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墨書 Inktalez
"Come in," Old Shao said, hearing the urgent knock on the door.
The person who entered was Captain Ma, his face tense with worry.
"What happened?" Old Shao asked.
Captain Ma replied, "After learning about Ding Mo Cheng's death, Pang Suzhang had a heart attack on the spot. He didn't survive on the way to the hospital and has already passed away. Ding Derun fainted upon hearing the news and has been taken to the hospital; fortunately, he is currently out of danger."
Old Shao lightly tapped his forehead. "Didn't I tell you to take it easy? How did it escalate to this?"
Captain Ma wiped the sweat from his brow. "You know what Ding Derun is like, Old Shao. The people below have no good feelings towards him. One officer let something slip, and Pang Suzhang was immediately affected. We hurriedly arranged for an ambulance, and then..."
Old Shao waved his hand. "No need to explain that to me. You continue to follow up on Ding Derun's situation. Report anything significant to Wang Chao, and if there's any major news, let me know."
Captain Ma acknowledged the order and left.
Old Shao gestured for Jiang He to continue.
Jiang He spoke up, "Did you find any clues from the phone we brought back?"
A message from Guan Deng arrived on everyone's phones: "I found the real phone numbers based on these serial numbers, but all the SIM cards are newly registered and likely from the black market, so I can't trace the registered names. However, aside from these phones, I did manage to find one of the kidnapper's numbers. I'm preparing to follow this lead; we should be able to identify who this kidnapper is."
Old Shao nodded seriously and praised him, "Good work, Guan Deng. Go check it out."
Guan Deng nodded but didn't dare look at anyone; he lowered his head and pushed open the door to leave.
Everyone understood that Guan Deng suffered from severe social anxiety disorder and said nothing.
Old Shao turned to Jiang He and asked, "What do you think?"
Jiang He spoke decisively, "There must be something wrong here. These SIM cards cannot trace back to their owners, but the phone used by the kidnapper can be traced. I have an eighty percent chance of believing that, just like those five roads, this is also something the kidnapper deliberately left for us to see."
Old Shao slammed his hand on the table. "That's right. Ding Derun's game is over, but our game has not yet finished. The kidnapper intentionally left this number hoping we would follow this lead. And this is the second game the kidnapper wants to play with us!"
"There's going to be a second game?" Wang Chao asked, surprised.
Old Shao affirmed, "There will definitely be one. Guan Deng will follow up on this lead. Do you have any other clues?"
Both Xu Yiman and Wang Chao shook their heads.
"What about Jiang He?" Old Shao asked again.
Jiang He replied straightforwardly, "The kidnappers are very professional; they left no evidence behind. Right now, I can't understand what the kidnappers want if they don't want money. What is their purpose?"
Old Shao answered, "The kidnappers' purpose is simple: to provoke the police."
"The next target of the kidnappers will definitely be someone like Ding Derun," Shao the Elder added.
"What kind of person?" several of them inquired.
"Those who should face legal consequences but have not yet done so for various reasons."
Old Shao's eyes were deep and inscrutable; no one knew what he was thinking.
On August 23rd at six in the evening, in a certain location in Jingzhong City.
A man shouted angrily into his phone, "What? What is happening now? Why can't you find out where I am? Hurry up and come! I'm begging you, you have to come! Please!"
His tone was filled with rage, but it eventually turned into helplessness and pleading. He had been stuck here for a full twenty-four hours.
Although the call was connected, there was no response from the other end.
The man's name was Han Liqun, a resident of Jingzhong City, and he was forty years old.
It was the evening of August 22nd at six o'clock.
Han Liqun had left his home to go to the bank when a van pulled up beside him. The door swung open, and two hands grabbed him and forced him into the vehicle. Before he could even process what was happening, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, and then everything went black.
At eight o'clock that night, Han Liqun woke up in a room.
The room was about twenty square meters in size and had a rectangular shape. Han Liqun realized he had been kidnapped, but this type of place was new to him. There were no windows in the room, not even a door. The walls were made of metal sheets, resembling a large metal box.
There was a small window in the ceiling. Han Liqun considered climbing out through it, but it was far too high—at least four or five meters—and the surrounding metal was smooth. Even standing on the bed, he couldn't reach it.
Inside this large metal box, there was only a bed. The bed had no mattress or blankets, but there was a large plastic bag filled with bread and bottled water, along with a new phone.
Han Liqun felt a surge of hope and immediately used the phone to dial 110. The police opened an investigation, but the problem was that Han Liqun had no idea where he actually was. Looking out through the window, he could see only a small area, like a frog at the bottom of a well; nothing else was visible.
This wasn't a smartphone; it didn't even have internet capabilities. It resembled phones from decades ago—capable only of making calls and sending texts, with just one black-and-white chess game available. He couldn't use the phone to determine his location.
Naturally, Han Liqun couldn't tell the police to come rescue him under that cloud that looked like a camel. Without any clear coordinates, they had no way of knowing where he was; Han Liqun himself didn't know where he was either.
The police assured him they would locate his phone signal and told him not to worry.
The police's words calmed Han Liqun down; at least he knew he had not been abandoned.
Han Liqun glanced at the plastic bag containing bottled water and bread—three bottles of water and three loaves of bread. He had no idea when the police would find him, nor did he understand what his captors intended to do with him. More importantly, he didn't know how long he could stretch those three bottles of water and three loaves of bread.
Han Liqun was someone who enjoyed watching television, particularly survival shows. He knew that he needed a detailed plan for these supplies; he couldn't consume everything at once. He arranged the three bottles of water and three loaves of bread in a way that would allow him to last for fifteen hours.
With that, Han Liqun placed his phone and food on the ground and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
It had been many years since he had looked at the sky like this. The blue expanse above, dotted with white clouds, was quiet and soothing.
Looking at the sky was fine for an hour or two, but as Han Liqun watched it gradually darken into a void, he could no longer hold back. He tried calling the police, but the line was dead. He didn't know what was happening; fear and helplessness washed over him.
He felt like he was going insane. After playing two hours of a black-and-white game on his phone, he was so frustrated that he nearly threw it against the wall. But Han Liqun refrained; he understood that this phone was his only link to the outside world. If he broke it, there was a good chance he would never escape.
He became increasingly anxious about the battery running out and hurriedly tucked his phone away. Although this type of phone could last over ten hours on standby, Han Liqun didn't want to take any chances. He clutched the device tightly; it was his last lifeline. He wanted to sleep but tossed and turned in bed, unable to find rest.
Fear, worry, helplessness, anger—Han Liqun's heart was a tumult of emotions.
For him, this felt like torture.
He kept his eyes open, watching as the dark sky regained its brightness. It was morning again, but he didn’t see the sun rise; that expanse of sky had become his only source of amusement. He felt incredibly stifled—his calls went unanswered, no one responded to his cries for help. He pounded on the metal wall with a bottle of water but received no reply.
Not even a single bird flew across his view; it was driving him mad.
The bottle cracked against the wall, spilling water all over the floor. Like a dog, he frantically licked up every drop from the ground; he couldn't afford to waste any.
At that moment, Han Liqun finally understood: plans could never keep up with changes. Forget fifteen hours; he couldn't endure even one hour in this environment. It felt as if he were the only person left in the world. Clutching his phone tightly, he wished more than anything for someone to call him. His greatest desire now was simply to talk to another person.
But there was no one around.
Until six in the morning, a phone call came in: "I have your son in my hands. If you don't want anything to happen to him, you need to come up with a million."
The caller spoke in a thick dialect, and Han Liqun immediately recognized it as a scam.
"Brother, brother," Han Liqun exclaimed with joy, "please don’t hang up! I’ve been kidnapped, and I can’t reach the police. I don’t know why you can call through, but please report this to the authorities! You have to call me back after that. I’m begging you; it’s been so long since anyone has talked to me. I can’t take it anymore!"
On the other end of the line came a dismissive voice: "Get lost! Who do you think you are? How ridiculous! Even if you figured out I'm a fraud, you shouldn't insult me like that. Do you think I'm stupid or are you? I have standards too, you know. Goodbye!"
With that, the caller hung up.
Han Liqun thought his phone was finally working again, so he quickly dialed 110, but the call wouldn’t go through. He felt a deep sense of despair; why couldn’t he reach the police? He tried calling 119 and several other numbers, but none connected, even though his phone showed full signal.
Suddenly, he had an idea and immediately dialed the scammer's number again.
The sound of ringing filled his ears; the call had gone through.
"Please pick up," Han Liqun silently pleaded in his mind.
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