Young Master of the Child Family
Inside the Golden Eagle, in an empty room, Gu Ding and Liliath sat opposite Trick.
"Tell me, why did you let Brigan kidnap Lily?" Gu Ding asked sternly. Although he usually seemed very cheerful, he could be a little intimidating when he was serious. His expression made Liliath sit quietly to the side, not daring to say a word.
"This really wasn't my idea, it was our young master's idea... no, it was the idea of Child Family's Young Master." Trick had actually been reluctant to provoke Gu Ding ever since Old George's Tavern, because his team members were all terrifying. Being with them always made him feel like he could lose his life at any moment, so he didn't dare lie.
"This young master of the Child Family is said to be extremely intelligent and shrewd from a young age, a master of calculation. He usually prepares at least two solutions when assigning tasks to his subordinates. This time, when he wanted to invite you to his wedding ceremony, he only told me to figure it out myself; I had no idea what his second plan was. It wasn't until later, when he asked me to contact Brigan, that I learned the second plan was to kidnap Liliath, and that it had already been successfully executed. He told me to hand over the Brigan and prepare a ship to send Liliath away as soon as possible. Then, he also told me to kill Brigan." Trick's account indeed revealed that the young master of the Child Family was no simple character.
"You mean he kidnapped Liliath for no other reason than to make me attend his Coming-of-age ceremony, and that's why he took Liliath hostage?" Gu Ding continued to ask.
"I don't know if he has other motives, but his mission for me was to invite you to his Coming-of-age ceremony. I guess kidnapping Liliath is also for this reason. According to the information we obtained before, she is the weakest in your team and the easiest to capture. Moreover, gunsmiths are easy to capture once someone gets close to them." In fact, Trick didn't know what the young master's real purpose was in kidnapping Liliath; he was just making inferences based on the missions he had received before.
"Gu Ding, I also have a few questions." Liliath pointed at Gu Ding's arm with her finger.
Gu Ding nodded. "Go ahead and ask."
"Has the Child Family ever ventured into the news media industry? Or does it have any plans to do so?" Liliath asked, considering her family's influence.
"The Child Family started in banking and now has a presence in almost every industry, but their two largest sectors are still finance and energy. They also have a stake in the media industry; while they can't be said to be losing money, they certainly haven't made much. This is because the Harris Family now practically monopolizes the information industry in all three-star and above Universe Country in the entire Universe Sea, including news media. The Fei Me Universe Country is a five-star Universe Country, so this monopoly is even more thorough." Trick also had a good understanding of the various industry situations.
"The Child Family started out in the Fei Me Universe Country, right? Where does their family's conglomerate rank in the Fei Me Universe Country now?" Liliath's question was rather simple.
"Yes, the Child Family's business was founded more than 10,000 years ago by one of their Demigod Realm Old Ancestor. They have been native residents of the Fei Me Universe Country for generations. Currently, the family conglomerate ranks second in wealth within the Fei Me Universe Country, not far from the first place." Trick was very knowledgeable about the Child Family.
"In other words, they must really want to take first place." Liliath raised an eyebrow and then asked, "A large conglomerate like the Child Family must have quite a few new projects every year, right? Do you have a list of projects?"
"Project decisions are made by headquarters leaders. I'm just a junior manager in a region; I don't have that much authority. Projects are only assigned to us after they've been finalized. And most of the time, due to regional differences, each region has a different focus. So the project plans we ultimately receive will be different. Also, the project plans for the following year are issued at the end of each year, so there's basically no situation where other projects are inserted midway. Therefore, if you want to see a project plan, I can only provide you the one from the end of last year." Trick didn't know why Liliath was asking these questions.
"Send me your plans for the next ten years," Liliath made a strange request, but Trick complied anyway.
He is currently aboard the Golden Eagle. Although external signals are blocked, signals can still be transmitted inside the spacecraft.
Upon receiving the proposal, Liliath immediately began reviewing it, without asking any further questions.
After interrogating him, Gu Ding had Bigge take him out and brought in the other two in one after the other.
After a full interrogation of the three men, Gu Ding found that he had not obtained much useful information.
The man in black, who resembled a bodyguard, was indeed a bodyguard for the Child Family. He knew almost nothing about the Child Family's business dealings. He was simply a mission executor, always accepting and carrying out tasks without ever questioning why. When not on missions, their role was that of the Child Family's personal bodyguards.
As for Brigan, he had only taken on a temporary mission and had no prior dealings with the Child Family. It was the young master of the Child Family who contacted him, and throughout the entire transaction, the young master held the upper hand. Brigan only knew that the young master wanted him to kidnap Liliath, but he never mentioned why Liliath needed to be kidnapped.
Liliath's investigation of the ten-year project yielded no relevant clues, but after she had Sea Emperor hack into the Child Family's headquarters network, she discovered that three years ago, someone had proposed an idea to expand the media project. However, the project's initiator was anonymous, and it was ultimately shelved and never implemented. The reason for the shelving was simply stated in four words: "Project pending!" And this shelved project was placed in a top-secret folder with the highest access level.
This made Liliath vaguely sense a conspiracy, and she increasingly felt that this young master of the Child Family was not simple. She even suspected that the invitation to Gu Ding to attend the Coming-of-age ceremony was just a pretext, and that her real target was actually her.
After the interrogation ended, it was almost dark.
Elsa finally sobered up; Bigge had carried her back from the pub. After coming out of the bedroom, she saw Trick and the other two. "Why are they here? And who is this bespectacled man?"
Liliath recounted the events to her in a simple manner.
"So, they're the enemies?" Elsa's gaze towards the three men suddenly turned hostile. "Gu Ding, you've finished interrogating them. There's no use keeping these three around, right? Should I take care of them?"
Elsa was somewhat angry about the other party's act of kidnapping Liliath.
"Let me do this kind of thing." Bigge took the initiative to take on the task, since it wasn't appropriate to let a little girl do such a thing.
The three men's hearts sank to the bottom. It seemed that they would have no chance of escaping the clutches of Gu Ding Team.
"Lily, what do you think is the best course of action?" Gu Ding looked at Liliath, after all, Liliath was the biggest victim, and she had the right to make her own decision.
"Forget it, let them go." Liliath didn't intend to pursue the matter any further. "They were just executors of a mission. If we want to settle scores, we should go after that young master."
"Lily, there's no need to be soft-hearted towards these kinds of people. If they can kidnap you today, they can kidnap others in the future." Elsa glared angrily at the three of them.
Liliath then looked at Gu Ding, "Gu Ding, let them go..."
Gu Ding was silent for a moment, then finally nodded. "Since Lily isn't going to pursue this matter, I'll let you go this time. But before you leave, there's one more thing..."
Gu Ding's gaze fell on Trick. "I need to speak with your young master."
"This..." Trick's expression immediately turned troubled. It was one thing for him to fail his mission, he could just keep a low profile and keep a low profile for a while. But for Gu Ding to use his communicator to talk to the young master was undoubtedly a slap in the face to the young master, and he would even feel like he was assisting him in this slap in the face.
"You can choose to refuse, but you'd better think about the consequences of refusing." Gu Ding's words were a clear threat.
Trick could tell from his expression that he was right. He took a deep breath and nodded vigorously. "Okay!"
In his contacts, Trick quickly found the young master's number and dialed it.
Less than two beeps later, a young man's voice came from the other end of the microphone, "Trick, is the handover complete?"
"Hello, young master of the Child Family," Gu Ding greeted with a smile.
"You are... Gu Ding?" Unexpectedly, the person on the other end recognized Gu Ding's voice.
"That's right, I am Gu Ding!" Gu Ding said his name word by word.
"You dialed my number, you probably didn't just want to say hello, did you?" The boy's voice was completely calm.
"Of course," Gu Ding grinned. "Haven't you always wanted me to attend your Coming-of-age ceremony? Well, I have good news for you. I happen to have some time to pay you a visit."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the communicator. After a long pause, the young man seemed to have figured something out. "That does sound like good news. Well then, I'll be waiting for you there!"
Everyone else was stunned by their conversation. (To be continued.)