Chapter 1 Kidnapped

Inside the stairwell of a high-end apartment building, the voice-activated lights seemed to be malfunctioning. In the darkness, Zhang Taotao's pretty face was filled with shock, like a frightened rabbit, constantly trying to dodge backward, but she couldn't break free from the grip on her wrist.

The two struggled, and Zhang Taotao suddenly raised her knee, trying to strike the other person's lower body, but they dodged to the side and covered her mouth and nose with a damp cloth.

Before long, a strong sense of dizziness washed over her. Zhang Taotao's vision went black, and she gradually lost consciousness. She didn't know what happened after that.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Taotao slowly woke up with a splitting headache. She instinctively tried to sit up, but her head slammed against something hard above her with a thud.

Everything around her was pitch black. Zhang Taotao struggled, then realized that her hands and feet were tied, and her mouth was sealed with tape.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Taotao's panicked emotions subsided. She used her head to try to feel around in the darkness, gently touching the surrounding hard walls. Finally, she realized that she was in a very small space, and that space was constantly shaking and bumping.

She was in the trunk of a car!

She'd been kidnapped?!

…

About forty minutes later, Zhang Taotao felt the shaking of the trunk disappear, and she heard the sound of a car door opening and footsteps.

*Pa.*

With a muffled sound, the trunk slowly opened. The slender Zhang Taotao was curled up in a somewhat disheveled position, her hair tangled. She tilted her head and looked outside, seeing a man wearing a mask and a baseball cap, quietly sizing her up.

Zhang Taotao didn't struggle violently, nor did she make any futile attempts to speak. Instead, she became completely silent.

*Pa!*

The man grabbed Zhang Taotao's hair and collar, roughly pulled her out of the trunk, and dragged her across the ground towards the nearby riverbank.

The wet grass was thick with the smell of soil. Zhang Taotao fell to the side near the water's edge, her delicate body in a sorry state.

The man slowly bent down, leisurely took out a pack of cigarettes, and said, "The place we're at now is a reservoir. There's nobody around for miles. You understand what I mean, right?"

Zhang Taotao stared intently at the man, without reacting or making a sound.

"I'm looking for you about one thing: Huihong Pharmaceuticals, Seventh Island." The man lit a cigarette and said in a raspy voice.

…

On an unknown sea, an old fishing boat was sailing at a steady speed.

Fei Pingsheng sat in the damp, cold cabin, unable to fall asleep for a long time. He felt like he had the worst luck in the world. There were so many people who went to Red Mansion Courtyard, but he was the only one who got trapped inside.

What kind of luck was that??

Fei Pingsheng glanced around the dim cabin, seeing that all the other trafficked people were sound asleep. They had been deceived for quite some time and seemed to be gradually adapting to this kind of life.

At the cabin entrance, the Chinese man who was in charge of managing the trafficked people was lying on two chairs pushed together, still constantly fiddling with his phone, seemingly working on some earth-shattering business. In short, the phone never left his hand. Even when there was no signal, he was looking at saved files on it.

"Pfft, pfft, pfft… pfft, pfft, pfft!"

Near the cabin exit, a burly black man was sleeping soundly, snoring loudly.

"Damn it!"

The man guarding them, who was using his phone, turned his head and glanced at the black man, impatiently kicking his leg.

Sure enough, the snoring stopped. The black man turned over and continued to sleep.

After about ten seconds, the sound of snoring started again, more rhythmic and louder than before.

"Damn it." The young man with the phone sat up irritably, picked up a wooden stick from the side, and was about to hit the black man's head.

At that moment, Fei Pingsheng suddenly stood up, took two steps to the black man's side, and kicked him in the head: "I'll fuck your mother! You're like a little train, never-ending, aren't you?!"

*Bang, bang, bang!*

Fei Pingsheng kicked the other man's head three times, waking him up.

The black man sat up with a start, looking at Fei Pingsheng in astonishment, then reached out and touched his temple.

"What are you looking at! You're not allowed to sleep, no more *pfft*ing!" Fei Pingsheng glared and cursed fiercely.

The young man with the phone looked astonished: "Who the fuck told you to get up!"

"Brother, I just saw that he was disturbing your rest…!" Fei Pingsheng replied very obsequiously, squatting down on the ground with his head in his hands in a very standard posture.

"Get back!" the young man cursed.

"Okay, okay, I'll roll back." Fei Pingsheng responded with a grin and actually "rolled" back to his position on the ground.

The young man was stunned for a moment, then grinned: "Damn, you're a bit flexible!"

Fei Pingsheng returned to his spot, nodding humbly to the young man, without saying another word.

"Hehe." The young man chuckled, pointed at the black man, and cursed, "You're not allowed to sleep! Sit up."

The black man didn't understand Chinese, but he could roughly understand what the other person meant, so he obediently nodded, leaned his back against the wall, hugged his legs, and began to fight against sleepiness.

…

Inside the Yu family villa.

Yu Mingyuan walked into Su Tianyu's room and asked softly, "Not asleep yet?"

"Not yet." Su Tianyu shook his head. "We're leaving tomorrow morning, and I'll go to the office early."

"Did they approve it?" Yu Mingyuan asked.

"They approved it." Su Tianyu nodded. "First, I'll go to the delivery location that Xiao Kai confessed to, to see if we can find any useful clues. If the case doesn't move forward, I'm going to investigate Huihong Pharmaceuticals."

"Huihong Pharmaceuticals?!" Yu Mingyuan bent down and sat down. "We don't know anything about this group."

Su Tianyu reached into his drawer and pulled out a stack of files, taking out a few printed pages from the middle and handing them to Yu Mingyuan.

Yu Mingyuan took them and glanced at them, reading softly, "Investing three hundred million to buy four islands, Huihong Pharmaceutical Group intends to build a completely enclosed research and development base."

Yu Mingyuan glanced at the information and then looked at Su Tianyu with some surprise: "You've done a lot of homework."

"That's not all." Su Tianyu picked up a pack of cigarettes and asked softly, "There's an acquaintance on the board of directors of Huihong Pharmaceutical Group. Guess who?"

"Who is it?" Yu Mingyuan asked.

"Zhang Taotao!" Su Tianyu said with a cigarette in his mouth, "If the clues Xiao Kai gave us still don't lead to any information that helps the case, then I'm going to change routes, even if it's against Zhang Taotao…!"

As the two were chatting, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Su Tianbei walked in: "Tianyu, there's something that doesn't seem right…!"