Peerless Bodyguard of a Stunning Beauty-Chapter 326 - 289: Red Crowned Crane’s Crest and Silver Ring Snake Poison
Zhao Rong grabbed Li Jiang and demanded, "Li Jiang, how could it be you? Aren't you Huang Xiaojuan's best male friend?"
The assistant kicked Li Jiang in the face. "Motherfucker, didn't you just confess your feelings to me on the playground? How did you, you son of a bitch, end up a kidnapper?"
Xuelian circled Li Jiang and said, "Young man, you're quite the actor. But no matter how good your disguise is, you can't escape Brother Zhao Rong's Eyes of Golden Flame."
Li Jiang was sprawled on the ground, weak and listless, not answering their questions.
Just then, the assistant reached into the Mercedes's driver's cab and dragged out the masked man with the handgun. Xuelian and the assistant stepped forward to identify the gunman. They suddenly realized the kidnapper was none other than Wu Tao, the small-time thug who had blocked their car the other day. Wu Tao was still unconscious.
The assistant immediately fetched a dipper of water, splashed it on Wu Tao, and demanded, "Speak! Who's your boss? Who ordered you to kidnap Miss Lili and Yu Lan?"
At that moment, Xuelian rushed to the trunk of the Mercedes SUV. When she opened it, she found Miss Lili tied up inside. Xuelian lifted Miss Lili out, untied her, and ripped the tape from her mouth. "Miss Lili, are you all right? We've come to rescue you."
Zhao Rong walked over and checked on Miss Lili. "Miss Lili, did they hurt you?"
When Miss Lili saw that Zhao Rong and his group had come to her rescue, she immediately burst into tears. "Brother Zhao Rong, Xuelian, Assistant, thank you for saving me," she sobbed. "I thought these kidnappers were going to take me to some unknown place, and then..."
Zhao Rong stepped forward and hugged Miss Lili, comforting her. "It's all right, Miss Lili. We're here now. You're safe."
Xuelian also hugged her, crying with emotion. "Sister Lili, if anything had happened to you, I, Xuelian, wouldn't want to live anymore."
The assistant came over and looked Miss Lili up and down with concern. "Miss Lili, after these bastards kidnapped you... they didn't lust after you and... do anything, did they?"
Hearing this, Xuelian shot him a fierce side-kick that sent him to the ground. "You're such a jinx! Can't you say something nice for a change?"
Miss Lili shook her head, wiping away her tears. "I'm fine. These kidnappers weren't interested in me. But Yu Lan... she wasn't so lucky. When I was blindfolded, I heard them whispering beside me... that they were going to... rape her..."
Seeing that Yu Lan was not in the van, Zhao Rong immediately pressed, "Miss Lili, were you the only one they put in this vehicle?"
Miss Lili nodded, recalling the abduction. "When they kidnapped us, Yu Lan and I were taken together. But after I felt myself being thrown into a vehicle, she was gone. I was all alone."
Hearing this, Xuelian turned to look at the two kidnappers, tied up and sprawled on the ground. "Those two must know where Yu Lan was taken."
Zhao Rong entrusted Miss Lili to Xuelian's care, then rushed over to the two men, ready to torture them for Yu Lan's whereabouts. He walked up to Li Jiang and kicked him before grabbing him by the hair and yanking his head up. "Talk! Where did you take Yu Lan? Tell me, or I'll kill you right now!"
But as soon as the words left his mouth, Zhao Rong realized that Li Jiang, whom he held dangling by the hair, had stopped breathing. His heart had stopped. Zhao Rong quickly felt for a pulse on his neck. To his surprise, Li Jiang was truly dead.
When the assistant walked over and saw this, he looked at Zhao Rong in shock. "Brother Zhao Rong, did... did your kick kill him?"
Zhao Rong frowned as he examined the corpse. To his astonishment, he found a small poison pouch sewn into the collar of Li Jiang's clothes. He immediately concluded that Li Jiang must have committed suicide by poison to avoid punishment. With that, he pulled a poison detection pen from his pocket. He held the pen and inserted its tip into the poison pouch in the collar.
Before he could even pull it out, a synthesized voice announced, "Red Crane Top. Toxicity Level: 10."
When the assistant heard that the pouch contained Red Crane Top, his eyes went wide. "Brother Zhao Rong, Red Crane Top isn't something an ordinary person can get their hands on. Is your detection pen accurate?"
"It should be," Zhao Rong said confidently. "I just bought it on Someduo the day before yesterday."
Hearing it was from Someduo, the assistant grew curious about the price. "Brother Zhao Rong, how much did that pen cost?"
"I got it in a group buy," Zhao Rong replied, while inserting the pen's tip into Li Jiang's mouth for another test. "Only 1.89 yuan, with free shipping."
The assistant gasped, hearing how incredibly cheap the pen was.
Since things on Someduo are so affordable, I can probably uninstall those other shopping apps and just buy cheap stuff there from now on.
Just then, as the pen made contact inside Li Jiang's mouth, the voice prompt sounded again. "Silver Ring Snake Poison. Toxicity Level: 20."
Zhao Rong was stunned to hear it was a different poison. Scratching the back of his head, he looked at the Red Crane Top poison in the collar and then considered the Silver Ring Snake poison in Li Jiang's mouth. "Why are there two different poisons?" he muttered, confused. "Did this guy take both just to be sure he'd die? A double dose to speed things up?"
At that moment, Xuelian walked over, supporting Miss Lili. She pointed at a wound on Li Jiang's buttocks. "Look! There's a snakebite mark on his butt!"
Zhao Rong turned and saw not only the bite mark but also a Silver Ring Snake writhing on the ground nearby. He quickly moved to catch the snake to prevent it from harming anyone else. "It seems this guy didn't kill himself with the Red Crane Top in his collar," he said, holding the serpent. "He was bitten by this snake and died from its venom."
The assistant shook his head and sighed. "He got what he deserved. You reap what you sow. It's as if heaven couldn't wait for the law to judge scoundrels like him, so it sent a snake to deliver justice itself."
Zhao Rong looked down at Li Jiang. "Hmm. And here I thought he was some tough guy, willing to die for his boss rather than talk. I never imagined he'd get killed by a snake slithering out of the grass. It's true that what goes around comes around. Heaven is always watching, and evil will eventually be punished."
With Li Jiang dead, the group turned their attention to the other masked man, Wu Tao.
Zhao Rong glared down at him. "Confession brings leniency; resistance brings severity. If you don't want to be bitten by this Silver Ring Snake in my hand and die from the poison, you'll tell us everything. Who is your boss? Who ordered you to kidnap Miss Lili and Yu Lan? And you'll tell me where Yu Lan is right now."
The assistant picked up a large rock and brandished it. "Hey, you scumbag, see this rock? If you don't cooperate, I'll use it to send you to the Western Heaven." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
Furious, Xuelian stalked toward him. She picked up a shard of glass from the ground and pressed it against the man's neck. "Do you have any idea who you kidnapped? You took my sister, who is as close to me as my own flesh and blood. I can tell you right now, her life is more important than mine. If you don't tell me where she is, I'll use this glass to slice your artery and let you bleed to death."
Hearing Xuelian's threat and seeing the sharp glass in her hand, both Zhao Rong and the assistant drew a sharp breath. Zhao Rong shuddered at the image.
They always say women are crueler than men. I never believed it until today.
The assistant, however, glanced at the sharp glass, then casually took the Red Crane Top from Li Jiang's collar and smeared some onto the shard Xuelian was holding. "Xuelian," he said, "I added some poison to your glass. That should make it more effective."
The masked man stared at the terrifying trio before him: Zhao Rong holding the venomous snake, the assistant holding the large rock, and Xuelian holding a poison-laced shard of glass. He immediately broke.
Kneeling on the ground, he begged for his life. "Please, sirs, ma'am, have mercy! Don't get angry, don't kill me! I'll tell you everything I know! Everything!"
Seeing the man was ready to talk, Zhao Rong set the Silver Ring Snake down and adopted a polite tone. "Just tell us the truth. Not only will we let you go, but we'll also give you a resettlement fee."
It was this promise that completely broke him. He confessed immediately. "I was hired by Huang Xiaojuan! She's the boss behind all of this! She ordered us to do everything!"
When the three heard that their supposed friend Huang Xiaojuan was the mastermind, they were utterly astonished.
"Let's go find her right now," Zhao Rong declared. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
