Chapter 3
T City is located somewhere near the edge of a tributary of the Yangtze River. It is surrounded by mountains blocking the traffic which in turn caused the city to be a very backwater place. However, when the highway was built in T City 2 years ago, the city suddenly have a tremendous development and become the economic centre of the province. Like other developed cities, people in T City want to get out to go North Guangzhou, while the surrounding people living near T City wanted to get in.
During the period when Jian Yao was in university, she went back home every year. Each time she went back to her hometown, she felt like the history of the place was slowly fading away. Old building were slowly being demolished, real estate prices kept going up and the city felt more and more crowded. However, there were still things left untouched. For example, the rivers around the city, the People’s Heroes Monument as well as that old and secluded villa.
At eight in the morning, she reached just on time and knocked on the door which turned out to be already open. Peeking in, she saw that the house was entirely silent with only the sunlight streaming in, there wasn’t anyone in the house.
Yesterday, Fan Zi Yu called to inform her that he needed to go back to B City. He told her to make herself at home in the villa, with the exception of the locked room on the first floor. It seems that this is the start of "make herself at home".
The living room looks the same except for the white colored square table and chair near the window. There was a laptop on top of the table with a pile of old yellow doc.u.ment. According to the agreement, due to the large workload, it is requested for her to make use of the laptop.
Jian Yao sat down on the white chair.
Sitting down on the white chair, Jian Yao turned to look outside of the window. There were mountains that were blanketed snow, she could also see the sunlight streaming through the pine trees, all of these made a beautiful sight.
Looking at the table, everything was neatly arranged – this made a good and comfortable environment to work in. Switching the laptop on, she saw that a word doc.u.ment was already opened. But there was no content in it except for the email address at the top of the page.
Getting up, Jian Yao decided to do a little exploring.
The kitchen is next to the living room and Jian Yao could smell pyrotechnic gas in the air which could mean Mr Bo usually cook at home. Placing the fruits she bought into the fridge, she saw that it was almost empty saved for the half eaten fish soup.
Close by the kitchen, there was a door which was connected to a hallway. Taking a few steps, Jian Yao discovered a fis.h.i.+ng rod placed against the wall. It wasn’t a surprise since this place had a few water bodies and fishes could often be seen swimming in the water so most of the families here had one or two fis.h.i.+ng rods at home.
What surprised Jian Yao was the brand of the fis.h.i.+ng rod, "Red Tiger." Not to mention that it was a limited edition and probably considered to be one of the most expensive in the world. This version of fis.h.i.+ng rod was hailed as the best in many anglers’ mind.
Taking out her phone after a minute of admiring it, Jian Yao took a picture before she continued walking. Nearing the end of the hallway, Jian Yao halted her steps. In front of her was a rather dark small room. Heavy curtains were used to block out the sunlight, this room felt dull and cold. There wasn’t anything else in the room except for two tightly closed door.
Going into the room, Jian Yao headed to one of the doors and tried to pull it open only to realise that it was locked. She then made her way back to the living room since she had enough of exploring for now.
Making a cup of coffee for herself, she started working.
Time pa.s.sed rather quickly and Jian Yao never once stood up from her work station. While she was hard at work, Fu Zi Yu was in one of the rooms on the second floor, facing surveillance screens. His eyes were captured by the sight of Jian Yao before he turned to Bao Jin Yan. "She is rather well-behaved. I guess there won’t be any problems so I will be going back to the city tomorrow."
Leaning against the couch with his long legs resting on the footstool, Bao Jin Yan’s sleeves were rolled up halfway as he picked up another grilled fish in his mouth. His eyes flicked up to the screen for a second before looking away. "Boring, she is just like a wooden doll."
"Well, you did pick her yourself." A smile was Fu Zi Yu’s face as he reminded him. Turning to the man on the couch, he saw that the plate was completely empty. It was just minutes ago when it was filled with fishes. "Will you die if you don’t eat fish for a day?"
Licking his fingers slowly, Bao Jin Yan’s lips curved up slowly. "No but I will turn violent if my needs aren’t met."
After that dinner with Jian Yao, Lee Xun Ran started to get increasingly busy. He was busy enough with his usual work and added onto that was the missing teenagers’ case. As the investigation continued, it started to get harder to dig deeper. The first stumbling block was the missing teenagers all came from different areas and the second stumbling block was the time that they went missing were all different as well.
Lee Xun Ran couldn’t find any link that these missing teenagers’ cases were related and they were abducted by an organisation, he had no way to prove that this organisation exist. His supervisor did pay attention to his findings but without concrete evidence, this case couldn’t get the green light to start a formal investigation nor an increase in manpower.
This was why he decided to meet up with one of his seniors for dinner. Both
"Honestly, you have too much free time on your hand." His senior told him after Lee Xun Ran told him what he was investigating.
Lee Xun Ran gave him a smile. Well, he did have a little more time on his hand but now that he was involved, he wasn’t going to just give up so easily. He lit a cigarette and took a puff of it. "I trust my instinct. My sixth sense is telling me that these few cases are connected and they are done by the same person. Other people wash their hands off it but I can’t. I can’t let more children disappear again."
"It is not going to be easy," his senior said after a while. "Our country is so big, how are you planning to start? The organisation is smart enough to not leave any traces behind."
"But you have to understand that – "
"There is two ways to crack this case. First, you find an expert. This kind of case isn’t something that normal people like us can solve. But nowadays, finding an expert isn’t that easy. All of them are just all talk with their deduction but no actions were taken. So this brings us to the second way, you can choose to work undercover but unlike the past, trafficking organisation isn’t going to be as easy to infiltrate. One of the cops in the past managed to infiltrate but that was after days and days of disguising himself as a beggar. He eventually cracked the case but he died soon after. "
Lee Xun Ran didn’t say anything as he drowned another can of beer. His senior sighed before changing the topic, he had no doubt that Lee Xun Ran was going to continue with his investigation. "I saw a woman with you the other day, is it Jian Yao? She has grown up rather well, getting prettier day by day. It isn’t easy to find a suitable partner in our line of work so you better treat her well and propose soon."
"What propose? She is just my sister." Lee Xun Ran said.
As per usual, just like every other day, Jian Yao will send her completed work to the email address in the laptop during afternoon time. The next day, she will get a read receipt but still, Bao Jin Yan never once replied her email nor showed his face.
Well, she believed that no news meant good news.
However, now that she had seen Bao Jin Yan’s fis.h.i.+ng rod, her fis.h.i.+ng addiction started to kick in. It has been quite a while since she last fished. After working continuously for a week, she picked a day with the perfect weather to take a break.
"h.e.l.lo?" Lee Xun Ran answered his phone. He was currently in disguise, wearing tattered clothing to make himself resembled a beggar. After talking to his senior, he choose to do what that cop had done. It had been a few days but still, there wasn’t anything. "Fis.h.i.+ng? I am currently in the midst of an investigation."
"Is that so?" Jian Yao asked.
"How about this? I will meet you later on at our secret spot but I can’t give you an exact timing now." Lee Xun Ran hung up after he told her that. Looking at her phone, Jian Yao placed it on the table before packing her fis.h.i.+ng gears.
She was surprised that Lee Xun Ran still remembered their secret spot. They discovered that spot when they were still kids. The place is rather remote so not many people know about it and that was probably why the fishes are always bountiful in that area.
Since then, Lee Xun Ran coined that place to be their secret spot.
Another reason why such a good place weren’t discovered earlier by other people might have to do with the fact that it is located near Bao Jin Yan’s house which was rumored to be haunted and making people stayed away from it. Now that she think about it, she realized that she could see this spot clearly from Bao Jin Yan’s living room so their secret spot weren’t exactly a secret anymore.
Well, that aspect might have changed but the memories that remained were worth reminiscing about.
Jian Yao set out after lunch when it was the warmest hour of the day, not too hot and not too cold either. The sunlight filtered through, s.h.i.+nning on the small path that crossed the villa, leading further into the forest. Between the black and the brown stones, hidden was a small trail of sparkling water. The water continued to flow, connecting to an even bigger water body.
This is the secret place.
It was relatively quiet with no one around. Jian Yao headed to the largest tree to sit before she started to fish. It was only then when she saw that the opposite tree had a fis.h.i.+ng rod underneath but there wasn’t anyone tending to it.
Her phone rang and she saw that it was Lee Xun Ran. "Urgent situation, I won’t be able to go."
"But I am already here!" Jian Yao told him.
"You can fish by yourself then. But remember to take care of yourself and call me if you encounter trouble. Gotta to go now."
Jian Yao sighed softly, "Bye."
Hanging up, Jian Yao sat for a little while before heading to the fis.h.i.+ng rod that wasn’t tended by anyone. It was a little unexpected but at the same time, she kind of expected it. This was the same fis.h.i.+ng rod that she saw before.
Her excitement started to grow as she looked around the place. But still, she didn’t see any traces of a person being here. Just as she was about to walk off, she heard the sound of a bell being rang rapidly signaling a fish had bit the bait.
Reeling the carp up, she placed it into the basket. Seeing the empty hook, Jian Yao hesitated for a while before looking down to find something. As expected, she found a box of baits. Hooking one of the baits on to the hook, she placed the fis.h.i.+ng rod back to its original position.
Perhaps, a branded fis.h.i.+ng rod really makes all the difference and coupled with the nice and cozy weather, the fishes were more enthusiastic than usual. Before she could return to her spot, another fish had bit the bait again.
Within half an hour, Jian Yao had caught six fishes. But there was still no sight of Mr. Bao. Even if he was called away by an urgent matter, simply leaving such an expensive fis.h.i.+ng rod around was unthinkable.
Luckily, she was the one who saw the rod.
Eventually, Jian Yao moved her equipment over and she even hooked her own specially created bait onto his fis.h.i.+ng rod. A branded fis.h.i.+ng rod coupled with a high quality bait is a flawless combination. When the skies started to darken, Jian Yao had caught enough fishes to fill up two baskets.
She exerted more than her usual strength to carry the two baskets back to the villa. Jian Yao even helped to place the fis.h.i.+ng rod back to where she had seen it in the house. After a while of thinking, she decided to email her employer.
"Mr. Bao, I saw your fis.h.i.+ng rod when I happened to go fis.h.i.+ng just now. I am unsure if you were called away by an urgent matter so I took the liberty to help you pack your equipment and brought it back to the house. I’ve also brought back the fishes that were caught by your fis.h.i.+ng rod. If this offend you in any way, I seek your forgiveness."
After sending the email, Jian Yao selected a few fishes that she caught to bring home. It was during dinner time when her phone signaled that she had just received a new email. Opening it up, she saw that it was a reply from Mr. Bao; the first ever reply.
"The fishes are good. Thank you."
———-
Turning up at the villa the next day, there was still no one. Not putting much thought about yesterday, Jian Yao started to bury herself in her work.
During a short break, she went to wash some of the fruits she brought. Entering the kitchen, she sniffed a waft of fish being cooked, needless to say, it smelt delicious. Opening the fridge, she was momentarily shocked – there were so many fishes in the fridge.
Unlike yesterday where it was completely empty, the fridge was filled to brim today. There were all kind of fishes that were cooked in a variety of methods; braised fish, steamed fish, pickled fish head, fish slices and fish soup – the fridge was filled to the brim with these dishes and all of it looked to be leftover.
Closing the fridge, Jian Yao suddenly felt like laughing as she imagined her employer who cooked all of these in the middle of the night.
This Mr. Bao must have liked to eat fish a lot.
———–
Each day continued to pa.s.s just like per usual after that when it was yet another day with nice weather. Jian Yao went to the secret spot with her sister this time. Jian Yao didn’t want to disturb Lee Xun Ran at work plus his phone was off completely this time, making it felt as though he had disappeared without a trace.
Upon reaching, she saw that familiar rod once again. Jian Xuan saw the brand of the fis.h.i.+ng rod before exclaiming. "Whose fis.h.i.+ng rod is this? How can the person leave such an expensive rod lying around."
Jian Yao’s curiosity started to grow too – why did Mr. Bao leave his fis.h.i.+ng rod here without anyone tending it?
Jian Xuan lifted the fis.h.i.+ng rod out of the water. "Hey, there is no bait. Did one of the fish bite the bait? If that is the case then where is the fish? This kind of hook isn’t easy for the fish to get away."
Hearing what Jian Xuan had said, Jian Yao looked around for a box of baits but there wasn’t anything save for this fis.h.i.+ng rod.
Jian Xuan had also discovered the same thing, "Is this person another *Jiang Tai Gong?"
Jian Yao understood by now as the end of her lips curved up slightly, "No, he isn’t waiting for fish."
He is waiting for her.
*jiang tai gong: "Taigong Diaoyu, Yuanzhe Shanggou" is a famous Chinese idiom about a willing victim letting himself be caught.