The two henchmen immediately spoke in unison.

"Do you have milk tea? I want milk tea."

"I want juice."

The secretary looked a bit stunned at the two men in black suits who looked like gangsters, momentarily unable to react, as if she were experiencing auditory hallucinations.

Brother Ping’s temples throbbed, and he fought the urge to stand up and slap the back of their heads, directly speaking to the secretary, "Get them two glasses of plain water."

The secretary immediately responded and then promptly retreated.

Once the secretary left, Brother Ping looked at his two henchmen with disappointment and rebuked, "Why milk tea, why juice? Do you really think this is your home?"

The two henchmen lowered their heads in grievance, one couldn’t help mumbling, "Brother Ping, why do you still drink lemon water?"

Brother Ping finally couldn’t hold back, slapped one of them on the back of the head, and pointed at him, scolding, "You all know I only drink lemon water. You don’t have to drink that stuff; will plain water kill you?"

The two henchmen instantly fell silent.

Whatever Brother Ping says goes.

But eventually, the secretary still followed their requests and brought in a glass of lemon water, a glass of milk tea, and a glass of juice.

Because Assistant Xue had given specific orders to take good care of them and not make any mistakes.

Although the secretary didn’t know who these people were, most of Assistant Xue’s words were equivalent to the president’s orders, so she naturally didn’t dare to neglect.

Lu Jingchen returned to CK Group half an hour later.

The secretary arranged Brother Ping and his men in the meeting room on the eighth floor, which apart from the PR department’s office, was specially designed for meeting different guests.

Opening the meeting room door, Lu Jingchen saw Brother Ping sitting on the sofa and the two men in black standing behind him. His expression unchanged, he directly stepped inside.

Brother Ping stood up when he saw Lu Jingchen enter and asked, "Are you CK Group’s president Lu Jingchen?"

Lu Jingchen answered with a faint nod, then walked to the sofa across from Brother Ping, sat down, and asked the secretary to leave, but kept Assistant Xue beside him.

Brother Ping examined Lu Jingchen from head to toe, then chuckled, "I didn’t expect the president of CK Group to be so young and good-looking."

Well, although their boss was a bit more handsome than Lu Jingchen.

Lu Jingchen didn’t respond to that, instead asking, "My wife and mother are in your hands?"

Brother Ping’s face showed a smile, revealing white teeth, and he nodded undeniably, "Mrs. Lu and Mrs. Lu Sr. are indeed with us."

Lu Jingchen’s eyes darkened, showing anger and dissatisfaction, he looked steadily at Brother Ping and said, "My wife and mother don’t seem to have any grudges with you, right? Why did you kidnap them?"

Brother Ping shrugged, "We kidnapped Mrs. Lu Sr. and Mrs. Lu because someone paid us to kidnap them. It’s a rule in our underworld to work for whoever pays, Mr. Lu, you’re not unaware..."

Suppressing his internal anger, this explanation was virtually null. He knew someone paid them to kidnap Qiaoqiao and his mother, and that it was a woman.

But now they had come to negotiate, thinking it might be Qiaoqiao’s brother behind this.

Lu Jingchen controlled his emotions and asked, "What if I ask you to release my wife and mother?"

Brother Ping looked up at Lu Jingchen, dragging his tone, "The client paid us five million initially to kidnap Mrs. Lu Sr. and Mrs. Lu, but Mr. Lu should know, in that incident we lost four people — two caught, two dead — hence we asked for an additional five million, but the client hasn’t paid us. So, we had to come to Mr. Lu for a deal."

Hearing this, Lu Jingchen was relieved and then asked, "Alright, how much do you want?"

Brother Ping silently extended two fingers and shook them.

"Twenty million?"

Brother Ping shook his head.

"Two hundred million?"

Brother Ping nodded with satisfaction, "Mr. Lu surely understands us."

Assistant Xue widened his eyes, surprised by their audacity, blurting out, "Two hundred million? Why don’t you just rob a bank? Not sure a bank even has that much."

Brother Ping shrugged, nonchalantly addressing Lu Jingchen, "Two hundred million, and we’ll safely return Mrs. Lu, Mrs. Lu Sr., and your sister-in-law Anran..."

Sister-in-law...

Lu Jingchen’s expression immediately turned stern, "You kidnapped Xiaoxi too?"

Brother Ping laughed, "Sounds nasty to say kidnapped, she completely followed our boss back. She’s truly worried about her sister, such a good girl..."

Lu Jingchen watched him silently.

Brother Ping thought he was hesitant about paying two hundred million, quickly added, "Of course, Mr. Lu, if you pay us two hundred million, we won’t let you feel it’s wasted."

With that, he took out a file and placed it in front of Lu Jingchen, saying, "Mr. Lu, please take a look at this."

Lu Jingchen took it, opened, and couldn’t help but widen his eyes, then asked Brother Ping, "Our company’s missing VIP client list? How did you get this? Did you steal it?"

Stolen...

Brother Ping wanted to outright deny they were thieves, not kidnappers, but indeed their people stole it. Who knew a file would be so easily stolen by their people?

Thinking about it, Brother Ping chuckled, "Mr. Lu needn’t care about how we got it, just pay us two hundred million. Not only will we return Mrs. Lu, Mrs. Lu Sr., and Mr. Lu’s sister-in-law, we’ll also return this file."

Continuing, Brother Ping smiled and said, "You should know we came prepared, Mr. Lu. If you think it’s not worth two hundred million, if this file went to your rival company, you’d know the consequences exceed two hundred million. Your rival company has long wanted this file..."