Volume One: High School Days Chapter 83: Kidnapping

Yagyu drove alone to a deserted hill, got out of the car, and circled his newly purchased beloved vehicle twice, genuinely delighted with it. He was completely unaware that behind him, a masked man was approaching step by step, gripping a baseball bat. Without activating his heightened senses, Yagyu was knocked unconscious by a single blow from the masked man.

The masked man, acting with a twisted sense of courtesy, abandoned his own dilapidated car, took off in the Audi A6 with Yagyu, and thought to himself, “It’s a shame to leave the A6 behind. No one would want my old wreck anyway—I'll come back for it later.”

When Yagyu finally came to, his head throbbed with pain. He instinctively tried to reach for the back of his head, only to discover his hands were bound. He was seated in a chair with a backrest, his hands tied firmly behind him and his legs lashed together at the ankles and secured to the chair legs, completely immobilizing him.

Looking around, Yagyu observed he was likely in an abandoned factory. Immediately, he thought of the “Beggars’ Sect”—could it be those people had come for revenge? As Yagyu mulled this over, the masked man entered, baseball bat in hand.

As the masked man drew near, Yagyu remarked, “That mask of yours is truly hideous.”

“Shut up! I’m kidnapping you! This is no joke—show some respect! Give me a hundred thousand right now, or I’ll kill you!” The masked man jabbed the bat in Yagyu’s direction, but his voice trembled with nervousness.

Yagyu, observing his captor’s anxiety, replied, “This must be your first time, right? You’re not very professional. How am I supposed to give you money when I’m tied up like this? Besides, who carries a hundred thousand in cash when they go out?”

The masked man, frustrated by Yagyu’s lack of fear, snapped, “Can’t you show me a little respect? I’m kidnapping you! Give me the hundred thousand right now!”

Yagyu couldn’t help but mock, “Let me coach you. You should use my phone to call my friends or relatives and have them ransom me. What kind of kidnapper asks the hostage directly for money?”

Yagyu’s taunting tone infuriated the masked man, who jabbed Yagyu in the stomach with the bat, eliciting a yelp from him.

The masked man then searched Yagyu thoroughly, eventually finding his phone, only to discover it was dead and wouldn’t turn on. Enraged, he slumped to the ground, sighing in frustration.

“How much did you say you wanted again?” Yagyu asked, glancing at the man on the floor.

“One hundred thousand!”

“Oh? Are you desperate for money? Something urgent come up?” Yagyu speculated that the masked man wasn’t inherently bad—he must need the money for some dire reason, or he wouldn’t be doing this.

Ignoring the question, the masked man demanded, “Just tell me—do you have a hundred thousand or not?”

“No.”

“Liar! I saw you drive away with two cars from the dealership. If I could’ve caught up to that sports car, I wouldn’t have bothered with you. You look just like some big boss’s lackey!” The masked man sneered.

Yagyu was instantly offended. “So you’re saying I’m broke? Fine! Since you think that, let’s negotiate properly!”

The masked man was blunt: “I’ll give you a discount—eighty thousand and you’re free! Otherwise, I’ll kill you!”

“Damn! Who are you looking down on? Why do you keep lowering the price? Look, let’s do the math. You said your lowest price is a hundred thousand, right?”

The masked man nodded in response.

Yagyu continued, “You waited outside that dealership all morning for me to come out—shouldn’t you get some compensation for your time? I’ll add another hundred thousand for that. You tailed me all the way here, which must’ve taken effort—another hundred thousand! Most importantly, you tied me up so uncomfortably! As punishment, I won’t add another hundred thousand, but I’ll round it up—a flat five hundred thousand, how’s that?”

The masked man burst out laughing but soon fell silent. After a moment, he began untying Yagyu. “I thought I’d kidnapped some big boss, but it turns out I got a lunatic. Go see a doctor already!”

“I don’t like your tone!” Yagyu retorted as he flexed his freed limbs, then stood up and continued, “And another thing—you hit me with that bat. I bet it took a lot of nerve to do it; you must’ve been wondering if you’d kill me by accident. I’ll throw in another hundred thousand as compensation for emotional distress. How about that?”

The masked man ripped off his mask, stamped his foot in exasperation, and kept muttering, “All I wanted was a hundred thousand—why did I have to run into a nutcase!”

Judging from his appearance, Yagyu guessed the kidnapper was in his early twenties. “You’re so young—how did you end up doing something like this?”

Suddenly realizing he’d exposed his face, the masked man gripped the bat tightly and said, “Since you’ve seen what I look like, I’ll have to follow the rules of the trade—don’t blame me for being ruthless!”

He raised the bat, then lowered it, then raised it again—hesitating. Yagyu, seeing the man’s reluctance, pointed at his own head. “Hit me here. Try to finish me in one blow—make it quick.”

The masked man lifted the bat and shouted, but as Yagyu prepared to use his special vision, the man suddenly threw the bat on the ground, nearly in tears. “For god’s sake, just go! Don’t mess up my business, you lunatic!”

Yagyu strode toward him. The masked man, fearing for his safety and thinking madmen could kill without consequence, dropped to his knees in terror. “Please, man! This is my first time—I shouldn’t have hit you. Just let me go.”

Yagyu ignored him, fished out the man’s phone, and dialed Ren Xiadong. “Mr. Ren, bring me six hundred thousand in cash.”

“Where?”

“Um...one moment.” Yagyu held the phone to the masked man’s ear. “Tell him the address.”

The masked man snatched the phone away and hung up. “Do you think I’m stupid? You’re calling for backup! I know what happens to kidnappers!”

Exasperated, Yagyu lit a cigarette. “You’re unbelievable! You kidnapped me for money, didn’t you?”

The man nodded.

“So why are you so scared when I try to give you money? It’d be easy for both of us—no hassle! But you insist on making things complicated!”

“I’m afraid it’s a trap if it’s too easy!” the masked man replied, to which Yagyu instantly retorted, “You’re the kidnapper—what are you afraid of? Are you kidnapping me, or am I kidnapping you? Can’t you be more professional? You want it to be difficult, fine—let me think.”

Just then, Ren Xiadong called back. Yagyu gestured at the phone in the masked man’s hand. “Answer it. Give him the address. I promise you’ll be fine!”

The masked man hung up again. Yagyu, on the verge of madness, paced back and forth. “Why are you so damn dumb? You don’t trust easy money, is that it? Fine—you help me with something, and the money’s yours. Don’t think of it as a kidnapping—I’ll hire you for a job, alright?”

The masked man nodded eagerly. Yagyu went on, “Damn, you started by kidnapping me—look what you’ve reduced me to! I’m miserable because I can’t give you money!”

“Listen up. I’ll give you an address. Find someone named Ren Xiadong and bring him here. Sixty thousand is yours!”

Hearing that Yagyu would pay sixty thousand just to find someone—and that Yagyu even knew the address—the masked man asked, “Sixty thousand just to get this Ren Xiadong? What kind of grudge do you have against him?”

“Don’t worry about it. This place is remote, no one around. Just bring him here!” Yagyu replied.

“You’re not planning to kill him, are you?” The masked man grew anxious.

Yagyu lost his patience again. “What use are you? You can’t even kidnap properly! You reject what’s easy and are too scared to try anything hard! Fine! I’m leaving, and you won’t get a cent!”

The masked man, alarmed at the prospect of getting nothing, pleaded, “At least tell me what you want him for.”

“Oh, you have a million questions! Fine! Ren Xiadong is wealthy. Lure him here, we’ll kidnap him together, and demand one hundred and twenty thousand from his family—we’ll split it fifty-fifty, how’s that?”

The masked man agreed, liking Yagyu’s plan but still wary that Yagyu might run away. Sensing this, Yagyu sat back down on the chair. “Come on, tie me up again, then go get to work!”

Once the masked man had tied him up and left, Yagyu muttered quietly to himself, “I refuse to believe I can’t give you money!”

Yagyu had sized up the masked man as not a bad person—he must have his reasons for doing this. Since he knew, Yagyu resolved to help if he could. Strangely enough, he, the hostage, was now desperate to give the kidnapper money, while the kidnapper didn’t dare take it. The absurdity of the situation made Yagyu laugh aloud.

Night fell. The factory doors were kicked open. The masked man, still wearing his mask, entered with someone slung over his shoulder—none other than Ren Xiadong. Seeing the unconscious Ren Xiadong, Yagyu snapped the ropes binding his hands, untied his feet, and rushed over.

“He lives in a villa complex—I couldn’t get in,” the masked man explained. “But I recognized him from your description, waited until night when he finally left home, and knocked him out when he wasn’t looking.” Suddenly realizing Yagyu had broken free, he asked, “How did you do that?”

Yagyu ignored the question, propped Ren Xiadong on a chair, and said, “I told you to bring him here, not to knock him out!”

The masked man began tying up Ren Xiadong, asking, “So what now? His family’s rich—they’ll pay the ransom, right?”

Yagyu snatched the rope from him. “No need to tie him up. Let him wake up—he’ll give us the money himself! Now, tell me, why do you need the money?”

The masked man was reluctant, but Yagyu pressed, “We’re in this together now—what’s there to hide?”

“Alright, I’ll tell you,” the masked man began. “I have a girlfriend. We got together in high school. She got into a university in the provincial capital, I didn’t. I followed her here for work. Later, I got into a fight and put the other guy in the hospital. The compensation was forty thousand, and my girlfriend paid it. She said she got the money from her family.” At this point, his voice wavered with emotion.

Under Yagyu’s further questioning, he revealed that he later learned his girlfriend had borrowed the forty thousand from a loan shark, using compromising videos as collateral. The interest was so high she couldn’t repay it and only then told him the truth. But with his meager income, there was no way to keep up with the mounting interest, and the debt soon ballooned to a hundred thousand.

Unable to repay, the loan sharks constantly harassed his girlfriend and even threatened that if the debt wasn’t cleared by tomorrow, they’d force her into prostitution to pay it off.

At that moment, Ren Xiadong regained consciousness, groggy and cursing, “Who the hell ambushed me?!”