You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

Jiang Che stared at the four words "Palm Manor," unable to explain why, but suddenly had a very strong intuition.

I think Su Qinghe should be in this villa right now.

This intuition has no logic to it, but after experiencing so much today, he is more willing to trust his sixth sense.

However, intuition aside, to confirm whether Su Qinghe is inside or not, other strong evidence is still needed.

Thinking of this, Jiang Che nudged Bai Yuning with his elbow, then handed her his phone. "Sis, look at this."

Bai Yuning took the phone, glanced at the information on the screen, and her brows quickly furrowed. "Palm Manor?"

"Hmm." Jiang Che pointed to the property information on the screen and said, "We can find that the owner behind this villa is an offshore company in Hong Kong, but the equity structure of this company is too complicated, and the ultimate controller cannot be found."

Bai Yuning read through the information from beginning to end, then flipped through the attached summary of business registration, pondered for a while, and then looked up.

"Jiang Che, I understand you're anxious, but..."

She carefully chose her words, trying to make them sound less discouraging: "The anomalies in offshore architecture alone don't prove much."

"Many wealthy people use this kind of structure to hold assets, but that doesn't mean the person behind it is related to Xiao Qinghe, let alone confirm that she is in it."

Jiang Che didn't respond, waiting for her to finish speaking.

Bai Yuning continued, "If we rush in rashly and find nothing there, we'll not only alert them, but we might also face legal trouble."

"It's private property, it belongs to someone. If you break in and get caught, it's no joke."

"I know."

Jiang Che did not refute Bai Yuning, because what she said was indeed true.

The clues we have at the moment are too weak. We cannot conclude that Su Qinghe is inside just because we "cannot find the actual controller".

We need to find something else to corroborate this.

Jiang Che retrieved his phone and began digging deeper into publicly available information channels.

He first retrieved the water and electricity payment records for Palm Hill Villa.

This kind of information belongs to public utility data. Although it is not easy for ordinary people to obtain, it is not a difficult thing for him.

After the data was loaded, he scrolled down one by one.

Payment records from the past two years show that the manor's water and electricity consumption is almost zero.

There may be occasional minor fluctuations, but the amounts are extremely small, roughly equivalent to the costs incurred when maintenance personnel come to perform routine maintenance.

This perfectly matches the energy consumption characteristics of an vacant property that has been uninhabited for many years.

However, when Jiang Che scrolled to the data for the most recent week, an anomaly occurred.

Three days ago, the electricity consumption of Palm Mountain Villa suddenly increased dramatically, from less than 5 kWh per day to nearly 200 kWh per day.

Water consumption followed the same trend, surging three days ago and remaining at a high level ever since.

This means that a large number of people have suddenly entered the manor recently.

The large number of people require lighting, air conditioning, hot water, and kitchen equipment, which is why there has been this abnormal increase in water and electricity consumption.

Of course, that alone is not enough.

Who knows, maybe the owner of the manor just happened to be here on vacation these days?

It's not uncommon for wealthy people to fly over and stay for a few days on a whim.

Jiang Che turned his phone screen towards Bai Yuning and showed her the water and electricity data. "Look," he said, "their electricity consumption suddenly surged three days ago."

Bai Yuning glanced at the data and thoughtfully hummed in agreement.

three days ago.

Su Qinghe was kidnapped this morning, but if it was an organized and premeditated operation, then deploying people in the manor three days in advance to make preparations makes sense chronologically.

However, Bai Yuning was not completely convinced.

She bit her lower lip and thought for a few seconds, then her eyes suddenly lit up as if she had remembered something. "Hey, wait a minute."

"What's wrong?"

Bai Yuning took out her phone and swiped a few times, quickly finding a WeChat chat window with a contact. "I know a colleague in the Atlanta medical circle, we have a pretty good relationship. Her husband works in high-end real estate property management locally."

She looked up at Jiang Che, her voice brimming with excitement, "He manages security outsourcing contracts for several private estates in the western suburbs. Maybe we can find out something."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Che perked up and said, "Then hurry up and call."

Bai Yuning didn't waste any words and dialed directly, turning on speakerphone at the same time.

The phone was answered after three rings. A middle-aged woman's voice came from the other end, her tone very enthusiastic: "Oh, Yu Ning, it's been so long since we last contacted each other. What brings you to call me all of a sudden?"

Bai Yuning smiled, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then naturally got to the main topic.

"Sister Wang, I've been thinking about buying a vacation property in Atlanta recently. Since your husband works in this industry, I thought I'd like to ask you for some information."

"Oh! Buying a house! That's great! Which area would you like to look at?"

"I saw several manors in the western suburbs when I passed by before. The environment there was really nice. Do you know anything about that area?"

"The western suburbs, huh? I know, I know. My husband manages several businesses there. Have you picked one out yet?"

Bai Yuning calmly steered the conversation toward her target, "There's a place called Palm Villa. I looked it up online and it seems pretty good. Do you know anything about it?"

Sister Wang on the other end of the phone said "Ah," "Palm Villa, I know that. My husband did work with them before, providing them with security outsourcing services."

"However, the owner of that manor doesn't seem to live in Atlanta all year round, so the security needs aren't that great. They just symbolically arranged for a few people to take turns on duty."

At this point, Sister Wang paused for a moment, her tone carrying a hint of gossip, "But it's strange, just a couple of days ago, that manor suddenly increased its security budget by a huge sum, and my husband had to temporarily send dozens more people over."

"Dozens of people?" Bai Yuning's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Yes, and they left in a hurry. They called that afternoon and said everyone needed to be there first thing the next morning."

"My husband also said that this client is quite powerful and generous, with each person's daily wage being significantly higher than the market rate."

"But I have to remind you, Yu Ning, Palm Hill Villa is a nice place, but the owner doesn't sell the houses individually. Why don't you look at some other options?"

Bai Yuning and Jiang Che exchanged a glance.

Three days ago, a large number of security personnel were suddenly deployed, which coincided perfectly with the time when water and electricity data surged.

Bai Yuning asked a few more trivial questions before making an excuse to hang up.

After putting down her phone, she turned to look at Jiang Che.

Neither of them spoke, but the meaning in their eyes was already very clear.

Three days ago, the water and electricity bills for a manor that had been vacant for years suddenly skyrocketed, prompting a large increase in security personnel at the same time.

The owner's information is tightly wrapped in layers of nested offshore structures, deliberately preventing anyone from finding out the identity of the actual controller.

And the man who made that phone call today happened to have a Hong Kong accent.

All the clues pointed to the same place.

Palm Hill Lodge.