"Kid, looks like your mother has plenty of money?" Scarface stared at Hongli with a savage look, as if he were a piece of fat meat from which to be squeezed.

“My mother may not have much, but she has plenty of money. As long as my elder brother makes an offer, my mother will definitely agree for the sake of us two brothers.” Hongli pondered Scarface’s thoughts and spoke according to his interests.

Ha ha!

Sure enough, Scarface laughed loudly upon hearing this, clearly pleased with Hongli's words.

"Good, you seem to know what's good for you, unlike that other kid! I like you." Scarface's mood immediately improved, and the people below chuckled along with him.

"Brother, my brother is tongue-tied and doesn't know how to speak properly. Please put him down." Hongli said quickly, taking advantage of his good mood.

Scarface's smile vanished. He stroked his sparse beard and said, "Well, you'll have to write down a letter offering to pay for your release first, then I'll send someone to deliver it to your mother."

Hongli cursed inwardly, "Old fox," and then quickly said, "That's easy, just bring me paper and pen. But I wonder how much you think we brothers are worth?"

Scarface was quite surprised to see that Hongli was so cooperative. The rich young masters he had kidnapped in the past were not like this. Looking at the boy in front of him, who was only a child, how could he be so calm in front of him, a notorious bandit?

"Go and get him paper and pen." Scarface couldn't help but start to ponder how much ransom money would be worthwhile.

After someone brought paper and pen and handed them to Hongli, he said, "Brother, there's no table here, how am I supposed to write?"

Scarface looked around. Apart from the armchair he was sitting in, there was indeed no other furniture. This place was originally a gathering place for them to discuss matters, and no one lived there on ordinary days, so there was no furnishing.

As Scarface was looking around for a place where the boy could write, Hongli suddenly said, "Brother, I think your seat is quite nice!"

Scarface was taken aback for a moment, then his eyes flashed with a fierce light as he said, "Kid, if you want to sit in my seat, you'll have to see how much you're worth!"

"Brother, you misunderstand. I meant I was writing a letter while I was lying in the chair under your butt. There's nothing I could do about it; there isn't even a table here!" Hongli said with a wry smile.

Scarface then understood Hongli's meaning and slightly withdrew the murderous aura that had just overflowed. People like them didn't care most about their own heads; rather, they cared about the chairs they sat on.

After he stood up, Hongli walked step by step to him, pretending to tremble with fear, shrinking his shoulders and not daring to look at the scarred face.

Scarface then smiled and said, "Kid, go and write properly!"

Then, he patted Hongli on the back with his large hand, almost knocking Hongli to the ground. If he hadn't been skilled in martial arts, he probably would have collapsed immediately.

Hongli squatted down in front of the chair, spreading the paper out on the back, pondering how to send a message to Lanqin. He carefully observed the group of people; they were all burly men, so he decided to write an acrostic message to his mother. But he didn't know where he was, or how to inform his father and mother of his location.

"Brother, this pen is almost out of ink?" Hongli said after writing a few words with the pen.

Scarface was pacing around the room with his hands behind his back when he heard Hongli say this. He turned to look at the henchman at the door, but the henchman had a bitter face and said, "Brother, there's nothing to buy around here. I don't know where to get ink!"

"Go out and sell! Don't you know there are any bookstores outside?" Hongli said, trying to find out from these people where this place was. Actually, he already knew there couldn't be any bookstores here. A place where you could hear frogs and crickets chirping all around was definitely not a bustling market.

Scarface was now in a dilemma. A burly man next to him said, "Brother, if it doesn't work out, we can wait until dawn and go into town to buy it. There's no rush!"

The others echoed his sentiments. Scarface nodded and gestured to the men who were binding Hongzhou, signaling them to release him.

"Kid, look, I've already put your brother down. Now you two go back to sleep and wait until dawn. Once we've bought some ink, you can write again," Scarface said to Hongli.

Hongli had no choice but to agree. He quickly said a few kind words to the scarred man, and then he and Hongzhou were dragged away and returned to the room where they were imprisoned.

After the lock on the door was removed and the footsteps faded into the distance, Hongzhou finally spoke, "Hongli, are you really going to write to Mother and ask her to come and give them money?"

“Of course, otherwise would you want Mother to worry herself to death? The most important thing now is to let Mother know our situation. We haven’t returned all night, and Mother must be furious and sending people everywhere to look for us!” Hongli said.

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have dragged you along. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been targeted by these bandits," Hongzhou said with a face full of guilt.

“It’s my fault for sneaking a taste of the good wine. Now is not the time to talk about these things. We need to find a way to tell Mother where we are so that she can come to rescue us,” Hongli said.

“We’re tied up, how are we going to get out? This place should be outside the city. I just heard them say that we have to go to buy ink at dawn tomorrow,” Hongzhou said.

"Yes, we need to find out exactly where we are," Hongli said.

The two brothers began to ponder, while the group of notorious thieves over there were still in the same room where they had just been questioning the others.

“Brother, these two lads don’t seem like ordinary people. Why don’t we go and find out who they are tomorrow?” said a burly man with a long, thin face and small eyes.

“Yes, I think their identities might not be simple. Look at the sachets and jade pendants we took from them, they don’t look like servants’ sons at all,” Da Lin added.

"The servants of Prince Yong's mansion are no ordinary servants. Their master is the prince's wife, and their attire is even better than that of the wealthiest merchants," Scarface said. "However, we should still go and investigate tomorrow to see what's going on at Prince Yong's mansion. If they make a big fuss, it means those two boys are no ordinary people. If everything is calm, it means they are just the children of servants," Scarface said.

“Brother is right, let’s go take a look first. There’s no rush anyway,” another subordinate said.

After this discussion, everyone finally decided on their actions for the next day, and then they dispersed to find places to sleep. The courtyard was empty, without even beds, so they just found a place to lie down.