Chapter 53: Huo Er
The kidnapper’s hand trembled slightly as he held the phone.
There were many roads leading to Rome, but they also knew that some people were simply born in Rome. After all, they had done this kind of job more than once before and had seen plenty of rich people.
But this was the first time they had felt mocked so directly.
Three hundred thousand for pocket money?
Couldn’t you fucking say something human?!
Dear God, look at what you’ve done. Would the world really be destroyed with one more rich person in it?!
This was Huo Beixing’s first time being kidnapped. Though he wasn’t exactly terrified, he still felt that discomfort people naturally had toward strange places and strangers.
But after finding out the kidnappers only wanted three hundred thousand, that discomfort around strangers faded a little.
Only three hundred thousand.
Sigh. He had thought they were kidnappers, but who knew they were just beggars.
Seeing that they weren’t moving, Huo Beixing stayed bright and cheerful all by himself and began directing them. “My phone is right in my pocket. You can just take it out, turn it on, transfer the money, and then let me go home.”
The kidnapper’s finger shook as he pointed at him. “Shut the fuck up!”
Huo Beixing: ?
Why are you cursing people?
These kidnappers had no manners at all.
Looking at Huo Beixing acting like some rich fool, the kidnappers’ blood pressure shot through the roof. Sure enough, comparison really did kill. One of them waved the iron rod in his hand as a threat, telling Huo Beixing to shut up.
Just then, Wang Meng called.
“Well? Did you get the person?”
The kidnapper steadied his mood. “We got him. We’re about to make the call now.”
Wang Meng instructed, “Handle this properly. Remember, threaten them into withdrawing from the competition voluntarily. If they won’t listen, record a video and send it over. Make it look vicious. Just don’t kill him.”
“Got it.”
“And remember, don’t release him until three days later. I want to make sure they really do withdraw. Keep a close eye on him during that time.”
Then the call ended.
The lead kidnapper had the others keep watch over Huo Beixing, then walked out of the warehouse alone. They were in an abandoned lot out in the suburbs.
The kidnapper lit a cigarette and contacted another kidnapper in the city center.
That man was at a public phone booth and would be calling An Yi from there in a moment, solving the problem of phone tracing.
After receiving the number, the kidnapper on the other end began confirming the threat script.
—
When An Yi came out of the brand building, he didn’t see Huo Beixing anywhere.
Every day, Huo Beixing waited for him under the same maple tree, but today the spot beneath the tree was empty.
An Yi craned his head and looked around for quite a while. When he still couldn’t find Huo Beixing, he assumed the other man must have been delayed by something on the way. Normally, if Huo Beixing couldn’t come pick him up, he would always call in advance.
An Yi waited under the tree for nearly half an hour. When he took out his phone and called Huo Beixing, it showed the phone was off. He began flipping through his contacts, planning to call Uncle Zhong and ask if Huo Beixing was at home.
But before he could find Uncle Zhong’s number, an incoming call appeared first. It was from an unfamiliar number.
An Yi answered, “Hello, not buying insurance.”
“…” The kidnapper said, “I’m not selling insurance.”
An Yi hesitated. “Then who are you?”
The kidnapper lowered his voice threateningly. “I’m a kidnapper!”
An Yi: “Oh??”
Kidnapper: ?
There wasn’t a trace of fear in that “oh.”
An Yi said, “So, a scam call.”
Kidnapper: ……
He’d said he was a kidnapper!
“What do you mean ‘oh’? You think I’m joking with you? I’m telling you, someone in your family is already in my hands!”
An Yi froze for a few seconds. Though the call sounded like an obvious scam at first glance, when he combined it with the fact that Huo Beixing hadn’t come to pick him up today, he still asked, “Who did you kidnap?”
The kidnapper knew the other side had believed him now and gave a cold laugh. “You should know very well, shouldn’t you? You don’t usually go home alone.”
The hand holding the phone tightened abruptly. At the mention of going home alone, An Yi’s heart skipped violently, and his face turned ugly.
“What did you do to Huo Beixing?!”
“Lower your voice. What if someone hears?” The kidnapper continued, “Your little homosexual couple seems pretty close, huh? Going home together every day.”
An Yi had never encountered something like this before, and had never believed that something so blatantly criminal could happen under the broad light of day.
The kidnapper threatened, “You’d better not even think about calling the police. If I find out you’ve gone to the police, then your husband’s life ends right there. I can guarantee I’ll take his life before the police ever get here.”
An Yi forced himself to stay calm, but his voice betrayed the fear underneath. Huo Beixing had the mind of a child. He didn’t dare imagine what it would be like for him to face something like kidnapping.
Huo Beixing’s smiling face kept flashing through his mind. An Yi only felt ice-cold all over as he lowered his voice and asked, “What do you want?”
“You’re planning to compete for some qualification lately, aren’t you? Withdraw voluntarily, and prepare a ransom of five hundred thousand. Once things are handled properly, we’ll release him. If they’re not…”
The kidnapper didn’t finish the sentence, deliberately leaving room for the imagination. Then he changed the subject. “I know you need time to think. I’ll call again at ten tonight. Looking forward to your answer.”
“I want to hear Huo Beixing’s voice—hello? Hello!”
The call was cut off.
Cold sweat kept breaking out across An Yi’s forehead as he ran to the roadside, hailed a taxi, and rushed home.
On the way, he called Uncle Zhong.
“Young Master Beixing? Young Master Beixing left early in the morning to go pick up the young master.”
An Yi’s mind instantly went blank.
Soon afterward, an anonymous sender sent him a photo on his phone. It showed Huo Beixing collapsed beside a discarded oil drum.
His hand holding the phone shook uncontrollably.
The other side’s main goal was to force him to withdraw from the competition. Huo Beixing had been kidnapped because of him.
An Yi’s face went deathly pale in an instant, like he had fallen into a bottomless abyss and was still dropping. He wanted to shout, wanted to scream, but helplessness flooded his whole body.
For the first twenty years of his life, he had lived sealed away in the mountains. Then, for the next two years after coming out, he had lived under his family’s protection. This was the first time he had ever truly felt the malice of society up close.
He wanted to stay rational, the way he always was when handling problems.
But he couldn’t.
Huo Beixing had been kidnapped.
Because of him, Huo Beixing had been kidnapped, and now his life and safety rested in the hands of a group of vicious criminals.
An Yi stumbled out of the taxi and ran toward the Huo family gates. A dense pressure like countless needles stabbing into him kept attacking his nerves. Even his hands were shaking.
“No one is allowed to bully him! No one!”
“I’ll always stand on Wife’s side.”
“Wife, I came to take you home.”
His breathing fell into chaos, and he clung to the very last thread of reason before breaking.
He wanted to scream, to scream with everything he had left.
He was scared.
He was really scared.
When Uncle Zhong saw how terrible An Yi looked, he came out to meet him. The moment An Yi saw him, he threw himself at him, trembling all over.
“Uncle Zhong… Uncle Zhong… Huo Beixing’s been kidnapped. Someone just called and said Huo Beixing’s been kidnapped. Uncle Zhong…”
In more than a year, this was the first time Uncle Zhong had ever seen An Yi like this.
With red-rimmed eyes, An Yi clung to him. “What do we do? What do we do? What about Huo Beixing… it’s all because of me… I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”
Uncle Zhong hurried to steady him. After understanding what had happened, he frantically contacted Huo Zhanlin.
“Stabilize An Yi’s emotions first. I’ll send people to look for him here. Then contact the police.”
Huo Zhanlin’s voice was calm.
But the moment he hung up, he swept everything off the desk with one arm.
Fuck.
He seized his assistant by the collar. “Where are the bodyguards?! The bodyguards I assigned him before—what the hell were they doing if they couldn’t even keep track of one person?!”
The assistant was shaking all over. “Y-Young Master Beixing wouldn’t allow them to follow…”
Huo Zhanlin threw him aside. “Find him! Send people to find him right now!!”
The assistant scrambled out of the office on hands and feet, hurrying to arrange the search.
Huo Zhanlin lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. The outside world always said the relationship between the two brothers was strained, but the truth was not like that at all.
Huo Beixing had given up a great deal to help him sit firmly in this position.
—
At the other end, the kidnapper returned to the warehouse holding the phone. A few of the kidnappers were bored and playing Landlord, while only one younger one, new to the trade, was keeping an eye on Huo Beixing. Today was his first time taking part in something like this.
Huo Beixing’s hands were tied behind him, but while no one was paying attention, he had already worked the rope loose a little.
There were still two hours before the next scheduled call.
Some of the kidnappers were playing cards, some sleeping.
One of them had only been asleep for a little over twenty minutes when he woke up needing to piss. He got up, intending to go outside and relieve himself somewhere, and when he glanced over, he noticed that the young kidnapper watching Huo Beixing had a phone in his hand.
“What’s the password?”
The young kidnapper was asking Huo Beixing, clearly intending to transfer himself some money.
The man’s brows jumped sharply as he hurried over. “Whose phone are you holding?”
“His.”
As soon as he heard that, the kidnapper slapped him across the face. “Why the fuck did you turn on his phone?!”
The others heard the commotion and quickly gathered around.
The young kidnapper was half-deaf from the blow. “I just… I just wanted to transfer some money from his phone. Didn’t he say he had money?”
“Who the fuck told you to transfer money yourself?!”
One of them kicked him viciously, then grabbed Huo Beixing’s phone and smashed it to pieces.
If the police located it and traced them here, they were finished.
The lead kidnapper said, “We can’t stay here anymore. Move him. Now.”
Several kidnappers stepped forward, intending to drag Huo Beixing away, but the moment they reached for him, he grabbed one of them in return.
At some point, he had already broken free of the rope behind him.
With one elbow strike, he dropped the nearest kidnapper to the floor.
Alarm bells went off in the other kidnappers’ heads as they rushed him all at once. Huo Beixing had trained in free fighting, and coupled with his sheer strength, he quickly gained the upper hand. Several kidnappers ended up sprawled on the ground in all directions.
Just then, one of them attacked from behind, smashing an iron rod down hard onto Huo Beixing’s head.
He stumbled several steps and crashed to the ground. Blood began pouring from the wound, running down over half his face.
The kidnapper gripped the iron rod. Seeing him fall and fail to get up for a long moment, he cautiously moved closer, preparing to tie him up again.
But just as he came near, Huo Beixing shakily got to his feet.
The kidnapper raised the rod, ready to swing a second time.
But Huo Beixing caught it in one hand.
Half his face was covered in blood. The veins in his neck stood out violently, his gaze terrifying, his entire expression full of displeasure.
“Fuck. What kind of thing are you waving at my head?”
Author’s Note:
Huo Dabao: Honey, you don’t need to cook for me tonight.
