Kidnapping

After Su Ti came out of the bathroom, Su Qiaoqiao kept staring at him.

Su Ti was a little surprised. Hadn't she been too embarrassed to look at him earlier? How had she suddenly become so bold?

"Why are you looking at me?"

Su Qiaoqiao did not answer. Instead, she nudged her older sister, Su Yuwei.

"Did you notice? After Cousin took a shower, he seems to have gotten a little more handsome?"

Su Yuwei initially smiled dismissively, but after taking a careful look at Su Ti, she said in surprise.

"It really does seem that way."

"More handsome?"

Su Ti took out his phone and snapped a picture of himself. The person on the screen had well-proportioned features, fair skin, and bright eyes. He did look a little more handsome than before.

"Maybe taking a shower just made me look a little fairer."

Su Ti answered casually, though he had his own suspicions.

His constitution had now reached 1.8 after four rounds of inner refinement. So had his strength and agility. Even his intelligence had reached 1.8.

Having cultivated Golden Snake Molting before, he had discovered that Bodhisattva Practice's inner refinement method seemed different from other such methods.

Not only did it greatly improve every attribute across the board, but it did so evenly and perfectly, without a single weakness.

He remembered that when he cultivated Golden Snake Molting, the first inner refinement had increased his strength and constitution the most, with agility coming second, while intelligence had not improved at all.

The second time had only improved strength and constitution. Neither agility nor intelligence had increased.

But Bodhisattva Practice was completely different.

Perhaps because this inner refinement method was incredibly difficult to cultivate, its improvements were exceptionally well-rounded.

All of Su Ti's attributes were now extraordinarily balanced, and his entire body had undergone some marvelous changes because of that balance.

His well-proportioned features and increased handsomeness were only part of it.

Su Ti felt that his inner will had also grown stronger. Although there were no specific attributes or entries displaying it, he could sense the strength of that will himself.

It meant greater confidence, greater resistance to being controlled by emotions or falling into negative states such as depression and fear, and a higher tolerance for physical stimuli like pain, cold, heat, and thirst, among many other things.

These were all changes Bodhisattva Practice had brought him.

At the dining table, his parents and his uncle also noticed Su Ti's changes.

"This child looked pretty dark-skinned some time ago. How did he suddenly become so fair?"

"Yeah. We haven't seen him for a while, and he looks so much more energetic now."

Su's Mother was also somewhat surprised.

"Young people have fast metabolisms. They tan quickly and lighten up quickly too."

Su's Father said indifferently.

Su Ti now had bright eyes and fair skin, giving him a confident and sunny appearance. Compared with how ordinary he had looked before, it was a huge improvement. He was even a little handsome now.

Su Ti casually explained it away, attributing everything to training at the martial arts school.

Su Zihao watched with a chuckle. He had no son, so seeing Su Ti improve naturally made him more and more pleased.

"Su Ti, I heard you work at a martial arts school. That's good. It keeps you fit. Young people these days are all too weak. Once you've learned enough, come work for your uncle. I'll pay you twenty thousand a month."

"Brother."

"Oh, right, right. I forgot. I'll punish myself with a drink."

Su Ti and the other young people soon finished eating and sat on the sofa watching television, reading, and the like. Only Su's Father, Su's Mother, and their elder brother remained at the table, eating and chatting.

No one knew what they had been talking about, but the harmonious atmosphere suddenly froze. Then Su Zimo's furious roar rang out.

"How many times do I have to say it? He's not my father! Not my father! If you want to acknowledge him as your dad, that's your business. Don't drag me into it!"

Hearing this, Su Zihao frowned with a headache and looked toward Su's Mother.

"Sister-in-law, you should try to persuade him too. No matter what, this would benefit your family as well. After all, he is Zimo's and my biological father. Su Corporation is enormous now. Returning to the family won't put you at a loss. Look at me—I only got where I am today because of Father's support."

Su's Mother looked at her elder brother-in-law, dressed in a suit and looking radiant. Then she looked at Su's Father, wearing thick glasses and nearly going bald from teaching.

The contrast between the two was stark. To be fair, she also wanted Su Zimo to suffer less and enjoy a better life, but seeing the anger on his face, she ultimately hesitated.

"How am I supposed to persuade him? No matter how you put it, Zimo doesn't want to acknowledge this father. How about we just let this matter go, Brother?"

"Let it go? But—"

Su Zihao still wanted to persuade him.

"No buts!"

Su Zimo roared.

Hearing the argument from the dining table, Su Ti roughly understood what had happened.

Su Qiaoqiao had told him before about Su Zihao's rise to success. A large part of it had actually relied on support from Su Corporation.

And Su Corporation belonged to the grandfather he had never met. Put simply, Su Zihao had only been able to make his fortune because of their grandfather's backing.

The last time Su Zihao had come over for dinner, Su Ti had sensed that something was faintly off about the atmosphere at home after he left. That evening, his parents had even argued quietly in their room. It had all been because of this matter of returning to the family.

Su Zihao believed that Su Corporation was now immensely powerful, and that if Su Zimo returned to the family like him, he definitely would not lose out.

But Su Zimo had his own views.

Su Ti had once heard Su's Mother say that both Uncle Su Zihao and Su's Father were their grandfather's illegitimate sons. After his grandmother gave birth to them, their grandfather abandoned the family and vanished without anyone knowing where he had gone.

Su Zihao and Su Zimo had both been raised by their grandmother. Unlike Su Zihao, Su Zimo was full of hatred for the biological father who had abandoned his wife and children.

From childhood to adulthood, Su Zimo had never mentioned this biological grandfather in front of Su Ti. Whenever Su Ti asked, he would only answer that the man was dead. He had never had any intention of seeking him out.

Moreover, Su Zimo possessed a scholar's integrity, valuing honor over profit. Asking him to acknowledge the father who had abandoned his family since childhood just for wealth and status was utterly impossible.

Although Su Zihao meant well and had tried to persuade Su Zimo several times, he had only run into a wall every time.

And on this matter, Su's Mother had not urged Su Zimo to return to the family for the sake of wealth. She respected his wishes instead.

But Su Zihao was not someone who gave up easily.

He had traveled far and wide and struggled for half his life. He understood the importance of money all too well.

If it had not been for their lack of money, his wife would not have worked herself to death back then.

Thus, he did not want Su Zimo's family to keep living this modest life. It might seem happy and peaceful, but in truth, they had an extremely poor ability to withstand risk. A single illness or disaster could destroy the family.

Since forceful methods did not work, he wore him down gently. From after lunch until evening, Su Zihao continued dropping hints, trying to melt Su Zimo's iceberg of a heart.

Because he changed his approach and did not force the issue, the two no longer argued as they had at first. After dinner, they drank too much and sat at the dining table talking about everything under the sun, reminiscing about funny stories from their childhood.

It was already past nine at night. After sitting in Su Ti's home all day, both Su Qiaoqiao and Su Yuwei were exhausted.

Unable to sit any longer, Su Yuwei got up and spoke quietly to Su Zihao. Su Zihao let out a drunken burp and told the two girls to head home first.

"Su Ti, go see your cousins off."

Before the two could even leave, Su's Mother reminded him.

Su Ti stood up as well and followed them.

"Mm, okay."

On the nighttime road, the car moved slowly along.

Su's Mother had said to see them off, but Su Ti obviously could not just walk them downstairs and return.

Since they had a car anyway, he might as well ride along. He could just take a taxi back afterward.

Li Shifu was driving in the front, Su Yuwei sat in the passenger seat, and Su Qiaoqiao and Su Ti sat in the back.

"Brother Su Ti, why don't you persuade your father to return to the family? You have no idea how influential Su Corporation is in Nanfeng Province. It practically has the whole province under its thumb. As long as you can attach yourselves to Su Corporation, the entire family will become rich and powerful."

Although Su Qiaoqiao was young, she spoke with remarkable maturity.

She might have been rebellious, but she had followed her father through poverty and hardship since childhood. Now that they were finally wealthy, she naturally understood the importance of human warmth and coldness, as well as wealth.

In today's society, nothing surpassed money. People studied from childhood until adulthood, then entered society to work and earn money. In the end, every purpose revolved around money.

With money, one could receive a better education, see greater sights, and stay away from sickness, poverty, hardship, danger, and more. There were simply too many good things money could bring.

Even her mother's death from overwork while trying to earn money weighed heavily on Su Qiaoqiao's heart, further cementing the importance of wealth.

"We'll see. With my dad's temper, even if I try persuading him, it might not help."

Su Ti shrugged. Though he looked down somewhat on Su Zimo's stubborn old-fashioned ways, there were still aspects of him that Su Ti admired.

People always said wealth could not corrupt a person and power could not make one submit, but how many could truly accomplish that?

A windfall had fallen from the sky, and it was his own biological father. Anyone would be foolish not to cling to such a powerful backer, yet Su Zimo had forcibly refused it.

With a father so principled, Su Ti could hardly urge him to kneel. Besides, Su Ti honestly did not lack money now. He only lacked a reasonable and suitable opportunity to use it to help his family.

"Brother Su Ti—"

"That's enough, Qiaoqiao."

Su Qiaoqiao wanted to continue persuading him, but Su Yuwei interrupted.

"Don't try to persuade Brother Su Ti anymore. Actually, I don't think Uncle's choice is necessarily wrong. Once you enter a wealthy family, it can be as deep as the sea..."

At this point, Su Yuwei's tone became low, and she sighed.

"Once you truly cross that threshold, you may gain a great deal, but you will lose just as much. To fight over Su Corporation's enormous inheritance, many relatives may look human, but they are actually wolves and tigers. There are benefits to Uncle not entering that world."

"Sis, what do you mean?"

Su Qiaoqiao was confused by her words, but Su Yuwei only shook her head and did not explain.

Su Qiaoqiao did not manage the household, so she did not understand the dangers of the human heart. She had always lived peacefully under Su Yuwei's and Su Zihao's protection. Did she really think it was so easy to remain in a wealthy family?

What she did not know was how much pressure the family had endured over the past five years in the Su family, how much suppression they had suffered, and how many open and hidden attacks they had faced to reach where they were today.

"You're still young. You don't need to know these things yet. Su Ti, this is far enough. It's late, so you should head home early too."

Su Ti's eyes flickered when he heard this. Su Qiaoqiao did not understand what was going on, but Su Ti caught the implication in Su Yuwei's tone.

Su Corporation was probably not the golden thigh it appeared to be, one that could make anyone rich simply by clinging to it. With so much money and wealth involved, there was likely no shortage of overt and covert struggles within it.

But he did not think too much about it. Given the current situation, his family was unlikely to return to the family. Since they could not enter Su Corporation, no amount of wealthy family feuds had anything to do with him.

So he merely answered simply.

"Mm, okay, Sister Yuwei."

Su Ti got out of the car at a turn near an intersection. The streetlights were dim here, and there were few people around.

After getting out, Su Ti did not leave immediately. He watched Su Yuwei's car drive away, then took out his phone to call a ride. At that moment—

Bang!

The shriek of brakes and the sound of a collision rang out. Su Ti looked up and saw that, several hundred meters away, Su Yuwei's car had collided with a van.

At first, Su Ti thought it was just a traffic accident and hurried over. But then, to his shock, he heard sharp gunshots!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Several gunshots rang out from the site of the crash. Su Ti's pupils constricted as he immediately sped up, charging toward the accident.

But he was too far away. Even sprinting at full speed, he was still one step too late.

He only saw two people in black drag Su Yuwei and Su Qiaoqiao out of the black sedan, cover their mouths with white cloths, and forcibly shove them into the van.

He raced forward, but when he was only fifty meters away, the van's doors slammed shut. It left the crash site in a cloud of exhaust.

Su Ti did not stop. Instead, he continued rushing forward, getting faster and faster.

His cousins had been kidnapped right in front of him. Although he did not know who had done it, his face was icy, and fury filled his heart.

His heart pounded violently, pumping blood through his body. The speed of Inner Refinement Fourth Layer erupted at full force. His hundred-meter time had reached a staggering six seconds, equivalent to sixty kilometers per hour. It far surpassed the current world record of 9.5 seconds and was only two-fifths slower than the fastest animal on land, the cheetah.

Such speed allowed him to outrun the van, which had only just started moving and had not yet picked up speed.

He was about to use that astonishing speed to catch the van directly and force it to stop.

But an unexpected sight made him gradually slow down.

When he rushed up to the black sedan, he saw Li Shifu lying on the ground, covered in blood. His chest had collapsed inward, and he still held an empty pistol in his hand. Yet his eyes remained wide open, and his mouth kept opening and closing as if he had something to say.

Seeing this, Su Ti could not help slowing down. His kidnapped cousins were certainly important, but Li Shifu might still be saved.

Save Li Shifu first, then take the car and chase the kidnappers. Su Ti made his decision in an instant.

He stopped and hurried toward Li Shifu, who lay on the ground.

Seeing Su Ti approach, Li Shifu drew his final breath, clutched his deeply caved-in chest, and opened his mouth with every ounce of strength. Each time he did, blood poured out.

"Inner refinement martial artist... not human... quickly report—"

Before he could utter the final word, Li Shifu breathed his last.