Chapter 85

Liu Yongcheng and the six other kidnappers vanished without a trace.

Buck alone could not have smoothed things over.

His personality was indeed a bit sinister; he used the deceased's phone to make two calls, both to Mou Tianbo. The first call was made using Uncle Cheng's own SIM card, which was the last external contact before the seven people disappeared.

The second call was when he returned the car. Although the number had changed, the police or telecommunications department could still trace the expensive boss's phone through its network serial number. After that, Buck never used that phone again. As for the other phones, Buck and Liu Changyuan could easily tell they were knockoffs, unlicensed smuggled phones that would not typically be traced. Only the counterfeit straight phone that Buck kept for himself did he intentionally want to see if there would be any reaction.

Because with his mindset, there was nothing to fear. In this vast world, if it came to the worst, he could take his family away.

So the clues pointed to Mou Tianbo.

Indeed, the police did visit Mou Tianbo. Liu Yongcheng's family had indeed reported him missing, and the families of two others had also reported their loved ones missing, but there was no evidence to link the cases.

But the suspicion they could provide to the police was still directed at Boss Mou. Some even vaguely expressed that the missing persons were secretly planning something big, something against Boss Mou. Anyone could guess what could be done against a billionaire.

Thus, these few people who were trying to challenge a powerful figure seemed to have vanished like stones into the sea. When the police came to inquire, it was just a formality. The law, to a large extent, still served the higher classes. Mou Tianbo, who could explain any issue, did not even need to prove his alibi. If he really wanted to do something, he would likely hire someone.

The police did not even investigate through other channels, as this could only be registered as a missing persons case, not a major criminal case. Of course, with the knowledge that the investigation would yield no results, the case was put on hold, and there was no widespread notification.

Because there were no bodies to be found.

Mou Tianbo's people could not find them either.

They had good luck and found the secluded island described by the young lady within about half a month, among the densely packed but not too distant lake islands. After all, no one would leave cases of mineral water and instant noodles in a stone-built hut without using them. The most distinctive feature was the treehouse, a small house built with banana leaves and small trees, with a dry and comfortable bed inside, even leaving behind a pair of pants and a shirt.

These details were photographed and the items presented to the boss, and the rest were destroyed. Because they really hired a boat to transport a small excavator, and after a thorough search by trusted hands, no bodies were found.

But there was a site by the water where the soil had been burned and hardened. The loyal underlings took samples and sent them back, and the remaining site was thoroughly cleaned.

As one of the largest pharmaceutical groups in the country, their own laboratory equipment far exceeded the outdated entry-level equipment of the police forensic center. Bloodstains, biological organic matter, hair, broken saw blades, skin residues on the saw teeth, burned and hardened residues, ashes, even the DNA samples from the tree bark bed and dirty blankets, including a half-finger, were all collected in a pickup truck, categorized, and analyzed by a large number of laboratory personnel for over ten days!

Mou Tianbo just wanted to understand the process and this young man.

The tree bed where his daughter had slept, the bed with only the young man's DNA, and the various DNA samples from the seven people, the samples that had been burned to ashes, made Mou Tianbo shudder with the chilling details: a young man sitting quietly by the lake, burning and dismembering the bodies he had personally killed!

So he repeatedly asked Mou Chenfei for details she was willing to answer or that did not touch on sensitive topics.

Photos of the three blackened fire pits, two of which the young lady identified, and the third she was sure she had not seen while on the island, which was also where the dead's DNA was concentrated.

Saw blade? She had never seen it, indicating it was brought later.

She glanced at the photo of the small stone house and nodded to confirm it was the place, but did not want to look at it again.

She also confirmed the remaining two pieces of clothing.

Especially the uniquely shaped treehouse, which Mou Chenfei looked at carefully and finally casually kept one of the many photos of the treehouse, which no one paid attention to.

Unintentionally, Mou Tianbo, who had been particularly careful to isolate his daughter, seemed to be repeatedly prompting her to recall the harrowing twenty-four hours she was trying to forget.

That mere twenty-four hours of unbearable memories, Mou Chenfei rationally told herself, had nothing to do with her.

But it was undeniable that those twenty-four hours were etched in her mind like a deep scar.

Especially after successfully operating the capital of traditional Chinese medicine raw materials and profiting, Mou Tianbo naturally established a new, completely independent company for Mou Chenfei. A comprehensive new institution dedicated to the development and research of traditional Chinese medicine raw materials, personally named by Mou Chenfei as the Xiangaiju Herbal Plant Resource Regeneration Company, which was his way of rewarding her and making her a company worth millions at the age of twenty.

It sounded very admirable, a young girl who, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, had made her first fortune in the capital market with a superior concept, how impressive!

This was already being compared to the "first pot of gold" case of the second son of Hong Kong's richest man nearly twenty years ago in the national pharmaceutical and financial capital markets, and was hailed as a rare prodigy of the wealthy!

Of course, everyone knew it was all because of her father, and the difficulty of making that first fortune was about the same as moving a brick.

Mou Chenfei knew this too.

So her exquisite face never showed any joy over this matter.

There was nothing to be happy about; everything was natural and expected. In the first twenty years of her life, only those twenty-four hours were not routine.

So after the beautiful and composed girl sat behind her modernist desk and gave an interview to a financial magazine, she sat in a daze, absentmindedly playing with a crystal on the desk, an artificial one.

Because after the small flower dried and began to shed its petals after a few days, she suddenly felt a deep unease and quickly ordered her subordinates to make a hot-pressed crystal amber to preserve the flower in its original state, so she could always carry it with her. It was a cheap little trinket, and many wedding photographers had such equipment. Especially since Mou Chenfei requested the simplest and most transparent cube, it was done the same day.

Mou Tianbo had seen it and thought it was about her thinking about the raw material industry, and was pleased to overlook it.

After her daughter returned from the danger, she never mentioned the young man, which greatly pleased Mou Tianbo. Her gradually normal work attitude and academic feedback made him believe that his daughter had fully returned to normal, and that it was just a ripple in the green mountains and clear waters, which had passed instantly.

Now what he had to worry about was his daughter's birthday, a grand birthday party to be held in two months for her twentieth birthday, which, in Mou Tianbo's view, was more important than a listed company.

At his level, it was not something that provincial or municipal power elites could even touch; he had to aim for the national level, so there was basically no one who would dare to bully him directly. But with his daughter being so outstanding, she had become the center of attention from all sides. On one hand, she could bring future benefits to the group, and on the other hand, they had to guard against others' covetousness, a very difficult balance to strike.

The final arrangement he told his daughter was to hold a large-scale high-end cocktail party in Yuzheng. The major shareholders of the group's three listed companies would all participate. Through this birthday party, on one hand, his adult daughter would formally step onto the stage of the group's management, and on the other hand, Mou Tianbo had new business moves to announce to the world.

Mou Chenfei did not need to do anything; she just needed to show her beauty at the party.

Yes, the very term that beautiful girls most dislike: a flower vase.

As a male second-generation rich, he could be promiscuous, could live a carefree life, and as long as he settled down and started a family in the end, his past debauchery could be seen as a mature experience.

What about a female second-generation rich?

Actually, if she were a bit ugly or just passable, others would not focus too much on her private life, at most wondering who the gold-digger was.

But with Mou Chenfei, who was almost perfect and adored by all, it was easy to be seen as either a flower vase or a loose woman, and everyone was happy to see either of these two extreme outcomes.

The most famous cautionary tale was Paris Hilton, who, at the pinnacle of beauty and wealth, lived under the labels of a sex symbol and a libertine, with exposed sex tapes, numerous broken relationships, jail time, alcoholism, and drug addiction, embodying all the worst things a wealthy socialite could do.

So from a young age, Mou Chenfei was almost always warned to be obedient and to strictly guard against all the gazes around her, none of which were not hoping to gain something from her, like hungry wolves eager to bite a piece of flesh from the Mou family.

After all, the shrewd and capable Mou Tianbo was the hardest to scheme against, and his almost invisible wife, Zhou Linfei, was like a smooth stone that no fly could land on. Only this blossoming daughter could be a legitimate breakthrough.

This breakthrough was not just from external threats like kidnapping, theft, or fraud, but also from within, from the children of major shareholders and the sons of high-ranking officials, all of whom were tempted by the vast fortune of the Mou family, which had only one daughter.

The Mou family's wealth was not just the billions of Tianzheng Group on the surface; this had become a tacit understanding in the country. The pharmaceutical chain with annual sales of 15 billion yuan was just a small part of it.

Who could pluck this flower, no less precious than the snow lotus on the peak of Tianshan, was the most concerning question for everyone.

Under such circumstances, Mou Tianbo would rather his daughter be a flower vase, and if she could have some insight or a promising future, that would be a pleasant surprise.

This mindset had continued for twenty years, including not letting his daughter leave her parents to attend university, and even finishing high school with the company of a few daughters of high-level peers, all of which made Mou Chenfei almost live in the shell and plan created by her parents.

Except for those twenty-four hours.

Mou Chenfei quietly rolled the crystal cube on the desk with her long, white thumb and middle finger...

Only heaven knew what was on her mind.

Page break for ads

End of page break for ads