Chapter 89: Xie Liusheng

The vehicle pulled over to the side of the road. It was still the familiar black Mercedes-Benz.

Qi Ran still remembered when she was in middle school, Liu Xu had once complained about Xu Yan’s father’s car and his own father’s car. He said the vast majority of middle-aged men around forty with families and careers would invariably own a black or gray Mercedes-Benz. There’d be a fishing tackle box and an empty Moutai liquor box in the trunk. And they’d usually buy their wives a BMW Mini. This statement sounded very stereotypical, but it was indeed a fact, because Liu Xu’s father also had an identical black Mercedes and often went fishing with Xu Yan’s father. Xu Yan’s mother also indeed had a BMW Mini. She had driven to pick Xu Yan up once. Qi Ran saw that the car was stuffed almost full of decorations, the kind where if the airbag deployed, it would directly become a shotgun blast.

Thinking of this, Qi Ran’s heart sank a little involuntarily.

She felt she shouldn’t have contacted Xu Yan, but she did. She had torn Xu Yan out of that peaceful daily life. Perhaps going back would be a very difficult thing now. She contacted Xu Yan, so Xu Yan would definitely try to contact Liu Xu next. It was only a matter of time before Liu Xu was dragged into this.

Liu Xu always had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. He had once said that someone with a personality like Xu Yan’s might get tricked into a pyramid scheme one day. But luckily, she’d also be easy to rescue, because once Xu Yan was in a pyramid scheme, her brain would immediately think to call him and Qi Ran to recruit them as downlines. Thus, they’d also be able to fish her out immediately. When she heard that back then, Qi Ran had laughed along. She never expected the boomerang would come back now. The first one to get into the pyramid scheme wasn’t Xu Yan, but her, Qi Ran. And this Circle didn’t seem like a pyramid scheme; it wasn’t something you could just join on a whim and leave whenever you wanted.

She looked at the stopped car, not knowing how to greet Xu Yan’s father, since the current him didn’t know her.

But in any case, leaving him waiting like that was clearly impolite. So she could only walk toward the vehicle. The glass window made it hard to see inside clearly, only clearly reflecting her own appearance at this moment.

Carrying the mirror, she reached the car. When she clearly saw the person pushing the car door open, she froze slightly.

Because the person getting out from the driver’s seat wasn’t Xu Yan’s father, but a face she was quite familiar with—it was Liu Xu. But he looked completely different from the figure in her memories. The slightly long, even somewhat delicate-looking black messy hair had been shaved off, replaced by an extremely short buzz cut. He looked like a reformed prisoner just released from jail. He wore a dark gray trench coat. Qi Ran noticed a badge on his left chest. The badge looked very strange, consisting of three circles of equal size in black, white, and gray. The three circles overlapped. The small area enclosed by all three circles simultaneously was empty, having no color at all.

What stunned Qi Ran wasn’t just the change in Liu Xu’s outer appearance, but the change in his demeanor. In her memories, Liu Xu was always a bit childish, or perhaps had a slightly cynical, artsy-writer demeanor. Occasionally he liked to make sarcastic remarks, and only rarely did he become truly serious or earnest. But the boy standing before her now had completely changed. His expression was somewhat gloomy, his face devoid of any emotion. If it weren’t for those facial features being so familiar, Qi Ran simply wouldn’t have recognized this person as the once somewhat cynical youth.

What happened? She rooted herself firmly in place, thoughts churning. What changed this time?

“Long time no see, truly missed.” Liu Xu said flatly, but Qi Ran didn’t see a shred of ‘missing’ on his face. She let her gaze fall on Liu Xu’s left hand—it was a black bag. A slightly ominous feeling arose in her heart.

“What’s that?” she asked bluntly.

“What else could it be?” Liu Xu shook his head, gesturing with the bag toward Qi Ran. “Get in the car. Consider it a favor for old times’ sake; I’ll skip the formalities. Otherwise, I should be shooting your left leg first before asking you to get in.”

Qi Ran suppressed the many questions suddenly surging within her and simply asked calmly: “What about the mirror?”

Liu Xu shook his head, just extending a hand and tapping the car window. Immediately, the rear passenger door was opened. A young girl, also wearing a dark gray trench coat, stepped out of the car. She took the mirror from beside Qi Ran. Simply placing her hand on it, like performing a magic trick, the mirror vanished in the blink of an eye.

“Thanks.”

Liu Xu said. The girl didn’t speak, just nodded. Qi Ran noticed she seemed to be chewing gum.

She reached the car door. The girl simply gestured for her to get in first. Having no choice, she got in first, sitting in the middle of the back seat—because there was already another person in the back seat. Qi Ran looked toward the front passenger seat. Sure enough, a young man sat there, wearing slightly gentle-looking black-framed glasses, also dressed in a dark gray trench coat.

Seeing Qi Ran looking at him, the young man extended his hand.

“It’s our first meeting; please guide me well,” the young man smiled gently, “Just call me Xie Liusheng.”

Qi Ran didn’t reject this kindness of unknown authenticity, extending her own hand for a handshake. The young man’s grip had very good control, polite yet retaining warmth.

“Qi Ran,” she said.

The young man smiled upon hearing this: “You’re too modest. Everyone here has heard your name, Miss Qi.”

Looking at the gazes coming from all around, Qi Ran felt a bit creeped out in her Mind Lake. Honestly, this car truly felt a bit too crowded. The young man and young woman on her left and right were both of a taciturn nature. Being stared at by them, the pressure was indeed quite great.

“Where are we going?” she asked in a low voice. “Just a heads-up: I contacted Pingjiang Group 2 not long ago. They sent someone to drive over to pick me up. If they don’t see me, things might get a bit troublesome.”

The moment the words left her mouth, she immediately understood she had misspoken, because she saw the smile on Xie Liusheng’s face in the front passenger seat become even brighter. Even the girl sitting to her right, who looked quite expressionless, let out a scoff.

“Pingjiang Group 2? No, Pingjiang Group 2 has long been gone. You should really be thankful you couldn’t reach the current Executor. Your luck is quite good, you could say you dodged a calamity?” Xie Liusheng shook his head, his face appearing somewhat pitying. “Has Miss Qi not been paying attention to the forum? It’s best to pay attention. That was already something that happened a month ago.”

Qi Ran felt her brain explode with a boom. Belatedly realizing, she asked in a low voice: “What’s the date today?”

The young man sitting to her left said quietly: “November 18th.”

November 18th, a month later. Qi Ran stiffened slightly, then whispered: “The year is 2017?”

“Of course,” Xie Liusheng sighed lightly, looking a bit troubled. “You’re not about to tell us that you’ve time-traveled, are you? A joke like that is a little unfunny.”

Hearing the word ‘of course,’ Qi Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief and said quietly: “In my memory, yesterday was October 17th.”

“Are you saying that last night, you somehow fast-forwarded through an entire month?” Liu Xu, who was driving, said calmly. “Proof?”

Qi Ran was just about to answer this question when she suddenly heard her phone in her right pocket ring. The girl sitting on her right—the one who had made the mirror disappear—reached out, took the phone from her pocket, looked at the screen, and said: “The contact is Jiang Zhique.”

“Answer it,” Xie Liusheng chuckled lightly. “Perfect timing to verify whether what Miss Qi said just now is a lie.”

The girl nodded, answered the phone, and put it on speaker.

“Hey, Qi Ran.” The moment the call connected, Jiang Zhique’s slightly anxious voice rang out. “The change has already occurred. Unlike before, this time it’s a change in time. Look at the time—it’s already been a month. Qi Ran? Hello? Can you hear me?”

Qi Ran was about to say something, but the phone was hung up first by Jiang Zhique, leaving only the busy signal beep.

“Sensed something was up? That person from the Jiang Family is quite sharp,” Xie Liusheng mused thoughtfully.

The reason he didn’t question the authenticity of this somewhat overly coincidental call was because they had seen Jiang Zhique leave with their own eyes. Qi Ran had no way to contact Jiang Zhique again.

Qi Ran remained silent. Only now did she finally feel somewhat thankful for the bug Jiang Zhique had hidden under her collar. That bug had a positioning function. No matter where the people in front of her took her, Jiang Zhique could definitely call the police and take them all down in one fell swoop.

She wasn’t too tense, because she had already roughly guessed the reason these people would kidnap her. In other words—getting familiar with it through repeated experience—when it came to being kidnapped, she could be considered an old hand now. She just needed to cooperate.