Chapter 3196 — Looking for Liu Tianli

"What business do you want to discuss with me? I'm just a delivery man. If you've got business, go talk to the heads of our company—that's the department managers' job. What's there to discuss with a hired hand like me?" the delivery man said, looking rather baffled.

"Don't be in such a hurry. I just want to ask you a few questions. Answer me, and I'll give you twenty thousand yuan. How about that?" As Kang Jingming spoke, he pulled out two stacks of cash and laid them in front of the delivery man.

"You... what do you mean by that? Let me tell you, I won't do anything illegal. I'm just a delivery man, I don't know anything. If you want me to kill or burn, I won't do it!" The delivery man jumped at the sight of the cash before him.

"Relax, I'm not asking you to kill or burn. I just want to ask you a question: where do these single-chip units of yours come from?" Kang Jingming asked.

"That's the question? The group had me deliver them, that's all. You're giving me money just to answer that?" The delivery man's eyes went wide, staring at Kang Jingming in disbelief.

"Of course that's the question. But you have to tell me who gave you the single-chip units," Kang Jingming said. "In other words, who wrote the program into these chips?"

"The chips were handed to me by Vice President Liu's assistant. As for who wrote the program, I wouldn't know." The delivery man shook his head.

"Vice President Liu? Who's that?" Kang Jingming asked.

"That would be Vice President Liu Jinghan. She's the one at the helm of our Liu Group," the delivery man explained.

"The one at the helm of your group? Then why is she a vice president? Who's your president?" Kang Jingming asked, puzzled. As far as he knew, Liu Jinghan was the president!

"It's like this: our group's president is actually still Mr. Liu Tianli. But Mr. Liu Tianli went into a drug rehabilitation center because of drug use. After he got out, he's been living in a sanatorium. Vice President Liu actually functions as the president, only she hasn't formally taken the post," the delivery man said.

"So that means the program in these chips was actually written by Liu Jinghan?" Kang Jingming asked.

"More or less. I'm not clear on it either..." the delivery man said.

"All right, the money's yours." Having gotten the information he wanted, Kang Jingming got out of the car.

Now the matter had reached a dead end. If Liu Jinghan really had written the program herself, then there was no use in Kang Jingming approaching anyone else—only Liu Jinghan. But how could Liu Jinghan possibly hand the program over to Kang Jingming?

Kang Jingming thought it over and over. The only way in was through Liu Jinghan's secretary. Of course, Kang Jingming didn't go directly to Liu Jinghan's assistant—assistants were generally her trusted confidants. He went only to Liu Jinghan's personal secretary, the one responsible for cleaning the office and serving tea and water, who took no part in handling business. Such a person was no confidant of Liu Jinghan's and didn't earn much money either, making her relatively easy to win over and exploit!

Sure enough, Kang Jingming coaxed some important intelligence out of the personal secretary! The single-chip units were indeed written by Liu Jinghan herself, but there was no programming and writing equipment of any kind in Liu Jinghan's office. And according to the personal secretary's long-term observation at work, there was a hidden room in Liu Jinghan's office, one that could only be entered through fingerprint verification.

"So none of you have ever been inside this hidden room?" Kang Jingming asked.

"No. Not even Vice President Liu's assistant or her business secretaries have entered. That place is off-limits in the president's office. Only the former President Liu and the current Vice President Liu can enter, with authorization verification," the personal secretary said.

"Oh? So that means Liu Tianli can get in too?" Hearing this, Kang Jingming suddenly thought of something, and his eyes lit up.

"Yes, it was originally the former President Liu's office, after all," the personal secretary said.

"Good, I understand." After paying the reward, Kang Jingming left. He didn't keep staking out the area around the company anymore; instead, he went off to carry out another plan...

In fact, Liu Jinghan had been watching all of Kang Jingming's contacts with these people. Though she didn't know exactly what Kang Jingming had said to them, she didn't pay it much mind, because none of these people had access to the company's core secrets. Even if Kang Jingming approached them, he couldn't get the source program—it was a waste of effort. For the time being, Liu Jinghan just let him fuss about, planning to deal with these employees later.

After leaving, Kang Jingming went to the sanatorium where Liu Tianli was staying. This was no secret; with Kang Jingming's connections, finding out where Liu Tianli was recuperating was an easy matter.

In the middle of the night, Kang Jingming slipped past the people the Liu family had sent to watch over Liu Tianli and went straight into Liu Tianli's room! By now Kang Jingming was already a Heaven-rank expert. Though he had little fighting ability, slipping past a few guards outside the door was as easy as turning his hand.

These days, every single day was painful and unbearable for Liu Tianli. Cut off from drugs, Liu Tianli had become haggard and worn. He wanted to keep using, but he had no money and no way to buy drugs. Though he had left the rehabilitation center and moved into the sanatorium, the guards Liu Jinghan had sent were all around the outside of the sanatorium villa.

In name, they were there to protect him; in truth, they were watching him to keep him from leaving, so he would have no chance to get his hands on drugs again.

During the day, Liu Tianli could play cards and drink with the other friends in the sanatorium, which was enough to get through. But at night, it became hard to endure. Whenever his cravings struck in the middle of the night, Liu Tianli was in such agony that he had the urge to die!

At this moment, Liu Tianli had just had a craving attack and was sitting on the bed gasping for breath in great gulps. It was at this moment that Kang Jingming appeared silently before Liu Tianli's bed.

"Want one?" Kang Jingming handed Liu Tianli a cigarette. This cigarette, of course, had been specially treated and contained drugs—something Kang Jingming had prepared in advance before coming.

At the sight of the cigarette, Liu Tianli grabbed it without a second thought and put it in his mouth, and Kang Jingming promptly helped him light it! Normally, Liu Tianli didn't even have cigarettes, let alone drugs, so at this moment he didn't care at all who Kang Jingming was or how he had gotten in. With a cigarette to relieve his craving, he naturally wasn't about to let it pass.

But after one puff, Liu Tianli's eyes suddenly lit up!