Chapter 186: The Missing Jasmine

Yang Dongqing soon arrived at Jasmine's company, Dream Chaser Media Co., Ltd. The actual controlling shareholder was Su Mu, making it one of the properties owned by the Poisonous Snake Gang.

Su Mu had originally placed her in the company both to keep a tighter leash on Yang Dongqing and because Jasmine's dream had always been to become a singer and hold her own concerts.

Jasmine was a natural for the industry. Her stunning looks and exceptional voice made her a standout. It hadn't taken long for her to officially debut with her single, "I Look Forward To." While she wasn't a massive celebrity, she was at least quite famous locally in Star City.

She occasionally took on commercial gigs, bringing in quite a bit of revenue for the company.

Yang Dongqing navigated the company building with practiced ease. It was far from his first visit; he used to come here almost every day to see her.

Everyone in the company knew he was Jasmine's boyfriend.

"Hey, Old Li, where's Jasmine?" Yang Dongqing called out, catching sight of her manager hurrying down the corridor.

The manager looked up. The moment he recognized Yang Dongqing, panic flooded his face. "Mr. Yang, you're finally here! Something terrible has happened!"

Yang Dongqing's expression shifted. "What happened? Is it about Jasmine?"

"Jasmine has been missing for three days!"

"What!?" Yang Dongqing's face drained of color. The bouquet of jasmine flowers slipped from his grasp, scattering across the floor. "What exactly happened?" he demanded. "How could she just go missing?"

Sweat beaded on Old Li's forehead as he let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know! Three days ago, she finished a commercial gig and went backstage to change. She just vanished after that. I searched everywhere for her before finally reporting it to the Law Enforcement Bureau. They're looking for her now, but there's been absolutely no news."

Yang Dongqing's breath hitched, as if an invisible hand had clamped around his throat. His heart hammered wildly against his ribs, and a wave of dread washed over him. "Then why the hell are you still standing here?!" he roared. "Go find her!"

His eyes were bloodshot as he yelled, the oppressive aura of a Transcendent erupting from him. Old Li shuddered in terror. "Y-yes! I'm going right now!"

Heart still pounding frantically, Yang Dongqing bolted out of the building.

"Jasmine, please don't let anything happen to you..."

He ran aimlessly down the main street like a headless fly, drawing stares and whispers from the passing pedestrians.

After sprinting for a while, he skidded to a halt. He had absolutely no idea where to even start looking.

Calm down! Calm down! Think carefully about what to do... Su Mu! Right, Su Mu is the leader of the Poisonous Snake Gang. With so many men under his command, he can definitely find Jasmine!

He sprinted toward the nearest phone booth. His hands shook so violently with anxiety that he misdialed the number several times before finally getting through.

"Hello?" Su Mu's mild voice came from the other end of the line.

"Jasmine is gone!" Yang Dongqing yelled frantically. "The people at the company say she's been missing for three days! Su Mu, please, I'm begging you to help me find her. You have to find her!"

"Wait for my news," Su Mu said, his tone as mild as ever.

For some reason, hearing that familiar, steady voice managed to calm Yang Dongqing's frantic heart just a little.

"What's wrong?" Nangong Mengli gave Su Mu a surprised look. "Yang Dongqing sounded frantic."

"Jasmine is missing."

Nangong Mengli frowned. "The girl who sang 'I Look Forward To'?"

Su Mu nodded. "Jasmine is just an ordinary person. The only extraordinary thing about her is having a Transcendent for a boyfriend. I suspect someone is targeting the Bronze Coffin, since Yang Dongqing is one of our employees. I'm heading out for a bit."

With Su Mu's departure, a massive intelligence network blanketing Star City immediately whirred to life.

He hadn't been idle since joining the Bronze Coffin. As the Director of Intelligence, how could he possibly operate without an intelligence network? Thus, he frequently spent his free time randomly hypnotizing a few "lucky" bystanders.

By now, his network had long since expanded to cover more than half of Star City. Whether it was the Upper District or the Lower District, he had eyes and ears everywhere.

A few hours later, his network reported back. Jasmine's last known location was a commercial performance venue in the Upper District. Surveillance footage showed her entering the backstage area, but she had never come back out.

During the window of her disappearance, exactly 127 vehicles had left the venue. A quick search of the vehicle registrations revealed that the departing cars belonged to various high-profile figures, including the CEO of the Xinghao Chamber of Commerce, a board director of Stars Film and Television, a reporter from Star City Radio...

Su Mu scanned the lengthy list in his hand, his gaze ultimately locking onto a single name: the Murong Family.

A Black Commercial Vehicle at the venue was registered under the Murong Family.

His eyes flickered as he sensed something strange. To quietly kidnap Jasmine from a busy commercial venue without leaving a trace—and to successfully evade his intelligence network while doing so—was no small feat. In all of Star City, only the directors of a few major chambers of commerce and the local nobles possessed that kind of capability.

The Murong Family weren't the only nobles in Star City, but they were certainly the largest local aristocratic power. Some of the declining lesser noble families didn't even have a single bloodline awakener among them, merely scraping by on the lingering prestige of their ancestors.

He suspected the Murong Family primarily because of the timing. The Murong children shouldn't have the leisure to attend a commercial performance right now. Murong Zhuo had just died. Instead of arranging the funeral and viciously fighting over the inheritance, they were already out enjoying a show?

Furthermore, if someone was genuinely trying to target the Bronze Coffin, the Murong children were the absolute prime suspects. After all, Nangong Mengli was currently riding a wave of massive success, making her a thorn in the flesh to all of her half-siblings.

Su Mu deduced there was a very high probability that someone from the Murong Family was behind this. He just didn't know exactly which one of them had done it.

The Murong Family held numerous properties, and nobles guarded their privacy fiercely. The intelligence network he had casually strung together didn't yet possess the capability to infiltrate aristocratic households.

His only lingering doubt was their motive for targeting Jasmine. Were they genuinely naive enough to believe they could use her to threaten Yang Dongqing, and through him, bring down Nangong Mengli?

Nangong Mengli's current public persona was that of a Silver Rank 1 Transcendent who had awakened [Wind Shadow Speed]. In reality, of course, she had simply found a wind-manipulating Artifact and used it to add a bit of wind-style flair to herself whenever she cast [Instant Bloom].

In their eyes, Yang Dongqing was currently only at Bronze Tier 1. The sheer gap in power between the two was insurmountable—not even a sneak attack could bridge it.

If their goal was to gather intelligence on the Bronze Coffin, targeting Yang Dongqing made even less sense. The ones handling the specific operations were all just ordinary employees.

Most crucially, if they wanted to turn Yang Dongqing into a traitor, shouldn't they have kept it a secret? What was the point of kidnapping Jasmine for three whole days and making it a public spectacle?

Even someone as brilliant as Su Mu couldn't always predict sudden, impulsive whims.