Li Tingyan had just casually exhaled a smoke ring when fate seemed determined to oppose him. At that moment, a bruised and battered Xiaowu stumbled over.

"Li, Li Boss, Saozi, Saozi, something, something happened to her?"

The hand holding Li Tingyan’s cigarette trembled, and the embers fell on his fingers, burning him till his vision darkened. He swallowed hard, "What happened to Nini? Didn’t I tell you to send her back to Pingjing? What happened to her?"

Xiaowu spoke with a grimace, "Originally, it was like this, but halfway, the car’s tires were sabotaged. I got out to check, and as a result, was knocked unconscious with a stick. When I woke up, Saozi was gone."

Li Tingyan staggered backward uncontrollably, his face as pale as a ghost. All the messy clues that he couldn’t untangle in his mind suddenly became clear.

So this was their true purpose from the start, from the appearance of those pirates in Lian City, it was a chain of schemes.

They had long planned to act, but they needed to seize the initiative, so they deliberately set up through pirates to lure Li Tingyan.

Afterwards, they intentionally let Li Tingyan see the paper with the Gambling Stone City’s hint, because they calculated that Li Tingyan and Nianyang would inquire about it.

And calculated that Li Tingyan would try ways to draw them out.

So they made the pirate say he wanted to do business in Jiangcheng, which made Li Tingyan fixate his attention on the bait, leading to Cai Hong.

Cai Hong said Phoenix was their representative, women understand women best.

Phoenix must have figured Li Tingyan would deliberately approach Cai Hong to uncover her identity, sparking Nianyang’s jealousy and despair, meanwhile, they secretly deployed personnel to constantly hide nearby. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Every step was tightly interwoven from beginning to end; their aim was to successfully capture Nianyang.

The more Li Tingyan thought, the colder his limbs grew, contemplating how foolish he had been for not spotting these signs sooner.

His initial goal was to protect Nianyang.

Yet in the end, the culprit causing harm to Nianyang turned out to be himself.

Li Tingyan painfully clutched his head and squatted down, his eyes already bloodshot. Why is it always like this?

Nini left this time with a belly full of grief and despair, falling into Phoenix’s hand, this severity even surpasses when Ning Xia took her last time—much more terrifying!

It’s all him, he was too conceited, tricked by the opposition.

If he hadn’t insisted on sending Nianyang away, she wouldn’t have been snatched by the enemy’s gap-finding tactics; previously when Ning Xia abducted Nianyang, he still could check monitors, had clues to follow, and find the trail.

But now? In the wilderness, unfamiliar with the enemy’s location, devoid of surveillance, he doesn’t even know who they are.

How can he find Nini, and already a whole night has passed since Nianyang was taken.

Who knows what they might do to Nini throughout the night, without space or strength, how can she protect herself against Phoenix?

Moreover, Phoenix and her allies hold animosity against Nianyang.

They won’t spare Nianyang, won’t exhibit mercy.

Li Tingyan dares not imagine Nianyang’s current predicament, as soon as he does, he can’t withstand it, repeatedly slapping himself, feeling utterly damned.

"Li Boss, you need to calm down. We need to find a way to locate Saozi!"

Sheng Feng stepped forward and spoke, aware this time it’s truly challenging.