Me! A high-ranking official!

His gaze swept across the faces of these people, but he did not see Zhao Lingling.

In the middle of the crowd stood a bald man, around forty years old, with a centipede-like scar running across his head from his forehead to the back of his head. His face was full of flesh, and his neck was thicker than his head. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt, and his chest was bulging with flesh. Judging from the way these people were standing, this bald man must be their leader!

Zhao Jianguo stared at him and asked coldly, "Where's my little sister?"

The bald man grinned, his expression a mixture of smugness and mockery.

"Your little sister? Isn't Zhao Lingling at school? What's she doing here?"

His pupils contracted, then relaxed, and his heart, which had been pounding, suddenly settled.

be cheated.

The other party did not kidnap Zhao Lingling at all. That phone call and that voice were synthesized using some kind of method. He had heard that some technologies nowadays can simulate human voices, and all it takes is a few seconds of sample. Zhao Lingling usually posts videos on Douyin, so it wouldn't be difficult to get her voice.

Now that his younger sister isn't here, and there's no longer any constraint, he can act with impunity.

He put his hands in his pockets, a slow grin spreading across his face. "What do you want from me?"

The bald man took two steps forward and stood in front of the crowd. The lights shone down on his head, and the scar on his head wiggled as he spoke, like a centipede crawling on his head.

"Zhao Jianguo, you don't need to ask questions you already know the answer to. Although we brothers are involved in the underworld, we don't need to get into trouble. We called you here today to discuss Cao Wenting's case. As long as you agree not to pursue it further, we'll leave immediately and won't cause any more trouble."

"What if I don't agree?" He sneered, looking at the other person!

The bald man's smile remained unchanged, but his eyes narrowed slightly, seemingly surprised that Zhao Jianguo dared to refuse in front of so many of them. His tone carried a hint of malice: "We brought so many brothers here today, do you think you can just leave? If you don't agree and force the brothers to resort to violence, you'll suffer, and the brothers will feel bad. In the end, they'll have no choice but to agree. Why bother?"

Zhao Jianguo sneered, staring at the other party and said in a deep voice, "What if I don't agree?"

The bald man stared at him for two seconds, then burst into laughter, followed by a thumbs-up: "You've got guts! You fucking have guts!"

The laughter abruptly stopped, and the bald man's face twisted into a ferocious grin. He sneered, "But the brothers came here on a mission. Since you refuse, don't blame us for being ruthless. If we hurt you, don't blame me for not warning you! It's all your own fault!"

As he spoke, he waved his hand.

The forty-odd people around him moved at the same time, surrounding him from all directions, and the circle became smaller and smaller.

Zhao Jianguo pulled his hand out of his pocket, gripping a fruit knife in his right hand. He pointed it at his palm, his face instantly turning fierce. He glared at the people surrounding him and roared, "Fine, come on! Let's see who among you wants to die!"

Seeing Zhao Jianguo's actions—holding a knife to his own palm—who was he threatening? What did he take him for? This unconventional move caused the men who were about to surround him to pause in their tracks. One of the henchmen couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

"Damn, is this guy out of his mind?"

Those around him saw Zhao Jianguo's posture clearly: a fruit knife pointed at his palm, as if he was about to cut it at any moment. The factory was quiet for a moment, and then laughter exploded like a pot boiling over.

"I've seen people fight to the death, I've seen people beg for mercy on their knees, but I've never seen anyone try to self-harm!" A skinny guy carrying a baseball bat laughed so hard he almost fell over. "What, trying to torture yourself to the point of being unrecognizable and evoke our sympathy? Dude, we're not a charity!"

"Maybe they're trying to scare us away by making a scene of blood splattering everywhere!" another person chimed in.

"Then he'll have to bleed a lot more. This little bit of blood is barely enough. There are over forty of us; even if each person smears a handful, it won't be enough!"

Laughter rose in waves, the bald man laughing the loudest. He tilted his head back, the flesh on his neck jiggling, and pointed at Zhao Jianguo, tears welling in his eyes. "Zhao Jianguo, Zhao Jianguo, what's this all about? Are you worried we'll go too far and want to do it yourself to control the situation?" He gestured with his thumb to his brothers behind him. "Don't worry, even though we're in the underworld, nobody wants to get involved in a murder case these days. At most, you'll suffer some physical pain, break a few bones, and be bedridden for three to five months. Don't try to scare us with self-harm!"

Another burst of laughter erupted in the factory.

Zhao Jianguo grinned maliciously and casually pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, throwing it at the bald man.

"Oh my god, that scared me to death! Are they trying to kill me with paper?"

The bald man chuckled and pretended to dodge to the side, his exaggerated movements and expressions causing his henchmen around him to burst into laughter again!

"I don't want to hurt anyone, but if anyone's blind, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Zhao Jianguo said coldly. "Whether you want to come up or not, you can decide after you've seen it all, lest you die without even knowing how you died!"

"Oh my god, this is amazing! I'm so scared! What's drawn on this? Could it be our birth dates and times? What's wrong? Is it going to curse us?"

"Oh my god, this is a curse! What if we get boils all over our heads and feet? I'm so scared!"

……

Amidst a chorus of mocking laughter, one of the henchmen picked up the paper from the ground, cheerfully handing it to the bald man, saying, "Boss, take a look! What if we've really offended some wizard and they've cursed us all to death!"

The bald man laughed so hard he could barely stand up straight. His hands trembled as he took the paper, saying, "If you put it that way, it's really scary. This is like something out of a horror movie. What if a ghost suddenly pops out from behind us in the middle of the night...?"

Suddenly, the bald man's voice stopped abruptly. Then, as if burned, his fingers jerked violently, and he flung the paper away. He bounced back two steps as if he had been electrocuted, his face stiffening, his eyes wide as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, staring intently at Zhao Jianguo as if he had truly seen a ghost.

Zhao Jianguo held the tip of the fruit knife against his palm, looked at the bald man with a cold smile, and then made a gesture as if he was about to slash.

Upon seeing this, the bald man turned pale and his voice cracked with fear: "Brother! Brother Jianguo! No! It's unnecessary! It's really unnecessary!"

He stretched out both hands, palms facing Zhao Jianguo, in a blocking gesture, and took a step back: "Don't be impulsive! We can talk this out!"

Zhao Jianguo stared into the bald man's eyes, then with a slight flick of his wrist, the tip of the knife sliced ​​across his palm, leaving a small cut less than a centimeter long. Bright red blood instantly seeped from the wound.

The bald man let out a scream as if the cut had been made on his own body. He turned and ran, his leather shoes slipping on the ground, almost causing him to stumble. He grabbed at the air a couple of times before regaining his balance, and ran behind a cement pillar, sticking half his head out, his voice trembling with tears.

"Brother Jian Guo! Brother! Don't be impulsive! Please don't be impulsive! Let's talk this out! Let's talk this out!"

He took a breath, speaking rapidly like a machine gun: "You're right, we're all from the same county, we'll run into each other all the time, there's no need to make a scene! We're just here to go through the motions, we really didn't intend to do anything to you! There's no need! Please don't scratch anything again!"

The factory was so quiet you could hear someone breathing; all forty-odd people stood frozen in place.

They looked at their boss, Brother Kui, who had been in the underworld for twenty years, the one who hadn't even blinked when someone chopped him from the forehead to the back of the head. Now he was hiding behind a cement pillar, his hands gripping the edge of the pillar, staring at the tiny bead of blood in Zhao Jianguo's palm as if he had seen a ghost.

One of the henchmen couldn't hold back any longer. He sidled up to the bald man and whispered, "Boss, there are so many of us. We could smash him into a pulp with just one stick each. What are we afraid of?"

The bald man suddenly turned around and slapped the underling on the back of the head, causing him to stagger forward two steps.

"Bullshit! Get lost!"

He pointed at the piece of paper on the ground, his finger trembling like a leaf.

"Do you know what diseases he has? AIDS! Syphilis! Anyone who gets his blood on them gets infected!"

Those words were like a bucket of ice water poured down from the factory roof. The faces of the more than forty people changed at the same moment, and all eyes were fixed on the drop of blood in Zhao Jianguo's palm!

AIDS? Syphilis?

How could these people not know about this disease? It's sexually transmitted and spread through blood. Once you get infected, you're practically doomed.

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