Chapter 16: I Have Seen

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Hearing Big Tiger, Seventh Master spoke at once.

“One day—at most one day. I guarantee I’ll have all the information gathered!”

There were not many universities in Mountain City. Even counting the vocational colleges and privately run technical schools, there were only seven or eight in total.

With all the people he had working around the university district, finding out the identities of the missing students within a day would not be difficult.

“Good. I’ll wait for your news tomorrow.”

Big Tiger nodded and took a bank card from inside his coat.

“The young lady asked me to treat the brothers to a meal. It isn’t much.”

“Please thank the young lady for me!”

There were rules in the underworld: take the money, do the job.

Aside from hotheaded street punks and young men with more bravado than sense, most people who entered that world had been driven there by life.

If there had been even the slightest other way out, who would have willingly chosen a life of licking blood from the edge of a blade?

No matter how powerful one’s influence was in the underworld, no matter what connections stood behind them, there was always one rule that had to be obeyed:

Take the money, do the job.

This was no longer an age when the world could be conquered through brotherhood and loyalty. Without money, who would be willing to work for you?

“I’ll come and collect it at this time tomorrow.”

Hearing Big Tiger, Seventh Master immediately assured him that there would be no problems whatsoever.

Time was like Crayon Shin-chan’s trousers—it vanished before anyone noticed.

In the blink of an eye, it was the following night. Big Tiger drove Tang Jianing all the way to a private room in a restaurant.

Seventh Master had prepared a table of food long in advance. The moment he saw the two of them enter, he sprang to his feet.

“Young lady!”

“All right, you don’t need to be so formal with me.”

Tang Jianing’s impression of Seventh Master was fairly good. Although he was not ruthless enough for someone in his line of work, his methods were still quite capable.

More importantly, the old man was clever. He knew exactly where he ought to place himself.

She casually sat down, wiped her chopsticks, and took a small taste of the dishes on the table.

Seeing how relaxed the young lady was, Big Tiger froze for a moment. Then a smile spread across his face, and he sat down as well.

It was obvious. His young lady had won people over this way more than once or twice.

After seeing it often enough, one naturally learned how to cooperate.

Watching Tang Jianing and Big Tiger begin eating without ceremony, the smile on Seventh Master’s old face grew even broader.

“Come, young lady, try this. I brought the chef all the way from the capital!”

A meal did not take very long, especially since Tang Jianing had already eaten with Tang Liqian at home.

After tasting a few dishes, she leaned back in her chair.

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Seventh Master was no fool. He quickly picked up a file envelope from beside him and handed it to Tang Jianing.

“These are the names of all the university students who have disappeared over the past three years, just as you requested. Everything is here!”

Tang Jianing accepted the list and nodded. After tapping her fingers against the tabletop several times, she finally spoke.

“The abandoned warehouses in the eastern part of the city, along with the surrounding land, now belong to me. I plan to build an immersive escape-room and haunted-house complex there.”

“In recent years, Mountain City has been vigorously developing tourism. Last year alone, the number of tourists reached one hundred and thirty million.”

“Riding that wave, even a pig could take flight if it stood in the right place.”

At that, Tang Jianing paused for a moment and studied Seventh Master.

“Datang will establish a company to operate the escape-room complex. I’ll contribute the land in exchange for seventy-one percent of the shares. You’ll contribute the construction work for twenty-nine percent. What do you think?”

Hearing Tang Jianing, Seventh Master’s entire body trembled twice.

“Thank you for your generosity, young lady!”

The increase in tourists visiting Mountain City in recent years was something they had all noticed.

Whenever the tourist season arrived, every kind of entertainment venue was packed to capacity.

In other words, once this enormous escape-room complex was built, it would be a business guaranteed to make money.

All it would require from him was some construction materials and the wages for several construction crews.

To exchange that small amount of money for twenty-nine percent of the shares—what else could it be called if not a gift?

“Slow down. No one’s going to take it from you.”

Seeing Big Tiger wolfing down his food, Tang Jianing could not help sighing.

“Young lady, aren’t you in a hurry to leave?”

Big Tiger bit into the pork knuckle in his hand and looked over at Tang Jianing, his face covered in grease.

“No rush. I’ll decide after I finish reading the files.”

Big Tiger had known true hunger—the kind that came from going without enough food for a long time.

Whenever he saw pork knuckles, braised pork, or red-braised pork, he became practically incapable of walking away.

His father would probably have to work overtime for a long time because of the acquisition of the Liao Corporation.

In any case, it was only a stack of documents. There was no difference between reading them here and reading them elsewhere.

After hearing Tang Jianing, Big Tiger immediately slowed his eating and began savoring the enormous knuckle in his hand.

“Could you bring me five more?”

Big Tiger looked at the knuckle in his hand, then suddenly shifted his gaze toward Seventh Master.

“All right!”

Seventh Master quickly pressed the service bell on the table. Before long, a waitress in a qipao entered the room.

“Go and bring Brother Tiger five more large pork knuckles. And bring some sour-plum drink as well.”

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Pork knuckles were delicious, but they were also excessively greasy.

Seventh Master was worried that Big Tiger might suffer stomach trouble after eating so much at his place. A little sour-plum drink would at least help ease the burden.

Tang Jianing cast a secret glance at Big Tiger, who ate like a starving ghost reincarnated, then turned her attention back to the documents.

The file was thick, containing a little over thirty cases in total.

After skimming through it, Tang Jianing picked up the first report and began to read.

Name: Lian Dongling

Age: Twenty-two

Time of disappearance: Disappeared one night in August of the previous year. According to her roommate, she received a phone call and hurriedly left. No one had seen her since.

…

There was not much useful information in the reports. However, the time of this woman’s disappearance did correspond to the remains found in the warehouse.

After narrowing her eyes and studying the documents for a while, Tang Jianing quickly found around twenty files whose details roughly matched the remains.

The most recent disappearance had occurred exactly one month earlier.

Name: He Yue

Age: Twenty

Time of disappearance: One month ago

School: Mountain City Vocational Technical College

Major: Hotel Management, Class 236

According to testimony from multiple sources, He Yue left the school on a Saturday night one month ago. No one had seen her afterward.

Tang Jianing pulled that file out for closer attention and handed it to Seventh Master.

“Have your men investigate this person. Whether it’s her boyfriend or anyone else she knew, I need an absolutely detailed report on her social connections.”

Seventh Master accepted the file with great solemnity.

But immediately afterward, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

“Wait—I’ve seen this woman before!”

“You’ve seen her?”

At Seventh Master’s words, not only Tang Jianing but Big Tiger as well raised his head.

Seventh Master furrowed his brows and thought for a while before finally giving his answer.

“She was one of Third Brother Hua’s people. If I remember correctly, they operated around the train station.”