Volume 1, Chapter 370 – Misunderstanding

Another week passed in the blink of an eye, and Shi Lan began her first round of night shifts.

For a while before this, Zhang Guang had been coming by very frequently. Seeing that Shi Lan was gradually settling into the work, he finally relaxed and only came by once every two or three days.

Compared with the day shift, the night shift was somewhat dull. Aside from a few customers pulling all-nighters, there were not many people in the internet café.

On the first day after changing shifts, Shi Lan seemed a little low on energy. A hazy drizzle was falling outside, and after midnight, she could not help propping up her chin and starting to doze off.

Tap tap…

Xiao Teng, carrying a trace of dampness with him, knocked on the counter and handed over a takeout box.

“Hm?”

Shi Lan looked up in confusion.

“A late-night snack.”

Shi Lan was not actually that hungry, but she did not refuse outright. She reached out and took the box.

“How much was it? I’ll pay you back later.”

Xiao Teng shook his head, tossed down his ID card, and directly found a station to sit at.

Shi Lan said nothing more. She opened Xiao Teng’s account, added fifty yuan of internet credit, then dropped another fifty yuan into the register.

Time passed second by second. Once full, people got sleepy more easily. Shi Lan felt groggy all over and could hardly muster any energy.

The sudden ring of a phone startled her awake.

“I got it. I’ll be right back.”

Not far away, Xiao Teng answered his call. After saying a couple of sentences, his expression changed slightly. Without even bothering to shut down the computer, he got up and quickly walked out of the internet café in obvious haste.

Shi Lan lowered her eyes and noticed the ID card still left on the counter. She immediately got up and chased after him.

“Wait.”

Xiao Teng was moving very quickly. In the blink of an eye, he had already turned at the intersection and gone into a narrow lane leading straight to the parking lot.

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Shi Lan turned and called out to the waiter on the same night shift, asking him to keep an eye on the register, then ran out after him into the drizzling rain.

After turning into the lane and jogging for a short while, Shi Lan stopped.

Not far ahead, five or six people had Xiao Teng completely surrounded. All of them were dressed in black and wearing masks. Clearly, they had come with bad intentions.

Shi Lan took two steps back, turned, and ran.

However, two more people walked in from the mouth of the alley, cutting off her retreat.

Shi Lan slipped a hand into her pocket, moved her fingers slightly, and dialed the emergency number.

“Beep…”

“Hello, Yunhai City Public Security Bureau.”

“…”

“Hello? Is it inconvenient for you to speak?”

“…”

…

“Just you few?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Teng caught sight of Shi Lan following behind. He swept his gaze over the people around him, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold sneer, his eyes full of contempt.

He possessed ancient martial arts. A dozen ordinary men were no match for him. Just these few…

The men did not answer. In unison, they pulled down their jacket zippers, took out stun batons, and switched them on. Crackling arcs of electricity flashed in their hands.

The smile at Xiao Teng’s lips froze, and his expression instantly turned grave.

Pfft!

Before he could react, a soft sharp sound burst from the distance.

Xiao Teng felt a chill in his chest. Lowering his head, he glanced down. A bright silver syringe, no longer than half a finger, had already pierced his chest.

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A tranquilizer dart…

That thought flashed through Xiao Teng’s mind. He staggered two steps, then his vision went black, and he collapsed limply to the ground.

The men put away their stun batons and went forward to haul Xiao Teng up.

Their gazes then gathered in unison on Shi Lan, not far away.

Clack.

Shi Lan took out her phone on her own initiative and threw it far away, then clasped both hands over her head and obediently crouched by the wall.

“What do we do?”

From the darkness behind them, a man in a black trench coat stepped out, loosely holding a silver tranquilizer gun.

“Take them both for now.”

…

Yunhai City Public Security Bureau.

Qi Pingxia set down the phone in her hand and frowned. That final sharp sound had left her feeling that something was not right.

A moment later, she picked up the phone again.

“Trace the location of that incoming call just now. Quickly!”

…

After waiting in the internet café for a long time and still not seeing Shi Lan return, the attendant went out to look around and found only the phone Shi Lan had thrown away.

Zhang Guang received the news very quickly. After calling the police first, he rushed to the internet café.

“What was she doing going out so late at night?”

“It looked like a customer forgot to take his ID card.”

“A customer?”

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“The one who’s been coming these past two days. He’s always at station 213.”

Zhang Guang could not help feeling his heart tighten. Not long ago, he had already heard that children had gone missing nearby, suspected of being trafficked.

“What time did she go out?”

Zhang Guang glanced at the computer that had not yet been shut down, ran to the counter, and checked the login records.

“Xiao Teng? How could it be him…”

Recently, Xiao Teng’s name had risen quickly in Yunhai City, and he had made a splash as the youngest billionaire.

Zhang Guang had even met Xiao Teng once at a banquet.

Jingle.

The wind chime at the entrance rang softly as three uniformed police officers walked in.

“Did someone here call the police?”

…

Splash.

Xiao Teng jolted awake, shook his muddled head, and slowly raised it. His hands and feet were tightly bound. Cold water dripped from his hair, wetting the floor below.

A blazing lamp shone in his face, painfully bright. Even forcing his eyes open, he still could not make out the indistinct figures in the distance.

“What do you want? Money? Name a price.”

Since he could not see clearly, Xiao Teng simply closed his eyes and shouted the words out.

“Xiao Teng, only a few days apart, and you’ve forgotten already?”

The glaring light went out. The man in the trench coat dragged over a stool and sat down in front of Xiao Teng, a strange smile on his face.

Xiao Teng slowly opened his eyes. When he saw the man’s face clearly, he could not help staring in shock. After his complexion shifted through several shades, he still managed to squeeze out a smile.

“Fei-ge, what’s all this about?”

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“I’m not worthy of a ‘Fei-ge’ from you.”

Hao Fei pulled out a dagger and lightly patted Xiao Teng’s face with it, his expression gradually darkening.

“You’ve got some nerve. Acting like brothers to my face while messing around with my little sister behind my back? You think just because you can fight, nobody can deal with you?”

“There has to be some misunderstanding here…”

Xiao Teng gave a dry laugh, his heart sinking straight to the bottom.

Hao Fei’s younger sister, Hao Xinxin, had been his very first conquest target. At the time, he had only just obtained the system, and in order to complete the mission, he had naturally put in no small amount of effort and resorted to quite a few methods.

Later, once the mission was completed and he had gotten the reward, and since he had never particularly liked Hao Xinxin in the first place, he naturally began giving her the cold shoulder.

But because Hao Fei had a lot of pull in the underworld and was useful in many situations, Xiao Teng had always kept close ties with him.

“Misunderstanding my ass!”

Hao Fei got to his feet and kicked out, sending Xiao Teng, chair and all, crashing to the ground.

Not far away, Shi Lan was crouching there obediently. Perhaps because her appearance looked too harmless, and because she had behaved herself the whole way over, this group had not tied her up as well.

“Is this your new little sweetheart?”

After taking a breath, Hao Fei glanced at Xiao Teng, then shifted his gaze to Shi Lan, who looked utterly docile.

Before Xiao Teng could speak, Shi Lan stood up and shook her head repeatedly.

“I don’t know him…”

Plop…

Because she moved too much, an ID card slipped out of her pocket and fell to the floor.

Hao Fei crouched down, picked up the ID card, and looked up at Shi Lan.

For a moment, the scene became rather awkward.