Chapter 645

"Hmm." In Xu Tian's situation, going to find the Tang Old Patriarch wouldn't be of any use; it would be better to let him recuperate in peace.

The Tang family head's sudden disappearance had plunged the entire family into unprecedented panic, and some even maliciously speculated that Tang Bingyan was already dead and the Tang family was about to be in chaos.

As for the Tang family's high-level officials who were already active-minded, they were even more actively making small moves in the dark. It was thanks to the Tang Old Patriarch's tough methods to make everyone who knew the truth seal the news before he collapsed; otherwise, I'm afraid the Tang family would have already fallen apart by now.

But sealing the news was not a long-term solution; if they couldn't find Tang Bingyan's whereabouts, the Tang family would still face a situation of falling apart.

At the moment, the Tang family was calm on the surface but surging with undercurrents, as if it were the calm before the storm; it was just unclear who would break this tranquility.

Tang Bingyan couldn't possibly not know that her leaving would bring a huge impact to the Tang family, so Xu Tian wasn't quite sure about his previous judgment.

Could it really be that a strong external force intervened and took Tang Bingyan away?

"Mr. Xu, I still have many things to deal with here, so I'll go first. Don't worry too much; if there is any news, I will call you immediately." A Wei comforted Xu Tian a few words and then hurriedly left.

Xu Tian stood in the living room for a while and then went upstairs to walk toward Tang Bingyan's study.

He had no clues now and could only pin his hopes on finding some clues in her study.

Tang Bingyan's study was a mess; the antique cabinet was already empty, and there were broken porcelain pieces on the floor that hadn't been cleaned up in time. It was estimated that she didn't allow the servants to come in to clean.

Xu Tian scanned the decorations on the desk and first noticed the phone in the corner. The receiver was hanging to one side, but there was no sound; it was probably that when Tang Bingyan was throwing a tantrum, she had also smashed this phone.

Actually, with the high frequency of mobile phone use nowadays, no one would use a landline phone usually, but I don't know why Tang Bingyan kept this phone in her study.

Xu Tian stepped forward, picked up the hanging receiver, and listened to it by his ear; sure enough, it could no longer be used.

However, although the phone was smashed, the display screen was still lit. Xu Tian glanced at the call reminder and discovered a strange number that had called many times.

Actually, this phone was rarely used usually, and only

the servants in the villa would use it when they encountered urgent matters and needed to ask Tang Bingyan for instructions, so even if there was a call display, it would only show the villa's internal number.

But Xu Tian had never seen this number before, and the composition didn't look like a domestic number segment.

The time of the last call also happened to be before Tang Bingyan lost contact.

Xu Tian took out his own phone and tried to dial this number, but couldn't get through.

He immediately called Yan Qingxue again.

"What's wrong?" Yan Qingxue was dealing with contracts at the company.

"Can you help me check a number?" Xu Tian reported the string of numbers straight to the point.

"What is this?" Yan Qingxue frowned as she listened. "It's not domestic, and it doesn't look like it's around the Asia-Pacific. Where did you find this number?"

Xu Tian: "Help me check it."

"You wait." Yan Qingxue clamped the phone between her ear and shoulder and skillfully tapped on the keyboard.

When she was working for that scumbag Xu Rixin before, she had mastered search skills, and coupled with the fact that she had minored in related majors due to interest in college, checking a phone number wasn't a difficult problem for her.

Xu Tian listened to the "pitter-patter" of the keyboard tapping, feeling restless.

"Ah..." After a while, Yan Qingxue let out an exclamation.

"What's wrong? Did you find anything?" Xu Tian pressed.

"Can't find it. This isn't a phone number at all; it can't match any country's number segment, and it's not an intentionally encrypted number." Yan Qingxue concluded. "In short, this is just a string of strange numbers."

"Not a phone number?" Xu Tian was astonished.

How is this possible?

This number had called Tang Bingyan several times, and every time Tang Bingyan had answered.

But she had never actively dialed this number; it seemed the owner of this string of numbers had been contacting her unilaterally.

With Tang Bingyan's strong personality, it was impossible for her to endure unilateral contact, but she really hadn't actively contacted the other party even once.

"Xu Tian, did you remember it wrong?" Yan Qingxue's voice sounded again. "If you add one more digit, maybe you can get through."

"No, this must be a phone number. If you have time, continue to help me check it."

"Alright then, I'll try again."

Putting down the phone,

Xu Tian walked around Tang Bingyan's study again.

He always felt that this number might be related to Tang Bingyan's disappearance, but now he had no clearer or more definite leads.

So he planned to continue looking for clues in the study.

The drawers contained Tang Group's documents, most of which were contracts and financial reports. Xu Tian flipped through them roughly but didn't find any useful clues.

After checking the desk, he, who had gained nothing, paced to the side of the bookcase.

Originally, he thought the bookcase hadn't been affected by Tang Bingyan's anger, but upon getting closer, he discovered that the order of the books on it had been disrupted, and some were even upside down, as if they had been stuffed in in a hurry.

Xu Tian's gaze passed over these books one by one, and he pulled out the books he felt were problematic to flip through and check, but still didn't find any useful clues.

Just as he was about to put the book in his hand back into the bookcase, he suddenly discovered that a corner of a cowhide file bag was exposed on the inner side of the bookcase.

Only then did Xu Tian discover that there was a gap between the books and the inner panel of the bookcase, and this gap was enough to accommodate an A4-sized file bag.

He hurriedly moved all the books that were blocking the outside as a smokescreen and reached out to take out the file bag inside.

This was an ordinary file bag, but there was an "X" marked with a red marker in the upper left corner.

Xu Tian couldn't wait to open the file bag, only to find that there was only a piece of paper inside, and the number he had just discovered was written on the paper.

Now Xu Tian could be sure that this string of numbers was very important to Tang Bingyan, but what gave him an even bigger headache was that there was only a string of numbers, which completely couldn't help him find the reason for Tang Bingyan's disappearance.

Because he discovered the secret of the bookcase, Xu Tian simply moved all the books on it out.

After the bookcase was emptied, he was surprised to find that there was a groove on the inner side of the bottom panel, and a rectangular box with a lock was placed inside the groove.

Xu Tian bent down to take the box out and tried two sets of passwords that Tang Bingyan might use, but couldn't open the lock.

This box must contain important things; otherwise, it wouldn't have been set with a password lock and hidden on the inner side of the bookcase.

Moreover, every time the password was entered incorrectly, there would be a lockout time.

Xu Tian had only tried three times, and the lockout time was already as long as two hours.

No...