59. Brother Jiang, We Found Sister-in-Law!

“This woman is really fucking beautiful, and her breasts are soft. Should we have some fun first?”

“Fun your mother! We need to keep her to negotiate with the cops. If she dies, we’re all screwed. Untie her!”

“...Brother Shui... we can’t untie her, what if she runs?”

“If you don’t untie her, how will you feed her? How can she run with her feet still tied? If she can run with this many people watching her, it just means you’re all useless.”

The man with a severed finger didn’t have a temper when he was cursed at. He grinned as he untied Lin Xingzi and ripped off the tape from her mouth.

It felt as though a layer of skin had been torn off, but the stinging pain had numbed. The black cloth covering her eyes was removed, and the blinding white light told her it was already daylight.

The room was small, with a few dilapidated old pieces of furniture placed haphazardly. A stove burned, the walls were blackened by smoke, and cigarette butts and trash littered the floor.

Her ‘last meal’ was served in an iron basin, just white rice mixed with an unrecognizable vegetable. The chopsticks, one long and one short, spilled most of their contents when thrown at her feet.

“Are you feeding a pig?” The man tossed his cigarette butt and impatiently kicked the person in front of him.

Lin Xingzi remembered that voice. It was the man who had just come in and told them to untie her. He sat casually on a chair, the light only illuminating half of his profile, a scar stretching from his eye to the corner of his mouth.

“She’s a rich young lady. How can she eat this stuff? Go get some human food.”

The man found it troublesome and didn’t want to move. “Brother Shui, is it necessary? As long as she doesn’t starve to death.”

“You don’t know sh*t. Stop talking nonsense and hurry! She has to be safe and sound right now. If something happens to her, how are you going to get the money?”

“Alright, alright.”

Men die for wealth, birds die for food. Everyone in this line of work is after money.

The man slammed the door as he left, and cold wind rushed into the room. Lin Xingzi’s limbs were stiff from being tied for too long, unable to recover immediately. Her throat was dry and sore, unable to speak, only coughing. The man called ‘Brother Shui’ poured her a glass of water, then turned back to watch the others play cards.

The men noticed Lin Xingzi’s gaze, exchanged glances, and spoke in a dialect she couldn’t understand, ‘Brother Shui’ occasionally responding.

“Young lady, just make do with it. We’re rough folk here, we don’t do that ‘cherishing and pitying’ stuff.”

“Blame your dad. Who told you to be the daughter of the Public Security Bureau chief? You cooperate well, and we’ll naturally let you go once we get the money.”

Lin Xingzi lowered her head and said nothing. The re-served meal was at least hot.

“Oh, quite composed, aren’t we? Thought the young lady would be crying and making a fuss.”

“Probably not the first time she’s been tied up, got some experience, hahahaha!”

“Damn, how do you know?”

“Why even ask? Lin Xudong has made countless enemies over the years. He has only one precious daughter. Who wouldn’t take a dangerous move when pushed to the brink?”

“Lin Xudong can abandon his own daughter for the bigger picture. How did Boss Zhan even establish this connection?”

“That’s an old story. I heard from the boss, it was many years ago when Lin Xudong’s parents were critically ill and needed money for surgery. At that time, his brother-in-law also got into trouble with company finances and was arrested for investigation. Boss Zhan and Lin Xudong were schoolmates. Lin Xudong borrowed life-saving money from him, but borrowing money is easy, paying it back is hard. The millions Boss Zhan lent Lin Xudong back then came from drug trafficking. It would be a miracle if Lin Xudong could clear his name.”

“That Zhan guy is truly cunning and calculating, he dug a pit for Lin Xudong so early on.”

“...”

The room was filled with too much smoke, mixed with a nauseating smell of foot odor.

Someone opened a window, and cold wind poured straight in.

Lin Xingzi had never understood why Lin Xudong suddenly decided to send her abroad and forbade her from returning for several years. She had cried, fussed, and resented it. Although she gradually got used to it, she had always harbored resentment about those first two years abroad when she was isolated and bullied alone, feeling too ashamed to even recall them. She never expected to learn the reason from a group of kidnappers in such circumstances.

Zhan Tianxiong had set a trap for Lin Xudong eight years ago, slowly reeling him in, taking an inch for every mile.

If Lin Xingzi had signed the contract with Zhan’s Group, then not only the Lin family but the entire company would be implicated.

Acid surged up Lin Xingzi’s throat, and she covered her mouth, retching. The men playing cards disliked the unpleasant smell and grumbled as they went outside for fresh air.

‘Brother Shui’ was the last to leave, glancing in Lin Xingzi’s direction before stepping out.

The cup of water had long since gone cold. Lin Xingzi had nothing to be picky about now. She painstakingly shuffled to the table, picked up the cup, and drank a few mouthfuls.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her finger. A cut appeared, and blood beads emerged. Lin Xingzi then realized there was a razor blade taped to the bottom of the cup!

They were just outside the door. Through the door, she could still hear their laughter and chatter, nothing more than talk of booze, meat, and women.

The sun was out, meaning it was still early.

Lin Xingzi cautiously observed the movements at the door. After hiding the razor blade, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes to rest. Her heart was still pounding.

People were constantly coming in and out of this room. During the day, there were many people. At night, a new group would rotate every two to three hours. Lin Xingzi used her trips to the restroom to observe her surroundings. There were trees all over the mountain, only a few mud houses. They ate instant food, so they were probably just temporarily hiding here.

Around five or six in the morning, everyone else was suddenly called away, leaving only one man behind. He had been drinking, his eyelids heavy with sleep. Unable to stay awake without playing cards, he picked up the cold water from the table and gulped it down to wake himself up. He added a few more logs to the stove.

Dawn was breaking, and faint light seeped in through the window.

The woman huddled in the corner seemed to be asleep. The dim firelight illuminated her face, a desolate beauty that made the man’s heart tremble. He gazed, mesmerized, his mind starting to wander.

“Damn, my stomach hurts so bad!”

His stomach rumbled. The man clutched his belly, his face ashen. He endured for a few minutes, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, as if waste was about to gush out with any movement. Seeing Lin Xingzi asleep and her hands and feet still tied, he figured it would be fine. Unable to wait for his accomplices to return, he pulled open the door and rushed out.

The first time, he returned quickly, and the woman showed no movement. The second and third times, he ran back and forth until his legs were weak. The fourth time, he simply squatted in the restroom.

Faster, faster! Lin Xingzi gritted her teeth, her hands behind her back searching for the razor blade on the rope. Her eyes nervously watched the direction of the door. Her wrists had several raw wounds before she finally cut the rope binding her hands.

Once her hands and feet were free, she desperately ran outside, scrambling up immediately even when she tripped and fell to her knees.

The cold wind cut her face like knives. The wind howled in her ears, and tree branches and withered vines scraped her skin. She didn’t know how long she had run or where she had gone. She heard someone chasing her from behind. Her physical limits were almost reached, yet she dared not stop.

Suddenly, a person burst out of a cave. Lin Xingzi, as if cornered, stumbled into him. “Ah!”

The man quickly pulled her into the cave, covering her mouth. “Shh, don’t make a sound.”

Lin Xingzi held her breath, not daring to move. The surroundings were pitch black. The kidnappers’ voices approached, seeming to be right beside them. Just when she thought they would discover her, they gradually faded away.

The forest returned to silence.

The man behind her loosened his grip on Lin Xingzi. She felt as if all her strength had been drained, falling to her knees on the ground, gasping for breath. Her heart felt as if it would leap out of her chest.

The man simply carried her on his back. He was clearly familiar with the area, moving quickly yet methodically.

“I’ll go distract them. You go down the mountain from here. Don’t stop. It’s about another kilometer. Someone will be waiting at the intersection. Don’t worry, go with him.”

He was covered in sweat. As he spoke in a low voice, he casually unbuttoned a few buttons. Lin Xingzi saw him wearing a red string braided with half a wooden amulet around his neck.

The other half was in her drawer at home.

She had once thought it was a love token between Jiang Yan and some young girl.

The man’s face was crisscrossed with old and new scars, obscuring his original appearance. Lin Xingzi stared at him unblinkingly, tentatively calling out the name she guessed in her heart, “...Jiang... Yi?”

The man’s movements froze for a brief moment. The next second, the emotion in his eyes vanished completely, as if it had never been there.

“This item was on Yan Li,” he stuffed a USB drive into Lin Xingzi’s hand, calmly saying, “It’s a video of Lin Xudong and Zhan Tianxiong talking. You decide whether to hand it over to the police or destroy it.”

He turned and walked deeper into the mountain, his back to Lin Xingzi, his eyes lowered as he gave a soft, knowing laugh, as if he had made a certain decision.

“Tell Jiang Yan, I’m proud of him.”

Lin Xingzi followed the path he indicated down the mountain, not daring to stop for a second.

The sun rose, its first rays spilling onto the earth, dispelling the mist and darkness in the forest.

At a certain moment, she thought she heard a gunshot.

________________________________________

At the county hospital’s inpatient department, Erhu excitedly pushed open the ward door after finishing a phone call.

“Brother Jiang! We found her! We found sister-in-law! The comrades from the police station are bringing sister-in-law to the hospital. I’ll get a wheelchair and push you to the emergency room in front!”