At the time, Zhou Zhengxiang genuinely intended to hire assassins to eliminate the other party as well. However, at that time, the Zhou Group was under comprehensive suppression, and it was simply impossible to allocate so much funds to hire assassins all at once. Helpless, Zhou Zhengxiang could only postpone his counterattack plan again and again until the situation of the Zhou Group became worse and worse, and the plan had to be completely shelved.
Although the plan could not be carried out, the surveillance and investigation of Xiao Yundong never stopped.
All they had to do was send one or two people to Yongfeng to keep an eye on Xiao Yundong's whereabouts and meticulously record his daily comings and goings. This didn't require much effort.
This meant that Zhou Ziwei always had access to the latest news about Xiao Yundong, and even after he arrived in Yongfeng, he could still receive messages forwarded to him by Zhou Zixu via mobile phone.
So after getting up and washing up, Zhou Ziwei turned on his phone, which he had turned off, and checked the latest message Zhou Zixu had sent more than an hour ago. After confirming that Xiao Yundong was indeed still at home tonight, he immediately took out another set of clothes from his backpack, changed, and then went to the door...
Zhou Ziwei didn't immediately push open the door and go out. Instead, he first released a wisp of his soul power and scanned the corridor from left to right. After finding no one, he then focused that wisp of soul power on a camera on the ceiling at the end of the corridor...
A minute later, Zhou Ziwei had completely captured the camera's view, temporarily rendering it blind. Only then did he open the door and swagger out.
As Zhou Ziwei walked slowly down the corridor, he used his soul power to quickly scan the rooms on both sides. Just before he reached the elevator, he finally found a man whose build was extremely similar to his own.
He immediately began to carefully observe the man's features while wiping his own face. The amoeba clinging to his face then began to wriggle gently. After the wriggling stopped, Zhou Ziwei had completely transformed back into the man who was now fast asleep in the guest room next door.
In this way, it won't matter if Zhou Ziwei is seen by someone while going downstairs, because no one will recognize him, not even his fake identity.
After taking the elevator downstairs, I passed by the two sleepy-eyed waiters in the lobby, then went out and hailed a taxi. I got off about a kilometer away from Xiao Yundong's house, and then sneaked on foot to the vicinity of Xiao Yundong's villa.
Xiao Yundong probably has too many concubines and may be running around the city at any time, so although he is very rich, he did not build a large villa in the suburbs. Instead, he bought a large plot of land in an ordinary villa area in the city and designed and built the most luxurious villa in the city.
Although the villa wasn't protected by the police like the Zhou family's, he had hired a professional security company and sent dozens of bodyguards to guard the villa.
However, these bodyguards were only the visible force he deployed. In reality, there were eight other military experts hidden around Xiao Yundong's room in the villa.
These people were specially recruited by Xiao Yundong's father through his previous connections in the military. They were all military elites who had previously protected high-ranking officials. With these military elites by Xiao Yundong's side, Xiao Yundong's father finally felt at ease.
Because Xiao Yundong's villa was brightly lit, and security guards were constantly patrolling inside the walls, and there were also numerous cameras on the walls monitoring the surrounding area, it was very difficult for Zhou Ziwei to get close to the villa.
However, this did not stump Zhou Ziwei; the ladybug could play an even more powerful role in this situation.
Zhou Ziwei stopped at the building closest to Xiao Yundong's villa, then released the ladybug, letting it slowly fly into Xiao Yundong's villa at a speed that would leave no room for suspicion...
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei's hiding place is still about 100 meters away from Xiao Yundong's villa. However, after Zhou Ziwei's soul power underwent a transformation and upgrade, the distance between his soul connection and the ladybug has increased from the original 100 meters to 200 meters, which is enough.
The security measures inside the villa are indeed very good. Not only are there many surveillance devices outside the courtyard wall, but also many thermal detectors have been specially installed. Even if an invisible person can hide from the security guards and the surveillance cameras, they will still be detected by the thermal detectors.
The courtyard is covered with infrared barriers. If anyone breaks into the courtyard and accidentally touches an infrared detector, they will immediately be subjected to a terrifying attack from all sides.
The infrared beams were constantly flickering, and the area was also illuminated with red lights. Even someone with excellent eyesight would have a hard time spotting this treacherous spot hidden in the grass. Anyone who couldn't fly would be doomed once they jumped over the wall.
In addition, more than thirty security guards were divided into two groups, constantly searching the entire villa compound. There were visible sentries and hidden posts. The most outrageous thing was that each of these security guards was carrying an automatic rifle.
Judging from this situation, if an ordinary assassin organization were to break in, even if there were more of them, it wouldn't make much difference. If they dared to break in, the military experts lying in ambush inside would probably be easily slaughtered.
After all, although those security guards didn't have the same level of professionalism as assassins, they were the defenders. Moreover, Xiao Yundong had spent a lot of money on life-saving equipment. The money he spent on purchasing these facilities alone was probably enough for him to hire a dozen more mercenaries to protect him.
These precautions were only for human killers, and Xiao Yundong never imagined that the one who would kill him today was a tiny ladybug. So even if he had taken ten times better precautions, it would still have been a waste of time and effort.
On the large screens in the villa's central control room, a ladybug was clearly visible leisurely flying over the courtyard wall. However, the security guards, who were intently watching the screens, naturally didn't notice this detail at all... They were neither biologists nor nature conservation experts, so why would they pay any more attention to a small insect that was everywhere?
The people Zhou sent to observe Xiao Yundong naturally didn't have the ability to infiltrate this villa; otherwise, they could have directly carried out the assassination plan, and Zhou Zhengxiang wouldn't have had to worry about not having enough money to hire an assassin.
Since no intelligence personnel had entered the room, Zhou Ziwei's intelligence naturally did not mention which room Xiao Yundong would sleep in at night.
Xiao Yundong built a large villa here, which has four floors and a total area of more than 1,000 square meters. There are quite a lot of rooms inside. If you were to search for them one by one, it would take forever.
Fortunately, one of the remnant souls Zhou Ziwei had merged with was an architect in his previous life, so he could roughly figure out the design of this villa. He first had the ladybug fly higher and circle around to see the whole villa. After a little analysis, Zhou Ziwei had already found the location of the master bedroom.
Since Xiao Yundong is the owner of this villa, it's more likely that he sleeps in the master bedroom.
Zhou Ziwei selected the two most likely locations for the master bedroom and immediately informed the ladybug through their soul connection. The ladybug then quickly flew over there as Zhou Ziwei instructed.
However, after circling the bedroom, the ladybug was distressed to find that all the windows were closed and there were no ventilation holes for entry or exit.
The air conditioning vents in the rooms are also connected to the internal ventilation vents of the entire villa.
Ladybugs don't have the ability to see through things. If they were to crawl into the ventilation hole on the roof, surrounded by complete darkness, they probably wouldn't be able to tell which way is which, let alone find the pipe leading to that bedroom.
Left with no other choice, Zhou Ziwei gritted his teeth and told the ladybug to try and just break through the glass to get inside.
Anyway, the ladybug had already seen through the gap between the glass window and the curtains... The person lying on the bed was none other than Xiao Yundong. Although smashing the glass would immediately cause panic throughout the villa, Zhou Ziwei hadn't sneaked inside to take any risks, and the ladybug's target was too small. As long as it killed Xiao Yundong immediately and then flew out of the window, it would be guaranteed that no one would be able to find this strange pair.
With a loud "bang," given the ladybug's current physical hardness and its almost abnormal flight speed, smashing a piece of glass was incredibly easy. Although the glass in Xiao Yundong's bedroom was relatively sturdy, it didn't meet the standards for bulletproof glass. Therefore, under the ladybug's full-force impact, it shattered into pieces without any doubt...
"Beep beep beep..." The piercing alarm sounded immediately. Xiao Yundong, who was lying sprawled on the bed asleep, jumped up with a scream as soon as he heard the sound. Like a frightened puppy, he ran for his life to leave the room. But he had only run a few steps when he tripped over himself and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Whoosh—" The ladybug darted over like lightning, intending to burrow into Xiao Yundong's brain through his ear and kill him, but suddenly stopped with a "squeak" just as it was about to reach him.
Something seems off...
Through the ladybug's sensory system, Zhou Ziwei suddenly discovered that Xiao Yundong, who was only wearing shorts, had a small tent pitched under his shorts. Obviously, this guy had just dreamed about some forbidden content for children, which was why he had this reaction.
But...didn't this guy become completely impotent after taking health supplements from the Zhou Group? How...can he regain his virility now because of a wet dream?
Zhou Ziwei was suspicious, so he didn't let the ladybug kill the guy immediately. Instead, he flew back to the windowsill and hid there.
With a loud "bang," the door was violently kicked open from the outside, and four men holding guns rushed into the room while covering each other.
"Swish, swish—" These four men were clearly well-trained and worked in perfect harmony. As soon as they entered the room, they immediately stood back to back, each pointing in a different direction, and used the muzzle of their guns to bring the entire room under their control.
Through the ladybug, Zhou Ziwei observed that the four men's gun barrels showed no intention of avoiding Xiao Yundong on the ground. When Xiao Yundong felt the gun barrels pointed at him, he turned even paler with fright, struggled to his feet, and then continued to run desperately towards the door.
"Come back!" A man with a gun coldly hissed. "Xiao Yundong" was so frightened that he trembled all over and stood there shaking uncontrollably, but he dared not take another step forward.
"Where is he? Where did that assassin go?" the gunman demanded coldly.
Xiao Yundong said with a bitter face, "Assassin? I...I don't know...I didn't see anything."
"Didn't you see it? Why are you running around if you didn't see it?" the man continued to hiss in a low voice, then turned and exchanged glances with the other three men beside him. The other three men with guns all shook their heads slightly. One of them walked to the window and carefully searched the windowsill and the floor. Then he frowned and said, "No bullets found. Strange... It doesn't seem like the glass was shattered by a gun. So... could it be that an assassin has really broken into the villa?"
The first man to speak frowned again, pondered for a moment, then brandished his gun and whispered, "It might be a diversionary tactic... The other side may have already discovered that the people here are puppets, so they're deliberately using this to attract our attention... Come... come back with me immediately..."
The other three immediately nodded in agreement, and then the four of them, each holding a gun, covered each other as they withdrew from the room. As for "Xiao Yundong," who was still standing there trembling with fear, no one paid him any attention.
"No way! He's just a government official involved in foreign trade, how could he find a body double... This is outrageous!"
Zhou Ziwei, who was far away outside the villa, saw and heard all of this through the ladybug's senses, and smiled bitterly to himself.
He originally thought that the ladybug could sneak into the villa unnoticed and easily kill Xiao Yundong... but he didn't expect that Xiao Yundong was so cunning. Not only did he set up extremely tight security outside, but he even found a stand-in to impersonate him.
As for where Xiao Yundong originally hid, that's definitely not easy to find. The villa is so big that it's too easy to hide someone. If the other party intends to hide, even the ordinary security guards in the villa might not know where he is hiding.
The meaning behind the words of those armed men seemed to be that they wanted to rush back to the real Xiao Yundong's side, but... Zhou Ziwei dared not hope that such a good thing would actually happen to him.
With no other clues available at the moment, Zhou Ziwei had no choice but to send the ladybug flying over and quietly landing on the clothes of the last man with a gun.
The four of them rushed out of the room and went to the escalator, climbing up to the fourth floor.
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 191 The Secret of Venus
The four armed men stopped abruptly in the middle of the stairs. Two of them guarded the way up and down the stairs, carefully watching to see if anyone would approach.
The other two huddled together and began to discuss something in very low voices...
"What should we do...? That assassin doesn't seem to be following us. Could it be that he's figured out our intentions?"
"Who knows? Damn it... How could our opponent be so cunning this time?"
"In any case, we may have already been targeted by the intruders. We absolutely cannot go down to see Mr. Xiao now. Or... I should contact Captain Cao via walkie-talkie first!"
As he spoke, the man pulled a strangely shaped miniature walkie-talkie from his waist, turned it on, and whispered, "Captain Cao... this is Tiger. Please respond if you hear me. Please respond if you hear me..."
A slightly hoarse voice then came through the walkie-talkie, replying, "This is Cao Feng. What's the situation outside? Who broke into the villa? Have they been eliminated?"
"Report to Captain Cao, the situation is still unclear. The other party only smashed the glass of the master bedroom on the third floor, but there is no sign that the assassin broke into the room, and Mr. Xiao's double was not attacked in any way. We suspect that this may be a test or a diversionary tactic, so... we wanted to lure the assassin to the fourth floor, but... the other party does not seem to have fallen for it and has not followed us yet."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the walkie-talkie, then a hoarse voice continued, saying, "Your intentions are too obvious. If it were me, I certainly wouldn't have fallen for it. But... since you've already set the stage, just keep going. Remember... from now on, don't contact me unless it's absolutely necessary, lest the other side has the technology to intercept our communication frequencies."
After the call ended, the four armed men didn't say anything more and immediately continued climbing to the fourth floor. The ladybug that had landed on them didn't follow; instead, it spread its wings and flew off the man, heading down the stairs...
Since they deliberately led people to the fourth floor, it proves that Xiao Yundong could not possibly be on the fourth floor. And the possibility that Xiao Yundong is also hiding on the third floor is not very high either. So now... the most likely place is the second floor.
As for the first floor, it mainly consists of the living room, dining room, and servants' room, so it's unlikely that Xiao Yundong lived there.
However, after the ladybug carefully searched all the rooms on the second floor, it was to its dismay that there was no trace of Xiao Yundong there either.
What the hell? Did this guy crawl into a mouse hole?
Zhou Ziwei cursed under his breath, but then a thought struck him... A rat hole... that's possible... This villa was built by Xiao Yundong himself, and he might have specifically built an underground secret room or something... Now that he knows someone might come to kill him, he should naturally hide in what he considers the safest place.
Human psychology is quite similar to that of mice at times; when faced with danger, both feel safer burrowing underground.
So... if this villa doesn't have an underground secret room, that's fine, but if it does, there's a high chance that Xiao Yundong will actually go inside.
But the problem now is... how do we enter the underground secret room? Since it's a secret room, it obviously can't be like a regular basement where you can just go down the stairs and push open a door... that wouldn't qualify as a secret room.
If Zhou Ziwei himself had infiltrated the villa, it would be relatively easy. He could simply use his soul power to peer through the ground and find the entrance to the secret room.
But now only the ladybug has entered. The ladybug can only connect with his soul consciousness, but it cannot transmit his soul power.
This is really a headache...
After Zhou Ziwei had the ladybug fly around all the possible access points on the first floor, he still couldn't find anything particularly suspicious, which made him quite frustrated.
If he really couldn't find it, he could only resort to the clumsy method of letting the ladybug stay there for a long time.
Anyway, no matter how well Xiao Yundong hides himself, he still needs to eat every day, right? Even if the people responsible for protecting him can survive on compressed biscuits and mineral water, Xiao Yundong, this pampered second-generation official, absolutely cannot stand that kind of life.
Therefore, as long as Zhou Ziwei lets the ladybug wait in the kitchen, he will eventually be able to find the entrance to the secret room by following the clues.
The ladybug could stay here and wait patiently, but Zhou Ziwei could not linger in the vicinity any longer. Otherwise, his whereabouts would be easily discovered by the other party after dawn. Although Zhou Ziwei was not afraid of a direct confrontation, this time Zhou Ziwei's target was only Xiao Yundong. He did not want to hurt anyone else unless necessary.
Moreover, if Zhou Ziwei were to be exposed, he would have to leave Yongfeng as soon as possible, otherwise he would be asking for trouble.
In fact, the ladybug's intelligence is now comparable to that of an ordinary adult. Even if Zhou Ziwei had left it behind, the ladybug would have been fully capable of finding Xiao Yundong and killing him.
However, Zhou Ziwei would be more at ease if Xiao Yundong hadn't been hiding in the underground chamber. After all, ladybugs fly extremely fast and have strong bodies, so even if they were discovered, they could break through the glass and escape at any time.
However, if Xiao Yundong is indeed hiding in the underground secret room, then... it would be somewhat dangerous.
If the underground chamber is well sealed, and the ladybug accidentally gets trapped inside, it won't be so easy for it to escape.
After considering it again and again, Zhou Ziwei still couldn't make up his mind.
For Zhou Ziwei, the ladybug is now a close companion, no longer just an ordinary pet or a tool for killing. So even though the risk factor is not high, Zhou Ziwei does not dare to let the ladybug try it easily.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhou Ziwei decided to try his best to search again before dawn. If he still couldn't find it, he might have to back down for now and come back tomorrow night after coming up with a foolproof plan.
Zhou Ziwei patiently let the ladybug circle the living room and kitchen on the first floor twice more before it flew to the main monitoring room, which was supervised by four security guards.
In this room, which was over 30 square meters in size, almost all the walls were covered with LCD screens of various sizes. Each security guard was responsible for monitoring one of the screens on the wall, and they all stared wide-eyed, carefully searching their surroundings.