As soon as a commotion broke out in the lecture hall, a thug immediately came in from the outside with his gun up. The thug said coldly, “If you want to cry, cry. If the Qinghe Group doesn’t hand over the satellites, I’m afraid you all won’t even have the chance to cry.”
With that, the thug with the gun went back out.
Ren Xiaosu watched quietly. Most of the time, the thugs did not even come into the lecture hall and were just scattered at different locations in the teaching block. He was a little puzzled. Were these thugs not afraid the students in the lecture hall would try and save themselves?
Or were these thugs so confident the students they had rounded up would not cause them any trouble?
That couldn’t be. Ren Xiaosu felt these thugs were still very professional at their jobs. Arrogant people would definitely not be picked to carry out an operation that had been in the works for years.
Ren Xiaosu pretended to be despondent as he observed the students in the lecture hall.
In the end, he realized that although there was a person in the classroom who was also very young and wearing a school uniform, his expression did not look like he had been taken hostage at all. It felt like he was just acting afraid, but his eyes kept darting around in observation of the “schoolmates” around him.
Moreover, this person’s disposition was also very obvious. When a professional soldier was placed among a group of ordinary students, they appeared like a stone on a plate of white sand. Inside the crowded lecture hall, his posture remained ramrod straight, while the contours of his face exuded a sense of strength. One look and it was obvious he had received high intensity training for an extended period based on his extremely lean body.
Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that it was no wonder the thugs did not really step into the lecture hall. It turned out that they already had the situation inside under control. The thugs really were meticulous in their operations.
When the student impersonator in the lecture hall looked at Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu immediately started wailing. He said to the student next to him in a sobbing tone, “What should we do now? Will these thugs really kill us? I don’t wanna die yet….”
Seeing this, the impostor shifted his gaze away to observe the others instead. It was as though he was somewhat disdainful of a coward like Ren Xiaosu.
At this moment, a student said, “Do you guys think the Qinghe Group will hand over control of the satellites?”
“I don’t think so.” Someone sighed and said, “After all, how can the lives of a few hundred students be more important than the satellites?”
“But the Qinghe Group’s members will not sit back and do nothing. They aren’t that kind of people,” a female student retorted.
“But the Qinghe Group is still a consortium,” someone said.
As the students were discussing, a thug walked into the lecture hall holding a video camera. He had a thick layer of camouflage paint applied on his face and taunted the students, “I can offer you all a chance to save yourselves right now. Will you all take it?”
The students were stunned. No one dared to answer for a long time.
So the thug continued, “I want you to look into the camera and beg the Qinghe Group to hand over their satellites to us. Pressure them! This way, we’ll get control of the satellites and you’ll be saved. Wouldn’t that be the best for both of us? As for the satellites that the Qinghe Group will lose, what would that matter to you?”
The students fell silent. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these people were obviously not expecting to get their hands on the satellites by doing this. They were only making sure they would not miss out on any opportunity to create chaos for the Qinghe Group.
These students weren’t that stupid, right? Even if they did as the other party requested, they might still not be saved. In that case, why should they become tools?
But Ren Xiaosu was wrong. The students only kept quiet for a minute before someone suddenly cried into the video camera, “Please hand over the satellites! I don’t want to die!”
When one person started speaking, several more students also started pleading into the camera.
Ren Xiaosu sighed. The students were not in the wrong either. After all, who wouldn’t want to live? It was just that the people from the Qinghe Group would probably be a little disappointed. These were the university students they had been nurturing, after all.
In comparison, Xu Zhi, who Ren Xiaosu had encountered with Zhou Yingxue, had more backbone than these students.
After the thugs were done recording, they left in satisfaction. Soon, the garrison troops outside saw the thugs throw a thick paper package out from behind the defensive bunker.
A soldier from the garrison troops went to retrieve it, and the thugs did not open fire.
Old Li had already rushed to Qinghe University. The other two locations where chaos had broken out were handled by Zhang Qingxi and Qin Sheng, while the remaining Riders stayed behind at the Qinghe Group’s headquarters.
Old Li took the package from the soldier and had him move away before opening it layer by layer. When he saw a videotape inside, he heaved a sigh of relief.
“There must be some playback equipment in the school. Hurry up and find it.” Old Li said, “I wonder what those thugs are up to. Why did they throw a videotape out to us at a time like this?”
While waiting for the playback equipment, Old Li kept looking around for Ren Xiaosu. However, he could not find him at all.
“That’s strange. Didn’t Qin Sheng say Ren Xiaosu has been attending school every day?” Old Li was a little puzzled. Could Ren Xiaosu really have run away? But that did not seem in character at all.
Two minutes later, the garrison troops managed to find a classroom where there was playback equipment installed. Old Li and the commander of the garrison troops hurriedly rushed over and inserted the tape.
Very quickly, Old Li was able to see the students in the video begging the Qinghe Group to hand over the satellites in exchange for their release. Old Li and the garrison troops’ commanding officer got mixed feelings.
“They’re still just children, so it’s quite normal that they want to live.” Old Li also sighed.
But just as he finished speaking, he jerked his head up and roared, “Wait, rewind it!”
The soldier who was playing back the video was a little puzzled by Old Li’s reaction, but he did as he was told.
When the video was rewound back to the 1 minute, 31 second mark, Old Li shouted for the soldier to pause the tape.
Old Li looked at the television and muttered, “It’s over!”
The commanding officer of the garrison troops wondered, “Sir, our rescue plan hasn’t even started yet, so why did you say that it’s over? Please trust us. We’ll definitely complete our rescue mission! From the day I joined the military, protecting the citizens of Luoyang City has been my duty—”
“I’m not saying it’s over for us, I’m saying these thugs are done for!” Old Li interrupted
The officer was stunned. What the hell was going on?
Weren’t they just worried about the thugs killing the hostages a moment ago? How did it suddenly become the thugs who were done for?
The garrison troops’ commanding officer stared at the television but could not figure out what clues were hidden in this scene.
Old Li raised his head and stared intently at the image on the screen. He saw Ren Xiaosu hidden among the crowd with only half his face showing.
If one did not look carefully, they really would not discover that Ren Xiaosu was in there. But as Old Li had been looking for Ren Xiaosu all this while, he managed to spot some clues in the recording.
He felt these thugs were really unlucky to have taken Ren Xiaosu hostage.
Old Li turned around and walked out of the classroom. He said to the garrison troops’ commanding officer, “I need to hurry off to another hostage situation. After you’re done here, update me. I won’t waste any more time here. Calm the students down, and if any parents come over to cause trouble, tell them that their children will be saved very soon.”
