“Truthfully speaking, I thought someone was playing a prank on me when I received his call that first time.” Tan Dongbang sighed deeply.
The incident had been on his mind for almost a month now. Ever since the day he had received the mysterious call, it was like he had been in a fog or some dream state.
Huo Shaoheng pushed a pen and paper towards Tan Dongbang. “What was the phone number? Write it down.”
Huo Shaoheng didn’t hold out high hopes that it would be a genuine phone number.
His Special Operations Forces also knew how to use fake numbers to call people, and how to make it seem completely authentic besides.
As long as he got a phone number, he could trace its use, even if it was a fake number.
Huo Shaoheng had already begun planning the steps to investigate the fake number.
His mind went completely blank for a second when he saw the number that Tan Dongbang had written down.
“A four-digit phone number? Is this an extension?” Huo Shaoheng composed himself and tapped the piece of paper with his phone, expression icy as he questioned Tan Dongbang.
A four-digit phone line meant it was most likely an extension.
It couldn’t possibly be a real phone number otherwise.
Tan Dongbang replied awkwardly, “I had assumed so in the beginning, but all the extensions for the Cabinet, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the military are five digits numbers. There are no four-digit extensions.”
Also, he had been able to use his cell phone to call that number.
The phone display indicated it wasn’t an extension, but an international number.
Huo Shaoheng stiffened. “An international number?”
Tan Dongbang spread his palms. “You must have examined my phone already. There should be records of incoming and outgoing calls.”
When they had been arrested, all their belongings – phones, watches, jewelry, wallets, everything that had been on their person had been confiscated.
Furthermore, as physical evidence, his phone had undergone a thorough forensic investigation.
Generally speaking, there would be a call log entry for all incoming and outgoing calls.
Yet Huo Shaoheng was very certain that he had not seen this strange number listed on the investigation report for Tan Dongbang’s phone.
If the four-digit international phone number truly had appeared on Tan Dongbang’s phone, then his subordinates would certainly never miss such an obvious clue.
There wasn’t any mention of these four digits on the report at all.
Huo Shaoheng was silent for a long time while he shot off a text to his subordinates asking them to deliver Tan Dongbang’s phone to him. He prompted Tan Dongbang to continue speaking.
“And then what happened? What did the owner of this phone number tell you?”
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his subordinates, but if the enemy was a skilled hacker it was possible that he could have hacked Tan Dongbang’s phone and concealed the call logs.
To be on the safe side, he needed to examine it himself one more time.
During the few minutes he waited for his subordinates to deliver Tan Dongbang’s phone to the interrogation room, Huo Shaoheng listened to Tan Dongbang excitedly go on about his interactions with the caller.
“The person must be a man – the voice was so low and gruff. He spoke very slowly, and when we were on the phone it seemed like he was quite a distance away, because the cell signal wasn’t very good. Sometimes the call dropped, but I could still hear what he was saying.”
Tan Dongbang reminisced about the incredible experiences he had over the past month.
“At the time I was already feeling despair, and I planned to give up. I was going to forfeit the election, allowing Bai Jiangcheng to become the Prime Minister. But just when I was at my lowest point, a call came. He told me that as long as I promised to help him do one thing after winning, he would help me get elected.”
“I was infuriated when I heard this, I thought it was some bored prankster wasting my time. So I yelled at him.”
“But that person didn’t get angry. When I finished shouting at him, he finally told me that he had been the one to help Hong Kangquan in his behind the scenes interference during my first election. He had been the one to control the voting surveillance system.”
“And then he gave me specific information about the votes, as well as the data for the actual votes cast. It tallied with my records. After all that proof, I finally believed him.” Tan Dongbang sighed with deep regret, “Truthfully speaking, I hadn’t even dared to believe it when I won the first election. I mostly believed it was because Songyin had worked very hard for me.”
Huo Shaoheng nodded slightly.
This lined up with his investigations, so he figured Tan Dongbang was probably telling the truth.
“And then what happened? You started working with him?”
Tan Dongbang closed his eyes. “Of course. As long as I could win the election, it didn’t matter what methods I used. Results are the most important thing.”
He had told himself even if he had used clandestine methods to win the election, wouldn’t it have been justifiable if he made national interests his number one priority upon taking office?
He had forgotten that someone who uses clandestine methods to win an election could never overcome the selfishness and greed in their hearts. Once elected into office, they would only grow more obsessed with attaining personal gain. They would never make national interests their number one priority.
He had persuaded himself with that justification, to numb himself and to silence the last shred of conscientiousness he possessed.
“And then that person told you his conditions?” Huo Shaoheng circled the phone number, just as his subordinate opened the door, pushing a plastic bag containing Tan Dongbang’s phone into his hands.
Huo Shaoheng wore specially made sensing gloves. Opening the evidence bag, he took out Tan Dongbang’s phone and began to search rapidly for information about incoming calls on Tan Dongbang’s phone.
Tan Dongbang’s face turned a bit red when he saw his phone. He muttered, “That person didn’t tell me what it was. He only said that he would contact me once I was elected.”
It was also because that person hadn’t given any conditions before Tan Dongbang won the election that he increasingly began to believe that person truly wished to help him win the election.
If he was a swindler, he would have been sure to make all sorts of demands before Tan Dongbang won the election.
Huo Shaoheng stopped speaking as he focussed all his attention on Tan Dongbang’s phone.
He spent the next half an hour searching, but he couldn’t find any records of a four-digit phone number in Tan Dongbang’s mobile call log.
There were no records of any incoming or outgoing calls.
Huo Shaoheng frowned.
Was Tan Dongbang telling the truth?
Had there ever been such a phone number, or had he already lost his mind because of the election? To the extent where he had imagined a mysterious phone number, along with an enigmatic contact?
Huo Shaoheng shot a glance at Tan Dongbang and threw his phone back on the desk. He stated calmly, “There is no record on your phone to prove the number you’ve given ever called you. Why is that? Are you still refusing to tell the truth? Terrible things happen to people here when they make up stories.”
“I didn’t makeup stories!” Tan Dongbang began to panic as he grabbed his phone and opened the call log. “A few days ago – up to the day of the election, I was still calling this person continuously!”
He could still clearly recall calling that number so many times, of course, there must be a record of incoming and outgoing calls on his phone.
However, as he scrolled through his call log, he couldn’t find any records of the phone number no matter how hard he looked.
It was as if it had all been a dream.
“How could this be? How could this be?! I know I called it – so many times! I remember…” Tan Dongbang cradled his head in his hands and began to scream.
When he couldn’t find the expected evidence for the events he remembered taking place, he started to doubt his own memories.
“I swear! I really called this number! That person also told me many things about Hong Kangquan! Could I have possibly imagined all that too?” Tan Dongbang anxiously grabbed at Huo Shaoheng’s hand. “You have to believe me! You can go ask Hong Kangquan if you don’t believe me! I refuse to believe he would have the same dreams I’ve had!”
Huo Shaoheng could see that Tan Dongbang was beginning to spout nonsense in his fit of agitation, so he took back Tan Dongbang’s phone. He stood up and said, “Go get some rest. I’ll go question Hong Kangquan again.”
“You must ask him! Then you’ll know if I’m telling the truth or not!” Tan Dongbang continued shouting at him, even as he was taken away.
Despite what he said, when Huo Shaoheng left Tan Dongbang’s interrogation room, he didn’t go to see Hong Kangquan. Instead, he headed for Cai Songyin’s interrogation room.
When a female Special Operations Forces personnel brought Cai Songyin inside, she was as nervous as a bird that had spotted a bow and arrow.
Cai Songyin’s heart sank when she saw Huo Shaoheng’s confident appearance. She assumed the spineless bastard Tan Dongbang must have confessed.
So she immediately said, “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything. I maintain that I never asked Hong Kangquan to kill anyone, I only told him to teach that Weibo blogger a lesson since he threatened my daughter.”
“That Weibo blogger was only minding his own business, why did he need to threaten your daughter?” Huo Shaoheng was expressionless as he looked down to make a note on some paper.
Cai Songyin was stunned into silence. Should she say anything more?
If she spoke the truth, would that only cause her yet more trouble?
At that moment, Cai Songyin didn’t know that Huo Shaoheng and Gu Nianzhi had already discovered her intent to slander them. So she was still trying to conceal the fact from them.
Huo Shaoheng became impatient and prepared to confront her with evidence. “Was it because of this?”
He showed her an article about unspeakable things that transpired between Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng. Gu Nianzhi had randomly discovered it on the blog of the Weibo account called ‘Churchill’s Garden.’
Of course, it wasn’t the original composition but a summary.
Cai Songyin’s face flushed red as she glanced at it. She quickly grabbed the piece of paper and skimmed it before looking at Huo Shaoheng and demanding, “Where did you get this from?”
Huo Shaoheng calmly answered, “Where did I get this from? This is, of course, an article posted by the Weibo blogger on ‘Churchill’s Garden.’ Could you possibly have been unaware of this?”
“But this wasn’t what I asked him to write!” Cai Songyin was caught between being angry and happy, and the resulting mixed expression on her face was somewhat frightening.
…
