Chapter 176:
But the driver said nothing, just kept stepping on the accelerator.
He drove seventy on a street with a speed limit of forty.
He just wouldn’t stop.
Jiang Ning reached to pull the car door, but Gu Lanli pounced on her, pinning her down, his eyes wide: “Do you want to die? You want to jump out at this speed?”
Jiang Ning would have to be crazy to jump out of the car; she just wanted to check if the door was locked, to force the driver to stop.
But unfortunately, the door was locked tight. This taxi driver clearly knew she had been forced into the car, yet he still wouldn’t stop and was helping Gu Lanli take her to an unknown place.
The space inside the car was small, leaving Jiang Ning little room to maneuver. Pinned down tightly by Gu Lanli, she could barely even reach out, let alone take out her mobile phone to call Xie Jingyan for help. She was extremely annoyed.
“What exactly do you want?” Jiang Ning’s eyes blazed.
“You can’t leave.” Gu Lanli stared at her intently: “If you get the kidnapper to release Wanyuan, I’ll pretend nothing happened. Jiang Ning, I don’t want to see you make another mistake.”
Jiang Ning’s blood pressure was about to skyrocket.
She looked at Gu Lanli speechlessly, without even the energy to explain. This idiot.
She looked at the car roof and sighed lightly: “Your parents must have had a hard time raising you this big.”
Gu Lanli looked puzzled: “What do you mean?”
Jiang Ning stopped talking and fell silent.
She felt a little mentally exhausted; a normal person couldn’t communicate with a crazy person.
He wouldn’t give up: “Call the kidnapper now and tell them to release Wanyuan.”
Jiang Ning felt that denying she had harmed Su Wanyuan would be futile. With Gu Lanli’s pig brain, who knew how he’d twist her words. Judging by the current route, Gu Lanli was determined to take her to the kidnapper.
Jiang Ning suspected it was the previous group of people, and Gu Lanli this fool had been used as a tool.
In fact, these people’s real target was her.
Jiang Ning finally said: “Fine, I’ll tell the kidnapper to release Su Wanyuan. Let go of me first so I can get my mobile phone.”
Gu Lanli looked at Jiang Ning suspiciously, but her expression was serious and her eyes sincere. Worried about Su Wanyuan’s safety, he said: “Okay, but I have to keep holding you down, in case you run.”
Jiang Ning wanted to hit him twice but smiled faintly: “Can you let go of one of my hands first? How am I supposed to make the call otherwise? If we delay any longer, your Wanyuan will be in danger.”
Gu Lanli finally released one of Jiang Ning’s hands.
Jiang Ning pulled out her mobile phone from her pocket and opened it to see that the signal, which had been full, was now completely gone—not even an emergency call could get through.
Jin Cheng was a big city; even driving to the suburbs, there should be network and signal.
Jiang Ning leaned half against the car door and turned her head with a half-smile, looking through the rearview mirror at the driver wearing a mask and hat: “Master, putting a signal jammer in the car? That’s no fun, is it?”
The driver finally spoke, his voice hoarse: “Sorry, we’ll arrive at the destination soon. Please bear with us a little longer.”
Jiang Ning stared intently at the driver in the rearview mirror.
Gu Lanli also sensed something unusual. He looked at the driver and asked: “Can you pull over and stop?”
“We’ll arrive soon. Please bear with us.” The driver repeated the phrase.
Jiang Ning glanced at Gu Lanli and asked: “You called this driver?”
Gu Lanli was also a bit dumbfounded: “No, he was just parked at the police station entrance. When I went to find you, I opened his car door thinking I’d go along to where Wanyuan was kidnapped later. I don’t know him… Isn’t he just a driver?”
Jiang Ning could only hope that Xie Jingyan would bring the police to find her…
Because Gu Lanli was really too stupid.
Seeing Jiang Ning silent, Gu Lanli finally realized: “Fuck, you’re not a legit driver, are you?” He quickly looked at the increasingly desolate scenery, his expression panicked: “Who the hell are you? Stop the car now!”
Gu Lanli reached out to grab the driver, but the taxi had a driver protective barrier installed. The iron guard locked the driver securely inside, and the small square opening made it hard for Gu Lanli to even get one hand through.
He finally released Jiang Ning and started opening the car window, trying to jump out from inside the car.
The driver held a lighter in his hand, with explosives strapped to his body: “I advise you not to move, or we’ll all die together.”
Gu Lanli froze, seeing the explosives strapped all over the driver, finally breaking down a bit: “Who the fuck are you? Do I have a grudge against you? You waited for me at the police station entrance, and now this? You want money? Just say it—my family has plenty!”
The driver removed his mask, revealing a sinister face. His triangular eyes peered through the rearview mirror, observing their expressions.
He laughed eerily: “The one I was waiting for isn’t you, but the little girl beside you. You, you fool, are just incidental.”
“Jiang Ning?” Gu Lanli was somewhat incredulous. He looked at the silent Jiang Ning, then at the menacing driver.
He wanted to say something but didn’t know what.
The middle-aged driver grinned ferociously: “Seen this face before? Remember me?”
Jiang Ning narrowed her eyes slightly and finally recognized him: “You’re that murderer’s younger brother?”
The driver sneered: “No, that murderer was my twin brother. Last time because of you, he was caught and executed. If he hadn’t met you, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
The more Jiang Ning looked at the driver’s face, the more familiar it seemed, overlapping with the murderer she had caught before.
And in her memory, this face seemed to have appeared many times already.
On the night Jiang Yan was killed, the Didi driver she and Xie Jingyan rode with seemed to be him.
The last time at the police station when she was inquiring about matters related to Su Wanyuan, the driver who stopped in front of her and asked if she wanted to get in also seemed to be him.
And now the one driving her was this driver too.
So after that murderer died, he, as the murderer’s younger brother, had started plotting how to catch her.
Jiang Ning chuckled lightly: “You’ve really gone to great lengths, staking out me for two months. Not tired?”
The driver shook his head: “Not tired. Killing you to avenge my brother is well worth it.”
“But your brother was a murderer. Before killing those last few high school students, he already had several lives on his hands, including the daughter of a wealthy family. He destroyed countless families. Someone like him should have been brought to justice long ago.”
“No, the ones who deserve to die are you all, this society. It’s this damn social system that drove my brother insane. Don’t people without money deserve to pursue love? My brother just fell for a rich girl. Why did that rich girl look down on him? Why did she call people to humiliate him? That bitch deserved to die.”
Jiang Ning shook her head: “Relationships are free by nature. With her good conditions, why would she choose your worthless brother? That’s no reason for you to harm her.”
