Chapter 94 Arena
When the mercenaries focused their search on guest rooms and entertainment venues where people could easily hide, they probably didn't expect Xin Que to head straight for the starting point.
After sneaking into the restroom, Xin Que aimed at the ventilation duct directly above her head.
After crawling forward for an unknown amount of time, Xin Que hid inside the pipe and observed the outside environment through the gap in the pipe window beneath her.
This appears to be a warehouse.
However, unlike the large warehouses that store auction items, this warehouse has glaring white walls and is much smaller in area.
A barely perceptible sound came from the cage below. Next to the cage was an operating table and various surgical instruments.
Xin Que slowly withdrew her gaze.
Organ trafficking?
Soon, the room door was pushed open, and several people dressed as medical staff walked in. From Xin Que's position, she could barely hear what they were saying: "Has the client decided when to do the tissue matching?"
"It should be in the next day or two," one of the medical staff said, walking to the edge of the cage and lifting the drape to take a look. "But his condition isn't good. Are you sure he can survive these surgeries?"
"What does this have to do with us? As long as we get the kidney the client wants, that's all that matters. The client didn't say he wanted any other parts anyway." Another person said nonchalantly, "You'd be better off thinking about the sacrificial ceremony in a couple of days... We're still short quite a few offerings to make up the numbers."
"What a pity, those missing internal organs aren't qualified to be placed on the altar, alas..."
The group of people seemed to have come in just to check if the person in the cage was still there. After confirming that there were no problems, they chatted and left.
Xin Que pondered for a while, and only after confirming that the environment was safe did she carefully remove the pipe window and quietly land on the ground.
She had just felt that the man's back in the cage looked somewhat familiar.
I feel like I've seen this somewhere before.
They crept stealthily towards the cage and lifted the black cloth covering it...
“Ji Mingchuan?” Xin Que frowned and called out his name.
The man in the corner of the cage stirred and looked up at the source of the sound.
Xin Que almost thought she had mistaken someone for someone else.
Ji Mingchuan had been through something, and the exposed wounds on his body were shocking. Burns, knife wounds, and club wounds crisscrossed his body. Through his numb eyes, it was clear that his mental state was also very abnormal.
His arrogance and conceit when confronting Xin Que in the plum garden were the complete opposite of his behavior.
“Uh…” The man’s eyes moved, but he didn’t react to Xin Que’s voice.
Perhaps they had already forgotten about Xin Que, or perhaps after all the torment, their brains had lost the ability to react and think.
Xin Que looked around and finally locked onto the cargo data card tied to the cage.
She roughly guessed why Ji Mingchuan had been put on the cruise ship.
Before Ji Mingchuan changed his identity, he was not just a henchman of the Chang family, but the head of a branch of the Chang family, codenamed White Dragon.
He was also the right-hand man of the Chang family's vice president, who was put up for auction.
Someone bought his life, whether to vent their anger or to squeeze every last drop of value out of him... The data card clearly stated that after the kidney transplant, all his internal organs would be removed and he would be disposed of in international waters.
Xin Que looked at the man in the cage.
If the Chang family hadn't fallen, he would have been a powerful and influential figure, commanding a large following, to warrant such elaborate efforts to deal with him.
Recalling the information she received after being taken aboard the cruise ship, Xin Que quickly came up with a vague plan. She moved closer to the cage and called out to Ji Mingchuan in a low voice, "Ji Mingchuan! It's me, Chang Qin. Can you still speak?"
Ji Mingchuan reacted after hearing the surname Chang.
“…Chang…” Ji Mingchuan’s chapped lips trembled, “Chang…Qin?”
Xin Que breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that Ji Mingchuan still had the ability to respond.
...
Cheng Zheng returned empty-handed after failing to find any clues about Xin Que.
He knocked on Luo Huayi's suite door, intending to tell her what he had seen, but found the door empty.
"What did you say?!" Cheng Zheng gripped his phone tightly. "You went out with President Luo...and got separated?"
Luo Huayi's phone kept showing a busy signal.
Cheng Zheng had a bad feeling.
"Hello," he said, stopping a waiter with his bodyguard, "Could you please help me check the surveillance footage?"
The waiter recognized Cheng Zheng. "Are you looking for your employer?"
Seeing that Cheng Zheng's expression and actions revealed his anxiety, he kindly reminded him, "You don't need to worry, the security measures on the Victoria are world-class... As long as the guest is law-abiding, we will never let him be put in a dangerous situation without knowing why."
Cheng Zheng thought of Luo Huayi's constant attempts to save Xin Que, and his heart grew colder and colder.
The man spoke ambiguously, saying on the surface how seriously they were protecting their guests, but his implication was clear: Luo Huayi's disappearance was most likely due to offending forces like the Exorcising Calamity and Eternal Life Society, and being taken away and dealt with.
"Hmm? Okay... I understand." The waiter raised his hand to press the earpiece, confirmed with his colleague on the other end, and then turned to look at Cheng Zheng. "Mr. Cheng, your employer has been invited to watch the match at the underground arena."
Cheng Zheng was taken aback. He had never heard of such a place on a cruise ship before. "An underground arena?"
The waiter's smile remained unchanged. "Yes, this is your first time being invited to a cruise ship, so it's normal that you don't know much about it... After all, such niche and exclusive places of pleasure are usually not accepted by the world, so it's more appropriate to stay offstage."
Cheng Zheng immediately led his men to the location indicated by the waiter.
The arena is located directly below the casino building.
Guided by the etiquette staff, Cheng Zheng navigated through a maze-like passageway and finally found Luo Huayi, who was alone in the audience.
Luo Huayi looked very tense.
Cheng Zheng walked quickly over with his bodyguards and saw that there were many mercenaries and security guards watching him not far away. He understood what was going on.
"Mr. Luo," he sat down next to Luo Huayi, "how did you get separated from your bodyguard?"
With her assistant approaching, Luo Huayi relaxed a little.
“We didn’t get separated,” he shook his head slightly, “we were more like… deliberately separated.”
"After I got separated from them, they led me here."
The roars on the enclosed ring in the center of the arena were deafening, and the sounds of fists landing were unsettling.
But the surrounding crowd was mostly excited and cheering spectators.
"Get him!!!" A man standing up, his eyes bloodshot, yelled at the ring, "Number 7!!! I'm betting everything on you!!!"
The air was filled with a highly exciting atmosphere, and even those who weren't particularly interested were stirred up by the heated atmosphere.
Cheng Zheng's ears were ringing from the noise. He looked at Luo Huayi and asked, "President Luo, should we continue watching here?"
Luo Huayi's gaze passed over the arena and looked toward the passageway where the contestants entered the arena.
“I have a feeling,” Luo Huayi said, confirming that his intuition, which was being controlled by the angst, was correct. He lowered his voice and said, “Xin Que is here.”
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