Five minutes to twelve, Yixiong and Jingkang had finished eating. Yixiong immediately left the dining table while Jingkang was still accompanying Zhuge. He had asked Jingkang to help Zhuge eat the medicine and then ushered him into the room to rest. Yixiong put his earphones back on to receive instructions from the police. He pressed the button on the box to turn on the Huaxiang.

"Are you ready, Mr. Ximen?"

Yixiong could clearly hear Qiulin's question.

"I'm ready, Sir!"

"All right! Now we wait for the call from the kidnappers!"

"About yesterday's call. Have the police been able to trace where the call came from?"

"Regarding that, we can't give a definite answer yet. But we'll still keep trying!"

It means that yesterday they failed to find out where the kidnappers were calling from. In fact, I think, yesterday, Dage talked for a long time with the kidnappers. The police should be able to track him down. The technology owned by the kidnappers may be equivalent to or even higher than the technology used by the police. If that's true, then in the future, this will definitely be very difficult! I hope the organization where Zhengyi's friend works can do better.

Yixiong waited tensely for the seconds before the kidnapper called. He wasn't sure he'd be as calm as Shanquan when he talked to the kidnappers.

Ring Ring

Finally, the time came. Yixiong steadily grabbed the receiver.

"Hello!"

"Hello," came a voice from the other end. "Who's this?"

Even though Yixiong had only said one word, it turned out that the person on the other end could already recognize that the recipient of the call was not Shanquan.

"I am Ximen Yixiong. The representative of Duanmu Shanquan," Yixiong said in a voice he tried to be as firm as possible.

"Where's Duanmu?" asked the caller.

"Mr. Ximen! Please, try to stay calm. They're trying to intimidate you!" Qiulin's voice came from the earphones in Yixiong's ears.

"He's on business. So this time I'm in charge of taking the call!"

"No way! We just want to talk to Duanmu!"

"But he's not here!"

"Okay! We'll call back in fifteen minutes. We hope Duanmu can answer the phone by then."

After saying that, the kidnappers hung up the phone right away.

"Mr. Ximen! We are trying to find Mr. Duanmu in the mall. The situation is very chaotic there. We have reports that the scale of this incident is much larger than what happened three days ago. There are far more victims. In fact, there were some victims who were seriously injured! This didn't happen in the previous incident."

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Qiulin's words sounded very frightening. Yixiong sighed. It meant that if his friends weren't hurt, it would still take them a long time to get home. If one or more of them were injured, the problem would be even worse. Yixiong's head throbbed again at the thought of the possibility.

Yixiong removed the earphones from his ears. More and more cold sweat trickled out of his forehead. He felt so nervous.

The situation is really dire!

Zhuge had finished lunch. With the help of Jingkang, he ate the medicine already available on the dining table. After that, Jingkang helped him into the bedroom to rest. In less than two minutes, Jingkang was in the bedroom. He got out and quickly walked over to Yixiong.

"How was it, Sir? They didn't want to talk to you?"

"They just want to talk to Mr. Duanmu," Yixiong replied.

"And Mr. Duanmu is unlikely to be home anytime soon."

"What do you think?" Yixiong looked at Jingkang deeply. He really wanted to know Jingkang's opinion on the matter.

"There are two things we might be able to do. The first is to inform the kidnappers that Mr. Duanmu is at the mall and is completely unreachable. I'm sure news of what happened at the mall will soon be broadcast on radio and television. The kidnappers will eventually realize that we aren't lying."

"And the second?" Yixiong closed his eyes as soon as he asked that question.

"The second is that we say that if they still want to get what they want, then they have to follow our way. Among other things is to accept other people in this house to represent Mr. Duanmu. If they don't want to, that's fine! The deal is off!"

"The second way is very dangerous. They can hurt Xinxiu," Yixiong said.

"They can threaten to harm Mr. Beihai. But not necessarily they will."

"It means we're risking Xinxiu's safety. We can never be sure how determined the kidnappers really were."

"That's right. This second method is dangerous."

"I think there's a third way." Yixiong opened his eyes.

"The third way? What kind of method, Sir?"

Yixiong smiled bitterly. "This way, I'm not sure it will work. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to do it."

Jingkang raised his eyebrows. "Please explain about this third way."

When he had closed his eyes earlier, Yixiong focused on the voice of the person speaking to him. At that time, Yixiong felt he was dealing with Shanquan. Jingkang's voice, accent, word choice, emphasis, and style of speech were exactly the same as Shanquan's. Even Yixiong dared to say that maybe Shanquan himself would feel like he was doing a monologue if he talked to Jingkang with his eyes closed.

"The kidnappers contacted this house by phone. They didn't really see who was talking to them. If someone who sounded like Mr. Duanmu had picked up the phone, they probably wouldn't have suspected it. The voice of the person on the phone is not exactly the same as the voice we hear when speaking in person. The slightest difference in face-to-face conversation won't be as obvious in a telephone conversation. They will assume that they are talking to Mr. Duanmu. That way, I think, things will be a lot simpler."

"You mean...." Jingkang looked at Yixiong with a doubtful look.

"Yes! What I mean is, what if you pretended to be Mr. Duanmu? You just tell them you are Duanmu. Technically, you're not lying because your surname is Duanmu," Yixiong said bluntly.

Jingkang looked speechless. Yixiong knew it was a strange request. However, when one faced such an emergency, strange things were not taboo thing to do.

"We don't have much time. They'll be calling again soon."

Finally, Jingkang nodded. "All right! I'll try."

Yixiong smiled. They both stood at the phone, waiting for the kidnappers to call again. Yixiong put earphones in both ears. The other Huaxiang box he gave to Jingkang.

"You put it in one ear only. You use the other ear to hear from the receiver," said Yixiong.

Yixiong hadn't turned on the huaxiang yet, so the police couldn't hear what they were talking about.

"Shouldn't we talk to the police about this first?" Jingkang asked.

"No need. I'm afraid they will think too much. Let's just do it. Think of it as a surprise for them."

Hearing that answer, Jingkang looked at Yixiong with a surprised look. But he still did what Yixiong did. He put earphones in one ear. Yixiong intended to turn on the huaxiang right after the phone rang.