But he remained calm on the surface and wrote down the number the other party requested on the check without hesitation. Then he put down the pen, pressed two slender fingers on the check, and pushed it to the person sitting across the table, indicating that he should check it.
"I want to see her."
Wang Pusheng stretched his neck and felt dizzy for a moment when he saw the clear numbers on the check.
He quickly agreed to He Jinxing's request, made a WeChat video call to a person with the mark "Tieguai Li", and then handed the phone to He Jinxing.
The cell phone was a very old model, and was dirty from being stained by sweat for a long time. He Jinxing took it without showing any disgust. He remained expressionless from beginning to end.
The video was connected. The person whose real name was covered by the note on the other end of the video did not dare to show his face, but pointed the screen of his mobile phone at the person who was still in a coma not far away.
She was still wearing the same clothes she had worn when she said goodbye to him in the morning. Her hands and feet were tied, and she was huddled up on a dirty wooden bed.
He Jinxing's hand holding the phone tightened silently.
He had not felt too much anger or discomfort until he was threatened. At this moment, it was like a dark substance shrouding him. At this moment, it finally stretched out its tentacles, slowly wrapping around and climbing up his limbs, body, and even his heart...
The corners of his lips curled up silently at this moment.
Giving a smile that probably means nothing.
When He Jinxing finally signed his name on the check neatly, Wang Pusheng seemed to see a brilliant life waving at him.
There was a gleam of light in his cloudy eyes. When he was five years old, a fortune teller told him that he had the possibility of becoming rich overnight. He started buying lottery tickets regularly when he was eighteen, but never won a dime...
But he realized this dream at the age of 58.
No longer had to stay in the sewer and rot and stink. From now on, he could wear decent clothes like the rich man in front of him, go in and out of high-end places, and watch the waiters who used to look down on him kowtow to him! "That's natural, that's natural. I promise that Miss Gou will be treated well and will not be wronged at all!"
Wang Pusheng nodded and bowed, and once again became that honest and simple-minded scabby dog, swearing and sighing as if he was giving a military order -
"After all, we are all honest people. We just want to ask Mr. He for some reasonable living expenses. We are not trying to kill for money! This amount of money seems to be huge, but it is not enough for each person to buy a house in Jiangcheng... Alas, we are too old to go to the construction site at Jinshan Wharf like the young people. We don't have much labor force. It's really pitiful!"
He Jinxing was too lazy to listen to his bunch of high-sounding nonsense.
Kidnapping, blackmail, extortion.
To sum up, it’s just these few words.
As soon as he issued the invoice, he asked Wang Pusheng to release the person. Wang Pusheng nodded in panic and agreed, saying, "Of course, of course, let Miss Gou go home right away... If she stays in that shabby place in Zhaipu District until night, her parents will worry about her."
Amid his stuttering voice, He Jinxing picked up the car keys again, apparently preparing to go to Zhaipu District in person -
With the nine-digit check in hand, Wang Pusheng probably felt that he was a rich man. He suddenly became confident and approached He Jinxing, asking him if he wanted to go to Zhaipu District...
If possible, could I hitchhike and go back with him?
The people around me had pickled-vegetable suits, yellowed shirt collars, and a thin layer of sweat on their foreheads that had not yet dissipated due to excessive nervousness.
He Jinxing glanced at them, and a hint of sarcasm spread across his cold black eyes. He realized that he was being treated as a weak creature that was easy to manipulate.
Although he did not show any anger about this.
He even had a smile on his face as he signed the check.
He did not stop Wang Pusheng from walking side by side with him, but just looked ahead and asked, "I have some confusion."
"If you ask, I will tell you everything I know!"
"What makes you, a bunch of ants who have done nothing for most of your lives and are willing to live at the bottom of society, dare to commit kidnapping and extortion in broad daylight?"
Whether it was "doing nothing" or "bottom-level ants", or even the blunt statement of "kidnapping and extortion", these unrefined words stung Wang Pusheng and instantly silenced him.
After a moment of shrinking back, there was an overwhelming feeling of humiliation.
How dare He Jinxing? He still has the leverage in his hand!
Do you think that everything will be fine after you give him the money? Do you think you can talk to him in such a condescending way? Understand that before you return the person to him, it is a seller's market now!
There was a flash of resentment and anger in his eyes, but the middle-aged man smiled apologetically: "Originally, I really didn't dare, but you know, even people like us - people like us, always have some dignity... I accidentally learned that in the eyes of you Jinshan Wharf developers, our lives are not even as good as a fish, so I am still a little angry."
He Jinxing remained silent, is his life worth less than a fish?
This sounds familiar.
"After all, they are willing to spend so much money to raise killer whales, but are unwilling to take care of us homeless people. Although they are precious mammals and marine life, how can they be more precious than human life!" Wang Pusheng said, "So everyone is really, very, very angry."
He paused and smiled again.
"That's why we thought of playing a little prank and inviting Miss Gou to be our guest, so that Mr. He can get anxious and understand how angry we were at that time—"
Speaking of this, is there anything He Jinxing doesn’t understand?
The research and protection base for killer whales has just taken shape, and even Chen Jinli's offer is just an estimate. They are only discussing it at the Institute of Marine Biology...
Someone leaked their conversation.
At this time, He Jinxing still didn't quite understand the culprit and thought it was something that needed long-term observation.
Unexpectedly, the next second, Wang Pusheng seemed to have convinced himself that he was really the victim and the righteous party...
In order to prove that what he said made sense, he took out his mobile phone, opened it, and played a recording to He Jinxing.
【If you want to see killer whales, go to Tonga. 】
[It requires money. Some people’s families are not that rich. 】
【Then don’t watch it. 】
[An An, you sound a bit overbearing. ]
[I didn't even give the stubborn scumbags in the shantytown two million dollars they asked me for, and here I am thinking about spending two billion dollars on fish?]
[This is where fish are better than humans. Fish won’t ask you for money. You will feel much better if you give them money.]
After a few seconds of silence in the recording, Gou An said, following Chen Jinli's voice:
【Yes.】
"You see, everyone is really angry after listening to this recording!" Wang Pusheng said righteously, "You are willing to spend billions for a few fish! Professor Chen is also unreasonable. He actually said that fish are better than people. Hey, how can he say that!"
The two got out of the elevator.
In He Jinxing's silence, Wang Pusheng thought that he had finally made him reflect on himself. Everything went too smoothly tonight. For a moment, he actually thought that this man really let him control him just because he had the evidence in his hand.
At this point, he was actually a little too proud and said, "It's fine if Professor Chen said that, but I didn't expect your fiancée would agree with him. She's not going to college this year, is she? She's so young but she has such a vicious mind. This won't do... Women still need more education, otherwise they will go astray, Mr. He!"
The two walked to He Jinxing's car.
Wang Pusheng said: "What's his name? Gou An, right? I saw it a while ago."
He didn't finish his words.
The next second, a huge force suddenly grabbed the back of his neck! With a loud bang, Wang Pusheng's face was pressed against the window of another car next to him. After the loud bang, there was a sharp pain. The glass fibers of the window without film pierced into the middle-aged man's face fiercely and densely.
He was stunned for a moment, then screamed in pain.
The tiny glass fibers won’t even cause wounds, but they can penetrate into the human body in units smaller than a millimeter and cannot be removed, which is like the pain of ants gnawing at you…
In fact, how would ordinary people know about this kind of thing?
Wang Pusheng struggled desperately in pain! However, the strength of the man behind him was too great. The slender fingertips that signed the huge check in the last second were like an eagle claw catching prey, tightly pinching Wang Pusheng's neck.
"Don't let me hear my fiancée's name from your filthy mouth again."
The man behind him had a deep voice, which was breathtaking and intimidating.
"You don't deserve it."
Jaipur area, shanty town.
Gou An was still not clear-headed when she woke up on a dirty bed. She had a splitting headache as if someone had just hit her head with a brick.
The dim light in the room made everything blurry. Staring at the spider web at the head of the bed, she took a while to react, thinking that she had restarted the second game of "The Survival of the Most Vicious Female Supporting Character" until she realized that her mouth was tightly taped.
She took two deep breaths, inhaled the turbid air and sneezed twice. After another headache, she gradually came to her senses and finally remembered everything that had happened before -
In the afternoon, He Jinxing asked her out for dinner, but canceled the date ten minutes later. She rolled her eyes and was thinking of a suitable sentence to mock his busy schedule without making him feel that she was really angry. At this moment, someone knocked on the window and a girl said: Is anyone there? I saw a box of abandoned kittens in your backyard. They seemed to be frozen to death.
It's snowing outside.
From the angle of the basement where Gou An was, he could only see a girl squatting by the skylight in the basement. She was wearing a pair of white sneakers. Maybe it was because she was wearing a mask and there was a layer of glass between her and her, and she also deliberately lowered her voice. In short, Gou An didn't even think her voice sounded familiar.
Gou An picked up a blanket and went out to look for the cat. She went to the blind spot of the surveillance camera in the backyard of the institute, but she still didn't hear the cat's meow.
At this moment, she felt something was wrong and wanted to turn back, but she saw Lu Wan standing behind her, blocking her way.
——Then, she knew nothing.
When I opened my eyes again, I was here.
Gou An didn't know where she was. She looked out the dirty window and saw that it was already completely dark. It was so late and she hadn't returned home and hadn't received any messages or phone calls. Now her parents and maybe even He Jinxing were so worried that they wanted to hang themselves.
Gou An squirmed on the bed, then with her hands and feet tied, she rolled off the bed heavily.
The floor, which had not been swept for hundreds of years, was rolling up with dust. Her inner fear grew deeper as time went by. Tears welled up in her eyes, but in the end she gritted her teeth and didn't let them fall.
Regardless of the fact that her clothes were rubbed so dirty that they were unsightly, she struggled to sit up and then stand up, approached the door, stared at the door handle, and breathed heavily.
I was thinking whether I should try to make some noise to get the person outside to open the door and then fight them. It only took me two seconds to realize that I was an idiot.
Many people out there don’t know.
I opened the door and didn't know where I was.
What if she opened the door and found herself in a dense forest, with seven or eight burly men waiting outside the house? What could she fight for? What could she use?
Lu Wan ordered people to kidnap her simply because he wanted to see her in trouble or even kill her; and the person who ordered her kidnapped her but did not hurt her for the time being, it was obvious that he wanted money.
These two like-minded groups conspired to get rid of her, probably because she was on the hot search some time ago and made the whole country know that she was the apple of He Jinxing's eye.
If you use her as a threat, I'm afraid that person will give you whatever you want.
Gou An drew the above conclusions in a short period of time, and had an additional feeling: It is true that those who show off their love will die quickly, the "death" of physical death.
She was anxiously wondering whether those people would kill the hostages after taking the money, when she heard the faint sound of conversation coming from outside.
"Wang Pusheng asked for 100 million yuan from Hejin Bank. He agreed and now he has the check."
"What! You agreed!"
"Then let him go!"
"...Wait. No rush."
The people in the conversation were a man and a woman. The woman's voice was trembling, so it was obvious that she was not a professional.
Gou An felt a little relieved because of this. He was afraid that he was a professional desperado who would take the money and kill people to eliminate future troubles.
She was just breathing a sigh of relief when suddenly the plot changed -
“People can’t be released.”
Gou An's heart sank suddenly. He clearly felt that the woman who was talking to the man had also fallen silent and did not respond immediately.
"Erhu means that they are on their way to the shantytown. When they arrive, they will ask He Jinxing for another 100 million."
"Li Tie! You're crazy!"
"What's wrong? It's so easy to get 100 million. He can give you another 100 million if you ask him! Stop meddling in other people's business. My son has to go to college next year. He can't afford it without money!"
"It doesn't cost that much money for him to go to college! What college will he go to if something goes wrong after you fail to extort him? Which college wants the son of a kidnapper? Li Tie, listen to me, let her go! I'm really scared!"
"Shut up?!"
The loud and futile scolding interrupted the conversation between the people outside the house.
Gou An was startled when he heard footsteps outside the house. Without time to think too much, he quickly fell back on the bed, closed his eyes and pretended not to wake up.
These people cannot be let to know that she is awake. They just mentioned a lot of names of people and places, each of which can lead to them being severely punished later.
Who knows if they suddenly get better and react, will they become more ruthless and kill her? A few seconds later, the door of the house creaked open, and someone walked in. Gou An smelled a strong smell of oil smoke mixed with the smell of duck shit from the goose feathers of the down jacket. The pungent smell made her almost vomit——
Her eyelashes trembled, and she didn't know if the man noticed it, but there was silence for a long time and no one spoke.
After a moment, a rough but warm hand turned her over and looked at her. A woman's voice said, "Still asleep, not awake."
The man outside the door answered irritably: "Find a way to let her continue sleeping."
The door creaked shut again.
Gou An didn't dare to sit up rashly this time. According to her previous education, when encountering such kidnapping, extortion and hostage-taking, don't think about anything else, just protect yourself and wait for others to rescue you.
He Jinxing is on the way.
He should have also informed Gou Yu and Jiang Yuan.
When Gou An was daydreaming in his mind, he suddenly heard a long-lost "ding" sound -
[Don't be afraid, I won't let you die. ]
The kitten's voice is full of youthful vigor, just like the cat Superman wearing a red cape who appears at the critical moment.
The system stupid cat that had been missing for almost two months made a grand appearance. Gou An was stunned for a moment, and then the tears that he had been holding back for a long time fell down.
Gou An: You stupid cat!!! Where have you been? If your friendship level hadn't reached the required level, I would have thought you were reincarnated? ? !
[Jiao Jiao: Hey, how can you say so confidently, "If it weren't for the fact that none of the friendship levels have reached the standard"? 】
Gou An: I didn’t yell! ! ! ! ! [Jiao Jiao: There are so many exclamation marks and you still say you didn’t yell! ]
[Jiao Jiao: I didn’t mean to be silent, I was just hiding! ]
[Jiao Jiao: Can you please stop crying? When the auntie outside comes back and sees you in tears, are you going to tell her that you just woke up and cried because you had a nightmare? ]
Gou An was stunned for a moment, and his tears stopped a little: Hiding? [Jiao Jiao: ………………Last time you hit someone with your electric bike, the administrator found me not long after. ]
Gou An: Administrator? System administrator? Who? We have a system administrator? Aren’t you guys together?
【Jiao Jiao: Isn’t it?】
[Jiao Jiao: I didn’t even know he showed up, God, otherwise I wouldn’t dare to talk nonsense with you in front of him——]
[Jiao Jiao: I don’t know who the administrator is either, I can only confirm that he was at the scene at the time.]
[Jiao Jiao: After that, I was chased and blocked. Whenever a cat head popped out, he would stab it out! It was so scary! ]
Gou An: Then why do you suddenly show up here and give such a long speech——
【Jiao Jiao: I was forced to do so. 】
[Jiao Jiao: If I don’t show up now, you’re going to be in trouble. How can I continue to live like this? ]
Hero orange cat!
The Chinese rural cat Sai Gao is full of affection and righteousness! In this situation, there was suddenly a familiar thing with him, and Gou An's fear and nervousness were suppressed a little.
Gou An heard Jiao Jiao talk about the situation outside -
Some stubborn residents in Zhaipu District are very upset that He Jinxing is unwilling to increase the compensation for demolition...
As the deadline for signing the contract is approaching, they are in a difficult situation and are being laughed at by their neighbors who have already signed the contract, who say that they are only interested in money and are greedy.
At this time, Lu Wan appeared. This original heroine, who for some unknown reason had suddenly turned evil recently, found them with the recording that she had made while hiding outside Chen Jinli's office when she came to get the internship report documents to sign that day.
The content of the recording is the conversation between Chen Jinli, Gou An and He Jinxing that day on whether fish or people are more important, and whether paying high demolition fees is worse than raising fish.
This topic is very inflammatory. The nail households, who were already dissatisfied, have since come to believe that these people are rich but unkind.
So he gritted his teeth and kidnapped Gou An, who was recently in the limelight and had a good relationship with He Jinxing, and brought him to Zhaipu District, and extorted 100 million yuan from He Jinxing.
He Jinxing signed the check without even thinking about it for a second.
When the news came, the fools who should have been happy to let it go were actually laughed at by their kind neighbors.
They are really greedy.
Seeing He Jinxing taking out 100 million without blinking an eye, these people seemed to have lost the concept of money. They probably didn't realize for a moment what an outrageous concept a cash flow of 100 million was, and now they want another 100 million.
【Jiao Jiao: But this time they raised the stakes. 】
【Jiao Jiao: That is their own fate. 】
[Jiao Jiao: Now they are blocking the entrance to the shantytown with torches, ready to threaten He Jinxing. If he doesn't give them money, they will burn down the shantytown, and perish together with the shantytown and He Jinxing's fiancée, you.]
Whether a construction project is renovation, demolition or construction, the most feared thing is that it involves human life. Once it is involved, all work will be suspended.
More than 1 billion yuan has been invested in the preparatory work for Jinshan Wharf before construction even starts. Now that construction has been halted, the several families involved will not end up well.
Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes.
These reckless men who have only read a few years of books and only care about money are now really strangling fate by the throat.
at the same time.
The black Maybach was driving on the road to Jaipur area.
Holding the steering wheel, He Jinxing felt the person in the passenger seat move.
Wang Pusheng's face was red and swollen, itchy and painful. He was extremely angry at He Jinxing's humiliating words and behavior, but because he was afraid that he would call the police, he still squeezed into the car.
At this moment, looking at the man's calm face, which seemed to be calm and indifferent, the humiliation in his heart became more and more obvious -
Why?
It was clearly him who was threatened and signed the check in dejection.
Why does he still act so high and mighty and inviolable?
The more Wang Pusheng looked at him, the more uncomfortable he felt. Fortunately, some "good news" came from his mobile phone, which seemed to help him make a comeback. The middle-aged man moved his buttocks on the leather seat and let out a wry laugh.
The driver gave him a cold look.
"Mr. He, Mr. He! I want to discuss something with you. Please don't think I'm annoying!" Wang Pusheng said in a voice that he thought was very sincere. "I also know that it's not fair and not in accordance with the rules to raise the price after the agreement is reached. I told them not to do it, not to do it - but Erhu and the others just didn't listen to me! They insisted on doing this! Now they are standing at the gate of the shantytown with torches, shouting that if they don't pay, they will die with the shantytown!"
Wang Pusheng held up a finger and said, "Another hundred million."
He licked his front teeth, smiled timidly and said, "Maybe everyone has calculated and found that the money in the beginning is really not enough to be divided. There are too many of us, and there is really not much left - so another 100 million will be enough. After taking the money, we little people will never appear in front of you again!"
There was a brief silence in the car.
All I heard was the navigation system's voice reminding me to turn right.
Miraculously, He Jinxing did not show any protest against the additional 100 million yuan proposed by Wang Pusheng. He even went against his previous impatience when signing the check and asked Wang Pusheng for a cigarette while stopping at a traffic light.
He hasn't smoked for a long time.
He took a puff, the smell of cheap tobacco and nicotine filling his lungs. He exhaled only milky white smoke, lowered the window, and threw the cigarette butt into the sewer on the street that was gurgling with stagnant water.
"It seems that the Zhaipu District is quite lively tonight." He Jinxing said calmly, "How many people are waiting for me in front?"
Wang Pusheng smiled and said, "Not many, not many, just those few."
He Jinxing still had no expression on his face: "I want to call someone too."
"What?" Wang Pusheng was surprised. "That won't do!"
The green light came on, but He Jinxing did not follow the navigation instructions. He drove the car into the alley on the left and stopped.
When Wang Pusheng asked in a panic why the car stopped, the man raised his hand, fiddled with his collar, and asked with a sneer without moving his eyebrows, "Mr. Wang, you don't think I'm going to enter the Zhaipu District alone tonight to negotiate with you sewer creatures... Do I look like a fool?"
He spoke in a slow voice, without using any curse words or beating around the bush, and he cursed people in the face without restraint.
Wang Pusheng was dumbfounded for a moment: "It's okay if you don't go, but I can't guarantee Miss Gou's safety--"
He Jinxing turned his head and stared at him for a while. After a moment, the man smiled.
"Oh, try touching her."
The smile did not reach his cold eyes.
"Don't even mention whether you can really get these two hundred million..."
Every word he spoke, almost every syllable he pronounced, was telling the person in front of him that he was not joking.
"I can give up the Jinshan Wharf project, go bankrupt, or go to jail. If she loses a hair, I guarantee that your wife, children, and mother will have their ashes dug out of their graves and buried with you in the sea."
(End of this chapter)