Tomb raiding: A mere 20 is nothing!

On the way to the villa, Zhang Haixia explained the reason.

"Qi Qiu is the last single descendant of the Qi family of the Nine Gates. At a young age, he was proficient in Qimen Dunjia and was a very talented Feng Shui master. Because of this, he was targeted by someone."

"That man kidnapped Qi Qiu and took him to Russia to be an executioner, forcing Qi Qiu to help him set up a scheme to harm people. Now that the scheme is complete, Qi Qiu will naturally be silenced."

"And the person the murderer wanted to harm was the villa owner's eldest son."

"Ming Dynasty, you can use Qi Qiu as a bargaining chip to get the villa owner's help. After all, if you save Qi Qiu, you can find clues about the murderer."

Upon arriving at this point, Zhang Haixia let out a long sigh.

"Alas, this child is unfortunate. The murderer gave him many painful injections in order to force him to submit."

"Pain needles?" Shen Mingchao exclaimed in surprise, this didn't sound like a good thing.

"It's an injection administered near the brainstem. Its effect is to cause immense pain, which can drive a person insane."

Upon hearing this, Shen Mingchao paused in his steps.

She looked down at the back of the boy's neck, where there were many tiny needle marks.

It's not hard to imagine what Qi Qiu went through.

Shen Mingchao frowned, thinking to himself that this person was really unlucky, his situation was just too miserable.

"We've arrived at the Ming Dynasty; it's just ahead."

A European-style villa stood amidst the wind and snow, its large, intricately carved gate tightly locked, with only a few rays of light filtering through its windows.

Shen Mingchao first put Qi Qiu on the ground, then walked over and politely knocked on the door, but no one answered for a long time.

She had to keep hitting harder and harder.

Fortunately, her physical condition has improved dramatically, and even her strength has increased significantly.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to carry a boy who was about the same age as her for such a long distance.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

She pounded on the door so loudly that even the snow on the eaves was shaken off.

This commotion would wake even a pig that's been sleeping soundly.

The light coming through the window gradually brightened, and she vaguely heard faint footsteps coming from inside the door. The footsteps grew louder, and finally the door in front of her was pushed open.

The person who came was probably a waiter from this villa, and he rattled off a bunch of things that Shen Mingchao couldn't understand.

Her phone was off and she couldn't use a translator, so she had to shout into the room in a mix of English and Chinese, basically saying that her younger brother was freezing to death and begging for help.

"Help me! Please!"

Perhaps because her voice was loud enough, it didn't take long before she actually managed to call out the owner of the villa.

The elderly Russian woman approached slowly, with the composure of someone who was wealthy, and asked her in broken Chinese if she was Chinese.

Shen Mingchao kept nodding, feigning surprise: "Madam, you can speak Chinese! That's wonderful! Please save my brother. He told me to come here to find you before he lost consciousness, saying he knows who the murderer is."

"The murderer?"

"Yes, he said the murderer who killed us is the same person who tried to kill your eldest son."

As soon as Shen Mingchao finished speaking, the old lady, who had just looked kind, suddenly turned pale.

Her eldest son has indeed recently fallen seriously ill without any apparent cause, and doctors have been unable to find the reason. She suspects that someone has secretly poisoned him.

Shen Mingchao watched as the old lady's expression changed several times in just a few seconds, but she calmly suppressed it, put on a warm smile, and invited them into the house to talk in detail.

At that moment, Shen Mingchao knew that Qi Qiu could be saved.

*

Meanwhile, things were in complete chaos in Yucun.

After Kan Jian shouted those words, Zhang Qilin moved with incredible speed, rushing out like an arrow released from a bow.

The other people inside the house followed closely behind him.

On the way, Kan Jian tried to remain calm and explained the situation to everyone: "I was feeding San San cat food when a loud noise suddenly came from Ming Chao's room. San San also got angry and ran straight to Ming Chao's room, meowing and scratching at the door."

"I was afraid something had happened, so I went over and knocked on the door. A few minutes passed, but there was no sound from inside. I knocked on the door again and waited for a while, but still no one answered."

"In my panic, I pressed the handle, and to my surprise, the door opened automatically since it wasn't locked, but the room was empty! Then I saw a chair overturned and the window wide open!"

"I immediately sensed something was wrong, so I called her but couldn't get through. I then searched the neighborhood and asked several neighbors, but they all said they hadn't seen Mingchao!"

As Kan Jian was speaking, Wu Xie and his group arrived at the village house and bumped into Zhang Qilin, who had arrived earlier.

The young man in black had a taut jawline, a cold expression, and seemed to emanate a chilling aura. Noticing the gazes of the crowd, he uttered only two words: "No."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the group all became serious.

Wu Xie quickly took out his phone and dialed Shen Mingchao's number, but only a mechanical female voice answered.

The number you dialed is currently switched off.

He gripped his phone tightly, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably, a wave of panic washing over him.

The phone screen went dark and then was turned on again, over and over, until the fat man couldn't stand it anymore. He came over, forcefully took the phone away, grabbed Wu Xie's shoulder, and reminded him...

"Calm down! We can't be sure if the girl is really in trouble yet! She's not in Yuchun Village; she might have gone out. Her phone is off; it might be out of battery. Even if she was kidnapped, she couldn't have gone far in such a short time. In short, our most important thing right now is to find her as quickly as possible!"

The fat man hit the nail on the head.

Zhang Qilin left with the words "I'll go find it" and turned to leave. Zhang Haike and the others exchanged glances and followed behind their clan leader, intending to conduct a thorough search of Yucun.

"Boss, I'll take San San and go out to look for them too." Kan Jian patted Wu Xie's shoulder and was about to leave when his arm was grabbed.

Wu Xie said with a stern face, "I'll go too."

The loss of control was only temporary. Ten years of training had enabled him to suppress all the turmoil in the moment when his emotions surged, and temporarily become calm and composed.

The fat man raised his hand and called out, "Alright, let's split up. Damn it! If it really is a kidnapping, I'll tear that little brat to pieces!"

Time passed slowly, and the group found nothing. When they returned to the village house, they had to admit a heartbreaking truth—Shen Mingchao was indeed gone!

"Damn it, a perfectly healthy person just vanished like that?! We've searched everywhere, but we haven't found a trace of them. Could they have just disappeared into thin air?!"

The fat man spread his hands, looking both anxious and bewildered.

"Should we call the police?" Kan Jian suggested anxiously.

"It's not time yet, I can't report it." Wu Xie smoked his cigarette, his face extremely dark, and boundless regret welled up in his heart. With one accident after another, he should never have let her come to Yucun in the first place!

Finally, the Zhang family returned. They searched the area thoroughly, practically digging three feet into the ground, but found not a single clue. If the murderer hadn't hidden himself well, it could only mean that Shen Mingchao was no longer in Yucun.

"Naive, what do we do now?" the fat man asked.

It's too late to call the police.

Wu Xie forced himself to calm down, and suddenly thought of someone. He immediately took out his phone and made a call.

"Find Xiaohua. Ming Dynasty mobile phones have location tracking systems, and the Xie family's technicians should be able to track her location."