Chapter 35 — I'll Be Your Hostage
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao said nothing, turning over in his mind whether to make his move here or wait a while longer. Here, for one thing, the robbers were too scattered, which made it hard for him to act; for another, there were simply too many people about, and once any large-scale panic broke out, it would be even harder to make his move.
"You there, girl, on your feet." The bald man had fixed his sights on Gu Mengyao and would not let her go. Once again he swung the muzzle of his gun toward her.
For some reason, Gu Mengyao was suddenly not as frightened as she had been a moment before. She silenced Shen Yushu with a look when the girl would have risen with her, and then resolutely stood up.
Shen Yushu had meant to stand up together with Gu Mengyao, but Gu Mengyao's eyes told her not to — to stay where she was and think of a way to rescue them. So Shen Yushu naturally would not act on impulse.
"Let's go." The bald man pressed the muzzle of his gun against Gu Mengyao's head and said.
Wei Zhao was rather puzzled. Why had the bald man fastened on Gu Mengyao and refused to let her go? Could it be that he had taken a fancy to her looks? That was the only explanation Wei Zhao could come up with, for he could find nothing else about Gu Mengyao that would be worth the bald man's trouble.
In principle, a single hostage was quite enough. When negotiating with the police, what mattered was not how many hostages you held, but whether you held any at all. Even with just one hostage in hand, the police would not dare act rashly.
"Listen up, all you police outside!" The bald man's underling who had gone out earlier to shout at them now planted himself in the bank's doorway and bellowed again: "Pull back a hundred meters, all of you! And once we're in our car, don't send anyone to tail us, or we start killing hostages!"
Outside the bank, Qiu Lingshan frowned at the thug's words. Withdraw a hundred meters? Naturally she was unwilling, but at the thought of the hostages still inside, she had to sigh and say to her men, "Fall back."
In truth, Qiu Lingshan had never been in favor of throwing up such a conspicuous cordon around the bank; it only put psychological pressure on the criminals and pushed them into doing something insane. A quiet, covert encirclement followed by discreet pursuit, and perhaps the robbers would never have chosen to take hostages at all.
But the Bureau Chief had branded her suggestion "personal heroism," which left her thoroughly disgruntled.
The bald man was well pleased with how the police had responded so far. He pressed his gun to Gu Mengyao's head, while Ma Liu on the other side held his to Wei Zhao's head, and together they walked out of the bank.
"Yaoyao!" Qing Bo, standing beside Qiu Lingshan, suddenly caught sight of Gu Mengyao in the criminal's grasp. His heart lurched and he cried out.
"Mr. Li, you know this hostage?" A bad feeling rose faintly in Qiu Lingshan's heart.
"That is Mr. Gu's daughter, Gu Mengyao..." Qing Bo was extremely nervous. Mr. Gu was away on business, and if anything happened to the young lady at a moment like this, the blame would fall squarely on him.
"What..." Qiu Lingshan was stunned, her anxiety mounting. Of all the people in that bank, how had the criminals picked Gu Pengzhan's daughter as their hostage? Whatever she feared most, it seemed, was always what came to pass.
Qiu Lingshan had no choice but to report the situation to the Chief over the radio: "Reporting to the Chief, one of the hostages is Gu Pengzhan's daughter, Gu Mengyao..."
The police chief was in a cold sweat himself. Hearing that the criminals had indeed chosen Gu Mengyao as a hostage, he was badly startled: "Be careful. You must be careful. Whatever you do, do not act rashly."