The young man stepped into the green belt to pick up the money, but when his fingertips touched the stack of banknotes, for some reason, he shivered involuntarily, a swift and intense coldness entering his body momentarily and then disappearing, as if it were an illusion.
The heavily made-up woman and the man with yellow hair also gathered around, their eyes fixed on the banknotes in his hand, while the man who called himself Si-ge remained unmoved, and carefully played with various kidnapping tools.
"So much money? Count it quickly!"
"One, two, three, four... Damn it, Qingjie, there's two thousand bucks!"
"So much! It's really a neighborhood only rich people can afford, just picking up money casually!"
"Share it equally! Two thousand, divided among four people, it's five hundred each!"
"Come, this is yours. Hahaha, I'm having a hard time lately, I can barely afford to eat, I didn't expect to pick up money just by lowering my head! Today's luck is really good!"
"Lai-zi-ge, you've always been lucky, you are our lucky charm! Thank you, brother!"
"Huh, why do I suddenly feel so cold?"
"Achoo! Me too!"
"This neighborhood is really weird!"
"Of course, it's not weird, can all the security cameras be broken? When I came to check a few days ago, you told me to break the cameras, but I found out from chatting with the security that the cameras here have been broken a long time ago, and no matter how many times the developers replace them, they break again after a couple of days!"
"It might be some kind of radiation or magnetic field, right?"
"Rubbish, it's the work of evil!"
"Stop arguing, give the money to Si-ge. You don't take your hands off, are you planning to keep it all to yourself?"
"Where! I just want to count it again. Si-ge, this is your money."
Finally, the man who was wiping the knife with oil cloth looked up, casting a cold glare at the young man. "I don't want it, you guys split it up."
"Really? Si-ge is indeed generous!" The young man happily withdrew his hand, but Qingjie snatched the money back. Blushing, she said, "Si-ge, you should keep it, we are not the type of people who are greedy for money. We agreed long ago, if there's luck, we share together, if there's money, we earn together. If you didn't give us the idea, we wouldn't have found this route to make a fortune." As she spoke, she stuffed the money into Si-ge's pocket.
Even through the layer of fabric, Si-ge was hit by a strong, cold chill. His heart skipped a beat, and he immediately urged, "Alright, stop dawdling, pick up the bag, let's go to building 1."
"Didn't we check just now? The 18th floor was dark, Van Galuo probably hasn't come back," the man with yellow hair grumbled reluctantly.
"That's even better if he hasn't come back, we'll break in and wait for him. Besides, it's easier to handle things once we're inside." Si-ge showed a sinister smile.
The other three had never done such dirty work before, so they could only obediently follow his arrangement. Qingjie tossed the bag to the man with yellow hair, complaining, "It's your turn to carry this bag. It almost crushed me just now! Damn, what's inside that's so heavy!"
The man with yellow hair took over the bag without complaint, but with a rip, the zipper broke, and the stuff inside spilled out, making a mess on the ground.
"Why are you so clumsy?" Si-ge frowned harshly.
While picking up the items, the man with yellow hair kept apologizing, looking flustered. For some reason, even though Si-ge was generous and liked to joke around, he was afraid of him. Qingjie and the other companion rushed over to help tidy up, but the bundle of rope wasn't tied well and it scattered, getting more chaotic as they tried to organize it.
Si-ge couldn't bear seeing it any longer, he kicked the man with yellow hair and impatiently said, "Get out of the way, I'll do it." He patiently straightened the rope from beginning to end, coiling it around his wrist.
Qingjie picked up a military knife and was about to put it back into the bag, but for some reason, she inexplicably took it out of its sheath, holding it in her hand and toying with it.
The other man called Lai-zi-tou put back the flashlight, pliers, screwdriver, and other items one by one, then rubbed his hands, muttering, "Is there a leak in the bag? Why are my hands all wet?"
"Huh?" Si-ge initially glanced at him absentmindedly, but when he remembered something, he tried to straighten up, but stumbled and fell toward Qingjie, warning, "No, the bottle of ether has broken! Get away quickly!" Unfortunately, he inhaled too much ether, and didn't even have the strength to speak loudly.
Qingjie couldn't hear what he was saying at all, she just stood there holding the knife, the sharp tip aimed directly at Si-ge's chest.
With a light sound, the blade pierced his flesh.
"Ah... wu wu wu..." Qingjie's scream was barely muffled by Si-ge's palm.
"No, the stun stick is leaking electricity!" Lai-zi-tou was shaking a black stick as if having a seizure.
"What's wrong with you?" The man with yellow hair went to grab his shoulder, but started shaking, like a leaf being whipped by a strong wind.
In a dim corner of the artificial mountain, four people instantly lay down three, while one woman, her face full of tears, had no choice but to follow the instructions of the fourth brother, dragging the three big men to a place far away from the broken bottles. At times, her teeth chattered, and at other times, she made fearful, whining noises, like she was experiencing hysteria. She dared not touch the man with a shaved head and yellow hair wired with electricity, so she could only use a stone to hit them, not knowing how many times she had to hit the shaved head before his grip on the electric baton loosened.
After finally finishing the frantic work, she collapsed to the ground, first staring blankly at her blood-stained hands, then looking at the unconscious fourth brother with a knife stuck in his chest, and finally at the shaved head and yellow hair, whose head was bleeding and whose breathing was shallow. She instantly felt extreme fear and despair.
"I, I killed someone! I can't do this anymore, I want to go home! Sob, sob, sob..." She cried into her hands, then punched herself in the mouth, because she remembered that she was here to kidnap Fan Garo, and that was something the security guards must not find out!
She shrank into a corner, trembling for a long time before she moved out and used all her limbs to crawl to her car. Fortunately, after nightfall, the security guards did not venture into the neighborhood, so her unusual behavior went unnoticed. Parking the car next to the artificial mountain, she went to move her companions. Three big men together weighed nearly four or five hundred pounds, and it truly tested her strength.
After finishing up, she was completely exhausted, and she collapsed on the steering wheel, crying for a while before starting the engine impatiently to leave. Without a doubt, in her life experiences, no night would be worse than this one. The helpless screams, panicked remedies, and bone-chilling fear were enough to haunt her for a lifetime.
The van, which was driven in a crooked manner, stumbled and bumped its way out of the neighborhood gate. A tall figure slowly emerged from the darkness and came to the dimly lit street light, gazing in the direction the group had left. A face that was extremely gentle and extraordinarily handsome gleamed in the night, with a smirk on its lips. It was Fan Garo. If he wanted to, he could be completely swallowed by the darkness and become an unseen presence, or he could shine like a fallen star.
The gentle night wind teased his soft hair and thin clothes, reminding him that it was time to sleep. He averted his gaze and walked steadily towards building number one. Disregarding the elevator, he climbed up the floors one by one. It was already past midnight, and yet the building seemed to have just awakened, as one could hear painful moans and cries if one listened carefully.
Reaching the fourth floor, two elderly voices were taking turns insulting each other: "Is this delivery for you?"
"My son works hard and earns money outside every day, while you sit at home and spend money. Who are you, a squandering woman? What lousy delivery package, I'll burn it!"
"Even at the brink of death, you dare to talk back! Old woman, give me my belt, I will beat this squandering woman to death today!"
"Beat her! Beat her hard! Especially her mouth, beat it to a pulp!"
"Hey, where do you think you're going!"
"Oh, my grandson, we are teaching your mother a lesson, you better go back to your room, so you don't get caught in the crossfire!"
"You can beat each other all you want, but could you keep it down a bit? I'm playing games with my microphone, what if my friend hears... What's wrong if you're my mom? You deserve to be beaten for spending my dad's money! All that money is mine in the future! Go away, you haven't washed your hair in days, you stink! Why don't you dress up like Auntie Li and put on some perfume? My classmate nearly died laughing when he saw you come to pick me up at school. Having a mom like you is embarrassing!"
The woman's despairing cries reverberated on the floor, then gradually disappeared with Fan Garo's ascent.
Reaching the seventh floor, the woman's cries were once again heard, but her voice was lower, more hoarse, and more helpless than on the fourth floor. The man assaulting the woman was silent, not a single insult escaped his lips. The sounds of fists hitting flesh and furniture breaking indicated that this act of violence was even more brutal than on the fourth floor.
Fan Garo remained calm, and his ascent did not slow down, as though all the turmoil of the world had nothing to do with him.
By the fourteenth floor, a lavishly dressed man was waiting in front of the elevator. Upon hearing footsteps in the stairwell, he turned around and flashed a friendly smile at Fan Garo.
Fan Garo politely nodded and smiled faintly, but the smile did not reach his eyes. When he reached the seventeenth floor, he finally stopped, just because a weak and frail little boy was tightly hugging his legs, curled up in a dark corner. The boy had large, clear black-and-white eyes and porcelain-like fair skin, marred by crisscrossing scars, making them even more distressing.
He looked at Fan Garo in terror, then pulled his limbs closer, as if afraid of taking up too much space in the corridor.
Ignoring the boy's body covered in scars, Fan Garo didn't inquire about what exactly had happened to him, and just took out a beautifully packaged sandwich from his backpack, saying softly, "Here, have this."
As if just realizing, the boy suddenly snatched the sandwich and hastily unwrapped it, eating eagerly.