Was Li Qingshan a coward? Of course not.

In 2001, the old man was fifty-seven. Judging by his age, he belonged to the generation born before the founding of New Huaxia. To put it another way, Japan hadn't even surrendered when he was born. As a child, he experienced the founding of New Huaxia, the Great Leap Forward, and lived through that great era of struggling against heaven and earth! He witnessed the times of valiantly crossing the Yalu River, the entire nation preparing for a third world war, and endured the subsequent decade of turmoil...

When he was younger, he'd braved treacherous rivers, wandered north and south as a wheeler-dealer, traded with Russians, and navigated the dense mountain forests in the southwestern regions. He even went to Myanmar to deal in Jadeite Ore! Myanmar was a truly chaotic place! Various military factions, tantamount to petty warlords, controlled every mine. The Jadeite Ore trade was rife with chaos and violence from the very beginning. If someone died, their body would be tossed into an abandoned mine, remaining undiscovered for decades. To call such a man a coward would be a true insult!

When it came to gritting his teeth and pushing through, Li Qingshan could definitely hold his own. But, when faced with life-threatening situations, Li Qingshan also knew when to play the coward. That was his way of surviving. That's what you call being astute!

He was afraid of Brother Haonan (Chen Nuo) because Chen Nuo, like a ghost or a demon, had taken down more than a dozen of his men right in front of him. Then, Chen Nuo had performed the trick of catching bullets barehanded before his very eyes. Such feats weren't humanly possible! He knew that if that kid wanted to kill him, it would be ridiculously easy.

As for being kidnapped... the old man had experienced it no less than five or six times in his life! He could grit his teeth and hold out for a while. This was Li Qingshan's lifelong approach to people and situations: be bold when necessary, and be shrewd when needed!

Right now, the old man judged that it wasn't time to be shrewd yet; he was still in the stage where he could act boldly and hold his own. This foreigner wants the jade amulet, doesn't he? As long as I don't hand over the jade amulet, I might not necessarily die! But if I do hand over the jade amulet... I'm probably truly dead! And even if this foreigner doesn't kill me, if I lose the jade amulet... Hell, I'd be a dead man when I got back anyway!

Harvey yelled a few curses at the intermediary on the phone.

"Harvey, I think he might be deceiving you!"

"Damn it, I think you might be deceiving me!"

"You..."

Li Qingshan couldn't understand what the foreigner and the person on the phone were saying. The old man had been uneducated his whole life. Now that he was old, it was too late to learn; he didn't understand foreign languages at all.

Finally, Harvey hung up, walked over, and yanked Li Qingshan up from the ground. Grabbing the old man by the neck with one hand, he hauled him to his feet. The old man suddenly felt short of breath, his neck gripped like a helpless chick's as he was lifted, his legs flailing desperately.

"You better tell me the truth! I want the item in the picture!" Harvey said coldly.

Li Qingshan could hardly breathe, let alone utter a word. He desperately clawed at Harvey's thick arm, but how could he possibly move it?

"I'll start by breaking your fingers one by one, then your arms! Then I'll bleed you with a knife!"

Harvey pulled two thin, straw-like metal tubes from his pocket and said coldly, "One will be inserted into your lungs, the other into your kidneys! Your blood will flow out through the tubes, and I guarantee you'll be awake the whole time!"

As he said this, a hint of a smile appeared in Harvey's eyes.

"Huh? Your heart rate has changed!" Harvey leaned in a bit closer, staring into Li Qingshan's eyes. "Your pupils have changed too! This means you understood what I said! You were lying to me just now!"

He released his grip, dropping the old man to the ground.

Li Qingshan lay on the ground, twitching and gasping like a fish out of water. He struggled to speak, "Even if I give it to you, you'll kill me!"

Harvey's expression, however, was one of excitement. "Good, we can communicate now! However, your refusal is useless! You're just an ordinary person! You have no idea how many ways someone like me has to make you give me the answers I want!"

Li Qingshan looked at the two metal tubes in the man's hand, one end sharpened. He didn't need to try them to know that having such things inserted into his body would be excruciatingly painful.

"We can negotiate," Li Qingshan attempted to stall for time. "Someone sent you, right? How much did they pay you? I can give you a lot of money too! I'm very rich!"

Harvey squinted, his face filled with a malicious grin. "Of course, I love money! But in my line of work, reputation is more important than money."

"Three times! Five times! Ten times the amount! I can afford it!" Li Qingshan said quickly.

Harvey chuckled coldly, though he began to calculate whether he could extort some money from this old man after snatching the item—it wasn't something he hadn't done before.

"I've been kidnapped; my people will find you! And my identity is very important! If anything happens to me, the police will search for me relentlessly! You're a foreigner. In a place like Huaxia, even if you kill me and get the item, you won't be able to get out! Do you know how strictly controlled Huaxia is?"

"No, you're a criminal figure," Harvey shook his head. "I have your file. If you disappear, your people won't call the police."

Li Qingshan fell silent, mentally calculating how much the other party truly knew about his situation.

Harvey held one of the metal tubes in his hand and bent down.

"Wait!" Li Qingshan said with a bitter smile. "Then, can I buy my life with money? We have no grudge. I'll buy my life! You can go back and say the mission failed, but the money I give you will be enough to compensate you."

Harvey deliberately paused his actions and smiled.

"How much money can you give me?"

"How much do you need?"

"Three million M Currency."

The old man sucked in a sharp breath. Damn! That steep? In 2001, that was over twenty million Huaxia Currency! Although Li Qingshan had assets worth billions, pulling out over twenty million in cash at once would be difficult. But his face showed no hesitation as he immediately nodded. "Fine, no problem!"

Harvey was somewhat satisfied. "That much money can't be in cash! I'll give you an overseas account number; you transfer the money to me!"

"Then I'll need to make a phone call home for my family to transfer the money," Li Qingshan said, shaking his head.

"Of course," Harvey said, a smile spreading across his face.

Not bad at all. An extra three million M Currency meant his earnings from this assignment had just doubled! And he wouldn't even have to give the intermediary a cut of this part. Harvey was very pleased. He decided that after he got the money and the item, he'd be a little merciful when he killed the old man.

Li Qingshan observed the smile on Harvey's face and judged that the foreigner had been temporarily swayed by the money. His greed for wealth had been successfully ignited... Ah, this provided some room to buy time!

The old man took a deep breath, then slowly began, "However, I'll need a little time."

"What?" Harvey frowned.

"Ah!" Li Qingshan sighed. "My foreign friend, you don't understand the situation in Huaxia Country."

"?"

"In Huaxia, we have strict foreign exchange controls. Any foreign currency deposited into a domestic account is converted into Huaxia Currency by the state banks for us. Ordinary people like us don't have access to large amounts of foreign currency. And if I need to transfer M Currency abroad, there are procedures to follow."

"Procedures?"

"Yes. To put it simply, I need to use Huaxia Currency to buy M Currency from the state bank, and only then can I transfer it out. Moreover, both buying and transferring require a legitimate reason..."

Seeing Harvey's impatience growing, Li Qingshan quickly added, "Don't worry, I have ways to handle these procedures; after all, I'm no ordinary person. But..."

"But what?"

"I need a little time, just a little..." Li Qingshan raised his right hand and made a "little bit" gesture.

Harvey clenched his teeth. "How much time?"

"Seven days..."

Seeing anger flare up on Harvey's face, Li Qingshan quickly interjected, "Wait a second! Listen to me!"

"Say what!"

"Today is Friday! Look, the weekend is almost here. According to our country's rules, the state banks don't handle currency exchange on weekends! No matter how capable I am, I can't control the state banks! Even if I call home, my people can only start the currency exchange procedure at the state bank on Monday. This procedure, I can get through it, but the state bank's process for handling currency exchange takes five business days! There's nothing I can do about that! At the very earliest, I'll only get the money by next Friday."

"I can't wait seven days," Harvey immediately shook his head. Though his expression was conflicted, his tone was firm.

Li Qingshan carefully watched the man's expression. Seeing ferocity emerge in his eyes, he quickly changed his tune, "No, no, no, wait a second! Let me think, there's another way, there's another way..."

"..."

"I... I have an overseas account. There's a little money in it."

"You have an overseas account? Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I'm a shady character! I always need a backup plan, in case of emergency. If I have to flee overseas, I must have money to spend. However... however, I don't have three million M Currency in my overseas account."

"How much do you have?"

"One million."

Harvey took a deep breath. One million... not bad, he thought. It was an unexpected windfall anyway.

"Okay, give me one million, plus the item I want, and I can promise not to kill you."

Li Qingshan looked at the foreigner with a pitiful expression. "Um, let's be reasonable. To make a transfer, I need a computer and an internet connection."

Harvey exhaled, glanced at the desolate wilderness around them, and finally nodded. "Alright. Tomorrow, I'll take you to the city to find a place with internet and a computer."

Li Qingshan felt relieved. He knew he had at least successfully bought himself one more night. First, dangle a huge benefit to arouse the other party's greed and inflate their expectations. Then, set a demanding condition to frustrate them. At that point, voluntarily lower the terms and offer a small concession. This way, their attention becomes fixed on this concession... This was Li Qingshan, an old hand who had navigated the underworld his whole life, using his wits to survive at death's door! Buying one night might not guarantee survival. But securing a night's delay might just introduce new variables!

"That's about right. The old man's tactics aren't bad," Chen Nuo sighed. Li Qingshan had earned his reputation and standing after a lifetime in this line of work; it wasn't for nothing. Besides, Li Qingshan's current attitude was enough to satisfy Chen Nuo—he hadn't chosen to betray him at the first opportunity, which was already pretty good. You can't ask for too much.

Chen Nuo, also sitting in the wilderness, stood up and slowly withdrew his extended spiritual power. His current location was only a few hundred meters away from Li Qingshan and Harvey.

The RUMBLING roar of a motorcycle was exceptionally piercing in the night.

Harvey instantly leaped up from the ground, a gleaming dagger materializing in his hand.

Li Qingshan shivered and scrambled up from the ground, his eyes fixed on the distance...

A black motorcycle slowly approached. The silhouette on the bike made the old man's heart finally settle in his chest! He was so thrilled he almost cried out on the spot!

The racer-like black leather suit, the black helmet...

"I'm... I'm over here!! Here!!!" Li Qingshan finally let loose, yelling at the top of his lungs!

The motorcycle, which had been speeding, gradually came to a halt. Chen Nuo dismounted and walked slowly towards Harvey.

Harvey sensed a hint of alarm. Suddenly, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes! He raised his hand, and the dagger in it shot towards Li Qingshan!

Li Qingshan felt a colossal force suddenly lift him! Mid-air, he thought he heard a TING!

His body landed on the ground. He was completely unable to move, his face pressed against the earth...

THWACK!

A dagger embedded itself in the ground right before Li Qingshan's eyes!

Behind him, Li Qingshan could almost hear an angry, low roar from the foreigner...

Then came the sounds of thumps and thuds—judging from experience, Li Qingshan figured those were the sounds of fists striking flesh!

An intense wave of fatigue washed over him, and the old man finally closed his eyes...