TFS | Chapter 57

Qi Yue had come alone, just as he had demanded. The abandoned factory was dimly lit and oppressive, and under those conditions, the sound of leather shoes striking the concrete floor felt especially jarring.

He recognized the mixed-race man sitting at the center of the group on the sofa. The man had curly hair and lazily lifted the cigarette between his fingers at him, his posture loose and careless.

Qi Yue remembered that the two of them had crossed paths before, but that had been when he was arrested by the police. He had never expected this guy to get out so quickly, let alone follow him all the way back into the country.

He looked around the room but didn’t see Xu Linruan anywhere. Frowning, he said, “I’m already here. Why haven’t you let me see her?”

The man gave a low laugh, then stood up and walked behind him. “Don’t be so anxious. I still have one slightly more excessive request I haven’t mentioned yet.”

Qi Yue felt a flicker of unease. He knew these people’s methods, and that they would stop at nothing for profit. Right now, all he wanted was to see her as quickly as possible. “What else haven’t you said?”

The curly-haired man circled him once, pretending to think it over. Then he pulled a handgun from inside his coat and spun it around his fingers. “It is a bit excessive, I admit, but you did something out of line. If you do something wrong, you should be punished, after all…”

He narrowed his eyes, his tone teasing. “I want you to shoot yourself, and cripple one of your own hands.”

That demand was indeed outrageous. Qi Yue paused for a moment, his dark eyes fixed on the black gun the other man held out. Under the man’s oppressive gaze, he said coolly, “Let me see her first.”

The curly-haired man shrugged indifferently, looking very easy to talk to. Seeing how anxious he truly was, he pulled a remote control from his coat and pressed it toward the computer screen in front of them. Then Qi Yue saw…

The unconscious woman was being loaded into a van, her head hanging low as she leaned against half of the door. Her hands were tied up. In just one night, he could already tell his girlfriend in the screen had grown haggard.

Qi Yue clenched his fist. Something felt wrong. “This is obviously not near the factory. Where did you take her?”

The curly-haired man chuckled softly, clearly enjoying the pleasure of driving someone to the brink. “As long as you obediently do what I ask, I guarantee I’ll give that woman back to you.”

Qi Yue stared intensely at the screen, then pressed pause. He reached out and took the gun, turning around under the other man’s expectant gaze.

“You’ll keep your word?”

The other man arched a brow playfully, watching with a smile as he made his choice. “Of course. After all, I have no grudge against that woman. There’s no need to drag an innocent person into this.”

Qi Yue let out a cold laugh. He didn’t even find it ironic when those words came out. He wasn’t that stupid. He knew these people had probably already moved her somewhere else.

The room was very dark, and there were only the two of them. Even if he killed him now, the people outside wouldn’t have time to rush in. So he squeezed the trigger, aiming the gun directly at the man opposite him. “Do you think I’m stupid? You expect me to follow your demands before I’ve even seen her. Do you think too highly of yourself?”

The curly-haired man’s expression shifted slightly, but he didn’t seem frightened. As if he had already expected Qi Yue to do this, he fixed him with a dark gaze. “You don’t want to see your girlfriend anymore?”

Qi Yue didn’t answer. He could tell something about this man’s reaction was off. “If I kill you, I can still go find her afterward.”

The man laughed softly, his face showing no fear at all. He took a step back. “…You’re really that sure you can kill me?”

Qi Yue glanced at the gun in his hand and narrowed his eyes. “Heh, you really like playing games, don’t you? Then I’ll play with you. But aren’t you being a little too stupid? Do you really think I came here with no preparation at all? Fine if you couldn’t beat me overseas, but now that you’re in the country, you still think you can outplay me?”

The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly fired at the man’s thigh. Blood splattered across his brow bone, and the man who had been standing still collapsed to the floor from the pain, cursing furiously in a stream of filthy abuse…

Qi Yue planted a foot on the wound in his leg, making the blood flow faster. He pressed the gun against the man’s chin and sneered, “Isn’t it strange why there were bullets in the gun? I call you stupid and you still won’t admit it. This kind of trashy, overused stunt, this Young Master was already very familiar with it ten years ago.”

He pulled the handgun the man had handed over from inside his coat and threw it to the ground with a sharp crack. “This is your damn gun.” Did he really think Qi Yue had no preparation at all? The moment he turned around, he had quietly switched the guns. That was why this idiot had been caught completely off guard.

The gunshot inside the room alarmed many of the people outside, and the bodyguards who had been about to rush in were also restrained by the ambushers. The curly-haired man lying on the floor had his whole face twisted by pain. “…Bastard, damn it, cough, cough… You’ll never see that woman again in this lifetime. So what if you win? That woman is dead for sure, because I’m taking her down with me…”

“…You won’t find her. She’ll definitely die…”

Hearing that, Qi Yue kicked him in the stomach, then turned his wrist and fired another shot at the man’s ankle. By then, the man was in so much pain that he could no longer speak. Massive blood loss had already drained all color from his face.

Qi Yue looked at him with cold, sinister eyes. “Do you know what I learned overseas? Let me tell you, I didn’t learn much else, but I did pick up quite a few ways to torture people.”

“I’ll give you one more chance. Tell me, where exactly did you send her?”

He stepped on the wound and ground down hard. The man on the floor howled in agony, curling up and stammering out not a single complete sentence.

At that moment, the blond-haired guy outside rushed in. “Boss, I found it. They uploaded part of a video to the dark web. The person in the video looks a lot like sister-in-law…”

Qi Yue kicked the man aside and took the phone from the blond guy. In the screen, the woman was still unconscious. As the camera pulled back, the motionless van slowly started moving. Then the screen angle suddenly shifted. There was a guardrail in front of the vehicle. The van slowly accelerated, then headed straight for the barrier and crashed into it…

At that instant, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. Through the screen, his voice trembled as he called her name, “Ruanruan, Ruanruan…”

“Cough!” The massive impact jolted Xu Linruan awake. The moment she opened her eyes, she realized her situation was dire. The collision had broken the guardrail, and the car was still barreling forward. She tried to pull the handbrake, only to find the brakes had failed…

Xu Linruan drew in a sharp breath. She could see a deep river beyond the guardrail. If the car fell in, she would have only about a minute to escape. She tried to undo the rope binding her hands, then slowly moved toward the back of the vehicle.

Her movements were careful, but her hands and feet were tied, making it hard to act…

Qi Yue, on the other side of the screen, had tears in his eyes. He was already on the verge of going insane, staring at the person inside with red-rimmed eyes. “Where is this? What place is this? Tell me quickly…”

“It’s on a road not far from here. Driving there should take about ten minutes.”

The blond guy moved to drive, but someone yanked him straight out of the driver’s seat. Qi Yue forced down the tremor in his hands and slammed on the gas, racing toward the road…

He stared at the person in the video and murmured over and over, “Ruanruan, wait for me. Wait for me, I’ll be there very soon…”

“…You won’t be in trouble…”

Qi Yue saw that the video was still going. The guardrail had been smashed through, and the car had fallen into the water. The current was fast, instantly reaching her ankles, then her calves. He saw Ruanruan struggling, pounding hard at the car window. Those frail hands were cut to ribbons by the glass, blood running everywhere…

He was about to break down. Tears fell uncontrollably. What should he do? She was going to die. She really was going to die, she would drown alive. No, no, please, don’t do this to her…

If she died, then nothing would be left. There would be no more of her voice when she got angry and called him Qi Xiao Yue, no more vivid image of her kicking him out of bed when she was annoyed…

They had finally made it to this point. Please, don’t let him lose her?

Qi Yue stepped on the gas like a madman. Faster. Faster…

Xu Linruan only managed to undo the rope the moment the car crashed into the river. Even with all her strength, she couldn’t smash the window. The car sank quickly, and the water rushed in just as fast. The front windshield shattered instantly under the enormous pressure, and before she could even struggle, she was swallowed by the flood…

Amid the world-turning impact, her head was struck, and she slowly lost consciousness. They said people were prone to hallucinations when they were severely deprived of oxygen.

Xu Linruan felt like she was hallucinating too. Reality and dream were slowly merging, and she could no longer tell which way was up…

In the last moment before she blacked out, she saw the world she had lived in in her previous life. It seemed as if that had been the real world all along, and her friends were calling her name…

Unconsciously, Xu Linruan followed the direction of the voice and walked forward. A passage opened up before her, and as she drew closer and closer to that point of light, the voice suddenly changed into another man’s voice…

That tearful man ran toward her and grabbed her hand, refusing to let go. She could even hear the break in his voice, and it made him seem pitiful. “You said you’d take me home. You can’t lie to me…”