I changed the world.

The Zhaozhong Public Auction ended on the evening of December 18th, and on the morning of December 19th, merchants from all over the country took various means of transportation to embark on their journey home.

The group from Linzhou checked out of their hotel early in the morning and embarked on their journey to Guizhou City. For comfort, they opted to charter a relatively well-maintained electric bus. The bus wasn't full, but because it was a chartered vehicle, the rest stops and speed were relatively controllable. This was a factor that had left them somewhat apprehensive about the aggressive driving style and bumpy mountain roads of the previous trip.

Since everyone had made a considerable haul this time, they were all in high spirits, discussing the raw jade they had acquired. Of course, the focus of their conversations was inevitably on Zhang Jing and Jin Wang, who had made the biggest gains.

Zhang Jing, in particular, saw his net worth skyrocket to nearly 500 million yuan after just one jade auction, making him arguably the biggest winner of the event. Especially noteworthy is that he still has a priceless rough jade piece he hasn't sold. Even in the jade industry, where overnight riches are commonplace, such a "miracle" still left everyone in awe.

Furthermore, Zhang Jing's unwavering humility and approachability after his sudden wealth earned him even higher regard from these seasoned businessmen who had seen countless people. Along the way, they became noticeably more friendly, clearly expressing a desire to get to know him better.

However, while the atmosphere on the bus was lively, no one noticed that at that moment, under the bus they were riding, a round metal device the size of a button was firmly attached to it using a magnetic attraction.

..........................................

About a kilometer behind the bus, a plain-looking silver-gray Flying Fish sedan with several scratches and dents was trailing far behind Zhang Jing and his group's bus.

"Is the signal clear?" The scarred middle-aged man sitting in the back seat leaned out to ask the passenger in the front seat.

"Brother, the signal is pretty good. You know, this high-end stuff is really something else."

“Very good, then follow them. Be careful not to alert them. When we reach the gorge, block both ends of the road and make our move in the middle.”

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Around noon, the driver stopped the bus at a roadside spot. After everyone ate some of the dry food they had prepared, the bus set off again. The mountains of Nanzhao were winding and swaying, and as the journey continued, everyone's enthusiasm for conversation gradually waned, and they began to feel drowsy. The bus became quiet, and since there was no cell phone signal on this mountain road, many people closed their eyes and leaned back in their seats for a nap.

Suddenly, with a piercing screech of brakes, the bus came to a sudden stop. Mr. Li Xuezhe, who was sitting in the front row of the bus and was not used to wearing a seatbelt and was taking a nap, was thrown forward by the inertia and his eyes were knocked to the ground. He covered his nose and groped for his glasses on the ground.

Similar incidents occurred more than once. The carriage was filled with curses and swears. Jin Pangzi, sitting next to Zhang Jing, rubbed his sore right eye from the impact, stood up, frowned, and shouted at the driver's seat, "What's going on! How can you drive like that?!"

Chapter 106 Kidnapping

The driver in front angrily rolled down his window, stuck his head out, and cursed at the front. At this moment, some people sitting in the front row noticed that a large minibus was parked in front of their car, blocking their way, with its hazard lights flashing, indicating that something had happened.

The awkward thing is that they are currently on the narrowest part of a mountain road. The entire road is carved out of the mountainside, with a sheer cliff on one side. The road is only wide enough for two cars to barely pass each other.

The minibus in front of us, for some reason, stopped right in the middle of the road, making it impossible for the bus following behind to pass even if it wanted to go around it.

A moment later, two people slowly got off the car in front, squatted down next to the minibus and observed for a while, then walked to the side and took out their phones to make a call.

One of them even made an apologetic gesture to the cursing bus driver behind them.

At this moment, another vehicle stopped behind the bus. It was a silver-gray Flying Fish brand electric scooter. A man got off the scooter, walked around the bus, and headed towards the minibus in front. Then, the two groups of people pointed at the minibus, seemingly discussing a problem with the vehicle.

Because the bus had stopped moving forward, the passengers all craned their necks to look. The female tour guide, surnamed Wang, who was sitting behind the driver, couldn't help but ask the driver what had happened to the vehicle in front of them.

So, to confirm the situation, the bus driver simply pulled the handbrake, opened the door, got off the bus, and walked towards the people gathered around the minibus. As he walked, he asked them what had happened.

Meanwhile, many passengers on the bus stood up and observed the development of the incident through the windows.

Then the driver walked over to the minibus that seemed to have broken down and asked what had happened. One of the drivers pointed to the bottom of the vehicle and said something.

The bus driver immediately lowered his head and turned his head to the side, as if trying to observe, and at that moment, something unexpected happened!

Then they saw one of the short, stocky men who had been standing to the side, having gotten off the Flying Fish electric scooter behind the bus, suddenly pull a handgun from his inner pocket and, without any warning, pull the trigger at the back of the driver's head.

The bus driver was caught completely off guard. After a short gunshot, he collapsed to the ground without uttering a sound, twitching slightly, and dark red blood gushed out...

The female tour guide, who had been leaning out of the bus to look around, saw this scene and immediately screamed in fright. She took several steps back and tripped on the steps inside the bus, falling to the ground.

The gunshot startled the other passengers on the bus, and chaos ensued. Meanwhile, the man who fired the shot quickly reached the front of the bus, boarded through the open driver's side, and took control of the driver's seat.

On the bus, a burly young man who was originally sitting in the front row reacted quickly and tried to rush up and seize the driver's seat, but the man with the gun raised his hand and shot him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Zhang Jing frowned. He was familiar with the young man who had been knocked down. He was one of the men who had come with Lü Yangzhong. He was quite strong and was said to have some martial arts skills. He had a good temper and was a hardworking young man.

"Sit in your seats and don't move. Anyone who moves will be killed!"

The man glared menacingly at the people in the carriage, shouting in heavily accented Mandarin. He then turned his gun towards them. Seeing the gun moving towards them, the people in the carriage sat down again, their faces filled with fear and uncertainty.

At the same moment the first shot rang out, another person disembarked from the minibus in front, and two more people stepped off the Flying Fish electric scooter behind, all carrying firearms. One of them, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face, was holding a Norman Empire-made AR-128 assault rifle. This is an old-fashioned but robust and durable weapon, one of the world's best-selling military rifles, long retired from active service, but still frequently seen by drug trafficking organizations in border regions.

Jin Wang, who was sitting next to Zhang Jing, had already plopped back into his seat, his face pale as a ghost, large beads of sweat streaming down his forehead, muttering, "It's over, it's over..."

"Have we encountered robbers?" Zhang Jing whispered.

"Isn't it obvious..." Jin Wang said with a mournful face, "They've set us up...they're targeting us!"

"Fatty, didn't you say that word had spread throughout the underworld about this public auction? How come something like this is still happening..." Ma Bo, sitting in the front seat, was also anxious. He lowered his head and asked Jin Wang in the back seat through his seat.

"How was I supposed to know..." Jin Wang was now filled with regret. In fact, his trip to Linzhou Rulai was originally intended to probe the depths of the new development, not to make a high-profile move. Furthermore, having received assurances from certain levels, he hadn't prepared many security personnel. After all, the team consisted of about ten people, which gave people a sense of security. Unexpectedly, things had turned out to be in the spotlight, and now it seemed they were indeed being watched.

"I was careless... I was careless..."

"Zhong Weng! Zhong Weng!!"

"Brother Zizhong!! What's wrong?!"

Li Xuezhe, who was in the front row, couldn't catch his breath, his head suddenly tilted to the side, and he fainted, startling the people around him into a flurry of activity.

At this moment, the door on the other side of the front of the car was also opened, and the scarred man holding an assault rifle strode into the carriage. He was accompanied by two other people. One of them was a short, stocky man with a fierce face, holding a military multi-purpose dagger. His bare, thick arms were covered with tattoos, and he looked like a bad guy. The other was a sharp-faced man holding a pistol.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all from Jiangnan. You can call me Scarface Li. I'm not a noisy person, so I hope you can all be a little quieter..."

The female tour guide sitting in the front row was trembling like a leaf, her face covered with tears. She tried to cover her mouth with both hands, but sobs still escaped her lips uncontrollably, sounding quite clear in the quiet carriage.

"Bang!" Another gunshot rang out, and the female tour guide had a bullet hole in her forehead. She then collapsed to the ground, her eyes vacant.

"You see, I'm not a very patient person, so I don't want anyone to make things difficult for me..." Scarface's face was still all smiles, showing no sign of being affected by killing someone.

Seeing that there was no more sound inside the carriage, the scarred man nodded in satisfaction and made a few hand gestures to his accomplices outside. Then, the man who had previously occupied the driver's seat closed both doors, started the bus again, and the vehicle slowly began to move.

Of the other two people who boarded the bus with him, the sharp-faced man with the pistol quickly walked to the back of the bus, leaned against a chair, and glared menacingly at the people in the carriage.

Meanwhile, the remaining robbers boarded the bus at the front and back, while the bus driver's body was thrown off a cliff.

Immediately afterwards, the minibus in front started moving, followed by the bus, and finally the Flying Fish brand electric vehicle brought up the rear, like two vehicles escorting one, and the three vehicles began to move forward.

"Very well, now, everyone please hand over your phones. If you have two phones, hand over both. If I find anyone hiding a phone, don't blame me for being ruthless..." On the bus, Scarface finished speaking and waved his hand. Another man beside him began collecting phones along the aisle in the middle of the bus. Due to poor communication in the area, no one had been able to send any messages during the earlier incident. Now, under the threat of the dark muzzle of a gun and the sharp edge of a dagger, everyone had no choice but to obediently hand over their phones. Even Zhang Jing didn't make any unusual moves and silently handed over his phone.

"Now, please close the curtains next to you. From now on, no one is allowed to open the curtains..."

Just after the bus restarted, about a kilometer behind the bus on the mountain road, in the middle of a road, a red sedan with its hazard lights on was stopped and broken down. The driver, who was lying under the car doing some repairs, suddenly heard his walkie-talkie ring. After listening to a few words, the driver quickly crawled out from under the car, clasped his hands in a fist and fist salute to the several drivers who were blocking the road, and said, "It's fixed, you can go on the road now, sorry, sorry!"

As he spoke, he opened the driver's side door, climbed in, started the vehicle, and drove forward, causing the traffic jam behind him to begin moving as well.

The same scene unfolded in the middle of a road some distance ahead of the bus on the mountain road...

....................................

“Desperado, desperado…” Jin Wang, sitting next to Zhang Jing, was clearly terrified by the cruel scene just now. He muttered to himself and kept wiping the sweat from his face, which seemed to never dry.

At this moment, Zhang Jing quietly nudged Jin Wang next to him with his elbow and whispered, "Brother Fuyuan, Brother Fuyuan?"

"Hmm?" Jin Wang responded softly from his throat without looking to the side.

"If we kill these bandits, wouldn't that be considered self-defense?" Zhang Jing whispered.

"Of course..." Jin Wang replied softly, then realized something, his face showing even greater fear. He couldn't help but turn his head and say urgently, "Hongjian, what are you trying to do? Don't do anything reckless. I know you're skilled in martial arts, but these people all have guns. Don't risk your life!"

"What are you doing? No talking!" Jin Wang's actions caught the eye of the man with a dagger who was patrolling the carriage. He walked over and brandished the dagger in front of Zhang Jing several times.

"Good man, I dare not, I dare not..." Jin Wang hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed in a low voice. The man threatened him a few more times before turning around and walking away.

"Hongjian, don't do anything foolish..." Jin Wang saw that the man leave, then reached out and patted Zhang Jing's knee again, whispering quickly.

Zhang Jing nodded slightly, his face remaining calm, seemingly lost in thought. This made Jin Wang even more nervous, fearing that his young buddy might jump up at any moment and be shot dead...

....................................

The bus was moving forward at a normal speed. Except for the driver's window, the curtains of all the other windows inside the bus were drawn, so even if a car drove by, it would not be noticeable from the outside.

The bloody incident on the mountain road earlier seemed to have gone unnoticed by anyone. In fact, apart from the people in the three cars, no other passing vehicles were present when the incident occurred.

Zhang Jing was certain that Jin Wang was right; this was indeed a pre-planned operation. However, he was unsure whether it was some criminal gang that was breaking the rules and trying to make a quick buck.

Or is there the involvement of some other force? If it's the latter, then the matter could be even more complicated to handle...

Zhang Jing wasn't worried about his own safety; he only cared about two things:

The first question is how to solve problems without revealing one's own unique characteristics?

Second, how can we solve the problem while minimizing major casualties?

He knew that in other people's eyes, he could be a skilled martial artist, but not a superman! At least not yet. Unless he was truly prepared to retire to the mountains and live among tigers and leopards.

Two robbers besides the driver were in the carriage.

Zhang Jing could roughly guess what the bandits were thinking. They probably wanted to drive the car to a more secluded place where it would be easier to carry out their plan, and then slowly torture the people in the car.

....................................

"To tell you the truth, my friends, we're a little short on cash this time, so we'd like to borrow some money from you all. Don't worry, we're all looking for money, not our lives. As long as you all cooperate, everything will be fine." Perhaps sensing the tense atmosphere in the carriage, the scarred man spoke again slowly and deliberately, then chuckled to himself a few times. No one in the carriage responded, but he didn't seem to care.