Kidnapping wasn't illegal; the City of Iniquity had no laws. What little order and rules it possessed protected only the handful of public service workers like Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng.
Of course, if public service workers were proven to have voluntarily involved themselves in combat or disputes, for whatever reason, they would instantly lose the protection of those rules.
The brutal competition for survival was the foundational ecosystem of this city. This was no place for reason—its very name was Iniquity. It imposed upon everyone the basic logic of having no choice but to grow strong, leaving everything else to the whims of fate.
Robbery, therefore, was permitted; kidnapping was permitted...
In short, no one would arrest you, throw you in prison, or put you on trial. Everything came down to whether you possessed enough strength and power to pull it off and to bear the consequences and retaliation.
"Still, the actual number of kidnappings and robberies in the City of Iniquity is probably far lower than you think. It's not that they don't happen, or that they're rare, but usually no one relies on them as their primary means of survival."
Inside the corner shop, the proprietress turned her head to dodge a puff of secondhand smoke as she spoke to Wen Jifei.
"Why's that?" Wen Jifei hastily snorted back through his nostrils the smoke that had just drifted from his mouth, asking.
"Because if you do that kind of thing too often, you get famous... and you should know that even here, that sort of reputation isn't anything good."
The proprietress looked at him and said, "Once you become notorious like that, someone's bound to find you an eyesore. Or one day, if some big shot is in a bad mood and wants to vent, or in a great mood and wants to do a good deed, people like that make the easiest targets to pick on."
"Oh, I get it. Thanks, Sis."
Luckily, we never intended to make a career out of it anyway, Wen Jifei thought, nodding. He casually grabbed a bag of salt from behind the counter, handed it to the customer before him, and swept the coins into the drawer.
The customer blocked his line of sight.
A few hundred meters away, Han Qingyu wore a helpless expression as he glanced at the rear car door that had just opened.
It was a high-end car whose rear door swung open toward the front. Sitting in the back seat was a man in a bandanna, holding another blade pressed against Han Qingyu's chest.
Liu Lang shot an inward glance.
"But I really don't have much money on me. Nobody carries a bunch of cash when going out, right? Would you?" Han Qingyu looked at the three men in the car.
"Don't worry, I'll notify your friends to bring everything over. Hurry up and get in." The smile lingered on the corners of Liu Lang's mouth. He couldn't understand why this guy's logic was so stupid...
Yet a vicious glint flickered across his eyes.
"Well, all right then." Han Qingyu let go of the broom and dustpan in his hands, obediently and slowly eased into the car, and even pulled the door shut behind him.
...
The car, which had never been shut off, started moving once more.
In the back seat sat Han Qingyu and the bandanna guy, while Grade A Jiva drove up front. Sitting in the passenger seat, Liu Lang glanced at the roadside on both flanks at the captive's companions.
In a little while, his men would come here, find one of them, and have them bring everything they had to ransom back that Ah Jing in the back seat.
"That one, maybe, or that one." As the car rolled slowly forward, Liu Lang first glanced at He Tangtang, who was shaving noodles, and then at Zhu Jiaming, seated at the entrance of the alley.
"And after that, of course, none of them will ever make it back! Oh, right, their female doctor seemed quite good-looking too..."
At that thought, Liu Lang suddenly realized something else and snapped immediately, "Right—make him take off his apparatus!"
"It's fine. No need to take it off."
"What do you mean, no need—" Caution was the mother of safety, Liu Lang barked in annoyance, but froze abruptly... He realized the voice didn't sound right.
Overwhelmed with utter bewilderment, Liu Lang turned his head slowly.
The kidnapped man in the back seat smiled brightly at him.
At that moment, Han Qingyu held a blade in his right hand pressed against the bandanna guy's throat, while his left hand held another blade forward, resting across Jiva's neck.
His own blade remained sheathed behind his shoulder.
"..." Liu Lang couldn't comprehend how any of this had happened. "That's impossible. There was barely any sound, and he didn't even activate his apparatus..."
"I did." As if reading Liu Lang's confusion, Han Qingyu proved it with the faint hum of his source energy apparatus.
At his level, the source energy apparatus could be triggered into activation through the source energy surge within his own body.
In fact, he probably could have accomplished all this without activating the apparatus, but being a man terrified of dying, he had turned it on.
"Careless," Liu Lang thought in bitter vexation.
"You... I..." At a loss for words, Liu Lang's apparatus was naturally active as well, and his blade was in hand. With a flicker of hesitation in his eyes, he began contemplating whether to risk a desperate fight.
*Smack!*
With a crisp crack, Han Qingyu flicked his right wrist, and the flat of the blade knocked the bandanna guy unconscious.
Immediately after, the edge turned slightly, shifting to rest against Liu Lang's neck.
"Don't do that. I really don't want to kill you."
So fast... Wait, he said he didn't want to kill me?! Right, he wouldn't want to cause trouble and cross a major faction. A sliver of color returned to Liu Lang's eyes.
"How about this? Let's call it friendship forged through a clash. I promise I won't cause trouble for you again. Two source energy blocks—brother, you get off right here, and from now on each of us goes our own way..."
"No," Han Qingyu cut in.
"...Then what do you want? Change your mind and kill me? And face retribution from Shelvey and the Three-Band Alliance?!" Fierce in appearance but faint at heart, Liu Lang threatened.
Han Qingyu shook his head. "I want you to kidnap me back with you."
"Huh?!" Liu Lang's eyes widened.
"Just continue. Kidnap me back to your place," Han Qingyu explained.
Liu Lang: "..."
"If you don't kidnap me, I'll kill you all." The blade pressed slightly firmer against Liu Lang's neck as Han Qingyu pondered aloud, "Oh right, you mentioned something about a Three-Band Alliance just now. Three bands... You guys have a lot of people?!"
*No shit!* Liu Lang thought. *Just what do you want to do? Are you suicidal?! You...*
"Drive forward a bit... Right, stop here." Han Qingyu was already ignoring him, directing the driver in English to pull forward, stop at the spot, and open the car door.
He let out a soft "psst" toward the roadside.
Wu Xu turned his head, looking blankly at Qingzi inside the car.
"Get in." As a man terrified of dying, now that he knew they had plenty of people, Han Qingyu decided to bring one along. Just one was enough; any more wouldn't fit in the car.
Among the few people present, the most suitable candidate was naturally Wu Xu.
This wasn't just because he was the best fighter, but also because if any of the others saw this out of the blue, they would definitely shout and make a fuss... This was right on the street; doing that might ruin this kidnapping.
Wu Xu, on the other hand, never would.
"Mm." Beside the trash cart, Wu Xu nodded calmly, leaned his broom against the side, set down the dustpan, then got in and shut the door.
"What are they doing?" Wu Xu asked, rare curiosity in his voice.
"Kidnapping," Han Qingyu said.
"Oh." Over the past few days, their group had been studying kidnappings and assassinations. Although he hadn't voiced any opinions, he had been listening. Wu Xu nodded, puzzled. "We kidnap him?"
The reason for his confusion was that they had actually considered Liu Lang earlier, but after discussing it, they felt his status wasn't high enough and he was probably too poor, so they had given up on the idea.
"No, he's kidnapping us... Just kidnapped me. Now he's kidnapping us back to their place."
Han Qingyu explained, then said in English to the driver ahead, "All right, drive."
At this point, Liu Lang didn't want to say anything at all. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around what on earth was going on.
"Oh." Wu Xu nodded.
He understood... It was because Liu Lang was too poor.
The car started moving once more, rolling forward through the Third District.
Chapter 448