Chapter 57

Chapter 57

“What’s going on with Qi Jiao? You owe me an explanation.”

This was a familiar setup, so there was no need to panic.

Wu Xiaojiu rested one leg over the other with complete composure, not the least bit worried that Qi Jiao would make a move on him.

He treated the hostage situation like his own home, leaned back, and asked in a brazen, lordly tone.

“My sister looks obviously wrong. You drugged her, didn’t you? Last night or this morning.”

Qi Jiao looked away guiltily.

His mouth moved for a long moment before he muttered something vague.

“Isn’t this all your fault? If you hadn’t played hard to get and fanned the flames, I wouldn’t have…”

Qi Jiao’s mind was in complete disarray now, and even his words came out poorly.

Seeing him like this, Wu Xiaojiu knew the instigator had to be Wang Xiao. After all, he had seen Wang Xiao’s absurd dream-making trick before.

He lowered his head and let out a long sigh, looking at the swollen wrists reddened by the coarse hemp rope.

The stinging pain made him shift uncomfortably.

“I really have fallen on hard times.”

He hadn’t even finished lamenting when Qi Jiao stretched a leg between his and leaned his upper body in close.

Qi Jiao stared at him with burning intensity. His lips pressed together for a long time, his face red from holding it in, but in the end he still said nothing.

“What do you want to say?”

Wu Xiaojiu raised an eyebrow when he saw that expression.

“I…”

Actually, the hostage situation was one of Wu Xiaojiu’s favorites in life. In an atmosphere like this, a bit of dangerous ambiguity could arise, and it sounded both thrilling and satisfying.

But Qi Jiao didn’t have the nerve for it. His face and neck were flushed red, and after hesitating for two seconds he pulled his leg back out again.

“Sorry. I’m having a hard time with this situation too. I’ll think of a way to get you both out safely.”

That explanation was completely unnecessary.

Qi Jiao didn’t need to worry about the safety of Wu Xiaojiu and his sister at all.

Soon it was the agreed-upon time that night.

Wang Xiao came striding in from outside in a hurry, his face glowing and his steps light, obviously riding high on some good news.

Wu Xiaojiu wasn’t afraid to die, and flashed him a grin as usual.

He joked, “Hit the lottery?”

Wang Xiao’s face had originally been unsmiling, but at that remark he burst out laughing and fished a utility knife from his pocket.

He walked quickly up to Wu Xiaojiu, crouched down, and used the blade to tilt his chin up.

“Hit the lottery? I’m about to ruin you. Damn it all, everything he has is mine now.”

Wang Xiao’s eyes blazed, and he looked quite pleased with himself.

“All the assets under his name have already been transferred. That means from this day on, the business emperor of this city is me. What’s heard in taxis, what’s spread through every street and alley from now on will all be me, Wang Xiao.”

The knife poked into Wu Xiaojiu’s chin and drew blood.

Qi Jiao reached out to stop him, but was shoved aside with a hard slap.

“Get lost. If you don’t want there to be a place for the Qi Family in the future, then mind your own business.”

He elbowed Qi Jiao away.

Wang Xiao grabbed Wu Xiaojiu by the back of the neck and dragged him all the way to the foot of the stairs. This should have been an abandoned factory, thick with the smell of rust.

Wu Xiaojiu was thrown down at the stairwell.

Dust and rust coated his body, and with the rope binding him he couldn’t move at all. This state was truly unbearable.

Wang Xiao then came down slowly with his sister and Qi Jiao.

After the few of them whispered to each other for a bit, Wang Xiao was the first to act.

“You think I’m going to return you intact? Stop dreaming. Wu Xiaojiu, today is the day you die, young master of the Wu Family.” He crouched down, bent over Wu Xiaojiu’s neck, and let out a low laugh. Pleased with his own plan, he said proudly:
“Your sister was drugged. Later, she’ll personally kill you. That way, neither Bo Suihan nor the police can pin this on me. But don’t worry, you won’t really die. You’ll still be left with a breath in you.”

Wang Xiao reached out and made a gesture.

His finger lightly slid across the one-third point of Wu Xiaojiu’s neck, almost at the side of his Adam’s apple, then he pressed hard on that spot.

“As long as you don’t hit a major vein, an axe strike here should be fine. You can still survive.

Qi Jiao will pick you up. From now on, you’ll be his secret lover. It works out for both sides, and he agreed too. Wu Xiaojiu, I’ve ruined both your lives. Any last words?”

As he spoke, Wang Xiao excitedly held out his hand like a microphone and brought it to Wu Xiaojiu’s mouth, completely ignoring the gloating look on his face.

Wu Xiaojiu lifted his chin and pretended to be thinking hard. After a moment, he realized his mind was completely blank.

He didn’t think he would die.

And he didn’t believe Wang Xiao’s plan would succeed.

Because the one his opponent was trying to face wasn’t someone else, but this world’s favored son, the darling of fate, Long Aotian Bo Suihan.

Going up against a Long Aotian.

Never ended well.

Before he could take his thoughts back in, before he could even get the acceptance speech out, the abandoned factory suddenly shook three times. Then gunfire rang out from outside.

“This is East Asia. Who’s shooting?!”

Wang Xiao’s eyes constricted, and he hurriedly straightened up.

“Impossible. He wouldn’t dare call the police. Could it be private mercenaries?”

Before he even finished speaking, the sound of helicopter rotors suddenly came from outside as well.

A few people rushed out to look, and Wang Xiao collapsed to the ground, feeling as if the sky had caved in.

What he saw was this.

The entire place had already been surrounded. Just on the side of Exit A alone, there were 3,000 armed troops, packed so densely there was no end in sight.

They held the most advanced rifles, Bamulet A26s, the barrels all aimed at Wang Xiao.

Their faces were stern, they wore green uniforms, and their muscles were taut. At a glance, they were clearly regular troops.

“Surrender immediately. Surrender and you won’t be killed.”

The man at the front held a loudspeaker and, with a tense expression, issued a negotiation demand toward Wang Xiao.

By now, dozens of helicopters already filled the sky.

Their searchlights were on, while the soldiers below wore reflective strips and red warning beacons.

The entire factory was blazing with light, alarms screaming everywhere.

And on the helicopters’ landing ladders, dozens of snipers were lying in wait.

The moment Wang Xiao showed his head, red dots of all sizes would be aimed at him. As long as he refused to comply, he’d be shot through the head.

“What’s going on?!”

Wang Xiao couldn’t make sense of it and screamed at the top of his lungs.

But to that armed force, his panicked expression looked like nothing more than a criminal refusing to comply.

In an instant, the sound of rifles being racked echoed throughout the factory.

Just from that sound alone, the number of people surrounding the place front and back was probably an astonishing one hundred thousand.

Thirty artillery pieces at Exit A were raised and aimed straight at him.

The man in front waved a hand, and red dots covered Wang Xiao from head to toe.

“Final warning. Return the hostage immediately!”

“No! Bo Suihan! You illegally deployed one hundred thousand mercenaries. Do you even know you’ve already violated immigration control? The charges on you now are ten times, a hundred times worse than mine!”

Wang Xiao roared.

And because of that shout.

The squad in front split neatly to the left and right, making way.

Bo Suihan made a dramatic entrance at that moment.