I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 627: Find the Mastermind Behind the Scenes
Although I had guessed that the welfare institute would be uncooperative, I never expected it to be this uncooperative. How could they claim that adopted children have nothing to do with them? Children who have been adopted out are visited regularly to prevent abuse from the adoptive families.
However, Wang Lan didn’t give up. "Then we should be able to take a look at your archives, right?"
"Of course, you can, but you can’t look at the section belonging to our commercial investment companies. That involves a lot of trade secrets."
"We understand."
In the charity fund manager’s office, the system was opened under surveillance. Jiang Xinyu took out her laptop, and immediately seven or eight pairs of eyes stared over.
"Can I not even go online to receive an email?" Jiang Xinyu asked coldly.
"Of course, you can, but please refrain from any hacking activities," the fund manager said indifferently.
Jiang Xinyu simply opened her email and then really did receive an email before closing her laptop and putting it away. Seeing Jiang Xinyu’s action, the fund manager finally breathed a sigh of relief and stopped paying attention.
"What about the vetting of the families adopting the children? Why is there no information on them?" Wang Lan asked.
"In the Baron nation, we thank the heavens when someone is willing to adopt a child; there is no ’vetting’ paperwork."
"Aren’t you afraid they’ll traffic the children into illegal industries?"
"Sorry, I have nothing to tell you."
Wang Lan abruptly raised her head, staring into the eyes of the fund manager. Wang Lan’s gaze was incredibly sharp, making the fund manager gulp nervously as beads of sweat formed on his forehead at a visible rate.
"I understand now. Thank you for your cooperation," Wang Lan stood up and left without another word. Exiting the charity, Wang Lan and her group found a nearby café. Even without their masks, the four of them weren’t dressed in any particularly unusual attire.
Jiang Xinyu opened her laptop; Ice Snow had successfully taken control of the charity’s administrator authority.
"Wang Lan, this afternoon there will be twelve couples going to the welfare institute to process adoption papers," Jiang Xinyu suddenly said. "This log was encrypted; there must be something fishy about it."
"Then we’ll head over this afternoon and take a look."
「At one o’clock in the afternoon, Wang Lan and her group suddenly appeared at Fish Fresh Market, heading straight for one of the welfare institutes under Hosi Charity.」
Inside the welfare institute, twelve children were called into a separate office, where twenty-four young men and women awaited them.
"Children, from now on, they are your parents. You must forget about your lives here and treat them as your birth parents. Pray for your new life—God will bless you."
"Thank you, Director."
"Director, I don’t want to leave; can Jia’er and I switch?"
"Sorry, that’s not possible. The paperwork is already completed; you can now take the children and leave."
"Okay, goodbye—" The parents-to-be shook hands with the director in a practiced manner and were about to open the door when it was suddenly kicked open by Wang Lan and the others.
"Who are you?" The welfare institute director immediately let out a scream, and the children were terrified, hiding behind their nominal parents.
"My God, please don’t hurt us—"
Seeing Wang Lan’s group’s attire and masks, the adults, thinking they were masked robbers, promptly crouched down with their hands on their heads.
"Show me your IDs," Wang Lan approached someone and demanded.
"Who are you, and what do you want to do?" the welfare institute director mustered the courage to ask. But with one look from Wang Lan, she quietly backed into a corner and crouched down as told.
The middle-aged individual who was asked for an ID trembled while handing over his documents. Wang Lan scanned it with her phone, and to her surprise, the information displayed was that of an impoverished, jobless wanderer.
"How peculiar—so a jobless person in poverty is adopting a child? The clothes you’re wearing aren’t cheap, are they?"
"Ah? Oh, I understand, this suit is yours now..." The man quickly caught on to Wang Lan’s implication and started hurriedly unbuttoning his clothes.
"Stop! Who sent you here to adopt these children? Name your boss."
"I’ll tell!" A skinny, pole-like middle-aged man immediately raised his hand and called out. His speed of betrayal surpassed Wang Lan’s expectation; he raised his hand without a moment’s hesitation, without any sign of reluctance.
From the man, they learned they were instructed by a human trafficker named Barbie to come and adopt the children, then to take the children to a warehouse on the coast, where Barbie would be waiting for them.
Wang Lan immediately phoned the Baron nation’s president, asking him to send trusted personnel to take charge of the welfare institute and the aftermath. After giving the instructions, Wang Lan told Xie Sisi and Jiang Xinyu to stay behind to look after the children, and she vanished with Xu Xiangwen in a whoosh.
The long coastline and the ubiquity of superior ports allowed the Baron nation to make a fortune just through its ports. But the ones making money were the wealthy who owned the ports; the dividends from geographic advantages had nothing to do with the ordinary folk.
Seeing these ports consume large profits every day, could there really be no envy? Of course, there was! Naturally, this led to countless incidents of smuggling and human trafficking.
The long coastline and the high-quality ports were widely occupied, but there were plenty of less than ideal coasts that were good options for smugglers. The government couldn’t keep up with all of it, and indeed, they were too lazy to try.
Folks living by the coast have always had a saying: "If you want to become wealthy, go out to sea; if you want to remain poor your whole life, go out to sea." The former is smuggling, the latter is fishing.
「In a secluded fishing village near the coast and the forest, dozens of storage warehouses of varying sizes were secretly built in the woods.」
Inside one of the warehouses, over twenty terrified children huddled together, shivering.
In front of them stood a man with a scar across his face, puffing on a cigar as if he were assessing goods.
"Bro, the quality of this merchandise isn’t bad, eh?" a yellow-haired, unhealthy-looking, skinny youth cackled, revealing a face full of wrinkles and a mouth full of yellow teeth.
"They’ll be shipped out soon anyway. Let me play with a couple of them, yeah?"
"These cannot be touched—"
"What’s there that we can’t touch? Once the goods are delivered, they’ve got nothing to do with us. Playing around won’t kill them or make them lose any flesh."
"SMACK!" A slap sent the young man reeling. "I said, you can’t touch this batch. Whoever does will die."
"Yes, yes!" The punk with yellow hair was so scared he quickly shrank back behind Barbie.
Barbie was feeling uneasy and irritably looked at her watch. "Why haven’t they arrived yet?"
"It’s quite far. According to the plan, there’s still half an hour," just as the underling finished speaking, Wang Lan and Xu Xiangwen suddenly rose from the ground, with Xu Xiangwen standing in front of the group of kids.
"Who are you!" Barbie was so startled that she jumped up from her chair, her men hurriedly pulling out guns and aiming at Wang Lan and Xu Xiangwen.
Wang Lan looked at Barbie indifferently. "You’re Barbie?"
"Th...That’s right. Who are you?"
"Where do you plan to send these kids? Who’s behind this?"
"Open fire—"
RAT-A-TAT-TAT—
The sound of rapid gunfire filled the air, and the children’s screams burst forth instantly. Yet, Wang Lan merely raised her hand lightly, and the bullets froze in front of her. She walked forward slowly, like a Ghost, as the bullets fell like beads from a broken string.
HISS, HISS, HISS.
Several bursts of Sword Qi shot out, instantly killing all the gunmen holding weapons. By the time Wang Lan stood in front of Barbie, not a single person was left standing around them.
Wang Lan slapped Barbie, and spiritual power shot out, instantly invading the other’s mind.
Soon, Wang Lan let go of Barbie’s head, a smile appearing in her eyes.
"Found something?"
"Indeed. The person behind Barbie is called Biduofen. You might not recognize the name, but his other identity is as the vice chairman of the Commercial Alliance."
"There really is a problem with Hosi," Xu Xiangwen said.
Wang Lan called the president of Baron. "We’ve found the mastermind behind the scenes, and that person is..."
"Biduofen, right?" the president suddenly said weakly, as if the wind had been taken out of his sails.
"What happened?" Wang Lan frowned, sensing that something wasn’t quite right.
"Ten minutes ago, Biduofen was murdered," the president sighed.
"Really? Where?"
"In Biduofen’s estate."
"May I go take a look?"
"Of course, that’s no problem."
After the president’s men took custody of the children, Wang Lan’s group met up and immediately rushed to Biduofen’s estate.
"Wang Lan, I’ve questioned these kids. They all had their blood drawn half a month ago. They must be children with Star Martial Warrior talents," Jiang Xinyu said.
"Hmm, that’s inevitable. How else could Paradise Bird have so many hands? They couldn’t have become such a significant force with just traitors."
「The four of them appeared at Biduofen’s estate, where the police had already cordoned off the area.」
Beyond the cordons swarmed countless reporters, some even setting up live broadcasts on the spot.
"Dear audience, just moments ago, the famous businessman and renowned philanthropist, Mr. Biduofen, experienced a bomb attack at his home. The police have now cordoned off the scene.
As you can see, Mr. Biduofen was enjoying the afternoon sun when suddenly, an explosion occurred, blasting a five-meter wide crater in the ground. Biduofen’s wife, son, and granddaughter all perished in the explosion, while Biduofen himself was reduced to unidentifiable remains."
When Wang Lan and the others arrived at the site, Hosi, who was in command, immediately narrowed his eyes and hurried over.
"Mr. Fire Phoenix, are you still staying in Baron? I thought you had returned to your country since we hadn’t seen you these days."
"The president said we could stay and spend to our heart’s content, so we stayed a few more days to enjoy the beach and the waves. We came over when we heard the explosion. What happened?"
"Dammit, Paradise Bird. I just declared war on them, and they immediately launched a terrorist attack. They didn’t have the guts to come at me, but they went after Biduofen instead. They all deserve to go to hell."
"Can we go in and take a look?"
"Of course!"
Suddenly, a smile appeared on Xu Xiangwen’s face. "Wang Lan, a pleasant surprise."
Seeing Xu Xiangwen’s look, Wang Lan also smiled. "Where?"
"Back Mountain Coast Side."
Wang Lan and Xu Xiangwen vanished in an instant with a whoosh, leaving Hosi’s face filled with astonishment, which quickly turned to sheer horror.
"Impossible, this can’t be possible."
