Chapter 30

Karma

Pang Jing Dong had been overseas for a few years when Shen Jia Yao was at university, which meant he had lost contact with Shen Jia Yao for a significant period. What surprised Pang Jing Dong was, at that time, Shen Jia Yao seemed to be missing him a lot. Has it all changed now?

The conversation between Pang Jing Dong and Professor Chen made Shen Jia Yao feel uncomfortable. She let out two coughs and asked, "Where's Chen Lu?"

"In the living room!" Professor Chen answered.

A girl was seated in Professor Chen's living room. Her eyes were swollen red, as if she had just cried not long ago, who was now staring blankly ahead.

Shen Jia Yao approached the girl and asked, "So you're Chen Lu?"

"Yes!" Chen Lu raised her head looking at Shen Jia Yao, and nodded blankly.

"I heard what happened; I'm here to help!"

"Sister, please help me. I've done something wrong, I really did" Chen Lu begged Shen Jia Yao as tears burst out from her eyes.

Shen Jia Yao sighed, before saying, "Don't worry, on behalf of Professor Chen"

"Yes, you've have done something wrong indeed. You shouldn't have met that Wang Li in the first place. If you didn't, then you wouldn't be so desperate." Pang Jing Dong interrupted Shen Jia Yao's speech and said to Chen Lu in a cold tone, "I've watched the TV series 'My Own Swordsman' many times, so I'm quite familiar with their scripts; there's no need for you to remind me!"

Chen Lu was stunned by the words of this sudden stranger; her mind went blank on the spot.

Pang Jing Dong continued, "Now is not the time for reflection. If it's already happened, beating the crap out of you won't help either!'

As no one had introduced Pang Jing Dong to Chen Lu before, his sudden 'eye-catching' entrance caused Shen Jia Yao and Professor Chen to feel awkward slightly. On the bright side, Chen Lu stopped crying and stared blankly at Pang Jing Dong.

Shen Jia Yao gave Pang Jing Dong a death stare and asked Professor Chen, "Do you have any ideas how to deal with this?"

With a considerate tone, Professor Chen said, "I've never had this kind of problem before. After careful considerations, I think calling the cops would be the most efficient way." Professor Chen adjusted his spectacles and said in a furious tone, "People like Wang Li should be brought to justice and be punished."

Shen Jia Yao nodded in agreement, "If the cops knew the severity of the incident, they would protect the anonymity of the victim, and the authority would not reveal the details to the public."

"But have you guys thought of this, even if the cops tried their best and executed the operation perfectly, there's a chance the videos would be leaked too." Pang Jing Dong did not care if Shen Jia Yao had some grudge against him, as he voiced out his opinion without hesitation, "The reason is we do not know if Wang Li has any companion. If he does, we would never know who the person is!"

Shen Jia Yao understood instantly, "What you're trying to say is, it is possible that Wang Li would leave a backup of the recordings with his companion. If Wang Li ended up being arrested, but his companion is not exposed, then he wouldleak them out!"

"Exactly!"

Shen Jia Yao was slightly confused, "But, if Wang Li's companion were to leak out the recordings, wouldn't he be worried about getting arrested like Wang Li too?"

Professor Chen said, "If the videos were initially planned to be sent to the victim's family and relatives, we still have some time before they are uploaded to the Internet, which means, we can force Wang Li to confess who his companion is; even if the videos do get uploaded, with the help from the cops, we would be able to get rid of them and track down the culprit."

Pang Jing Dong rejected both their opinions, "I doubt that the cops would be able to monitor all the uploaded videos in time. Even if they are able to do so, when the videos were discovered, they would have been duplicated and spread to other websites. Besides that, foreign websites would not cooperate with the cops; they even won't agree to delete the videos. If the culprit used a VPN, or some peer to peer software, it would be impossible to track him down even if he is spreading the videos within the country. Remember the photo scandal which involved a lot of celebrities? The culprit is still yet to be found! This is only a normal criminal case; hence the cops would not invest too many resources and energy in it."

"So what can we do then?" Even though Professor Chen was in her forties, but she had no idea what to do based on her personal experiences. Her mind went blank after hearing Qin Nan's interpretation.

Pang Jing Dong said to Chen Lu, "I can help you, but first, you have to tell me everything!"

Chen Lu blurted out, "I trust you"

"I have to know every single detail; although Professor Chen had mentioned the situation to me, it was far from enough. I'm going to ask you some questions, and you must be honest with me."

"Sure!"

"Did he show you the recordings? Are you sure you're the person in the videos? Are the faces clear in them?" The reason why Pang Jing Dong asked these questions, was to make sure if Wang Li was blackmailing her with some fake recordings.

Chen Lu nodded her head with confidence.

Pang Jing Dong then asked, "Does Wang Li have a lot of friends?"

"Not many. He is quite an introvert. He is only close with his roommates; I've never heard that he had any close friends."

"Does he own a computer?"

"No. He does everything at the internet cafe, inside the private room of the cafe"

"You guys helped him to earn so much money, but hes still unwilling to buy a computer?"

"He sent all the money back to his family, he is quite economical, and is quitea filial son.

"Where does he keep the recordings?"

"In a portable hard disk, which he always take with him."

"Ok, that's it for now."

Professor Chen's face was filled with anxiety, who asked Pang Jing Dong, "any plans?"

Pang Jing Dong did not answer immediately, who said after a long pause, "I would need your help to do something at the university!"

"I'll try my best!"

"Firstly, gather some information on Wang Li's roommates; what kind of personalities do they have, and the background they possess. After that, check with Wang Li's tutors and see if he's close with anyone particularly. Then, investigate his social relationships by asking some of his classmates. Actually, these few actions have the same focus; to check if Wang Li is close with anyone."

As soon as Pang Jing Dong finished talking, Professor Chen dialed her phone immediately.

She would need help from quite an amount of people to get these tasks done, while hiding her intention too. Through Shen Jia Yao's description of Professor Chen, Pang Jing Dong believed she was able to handle them.

She did not disappoint Pang Jing Dong; all the required information was received after an hour.

It was exactly what Chen Lu saidWang Li only had a few friends, and the closest one was his roommate, Zhang Lu Rong. This Zhang Lu Rong was just an ordinary person, average number of friends, average family background, and average performance academically.

Professor Chen managed to contact someone who was a roommate of Wang Li and Zhang Lu Rong, who provided a significant clueWang Li and Zhang Lu Rong always asked him to borrow them his laptop, to watch porn apparently.

Hence, Pang Jing Dong concluded, that Wang Li would not easily hand the recordings to someone else; this Zhang Lu Rong was the most suspicious.

Pang Jing Dong asked Chen Lu, "Did Wang Li give you a deadline?"

"The day after tomorrow!"

"If that's the case, we should move soon!"

According to Pang Jing Dong's arrangement, on the day itself, Chen Lu would contact Wang Li and tell him that the money is ready, but she was too scared to go alone; thus she would be accompanied by a friend. Chen Lu would let Wang Li pick the time and place, to avoid him being suspicious.

Wang Li decided to meet at 4 p.m. in a cold drink store.

Shen Jia Yao was the one going with Chen Lu. After arriving at the destination, Shen Jia Yao had finally met this 'long-anticipated' handsome man; he did look smart, but his face with a perverted grin, caused Shen Jia Yao to feel like vomiting.

Due to this special occasion, Shen Jia Yao was wearing some ordinary clothes to avoid standing out. Despite that, her appearance caught Wang Li's attention immediately.

Shen Jia Yao's beauty was too outstanding; even without makeup, she was still attractive. The cheap clothing she bought from the street vendor just for today, was unable to conceal her elegant natural aura.

Wang Li was stunned when he saw Shen Jia Yao. He then scanned her body up and down blatantly.

If she did not have a plan to follow, Shen Jia Yao would give Wang Li a few slaps to his face to stop his lustful gaze.

Shen Jia Yao took a paper bag from her bag and shoved it at Wang Li, while saying, "This is the money you demanded! Where are the recordings?"

The paper bag was pink in color, with scribbles all over it. It was something that Pang Jing Dong made, as a distraction.

Wang Li immediately took the money out and counted greedily; he even checked if the money was real. He then put the money down and smilingly asked, "Only ten thousand?"

Shen Jia Yao rose instantly and grabbed the money while questioning Wang Li, "Still dare to ask for more? Where are the recordings?"

Wang Li did not expect Shen Jia Yao to have such reaction; he hesitated for a while, before answering, "I brought them with me."

"Show me!

Wang Li opened the cell phone bag he brought and took out a portable hard disk, waving it before Shen Jia Yao.

Cell phone bags used to be the trend; even before cell phones became a necessity, most people would have a cell phone bag, to pretend to have a higher position in the society. As a matter of fact, it was quite an odd thing to have; if you hold it in your hand, you would be misunderstood as a bill collector, but if you clamp it under your armpit, you will look like a wealthy person.

However, that was in the past, together with the change in trend, everyone's aesthetic standard continued to improve. Not many people would be holding a cell phone bag anymore, not to mention the rich people; to the extent that people had a funny saying, "The poor wear the marten coats while the rich wear cotton; the idiots clamp a bag under their armpits."

Wang Li had just received his first bucket of gold, which enabled him to have a taste of a luxurious life. Thus, he could not wait to show off to the others. Plus, with the weirdly matched second rate brands clothing he was wearing, Shen Jia Yao would not have a good impression of him, even if she did not know his actual personality.