Summer nights make it difficult to fall asleep and I tossed and turned all night long.
Fortunately, I had quit my job at the fast food restaurant and slept until around nine in the morning. When I woke up, my dad was not at home, but breakfast was already prepared and on the table.
After washing up, I was sitting on the sofa eating when my cell phone rang. It showed an unfamiliar number. I pressed the hands-free key on the phone and put it on the coffee table. Song Jingyan's voice came from the phone: "An An, An An... Come and save me! An An, save me!"
I thought she was joking with me early in the morning: "Yanyan, it's not funny at all."
"I'm not kidding you." A male voice came into the phone. The voice pretended to be rough and mature, but I seemed to have heard it somewhere before. "You are Song Jingyan's friend, right? Listen, she is here with us..."
I began to realize that this was no joke, and Song Jingyan might really have been in trouble. I grabbed the phone and asked the other party's purpose.
"Brothers, we are short of money. Doesn't this Song's family own a hotel and restaurant? They must have a lot of money. Ask her family to give them some money to spend."
It seemed that the kidnappers had premeditatedly kidnapped Jingyan and knew about her family situation. In order to calm the kidnappers, I tried to calm myself down, and then I remembered the plot in the TV series and said, "How much do you want? You must promise not to hurt her!"
“Five hundred thousand! Send it to the abandoned factory building in Area A of West Street and put it in the big trash can before twelve o’clock. Don’t play tricks! She’s fine now, but if you dare to call the police—hehe, I can’t guarantee that this girl is okay!”
Half a million? That's an astronomical figure for me. I wanted to say something else, but the other party hung up the phone in obvious impatience.
I ran to the bathroom and washed my face with cold water, forcing myself to calm down. I wanted to go to Song's house first to tell Song's father, but I met He Xubei at the gate of the community.
My anxious look caught his attention. He pulled me over and asked me what happened. I was worried that Jingyan might get into trouble if it was too late, so I thought it would be good to have someone to help. I briefly told him about Song Jingyan's kidnapping.
"Hurry, get in the car! Why is this happening? Have you called the police?" He Xubei motioned for me to get on his electric bike.
"I guess Jingyan's family probably doesn't know yet. They asked me to go to the Song family to get the money, and the first call should be to me. I didn't dare to call the police, I was afraid that they would harm Jingyan..."
"Yes, let's do this. I'll go find the police and then quietly go to West Street. You go contact Li Ye. He has some friends in society and may know who kidnapped Jingyan."
I called Li Ye before I came out, and he said he would go ask first. After parting with Xu Bei, I rushed to the West Street motorcycle shop where we agreed to meet, and saw Li Ye hanging up the phone.
"Ping An, my friend said he didn't know much, but he saw a student-looking man coming to see his two friends last night, and he said he brought back a girl this morning." Li Ye saw me and told me the news he had heard.
A student-like person? A girl?
"Do you know which school that student is from? What's his name?" I thought for a while and vaguely remembered something.
"I asked him, and he said he didn't know which school he was from, but he heard his friends call him Xiao Gu."
Last name Gu? Could it be Gu Feng? I remembered that he said he would not let Jing Yan go. Moreover, the deliberately contrived voice on the phone sounded a bit like him.
"Li Ye, I may know who kidnapped Jingyan, but I hope it's not him." I asked the red-haired man to find a backpack, put some old papers in it, weighed it and felt that it was not heavy enough, so I took a bottle of lubricant and stuffed it in.
I jumped into Li Ye's car and said, "Let's go over there and take a look at the situation."
Area A of West Street is an old textile factory from the last century. It was abandoned after bankruptcy two years ago, and there were piles of waste machines inside. In order not to alert the kidnappers, I planned to negotiate with them through the front door, after all, they called me. But Li Ye disagreed, he was afraid that I couldn't handle it alone. I couldn't persuade him, so I had to follow his plan.
I followed Li Ye to the back door and quietly climbed up through the window, then went down along the waste piled against the wall. The abandoned factory was very large, and the old machines inside provided a good shield for Li Ye and me.
I crouched forward, trying to see if I could find Jingyan. The kidnappers told me to deliver the ransom here, so they must be here too.
When I turned to the third row of machines, I heard a strange noise, as if someone's mouth was covered. I leaned out and saw that it was Jingyan.
Jingyan's mouth was stuffed with cloth, and her hands and feet were tied with ropes. She kept struggling, but strangely, no one was watching her.
"Jingyan, Yanyan!" I called Jingyan softly. Jingyan followed the sound and saw me. Tears welled up in her eyes and she hummed as if she wanted to speak.
I put my index finger to my lips to make a silent gesture. Jingyan stopped struggling. Li Ye and I lay prone and prepared to crawl over. A voice rang out - "They are here! Still want to escape?"
"Ah Hei? Brother Jian? It's you guys!"
Li Ye's voice sounded at the same time, and it seemed that he knew the kidnapper.
There were three or four people on the other side, and two of them Li Ye didn't know. The two people he knew looked at Li Ye in astonishment, and the slightly fat one said, "Ye Zi, it's you, we, we..."
The other two were a little older, like the bosses in Hong Kong gangster movies. One of them shouted at him fiercely, "Ah Hei and Ah Jian, what do you want to do?"
The man named Ajian rubbed his hands nervously: "Boss Yu, please tell Gu Feng that Ye Zi is my friend, so let's forget about this, okay?"
"It doesn't count!" Boss Yu said in a thick foreign accent, shaking his head, "People in the underworld should be loyal. They should do what they promised. Otherwise, how can they survive in the future? Since we know each other, we can't let him go." After saying that, he made a pulling motion with his hand beside his neck.
I was a little angry and amused. What era is this guy still hanging around in the underworld? He must have watched too many Young and Dangerous series. When I heard Gu Feng's name, Li Ye looked at me. Sure enough, I was right. It was really him.
Li Ye looked at Ah Hei and Jian Ge. It seemed that they were wavering. Just as he was about to persuade them to give up, Boss Yu said, "Ah Hei, Ah Jian, don't even think about running away! Now that you've started, there's no turning back. Catch them and take the backpack with the money."
Then Boss Yu and the person beside him who had been silent came over to grab the bag from Li Ye. The other two were still hesitating.
While they were fighting, I untied the rope. I pulled Jingyan and signaled Li Ye to throw the bag to them and leave quickly. They were almost successful, but something unexpected happened.
When Boss Yu saw that I had untied the rope, he became a little anxious and took out a folding knife and stabbed Li Ye in the abdomen.
I heard Li Ye groan, and then I saw blood flowing out. The red color reminded me of the sun, and I felt dizzy. Then I heard two sounds.
Jingyan hugged me, trembling all over and screaming.
Another sound was the sirens, and He Xubei came with the police.
The kidnappers were taken to the police car. Boss Yu was still muttering in a daze: "It's not easy to survive in the underworld."
Li Ye leaned against me, holding his abdomen. When he saw Boss Yu getting in the car, he teased him, "Brother, go and join the cast of Prison on Fire."