"Mrs. Hu, I've completed the task you assigned." Sitting in the car on her way home, Li Jiaojiao couldn't wait to call Mrs. Hu. Mrs. Hu was in the midst of a conversation with Hu Li, but upon hearing this, she calmly excused herself to the balcony with her phone in hand.
Hu Li was curious about his mother's mysterious demeanor but refrained from eavesdropping.
"Jiaojiao, did you meet Hua Yan?" Mrs. Hu inquired.
"I did. I think I struck a nerve with that woman; she left after just ten minutes," Li Jiaojiao replied with a satisfied smile.
Mrs. Hu was pleased that Hua Yan had been unsettled by Li Jiaojiao's presence, and her tense demeanor relaxed. She spoke more gently, "Thank you for that, Jiaojiao. Please visit us sometime; that boy is also at home."
"No need to be so formal, Auntie. I'll come visit when I have time," Li Jiaojiao replied happily, already planning her next trip to Haibin City. She couldn't forget the chillingly cold man she had encountered.
That man was like an enigma; once she had seen him, she couldn't look away. Normally, a woman of her stature wouldn't need to be so careful around a man, but it seemed she had met her match.
Back in the house, Mrs. Hu's smile grew even broader as she looked at Hu Li, her gaze no longer as worried as before.
"What has made you so happy, mother?" Hu Li asked, raising his head from the documents.
"Someone invited me for tea this afternoon," Mrs. Hu replied vaguely, not willing to divulge the truth. Hu Li was too preoccupied to inquire further; he had more pressing matters to attend to.
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Deciding to leave immediately, either by having the family driver pick her up or taking a taxi, Hua Yan didn't hesitate for a second. She opted to take a taxi. Fortunately, this part of the Second Ring was bustling, with plenty of taxis available. One pulled up right away.
Navigating through the ant-like throngs of people and vehicles, Hua Yan felt the presence of her nemesis posing a significant challenge. Frowning, she scanned the surroundings but failed to spot those chilling eyes anywhere.
However, she knew her nemesis wouldn't give up so easily. Frustrated, she muttered, "Driver, please drive faster."
The driver, wearing a cap and a wrinkled coat, drove seriously. "Miss, safety first. With so many people around, it's not safe to speed."
It was broad daylight, and with so many people around, Hua Yan believed her nemesis wouldn't dare to act rashly. She remained silent, relying on her heightened senses to stay vigilant.
As time passed, Hua Yan suddenly felt the car jolt and sway. Startled, she slowly opened her eyes and glanced out the window, her heart sinking.
Where there should have been skyscrapers and bustling streets, the road outside was uneven, with flying yellow soil, fallen leaves, and twisted trees scattered sparsely along the roadside.
This was clearly a remote, rural area. She realized she had been tricked. Without changing her expression, she gripped the door handle, intending to jump out of the car. However, after a few attempts, she found the door was locked.
Taking a deep breath, Hua Yan considered her options, but before she could decide, the driver spoke, "Don't even think about getting out. Be a good girl, and I can make things easier for you."
The driver hadn't changed, but his voice was no longer the same; it had lost its ordinary tone and now carried an unsettling coldness, akin to that of a dead person.
At that moment, Hua Yan was certain this man was the nemesis Hu Li had warned her about. Unable to find him earlier, he had been right beside her all along, deliberately concealing his murderous intent and bloodlust. He was either kidnapping her to exact revenge on Hu Li or using her as leverage against him. Neither scenario was something Hua Yan wanted to entertain.
With limited space in the car and iron bars ahead, Hua Yan lacked a firearm and couldn't retaliate against the man. Therefore, she remained silent.
Observing Hua Yan through the rearview mirror, the nemesis man was surprisingly calm, puzzled by her lack of panic or fear. He didn't understand why this woman wasn't afraid.
Hua Yan's calm demeanor affected the man, prompting him to ask, "Aren't you afraid?"
Hua Yan's lips twitched a few times. She thought to herself, afraid? Who wouldn't be in this situation? But now, fear was useless. She uttered a single word, "Afraid."
The man chuckled dryly and looked at her complexly. "If you weren't someone Hu Li values, I would have let you go."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Hua Yan didn't want to hear such nonsense. In reality, there were no 'ifs.' No matter how much was said, it wouldn't change anything. The man saw that Hua Yan didn't want to speak further and fell silent.
Without warning, the car came to a sudden stop, and a moment later, a thick mist enveloped them. The situation escalated too quickly. Though Hua Yan quickly closed her mouth, several streams of mist rushed up her nostrils, causing her to faint.
Upon waking again, Hua Yan found herself bound hand and foot, lying in a one-meter-long, two-meter-wide cave. The car seat cushion was underneath her, and not far away, a pile of firewood burned.
Outside the cave, the cold night shimmered, and the chilly wind rustled the branches. She couldn't determine the exact time. Since waking up, she hadn't dared to move, silently listening to the presence of the enemy outside.
After waiting for a while, she finally heard the enemy's voice outside the cave. Hua Yan's heart leaped with joy, thinking of finding something to cut the rope, but after moving for a while, her body didn't budge. She silently cursed that her body still couldn't move.
Discouraged, Hua Yan paid attention to the conversation of the enemy outside the cave: "Your son's beloved woman is in my hands. If he wants to save someone, follow my instructions."
"I remember my son doesn't have a beloved woman yet. You must be mistaken," the cold voice of Mrs. Hu echoed into Hua Yan's ears from the silence outside the cave.
The enemy suddenly fell silent. Several seconds passed before he said, "Whether or not you are mistaken, you know yourself. I've recorded our conversation. Would you like to listen?" He chuckled evilly.
"You... let me think about it. Don't act rashly," Mrs. Hu held the phone tightly in her water tender bedroom, her face twisted with anger. She couldn't let her son know what she had done to Hua Yan.
The enemy sneered and immediately hung up the phone. But he wouldn't have expected that a group of desperadoes sent by Mrs. Hu was waiting for him.
After hanging up, Mrs. Hu made a call to someone, asking him to find someone to take action against the enemy in the capital. She added that the woman around the enemy should also be taken care of.
When the enemy entered the cave, Hua Yan saw that the man with a stubble beard had sharp eyes. She guessed that his appearance was probably extraordinary. His age should be around thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old.
As soon as he sat down by the bonfire and saw that Hua Yan had already woken up, his bright eyes flickered. He wondered how the drug's effect could last for more than ten hours, but she woke up in just five hours.
Crawling on the ground, Hua Yan felt particularly uncomfortable. In a hoarse voice, she said, "Can you let me sit up?"
The enemy man looked at her emotionlessly, helped her sit up, and then took out a bag of milk with a straw from a large black bag beside him, saying, "Drink."
Seeing that this man would never untie the ropes on her hands and feet, Hua Yan took the straw and began to drink. She was also fed a few pieces of compressed biscuits, filling her stomach and warming her body.
The enemy man remained silent afterward, sitting at the mouth of the cave, constantly gazing up at the sky, his figure shrouded in loneliness and sadness. Hua Yan guessed that this man probably wasn't originally a bloodthirsty person.
In the silence, Hua Yan thought of her home. She could imagine that Old Yang and the others must have realized that something had happened to her. When they would find her, she didn't know.
At this point, Old Yang and the others at home were increasingly restless.
Later, Mrs. Hu made several calls to the enemy man, obtaining his precise geographical location. The next evening, the enemy man hurriedly left the cave, only to return shortly after in a rush.
His expression was tense, yet his movements were composed as he took out a handgun, two grenades, and a large knife from his bag. He then had Hua Yan carry the large black bag and they left the cave.
"What happened?" Hua Yan couldn't help but ask. Could it be that Old Yang had sent someone to rescue her?
Seemingly reading Hua Yan's thoughts from her tone, the enemy man coldly snorted and said, "Don't daydream. It's someone out to get both of us."
"What? How could that be? It's someone out to get you," Hua Yan replied anxiously, her words disrespectful.
The enemy man paused for a moment, continuing to run while saying, "It's the Hu family who sent desperados to kill me, and you too."
Hearing this, Hua Yan's heart trembled. The Hu family wanted to kill her? Did Hu Li not know she had been kidnapped? If he didn't, did it mean Mrs. Hu wanted her dead?
But before she could continue to ponder, she heard a chaotic crunch of leaves being crushed behind them. It seemed the desperados had already tracked them back to the cave they had just left.
The steps of the enemy man beneath Hua Yan quickened again. Since the second day she could move, the enemy man had fed her another pill, leaving her body devoid of any sensation.
But hearing the footsteps behind her once again, Hua Yan's heart could no longer remain calm. "Could you give me an antidote? I can run by myself."
The man beneath her paused again, seemingly chuckled, and said, "It's not that I don't want to, but there's no antidote." He made money only as a porter, and the medicine he had was limited, without any antidote.
Listening to him, not lying, Hua Yan murmured softly, "Reap what you sow."
The man beneath her chuckled lightly again and said, "It's fine. Except for me, I won't let anyone else kill you. There's no moonlight tonight. As we go deeper into these mountains, it will be easy to evade those desperados."
Perhaps because Hua Yan hadn't made a fuss in the past two days, their similar cold and indifferent temperaments made him feel that Hua Yan wasn't just a prisoner, prompting his explanation just now.
However, the enemy man, carrying Hua Yan, ran with difficulty on the rugged mountain road without moonlight. They couldn't run fast and couldn't get any closer to the people chasing them behind. The mountain birds in the forest flew up in panic, their cries echoing in the air, adding to the tense atmosphere.
At this moment, the desperados chasing from behind suddenly stopped their footsteps. There was a sudden burst of chaotic noises, as if someone had fallen into a trap. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the enemy man exerted all his strength to continue running forward.
Hua Yan and the others managed to pull away from the pursuers for a while. However, the road ahead was unclear, and there were no places to hide. The pursuers began to chase them again.
At this point, the pursuers behind also realized the distance had grown too large. Regardless of whether it would alert anyone, they opened fire in Hua Yan's direction with a barrage of bullets. Several bullets grazed past Hua Yan's ears, and soon she smelled a strong smell of blood.