From the floor, Jia Dapeng watched the wanton destruction of his expensive mobile phone with indifference. He was entirely preoccupied with what he’d just heard.
A Director of Public Security? HQ?
The implications were clear. Jia Dapeng had been mingling with powerful cadres ever since he was a child, and he was familiar with this kind of tone. Clearly, Qin Feng was making a "dangerous" call, and the people he was speaking to were not to be underestimated.
With the Secretary's answer, Qin Feng's heart suddenly opened up. Although he was loathe to use his father’s connections to deal with his own issues, Qin Wannian was still his father, in the end. When the son is in trouble, the father should help. Staring down at Jia Dapeng’s confused face on the ground, Qin Feng suddenly didn't hate him so much anymore. They were of the same stock.
Qin Feng does not want to resolve the matter by force, because he was afraid that there were rotten apples back at headquarters who would eagerly take advantage of this to act against him. After all, he now had a certain special status – with the list, he held in his hands the futures of many rich and powerful men.
He pulled the stinky socks out from Jia Dapeng's mouth and humphed, "How do you like the smell? I haven’t changed my socks since yesterday. It’s been a busy day today, so they must have soaked up quite an aroma. I hope you don’t mind."
Jia Dapeng gasped for breath and retched simultaneously. Fortunately, he hadn’t eaten much that day, or he would have puked.
After a slight respite, he began screaming, "Help! Help!"
Meanwhile, Zhang Dali had just come out from the toilet and was reading a web novel on the Dangdang Reads App, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone. He vaguely heard shouting as Li Faxian approached with a wide grin on his face: "I’ve got a special deal for us. Six of her best girls are getting ready to meet us as we speak."
Zhang Dali glanced at the interrogation room down the hall suspiciously, "Sounds like someone’s shouting for help."
Li Faxian frowned. "I hear it. Is it just me, or does that sound like Dapeng’s voice...?"
Zhang Dali stepped forward and unlocked the door of the interrogation room. What he saw inside was Qin Feng's right hand twisted around Jia Dapeng's neck, holding the electric baton in his left. Dapeng's legs were trembling and his face was white as snow.
"What the fuck!" Zhang Dali’s hand flew to the pistol on the waist, pointing it at Qin Feng. "Release Dapeng and put down the baton this instant!"
Keenly aware of the intensity of the situation, Dali anxiously signaled Li Faxian to step back. Meanwhile, the dozen-or-so other officers present at station came out of their offices and crowded outside the interrogation room. Qin Feng pushed Jia Dapeng out step by step.
Li Faxian shouted, "What do you want, Qin Feng? Do you even know what you’re doing? I advise you to let go of Dapeng right now, before you make things even worse for yourself!"
"Cut the bullshit. Where is the nearest landline?" Qin Feng asked.
"What?" Li Faxian looked confused.
"I'm waiting for a call. I won't hurt Dapeng in the meantime, but you all have to get out of here and leave me in one of the offices with him. Got it?"
Once the Secretary of the Tianhe Municipal Party Committee received the phone call from the capital, he would certainly not waste time in calling the police station. But that would still take a little while, so Qin Feng was quite comfortable taking his time.
"What are you planning?" Zhang Dali and Li Faxian glanced at each other hesitantly. Qin Feng's completely befuddled everyone.
"Just a phone call," he smirked. "Someone make me a cup of tea and give me back my cellphone. Hurry up!"
"Goddamnit... Do what he says already…!" Jia Dapeng wheezed painfully, struggling to breathe through Qin Feng’s vice-like grip.
In an empty office down the hall, Qin Feng lazily sipped tea as his mobile phone turned on, spewing out a quick stream of new SMS messages and WeChat notifications.
Qin Feng ignored these and proceeded to call Xiao Jinhua.
Sister Flower answered almost immediately with a frantic "Qin Feng! Qin Feng, are you all right?"
"Where are you? It's so loud." Qin Feng hummed leisurely, "Guess what? I’m drinking tea at the police station, haha."
"What? They didn't do anything to you?"
In the three hours since Qin Feng had been taken away, she had ran through almost the whole city of Tianhe. She visited every friend and friend of a friend she’d met in the past few years, anyone who might know someone in power who could reach out on Qin Feng’s behalf, but these so-called friends who were nice and helpful when things were going well quickly sent her packing as soon as they realized it all had to do with Li Faxian and his backer, Jia Quan.
At the moment, the tired Sister Flower was driving to the downtown police station. She had no other option left now but to deal directly with Li Faxian.
No matter what, she had to get Qin Feng back in one piece.
She had taken out all of her personal savings, amounting to just over 300,000 Yuan. Although Sister Flower was the general manager of one of the city’s most famous nightclubs, she only earned her own salary. Most of the revenue went straight to Zhao Jun as dividends, and most of the rest would be distributed to employees as bonuses at the end of the year, leaving not that much for Xiao Jinhua herself. Nevertheless, she had a separate savings account that already amounted to around two million Yuan – a future wedding present for Xiao He. She was just a sister, but she was the equal of any parent.
Along the way, Xiao Jinhua thought a lot. She didn’t know why she was trying so hard to help Qin Feng. Those 300,000 Yuan were her life savings, but even if she had to spend every last Yuan to get him back, she wouldn’t regret it.
Xiao Jinhua could not describe this feeling even to herself, but she wanted to do it.
"Do anything to me? The man who can take me on hasn’t been born yet," Qin Feng chuckled. "You should go home and get some rest. When I get back, we should get a drink."
The Sister Flower frowned. "How come Li Faxian let you go so easily?"
Just then, the landline in the office started ringing and Qin Feng quickly said, "Hey, I still have something to take care of. See you later."
Sister Flower’s chest tightened as she listened to the flat tone coming out of her cellphone. She could not help but speed up to the police station.