Chapter 34: Near Death
“F*ck! You f*cking dare to play me!” Gu Xinglin shrieked hysterically.
Immediately, the whip rained down like a storm.
As if that wasn’t enough to vent his anger, he reached out and ripped Qin Wan’s shirt open.
The whip lashed directly onto bare flesh.
Qin Wan bit his teeth together forcefully from the pain. He felt like he was about to reach his absolute limit.
He had already pushed Gu Xinglin to say enough, exposing his flaws and revealing his true intentions.
Gu Xinglan’s listening device definitely had a recording function.
Back in the day, the eldest young master of the Sheng family had installed something similar in his room, so he understood how they worked.
Therefore, this conversation would serve as evidence of Gu Xinglin framing Gu Xinglan.
It should be useful to Gu Xinglan.
Qin Wan thought that by giving Gu Xinglan this helping hand, perhaps he would show some mercy and spare him and Rong Yi.
But right now, with the deed done, he didn’t know how to get himself out of this situation.
He had no idea when Gu Xinglan would show up to save him.
All he knew was that if he didn’t show up soon, he was going to be whipped to death.
The material of this whip was somewhat similar to the one the eldest young master of the Sheng family used on him many years ago.
At this moment, his body felt as if boiling oil had been poured over it, burning fiercely, with the agonizing pain of his skin and flesh being torn apart.
Gu Xinglin, in his blind rage, showed no intention of stopping the whip in his hands.
It was as if he was pouring all the resentment and hatred he harbored toward Gu Xinglan into this act.
Qin Wan’s consciousness grew increasingly hazy.
He no longer had the strength to scream; the extreme pain only translated into faint moans between his lips and teeth.
Just as he could no longer hold on, a massive crash echoed from the darkness in the distance.
It sounded as if the main door had been smashed open.
Following that, the chaotic sound of footsteps rushed toward them.
Right before Qin Wan’s eyelids fluttered shut, he saw Gu Xinglan’s handsome but deathly pale face.
Gu Xinglan rushed in front of Qin Wan, pulled out a Beretta Model 97, and fired three consecutive shots at the iron chain suspending his hands high above.
The built-in silencer effectively reduced the noise, producing only a few very low, muffled thuds.
The chain snapped. Freed from his restraints, Qin Wan’s limp body instantly slid into Gu Xinglan’s embrace.
Gu Xinglan wanted to hold him tightly, but he was afraid of aggravating his wounds.
For a moment, he was entirely at a loss for what to do.
“Qin Wan, are you okay?” His gaze tightly locked onto the boy’s deathly pale, sweat-drenched little face.
His eyes were filled with absolute panic, his voice trembling slightly.
It was an expression Qin Wan had never seen on his face before.
“Did you… hear everything?” Qin Wan let out an extremely small, weak voice.
Gu Xinglan nodded. “I heard.”
“Did you… record it?”
“Mn.”
“Good…” Qin Wan smiled.
A smile carrying a hint of relief.
Immediately after, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
“Qin Wan, Qin Wan!” Gu Xinglan called out. He picked him up in his arms and strode out the warehouse doors.
Looking at the quiet, blood-soaked person in his arms—with one wound on his ribs so deep the bone was visible—Gu Xinglan felt his heart spasm with pain.
Twenty minutes ago, he had driven his car at breakneck speed to this abandoned factory complex on the city outskirts.
He met up with Xiao Han.
Several men dressed in black lay on the ground, bleeding from their noses and mouths, unconscious.
Without needing to ask, he knew Xiao Han had already neutralized Gu Xinglin’s men guarding the perimeter.
“Gu Zong, should we go in now?” Xiao Han asked for instructions.
Gu Xinglan held a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, his lips pressed tightly together.
“Wait a little longer.”
He needed to wait until he had concrete evidence to pin down Gu Xinglin before going in.
Ever since he received intel a few days ago that Gu Xinglin had stubbornly set his sights on Qin Wan, he began setting up this trap.
Since Gu Xinglin refused to submit obediently, he was more than happy to use this opportunity to completely root out this thorn in his side.
When he discovered someone secretly tailing them yesterday, Gu Xinglan knew Gu Xinglin was about to make his move.
So he beat him at his own game, allowing Qin Wan to go out today.
He planned to play the classic ‘mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ to deliver a beautiful counter-kill against Gu Xinglin.
Based on his understanding of Gu Xinglin, he anticipated that the man—who always believed money could solve any problem—would definitely use material incentives to extract a false confession from Qin Wan.
He would offer Qin Wan some benefits to tempt him into biting him hard, strictly following his script.
As for Qin Wan, that little money-grubbing ghost, he might not be able to resist the temptation of wealth and just spout whatever nonsense was demanded of him.
But this entire process would be recorded.
Then he would possess direct evidence of Gu Xinglin framing him.
Bringing this to the Board of Directors, he would have the justification to demand the revocation of all of Gu Xinglin’s shares.
Following that, by handing over the videos he possessed of Gu Xinglin abusing minors to the police, Gu Xinglin would be thoroughly ruined.
Taking a step back, even if Gu Xinglin completely lost his mind, went off-script, and laid hands on Qin Wan, he was stationed right outside and could rush in immediately to rescue him.
Gu Xinglan felt that everything was perfectly within his control.
Sitting in his car, watching the little point of light on his phone screen moving slowly.
For some reason, his heart still involuntarily tightened.
Through the listening device, the voices on the other end were crystal clear.
He lit a cigarette and waited silently.
“Boss, we got him…”
“Kid, our boss is asking you questions. Answer honestly…”
Initially, Gu Xinglan was able to listen calmly.
But when he heard the dull thud of a bat striking and then Qin Wan’s agonizing scream, he instantly panicked.
Gu Xinglin had truly jumped the gun in his desperation. He completely skipped the bribery phase and recklessly resorted to extreme violence against Qin Wan.
Hearing Qin Wan cursing with a trembling voice and begging weakly for mercy, Gu Xinglan felt as if his heart was being tightly crushed by an invisible hand.
He knew he couldn’t wait any longer.
It was true he wanted evidence against Gu Xinglin, but he absolutely could not allow Qin Wan to be harmed.
Just as he was about to rush in according to the signal’s location to save him, he was horrified to discover that the tracking dot on his phone screen had vanished without a trace.
This factory complex was massive, with layers upon layers of buildings and twisting, turning corridors inside.
Without a precise location, rushing in blindly might mean not finding him even after an hour.
And storming in recklessly would alert the enemy.
There was no guarantee Gu Xinglin wouldn’t do something even more extreme to Qin Wan.
At this moment, the sounds of Qin Wan bitterly negotiating with the other party, followed by the sounds of him being tortured, continuously streamed through the earpiece.
It was perfectly clear.
Gu Xinglan was going mad with anxiety.
He immediately called the CEO of the mobile communications company.
When he learned that the wireless tracking signals had been jammed because a drone flight demonstration was about to take place nearby…
The blue veins on Gu Xinglan’s temples throbbed violently.
“Restore my tracking signal immediately, or you can forget about doing business in the Imperial Capital market ever again!”
The other party realized that this Xiao Gu Zong, who rarely showed emotion, was in a highly volatile state and dared not delay.
“Gu Zong, please don’t worry, give me the serial code of your tracker and I will arrange it immediately!”
Gu Xinglan found the code and read it to him.
After an agonizing five or six minutes of waiting, the little point of light finally reappeared on the phone screen.
Gu Xinglan didn’t waste a single second, leading his men to charge toward the tracker’s location.
Finally, in a warehouse in the factory’s basement, he found Qin Wan.
At this moment, the supercar was flying down the main road at breakneck speed.
Gu Xinglan left Xiao Han behind to handle the aftermath, while he rushed Qin Wan toward St. Ann Hospital.
Looking in the rearview mirror at the person curled up in the seat.
That palm-sized face was already an ashen gray, and his lips had lost almost all their color.
A dark red gash stretching from his right cheek down to his jaw and below his neck was particularly shocking to look at.
His soft black hair was a mess, several strands plastered to his temples by cold sweat.
Tiny, broken beads of moisture clung to his long eyelashes—it was impossible to tell if it was tears or sweat.
Gu Xinglan’s heart ached in continuous waves.
At this moment, he regretted it deeply.
He truly shouldn’t have let Qin Wan take this risk.
For the first time, Gu Xinglan felt doubt regarding his ability to orchestrate strategies and control the entire board.
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