Chapter 46: Terror

Once night falls in Ai City, the streets quickly empty out. The main avenues in the outskirts become especially desolate, with hardly a car in sight.

Zhong Yuan drove at full speed, heading away from the urban area.

Scarcely two minutes after they left, five or six cars arrived one after another outside Aikon's villa. By that time, however, the raging fire had already engulfed the entire building. No one could get in, and naturally, no one could get out.

No one knew for certain whether Aikon was inside, nor did anyone know if he was dead or alive.

Half an hour later, Zhong Yuan and his two companions were already far from Ai City. After switching vehicles, they headed straight for Trang Province. Three hours later, the three of them reached Wang La Town, located at the border of Trang Province and Krabi Province.

Situated in the northeastern corner of Trang Province, Wang La Town had a sparse population, plenty of mountains, and quite pleasant natural scenery.

Zhong Yuan parked the car near a secluded patch of woods far away from human habitation. Together with Zhong Da, he dragged Aikon out of the vehicle and carried him into the forest.

Xiao Hua drove the car into town.

Trang Province had a considerable ethnic Chinese population. Although Wang La Town did not have many, Xiao Hua appearing as a Chinese man at night was not particularly conspicuous. He quickly rented a room at a small guesthouse.

After a sound sleep, he woke up to find it was already dawn.

Xiao Hua walked through several breakfast stalls on the street, bought a variety of morning snacks, and then drove back to the patch of woods.

Aikon woke up close to noon.

As soon as he opened his eyes and saw the three Chinese men sitting not far away, he was momentarily startled, but quickly regained his composure.

He turned his head to survey his surroundings: an uninhabited, desolate forest.

These three men had abducted him, yet instead of taking him to meet their employer, they had brought him to such a secluded place. This indicated that the employer was merely a facade, and there must be a personal grudge between them!

Yet he could not recall ever offending any Chinese people!

Aikon's mind raced.

A moment later, a name suddenly flashed into his mind—Tanwei!

When the incident involving Tanwei happened, he had only heard rumors and knew very little about it, other than the fact that Tanwei had been kidnapped by several Chinese men.

Could the people in front of him be those exact Chinese men who had kidnapped Tanwei? But what did that have to do with him? Why would these men travel thousands of miles to Songkhla Province just to abduct him?

Try as he might, Aikon could not figure out the reason behind it, but his hatred for Tanwei only grew more intense. If not for the trouble that bastard had caused, he would never have faced this calamity today!

At that moment, Zhong Yuan, who had been resting, opened his eyes and turned to look at him.

Their gazes met. Zhong Yuan smiled faintly and said, "You're awake! Care for some water?"

Aikon was taken aback.

This man's attitude made it difficult for him to gauge what they were actually planning to do!

Pondering the situation in silence for a moment, he asked, "Who on earth are you people?"

Zhong Yuan smiled and replied, "Haven't you guessed yet?"

Aikon narrowed his eyes and hesitatingly probed, "Are you the Chinese men who kidnapped Tanwei?"

Hearing this, Zhong Yuan shook his head slightly and said, "You're mistaken. We didn't just kidnap Tanwei—we killed him!"

At these words, the veins on Aikon's temples throbbed.

Just then, Zhong Yuan stood up and walked toward him.

Aikon instinctively tried to struggle a little, only to find that he couldn't move at all.

"I can tell you're quite skilled at tying people up yourself, so when I tied you up just now, I made sure to put in extra effort. You won't be able to break free!" Zhong Yuan said as he squatted down in front of him. Then, his gaze swept over the Sanskrit tattoos on Aikon's body, and he asked casually, as if making small talk, "What is tattooed on your body?"

Aikon stared at him for a moment before answering in a cold voice, "Scriptures."

"Buddhist?" Zhong Yuan followed up.

Aikon neither admitted nor denied it, instead narrowing his eyes and countering, "What is it you really want to ask?"

Zhong Yuan chuckled, lowered his head to pull out a pack of cigarettes, drew one out, and slowly lit it. Then, lifting his eyes to look at him with a smile, he said, "I have plenty of questions I want to ask—I just don't know if you're willing to cooperate!"

Aikon's eyes flickered. "If you don't even ask, how do you know whether I'm willing or not?"

Zhong Yuan raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Fair enough. All right, I'll ask first." With that, he thought seriously for a moment before continuing, "What is stored on the two USB flash drives inside that black bag?"

Aikon's expression shifted slightly, but he quickly steadied himself. He let out a cold laugh and said, "Since you already have the items in your hands, wouldn't it be simple enough to find out what's inside?"

Hearing this, Zhong Yuan exhaled a slow puff of smoke and kept smiling. "I'm just trying not to waste time! Besides, I much prefer hearing it from you. Well? Are you willing to cooperate?"

Zhong Yuan's demeanor made it increasingly difficult for Aikon to figure out what this man was truly up to. He stared at Zhong Yuan, pressed his lips together in silence for a moment, and then said, "Tell me your objective first."

Zhong Yuan gave a dry chuckle and retorted, "Can't you tell?"

Aikon frowned.

"If someone doesn't want you to live, what would you do?" Zhong Yuan asked him.

Aikon's temples twitched, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes. "So, your goal is to take down the entire Buddha Hand Gang?"

Zhong Yuan neither nodded nor shook his head, simply asking with a smile, "Do you think... it's possible?"

Aikon looked at the man before him who maintained a faint smile throughout, yet his heart grew colder by the inch. This man possessed deep cunning; every word seemed casual, yet each carried some hidden implication or purpose.

And yet, you could never tell which of his words were true and which were false. Perhaps every single word he spoke was the truth, but he possessed the uncanny ability to make you doubt it, deliberately cultivating this atmosphere of ambiguity just to keep you off balance and breed suspicion within your mind.

And suspicion breeds fear!

After a brief flicker of internal panic, Aikon forcefully steadied himself.

Having carefully scrutinized Zhong Yuan's face, he finally spoke: "The black USB drive contains a roster. The silver one contains transaction details."

Zhong Yuan smiled, pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and handed it over.

"Smoke?"

Aikon glanced at the cigarette, hesitated for a moment, and then slightly parted his lips.

Zhong Yuan placed it into his mouth.

"What kind of person is Brother Hai from Trang Province?" Zhong Yuan asked, watching him take a drag.

Aikon's slightly lowered eyelids fluttered, and he nudged his chin upward. Zhong Yuan understood and reached out to take the cigarette from his mouth.

"Cunning, greedy, and vicious. Oh, and that bastard is gay—he likes young men!" As he spoke, his gaze shifted slightly toward Xiao Hua standing not far in the background, and he raised his chin, adding, "He would definitely fancy someone like that young fellow over there!"

Before his voice had even faded, Zhong Yuan abruptly swung his hand and delivered a hard slap across Aikon's face. With a crisp smack, Aikon's head snapped to the side, his face instantly swelling up, and the corner of his lip split, oozing fresh blood.

Aikon's jaw twitched slightly before he spat out a tooth.

At that moment, however, Zhong Yuan reached out again, gripped his jaw to straighten his face back up, and shoved the cigarette back into his mouth.

"If you're going to answer questions, answer them properly. Why make things so unpleasant? Your face hurts, and my hand hurts—a lose-lose situation, isn't it?" Zhong Yuan said indifferently.