Chapter 322: Stopping at Nothing

"Maybe."

Yu Dazhang sighed and echoed in agreement.

Right now, Hong Liuwen was in desperate need of a sense of belonging—only then could his heart settle down.

"Want a smoke?" Yu Dazhang asked.

He noticed Hong Liuwen reach for his pocket several times, but each time held himself back.

Why couldn't it be reaching for a gun?

Because by 2014, gun control was already extremely strict—even a deputy station chief couldn't carry firearms at will; guns were only issued for specific assignments.

Hong Liuwen nodded:

"I've got a heavy nicotine habit, as you know. In our line of work, it's hard to get through without cigarettes."

"Have one of mine." Yu Dazhang pulled a pack of Huazi from his pocket, walked over to him, and held one out.

Hong Liuwen took it, put it between his lips, and lit it.

"Nice cigarette." He exhaled a cloud of smoke, a look of contentment on his face:

"You just started the job and you're already smoking this grade—can your salary cover it?"

Yu Dazhang smiled:

"I don't smoke."

"Then what's this?" Hong Liuwen glanced at the cigarette in his hand, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

"My girlfriend bought them for me." Yu Dazhang told him honestly:

"She told me to hand one out whenever I meet a colleague—it helps build rapport."

When Hong Liuwen heard the word "colleague," he let out a self-mocking laugh.

"Can I still count as your colleague now?"

"Of course." Yu Dazhang answered crisply:

"As for whether you still count later, that depends on your choice."

He didn't say "performance"—he used the word "choice"—leaving Hong Liuwen room to imagine.

Just as Yu Dazhang had guessed, Hong Liuwen fell silent again.

He had already made his choice five years ago.

Just then, Lu Zhongxin returned to the office, phone in hand, and waved it at Yu Dazhang.

Yu Dazhang nodded, then took out his phone and opened a messaging app.

"Hong Jinxuan, female, 21 years old…"

He read out the contents on his phone, right in front of Hong Liuwen.

Hong Liuwen's eyes went wide the moment he heard.

His daughter's personal details weren't complicated; Yu Dazhang finished reading quickly and showed Hong Liuwen the photo on his phone.

"Your daughter's very impressive—she went abroad to study as a teenager, and she's good-looking too."

At this assessment, Hong Liuwen gave a wry smile and shook his head:

"My biggest regret is sending her abroad to study."

You only regret that your child slipped out of your control… Yu Dazhang finished the sentence for him in his heart.

"How did you confirm they have your daughter under their control?"

Getting a seasoned veteran criminal investigator like Hong Liuwen to submit wouldn't be easy.

Plain verbal intimidation wouldn't have any effect on him, so the only option was to work through actual actions.

One can imagine.

The other side must have used some specific method to successfully make Hong Liuwen believe they had the ability to threaten his daughter's personal safety.

That method might have been a direct display of capability.

Or it might have involved using indirect evidence or information to imply the existence of a threat.

Yu Dazhang felt Hong Liuwen had no reason to hide this question, because it didn't involve leaking secrets, so it couldn't threaten his daughter's personal safety either.

"Photos and video."

When Hong Liuwen brought this up, he seemed somewhat helpless:

"I received photos and a USB drive sent by the other party. The contents were photos and video of my daughter's life abroad."

"And they were taken at close range without my daughter knowing a thing—she had absolutely no idea."

"Later when I called her, she didn't show any sign of anything being off."

That still doesn't prove anything… Yu Dazhang felt all this wasn't enough.

If all they did was secretly snap a few candid photos, any paparazzo could manage that.

There are paparazzi abroad too, and they're more professional—their hidden-camera gear is far more advanced than anything in China, and much better concealed.

Most importantly, this much content couldn't threaten Hong Liuwen at all.

"Is this all it took for you to decide your daughter was in danger?" Yu Dazhang said in an interrogating tone.

"This was just the beginning." Hong Liuwen took a drag and continued:

"Not long after, I got a call. I couldn't tell if the voice on the other end was male or female—they must have been using a voice changer."

"He told me my daughter had been targeted by local gangsters, that he had paid them to do it, and that as long as I did what he wanted, my daughter would be fine."

A threatening phone call… Yu Dazhang couldn't see how clever the other side's methods were.

"You believed him?"

He felt that even so, it wasn't enough to threaten Hong Liuwen.

As a seasoned veteran criminal investigator, his mental fortitude was beyond what an ordinary person could match.

He wouldn't lose his composure just because of a few threats from someone else.

"Of course not."

Hong Liuwen shook his head without hesitation, but immediately a bitter expression surfaced on his face:

"But the other party told me to give him a few days, and he would definitely make me believe it."

"At the time I still thought it was just a boring prank, guessing it might be some criminal I'd caught, getting out of prison and taking revenge on me."

"And I felt it was merely a threat aimed at me personally."

At this point, Hong Liuwen paused, as if what he was about to say next was a bit hard to get out.

Yu Dazhang didn't press him either, waiting quietly.

He knew Hong Liuwen was caught in conflict and hesitation at that moment, so it was best not to interrupt at such a time.

After taking two more drags on his cigarette, Hong Liuwen tossed the butt on the ground and crushed it hard with his foot, then continued:

"Four days later, I got news from my daughter — a female student who'd gone abroad to study with her had gone missing, and that girl had been very close with my daughter."

"My daughter was very anxious at the time, asking if I had any good ideas."

"So far away, I could only comfort her and tell her not to worry for now."

At this point, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, took a hard drag, and exhaled thick white smoke.

This gesture made Yu Dazhang frown hard.

Sure enough, the nicotine addiction was heavy.

He had just crushed one butt and was already lighting another — at this rate, three packs a day might not even be enough.

What Hong Liuwen said next made everyone in the room widen their eyes.

"Two more days later, I received a delivery."

Hong Liuwen's voice trembled slightly, as if recalling the scene still left him shaken:

"After opening the package, I found it still contained photos and a disc, but this time the contents were completely different — no longer records of my daughter's life, but of another person's."

His face turned unusually ugly, his brows knitting tightly.

As if the contents on those photos and disc had brought him tremendous shock and pain.

"I'd met that girl."

Hong Liuwen took a deep breath and continued:

"When she was in the country, my daughter even brought her home, so I absolutely wouldn't mistake her."

"The photos and videos in the package were all scenes of her being assaulted and abused — her miserable appearance was really…"

At this point, he truly couldn't go on, and took a hard drag on his cigarette.

Amid the swirling smoke, Hong Liuwen's face looked somewhat ferocious.

"I cannot, and will never allow my daughter to be treated this way!"

(End of chapter)