“Regretting it for a lifetime is torture that is worse than death. . . This is a theory that is hard to define whether it is stupid or arrogant,” seeing that I didn’t seem to want to change my mind, the costume masked man raised his gun again after staying silent for a while. He sighed and then said, “Mr. Chu, you are a smart man. Although you don’t believe me, I still respect you. Fine, if that is what you want, then as your wish. . .”


  “No!” Mo Fei and Dong Xiaoye’s faces turned pale at the same time and both blocked me.

  Even a little ant would want to work hard to stay alive, let alone me. My philosophy of life has always been that it was better to be a living dog than a dead lion. I was simply pretending in front of those people. In fact, I was very scared. The costume masked man was right. I was indeed trying to push my luck. I always felt that the costume masked man would not kill me, although I didn’t know why I would have this kind of feeling. . .

  “Ladies, you can go now, but don’t worry, I won’t kill him,” the masked man said coldly to the two women, “Even if he didn’t believe me, I am still a man of my words. I said that I won’t kill a good person, then I will definitely not kill him. . .”


  I secretly let out a sigh of relief. Sure enough, my intuition was not wrong. . .

  However, the gunman called Man Zi, who had just stopped his nosebleed said unwillingly, “Brother Heng. . .”


  “But. . .” The costume masked man’s tone changed instantly, “you two have two hours to prepare a million dollars in cash to ransom him, Mr. Chu, from now on, you no longer have any privileges. Like everyone here, you are just a hostage from now on.”


  Although he deliberately emphasized the word ‘privilege’ to stop his companion from talking, I felt that he was hinting at me about something.

  “Thank you. Since the beginning, I have already prepared for the worst-case scenario. I know that I would become a hostage eventually.” I turned around and said to Mo Fei and Dong Xiaoye, “Why are you two still standing here? Go!”


  “I. . .”


  Dong Xiaoye wanted to say something but she stopped. I turned around and winked at her, whispering, “Leaving one person behind is much better than leaving two behind, right? I don’t think you need me to teach you such a simple arithmetic problem. Just go! Don’t force me to scold you!”


  Dong Xiaoye should have understood the hidden meaning in my words. Although she was still reluctant, in the end, she still stopped talking. Then I turned to Mo Fei, “Welp, it looks like I am really your kept man tonight. You need to hurry up preparing the money to ransom me…”


  Er. . . I felt extremely helpless. I didn’t think my parents would be able to gather one million in two hours to save my life. So in the end, I had to count on Mo Fei, this rich woman. . .

  Mo Fei held back her tears, sobbing and muttering, “Chu Nan, I really want you to abandon me and just leave me here alone. At least it will make life easier for both of us in the future. But now, I will never be able to pay you back for what you have done for me. . .”


  I understood what Mo Fei meant. She didn’t want to like me, because she knew I would not like her, so she needed a reason to hate me. However, I was accustomed to being too nice toward almost every woman, so I couldn’t give her a reason. She would continue to like me and become the obstacle and trouble between my relationship with Liusu.

  I believed that no confession would be more direct than what Mo Fei said at the moment, all the nosy hostages seemed to have forgotten their own situation and eagerly waited for me to continue this cliche and cringy romantic drama. Not wanting to let the audience down, I said, “who said that? You can pay me with this ransom of one million. . .”


  Mo Fei was dazed, “pay you. . . Pay you. . .” Not knowing what she was thinking, she was murmuring this word repeatedly.

  Did my serious attitude stimulate her? “Ms. . . Fei Fei, are you okay?”


  “I’m fine.” Mo Fei’s body trembled after I prodded her with my finger, her face blushing inexplicably, “Chu Nan, please wait for me, I will go get the money right now.” Then she suddenly said to the costume masked man again, “If you dare to hurt him while I am not here, I will definitely put a bounty on all of your heads! I mean what I said!”


  Was she crazy?! She even began to threaten those ruthless gunmen? My heart trembled, but the costume masked man chuckled and said, “Of course, I believe what Miss Mo, the future owner of Fengchang Group said.”


  Mo Fei was shocked. She didn’t expect that the costume gunman would know who she was. In terms of Dong Xiaoye, she looked at me and then at Mo Fei. At this time, she was still suspicious about my relationship with Mo Fei. She sneered contemptuously as if she had discovered our affair.

  Looking at the handbag on the ground, Dong Xiaoye pretended to be calm and wanted to bend over to pick up, but the costume masked man was one step ahead of her. Seeing him bending over to pick up the handbag, our faces instantly changed. Fortunately, the costume masked man didn’t notice anything. After he casually threw the handbag into my arms, my heartbeat finally slowed down.

  There was a pistol in the handbag. Dong Xiaoye and I knew it clearly. But just when I wanted to return the handbag to Dong Xiaoye, she winked at me to stop me from giving her handbag. Then guided by Man Zi, she pulled Mo Fei out of the hall in the envious eyes of many people without even looking at the handbag.

  Dong Xiaoye deliberately left the pistol to me, but she ignored a very serious problem. . . I didn’t know how to use this thing at all!

  “Good people will be rewarded, Mr. Chu, why do you refuse to believe me and accept my kindness twice? Think about it carefully, do you want to continue to doubt me. There is only one chance left, if you miss it again, you will really die. . .” While Man Zi was heading toward the exit, the costume masked man said something like this in a faint voice near my ear.

  Because he was wearing a mask, no one noticed this, but me. My heart sank instantly after hearing this.

  Twice? Yes, he had asked me to leave twice, which proved that he really didn’t want to get me involved, but what did “only one chance left” mean? Could it be that he would create a chance for me to escape?

  “Hey, lady, bring over a chair for Mr. Chu,” the costume masked man said to the white-dressed woman, who was almost scared to death. At the moment she was holding two children tightly while sitting slumped on the ground. “Mr. Chu’s knees won’t bend toward me like you do. In that case, he might as well sit down and wait. Master Yifan, bring a glass of wine over to Mr. Chu. After talking for a long time, his throat is already a little dry.”


  The costume masked man was clearly trying to mock me. Although it was more like he was trying to have some fun before the ransom was delivered, he didn’t let down his guard at all. His gun was always pointing at a hostage and his left hand was always in his pocket, probably holding the remote control of the bombs. “Mr. Chu, you are the most prestigious person in this hall. You see, so many big names can only kneel and sit on the ground before your feet. Even if it is us, we also need to stand up like lackeys. Having a beautiful woman serving you, and Master Yifan pouring your drink personally, at this moment, you are like an emperor. . .”


  “The dying emperor?” I honestly sat on the chair that the woman had brought over, took the champagne that Long Yifan handed over, and smiled bitterly.

  Long Yifan’s face twitched. I didn’t know if it was because he was unwilling to serve me such a lowly person, or because of the pain of the wound, but I was sure that he was definitely very envious. It was quite understandable. However, I was the only one who was being treated so nicely by those gunmen.

  “Mr. Chu, you are really good at using words. . .” The masked man smiled indifferently and pointed his gun at the bewildered Long Yifan and the woman, “I only asked Mr. Chu to sit. Do you two want to squat down or lie down?”


  The faces of the two of them were struggling at the same time. After all, squatting under my feet was much more humiliating than squatting in the corner. In the end, after Long Yifan was shot in the thigh by the costume masked man, the woman instantly squatted down in fear. She even hid behind me while hugging one of the chair’s legs, as if I was the safest shield.

  Long Yifan has forgotten that although the costume masked man treated me differently, this did not change his disrespect for other people’s lives. The kindness he showed earlier was just a pretense, in fact, during the next two hours, he would constantly look for reasons to ravage the lives of the people and humiliate them. . .

  Then the costume mask man stopped talking to me and started confiscating people’s mobile phones, taking guests’ belongings, and valuable jewellery.

  After seeing the gunmen taking advantage of the first few women that were being searched, the rest of the women became very cooperative. None of them dared to hide anything. However, the suspicious gunmen didn’t seem to want to let them go easily. They would still take as much advantage of those women as they could. Some were lucky because they weren’t as good-looking as other people, so the gunmen simply searched them. But others weren’t that lucky. Some women even refused to be searched, but the result of such refusal was all the same. All their faces would become like someone who had just escaped from a car accident. For a while, the hall was filled with women’s cries and screams.

  The woman squatting behind me trembled in horror. This kind of reaction was normal. Any woman would be afraid when facing such a situation. What was more, the women here were tempered women of rich families. All of them were very arrogant normally. Who dared to treat them like this in the past?

  I couldn’t help sighing secretly. In fact, by calmly observing from the side, I could find that although the gunmen were touching those women during the body search, they seemed to control the degree very well. None of them would overdo it. But why were they doing this?

  After thinking about it, I figured out that they were trying to use this to humiliate those rich people. From this, it could be seen that this group of gunmen would not let their guards down easily. They wanted to do body search simply because they wanted to trample on the dignity of those rich people. To put it bluntly, they were not lustful, they just hate rich people.

  Taking advantage of their women in front of them was not only a humiliation to them, but also a method to create an excuse for them to hit them. They wanted to vent their resentment, and the best way to do it was violence. This was their final goal.

  Seeing this, I felt even more glad that Dong Xiaoye and Mo Fei had already left here. Even if I died here, it was worth it. . .

  During the body search, the gunmen cooperated tacitly, and there was no chance for anyone to escape. The trousers of all male guests were lowered to the ankles and tied with belts. All the hostages’ hands were tied to their backs by the gunmen with pre-prepared nylon ropes. Two police officers who were hiding amongst the guests were also exposed. Not only were their pistols confiscated, but they were also beaten up by those gunmen to a degree that even their parents probably would not be able to recognize them now. . .

  Including Dong Xiaoye, there were only four police officers in the hall. I didn’t know if Long Xiaotian’s banquet started too abruptly, or the police just didn’t do their job well.