Chapter 65: The Bizarre "Snatcher"

  "Behind Bars" became a sensation in 1988 and was widely sung in prisons across the country, and it remains one of the classics among prisoner songs to this day.

  Suddenly, a mobile phone ringtone floated out of Zhu Ganglie's pocket, undoubtedly adding notes to Zhang Manager's previous remarks. Even Cao Yan, who was almost fooled by Zhu Ganglie, began to suspect at this time, "Could it be that this guy has just been released from prison not long ago...?"

  Damn it! How did I forget this thing?!

  Zhu Ganglie couldn't help but want to slap himself, while taking out his phone and awkwardly explaining to Cao Yan: "Don't get me wrong, this is my favorite song, although it's a prisoner's song, the deep meaning in the lyrics has touched my heart. Without you, I feel like I'm locked behind iron bars, so I've always used it as my ringtone."

  Cao Yan furrowed her brow, and the other party's awkward explanation not only failed to dispel her doubts, but instead made her increasingly suspect that there was something fishy about this man.

  However, she can't be bothered to care about these things now, and has forgotten whether it's inappropriate that Qin Lang heard the man's cheesy words. She is single-mindedly thinking of retrieving the items from her bag. In her opinion, the bag couldn't possibly be empty; the things inside must have been secretly taken by Qin Lang.

  The thought of that fatal appraisal report falling into Qin Lang's hands, or being seen by him, made her heart tremble with fear, and she couldn't eat or sleep.

  So she made up her mind that no matter what, she had to get this report back. If this fool really saw the report, then she...

  Cao Yan's eyes suddenly flashed a sharp and fierce light, intending to question Qin Lang. But before she could speak, she heard a loud voice beside her shout: "Damn it, you got it, why didn't you say so earlier?"

  Turning his head, he found that Zhu Ganglie had connected the phone and was scolding the person on the other end of the line.

  Cao Yan suddenly became suspicious, and Zhu Ganglie's words made her vaguely hear a bit of an off-taste. She was about to listen carefully, but Zhu Ganglie seemed to have realized something, sneaked a glance at her, and immediately lowered his voice, hastily said a few words, and then hung up the phone.

  "Yanyan, things are getting complicated." Zhu Gang's eyebrows were tightly locked, his face was full of difficulties. Although he was speaking to Cao Yanyan, his eyes kept drifting towards the convenience bag in Qin Lang's hand, revealing a certain kind of extreme regret.

  "What's wrong?" Cao Yanxin's heart suddenly rose, and she vaguely felt the so-called "trouble", which was likely related to something in the bag.

  As expected, Zhu Ganglie leaned in close to her ear and whispered: "Yanyan, that idiot was telling the truth. What he got was indeed an empty package. The things inside had been stolen by a pickpocket long ago. The phone call just now was from that pickpocket. He found my phone number on the DNA test report and is threatening me to return the items for 500,000 yuan."

  "What?" Cao Yan was suddenly panicked, and after a loud cry, she asked in a flustered manner: "What to do? How can this be done?"

  "Don't worry, what they want is money. As long as you give him 500,000, this matter should not be difficult to settle." Zhu Ganglie said in a low voice.

  Cao Yan hastily said, "The money is easy to discuss, but the item must be returned. Time is of the essence, hurry up and contact this pickpocketing thief for a deal, lest there be more trouble."

  Zhu Ganglie saw Cao Yan's calm demeanor, not putting the 500,000 in his eyes. His gaze brightened for a moment, flashing with a hint of greed, and then he lowered his voice and said: "Yan, don't be impatient, listen to me first. The 500,000 is a small matter, but we can't indulge this package thief either. If we give him the money now, who can guarantee that the other party won't continue to blackmail us in the future? That appraisal report is important, but more importantly, it's the information it conveys. As long as we grasp this information, the package thief doesn't need the appraisal report and can continue to threaten us."

  Cao Yan's face changed greatly, Zhu Ganglie's words were indeed not wrong, the thief who robbed her of the package would be able to threaten her forever if they got hold of the information in the appraisal report. She suddenly didn't know how to deal with it and said distractedly: "Then you think of a way quickly."

  "Haha, there is a way, but you don't want to," Zhu Ganglie said.

  "As long as there's a way to remove this threat, I'm willing," Cao Yan said immediately.

  Zhu Ganglie smiled slightly and said in a low voice, "As long as you divorce Qin Fengyang and marry me, won't all the troubles be resolved? Can that rascal still use the paternity test between me and my son to threaten me?"

  Cao Yan's heart skipped a beat when she heard this, and she calmed down from her flustered emotions. Just now, she was frightened out of her wits, but now that she had calmed down and thought about it, she felt that Zhu Ganglie's words were suspicious. She stared at Zhu Ganglie with suspicion: "Just because of a single appraisal report, even if the pickpocket got his hands on it, how would he think to come threaten you? Does he know your situation inside out or something? And what about that sentence you blurted out when you made the phone call just now, why did it sound so awkward?"

  Zhu Gang's heart skipped a beat as he realized he had exposed his own weakness, and hastily made amends: "Ah, this... uh, it's like this. The report not only recorded my information but also Rong Er's information, including the fact that he is Qin Fengyang's son. Qin Fengyang is a somewhat well-known entrepreneur in Ping'an City, so I think the thief must have known him and therefore came to threaten me. As for the phone call just now, I was too excited after hearing the news."

  "You...!" Cao Yan was so angry that her three corpses jumped out, and she slapped Zhu Ganglie's face with a loud slap, "Do you want to kill me?"

  A crisp slap in the face, causing Qin Lang and others to look on in surprise. No one knew what had happened to the whispering couple.

  Zhu Ganglie was slapped in the face, his heart full of hatred, but on the surface he smiled wryly and said: "Yanyan, I never had any intention of harming you. This thing is indeed my fault for not handling it properly. However, I really want to make up with you, if..."

  "There's no 'if'." Cao Yan immediately cut him off, "This report was your doing, you're responsible for fixing it. If the news really reaches my husband's ears, humph..."

  "Alright, alright, I'll take care of this...". Zhu Ganglie nodded repeatedly.

  Cao Yan's anger slightly dissipated, and she asked: "What do you plan to do about it?"

  "Rest assured, I still know some people on the road. If this purse snatcher doesn't know what's good for him, I'll make sure he never speaks again. You don't have to worry about this matter anymore, leave it to me to handle. At the latest tomorrow, I'll give you a satisfactory answer."

  "These are your words." Cao Yan looked at Zhu Ganglie with concern.

  "Rest assured." Zhu Ganglie patted his chest and guaranteed, "I've said it before, I absolutely won't allow anyone to harm you or Sheng'er. Even if we really have to pay the money, the 500,000 will be paid by me. I definitely won't let you get into any trouble."

  Cao Yan felt a little uneasy, the more Zhu Ganglie spoke loudly, the more she felt uncertain. Just now, she had let this man take 200,000 yuan, but he was evasive and now he was saying that he would pay the 500,000 yuan without batting an eye. This made her feel like there was a problem, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where the problem lay.

  However, she is now at a loss and can only nod her head: "Okay, I'll trust you this once."

  Yan's face lit up with a smile, but soon thought of something and said with a painful expression: "Yanyan, we were just fooled by that idiot. Listening to what he said earlier, it was clear that he knew it was an empty package all along, and he intentionally cheated us out of our money. I won't swallow this insult, we have to get back those 200,000 yuan. Although I don't care about the 200,000, I also can't be fooled by an idiot."

  "Alright, alright, it's just 200,000 yuan, must you be so petty? If you want it back, go get it yourself, I'd rather not lose face." Cao Yan said disdainfully. Although she had indeed been played by Qin Lang, she had just taken revenge on that Cao medicine master, and now if she were to ask for the 200,000 yuan back, wouldn't she be losing all her dignity?

  Zhu Ganglie reluctantly dispelled this idea.

  Cao Yan no longer paid attention to him, walked in front of Qin Lang, and stared at him fiercely. Without saying a word, it was clear that she was resentful of Qin Lang for fooling her around like an idiot.

  But in front of so many people, she had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill and could only think of ways to deal with this fool later.

  So she didn't say a word, glared at him and then turned around and left.

  Zhū Gāngliè saw the situation and hurriedly chased after her, shouting: "Yàn Yàn, where are you going? My BMW 750 is parked in the parking lot, I'll give you a ride wherever you're going."

  Nor does he know if it's intentional or not, but he yelled "BMW 750" particularly loudly.

  Qin Lang watched the two leave, his eyes thoughtful. Previously, he suspected that Cao Yan and this man had an illicit relationship, but now it seemed that their relationship was even more complicated than "illicit".

  Of course, more importantly, these two people were still holding onto the empty bag just now, but after whispering to each other, they seemed to have let go of it, as if there was some profound meaning behind this.

  "It seems that in the future, I need to be more careful. Once I grasp this woman's weakness, I will expose her hypocritical face to Father. Otherwise, this restless woman will bring unnecessary trouble to Father." Qin Lang thought to himself.

  Then, under the enthusiastic sendoff of Manager Zhang and Hao Wei, Qin Lang also left the pharmacy. When parting ways, both Manager Zhang and Hao Wei expressed their wishes to invite Qin Lang to dinner when they had the chance, Qin Lang did not directly refuse, only saying that they would talk about it another day when he had time.

  Two flattering smiles saw Qin Lang's figure disappear, and Manager Zhang finally put away his exaggerated smile and changed to a smiling expression. He put his arm around Hao Wei's shoulder and said, "Hao journalist, we can't say we don't know each other after 'fighting' like this. You've come from afar as a guest, so today you have to give your brother the opportunity to be the host."

  Hao Weizheng was overjoyed, compared to Qin Lang, this Manager Zhang is not simple at all, he actually knows Director Xu, where he wouldn't want to take the opportunity to build a relationship, naturally nodding in agreement.

  Two people in the midst of laughter and chatter discreetly deleted the secretly taken photos from the camera.

  ……

  As soon as Qin Lang came out of the Lianqiao International Building, he was about to hail a taxi when he saw a BMW sedan driving out of the parking lot on the side of the building. The smooth and powerful lines and the earthy gold color were flaunting their luxurious luster in the sunlight.

  In front of "Bao Ma", Qin Lang saw his stepmother Cao Yan who had just left.

  "Ah, it seems this is that man's ride." Qin Lang immediately guessed the owner of the car, because previously Zhu Ganglie had shouted "BMW 750" when he left, and it was really too loud.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, after BMW caught up with Cao Yan, the car window rolled down immediately, revealing Zhu Ganglie's face.

  Because of the distance, Qin Lan couldn't hear what Zhu Ganglie was saying to Cao Yan. Anyway, Cao Yan's attitude seemed very impatient, with a look of not wanting to bother, and finally appeared to be fed up with the man's entanglement, so she hailed a taxi and directly brushed off the man along with his "horse".

  The BMW stopped for a moment and then drove away, disappearing into the traffic.

  Qin Lang withdrew his gaze, and felt that the change in the relationship between these two people was strange, and everything seemed to revolve around the thing in the bag.

  "What was originally in the bag?" Qin Lang muttered to himself, his curiosity growing more and more.

  Unfortunately, this was a mystery that could not be solved for the time being. Qin Lang could only shake his head, put aside these distracting thoughts, and hailed a taxi.

  On the carriage, Qin Lang examined the medicinal materials he had collected today, especially those two "hard to come by" orphan medicines.

  After the most meticulous examination, he finally revealed a satisfied smile. Now only two materials were missing and he could decoct the medicinal soup. Soon, he would be able to restore his body to normal.

  Taking a deep breath, Qin Lang suppressed the joy in his heart and glanced out of the window, only to unexpectedly see a BMW parked beside a less crowded fork in the road ahead. The man who had an unusual relationship with Cao Yan was leaning against the car, smoking a cigarette.

  "How did I run into this guy again?"

  Qin Lang shook his head slightly, just about to withdraw his gaze, but his face suddenly changed color.

  Because he suddenly saw a figure running towards the man, and the owner of this figure was none other than... the pickpocket.