Beep, beep, beep... The red dot on the electronic screen was fixed in one place, blinking non - stop. The bodyguard reported to Gu Bei, "Boss, the positioning has stopped moving!"
"Speed up," Gu Bei said in a deep voice. The night outside the car window seemed like a dark beast, gradually eroding his calmness. Closing his eyes, once he recalled the scene of Xie Bingxia jumping off the building just now, he would still break out in a cold sweat.
That little girl didn't care about her own safety at all! Once he caught her, he would definitely give her a good lesson!
Whoosh, whoosh. The motorcade sped along, running over the low - lying puddles on the road and splashing up a spray of water. Their destination was the eastern suburbs of the city. The closer they got to the location, the more uneasy Gu Bei became. Finally, the motorcade stopped at a desolate garbage dump. The bodyguards got out of the cars one after another to look for Xie Bingxia.
"Here!" A bodyguard picked up Xie Bingxia's phone from an abandoned iron bucket.
Sure enough, she had played a trick on them! Gu Bei took the phone, opened the WeChat chat box, and there was an unsent draft message: Don't chase. I have my own way to solve it.
"Humph, arrogant!" Gu Bei turned to the bodyguard and said, "Stop looking. She's not here. Check the last location of Qin Feng's phone!"
The iPad was quickly brought to Gu Bei. He glanced down at the screen. The red dot was completely in the opposite direction from their current location. It seemed that Xie Bingxia had deliberately taken a detour to buy some time. It was just a petty trick.
"Get in the car. We'll be at the destination within half an hour!"
"Yes!" The well - trained bodyguards assembled in a minute, and the motorcade immediately set off again.
*
Li Duo's car was moving on the bumpy country road. There was a small river on the left, and there was a large reed marsh by the river, with weeds growing wildly. Xie Bingxia looked out of the front window. In the night, the low - rise residential buildings were faintly visible.
"They said they were going to build a wholesale city here a few years ago, but it didn't work out. It's been abandoned ever since," Li Duo said while searching for information on his phone as he drove. "It's really a good place to hide someone."
"Stop the car," Xie Bingxia ordered. After getting out of the car, she walked towards the reed marsh. Li Duo took a flashlight from the trunk and followed her.
The flashlight shone into the reed marsh. Xie Bingxia found traces of reeds being trampled down after being dragged, which extended all the way to the residential buildings in the distance. She turned to Li Duo and said, "You stay here. I'll go and have a look."
"That's not okay. What if there's danger..."
Xie Bingxia smiled and said, "I know some self - defense techniques. You stay by the car as a backup." Then she took the flashlight from his hand. "If I flash the flashlight three times, it means something's wrong. You call the police immediately."
"But..." Li Duo hesitated and lowered his head. It wasn't manly of him to let a beautiful girl get into danger alone. An idea flashed through his mind. He rushed back to the trunk and took out a baseball bat. "Here, a self - defense weapon. It's very powerful!"
Xie Bingxia carried the baseball bat in one hand and the flashlight in the other, and walked alone along the traces towards the residential buildings. This area was on the outskirts of the city. The residential buildings were only two or three stories high, made of bricks and tiles. Their dilapidated state showed their long history. There was a large factory building behind the residential buildings, and there were dots of firelight shining from inside.
There was someone! Xie Bingxia walked forward warily, sticking to the wall. She squatted down when she reached the door. The door of the factory building was a large iron gate that slid open horizontally. It wasn't completely closed, leaving a gap just wide enough for a person to slip through. Xie Bingxia looked inside through this gap.
She saw a man sitting on the ground with his hands tied behind his back, his head drooping. There was a bloodstain from his forehead to his chin, which must have been left after being hit on the head.
It was Qin Feng!
Xie Bingxia became nervous. She was very worried about his injury. Then two young voices came.
"Do you think how much we should ask for this time? Five million, okay?"
"Five million? Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's too little. His father is Qin Yifa. He's much richer than Yan Xiaoyi's father!"
"Ten million? Twenty million? Hahaha!"
The young men, immersed in their dream of getting rich overnight, burst into laughter. Xie Bingxia could roughly tell their positions based on the source of their voices, but the gap was not wide, and her field of vision was limited. She couldn't see their figures for the time being.
One of them continued, "But didn't you ask a girl to bring the money? Why is it Qin Feng who came?"
"Who knows? It's even better that Qin Feng came. We can extort more money!"
"Only you would do something like that on a whim," the other one said in a somewhat panicked tone. "You have to explain it to Xiaoyi. We only promised to help him stage a fake kidnapping. We didn't say we'd kidnap his brother too."
"That guy just wants money. We'll give him some later to shut him up. Hey, did you call Xiaoyi? Tell him not to show up in a hurry. Wait for our notice."
Xie Bingxia was shocked. Yan Xiaoyi wasn't here? If so, with only Qin Feng as the hostage, things would be a bit easier. But at the same time, her heart sank. If the leading man wasn't on the scene, how could the play go on?
According to her plan, she would first knock out the two amateur young men, then signal Li Duo to call the police to ensure they would be caught on the spot. Once the police arrived, it would be much harder for Gu Bei to cover it up.
Save Qin Feng first! Anyway, saving people and defeating the bad guys were necessary steps.
Xie Bingxia crouched down and walked around to the back of the factory building. There were several broken windows on the back wall, mostly blocked by dusty debris. Through the gaps here, she could see the backs of the two young men. They were both dressed in a punk style, which made her think of the friends who played in the band with Yan Xiaoyi.
Finding a suitable position, Xie Bingxia took off the electronic watch on her wrist, set the alarm for three minutes, and prepared to use the strategy of making a feint to the east while attacking in the west. She would attract one of them over and then ambush the other.
She gently placed the watch on the ground. Suddenly, there was a cold sensation on her neck, something long, thin, and sharp. She immediately realized it was a knife.
"Don't move!" It was a strange voice. It was actually a third man!
"Slowly put down your stick and stand up!"
The situation reversed instantly. Under the unclear circumstances, Xie Bingxia chose to obey. She put the baseball bat on the ground and slowly stood up.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The man's voice was obviously more mature than the two in the factory building. His hoarse voice made him sound even older. "And who are you?"
Xie Bingxia felt the man's breath getting closer, swirling in the hollow of her neck in a somewhat teasing way. "A woman? Turn around and let me have a look." She turned slightly, and the man warily moved the knife. "Don't play any tricks, or you'll get hurt."
When she turned to face the man, Xie Bingxia saw a bearded middle - aged man with a half - smoked cigarette in his mouth. He had deep - set eyes, was wearing a black leather jacket, dark jeans, and had messy hair. His unkempt appearance made people think he was a scavenger from nearby. But those deep, shrewd eyes were extremely sharp.
"Qin Feng's woman?" The man raised the corner of his mouth in a smile. After looking at her for a while, his smile grew wider. "So it's Miss Xie. You're quite brave to follow us here."
This man could recognize her after just a few glances in the dark, which meant he had done his homework and investigated everyone around Yan Xiaoyi thoroughly. He was definitely not someone to be trifled with, Xie Bingxia thought.
The man in black spat out the cigarette butt and shouted into the factory building, "Come here. There's a situation!"
Someone in the factory building immediately responded, "Big brother, you've been taking a shit for so long. We thought you fell into the pit!"
"Stop talking nonsense and come here quickly!" The man shouted with his head tilted. The knife on Xie Bingxia's neck loosened slightly. She knew the opportunity had come. She quickly grabbed the man's right upper arm and chopped at his wrist. The knife fell to the ground with a clang.
Xie Bingxia spun around and squatted down, picked up the baseball bat on the ground, and struck the man on the forehead. The man was also very fast. He blocked the blow with his left hand, took the hit head - on, and gritted his teeth and said, "Little girl, you underestimate me too much!"
He then grabbed the baseball bat and pulled it towards himself with amazing strength. Xie Bingxia was as light as a swallow, which was both her advantage and her disadvantage. When facing a very strong opponent, she could only outwit him and not act recklessly. However, she had already missed the best chance to fight back. When she lost her balance, the man quickly struck with a karate chop.
Xie Bingxia's vision went black, and she fell into a coma.
The man simply threw Xie Bingxia over his shoulder and returned to the factory building. The two young men were extremely surprised. "Big brother, who is she?"
"Miss Xie."
"Haha, we're really lucky this time. Two fat ducks just walked right into our hands."
On the ground, Qin Feng struggled to open his eyes and roared, "Bingxia! Bingxia! What did you do to her! Don't touch her! Do you hear me! I'll fight you! Wuwuwu..."
A piece of ragged cloth was stuffed into Qin Feng's mouth. The man in black said to the other two, "It's not safe here. Let's change places."
Qin Feng whimpered as he was dragged out of the factory building by the two young men and into a car. The man in black carried Xie Bingxia and walked towards another car not far away.
Just as he opened the car door, several car lights flashed and approached from afar. The high - beams shone directly on his face, blinding him for a moment.
Gu Bei in the passenger seat clearly saw the man in front of him and the little figure on his shoulder through the light. It was his little white rabbit!