Chapter 31 – Once and for All
Shi Cha shook his head, throwing off the chin that had been resting on top of it, and then looked up at Lin Ran without saying a word.
Just when Lin Ran thought the little brat was about to mock him again, he saw Shi Cha lower his head and let out a soft “Mm.”
Third Brother drank his beer. Although he could hear the conversation between the two kids, he didn’t say anything. After all, after tomorrow, the two of them would never see each other again.
For a while, aside from the occasional croak of frogs from the wilderness outside the unfinished building, no one said a word.
Bored, Third Brother unlocked his phone. He drank while mindlessly scrolling through videos.
“Want to make money? Download XXX on your phone right now, and you can earn XX yuan a day. Soon, you’ll be making tens of thousands per month. What are you waiting for, friends…”
“People these days think it’s harder and harder to make money, but they don’t realize that opportunities are right in front of them! Call the number below, and we’ll teach you step-by-step how to get rich…”
“…”
After watching five or six ads about how to make money, Third Brother spat hard on the ground.
“Bullsh*t! It’s all a scam!”
He took a long swig of beer and went back to scrolling through more videos on startups and investments.
Lin Ran glanced up and down at Third Brother, who was clutching his phone. This guy seemed impatient—his nerves weren’t great when the police stopped their car earlier, and now he was acting like he was desperate to get rich quick.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked: “Big brother, how much are you going to make selling me to that guy, Ah Cheng or whatever?”
Third Brother looked up at Lin Ran, his tone a little fierce. “Why do you want to know?”
But Lin Ran wasn’t intimidated at all and kept smiling. “It’s not like I can run away. Telling me doesn’t cost you anything. Besides, since I’m being sold, I should at least know how much I’m worth, right?”
Third Brother didn’t expect the kid to be this strange. At a time like this, instead of crying or being scared, he was concerned about his own price.
But since he was bored anyway, he figured he might as well answer.
“You? You’re already pretty old, so you’re not worth much if we sell you to some remote village. Those people don’t like kids your age. Only Brother Cheng might take you. Not much—maybe five or six thousand yuan.”
Lin Ran raised his eyebrows slightly, keeping a straight face. “That’s really not much. Oh right—what about my little brother? Where are you planning to send him?”
Third Brother assumed he was trying to find out where Shi Cha would be taken so he could go looking for him later.
“Where he’s going is none of your business. But your little brother’s worth a lot more than you. At first, we thought he was mute, so we could only get around 100,000 yuan. Now that we know he’s not, the price will double.”
Even though Third Brother didn’t say exactly where Shi Cha was being taken, he couldn’t help boasting about how much money he’d be making.
Their kind of trafficking operation made far more than ordinary human traffickers.
When Lin Ran heard the price, he realized this wasn’t an ordinary human trafficking operation. Typical traffickers would sell children to remote areas, but very few people would pay 200,000 yuan for a child already over seven years old.
However, Lin Ran didn’t let it show. Instead, he curiously asked another question.
“Then how much do you guys make in a year?”
Third Brother wasn’t particularly cautious around two kids. Usually, he couldn’t brag to anyone about how he made his money or how much he earned.
Now that he suddenly had an audience, he couldn’t help but start showing off.
“I get over 200,000 yuan a year. That’s way better than farming back in my hometown. I’ve even gotten married now, and my wife’s pregnant with a boy. Heh, I’m about to be a dad.”
As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and started flipping through photos, showing them to Lin Ran and Shi Cha.
It was a 4D ultrasound image, showing the baby sleeping with his eyes closed.
Lin Ran nodded and praised, “Very good-looking.”
Third Brother beamed as he put his phone away. “Of course! Takes after my wife.”
Lin Ran continued, “Then you’ve really got to start making more money. Your son will need to attend the best schools, get into the best university. And after he graduates, you’ll have to buy him an apartment in the city so he can get married. Housing in the city isn’t cheap, you know. I heard that over by the lake, even an average apartment costs several million yuan. The nicer ones go for over ten million.”
Third Brother suddenly felt that making just 200,000 yuan a year wasn’t nearly enough.
He frowned and reached for his phone again to scroll through more money-making videos.
Lin Ran probed, “Third Brother, are you thinking about switching to something that pays even better?”
Third Brother gave him a suspicious look. “How did you know?”
Lin Ran grinned. “I saw you watching all those money-making videos and figured you might be considering it. And little brother here might just have a method—would you be interested?”
Third Brother didn’t believe Lin Ran, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to hear what kind of nonsense the kid was about to say.
“Go on, let’s hear it.”
Seeing that he’d taken the bait, Lin Ran began to lay out the situation.
“There’s something you probably don’t know. The kid you guys grabbed—he’s not actually my little brother. He’s my friend’s brother. And their family? They’re loaded. Since you’ve already taken him, what’s the point of selling him off for just 200,000 yuan? That’s nothing. Ask his parents for ten times that amount—they won’t even blink before giving it to you.”
“Really? Two million, and they won’t even blink?” Third Brother had never dealt with wealthy people before, but that number made his heart race.
One job could be worth ten years of work! What they were doing was already illegal, so in the grand scheme of things, this didn’t seem any worse.
“Of course it’s true!”
Hearing Lin Ran speak with such confidence, Shi Cha turned to look at him, staring directly and intently at his face.
Lin Ran pretended not to notice and continued to coax the already-interested Third Brother.
“Since you’ve already taken him, you might as well make it count. One big job, and you’re set for life, right?”
Third Brother’s head buzzed from the excitement. If he pulled this off, he could spend the rest of his life at home with his wife and child, never having to risk anything again.
But then a thought crossed his mind, and he began to calm down.
“Why are you planning all this out for me?”
Lin Ran gave an embarrassed laugh.
“It’s not all for you. I’m mainly thinking about myself. I don’t want to be sold off to that Ah Cheng for a few thousand yuan and end up suffering for the rest of my life. Besides, I think it’s only fair for parents to pay to get their kids back, don’t you?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not just his parents who’ll give you two million. If you call my parents, they’ll give you another two million, too.”
When Third Brother heard that there was a chance to get another two million, his mind went blank with disbelief.
“Your family’s that rich?”
Lin Ran tried to wave his hand dismissively, but since his hands were tied behind his back, he could only shrug his shoulders instead.
“It’s not that they’re super rich,” Lin Ran said, “but if it’s to get me back, they’d probably be willing to pay two million.”
When Third Brother heard there was a chance to make four million, he completely ignored everything else—didn’t even consider whether he should consult the eldest and second brother.
Given how cautious the two of them usually were, they’d definitely say no.
But since he was already in this line of work, he figured he might as well be bold and skillful.
In this world, it’s always the timid who starve and the daring who feast.
Without hesitation, he pulled out his phone and handed it to Lin Ran.
“Call your parents first.”
Seeing that he’d finally taken out his phone, Lin Ran immediately gave him his mother’s number.
It had already been over two hours since he made that call to Shi Jian earlier. By now, his parents and Shi Jian’s parents should have been notified.
Whether it was his shattered phone, his school bag, or even Shi Cha’s watch that was thrown out of the car—each of those items had a GPS tracker.
Once their parents found them, they’d definitely realize the kids had been kidnapped.
…
At that moment, Lin Ran’s parents were sitting with Shi Cha’s parents and Shi Jian at Shi Cha’s family villa.
As soon as Shi Jian got Lin Ran’s call, he told both sets of parents. They had then used the GPS tracking system to locate the alleyway where Lin Ran had been abducted.
The scattered belongings in the alley made it clear—Shi Cha and Lin Ran had been taken.
They immediately reported it to the police. With enough evidence to confirm the boys’ disappearance, the authorities began taking the case seriously right away.
Suddenly, Lin Ran’s mother’s phone rang. Seeing an unfamiliar number, her first instinct was to hang up. She was already overwhelmed with worry and in no mood to deal with unimportant calls.
But a minute after the first call ended, the same number rang again.
Just as she was about to hang up once more, the police—who had just set up a phone tap—stopped her.
“Pick it up. What if it’s the kidnappers calling?”
Her heart skipped a beat.
“Kidnappers?”
Yes, their children had most likely been kidnapped.
Hands trembling, she picked up the call.
“Hello?”
To her surprise, it was Lin Ran’s voice on the other end.
“Mom.”
As soon as Lin Ran’s voice came through, tears rolled down his mother’s cheeks.
“You little rascal, where on earth have you been? You scared me half to death!”
Hearing her emotional reaction, the police nearby assumed it wasn’t a call from a kidnapper, so they didn’t immediately activate the surveillance equipment.
However, Lin Ran’s next words shattered that assumption.
“Mom, there’s no time to explain right now. Go prepare two million yuan—we’re being held for ransom.”
Lin Ran’s mother was stunned by his words.
“You’ve really been kidnapped?”
Shi Cha’s mother quickly rushed over to the phone and leaned in.
“‘We’? Who else is with you—Shi Cha? Shi Cha, say something so Mommy knows you’re okay!”
The two mothers were both crying now, while on the other end, Third Brother was growing impatient. Suddenly, he started thinking that two million per person didn’t sound like that much—especially if the eldest and second brother came back and demanded a share. He wouldn’t be left with much.
So he snapped at the phone, voice fierce:
“The price just went up. Five million per person. That’s it. You have one hour to get the money together. I’ll call again.”
And with that, before anyone could respond, Third Brother hung up.
Shi Cha’s mother clutched Lin Ran’s mother’s hand tightly, her voice full of panic.
“I didn’t hear Shi Cha’s voice—he was there, right?”
Lin Ran’s mother patted her hand to comfort her.
“They’re definitely together. The guy said five million per person, right? That means there are two of them.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right. It has to be that.”
Shi Cha’s father quickly turned to the police.
“Did you locate their position?”
The police had managed to activate a tracking system during the ransom part of the call, but it was too short to pinpoint an exact location. All they knew was that the signal had come from somewhere within A City.
Fortunately, Third Brother hadn’t turned the phone off after hanging up.
Using the active number, the police quickly identified the registered owner of the SIM card.
Half an hour later, patrol cars were on the move.