Chapter 111 The 111th Day of Not Running Away The first day of not running away...

Chapter 111 The 111th Day of Not Running Away The first day of not running away...

A family restaurant near Walmart headquarters.

Each of Zhang Yurong and the others received a serving of mashed potatoes and a hamburger.

Instead of eating at the Walmart cafeteria, they went out and randomly chose a restaurant to eat at.

Zhang Yurong was still in shock. She found it hard to believe, but still clung to a last glimmer of hope: "Could it be that we made a mistake, or perhaps Jason really is not feeling well?"

Whether he was actually unwell or not is not important. What is important is that things took an unexpected turn without our knowledge.

Wen Chan ate her mashed potatoes, her eyes narrowing. "I even went against my conscience and praised their old Sam for starting from scratch. What a waste of my flattery."

Although Zhang Yurong knew she shouldn't laugh at this moment, she still laughed out loud when she heard these words.

Wen Chan looked at Li Yi, "Did the call go through?"

Li Yi, holding the phone, said, "Not yet. I estimate it will take a while. There are no phones at George's workplace; he has to go home to answer the phone."

"Then let's wait a bit," Wen Chan said.

Zhang Yurong was somewhat confused and asked, "Who is George? Why are we waiting for his call?"

Wen Chan said, "When you went to use the restroom just now, Li Yi told me that he had bribed the owner of the newsstand across from Walmart headquarters. The owner was willing to be his informant and report information that wouldn't lead to charges."

Li Yi nodded. "Yes, George is alright. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have gotten in touch with Jason. But..."

Before he could finish speaking, his mobile phone rang. Li Yi answered the call, asked a few questions, nodded, and said with a serious expression, "George told me that Jason's car just drove out of the park and headed home."

"That means he's actually not seriously injured."

Wen Chan bit off a French fry and said, "That whole thing this morning was definitely caused by their refusal to cooperate with us."

Zhang Yurong found it hard to understand, "But they agreed so readily yesterday, why did they go back on their word today?"

"It's simple: either they don't want to raise funds anymore, or they've found better investors."

Wen Chan spread her hands. “If they didn’t want to raise funds, they wouldn’t have been at odds with Li Yi until yesterday. My guess is that when they were in contact with us, a third-party company must have been involved, but we were completely unaware of it. And just last night, or this morning, they reached an agreement with the third-party company, but they were embarrassed, or perhaps they had other ideas. But they didn’t expect that we would sign the contract today.”

After Wen Chan finished speaking, everyone at the table fell silent.

The crowd looked at each other.

Zalia asked in a low voice, "Does that mean our cooperation has broken down?"

Wen Chan shook her head: "No, it's not time yet."

She saw the waitress about to walk over and reached out to greet her.

The waiter approached, his face expressionless: "Is there anything I can help you with? Would you like to order anything else?"

Wen Chan showed no reaction to the waiter's indifference, took out her wallet, took out a ten-dollar bill, and handed it to her.

The waiter hesitated for a moment, then took the money and smiled brightly: "Sir, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to ask, are you a local?" Wen Chan asked with a polite smile.

The waiter nodded: "Yes, my family has been here since the 1960s."

"Alright, I'd like to ask you, if I need to find someone to inquire about some things, could you recommend some people?" Wen Chan asked with a smile, resting her chin on her hand.

The waiter hesitated for a moment. "Well, what do you want to know?"

“You can talk about anything, big or small, within the Walmart family,” Wen Chan said.

Li Yi glanced at Wen Chan hesitantly.

He thought to himself that Wen Chan was probably grasping at straws in desperation. Even a truly capable private investigator might not have any information, so what information could a waiter possibly have?

"The Walmart family is very powerful; we dare not offend them."

The waiter curled his lip. "You think you can get rid of us with ten dollars? You're really underestimating us."

Wen Chan smiled and took out all the remaining money in her wallet. "Here's eighty dollars. I estimate that's about two weeks' wages for you. Is that enough? You can ask your friends and family for help. Any news related to the Walmart family from the past week—"

She held up two fingers and smiled, saying, "Two dollars. And if it's particularly useful information, five hundred dollars!"

Five hundred dollars?!

The waiter's breath hitched.

She immediately asked, "How can I contact you?"

Wen Chan left everyone's phone numbers and handed them to the waiter, saying, "Remember, you can tell us any news, including where each member of their family went, what they ate, and who they met."

“No problem!” the waiter said. “What’s your name? My name is Bilin.”

"My name is Wen, and I hope we can have a pleasant collaboration."

Wen Chan extended her hand and shook hands with the waiter.

Bilin thought for a moment and said, "I do have some news to tell you. A few days ago, when the Walmart employees came over for lunch, they complained that when guests came from New York, their bosses made them do a thorough cleaning. Does that count as news?"

"Which day?" Wen Chan immediately perked up and asked.

Bilin bit the tip of her pen, thought carefully for a moment, then slapped her forehead and said, "Friday, I remember they smelled of disinfectant when they came over that day!"

Wen Chan exchanged a glance with Zhang Yurong and the others, and Zhang Yurong took out a ten-dollar bill and gave it to Bilin.

Bilin was overjoyed. "Don't worry, I will definitely mobilize all my relatives and friends to help you."

"Thank you so much."

Wen Chan smiled.

They quickly ate lunch, paid the bill and tip, and then left.

After getting on the bus, Wen Chan immediately said to Zhang Yurong, "If it happened on Friday, then it's very likely that it's a flight on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Try to contact the airline and send over the information of passengers who flew directly from New York to here during those days."

Zhang Yurong said, "I happen to have a friend who works for United Airlines."

She took out her mobile phone and started making calls.

Wen Chan looked at Li Yi, "Staying in a hotel makes it too easy for people to notice that our movements are unusual. Where are you staying?"

Li Yi came to his senses and said, "I rented a house nearby, but it's very old and dilapidated and has never been cleaned. I sleep in one room."

"We'll move there," Wen Chan said. "Does the apartment have internet access?"

Li Yi nodded.

That would be even better.

They checked out of the hotel and moved into the house that Li Yi had rented.

That house was incredibly dilapidated; the wallpaper was from the 1960s, and some of the wooden planks on the stairs were loose, creaking underfoot.

Zarya and the others' expressions changed.

They are all middle-income earners, with an annual income of at least $70,000 to $80,000. They grew up in materially affluent New York and had never seen such a dilapidated house before.

The finance officer, Susie, was holding a crucifix and repeatedly making the sign of the cross while muttering something under her breath.

"Whiteboards, I need lots of whiteboards!"

Wen Chan glanced at it only once before instructing Li Yi to drag the sofa in the living room to the side, and then spoke to Mi Lin and the others.

Mi Lin hesitated for a moment, then pointed to himself: "Me?"

Wen Chan didn't look at her, but instead rattled off a long list of things she needed: "Tissues, ballpoint pens, sticky notes, documents, a bookshelf, and a copy of the phone numbers of nearby takeout restaurants, along with their menus."

"Milin, you'll take charge of this matter."

Zhang Yurong said directly, "Besides what Wen Chan mentioned, buy anything else you think we might need."

"Okay!" Mi Lin finally realized.

She hurriedly drove to the nearby Walmart and bought a lot of things. When she returned, the house had been completely renovated.

All the furniture was moved to the backyard, leaving the living room and kitchen empty except for a few tables and chairs.

Even the printer, which seemed to have been moved from somewhere, was spitting out sheets of data.

Mi Lin had to walk around the pile of documents to carry the things to the large table in the living room.

When Zhang Yurong got up and saw her, she snapped out of her daze and said, "By the way, did you buy a quilt?"

Mi Lin nodded: "Yes, I bought five quilts. They're in the car, and I haven't unloaded them yet."

"Then go and buy a few more beds. We just contacted Darren Matt and Jiang Zihan. They've already bought plane tickets for tonight and are expected to arrive around 11 p.m."

Zhang Yurong said, "We have just planned two rooms. The room on the left upstairs is for the men, and the room on the right is for us."

"Me, all of us?" Mi Lin was stunned for a moment. She did a rough calculation in her mind and there were already four women here. If Jiang Zihan was included, then there would be five people.

How can I sleep in this room?

"Yeah, it's no big deal if we all sleep on the floor together."

Zhang Yurong patted Mi Lin on the shoulder, "If you're worried about it being uncomfortable, just buy another blanket. It's fine."

Mi Lin stared in disbelief, about to say something, when Wen Chan shouted, "We found the information!"

Zhang Yurong immediately went over and asked, "Which company are you from?"

Wen Chan drew a red line under the passenger information with a red pen. "An old acquaintance, Gerry White from Goldman Sachs, it's him, there's no mistake!"

When Zhang Yurong came over, she saw that Griffith's name was clearly visible.

They initially targeted first class, but after searching the first class section, they found it was filled with large business owners. These business owners were clearly not Walmart's target. In order to maintain its sole control, Walmart would never sell its shares to these people. Only financial institutions would agree not to interfere.

"I can't believe they opted for economy class; their plane tickets are for Friday morning."

Wen Chan said, "Call all the three-star and four-star hotels in the city and ask them which hotel they are staying at."

Li Yi was searching for information on his computer when he heard this, so he casually searched for all the hotels.

Mi Lin looked at them, somewhat at a loss, and finally decided to quietly go out to buy blankets.

She thought for a moment and realized she had forgotten things like a toothbrush, toothpaste, and sanitary napkins.