Return of the King, Dominating the City-Chapter 1656 - 1550: I’m Your Fan

"Alright, now listen to my instructions and tie the hands of the person in front of you using your clothes in groups of tables," Mude ordered. "Make sure to tie them very tight. I’ll send someone to check later, and whoever tied it loosely will die, and the person tied loosely will die too."

As Mude spoke, people in the hall quickly obeyed, and soon half of them were tied up.

"Now, those who are tied up, come to the front," Mude continued.

Suddenly, the hall was filled with the sound of movement, and shortly after, around a hundred people stood in front of Mude.

"Everyone, squat down," Mude said.

Upon hearing this, they all squatted down.

"Those who are not tied, come and stand next to this group."

Finally, everyone followed Mude’s orders and squatted on the ground. To Mude’s left were those not tied, while to the right were those tied.

"Alright, go down and tie these people up," Mude instructed his men.

A few men walked among those who were not tied and spent over ten minutes tying their hands as well.

"You two, sit down," Mude pointed at Song Yun and then at the crowd.

Song Yun and Shen Yan hugged their heads and walked into the crowd to sit down, then had their hands tied.

During this time, the ground floor of the hotel had long been packed with police and Hong Kong’s special forces, the Flying Tiger Team.

The entrance of the banquet hall was guarded by two people, and two more were stationed at the corridor entrance on this floor near Song Yun’s side, with about ten in total, numbering around sixteen or seventeen overall.

Mude stood by the floor-to-ceiling window next to the banquet hall, glanced at the police downstairs, smiled, and then walked over to a Shen Zhou man named Zhou and said, "Alright, the signal can be transmitted."

"Alright!"

The man named Zhou nodded, grabbed a cable from the side, connected it to the DV machine, and hooked it to an ultra-large LCD TV outside the hotel that usually played promotional videos, showing Mude’s image.

"Hello everyone,"

Mude smiled at the camera and said, "I assume most people already know what’s happening here."

Just as Mude spoke, a helicopter flew outside the floor where Mude was, and a man on the helicopter grabbed a microphone and shouted, "Listen up inside, you’re surrounded. Surrender is your only way out!"

"If the person outside speaks again, I don’t mind doing something interesting," Mude said with a smile.

As everyone wondered what "interesting" meant, a big man walked to the edge of the crowd, randomly grabbed a young man, and walked him to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Bang.

The big man fired a shot at the window. The glass shattered and fell everywhere.

The big man held the gun to the young man, pushing him to the window’s edge.

Mude said, "If you dare speak, this person will fall from up here."

The people on the helicopter outside decisively shut their mouths.

"I bet you’re curious about what I really want, aren’t you?" Mude said with a grin. "It’s simple; I want money, I want US Dollars."

As he spoke, the camera turned to the two hundred people nearby, and Mude said, "I believe these people should be worth quite a bit, right?"

"Among them, there are celebrities, directors, wealthy businessmen, the likes of all sorts. I intend to exchange these people for some money, Huahua, shouldn’t be a problem, right?" Mude smiled, stroked the weapon at his waist, and continued, "Here’s the deal, a total of one billion dollars. I want one billion dollars, you transfer the money to the account I specify, and once I receive and transfer it away, I’ll release everyone here. You agree that this deal is fair, don’t you?"

"Now, I’ll give you ten minutes to consider. If you agree, transfer the money; if not, we’ll all die together. If you try to delay, every five minutes, I’ll kill one person. Let’s see who’s patient. Of course, you can choose to attack. Just so you know, we have someone watching from outside, and if you attack, then sorry, we’ll all die together. I have something that goes bang bang bang on me," Mude finished as Zhou turned the camera back on Mude.

Mude lifted his shirt, revealing something tied together inside, likely explosives, looking quite menacing. Then, Zhou pressed something on the DV machine, and the signal on the hotel’s outdoor screen vanished instantly.

"Sorry, everyone," Mude said with a grin. "This time, we’re short on funds, so we came here to get some money from you all. Now, my men will come to you, remove your jewelry, and rest assured, we only want money, not to hurt anyone, so cooperate. I don’t want unnecessary casualties."

Finishing his speech, a few big guys walked into the crowd and began to seize gold and silver jewelry.

Song Yun happened to be next to Chen Mengjie; he had specifically chosen this spot when he came in.

Chen Mengjie wore quite a bit of jewelry, and as a woman, her face showed deep fear.

"Relax," Song Yun whispered, "These guys just want money, give it to them and prioritize your life."

"Okay," Chen Mengjie replied, pale-faced and trembling slightly.

When the big guys came next to Chen Mengjie, one of them seemed to recognize her, excitedly grabbed her hand, and pulled her up, shouting, "Boss, this is Chen Mengjie."

"Oh."

Mude glanced at Chen Mengjie, smiled, and said, "Haha, what a surprise, the queen of music, Chen Mengjie, is here. Didn’t see her earlier. Bring her."

"Alright," the man grabbed Chen Mengjie’s arm to take her away, Chen Mengjie trembled, looked pleadingly at Song Yun, and shouted, "Brother Song Yun."

Song Yun squinted his eyes, pointed at himself with at least four weapons around him, his lips twitching slightly.

Seeing Song Yun’s expression, Chen Mengjie felt unexpectedly reassured, her trembling reduced significantly, and she was brought in front of Mude.

"Tsk tsk tsk, it really is you," Mude said, looking at Chen Mengjie, "Actually, I’m a fan of your music."