Unedited
…..
When Lily woke up, she immediately asked about the current situation. Since it was already noon, Lily figured out that nothing bad really happened or Zhou Jingren would have woken her up.
“She’s stable for now. But… I don’t think this will last long.” Zhou Jingren frowned. “We really should talk about that grandson of hers.”
“Did something happen?”
“I told him, we didn’t found his grandmother.”
“And?” Lily smiled. “Come on… this place had jammers right?”
Zhou Jingren nodded as he sighed. The reason why they haven’t talked about this in the room next to where they were keeping Claude was that they were not sure that the room was secure. While the two decided to work with the Duke, it is still better to talk about sensitive information in places that were secured with jammers. “I thought I saw something in his eyes. Relief.”
“So… he was indeed hiding something.” At first, Lily was not sure about it. She felt it was too impossible for a person to fake the emotion that he was showing towards his grandmother. Lily was sure that the sincerity that he was showing was not fake. However… everything about Claude just makes little sense.
First were the articles he claimed he gave to the Order for them to agree to his requests. Any person would not do something like that, as it would only inform the organization that he knows about their existence. This is akin to putting a large target on their backs!
If Claude was smart enough to trick them, then logic would dictate that he would also be smart enough to know that talking to them was foolish.
Because of these things, Lily decided to play a game with the young man. She wanted him to know that they could kill him anytime, hoping that it would put a lot of pressure and make him spill whatever it was that he was hiding. However, Claude didn’t budge. Everything about him looks normal — his reaction, his sadness, and surprise. Even the surprise and fright on his face when he saw the gun was legit.
But for him to show relief when Zhou Jingren told him those words only meant that he was still hiding something.
“He must be really good at masking his emotions.” Zhou Jingren said. Lily nodded in response.
“He wasn’t masking anything.” She said. “He truly cared for her. However… he could not let us have her either. He might not be working for the organization.” She sighed. It seems that they encountered a very big web of conspiracies.
“A double agent?”
“Not necessarily an agent.” Lily frowned. “Where is my brother?”
“I asked him earlier to come here. He should be on his way here now.”
As if on cue, a knock interrupted their conversation. Zhou Jingren immediately opened the door, revealing Qin Yuanfeng with a big bag on hand.
“I brought my computer.” He walked inside the room. “Where do you want me to set it up?”
“Right there.” Lily calmly said as she pointed at the small space near the fireplace. “Not that big but I’m sure it will do.”
“You found something?” Zhou Jingren locked the door and started helping Qin Yuanfeng set up his computer.
“I think I did.” Qin Yuanfeng grumbled. “Where’s my breakfast?”
“On its way.”
“Does it have beef?”
Zhou Jingren nodded. He looked at Lily and shrugged. Both he and Qin Yuanfeng had been up all night. While both of them were used to this, Qin Yuanfeng started to grumble and said that he was starving. He even demanded some food that can only be found in Luxembourg. Since Zhou Jingren and Lily didn’t have breakfast yet, Zhou Jingren decided to just order for everyone.
“Claude… that man is hiding something.” Qin Yuanfeng said. “After last night, I tried to check everything about him and found out that he was a product of his father’s infidelity. No one knows who his mother was. There was some document that says she signed away her rights when she was born. At that time, his adoptive mother was giving birth, but the child died a few hours after he arrived in this world. To avoid problems, his father decided to give Claude to his wife.”
“Does the wife know this?”
Qin Yuanfeng shook his head. “I doubt it. Claude looked exactly like his father, so no one asked questions. Also… the maid who took the child away from the real mother mysteriously died. Of… poisoning.”
“You found all of this in one night?” Lily asked.
“Yes. I deserve food.”
Zhou Jingren eyed his wife.
“And the best computers.” Qin Yuanfeng added. “You should pay for it.” He said as he started typing on his computer. “That is only fair.”
“He is starting to sound like you.” Zhou Jingren said. “If this goes on… he will start using his talent to earn money.”
“As he should.” Lily shrugged. “If I was a hacker… I would have…” She didn’t continue speaking as she beamed. If she was a hacker, a fighter, a businesswoman, a wife, a mother, and a scheming person. That would mean she was already perfect.
Does a person like that really exist?
“This was Claude a few months before his grandmother started acting like that.” Qin Yuanfeng ignored the couple’s words and just showed them what he found out. “This image should not exist but I was using some satellite, CCTV, street cameras, and the images that the people around this vicinity took. I compiled everything and I was able to create an image like this.”
The image in front of them was Claude sitting inside a club. Beside him was a man who seemed to be in his fifties. However, because of the dark lighting of the club, some parts of the image were blurred while some were blocked by the red lighting on the club.
“I already tried my best.” Qin Yuanfeng shrugged. “I still can’t reconstruct the images and the two are sitting in a blind spot of the CCTV. I tried to check the surrounding CCTV when they leave but I can’t find anything. My guess is it was deleted.”
………..
