With their confidence regained, they made plans to send the drawings and a secret message to the police. Inevitably, they came to talk about the past. 

"How did you inform Captain Luo back then? You were already in contact with him, before we met my father," Ding Wei said. He'd been interested in the answer to that question for quite some time, but to much had happened and distracted him from his questions. Until at some point, it no longer mattered to him. 

Wenjie looked at him thoughtfully. "I ordered food in his name at the restaurant where I used to work. I the painting and sketches of you inside the bag with the food."

Xiao Dao opened his mouth and closed it again. His head was rattling. "That's why you tried to stall time, when we took Water Lily out of your apartment. You were afraid, you wouldn't be able to explain where the painting was. Because you no longer had it." Now he realized a lot of things. Oh yes. It all made sense. "Then, when we were in the apartment, you hoped that Captain Luo had brought it back, because he guessed what my father was up to. That's why you were so dawdling when you took it out of hiding." 

Wenjie nodded. 

Ding Wei slapped his forehead with the flat of his hand. Then he laughed out loud. "Captain Luo was standing out there somewhere on the ledge, right? That's why you closed the window. Not for thugs like me." He had suspected it. Why hadn't he acted on his hunch back then? Perhaps because he had already liked Wenjie at the time. He had been serious about their friendship.

Wenjie smiled. "It almost went wrong. You were about to find out."

"Looks like it." Xiao Dao stood up and paced back and forth in the living room. "We could do something similar. We need something for breakfast anyway. So let's order something. Then we'll give the supplier the pictures and the message. He should take a delivery to the police in two hours, including the drawings and the message. We'll pay for it."

At the same moment, Zhijian's stomach growled. All eyes turned to him. Zhijian grinned. "Sounds like a good idea."

"Could work," Wenjie finally agreed. "But we should decide beforehand when we're going to the port. The police should know when and where we're meeting. And that the kidnappers can't find out what we've done."

"Sure." Ding Wei nodded. "Zhijian, you go and find a suitable restaurant and order something." 

The younger man set to work immediately. It would be a while, before the delivery man arrived anyway. Until then, they could try to negotiate with the kidnappers again. He didn't think, they had much of a chance, but they hadn't used up all their options yet. 

"Zhuang Yaobai has returned to Qingcheng," Ding Wei wrote to the kidnappers. "He sent us a message, that he had arrived safely."

When there was no reply, he continued: "I did what you asked. But the situation has changed. Monsieur contacted me." He assumed that the criminals knew who he meant. After all, Xu Zhengqing had made a name for himself over the past decade under the mysterious name of Monsieur. Thus most criminals should know, not to mess with Monsieur. 

"He wants Wenjie. If I hand him over to you, it will be a risk for me. I'm willing to take that risk, if you hand over Lin Zhiyue in exchange."

Wenjie looked over his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, Ding Wei saw a deep furrow forming between his friend's eyebrows. 

"That will never work. They work for Xu Zhengqing," Wenjie muttered.

"Wait and see." He was aware, he was going out on a limb. But the message from Xu Zhengqing opened up new options for them. On the one hand, they could find out whether there was a connection between the kidnappers and Monsieur. Secondly, they might now have a basis for negotiation. Somehow they simply had to succeed in getting these guys to bring Lin Zhiyue to the meeting point. Then the police could take action. Otherwise, their hands would be tied and they wouldn't be able to intervene. 

It took a while for a reply to arrive. 

"Come to the harbor and we'll discuss the next steps."

Xiao Dao frowned. It almost sounded as if the guys had nothing to do with Monsieur. The cell phone vibrated again. A second message had arrived. 

"Take your friend Zhijian with you. You'd better hurry, before Monsieur makes his next move."

Ding Wei couldn't believe it. They didn't work for Xu Zhengqing? The cases weren't connected? Was it a blessing in disguise? Or how should he judge it now? Was his first feeling right? Was his father behind this? Was it really about setting a trap for Xu Zhengqing and escaping from prison? 

"We've just ordered something to eat," he wrote back to the kidnappers.

He put his phone back in his poket and sank against the back of his chair. "When will your father be back?"

"Around noon."

"It's all getting pretty tight, because we don't know what Xu Zhengqing will do next and, above all, when." He hadn't been in touch overnight. But he certainly hadn't been idle. 

Wenjie's phone rang. He answered it and put it on speakerphone. So they could all listen in. 

"Is everything all right with you?"

It was good to hear Zhuang Yaobai's voice. 

"Yes. Are you on your way back already?" asked Wenjie. "Do you have any good news? We've worked out a plan to inform the Taizhou police too."

There was a short pause. 

"There was an accident in the night. The video is real."

Wenjie turned pale. 

Ding Wei swallowed. It felt surreal. This cop, he respected so much, should really be in hospital? No. That. "How?" he whispered. "What kind of accident?" 

"The press is keeping quiet about it. I've been investigating. The accident was provoked in a similar way to my accident 12 years ago . I'll spare you the details. The local police are busy investigating the case."

"So they won't be able to help us?" Wenjie's hands were shaking. 

To be continued ...