Kidnapping

After that bizarre gaming competition, Cao Dongfeng no longer took the initiative to trouble Jiaming. Still, whenever they happened to meet at school, Jiaming could always feel that pair of hate-filled eyes lingering on him. It made him very uncomfortable.

October was already late autumn. Cottony clouds drifted overhead, and everything was awash in gold. As the three walked home after school, plane tree leaves fluttered down one after another. In a season like this, Shasha seemed to have grown much quieter. In truth, she had not been as violent and overbearing lately as she used to be. So long as no one provoked her like Cao Dongfeng did, she could be quite ladylike. Ever since returning from the martial arts tournament during summer vacation, she had spent her days reading romance novels. Whenever she found a good one, she would lend it to Lingjing, calling it tactical reference material for Lingjing.

The two girls each had their own little thoughts, never realizing that Jiaming had long since classified them as Yuri. Whenever the three were together and the girls whispered to each other behind his back, their cheeks flushing red as they talked, Jiaming would think, These two really have such a good relationship. Still, girls really were hard to understand.

On the fifth day of the ninth lunar month that year, October 28th, it was Shasha's fifteenth birthday. As before, Jiaming and Lingjing, her two good friends, kept her company. Even Shasha's father had failed to come because he had business to attend to. It was said that Jianghai City's gangs had been fighting fiercely lately. If one had to trace the cause, it might well have come down to Jiaming. That battle triggered by Marilyn and her daughter had killed dozens of people, including the prominent political figure Tang Jingyao. With guns and bombs involved, it had later led to the harshest anti-gang crackdown in Jianghai City's history.

The crackdown lasted nearly half a year. Now that the heat had finally died down, every gang's power had shrunk. Some smaller gangs had been uprooted completely as examples, and the resulting power vacuum became the target of everyone's struggle. As one of Jianghai City's three major gangs, the Sand Bamboo Gang naturally could not fall behind. These days, whenever Jiaming left the school gates, he would always see some gangsters pretending to loiter around Shasha. Naturally, they were people Liu Zheng had sent to secretly protect his daughter.

Though she put on an indifferent front, Jiaming and Lingjing could both tell that she cared. The three spent most of the day as usual fooling around at the Liu Family villa. That afternoon, Lingjing's mother called and told them to come over for dinner, conveniently celebrating Shasha's birthday as well. When they entered, the little girl who was usually as stubborn as a boy already had reddened eyes. During dinner, when Father Ye suggested that Shasha might as well come here for dinner every day, Shasha's tears came pouring down.

"Uh, then wouldn't I have two child brides?"

Seeing Shasha cry, Jiaming butted in from the side. It was a joke they were used to making at the Ye Family home, but it was the first time Jiaming, who usually acted so kind and honest, had said it himself. The Ye couple burst into laughter in perfect unspoken agreement. Lingjing gave a soft spit, her face red as she hit him hard. Shasha immediately stopped crying, jumped from her chair, and chased after him. This time, Jiaming's running skills did not hold out for long. After circling the little outdoor ring around ten times, Shasha still pinned him to the ground and gave him a vicious beating. At least that made her forget to cry.

Then, the day after Shasha's birthday, something happened.

After school that day, Lingjing stayed behind to help a teacher sort some materials. Jiaming and Shasha left first, intending to wait for her outside the school gates. They had only stood by a small roadside stall outside the campus for a short while when two vans suddenly rushed over and boxed them in.

The people secretly protecting them immediately tried to rush over, but the sudden arrival of the vans blocked them off. Several people wearing black hoods leaped out and began dragging Shasha toward a van.

If he acted now, he could disembowel every one of these people, but... there were too many people...

In a pure contest of strength, even Jiaming and Shasha together could not overpower several adults. As his thoughts raced, Jiaming clung tightly to Shasha's hand. Then he was thrown into the van as well.

The van sped away. Within moments, the two children had their hands tied, cloth stuffed into their mouths, and blindfolds placed over their eyes. Yet while his hands were being tied, Jiaming had already hidden a blade in his palm. Freeing himself would be effortless. Lying in the van, Jiaming carefully sensed the direction it was traveling. Terrified, Shasha pressed herself tightly against him, struggling desperately and continuously making muffled sounds through the gag...

"Damn it, Brother Feng said to kidnap all three of them."

"How are we supposed to catch three people when there are only two? Should we stop and just grab some random kid to make up the numbers? What Brother Feng? He's just some half-grown brat. I only listen to Brother Hao. Brother Hao told us to grab one. If this boy hadn't clung on for dear life, I wouldn't have taken him either." As he spoke, the man kicked Jiaming.

Cao Dongfeng again. So the Cao father and son intended to join the Linghai Gang, or strike out on their own? Jiaming thought. Ever since he had crossed paths with Cao Dongfeng, he had roughly investigated the father and son's background. Within the Sand Bamboo Gang, Cao Jinghao had always considered himself one of the founding heroes. After some of the old gang members died, he began to see himself as the second-in-command of the Sand Bamboo Gang, harboring vague ambitions of becoming number one. Still, the man did have some ability. Some of his connections reached foreign forces. Jiaming had not taken him too seriously at first, and as he was alone, a real investigation would have been troublesome. Who would have thought that before he could get a clear picture, the other side would make the first move?

Jiaming already knew this city like the back of his hand. The van's final destination should be a lumber mill in the western outskirts. Shortly afterward, Jiaming and Shasha were carried out separately. Their blindfolds and gags were removed, and it was indeed the lumber processing plant from his memories. Timber was piled everywhere. They were currently in a small open area at the center. Beside it stood a row of single-story sheds and a two-story building. A group of people stood nearby, looking at the two children on the ground—though mainly at Shasha.

"My little niece, it's been a long time. Have you been well?"

The leader was a slightly plump middle-aged man. Shasha glared at him coldly. "I knew it was you, Cao Jinghao! Just you wait, my dad will be here soon!"

"Haha, I'm afraid your father will come looking for you. That's why I invited you here, little niece Huaisha, to help me put in a few good words. Oh, this little boy looks like the boy from your trio. What was his name again? Right, where's the other girl?"

As he asked that, Cao Dongfeng, standing nearby, spoke as well. "Yeah, where's Ye Lingjing? Why didn't you bring her too?"

"We only saw these two children together outside the school gates. Since Liu Huaisha matched the photograph, we acted."

"Hmph, Cao Dongfeng." Though tied to the ground, Huaisha remained fierce. "You still haven't given up on your toad dreams of eating swan meat? Look at yourself. Even a real toad wouldn't like you!"

"If you keep fucking talking, I'll rape you." A flash of fury lit Cao Dongfeng's eyes. "Maybe I'm not good enough for Ye Lingjing, but I'm at least better than this kid! Heh heh, Lingjing didn't come, but you did. Fine, fine. If I don't ruin you, my surname isn't Cao!"

"Jiaming, don't be afraid." Shasha's entire body trembled. Hearing the word rape, she did not dare speak too loudly, but she still remembered to encourage Jiaming.

"Mm, I'm fine." Jiaming nodded, somewhat absentmindedly surveying the surroundings. Two figures in a small bamboo shed across from them caught his attention. One was a Japanese old man who appeared to be in his fifties, holding a bamboo sword and wearing a Japanese warrior's outfit. The other was a girl sitting on the ground in a loose red kimono. She looked around the same age as Jiaming and Lingjing. Her whole body resembled a porcelain doll carved from pink jade. She sat there without moving, like an iceberg that had stood for a thousand years.

The old man shouted something, and when he received no answer, he fiercely struck the girl with the bamboo sword. Jiaming could tell that it was a real blow, delivered with force and without mercy. Yet the girl merely swayed slightly. Her expression did not change in the slightest. Only in her eyes did a trace of pain flicker.

The old man spoke Japanese. The others could not understand him, but Jiaming could. He was saying, "I've given you two days, and you still won't talk? ...Fine. If you still refuse tomorrow, hmph, don't blame me for ruining the rest of your life!"

That girl... Jiaming searched his memories for a similar face. In that other life, eight years later, he had seen her as an adult. It had been the only time. The girl had slit her wrist in the room she was said to have lived in for eight years without ever stepping outside. Blood flowed out, staining a massive cherry blossom petal. Back then, she too wore a vivid kimono, elegant and immaculate, her gaze as calm as ice.

At the time, he had sighed that the Japanese really were perverse. A girl who looked so extraordinarily beautiful could commit suicide with such composure. Even he, after all his training, did not think he could maintain such a gaze at the moment of death, much less while taking his own life.

Thinking about it now, eight years... If the butterfly effect caused by his appearance in this world had not been too strong, then she must have experienced something here back then. Recalling it, that Japanese family was surnamed Yuechi, and they knew a very strange branch of ninjutsu: Chiying Qianhuan.

Her name was... Kaoru.

Kidnapping.

Kidnapping

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