Release that Man

Taking out the wallet, paying the fee, and accepting the delivery—everything went smoothly. There was no problem with the deliveryman, and there was no problem with the delivered food.

Even after the door was closed and the deliveryman left, nothing happened. The process was so uneventful that the two could not shake the feeling that they were being to unnecessarily suspicious. Even so, they were not going to feast on the food that they did not order. Therefore, even though everything appeared normal, the boxes of delivered food were still left on the side.

“Braised fish, stir-fried potatoes and eggplant, pickled vegetables…” Ol’ K was salivating as he opened the boxes. As he rattled off the names of the dishes, he swallowed back the saliva with a pained expression. “Can we really not touch any of this? It smells so good.”

Han Chu took out a pair of chopsticks from the kitchen. He glanced at Ol’ K but did not say anything. However, the conviction in his eyes had said everything that needed to be said. Therefore, Ol’ K sat to the side with sadness and watched helplessly as Han Chu pulled over a trashcan with his feet and started to inspect the boxes of food.

The fish was torn open, the eggplant was squished, and the pickled vegetables were snapped. All the food was mushed up into a mess, and it felt like Ol’ K’s heart was getting mushed up alongside it.

Finally, Han Chu found the secret inside a bun that had been cut into small pieces—a note that was the size of a finger.

He used the chopsticks to pick the paper out and glanced at it before passing it to Ol’ K. “It’s an address, go and check this out.”

Ol’ K gasped in shock. He picked up the laptop and started to triangulate the address on the paper. “Brother Han, how did you know there’d be information hidden in the food?”

“I didn’t.” Han Chu wiped his hands calmly as he leaned backward. “I was merely giving it a try.”

In any case, they were not going to consume the food. Ye Shuang, who was inside the kitchen, heard the commotion outside. After she came out with the food, as she set the table, she asked, “Was it given by the deliveryman?”

“Yes.” Han Chu walked to the table and served himself a bowl of rice. “We know the deliveryman, and I doubt anyone can just saunter into the kitchen of a restaurant. However, it’s easy to do something to the delivery while it was on the way here. They just needed to stop the deliveryman and swap out the food.”

They woke Anthony up for the meal. After having their fill, they checked the address. China had not placed much importance on internet security yet, and most of them depended on the people’s defense. Other than the few locations in Beijing, the firewalls for the official websites were child’s play.

However, those were not locations where confidential information would be found, so it did not really matter if the server was defended or not. Furthermore, Chinese people always valued face more than anything, so they did not value privacy as much as they should.

For example, a normal citizen might not find much about the address that Ol’ K was checking so easily, but with a relative or friend that worked at the relevant departments, that information could be obtained by simply asking.

Of course, they did not think of this as leaking confidential information. Rather, they saw it as a way to provide a more complete service. For example, after purchasing a home, one might receive a call from the furniture company and the interior design company. Or after setting up a bank account, one should expect the call from the insurance company or finance account.

“This address points to a citizen’s home.” It did not take long for Ol’ K to come up with the information. He not only figured out the information of the current owner, he even dug up all the information off the previous tenants. “The current owner is a retired couple, and the house has been used as a rental. It’s probably to add to their income. The most recent tenant signed the rental agreement two months ago. The tenant is not a local, and according to the agreement, the person is a teacher working for a foreign language school…”

“That sounds perfectly normal.” Han Chu frowned. “This sounds like common information. Can you find out more about it?”

Anthony picked at his meal, patted his stomach, and sidled over to work. With his fingers dancing over the keyboard, he followed Ol’ K’s trail and yanked out more information. “The house is not fitted with any internet service. Ethernet cable, Wi-Fi, there’s nothing, not even a TV server… If this is not a loner, then we can safely assume the people inside the house do not want others to hack into the server to look into the house.”

It was rare for young people to stay away from the internet, but there were still some special cases. However, to not own a TV was extremely curious because, for many families, TV no longer counted as an electronic but a part of the furniture…

Ye Shuang chimed in to suggest, “I think Madam Grace’s idea will work here. Since we can’t observe the internet, we’ll do it in person. Are there any other buildings around this place?”

“There are…” Han Chu hesitated. “But who is willing to go?”

Anthony’s many tools were at the apartment, and it was impossible for him to take them all out with him. Since the man and the chip were at the apartment, someone had to stay back to watch over them. It was not that they expected people to storm their apartment, but it was better to be prepared.

Han Chu and Su Zheng needed to maintain contact with the local leader, Ye Shuang had to stay at home, and Ol’ K was Anthony’s assistant and could stay to help Ye Shuang. So, after looking around, who had the time to go and examine this old place?

Ol’ K slapped his leg and exclaimed loudly, “This has to be a lure to lead us away!”

He immediately felt a slap on the back of his head. It was Su Zheng who did that. The girl’s brain moved faster than Ol’ K’s. She went over their connection and quickly said, “Brother Han, we’re now friends with Brother Liu, right? Why don’t we ask him to send his people to check this place out?”

Brother Liu was Feng Yuan City’s local leader. Han Chu heard that and quickly nodded. If they were not going to make use of the connection, why did he and Su Zheng waste so much energy to form a connection?

They did not waste time. Han Chu held the phone with some contemplation before pushing it to Su Zheng. Su Zheng pouted, and under the confused gazes of the others, she made the call. The voice of the man on the other end was bold and forthright. Since it was put on speaker, everyone else could hear the loud voice.

“Ha ha. Little Brother Han, are you free again today? What a coincidence. I happened to invite a few good friends to come over for dinner. Would you like to join us?”

Is this really just a coincidence? It sounds like the man often gathers his friends to eat and drink together.

Han Chu glanced at Su Zheng wordlessly, and Su Zheng forced a smile. “Brother Liu, this is Xiao Su. Actually, I’m calling because I have a small favor to ask…”

The man on the other end paused before adding, “What is it?”

Then before Su Zheng could answer, he said, “How about this? You should bring your friends over with you. We’ll talk about this over dinner. My friends are all good people, so they might be able to help you.”

Su Zheng instantly felt like crying. She stammered, “Will… will we be drinking?”

“Ha, ha, ha. That is exactly what I like to hear! Wonderful, since you’ve asked, I will definitely reserve several bottles of the best for you!”