The scarred man listened with satisfaction to Bai Annian's wails, his gaze shifting to the silent Tang Sui.
Seeing the composure on her face, a malice churned in the scarred man's heart. He longed to see that small face contorted with despair.
Recalling the news he had announced, the scarred man's lips curved a little deeper, and he began to coax, "Since you've been so good, I'll tell you something. I told those cops that for fifty million in ransom, they can take one away."
As he spoke, the scarred man's tone carried a hint of condescension, as if he were a butcher holding the power of life and death, deigning to grant a little more time to a lamb, but death was only a matter of time.
The other naive lamb believed him, sobbed for a moment, and a flicker of hope ignited in her eyes.
But Tang Sui did not believe he would be so kind.
Because in the next second, the butcher bared his teeth and announced his dark joke:
"But, only one."
That is, the so-called choose one of two.
Bai Annian cried out in shock, but before she could utter a sound, the scarred man turned to her, meeting her bloodshot eyes. Bai Annian immediately found herself unable to speak, only hearing the scarred man's playful and malicious words drift into her ears:
"You say, who will they choose? Will it be you, who inherits the bloodlines of both the Tang and Bai families, or Bai Shuyan's own illegitimate daughter?"
The scarred man, without any hesitation, revealed Bai Annian's true identity. Bai Annian's face changed repeatedly, and a look of terror clouded her eyes, realizing that this villain in front of her had investigated all their information thoroughly.
But...
"Who do you want to pay the ransom?" she asked, her voice trembling.
If Bai Shuyan, or even Ye Nan ge, were to pay the ransom, she had a ninety percent chance they would choose her.
But if it were the Tang family patriarch, it would be different.
Just as Madam Tang only cared about her, her blood-related but closer daughter, the Tang family patriarch similarly only cared about his other blood-related and close son.
For the sake of the cooperation between the Tang and Bai families, they would definitely choose Tang Sui!
Thinking this, Bai Annian's face contorted for a moment. The delicate beauty who should have been weeping gracefully now displayed a distorted ferocity that ruined her pitiable aura.
If the other three kidnappers were still there, they might have felt pity. But now, only Tang Sui and the scarred man, whose mind had gone completely askew, were in the same room as Bai Annian.
Tang Sui remained silent, her small face smudged with dirt, serene. But the scarred man saw through the fear and hurt hidden beneath the pretense of composure of this young lady from a prominent family.
She was like a stubborn little beast that, though stepped into the hunter's trap and injured by the jaws, still endured silently.
The scarred man felt this was truly enviable, but also exciting.
Because he could feel the hollowness and surging malice beneath the exquisite, doll-like facade of the girl before him.
It only needed a trigger to be released.
Thinking this, he maliciously said, "I haven't specified who they will send. It could be Tang Zeli himself, or someone else from the Tang family, or their secretary, or other disguised police officers."
The scarred man knew how to turn the unknown into a sharp sword that pierced the deepest.
It was when a person stood at the highest point, only to suddenly fall from the clouds, that it hurt the most.
Bai Annian felt a chill run down her spine and could only pray that it would be the people she thought.
Time ticked by, and the second-hand phone the scarred man used to contact the Tang family rang.
"It seems they've arrived. Then, let's hear who they choose," the scarred man, never one to shy away from drama, turned on the speakerphone.
The one who came to pay the ransom was not the Tang family patriarch, nor Madam Tang, but a stranger's voice.
Bai Annian's mood was like a roller coaster, plummeting from its highest point to the absolute bottom.
Tang Sui remained silent, merely watching the scarred man speak to the person on the other end of the phone deliberately in front of them. Her gaze fell on the phone, and her heart, inevitably, wavered, a flicker of hope beginning to stir.
Would... she be the one chosen?
On the other end of the phone, the man sent to make the choice seemed to hesitate. After a suffocating silence, he spoke a name:
"We choose Bai Annian, Miss Bai."
A bone-chilling cold and sharp pain swept through Tang Sui's heart. The faint light that had flickered in her clear black eyes due to the stranger's voice now extinguished, little by little.
We...
Ah...
So, this decision was made by both families together?
She had once again become the one who was abandoned.
In an instant, Tang Sui's heart turned to ash.
Bai Annian, huddled in the corner, felt as if she had been launched by a rocket, soaring skyward, a wild ecstasy appearing in her eyes.
She suppressed her excitement and elation until the scarred man slowly hung up the phone. Then, impatiently but cautiously, she asked, "You... you will keep your promise and let me go, won't you?"
His first target of revenge was only those related to the Tang family. Although she was discovered to be an illegitimate daughter, she was still of Bai family blood, not Tang family blood.
And what he wanted was probably the painful expressions of the Tang family, what did that have to do with her?
Bai Annian thought coldly and excitedly, her expression betraying her thoughts.
The scarred man glanced playfully at Tang Sui, who hung her head in silence, as if she had lost all vitality in an instant. He chuckled softly, "Of course."
He took a step and walked towards Tang Sui.