Chapter 728
Chapter 728
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 728
>Chapter Title: Captives
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Li Huowang gripped the kitchen knife in his hand tightly, staring deathly at the man with the slicked-back hair and glasses in the distance.
Although he had only met him once, Li Huowang immediately recognized him. This guy was one of the mental patients in the same group as him back at Kangning Hospital. If Li Huowang remembered correctly, his name was Yuan Heping!
"It's you? So you've always been one of them!"
Breathing rapidly, Li Huowang stepped forward with the knife raised.
Seeing the gleaming knife in Li Huowang's hand and the dark gun barrel in Qing Wanglai's grip on the other side, Yuan Heping swallowed hard with difficulty.
"Don't, don't get nervous! Murder means paying with your life—we haven't done anything!"
Qing Wanglai stepped up beside Li Huowang and pressed his knife down.
"Their escape route's blocked already. No need for the knife."
At that moment, Qian Fu and Chen Hongyu approached from behind, holding a jump rope. They tied up the two captives' hands first.
Seeing them subdued, Li Huowang finally lowered his knife. With the enemies under control, his attention was immediately drawn to something else.
"Where'd you get the gun?!"
Li Huowang turned to Qing Wanglai and asked. This was way harder to come by than a knife.
With this kind of firepower, Li Huowang was starting to doubt the man's identity.
Qing Wanglai smiled and pointed the gun barrel at Wu Qi's head. Before anyone could react, he pulled the trigger with a click.
A small red flame flickered out from the muzzle, swaying gently left and right.
Wu Qi pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it using Qing Wanglai's lighter.
"A fake gun?"
"Of course it's fake. This is a society ruled by law—how could I have something as dangerous as a real gun? Bought it on Taobao during Double Eleven."
Qing Wanglai released the trigger and tucked it back into his pants pocket.
"Aaahhh!!"
A piercing scream came from outside the alley. That familiar voice made Li Huowang's heart sink.
"Bad news! It's Yang Na!!"
Li Huowang spun around and rushed outside. His mind raced through the headcount: there had been four of them earlier! His side had chased two, Zhao Lei was after one, and the last one had hidden in the shadows to ambush!
Li Huowang thought the situation was dire, but when he reached Yang Na, he froze. She was indeed screaming.
But as she screamed, she jammed the stun gun in her hand into an old man's chest and held it down hard.
The old man convulsed and foamed at the mouth from the shock, but Yang Na showed no sign of letting go.
"Nana, that's enough! Let go—any longer and you'll electrocute him to death!"
Li Huowang shouted several times before Yang Na finally released her grip. Panicking, she tossed the stun gun to the ground and threw herself into Li Huowang's arms, tears streaming down her face.
"Wahhh, Li Huowang, I was so scared."
Li Huowang held her and comforted her softly, his eyes flicking to the stun gun on the ground.
"Nana, where'd you get this?"
He was both surprised and puzzled by her reaction.
Yang Na choked out her answer.
"I... I bought it online with my best friend. It's dangerous running into strangers late at night, so I... I brought it for protection. I have other stuff too."
Li Huowang reached around her body and opened her bag. Besides the stun gun, she also had pepper spray for wolves, a voice recorder, and an elderly phone with a big red button on the back.
When Li Huowang pulled out the elderly phone, Yang Na explained tearfully,
"My grandma bought one like this. Just press the red button and it auto-calls the police—even through the bag."
"After I started talking with Qing Wanglai, you've been carrying all this?"
Seeing what she had, Li Huowang felt a slight warmth in his heart. He knew she might not fully believe him, but she'd stuck with him anyway for her own safety.
Just then, the others caught up from behind. Before they could exchange a few words, distant voices drawn by Yang Na's screams began approaching.
"Let's go! It's the middle of the night—if someone phones it in or posts a video online, we won't be able to explain!"
Zhao Lei grabbed the limp old man from the ground and slung him onto the back of his motorcycle.
Seeing more and more eyes around them, Li Huowang nodded and led the still-shaken Yang Na toward Wu Qi's RV.
The RV wound east and west until it hit a normal street again. Only then did everyone's hearts settle.
Qing Wanglai was driving, while Wu Qi watched over the old man to make sure Yang Na's stun didn't finish him off in one go.
"No worries, this old guy's fine. The shock didn't cause any major issues."
Wu Qi said this as he tended to Wang Gang lying on the bed.
Now Li Huowang finally had a moment to size up the three captives. Yuan Heping with his slicked-back hair and black glasses went without saying. The old man shocked by Yang Na was someone Li Huowang also recognized from Kangning Hospital—the one who'd been with Yuan Heping. He seemed to be called Wang Gang.
Looking back now, it was definitely them who'd slipped the needles into the food at the mental hospital.
"Who's confessing first?"
Li Huowang gripped his kitchen knife and asked them.
"Why not find a bigger spot? This RV's third-hand—don't want you lot crushing it."
The RV wasn't big to begin with, and cramming everyone in made it horribly cramped. Qian Fu was forced to sit on the induction cooker, and Chen Hongyu had been squeezed into the bathroom.
"Go to my place. No one's there."
Zhao Lei's voice came from outside the window.
"It's remote? Safe around there?"
Li Huowang asked.
No matter who these three were, his group had kidnapped them now. If anyone saw, it would be hard to talk their way out.
"Don't worry, the kid's place is super remote."
Chen Hongyu answered, poking half her body out from the bathroom to open the fridge.
Soon the swaying RV pulled up in the suburbs. Dawn was just breaking as they entered an old house, and Li Huowang finally got what they meant by remote—Zhao Lei lived in a basement.
As Li Huowang shoved Yuan Heping inside, a rush of musty odor hit his nose. The basement was huge but crammed with all sorts of messy stuff: models, jars, even organs preserved in formalin like knee joints and a lone eyeball—who knew if it was real.
That weird smell came from the takeout boxes and trash bags at his feet.
A rack along the wall held various figure models, some unfinished with just heads done.
The guy didn't just dress weird; his home was weird too.
"Soundproof, right?"
Li Huowang walked to the table and flicked a bottle-ship model the size of a watermelon. Zhao Lei must make these for a living—the ship was incredibly lifelike, down to the crew on board.
"Mm, soundproof."
"Good."
With that, Li Huowang charged at Yuan Heping in three strides, kicked him against the wall, and brought the kitchen knife down hard on his right hand.
"Aaahhhh... mmph!!"
Yuan Heping's scream was muffled by Li Huowang.
"Don't scream yet—your hand's not broken! You'll have plenty of time to scream later!"
Terrified nearly to fainting, Yuan Heping looked down and saw the kitchen knife had only grazed his palm and stuck into the floor.
But before he could catch half a breath, he saw the blade lift at one corner and come grinding down toward his four fingers like a guillotine.
(End of chapter)