Beauty and the Bodyguard

Chapter 63 - Mastermind

"Let's talk in the study, shall we?" Chu Pengzhan said with a gesture, leading Lin Yi up to the second floor.

The study was at the very end of the hallway- most likely designed to be away from outward disturbances. Yet Lin Yi didn't understand why they had to talk in the study- there wasn't even a butler in a villa this big, what was the difference having the discussion in any other room?

This villa might have once been bursting with life and splendor, but what remained was a cold emptiness. Lin Yi observant as always as he made his way up the stairs- the villa was kept tidy and clean, but there were traces of wear on the staircase rails: the villa had been occupied for long periods of time before. Afer all, Chu Pengzhan wouldn't have caused that wear, he was barely back here once a week.

Lin Yi, naturally, left Chu Pengzhan's business alone- it didn't involve him.

It was that mentality that resulted in Lin Yi's composure, unaffected by any unexpectancy.

The wear on the leather chair in the study proved Lin Yi's earlier point, as well. The chairman had sat in the chair very often once.

"Yi, sit anywhere." Pengzhan said as he leaned back in the leather chair behind the desk. "There's a fridge at the back with drinks inside- get whatever you'd like. Don't worry about them being expired either, Li Fu makes sure to change them periodically."

"I'm not thirsty." Lin Yi said, shaking his head. "Uncle Chu, why don't we get to business?"

"Sure, we can start." Pengzhan nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm sure you know this already, but the robbers from yesterday robbed the bank as a cover- their objective was Miss Chu... " Lin Yi started. "I don't know why they were after her, or why they went through such lengths of planning… It was probably easier to have her kidnapped at the school gates, or in front of the villa…"

"Haha, I see the point you're getting at. You're reminding me to have their true intentions investigated, aren't you?" Pengzhan smiled. "What you say is true. It was an unnecessarily elaborate plan for a simple kidnapping- but there is a logic behind that."

"What logic?" Lin Yi hadn't expected Chu Pengzhan to have thought out things this far ahead- perhaps he'd been over-worrying.

"It's as you said." Pengzhan retracted his smile, his tone solemn. "Robbing the bank was a cover, but everyone else in the world didn't see it that way- as far as they were concerned, Mengyao was a random hostage they happened to take with them when escaping."

"The two crimes were fundamentally different, and it served to effectively misdirect police forces; it gave the perpetrators more time to plan their next course of action. One thing I can't understand, however… How did they know Mengyao would be at the bank, at that time and date?"

"I actually gave that some thought- everyone needs to get a bank card every year for the school, and it's usually closing time for the banks by the time school ends. There's only one twenty four hour bank nearby, and it's only natural to assume that Miss Chu would visit that particular one." Lin Yi expressed his thinking on the matter, but Pengzhan's explanation never crossed his mind before- he didn't know what these people wanted, or who they were, after all, though it did seem obvious in hindsight. "Are these people trying to get at you, Uncle Chu?"

"Most likely." Chu Pengzhan said with a nod. "I was going over the contract with another party at this business trip, and they were putting up some pretty unreasonable conditions. I didn't agree to them, but they weren't willing to take any steps back on their side, either. They kept dragging it on, as if waiting for something… It may very well be connected to Yao Yao's kidnapping…"

"Oh?" Lin Yi blinked, seeing the sense in Chu Pengzhan's words, about how the robbers were misdirecting police attention. The case would take much longer to be solved, giving them more time……

The whole thing was starting to make sense- all the other party had to do was imply that Mengyao was in their hands, and there wouldn't be much Chu Pengzhan could do other than sign a contract littered with unreasonable terms.

"I'm positive that's the case at this point, but there's not really any evidence to back the suspicion……" Pengzhan sighed. "Though, evidence mattered little when it concerned people at their level."

"What kind of people are they?" Lin Yi asked, understanding immediately that the opposing party had to at least be on the same playing field as Pengzhan Industries itself.

It wasn't surprising then that Baldy ordered for Mengyao to be completely untouched- the kidnapping was for intimidation purposes against Chu Pengzhan. If possible, the opposing party hoped to keep Mengyao as intact and as unharmed as possible- angering the chairman would result in a clash between the two superpower companies and very heavy losses for both sides.

Lin Yi let out a sigh of relief at that thought- At the very least, Mengyao's safety was more or less assured, even if a kidnapping were to take place again.

"Well, don't trouble yourself too much, Yi. I'll take care of it! I'm Chu Pengzhan, you know? This kind of thing isn't enough to get me to back down…" Chu Pengzhan was about to continue his statements when he stopped, waving the matter away with his hand instead. "Let's not dwell on the topic- what's important here is that you stick with Yao Yao. Remember what I told you- make sure to give her some love. Yao Yao's mother left her when she was very young, and I'm always away on business trips… She really does need that love."

Motherless from a young age, huh? Lin Yi sighed silently- a girl of a rich house, but with a deceased mother and a father who was never around… It wasn't much different from being an orphan, in all honesty. Lin Yi was an orphan himself, and he understood the loneliness that came with it. As such, he looked up at the chairman and nodded. "Leave it to me, Uncle Chu. I understand how Miss Chu feels."

But Lin Yi was making assumptions- Chu Pengzhan never said anything about the mother dying… Although, it wasn't Lin Yi's fault for misunderstanding the meaning behind the word 'left'- the kid was motherless himself, after all.

"Yes- that was precisely the reason I asked you here for. The two of you… Well, we'll leave that topic for another day, it's not something to just throw at you. We'll have this talk somewhere down the road, Yi." Pengzhan said after some hesitation, deciding to take things slow. Lin Yi didn't need to know the promise made between Old Lin and Pengzhan's father just yet; he feared that the kid wouldn't be able to handle the information so abruptly.

Lin Yi hadn't missed the hesitation in Pengzhan's voice, but he didn't prod further. The chairman didn't think it was time yet, and Lin Yi couldn't do much else other than wait.

"Well, these guys aren't after Miss Chu's life, so that's a relief!" Lin Yi had been worrying about the Miss- who knows, she might drop dead one day under his protection, and he'd be completely fucked. The cancelled salary would be one thing, but the responsibilities that resulted in his failure were far bigger a problem. There was his own reputation as well! He'd never let anyone die before, not when he was watching!

Naturally, that didn't include the enemies- Lin Yi would never let an ally die under his watch!

Chapter 64 - Quality Detective Work

The two had just finished talking about Chu Mengyao when Li Fu's voice sounded from outside the study- Lin Yi didn't know if he'd been waiting for their conversation to come to an end before making his presence known, or if he'd just arrived in coincidence.

The chairman told him that Li Fu was a man he could place his trust in, but Lin Yi felt that Chu Pengzhan was hiding something big from him- there seemed to be an even deeper meaning beyond his role as a study companion, nanny, and bodyguard…

Chu Pengzhan never talked about it, and it was safe to assume that Li Fu was kept out of it as well. Chances were, only the chairman knew what was actually going on.

"Mister Chu, the car's been parked- can I come in?"

"Yes, I was just discussing yesterday's events with Yi." Chu Pengzhan replied.

Li Fu pushed the door open and walked in, taking a seat on the sofa next to Lin Yi.

"We were talking about how the kidnappers managed to pinpoint which bank Mengyao was at- Lin Yi explained that all students were required to register for a bank card every school year…" Pengzhan started recapping their conversation. "It's even likely that there was someone tipping the kidnappers from within the school- it'd be the logical assumption."

"Yeah." Lin Yi nodded. "That's what I was thinking, as well, though I'm guessing it's more likely one of the staff members than a student, since the teaching staff knew things like this beforehand. It'd probably be too late for the kidnappers to plan things out by the time the students were informed of this."

"Not bad!" Pengzhan praised with a nod of his head, very pleased with Lin Yi's quick thinking. "I'll make sure to investigate the school, but… hmm. Might be a bit of a problem…"

"What's wrong, Uncle Chu? There shouldn't be any difficulty in that, aren't you part of the school's board of directors?" Lin Yi was confused- shouldn't it be nothing but easy for the chairman to investigate a school he owned in part?

"I have a seat on the board of directors, yes. The board is made up of three of us, however, and all of them have shares, with their own men in the school as well. I would expect resistance if I just showed up putting an investigation in place…" Chu Pengzhan said candidly- it wasn't anything secret.

"I see. I'll keep an eye out at school then." Lin Yi said after the explanation.

Lin Yi had gotten the main gist at that point- the perpetrators weren't after Mengyao for mere riches- they intended to hold Mengyao against Chu Pengzhan himself, so as to force support from the Pengzhan Industries' side.

The kidnappers' elaborate plan, at the same time, was formed around the basis of avoiding direct confrontation with the police- Mengyao's kidnapping would be much more heavily investigated upon in comparison to a simple bank robbery.

It wouldn't take long before Mengyao was found, if the kidnapping was a classic and straightforward one.

Yang Huaijun took over the bank robbery case the instant he returned to the team, and the captain familiarized himself with the entire situation in no time at all.

His first course of action was a phone call to the City Command Center, and Huaijun got himself numerous footages of the streets surrounding the bank. It was only at that moment did Song Lingshan realize how big of an idiot she was.

The "Digital CCC" hadn't been initiated for more than a month yet, but Huaijun had that door open in the back of his head- it was an employment of information methodology and mobile communication networking for analyses and categorizations on the entire information network of the city- it was the newest step in the city's technology advancements.

There were multiple CCTV cameras installed in the main streets, serving as an absolute surveillance system that kept factors like sanitation and traffic monitored.

Lingshan had considered requesting for police footage of the streets, as well, but the police cameras weren't activated until the traffic lights turned red- it was only meant for recording vehicles that disobeyed traffic rules. They remained deactivated the rest of the time.

Lingshan gave up on the idea, but Huaijun went a step further, going after CCC for their extensive footage, instead of the police's.

It seemed simple in hindsight, but it all led to one conclusion- Lingshan was too careless! CCC footage that monitored sanitation and traffic had crossed her mind an unrelated factor, and that was her vital mistake.

The newly acquired footages made things a lot easier, since they were only recently put into implementation, and still in the testing phase- not many people knew about it, and it was safe to assume that the same went for the robbers, as well.

It turned out that a second A74110 SUV showed up not long after Zhang Xiaohang's team went after the first A74110 SUV- there was no doubt that the robbers occupied the second SUV.

The estimated radius of the robber's parked SUV was then narrowed down not long after. The cameras were only installed at the city's roads, and the more remote paths were left uncovered- an estimated radius was the only practical option.

Yet even that was more than enough- a search in a narrowed down area wasn't very difficult or taxing at all.

Zhong Pinliang spent the rest of his school day in fear: he'd never expected for a farmer to be this much of a monster. The guy had fucked him up, fucked Zou Ruoming up- Pinliang thought of Lin Yi as a dead man walking with all his actions piling up against him, and it was especially so when he called in Heibao Bro for help… Then it turned out that Heibao Bro got fucked the most!!

The difference between him and Lin Yi was as clear as day- Heibao Bro couldn't take the guy down, even with a gun in his hand! What could he possibly do to a man of that calibre?

Yet he couldn't just start cowering in front of Naipao and Xiaofu, either. He hated Lin Yi to the bone, but that applied to his fear of him, as well!

Conventional means would never have any effect Lin Yi. Pinliang had little option but to go one step further for this debt of blood to be settled.

"Liang Bro, how's Lin Yi this powerful……" Xiaofu was very displeased. "But, isn't Heibao Bro a little underwhelming, too? I was expecting someone really strong, but it turns out that he got messed up as much as we were yesterday!"

"That's right, he even had a gun with him! I'd have sent a bullet into LIn Yi if it were me!" Naipao said, pissed as well.

Xiaofu and Naipao weren't familiar with how things were outside, and their understanding of Heibao Bro's capabilities came only from Zhong Pinliang's descriptions. It wasn't a surprise, then, that his appearance today came off as a little underwhelming when in stark comparison to Lin Yi's monstrosity.

But Zhong Pinliang was different, and he understood the level Heibao Bro operated on. It never occurred to him that even a man like that would fall under Lin Yi's strength, as well…...