The truck reached the pond and stopped.

Across the pond was a compound with a building, and the strong smell of chicken manure hung in the air.

This was the hideout where He Puting was being held—a chicken farm nestled deep in the mountains.

The kidnappers had arrived, and as they got out of the truck, Xu Tianxi, lying in the truck bed, silently pulled up the curtain.

He saw that they had already entered the yard.

There was a three-story building with seven or eight rooms per floor, and at least four large men guarding the door to a room on the second floor.

He could tell from the defense that his cousin should be in a room on the first or second floor.

The four in the truck had already disembarked, and someone was heading toward the truck bed.

Xu Tianxi quickly aimed his gun at the person approaching, but upon realizing it was Su Linlang, he lowered it.

Su Linlang motioned for Huang Mao to bring supplies and whispered to Xu Tianxi, “The BMW with the logo—does it belong to Beile?”

Xu Tianxi nodded silently: Yes.

She picked up a large bag of medical supplies and said, “There’s a Beile car two o’clock from the truck. In a minute, we’ll be in a fight with the kidnappers. When it happens, you hide by the Beile car and wait. I’ll get the keys for you. No matter how things go, don’t act rashly. Wait for us to withdraw, and once the kidnappers chase us, drive and follow us the whole way. Be ready to switch cars if needed.”

This was a complete retreat plan, carefully thought out after Su Linlang had surveyed the terrain.

Xu Tianxi had nearly been scared out of his wits, but hearing Su Linlang had already planned the retreat and car swap calmed him down.

He didn’t realize that the fierce woman in front of him had the soul of a general.

He thought her toughness came from growing up in mainland China and being raised by her military father, which made him admire the PLA even more.

The criminal group was large, and the chicken farm was only a temporary hideout, a place to keep He Dasha hidden.

At this moment, the gang’s second-in-command, Ah Rong, was in a room on the first floor, leaning against a refrigerator, holding a phone in one hand and a cigar in the other.

He had been listening to instructions from the leader, Ah Qiang.

After a long pause, he said, “Got it, Qiang-ge. We’ll move the meat soon.”

He hung up and tapped the ash off his cigar. “The hostage is seriously injured. If we cut off more hands and feet, they’ll die. Let’s give them some medicine and let them hold on for now.”

Just then, someone outside said, “Rong-ge, Ah Shu is back.”

He stubbed out the cigar and walked outside, meeting Ah Shu, who nervously replied, “I’ve brought the supplies.”

“Has the He family’s northern woman been dealt with?” Ah Rong asked casually, as if asking about a chicken or an ant.

Ah Shu stammered, his face pale, “She… She’s been dealt with.”

Ah Rong grinned and looked at his men, saying, “Ah Shu never liked women. Looks like he finally did today. The northern women was quite a treat, huh?”

Ah Shu blushed, an admission of sorts.

Ah Rong laughed knowingly, “What man doesn’t like women? You’ll get used to it.”

The kidnappers were all laughing lewdly as the conversation continued.

If Su Linlang didn’t wake up to the danger, she would be betrayed, killed, and her body thrown into the sea.

She’d also be blamed for being an accomplice to the kidnappers forever.

Huang Mao also said, “Ah Sao, I’ve seen it, the hostage is indeed being kept on the second floor.”

The hostage is on the second floor?

Currently, Su Linlang was at a blind spot, but if she were to go upstairs, she would be exposed to the shooting range of two AKs for nearly a minute. It would be very dangerous.

Su Linlang said to Ah Rong, “Rong Ge, have your men bring the hostage downstairs.”

Ah Rong had a key hanging around his neck.

He raised both hands and stammered a laugh, “Ah Sir, the key is in my hands, I must go upstairs to unlock the door.”

So, to rescue the hostage, she would have to rush through the fire blockade of two AKs?

While Su Linlang hesitated, all the guns aimed at her.

She was defending herself and also thinking. There were two AKs on the second floor, and a guard at the door of a room, which did seem like the place where the hostage was kept.

But there were also things that didn’t add up. Ah Rong was the second-in-command of the gang, definitely not someone easy to deal with.

His surrender was too easy. That was suspicious.

She had barged into the bandits’ lair to save the hostage, using a chaotic approach like a blind person swinging punches, relying solely on speed.

But if her prediction was wrong and she couldn’t rescue the hostage, she might end up being riddled with bullets.

Su Linlang, who now had emotions, loved her father from the farm, loved the little ice swan, loved Old Master He, and also liked He Puting.

She loved Hong Kong City and missed the farm in the mainland.

She didn’t want to die at this moment.

What should she do?

Should she take the risk?

Just by turning her head by chance, she froze, because in the bright room on the first floor, there was a freezer in the middle.

At the moment she turned, a cigar rolled off the freezer.

No one had touched the freezer, so why did the cigar roll off?

Seeing her hesitation, Ah Rong sweated from his temples. “Ah… Ah Sir, the hostage is really on the second floor, let’s go.” He added, “I will order them to stop shooting.”

Su Linlang looked back at Ah Shuai and Huang Mao. She nodded in agreement, but her eyes signaled them to be ready to assist her.

It seemed like she was about to go upstairs, but at the moment she turned, she shoved Ah Rong towards Huang Mao, immediately rolled on the ground, and started shooting upwards.

She had already planned the gun positions on the second floor.

Her shooting skills were precise, and with loud bangs, the bandits on the second floor fell to the ground, the exterior lights were destroyed, and the scene was flashing with chaos and barking dogs.

As everyone was in confusion, shooting wildly, Su Linlang had already rolled into the room and pounced onto the freezer.

Sure enough, one sound after another, thump, thump, was coming from inside the freezer.

She threw open the freezer, and her heart almost leapt out.

…

Facing a pair of blood-red, fiery, narrow phoenix eyes, Su Linlang let out a huge sigh of relief.

She had guessed right!

The hostage was indeed inside the freezer.

A small freezer, which was probably the most humble place the young master He had ever lived in.

If possible, He Puting would have asked Su Linlang to erase this disgraceful memory forever.

Standing at around 1.8 meters tall, he was curled up in a narrow freezer, his hands and feet bound behind him, his mouth sealed with thick yellow tape.

The hair on the left side of his forehead had been shaved roughly as though chewed by a dog, hastily covered with gauze, blood flowing down his temples and filling his neck.

It was clearly visible that his skull on the side had sunken in.

Evidently, a bullet had struck his head, and the fragments might still be lodged in his skull.

He had been born into the prosperous He family, and after more than twenty years of a privileged life, he was gentle, kind, and friendly to others.

No one would have imagined he would end up like this.

By all rights, he should have been in a deep coma.

But he was awake, desperately shaking the freezer, trying to get Su Linlang’s attention.

Only then did she give up on going upstairs, hoping to give both him and herself a slim chance of survival.

As she lifted the freezer, he screamed hoarsely, making a desperate effort to push.

It turned out that, bound by his hands and feet, he was pushing with the top of his head against the cabinet board.

He had a head injury, and as he bumped into it, it reopened, causing blood to spill over his face.

Sensing the light, he focused hard to clear his disoriented mind, trying to see who was coming.

The military knife was dripping blood, the gun barrel smoking, bullets flying, and the sound of a rooster crowing and dogs barking filled the air.

Su Linlang shouted, “He Puting?”

He was looking, but his eyes were bloodshot and unfocused.

After a moment, she remembered how he had taught her to call him, and shouted, “Puting Gege?”

The familiar term made him snap his eyes open, his bloodshot gaze fixed on her. Immediately, he gathered all his strength, his throat pushing up with a desperate grunt.

Hearing the wind near her ear, Su Linlang slammed the freezer cover down, and with a swift move, cut off the AK-47 in one clean slice.

The freezer cover slammed back into place with a loud bang, hoping it hadn’t caused further damage to He Puting’s head, as that could worsen his injury.

Amid the screaming of the bandit whose hand had been severed, Ah Shuai and Huang Mao led the hostages back inside, shouting in unison, “A-sao, how do we get out?”

Su Linlang picked up the gun and shouted at the bandit with the severed hand, “Are you stupid? Go to the hospital and get that hand bandaged!”

The bandit was writhing on the ground, his hand twitching and his screams were as mournful as a slaughtered pig.

Huang Mao and Ah Shuai understood the situation. If the hand was reattached quickly, it could still be used, but if delayed, it would be useless.

These bandits were all friends of Ah Shuai and Huang Mao.

Ah Shuai shouted at the bandit, “How could you be so stupid? Pick up your hand and go to the hospital to get it reattached!”

Taking advantage of this moment, Su Linlang dragged the bandit’s second-in-command, Ah Rong, over. She kicked the AK that had been severed and shouted at Huang Mao, “Quick, pick up the gun!”

Huang Mao lunged forward, shaking off the bloody severed hand from the AK before picking it up.

Su Linlang held her knife to Ah Rong’s throat and shouted, “The hostages are in the freezer! Are you two idiots? Go save them!”

At the same time, Huang Mao and Ah Shuai opened the freezer, but just as they were about to help the hostages, they heard a burst of gunfire and another AK-47 barrel unexpectedly poked through the back window.

Luckily, they had the freezer cover for cover; otherwise, they would have been shot to pieces.

Both Ah Shuai and Huang Mao, frightened, withdrew their hands and crouched on the floor, but poor He Puting’s head was struck by the freezer cover once again.

Su Linlang had already realized the back window was a firing point, and sure enough, the bandits were coming.

With Ah Rong as a hostage, she wasn’t afraid of being shot at.

Dragging Ah Rong to the side, she slashed the window with her knife, severing the AK that had extended through the window with precise accuracy.

Angrily, she yelled at Ah Shuai and Huang Mao, “The hostage is a patient! You better be careful!”

Amid the bandit’s pig-like howls, she pulled the AK from the window, holding one hand on the knife against Ah Rong and the other firing the AK, shouting, “Get the hostages out! Move!”

Ah Shuai and Huang Mao opened the freezer and helped He Puting out, rushing forward under Su Linlang’s intense gunfire suppression.

The chicken farm was completely disrupted, with roosters crowing and hens clucking, while a few bandits screamed in agony. The yard was filled with smoke and blood splatter.

The bandits’ most important weapon was the AK, but now all three AKs were in Su Linlang’s hands.

The group of bandits hid wherever they could, some upstairs, others behind windows, quietly peering into the yard.

In the yard, the woman who came to rescue the hostages was not very tall, holding an AK in one hand and a knife in the other, standing in the middle of the yard.

She surveyed her surroundings, and the bandits immediately withdrew their heads.

Who was she?

What gang did she belong to?

Was she someone’s wife from another faction or a female boss from another underworld group?

One bandit finally found a cell phone and, holding it to his ear, wailed softly, “Qiang Ge, Ah Rong and the hostages have been taken, a woman took them away!”