Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
“Want something to eat?”
The man stood beside the fridge.
I had no idea what he intended. Cold sweat still covered my back.
When I didn't answer, he turned, paused for a second, and removed his mask.
My eyes widened.
Him.
The bullied boy from Class One, gloomy, his long hair covering most of his eyes.
Before, Từ Văn Hạo had dragged him into the restroom to torment him.
Now their positions were reversed.
Even his bearing had changed.
Lâm Quy set a cake on the table and poured a large glass of water.
“Relax. I only wanted to treat you to a meal. And ask when you're updating, Cửu Hòa.”
He knew.
He knew I was Cửu Hòa.
I stared, my heart pounding as though it might burst.
Survival instinct made me gulp the water and take a bite of cake.
At last, I felt a little more alert.
He offered me a piece of meat too.
I shook my head warily.
He shrugged and pointed at the sofa.
“You can rest. I'll take you back in about an hour.”
There was no time to think.
I would die either way, so I risked lying down and sleeping.
An hour later, he woke me.
Before taking me back, he suddenly leaned close and brushed crumbs from the corner of my mouth.
“There are plenty of cameras in the room. Keep up appearances.”
He smiled faintly.
“And there's a good show coming. Don't be afraid.”
He slipped a concealed earpiece into my ear.
Back in the room, I glanced around, chilled by his words.
Cameras everywhere?
At the same time, every LED display in Thanh Thành went dark.
Shopping malls. Schools. Streets.
A second later, they lit up again, showing surveillance footage from a locked room.
Students and passersby stared, thinking it was a program.
Then they saw Từ Văn Hạo crying for help.
At No. 1 High School, students crowded before the large screen.
“Aren't those the missing students?”
“Oh my God. They really have been kidnapped!”
“These kidnappers are crazy. They're livestreaming it!”
The police, who had been searching for three days, immediately investigated.
The Từ and Trình families hurried to the station in panic, using wealth and influence to demand an immediate rescue.
But the result surprised everyone.
“The hacking is too sophisticated. The signal has multiple encryption layers. It'll take at least five days to trace the IP.”
“Has the kidnapper made contact?”
“No!”
The officers were baffled.
“What does he want?”
Lâm Quy pushed me inside and gave me a look.
I understood at once, pretending to have been tortured as I collapsed in a corner.
Slowly, he brought in a jug of water and set it at the farthest point.
Từ Văn Hạo crawled toward it, desperate with thirst.
Lâm Quy kicked him away.
“Let's play a game,” he said coldly. “I'll ask questions. Whoever answers gets a glass.”
They had no choice.
Without water, they would die.
Trình Hàm swallowed.
“What questions?”
He smiled coldly.
“There used to be a student named Trần Mộng in Class One at Thanh Thành No. 1 High School. Excellent grades. After a competition, she suddenly left school.
“Why?”
Trình Hàm's eyes widened.
She stared at him in terror, as if seeing a ghost.
“Who are you? What do you know?”
He only smiled.
She shook her head.
“I'm not thirsty. I don't want it.”
Vương Hổ and Từ Văn Hạo were at their limits.
Vương Hổ crawled forward.
“I know! I know!”
He looked at her and swallowed.
“Trần Mộng was smart and pretty. In tenth grade, the school was choosing a student ambassador. They picked her at first...”
“Shut up!” Trình Hàm screamed.
“Then Trình Hàm paid us to take photos and threaten her into leaving school.
“She ordered everything. I only took the money. Someone else stripped her. Nothing to do with me!”
A hidden camera in the corner blinked faintly red.
His words landed like a bomb.
Students, pedestrians, and police watching the screens erupted.
“So that's why she left!”
“Trình Hàm's an animal. I used to think she was a goddess!”
“Money means you can do anything? Where's the justice?”
Silence settled over the station too.
The three families looked at one another with disgust.
The Trình family panicked.
“Does that matter? Saving my daughter is what matters! Hurry!”
The officer tracing the signal glanced up.
“Would you like to do it yourself?”
“Can't you turn off the screens?”
“I suggest you read this first.”
He handed them a letter.
“Thirteen LED screens. Switch one off, and I kill one person.”
With everyone at an impasse, the three families prepared to go home and arrange ransom money.
On the way, a couple stopped them.
Trần Mộng's parents had just learned the truth. Weeping, they demanded justice.
Trình Hàm's mother waved them off angrily.
The driver shoved them to the ground.
Passersby stopped to watch.
Then the driver saw the mall's LED screen and knocked frantically on the car window.
It showed photographs of Trình Hàm, Từ Văn Hạo, and Vương Hổ after severe beatings.
A message appeared.
“I want the perpetrators kneeling to apologize to their victims. You have one hour. Fail, and I'll kill someone at random.”
The three families went numb.
Vương Hổ drained his glass and collapsed.
Lâm Quy poured another, gesturing for the other two to continue.
Both turned away in fear.
Neither dared answer.
That evening, only we prisoners remained.
Trình Hàm and the others still refused to give up, searching for a way out.
I was so sleepy that I slept a little longer.
Suddenly, she flew into a rage, seized my hair, and swore.
“You bitch! Happy to see us like this, aren't you?”
Nearly strengthless, she still slapped me.
I shrank pitifully into the corner.
“Please... don't hit me...”
I glanced at the camera to make sure it had caught everything.
Just before she called Từ Văn Hạo over to hurt me worse, Lâm Quy's voice came through the earpiece.
“All right. The stream's off for now. You can fight back.”
I immediately caught her hand, twisted hard, and kicked her in the stomach.
She screamed and fell.
Từ Văn Hạo swore and started toward me.
I grabbed his hair and locked my arm around his neck, only letting go when he could barely breathe.
That day, I had eaten, drunk plenty of water, and slept.
They had gone three or four days without food or water.
Even the boys were weaker than me.
I looked at them coldly.
“We're all in a bad position. I suggest you leave me alone.
“You have no followers here. No money.
“Push me too far, and if I die, I'll take one of you with me.”
Holding her stomach, Trình Hàm cursed.
“You bitch...”
I smiled faintly.
“I have a suggestion. Next time he asks something, answer.
“What matters now is staying alive.
“Besides, whatever you say, only the people in this room will know. What difference does it make?”
She and Từ Văn Hạo exchanged a look.
Vương Hổ immediately agreed.
“Right. It's only us. So what if we tell the truth? We need to get out alive.”
They seemed convinced.
In their eyes, once they escaped, the kidnapper would be punished.
And I, a student with no one behind me, could be dealt with however they liked.
What was there to fear?
So the following day, when Lâm Quy returned, they were much calmer.
Their bodies were also close to giving out.
He brought bread and a jug of water.
Sitting comfortably outside the camera's view, he began.
“New question. Not long after Trần Mộng left school, a boy in the second year died. What was his name?”
Trình Hàm swallowed.
“Hạ... Hạ Diễn.”
His suicide by jumping from a building had made the Thanh Thành news.
But he had poor grades and few social connections. The death was quickly ruled a suicide.
The school paid compensation.
Lâm Quy offered bread and water.
She devoured them.
“Next question. How did he die?”
Từ Văn Hạo crawled forward weakly.
“He jumped. Suicide!”
“Tsk.”
Lâm Quy pulled the bread away and looked down at them, his eyes condemning the dishonesty.
A few seconds later, Từ Văn Hạo glanced at me and spoke quietly.
“I pushed him.”
9
Watching the LED screen, everyone fell silent.
His parents went white.
The school erupted.
“It wasn't suicide?”
“Oh my God. I never imagined he was like that...”
“Maybe he's just saying anything to save himself.”
“Right. He's handsome and polite.”
“Are you judging by his face?”
“That's only the outside. Who knows what's inside?”
“But he's rich and gets good grades. Why would he kill someone?”
10
“Next question. Why did you push him?”
He remained silent.
Now that he had eaten and drunk, he was more cautious.
Then Trình Hàm noticed something.
She looked at me suspiciously.
“Wait. You haven't eaten either. Why aren't you hungry? And yesterday, you were so strong...”
Before she finished, Lâm Quy and I exchanged a look.
I suddenly lunged, snatched the bread from Từ Văn Hạo's hand, and crammed it into my mouth.
Both stared.
“I don't know the answers,” I said around the bread, “but I'm starving! Hit me, then! Go on!”
Lâm Quy immediately grabbed my collar and dragged me out.
The other two hardly dared breathe.
I screamed for help until we were farther and farther from the room.
He let go, unable to suppress a small laugh.
“Aren't you afraid you'll really anger me?”
I met his eyes.
“Once you started asking those questions, I knew what you wanted.”
He shrugged.
He took me back to his private room, and we ate instant noodles.
He showed me a video of the three families kneeling before Trần Mộng's parents in a crowd.
His lips curved slightly.
He seemed very pleased.
We talked about my novel.
He said there was a flaw in my rainy-alley murder scene.
The rope around the body had been hemp, not nylon.
I paused.
“Why did you kill him?”
Leaning back, he shrugged.
“Remember the husband who reported his wife missing? On a rainy night, he tied her with hemp rope and threw her into the Tây Giang River.
“I only did to him what he'd done to her.
“But I didn't kill him.
“He's hanging beneath a culvert on the river. Someone brings him food every day to keep him alive.
“I've collected enough evidence of his murders. By now, the police should have it.
“Whether he lives until they find him is down to luck.”