68 I CANNOT HELP YOU (1/2)

The following day, Zhong Feng left Supreme City for Russia. Before he left, he put Assistant Chen in charge of finding out more about Dong Chen Publishing. He would not allow that issue to escalate and compromise Hu Lei in absentia.

During his flight, he thought about the information contained in the brown envelope he had hidden in the safe. He felt morose when he remembered the words in that file, particularly the details from thirteen years ago when Hu Lei had been only nine years old.

The report had mentioned that Hu Lei had been one of the children who had been kidnapped. According to sealed police files on the incident, a group of children were found in a lab after missing for varying periods of time. Hu Lei had been missing for a year.

The investigative file indicated that the kidnappers had been a team of scientists who were interested in unveiling the power of the brain. An interrogation of one of the arrested scientists had revealed that they had used children because in his words, ”adult minds broke too easily”. That man had also said that ”young minds were more open to a little tinkering”.

While this might have been true, the children who had been kidnapped were not as strong as the scientists had imagined. Multiple children had already died by the time the police had cracked the case of the missing children. The most sickening thing was that these scientists had continued to use the deceased and their parts for their experiments.

The children who had been rescued had not been in good condition either. Some had died within the year of release and others had lost most of their normal brain functions. Among those who had survived was a boy who had seemed normal at first. Then, out of nowhere, he had attacked his family in the middle of the night.

Zhong Feng could not help marvelling at the wonder of Hu Lei. She had survived this ordeal and continued to live her life well. She had even had the courage to return to a city which took her innocence and crushed her childhood into nothingness.

However, the most shocking thing to him was the fact that after being held in a laboratory for unpleasant experiments, Hu Lei had chosen to travel the world, supporting her father in medical research. How could she bear facing anything that reminded her of that nightmare?

Zhong Feng pondered on the matter without a conclusion. She either had to be a brave person who had the power to face her greatest nightmares, or she felt nothing. He could not feeling heartache for the girl who always seemed like a bright ray of sunshine even with the burden of this past.

His resolve became stronger. He needed to find her before she had to face a life without hope as she had no doubt experienced during the year she had been captured.

When Zhong Feng alighted from the airplane, he was surprised to find that Vladimir Romanov had sent a limousine to pick him up. He had called him only yesterday to inform him of the impending visit. He had not expected that he would be so welcome.

Under normal circumstances, he would not enter into that suspicious character's vehicle. However, time was of the essence. Hu Lei would not wait forever if she was not in a good place. Until he ascertained her wellbeing, he could not rest easy.

To his surprise, the vehicle was not driven into a commercial building or some other place like a BDSM club. These places were within Zhong Feng's expectations. However, a neighbourhood filled with artisanal shops did not cross his mind. In essence, it was the type of modern neighbourhood that had a lot of pretentious artsy people and strange shops filled with overpriced crap with fancy names.

Zhong Feng could not relate the place to the scar-faced Romanov.

The vehicle stopped before an art gallery simply named PIERRE. The door was opened by his unknown chauffer. The man pointed him to the gallery. Feeling like he had fallen into a parallel universe, he walked into the store.

The spacious gallery was nothing like he anticipated. Judging from the locale, he had expected to find modern abstract art which was popular among gentrified neighbourhoods. He walked into the completely empty gallery, brushing a casual eye over the pieces.