"Master Lu, look at this CCTV footage I just recovered! Can you identify who is on the further end of the gate? Look at these two cars, they look suspicious." One of the analysts showed him the video he had managed to revive.
They all got closer and checked the footage while zooming the images in for clarity and also used those blurry images to know who they were. Probably the people caught in the images hadn't expected to be recorded by the night CCTV camera hidden around the hotel.
"That?" I haven't met someone like that; the other one is the minister of defense; he wasn't in the hall, and the entire hotel had been vacated completely; apart from people attending the auction, no one else was supposed to be around the hotel vicinity. So, he is suspicious of being there..."
The room went silent except for the soft humming of the analyst's laptop magnifying the images closer.
Everyone leaned in, eyes locked on the grainy CCTV footage paused at a frame that showed two men near the hotel's service gate, one in uniform, the other half-shielded by the shadow of a car door.
"Anyone recognizing these men here? either of them?" Lu Ting Cheng asked sharply, glancing around the room. He rarely met people in the business world, so, he didn't know much.
"No idea who they are," Gabriel muttered, arms crossed and jaw clenched. He wasn't a citizen of this country, and he had just traveled over for some business projects, so he wouldn't know any of them. "That guy in uniform, have never seen him before in any briefings."
"Me neither," said the analyst. "But the uniform's authentic. That badge isn't something you fake without serious consequences."
Lu Zi Zhen narrowed his eyes at the screen. "That second one... His posture feels familiar, but I can't place him. But I feel like I have seen him."
Another operative chimed in, "The one in the back might be military, but not on any of our rosters. And that's not a standard ministerial protocol. Something's off."
Lu Ting Cheng exhaled in frustration before turning around and gazing at his father, he didn't seem to be surprised that much.
"I know those guys are from the military. I just don't know this one right here, and he could be the suspect! If the government had gotten hold of Lu Ting Zhou and Song Yaya, they could have negotiated face to face." He didn't deny they could be amongst the people who had attacked his son and wife but he couldn't insinuate anything since the prime minister and the president were present in the auction hall.
"I will ask my wife if she knows anything." He picked up the laptop with the images before walking away through the corridor; he opened the bedroom walking in before closing it behind him.
The bedroom was dim, cloaked in soft golden light to ease her in resting.
Lu Wan Ruyi lay against a mound of silk pillows, her skin pale but her eyes still clear and sharp. Despite the tension outside those walls, the room had been kept quiet and she had fallen asleep.
Lu Wan Ruyi suddenly snapped her eyes open the moment Lu Zhi Hao got closer. She was sharp and sensitive surprising Lu Zhi Hao.
She immediately calmed down seeing who it was.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." He crossed the room and sat beside her, placing the laptop on the low table in front of them. "I need your eyes on something. Someone, actually."
She adjusted herself upright with a wince, and he helped her gently. When the laptop opened, the paused CCTV footage came up.
He fast-forwarded the footage before he paused it again. "Him," he said, pointing to the man in the back, slightly stooped, his face partially turned away, but enough was visible in profile.