Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Neither Huo Jinyao nor Huo Jinkai had experienced something like kidnapping or suffered from that kind of torment before.
It took a lot of effort for them to stay calm. Especially when all they could do was wait—they needed to wait until Da and the other kidnappers went to sleep.
Finally, Da went to lie down. Before that, he walked up to the kids and pointed his gun at the two boys.
“Kids, I’m telling you now, you better stay quiet. I might untie you and let you eat if I wake up in a good mood tomorrow,” he said.
After he finished threatening them, he went to the other side of the warehouse and fell asleep. There were some old and broken sofas that he slept on.
Liang and the others each had their duties.
Chen Si and Wang Ming took turns watching the kids, while Liang got up from time to time to take a look on the outside.
With the work was divided, Wang Ming went to rest and left Chen Si watching the kids alone.
At that point, Huo Jinyao sighed with relief. His opportunity had come.
As three of the kidnappers fell asleep, he turned to glance at Huo Jinkai and signaled for him to take action.
Huo Jinkai nodded. He covered his hands with his body and untied himself. Huo Jinyao did the same thing.
They didn’t dare to untie their feet as well. They worried that that might create loud noises and wake up the kidnappers.
After releasing their own hands from the bonds, they started to untie Huo Wushaung. Huo Wushuang’s head had been hit earlier, and she was knocked unconscious by Da once. When she had woken up from the blow later, she cried for a long while. Currently, she was in a deep sleep. She didn’t even wake up as her brothers tried to untie her.
Huo Jinyao glanced at Da. The latter was deeply asleep.
Chen Si sat near the table where they played their games, smoking. The smoke obscured his view of the kids.
Wang Ming was sleeping as well. Liang was on guard outside the building.
Huo Jinkai and Huo Jinyao exchanged glances. What they were about to do was going to be very risky.
But in order to escape, they were willing to take the risk.
Their plan was simple—to sneak out when the kidnappers relaxed their vigilance.
The two boys knew they had no choice but to confront the four male adults. Huo Jinkai had been working out and was rather strong.
Huo Jinyao, although two years younger than him, had spent some time in the army. They were both tall, and they both were well-built and had some muscle on them. If they fought hard enough, they might stand a chance at getting free.
The first part of their plan was to knock Chen Si out with one strike.
Wang Ming and Da were sleeping, so Chen Si needed to be taken down quickly enough, or else Wang Ming and Da would hear the fight and wake up because of it. The warehouse was large enough. The kids would be safe as long as they escaped from the warehouse.
Huo Jinkai untied his own feet, and then his brother’s and sister’s bonds, He looked at Huo Jinyao nervously.
He whispered into Huo Jinyao’s ear, “I’m not confident about this. They have a gun. Our lives will be in danger if we fail.”
“Our lives are already in danger whether we try to escape or not.” Huo Jinyao pointed toward Da with a jerk of his head and said, “That man has a gun, and he’s not covering up his face. How do you know he’ll release us like he said he would?”
He had not even bothered to hide his face from them. Clearly, he wasn’t worried that the kids might help the police identify him. He probably didn’t plan to let them go home at all. He most likely intended to kill them after they got the money.
Huo Jinyao’s reasoning made sense. But Huo Jinkai thought differently.
“The others have their faces covered,” he said. “We might still have a chance to survive.”
Huo Jinyao never liked the idea of pinning his hope on other people. If he had a chance to escape on his own, why shouldn’t he give it a try?
But Huo Jinkai was more responsible and also more cautious than his brother. He hesitated to escape because he felt that it would cause more harm than good.
“Jinyao, there are four of them, not one. Maybe we should wait.” Perhaps, they should wait for the police and their family to come to rescue them.
Huo Jinyao was willing to believe the police and his family, but he didn’t like waiting. He glanced at Huo Wushuang and said, “We can wait for days, but what about Wushuang?”
The two teenage boys could survive a few days without food and withstand the cold, but their little sister couldn’t. She was only four years old. How could she possibly get through this hardship without breaking down or getting herself killed?
Huo Jinkai hesitated at the thought of Huo Wushuang.
He and Huo Jinyao would be fine until their parents paid the ransom money and rescued them, but what would the kidnappers do to Huo Wushuang while she was here, locked up in this cold and dark warehouse for the next three days? She was still a baby girl after all.
Huo Jinkai made up his mind quickly. He nodded at Huo Jinyao and decided to run.
As the older one, Huo Jinkai would be responsible for carrying Huo Wushuang. Huo Jinyao’s job was to knock Chen Si out. They planned to make their way out of the warehouse without waking up Da and Wang Ming.
The door of the warehouse was closed. To get out, they would undoubtedly have to make some noise. Liang, who was on the outside, would hear the door opening.
The ideal situation would be to knock out three of the four kidnappers at once and then leave. But that couldn’t possibly happen. Huo Jinyao had spent some time in the army, and he was clearly aware of the difference in strength between him and his brother as well as the three strong men in the warehouse with them.
So, the only for them to escape was to knock out Chen Si and then run as fast as possible.
Huo Jinyao lifted Huo Wushuang into Huo Jinkai’s arms, then sat still for a moment, pretending to be stretching his limbs.
Chen Si continued smoking. The smoke blocked his view, obscuring his view of the kids. He wasn’t interested in the kids so long as they were quiet anyway.
Huo Jinyao wanted to knock the man out with one blow. He stood up quickly, sneaking up behind Chen Si, and suddenly punched the back of his head as hard as he could.
Chen Si fell to the ground, probably dead.
To avoid making a sound that would wake Da and Wang Ming up, Huo Jinyao lifted Chen Si with all his strength, then positioned him over the desk to made it look like he was resting his head on his own palms.
That first step went well. Huo Jinyao felt slightly relieved, glancing up at Huo Jinkai.
Huo Wushuang was already on Huo Jinkai’s back.
Huo Jinyao glanced at Da, feeling lucky to have some large old boxes in between them, preventing Da from seeing him if he happened to wake up.
He quietly moved to the door and opened it slightly.
The old wooden door uttered a low squeaky noise. Huo Jinyao’s heart was thumping. Quickly, he looked outside.
He didn’t see Liang, and that made him worry. They would all be in trouble if Liang saw them trying to escape when he returned…
Huo Jinkai was already headed towards the door with Huo Wushuang on his back. Huo Wushuang leaned against her brother’s back, her face twisting into unknown expressions as if she was about to wake up soon.
Huo Jinyao had no time to hesitate. He walked out of the warehouse, looking around for Liang to knock him out.
But no matter how much he looked; he still couldn’t find Liang anywhere. At that point, he realized that things might go wrong.
The kids had already come out of the warehouse. All they could do at this point was to run as fast as they could.
As soon as they started running, Liang came out from behind a corner, shouting, “Oi, kids! What do you think you’re doing?”
Hearing Liang’s shout, Huo Jinyao glanced at Huo Jinkai and said, “Brother, run!”
He told Huo Jinkai to run while he stayed behind to stall Liang.
“Da! The kids are running!” Liang yelled into the warehouse.
Huo Jinyao signaled for Huo Jinkai to run and then threw a punch at Liang’s face.
“This brat! How dare you!” Liang wasn’t prepared for that. He ended up suffering a blow to the face. After that, he spat onto the ground and made a sullen face.
As Huo Jinyao launched the second punch at him, he grasped the boy’s wrist and punched him with his other hand. That punch struck Huo Jinyao on the cheek. He had not expected Liang to be so good at fighting.
The heavy punch made Huo Jinyao moan with pain in a deep voice. He couldn’t help it.
Huo Jinkai hadn’t expected that his little brother would get hit to easily. He looked at Huo Jinyao, intending to turn back and help.
Outside the warehouse, it was dark. The only source of light had been the fire in the warehouse.
Huo Jinyao saw Huo Jinkai’s hesitation and grew anxious. He forgot about the pain and gathered his strength again.
“Brother, run! I’ll be fine! Run!” he shouted.
Huo Jinkai glanced at him, then clenched his teeth and turned, running as fast as he could. It was at that very moment that Huo Wushuang woke up.
It was so cold outside, and she had heard Huo Jinyao’s voice.
She woke up, feeling chilly and frightened.
Before she could make any noise, she noticed out of the corners of her eye a looming figure of a man hitting Huo Jinyao.
At first, she couldn’t see her brother clearly. But when she looked harder and saw Huo Jinyao clearly, she cried out loudly,
“Don’t hit my brother! Don’t hit my brother!
“Stop it! Don’t hit my brother!
“Brother! Brother!”
She struggled to get off Huo Jinkai’s back. Huo Jinkai had been worried about Huo Jinyao the whole time. When the girl started struggling, he nearly lost his balance, and as a result, he let go of her and she jumped off his back.
“Wushuang!”
Both Huo Jinyao and Huo Jinkai saw Huo Wushuang running back towards the warehouse. They both shouted out together. They couldn’t stop her, though. The little girl rushed straight at Huo Jinyao.
At the same time, Da and Wang Ming woke up. Da also woke Chen Si up with a kick.
“Wushuang!”
Huo Jinyao screamed desperately. As he watched Huo Wuchuan running toward him, Liang gave him a few more punches to the face.
“Wushuang, run! Run away with Big Brother! Don’t come here!”
“Wushuang!”
Another blow landed on his face. After that, Liang gave him a heavy kick.
He flew to the side. Huang Wushuang rushed up to him, crying all the more loudly.
“Brother! Brother!”
“Wushuang, run!”
Huo Jinyao hated himself so much for not working out hard enough.
He hated himself for believing that many things could be done when he got older.
He hated himself for being the one to suggest this escape.
He took another blow from Da and then watched helplessly as Da lifted Wushuang into the air.
At that moment, Huo Jinkai reached the entrance of the warehouse and hit Da as hard as he could.
Da kicked him away easily and threw Wushuang to the ground.
“Wushuang!” the two boys yelled with one voice.
Huo Wushuang’s cry was so shrill, filled with pain.
“Wushuang!” The two boys sprung up as quickly as they could, attempted to shield their sister and to save her from the kidnappers.
That didn’t work.
Wang Ming and Chen Si came out of the warehouse and caught Huo Jinyao, while Liang stopped Huo Jinkai by giving him a series of kicks and punches.
He was fourteen, nearly as tall as an adult, but still not as strong as Liang.
He had no idea that Liang had been a boxer. How could this untrained teenage boy ever defeat a boxer?
Chen Si punched Huo Jinyao a few times, yelling, “Little b*stard! How dare you hit me!”
“Hit me! Hit me again! Aren’t you tough? Huh?”
Huo Jinyao didn’t know how many times he got punched that night. But all the physical pain that he suffered at the hands of the kidnappers couldn’t compare to the agony he felt when he watched Da lift Huo Wushuang into the air.
“Let her go! Let her go! Did you hear me? Let her go!” he screamed. That didn’t help. Da threw Huo Wushuang to the ground again. She was crying louder now.
Hearing her desperate cries, Da stepped up and kicked her. Somehow that kick stopped the girl’s crying.
On the other side, Huo Jinkai was almost buckling under the violent tumult.
Huo Jinyao had never felt such deep despair before. He screamed at Da, “Let them go! Let them go! I’m telling you, it’s pointless kidnapping them. They’re not my mother’s children. My mom isn’t going to pay a cent for them. They’re both illegitimate children. Do you hear me? Let them go!
“Let them go!”
He repeated those words over and over again until his voice grew hoarse.
Da lost his patience. He walked up to Huo Jinyao and kicked him in the stomach.
“Brat, are you trying to be a hero? I’m impressed. You wanted to run, right? Go ahead, run. Why aren’t you running?” he said.
“How ridiculous. Illegitimate children? Do you expect me to believe that?
“You kids acted like you would give your lives for each other. Who’d believe that illegitimate children bullsh*t?”
“It is real! What I said is real!” Huo Jinyao cried.
All those punches that Liang had given him had almost destroyed him. Huo Jinkai was wounded even more severely than he was.
Huo Jinyao endured the pain in his stomach and wheezed at Da, “You don’t need them. One hostage is enough for you. Just let them go! Do you hear me? Let them go!”
Thud! Another heavy kick landed on his stomach. The pain made him curl his body instinctively.
Da leaned down to look him in the face, saying, “Kid, you’re too young to fool me. You want to be a hero? Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
At that point, Huo Jinyao could barely feel the pain anymore. Da’s words drove him deeper into despair.
The next two days were like a nightmare for him.
He tried countless times to tell Da that Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang were illegitimate children and begged him to let them go. However, Da never believed a word he said.
He had to watch Da torture Huo Jinkai.
The kidnappers assaulted Huo Jinkai every time he woke up, right in front of Huo Jinyao. While kicking him, they would say to Huo Jinyao, “Kid, we are doing this for you. If he died, all the money that your family has will belong to you alone.”
Huo Wushuang had been injured severely. She fell into a coma, and the next day, she started burning with a high fever.
Huo Jinyao continued to beg for mercy. He even knelt in front of Da.
“I beg you, let my sister go! Please! She’s only four! She won’t remember a thing! You can dump her at any hospital! Please!” he begged.
“What? You want us to go into town so that the police will catch us? You wish!” Da spat.
Da had no mercy at all.
Huo Jinyao was full of rage.
“My mom wanted them dead since long ago. If they both died, my mom would be thrilled. She’s never going to pay a cent for them,” he said.
Da punched him again in the face, stared at him and said through clenched teeth, “Be patient, kid. We still have you, don’t we? See, we still have you. Don’t worry, kid. You like playing the hero, so I’ll give you a chance. I’ll let you be the big boy. But don’t even think about running. You can never run.”
During the three days, Huo Jinyao said everything that he could think of to make them let his siblings go, all the entreaties, all the threats. But Da could not be swayed.
On the third day, he gave up hope completely. Da used to be the only one not wearing a face mask, but on the third day, the other three took off their face masks as well.
Huo Jinyao knew very clearly what that meant.
These men were going to kill him and his brother and sister. They were going to die by the end of the day.
Despair fueled his regret and pain.
He shouldn’t have attempted the escape on that first night. Why on earth did he suggest that?
Would the three of them have been more comfortable if they hadn’t tried to run? Would they have had a better chance of going home safely if he hadn’t encouraged Huo Jinkai to escape that night?
Huo Jinyao didn’t have the answers to those questions but they plagued him anyway.
He was tied up tightly and had been injured badly. On that third day, he watched Huo Wushuang’s breath grow shallower and shallower.
He called her name again and again, but the little girl never opened her eyes.
In the end, he burst out with desperate screams,
“Wushuang! Wushuang!”
His little sister died. She was not even five years old.
“Ah!”
Huo Jinkai had suffered so much more torment at the hands of the kidnappers and became very feeble as a result. Hearing Huo Jinyao’s voice, he opened his eyes and saw Huo Wushuang lying there quietly.
Strangled screams came from his throat, sounding even more forlorn than Huo Jinyao’s had been.
He had been tortured and starved for days. His voice was terribly hoarse.
He growled with rage, even in that hoarse voice. When Da came near him, he sprang up and knocked Da to the ground.
Da was irritated because of this. He took out the gun he had kept in his pocket and shot Huo Jinkai.
Huo Jinkai fell to the ground.
This time, Huo Jinyao couldn’t even scream.
He looked at Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang lying crumpled over on the ground, unable to believe that the brother whom he admired and the little sister whom he loved so deeply, had both died.
“Brother! Wushuang!
“Stop playing around! Get up!
“Today is the third day. We can go already home. Please get up.
“No!”
He curled up on the ground, roaring with bitterness until his throat was raw. Da felt even more irritated by the racket and raised the gun, prepared to shoot Huo Jinyao as well.
Wang Ming stopped him hurriedly and said, “Da, calm down! You can’t kill him. We are not going to get any money if all the hostages are dead.”
Da had not entirely lost his mind. He knew that and nodded, a signal for Chen Si to gag Huo Jinyao.
He was still angry though. So, he vented his anger by kicking Huo Jinyao a few more times.
Huo Jinyao no longer felt pain anymore.
It had been three long days and nights. He had been tortured physically and damaged mentally. His willpower to fight was long gone.
He passed out.
The last thought that crossed his mind was that he would be able to see Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang on the other side.
That would be nice. They could still be brothers and sisters then.
Little did he know, the case had been big enough to be known by many people.
The Huo Family had been worried about the kids, but they thought that the kidnappers would keep them alive and well to get the ransom money at the exchange.
But by the time they found the four kidnappers and had them arrested, Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang were already dead.
Huo Jinyao remained unconscious for three days before he woke up. He only survived because his body was fit, and his willpower kept him alive.
A lot of things happened while he was in a coma.
Da and the other three kidnappers all described the death of Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang as accidents, to get themselves lighter punishments.
Which was, of course, not true at all.
Even though Da didn’t kill Huo Wushuang, she was only four and had suffered lethal injuries from their abuse. She couldn’t have survived on her own.
Huo Jinkai was obviously murdered. Da explained that he never wanted to kill the boy. He said that Huo Jinyao had asked him to kill Huo Jinkai. He told the police what Huo Jinyao had said to him about both Huo Jinkai and Huo Wushuang being illegitimate children.
“So, you see, officers, he asked us to kill his brother. So that he could have all the money that his family has. He would have it all as long as his brother and sister died!” Da said this to the police.
At first, the police believed that this was a lie. However, the other three kidnappers all confirmed that Huo Jinyao had indeed said something like that.
The interrogation record was confidential, and so was the trial proceedings. But as members of the Huo Family, Liu Tongjia and her husband had access to these records.
Liu Tongjia was already in a precarious mindset at the time, she had just lost two children after all.
The content of the record drove her to her wits’ end.
Unfortunately, she also overheard Huo Jinyao’s sleep talking when she went to visit him at the hospital.
“I’m telling you, kidnapping them is pointless. They aren’t my mother’s children. My mother isn’t going to pay any money for them. They’re both illegitimate children. Do you hear me? You don’t need to kidnap them. I’m the most beloved child of the Huo Family.”
He repeated those words over and over again like a mantra. Liu Tongjia’s heart turned cold when she heard those words.
She told herself to trust her son, to believe that Huo Jinyao wasn’t that kind of boy.
But when Huo Jinyao woke up, he admitted to his family, “It was me. I killed them. It was all my fault.”
Huo Jinyao blamed himself, but no one understood the extent of his regret and pain.
Countless times in the years that followed, he regretted that decision to escape and wished that he could reverse the time and go back to that night. If he had a second chance, he would definitely yield to the kidnappers and not try to be the hero.
He would do everything he could to save his brother and sister, to keep everyone alive.
But there was no way back. He never got a second chance.
He was only twelve, still a kid. He could have used his age as an excuse to cover up his mistake. He could have kept quiet about it.
But there was no way he could lie to himself. And he most definitely could not forgive himself.
For that very reason, he never once tried to explain the exact situation to Liu Tongjia, even though he knew that she had misunderstood him, that she was giving him a hard time on purpose because she didn’t know.
“I killed them,” he said simply.
