Chapter 50: Kidnapping My Daughter? You're Courting Death

"Sob... They... They're so scary... Niannian isn't hurt, I just... just missed Daddy..."

"Good girl, don't cry."

Chen Yu spoke in a gentle, comforting tone while his mind raced at lightning speed. "Listen to me, close your eyes, and silently count to three thousand in your heart. When you finish counting, Daddy will come pick you up and take you home, okay?"

"Mhm..."

Niannian whimpered in acknowledgment.

The phone was immediately snatched away by Zhou Tianhao, who said viciously, "Did you hear that? Your daughter is still in one piece right now! But my patience is limited! One hour!"

"Ten million in cash! You come alone! If I see a single cop, or any extra person, you can just wait to collect your daughter's corpse! Beep... beep... beep..."

The call was disconnected.

Dead silence filled the living room.

Chen Yu stood frozen in place.

His heart felt utterly numb.

[Oh my god... It's really a kidnapping...]

[Niannian... Little angel, please don't let anything happen! Sob, sob, sob...]

[Ten million! Is this bastard Zhou Tianhao insane? How dare he do this!]

[What about Chen Yu... What is he going to do? Where is he supposed to get ten million in cash in an hour?]

[Quickly call President Jiang! President Jiang must have a way!]

[No! The kidnappers said not to call the police, not to tell anyone! What if it angers them?]

[But if we don't tell President Jiang, how can Chen Yu solve this alone? He's just a writer!]

The viewers in the live streaming room were in utter chaos.

Inside Jiang Zhiyun's office, she had collapsed limply into her chair, her phone dropped on the floor, the screen still frozen on the dialing interface.

She had heard the entire conversation, heard her daughter's cries, heard the kidnappers' threats.

Her mind went completely blank.

As a powerhouse executive ruling a ten-billion-dollar enterprise, she had handled countless tricky business crises and faced innumerable cunning opponents.

Yet at this moment, all her calmness, rationality, and capability vanished into thin air.

She was just a mother.

A frantic, desperate, and near-collapsing mother.

Call the police?

The kidnapper's words—"wait to collect your daughter's corpse"—made her hesitate.

Not call the police?

Let Chen Yu face this all by himself?

He... he was just a man who stayed at home every day, how could he possibly deal with those vicious and ruthless kidnappers?

"Quick! Connect me to Director Wang of the Municipal Bureau! Hurry!"

Jiang Zhiyun summoned every ounce of her strength and roared toward the door.

Her secretary, startled by a loss of composure never seen before, stumbled and scrambled away to make the call.

Meanwhile, Chen Yu, after passing through the initial shock and burning fury, had forced himself into a state of absolute calm.

Ten million in cash.

One hour.

His very first thought had also been Jiang Zhiyun.

Yet that thought was quickly dismissed.

First, Zhou Tianhao had explicitly warned against telling anyone.

Such desperate outlaws were emotionally extremely unstable, and any minor accident could lead to the worst possible outcome.

Second, he subconsciously wanted to avoid letting Jiang Zhiyun bear all of this.

Although he did not know the exact details, he vaguely sensed that Jiang Zhiyun's company had recently run into trouble as well.

She was already exhausted enough; he could not let her bear this dual pressure of psychological and financial burden.

This was his, Chen Yu's, daughter. As her father, he had to bring her back himself!

Yet, what about the money?

He quickly opened his mobile banking app and checked the balance in his account.

Two million three hundred and seventy thousand.

This was all the income he had earned from selling songs and living off his partner.

To an ordinary person, this was a massive fortune.

Yet compared to ten million, it was still short by more than seven million.

A drop in the bucket.

What to do?

At that moment, a mechanical voice rang out in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Host detected to be facing a major crisis with his daughter in extreme peril. Emergency mission triggered!]

[Mission Name: A Father's Wrath]

[Mission Objective: Independently rescue your daughter, Jiang Nian, within the allotted time, and ensure she remains completely unharmed.]

[Mission Restrictions: No assistance from the police, Jiang Zhiyun, or any other external forces.]

[Mission Reward (Temporary): Skill "Grandmaster-Level Criminal Profiling". This skill will grant the host extraordinary observation skills, logical reasoning abilities, psychological insight, and precise anticipation of criminal behavior. Duration: 24 hours.]

[Mission Completion Final Reward: Permanent physical constitution "Athlete-Grade Physical Function".]

[Mission Failure Penalty: The system will unbind from the host.]

The system!

Chen Yu's eyes lit up fiercely!

He had almost forgotten that he possessed this cheat-like golden finger!

Grandmaster-Level Criminal Profiling?

Extraordinary observation, logical reasoning, psychological insight...

His mind instantly cleared up.

Money was not the only solution.

Although Zhou Tianhao's goal was money, his ultimate objective was revenge, to vent his pent-up fury.

People like this often had extremely fragile psychological defenses riddled with flaws.

Moreover, his so-called "professional team" was very likely just a bluff.

Since Jiang Zhiyun was planning to break away on her own, she was probably in a period when she desperately needed money; he certainly could not add to her chaos.

He made up his mind secretly that in the future, he must act with even greater caution and discretion.

This incident was a bloody lesson; his display of brilliance had been too prominent, inviting the revenge of a mad dog like Zhou Tianhao.

"Accept mission."

Chen Yu silently chanted in his heart.

[Ding! Temporary skill "Grandmaster-Level Criminal Profiling" loaded!]

In an instant, Chen Yu felt the entire world transform.

Before his eyes, an invisible logical network composed of countless streams of information seemed to materialize.

The details of his phone call with Zhou Tianhao replayed in his mind over and over again.

The voice of Zhou Tianhao filtered through the voice changer, though sharp, occasionally leaked trailing sounds that carried a hoarse rasp.

This was the result of long-term heavy smoking and excessive drinking, compounded by extreme anxiety recently.

When he claimed to have hired a "professional team," his tone was deliberately exaggerated, which instead exposed a hollow bluster.

True outlaws would never casually throw around phrases like "I've got blood on my hands."

Background noise from the call.

Aside from Niannian's faint weeping, he had caught three very subtle, continuous noises.

The first was a "humming" sound resembling the rotation of a large exhaust fan, low in frequency and highly rhythmic.

The second was intermittent metallic clanging, sounding like metal pipes expanding and contracting from heat.

The third, the exact moment Niannian began to speak, was an extremely brief flash in the background—something resembling a train whistle, but very distant and drawn out.

An exhaust fan, metal pipes, abandoned train tracks...

With these three elements combined, a location instantly and clearly emerged in his mind—the abandoned steel plant in the eastern district!

That steel plant had gone bankrupt decades ago; the factory area was massive, filled with abandoned industrial buildings and rusted pipes. Because of its remote location, right beside it ran a long-abandoned freight railway line.

It was sparsely populated and an ideal location for hiding a hostage!