East Ocean Pier, ten o’clock.
Lu Qing arrived at the pier alone. The surroundings were dim, the lighthouse occasionally flashed, and the cold wind howled, freezing enough to stiffen one’s nose.
Ouyang Yan appeared with his men. Lu Qing’s face was ice-cold:
"No need to rush, Young Master Lu. Once the money is in place, you’ll naturally see them."
Lu Qing replied indifferently:
"Hold on, the money you’re asking for is too much—it needs a truck to transport it."
"Lu Qing, don’t play games with me!"
"I’m here in person, what are you afraid of?"
Ouyang Yan signaled, and Qin Miaomiao and Little Sixth were pushed forward. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and their mouths covered with clear tape. The moment Qin Miaomiao saw Lu Qing, her eyes lit up.
Lu Qing snapped his fingers. A vehicle drove over—a fully loaded truck that looked particularly... ostentatious.
The truck stopped. Ouyang Yan signaled his men to open the door. As soon as the door opened, a torrent poured out like snowflakes—it was all US Dollars, indeed a truck full of money!
His subordinates nodded toward Ouyang Yan, confirming that the money was real.
Ouyang Yan was very satisfied with Lu Qing’s straightforwardness. He signaled his men to release Qin Miaomiao.
Qin Miaomiao walked toward Lu Qing. He removed the tape from her mouth and hands, but his gaze darkened as he noticed a cut at the corner of her mouth, his brows furrowing with cold fury:
She hesitated: "I’m fine."
At that moment, hundreds of armed men suddenly emerged from all directions, enclosing them!
Seeing this, Ouyang Yan sneered coldly: "Lu Qing, so you do have a backup plan."
Lu Qing’s eyes chilled:
"I’ll leave you a whole corpse."
"Dream on! You think I didn’t prepare? If you don’t want your woman blown to pieces, let me go."
Qin Miaomiao tugged at Lu Qing and opened her jacket. Sure enough, strapped to her chest was a crude bomb. These past few days, she had kept ending up tied to bombs—it was surely her bad luck. She really needed to pay respects to the Bodhisattva.
Ouyang Yan got into the truck with his men, leaving behind a smug smile as he threw one last line:
"Lu Qing, this time, I’ve won!"
Lu Qing raised his gun and aimed at his head, speaking each word with deadly precision:
"Disarm the bomb—now!"
"This bomb is very simple; all you need to do is cut one wire. But if I tell you it’s the blue wire, will you believe me? Hahaha."
Laughing wildly, he left with his men, while the timer on Qin Miaomiao’s chest bomb continued ticking—ten minutes remained.
Lu Qing’s thoughts were surely on Qin Miaomiao. With these ten minutes, he would have planned an escape route—no doubt he could flee safely!
Lu Qing’s face was grim as he pulled out a red wire and a blue wire. Cut the blue wire or the red wire?
Little Seventh handed a small blade to Lu Qing. Time ticked away second by second. A man who had once faced mountainous pressure without flinching now found his hands slightly trembling!
Suddenly, Qin Miaomiao grabbed the blade and retreated several steps, pressing the knife against those two wires with a decisive expression.
"Boss Ou hates you to the bone; he must want to kill you along with me. So whether it’s the red wire or the blue wire, there’s a chance neither is correct. Lu Qing, step back several hundred meters."
Lu Qing advanced instead of retreating, his expression calm yet eyes deeply intense:
"Miao Miao, you know very well I can’t abandon you."
Qin Miaomiao’s eyes suddenly grew moist, though her lips lifted into a faint smile:
"But I won’t drag you to die with me."
Her tone paused for a moment, then her expression turned resolute:
"Little Second, Little Sixth, Little Seventh—follow my orders and drag Young Master Lu away! Hurry!"
She darted backward, but Lu Qing moved faster. Little Second, Little Sixth, and Little Seventh exchanged glances, then lunged at Lu Qing together. Even if it meant death, they would restrain him. If things went tragically wrong, at least one person might survive!
(Suddenly serious now, cough cough— reveals the resolution, such as Miao Miao’s gamble with Boss Ou.)