CH 74

Luo Wencheng quickly got the instructions from Bruin De Lang who asked him to find a man named Liu Lifu and reveal the situation to him.

This Liu Lifu was a public official in a close-to-retirement age. His position was not high. He was in his fifties. He had a big belly, looked sheepish and was kind to everyone. There was nothing special about him. If it weren’t for Bruin De Lang to provide the name, no one would suspect that such a fat old man could have something to do with a lunatic who was engaged in horrific human experiments.

And it was not an ordinary relationship.

While Luo Wencheng was waiting to meet, he was thinking about the situation of Liu Lifu that he had found out roughly in the past two days. Although Liu Lifu didn’t hold a high position and had an insignificant job, this man was a long-time traveller abroad, and during his formative years, he went to see Bruin De Lang at least three or four times out of every ten trips. The school where he studied abroad as a young man was the same one Bruin De Lang attended, so they were old school friends.

Old classmates who maintained contact for a long time, old classmates who used to ask for help in times of crisis, was this relationship ordinary?

But Lu Chong had not yet investigated it deeper, afraid to beat the grass to alert the snake.

“Haha, did you wait long? What did you say you were here to stamp?” A cheerful voice came from outside the office, and a fat bellied bald old man in an ordinary suit came in. Luo Wencheng stood up and took out a document from the file. The document was a normal document, but once the cover was opened, inside there were two English words from Bruin De Lang, and those words were the ones only Bruin De Lang and Liu Lifu would know.

Liu Lifu’s smile disappeared as he closed the office door quietly and looked at Luo Wencheng: “What do you mean by that?”

“Professor Delang is in danger, and he asked me to come to you for help.” Luo Wencheng looked indifferent, his words and actions were rigid, and it was obvious that what he showed at this time was his “original appearance” that was not deliberately disguised.

Liu Lifu glanced at him a few more times: “What happened to him?”

“Lu Chong found out that the information on the deep sea excavation technology was transmitted to his computer and caught him.”

“So Lu Chong didn’t suspect you?”

“He made me beat up Professor Delang, and when I did, he believed me.”

Liu Lifu raised his eyebrows; that was all it took to believe?

He sat down at his desk, “What did Lao Delang say?”

“He said that you were his best friend, the person he trusted the most, that you knew everything about him and that you had a way to save him,” Luo Wencheng said.

“He really thinks highly of me. It is the famous Lu Jiuye. Who can snatch someone from his hands?”

“You can’t save Professor?” Luo Wencheng’s eyes turned a bit dangerous, but his expression remained blank.

Liu Lifu was interested: “You’re the little slave he mentioned?”

Luo Wencheng said indifferently, “Professor Delang is my master. Please find a way to save him quickly and explain how you want me to cooperate. I can’t be out for long.”

Liu Lifu, however, seemed in no hurry: “You are still with Lu Jiuye, right? I heard that he is extremely fond of you, he promotes whoever you like, and he can take down whoever you don’t like, even if it is an old man who has been with him all his life. He can give you everything, why do you still follow Bruin De Lang?”

Luo Wencheng glanced at him, “Please hurry up.”

Liu Lifu looked at him and laughed: “Do you really have no emotions of your own, just like a robot? I didn’t believe it when Lao Delang told me that he could really brainwash a person to this extent.”

There was a bit of covetousness in his eyes; how nice would it be if such an obedient person was his? What a formidable and powerful pawn planted next to Lu Chong, his most trusted and closest person. And that Bruin De Lang didn’t even let him do anything for so long, what a waste!

He took a piece of paper and scribbled on it, then folded it a few times and handed it to Luo Wencheng: “Give this to your professor, he’ll understand what I mean.”

“This will save him?”

“Just do as I say.” Liu Lifu suddenly said, “By the way, won’t Lu Chong suspect you if you come here?”

“I am an artist. I said I was drawing a comic and needed to find out what it was like for ordinary people to work in an administrative department. So he had someone send me over here, and he had this fake document prepared for me.”

Liu Lifu was taken aback for a moment and laughed. This Lu Jiuye was really overwhelmed by love. What Lu Chong had said in the company meeting about Luo Wencheng before was widely spread in the circle. Later, Lu Jiuye really inexplicably promoted several people who had a good relationship with Luo Wencheng. He was now a love brain all over. Liu Lifu didn’t doubt anything but thought: this pawn is really powerful, ah.

Luo Wencheng put away the paper and turned to leave. There was indeed a low-profile car waiting for him outside the gate, and only after watching him get into the car did Liu Lifu withdraw his gaze.

But he could never have imagined that the one he was thinking of, Lu Jiuye, was sitting in the car.

Lu Chong was so anxious; he waited for ten minutes but it was as if he had been waiting for ten days. As soon as Luo Wencheng got into the car, he pulled him closer, “Is everything alright?”

Luo Wencheng rubbed his face that had been tense for a long time and smiled, “What could go wrong? In that place, even if Liu Lifu was a devil, could he still eat me?”

Lu Chong didn’t want him to go see Liu Lifu when he received Bruin De Lang’s instructions. It was Luo Wencheng who insisted on following this lead. Liu Lifu was not like Bruin De Lang; for one thing he was Chinese, for another he was a public servant, and for the third, was there any reason to kidnap him?

If they did, what would be the point of Luo Wencheng getting Bruin De Lang’s trust? Didn’t they want to dig out more from that old man?

If they had sent someone else to contact this Liu Lifu, the effect would be reduced and there was no telling how much more time it would take to meander and take a detour.

Lu Chong had to agree to him coming and just made him wait for two days, checking Liu Lifu again and again before he was comfortable with Luo Wencheng going to meet him.

Luo Wencheng gave Lu Chong the note Liu Lifu had given him, “This is what Liu Lifu asked me to pass on to Bruin De Lang. Nothing else was said.”

Apart from this piece of paper, he had not extracted any useful information.

Lu Chong opened the folded piece of paper, which contained a combination of numbers and dots that was impossible to read: “It should be a code.” Lu Chong said.

“What kind of code is it?” Luo Wencheng leaned over.

“Can’t make it out.” Lu Chong took out his phone and prepared to take a picture, “I’ll have someone to study it.”

Luo Wencheng smoothly took the phone for him, unlocked it and took a picture of the paper.

He moved naturally, whereas before that, even when Lu Chong’s phone was on the coffee table in front of him, he wouldn’t touch it. Even if he didn’t have his own phone with him but wanted to check the time, he would get up and walk a few steps to take a look at the clock hanging on the wall, rather than move his hand to light the screen.

He subconsciously drew a line between the two of them because he felt that the phone was a very personal thing.

And now, that line was slowly disappearing.

Lu Chong looked at his face.

Luo Wencheng hadn’t noticed it. He tapped on the photo to see the effect. It was very clear. He didn’t know what came over him, or if it was just a purely instinctive hand motion, but he tapped on the photo and slid to the left.

The previous photo popped up. It was him, standing in the courtyard in the late afternoon, fiddling with the flowers. At that time, he lowered his head. The picture was taken from behind on his left. It was obviously a candid shot, but it was actually very good. Luo Wencheng looked at it and thought it looked great.

Luo Wencheng looked at Lu Chong with surprise: “Are you taking pictures of me?”

Lu Chong coughed, “You didn’t seem to want to talk to me that day.” Lu Chong was a very sensitive person, especially to Luo Wencheng’s mood changes. When Luo Wencheng was not in a good mood and did not want to talk, he would be very conscious and considerate not to disturb him.

However, there were too many times when Luo Wencheng was not in a good mood, and too many times when Lu Chong stared silently from a distance, so he couldn’t help but take a few pictures.

Luo Wencheng pursed his lips; in those previous months, his attitude seemed really bad. Either he was indifferent, or although he was reasonable, he was basically pretending to be patient, annoyed with everyone, his face smiling but his heart cold.

From Lu Chong’s point of view, it should be quite upsetting, right?

If you can’t get close, you can only hide in the distance and take a few photos secretly. It was pretty miserable to think about it.

He whispered: “I will try not to be like that in the future.”

Lu Chong smiled and rubbed his hair, saying gently, “Don’t force yourself, I know you don’t mean it.” His voice was low and soft, like a gentle spring breeze, “Let’s take our time.”

Luo Wencheng rubbed his ears that were slightly tickled by the invading voice. The roots of his ears were tingling.

What a rascal! He thought Lu Chong was getting better and better at teasing people. He could resist sexually explicit words, but this kind of words that didn’t sound like a problem at all, were more exciting.

He actually didn’t wake up in a good mood every morning, and he didn’t want to care about Lu Chong. But as the day went on, he slowly talked more and more, and by the end of the day he was basically soaking in sweet sugar water, titillated by these little gestures, little words of affection and the coaxing voice.

His heart that obviously relied on a machine to keep beating always changed its frequency because of Lu Chong’s performance, and the throbbing sensation of tightening and contracting was quite overwhelming.

He lowered his head and continued to swipe through the photos, each one of him.

He was sitting and reading, he was lying on his back, he was squinting in the sun, he was eating, he was yawning in boredom…

Each one was taken very well. He turned to Lu Chong: “They’re all so good, have you practised it specifically?”

Lu Chong said vaguely, “Somewhat.”

In fact, he had deleted all those that were not good enough.

Luo Wencheng kept flipping through them as if he was addicted, putting aside all the business, and Lu Chong didn’t bother him and pondered over the paper by himself.

But after pondering all the way back to the Lu family’s house, he didn’t have a clue. He sent the picture to his confidants who were proficient in this area, but after a day and a night the reply came that it was unbreakable. It was not a regular code, but a private one that only certain people could read.

Lu Chong could only ask “the man paid by Luo Wencheng” to deliver the note to Bruin De Lang and then monitor his reaction.

The code was indeed a private code between Liu Lifu and Bruin De Lang, which only they knew how to decipher, but it was so complicated that Bruin De Lang took some time to decipher it, and when he did, he was furious.

Liu Lifu was his friend, the two had been in the same dormitory when Liu Lifu was studying abroad and were close enough to keep in touch afterwards. In fact, Liu Lifu had been involved in some of those experiments of his, and some of the unethical things Liu Lifu had done had been done with Bruin De Lang’s help abroad.

They were certainly on good terms because they each had a handle on the other and their interests were entangled.

Bruin De Lang felt that if he was caught so easily this time, there must be a mole around him. He didn’t dare to contact anyone else, so he could only contact Liu Lifu, a personal friend, and then ask him to inform someone reliable in the organisation behind him. With his value, he believed that the organisation and his boss would never give up on him easily and would be looking for him all over the world by now. They would definitely come to his rescue as soon as they knew where he was.

Obviously it was just a simple matter, but that old bastard had taken advantage of the situation and asked him to give him control over Luo Wencheng before he would be willing to help.