“When we handle a job, Brother Chong, you just rest easy. Not a single cent of the money is missing, we found all of it. And as for that Peony blossom Er Dao and the guys were clamoring about, I brought her back for you too!”
“Not bad! As long as you guys do your jobs well, I won’t treat you unfairly!”
“Thank you, Brother Chong! Then what about Er Dao, Da Wei, and the rest?”
“They were caught by the police. Sooner or later they’re going to crack, so we have to leave before dawn. Same old rules—dig the pit first.”
“Don’t worry, Brother Chong. Spider and I have already dug half of it. It’ll take thirty minutes at most to finish.”
“I’m going to burn some incense. That woman—have you guys touched her yet?”
“Brother Chong, we haven’t used her. How would we dare?”
The three men shared a tacit understanding and let out a long burst of vulgar laughter.
As the laughter faded into the distance, Gu Ting and the man looked at each other. When it came to being slaughtered, no one had more experience than Gu Ting. Although she knew in her heart that this was a critical moment of life and death, where she should be very nervous and doing everything possible to survive, she had been through far too much. She was somewhat numb to “dying,” so she simply couldn’t bring herself to feel tense.
Not only was she not nervous, but she was even in the mood to feel a trace of sympathy for the stranger beside her. This guy was young, good-looking, and not bad at heart. Dying here in the prime of his youth—what a loss for so many sisters out there. What a shame.
What she didn’t expect was that the man before her was also sympathizing with her. His eyes carried a spark of light, and his tone was gentle and steady: “Let’s introduce ourselves. My name is Yan Xiu, and you?”
“Gu Ting.” Gu Ting answered very casually, her eyes shifting restlessly all over the place.
The light in the room was very dim, and Gu Ting felt it was a bit too quiet, so she took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Yan Xiu, asking casually, “If you can escape, what’s the thing you want to do most?”
Yan Xiu showed a look of surprise. After pondering for a moment, he let out a laugh and replied, “If I can escape, I think I’ll probably leave my family and do some things I’ve always wanted to do.”
Gu Ting couldn’t help but click her tongue. “That sounds like a very rich person’s answer.”
Yan Xiu: “…”
“What about you?” The tight string in Yan Xiu’s mind was momentarily disrupted. “What do you want to do if you escape?”
Gu Ting replied in a leisurely manner, “I probably want to look for my biological parents.”
Saying this, she bared her teeth in a wide grin at Yan Xiu. “My mom and dad lost a great treasure like me; wouldn’t they be worried to death? I have an obligation to end their suffering. Hey, please don’t look at me with that kind of expression. I don’t need anyone’s sympathy, thanks!”
Before Yan Xiu could speak, the door to the room was pushed open. A middle-aged man with an ordinary, entirely forgettable face walked in, dragging an axe. He was of average height and average build, the kind of person who wouldn’t stand out at all in a crowd. Only his eyes, which inadvertently revealed a sinister and ruthless cruelty, made people shudder at a single glance.
This person must be the man called Brother Chong just now.
Brother Chong took a deep drag of his last cigarette, threw the butt down, and crushed it with his foot. Then, he spat fiercely on the ground. “You two…”
Gu Ting rolled her eyes at him and interrupted, “Alright, alright, if you’re going to chop, just chop. Don’t talk so much nonsense, it’s annoying to listen to!”
Brother Chong, with a mouthful of words choked right back in: “…”
Yan Xiu: “…” I misjudged her. It turns out she’s this abrasive to everyone.
Brother Chong sneered savagely. “It’s my first time seeing someone so eager to die. You’ve got guts! But since you’re so beautiful, you can satisfy me first before you die, and then I’ll chop you into pieces. Hahahahaha…”
Gu Ting: “Piece of…”
Yan Xiu used his height advantage to block Gu Ting, his gaze calm. “From beginning to end, your only target has been me. You’ve taken the money, and the job is almost done. Let her go.”
Brother Chong was amused. He slung the axe over his shoulder and said in a bizarre, mocking tone, “What’s this? You’ve taken a liking to her too? Seeing as you’re about to die, it’s not impossible for me to satisfy you. How about we make it a bit more thrilling? Hahahahaha…”
Yan Xiu interrupted, “I have another account with twenty million yuan in it. If you let her go, I can give it all to you.”
Gu Ting snapped her head around, her heart genuinely moved. What was her relationship with him? They had known each other for less than an hour, yet he was willing to use twenty million to trade for her. If the timing weren’t so wrong, she really wanted to kowtow to him. Was this man the reincarnation of the Leshan Giant Buddha?
A good person, a truly good person!
Brother Chong was slightly tempted, but he quickly maintained his stance and sneered, “You’d better keep that twenty million to spend down in the underworld!”
With that, he took a large stride forward, making a motion to swing the axe to chop Yan Xiu. Gu Ting suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs, “You are Ding Chong! The Ding Chong who has been wanted by the police for years, right?”
Ding Chong’s gaze lingered between Gu Ting and Yan Xiu, and he let out a disdainful, cold laugh. “Stalling for time—this trick is useless!”
Gu Ting ignored his reply, her tone becoming even more certain: “You are Ding Chong, a wanted criminal with over twenty lives on your hands and a bounty of two hundred thousand yuan!”
Ding Chong wore a proud expression. “So what?”
Gu Ting’s tone grew cheerful. “Nothing much, it’s just that I’ve been extremely short of money lately. If I can hand you over to the police, I’ll be able to get that two hundred thousand!”
Even though Yan Xiu was a man of vast experience, he couldn’t help but look sideways at this moment, his eyes filled with shock.
The axe was practically hanging over her neck, yet she was actually in the mood to think about earning money?
Ding Chong’s gaze was even more direct, wearing an expression as if looking at an idiot.
“Such a fine beauty, how can her brain be so dysfunctional?” Ding Chong evaluated with genuine sincerity.
Gu Ting’s gaze met Ding Chong’s, and she suddenly smiled, provoking him word by word: “Because my intuition tells me that you will die by my hand tonight.”
Ding Chong’s eyes darkened, and his face instantly turned cold. Without warning, he raised the axe and swung it toward Gu Ting. Before Yan Xiu could make a move, a sudden twist of events occurred in the next instant. The head of the axe in Ding Chong’s hand unexpectedly detached from the handle. His forceful downward swing instead caused the iron axe head to smash violently back into his own face. The sensation of a blunt weapon embedding deeply into human flesh brought a wave of sympathetic pain even to Yan Xiu, who was watching from the side.
The harder Ding Chong swung the weapon, the greater the injury he suffered. A visible indentation formed from his right eye up to his forehead, and blood gushed out like a torrent. Without even having the time to let out a scream, Ding Chong collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The turn of events within a brief minute was far too fantastical. Yan Xiu was too shocked to speak, but Gu Ting had already squirmed like a caterpillar to Ding Chong’s side. After plonking herself down, she twisted awkwardly to grab the fallen, blood-stained axe.
“Don’t just daze out, dummy!” Gu Ting urged, remaining as calm as if nothing had happened. After all, this was already the third time she had witnessed a similar occurrence.
Yan Xiu reacted quickly. Though his hands and feet were tied, his bodily coordination was excellent. He quickly moved over to help Gu Ting pick up the axe and cut the ropes. Through their tacit cooperation, the hemp ropes on their bodies were finally entirely removed.
Once he regained his freedom of movement, Yan Xiu immediately tied Ding Chong up and searched him for a phone. Unfortunately, the phone had no signal, so the two could only take the phone and escape first.
Before leaving, Gu Ting cast a glance at Ding Chong on the ground, her eyes filled with regret—that was two hundred thousand yuan! To not be able to carry him away with her was simply too much of a pity!
The two escaped from the dilapidated, dark house without any further danger. Fortunately, the remaining two kidnappers were digging the pit elsewhere and hadn’t noticed the commotion inside the ruined house; otherwise, their escape would not have been so smooth.
Aided by the moonlight, Gu Ting and Yan Xiu could barely make out their surroundings. Dense trees blotted out the sky, obscuring the path ahead and hiding the stars.
Yan Xiu pondered, “Running aimlessly will consume too much energy. We had better choose a direction before setting off.”
Gu Ting paused her steps, pointed straight ahead, and said casually, “Then let’s just go forward.”
Yan Xiu asked, “Do you know which direction that is?”
Gu Ting: “If you’re willing to trust me, just keep going forward.”
With so many facts laid out before her, no matter how foolish she was, she had figured it out. Having earned nearly two million yuan within just a few days of traveling back, with every day feeling like “picking up money” and her financial luck being ridiculously good, this wasn’t just a stroke of luck. It was clearly the reward from the grand prize draw after completing her system tasks. This was the only logical explanation she could think of.
If she hadn’t guessed wrong, this reward was supposed to give her a financial luck buff, greatly increasing her probability of attracting wealth. That was why within a mere two to three days, there had been so many absurd, abstract, and inexplicable ways for money to come to her.
It was only because her starting point was low and she lacked capital—and more importantly, the time was too short. Otherwise, with this absurd “Wealth God physique” of hers, her ability to generate wealth would be terrifying.
She just didn’t know how long this cheat-like thing would last.
At this very moment, there was no time for her to study this. A flash of inspiration had simply made her think that “money” and “forward” shared a similar sound in her language. Wasn’t there a saying: look toward money, earn toward thick profits? Maybe this trick would work too. Even if it didn’t, it wouldn’t matter; the earth was round anyway, so they would find their way back sooner or later.
Yan Xiu took a deep look at her. The image of Ding Chong’s face being smashed in by the reverse force of the axe was still fresh in his mind. And just a few seconds before that happened, Gu Ting had spoken a string of bizarre words. Although the two things seemed completely unrelated, he always felt that there was a trace of the extraordinary in this matter.
Without overthinking it, Yan Xiu said decisively, “Then let’s go.”
The two truly kept walking straight forward. In less than half an hour, they walked out of the layers of forest. The view ahead suddenly opened up, revealing a large expanse of flat fields under the moonlight. Not far ahead of them was a main road cutting through the farm and leading into the distance, as if indicating that everything was progressing in a good direction.
However, Yan Xiu spoke up to stop Gu Ting from moving forward: “Taking the main road makes it easier to get caught instead. I suggest taking the small paths between the fields. It’s convenient for hiding, and it won’t be easy for them to catch up…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Yan Xiu suddenly dodged to the side. He was a step too late after all, and was slashed across the back with a knife. Enduring the pain, he lunged forward, not forgetting in his frantic state to push Gu Ting down so they could retreat together, evading the enemy’s swinging blade attack.
Gu Ting was still shaken and hadn’t reacted yet when Yan Xiu had already turned around to meet the attackers. In the blink of an eye, he engaged in a fight with the two kidnappers. Unlike the previous situation where he was at their mercy, Yan Xiu’s hands and feet were not bound this time, and he held an iron rod found at the kidnappers’ stronghold. He was entirely capable of unleashing his martial prowess to fight against them.
Gu Ting hadn’t expected that Yan Xiu was much more capable of fighting than his face suggested. His body was agile, his reflexes flexible, and his physical explosive power was astonishing; a single punch made the opponent curse in pain.
Fighting one against two, Yan Xiu actually didn’t fall into a disadvantage, leaving the two men completely unable to fight back. Gu Ting was standing to the side, gathering her strength and looking for an opportunity to deliver a finishing blow, when Yan Xiu suddenly shouted to her, “Their target is me, it has nothing to do with you. Run quickly, don’t look back! Go!”
Gu Ting gnashed her teeth and said fiercely, “If I see things turning bad, I’ll slip away. Mind your own business!”
Despite being in the thick of a fierce fight, Yan Xiu was amused to the point of laughter by her words, unable to resist snapping a curse, “Ungrateful!”
Their dialogue instead reminded the kidnappers. One of them abandoned the siege on Yan Xiu and turned around to grab Gu Ting. Gu Ting instinctively ducked to dodge, but who would have thought her foot would slip, causing her to lose her balance and fall straight toward the bushes behind her.
By this time, Yan Xiu had also rushed over. He instinctively reached out to grab Gu Ting’s hand, but he didn’t realize that what lay behind Gu Ting wasn’t just a simple thicket of thorns, but a large pit hidden beneath the bushes. Under the force of momentum, Yan Xiu was pulled straight into the pit by Gu Ting, rolling all the way down.
Yan Xiu thought: To think that in the end, I wasn’t trapped by the enemy, but literally trapped by my teammate.