Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

"Six hundred million?! Are you out of your mind?!"

On the other end of the phone, after hearing the kidnappers' offer, Mrs. Huo showed no grief or panic as a hostage's family member. Instead, she started haggling frantically, as if she were buying vegetables at a market, using an extremely shrill voice.

"The Li family is so rich, and Li Chengjia's son is so young and promising. Even that notorious thief only asked for a billion! My husband is almost sixty! He's old and faded, all fat! What part of him is worth six hundred million?!" Mrs. Huo spoke rapidly, her calculations deafening. "And do you know how tight the cash flow is in banks right now? Even though we own a bank, that money belongs to the depositors! We can only use it to invest in real estate and stocks; withdrawing it privately will land us in jail!"

"I don't care if you're from a big or small clique! One price! Thirty million at most! Take it or leave it! If you don't want it, just kill me. I'll use that thirty million to support a few gigolos!"

Quiet.

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone for more than ten seconds.

He Yaodong, far away in the abandoned factory, was holding the phone, completely bewildered.

He'd been a ruthless bandit for years, robbing gold shops and killing tyrants. But he swore he'd never seen such a bizarre woman in his entire life!

This is a fucking kidnapping! A life-or-death kidnapping! Your husband's naked and tied to a chair, and you're fucking trying to bargain with me?! And you're even aiming for his ankles?!

A surge of rage, a feeling of having his intelligence and professional dignity severely insulted, instantly rushed to He Yaodong's head!

"Are you fucking messing with me?!"

He Yaodong roared into the phone. He turned around abruptly, held the phone to his neck, and strode over to Huo Zhaotang, who was tied to a chair, raising the extremely heavy Type 54 pistol in his hand.

"Bang!"

First, he fired a shot at the ceiling, then He Yaodong used the hard steel butt of his gun to smash Huo Zhaotang's face hard!

"ah--!!!"

With a chilling cracking sound, Huo Zhaotang's nasal bridge was instantly broken, and blood gushed out like a fountain!

"Wife! Help!! Give me money! I'll give you any amount of money, give them the money now! These people are really going to beat me to death! Waaaaah..." Huo Zhaotang let out a miserable scream like a pig being slaughtered, tears mixed with blood from his nose streaming down his face.

Hearing her husband's heart-wrenching screams over the phone, Mrs. Huo's usually harsh face finally changed color.

Although she loved money more than anything, she knew how to make choices. If Huo Zhaotang really died, the board of directors of Huo's Bank would definitely kick her, a woman who didn't understand business, out. At that time, she would lose more than just hundreds of millions; she might not even get a single penny back.

"Stop hitting him! Stop hitting him!" Mrs. Huo finally panicked, but her inherent stinginess still made her stick to one bottom line: "Three hundred million! I can only raise three hundred million in cash at most. I really can't come up with any more. Our Huo Bank is just a small bank; we don't have that much cash flow. If you don't agree, then go ahead and beat him to death!"

Hearing Mrs. Huo's resolute tone, He Yaodong took a deep breath, knowing that this was the limit of this eccentric woman's power.

Three hundred million, that's not a small amount! Enough for us brothers to be local tyrants in Southeast Asia!

"Okay! Three hundred million! Deal!"

He Yaodong gritted his teeth and issued a vicious ultimatum, "Since that's the case, the time has to be shortened. Delivery will be at midnight the day after tomorrow! I'll call you again to confirm the payment location. Remember, if you dare call the police, I'll make sure you get your husband's head!"

With a click, the phone call ended.

Inside the villas in Repulse Bay.

Mrs. Huo put down her mobile phone, her face so gloomy it seemed as if water could drip from it.

"Three hundred million...three hundred million! Those damned gangsters! They're practically trying to kill me!"

Mrs. Huo trembled with heartache. She glanced at the two bodyguards, Ah Qiang and Ah Ming, standing beside her, and said, "Get out! Get out of here, both of you!"

After the bodyguards left the living room, a sinister glint flashed in Mrs. Huo's shrewd little eyes.

"Three hundred million? My money is my money! You bunch of paupers don't even deserve it!"

She took a deep breath, picked up the landline phone on the coffee table without hesitation, and dialed a private number with great skill.

That's right! This woman had no intention of obediently handing over the money. Forget three hundred million, she didn't even plan to give thirty million. She wanted to use the ravenous wolf that the Huo family usually "fed" at great expense to rescue her husband without spending a single penny!

……

Six o'clock in the morning.

Police Commissioner Han Yi-ri, who was still fast asleep, was awakened by the extremely jarring private phone line on his bedside table.

"Fuck! Who's so bold as to make this call before dawn!"

Han Yili picked up the phone in extreme frustration. However, after listening to Mrs. Huo's report on the other end of the line, which was tinged with tears but extremely logical, he was able to understand her better.

"Buzz—!"

Han Yili felt as if he had been struck hard in the head by a sledgehammer, and all his sleepiness vanished instantly! Cold sweat instantly soaked through his expensive silk pajamas!

"What did you say?! Huo Zhaotang has been kidnapped by the Big Circle Gang?! And they're demanding a ransom of 300 million?!"

Han Yili jumped out of bed, her face turning deathly pale, as if she had seen a ghost!

If Ye Guohuan's robbery of a jewelry store with an AK a few days ago only caused him to lose face and be scolded in front of the Governor of Hong Kong, then...

Now that Huo Zhaotang has been kidnapped, it truly means that Han Yili's escape route is being cut off, and it might even cost him his life!

Why?

The relationship between Han Yili and Huo Zhaotang is not an ordinary police-civilian relationship at all, but a black python tightly bound together by money, beauty, and extremely huge interests!

Huo Zhaotang is an extremely Western-worshipping, banana-like person, and Han Yili is the foreign official whom Huo Zhaotang has been "licking boots" the most frequently and who has received the most money from him over the years!

Huo Zhaotang not only frequently sent top-quality beauties and expensive antiques to Han Yili's private villa; more importantly, the tens of millions of dollars in bribes that Han Yili had obtained through various shady means over the years were all laundered and transferred to overseas accounts through Huo's Bank's underground channels!

Huo Zhaotang is Han Yili's biggest "white glove" in Hong Kong! If Huo Zhaotang is forced into a corner by the robbers and lets slip the secret, or if the police accidentally expose his money laundering ledgers during the investigation, then Han Yili will have to spend the rest of his life picking soap in Stanley Prison! So even for Han Yili's own sake, he must rescue Huo Zhaotang as soon as possible.

Moreover, there is an even more deadly reason, one that could cause a magnitude 10 earthquake within the entire police force!

In order to secure the police payroll processing business, Fok Siu-tong promised Han Yi-li extremely high interest returns. Therefore, the Hong Kong Police Force's massive "Police Welfare Fund" and enormous "Operational Reserve Fund," totaling hundreds of millions, are all deposited in Fok's bank!

During this extremely sensitive period, if news leaks out that the president of Huo's Bank has been kidnapped by the Big Circle Gang and his fate is unknown!

So when the market opens next Monday, the entire Hong Kong population will definitely launch a crazy run on Fok Bank!

If the banks go bankrupt, the police force's hundreds of millions in savings will be completely lost! Then, with 30,000 police officers unable to receive their benefits, there will definitely be a mutiny! Han Yili will be torn to shreds by his angry police subordinates!

Han Yili paced back and forth in her bedroom, her mind racing in extreme panic.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and said into the phone, "Mrs. Huo! Don't worry, Mr. Huo is my dearest friend, my brother, and I will absolutely not let those gangsters lay a finger on him! As for the three hundred million, you don't need to prepare a single penny! I will personally send my most trusted person to secretly deal with these thugs! Remember, your mission is to ensure that no information leaks out!"

After hanging up the phone.

Without any hesitation, Han Yili walked to the safe in the study and took out a spare cell phone.

He needed to find a dog. A mad dog with a yellow skin and a white heart, who would bite people and do extremely dirty and bloody things for him without any scruples in order to climb up the social ladder, and who would be absolutely obedient!

"Beep...beep..."

The call was connected.

"Hello, Director." A cold, capable, and extremely ambitious voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Situ Jie," Han Yili said in a deep voice, "come to my secret residence immediately, change into civilian clothes, and don't drive a police car."

"There is an extremely important secret mission concerning the interests of the Empire. I want you to be fully in charge and handle it discreetly."

"As long as you can handle this perfectly..." Han Yili's eyes turned extremely sinister and venomous, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, "I guarantee you a bright future!"