Chapter 2268 — A Ten-Million Ransom
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"All right. If anything comes up, contact me anytime!" Qiu Lingshan's powers of observation were keen indeed—she had naturally noticed Gu Mengyao's hesitation. Perhaps, with Wang Xuben and Xiao Qinlin present, she had found it awkward to speak plainly. So Qiu Lingshan decided that in a little while she would call Gu Mengyao privately...
Not long after Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had left, Wang Xuben received the kidnappers' second call.
"Wang Xuben?" From the other end of the line came that strange voice, distorted by a voice changer.
"It's you. How is my daughter?" Wang Xuben recognized at once that this was the kidnapper who had called before.
"No need to worry, Mr. Wang. Your daughter is doing very well at present—at present, of course!" the Big Mule said. "If you don't want anything to happen to your daughter, Mr. Wang, then you'd best do exactly as I say."
"What do you want?" Wang Xuben asked.
"Have ten million ready, then wait for my call." With that, the other party hung up outright, giving Wang Xuben not a moment to reply.
"Wait..." Wang Xuben stared helplessly at the dead phone and shook his head. These kidnappers did not play by any rulebook at all. He had wanted to stall for time as Qiu Lingshan suggested, but the other side had simply hung up.
Wang Xuben looked at Qiu Lingshan with a bitter smile, while Qiu Lingshan waited for word from Liu Wangli.
"How is it?" Qiu Lingshan looked at Liu Wangli as he came over.
"Captain Song, the tech team traced the call just now, but it was routed through multiple relays from overseas. There's no way to trace it in the short term..." Liu Wangli said.
Qiu Lingshan nodded. So the other side were old hands at this sort of crime, thoroughly familiar with such tricks. She had more or less guessed as much and had not held out much hope. Since the other side had fielded an expert far stronger than even an early Earth-Rank, tracing their identity through the phone would hardly be easy...
"Any trace of the vehicle?" Qiu Lingshan asked.
"No. It's a new commercial vehicle, smuggled in—there's no such model domestically, so there's no information to be found. And the route the kidnappers took was all back streets and alleys, with no surveillance footage..." Liu Wangli said.
Qiu Lingshan had largely anticipated this result. She turned to Wang Xuben and asked, "What did the kidnappers say?"
"He only said to have ten million ready and wait for his call, then nothing more," Wang Xuben said. "Officer Song, do you think I should go and raise the ten million right now..."