CHAPTER 328: CHAPTER 328: RESCUE

"Go, I’ll keep an eye on things here. Once there’s a solution, you must inform me immediately. No action is allowed without my order." Sheng Wenhao instructed seriously and sternly.

"Yes." The security captain saluted Sheng Wenhao, then silently, like an agile leopard, left Sheng Wenhao’s side to join his teammates and started discussing the rescue plan in hushed tones.

They were all retired special forces soldiers, and although retired, each was an expert in the military before. Rescue missions were nothing new to them, so they quickly devised three rescue plans based on the surrounding terrain.

Xu Ke arrived faster than Sheng Wenhao had imagined. It should take at least an hour to get from Huangpu District to East Suburb, but Xu Ke appeared in front of Sheng Wenhao in under an hour.

"Do you have a rescue plan?" Xu Ke asked as he approached the group.

"We already have one."

"Then let’s proceed with the rescue immediately." Xu Ke took a pistol from a security guard’s hand and said, "Leave someone inside alive for me."

"Don’t you want to rest a bit before going in? Your condition doesn’t look good." Sheng Wenhao said worriedly, looking at the wounds on Xu Ke’s hands and his increasingly hidden anxious eyes.

"There’s no time. For Yaoyao’s safety, we must act now."

Xu Ke’s attitude was resolute, and Sheng Wenhao couldn’t argue with Xu Ke, so he followed Xu Ke’s instructions and charged towards the target warehouse with the security team.

What Xu Ke said was right. When the time arrived, the underlings who had been guarding the transaction location still hadn’t seen Xu Ke’s shadow. Upon realizing something was wrong, they quickly called their boss, "Xu Ke hasn’t appeared at the transaction site."

The boss, who was calmly sitting in a chair, jumped up upon hearing this news, "Retreat quickly!" He told the underlings still watching at the transaction site and then hung up the phone immediately.

"Xu Ke may have found our location. We must retreat immediately. Brothers, grab your weapons and bring this woman. We’re retreating." The boss said with a stern expression.

The others couldn’t see the boss’s expression, but they could hear his anxiety in his voice. Everyone in that warehouse had shared life-and-death experiences, and they had developed a mutual understanding. Upon hearing this, everyone quickly grabbed their weapons and lifted Lin Mengyao by her neck off the ground.

Just as everyone was prepared, before the boss could utter the word "go," a tear gas canister was thrown into the center of the crowd. The white smoke quickly filled the entire warehouse. Unprepared, everyone inside started coughing incessantly, their faces streaked with tears and snot, unable to see the situation around them. They could only hear the sound of the warehouse door being forcibly dismantled and the sound of bodies hitting the ground one by one. By the time the effects of the tear gas subsided, they were already subdued and lying on the ground.

The only person left standing unharmed was the man holding Lin Mengyao hostage.

Seeing his brothers knocked out on the ground, with only himself standing despite the discomfort in his eyes, while opposite him stood over twenty strong men with guns, the man’s hand holding the gun to Lin Mengyao’s head trembled uncontrollably.

"Don’t come closer. I warn you, don’t come any closer. If you take another step, I’ll shoot her." The man shouted loudly, his voice trembling, the black hood obscuring his expression, but his voice and movements betrayed his fear. After all, not everyone can face multiple firearms calmly and without flinching.

"Don’t be agitated. Try to control your emotions and don’t harm the person you’re holding." Xu Ke said, his eyes fixed intently on the man.

"Make them put their guns down. No! Throw them away. Make them throw away their guns, or I’ll kill this woman." The man harshly pressed his pistol against Lin Mengyao’s temple, causing her to wince.

"Okay, don’t be agitated. I’ll have them throw their guns away." Xu Ke said, trying his best to calm the man’s excitement, and then turned to the security guards behind him and said, "You heard him, throw away your guns." Xu Ke gave a signal to the people behind him while keeping his back to the man.

The security guards complied with the man’s demand, removed their weapons, and threw them through the doorway and windows. In no time, everyone’s hands were empty, and the previously tense man began to relax.

As time passed, the effects of the tear gas nearly vanished for him, and he adapted to the situation in front of him, appearing significantly better, with the hand holding the gun no longer shaking, and an excited expression hidden under his hood.

It was as if he saw a large sum of money flying toward him.

"Release the person you’re holding, and we’ll let you go. I promise not to hold you accountable. I could even let you take your brothers with you. How about it? Trading one for so many is a win for you." Xu Ke said in an enticing voice, using his words like a hook to tempt the man’s nerves, trying to make him follow the proposed plan.

But when a person is caught up in greed, only sufficient profit can touch a heart stained by greed.

After listening to Xu Ke, the man laughed, then said, "Why should I save them? Why would I give up wealth that’s within my grasp for them? Don’t be ridiculous; how much is brotherhood worth? Go prepare me a helicopter. I want to reach Africa as fast as possible. Everyone, step back and stay in that corner. No one is allowed to leave this area until the helicopter arrives. If anyone steps out, I’ll shoot this woman. It’s up to you." The man arrogantly pressed his gun against Lin Mengyao’s temple.

"Alright, I can do everything you asked, but don’t harm Mengyao." Xu Ke said, looking at Lin Mengyao with tender eyes, then retreated to the corner of the warehouse as requested.

Xu Ke took out his phone and called Housekeeper Zhao in front of the kidnapper, reiterating the kidnapper’s demands to Housekeeper Zhao.

After Xu Ke hung up, the kidnapper once again made a demand, "Take out all the phones from your pockets and throw them over there." The kidnapper pointed his gun at Xu Ke and his group.

No one spoke and instead complied, taking out their phones and tossing them as far away as possible.