Volume 1, Chapter 371 – Distracting Thoughts

At close range, Hao Fei suddenly realized that the girl before him was still underage. The anger in his heart immediately flared even higher, and his impression of Xiao Teng dropped several more notches.

“Hang the bastard up!”

Hao Fei did not make things difficult for Shi Lan. He stuffed the ID card back into her pocket, then turned and waved a hand.

Xiao Teng was stripped bare to the waist and slowly hoisted into the air. Though his expression was tense, he actually felt somewhat relieved inside.

Hao Fei might be a bastard, but he still had some basic bottom line. At the very least, Shi Lan would not be in any danger.

Maybe he could even use this chance to boost her favorability…

“This has nothing to do with her. Come at me if you want!”

“Shameless piece of trash…”

Hao Fei spat and beckoned to someone in the distance.

“She’s just a little girl, and you could still lay a hand on her!”

Seeing Hao Fei grab hold of a long whip, Xiao Teng could not help closing his eyes.

Crack.

The whip sliced through the air with a sharp report, leaving red welts across Xiao Teng’s body.

The people surrounding them all looked delighted, as if they wished they could go up and lash him a couple of times themselves. Clearly, they all held Xiao Teng in extreme contempt.

For some reason, Shi Lan found the scene before her rather painful to watch.

“Um… can I leave now…?”

Hao Fei, breathing heavily, stopped and turned back in astonishment.

“I really don’t know him well. This is between you people. It has nothing to do with me either.” Shi Lan’s face was full of helplessness.

Hanging in midair, Xiao Teng could not help lifting his head, his expression blank with shock. Shi Lan’s reaction was utterly different from what he had imagined.

Hao Fei stared at Shi Lan for a long while, then scratched his head. At last, he began to sense that something was off.

From beginning to end, he had not seen the slightest trace of fear on the little girl’s face.

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After so many years on the streets, this was the first time Hao Fei had ever run into a situation like this.

“Interesting…”

After a moment, Hao Fei let out a low laugh and waved a hand.

“A Song, take the little girl back.”

The man called A Song was a young man in his twenties, dressed in a suit and looking rather refined.

She had been blindfolded on the way over. Only after stepping outside did Shi Lan realize that the surrounding area was an industrial park, empty of any people.

The hazy drizzle in the sky had stopped at some point. The moon was sinking westward. Judging by the time, it was probably around four in the morning.

The two got into the car and rode in silence.

…

That industrial park was not far from the city proper. A little over ten minutes later, Shi Lan was back near that same street.

“Xiao Teng is no good. You’d better stay away from him.”

Before she got out, A Song, who was driving, suddenly spoke and gave Shi Lan a warning.

Shi Lan did not answer. She simply shut the car door. She had absolutely no interest in getting involved in the mess between Hao Fei and Xiao Teng.

There was almost no one on the street. Only one barbecue stall was still open through the night, and even there, only the last table of customers remained.

Shi Lan paid it no attention and walked straight ahead with her head lowered.

An unlicensed van drove in from the end of the street and screeched to a stop beside Shi Lan. The door flew open at once.

Shi Lan looked up. Before she could react, everything went black. A white cloth was pressed over her face, and a sharp, irritating smell rushed into her head, instantly carrying off her consciousness.

Vrrm.

The van door slammed shut again, and the vehicle sped away.

Not far away, A Song had just turned his car around. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he happened to see Shi Lan being dragged into the van. His expression changed immediately. He spun the wheel, floored the accelerator, and gave chase.

…

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Ring ring ring…

“What is it, A Song?”

“Fei-ge, that little girl got snatched!”

“What?”

Hao Fei did not react at first.

“Who the hell…”

Bang!

With a tremendous crash, the door was kicked open and a line of people filed in.

“Police! Hands on your head and squat down!”

“Squat down!”

Five or six police officers entered the room. In front was a female police captain wearing the insignia of a First-Class Superintendent. Xiao Teng’s men had come along with them.

How did they get here so fast…

Hao Fei had no time to dwell on it. Hugging the phone to himself, he hurriedly pressed A Song for details.

“Where are they now?”

“Heading for the outskirts…”

The police captain frowned, strode forward in two steps, snatched the phone from Hao Fei’s hand, and tapped Hao Fei on the head with her gun.

“Hands on your head. Squat down!”

“Officer Qi, wait. A little girl has been kidnapped!”

Hao Fei clearly knew the policewoman in front of him. He raised his hands cooperatively and squatted down.

“That’s exactly why I’m here.”

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Qi Pingxia swept her gaze around the room, her brow tightly furrowed.

“Where is she?”

“I sent her back, but she got snatched again just now.”

Hao Fei sounded anxious and pointed at the phone in Qi Pingxia’s hand.

“I don’t know the exact situation either. My guy just called me.”

Qi Pingxia glanced at the call, which had not yet been disconnected, and tossed the phone straight back to Hao Fei.

“Hello, what’s the situation now?”

“Fei-ge, I lost them…”

A Song’s voice was full of frustration.

“That group had clearly already studied the area. After just two turns, they shook me off.”

Damn it.

Hao Fei cursed under his breath. Looking toward Qi Pingxia, he could not help feeling awkward. The girl had been lost while in his hands, so he could not escape responsibility.

“Officer Qi, I’ll call in friends to help find her right away. Two days at most. No, one day. We’ll definitely get news!”

“By the time you find her, it’ll be too late.”

Xiao Teng, who had just been lowered down, rubbed the red welts on his body, picked up the clothes beside him, put them on, and walked over to Qi Pingxia.

“I have a way.”

“You?”

Xiao Teng shook his phone. The map app was already open on the screen, and a red dot was moving quickly across it.

“There’s a tracker in my phone. There’s one in my ID card too.”

…

Qi Pingxia, Xiao Teng, and the others got into a police car and gave chase according to the location shown by the tracker.

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“Hao Fei, you’ve really grown bold. You actually dared to kidnap someone.”

After running several red lights in a row, Qi Pingxia shot Hao Fei a glance, her tone extremely hostile.

“Recently a mobile ring of traffickers came to Yunhai City. Someone reported that a little girl had gone missing. I thought it was their doing. Turns out it was you.”

“I swear to heaven, I didn’t touch that little girl. Not even with a finger. What happened now was purely an accident.”

At that point, even Hao Fei could not help sighing.

“Just wait. You’re in for it. You were caught red-handed at the scene. At the very least, you’ll be spending some time inside.”

…

…

“Anyone still following us?”

“We shook them.”

“We can’t stay here. We need to move.”

“This one looks like foreign stock.”

“She looks mixed-race. And not bad either. Probably the best quality in this batch. She should fetch something.”

“Maybe we can sell her a few times. After that, dump her in the mountains and squeeze out a little more money.”

“You don’t know shit. Sending goods like this to some hillbilly in the backwoods is a waste. People who know what they’re looking at are willing to pay big money.”

“Yeah, I know. That one called… what was it again…”

“The kid you brought back two days ago was too much trouble. Eight or nine years old and disobedient. I mixed some sleeping pills into water and forced it down his throat before he settled down.”

“Best to pick kids two or three years old. One this big, and a boy too. Hard to find a buyer later.”

The noisy voices by her ears made Shi Lan’s already splitting headache feel as though it were about to explode.

Deep in her mind, the distracting thoughts surging around Shi Lan’s soul had multiplied several times over. Her tightly shut eyelids trembled faintly, and within her indifferent expression, a trace of irritability began to appear.