Chapter 61: Causing No End of Trouble

How should they go about uncovering the background of this shop?

As Song Changfeng was deep in thought, he received a call from Xiao Zheng. He and his colleagues who had been investigating at the hotel had regrouped and were on their way over.

It turned out they had pulled surveillance footage from the roads near the hotel. During that time frame, there weren’t many vehicles passing by the flowerbed near the hotel—only a little over twenty—so it wasn’t too difficult to investigate.

After identifying the vehicles through their license plates, they split up to visit the owners. Most of the people they found were completely baffled, having no idea why the police had suddenly come knocking. After questioning, the majority were cleared of suspicion.

However, when they visited the last car owner, something unexpected happened. The owner flatly denied ever being near the hotel the previous day and insisted he’d been home the entire time.

The police immediately grew alert. But when the owner saw they didn’t believe him, he pulled up his home surveillance footage on the spot. It showed that he had indeed stayed home all day, only stepping out once to pick up a food delivery.

That was strange. If he hadn’t gone out, how had his car ended up near the hotel? But he had also just said that he hadn’t lent the car to anyone.

When the police showed him the vehicle from the surveillance footage and asked him to confirm it, his expression changed instantly. He exclaimed in shock, “That license plate is exactly the same as mine! But my car is a Land Rover, and that one’s a BYD¹. Look for yourself.”

As he spoke, he pulled up a photo of himself with his car, and sure enough, it was a Land Rover.

The police immediately realized it was a cloned license plate. That meant the kidnapping had been premeditated.

They went back to review surveillance footage from various roads, trying to track the fake vehicle’s movements. The driver was cunning, deliberately steering into areas without cameras, making the investigation a real headache.

Fortunately, no matter how clever he was, he couldn’t completely erase his trail. After over two hours of combing through footage, they finally confirmed that the car had entered this street and never came out again.

After hearing this, Song Changfeng said to Xiao Zheng, “Head straight to the area near Old Zhang’s Professional Repair Shop. I’ll send you the location. The shop owner is highly suspicious.”

Song Changfeng arrived at a deserted lot near Old Zhang’s shop. Not long after he sent the location, a police car pulled up. To avoid alerting the suspect, they didn’t use sirens, and the vehicle was an unmarked car driven by plainclothes officers.

“Changfeng, how did you figure out this shop might be involved?” Xiao Zheng asked curiously.

“It was Aofeng. He must’ve picked up some scent around here. Just now, he kept trying to open that roll-up door,” Song Changfeng replied truthfully.

Xiao Zheng looked at Aofeng with a hint of awe. Damn, it’s even helping with investigations now. If the shop owner really turned out to be the suspect, it would save them a lot of trouble. Honestly, this kidnapping case was proving to be quite tricky.

Usually, kidnappings are either for ransom or revenge. The reason kidnappers choose to abduct rather than kill is to use the victim as leverage. But in this case, the family hadn’t received a single call from an unknown number. They only found out about the incident because the local police informed them. So what exactly were the kidnappers after? Without a motive, it was impossible to narrow down suspects. And if no one had discovered the kidnapping in time, by the time the family realized something was wrong and reported it, it might have been too late.

After discussing it, they decided to fabricate an excuse to trick the shop owner into opening the door. For shopkeepers, what’s the most troublesome thing? Difficult customers, of course.

At that moment, Old Zhang, still inside the building, received a call from an unfamiliar number. The caller claimed to be a previous customer who had left a car for repairs last month. He said the car had broken down again after just a few uses and demanded that Old Zhang come out and deal with it immediately, or else he’d smash up the shop.

Old Zhang was annoyed and said, “It was working fine when you drove it away. If it broke down again later, how is that my fault?”

“Other people’s products come with a three-year warranty. You don’t have to offer that long, but at least six months or a year, right? It’s only been a month or so and it’s broken again. I seriously doubt you even fixed it properly the first time! You should be grateful I didn’t get into an accident, or you’d be in real trouble!”

Such unreasonable talk made Old Zhang tremble with anger. Normally, when he ran into customers like this, he’d call in his buddies to deal with them.

“So what do you want?” he asked, barely suppressing his fury.

“You’ve cost me time and money. A few thousand yuan in compensation sounds fair, doesn’t it? If you don’t agree, I’ll just have to call the police,” the voice on the other end said arrogantly.

At the mention of the police, Old Zhang’s face darkened like a storm cloud. After a moment, he suddenly smiled and said, “Fair enough, very fair. You’re outside my shop now, right?”

“Of course!”

“Is it just you, or are there others with you?” Old Zhang asked, then quickly added, “I mean, if this gets out, it’ll hurt my business. Best if no one else knows.”

“No one else, just me,” the caller replied impatiently.

“All right then, wait a moment.” A sinister smile crept across Old Zhang’s face. Asking for money? He’d beat the guy until his face bloomed like a flower.

Soon, the shop’s roll-up door slowly rose, and the man at the entrance stepped inside first. Before Old Zhang could react, people who had been hiding on either side also slipped in.

Seeing four extra people in the shop, Old Zhang’s face turned pale with rage. “You tricked me?!”

“Boss, it’s only reasonable to be cautious when dealing with strangers, right? I just didn’t want you going back on your word. Look, you give me the money, and I’ll take my buddies and leave,” Xiao Zheng said, fully immersed in his role as an overbearing thug.

Of course, his performance had another purpose: to create a distraction. With everyone’s attention on him, no one noticed a man and a dog quietly slipping inside from the side.

As soon as Aofeng stepped inside, he noticed the shopkeeper’s appearance. Medium height, a bit chubby, and most striking of all was the large black mole on his chin, nearly the size of a coin. Wasn’t that exactly what Kaka had described?

Aofeng was now certain – this shopkeeper had to be the kidnapper.

He lowered his head and sniffed along the way, hoping to locate the others. But the shop was filled with all kinds of smells, and the scent of gasoline, which dogs particularly disliked, interfered with his search. Since his nose wasn’t much help, Aofeng focused entirely on his hearing. His ears stood straight up, occasionally twitching slightly.

His focused attention soon paid off. Aside from the arguing voices up front, Aofeng picked up on another, more distinct sound.

Tap tap, click click, tap tap…

That sound was all too familiar from his days as a human – the tapping of a keyboard and clicking of a mouse. Kaka had said they tied up his owner to play games. So whoever was using the computer inside was very likely Kaka’s owner.

Following the sound, Aofeng crept forward and soon arrived outside a small office. He pressed an ear to the door and listened carefully. In addition to the keyboard sounds, he heard three steady breathing patterns. That meant besides Kaka’s owner, the other two were probably the cross-eyed guy and the square-headed one Kaka had mentioned. Song Changfeng also leaned in to listen at the door.

Just then, voices came from inside. One said, “Why hasn’t Old Zhang come in yet? You think something happened?”

Another replied, “What could happen? With Old Zhang’s skills, handling one guy should be a piece of cake.”

“Yeah, I know, but I still feel uneasy. How about I go check and you keep an eye on this kid?”

“Go, go. You don’t even trust Old Zhang now.”

Footsteps approached the door – this was their chance. Aofeng and Song Changfeng took positions on either side. As soon as the door opened, they would split up: one would take down the person opening the door, the other would rush in to handle the second man.

Creak – the doorknob turned, followed by the sound of the door sliding open. Now!

Man and dog moved in perfect sync. One attacked the man at the door, while the other slipped through the opening and lunged straight at the person sitting in a chair playing on his phone.

The man tied to the chair, bound from neck to toe except for his hands, wearing glasses and gagged, was operating the computer with a miserable expression. He was none other than Kaka’s owner – Li Zihao.

With the element of surprise on their side, the two kidnappers stood no chance. One was pinned to the ground by Song Changfeng’s knee, unable to move, while the other was fiercely bitten by Aofeng, screaming and struggling in terror.

The noise from inside reached the front, and Old Zhang’s expression immediately turned vicious. But before he could make a move, the waiting police officers pounced on him, pinned him to the ground, and slapped cold handcuffs on his wrists.

The first thing Li Zihao asked after being rescued was about Kaka. He only knew Kaka had been taken away and had no idea what these people had done.

When Song Changfeng pulled up the photo of Kaka, beaten and barely alive, stuffed in a bag, Li Zihao’s eyes filled with hatred. Without a word, he turned and started punching the three already cuffed men.

They had used Kaka to threaten him into cooperating. For Kaka’s safety, he had no choice but to follow their orders. But he never imagined they had no intention of sparing Kaka at all.

Li Zihao was quickly restrained. Then, Song Changfeng showed him a video: Kaka, wrapped up like a mummy, had his head stuck between the bars of a cage at the animal hospital, howling toward the outside. Though clearly injured, Kaka still looked spirited and full of energy. Li Zihao couldn’t help but burst into tears of joy.

Once he calmed down, he began recounting what had happened over the past few days.

He had brought Kaka to Jingdu because of an invitation from an online friend to participate in a PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds offline tournament. But he hadn’t expected that the invitation had ulterior motives. They wanted Li Zihao to hack into a website and recover the money they had lost.

It turned out that Old Zhang and his two friends had stumbled onto a gambling website last month. At first, they just wanted to try it out and put in a small amount of money. To their surprise, their earnings doubled within an hour. Compared to fixing cars like a grunt, this was easy money.

The three of them discussed it and decided to dive headfirst into gambling. At first, they were cautious with their bets, but as their winnings grew, they got greedy and started investing more. As with all gambling, there were wins and losses. When they lost, they blamed bad luck and tried to win it back. When they won, they dreamed of getting rich overnight and spending the rest of their lives in luxury, so they kept increasing their stakes.

Before long, their bank accounts were drained. That’s when they finally realized the mess they were in. They thought about reporting it to the police, but the site was overseas and they had broken the law by gambling online in the first place. Reporting it might not get their money back and could even land them in legal trouble, so they gave up on that idea.

By chance, they witnessed a computer whiz at an internet café. After someone questioned his skills, he hacked through the café’s firewall in under a minute and sent a smiley face to everyone’s screens. Though he quickly withdrew the command, the spark of hope had already been lit in their hearts.

If that expert could help them recover the money from the site, wouldn’t that solve everything? After some digging, they found his in-game username and began trying to get close to him, showering him with flattery and praise – all part of a calculated plan to lure Li Zihao in.

That day, they waited for Li Zihao at a small park and laid out their request. Li Zihao refused on the spot and said he wanted to leave. Although he had the skills, he had never done anything illegal. He already regretted showing off at the internet café that day and had no intention of repeating that mistake.

Unfortunately, they had anticipated his refusal. When he declined, they knocked him out and kidnapped him. Their plan was airtight – the only thing they hadn’t accounted for was that Li Zihao had brought a husky with him when he left home.

When Erha saw his master knocked unconscious, he naturally wouldn’t stand for it. He opened his mouth and let out a long, mournful howl. The sound was no different from a car alarm blaring. So, they knocked Erha out too and took him along.

Back at the repair shop, Erha regained consciousness. When he saw Li Zihao tied up, he started barking again. Cross-eyed took him outside, but Erha tried to attack him and ended up biting his hand. That act triggered Cross-eyed’s violent side. He grabbed a stick and started beating Erha mercilessly. When Erha was barely clinging to life, Cross-eyed stuffed him into a woven sack. To avoid drawing attention, he even made sure to toss the sack far away.

When Li Zihao asked about Erha, they used it as leverage, threatening to kill the dog if he didn’t cooperate. Left with no choice, Li Zihao followed their instructions and attempted to hack into the website. But he wasn’t without caution—he deliberately left a trace during the intrusion, causing the site to shut down temporarily due to the unknown attack. It was a stalling tactic, buying time in hopes his family would notice something was wrong and report it to the police.

After hearing the story, Aofeng couldn’t help but exclaim that gambling really did ruin lives. But weren’t these guys worried that once Li Zihao was released, he’d report them? Or had they planned to silence him from the start?

Actually, that wasn’t the case. These men didn’t just want Li Zihao to recover the money—they were hoping to rope him in, using him to siphon funds from overseas websites. That way, they could rid the world of a few scumbags, line their own pockets, and the foreign sites wouldn’t dare report it. A win-win situation, so why not? And as for Li Zihao—once he got a taste of the profits, would he really call the cops? Who complains about having too much money?

Translator’s Notes