57: Chapter 57 Treasure?

"Wow! Just how big is this snake? The color is so good; the taste must be excellent." Hao Linger's first reaction wasn't fear, but excitement.

"Uh, this snake meat is very nourishing; one person should eat at most two taels, or they'll get a nosebleed. Also, here are some Purple Lingzhi, Chinese yams, wild boar meat, old soft-shell turtle, and mountain crabs—all wild." Cao Xiao had originally wanted to see if Hao Linger was truly unafraid, but her reaction was the complete opposite, and the bit of mischievous intent in his heart dissipated.

"I'll remember your filial piety! If you have things to do, then hurry up and leave!" Looking at these rare wild ingredients, Hao Linger couldn't help but swallow her saliva as she waved Cao Xiao away.

Cao Xiao was speechless; he didn't understand the world of a foodie.

He drove onto the highway, but instead of returning to Huanghe City, he headed toward Xiangnan City. The distance from Xiangnan City to Jinghu City wasn't too far, roughly the same as the distance to Huanghe City. He would stay in Xiangnan City for one night and start looking for the person tomorrow. Time waited for no one; there were only a few days left before the court date. If he couldn't find the person within these few days, there would be no room for maneuver in Hao Daqiang's case.

Xiangnan City is the provincial capital of Jiangnan Province and a famous historical and cultural city. Located in the north-central part of eastern Jiangnan Province, it is about 230 kilometers long from east to west and 88 kilometers wide from north to south. The city's land area is 12,000 square kilometers, of which the urban area covers 1,909 square kilometers.

To find a hidden person in such a large city, even with a detection range of a hundred meters, there was little certainty of finding them within a few days. With nearly two thousand square kilometers, if he were to scan it all, he would need to drive over ten thousand kilometers to complete it. Not to mention urban speed limits; even at a speed of a hundred kilometers per hour, it would take five days of non-stop searching. This was the clumsiest method, and Cao Xiao couldn't possibly be so foolish as to search like that; otherwise, by the time he scoured all of Xiangnan City, it would be too late.

Upon arriving in Xiangnan City and checking into a hotel, Cao Xiao began analyzing where Meng Xiaohuan might be hidden. If the Japanese were behind it, then those involved in the kidnapping would be Japanese or local criminal forces associated with them. He could identify key focus areas for possible hiding spots. Additionally, since Meng Xiaohuan disappeared in Lianhua District, the scope would narrow. Furthermore, Lianhua District is near the suburbs; to avoid police surveillance, the kidnappers would likely head toward the suburbs with a specific purpose. Thus, he only needed to check places in the suburbs closely related to the Japanese. If he still couldn't find her, he would search back toward the city center.

He spent the whole night finding information online about Japanese-funded enterprises in the suburbs and set off early the next morning. He didn't need anyone to lead the way, as the map information for the entire Xiangnan City was stored in his AI Brain.

He was shocked by what he found. There were three Japanese-funded enterprises just in the direction of the Lianhua District suburbs, and they were all quite large. Judging by this situation, there were likely many Japanese-funded enterprises in the entire Xiangnan City.

These three Japanese-funded enterprises were a pharmaceutical factory, an electronic equipment factory, and a machinery processing plant. Naturally, the police could think of what Cao Xiao considered. Since receiving the report, the police had also deduced it was a kidnapping rather than a natural disappearance. After understanding the seriousness of the matter, the police had searched these three suburban factories despite the pressure, but they found no one. Consequently, they had now shifted their focus elsewhere. Some believed the hostage had already been moved out of Xiangnan City, but given the timely police blockade of traffic, this possibility was small. However, after searching for many days without finding any useful clues or even receiving a ransom demand, only Meng Tong's abnormal behavior made the police take this disappearance case more seriously.

It wasn't that Cao Xiao didn't trust the results of the police search, but if someone was hidden premeditatedly, those kidnappers would have prepared a response plan long ago. Moreover, there were some secret places that couldn't be entered even with a search warrant.

The first place he went was the pharmaceutical factory. This factory covered more than ten acres; even circling it wouldn't allow for a complete scan of the entire area. Cao Xiao didn't enter through the main gate rashly. The security of this pharmaceutical factory was very tight; entering through the gate would involve strict inspections, and even if he got in, he couldn't wander around. The factory area was full of surveillance cameras, making it feel like entering a military exclusion zone. But this couldn't stop Cao Xiao; if the ground wouldn't work, then no one could stop him underground.

He parked the car by the roadside, entered a small woods, and then dug a tunnel ten meters underground toward the pharmaceutical factory. In less than ten minutes, he was back in the car. There were no hidden spaces in this pharmaceutical factory, so naturally, he didn't find anyone. However, Cao Xiao accidentally damaged several pieces of expensive pharmaceutical equipment.

The second factory, the electronic equipment factory, was not far away. Half an hour later, Cao Xiao used the same method to probe the area. In this electronic equipment factory, he did find a hidden basement, but there was no one inside. Instead, there were several electronic instruments and some prospecting tools. These electronic instruments were not products of this electronic equipment factory but were the latest type of electromagnetic induction metal detectors. This kind of metal detector is generally used for archaeological discoveries and mineral exploration. The appearance of these metal detectors here was quite strange. Had the Japanese discovered some tomb or mineral deposit here and were preparing to excavate it secretly? But these instruments looked like they had been there for some time. Aside from these metal detectors, Cao Xiao didn't find any other relevant clues in this factory, leaving his heart full of doubts.

It seemed this wasn't the excavation site but was just used to store these items that couldn't see the light of day, or perhaps the Japanese hadn't been able to find it yet? Cao Xiao drove around the vicinity but had no clue, so he simply set it aside for now—finding the person was more important. As for those metal detectors and prospecting tools, he also accepted them; even if he had no use for them, he wouldn't leave them for the Japanese to do bad things.

The location of the last machinery processing plant was quite remote, with only a rural road passing by. For some reason, the Japanese had built the factory in such a place where no one lived around. This machinery processing plant had been built less than a year ago. Strangely, it was still under construction and had not yet gone into production; the mechanical equipment hadn't even been installed. Yet, the construction site was dug up in a mess, and there were even excavation marks in some areas outside the processing plant.

This was the last place to check. If he still couldn't find the person, he could only go to the city center to search. When Cao Xiao saw the information about this processing plant online, he felt it was quite strange, so this time he didn't approach rashly. Instead, he stored the car in his space from a distance, found a hidden spot to determine the direction, and dug a tunnel underground to approach.

When he entered the range of the processing plant, his face was full of astonishment because he discovered that the workers here were all Japanese, without a single local. Moreover, he had found the person he was looking for; she was in a hidden room beneath an empty factory building. From the outside, this machinery processing plant looked empty, with nothing but factory buildings, but there were underground spaces beneath several of the buildings. Each one was several hundred square meters, divided into many rooms, with all the necessary living facilities.

In a fully enclosed room, more than just Meng Xiaohuan was being held; there were six people in total, including men, women, young and old—they were likely all kidnapped. As for why Meng Xiaohuan and the others were held here, it was probably because of the seclusion. This place was entirely controlled by the Japanese, and the police wouldn't have thought there would be underground spaces beneath the empty factory buildings. Having found the person, Cao Xiao didn't rush to rescue them but continued to expand his search range underground around the factory area. He could see that this machinery processing plant was just a front; these Japanese were here to find something, and they hadn't found it despite searching for a long time. It was clear that what they were looking for was no small matter. It couldn't be a mineral deposit because that's not how you prospect for minerals. The most likely possibility was a large-scale tomb or treasure; otherwise, they wouldn't have spent so much time and effort searching secretly.