CHAPTER 452: CHAPTER 452: MUST NOT LEAVE ANYTHING OUT

Huo Jingrui raised the wooden stock of his gun and deftly struck the man who was still babbling.

Then, with lightning speed, he rushed towards the suspect. Thankful he had moved quickly enough.

Those people had installed a row of explosives underneath the food-serving counter. Seeing their plot exposed, the man prepared to detonate them, intending to take his captors down with him.

This scared the daylights out of Qiao Shaoguo, who had hurried over. "Young Huo, this time we really owe you. If you hadn’t been so perceptive and noticed something amiss, the consequences would have been..." He truly couldn’t continue speaking, his whole body still trembling.

The captured man couldn’t withstand the beating and confessed everything. He revealed that if there was any commotion in the canteen, the explosives they had planted elsewhere would also be triggered. The entire Hua’an Farm Reclamation would have been blown sky-high. The thought alone was terrifying.

Huo Jingrui carefully checked one last time. "There’s no problem here now. Quickly dispatch people to thoroughly inspect every key location. We must not leave any stone unturned."

Qiao Shaoguo’s expression was grave. "Okay, I’ll go arrange that myself right away." With that, he quickly walked out. He really couldn’t rest easy and decided to personally lead the inspection team.

Night fell, complicating the search operation. With the wind picking up outside, no one dared light torches for fear of accidentally igniting the planted explosives.

To eliminate the hidden dangers as quickly as possible, Huo Jingrui asked Chief Qiao to organize the educated youth. They were arranged by dormitory, with each team accompanied by a member of the security team, and conducted several thorough searches.

Two hours later, after three explosive devices had been found and dismantled without any further discoveries, everyone finally began to breathe a sigh of relief.

The scarred man on the mountain saw darkness descend. Hearing no commotion from below, he grew impatient. "Damn it, why is there still no sound? What are they doing down there?"

He turned and ordered one of his men, "Hasn’t the scout returned yet?"

The man, afraid his boss would take it out on him, replied, "Not yet. I’ll send someone else down right away."

Just then, someone rushed in, panting heavily. "Boss, there are lights flashing everywhere down the mountain! They must have found the explosives we planted and are clearing them."

The scarred man slammed his fist on the table. "To be safe, I specifically stationed two men at the canteen. They couldn’t even handle such a simple task! Truly more trouble than they’re worth."

"Since our first and second plans both failed to create any disturbance, we’ll have to confront them directly," the scarred man decided. "Send them a message. Tell them we have hostages, and I want to negotiate."

Meanwhile, Qiao Shaoguo also received news that some of the educated youth were missing.

Seeing the educated youth who had come to report, Qiao Shaoguo asked anxiously, "Tell me, what’s the situation?"

"Ye Wenhui from our dormitory hasn’t returned. At first, we thought she had gone to see Doctor Chu. It was only when we were organizing by dormitory to help with the search for dangers that we realized something was wrong."

Then, two other dormitories also reported that members from their dorms had gone out and not returned.

After grasping the full situation, Qiao Shaoguo realized something must have happened to the three of them. After all, the entire contingent of educated youth had just mobilized to conduct a thorough sweep of the whole Hua’an Farm Reclamation area and had found nothing suspicious. This meant the missing individuals had likely been taken away from Hua’an Farm Reclamation.

And indeed, at that very moment, the people they were discussing were confined in a small cave.

When Ye Wenhui awoke, the pitch-black darkness startled her. However, upon feeling her hands bound and realizing she couldn’t move, she quickly calmed herself.