Chapter 1463 The Woman in a Floral Dress
The sky had turned dark. Time was ticking.
Lu Zihao and his subordinates got off several silent off-road vehicles behind a mountain. They were fully armed and moved like elite soldiers.
A female voice directed them through their in-ear phones.
"Please hurry, Big Brother," Iris said after giving directions on where they should go. "Little Jun must be frightened."
"I'm on it," Lu Zihao replied, his expression cold and unchanging.
He scanned their surroundings, a mountain forest, through his night-vision goggles and gestured at his subordinates. They followed his silent orders.
Together, they moved through the forest in unison like a pack of nocturnal creatures.
Soon, they saw a lone wooden house located at a tricky incline. There were no other houses. It was most likely a temporary shelter made by hunters from the nearest village at the neighbouring mountain.
Iris spoke again through their in-ear phones, "The police special force has also figured out Little Jun's general location. I trust you more than them to rescue my godson, Big Brother, so please hurry up."
"Got it." Lu Zihao gave signals to the different teams under his command. "Drop a lead for the police bastards to wait at the Western front of the mountain where the main road is located. I'll leave the child there for them to 'rescue' later, so they won't feel like total useless losers."
"Okay. I'll have Liwei handle it."
"Hm."
The siblings had a tacit understanding not to continue dissing the police during this urgent situation.
Lu Zihao and his subordinates activated the thermal sensors in their goggles.
"Body heat matching that of a child detected at one o'clock," a child's voice sounded through their in-ear phones.
"Vital signs?" Lu Zihao asked.
Bacon replied, "Vital signs appear normal."
"Continue monitoring the child's vital signs."
"Understood, Uncle Zihao."
Lu Zihao moved to a different spot to confirm the thermal image matched that of a child with his own eyes. He also found the locations of the other kidnappers.
His subordinates reported their findings through their in-ear phones one by one while Bacon supplemented information that they missed.
Bloodlust surged from Lu Zihao, but he quickly suppressed it. All that was left was cold calmness before a violent storm.
He and his team were utterly focused on rescuing the child.
He was about to issue the following command when Bacon alerted them, "Danger, danger."
###
Approximately five hours ago.
Mao Qiuyue's parents finally arrived at this god-forsaken place. The way to the mountain was difficult to navigate. They were dropped off at the southern foot of the mountain where there was no paved road. There wasn't even a trail.
"Do we really have to climb the mountain?" Mother Mao asked as she looked at the tall and dense vegetation with great trepidation.
A slender woman stepped out of the SUV. She wore an extremely impractical outfit to the mountains. A full-on floor-length floral dress with puffed sleeves, cinched waist, big sunglasses, high stilettos, and a large black wide-brimmed hat.
"We have a deal, Mrs. Mao," the woman said.
Father Mao stood beside his wife and asked the younger woman, "Can you really help our daughter get out of jail?"
Instead of answering, the woman just smiled. After a few seconds, several fully armed people appeared from the mountain and pointed their guns at the couple.
Mr. and Mrs. Mao trembled and they immediately fell on their knees, not caring about the dirt and sharp rocks cutting their skins.
"Have mercy!"
"Please don't kill us!"
The woman in a floral dress waved her hand and the men withdrew their guns.
The Mao couple released sighs of temporary relief, but their fear only multiplied. They knew that agreeing to the woman in a floral dress was like making a deal with the devil, but they had no choice.
Their daughter, Mao Qiuyue, was in jail. She was already scheduled to be transferred to a high-security prison. They thought that their daughter didn't deserve what happened to her. It was only when she married that damned bastard Long Hui that her fate and that of their family reversed.
Marrying Long Hui was the beginning of the Mao family's downfall.
Their company, Mao Textiles, didn't only become bankrupt. It ceased to exist. The government repossessed almost everything while their rival companies and other enemies swarmed and scavenged all that remained.
Also, their bank accounts, both domestic and international ones, had all been frozen. Even their secret off-shore slush funds had been seized. It was a mystery how these were discovered.
But they had no time to investigate. They couldn't even save their daughter, much less themselves. How could they still spend the time, energy, and money to conduct investigations, especially when they themselves were under investigation?
So when they received an offer of help from the mysterious woman in a floral dress, they only hesitated a little before accepting.
They had nothing to lose now.
The most important thing was that the woman promised them that she would help get their daughter out of jail, help them get revenge, and finally help them escape abroad, as long as they obeyed her.
Now that they were nobodies who had nothing, they were willing to be dogs for her as long as she could fulfill their requests.
The woman in a floral dress chuckled. "Don't worry. You haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain yet, so I won't have you killed. But better be obedient or my men's fingers might slip. Stand up now and start stretching. You still have to climb the mountain. You have to climb it even if you have to crawl."
Father Mao nodded while helping the shaking Mother Mao to her feet. "We just have to frighten the child, right?"
The woman in a floral dress smiled, showing her white teeth. "Up to you. Scare him or hit him. Doesn't matter to me. If you accidentally kill the child, it's fine, too. I don't care. Just do your part of our deal and I'll do mine."
Father Mao frowned but Mother Mao clenched her fists.
"Just wait until I get my hands on that bastard child!" Mother Mao held a huge grudge.