Chapter 7: The Suspicion of the Noble Lady (Part 2)

  "Unexpectedly, this countess has such sharp words, and the name hasn't been taken in vain. She's even more fierce than that queen!" Zhang Fan opened the wine cabinet in the room, poured himself a glass of wine, smiled self-deprecatingly, and sat down on the sofa.

  Of course, the wine is good. - Underneath the castle of the Countess there was a huge cellar where all the best red wines were stored for many years, almost all from the Médoc region of Bordeaux, covering nearly forty years of good vintages, basically all covered with a thick layer of dust. Those placed on the wine cabinet were all at their optimal drinking period. (Red wine is different from white wine, it's not that the older the better, there's a storage period. If the months are not enough, the taste is not enough, if the months are too long, it will also go bad. Of course, more importantly, the place of origin and the year of brewing - for example, Lafite '82 is better than '72, and much more expensive.)

  These red wines are more expensive than gold of the same volume in the market. For example, this bottle of 1995 Romanee Conti that Zhang Fan has, was already priced at $3,000 per bottle when it was first produced! Now that it's reached its optimal drinking period, it's priceless and can only be bought at auctions, its value far exceeding gold. But even with such an expensive wine, once the bottle is opened, even if you've only taken a sip, it will be directly poured away! —— The reason being that the flavor of the wine changes after the bottle is opened.

  Similarly, even if they are unopened, many have to be thrown away every year: because no one drinks them and they have passed their best drinking date.

  "It's really good to be rich...” Zhang Fan savored a sip, carefully feeling the top-notch red wine slowly spreading in his mouth. Although he was living a pretty comfortable life himself, this kind of luxurious and almost wasteful lifestyle still left him somewhat stunned - bottles and bottles of red wine that were more expensive than gold, simply thrown away just because they had passed their optimal tasting year and the flavor was slightly inferior!

  "We give our guests the highest level of enjoyment!" Thinking of the butler's face filled with pride when he said this, Zhang Fan couldn't help but smile wryly. This female countess was indeed not an ordinary rich person.

  "It's possible that she really has some connection with that queen..." Zhang Fan suddenly had this strange thought. "Same wealth, same luxury, same fierceness, and the same sharp tongue!"

  As soon as he thought of the sharp words of the female countess, Zhang Fan suddenly felt that the top-grade red wine in his mouth was also a bit bitter. Today, he was indeed miserable, being ridiculed and scolded by her for a while, and he had nothing to say in return!

  "A sickly look on her face, but the words she spoke were clear and understandable!" Thinking of this, Zhang Fan shook his head. From the countess's reaction, it was obvious that something was wrong!

  It wasn't that the countess was unwilling to tell Zhang Fan what had happened between her and Muhammad in her room - there could be many reasons for wanting to conceal the facts, perhaps she was afraid of trouble, perhaps the matter made the countess feel ashamed, or perhaps she had a difficult-to-mention reason... These were suspicious, but not enough to serve as the basis for Zhang Fan's conclusion.

  He was convinced that the countess had a problem, because her thinking was too clear and sharp, not at all like someone who had just experienced such a huge change! Normally, as a hostess, when such a serious incident occurred at her own private gathering, she would be flustered, or at least try to shift the blame, or use phrases like "I don't remember" or "I didn't know" to gloss over it.

  But Countess Yekaterina didn't care about that at all! Except for a slight change in her expression at the beginning, the rest of her words were simply flawless and unstoppable! She spoke to Zhang Fan in such a way that it was clear she was telling him: this matter has nothing to do with you, don't even think about getting involved! Her tone was so severe that it left Zhang Fan somewhat caught off guard.

  If the countess had nothing to do with this matter, she shouldn't have taken such an attitude! She can't be unaware that this will only make people more suspicious!

  "It seems there are only two possibilities, one is that she found some backing and doesn't care about the storm that follows, or two, she'd rather let people suspect than reveal the truth!" Zhang Fan furrowed his brow, analyzing in his mind: "If it's the second point, for the countess to pay such a huge price to cover up, it must be an earth-shattering truth!"

  His mind suddenly lit up, and the truth that was trying to be covered up, did it have something to do with Professor Ouyang's disappearance? If it really was related, then maybe it was indeed a truth worth Lady Countess risking everything to cover up.

  To be honest, Zhang Fan thought so, it's a bit far-fetched. So far, except for the location being in the Alps, the two are simply separated by 108,000 miles, and there is no way to link them together.

  However, the more Zhang Fan thought about it, the stronger he felt that there was a connection between the two things. Although he still couldn't think of any clues, he had almost determined that there must be a relationship between them.

  Although it seems absurd, this feeling has never been wrong. Just like last time when we caught Lu Hei, the newly discovered tomb group had more than 30 tombs, covering an area of over 10 square kilometers. It was impossible to determine which one Lu Hei would steal from, let alone his escape route. But he somehow managed to determine the general direction of Lu Hei's escape and waited for him on his way back, causing the infamous "omnipotent" thief to fall into the net, all thanks to this intuition.

  This is probably also an additional ability generated by his superpower. ——Although there is no way to accurately know the truth of things, but for grasping the general direction, it has never gone wrong!

  Going by intuition to judge things, in a society where evidence, reasoning and argumentation are always required, is simply an absurd thing. So although Zhang Fan has accomplished many tasks relying on his intuition, he always just puts on a mysterious and unfathomable appearance, letting others take the results in confusion.

  Even he himself is often confused, until the end when the entrustment is done, can he deduce the process step by step from the result. How can he explain it to the client?

  Because this intuition has never been wrong, Zhang Fan has come to deeply trust it, sometimes even relying on it. Of course, he himself also knows that this is quite dangerous - determining a fact without any evidence is too easy to go wrong.

  However, many times there is indeed no way out. Including this time.

  "If the female countess is really related to Professor Ouyang's disappearance case, then what for? Kidnapping Professor Ouyang, what benefits does it bring to her?" Zhang Fan made a hypothesis based on intuition and then deduced under this assumption.

  The countess, although her origins were shrouded in mystery, as if she had dropped from the sky, brought with her unparalleled wealth and suddenly appeared, then relying on her versatile wrist, charming appearance, familiarity with European aristocratic history, and her almost wasteful use of money, quickly established herself in high society and rapidly rose to prominence, dominating the scene for over a decade.

  Logically, this situation is abnormal. It's not easy for a newcomer to be quickly accepted by high society - they always say "it takes three generations of wealth to make a superior person"! No matter how much money one has, it sometimes takes several generations to integrate into this nearly closed society.

  But the countess only spent half a year! In just six months, she was accepted by high society and became a dazzling socialite! When asked why he didn't suspect Catherine's noble status despite her unclear origins, the nearly fifty-year-old earl widened his eyes: "Good heavens, if the countess isn't nobility, then Queen Elizabeth isn't either! Her temperament, upbringing, conversation... every aspect is what only the most esteemed families can cultivate! Questioning her identity is simply blasphemy!"

  The Earl's words are naturally exaggerated, but considering that the Earl is not an inferior servant of Catherine, his words still have a certain degree of credibility. That is to say, the entire upper class directly recognized the Countess's identity and did not require her to produce any evidence to prove it, because the Countess's existence itself was the greatest proof!

  This is indeed somewhat unusual, although in Zhang Fan's database, this point was also mentioned, but no evidence was provided to support it. However, this circle of life is really too far away from Zhang Fan, so he didn't investigate.

  Moreover, after the countess integrated into high society, she was basically indistinguishable from others in her social circle. Wasting money, seeking thrills, flying around the world, owning luxurious properties in every city she liked, attending various luxury auctions, hosting private salons... If you set aside her mysterious background, she was a modern aristocrat, and a particularly wealthy one at that.

  If there's one thing that sets her apart from others, it's probably that she maintains good private relationships with many truly outstanding individuals around the world, in addition to her own noble circle.

  These individuals include successful politicians, leaders of armed forces, bosses of super multinational corporations, Nobel Prize winners, and big shots of underground societies - of course, this must be a high enough level, with the minimum influence reaching that of a country - it's simply all-encompassing, covering everything.

  Among them, there are even some unclassifiable and outstanding people, such as Zhang Fan. Although Zhang Fan and the countess did not have a close relationship, many outstanding individuals who knew the countess were similar to him.

  It's also not an easy thing to do. There is little intersection between truly outstanding individuals and slowly declining nobles, with both sides in a state of mutual disdain. Due to bloodline, the nobles consider themselves superior by birth, while due to ability, the outstanding individuals are the ones who look down on these so-called nobles the most.

  The female count was able to navigate both circles with ease and even bring people from both sides together, which is quite remarkable.

  Apart from this, the female count really didn't have any place that could arouse Zhang Fan's interest. Judging from her usual behavior, to say she participated in kidnapping Professor Ouyang was simply an impossible thing.

  Professor Ouyang is the top expert in brain science and neurology, what's the use of Lady Countess abducting him? Is it to make him research a method that makes any man fall in love with her at first sight? Or does she want to clone another Lady Countess who is exactly the same as herself, give her consciousness, and keep her company?

  After thinking for half a day, Zhang Fan still couldn't figure out the situation. The female count really had no motive to kidnap Professor Ouyang! Had his intuition gone wrong this time?

  Or was the countess merely a puppet, just the tip of an iceberg, with other forces lurking behind her?

  That's right! With this inference, the mysterious source of wealth of the Countess, and the deaths of Muhammad and Siyada can be explained! The reason why the Countess can maintain such a luxurious life without any obvious income is not because of some treasure, but because of the support of her backers! And the reason for the two mysterious deaths must be that the force behind wants to reap huge benefits from the chaos caused by their deaths!

  However, these inferences are just castles in the air and ultimately have no factual support. Unproven assumptions are ultimately just assumptions and cannot replace facts.

  "Whatever!" Zhang Fan shook his head, raised the wine glass in his hand and drank it all at once: "The female count must have a great secret on her body! Whether she is innocent or not, whether she is related to the kidnapping of Professor Ouyang, and what connection she has with the death of the two people, will be revealed tonight!"

  He had already decided that at night he would sneak into the countess's room and try to dig out the secrets from her mind! At night, the countess must have entered a dream state, and this was undoubtedly the best opportunity for his own thoughts to probe hers. The time left for him was limited, and if he delayed any further, who knows what might happen to Professor Ouyang!

  Although I don't have much knowledge of politics and science, but putting aside the entrusted fees, if such an outstanding scientist really encounters trouble, that's not something he would want to see happen.

  As for the chaos in regional pattern and global economy caused by the death of Muhammad and Xiada, it was beyond his control. Although he controlled the development of the situation at first, after thinking about it later, wanting to prevent the chaos from happening was simply an impossible task!

  He has a very clear understanding of his own abilities, he is not the President of the United States, nor is he the Secretary-General of the United Nations - even if he were the Secretary-General of the United Nations, it's not necessarily possible for him to have any impact on the development of events.

  After getting the relevant information from the countess, I must leave immediately! I've already stayed here for too long, and who knows, the National Security Bureau might be furious by now!