Chapter 327 — Running Into a Thief
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao went straight down to the basement, and once inside, he did indeed see row upon row of cell-like rooms walled off with iron railings. In some of them people sat, in others none, but as Wei Zhao passed, hardly any of them raised their heads to look at him; each wore a look of dejection and despair.
These people, presumably, were all hostages the Water Blue Gang had seized on one pretext or another, waiting for their families and friends to bring money to ransom them back.
Still, the Water Blue Gang was brazen enough — openly running a business of extortion and ransom. It seemed the law and order here had decayed to a certain point.
"Xie Jinbiao?" Wei Zhao could not be bothered to search one by one and simply called out Xie Jinbiao's name.
"Here, over here!" A man in one of the cages rose excitedly to his feet, walked to the edge of the cage, and waved at Wei Zhao.
Wei Zhao nodded and walked quickly over. The other hostages held there had clearly grown used to such scenes; not one of them even looked up.
Whoever had money sent for them got their name called and was let out, while the rest could say what they liked and still never get out. So they took Wei Zhao's arrival with utter indifference.
"You're Xie Jinbiao?" Wei Zhao looked him over and found him very different from the photo Xie Guangbo had given him. In that photo Xie Jinbiao was strong and upright; the Xie Jinbiao before him looked like a sick man, thin as a monkey. Still, on closer look, one could tell it was the same person.
"Yes, that's me. Has my dad wired the money?" Xie Jinbiao was rather excited. He had thought he was as good as dead this time, never expecting his father to find a way after all.
Xie Jinbiao had a rough idea of how much his family was worth, but the debt this time was simply too large. He had reckoned that even if his father borrowed from everyone he knew, he could not raise that much money, so he had already given himself up to despair...
Wei Zhao picked the lock on the cage with a piece of wire and let Xie Jinbiao out: "Come with me."
Xie Jinbiao hurried to follow cautiously behind Wei Zhao. He was so overjoyed that he had not caught clearly how Wei Zhao opened the door with the wire, and assumed Wei Zhao really was a member of the Water Blue Gang.
Only when they had passed through the main door of the building did Xie Jinbiao, seeing that Wei Zhao said nothing, ask again: "Where's my dad? Can I go now?"
"Put this on and don't talk nonsense. Just follow me!" Wei Zhao put the baseball cap he had gotten from the underling earlier onto Xie Jinbiao's head. "If you don't want to die, don't ask so many questions!"
"Huh? You... who are you?" Xie Jinbiao was no fool. Seeing Wei Zhao put the cap on him, he had begun to sense faintly that something was off.