Zhong Feng left the kitchen while holding his cup of tea and went into the living room. Hu Lei followed quickly with a stern expression and settled next to him. She looked at him stubbornly, making it clear that he needed to tell her everything.

"I stopped the investigation. I pushed as much as I could with Interpol and the international court, but the International Health Alliance hid their dirty activities too well. The best I could do was let the court look into all IHA assets and destroy the organisation's lifelines from the root." Zhong Feng sighed.

​​

"So, how come you are still looking into them?" Hu Lei frowned.

"I set up a little fail-safe in case I overlooked something. It is just a precaution. You know these types of vicious snakes are adept at rising again. It is not the first time they reinvented themselves." He responded casually.

He continued drinking his tea nonchalantly. Hu Lei narrowed her eyes and leaned her body closer at him. She knew him well, and she could tell when he was hiding something. She had a distinct feeling that his words did not capture the entire story.

"Are you sure that is everything?" She asked threateningly.

Zhong Feng looked at the cute face belonging to his wife. She was leaning so close to him as if she wanted to smell his lies. He placed his cup on the small coffee table and rearranged her to seat more comfortably on the couch.

He placed her feet on his lap. "You have to be a little more careful during this period."

"I know my limits. And don't try to change the subject." Hu Lei said.

Zhong Feng knew that Hu Lei could hang on to something like a dog with a bone. He started massaging her feet while thinking about his answer.

"After going through all the available information on International Health Alliance, I felt like I was missing something. Granted, they had money and a good reputation, but it was not enough for them to act so brazenly around the world." He said.

"Their confidence in kidnapping people was already pushing things for their level of power. However, it is more surprising that they could build so many secret labs in unique locations. Not to mention that they were able to recruit a lot of great scientists."

"The type of influence required for operating under the radar in different parts of the world is more than those useless board members could manage. Furthermore, none of them seemed interested in ground-breaking research, just money and power."

Hu Lei understood what he was driving at and frowned.

"You think there is someone behind their influence and power." It was a statement.

"There is no concrete or even circumstantial evidence to support the theory, but I believe that some power in the shadows has been elevating them. With their stupidity, I should have discovered them much earlier." Zhong Feng looked dissatisfied.

Hu Lei perked up. "Maybe Frank never worked for the International Health Alliance. He could have been working for the mysterious force behind them. If there is really someone behind them, they would not allow things to go on unsupervised."

Zhong Feng looked at Hu Lei. "Why are you calling another man's name so intimately?"

Hu Lei rolled her eyes. "What do you mean by intimately? I only know his name is Frank. I have no other information about him, and I definitely will not use an honorific for that cad."

Zhong Feng was still unhappy, but he could not find a suitable response. Frank was another mystery in the entire saga involving the IHA. He was an impossible character to get a hold of because his real identity was unknown.

"You know it makes sense for Frank to be working for someone else instead of the IHA. He was definitely not on their side, judging from the way he took out Dr Brown and her merry band of minions. Plus, he invited me to join the dark side with him. He was completely unconcerned about the collapse of the organisation." Hu Lei added.

The hands massaging her feet paused. Zhong Feng eyes rested on Hu Lei with a drilling intensity.

"You didn't tell me that he was trying to recruit you." His tone was a little angry.

Hu Lei chuckled and wiggled her toes guiltily. "Because I knew you would worry about it for nothing. It was not even a serious recruiting effort. He just told me to join the dark side with him, and I would get lots of thrills."

Zhong Feng was still dissatisfied with the answer. He felt like someone was trying to steal his wife from right under his nose. But this new information confirmed his suspicion. There was someone behind the former International Health Alliance.

However, it seemed that the organisation and their backer had parted ways. Most likely, the events on the ship led to a complete breakdown of the relationship. He suspected that the International Health Alliance failed to live up to the expectations of the power behind them.

Their sponsor probably lost faith and kicked them to the curb.

"Is there anything else that you did not tell me?" Zhong Feng asked.

Hu Lei felt a little guilty. She did not tell him about the girl, Yamazaki Akira. She asked Kaito to investigate in secret because she knew Zhong Feng would not leave things alone afterwards. He would probably keep digging until he got to the bottom of the mystery.

In simple terms, Zhong Feng would disrupt Yamazaki Akira's life as he tried to determine her possible role in the lives of the Brown sisters. Hu Lei did not want anything bad to happen to the girl if she was not involved in her capture and torture.

"Maybe... But it is nothing major. It will just cause more problems for everyone if I tell you." She dismissed the question with an awkward laugh. "Anyway, we were discussing Kaito and the possibility that he could be in trouble. For the record, I still think he is fine."

Zhong Feng wanted to poke a little more into the secrets Hu Lei was hiding, but he could see that she planned to be stubborn. He needed to find a more opportune moment to find out what she was hiding. For now, it was unnecessary.

"I would feel more reassured if I heard from him." Zhong Feng said. "If Martial Island is the force behind IHA, the power they wield is unimaginable. It seems that they can even hide from my systems. I was starting to think it was a code word for something else."

"How do you know it is still not a code word?" Hu Lei asked.

"Because the former IHA Chairman is an idiot. He was searching for things like where Martial Island is and how to get there. I can hazard a guess that he has heard of it from someone else, possibly the big sponsor behind the organisation." Zhong Feng responded.

"You might be right. Let's try to get a hold of Kaito first. If we cannot find him, we can beat a few answers from that Chairman." The golden eyes glowed with a crazy light.