Chapter 347: Looking Up an Address
“The police should be searching the club by now. What if they still can’t find those two girls?” Yue Feifei was deeply worried. Just the thought of what might happen to them made her feel incredibly awful. The three people they rescued this time were not her employer’s targets, which meant her mission wasn’t over yet. However, she felt a bit uneasy about continuing the investigation.
Yang Xun draped his jacket over his arm and spoke in a calm tone. “If those two girls were just transferred, I might still find some traces if I track the clues. It’ll be even better if they haven’t been moved; I’ll just bring them straight back once I find them.
“You don’t need to come with me this time. You must be exhausted after being undercover in the club for three days. Go home and get some good rest.”
Yue Feifei hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Then be careful.”
After walking out of the hospital gates, Yang Xun drove toward the club. Along the way, he spotted several police cars that had clearly returned empty-handed. The club’s people had long since cleaned up everything that couldn’t see the light of day. Coupled with the sheer number of hidden doors in the building, it was simply too difficult to uncover anything.
At two o’clock in the morning, the streets were virtually devoid of pedestrians.
Yang Xun parked his car on the side of a branch road. After turning off the engine, he sat inside and waited for about five minutes. Only after confirming there was no suspicious movement around the club did he push the door open and step out.
Instead of taking the front entrance, he went around to a side door at the back of the building. The door had been locked from the inside, but he gently picked it with a thin iron wire, and the latch popped open. He slipped inside sideways and quietly closed the door behind him.
The first-floor lobby was completely empty.
The staff on duty had likely already withdrawn. The entire space was shrouded in dimness, illuminated only by the faint green glow of the emergency exit signs. Yang Xun lightened his footsteps and crossed the lobby. Bypassing the elevators, he made his way up the fire stairs, floor by floor. His steps fell upon the stairs almost soundlessly while True Qi quietly circulated within his body, extending his perception outward in all directions.
Upon reaching the third floor, he once again pushed open the hidden door and crept over to the private room where the girls had been held captive. The door was locked from the outside with a brand-new padlock, its metal surface glinting coldly in the dim light.
Stopping at the doorway, Yang Xun crouched down to carefully inspect the floor and the gaps around the doorframe. There were a few faint drag marks on the carpet, stretching toward the end of the hallway. He followed the trail all the way until he stopped in front of a wall that looked no different from its surroundings. The marks broke off here, disappearing at the base of the wall.
Yang Xun reached out and tapped lightly on the surface. The sound it produced was slightly different from the feedback of hitting a solid wall; it had a hollow ring to it. He felt along the edges for a moment and finally found a nearly imperceptible seam. Running his fingernail gently down the crack, he located a concealed latch.
He pressed down firmly, and the wall slid inward silently, revealing a narrow opening just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. Behind the gap was a descending staircase. The steps were narrow and lacked a handrail, feeling oppressive just to look at.
Yang Xun walked down the stairs for about two minutes before a rust-mottled iron door appeared in front of him. The door wasn’t locked; it was slightly ajar, letting a razor-thin sliver of light peek through. He leaned close to the crack, faintly hearing intermittent voices.
Enhancing his hearing to the absolute limit, the sounds became a bit clearer. He heard a man complaining impatiently, “What a mess! Luckily those two women were sent away, but unfortunately, three of them escaped. There’s probably going to be trouble.”
“It’s fine. They’re just kids from ordinary families; they won’t make any waves. Give them a few threats later and they won’t dare to pursue the matter.”
“The higher-ups want us to lay low for a while. Don’t cause any more trouble, or it’ll be hard to clean up the mess.”
“Understood.”
Listening to their conversation, Yang Xun frowned slightly. He pressed himself into the shadows beside the door and held his breath. A moment later, footsteps and the clinking of metal came from inside. Someone was heading his way.
Yang Xun remained perfectly still.
The door was pushed open, and a man in a gray shirt walked out. He was dangling a set of keys in his hand while looking down at his phone. After taking a couple of steps, he seemed to sense something and looked up, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings. However, Yang Xun had already pressed himself flat into a recess in the wall, blending into the shadows without moving a muscle.
Seeing nothing unusual, the man in gray stuffed the keys into his pocket and resumed staring at his phone. He walked off in the opposite direction, his footsteps soon fading away around the corner at the end of the corridor.
Yang Xun waited until the man was far away before stepping out of the shadows. He pushed open the slightly ajar iron door and walked inside. It was a sparsely furnished room of about twenty square meters, containing only a table and two chairs. Several pieces of paper and a walkie-talkie were scattered across the desk.
A whiteboard hung on the wall, bearing a few names and dates hastily scrawled in marker. The messy handwriting looked like casual notes. The names and ages of the two missing girls were prominently listed on one of the papers, with an arrow drawn next to them pointing to an abbreviated location name.
Yang Xun’s eyes lingered on that line for a few seconds, firmly memorizing the address. He put down the paper without touching anything else, turned around, and quickly exited through the iron door. Retracing his steps up the stairs, he returned to the third-floor hallway.
Just as he stepped out of the hidden door, he heard a flurry of footsteps and low voices coming from downstairs, moving up the stairwell. He paused, his gaze rapidly sweeping both sides of the corridor. There was nowhere to hide; on his left were several tightly shut private room doors, and on his right was the entrance to the fire escape.
Yang Xun moved swiftly toward the fire escape, his footsteps practically inaudible in the empty hallway. He slipped behind the fire door and gently pulled it shut, leaving only an extremely narrow gap.
Several men in black uniforms walked past the stairwell landing, their conversation carrying clearly through the crack in the door.
“Damn it, that bitch got away. If I catch her, I’m gonna torture her for three days and three nights!”
“The boss has already sent people to investigate. That man and woman aren’t simple; they might be the boss’s enemies.”
“Moreover, the boss said if we capture both of them alive, the reward is five million. If we kill them on the spot, the payout is three million.”
Yang Xun sneered inwardly. He listened as their voices gradually faded away. Only when the sounds completely disappeared did he step out of the fire escape.
After leaving the club, Yang Xun got into his car and sat in the driver’s seat for a moment. He pulled the silver badge out of his pocket. Turning it over and over under the light of the streetlamps, he noticed a line of minuscule, finely engraved serial numbers on the back.
Yang Xun set the badge aside, picked up his phone, and dialed Zhou Yuan’s number. The call connected after two rings.
Zhou Yuan’s slightly sleepy voice came through the line. “Xun? It’s so late, did something happen?”
“Help me look up an address.”
“Go ahead.”
Yang Xun recited the address, his tone calm. “As fast as possible.”
“Alright, I’ll have someone look into it right away. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s news.”
After hanging up, Yang Xun tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and started the car. The low rumble of the engine was especially distinct on the silent street. The black sedan drove into the night, heading in the direction of Jinfu Orchid Garden.
