I didn't expect Song Hanzheng to have been such an unlucky guy in the past.
Getting kidnapped was truly an undeserved catastrophe.
Jiang Liuyue asked again, "Did you manage to escape?"
Song Hanzheng nodded.
"Escape, of course we had to escape."
"We were sixteen at the time, just half-grown boys. The ones who kidnapped us were three adult men, and they had knives, so we didn't dare confront them head-on."
"We were tied up and thrown into a van. When we passed by a gas station, we took advantage of their inattention."
"Li Xinle and I secretly escaped."
"But we hadn't walked far along the road before they noticed and drove after us."
"We were on foot, and they were in a car. How could we outrun them?"
At this point, he took a deep breath.
Pursed his lips, and continued:
"Later, we were caught."
"We were locked in a warehouse. Those people found out my identity and realized that my father, Song Tianqi, was even richer."
"So they changed their minds. Originally they only wanted money from one family, but now they wanted money from both."
Jiang Liuyue listened quietly.
At this moment, she noticed Song Hanzheng's fingertips clenching nervously.
She reached out and held his hand.
And said in a low voice, "Don't be afraid. I'm here."
Song Hanzheng glanced at her, revealing a forced smile.
"I'm fine."
"You definitely wouldn't guess what happened next."
"After kidnapping us, those guys called both families. Li Xinle's mother had just suffered her husband's suicide, and upon receiving the news that her son had been kidnapped, she immediately fell ill."
"However, after waking up in the hospital, she immediately asked her relatives to help sell the house they lived in urgently, wanting to use the money to ransom her son."
"As for my father, Song Tianqi, he initially thought it was a scam call and didn't take it seriously. Later, Lin Mei answered the second call. After she found out, she persuaded my father to call the police."
Speaking of this.
Song Hanzheng couldn't help but lower his head and let out a cold laugh.
His tone was very low.
"If it had been her son who was kidnapped, I don't believe she could have been so calm as to just call the police."
"Because she didn't care about my life at all. She even felt that it would be better if the kidnappers killed me; that way, everything in the Song family would belong to her son!"
Lin Mei was his stepmother, after all.
Having gone through the kidnapping incident, it was no wonder Song Hanzheng had such immense hostility towards her.
"What happened then?"
Jiang Liuyue gently patted his hand to comfort him.
"Later, the Li family's relatives delivered the ransom to the designated location according to their demands, but there was only one share. The Song family's ransom didn't arrive."
"The kidnappers said they could let Li Xinle go."
"But they had to keep me."
Speaking of this, he smiled bitterly and said:
"Li Xinle, that fool, said that I would have been fine, and if I hadn't walked home from school with him, I wouldn't have been kidnapped at all."
"So he refused to leave."
"He insisted on waiting for the Song family's ransom to arrive so we could leave together."
Song Hanzheng closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath and said:
"The Song family's ransom never arrived. Instead, the police cars came first."
"Those kidnappers panicked. They were afraid of being caught, and because we had seen their faces, they wanted to kill us to silence us."
"Li Xinle fought with them, took the opportunity to snatch a knife, and led me to escape from the warehouse."
"We didn't know the way, and it was very dark at the time, so we ended up on a mountain path, running blindly."
"The van behind us was chasing us."
"There were also the sirens of the police cars."
"That night was really chaotic, so chaotic that even now I can't distinguish whether what happened was real or if I imagined it afterward."
"I only remember that when those people drove up, Li Xinle stood in front of me and pushed me away."
"The car seemed to run over his leg, and those people stopped to chase me."
"He struggled to get up, grabbed them with his hands, and told me, 'Run, run towards the police cars'..."
"I don't even remember how I was rescued."
Song Hanzheng's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Jiang Liuyue stepped forward and hugged him tightly, stroking his back and patting it gently, over and over again.
"It's okay, it's okay."
"Everything is okay now."
Song Hanzheng covered his face, his voice deep:
"The autopsy results showed that not only did he have injuries from being run over by tires, but he also had many stab wounds and contusions."
"The kidnappers received the ransom; he could have left."
"But for my sake, he stayed."
"And because Lin Mei called the police, the arrival of the police cars terrified the kidnappers. Those who originally just wanted money decided to kill us to silence us. All of this feels like it's my fault."
"When Li Xinle died, he was only sixteen..." His voice trembled slightly.
After Li Xinle died.
Mother Li couldn't bear the blow of losing her husband and son in succession, and soon passed away from heart failure.
Li Feile became an orphan.
Actually, this incident was originally caused by Father Li, but Song Hanzheng always felt that Li Xinle's death was because he saved him.
So over the years, he had been financially supporting Li Feile; after all, she was his best friend's only remaining family.
He knew what kind of feelings Li Feile had for him.
It was just that, for the sake of his friend, he turned a blind eye. But he had disliked Li Feile since childhood and would absolutely never give her a chance.
"None of this is your fault," Jiang Liuyue gently patted his back, her eyes firm.
Song Hanzheng sighed.
"Yes, but Li Xinle still died..."
"We had agreed to get into the same university. He loved acting and said he would become a household star in the future."
"I didn't have any ambitions, so I said I would be his top agent."
Jiang Liuyue looked at him in silence and said softly, "So, Universal Entertainment under the Universal Group was created by you for Li Xinle..."
Song Hanzheng twitched the corners of his lips.
"I'm not that amazing. In the end, I still became a businessman."
"Universal Entertainment was founded by my mother. Before marrying my father, she was also a famous actress."
Song Hanzheng said a name.
Jiang Liuyue's eyes widened instantly.
This name belonged to one of the country's first female movie stars, from an era when there weren't even subtitles, just the age of silent films.
Song Hanzheng's phone suddenly rang.
He picked up the phone.
Jiang Liuyue glanced at it; it was Li Feile.
"Let me answer it for you," she said.
Song Hanzheng nodded.
Li Feile gave an address and a private room number.
And the moment she walked into the private room, Jiang Liuyue understood exactly what Li Feile was plotting.
That group of frivolous men and their accompanying female companions were mostly minor internet celebrities.
The skinny man leading them raised his wine glass.
"Brother Song, we were just waiting for you! Sister Feile ordered all your favorite dishes."
Another handsome man raised an eyebrow, looking playful, and said:
"That's right. Earlier, when we called her sister-in-law, she even got angry. It turns out the real one is someone else."
His gaze bypassed Song Hanzheng and landed on Jiang Liuyue.
Carrying a bit of scrutinizing appraisal, as well as contempt.
