Special District 9

In his office, Yuan Hua was seated on his chair as he stiffly loosened the collar of his shirt. Then, he absent-mindedly fumbled through his pockets.

“Old Yuan, did something happen in Fengbei?” a bald man standing by the side of the table asked.

Yuan Hua buried his face in his hands and rubbed it forcefully before finally speaking up hoarsely, “Cigarette. Give me one.”

A slight frown formed on the bald man’s forehead as he reached for the box of cigarettes in his pockets and passed one over to Yuan Hua.

With trembling hands, Yuan Hua placed the cigarette into his mouth before fumbling around his pockets once more. In the end, he turned to the bald man and said, “Fire.”

The bald man’s frown deepened as he took out his lighter from his pocket. Unable to stand it anymore, he asked, “What happened?”

Peng!

Yuan Hua abruptly stood up and smashed his fist into the table. With an utterly pale face, he tossed aside the cigarette and said, “Xing Zihao has been taken… He’s in the hands of the Ma Family.”

The bald man was astounded to hear that.

Yuan Hua closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before he finally instructed, “Get the train tickets to Fengbei.”

“I’ll get it done right away.” The bald man was clearly a little flustered by the severity of the situation as well. He turned around and shouted, “Is there anyone outside? Oh right. David, come in!”

Two minutes later, eight people quickly made their way out. Just as they arrived at the lobby of the building, Yuan Hua suddenly turned around and instructed, “Right, call Yuan Ke too. Get a few more capable men to come along with us.”

“Alright.” The bald man nodded.

…

Dawn, Yuan Hua, together with his team of seven people, arrived at Prosperous Dragon Pharmaceuticals.

Right as they arrived at the lobby of their office building, the boss of the company, Fatty Xing, happened to return through the main entrance too.

“Aiyo, Mr Xing!” Yuan Hua quickly walked up to Fatty Xing, and with his back lowered, he offered his hand. “I didn’t expect such a thing to happen.”

Fatty Xing also smiled in response as he shook Yuan Hua’s hand with an amicable look on his face. “They’re just a bunch of street gangsters. It’s not a big problem.”

“We’ll do our best to save your son. I’ll guarantee with my life that Zihao will be able to return home safely!” Yuan Hua spoke solemnly.

“Let’s talk upstairs!” Fatty Xing said calmly before instructing his secretary. “Settle Old Yuan’s people down here. I’ll have Peter take everyone to a meal later on.”

“Understood, Mr Xing,” the secretary replied.

Fatty Xing patted Yuan Hua’s shoulder with a smile and said, “There’s no need to worry. You have been on Songjiang’s streets for so long, so what kind of trouble have you never faced? Relax. Come, let’s head up to have some tea.”

Yuan Hua turned to his men and said, “The rest of you should go with Mr Xing’s secretary first.”

“Alright.”

“Got it.”

Yuan Ke, the bald man, and the others nodded in response.

“Come, let’s go,” Fatty Xing said as he led the way forward.

Yuan Hua followed him.

Dozens of seconds later, Fatty Xing entered an elevator together with Yuan Hua and another two vice presidents.

As the elevator doors came to a close, Yuan Hua turned to Fatty Xing and spoke apologetically, “Mr Xing, I have erred in this matter…”

Pah!

Fatty Xing slapped Yuan Hua’s face as he asked with a menacing look on his face, “I helped you strike it rich, and the way you repay me is by making me lose a son. Is that how it is?”

Yuan Hua was utterly shocked by the slap. It took a while before he stiffly raised his head to say, “Nothing will happen to your child.”

Fatty Xing took off his gold-rimmed glasses and wiped away the fog on it before berating with a hoarse voice, “I trusted your glib tongue back then, and that was how I ended up losing my son.”

Yuan Hua fell silent.

After the elevator reached the top floor, Fatty Xing led the group toward his own resting room.

…

Inside the room, the four of them settled down on the sofa. Fatty Xing lit up a cigarette and took a puff before asking the main question, “How are you going to ensure my son’s safety?”

Yuan Hua discreetly wiped the sweat on his palm off his pants and quickly construed his words before replying, “Those people don’t have connections in Fengbei, so they won’t be able to hide for long. On my way here, I’ve already communicated with the telecommunication companies, and we can use their phones to…”

“That’s not what I want to hear,” Fatty Xing interjected coldly.

Yuan Hua immediately fell silent.

“Don’t try to run circles around me. Since the other party kidnapped Zihao, there’s no way they wouldn’t contact you,” Fatty Xing said with a frown. “Tell me what their conditions are.”

In truth, Yuan Hua really wanted to lie at this moment, but at the same time, he had no idea whether Old Ma and the others had already gotten to Fatty Xing yet or not. If this was an attempt by Fatty Xing to sound him out, he would be in dire trouble if he were to lie.

He hesitated for a while before finally deciding to come out clean, “Un, they have indeed told me their condition.”

“Speak.”

“…!” Yuan Hua gritted his teeth before finally raising his head to look Fatty Xing in the eye. “They want to trade him for Yong Dong two days later.”

“Is it the man whom you sent over earlier to deal with Little Qu?” Fatty Xing asked.

“That’s right.”

“Make the trade then,” Fatty Xing said as he picked up the ashtray. “Let him go over and bring my son back.”

“Mr Xing, I think that there’s another way to resolve the problem. Think about it, if we were to go with the trade, we would be delayed by two days, and there’s no doubt that the other party would mistreat Zihao during this period of time,” Yuan Hua said. “I think we can make use of this time to investigate them. With Prosperous Dragon Pharmaceuticals’ influence in Fengbei and the help of the telecommunication companies, there’s no way that they would be able to hide here. Give me 24 hours. I promise you that I’ll be able to dig them out.”

Fatty Xing extinguished the cigarette on the ashtray before turning to face Yuan Hua, “Are you telling me a bedtime story over here? After you were done planting the fake medicine, you should have killed Little Qu right away. But not only did you fail to do so, you even let him escape to Fengbei. If you can’t even deal with something as minor as that properly, how can I trust you to find them within 24 hours? Who do you think they have kidnapped? That’s my son over there! Even a hundred of your Yuan Hua’s brains wouldn’t be worth as much as my son! Do you get it now?”

Yuan Hua clenched his fists tightly as he tried his best to maintain a composed look on his face.

“I’ll give a heads up to the officials. Get your men not to move recklessly so as to not agitate those fixers and put my child’s life in danger,” Fatty Xing ordered authoritatively. “Two days later, Zihao must be seated here, right before me. Do you hear me? This is not up for negotiation! If he doesn’t return, you can forget about walking out of Fengbei alive!”

…

A few minutes later.

Yuan Hua walked out of the elevator with an awful look on his face. Yuan Ke, who had been waiting in the lobby for him, immediately stood up and walked into a nearby room where the others were resting in to say, “My brother is here, let’s go.”

On the snowy streets, Yuan Hua opened the car door and got in. As soon as he sat down, Yong Dong immediately rushed up from behind and asked anxiously, “What did Mr Xing say?”

Yuan Hua looked at the panicking Yong Dong with a heavy feeling in his heart.

…

In the midst of a barren land.

Ma Lao-er had stopped bleeding, but he was still in a state of deep coma. The gun dealers whom Old Ma had contacted a while ago weren’t picking up their phone anymore too.

Without a doctor to look at him, it was questionable whether he would be able to survive till midnight.

Left with no choice, Qin Yu gave a call to Superintendent Li, but the latter simply wouldn’t pick up either.

“How is it? Did you manage to get in contact with Old Li?” Uncle Ma asked nervously.

Qin Yu shook his head and replied, “The news that something has happened to Xing Zihao probably already got to Songjiang by now.”