Kidnapping

Chapter 17 - Kidnapping

Within three feet, the Glazed Heart, which possessed the ability to perceive every minute detail, reacted abruptly. Li Bai instinctively reached back and caught something. When he came to his senses, he realized he had caught a tennis ball.

Beside the road was a community outdoor sports field. The closest to Li Bai were two adjacent tennis courts. In one of them, two young women in sports shorts and t-shirts, with hot figures, were playing.

One of them, a girl with a melon seed face and a long ponytail, waved at him and said loudly, "Sorry, could you return it to us?"

The other young woman with short, ear-length hair also had an apologetic smile.

Just now, the two women had been hitting the ball back and forth in the tennis court, trying to smash it. They had lost control, and the tennis ball flew over the fence, nearly hitting Li Bai's head.

What a stroke of bad luck!

Li Bai shook his head and threw the ball back.

"Thank you!"

The two young women thanked him in unison, followed by cheerful laughter like silver bells.

Anyone else might have taken this opportunity to strike up a conversation, but Li Bai had no interest in these rich beauties.

What could a monthly salary of 3,800 yuan do?

It was barely enough for the girl to buy two small jars of La Mer.

When La Mer could be bought by the pound, then he would consider pursuing these rich beauties!

Li Bai shook his head and left the luxurious mansions of the XC district, the Zijing Villa community.

On his way to the bus stop, three cars suddenly cut in diagonally from behind into the non-motorized vehicle lane. A Jinbei minivan and a Santana 2000 drove onto the sidewalk, blocking Li Bai from the front and back. They formed a triangle with a container truck that had followed them into the non-motorized vehicle lane, trapping him and several pedestrians in the center.

Without any warning, the pedestrians lunged at Li Bai. They covered his head and face with a large black plastic bag and shoved him into the Jinbei minivan.

In less than four or five seconds, the Jinbei minivan and the Santana 2000 took different turns at the next intersection.

The container truck, which had illegally entered the non-motorized vehicle lane, turned right leisurely at the intersection, leaving the curses of the cyclists and electric scooter riders far behind, as if it didn't care about losing points or getting fined.

A quarter of an hour later, the Jinbei minivan briefly met a box truck in an inconspicuous alley. When it emerged from the end of the alley, only the driver was left inside.

Li Bai, bound tightly with ropes, was dragged out of the car and then dragged for a long distance until he was heavily pushed to the ground. Only then did they stop.

For more than four hours, changing at least a dozen cars, expending so much effort, all to avoid surveillance cameras and prevent the police from tracking them.

It was clear that these people were not first-time kidnappers; they were experienced and very professional.

A hand reached out and roughly pulled off the black bag covering his head. Squinting his eyes slightly, Li Bai could finally see his surroundings.

He found himself in a huge warehouse. There were multi-tiered shelves all around, filled with gleaming products – brand new luxury sports cars.

Maserati, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley – all the world's famous cars were there, like a top-tier auto show.

More than ten burly men with sinister looks were sizing him up unpleasantly.

These men carried an unusual Sha Qi. Their expressions suggested they were not good people. Li Bai asked casually, "Where is this? Who are you?"

"Heh heh, don't worry about where this is or who we are. Worry about yourself first! Since you're here, enjoy your last moments. Don't think about shouting or running; it will only make you die faster."

One of them, bare-chested and tattooed with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, drew a pistol from his back and pointed it at Li Bai.

"Getting me here was Boss Yao's order, wasn't it?"

It was a feigned letting go, first releasing him to clear suspicion, then capturing him here. In the end, they still wouldn't let him go. Yao Bing's father was clearly not a simple character.

Li Bai looked around and smiled, continuing calmly, "If I'm not mistaken, these cars are all smuggled goods!"

Most of the cars in the warehouse were foreign luxury cars. If they were doing legitimate business, they would never need these desperadoes with firearms. There was only one possibility: this was the Yao Family's smuggled car warehouse.

The man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo was stunned for a moment. The others' expressions changed collectively. He grinned ferociously and said, "I didn't expect you to be so smart. It seems we can't let you live."

Li Bai knew his guess was correct.

A horse doesn't get fat without night grass; a person doesn't get rich without ill-gotten gains.

No businessman is honest. Yao Bing's father's Dongling Auto Company clearly wasn't just doing legitimate business on the surface; they had some shady dealings on the side.

"Behave yourself, damn it! If you want to die quickly, just say so."

As a curse echoed from afar, a gap was opened in the tall warehouse door. Two people, wearing black hoods and bound like Li Bai, were pushed in. The people pushing them said to the man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo, "Boss, we caught two rats. The boss said to deal with them together."

"Rats? I didn't expect it to be so lively today. This is rare!"

The man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo, addressed as Boss, shifted his gaze from Li Bai and leisurely examined the two people being dragged before him.

The hoods were pulled off. One was a middle-aged man with a bulging belly, his face full of fear, trembling all over. The other was a young man with a square face, silently staring intently at the man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo.

"I won't dare again, I'll never dare again. Spare me, I'll give you any amount of money, just name your price, please, let me go."

The pot-bellied man's words were choked, full of pleading.

Seeing this man's weak and fearful appearance, the others in the warehouse laughed sinisterly.

"Boss Cui, why are you going against us instead of doing your business properly?"

The man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo bent down and patted the fat man's face. He clearly recognized the other person, who turned deathly pale, slumping to the ground like a puddle of mud.

He then looked at the square-faced man beside him and sneered, "Good fellow, playing undercover? I'm so scared, hehe. I've killed at least eight or ten informants and police undercover agents. It's your bad luck to run into me. I'll fulfill your wish of dying in the line of duty."

"Pfft! No one can escape the punishment of the law. My colleagues will find this place soon. Not a single one of you will get away."

The square-faced man glared at the man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo, his face showing no fear. He turned to Boss Cui, who was on the verge of collapse from terror, and said, "I'm sorry, Boss Cui. It was my carelessness that got you involved."

"What's the point of saying that now!"

Boss Cui, with his bulging belly, was crying like a desperate child. He regretted not thinking ahead; he shouldn't have agreed to cooperate with these police officers in their covert search for clues about the Yao Family's smuggled luxury cars.

They had found the clues now, but their lives were about to end. What good were these clues and evidence?

Marx said in Das Kapital: "With a 50% profit, it becomes a runaway; for 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; for 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even the risk of hanging."

Evading customs duties, consumption tax, import VAT, and retail VAT, plus the final retail profit, was enough for these smugglers to risk their lives and defy human laws.

The landline phone near the warehouse entrance rang. After someone answered, they shouted at the man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo, "It's the boss on the phone. He says he can't make it, and we should clean things up ourselves."

The entire warehouse area was being jammed by a signal jammer, blocking all communication signals. Only the wired landline could get through; mobile phones and other wireless communication devices had no signal at all.

"Got it!"

The man with the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons tattoo turned to look at Li Bai, clasped his hands together, and said with a grin as his knuckles popped, "The boss was supposed to come and deal with you himself, but now, we can have some fun for a while."

City Swordsman Legend English name: City Swordsman Legend, author's self-translation as a hobby.