Silent Reading

TL by QuantumC

6.21.2020

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The Zhou's official website collapsed. And almost at the same time, Lang Qiao arrested the video uploader. Meanwhile, the net police were racing time to locate the email senders who provided the video.

However, this also meant that the delicate balance between the police and the abductors was knocked off, because their only line of communication was cut off.

The whole realm of the internet was filled with scouting tentacles that flowed along the current of gossips.

At that moment, Zhou Junmao was no longer a person. His past life has become an open book where each and every punctuation had been officially published, standing nakedly in front of the public gaze to be savored, judged, and commented on --

"Backed by solid evidence: the real identity of the Zhou's bastard."

"Zhou Junmao and his mistresses: stories you don't know."

"Zhou's stock price plummeted at opening today: implication of difference in rules and regulations between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets."

"The vanishing partner: investigating on the other early-deceased founding figure of the Zhou's Enterprise."

"Other used name: Zhou Dalong -- check out the success story of the slum-dog millionaire."

"Zhou Junmao's late wife was actually the widow of his cousin? Discussing the famous wives in history."

"The killing of a father by his illegitimate son -- Let's talk about the mysterious Oedipus Complex."

...

The likes of these topics flooded every corner of the internet. There was absolutely no way to delete them in time, except perhaps to censor the word "Zhou" and expel if from the list of surnames.

The words "0:00" flickered on the kidnappers' final countdown screen. With the arrest of Heng Da's shit stirrer band, the kidnappers stopped sending new messages. Ominous silence tortured everyone's nerve.

Countless eyes were fixated on the lifeless screen.

Luo Wenzhou almost lifted Yang Bo's driver off the ground by his collar: "Sneaking things right under the nose of the police...Bravo, it's been years since I last saw such a ballsy suspect. My friend, you have some gall!"

The driver was a thirty-some-year-old, plain looking individual whose face and demeanors don't attract attention. He entered the room together with Yang Bo, but in such a long time no one took notice of him at all.

Suddenly being singled out, the driver's shaking legs almost couldn't withstand his own weight anymore: "I...I...I didn't do anything...I was...just posting a Weibo message..."

"Posting with a newly registered account? In argot? Who is your intended reader?" Luo Wenzhou handcuffed him brusquely, "Were you writing a diary online, or expressing your feelings to the air?"

Fei Du hurried to back off so he wouldn't obstruct Captain Luo from using his hands in full-fledge. He shook his head in sympathy: "I know, the person you take orders from is right in this house. He might even be watching you right now. But think twice about it, Mister, if something worse happens to Zhou Huaijin, what you're doing here will take on a whole new meaning. What could this person possibly have promised you to make you sell out your life? "

Before his last sentence even finished, someone on the side yelled, "Captain Luo, a new video!"

Luo Wenzhou: "..."

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As soon as he said the words "something worse", the new video came. This Fei Du is such a jinx. If only he could sew those "beaks of crow" (1) together, he might as well be able to grind an iron rod into a needle (2).

(1) crow beaks refer to someone who always makes misfortunate forecasts and they always turn out to be true.

(2) this saying refers to something that's very very difficult, almost impossible to achieve.

Now without the tech support of Heng Da, the abductors seemed to be at the end of their wits. They uploaded the fourth video in such a haste.

This time the video was only less than a minute long. The camera was very shaky, and it even caught the profile view of another man. He was obviously one of the kidnappers. He was covered by dark fabrics from head to toe and not even a single strain of hair could be seen. The camera man held the machine in one hand and focused it at his other hand -- the hand that held a large chopper intended for severing pork ribs.

Zhou Huaijin curled himself up desperately. The panic in his voice was so discernible that it had almost taken forms: "I don't know, I'm not familiar with the Asian branch. My father and Zheng were in charge. I really don't know anything about the charity funds...Don't come close, stop...Don't...Ahhhhh!"

At that moment, another distorted voice came from the accomplice, urging: "Hurry! Stop the filming. The cops are very quick!"

But the camera and chopper - holding kidnapper ignored him, and slowly raised his chopper.

Zhou Huaijin struggled like a fish on the cutting board, and somehow managed to get on his feet despite legs being tightly tied to the chair. Staggering, he tried to back away from the knife, but stumbled on something and lost his balance. The poor young master didn't have a particularly bright cerebellum. He screeched and fell sideways out of the camera view.

Meanwhile, together with his falling, the camera shook vigorously as if the kidnapper had charged.

Luo Wenzhou included, everyone's heart sank to the bottom.

In the next moment the camera became steadier again. They saw that because of his falling, Zhou Huaijin barely missed the chopper. It fell instead onto the wall of the van. Following a loud "Bang!" the black plastic film was slashed apart. It surely was ready to chop Zhou Huaijin into pieces.

The kidnapper made a "tut-tut" sound, seemingly in regret for his miss.

His accomplice asked anxiously: "Come On! Are you done already?!"

Luo Wenzhou quickly raised one hand trying to cut off Fei Du's line of sight from the scene --

"No, wait! Wait!! I confess...You're right! You are completely right!" Zhou Huaijin was too panicked to pick his words.

The knifed kidnapper heard it and paused, his head slightly tilted.

The antsy accomplice cursed something, then turned to push open the door of the van. A light shined through and fell on Zhou Huaijin's dejected face.

The bright sunlight blinded him. He helplessly toiled on the ground, while continuing breathlessly: "There are thr...three charity funds domestically. One of them is normal, the other two are cover-ups for money laundering and tax evasion. There are many loopholes in the regulation of international fund transfer and it will be difficult to track. But I promise that what I said is true! What else do you want to know? I will tell you everything!"

The kidnapper waited patiently for him to finish, then nodded his head in satisfaction. However, the next moment, he suddenly raised the knife and chopped down.

"Ahhhh!!!!"

A bloodcurdling scream followed from the video. Then, before the worried audience was able to make out what was going on, the whole van jolted wildly into motion, and the video abruptly ended.

Fei Du tapped on the back of Luo Wenzhou's hand, then turned to the handcuffed driver and shrugged: "See, what did I say?"

The driver was so shocked and scared that he was on the brink of passing out. But Luo Wenzhou would never give him the chance. He clamped his neck to bring him closer and shook him violently: "I'll ask you one last time: who are you working for? If you keep lying, then you'll be the main culprit."

The driver's eyeballs wandered frantically. Utterly stupefied, he stuttered: "I...I..."

Luo Wenzhou suddenly let go of him, and ordered loudly: "Check his personal account, bank accounts, relatives, including kids. Check all of his recent contacts and his social networks -- I'll be damned..."

"Dir. Yang! It's Dir. Yang!" The Driver cried out, "Please don't go to the kids. We don't know anything...It's all Dir. Yang's order!"

"Dir. Yang?" Fei Du asked collectedly while leaning on a Dalbergia wooden desk, "Yang Bo? You mean...kidnapping Zhou Huaijin, exposing his own illegitimate identity...all of these are the doings of Yang Bo? What did he order you to do exactly?"

The driver slumped hopelessly into his chair. His elbows rested on the knees, his handcuffed hands covered his face. He whispered: "Just...he just let me register for a new Weibo account and use it to post updates...to let "them" know where you are...so they can run in time."

As soon as he heard the word "in time", Fei Du slightly squinted his eyes in surprise.

Luo Wenzhou saw it, and immediately pressed on: "You mean you know where the kidnappers are?"

"No no...I don't know."

"Bull shit!"

"It's true! I really don't know. I had always worked under Dir. Hu, not Dir. Yang. He doesn't really trust me with everything. I was told to just post anything that I see or hear. It will be their job to decide whether it's useful information or not. I only know that they are still in Yan-cheng city, because the large van-trucks will have to go through check points if going out of the city. Now that Dir. Zhou is missing, the police will tighten the control and the risk is even higher. So it's better to 'stay under the light where it's the darkest". A...After all..."

Fei Du: "After all, they have you to keep them informed."

The driver raised his head very briefly to peek at him, but avoided his eyes as soon as he caught them, "They said...that they would find a deserted place to drive the car into the river. The kidnappers would break out from the windows and hide in the mountains. They said that because of the water, the police dogs wouldn't be able to find their smell...not even the gods or the ghosts could."

Luo Wenzhou quickly picked up his phone: "Tao Ran, look for a van truck around 2 tons that passed between yesterday afternoon and now...Oh and, the kidnappers are still hiding in the area. Within a 10 km radius, exclude the shallow water, the villages, the flat lands,..."

Tao Ran interjected: "Then it can only be the forrest lands to the Northeast. It's less than 1km from where I am."

Luo Wenzhou agreed: "Turn your siren up. There are two kidnappers. If the stress could break one of them and cause a quarrel or a fight, it'll give us more chance to rescue."

"It sounds like a perfect plan: Yang Bo, the unacknowledged bastard son of Zhou Junmao who worked all those years to secure the management position, finds a good opportunity to get rid of Mr. Zhou Sr. Then he kidnaps Zhou Huaijin to force the Zhou brothers to officially legitimize him so he can get his share of the hesitance." Fei Du took off his glasses to wipe them, then continued, "Just curious: what did Yang Bo promise you?"

"My son..." The driver squeezed out an answer, "My sick son needs to be treated abroad. I don't have the money or the resources..."

Fei Du shook his head, looking quite disappointed, "A little tropy, don't you think..."

Luo Wenzhou had just hung up the phone. He warned him with a glare to cut his word game.

So Fei Du explained, "I mean, Zhou Huaijin could have easily afforded to do that too. Even Zhou Huaixin could make it happen. Why go to Yang Bo? Your upper and bottom lips smack and voila, Yang Bo's accusation is in place. How could we know that you're not framing him?"

Luo Wenzhou pressed on: "Colluding with outsiders to hype the Zhou's scandal, causing his own company's stock price to plummet. What good does it do for Yang Bo? Would he really do something just to hurt others, without bringing any palpable benefit to himself?"

"N...No!" The driver shook his head in a frenzy, "as soon as they acknowledge Yang's identity, the Zhou's website would crash -- even if it doesn't crash on its own, they'll find someone to crash it. By then no one would be able to post anything there. Regardless of what the kidnappers ask, the company wouldn't need to admit to it. And it's a good opportunity for them to get r...rid of Dir. Zhou. Otherwise, why don't the kidnapper ask them to answer on their official account on Weibo? Why else would they required the answers to be posted on the company's own website?"

"Then afterwards, they only need to commemorate the late Zhou Huaijin, denounce the cruelty of the kidnappers, and pronounce all the unanswered questions as slander. When the public is done with feasting on the gossips, they will remember 'political-correctness' again, and quickly take the side of the victim to deride violence. The company likely won't really take a big hit. Not to mention that then, without Zhou Junmao and Zhou Huaijin, the leftover 'skeleton painter' Zhou Huaixin isn't even worth weighing. It goes without saying whose hands the company would fall into." Fei Du shrugged, "The logic and the details all check out. It's indeed a perfect plan."

The driver stared at him, completely stunned. Somehow he had a feeling that there was more between the lines of Fei Du's words.

"Take him back to the Bureau!"

Baisha river banks.

The roaring police cars arrived in three teams. They charged into the north-east forrest lands from different directions and turned the otherwise desolate area into a frantic war zone.

The autumn rain two days ago had wetted the soil into mud.

"Vice Captain Tao, there are fresh traces of tire marks!"

Tao Ran wiped away his sweat and commanded: "Follow it!"

The Baisha river is lightly flooding. As they followed, the sound of the flowing river grew louder and louder. Faint tire marks quickly lead them to the river bank.

"Over there!"

"In the water! In the water!"

A white van truck was slowly sinking into the river. Meanwhile, the rapid water current pushed it to flow downstream towards the deeper waters.

In the Zhou's house, everyone - except Yang Bo, who was taken away to be questioned alone - held their breaths and waited for the news. Their expressions were different, and their agendas and hopes were different too. Only Zhou Huaixin was unambiguously worried about his brother. He clamped onto the arm rest of the wooden chair, his long nails scratched the wood and made uneasy noises.

Every second seemed to have been stretched thrice as long.

"Captain Luo, " finally, Tao Ran's choppy voice was heard amidst the thundering water, "The van door is open but no one is inside. Not sure if the kidnappers took him away, or if he fell into the water."

Zheng Kaifeng's face slightly paled; Hu Zhenyu's back suddenly stiffened.

Zhou Huaixin shot up. His pelvis bone hit the wooden table hard, but he paid no attention. What was left of the color on his lips was completely gone. He looked like a frail, hung-over joker.

Luo Wenzhou ordered solemnly: "Continue the search."

Tao Ran -- having gone in the river himself -- just choked on the water. He coughed it out, then called out: "Continue the search --- !"

"Captain Tao, look! Over there!"

The kidnappers must have left the scene in a hurry, because the door to the van was not securely locked, and Zhou Huaijin, together with the wooden chair he was tied to, was flushed out of the van. The wooden chair was like an awkward life buoy. Carrying a motionless man, it flowed in the current like a leaf in the wind.

"I got it!"

"Hold on tight, don't let go! Wait...wait he's still alive!"

Twenty minutes later, the updates of Zhou Huaijin's rescue made it to the Zhou's house. Zhou Huaijin was wounded on the leg. Luckily no vital damages. One of the more nervous kidnappers didn't give his accomplice the time to kill and dismember the body: startled by the siren, he quickly slammed the gas and drove the truck into the river. Then the two kidnappers fled, while Zhou Huaijin flowed in the river.

Hu Zhenyu's heart finally landed in his stomach. Zheng Kaifeng quietly closed his eyes, seemingly praying to the buddha.

Zhou Huaixin crumpled to the floor. When he finally made it to the bathroom, he vomited his guts out.

Someone followed him into the bathroom. Zhou thought it was the maid. His eyes closed, he panted and reached out a hand, asking in a hoarse voice: "Water please."

A bottle of water was handed to him. The cap was already loosened.

Zhou Huaixin gulped a mouthful and gargled. Then he heard the voice of the person behind him saying: "Seriously, brother Zhou? Didn't you already know this ending?"

Zhou Huaixin accidentally swallowed the gargle water, and almost choked.

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Hey guys, I found a brilliant fan cut of the whole book, starring Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu! This is by far the best cut I've seen out there, in my opinion. I love it so much that I spent 2 hours adding English subtitles. It's on Youtube and the thumbnail looks like this:

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Just copy and paste these two words "默读" in the youtube search box and you should find it. I added the link to the summary page of this book too(can't paste the link here for some reason). The video follows the plot, but I wouldn't worry too much about spoilers since it's hard to understand what's really going on if you haven't finished the book yet. For the chapters that you have read, the plot of the video will make a lot of sense.

And the lines...oh my lord the lines...they are delivered so well and they immediately bring the scenes alive. The lines were taken from the audio book of Modu, produced by 729 Sound Studio, starring Yang Tianxiang as Fei Du and Liu Cong as Luo Wenzhou. The music: the first two songs are the theme songs of the audio book too. The lyric was written specifically for our dear Captain Luo and little Fei Du. I love it so much so I translated the lyrics in the video too.

In sum, highly, highly, highly recommend that you check this video out :)