“For your friends’ safety, I have no choice but to invite you to take a walk with me.” It was useless to object as Jiang Chen said this with an unrefusable tone.
Xie Lei’s eyes strained for a moment before his shoulders finally loosened.
“I can go with you, could you give me 10 minutes?”
.
“That depends on what you are going to do with this 10 minutes.”
He took a deep breath as Xie Lei said, “Don’t worry, just leaving a note.”
He thought for a moment, as Jiang Chen didn’t refuse his request, he got a go-ahead gesture.
Seeing Jiang Chen agreed, the teen was relieved and turned around to go upstairs.
Jiang Chen’s hands were in his pocket when he followed the teen up, holding onto a pistol. But the teen didn’t play any tricks with him. He took out the key, opened the old looking door, and walked inside into the room closest to the door.
Xie Lei took out the phone and turned on the flashlight which lit up the small room immediately.
Four desktops, two screens, wires tangled together and connected to unknown electronic equipment.
“Your work?” Jiang Chen was slightly shocked.
“Mhmm.” Xie Lei didn’t seem to want to say anything else about the question as he answered concisely.
He saw that the teen searched on the table for a while before picking up an MP3. It was uncommon to see such an out-of-date device.
He seemed to have opened the voice recording function as he put the MP3 close to his mouth and said.
“Linlin, I am sorry. Brother has to go somewhere really far. Although it is a bit shameless to say this… please forgive your unresponsible brother, I…”
“Are you saying your will?” Jiang Chen laughed.
Xie Lei ignored Jiang Chen as he took a deep breath and continued to say a few more things, such as “take care of yourself” and “the bank password is.”
“Done?” Jiang Chen asked.
Although Jiang Chen felt sympathetic, he didn’t plan on letting him off.
Since he already committed to the act, he must have been mentally prepared for the plan to fail.
Xie Lei nodded as he looked seriously at Jiang Chen, “I’m done. My sister is blind, I hope you don’t hurt her.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t hurt the innocent.”
Without saying anything else, Xie Lei obediently followed Jiang Chen to the car and then to the mansion.
…
The power outage in the community caused quite a commotion. Especially since they found out it was caused by human intervention.
After the security confirmed the safety of every resident, they were surprised to find out there was no thief.
Regardless, it was a good thing that nothing was lost. Since people who lived here were either influential or wealthy. If something did happen, then Wanhua Real Estate’s reputation would suffer major damages.
Therefore, after confirming each household, they categorized this power outage as an accident and did not inform the police.
The power was restored.
At the same time, in the basement of the mansion.
Ayesha crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked expressionlessly at the three people with their hands tied behind their backs. Looking at her cold gaze, Yan Xiaoyan felt her body shake uncontrollably. She had never been so frightened before. The fighting ability she had been so proud of, could not last two moves in front of this girl.
At the time, footsteps came from upstairs.
The iciness in Ayesha’s eyes suddenly melted.
Yan Xiaoyan gulped as she looked with disbelief at the eyes that turned gentle instantly.
“You are back.” Ayesha stood up.
“Mhmm.” Jiang Chen rubbed her head, and then looked at the three people in the basement.
“Lei, how did you-” Yan Xiaoyan couldn’t control her voice. No one revealed his location. How did he get caught?
“I got caught.” Xie Lei revealed a bitter smile as he conscientiously extended both of his hands to Jiang Chen. “Tie me up.”
Jiang Chen glanced at him as he signaled Ayesha to put handcuffs on him. Then he looked at all four of them. “Good. Since all the rats are caught, let’s solve this problem once and for all.”
Then, Jiang Chen took out the truth-telling liquid from his pocket, passed it to Ayesha, and stared at Xie Lei.
“I ask, you answer. If I feel you are lying, then I’ll use the truth-telling liquid.”
The interrogation began. Xie Lei, without resistance, confessed to everything Jiang Chen asked.
First, it was the identities of the four.
Veteran, unemployed military fanatic, female sports university student, and Xie Lei, the high school dropout hacker.
Xie Lei was quite impressive in his ability. Known as Green Bird, he placed third place within the Han Hacker Alliance. The most impressive achievement was hacking into an unscrupulous organization’s server for two years consecutively and raising the flag on its homepage.
Usually, he lived off of commission by completing missions for hire.
Because of one mistake, a hacker called Black Tiger obtained his identity which directly ended his brief career. Then he became the money making tool of Black Tiger. The missions he accepted began to leave the boundary of the law.
He was not afraid of going to jail, but what worried him most was his blind sister.
If Black Tiger revealed his information, he would definitely be in there for quite a long time. He could not imagine, without him, how his sister would survive.
After feeling conflicted for a long time, he decided to take this risk along with his three good friends. He decided to plan and execute a kidnap.
Unfortunately, it failed.
“You guys are great friends. He asked you guys to kidnap, and you guys agree? Would you guys murder people if he asked you to?” Jiang Chen looked mischievously at the three as he laughed.
Zhao Chang retracted his neck, frightened by Jiang Chen’s look, but Lu Dahu seemed clam.
Then, Jiang Chen looked at the university student named Yan Xiaoyan.
“You? Seeing that your boyfriend is in trouble, you could risk going to jail for him?”
Yan Xiaoyan blushed. Just as she was about to argue they were only childhood sweetheart, Xie Lei interrupted.
“I already told you everything I needed to tell you. I am willing to take full responsibility as long as you let my friends go.” After he finished, Xie Lei slowly lowered his head and kneeled on the ground.
Everyone held their breath.
Hearing that, Yan Xiaoyan wanted to defend for him, but she quickly realized that she had no excuse to do so.
Including herself, they were all criminals.
Jiang Chen expressionlessly overlooked Xie Lei.
“Do you think you have the right to discuss terms with me?”
“No.” Xie Lei lowered his head.
After a brief silence, Jiang Chen suddenly began laughing.
“Although this comical gong show did not cause me any material losses, that doesn’t mean I am openminded enough to let you go consequence free. But considering you were under the threat of someone else, I can give you a chance.”
“I am willing to accept as long as you let my friends go.”
“Lei…” Yan Xiaoyan looked at Xie Lei with tears in her eyes.
“Oh? Are you not going to ask what it is before accepting?”
“I will accept anything… This is my own fault. I don’t want to trouble my friends anymore,” Xie Lei took a deep breathe as he said calmly.
Hearing that, Jiang Chen nodded, looking rather pleased.
“Since you have agreed, then your request is easy. After everything is done, your friends can leave.”
Jiang Chen paused as he asked lightheartedly.
“How do you usually communicate with Black Tiger. By phone?”