Song Rui's leadership skills didn't lose out to Zhuang Zhen's in any way. With him commanding from the back, everyone quickly found their appropriate track of inquiry for the case, and then started their own investigations as instructed.

Shen Youquan was also in a hurry to prepare the money, so he dug many of his friends out from their comfy beds, crying out in a serious manner as he told them of his situation.

He stirred up quite the commotion at the break of dawn. Many of these friends didn't believe his words, thinking that he was simply joking around after drinking too much, and so called Zhong Huilu to confirm.

Naturally, Zhong Huilu's response was to cry and plead with them to help as well, an action which undoubtedly embarrassed them very much, for they didn't know to face such a situation. After all, gathering 50 million yuan was not a small matter. They were just ordinary friends, not sworn brothers; who would take such a large amount out so casually?

His efforts to raise money were not proceeding smoothly, and this allowed Shen Youquan to see the true face of many of his so-called 'close friends'.

Two hours later, under the arrangements of the police, he discreetly changed cars and secretly returned to the police station. During this period of time, the police officers who had left the station to investigate had also returned, and the other investigations seemed to have borne fruit.

Song Rui pasted a picture on the whiteboard and asked, "Mr. Shen, this photo was found on Zhong Huilu's Weibo, when she was on vacation in Pattaya. Do you know who the person in the photo is?"

Shen Youquan stared at the photo, examining it carefully. He returned the question in a daze, "Which one are you talking about?"

The photo being referred to was a landscape shot taken through a glass window. On the other side of the glass lay a sandy golden beach and a blue ocean. The beach and the sea were filled with tourists, it was really crowded and densely packed, so it was hard to recognize any discerning features with just a glance.

Song Rui pointed to the spot where light and shadow met in the photo, and added, "Look at the reflection, don't look out the window."

Shen Youquan noticed that the window actually reflected the photographer's figure. Although it was not very clear, the graceful posture of a woman and the strong physique of a man could still be seen. Unfortunately, the photo had only captured the area below their necks; their heads and faces, that would have revealed their identity, did not appear in the picture.

"This woman is Zhong Huilu!" Shen Youquan affirmed, "You can see here, there is a mole on her collarbone. I recognize this mole."

Then, as he continued to examine the photo, he discovered more details, and soon pointed to a tattoo of a sun on the man's left shoulder and said, "He's Long Chengsheng, my driver! No wonder when Zhong Huilu went to Pattaya for a vacation, Long Chengsheng also asked for days off, saying that he wanted to go back to visit his hometown. It turns out that they were vacationing together!"

The truth was that the police had already identified the two people in this photo. The reason why the photo had still been shown to Shen Youquan was so that the police could obtain his testimony.

Song Rui nodded, did not comment any further on the matter, and then completely ignored Shen Youquan, who had started to pant from the effort of restraining his emotions.

Seeing that the other person was about to explode, Song Rui continued, "The recordings from the surveillance camera near the kindergarten didn't show any suspicious vehicles or people loitering around recently. The woman who took Shen Yurao away and the vehicle she drove have never appeared near the kindergarten before.

"Her pelvis was leaning forward, her chin was severely retracted when she walked, her posture and gait were also rather unique. It is impossible for our analysis experts to not have found her if she had previously been in the area. This situation is obviously inconsistent with the evidence we currently have."

Everyone quickly grasped at their pens, ready to record the key points.

"Through Mr. Shen's narration, we know that the kidnapper should have conducted detailed investigations on all the members of the Shen Family. Since she had planned so thoroughly when deciding to kidnap the children, arranging the route and transfer vehicles in advance, why did she not also consider scouting out the kindergarten as part of these careful preparations?"

"She may already be familiar with the environment around the kindergarten, so she wouldn't need to check it," Liu Tao suggested as he raised his hand.

Song Rui immediately nodded. "Yes, I think so too. Look here, this is the video from the day of the kidnapping. The kidnapper drove the car into the blind spot of surveillance cameras from the public parking lot opposite the kindergarten. Without checking these positions, how could she have known that it was with this angle that she would not be captured by the surveillance camera? Could it just be luck?"

"She should have been told about it. The person disseminating this information should also be very familiar with Yingcai Kindergarten and the Shen Family," A police officer analyzed.

Song Rui nodded again. "All signs indicate that it should be an acquaintance who has committed this crime. Without scouting out the premises beforehand, the kidnappers were obviously already aware of the kindergarten's opening hours, the blind spots in the monitoring of the parking lot, and the financial situation of the Shen Family. A fifty million ransom is not a small sum, but it also isn't an outrageous amount, it neatly falls at just the upper limit of what Mr. Shen should be able to bear. So, who is this acquaintance?"

The crowd looked at him with scorching eyes.

The furious Shen Youquan immediately answered, "It must be Long Chengsheng. He often picked up the children from the kindergarten in my place. He is also very aware of my financial situation.

"He is an avid gambler. He used to borrow money from me whenever he lost it to gambling. I always thought that he had a strong ability to do business and so lent him the money without asking too many questions, but after thinking about it again, the amount of money he kept asking to borrow always increased by one more zero at the end of the number.

"And recently, I don't know why, but he suddenly asked me for two million yuan!

"At that time, I really was irritated by his demand. I thought he was truly insatiable, so I didn't lend it to him and instead gave him a warning that I would fire him if he kept insisting on it! His motive is very strong. It has to be him!"

Song Rui pushed up the glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose, agreeing, "We looked into Long Chengsheng's financial situation. He indeed lost a lot of money gambling in the Macau bay area not so long ago, and was also placed on the blacklist of various casino towns. He should urgently need a windfall, and thus his motivation should be really very strong. However-"

Song Rui paused as he glanced at Shen Youquan and said slowly, "Your wife is also very suspicious."

"Zhong Huilu? Impossible! She loves Shen Yurao very much," Shen Youquan refuted subconsciously.

Song Rui directly added, "Based on what Mr. Shen has told us, I find that Zhong Huilu's actions and behavior up until this point have been very abnormal. First of all, before the kidnappers had even called to blackmail the Shen family for ransom money, she told Mr. Shen with certainty that the child had been kidnapped. As a mother, her thoughts immediately turned to the worst case scenario. Isn't that strange?

"Secondly, she strongly opposed Mr. Shen's suggestion of calling the police. Of course, out of a mother's concern for her son's life, her objection was justified. But when Mr. Shen proposed to sell the property and the company to raise the money for the ransom, she said nothing. Why? As a worried mother, she is neither willing to call the police nor ready to actively raise the money by herself. Isn't this rather contradictory?

"You can say that she is selfish and reluctant to take out her own money. But then doesn't this show a sharp contrast to her previously worrying very strongly about her only son? Isn't it clear at a glance about whether or not she is truly worried?"

After careful thought, everyone present nodded their heads repeatedly again and again.

A policewoman said sincerely, "If I was her, I would have sold all the things that could be sold. How would I be able to just sit at home and wait for my husband to go and borrow money? Shouldn't everyone in the family make concerted efforts in order to gather the money as soon as possible? With the money gathered, if the child could return even a day earlier, wouldn't it be good? It's really strange that she didn't take any action despite being so anxious."

Shen Youquan tried hard to control the anger in his heart, and said with difficulty, "Dr. Song, if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed Zhong Huilu's abnormality. My mind was too chaotic at the time. Do you mean to say that the kidnapping was probably planned by both Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu together? Isn't Long Chengsheng Shen Yurao's biological father? How could he do such a thing?"

Song Rui put up another two photos on the whiteboard and slowly said, "At present, we can't confirm the true identity of the kidnappers. Everything I've just said is merely a reasonable conjecture based on the existing evidence. But Mr. Shen, I should be able to give you an answer to the question you just asked soon."

Shen Youquan looked at the two photos and was immediately stupefied. One of them was an artistic photo of Shen Yurao that had been taken quite recently. In the photo, he looked at the camera with a smile, showing his tall nose, red lips, and the angled features of his face. His appearance was very cute.

The other one was clearly a much older and plain photo with a slightly faded color, but the boy who smiled at the camera also had a pair of eyebrows and eyes very similar to that of Shen Yurao's.

Shen Youquan stared at the two photos that were decades apart for a long time and seemed to understand something.

Song Rui confirmed his guess. "This is a childhood photograph of Long Chengsheng. Is it very different from the present one?"

Indeed, after growing up, Long Chengsheng had gotten taller, stronger, and his skin had also tanned. Because he chewed betel nuts all year round, his face had widened and he was now, all in all, a very tough guy.

If it wasn't for the childhood photo before him, Shen Youquan would never have imagined that the other had looked like a pretty little girl during his childhood years. If he had seen this photo earlier, Shen Youquan might even have begun to suspect the relationship between his son and Long Chengsheng.

"They've been lying to me! They took me for a fool all this while!"

Shen Youquan had previously thought that the moment he had received the results of the paternity test would undeniably become the most painful moment in his life. But now he knew that he was wrong, his most painful moment was this very moment.

While he had been working hard, striving to provide for his family and give them a happy life, the two people whom he had trusted the most had simply clung to his back and even leisurely conceived a wild seed. They had watched on as he helped them coax, support and provide for that child, even as he ignored his own daughter at that same time.

They were like a group of leeches, unscrupulously draining his blood; like a band of thieves in the dark, they secretly took up the butcher's knife and prepared to cleave his flesh into pieces for their own use.

Shen Youquan covered his face and slowly sank onto the table, unable to stop the mournful cry that escaped his throat, which sounded like that of a trapped beast.

The team of police officers couldn't bear to see his sadness and silently retreated, one step after another.

However, Song Rui said in an indifferent tone, "Mr. Shen, now is not the time to be sad. According to your testimony, after the child was kidnapped, as the biological parents of the child, Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu did not appear to be overly anxious. Instead, they repeatedly obstructed you from calling the police and strongly demanded that you sell your investment assets to redeem the person.

"Therefore, they are very suspicious. Do Zhong Huilu and Long Chengsheng know about your decision to report the case to the police station? If this kidnapping was really planned by them, then I have good reason to believe that there are at least four people in their group. Two of them would stay behind with the Shen Family to monitor you; one picks up and keeps watch over the child; the last makes the calls to blackmail you and finally collects the ransom.

"They have a clear division of labor and a thoroughly detailed plan. They are obviously well prepared and need to be treated with caution. If Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu came to know that you have already called the police, they just need to make a single phone call or maybe even send a message, and their accomplice will immediately transfer the child or change the plan. At that time, the case will become more difficult to investigate, and the life and death of the child will become tenuous."

Song Rui paused for a moment, and his tone became colder as he continued, "Although Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu are Shen Yurao's biological parents, they are currently with the Shen Family and have been separated from the child. The person who took the child carries no blood relationship with him and will not care about his life or death.

"Those who can participate in the kidnapping of a child are certainly not good people. If they discover that you have informed the police, it is very likely that they will kill the hostage immediately, regardless of Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu's emotions or orders. Then, the situation will undoubtedly turn for the worse!"

The surrounding police officers couldn't help but feel nervous after hearing Song Rui's words and subconsciously turned to look at Shen Youquan.

Shen Youquan answered briskly, "You can rest assured. Before I left, Mr. Fan repeatedly told me not to tell anyone in my family about me reporting the case to police. At the moment, Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu should think that I'm outside visiting friends and trying to raise money."

Everyone immediately sighed in relief.

Song Rui was stunned for a while, and then he showed a rare smile. "I should have known that since it was Fan Jialuo who suggested that you call the police, he should have long made all the necessary arrangements for you."

Shen Youquan nodded quickly, his tone full of gratitude and eagerness as he replied, "Yes, everything I am doing right now follows the arrangements Mr. Fan made for me. Every piece of his advice has proven to be greatly beneficial for me, and I have managed to avoid one trap after another, which could have led to an irreparable fate for the children. Mr. Fan is truly very good!"

When the topic of conversation turned into praising Fan Jialuo, the atmosphere in the conference room became much more relaxed. Because of his predictions, everyone firmly believed that the child would be able to return home safely, even if such a belief was clearly inexplicable and groundless.

Song Rui pushed his glasses up his nose again and finally made a comment wholly unrelated to the case, "Mr. Shen is very lucky."

He was not the first person to say so to Shen Youquan. In fact, when the officers at the police station learned about his relationship with Fan Jialuo and then the subsequent details of the kidnapping, they had all remarked in the same way.

Shen Youquan's eyes instantly reddened and his voice choked up. "Yes, I'm afraid I've used all of my lifetime's worth of luck to be able to meet such a great benefactor during this case. Of course, all of you here are also my benefactors. Next, I have to trouble you to rescue Shen Yurao. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much!"

He continued to bow and repeatedly express his thanks, a gesture which greatly touched the team of police officers, and their noses turned sour. Although Shen Youquan was reluctant to give up 50 million yuan after learning about the origins of the child, he still ran around struggling to save that small life. It could be seen that he possessed an abundance of benevolence and righteousness in him.

Comparing this to the child's biological parents, the gap was really beyond words...

Aware that there had been too many digressions, Song Rui rapped the whiteboard with his knuckles, and continued, "At present, we have no evidence that Long Chengsheng and Zhong Huilu are accomplices to the kidnappers. There have been no abnormal calls made on their mobile phones and no abnormal activities in their bank accounts. They've left no trace of suspicion.

"So, we have to find a way to test them. Once it is determined that they are the masterminds, we can immediately arrest them and interrogate them for the whereabouts of the child. Mr. Shen, this will require your cooperation."

Shen Youquan quickly responded and promised, "What are your plans? I will act as per your instructions!"

Song Rui was very satisfied with his cooperative attitude.

He made copies of his written plans and distributed them one by one. Each team member received their own "script" and set about studying their lines and role. In this manner, they ended up busying themselves until morning, which is when they finally headed towards the Shen Family.

...