Saito followed behind the man, feeling uneasy. That hotel was Barrola’s territory.
Their two families had never gotten along—they’d been feuding for years. Charging into enemy territory to grab someone like this would definitely stir up trouble.
Besides, he’d already suspected earlier that the girl might have some connection to the Barrola family. The erased information was probably their doing—otherwise, he couldn’t think of anyone else with that kind of power.
Seeing the man’s determined posture, Saito swallowed the words that were about to leave his mouth. The boss was in high spirits; he didn’t want to get beaten to a pulp.
But by the time their people found the hotel room, it was already empty.
Zhao Jingwan had reached the airport long ago. She’d bought a ticket on the earliest flight back to the country, and boarding time was approaching. She waited anxiously in the departure lounge, constantly checking the time on her phone.
She also kept glancing around to see if anyone was following her. She had a feeling the man would soon track her here. Only once she was on the plane would she be safe. Her nerves grew tighter with every passing second.
Finally, the intercom announced that her flight was ready for boarding. She jumped up and rushed to the security checkpoint.
After a quick search, she boarded successfully and collapsed into her seat with relief, finally letting out a long breath.
Thinking back on the harrowing escape, Zhao Jingwan still felt a lingering fear.
This trip—she hadn’t met her biological father, hadn’t found any trace of Chu Ning, and instead had landed herself in this huge mess. She had no idea what she’d do once she returned home.
Suddenly, she felt exhausted in both body and mind.
As the departure time drew closer, an inexplicable unease began to creep into Zhao Jingwan’s heart…
A woman’s intuition was sometimes just that accurate. The announcement came on—a flight attendant informed the passengers that due to thunderstorms in a city along the route, the departure would be delayed…
Great. This kind of bad luck was bound to bring more misfortune along with it.
That was just how life worked.
Zhao Jingwan grew anxious again, asking the flight attendant repeatedly when they’d take off. The answer was always the same—uncertain, but they’d depart as soon as the takeoff order came through.
There was nothing she could do but wait in her seat.
She secretly turned on her phone’s data, hoping to see a reply to the messages she’d sent. A strange video message popped up instead.
It was a few dozen seconds of surveillance footage. In the video, a girl with a knife burst into a crowded dance floor, moving frantically. She bumped into several people before stumbling and falling to the ground.
A foreigner kindly tried to help her up, but in her startled reaction, she stabbed him.
The woman was startled too, but she didn’t linger. She pulled the phone from the man’s pocket, got up, and kept running toward the edge of the crowd.
A security guard came running over. The girl, panicked, kept talking on the phone while continuing to flee.
Just before she moved out of the camera’s range, she seemed to collide with someone else—and the video cut off abruptly…
The girl in the video was Chu Ning.
It was the surveillance footage from that club. Reeling from the impact of what she’d just seen, Zhao Jingwan’s head buzzed, and she couldn’t snap out of it for a long while.
Then her phone buzzed again. Her whole body jolted. Tears, stretched to the breaking point, spilled down and splattered onto the phone screen.
When she saw the phone number on the display,
she couldn’t stop trembling. Her finger reacted faster than her mind and answered the call.
“What did you do to her?”
Was Chu Ning still alive? She desperately needed to know.
The man let out a light chuckle.
“Want to know? Then do what I say.”
Luo Jin had just arrived at the airport and was striding inside. Hearing the girl’s trembling voice through the phone, his mood lifted considerably.
“Look up. See any police on your plane?”
Zhao Jingwan snapped back to reality and noticed that several police officers had appeared in the airport at some point. They were questioning passengers one by one, searching for something.
The man heard no reply for a long moment. His brow furrowed again, his tone turning colder.
“Go tell them.”
“Tell them… what?”
She asked instinctively. Luo Jin heard her voice, curled the corner of his mouth, and parted his thin lips slowly.
“Tell them you’re carrying drugs.”
The moment the words fell, the other end went completely silent—even the sound of her nervous breathing disappeared.
“Not listening? Your friend is quite pretty. Maybe she’ll be more obedient than you. Once I’ve had my fun with her, I’ll sell her off to rich men as a pet. You keep running—she’ll take the punishment for you.”
After a moment, Luo Jin heard the girl’s trembling voice through the phone. Satisfied, he hung up and found a seat to sit down.
About ten minutes later, a slender figure appeared at the boarding gate, flanked by a few local police officers. The girl kept her head down, her hair tied back, revealing only her youthful profile—small, weak, and helpless.
Zhao Jingwan was afraid Chu Ning really was in his hands. That man was certainly capable of following through on his threats.
Chu Ning had saved her before. Even if it meant trading her own life now, she would agree.
Luo Jin leaned back on the bench in the departure hall, watching the scene unfold, a vicious smile curling at his lips.
Saito stood lazily behind the man, watching the girl being taken away by the police with a look of pity on his face.
Tsk, of all the people to offend, why her?
When his boss went off the rails, there was no humanity left in him, was there?
To use such vicious means against a young girl—a baseless report that sent her straight in.
Muslims absolutely prohibit drugs, and while certain Middle Eastern countries tacitly allow underground deals for profit, on the surface, their laws still follow religious doctrine and are completely anti-drug.
Being sent in like that, even if she had no problems, she’d have to go through a fair amount of hassle before being released.
Not far away, a man came down the escalator. Saito spotted him at a glance and rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Zhou Zheng strode over, gave a slight nod to the seated man, and spoke respectfully.
“Rodell is dead.”
“What did you say?!”
Hearing this news, Saito blurted out in shock. Zhou Zheng glanced at him with some disdain and continued his report with his head lowered.
“It was a massacre. No survivors except for Sheikh, whose whereabouts are unknown.”
News of Rodell’s plane crash spread quickly through the circle. That same night, the villa where the Barrola family resided burned to the ground—no one survived.
Only the heir, Sheikh, remained unaccounted for.
As the largest arms dealer in the Middle East, such a major incident sparked rumors everywhere.
Neighboring countries grew restless, and various factions began to stir.
With something like this happening out of the blue—the arms tycoon and his entire family wiped out—even a fool could guess there had to be some conspiracy behind it.
Zhou Zheng had looked into Barrola’s last transaction. It was with Russia, on the business line Sheikh was in charge of.
When Rodell met his end, Sheikh had already vanished without a trace. No one knew where he was now, what his situation was, or whether he was dead or alive.
Taking a few photos from his pocket, Zhou Zheng handed them to the man who was deep in thought with furrowed brows.
“A few photos taken at the crash site.”
Luo Jin flipped through them one by one, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the wreckage shots, until his eyes finally stopped on a half-destroyed photo lying among the plane debris.
It was a group photo, burned down to only half, but the face on it was still clearly visible.
“Isn’t that the Chinese girl?”