Chapter 10: Who Provoked Whom (Part 2)

  This small island is not an isolated island, to be exact, the hurricane was formed between the islands that include this small island, and the sea dragon roll was just its first omen. By 7 pm tonight, there was nothing in the world that could restrain its power, it finally launched its first wave of attack, like a monster opening its bloody mouth and swinging its claws, madly sweeping away everything it encountered!

  It first swept through the islands fifty nautical miles away from this small island with a swift and fierce momentum. Half an hour later, it roared over the island in a majestic and domineering manner. The stormy winds and huge waves wildly engulfed everything on the island. It struck the sea surface with lightning speed, whipping up countless towering waves. The waves surged one after another, each wave higher than the last, piling up layer upon layer. In an instant, the sea surface turned into a vast expanse of turbulent snow-capped mountains like those found in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The spray flew everywhere, and the seawater that shot up into the air under the storm's impact became bullets shooting out of a gun, piercing through the air with a mournful howl towards their targets!

  The sky was filled with golden dragon-like lightning, and the thunderous roar shook the universe. The world was only its fierce and violent rage, all living things and objects became its playthings. The terrifying giant waves reached 30-40 feet high, crashing against the reefs like a city wall. The massive whirlpools generated by the storm's airflow were like explosive bombs, unleashing a carpet bombing of madness on every place they passed through, flattening houses and trees to the ground. The few ships anchored in the bay were tossed into the air and then smashed down with great force. Those scattered houses near and far were twisted and torn apart, shredded into fragments, which were then transformed into high-speed flying knife blades, mercilessly cutting up this world.

  The hurricane's speed has reached 260 kilometers per hour, which is a destructive speed that almost nothing can escape its killing and destruction. Although the original residents of this island are not unfamiliar with hurricanes, they also use stones as foundation walls and concrete windows, but in the face of this unprecedented hurricane, it is still useless. The hurricane howled and stripped away all the wooden roofs and wooden walls of their houses, even pulling some people out of the underground rooms that were not well-constructed. A local island resident was swept up by the hurricane, and at the same time, a piece of wood pierced his chest without mercy, and the blood was immediately drained by the airflow, and the corpse became a paper-like sheet that fluttered in the wind, and was again smashed against the broken wooden stakes by the hurricane's crazy laughter, immediately splitting into two pieces, and then blown away to nothingness.

  The hurricane destroyed all the ships in the bay, and like a bulldozer, it deeply plowed up everything on the surface of the island, brutally slaughtering all living things, even pulling out the islanders who were hiding in the recesses of rocks and hugging trees, as well as two other bandits from their hiding places, killing them mercilessly.

  Fortunately, the basement of Wenli's house had been repeatedly reinforced and the first floor was also built with bricks. The entrance to the basement was also sealed very tightly, so they hid in the basement with the tall and thin kidnapper, shivering with fear and praying to God for protection.

  The tall and thin man stood tightly against the wall, his eyes filled with a terrified expression, yet he held a gun pointed at Wenli and the others. Ou Yang's abdominal pain started again at this moment, she let out a mournful cry, struggling, while the doctor trembled with fear, advising Ou Yang to take deep breaths and not be tense. Meanwhile, Wenli was ordered by the kidnapper to record the entire production process with a camera. The tall and thin man had no choice, he couldn't contact his organization, two of his brothers went missing after encountering a tornado, another two went searching but didn't return, and when they tried to make contact with other residents, they also didn't come back. However, everyone in the house guessed that in such a natural disaster, it could only mean that they had already lost their lives.

  The typhoon subsided half an hour later, and then it ravaged northwest again. The heavy rain continued to fall, and the world's attention was focused on this rapidly formed typhoon in a very short period of time. Experts estimated that the typhoon would sweep northwest and land in southern Vietnam, penetrating deep into the mainland.

  Long Bao bursts forth like thunder, 16K novel... First published with Jing Er frowning and staring.

  Jing'er learned about the storm in that sea area this afternoon and thought of the "Six Three: The army may transport corpses, ominous" from the Shi Hexagram. She suddenly felt uneasy and quickly called to get Wenli's birth date and time, then combined it with her birth date and time for a detailed divination calculation, only to find out that Wenli was very likely in danger.

  Long Bao happened to arrive at the villa at this time, and after listening to Jing'er's careful explanation, he completely suppressed the anger in his heart and shouted at Jing'er: "You can't even calculate it accurately, don't go calculating! Get out of my sight! I won't listen!"

  He slammed the table and scolded for a while before starting to worry anxiously. He knew about Jing'er's grandfather's skills in divination, and even if Jing'er had only learned 20% of his skills, it was still quite reliable. Divination is a strange thing, even if the person doing the calculation isn't very skilled, they can still accurately predict bad things. Moreover, Jing'er's analysis of Wenli's eight characters made sense in terms of generation and restraint. Could it be that Wenli really would encounter trouble? He asked Jing'er irritably: "Assuming you're right, what method can we use to save her?"

  "The brother's wood element is moving and transforming, advancing and conquering the world. The third day of the month is an unlucky day for the wood element, which is in a prosperous position. The original spirit, fire, was sick at the time of You, and the grave was built on the day of Jian... I'm afraid... unless...

  Jing'er bowed her head slightly, not knowing how to respond to Long Bao's words. She knew she had made a major mistake, not being careful with the divination, if only she had told him earlier that Wen Li would be in trouble, then Long Bao would have paid the ransom without hesitation and it wouldn't have dragged on until now. Wen Li was an earth sign, very afraid of water, and being in the middle of the ocean was even more harmful, especially with such a violent storm, which was a kind of injury to the rootless earth, already in a deadlocked position. She muttered to herself, "Unless..."

  "Out with it! Unless what?" Long Biao had completely lost his patience. To be honest, Jing Er's prediction about this kidnapping case winning had indeed had some impact on his strategy, and he was overconfident in his psychological analysis of the kidnapper. Now, Jing Er was telling him this inappropriate result at this time, which was naturally a blow to him, and might even disrupt his entire plan. He anxiously asked, "Out with it! Unless what?"

  Jing'er had no choice, she undoubtedly knew about today's situation, but she was precisely because of her confidence in the divination results that she didn't dare hide it from Long Bao. She mustered up the courage to reply: "Grandfather once said that for people who are destined to die, the only way to change their fate is to move them from the place where they will meet their death before the appointed time arrives to a place that is beneficial to them, using small harm to resolve big harm. So now it's essential to rescue them before that time arrives. This divination has the symbol of a poisonous snake harming and killing, so I think you should remind the other party to pay attention to the poisonous snakes in the prison environment and provide backup treatment for venomous snake bites at all times."

  This suggestion was quite thorny, Long Bao clenched his finger joints with a crackling sound, and after a moment's pause, he turned around and left.

  After Long Biao left, Du Ci and others entered the study. Du Ci said to Jing Er with some resentment: "Jing Er, this guy is a madman. When he's unhappy, he'll only scold people. Everyone in the group knows that it's best not to provoke him when he's in a bad mood. That's what I told Shi Wei."

  Shi Wei nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, since Lao Liu became the emperor, his temperament has changed greatly. However, Jing Er, you should also understand him. When he encounters such things, if he is not calm or scolds us, we should forgive him, shouldn't we?"

  Haitao touched the chip implant on his arm and sighed, "Shiwei, don't say that about Lao Liu. Haven't you noticed how hard his life is? I can tell you, he's actually been fed up with this kind of life for a long time. His attitude towards us isn't good because he has a lot of pent-up emotions inside him, but he can't express them, and it's making him extremely miserable." He looked at Jing'er and continued, "If Jing'er really did calculate it correctly, Lao Liu will definitely be very self-reproachful. We need to mentally prepare ourselves for this problem and think of a way to comfort him."

  Shi Wei looked at Qiu Ya, then at Jing Er, and finally at Du Ci, scratching his head as he said: "Actually, I know the method is very simple, but it's just hard to do, saying it out loud will only cause trouble, so it's better not to say anything."

  Du Cui naturally glared at him and said: "Dead pig head, why don't you hurry up and say it, what kind of trick are you playing?"

  Shi Wei chuckled and said, "Alright, I'll say it. But first, let me make a disclaimer: if what I say doesn't sound good or offends anyone, please don't blame me. I'm just saying what's on my mind." He stared at Qiu Ya and continued, "Actually, I know where Lao Liu's problem lies. His emotions have never had a stable home. Qiu Ya, back then he made a verbal engagement with you, but he messed up by flirting with both you and Jing Er at the same time. You two were still good friends, and he didn't dare to try to win both of your hearts. On top of that, he's terrible at handling emotions - what with Xue Bingying, Jiao Siwei, and all those other girls... In the end, he got caught in Ou Yang's trap, Qiu Ya was driven away, and Jing Er was left to suffer in silence. But you people are always so impulsive, especially Jing Er. You knew Lao Liu had a problem, so why did you still sacrifice yourself and fall into Ou Yang's trap?"

  "Do you think Lao Liu's life is easy? I know, I've never seen him smile a few times. Actually, Qiu Ya, let me be honest with you, you're only suitable to be Lao Liu's good friend or something like that, the gap between your thoughts and his is too big. Lao Liu knows you love him very much, and he's also worried about the promise he made to you. I told you, after I told him you'd finally understood, Lao Liu actually drank with me for a whole night, and chatted with me nonstop till dawn!" Shi Wei stopped talking, glancing at Qiu Ya's reaction with the corner of his eye.

  Qiu Ya looked very downhearted. She had been accompanied by Chang Cheng from Suzhou to Chang'an for seven or eight days now. When she first saw Long Bao again, she almost threw herself into his arms, but she restrained herself. Du Cui, Shi Wei and Chang Cheng were all right, Long Bao was not suitable for her, and he had never loved her in the first place. He only cared about her, worried about her, and even feared her love because what Long Bao truly loved was Jing Er.

  Qiu Ya nodded at Shi Wei, forcing a smile, "Shi Wei, just say it, don't look at me."

  Shi Wei wiped the corner of his mouth with his hand and chuckled, saying: "Heh heh, I'll continue then. After all, speaking has reason and opinions are not a crime. Jing Er, of course, I really don't know what's going on with you in Germany either. I don't even know why you're willing to leave Lao Liu's line of sight, but I have to tell you one thing - you're wrong, completely wrong. You think all your actions are for Lao Liu's sake, but you don't know that Lao Liu doesn't want anything. He just wants you by his side, but he's the kind of person who would rather die than say it out loud. Damn it, he's such a birdbrain! Shi Wei carefully observed Jing Er's expression, but Jing Er didn't have any expression to speak of. Shi Wei felt that Jing Er was just like Lao Liu, being foolish and silly in the face of love. He continued, "Jing Er, earlier when Lao Liu yelled at you, don't take it to heart. If he didn't yell at you, that would be abnormal. But now that things have reached this point, can you finally tell us what's going on between you and Yu Yue? Let me see if there's still hope for you and Lao Liu to make up?"

  Jing'er gently shook her head, but then looked up at Qiu Ya. Qiu Ya's eyes met hers for a moment before darting away. Shi Wei saw this and suddenly slapped his own mouth, saying: "Shh, shh, I'm such a jinx! Always speaking nonsense! Lao Liu is going to be a father, and I'm still stuck here worrying about these trivial matters. Dammit, it's time to think about how to deal with that other thing instead!"

  These kidnappers are extremely cunning, and Longbiao can't contact them except by transferring money to their account. This news has completely disrupted Longbiao's strategic steps. He must consider the safety of Wenli and others, so he decides to take action ahead of schedule to dump the company's securities, trying to force the kidnappers to reveal themselves. On the other hand, he is anxiously waiting for his helpers who are investigating in Malaysia, Indonesia and other places to report back information.

  Long Bao's sudden dumping action was completely unexpected by everyone, although it was known that the hurricane would have some impact on Southeast Asia's economy, but not to the extent of making Long Bao sell his securities so frantically. Since Long Bao also shorted futures, the US stock market immediately produced a chain reaction, with the Dow Jones index plummeting 200 points and the Nasdaq index falling more than 50 points by the close. The next day, Wall Street analysts dubbed Long Bao's dumping action "The Dragon Storm".

  Long Biao's crazy cash-out move also disrupted the plans of those international speculators who were planning to launch a selling spree in three to five days. They were furious, just as Long Biao had expected, and the kidnapper contacted him again at noon the next day.

  The kidnapper said in the email: Mr. Long, Miss Ouyang is having contractions and showing signs of impending delivery, and is expected to give birth within five hours. Please prepare $1.2 billion, with a deadline of 24:00 Beijing time tomorrow. Otherwise, you will see the corpse of Ms. Wu Wenli.

  Longbow replied swiftly: Please provide me with evidence to prove they are still alive, and you must guarantee their safe return, that's the rule. Also, I am unable to pay twelve billion US dollars, this completely exceeds my capacity.

  The kidnapper replied: The evidence will naturally be given to you, and it must be given to you before you pay the ransom. Mr. Long, do you want money or people? You choose for yourself.

  Long Bo and he started haggling, these days Long Bo through email tracking software, confirmed that the kidnappers had replied from India, Thailand, Colombia, Japan and Hong Kong. In fact, this was meaningless, because they never stayed on the same computer for more than five minutes. The price was finally set at 800 million US dollars.

  Jiao Siwei found Long Bing at 4 pm that afternoon, handed him some audio tapes and video materials, and said to Long Bing: "You look for yourself. I'll wait for you to finish looking before telling you who gave this stuff to me."

  This is the evidence of Ye Ziheng and Qian Yu Hui's secret meeting to make Long Bing completely trust Qian Yu Hui. Long Bing read it with a normal expression, then looked at Jiao Si Wei with a normal expression. Jiao Si Wei said in a very soft voice to Long Bing: "These things were given to me by Qian Yu Hui's husband Ma Jian Qing, do you know who he is? He was the person my father planted beside Qian Yu Hui when he was alive. I'll tell you again, Ye Ziheng also knows this secret, so he even forced him to spy on me for information, and has repeatedly expressed his willingness to join hands with me to divide up the assets left to you by Mr. Qian."

  Long Biao raised an eyebrow, staring at Jiao Siwei and said: "So you're saying that Qian Yu Hui has been cooperating with work all these years just because she hopes I'll leave all my assets to the Qian family's descendants in my will before I turn thirty?"

  Jiao Siwei didn't speak, and Long Bao continued: "Ma Jianqing looks like a double agent. You're giving me the intelligence he's gathered, are you trying to remind me that I need to take back the power in Qian Yu Hui's hands?"

  Jiao Siwei still didn't speak, and Long Bao continued: "You've told me all these secrets, so what's your purpose?"

  Jiao Siwei's body moved slightly, and Long Bao paused for a moment before saying, "Such an important secret, you must be telling me for some reason, right?"

  After a long time, Jiao Si let out a sigh and said: "The biggest mistake of my life is knowing you. You can think of all the reasons yourself. By the way, I'll tell you one more thing. Today, I went to see Yang Xiu and told him about your kidnapping case. He also specifically divined this kidnapping case and said that there is a participant in the kidnapping case by your side. He also said that you don't have children. Those Europeans are being held on an island near Indonesia. Someone among these people will die. I don't know if he's sane or confused, but anyway, he remembers you. That's it, I'm leaving. I won't entangle myself with hatred for you anymore. There are too many pitiful people in this world, and I've come to a realization."

  Long Bao stared at Jiao Si's departing back, sitting stiffly there without moving.

  Ouyang gave birth to a boy amidst heart-wrenching cries, exhausting all her energy and completely fainting. The nurse then cleaned the baby and put him in an incubator.

  Apart from the tall and thin man, three other kidnappers arrived, seemingly all part of the same organization. One of them, with a sturdy build, stared intently at Wen Li, while saying to his companions: "The boss said it's best to transfer them before tomorrow morning, two days later the government might send a rescue team to search and inspect the disaster situation on these islands."

  The tall and thin man, still shaken by the storm, said: "The faster the better, the faster the better. This time we really encountered a disaster, colliding with a hurricane and encountering a typhoon. Of the five brothers, only I am left, the other four are dead! However, this woman has just given birth and cannot walk, what to do?"

  A burly bandit said, "Damn it, this hurricane didn't kill you all, you're lucky! This godforsaken place is impossible to sleep in. I think we'd better use a stretcher to carry them away before nightfall. Once we get on the ship, we can have a good rest. The steamer is waiting for us in the harbor. Damn it, this ship was hard to come by, many ships were destroyed by the hurricane."

  The typhoon was an unexpected accident, and in order to ensure the safety of the hostages, the kidnappers had to redeploy overnight and move Wanli and others to another location. They used stretchers to carry Ouyang, Wanli hugged Bingbing, and the doctor held a thermos box with a battery-powered heating pad, Ouyang's child was inside the thermos box, this group of people walked on the road to Haicheng with flashlights shining high and low along the way.

  The burly bandit had obviously taken a liking to Wen Li, and although he still remembered the organization's strict orders not to touch these women, Wen Li's beauty had stirred up his lust. He pretended to be helpful and took Ice from Wen Li's arms, embracing her while intentionally brushing against Wen Li's sensitive areas with his hands. At this point, Wen Li had completely lost her former composure, and with a mix of shame and anger, she dodged away but accidentally fell into a pit by the side of the road.

  After the hurricane passed, the poisonous snakes on the ground also came out. Wen Li fell on a poisonous snake, and the snake instinctively bit her. Wen Li only felt a slight stinging pain and didn't pay much attention to it. Instead, she insisted on getting up and taking Ice from the bandit's hand. However, after walking for dozens of steps, she suddenly felt dizzy and fainted, falling to the ground with a thud!

  The doctor was only a gynecologist, originally the kidnappers had prepared antivenom serum for snake bites, but it had been blown away by the hurricane. By the time they hastily carried Wenli onto the boat, Wenli's soul had already dissipated, leaving behind Ice crying and calling out "mom"...