by A Sick Frog
Qin Ke Xuan started towards him: “Let him go.”
The two policemen upon seeing that he was someone Qin Ke Xuan knew, released Yin Xu Dong. Yin Xu Dong stood up, patting his shirt, very ready to start cursing at them only to swallow his anger when he realised the two uncles were donned in police uniform. (The two policemen: who you callin’ uncle, you’re the goddamn uncle!) He turned to Qin Ke Xuan: “What’re they here for? Why are there policemen in your house?”
Qin Ke Xuan: “They have nothing better to do.” They have nothing to do so they decided to stay and look after an insignificant person like her, also known as the glorified protection.
The two policemen: “…” That was so not implicit! Forget it, it was not worthwhile for them to argue with a little girl, it would just lower their standards.
Qin Ke Xuan continued: “You, double your training menu.”
Yin Xu Dong howled in grief: “What for?!” He was already barely coping with the current training menu, was she telling him to go seek death by doubling it?
“You got restrained so easily by the two nuisances without any resistance, why don’t you go train instead of standing here shamelessly.” Qin Ke Xuan said nonchalantly.
The two policemen currently cold-shouldered by her chanted mentally: the two nuisances were not referencing to themselves, not themselves…
Yin Xu Dong explained with a flushed face: “Wasn’t it because I didn’t notice them. How would I know there would be other people in your room. And on top of that, they mounted a sneak attack, how would I be able to react in time!”
“Then for the sake of you becoming more vigilant such that you will react in time next time, double your training.”
The time, Yin Xu Dong was robbed of his breath to even howl in anguish, who knew if she would double his training again?
Qin Ke Xuan sat down before her computer again, calling the currently close to fainting Yin Xu Dong: “Come here.”
Yin Xu Dong leant over, asking: “What is it?”
Qin Ke Xuan was just about to ask, but noticed the two policemen still standing there, and told them: “The two of you wait outside for a while.”
“Our apologies, but we must make sure the subject of our protection is within sight at all times.” One of the two rejected her righteously.
“Yin Xu Dong, throw them out.” She agreed to allow the two of them to “protect” her, but that did not mean she would endure them constantly supervising her. Was it that they would continue staying here as long as that little brat Qin Peng Cheng was still missing? How troublesome!
Yin Xu Dong hesitated, “Xuan Xuan, to be impulsive would be diabolical. If you’d like to say anything, it’d be best to talk it out diplomatically. They are policemen, to beat up policemen can land you in jail.”
Qin Ke Xuan deliberated for a moment. It was indeed inappropriate to invite trouble unnecessarily at such a timing. Hence she said: “Then we’ll talk outside. You, are you able to jump down the balcony?”
Yin Xu Dong nodded, “I can. But as long as we communicate with them properly to have them stay away would be good enough, there’s no need to escape.”
“Then you go and communicate, if not, we’ll leave.”
The two policemen were speechless, did they assume they were transparent? To brazenly discuss whether they should beat up policemen or escape right in front of them?
Yin Xu Dong said to the two police smilingly: “The two policemen uncle also heard us? If you guys don’t leave, I think we’ll create quite a bit of trouble? For the sake of not bringing both parties any inconvenience, is it possible to give us some privacy? I promise we won’t do anything illegal!”
What else can the two policemen say, with the thought of how dangerous could the house be unless the kidnappers were to walk right into the trap in mind, the two of them left the room to stand guard outside.
Chapter 13 - Accepting Conditions
Qin Ke Xuan waited till the two policemen left before asking Yin Xu Dong: “Do you know how to time-travel?”
Yin Xu Dong dug his ears, starting to seriously doubt his hearing. She had so seriously chased the two policemen out to talk just to ask him this kind of questions? Did he hear correctly? Really? “Why the sudden question, are you interested in time-traveling?” He caught a glimpse of a famous time-traveling novel on her computer screen.
“Mmh.”
“My god! I think you’ve also been infected by the time-traveling bug!” Yin Xu Dong face-palmed, his head starting to hurt.
“I’m not infected.” Qin Ke Xuan was very clear about her current health status and confirmed she had no symptoms of being infected by anything.
Yin Xu Dong nodded his head patronisingly, parroting after her: “Yes yes, you’re not infected. People who likes to read time-travel novels would never admit they’re infected. I’m just saying, you can’t possibly believe what they describe in these books about time-traveling right?”
“You don’t believe them?”
“Please! Those are just fictional stuff people came up with! How is it possible to have things like time-traveling happening? Let me tell you, you definitely cannot believe those stuff and decide to go jump off some building or suicidally go and crash into a car, you’ll freaking die… My god, your accident last time can’t be the product of your desire to time-travel, and you went to get into an accident on your own? OMG, how idiotic can you get? Be thankful you didn’t die!” She didn’t die, but her brain cells died.
But how could Qin Ke Xuan not believe that? Her existence was testament enough of the possibility of time travelling. Of course, that wasn’t something she would tell others.
Yin Xu Dong, upon seeing Qin Ke Xuan quiet, thought that she was still stubborn about “dying”. Hence, he continued educating her: “It’s all those author’s fault. How could they write out all these stuff that even they themselves don’t believe to deceive gullible and innocent-minded little girls. Isn’t that sending people to their deaths without retribution*? Let me tell you, only crazy or idiotic people would believe in such stuff, no one else believes these. Xuan Xuan, you’re a clever girl right (how old do you think you are?), you won’t believe in this stuff, right? Return to the past? Probably Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity** about if you can travel faster than the speed of light***, time will flow backwards, if that’s the case, perhaps you can time-travel? But that’s impossible since there’s no such speed that’s faster than light now!”
* 害人不偿命 = (lit.) sending people to their deaths without retribution; (fig.) inflicting suffering/harm upon others without paying with one’s life.
** the speed of light is approximately 300,000,000 metres per second; the speed of fastest F1 race car is approximately 100 metres per second
*** Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and he showed that the speed of light within a vacuum is the same no matter the speed at which an observer travels.
“Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?” Qin Ke Xuan’s eyes lit up, catching the keywords “What exactly is it?”
“Our high school textbooks only touched a little bit on the Theory of Relativity, you’ll only understand it if you study deeper, so I, I’m not that clear about that either.” The textbook only covered the very surface knowledge and introduction to it, if you wanted to completely figure out the Theory of Relativity, you probably needed to be as good as a physicist right? How would a student whose studies were beyond crap like him be able to understand such profound stuff?
Yin Xu Dong did not expect that his mention would result in Qin Ke Xuan specialising in physics in the future.
“Oh yeah, Xuan Xuan, why are the police in your house? What happened?” Afraid Qin Ke Xuan would continue asking him this stuff which he was unclear of, he forcefully changed the subject.
“Mmh, Qin Peng Cheng got kidnapped.”
Yin Xu Dong got a huge shock. Even after such a huge incident, Qin Ke X
uan still had the mood to discuss the feasibility of time-traveling with him? “Aren’t you worried at all?”
“How is that a concern of mine?” Her tone was bland.
How did he forget that this gal was the kind of person who would not acknowledge even her own mother and would go to the extent of knocking her out without any guilt? She’s way too cold-blooded! This cannot do, he had to properly educate this gal. How can humans be cold-blooded to the extent of being dismissive of kinship? “Xuan Xuan, he’s your younger brother after all. Even if his parents had erred before, their kids are innocent.” He gagged, why did these seemingly scripted lines sound so familiar? (Frog*: child, these kind of stuff are what’s shown on the 8 o’clock show a lot)
* the author (a sick frog) is imputing her comment here
Qin Ke Xuan: “Hand me your Physic textbook.” Her only concern now was how to return, not those people unrelated to her.
Yin Xu Dong: “…” Could he diagnose her as beyond medicinal help?
At that moment, Jiang Hui Lin dashed in and pulled at Qin Ke Xuan’s arm. Tears glistening in her eyes, she said: “Xuan Xuan you know who kidnapped Xiao Cheng right? Where is he now, can you tell ah yi*? I’m begging you!”
* 阿姨 = ah yi; aunt (referring to step-mother here)
Qin Ke Xuan extracted her arm from Jiang Hui Lin’s grip, telling her blandly: “You’ve got the wrong person, I don’t know.”
“You know, you know, those kidnappers’ ransom was exchanging Xiao Cheng for you, you definitely know them!” Jiang Hui Lin was already submerged in tears.
Yin Xu Dong upon hearing this frowned, what was wrong with this women? Even if she was beside herself with worry, she shouldn’t be saying things like this. It sounded as though Xuan Xuan was the one who had gotten the people to kidnap her son. “Eh, you shouldn’t accuse people baselessly, Xuan Xuan didn’t do anything, how would she know the kidnappers?”
Qin Shu Hua started towards them, his face falling. Officer Song followed tightly after. Qin Shu Hua shouted at Jiang Hui Lin in fury: “You don’t need to add to the commotion*.”
* 不说话没人当你是哑巴 = (lit.) even if you don’t talk, no one will think you’re a mute; (fig.) you don’t need to add to the commotion; in other words, Qin Shu Hua was implicitly telling Jiang Hui Lin to talk less or to please shut up.
Officer Song also said: “Mrs Qin, if it had really been Qin Ke Xuan who had ordered people to kidnap your son, then the kidnappers would have no business wanting to exchange Qin Ke Xuan for your son.”
Jiang Hui Lin looked at everyone carefully and said weakly: “I didn’t mean it that way, I just, I just panicked all of a sudden. Xuan Xuan, you, you won’t blame your ah yi right…”
“Doesn’t matter.” They could say what they want, Qin Ke Xuan would not take their words to heart at all anyway.
Officer Song coughed lightly. “However, we’d like to have your help in assisting us to locate the kidnappers.”
Qin Ke Xuan snorted. In the end, they still wanted to drag her down. She got even more annoyed just thinking about how there would be no end to this commotion, and how the two nuisances wouldn’t leave her side as long as the case was not resolved. “What is it, how are you going to locate the kidnappers?”
“We are planning to falsely accept the kidnappers’ ransom, which is using you to exchange for your brother…”
This Officer Song had very obviously not discussed with Qin Shu Hua regarding this. Qin Shu Hua rejected it immediately: “No way! I will not agree to this!” Be it son or daughter, they were both his child, how could he sacrifice his daughter for his son’s safety?! Moreover, he had owed his daughter way too much.
Officer Song wanted to persuade Qin Shu Hua. Qin Shu Hua waved his hand, cutting him off: “You don’t need to say a word more, I won’t agree to this even if I die.”
Officer Song could only shut his mouth and planned to talk to Mrs Qin to have her to communicate with her husband regarding this.
Qin Ke Xuan standing at the side asked: “You disagree, then do you have any better way?” All she wanted to do now was to quickly resolve this and quickly have these nonsense people out of her place.
Qin Shu Hua massaged his facial muscles that were taut with stress, vexed, “No…”
“Then move aside.” Qin Ke Xuan said very impolitely, then tilted her chin in Officer Song’s direction, “You, yes, you, tell me about your plan. If it’s useless, then move it.”
Qin Shu Hua was beyond ill at ease, but could not help but braced himself, saying: “Xuan Xuan, you’re still young, let the adults handle these sort of stuff. You just need to be good and listen to instructions.”
Qin Ke Xuan shot him a disdainful look, “It’ll be too late to wait for you guys to finish discussing the solution. Exactly how intent are you on saving your son?”
“Of course I want to save him, but you…” Qin Shu Hua nodded his head, as expected.
“Then don’t sprout nonsense. Don’t disturb me, just be good and just stay at home to wait for news.” Qin Ke Xuan stood up and gestured at Officer Song with her eyes for him to catch up before walking out, leaving behind a house of people rendered speechless by her “be good and just stay at home”. Exactly who was the father and who was the daughter?
The well-trained Officer Song reacted immediately and hurriedly caught up with the badass Qin Ke Xuan while murmuring to himself.
Yin Xu Dong wiped away his non-existent sweat, sighing mentally. The almighty Shi Fu had proven herself with her ever-prevailing almighty dominance.
Officer Song followed Qin Ke Xuan to the living room on the first floor. There was another police officer who was trying to get into contact with the kidnappers. Qin Ke Xuan leant against the doorframe, asking Officer Song: “Your plan.”
No matter how Officer Song looked, he found it absurd, for no matter how he looked at her right now, she looked like a senior officer. Was that still a high school undergraduate? How was it possible that just a mere look from her was able to render him, someone who had experienced the darkest depths of the society for so long, uncomfortable, with chills down his spine?! Was she really still a kid?!
“Oh, it’s like this. The kidnappers had demanded you as the ransom in exchange for Qin Peng Cheng. We were planning to pretend to accept their ransom, and then place a tracker on you, then we’ll be able to locate their lair.”
“Then hurry prepare and start.”
Officer Song took out a necklace-styled tracker and a pair of earrings that functioned as wiretap and gave it to Qin Ke Xuan. Only after Qin Ke Xuan put on the necklace did Officer Song realise her ears were not pierced, “Your ears are not pierced, hold on, I’ll change it for you.”
“No need.” Qin Ke Xuan pressed the pair of earrings onto her earlobes.
Upon seeing this sight, Officer Song winced. The girl was sure cold-blooded, even to herself. “Xiao Hei, how’s it looking? Have you contacted the kidnappers?”
“Already contacted, Captain.” The policemen in charge of communication replied.
“Let me talk to them.” Officer Song took the phone.
“Hello.”
“You heard what we asked for? As we’ve said, have Qin Ke Xuan bring her phone and go to the place we instructed. Oh and if we discover that the police are following, don’t blame us for tearing the ticket* then.” After finishing his piece, the call ended.
* 撕票 = (lit.) tear the ticket; (fig.) kill the hostage
Officer Song slammed down the phone in anger. “That scoundrel!” This arrangement was entirely not a hostage exchange! They were clearly asking them to send in another hostage!
Qin Ke Xuan having heard their conversation took out her phone calmly. Looked like that person had some brains. “I’m going.”
“Aye? Are you just going like that? But they didn’t even agree to release your brother. You going would just be seeking death! And won’t that allow the kidnappers to kill two birds with a stone?” Officer Song rebutted firmly.
Officer Song ran out to stop her. “Don’t be impulsive!” Did she understand how dangerous a situation she was stepping into? She could lose her life!
Qin Ke Xuan shoved him away in annoyance, replying coldly, bloodlust tingeing her voice: “Can you get any more annoying? After I locate their den, it’ll be your job. If you continue being maudlin, then be ready to be disposed of.”
With that said, the metal door slammed closed with a loud “bang”.
Chapter 14 - Ready To Punch
After standing at the entrance of the mall, Qin Ke Xuan received a call, and the kidnappers instructed her to head to a certain place.
Oh, these kidnappers were pretty guarded huh. Qin Ke Xuan pocketed her hands and started towards the instructed direction. Just as she was going to reach soon, she suddenly stopped at a corner, threw her wiretap earrings on the ground and whirled around to walk back, turning to look at the bushes: “Come out.”
The bushes moved a bit, then she saw a head garlanded with leaves popping out. It was Yin Xu Dong. He jumped out, scratched his head, and smiled easily: “Hehehe, I was found out.”
“Go back.” Qin Ke Xuan was clear that this chap, who had barely learnt a hair’s worth of substance from her, would only be a burden if the kidnappers decided to follow her all the way. He would definitely be discovered.
Yin Xu Dong widened his eyes, and reproached, discontented: “I don’t want to! I won’t feel reassured if you were to go to such a dangerous place on your own! In any case, I’m still a guy, guys protecting girls is a matter of fact!” He thudded his chest to display his masculine mettle.
Qin Ke Xuan could not even be bothered to reply him and left a “follow if you’re not afraid of dying” and returned to the corner to pick up the wiretap earring she had left, except she no longer wore them this time, rather, she pushed it into her pockets.