CH 44

CH 044 PROTECT YOURSELF

Shi Fengyue stared at the containers, and after carefully identifying them, raised his hand to make a mark, and continued to walk forward.

About ten minutes later, he stopped next to two stacked red containers, and further ahead was an open space with a diameter of about 50 meters. Only a container with an area of about four square meters was placed in the middle, and in front of the door of the container, two people stood looking around vigilantly.

Shi Fengyue retracted his gaze and leaned against a container. The knuckles of his raised right hand bent and knocked on the container. A dull but also crisp sound sounded. The two people exchanged looks, and soon, a series of rhythmic knocks followed the first one after another.

One person frowned and looked in the direction of the sound: “What’s going on?”

The other person raised his leg and took half a step, hesitantly suggesting: “Go and see?”

The first man raised his hand, and along with another heavier knock sounding, he said in a deep voice, “I’ll go, you stay here and keep guard.”

The man walked step by step in the direction of Shi Fengyue with cautious and barely audible steps. He vigilantly remained alert of any sign of trouble, and walked into the pile of containers.

Shi Fengyue leaned against the wall of a container, listening to the sound of footsteps approaching with lowered eyes. When the sound of footsteps reached very close by, he stretched out his hand sideways very quickly, and before he even had a chance to take a breath the person who came was already subdued by him between the elbows.

He covered the man’s mouth with one hand, lowered his head and whispered in his ear, his words low and almost inaudible. His other hand holding the lighter was lifted by the man’s left ear, slender fingers flicking it casually, causing the dusty metal lighter to open and close in a strange rhythm.

The man’s struggling movements slowly stopped, his eyes gradually turned from clear to blank, and after a moment, when his eyes regained clarity again, Shi Fengyue let him go.

But strangely, as if he couldn’t see Shi Fengyue at all, he walked away without saying a word.

The person waiting in front of the container didn’t hear any movement, and his heart was in his throat the whole time. He didn’t relax until the other came out, and only then did he laugh and curse as he walked towards him: “I thought something was wrong, you f**king——”

The moment the two met up, the expression of the smiling man froze. He looked at the switchblade buried in his stomach in disbelief. But just as he was about to speak, he was knocked out by a hand.

Shi Fengyue stepped out, brushed past the man, opened the door of the container and walked in. But still the man turned a blind eye as if he couldn’t see him.

Jiang Chen heard the commotion outside and the conversation that ended abruptly. Just as he was about to listen carefully, he saw the door being pulled open, and a tall figure appeared outline in the sunlight.

The sudden light made him squint his eyes, and when his eyesight recovered, the newcomer was already standing less than half a meter away from him. Jiang Chen’s eyes widened slightly, and his tone could not conceal his surprise: “Shi Fengyue?”

Shi Fengyue squatted down in front of him, the corners of his mouth curved slightly, but there was no smile in his eyes: “Having fun?”

Jiang Chen was stunned for a moment. The sudden appearance of Shi Fengyue made his mind go blank for a rare moment. So at this time, when he heard the other’s completely incomprehensible question, he didn’t know how to answer it for a while.

After about half a minute, he hesitated and asked, “…..Why are you here?”

“It seems that you want to play a kidnapping game.” Shi Fengyue fiddled with the lighter, and said quietly: “So I followed to see the excitement.”

The corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth twitched, and after a few seconds, he asked, “How did you get in?”

“I walked in.”

Jiang Chen paused, listening to the silence outside, and suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Shi Fengyue raised his eyes, with his back to the light his eyes appeared very dark. His voice was like his eyes, and one couldn’t distinguish his emotions: “Both are still alive, and the ones who left will not find out anything when they come back. It will not affect your plan.”

Jiang Chen quickly met his gaze, and the moment their eyes met, he saw himself reflected in Shi Fengyue’s eyes——his surprise clear at a glance——since he was seen through, he didn’t need to keep pretending, so he said: “Thank you.”

Shi Fengyue paused the hand that was playing with the lighter, and the cold metal lighter pressed against the boy’s chin, raising his gaze. Shi Fengyue looked into Jiang Chen’s eyes carefully and analytically, and only saw openness, clarity, and brightness.

He quickly withdrew his hand and the finger pressed against the lighter paused. It seemed that there was a warmth on it that was different from the temperature of the metal. He moved his finger away, put the lighter back into his pocket, and said mildly: “I don’t care what plans you have, if you don’t come out within an hour, I will send someone to bring you out.”

Walking to the door, Shi Fengyue suddenly paused, turned around and walked back again.

Jiang Chen was thinking about the difference between one hour and his planned time, when he felt that a candy was stuffed in his mouth. He raised his eyes, and before he could speak, he was stuffed with a few more candies one after another, and the sweet milky taste spread on his tongue.

“Protect yourself.”

With those few words, the door of the container closed again.

Jiang Chen had candies in his mouth, and the sweet taste diluted the stuffiness in the container. He looked thoughtfully at the few gleams of light that were struggling to get under the door.

An hour ago.

Jiang Chen hadn’t come back since he went out for a morning jog. Today, Yang Si didn’t need to go to the hospital so she specially bought a lot of Jiang Chen’s favorite foods to make up for the guilt of letting him eat out alone during this period of time. Before Jiang Chen went out, she also specifically told him to come back for lunch earlier.

But who knew, it was already one o’clock in the afternoon, yet Jiang Chen hadn’t appeared and his phone couldn’t be reached either.

At first, Yang Si only thought that he went to look for Shen Xu and Huo Bo, but after contacting Shen Xu and Huo Bo, she found that Jiang Chen had not gone to them at all. This made her worried. She knew her son very well, and since he was a child he had never gone back on his word. He never missed appointments and was very punctual. Since she said it was lunch, Jiang Chen would never be home later than twelve o’clock.

The wall clock in the center of the living room was ticking. Every time the minute hand moved, Yang Si felt more uneasy. She wondered if it was her mother’s instinct making her think wildly. She kept getting a bad feeling.

At a quarter past one in the afternoon, Yang Si’s cell phone rang.

She immediately connected the phone, her tone holding unconcealable anxiety: “Chen Chen?”

“Yang Si?”

On the other line was a male voice that was deliberately lowered and ambiguous. Almost as soon as she heard this voice, Yang Si already had a premonition. She tightened the grip she had on the pillow in her lap and said, “It’s me.”

“Your son is in our hands. If you want him back, prepare 300,000 yuan. I will send you the account number and give you two days. We will release him as soon as the money arrives. I advise you to be obedient. If you call the police, I can’t guarantee whether your son will live or die.”

When she heard the first sentence, Yang Si’s face had already paled. She tried her best to calm herself down amidst the sound of the man’s weird voice, but as long as she thought about what might happen to her son, no matter how rational she was, she couldn’t help it, all her reasoning disappearing in an instant. When the man finished speaking, she immediately said: “I’ll give it to you right away, don’t hurt my son, I’ll transfer the money to you right away.”

Yang Tianci, who was hiding near the park, had a gleam of joy on his face when he heard the words, but after a while, his expression sank again. His sister did not even hesitate to take out 300,000 immediately. His sister was more wealthy than he imagined. Even though she clearly had money, when he came to their house to ask for money before, she not only didn’t give it, she said she would cut off their relationship, completely uncaring about their sibling relationship.

Since she was unkind, then don’t blame him for being unrighteous.

Yang Tianci sneered in his heart, and said slowly: “I was wrong before, it is not three hundred thousand, it is one million, I will give you an extra half a day, two and a half days, when the money arrives in the account before twelve noon the day after tomorrow, there won’t be a single hair missing on your son’s head, but if it doesn’t arrive…..” He hung up the phone before finishing speaking.

Yang Si put down her phone and immediately ran to the room to search for all the passbooks at home.

From the money Jiang Chen took out, after Jiang Zhuo’s treatment, there was still about 100,000 yuan left, and the family also had some savings before, so the total was about 270,000 yuan. If it was 300,000 yuan, she could find a friend to borrow the rest, but one million…..where was she going to collect that money?

Just as Yang Si was frantically holding the passbook, her cell phone rang again.

“Hello, is this Ms. Yang Si?”

Yang Si was taken aback for a moment, and her heart squeezed again: “I am…..”

“We are the Public Security Bureau of Zhonghai District, Yan City. Half an hour ago, we received a report from the masses. Someone kidnapped a boy at the west gate of Jiexin Park. The boy was wearing a white T-shirt and black slacks and is about 1.78 meters tall. Do you still remember what your son was wearing before he went out?”

Yang Si opened her mouth and said with difficulty after a long time: “It’s my son.”

“Ma’am, don’t worry, we have locked onto your son’s location based on the surveillance footage and the photos sent by the masses. He is now in the neighboring Xing City. We have dispatched the police and contacted the Xing City police to cooperate and help. We will do our best to protect his safety and rescue him, please wait at home and don’t startle the enemy.”

“I just received a call…..the kidnappers told me not to call the police. They said that if I called the police, they would kill my son.” Yang Si’s hand holding the phone turned white, and she enunciated word by word: “Mr. Police, I beg you, you must protect the safety of my son, if it is not absolutely surefire, I can raise enough money to give them, I don’t want my son to be harmed.”

“Ma’am, we understand your feelings very well, and we promise to do our best to protect your son’s safety and rescue him. During this period, I hope you can remain calm, and if the kidnappers contact you, you must contact us at the first opportunity.”

“Okay…..”

After hanging up the phone, Yang Si slumped down on the ground, her mind was in a mess, full of imaginings that were difficult to continue even thinking about with just the beginning. She clutched the phone tightly, forcing herself to calm down, the clock ticked every minute and every second, and the worries in her heart increased bit by bit.

When the hour hand pointed to four o’clock, her cell phone finally rang, and she picked it up almost at the first second when it rang: “Hello? I’m Yang Si, is…..”

“Hello, we are the Public Security Bureau of Zhonghai District, Yan City. We have successfully rescued your son Jiang Chen and are on our way to bring him back to Yan City. There is still about an hour’s journey away. You can wait at the Public Security Bureau first.”

“Is he hurt? Did those people hurt him? Where is he hurt? How is he now?”

“Ma’am, you can rest assured that your son is safe and unharmed.”

Yang Si breathed a sigh of relief, and said incoherently: “I’ll be right over, thank you, thank you so much comrade policeman, thank you so much, thank you…..”

…..

Jiang Chen was sitting in the police car, replaying the scene just now in his mind.

Less than 20 minutes after Shi Fengyue left, the two people who had left before came back. Not long after, a quarrel erupted outside. They spoke too fast and in a mix of various dialects so Jiang Chen couldn’t hear clearly, but from bits and pieces he could infer the reason for their quarrel: one of the two people who were guarding the door just now was injured and passed out, and the person who stabbed him was the other one who stayed behind to guard him.

The argument lasted for nearly fifteen minutes, until it was interrupted by a ringing phone. The conversation was very short, but after hanging up the phone, their movements immediately became even louder. Jiang Chen heard their panicked footsteps and words:

“The cops are here, Boss seems to have been discovered, what should we do?”

“We did it so covertly, how could we be discovered so quickly…..”

“I said that Huang Kai bastard is a traitor. But you didn’t believe me, he must have leaked the secret!”

“What are you doing still blabbering so much? Run!”

“But what about the one inside?”

“Who cares?”

“No, if Boss is arrested, we will have lost one person. If we don’t finish this business deal, we will lose out on the money as well. Didn’t the person above want this kid’s life? Let’s kill him first, at least we will have completed the task?”

“Is this okay? Boss said that the identity of the other party is unknown, and the money must be in the account before doing anything.”

“It’s already at this time, just grab the money we can, besides he has seen what we look like…..”

The door of the container was opened, and three men walked in one after the other, one of them was holding a knife in his hand.

Jiang Chen watched them calmly. He stepped back a little bit, broke away from the rope on his hand while the approaching man swung his knife, and avoided the attack.

The unexpected situation stunned the three of them. They looked at each other and then surrounded him.

Jiang Chen calculated the time and delayed them as much as possible.

Sure enough, seeing that they couldn’t take Jiang Chen down, the three of them became anxious. The police were outside, and every minute and every second that was delayed, the possibility of the three of them being caught would be even greater. After trying to catch Jiang Chen several times but being dodged by him, one person lost his patience and said, “Forget him, the cops will come soon, if we don’t leave, it will be too late!”

“But…..”

“But what, let’s go!”

The three of them retreated in a hurry, but Jiang Chen’s attack was reversed from the previous one of only defending and not attacking, his movements suddenly becoming fierce. The man closest to him was thrown over his shoulder, and the phone in his pocket slipped out. Jiang Chen swept the screen at a glance and saw that a countdown was displayed. He avoided the man holding the knife, but his face was lightly grazed by a punch.

Just then, the police burst in.

The absolute suppression of numbers and force quickly brought an end to this rescue mission.

As the victim, Jiang Chen was naturally protected and had a ride in the last car. Before he got into the car, the man whom the three thought had already been arrested was escorted by another wave of police. This man was the driver whose face was the only one not captured by the surveillance.

What caught Jiang Chen’s attention was that the long black trench coat this man was wearing was very similar to the one Shi Fengyue was wearing just now. It seemed to be just a coincidence, but he was inexplicably concerned. He got the feeling that it was linked to the answer he wanted to know.

Thinking of Shi Fengyue coming and going like no one’s land, Jiang Chen frowned slightly, feeling like he caught on to something but also that he had ignored something. This feeling of being blocked by an unknown force when he was about to get the answer made him uncontrollably think over and over again about the meeting with Shi Fengyue that lasted less than two minutes, and all the clues he knew so far.

The knocking sound outside before Shi Fengyue appeared, Shi Fengyue’s long black trench coat similar to the leader of the kidnappers, the kidnapper who stabbed his companion as if he had clearly seen Shi Fengyue but seemed to have lost his memory of it, the kidnapper who was stabbed silently and was considered a traitor, what Shi Fengyue said to him, the lighter Shi Fengyue was holding at the time…..

The lighter!

A thought flashed in Jiang Chen’s mind, and the answer was just within his grasp.

At this moment, the conversation started by the police who came up halfway interrupted his train of thought.

The young policeman lowered his voice mysteriously and said, “Just now, there was an interrogation in the front, and we have already learned something. Do you know that the injured one among them was stabbed by one of their own people, because of internal strife.”

Jiang Chen raised his eyes and looked over.

The other two policemen were also very curious: “Why the infighting?”

“Disagreement over money?”

“It doesn’t seem to be the case. Apparently the one who was injured had a conflict with their leader and leaked the news because of resentment.”

“Maybe it’s true, it didn’t even take us half an hour from the time we received the call to locate the victim’s location. Someone provided the suspect’s picture, hiding place, and license plate number. Except for the people among them, who could give us the information just in time like this?”

“That’s true…..”

“If you put it that way, it seems to make sense.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chen withdrew his gaze, but after being interrupted, when he wanted to find that train of thought from before, he couldn’t figure it out no matter what.