Huo Shaoheng looked at the name on his phone and realized it was his mother.
The call they had overheard just now happened to be from Luo Jialan to Song Jinning.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t answer Song Jinning’s call. Instead, he listened to the report from the eavesdropper and sent Song Jinning a text message asking her the reason of her call.
Song Jinning understood that Huo Shaoheng must be busy at this time, so she quickly replied with a text asking him to call her after he was done.
Huo Shaoheng agreed and turned his attention back to the wiretap’s report.
“… Chief, that’s what happened. Luo Jialan claims that she knows Gu Xiangwen’s whereabouts. She wants to use this as a condition to exchange conditions with Ms. Song and get her to drop the charges against her.”
Huo Shaoheng’s face had an impassive expression. He nodded lightly. “Got it. Keep Listening.”
After the surveillance staff left, Huo Shaoheng called song jinning back.
Song Jinning’s phone was in the middle of a call.
..
Because Song Jinning couldn’t help calling Gu Nianzhi again while she was waiting for Huo Shaoheng’s call.
“Nianzhi, Luo Jialan called me just now and said…”
When Gu Nianzhi heard this, she quickly said, “Luo Jialan? Did she say she wanted to negotiate with us and use my father’s whereabouts in exchange for dropping the charges?”
“Yeah? How did you know?”Song Jinning was puzzled. “Could it be… ?”
“Yes, she called me first and said she knew my father’s whereabouts. She used that as a condition to blackmail us. Of course I objected. People like her cannot be trusted with their words. Who knows if it’s true or not? I don’t have that much time to argue with her.”
Gu Nianzhi had already rejected Luo Jialan’s proposal.
Song Jinning was touched and sad at the same time. She whispered, “Nianzhi, actually, it’s not impossible…”
“Mrs. Song, please don’t say that. It’s really none of your business. Whether she knows where my father is or not doesn’t affect our accusations. I said I want her to go to jail, so I want her to go to jail.” Gu Nianzhi was adamant.
However, Song Jinning was a scientist. She was used to imagining all sorts of possibilities and then verifying them step by step.
Just like what Luo Jialan had said, it might be a lie, but it could also be true.
They couldn’t arbitrarily eliminate all of them before they could fully verify them.
Therefore, she said, “What if she really knows? If your father is somewhere waiting for us to rescue him, every day we delay here will mean another day of torture for him. Do you have the heart to do that?”
Trying to suppress her churning thoughts, Gu Nianzhi was silent for a long time. She tried to be rational and said,”… logically speaking, Luo Jialan doesN’t have the conditions to know where my father is.”
“But as you said, if she didn’t just say that, and if she really does know, then there’s only one possibility — that the mastermind has found her and sent us a message through her.”
“If that’s the case, then the whole situation has changed. We can’t accept her conditions, because that means if we agree to her conditions, we’ll fall into the hands of the mastermind.”
Song Jinning could hear Gu Nianzhi’s voice breaking as she spoke.
The girl’s heart was filled with bitterness…
Song Jinning could see clearly that Gu Nianzhi was desperate for family ties, and she was willing to fulfill her wish.
“Nianzhi, you’re right. We have to see things in the long term. But as long as there’s a chance, we can’t give up.” Song Jinning consoled her, and then saw another call on her phone.
She quickly said to Gu Nianzhi, “I still have something to do. I’ll get Shaoheng out later and we can discuss it together.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. “Okay, Ms. Song, you can go now.”
She hung up and continued to work on cracking Luo Jialan’s phone.
She didn’t believe that she couldn’t crack the security system on Luo Jialan’s phone by herself.
..
Song Jinning answered Huo Shaoheng’s call. She said, “Shaoheng, let me tell you something. Luo Jialan called me just now and said a lot of strange things. By the way, she also sent me a draft of half an academic paper. It’s very similar to the experiment we’re doing now. It can be said to be in the same category. But I’ve already deleted the paper because it’s not publicly published.”
Huo shaoheng rubbed his temples and said somewhat helplessly,”… you didn’t have to read it yourself, but you could have forwarded it to me. Why would you delete it?”
Those were all clues. How could she delete it just like that?
Song Jinning said self-righteously, “Those data weren’t publicly published. How could anyone see it? What if someone plagiarizes it and publishes it in a magazine ahead of time? What do you want the original author to do?”
Song Jinning was very stubborn when it came to academic issues.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t continue to argue and just listened quietly. Song jinning pleaded softly, “Shaoheng, if Luo Jialan really knows where Nianzhi’s father is, I’m thinking, why don’t we agree to it for now?”
“I never negotiate with people.” Huo Shaoheng held a cigarette in his hand and shook off a bit of ash from the ashtray on the table. He quietly refuted Song Jinning’s suggestion.
Song Jinning sighed. “I understand what you mean. The nature of your work dictates that you can’t do this. But I just want you to think about it from Nianzhi’s perspective. You know better than I do how much she yearns for family and her parents.”
“I’ve been trying my best to find him.” Huo Shaoheng was unmoved. He took a drag on his cigarette. “You can’t trust Luo Jialan. Don’t be fooled by her.”
“I’m just pitying Nianzhi…” Song Jinning was rarely this emotional. She had been provoked today and was actually moved by what she had said. “She really only has you in her heart. She would do anything for you. Why can’t you…”
Huo Shaoheng’s expression was calm and composed. His eyes were hidden in the rising white smoke. He interrupted Song Jinning unhurriedly. “Ms. Song, you can’t sacrifice moral ethics to make a deal. I have something to attend to, so I’ll hang up now.”
“Ah, Shaoheng, if you weren’t my biological son, I would have persuaded Nianzhi to fall in love with someone else. You’re really heartless. Can’t you make a little concession for her?” Song Jinning didn’t know why, but she felt very apologetic towards Gu Nianzhi.
It wasn’t because she completely believed Luo Jialan’s words, but because she was a little hurt by Huo Shaoheng’s attitude.
There was obviously a great clue in front of her, but Huo Shaoheng was not willing to compromise.
Song Jinning, as the person involved, was thinking that if Luo Jialan really knew the whereabouts of Gu Nianzhi’s father, Gu Xiangwen, then she would be willing to drop the charges.
Of course, that was only if Luo Jialan didn’t lie. She really knew the whereabouts of Gu Xiangwen, no matter how she found out.
However, Huo Shaoheng didn’t even try to be polite. He didn’t even try to verify it in secret. He simply said, “I won’t negotiate with anyone” and completely killed the idea.
Huo Shaoheng pursed his lips and said, “This is very complicated. Please don’t tell Nianzhi.”
“Do you need me to tell her?” Song Jinning was furious. “Nianzhi already knows. Before Luo Jialan called me, she called Nianzhi first. I talked to Nianzhi for a while just now, and the little girl was about to cry. She even said she couldn’t compromise… seriously, look, if you don’t feel sorry for me, I’ll feel sorry for you!”
Huo Shaoheng was slightly startled. “Nianzhi already knew? Luo Jialan called Nianzhi before she called you?”
“Yes, I advise you to be careful with your words. Don’t reject her right in front of Nianzhi. Don’t break her heart. She didn’t agree to it to show her attitude. If you don’t care about her father’s whereabouts, the little girl will be heartbroken.”
Song jinning nagged for a while, then saw that the run program on the computer was about to end. She didn’t want say anything further. “I still have things to do here, so I’ll hang up first.”
“Nianzhi isn’t such a petty person.” Huo Shaoheng retorted unhappily, only to find that Song Jinning had already hung up.
He got up and went straight to the listening room. He asked the staff on duty, “Show me today’s listening logs.”
The staff on duty quickly printed out the surveillance log and sent it to Huo Shaoheng.
Huo Shaoheng flipped through it quickly and found that Luo Jialan had indeed called Gu Nianzhi many times, but she hadn’t been able to get through.
It looked like Gu Nianzhi had blocked Luo Jialan’s phone.
Then Luo Jialan had used someone else’s phone to call Gu Nianzhi.
So they hadn’t been able to eavesdrop on everything.
This was a reasonable loophole in their surveillance work.
This was because they couldn’t eavesdrop on all the citizens’ phones unconditionally.
Every time they eavesdropped, there were strict procedures. They could only do so after they reported it to the higher-ups for approval.
Otherwise, it would be like the Snowden incident in the United States and cause an international scandal.
Huo Shaoheng left the eavesdropping room and returned to the central control room on the sixth floor of the building. He asked the staff there, “Can you still crack Luo Jialan’s phone?”
They had previously installed a Trojan program on Luo Jialan’s phone. Theoretically, they could check her phone’s condition at any time.
However, after Huo Shaoheng’s questioning this time, they discovered that Luo Jialan’s phone had used some sort of security program. Their Trojans had all been deleted..
“Chief, we’re trying to crack it.” A staff member turned around awkwardly. “Luo Jialan deleted the Trojan.”
“That’s impressive.” Huo Shaoheng raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Then you guys take your time cracking it. I’ll wait for your news.”
The staff member in the central control room blushed at his taunting. Venting his anger on the keyboard, he turned around and tapped on it loudly.
…
Coming up from the underground central control room, Huo Shaoheng smoked another cigarette outside before calling Fan Jian to send him to Gu Nianzhi’s apartment at the Sanhuan Road.
On the way, Huo Shaoheng called Xiao Ye first.
“Major General Huo, what can I do for you?” Xiao Ye’s voice came from the phone. It was crisp and sweet, and very apologetic.
Huo Shaoheng’s brows relaxed slightly. He asked calmly, “Where’s Nianzhi? Is she home?”
Xiao Ye looked at Gu Nianzhi’s bedroom, then walked out with her phone in her hand, and closed the door. He then whispered, “Major General Huo, I think Miss Gu has been acting a little strange these past two days.”
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s been cooped up in her bedroom and rarely comes out to eat. The past few days, she’d been doing nothing but playing games with me, but she hasn’t even logged on to the gaming system even once for the past two days.”
Huo Shaoheng frowned.
It looked like Gu Nianzhi was hiding something from him.
Was she trying to carry this on by herself?
“I’ll be right there. Wait for a while.”
Huo Shaoheng hung up the phone. There was a grave expression on his face and he was anxious with apprehension.
