A man stood beside her, his white shirt covered in blood.

Just two days ago, she had a grand wedding, becoming the most celebrated young mistress of the He family.

Yet here she was—suddenly appearing in this shabby place.

The girl nearby felt inexplicably nervous.

She whispered, “Ah Gui someone’s here.”

A large hand immediately smacked her down. “Useless! Did you not eat? Talking like a mosquito buzzing.”

A face appeared in the window—a half-bald man with eyes swollen to slits. He peeked out and then quickly stepped outside.

This short, plump man squinted at the scene. “Ah, it’s Mr. Liu, isn’t it? Did the lady send you? But you—she—”

Under the cold and disdainful gaze of the young girl, Su Linlang pouted dramatically, her voice coy: “Brother Liu, didn’t you say you’d take me to eat a big, fat roasted chicken? But there’s no roasted chicken here. No! I want roasted chicken!”

Her voice and expression were those of a dim-witted person.

Liu Bo, unsure how to handle the situation, decided to play along.

He let out a hysterical laugh. “Everyone knows! My family’s young mistress is a fool! Hahaha! A silly girl from the mainland!”

The plump man had heard rumors before—about how the He family’s young mistress, who came from the mainland, was simple-minded.

But he never imagined her to be this foolish.

Her delicate face, unadorned yet radiant, stood out.

She wore only a thin silk blouse that clung to her high, soft chest, giving her an innocent yet provocative air.

Her slender waist seemed almost unreal.

The sight made his mouth water, his lust clouding his mind.

He failed to notice the blood steadily seeping from the bandage on Liu Bo’s right index finger.

With a smirk, the man spread his arms and said in a broken accent, “Of course there’s roasted chicken—big, juicy roasted chicken! Pretty lady, come aboard the boat!”

Liu Bo hesitated and asked Su Linlang, “What about me, though?”

The plump man, still reaching out to help the “foolish beauty,” dismissed Liu Bo impatiently. “Don’t worry, I’ll safely send the young mistress back to her family in the mainland. Go on, head back and report.”

Did Liu Bo genuinely believe this man was a snakehead smuggler who would take her back to the mainland?

Perhaps his father was right to call him an honest fool.

Still reluctant to leave, Liu Bo frowned. “Please treat our young mistress kindly. Don’t bully her.”

While they talked, Su Linlang boarded the boat first.

She glanced at the young girl curiously.

The girl glared back with hostility.

Nervously, the girl reached for a drink, but the plump man slapped her hard. “Idiot! Get the lady some water! I’ll go fetch her roasted chicken, delicious, fragrant roasted chicken!”

“I want roasted chicken, now!” Su Linlang demanded, sounding more childish by the moment.

The girl, about fourteen or fifteen, bore scars all over her arms and bruises on her neck.

After being slapped onto the counter, she mechanically opened a bottle of soda, quickly slipped in a pill, and slid it toward Su Linlang with an emotionless voice. “Pretty lady, have some soda.”

The plump man, meanwhile, rummaged through a cabinet, muttering about finding chicken.

Su Linlang watched out the window and saw Liu Bo wiping his tears as he walked away.

When he noticed her watching, he burst into loud sobs before getting into a car and leaving.

She picked up her bag and said coldly, “Young Master Tianxi, for safety’s sake, sedate Liu Bo and drive the car away.”

Xu Tianxi gripped a tranquilizer gun tightly, his expression resolute. “Don’t worry, sister-in-law, I’ve got this.”

Su Linlang stayed close to the young girl, ready to control her at any moment.

Hearing Su Linlang’s calm, commanding tone, so different from her earlier act, the girl’s eyes widened in surprise.

Su Linlang winked at her before switching back to her silly voice. “Uncle, I want my roasted chicken! Hurry up!”

The girl hesitated but quickly retrieved the drugged soda.

The plump man finally found what he was searching for—a bottle of strong male stimulants.

He popped several into his mouth, grabbed a steel pipe, and turned to see the “foolish” young mistress playing with the soda bottle like a toy.

Grinning lecherously, he crept toward her, steel pipe raised.

But just as he swung, Su Linlang shot out a hand, grabbing the pipe and delivering a precise kick to his groin.

The man collapsed in agony, his screams silenced as she stuffed his mouth with gloves from the nearby shelf.

The girl trembled against the freezer, her thin ankles shaking beneath tattered pants.

The plump man reached for a cleaver in the corner, but before he could grab it, Su Linlang drove the steel pipe into him again, leaving him writhing on the floor.

Su Linlang dialed her phone. “Young Master Tianxi, is your task done?”

On the other end, Liu Bo’s cries could be heard.

Clearly, Xu Tianxi hadn’t finished his job.

Kicking the plump man aside, Su Linlang turned to the girl. “Is he your father? Where’s your mother?”

The girl lifted her shirt, revealing a body covered in bruises. She averted her eyes, sniffled, and said, “Sister, we’re from the same place.”

Su Linlang nodded. “I thought so.”

The plump man, sensing an opportunity, prepared to retaliate. Su Linlang calmly twisted the pipe again, making him curl up in pain.

“You’d better cooperate,” she said softly. “I won’t kill you, but I can make you wish you were dead.”

The plump man nodded desperately, his plans of escape crushed.

But finding Ah Qiang doesn’t necessarily mean finding the hostage.

The kidnappers were part of a gang. In the 1980s, gangs ran rampant in Hong Kong City, deeply intertwined and organized.

A kidnapping case wasn’t something a single person could pull off—it required the planning and scheming of a large group.

Su Linlang couldn’t possibly take down an entire industry by herself.

Her goal was clear: find the hostage and bring them home.

Even before she pulled off her gloves, the chubby man shook his head frantically, as if saying he didn’t know.

But Su Linlang’s gaze, sharp as the Grim Reaper’s, made him beg for mercy with his eyes.

He knocked his head against the ground repeatedly in desperation.

It was already too late. A steel pipe slammed into his side.

It didn’t hurt much, but his waist instantly went weak and unsteady.

“One kidney’s probably done for. Even if you take a whole box of aphrodisiacs, you won’t be able to bully anyone again,” Su Linlang remarked coldly. Her eyes shifted to the girl nearby.

The girl’s numb, hollow gaze suddenly filled with a mist of rage.

Sure enough, the bruises and scars all over the girl’s body were his handiwork.

“You’ve got one kidney left. When do you want me to ruin it?” Su Linlang dragged the dirty steel pipe down from the bridge of his nose and stopped it at his lips.

True strength doesn’t lie in killing.

She felt exhilarated yet coldly restrained, fighting off the temptation to toy with lives.

The chubby man turned into a model prisoner.

He hurriedly removed his gloves and said, “It should be Brother Ah Rong in charge.”

On the other end of the phone, Xu Tianxi was shouting “Ah Sao” (sister-in-law), but Su Linlang didn’t respond. She turned to the chubby man. “Why do you think so?”

“Brother Ah Rong is the gang’s second-in-command,” the man explained nervously. “Everyone in the underworld knows that.”

Su Linlang nodded. “See, you’re quite clever.”

She raised the mobile phone. “Young Master Tianxi?”

Xu Tianxi was panting heavily. “Ah Sao, I fired a gun! Liu Bo’s unconscious now. What do I do?”

“Hold on,” Su Linlang replied. Then she asked the chubby man, “Which areas does Brother Ah Rong usually frequent?”

“Kowloon,” the man answered quickly. “He owns the Yuegang Ice House there. The hostage should be there.”

Su Linlang stuffed the gloves back into his mouth. “You’re not being honest. Kowloon’s Pigsty Village is teeming with people. Who would hide a hostage in such an obvious place?”

The man shook his head vigorously.

Once the gloves were removed, he added, “I recently saw Brother Ah Rong purchase a lot of soundproof foam. He said he needed it for renovations.”

Soundproof foam is typically used in nightclubs to block noise. Kowloon Walled City, known as a no-go zone for the police, would be an ideal place to hide a hostage in a soundproofed room.

It sounded plausible.

Su Linlang initially wanted to call Xu Tianxi to coordinate and head to Kowloon immediately.

But her cautious nature made her pause. She noticed a receipt in the corner of the wall.

She picked it up. It was from Longcheng Pharmacy, listing items such as hemostatic bandages, saline solution, cotton gauze, glucose solution, and antibiotics—almost identical to the supplies in her bag.

She signaled to the girl. “Go check if there are any recently purchased medical supplies.”

The girl left and returned with a large bag of medical items. In addition, she held up a black-strapped silver watch. “Sister, this watch—he brought it back last night. It was with the aphrodisiacs.”

One look, and Su Linlang smiled.

She recognized the watch as He Puting’s.

If the watch was here, it meant he wasn’t far.

She grabbed the phone. “Xu Tianxi?”

“I’m here.”

From the medical supplies and watch, Su Linlang deduced that this convenience store was a transit and supply station for the kidnappers.

It also proved the hostage wasn’t in the busy Kowloon area but a more remote location.

Rushing to Kowloon now would mean missing the hostage entirely.

The right move was to stay put and wait for the kidnappers to retrieve their supplies.

“Hide the car somewhere inconspicuous and wait for my signal,” Su Linlang instructed.

“Ah Sao! Ah Sao!” Xu Tianxi called out anxiously.

“Be careful. I’ll wait for you!” he said in a low voice.

From afar, the sound of a speedboat’s motor roared.

Su Linlang quickly retracted the phone’s antenna.

The girl had already recognized the newcomers and said, “Sister, don’t worry. They’re from the construction site, just regular people.”

There was a construction site nearby. Apart from being involved with kidnappers, this store was also frequented by workers from the site.

The speedboat docked, and the man shouted, “Ah Gui, three packs of Marlboro and two cans of soda, don’t forget the chewing gum!”

The plump man was crouched on the floor, his head down in shame, wishing he could bury himself.

Su Linlang cocked her gun and signaled the girl, “Go check it out.”

While the girl prepared the cigarettes, the man kept kicking the deck impatiently. “Ah Gui, hurry up!”

“Why the rush? Are you trying to die?” The girl went out with the items. “Three hundred dollars in total.”

The man whistled. “Does Ah Xia want a tip? Get closer and call me ‘brother,’ and I’ll give you a tip.”

“Get lost!” the girl snapped.

The man persisted, “Ah Xia, you’re getting fiercer lately. You’re not cute anymore.”

Another man, trying to be more considerate, said, “Stop teasing her. If you don’t hurry, Ah Gui will hit her again. Just give the money.”

“If this were in the mainland, she wouldn’t even have food to eat. The PLA would arrest her as a laborer. But Hong Kong is a paradise for North sisters. They should serve us!” The man reached out to touch Ah Xia, but the other man, who was driving the boat, suddenly accelerated, pulling him away.

Facing each other, Su Linlang asked, “You’re Ah Xia, came to Hong Kong with your mother, right? Where’s your mother?”

Mainland girls coming to Hong Kong were rare, and Su Linlang, being fortunate enough to marry into a wealthy family, was one of the few.

But most others struggled at the bottom.

Ah Xia looked despondent. “He beat my mother. He hit her head, and she died after sleeping for two days.”

“Why not go back to the mainland? Are you really afraid of being captured by the PLA as a laborer?” Su Linlang asked.

The PLA, the People’s Liberation Army, had a reputation in the 1980s for ruthlessness—rumors said they would shoot people without hesitation, randomly rounding up people off the streets to force them into labor.

But Su Linlang knew the truth. Her father had been a retired PLA officer, and those rumors were pure nonsense.

Ah Xia, having come from the mainland, knew those stories were lies too. But she sighed. “Our family is too poor. If I went back, we’d starve.”

Su Linlang pointed to a safe in the corner. “Do you need to know the code?”

Ah Xia shook her head. “I know the code, but running away would be useless. Ah Gui is a snakehead. He has connections with people in both the mainland and the Hong Kong government. Even if I run, they’d catch me and bring me back. Then, I’d only get beaten worse.”

“Do you think he’ll survive tonight?” Su Linlang raised an eyebrow.

In her past life on the farm, she had been cold and numb. On the starship, she had been a killing machine. But now, with both souls merged, she had emotions.

Seeing Ah Xia like this made her angry and sad.

Ah Xia was still young, and softly said, “My mom said that if you kill someone, you have to pay the price. If not today, then it can’t be avoided later.”

The plump man bowed his head deeply, like a fool, acknowledging her words.

The sun was setting, and the narrow boat cabin was filled with the stench of blood and decay, mixed with the salty tang of seawater. It created an overwhelming odor that made it hard to breathe. Suddenly, the plump man let out a bloody fart, making Ah Xia gag.

“Sister, can’t you smell it?” she asked.

With her decisive nature, honed from a lifetime of power, Su Linlang was unaffected by the stench.

She gently patted Ah Xia’s back and motioned her to look at the plump man.

He had been quietly inching toward the counter. There, he was trying to reach a gun, waiting for the right moment to strike back.

Su Linlang took out a wrapped military knife from her dress and asked softly, “You loved your mother, didn’t you? You miss her, right?”

Ah Xia stared at the plump man’s hand, which was nearly within reach of the gun, tears falling silently like a broken string.

Finally, she took a deep breath, her eyes hardening with resolve.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and the plump man’s hand was about to grab the gun, Su Linlang reached for Ah Xia’s hand, and together, they raised the military knife high!