The flattery had worked, and there was no need to continue rolling in the car trunk. The ropes on his hands were also loosened. The thoughtful old butler even found a military coat for Ping An.
The scouts finally returned. While Yang Jiao and the others went up to ask questions, Ping An squatted beside Qiao Yiyan.
"Are you okay? Let me see your wound!" Just like the previous few days, Ping An's tone remained the same, with no hate or resentment.
It was just an ordinary greeting, but in Qiao Yiyan's ears, it carried a wealth of information.
"You knew all along, didn't you?" Qiao Yiyan lowered her head and said, feigning calmness.
"What's the point of talking about this now?" Ping An looked up, observed the surroundings, and realized that with just two legs, they wouldn't be able to outrun their pursuers even in eight lifetimes.
"Was my method ineffective? Or are you immune?" Qiao Yiyan raised her head.
The woman before him, who had been coquettishly clinging to him just yesterday evening, was now in such a sorry state.
"Your breastbone or ribs? Did you break them? Why did you have to push yourself?" Ping An forcefully pried open Qiao Yiyan's hand that was covering her chest and placed his own hand inside to slowly feel her wound.
"How did you know I was pushing myself? You were already awake then, weren't you?" Qiao Yiyan looked at Ping An in disbelief. "Or?"
"Shush!" Ping An made a silencing gesture.
"Let's focus on surviving first. Once we get out, we'll settle this one-on-one!" Ping An said gently. "How about it, Mr. Ke?"
Ping An, being a detective, inevitably got injured often. He had his ways of treating injuries, especially common ones like fractures that came from getting beaten up. He was quite adept at it.
He picked up two wooden boards from the grass, sandwiched Qiao Yiyan's abdomen between them, and then tightly bound them with a piece of old wire he found.
"Try standing up. You should be able to," Ping An carefully held Qiao Yiyan's hand, helping her attempt to stand.
In the distance, Yang Jiao had finished her inquiries and received the intelligence that "the area ahead is safe."
"Showing mercy to a damsel in distress, aren't we!" Yang Jiao said triumphantly as she walked over. She glanced at the disheveled Qiao Yiyan and said to Ping An, "Let's go! You're the one who found her, so you should point her out to us."
"I don't have time to look for people. You know I've been with her all day," Ping An said, looking at Qiao Yiyan, then at Yang Jiao. "I asked a friend in the local media to find her. After finding her, I didn't say anything to the child, just told me the address. I was planning to go look for her quietly in a few days, but you guys intercepted."
"You mean you haven't been here?" Yang Jiao asked, not entirely convinced.
"Didn't you say this was Gaojia Village? Then it must be. I haven't been here," Ping An shook his head.
Ping An's explanation seemed unreasonable at first glance, but considering the situation they were in, it was plausible.
"Who helped you find her?" Yang Jiao, unwilling to give up, continued to question.
"He's from Shuicheng Television, an old classmate of mine, named Zhang Zhicheng," Ping An explained, looking at Yang Jiao. "After Liao Yuan told me about Tonghua, he said the child was being fostered in Gaojia Village, Shuicheng County. The first thing I did after leaving the police station was to ask my classmate for help. He found out after a day and gave me a reply the next day, saying that the person indeed existed and lived in the old warehouse in Gaojia Village."
Skeptical, Yang Jiao, with her limited experience, felt Ping An's words were logical, yet something still felt off.
"Let's go. Didn't the scouts say it was safe? We can go into the village and look around," Ping An noticed Yang Jiao's hesitation and took the initiative to suggest they move on.
"Wait, call your old classmate. I want to hear what he has to say." Yang Jiao, still suspicious, took out a mobile phone and handed it to Ping An.
"My phone is at the hotel. I haven't turned it on in days. His phone number..." Ping An seemed reluctant to make the call, offering a flimsy excuse.
A burly man suddenly raised a hunting rifle and silently pressed it to Ping An's head.
"Just try it. You just called him recently, didn't you? With your memory, you shouldn't have forgotten. Besides, if he could quickly handle the favor you asked, you must have more than just a casual relationship. You can't even remember your buddy's phone number?" Yang Jiao taunted. "Oh, right, your precious disciple once bragged to me that you never look at your contacts when you call, you always dial directly. So, I'll only let you try twice. If the first time is wrong, Qiao Yiyan dies. If the second time is wrong, burying you here wouldn't be too bad."
"Alright, alright. It's early in the morning; they might not be awake yet." Ping An very reluctantly took the phone and, after a moment's thought, dialed a number.
"Put it on speaker!" As soon as the call connected, Yang Jiao demanded before Ping An could speak.
"Who is it?" a thick Shuicheng accent.
"It's me, Ping An," Ping An announced his name.
"Damn, what's up so early in the morning?" the person on the other end began to complain.
"Nothing much, just about the child I asked you to find last time. Remember?" Ping An reminded him.
"Didn't I find him for you? What else do you want?" the old classmate started complaining.
"I mainly wanted to ask if you've been back there since, if there are any new developments?" Ping An said, looking at Yang Jiao as he spoke.
"Am I crazy to go back there? Stay far away, you're not paying me," the old classmate on the phone seemed to sober up, his words becoming more numerous. "Oh, speaking of which, let me ask one more thing. What do you plan to do with that child? It's quite pathetic. He was sent away at four years old. At that age, children already remember things. Most of them know they're being adopted..."
Unexpectedly, Ping An's old classmate was a chatterbox, talking endlessly.
Yang Jiao, after hearing half of it, had already lost interest. Perhaps it touched upon her own past, making her feel a bit sad.
"Alright, no more talking. If you haven't been back, I won't ask anymore. You can go back to sleep," Ping An hung up after getting Yang Jiao's permission.
"Give me the phone." Yang Jiao took the phone and checked the number Ping An had dialed, finding it was indeed from Shuicheng. She then took out a tablet and searched for "Shuicheng Television Zhang Zhicheng." It turned out this Zhang Zhicheng was indeed a chief reporter at Shuicheng Television.
After repeated verification, Ping An hadn't shown any signs of deception. Yang Jiao had no reason to doubt him further.
"Good, you take the middle car. This woman will be in the last car. We're going up the mountain into the village," Yang Jiao finally gave the order.
"Do you have a plan? Is someone coming to rescue you?" Qiao Yiyan secretly asked Ping An as she got into the car.
"I hope so!" Ping An said, but he felt a prickle of unease. He wasn't sure if Gao Da and Hei Dou could find him in time. For now, he could only continue to stall for time.
Held captive by the enemy, Ping An was stalling for time, waiting for Gao Da and Hei Dou to rescue him. Little did he know that his disciple had already become a commander and was leading a team, advancing with full force.
Thanks to Ping An's stalling, before Yang Jiao's convoy departed, the trio of Da Shu, who had set off earlier, had already stealthily approached.
"I see the target. He's alive. What do you think, should we follow quietly?" Da Shu reported to Su Tang through the walkie-talkie.
"This happened so suddenly, my master is probably panicking. It's been hours, and they're only going up the mountain now. It's likely a stalling tactic," Su Tang analyzed calmly through the walkie-talkie and gave the next instruction. "Remove the license plates, then boldly follow them, and then..."
Having received instructions, Da Shu immediately got out of the car to remove the license plate and then jokingly said to the bewildered Lao Yuan, "I remember you have a cousin in Guangxi, right?"
Meanwhile, in Hei Dou's team.
"Hei Dou, my master is still alive. They are currently heading towards the old warehouse in Gaojia Village. Where are you?" Su Tang, after directing Da Shu, still had to direct Hei Dou. Su Tang was quite busy today.
"We'll reach the old food house in Gaojia Village in about fifteen minutes," Hei Dou reported.
"Alright, once you reach your destination, do this..." Su Tang meticulously arranged the plan.
"Finally, notify your people in the city. As soon as my godfather gets off the highway, they should immediately drive towards Gaojia Village with their sirens on," Su Tang said.
Gaojia Village was a large village in Shuicheng County. A tall mountain within the village divided it into the front and back sections. Both the front and back sections were independent natural villages. Although they belonged to the same administrative village, they had no connection.
When Gaojia Village was prosperous, it had several hundred residents. At that time, there was no highway. The front section, by the old provincial road, had a warehouse opened in the name of the village collective, which is now a logistics warehouse. In the 1980s, this warehouse made a lot of money for the village. However, after the highway opened, no one traveled on the provincial road anymore, and the warehouse became an old warehouse that no one paid attention to. As for the back section, it didn't have the convenient transportation of the front section. However, many years ago, it was the location of the highway construction project headquarters. Thousands of road construction workers ate here every day. The village signed a contract with the project department to build a food house, which was a collective canteen, specifically for the workers. After the highway was built, the food house lost its business and, like the warehouse in the front section, became a relic of the past.
Yang Jiao and her group finally drove into the front section and majestically drove their convoy to the outside of the old warehouse.
"Boss, this is the old warehouse," a young man who had been scouting reported to Yang Jiao.
Before Yang Jiao were four large warehouses arranged from north to south. On either side of the warehouses were a row of single-story buildings. Although the courtyard had a cement road, it was overgrown with weeds. The single-story buildings were also in disarray, with no signs of habitation.
"Ping An, is this the old warehouse you mentioned? Where is Tonghua?" Yang Jiao had a large man drag Ping An out and asked impatiently.
"Grandmother, I'm here for the first time too. I didn't know it looked like this," Ping An pretended to be innocent. "You all go search the surroundings. See if they're living in the nearby civilian houses."
"Search my ass!" Yang Jiao got angry upon hearing this. "Are you afraid the police won't find out soon enough?"
"What can I do? I told you, I'm here for the first time," Ping An started to act up.
"Drag Qiao Yiyan out!" Yang Jiao glared fiercely at the burly man behind her, who immediately raised his hunting rifle, ready to grab Qiao Yiyan.
"Wait, wait, let me think, let me think!" Ping An became anxious and quickly tried to come up with a solution on the spot.
"Well, even though I haven't been here, I studied the terrain a few days ago. I remember the village behind the mountain was also called Gaojia Village, and there was an old food house there. Not the warehouse kind, but a cooking food house," Ping An said to Yang Jiao, pretending to have just remembered. "Perhaps I misheard. It should be the old food house."
"Nonsense, how could it be such a coincidence?" Yang Jiao did not believe Ping An's explanation at all and continued to signal the burly man.
The burly man took the order and raised his hunting rifle, aiming it at Qiao Yiyan's head.
"Wait, I have something else to say!" Ping An was in a hurry now and quickly stopped them.
"Don't pay attention to him. Let's kill one first," Yang Jiao said to her subordinates, ignoring Ping An completely.
The hunting rifle was raised above Qiao Yiyan's head. Qiao Yiyan closed her eyes tightly in fear.
Ping An watched everything in despair, his mind racing. He knew that without another convincing explanation, the impatient Yang Jiao would never back down.
At the critical moment, a car suddenly drove into the courtyard.
The burly man, who was about to kill, lowered his gun vigilantly.
"What are you doing? What are you doing here? This is private property, not a parking lot. Please leave! Leave!" a man wearing a leather hat and sunglasses said imperiously from the car, pulling up his pants. "We don't accept self-driving tours here. Leave!"
A knight in shining armor? Yang Jiao gave a look to one of her subordinates. The subordinate took out a box of Zhonghua cigarettes and smiled as he walked over.
"Brother, we just wanted to camp here. We'll be leaving this afternoon. Can you help us out?" the subordinate said sweetly, offering a Zhonghua cigarette first.
"Oh my, even if you want to come, you should notify me first, right? No manners!" The man was still a bit angry, but his tone softened considerably after accepting the Zhonghua cigarette.
"Brother, are you from this village?" Yang Jiao walked over charmingly and asked politely.
"I'm not. I'm a representative of Guangxi Shepherd Star Resort Culture Company. We've been stationed here for two years. If it weren't for the company's broken capital chain, the old warehouse you see before you would be a resort, and the old food house in the back section would be a food street," the man said, blowing out a puff of smoke, loving to brag.
As for the appearance of this Guangxi "cousin," Ping An's reaction was no different from the others. It wasn't that he was pretending; he genuinely had no idea who this person was.
Yang Jiao glanced at Ping An discreetly and saw that he also looked bewildered. She figured this couldn't have been arranged by Ping An.
"Brother, we came here on the advice of a local netizen. He said he lived in the old food house and told us to find him. But after searching, we only found this place," Yang Jiao said meaningfully, casting a glance at Ping An.
Upon hearing Yang Jiao's words, Ping An's heart tightened, and he muttered, "Oh no."
"Damn, it's going to fall apart! How should I handle this!"
He had calculated everything, trying to stall for time, but unexpectedly, someone had appeared midway. What if this ruined his plan? Ping An thought anxiously.
Meanwhile, Yang Jiao had already begun to probe.
"My netizen, named Tonghua, lives in this village. Do you know him?" Yang Jiao asked.
"Little Tong? The young kid who lives in the old kiln of the old food house? Of course, I know him. He's working for me now. Who would have thought he has friends like you!" the man replied fluently.
The man's answer satisfied Yang Jiao. She discreetly signaled to the burly man hiding the gun behind the car, and the man hid his gun. Hmm? But now Ping An was in trouble. Could there be another child named Tonghua in this village? Had he stumbled upon him by chance?
Regardless, Ping An had narrowly escaped another scrape.
This time, Yang Jiao didn't question Ping An. Instead, she learned the route to cross the mountain from the Guangxi brother and then made a gesture, ordering everyone to go visit Tonghua's home.
The convoy left grandly, while the Guangxi brother stood at the entrance of the old warehouse, waving with a smile.
"Alright, everyone's gone. Come back quickly, don't embarrass yourself," Da Shu stuck his head out of the car window, holding back a laugh, and called Lao Yuan into the car.
"How was it? I even think I sound like myself. A Northeasterner who grew up in the countryside speaking authentic Guangxi dialect, I'm amazing," Lao Yuan said, still relishing the performance.
Su Tang's performance was commendable, showing impeccable planning from the very first command. Hei Dou, preparing to implement the second step of the plan, couldn't help but give Su Tang a thumbs-up after receiving her instructions.
Outside the old food house in Gaojia Village, Hei Dou was struggling to shave his beard with a small knife, while Gao Da was bustling around to put on a bulletproof vest for him.
"I'm already 26. Doesn't playing an eighteen-year-old kid look a bit off?" Hei Dou asked sheepishly, looking in the mirror.
"Just tidy up the house a bit!" Gao Da, having dressed Hei Dou, called to his two companions who had come with him.
"We agreed with the landlord to use it for just half a morning and paid 200 yuan," one of the young men said.
"Fifty would have been enough. Why pay so much?" Gao Da glanced at the nearby civilian house, dissatisfied with the young man's extravagance.
"This is the only farmhouse around this old food house that still has residents. We had to rent it," the young man explained. "To get him to leave, I paid him extra to go pick wild tangerines in the mountains. If he were here now, it would be a giveaway."
The preparations were proceeding smoothly according to Su Tang's instructions. Just then, Su Tang's voice came through the walkie-talkie again.
"They're almost here. Be wild, as much as possible, so even my master can't see through it!" Su Tang said with a hint of resentment. "The goal is to confuse them! Remember, remember!"
Well, the young girl wanted to vent, so they had to support her! That slap, oh, it pained Gao Da and Hei Dou to death at the time.
What was supposed to be a serious operation became somewhat comical and absurd under Su Tang's revenge. Hei Dou reported the current situation to Xiang Wanfeng, who was hundreds of miles away, without delay. Xiang Wanfeng, standing on his balcony, heard that these schemes were designed by a fifteen-year-old girl, and he couldn't help but nod. Then he grimaced and said to the person behind him, "Stop pinching, or my ear will fall off. Your son will be fine, don't worry. He has that little disciple, he'll be alright!"
At 7 AM, the moment Gao Xiaofei got off the highway, Yang Jiao's convoy bypassed the mountains and drove into the old food house in the back section of Gaojia Village.
"Hey, there really is an old food house?" a young man with a goatee leading the team said after stopping the car, looking at a crumbling wall with "Food House" printed on it.
"See that? Over there, by the persimmon tree, that's the farmhouse. It's probably Tonghua's place," the old butler said excitedly from inside the car, pointing to a farmhouse next to the old food house.
"This is really a hassle!" Finally having found the target, Yang Jiao's heart finally relaxed.
The trunk of one car opened, and a person wearing a hood was dragged out by two burly men.
From another car, a middle-aged man who hadn't gotten out at all this entire time also got out. He took a long gun from the trunk.
"Are his fingerprints on it?" Yang Jiao asked the middle-aged man.
"They are. I'm wearing gloves. I'll wait for your instructions. I'll find a place first," the middle-aged man whispered and then left alone.
Ping An and Qiao Yiyan were also dragged out. After Ping An's treatment earlier, Qiao Yiyan's complexion had improved considerably. At least she could walk now.
After getting out of the car, Ping An didn't look at the farmhouse but gazed towards an open area west of the old food house.
"What are you looking for?" Qiao Yiyan asked curiously.
"Looking for the ancestors of Gao Xiaofei's family!" Ping An said. "The one who just left was probably a sniper, likely a retired soldier. I guess the one with the hood is Yang Jie. They're going to frame us."
"Oh, then why are you looking for..." Qiao Yiyan asked.
"Because the ancestors of Gao Xiaofei can bless us!" Ping An said excitedly, as if he had found something. "At this critical moment, I'm not a detective, and you're not Mr. Ke. We're just trying to escape. When they try to frame us, if I say run, you run. Follow me, as long as we can reach that wilderness, we'll survive."
About to meet Liao Yuan's biological child, Yang Jiao felt a little nervous.
She pulled off the hood. The person who had been kidnapped was indeed Yang Jie.
"What does it feel like to personally kill the illegitimate child of your lover?" Yang Jiao asked. "I've always wondered, Liao Yuan had a child, so why did he adopt me?"
"Child, come back. Listen to your father's advice. You can't win against Ping An, let alone your grandfather. You'll be sacrificed," Yang Jie said, struggling to stand up. "At this point, I can't hide it from you anymore. We adopted you because of your grandfather. He wanted to..."
A burly man suddenly elbowed Yang Jie, and Yang Jie fainted before he could finish speaking.
"You?" Yang Jiao looked at the burly man in confusion.
"Miss, someone is coming out. Please focus!" The old butler suddenly appeared behind Yang Jiao.
Indeed, just then, the door of the farmhouse opened, and an old man, pushing a young man, walked out, cursing loudly.
"Bang!" Well, this old man also had a gun. Although he fired it into the sky, it made Yang Jiao's people nervous.
"Damn Ping An, get out here!" the old man said, hiding his head behind the young man. "If you don't come out, I'll beat your brother to death!"
Hearing the old man's words, everyone turned to look at Ping An.
"What is this?" Ping An recognized Gao Da and Hei Dou opposite him, but what was this performance?
"Don't lie to me. Tonghua is Liao Yuan's illegitimate son. I secretly did a DNA test, and there's a ninety percent similarity to you!" Gao Da, with a resentful face, finally appeared before everyone.
"Trust science. I felt something was wrong when you asked me to protect this child, saying he was Liao Yuan's, so I secretly got tested!" Gao Da said with great pain. "The results showed it was yours!"
"What are you talking about? This child is eighteen years old. Eighteen years ago, I was only fifteen!" Ping An felt something was wrong, but at this moment, he could only play along.
"Fifteen years old is enough!" Gao Da roared. "Tsk tsk, look at Miss Jiao, how capable she is! You're not bad either. A fifteen-year-old boy is old enough to have a child!"
...
If she hadn't witnessed it firsthand, Yang Jiao swore she would never encounter such a comical scene in her life. As for Qiao Yiyan, she was utterly bewildered.
"I've always wondered, always wondered, always wondered, why you worked so hard for Liao Yuan? So this child is yours!" Gao Da became more excited as he spoke. "Good calculation. Inheriting Liao's fortune, and then bringing it back to you, you're even richer, right?"
"What, what, what, what! Wait, Ping An! What's going on?" Yang Jiao finally exploded upon hearing about the fortune.
"Gao Da, don't talk nonsense!" Ping An quickly said to Yang Jiao. "He's really not mine, really not."
"Dad!" "Tonghua," who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.
Silence fell over the scene.
"No, even if Tonghua is Ping An's... why did you kidnap him?" Yang Jiao looked at Gao Da suspiciously. "I remember your name is Gao Da, right? You're Ping An's man?"
"Why! Why! Why!" Gao Da cried out in grief. He convulsed his aged face and said emotionally, "Godfather, I'm an old man, and I recognized you, Ping An, as my godfather. Wasn't it just for your wealth? You have your own biological son, where does that leave me? Ah!"
"Pfft!" Among those present, someone finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Ping An was on the verge of collapse. This wasn't a rescue; it was a joke!
"Enough!" Yang Jiao couldn't take it anymore and shouted. Then she said to Gao Da, "I don't care if you're acting or... if it's real. Now, I want this Tonghua. You guys, get out of the way!"
"No, I won't give him to you unless Ping An pays me money. Otherwise, I'd rather die than give him up. It'll be a fish dies, net breaks!" Gao Da threatened, holding his gun.
"How much do you want?" Yang Jiao asked softly.
"Eighty thousand! Take it or leave it!" Gao Da said.
Silence fell over the scene once more.
"Pfft!" The same person from before couldn't help but laugh again.
"Did I ask for too little? Oh, it doesn't seem grand enough?" Gao Da looked at Yang Jiao, finding her looking at him as if he were an idiot.
"Fire!" Yang Jiao ignored Gao Da any further and said into her earpiece.
"Bang!" A gunshot echoed, startling the birds in the village.
"Tonghua" suddenly collapsed to the ground in pain, a mouthful of blood flowing from his lips.
After much effort, Yang Jiao finally saw Tonghua die before her eyes.
Ping An was stunned, Gao Da was knocked unconscious by the impact of the bullet, and the old butler smiled.
"Boss, the sentries on the perimeter reported that the police from the river crossing have gotten off the highway and are heading directly here. Also, we just saw police cars from the police station being deployed, seemingly to evacuate the public," a masked young man reported to Yang Jiao after putting down his phone.
"Strangulate Yang Jie, frame Ping An, and then eliminate everyone. I'll leave first." The mission accomplished, Yang Jiao got into a car first and left, leaving behind a single sentence.