Your Distance

In 2019, there was no one who didn’t know of the ability of cameras and the Internet.

Facing the camera, Yan Liqian’s expression changed several times, but in the end, hints of a smile appeared in the corners of his eyes and mouth. “This is a meeting room.” He said as he walked slowly to the front of the projector. He looked for a specific device, and pressed the button on it, “All meeting rooms are equipped with signal jammers.”

That wasn’t good.

Ting Shuang looked at his phone, and it unsurprisingly displayed “no service”.

Then the camera…

Without question, it wouldn’t be connected to the Internet.

However, the memory card would continue storing the video.

And as long as he still had Weng Yunyi’s fake power of attorney…

He returned the power of attorney into his file of documents.

“Let’s settle everything else in private.” Yan Liqian smiled, looking at Ting Shuang’s document file.

“We can’t settle this privately, I’ve already called the police.” Ting Shuang also smiled, his demeanour calm, “Since if the signal’s jammed, let’s have a little chat while we wait for the police to arrive. After all, we won’t have many opportunities to chat in the future. It wouldn’t be convenient to visit you in prison, right.”

“Called the police? How would you do that? Roborun is an industrial enterprise, why would anyone commit fraud? Who was swindled? This is just a little verbal disagreement, there’s no need to mobilise public security.” Yan Liqian gave the secretary standing nearby a look. The secretary had been working under Yan Liqian for many years, and he had done many things like restricting the actions of others for Yan Liqian. He understood what the look meant, and quickly left the conference room.

Ting Shuang knew at a glance what the secretary was going to do. If he let the secretary go downstairs, he would probably be waiting until tomorrow for the police to arrive at the meeting room on the 18th floor, as they wouldn’t be coming at all. 

At that thought, he set out to follow the secretary.

“Stop him.” Yan Liqian ordered the security guards, “He took the company’s important documents and secretly filmed the company’s meeting.”

A few burly and strong security guards blocked the door of the meeting room. Ting Shuang knew that he couldn’t fight them, so he turned around and said to Yan Liqian, “Mr. Yan, would you be able to keep me here for the rest of my life?”

Yan Liqian smiled, his eyes full of kindness, “Of course not. Leave your document file and your tie clip behind, and you can leave immediately.”

Ting Shuang rubbed his tie clip for a while, not bearing to part with it, “My tie clip is made of pure gold… And it’s quite expensive.”

Yan Liqian laughed, “Does Lil’ Shuang care about this little bit of gold?”

Ting Shuang clamped the document file under his armpit, then slowly took off the tie clip, playing with it in his hands as if he loved it so much he couldn’t bear putting it down, “Of course I care, I’m not as rich as Uncle Yan. However, there’s something I haven’t been able to figure out over the past few days… Uncle Yan is so rich, why would he want to convert all of the company’s shares into money at once and deposit it into a bank account…”

As he played with the tie clip, he asked nonchalantly, “Are you suddenly in need of money?”

Other shareholders also turned to look at Yan Liqian.

The corners of Yan Liqian’s smiling mouth twitched.

Ting Shuang stared into Yan Liqian’s eyes, “Or… maybe it’s easier to escape to a foreign country that way?”

As they stared each other down, Ting Shuang watched as Yan Liqian’s pupils contracted slightly.

He had been waiting for that moment, a moment when Yan Liqian couldn’t hide his physiological reaction in time.

Surprisingly, he’d guessed it right.

“Don’t take it seriously, I was joking.” Ting Shuang laughed twice, and put the camera that he had removed from the tie clip during their conversation on the table in front of Yan Liqian, “I’ll leave the camera. I can take the tie clip back, right? I really can’t bear to part with this little bit of gold.”

As he said so, he put the tie clip into the pocket of his suit pants. At the same time, he slid the memory card, with the video saved in it, that he’d hid between his fingers into the pocket as well.

Yan Liqian was afraid that he would play more tricks, so he told the security guards, “See if there is anything else inside his pocket.”

Ting Shuang stepped back, “It’s not very civilized conducting a body check right now, is it?”

Yan Liqian looked at the camera on the table and said, “I have a background in technology, so I can’t help but think deeper into it. A camera like this should have a memory card, right?”

Ting Shuang wouldn’t be able to keep the memory card, and the next thing Yan Liqian needed was the document file.

He couldn’t hand it over.

What to do…

Was there a feasible solution to this?

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Ting Shuang pretended to hesitate over whether to hand over the memory card, but in reality he was already thinking about how to keep the document file.

At that inappropriate moment, he surprisingly thought of Bai Changyi, the Bai Changyi who had taught him how to make a set of three-dimensional vertical maneuvering equipment.

“It seems difficult, but once you know its principle, everything becomes easier,” Bai Changyi had said.

Everything had a principle behind it, and so did this closed-off conference room.

Ting Shuang calmly glanced in the direction of the projector such that it was in his peripheral vision, and silently estimated the height of the table in his heart.

Then, he sighed helplessly, took out the memory card from his pocket and placed it next to the camera, “All’s good now, right?”

Yan Liqian looked at the memory card before raising his gaze again, “The document file.”

“The document file…” Ting Shuang paced around the long table in the conference room, as if considering.

After a while, Yan Liqian knew that Ting Shuang had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, so he refused to wait patiently, afraid that something else would fall upon them, “Yes, the document file. Do you want security to help you get it?”

Ting Shuang walked near the platform on which projector was installed, and said unhurriedly, “Then I, myself, will—”

Halfway through his sentence, while everyone was completely unable to react, Ting Shuang instantly jumped over the projector platform as if it was a hurdle, to the front of the projector platform. Then he connected the power cord of the signal jamming device to the laptop that was connected to the projector screen.

“The camera’s on the table, it’s useless turning off the signal jammer.” Yan Liqian turned to the security guards, “Retrieve the company documents that are in his hands.”

The security guards rushed up towards the projector platform.

Ting Shuang quickly took out the pure gold tie clip from his pocket, and used the clip to clamp the two poles of the signal jamming device’s power plug.

The expressions of Yan Liqian and several other shareholders changed drastically.

“Unfortunately, I also have a background in technology,” Ting Shuang grinned at Yan Liqian, at the same time shoving the power plug, that had its two poles connected, into the socket of the control panel!

All of a sudden, huge sparks of electricity burst out from the socket, accompanied by a strong burning smell.

The socket short-circuited, tripping the entire building’s power supply.

The meeting room fell into darkness, and nothing could be seen.

“Security, check the switches!”

“Security, flashlights!”

The security guards working during the day hadn’t brought any flashlights.

“Use your phones to shine around!”

There was also chaos outside the meeting room.

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“What happened?!”

“The documents on my computer hadn’t been saved!”

“The power went out? Why isn’t the backup power kicking up?!”

As soon as Weng Yunyi took out her phone to shine around the room, she was hit, and the phone fell somewhere in the darkness.

One after another, several shaking mobile phone screens faintly lit up the conference room. Finally, someone turned on the flashlight on their phone. This time, the room was brightened up more.

The strong light was first pointed at one end of the meeting room: one security guard stood in the corridor at the door, one was still in the meeting room, and the others had gone to check the electrical status or grab a flashlight.

The light then swept across to the other side of the meeting room: Weng Yunyi was holding on to the table, looking for her phone that had been knocked out of her hands, a little tired; Yan Liqian was squeezing the memory card that had been on the table tightly, frowning and narrowing his eyes; the faces of several of the shareholders were also very ugly.

“Give me the phone.” Yan Liqian took the phone and shone the light across the entire conference room, including under the tables and chairs.

Gone.

Ting Shuang was gone.

But that was not the worst part. The worst part was the thing that had disappeared together with Ting Shuang. In addition to the document file containing the power of attorneys, gone was the laptop on the projector platform where all his business secrets were stored.

Compared to that laptop, the memory card in his hand was worth nothing.

“Notify the security department, lock down the Roborun building, no one is allowed out!” Yan Liqian threw the memory card onto the table and shouted loudly.