Xinyu Flower Shop, Minghai Road, Jinghai.
It was a small shop, and a woman was busy working inside.
Her beauty could captivate a city. Her eyes were clear and luminous, deep as moonlit water. Every movement carried an uncommon grace, like an orchid glimpsed in the shadows.
"Move! Out of the way!"
The crude, overbearing shouts shattered the peace.
Seven or eight burly men with vicious expressions stormed into the shop. Without a word, they began smashing everything in sight.
Crack!
Crash!
...
Vases and pots shattered. Flowers were flung across the floor and brazenly trampled into pulp.
"Stop! My flowers... my flowers!"
Gu Moli panicked. She relied on this little shop to pay every bill, and now they were destroying it all.
"What are you doing?"
A harsh voice rang out. A bald man entered, rolling a string of beads in one hand, a piece of amber hanging from his neck.
"You fucking bastards!"
Taking in the wreckage, he cursed and began kicking the burly men furiously.
"Ow! Master Tiger, stop!"
"That hurts! We were wrong! We were wrong!"
"Stop hitting us!"
...
The men cried out in pain and dodged desperately.
"Brainless idiots! I told you to come help, and you fucking wrecked the place! Are you all tired of living?"
Master Tiger glared at his men through vicious, triangular eyes. But when he turned to Gu Moli, his face immediately transformed into a smile.
"Oh, Miss Gu. My men really don't know how to behave. Tsk, tsk."
Gu Moli bit her lip. Her eyes burned with anger, but she was helpless.
Even a fool could see they had done it on purpose.
"Master Tiger, I'll work hard and pay you back. All I ask is that you leave me a way to survive."
Her voice was pleading, painfully humble.
"Miss Gu, haven't I already offered you one?"
"Just be mine, and the problem goes away. You won't have to repay a cent, and you'll have money for your daughter's treatment. Everybody wins."
"I will repay the money!"
Gu Moli forced the words through clenched teeth, looking forlorn amid the wreckage.
Master Tiger rolled his beads and grinned, exposing yellow teeth stained with tobacco.
"If I force you to pay, I look like a bastard. If I let you off, well, that was real money I lent you."
"If you had another way, would you have borrowed from a loan shark like me?"
"I really want to help. Say yes, and your girl's treatment is taken care of."
His smile did not reach his eyes. Threats laced every word as he reached for Gu Moli's face.
She quickly stepped back, her back pressing against the wall, fear in her eyes.
"Mmm... You smell so good." Master Tiger looked intoxicated.
Revulsion filled Gu Moli's face. Instinctively, she clutched her collar with both hands.
"Of course, you can refuse. But..." His eyes narrowed, his voice turning cold. "Your daughter is in my hands now. Turns out the little brat has rare Rh-negative blood. Tsk, tsk."
"That'll fetch a nice price. Once I've drained her blood and sold her organs, we'll call your debt settled."
Gu Moli's vision went black. She nearly fainted. She had never imagined he could be so vicious that he would not even spare her daughter.
"Master Tiger, please! Let my daughter go! I'll do anything you say!" Her pleas became hysterical. Her daughter was her whole world. If anything happened to the girl, she would not go on living either.
"Now, now, why are you crying?" He pretended to be distressed. "If you'd agreed sooner, none of this would have happened. Now you've put me in a difficult position. You saw how hard my boys are to control."
"But don't worry. If this one dies, we can have more. As many as you want."
He licked his lips and reached his grasping hands toward her.
"Master Tiger, please let my daughter go. Please..."
Gu Moli was utterly desperate. She would agree to anything if it brought her daughter back.
But even if she did, would he really return the child?
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Thud!
At that moment, a heel slammed into a body. A man weighing a hundred kilograms flew through the air and crashed into the wall.
He spat blood.
The man hit the floor and lost consciousness.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
...
In the blink of an eye, all seven or eight men lay on the floor, blood spilling from their mouths. It was impossible to tell whether they were alive.
"Who the fuck are you? Looking to die?" Master Tiger erupted. "Do you know who I am?"
Before he could finish, Ye Bei kicked him in the thigh.
Thud!
Then he dropped to both knees.
Crack!
He landed hard, facing Gu Moli directly.
Blood burst from his mouth.
Terror filled his face. He tried to get up, only to discover that his thighbone had snapped.
"Aaaah!"
A heart-rending scream tore from his throat.
"Just you wait! I'll fucking kill you!" With blood filling his mouth, he pulled out his phone. "Everyone, get over here! Someone's trying to kill me!"
He hung up, wiped the blood from his face, and bared his teeth in a vicious grimace.
"Hahaha! Just wait, boy. You're finished..."
Ye Bei casually kicked a flowerpot straight into his mouth.
Crash!
The pot shattered, smashing every yellow tooth in his mouth and knocking him unconscious.
With the noise silenced, Ye Bei turned to Gu Moli. Their eyes met.
One second. Two...
"Y-Ye Bei?" The sight of the imposing figure before her made her dizzy. He hurried forward and caught her in his arms.
"Please... Save Xinyu." Gu Moli clutched his collar tightly.
"Who's Xinyu?" he asked urgently.
"My daughter—your daughter! She's... Master Tiger has her. She's in danger!" There was no room for old grievances now. Gu Moli forced out the words, then could hold on no longer and fainted.
The world seemed to thunder around him.
It struck Ye Bei like lightning. Even though he had been prepared for the possibility, hearing Gu Moli confirm that he had a daughter still made him tremble.
He had a daughter...
Master Tiger lay unconscious on the floor. Clearly, he would be getting no answers from him. Ye Bei's eyes turned bloodshot.
"Wipe out his entire clan! Find her! I want my daughter's location within one minute!"
"Yes, sir!"
Lü Zhongyuan hurriedly took out his satellite phone and dialed.
As the call went through, hundreds of people in a high-rise in Jinghai began hammering at their keyboards, pulling up surveillance footage from across the city.
Wei Sen paced anxiously. As director of the Jinghai Inspectorate, he had just received a call from Lü Zhongyuan, State-Securing Envoy of Central China himself. That alone showed how urgent and important this was.
"Who is this little girl?"
"No idea. I've never heard of her."
"Just keep looking. She must have some serious connections."
Several people whispered among themselves. They had never seen their director so tense.
"Find her! If you don't have her location in a minute, every last one of you is fired!" Wei Sen roared. If the State-Securing Envoy held him responsible, not even ten directors like him could bear the consequences.