Chapter 1 The Kidnapping

The next day, a little after seven in the morning, in the Arlington neighborhood of Washington, D.C., two cars were slowly moving along the edge of the street.

This was a well-known wealthy residential area in the entire First District. The world-famous Pentagon building before the Epoch Era was located here. According to statistics, the average annual income in this area at that time was over one hundred thousand US dollars.

In front of a detached villa, a plump Chinese woman, leading her young son, was scolding the driver next to the car.

"I told you, he has an art exam today, how could you be late? Do you not want to work anymore?!" The woman scolded with a fierce expression, "Every day you fucking ask for a raise, but you screw up at critical moments. What use are you to me? If he misses it today, don't bother coming to work...!"

"I'm sorry, Madam!" The driver nodded and bowed in response.

While the two were talking, a man in a suit and leather shoes walked out of the courtyard, carrying a briefcase and urging, "Don't argue, I'm almost late too, let's go together."

"Let's go." The wife glanced at her husband, yanked the door open, and was about to get into the car.

"Vroom!"

The roaring engine echoed as two SUVs suddenly rushed out from across the street, blocking the couple's luxury car one in front and one behind.

"Bang!"

The car door sprang open, and a masked man jumped out with a gun, pointing it at the man's chest and shouting, "Don't shout!"

At the same time, the other three masked men stepped forward swiftly and dragged the woman and the six or seven-year-old boy roughly towards the car.

"What are you doing?!" the man yelled in horror, "I am...!"

"Pow!"

Before he could finish speaking, the butt of a gun smashed into his face.

On the wide street, the sun was shining brightly, and a few screams from the woman rang out abruptly.

Not long after, a neighbor named Markley curiously glanced outside from his yard. He saw that the Chinese couple's villa had its cars parked neatly and the gate was locked, with nothing unusual visible.

"Arguing again? Morons! Why not just shit on the bed to get revenge?" Markley muttered to himself, turning around to tend to the flowers and plants in front of his house.

In the two SUVs, the bandits didn't remove their masks, only using guns to coerce the family of three and the driver, quickly fleeing the scene.

In the passenger seat, a man of medium build lowered his head and sent a text message with a new SIM card phone: "Got the people."

...

Downtown Washington, D.C., on the side of a certain street.

Su Tianyu, Hou Guoyu, Fei Pingsheng, and Da Xiong, who had just arrived, a total of eight people, were sitting in the car, munching on bread and drinking water.

In the passenger seat, Hou Guoyu was yawning sleepily, turning his head to look at Su Tianyu and asking, "What's our plan?"

"What plan can we have? Gu Baishun is out of contact. It's impossible for us to find him," Su Tianyu said, taking a big bite of his bread, "We can only find the person he was trying to find."

"You mean Jing Yan?" On the way, Fei Pingsheng had already heard Liu Zi recount what happened.

"We can only lock onto him," Su Tianyu nodded.

"I have one question." Fei Pingsheng looked at Su Tianyu expectantly, "If Gu Baishun wasn't coerced by Jing Yan, then aren't we wasting our time?"

"The internal strife of the dockworkers' association actually involves the interests of three parties: the garrison and Zhang Ming's side, our side, and then there's Jing Yan." Su Tianyu tore open another piece of bread and continued to eat, "Targeting Zhou Peng doesn't align with the interests of the garrison, and targeting Brother Wei doesn't align with our interests. Who else is left besides these two?"

"Jing Yan's chances are indeed very high." Fei Pingsheng sighed, "You're right, we don't have much of a choice. Besides this line, we don't have any other clues."

"Let's wait, wait for the people arranged by Director Liu to come and find us." Su Tianyu looked down at his watch, "I don't know when we'll leave, so let's not bother looking for a hotel. Whoever's tired can rest in the car for a while."

"Okay, I'll doze off for a bit." Fei Pingsheng finished eating and lay down in the back seat, closing his eyes.

Outside the car, Hou Guoyu looked at Da Xiong, who was even bigger than him, and asked casually, "Are you a professional UFC fighter?"

"N...no, amateur." Da Xiong shook his head.

"I heard you haven't lost in the last dozen or so matches," Hou Guoyu was a bit unconvinced, "Pretty awesome, huh?"

Da Xiong blinked his eyes, his expression full of confidence, "I... I can only say I'm a king of boasting."

"Damn, let's spar sometime!" Hou Guoyu was a bit of a chuunibyou.

"You... you can't beat me."

"Come on, let's try!" Hou Guoyu held out his palm, "Let's arm wrestle, I want to see how strong you are."

Su Tianyu looked at the two of them speechlessly from inside the car, "Are you guys bored? You crazy! Can't you be more mature?!"

...

Washington, D.C.

Inside an apartment building in an ordinary neighborhood, an old lady was sitting by the window, looking at the scenery outside, her expression calm.

She was Gu Baishun's mother, and she had been kidnapped for several days.

A series of footsteps sounded, and a young man walked in from outside the door, carrying a simple self-heating meal in his hand. He walked to the window and said, "Eat something."

Gu Baishun's mother didn't even look up at him, only replying faintly, "Put it here, thank you."

The young man placed the plate on the windowsill, then turned to look at his companion sitting at the door, guarding the old lady, and said, "Come on, let's play another round."

Gu Baishun's mother looked at the plate, then supported herself with her hands on her legs, struggling to stand up, "I need to use the restroom."

"Alright, I'll go with you." The young man replied, holding his phone.

The two of them went to the bathroom door together. The young man looked down at his phone screen, "Don't close the door, okay? Go ahead."

Gu Baishun's mother glanced at him, "What can an old woman like me do?! I want to change my underwear, can you step away a little?"

"What underwear are you changing?"

"My kidneys aren't good, my underwear is dirty..." Gu Baishun's mother replied with some embarrassment, "I'm not feeling well."

The young man frowned, "Just do it with the door open, no one's looking at you."

"I'm older than your mother, are you going to stare at me while I change clothes, kid?" Gu Baishun's mother asked, her voice trembling.

The young man glanced at the old lady, reluctantly put his phone in his pocket, first carefully inspected the empty bathroom, then walked out and said, "You're so old, I don't want to make things difficult for you. If you're sensible, you'll be more comfortable. Just two minutes, hurry up!"

After speaking, the young man walked into the living room.

...

Afternoon.

Near a wasteland about thirty kilometers from Arlington, two SUVs were parked. The leading man who had kidnapped the family of three and the driver in the city stepped out of the car.

Five minutes later, more cars arrived, and Gu Baishun got out of the car wearing a bandit hat.

"The people are in the car." The leading man was none other than Guo Zhengdao, another key member of Gu Baishun's team.

Gu Baishun paused for a moment, "I'll call him."