a hostage at the entrance. Director Li took the initiative to replace herself with the other hostage. The other party followed her suggestion, so now the current hostage is Director Li, right?”

The intern covered his face in shame, and his eyes flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m useless… I… I’m not a man at all. I actually let Director Li take my place… my…”

Lin Chen patted the man on the back and said with relief, “It’s Director Li’s will as your teacher to replace you. We all hope to rescue her smoothly, but only if you can answer my question calmly. First, has the hostage-taker made any demands? What I mean is, has he made it clear what he wants?”

“He… He said someone put a bug in his head and asked us to dig that thing out!” the intern said seriously.

Lin Chen frowned slightly and asked, “So is the hostage-taker a patient you have treated before?”

Several interns looked at each other and couldn’t answer this question for a while.

“I don’t seem to have seen him.”

“Me neither, but I’ve only been here for half a year.”

“Where are the nurses?”

Lin Chen turned his head and asked.

The nurses who were huddled together also shook their heads one after another. “We haven’t seen him before. He’s not a patient in our department!”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 168

The similar malice smelled familiar to Lin Chen.

Once upon a time, someone planned a similar incident in order to play with human nature, arouse the malice of bystanders, and at the same time prove to all the well-meaning people in the world that the ordinary people around you would always be more vicious than you think, and the world was truly bad.

In fact, Lin Chen also thought about the significance of similar games in human nature, but the questions about morality and good and evil in human nature were themselves the ultimate questions for humanity. Countless philosophers, scientists, and psychologists have debated this extensively since ancient times, and with so many people discussing it in their daily lives, it should be meaningful.

However, with Xing Conglian not around, Lin Chen didn’t bother to think too deeply in this direction. He wasn’t engaged in philosophical research. He was just a lovelorn person who was left behind by his crush. Even if he did understand these ultimate questions about mankind, it wouldn’t make Xing Conglian come back a day earlier.

Lin Chen’s mood suddenly faded. He stood up and threw the bloody, broken porcelain in the trash.

Jiang Chao kept yelling in his ears, saying, “This wound is so deep”, “Consultant Lin, you mustn’t”, “Consultant Lin, you have to bandage it”, and so on.

Lin Chen looked back at him and said lightly, “I know. Is there any gauze here? I’ll stop the bleeding first.”

“How can you stop the bleeding? We have to go to the hospital right away.”

Looking at Jiang Chao’s appearance, Lin Chen thought of Xing Conglian. Xing Conglian really knew him.

At the embassy that day, after he finished his interrogation with Li Jingtian, Xing Conglian took him directly to the infirmary for bandage, because he knew he didn’t like hospitals.

But Xing Conglian never pointed this out and embarrassed him; instead, he dealt with it thoughtfully and meticulously.

Lin Chen spread out his hand. He saw the bloody wound on his palm that was cut by the porcelain and felt he was really done for.

He looked back at the police officer, who was tapping on the keyboard quickly after hanging up the phone, and said to Jiang Chao, “I think the result will come out soon, so it’s fine to go later.”

Jiang Chao wasn’t Xing Conglian, so he couldn’t explain to him why he was being so tough. Seeing that he was persistent, Jiang Chao could only nod his head and then immediately run out to get him the medicine box.

Lin Chen sat down next to the computer again and said to the police officer, “AIH Insurance has opened up the inquiry authority for you. Why is this so simple?”

“I said there might be insurance fraud, so the person in charge got nervous. Speaking of which, Consultant Lin, why do you think these criminals wanted to murder fans for insurance? Could it be that all the fans have listed the same beneficiary? Then isn’t it easy for us to find out who that beneficiary is?”

Lin Chen thought for a moment, then replied, “Assuming there’s a common beneficiary—let’s call him Mr. A—how can we prove that Mr. A planned the fire at the Christine Cultural Center? You can’t just say he was going to kill people and defraud the insurance because he’s the beneficiary, right?’

“Then let’s dig deep into the relationship between Meijing, Xiang Ye, and the beneficiary, Mr. A. There will be clues.”

Lin Chen shook his head and said, “First, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult for you to find empirical evidence. Second, I think when you find the relationship, it’s very likely you’ll dig up a huge criminal network. At that time, you must pay attention to your personal safety.”

“Don’t scare me.” The police officer was a little terrified.

“I’m being serious.” Lin Chen patted the police officer’s shoulder. “But don’t be afraid. There are many people around you, including me.”

The police officer let out a laugh that was as absentminded as Jiang Chao. “It’s okay. I’m not afraid of death.”

Lin Chen lowered his head and smiled, patted the other’s head, but didn’t speak again.

The computer issued a notification that the calculation was over, and the policeman hurriedly turned his head. Lin Chen followed suit. Colorful contents appeared on the comparison form. Although he couldn’t sort it out, he still understood something based on the increasingly frightened expression of the police officer.

Seeing that the police officer finally pushed the keyboard away and turned his head to look over in a daze, Lin Chen asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Consultant Lin, the direction you mentioned seems to be correct. It’s very likely that the fire set by Xiang Ye and Meijing was really for insurance,” he said as he held down the form and dragged it to the middle position. “There are three groups of insurance beneficiaries in the same situation. The first group should be a pair of sisters, and the beneficiary should be their own mother. The second group should be a couple whose beneficiary should be their own daughter. The last group is the most suspicious. There are 21 fans who filled out the personal accident insurance for a Doctors Without Borders* organization.”

*A charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It’s a non-governmental organization of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases.

“Doctors Without Borders?” Lin Chen was surprised. “Can a beneficiary be an organization?”

The police officer took a deep breath, then said, “It depends on the type of insurance, but since the beneficiary is listed here, it means that AIH Insurance approved of the purchase.”

Lin Chen nodded. “What you said makes sense, and I’m about to ask a dumb question.” He paused. “I just find it strange why these fans uniformly filled in the beneficiary for Doctors Without Borders…”

As Lin Chen spoke, he set his sights on the full name of the organization: [MSC Doctors Without Borders].

Lin Chen said to the police officer, “Can you calculate the total insurance amount first and then please check the relationship between Song Shengsheng and this organization and whether he has ever called on fans to donate to Doctors Without Borders?”

“Okay, I’ll check right away!” The police officer started to work.

Listening to the clacking of the keyboard, Lin Chen fell into contemplation again.

Could it really be that Meijing intends to murder more than 3,000 people just for the insurance claim of 21? The payoff was hardly proportional to the cost.

“Consultant Lin, I figured it out. Each person had a payout of 1 million, for a total of 21 million.

“US dollars?”

“Ah… The unit is our country’s currency.”

Lin Chen frowned. The amount was beyond his expectations. He was just about to say something when Jiang Chao finally came back with the first aid kit.

Lin Chen took the medicine box and, at the same time, informed Jiang Chao of the results of their investigation just now.

Vice-Captain Jiang patted his knees and said excitedly, “I know this organization. This is the oldest Doctors Without Borders organization in the world. My wife joined this organization before and also participated in a year-long medical aid operation in Africa. How could an organization like Doctors Without Borders scam people? I think it’s unlikely, right?”

Lin Chen nodded again. Jiang Chao’s words actually made sense. There was no reason for a Doctors Without Borders organization to do this. He opened the first aid kit Jiang Chao handed him and casually rummaged through it, looking for something.

Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Jiang Chao began to ramble again. “But this beneficiary unit is too strange. I think there does seem to be a problem with it. I’ll investigate it later. Consultant Lin, what do you think is going on?”

Lin Chen didn’t answer. He opened the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and poured some on his hand nonchalantly. Jiang Chao was dumbfounded. “Consultant Lin, you’re being too rough.”

Lin Chen grimaced in pain, then looked at the technical officer and asked, “Have you found the relationship between Song Shengsheng and MSC?”

The other party nodded and clicked on the news report. “You guessed it right. Mr. Song Shengsheng did donate a lot of money to this MSC organization ten years ago. Although he didn’t directly call on fans to donate to Doctors Without Borders, since he took the initiative to do so, it still made a huge appeal. The so-called insurance beneficiaries may be decided through internal discussion within small fan groups. We won’t know the specific situation until we find these victims and ask them about it.”

“In other words, it may be just coincidence that the beneficiary of the personal accident insurance of the 21 fans is Doctors Without Borders?” The severe pain made Lin Chen sober. He picked up the gauze to wipe the blood from his hand.

“Maybe?” The police officer said, “But 21 people, isn’t this much?”

21 was indeed a clever number. It wasn’t so prominent among the more than 3,000 victims, but it would definitely become a clue for the police. Lin Chen finally realized that what Meijing and Xiang Ye were planning might be far beyond their imagination.

He thought again about the problem that Meijing kept constantly tricking him on the rooftop. Meijing himself wanted to use the revenge theory to cover up the insurance problem of AIH. What if this 21 was also a trap?

Lin Chen wiped away most of the blood clots and then changed the piece of gauze and pressed it on the wound. “First answer me this. Is there a high proportion of Song Shengsheng’s fans who buy AIH Insurance?”

“Among 3,021 people, a total of 1,922 have purchased insurance from AIH. Although I haven’t done a specific difference analysis, this ratio is relatively high.”

“Nearly two-thirds?”

“Correct.”

“So, if we put aside the beneficiaries, it should be AIH Insurance that will suffer the most economic loss if their action was successful.”

“Shit, Xiang Ye and Meijing aren’t trying to bring down AIH, are they?” Jiang Chao said.

Lin Chen frowned. Although Jiang Chao was just asking a rhetorical question casually, Lin Chen felt this might be the answer. “First calculate the total amount of insurance that AIH Insurance needs to pay.”

When the police officer heard this, he stared at him with wide eyes. “That’s probably an astronomical figure. Even if it were 2,000 people at 1 million each, it would total up to 2 billion.”

“Is it enough to bring down AIH?”

Jiang Chao took a deep breath. “Consultant Lin, your speculation is too scary, but AIH is a multinational insurance giant. Compensating such an amount shouldn’t be enough to bankrupt them, right?”

“The total amount is 4.5 billion,” the police officer said.

Jiang Chao almost bit his tongue. “So high?”

“I remember that a certain country once experienced a terrorist attack. The amount of fire insurance claims after the attack directly led to its bankruptcy. The total amount of claims that the company had to pay is about 3.5 billion.”

“But I still don’t think this number can really hurt AIH’s foundation,” Jiang Chao insisted.

“Whether the injury is foundational or not needs to be judged by carefully studying AIH’s financial report. If the company is in a period of internal losses, there may be some problems.” Lin Chen pressed the gauze on his palm tighter. “But I really don’t know anything about financial matters. This is just simple speculation.”

“No, no, your speculation does give us a general direction!” Jiang Chao said with emotion. “Hurry up. I’ll send you to the hospital right away. Don’t get caught up in the sequelae. I can’t have Lao Xing cut me to death!”

Lin Chen barely heard Jiang Chao’s words. He fell into contemplation again, but this time he wasn’t thinking about Xing Conglian, but another thing. Since it took up to ten years to plan behind the scenes for this incident, their purpose couldn’t be just simple revenge or targeting a certain Doctors Without Borders organization. It may not even be that they wanted to bring down a certain multinational insurance company. The three purposes may be mixed together, so what if there was a fundamental purpose that they weren’t aware of?

When thinking of this, Lin Chen felt chills all over again. At the same time, he also felt they were lucky. If the people behind the scenes had made any mistakes in the past ten years, it must be that they chose the wrong person to implement their plan.

Fortunately, Song Shengsheng persisted.

Lin Chen couldn’t help thinking like this. This was really an extremely fortunate outcome, but it was also awfully sad.

He seemed to see that blond young man standing in front of him again, patting his chest proudly, and looking at him with a big smile.Looking at Song Shengsheng’s figure, Lin Chen thought, ‘It’s amazing that you persisted for so many years. Just leave the rest to me.’

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 167

As long as hard work was put in, anyone could make progress quickly.

Lin Chen read dozens of pages of materials again, took advantage of the tea break, and went to the network department. The two police officers inside were working overnight shifts as well. They took turns lying down on the table to rest, as if they couldn’t bear it anymore.

Seeing him push the door and enter, the one who was still awake looked at him blankly as he waved to him.

After all, this wasn’t the police station where he worked, so Lin Chen didn’t know the name of the other party. He could only nod his head and drag a chair over and sit down.

“You’ve worked hard,” he said to the police officer, who was still awake.

“Not as hard as you. How many hours have you not had a good rest? Just look at your face.”

Lin Chen lowered his head and took a sip of tea. Jiang Chao’s subordinates made him speechless, just like him.

But to be honest, since Xing Conglian and Wang Chao left, he really hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. Every time he wanted to close his eyes and rest for a while, countless pictures would flash in front of his eyes, one after another. For a while, it was a picture of Xu Ran being hit, and for a while, it was the scene of Song Shengsheng’s death. In short, those images that left the deepest impression in memory were also the easiest to emerge from the subconscious when the consciousness was relaxed. The one he thought about the most was Xing Conglian.

Lin Chen pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to wake himself up from this bad state.

Only the sound of the computer case was left in the office. The police officer smiled awkwardly a few times, not knowing what to say.

“There hasn’t been any progress so far, right?” Lin Chen held his teacup as he asked.

The other party nodded. “After cross-comparison, all the fans of Mr. Song Shengsheng seem to have nothing in common. Whether it’s age, life experience, locations, and the like, the only thing they have in common is gender.”

“Well, if they want to select victims, they will always use some statistical method to make it less easy for us to find the problem.” Lin Chen thought for a while and suddenly looked up at the police officer in front of him. “There’s another possibility. The personal files stored on the internet are still relatively simple. There should be something that isn’t on the file that’s very important, but we haven’t found it until now.”

“Like what?”

‘That’s a good question.’ Lin Chen fell into contemplation.

There were too many things that weren’t counted in the archives, such as what they bought on Taobao or if they had bought a book today… But the reason why Meijing and Xiang Ye chose Song Shengsheng’s fans was most likely because Song Shengsheng had influence over his fans, and most of the singer’s influence on the fans would be reflected through works and advertising endorsements.

Lin Chen remembered that Wang Chao had once made him a collection of Song Shengsheng’s MVs and advertising works. He patted the police officer next to him on the shoulder and asked the other party to open up his email and bring up the documents Wang Chao had sent.

Then he discovered that because too much time had passed, the files sent by Wang Chao had expired and couldn’t be downloaded.

Lin Chen subconsciously took out his phone, then realized he couldn’t call the teenager now. There would no longer be that sweet voice on the other end of the line.

He looked at the contact number in a daze for a while, until the voice of the police officer next to him called him back.

“I’m sorry. The information has expired, so I have to trouble you to collect it again.”

“Don’t say that. You’ve been helping us.” The other party scratched his head embarrassedly and suddenly said, “Why don’t you just transfer over here?”

Lin Chen was taken aback. He didn’t know where Jiang Chao’s men could come up with such whimsical ideas.

“I’d better not. My original unit is quite good.”

Before he finished speaking, Jiang Chao’s applause suddenly came from the door.

Lin Chen turned his head and saw Vice Captain Jiang clapping his hand twice. He patted his subordinate’s shoulder heavily and said to him, “Seriously, Consultant Lin, you should think about it. Hongjing is a small city. I know you and Lao Xing aren’t the types who pursue higher glory and officialdom, but as you can see, Yongchuan is a big city with a dense population. Criminals especially like to commit crimes here. Besides, don’t worry. You and Lao Xing have solved so many cases together. If Lao Xing is transferred, his rank will probably be just as high as mine.”

Lin Chen sighed inaudibly. He couldn’t tell Jiang Chao that the reason Xing Conglian chose Hongjing was because he wanted to live a less exciting retirement life. But speaking of it, Xing Conglian’s position in his retirement career may have undergone some deviations since he appeared.

“Let’s talk about it when he comes back.” Lin Chen could only evade like so.

“Hey…”

Jiang Chao sighed heavily as he pulled over a chair and sat down beside him. “What are you doing?” He asked the police officer, who was looking at information.

“Consultant Lin gave me a direction. I’m looking for some information.” As he spoke, he looked over again. “Consultant Lin, it will take me some time to find the materials. Would you like to take a break first?”

Lin Chen shook his head and took another sip of tea. “No, I’ll wait for you here.” He paused and then said, “I thought for a while. What Xiang Ye and Meijing planned should be a relatively slow-acting thing. Otherwise, they wouldn’t spend more than ten years waiting. This, of course, is most likely related to Song Shengsheng’s imprisonment. I’m afraid there are reasons for the time I just mentioned.”

“You’re very reasonable, but it really takes some time to check the materials from ten years ago.”

Lin Chen nodded. He rested his head on one hand and thought about the MVs and commercials he had seen. The pictures in his mind were switched frame by frame, and he felt the answer should be obvious, but in the last two days, almost all his thoughts were occupied by Xing Conglian, and any remaining thoughts were distributed to Wang Chao, so there wasn’t much energy to think about the problem.

What Jiang Chao said earlier wasn’t wrong. The real motivation of Xiang Ye and Meijing was an urgent matter, while he had more time to clearly think about the rest.

Thinking of this, the pictures in his mind suddenly stopped.

Song Shengsheng’s appearance in an advertisement appeared before his eyes. At that time, Song Shengsheng was still young. He was wearing a cap and huge sunglasses, and his collar was pulled extremely high, as if he were hiding someone. Subsequently, the ad screen gradually cleared. Lin Chen remembered that it should be in a hospital space. He carefully avoided the doctors and patients passing by, making people think he seemed to be up to no good. After a very thrilling period of time passed, he suddenly opened the door of the ward, then took something from his pocket and sprayed it into the air.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

He shouted.

As the ribbons fell from the sky, everyone in the ward was stunned. At this moment, the first person to react was a little girl lying on the hospital bed. The little girl covered her face and cried, looking very excited.

Song Shengsheng hurried over to hold the little girl in his arms and comforted her, like a prince charming in a fairy tale. He said to her in a gentle tone, “Sorry, my princess. I’m late.”

The subtitles then appeared, which showed: [AIH Insurance. Protecting you for a lifetime.]

A chill ran down his spine, and the porcelain cup in Lin Chen’s hand crashed to the floor.

The police officer lying on the table suddenly straightened up and shouted, “What happened!”

“Consultant Lin, what’s the matter?” The other police officer looked at him worriedly.

“Insurance… Have you checked the insurance of Song Shengsheng’s fans?”

“Yes, most people are on social security, so there are no problems there.”

“I’m not talking about social security. It’s commercial insurance.”

“It’s not in the file, so you have to go to the major insurance companies to compare the lists.”

“You don’t need to go to the major insurance companies. Just go to AIH.”

The police officer nodded. Although he had many doubts on his face, he immediately called the Yongchuan branch of AIH and communicated with the operator on the other end of the line.

Jiang Chao sat aside and listened inexplicably. His face was gloomy as he asked in a low tone, “Consultant Lin, what does this mean? Could it be that Meijing and the others wanted to burn thousands of Song Shengsheng’s fans to defraud the insurance company? Isn’t this something we can find out as soon as we check the beneficiary of the insurance?”

When Jiang Chao was talking, Lin Chen was squatting down to pick up the broken porcelain. Hearing Jiang Chao’s question, he couldn’t help but clench the porcelain in his hand uncontrollably.

No matter which part of AIH Insurance Xiang Ye and Meijing tampered with, using Song Shengsheng’s appeal to induce fans to buy insurance and then kill those fans, the sinister intentions were beyond normal logic. This was more like a ruthless mockery: Look, in the end, it’s not your favorite person who makes you buy things you shouldn’t buy but kills you.

Even though he couldn’t confirm whether it was an insurance issue or not, if Meijing managed to kill Song Shengsheng’s fans in the end, he couldn’t imagine what the public and media would say after learning about it.

And it was only now that he realized what Meijing said. The innocent victims in this fire would become brain dead fans. Many would say that if they didn’t chase stars, they wouldn’t die, so they deserved it.

How many people could clearly realize that there was no necessary causal connection between fans buying goods endorsed by idols and their deaths? It wasn’t Song Shengsheng who killed them; it wasn’t the insurance products that killed them; it was the malice of the forces behind the scenes that killed them.

But how many people who adhere to the true concept of right and wrong would clearly recognize this?

Lin Chen lowered his head and released his hand. His palms were flushed. Jiang Chao gasped violently in front of him but didn’t dare say a word.

Some people would say, “So that’s what happened. Who made them rush to buy things endorsed by idols.”

Some people would say, “I told you before that you shouldn’t buy things endorsed by stars. It’s all a waste of money, but this time it wasn’t just a waste of money but also a waste of life.”

Some people would say, “Maybe Song Shengsheng conspired with his agent to kill fans for money.”

Seeing such a similar statement would make anyone who was kind from the bottom of their hearts despair for human nature—and this was probably what Xiang Ye and Meijing wanted.

He suddenly thought of the question Wang Chao had asked. “Have you ever seen an extremely evil world?”

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