Chapter 332: You Curse Him Out

That question caught Hong Liuwen off guard.

Ever since Yu Dazhang proposed the rescue, his mind had been entirely on his daughter's safety, with no bandwidth left for anything else.

Now it seemed intercepting his daughter's return to the country was no longer possible.

The gang abroad didn't have the ability to intercept a plane in midair.

Once they realized their target had slipped out of their control, the local gang could only pass that information along to the client.

Then the question circled back: how would the client react upon hearing it?

Before Hong Liuwen could analyze it by putting himself in the other party's shoes, Yu Dazhang spoke again:

"The other side will call you to probe."

"Will they?" Hong Liuwen's mind hadn't caught up yet.

He looked at Yu Dazhang, his eyes full of confusion and puzzlement, and offered his own guess:

"I think the other side should hide first, then stop all illegal activity and wait to see how things develop."

Because once Hong Liuwen's daughter was out of their control, it meant they could no longer use her to control him.

Under those circumstances, the other side apparently could only choose to lie low for now and secretly watch how the situation unfolded.

"If the other side thought things through the way you do, they'd have been caught long ago."

Yu Dazhang stared at him as he said:

"You missed two key points. The first is time."

"Five years is enough to breed habitual thinking and let guard down. Not just the local gang—even the person who hired them thought your daughter was a sure thing."

"The people tailing her had long stopped taking the job seriously; they'd all assume, without coordination, that your daughter wouldn't slip free."

"When she suddenly vanishes, the first thing they'll think is that the people on surveillance got careless."

Time changes everything, and that saying applies here too.

So when they discover the person is missing, their side will search first and speculate about it.

Analyzing it from their angle, there are only three possibilities:

1. Hong Liuwen is taken down, and the domestic police step in to rescue her.

Although that possibility exists, it's hard to carry out.

Even if the domestic side wanted to rescue her, they'd have to contact the local police or the embassy first.

Sending people over directly is basically impossible.

2. Hong Liuwen's daughter rescued herself.

After five years, she's surely built up her own contacts there and knows the environment well enough.

In other words, she has the ability to run.

3. She ran into trouble abroad.

That kind of thing isn't unusual; plenty of students abroad have had incidents—nothing out of the ordinary.

No matter how the other side reasons it out, they won't guess that the Ministry of State Security stepped in.

Because Hong Liuwen doesn't have that kind of pull; even if he's taken down, the Ministry of State Security wouldn't lift a finger to save his daughter.

"What's the other key point?" Hong Liuwen couldn't help urging.

"Profit," Yu Dazhang answered:

"So many intellectually disabled personnel—if they just let go, it'd be a huge loss for them."

"We don't know exactly how much profit is involved, but one thing's certain: the numbers are absolutely staggering."

"Would they really give up such a big slice of the pie over just one person?"

"Besides, even if they were going to give up, they'd only decide to do so after confirming you've been taken down."

That's prediction.

Prediction isn't a superpower—it's about analyzing a matter thoroughly, making the most reasonable and correct judgment, and using that to infer the other side's next move.

The more Hong Liuwen listened, the more sense it made; he nodded in agreement:

"I get it. My daughter is secondary. The other side's purpose in controlling her is to keep me in check, so in the end it still comes down to what state I'm in."

Once the key points click, you naturally know what the other side will do next.

Calling to probe him is the most direct and effective approach.

This was something Yu Dazhang and Captain Hua and the others only figured out after their meeting.

Because only once Hong Liuwen's daughter is completely safe will he start thinking about this side of things.

"Once you know the other side is going to call, do you know how to handle it?" Yu Dazhang was still a little uneasy.

Although Hong Liuwen was a twenty-year veteran criminal investigator, when you're too close to the case—and it involves his own flesh and blood—it's hard to avoid letting emotions show through and exposing a flaw.

"I do," Hong Liuwen replied:

"When the time comes I'll play dumb and act very anxious, telling them to hurry up and find my daughter."

Good thing he asked… Yu Dazhang shook his head in disappointment:

"If you do that, the probe succeeds. The act is too fake."

"And what you're describing—playing dumb while also being anxious—is too hard to convey emotionally; anyone can tell you're putting on a show."

That one really stumped Hong Liuwen.

He genuinely had no acting experience; over twenty years on the force and he'd never done any undercover work either.

"Then…" Hong Liuwen asked hesitantly:

"What do you think I should do?"

"Simple," Yu Dazhang smiled:

"You curse him out."

"Insult him? Insult him?" Hong Liuwen was even more baffled:

"That doesn't seem right—if we just start yelling, it's like telling the other side we're already fearless."

Seeing he still didn't get it, Yu Dazhang sighed helplessly:

"Relax—the more you insult him, the less he'll suspect you."

"Think about it: a father who swallowed his anger for five years, then learns his daughter vanished under the other party's surveillance—any normal person would lose control."

With the matter put this plainly, Hong Liuwen naturally understood the key point.

"You understand psychology?" he asked curiously.

"Just a little." Speaking of this, Yu Dazhang's mind unconsciously conjured the image of a man:

"I once encountered someone like that, and picked up a few scraps by osmosis."

In his view, even if Hong Liuwen's actions didn't constitute a crime, he could never again hold a law enforcement post.

Once a bottom line is breached, there will be a second time—no leader would dare risk employing him again.

After all, when it comes to principles and bottom lines, no one dares to be careless.

So even if Hong Liuwen remained within the system, he could only be reassigned away from law enforcement to some clerical duty.

After giving his instructions, Yu Dazhang and the other two were about to leave when Hong Liuwen's phone suddenly rang.

Yu Dazhang immediately looked at him.

Hong Liuwen understood, picked up his phone, and showed the caller ID to the three of them.

It was a random number—clearly not a normal mobile number.

"It's definitely him," Hong Liuwen said, his voice tense.

"Answer it," Yu Dazhang said in a relaxed tone:

"Just do as I said."

Hong Liuwen nodded, took a deep breath, and slowly pressed answer, holding the phone to his ear:

"Hello?"

The other end was silent, save for Hong Liuwen's Heavy and coarse breathing.

"Speak up—if you've got nothing to say, I'm hanging up," Hong Liuwen said irritably.

Still no sound from the other side.

He wasn't bluffing—he'd already decided while answering: if the other party used silence to test him, he'd hang up immediately.

One force overcomes ten tricks.

He thought the fat guy's method was practical: if things went wrong, just flip the table—it felt more authentic.

Just as his finger was about to touch the end button, the other side's voice came through:

"Has your daughter contacted you recently?"

"We spoke last week," Hong Liuwen replied calmly, countering:

"Why ask that?"

A timely counter-question could disrupt the other party's train of thought and help him seize the initiative.

For a veteran detective like Hong Liuwen, using such tactics required no thought at all.

But he hadn't expected the other side to say outright:

"Your daughter is missing."

(End of chapter)