An Old Acquaintance
General Police Bureau.
"Chief, an invitation card sent from the Beidou Consortium." A Police Officer walked into the office and handed the item in his hand to the front of the desk.
The chief's hand, which had been writing, paused. He looked up at the invitation card, slowly sat up straight, and picked it up.
"That Old Fella is actually sending me an invitation card for his birthday?"
"Not just you, the Power Bureau, the Price Bureau, and several other bureau chiefs were also invited... Mu Chunsheng has been operating in the Main City for so many years, his network and foundation are extremely deep. He practically eats from both the political and business circles. If it weren't for [Floating Life Painting] always ignoring the mundane affairs of the human world, his invitation would probably have been sent up to the heavens."
"Be confident, he definitely sent an invitation up there too, it's just that no one paid him any mind." The chief spoke unhurriedly.
"Then for this birthday banquet, will you go or not? Should I directly decline on your behalf?"
The chief didn't answer, but lightly tapped his knuckles on the desk, as if pondering something.
"Our Plainclothes Officers have been investigating secretly for a few days, but they haven't found any anomalies... We don't know if the rain was too heavy that day, or if Li Ruohong deliberately had someone clean it up, but the floorboards are completely clean without any blood stains left. They also haven't found the corpse that was sent flying by a single slash. Aside from business not being very good, there's nothing strange."
The chief nodded slightly. "That is normal. The people of the Dusk Society have always been extremely cautious, how could they easily reveal flaws... What about that so-called VIP Box 001?"
"Speaking of this box, it seems Li Ruohong's side has become alert. The boxes on that side have been closed off, claiming to be undergoing renovation and maintenance. Our people didn't dare to alert the snake in the grass, so we didn't sneak up to search... But in all these days, we indeed haven't seen anyone come out from there. Instead, Li Ruohong occasionally goes over, stays for a few minutes, and comes out."
"Oh?" The chief's brows raised slightly.
"There's another suspicious point... No, I'm not sure if it can be considered a suspicious point." The Police Officer's expression was somewhat hesitant.
"Little Liu, you've been with me for a long time. I trust your intuition and judgment, so just speak your mind directly."
"Yes." The Police Officer paused for a moment. "These past few days, I've had them secretly inspect the trash thrown out from the Cabaret. After all, from a certain perspective, one can reconstruct the events that happened inside the Cabaret through the trash..."
"Not a bad idea. And then? What did you find?"
"Bandages, a large amount of blood-stained bandages." The Police Officer said in a deep voice. "These bandages seem to have been there for some time, the blood stains on them have already turned black. Only someone who suffered very serious injuries would need so many bandages.
At first, I thought these bandages might have been used to deal with that missing corpse. But thinking carefully, blood soon stops flowing outwards after a person dies, and wouldn't require such a massive amount of bandages, so..."
"Are you saying it's that heavily injured companion the Dusk Society snatched away back then?"
"Exactly. I suspect the person they snatched from our hands back then is hiding in VIP Box 001 of the Cabaret... Of course, this is just deduction and can't be considered conclusive evidence yet."
"I understand."
The chief's gaze gradually became serious. He looked down at the birthday banquet invitation card in his hand. After hesitating for a moment, he still opened it, speaking plainly at the same time:
"It seems I have no choice but to attend this birthday banquet... Li Ruohong is Mu Chunsheng's nephew, so he will definitely be present at this birthday banquet. I need to find a suitable opportunity to personally chat with this 'Dusk Society Member' and test him."
"Then what about the Cabaret..."
"Once Li Ruohong leaves, the guard at the Cabaret should loosen up a bit. Take the opportunity to conduct a more in-depth search and see if there are any other clues... But still, as I said before, control the degree and don't alert the snake in the grass."
"Understood!"
...
Regarding the birthday banquet, Chen Ling thought for a long time.
By the time Kong Baosheng finished cooking and brought the steaming dishes to the table, Chen Ling was still sitting at the table like a sculpture, his brows sometimes tightly knit, sometimes relaxed, and sometimes falling back into deep thought.
Kong Baosheng originally wanted to advise him to eat while it was hot, but seeing Chen Ling's solemn expression, he still didn't say it out loud... In his mind, Mr. Lin was mostly likely distressed because the Theater House had no guests. Although he seemed to care nothing about all this on the surface, he must be just as incredibly anxious inside as he was.
Spending money to buy a Theater House, only to end up with no guests at all, anyone would be sporting a frown.
Since Chen Ling didn't pick up his chopsticks first, Kong Baosheng didn't dare to move either. He just sat honestly in his seat, staring longingly at Chen Ling pondering... It wasn't until waves of hungry rumbling sounds came from his stomach that Chen Ling snapped back to reality and looked at Kong Baosheng in confusion:
"Why aren't you eating?"
"Since you aren't eating, Mister, I'm too embarrassed to eat."
"What's there to be embarrassed about... I was just lost in thought." Chen Ling waved his hand. "Let's eat first. I need to go out for a bit after eating."
As Kong Baosheng started eating, he asked in confusion, "Mister, do you need to buy something? I can serve you."
"No." Chen Ling shook his head, replying calmly,
"I'm going to see an old acquaintance."
...
Evening.
At the most bustling Crossroads of the Red Dust Main City, a towering Western-style building stood silently in the twilight. Unlike other brightly lit tall buildings, this building's design was classical and low-profile. An ancient pendulum clock slowly swung at the top of the building, reflecting pale gold under the twilight.
And at the entrance of this building, four vigorous and powerful gilded large characters caused surrounding pedestrians to stop in their tracks one after another:
—Huang Consortium.
At this moment on the top floor of the Western-style building, Huang Suyue, wearing a white nightgown, stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window. Her eyes reflected the myriad lights of the city gradually lighting up under the twilight, not knowing what she was thinking.
"...Our Huang Consortium's signing contracts are the most conscientious in the entire Red Dust Main City. Whether it's the profit-sharing ratio or the restraining force on the entertainers, they are far less dark than those of the former Flower Capital Consortium. Therefore, after the fall of the Flower Capital Consortium, almost all of their former entertainers signed new contracts with us at the very first opportunity.
Within half a year, the number of entertainers under our Huang Consortium skyrocketed, occupying 60% of the Red Dust Main City. Even many entertainers originally under the Beidou Consortium risked bearing astronomical breach of contract penalties to sign new contracts with us...
But our Huang Consortium's rise has still been too short, and our foundation is insufficient. Coupled with the contract matters angering the Beidou Consortium, our layout across the entire industry is being nibbled away bit by bit... If we don't take measures as soon as possible, I'm afraid we'll soon become the next Flower Capital Consortium."
"Miss... no, Chairwoman, what should we do?"
In the corner of the room, Uncle Quan, with graying temples, held several documents and sighed somewhat helplessly.