Translator: Lonelytree
I smiled but the mirth didnât reach my eyes. âWell, my math is not good. I mistake 4 for 1. Iâm sorry.â I stood up before them and tapped the iron bar repeatedly against my palm as I studied Tan Si. Tan Siâs eyes moved along the movement of the iron bar.
I then walked around them, dragging the iron rod against the ground. It created a very grating sound. I stopped at the only window in the room and then walked back to stand before them.
âI live in this big house all by myself. Thereâs a basement here where my grandfather used as his wine cellar. He passed away many years ago?so the basement has been abandoned.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âI doubt the four of you would have made plenty of noise infiltrating into the house yesterday night. After all, you were trespassing. Now... Letâs say I lock the four of you in my cellar, do you think anyone will come looking for you?â
I walked back to the window. âI suppose there might be, for example, the person who hired you. But if I were them, I wouldnât bend over backwards to look for you. After all, this kind of illegal transaction is normally done in 2 stages, a deposit up front and then the final payment after the job is done. If I donât hear from you guys again, why would I risk my own safety to come looking for you? Iâll pretend I have never hired you, Iâll even save a final payment this way.â
I walked back towards them. âWhat about my supposed buyer then? Again, I donât think so. First, they wouldnât have known my real identity, or else they wouldnât have dropped the bid to purchase me. Second, in this line of work, it is quite common for a deal to go wrong. People might not show up, the work might be shoddy or youâve attracted the attention of the police. Since you havenât delivered the good, I wouldnât have given you the deposit. Then I have lost nothing. I would move on to deal with the next group of people, why would I put my neck out for you people?â
I walked back to the window. âNow who else, who else? Okay, your gang might come looking for you. Of course, if you took this job in private, they might just let you be. But if you took this job as a task for the gang, then the gang would observe this place for weeks before they sent people into the house. By then, I would have left this place already and no one would know the way to the underground cellar.â
I thought about it and added, âSuppose the gang did find the cellar... Hmm, in that case, I would have to put you four into the filled wine barrels. I promise that drowning is the most peaceful way to go. Plus the alcohol will further compromise your actual state of death. So what would 4 barrels of wine contaminated by human remains benefit your gang? What do you think of my plan? Have I missed anything or anyone?â
The four of them looked at me with eyes filled with fear.
Tan Si and the others were dumbfounded.
âMiss Pretty, Great Madam, please forgive us! We donât dare to do this again! If you let us go, we will do everything you say!â Tan Si cried, âMiss Pretty, please let us go. We, we all have parents and children to feed, they canât survive without us.â
I scoffed. âNow you think about your family? What about my family? Brother Tan Si, if you succeeded and I was captured and sold, what kind of life would I have? Have you thought about that?
âYou people do not have the moral high ground and donât think Iâll ever pity you because you never thought to pity me. If you want to be saved, better consider answering my questions instead.â
This time, Tan Si didnât look at Ah Hu and answered hurriedly, âIt was a young lady who ordered your kidnapping. We donât know her identity. We took her deposit and we would shoot a picture of the receipt with the buyer to get the final payment.
âThe buyer is someone from Southeast Asia. This is our first time doing it, so we donât know much details. It wasnât us who contacted the buyer either. It was our gang boss who personally did that. Our boss is Han Cheng, West Cityâs Underworld Boss. 4 of us belong to the same unit. There are around 8 units like ours working under Brother Han Cheng. One unit has around 4 to 10 people.â Tan Si spilled all the beans.
I was very satisfied.
Tan Si looked at me with pleading eyes. âMiss Pretty, weâre wrong. Please let us go, weâll never do this again.â
I smiled. Of course, I didnât believe him. If I let them go now, they would immediately returned with reinforcements.
I took out my phone instead. The greatest advantage of the informational age was that, as long as you were alive, you would be remembered as your trace would live on permanently on the web. Of course, the downside was that no one could really be anonymous.
It didnât take long for me to look up all the info on this Han Cheng. I was quite surprised that this small organization would have a central server. It was truly a great find.
I hacked into their data centre and found a lot of useful stuff.