Chapter 629 - 644: Secret Passage

An Ning refused to let any detail slip by. She made a call to Director Zhao.

She relayed the information about the dentist back home to Director Zhao and was told an investigation would begin immediately.

An Ning hung up, put the button away securely, and continued to inspect the entire room.

After sweeping the room three whole times, An Ning noticed that the sofa had been moved.

Normally, a chair might easily be dragged around, but not a sofa—unless there was a significant struggle.

Unfortunately, this hotel had no surveillance cameras.

At this time, surveillance equipment wasn’t yet ubiquitous.

After checking the room, An Ning sat on the sofa. Her spiritual power spread out from the room, gradually enveloping the entire hotel as she searched for any other clues.

She deduced that Jiang Xia must have been taken from this hotel. A conflict must have occurred, but the other party had completely suppressed it.

Jiang Xia was a skilled fighter. If he had been trying to escape on his own, he would have had a good chance of success. But he hadn’t come alone.

If it was to save the people with him, Jiang Xia might very well have surrendered without a fight.

The thought made An Ning’s heart ache.

’Just who could have kidnapped Jiang Xia?’

After all, Jiang Xia was no ordinary citizen. A huge corporation stood behind him. If he went missing, it was by no means something that could be easily covered up.

The government would definitely launch an investigation.

Following this line of reasoning, the culprits were either desperate fugitives with nothing to lose or powerful figures with immense wealth and influence.

Neither type would be easy to track down.

An Ning’s spiritual power scanned the hotel, penetrating the area where they kept their records. She began searching for the employee files from the days Jiang Xia was staying there.

Since questioning people directly yielded nothing, she wouldn’t be out of line for using other means.

She refused to believe that several adult men could just vanish from a hotel without anyone knowing.

The most likely explanation was that people were too afraid to talk.

"Hm?"

’A secret passage?’

While searching the entire hotel, An Ning discovered a secret passage. The entrance was in the kitchen’s walk-in freezer.

’Something fishy is definitely going on.’

She now strongly suspected the hotel was a link in some kind of illicit operation.

’The kitchen?’

’How am I supposed to get in there?’

’Wait, why do I need to figure out a way in?’

’I have my spiritual power and Mysticism to conceal myself. I can walk right in, and no one will even notice.’

Having made her decision, An Ning configured her phone, secured it on her person, and set out.

She walked openly down the hallway and positioned herself around a corner.

A moment later, a member of the cleaning staff walked over. Checking against the list she had found earlier, An Ning recognized her as one of the people on duty that day.

Using her spiritual power for control, the cleaning woman’s eyes went vacant the moment she rounded the corner.

"Have you seen this man?"

An Ning held a photo of Jiang Xia.

"########"

An Ning understood the jumble of words.

’She’s seen him!’

"Where? When?"

The cleaning woman described hearing a loud commotion from Jiang Xia’s room while she was cleaning the room next door, so she opened the door to look.

She saw Jiang Xia and his companions being shoved along by a group of people. She only saw their backs.

After getting all the information, An Ning let the cleaning woman go and continued to search for other staff members.

Once she had questioned everyone, she would leave through the secret passage in the kitchen’s walk-in freezer. She wanted to know where that path led.

Next, the hotel’s service staff, the manager—every employee An Ning could find—was questioned.

After compiling all the information she had gathered, An Ning learned a few things.

Jiang Xia had indeed been taken.

The hotel had long been aware of these people, but their knowledge was limited.

Even the hotel’s upper management only had a vague idea. They just knew to get certain designated people into the kitchen’s walk-in freezer. Anything beyond that was not their business, not for them to know, and certainly not for them to ask about.

Having obtained this information, An Ning didn’t act rashly.

She was waiting.

According to one of the senior staff members, a girl was scheduled to be sent in today.

What An Ning needed to do... was take that girl’s place.

She found the girl’s room, knocked her unconscious, and hid her. Then, An Ning quickly disguised herself, changed into the girl’s clothes, and waited.

An hour later, someone delivered a meal to the door. An Ning brought the food inside, made it look like she had eaten, and waited.

Twenty minutes later, people arrived in the hallway.

An Ning immediately pretended to have passed out, creating a scene with the tray askew and a fork dropped on the floor.

CLICK. The door opened and people came in.

There was a cleaning cart and two men dressed as waiters.

An Ning was violently shoved into the bottom of the cleaning cart and pushed out by the two men.

They took a special elevator, heading straight down.

It stopped. As she was pushed out, An Ning remained fully conscious.

After exiting the elevator, she was wheeled into another room.

Inside the room was another cart, this one a delivery cart for the kitchen. An Ning was loaded into a large box, and a different person pushed her away again.

’Quite meticulous.’

Soon, the cart reached the kitchen. The person pushing it took the box all the way into the walk-in freezer, unloaded it, and left.

An Ning remained curled up silently inside the box. She knew there was a door behind that shelving unit.

Less than three minutes later, the door behind the shelves opened.

An Ning was hauled out of the box and thrown over the shoulder of the person who had come for her. He carried her through the door, revealing a sealed, circular tunnel just tall enough for a person to stand in.

The man carried An Ning through the tunnel. After about thirty meters, they reached the end.

The door at the other end was suddenly yanked open. The back doors of a panel van were already open, and the man carrying An Ning unceremoniously tossed her into the cargo area.

SLAM! The man quickly shut the doors, got in, and the van sped away.

An Ning kept her eyes closed, memorizing the route they were taking. She would find a chance later to send it to the people Director Zhao had arranged.

However, this seamless modus operandi told An Ning she was dealing with a highly organized group.

’But why would they take such a huge risk to kidnap Jiang Xia?’

Generally, they would target people traveling alone. The chances of success would be higher, and the subsequent trouble would likely be less.

Unable to figure it out, An Ning suppressed her anxiety and continued to track their journey.

The van drove further and further out, reaching the suburbs and then driving beyond them.

Gradually, buildings started to appear around them.

There were clusters of large buildings. Consulting a mental map, An Ning identified it as a business park.

The van entered the park, looped around a clean and tidy building, and drove into an entrance at the back.

At that moment, An Ning saw the sign.

Slaughterhouse.

She started to have a bad feeling.

’Sun Erniang? Unlikely. The profit margins are too low.’

’The only valuable things a person has are... their insides.’

In an instant, it all clicked for An Ning.

’Jiang Xia was targeted.’

’The dentist? They would have done blood work, found out his blood type and basic health condition.’

’So this is a network that connects all the way back home.’

The van finally stopped. An Ning was carried out, and the sound of voices reached her ears.