translated_Chapter 105

105: Kidnapping.

Still Qing seemed to be in thought. After a moment, he suggested, “Let me play a mournful tune for you. I’m good at funeral music.”

Qiu Ci nodded.

Still Qing went to fetch his instrument.

The unique desolation of stringed instruments echoed the sound of rain.

Drowning in this mild, rainy climate, could I be reborn as a black tea plant?

Not saddened by the passage of time, gentle, complete.

The rain continued until evening. Qiu Ci was alone in the hut, with some bamboo visible outside the window.

The scholar’s four treasures were laid out on the table. Being too bored, he simply used the brush and ink to sketch a few bamboo stalks.

His hand trembled, so it became an impressionistic Chinese painting.

Many years ago, Qiu Ci had also learned Chinese painting for a short time, mastering the basic techniques.

Moving a few bamboo shadows onto the rice paper, Qiu Ci was quite satisfied. He took out his phone to take a picture.

After turning it on, there were several missed calls.

The first few were from Jing Yueming, and the rest were from unfamiliar numbers with an area code from… Beijing?

Qiu Ci first returned Jing Yueming’s call, but no one answered after two attempts.

He felt a bit puzzled. Could he be on a plane?

Qiu Ci also dialed the other unfamiliar numbers.

Someone answered this time, respectfully calling out, “CEO Qiu.”

It seemed to be an acquaintance from the company: “Yes, what’s the matter?”

There was more than one person on the other end. After a few inaudible whispers, there were footsteps and the rustling of clothing. The sound of the clothing rustling was the hard texture of synthetic fabric. In Beijing, they must be wearing coats. There was no wind. An unheated room. A parking lot? Or a warehouse? The phone was taken elsewhere, and a woman took the call: “CEO Qiu, you finally returned my call.”

“Qin… Third Sister?” Qiu Ci discerned the voice. It was the third of the Qin family’s three sisters.

“…It’s me. Are you in the Netherlands or back in the country?”

“How do you know where I’m going?” Qiu Ci vaguely sensed something was wrong.

There was a pause on the other end: “I want to discuss a deal with you. I want all the rights and shares related to CW in your hands.”

The decision-making power had long been given to the three sisters, and Qiu Ci gave them most of the share profits. Their greed was insatiable: “A deal?”

“You should still remember Jing Yueming, right? Your lover from a few years ago.”

Qiu Ci immediately felt a pang of panic, but maintained his composure and asked in shock, “I remember.”

“I found him at the airport. I’ll trade him for it. Are you willing?”

“This is kidnapping, Third Miss. You’re quite bold.” She shouldn’t dare to harm Jing Yueming at the moment.

“I know. It depends on what you want. I want all the power you have, all of it, and also want you to break the contract with my two sisters. In short, it’s your choice. If you don’t care about this guy, then I’ll take care of him very thoroughly.”

“Do your sisters know about this?”

“When I come forward, it means that this matter has nothing to do with them. Alright, I’ll show you that guy later, don’t worry.” The Third Miss thought she had made things clear and hung up the phone.

Qiu Ci stared at the phone for a minute. Finally, that number sent a video. It seemed to be in a dark warehouse, or perhaps a basement. Jing Yueming was on the cement floor, his arms and legs bound with tape, inexplicably unconscious. He was probably drugged.

Would it affect his brain? Qiu Ci was a little worried.

Having been away for too long, Qiu Ci had forgotten how dangerous his situation was back in China.

A sailboat carrying treasure.

Qiu Ci pondered his strategy. Putting aside whether the Third Miss would keep her promise, even if Qiu Ci traded with her and took Jing Yueming away,

he would inevitably be retaliated against by the eldest and second sisters.

He wasn’t afraid, but what if Jing Yueming was implicated?

But if he didn’t agree, how could he appease the Third Miss?

Another text message arrived: “If my sisters find out, then your lover will be a dead man. I have no way out.”

Qiu Ci tried to calmly consider his options. He had almost no connections left in China.

Jing Yueming…

Qiu Ci sent a message asking the Third Miss, “What kind of drug did you give him?” He also sent a message to Still Qing to say goodbye, and hurried down the mountain at night to go to Beijing.

For the Third Miss, as long as Jing Yueming was alive, what kind of sedative was used didn’t matter. Qiu Ci worried on the high-speed train whether the anesthetic would be addictive, whether it would damage his brain, and whether the Third Miss knew how to use it.

The next morning, he finally arrived in the north. The Lunar New Year wasn’t over yet, and this unnamed small city was snowing.

Aside from the times he had dealt with them together, Qiu Ci had almost no understanding of the Qin Third Miss.

It seemed like she had a bad relationship with her two sisters.

In the few meetings they had, this Third Miss was relatively taciturn, only playing the role of bringing contracts, like an assistant.

He never expected such a person to suddenly explode. It must have been premeditated.

Jing Yueming was abducted by several middle-aged men. He found an opportunity to resist on the way, knocking down three of them, but more people came.

He was outnumbered and captured again.

“This guy is really strong. Qiu Ci’s tastes are too heavy. It’s one thing to like men, but this is too much. Is that sissy envious that someone else is more manly than him?”

Another person also spoke without restraint: “Tsk tsk, that sissy acts like a woman in bed for him. I even have pictures, just of them kissing.”

“Damn, that guy is pretty hot, it’s just that he’s old now.”

“A man is in his prime at thirty-one…”

Before he could finish speaking, Jing Yueming broke free again, punching the man in the bridge of his nose, probably breaking it.

“You’re fantasizing about your dad…”

Jing Yueming erupted, and they couldn’t hold him down no matter what.

The men gritted their teeth and took out an injection: “Damn it, let’s see you act tough now.”

Two bodyguards found an opportunity to hold Jing Yueming down, forcefully pulling out his arm. The needle of the injection was inserted into a vein. After a sharp pain in his arm, all his muscles began to relax and weaken. Soon after, Jing Yueming passed out.

They wanted Qiu Ci.

Kidnapping?

He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, but Jing Yueming felt very cold and had a headache.

The surrounding temperature was close to zero, but he was still wearing the thin clothes he had brought from Yunnan.

Headache, so cold. The last time it was like this, it was when he was in high school. It was raining, and the school’s sewer was blocked. It was also a holiday, and there was no one around.

Jing Yueming went to the convenience store alone, hungry, to buy food.

The water flooded over his ankles, so cold, as if there were ice shards inside, freezing his bones.

He walked for twenty minutes to get to the convenience store outside the school. He rubbed his slippers on the doormat for a long time.

A child’s cry made him turn his head to look.

It was a pair of siblings, or perhaps a mother and child, in short, a young boy of a few years old and a young woman.

The boy cried loudly, “I don’t want this umbrella. I’m a boy, I can’t use a pink umbrella. I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I don’t want it!”

The woman was holding a very pretty peach-pink gradient umbrella. She was a little impatient, “If you don’t want this one, which one do you want? I only brought one. Come on, let’s go home quickly.”

“I want this one, I want this one!” The boy pointed to the blue umbrella displayed on the shelves in the convenience store.