Chapter 10 – Li Yiming’s Confession
"Where did you get the gun from?" Li Yiming sat on the pa.s.senger seat of the Land Rover and flashed a glance at Guo Xiang, who laid in the back with his mouth sealed shut and his limbs completely tied up, and Ji Xiaoqin, who was still in a state of unaware drunkenness. He asked the question in a rather agitated voice; although he probably would not have been able to escape alive otherwise, for such a dainty-looking girl to suddenly pull out an a.s.sault rifle out of nowhere…
"Sis gave it to me, of course." answered Qing Qiaoqiao in a tone used to state the most obvious of truths.
"She gave you an a.s.sault rifle just like that?"
Qing Qiaoqiao turned her head in surprise and looked at Li Yiming, 'What's wrong with him?' "Well, I also have two AK-47s, a set of hand grenades and an anti-armor rocket launcher."
* * *
Kidnapping Guo Xiang was an idea Qing Linglong came up with while Eyegla.s.ses was busy forging the ID pieces. Since Guo Tai was the one responsible for the death of Zhang Qiang's fictional daughter, it was only natural that "Zhang Qiang" would kidnap Guo Tai's son, and once the news reached the man himself, it would greatly increase the latter's willingness to surrender himself.
'I guess I really have to abandon my old ways, my old values and my old habits… Even if I don't, it won't take long before she utterly obliterates them.' thought Li Yiming.
In fact, it was not long before his initiative was proven to be a wise one. After the two arrived at a five-star hotel, Qing Qiaoqiao disembarked and strolled elegantly into the front hall, coming back out two minutes later with two bodyguards who worked there.
"It's in the backseat." She returned to the car and gave them concise instructions, waving her hand at Li Yiming before leading the way. The two bodyguards picked up the two hostages, followed Li Yiming and Qing Qiaoqiao as they crossed the lobby, entered the elevator, and walked all the way into their rooms. During the entire time, the two bodyguards acted as if they were carrying two rug sacks instead of two human beings and completely disregarded Guo Xiang's struggles. Everyone they met on the way showed the same kind of neglect.
The two bodyguards threw Guo Tai and Ji Xiaoqin onto the beds and turned to leave. Qing Qiaoqiao, who stood at the entrance, smirked at them playfully. "You won't remember me, right?"
"Of course," the two bodyguards answered mechanically and scuttled away.
"They're all obeying you?" Li Yiming finally noticed the oddity of the whole situation. He thought about the head waiter back at the nightclub… And then about what had just happened…
"Hehe, my talent is to have anyone obey me. Isn't it amazing?" Qing Qiaoqiao smiled mischievously, like a child showing off a new toy.
'Charm…' Li Yiming suddenly thought of it. 'She really is a fairy…'
Sitting down in front of his marble table, Guo Tai recalled the scenes from a moment ago. He slowly came to a realization. 'These people from National Security, if they really wanted to, they would probably be able to rescue my son and 'convince' Zhang Qiang that trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate me is a bad idea. It's just that they would lose the opportunity to capture him. If that happened, they would also lose all hopes of recovering the military intelligence. They would rather gamble with their own lives than let such a thing happen… For cold-blooded people like them, they would trade their own lives for the sake of the intelligence… Not to mention the lives of civilians…"
Guo Tai, who thought that he had finally uncovered the truth behind the motives of his visitors, regained his confidence. 'Vice-commissioner w.a.n.g… She's been at this job for a long time, and has been in a high position…' Guo Tai picked up his pen, and carefully wrote down a name on the sheet of paper in front of him. "Qing Linglong."
Guo Xiang snapped out of his drunkenness. To be precise, he awoke from it the moment he saw Qing Qiaoqiao pull out the M4. He regretted his actions dearly now. 'Why did I mess around with him, of all people? Who is he exactly? Isn't he just a dance graduate from Hanzhou's Teacher's College? He must be bluffing… Must be…'
Guo Xiang recalled Li Yiming's lack of hesitation when he fired the gun, and the apathy after he killed someone… 'That's a G.o.d-d.a.m.ned M4, not some toy gun! I don't even think that the city's police force has firepower like that… And what happened on the way here, this five-star hotel, they're all his f*cking people! How big would you need to be? To make everyone ignore me, and not ask a single question… What professionalism, what kind of team this guy has, so that everyone plays by his rules?'
Guo Xiang had his mouth sealed, so he could only throw an pleading gaze at Li Yiming. However, the latter ignored him completely and sat down on the sofa with a cigarette he grabbed from the stand in the room. He thought he needed it to calm himself down. 'I killed someone…' He kept reminding himself that it was all fake, that it was nothing more than a mirage, but he really did kill someone.This was a feeling which was impossible to be understood by someone who had not committed the act.
