Xiao Bing Was Kidnapped

With the bank card tucked away, Lu Yuan jogged all the way home.

The day had been like a dream: first, the system had awakened, and then he had quickly secured the money for his mother's medical expenses.

He was very pleased with the way he had negotiated. In his previous life, he hadn't been much of a talker. Otherwise, he wouldn't have fared so poorly.

Back then, he had neither connections nor backing, and he couldn't even raise his voice.

But things were different now. He had the system backing him, and there was no greater support than that. His mind had been especially quick today, and he had spoken freely with a big boss like Jia Shengnan without showing the slightest fear.

"Xikangnuo can keep Mother alive for two years. Next, I should give it my all to get into Cultivation University. Once I become a cultivator, I should be able to find a way to cure her."

As for whether he could get in, Lu Yuan was no longer worried. The most important factor in Cultivation University admissions was True Essence, the same True Essence listed in the system. He already had 120 ling, which was far above the filing cutoff.

If that still wasn't enough, he had 999 merit points and could add another nine points.

Besides curing his mother, Lu Yuan himself was very curious about Cultivation University. Who wanted to be a cook for the rest of their life?

The world held many secrets, and Lu Yuan wanted to understand them. But he feared he would only have the chance if he became a cultivator and joined the world's ruling class.

Full of joy, Lu Yuan hurried home. He knew Xiao Bing was still waiting anxiously, and he wanted to tell her the good news in person.

But Xiao Bing wasn't home.

Lu Yuan knocked for quite a while, but there was no response. Puzzled, he unlocked the door and found the place empty.

Did Xiao Bing have something to do and step out?

Lu Yuan tried to explain it away, but he couldn't convince himself at all.

There's no way Xiao Bing would leave at a time like this!

His heart raced as an extremely ominous feeling suddenly rose within him.

He took out his phone and called Xiao Bing. Sure enough, a phone began ringing on the sofa.

"She didn't take her phone."

Lu Yuan picked up the phone and looked at it, but he couldn't unlock the screen.

It was lunchtime, and he had only been away from home for five hours. Something must have happened during that time.

"There are no bowls on the table or in the sink, which means Xiao Bing had already finished breakfast and washed the dishes."

Lu Yuan forced himself to calm down and look for clues.

"The shoe rack hasn't been touched. All her shoes and slippers are here. She went out without shoes."

"The mop is beside the shoe rack. No one in the family puts it there."

"The pot on the stove is gone. There was century egg and lean pork congee cooking in it."

"This is..."

Lu Yuan suddenly dropped to the kitchen floor. From a crack along the edge of a cabinet, he rubbed up a little dirt with his fingers. As a cook, he could naturally tell someone had been in the kitchen.

"This is fresh dirt from outside. Someone came in wearing shoes."

"They left footprints, so before leaving, they gave the floor a quick wipe with the mop. Then they leaned the mop against the shoe rack and backed out."

Lu Yuan examined the floor up close and, sure enough, spotted faint mop marks.

"That's all the evidence I can find right now. I can be certain Xiao Bing was kidnapped."

Lu Yuan sat on the floor, his expression twisted and terrifying. He had only just scraped together the money for his mother's treatment, and now something had happened to his sister. He wanted nothing more than to smash everything in front of him. But he didn't give in to the impulse, because he knew it would do no good. Right now, Xiao Bing had only him, her older brother, to rely on.

"Then who did it?"

"Was it kidnappers?"

"No. This is a poor neighborhood. There's no way someone would have targeted us out of greed."

"Did someone find out I got over a million from Jia Shengnan and kidnap Xiao Bing for ransom?"

"Was it Jia Shengnan's secretary?"

"Impossible. The timing doesn't add up, and he had no motive. If he wanted the money, he could have transferred it straight into his own account and run."

"Could it be an obsessed fan?" Lu Yuan thought of another possibility.

Dragon Boat Festival Little Sister had exploded in popularity online along with the zongzi, and many people were searching for information about Xiao Bing's real identity. Perhaps one of them had found his way to their door.

"No, it couldn't have happened this fast. Dragon Boat Festival Little Sister only started becoming popular last night. How could someone have found her today?"

"Could it be the cult?!"

Lu Yuan recalled how, on the first day after his rebirth, the cultivator Ji Yin had flown to the school to warn everyone about cult activity.

"The cult has no reason to kidnap Xiao Bing. From everything I've learned over the past few days, the cult targets prominent social figures. Xiao Bing is just a first-year high school student..."

"No!"

Lu Yuan shot to his feet.

"It was the cult!"

A day ago, Xiao Bing had been just an unknown first-year high school student, but that was no longer true. She had been interviewed by a television station last night, and now she was being hyped up online. She was probably better known than some of Ning City's prominent social figures.

The cult had every reason to target her.

The more Lu Yuan thought about it, the more convinced he became.

Finding his home address in such a short time wasn't the work of one person. There was clearly a tightly knit organization behind it.

But the organization wasn't professional, because they had left quite a few clues. That showed most of its members were just ordinary people.

A tightly knit organization, a kidnapping, and mostly ordinary people-if that wasn't the cult, what was?

"The cult!"

Lu Yuan clenched his fists, turned around, and left home.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Ning City.

Xiao Bing lay half-reclined on the cold concrete floor, her hands and feet bound. Her hair was a mess, and her little face was covered in tear tracks.

On the other side, six people sat around a table, wolfing down congee. They were old and young, men and women, and they slurped noisily as they ate.

The big pot on the table was the very one they had taken from the stove at Lu Yuan's home.

As if kidnapping Xiao Bing weren't enough, they had also swiped the century egg and lean pork congee. How outrageous!

"This is delicious."

A sallow-faced middle-aged man raised his head and exclaimed, then turned to Xiao Bing, who was lying on the floor. "Little girl, what's this congee called? Where did you buy it?"

Xiao Bing was both frightened and furious.

"Just wait for death! My brother definitely won't let you get away with this!"

The threat was no more than a tickle to the sallow-faced man. He sneered and said, "Your brother is just an ordinary high school student, your dad is an ordinary worker, and your mom is lying in a hospital. Who else can you count on? Go on, tell me."

Xiao Bing was speechless for a moment. These people had already investigated her family's circumstances thoroughly. But she refused to give in and stubbornly said, "My brother is very capable."

The middle-aged man sneered again, too lazy to pay her any more attention.

A gray-haired old woman beside him tried to persuade her. "Little girl, it's your blessing that the Divine Lord has taken a liking to you. Once you've witnessed the Divine Lord's divine might, you'll understand. We're doing all this for your own good."

"Let me go home!" Xiao Bing cried.

Seeing her like this, the old woman stopped trying to persuade her.

"Foolish mortal, the Divine Lord will save you."

Even in such desperate circumstances, Xiao Bing believed her brother would surely come to save her and, while he was at it, beat these bastards into little pancakes.

But in fact, Lu Yuan was in enormous trouble.