Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Even More Money Won’t Work

What was even more absurd was that when Qiu Ji Chen climbed out of the car, he saw the colleague he had just met that morning crawl out from the driver’s seat of the car behind them. The man hurried past him and started talking to their driver.

Qiu Ji Chen could not really speak the language of Emerald Country, but he could still understand some simple words.

He stood to the side and quietly listened for a while, and pieced together bits of their talk.

Basically, his company’s translator, Brother Wu, said that the brakes on his car had failed, and he had accidentally hit their taxi.

He said he had not done it on purpose, and that he would pay for all of the driver’s losses and also give the driver some extra money if the driver was willing to settle the matter privately.

When the driver heard he was willing to pay, his temper cooled a little. He did not look quite so fierce and scary.

After some back and forth, they finally agreed on a number that both sides could accept.

Brother Wu quickly transferred the money. The driver relaxed a bit, walked to the side, and called someone to come pick him up.

Seeing this, Brother Wu hurriedly shot a look at Qiu Ji Chen.

Qiu Ji Chen pointed at himself in surprise, and finally realized something was wrong.

But he was not stupid. It was very clear that Brother Wu was on guard against this taxi driver.

So Qiu Ji Chen nodded, then quietly followed Brother Wu toward the car Brother Wu had driven here.

When they reached the sides of the car, the two men looked at each other, and then, with perfect timing, they both dived into the car as fast as they could, locked the doors, and started the engine.

The driver had just finished telling his partner where the car had broken down. Suddenly he heard an engine start. By reflex, he turned his head and saw the target leaving in the car with the man who had come later.

He ran forward a few steps, then remembered his own car would not move. Furious, he shouted and cursed, then pulled out a gun and fired wildly at the back of their car.

Even though the car had already driven quite far, the two men inside still could not help feeling their hearts leap and their backs turn cold when they heard the gunshots behind them.

“Let me be clear first, I will only do this kind of life-risking thing once. There will never be a next time, not even if you pay more!”

Brother Wu’s hands trembled a little on the steering wheel. The cold sweat on his forehead was already flowing like a tiny waterfall. He felt that after this event, his life span had been scared shorter by several years.

“What on earth is going on?”

“We should let President Qiu explain the details to you herself later. For now, we’re going to the airport.”

Afraid that that crazy scam group would react and catch up with them, Brother Wu drove like the wind. The wheels almost smoked, but at last he rushed into the airport before night fell.

Only after they boarded the flight home and knew they were truly safe did Qiu Ji Chen finally hear the whole story from his dear mother.

“What did you say? You met a powerful grandmaster while checking the mall, and she calculated that I had been tricked in love and was about to be in danger, so you told Brother Wu to rush over and save me. Mom, are you sure you are not the one who fell for a con artist?”

As soon as Qiu Ji Chen finished speaking, Ms. Qiu had not even had time to explain when Brother Wu, who was sitting next to him, cut in first: “Do you want to think back to how that driver was chasing us and firing at us just now? Is there any doubt about who met a con artist?”

Qiu Ji Chen was at a loss for words. He thought of how Ms. Qiu’s calls could not get through before, and yet her call went through the moment he boarded the plane. A bitter look appeared on his face.

Of course he knew he had fallen into someone else’s trap. He just had not wanted to believe it.

Ms. Qiu was shocked by what Brother Wu said: “They fired at you? Are you hurt? Is it serious?”

“We are not hurt. It is all thanks to you, President Qiu. You warned me in advance that the driver was a problem, so I crashed his car first to stop him. Then I paid him to lower his guard and managed to get General Manager Qiu away. When we left, he was so angry that he fired wildly at us. It’s lucky we ran fast. Otherwise, the two of us would have been done for.”

Brother Wu said all this because he felt he had gone through a lot to save this person. Even if he had no big achievements, he had suffered a lot of hardship. He wanted the president to tell his supervisor so he could get a stable job for life.

Ms. Qiu, however, was scared half to death listening to this. In a daze, she remembered what happened when Du An Rao had told her to contact the company employee who was on the trip with Qiu Ji Chen and heard that Qiu Ji Chen had gotten into a taxi and left the hotel not long ago.

“Was Mr. Qiu going out as planned, or was it a sudden decision?”

“It was planned. The taxi was booked in advance.”

“You are sure it was booked in advance? Then I suspect the taxi driver who picked him up is also part of the scam group. Tell the person going after him to be careful.”

The reason she asked this was that when Du An Rao had read the news about this cross-border case, she had found that Qiu Ji Chen was almost controlled as soon as he got out of the car.

Later, when they investigated the case, they found that he had been moved around to many places, yet there was not a single trace left behind.

It was as if the moment he stepped out of the hotel, he disappeared into thin air. The next time he appeared was when someone found his body.

It was a cross-border case, so the investigation was troublesome, but such a ridiculous ending still made people stare and wonder if the author had casually written him off with a convenient death.

But now that she was facing it in real life, Du An Rao had to consider that this strange situation might be because the moment Qiu Ji Chen left the hotel and was picked up by that car, he had already stepped into the web carefully set up by his online lover, with no way to escape.

Facts proved that Du An Rao’s worries were right.

Because of her warning, the young proprietor of Yayu Jade House was able, with Brother Wu’s help, to escape the scam group’s chain of control and avoid the tragic fate of dying in a foreign land.

The day before, after Du An Rao finished saying everything she needed to say, she went with Du Yu Xi to the shop Madam Xi had mentioned, and each of them picked a little dress they liked and went home.

She did not pay too much attention to what happened after that. Qiu Ji Chen was abroad. She was just a small Daoist priest from a remote place, and her connections were nowhere near as wide as Ms. Qiu’s.

If even Ms. Qiu could not save Qiu Ji Chen, then there was even less that Du An Rao could do.

Fortunately, early the next morning, a counter manager in a formal suit personally brought two sets of expensive jewelry to the hotel and said they were for the Du sisters.

When the two sisters saw this, they knew that Qiu Ji Chen was very likely fine.

“May I ask if you are Miss Du An Rao?”

“I am.”

“Our boss asked me to bring a set of jewelry each as a thank-you gift for Miss Du An Rao and Miss Du Yu Xi,” the counter manager said with a standard polite smile, handing them the two sets of jewelry while wearing gloves.

“In addition, the boss asked me to bring you a message. She went out early this morning to pick up the general manager, so she could not come in person. When she has time in a couple of days, she will bring the general manager to thank you both in person. She hopes you will not mind, Miss Du.”

“Your general manager is… your boss’s son?”

“Yes.”

“All right.” Du An Rao finally smiled. “Please thank your boss for the gifts for us.”