Chapter 64: Abducted

The day-and-night journey finally came to an end as the train pulled into the Shenzhen Railway Station.

Following the crowd out of the station, Ye Fan and his two companions felt a momentary sense of disorientation.

"Ye Fan, where are we heading?"

Pushing her suitcase, Li Yaoyao had a thin layer of sweat glistening on her forehead.

Situated in the Lingnan region, Shenzhen still enjoyed temperatures of around ten-plus degrees Celsius in December, making it much warmer than Binjiang Province. Back on the train, Ye Fan’s suit had been blown to shreds by a gunman, leaving him wearing only a shirt—a stroke of luck that kept him at just the right temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.

However, Li Yaoyao and Zhang Tielan were still wearing their cotton-padded jackets, sweating profusely from the heat.

Ye Fan had originally intended to go to Huaqiangbei. At this time, Huaqiangbei was home to numerous electronics factories, and he planned to go there to see if he could find distribution channels for digital watches.

Just as he was about to find someone to ask for directions, a voice called out from behind him.

"Brother Ye!"

Turning around, Ye Fan saw Zhang Chunxun and Qiao Wei walking toward him.

Somehow, Qiao Wei had caught wind of Ye Fan’s brave fight against the thugs last night, leading to a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree shift in his attitude. Not only had he apologized to him publicly on the train, but he also kept addressing him deferentially as "Brother Ye."

Ye Fan didn't hold a grudge. Qiao Wei was only seventeen or eighteen years old and had spent a few years roaming the streets, picking up various underworld habits; there was simply no point for Ye Fan to get upset with such a kid.

Lacking worldly experience, a few hard lessons from society would soon straighten him out!

Seeing Ye Fan and the others standing there, Zhang Chunxun asked, "Mr. Ye, where are you planning to go?"

"To Huaqiangbei!" Ye Fan answered honestly. "As you know, I have a batch of electronic watches here, and I'm planning to find a partner there to jointly develop the mainland market."

"What a coincidence!"

Zhang Chunxun said with a smile, "Didn't I mention this to you earlier? Qiao Wei's older brother, Qiao Bin, is a manager at Kangnan Electronics, and Kangnan Electronics happens to be located in Huaqiangbei. Why don't we all go together?"

Hearing that Ye Fan was heading in the same direction, Qiao Wei brightened up as well. "Brother Ye, come home with me! I want to learn martial arts from you!"

Ye Fan was left speechless. At that moment, he saw a Crown sedan pull over to the side of the road. A young man in his late twenties, dressed in a business suit and bearing a striking, eighty-percent resemblance to Qiao Wei, stepped out of the car.

"Brother! Over here!"

Qiao Wei waved enthusiastically. Spotting him, Qiao Bin walked over accompanied by a driver.

"Professor Zhang!" Qiao Bin first shook hands with Zhang Chunxun, then picked up his luggage, gesturing for Qiao Wei to follow.

Zhang Chunxun chuckled, pulled Qiao Bin back, and said, "Don't rush off yet. This is Mr. Ye, an overseas Chinese compatriot returning to his homeland. We're heading the same way—he's also going to Huaqiangbei. Why don't we all go together?"

"Oh?" Qiao Bin looked at Ye Fan, set down the luggage, and stepped forward to shake his hand.

"Mr. Ye, a pleasure to meet you!" Being smooth and worldly, Qiao Bin noticed that Ye Fan had three people with him and suggested, "How about Mr. Ye and the two young ladies take my car, and we'll hail another taxi?"

"There's no need to trouble Mr. Qiao with the expense! We have our own car coming!" Ye Fan replied with a smile. Qiao Bin was there to pick up his teacher and younger brother; how could an outsider like him casually commandeer their ride?

Besides, he was masquerading as a returned overseas Chinese, after all. If he arrived in Shenzhen without even a car to pick him up and drop him off, it would inevitably cause him to lose face.

Therefore, he put up a front and claimed that a car was already on its way to meet him.

Seeing Ye Fan say this, Qiao Bin didn't insist further. He handed over a business card and said, "Here is my contact information. Just give me a call if you need anything!"

With that, he got into the car and drove away.

"Ye Fan, where on earth do we have a car waiting to pick us up?"

Li Yaoyao walked up to Ye Fan and asked with a puzzled look.

Helpless, Ye Fan replied, "We'll just have to go find a car ourselves, of course!"

Ye Fan led Li Yaoyao and Zhang Tielan toward the exit of the railway station plaza, where a line of taxis was parked.

In January 1980, Shenzhen saw the appearance of its first taxi company, and soon, more cabs followed—some belonging to legitimate companies, and others operating as unlicensed gypsy cabs.

Ye Fan didn't have much money here; what he had was given to him by Li Yaoyao's father, and he didn't dare spend it recklessly. So, he herded them into an unlicensed taxi that looked reasonably clean.

The driver turned out to be quite talkative. Noticing they were newcomers to Shenzhen, he enthusiastically began recounting local legends.

Stories of people making overnight fortunes through entrepreneurship, or smugglers sneaking off to Hong Kong and returning draped in glory—tales that left Li Yaoyao and Zhang Tielan wide-eyed with wonder.

Ye Fan, however, found it rather dull. Shenzhen was only just taking its first steps at this point; once heavyweights like Mou Qizhong and Shi Yuzhu rose to prominence, those would truly be fascinating stories!

At this moment, Mou Qizhong had probably just resigned from his public post to start a business, while Shi Yuzhu had likely just entered university after ranking first in his entire county, right?

Still, this world retained certain differences from his original one; perhaps Mou Qizhong and Shi Yuzhu didn't even exist here.

As the driver chatted on, the scenery outside the window gradually grew desolate.

Ye Fan had no idea what Shenzhen looked like in this era; initially, he assumed it was just vacant land awaiting development, but gradually, he began to feel that something was amiss.

"Driver, is this the way to Huaqiangbei?"

He couldn't help asking.

"Yeah!" the taxi driver replied with a mouthful of Cantonese-accented Mandarin, chuckling, "I took a shortcut for you!"

Ye Fan was speechless. A shortcut, my foot. Looking at this godforsaken place, calling it a detour would be putting it mildly!

Just as he was about to retort, the sound of a police siren suddenly wailed from behind.

The taxi driver glanced into the rearview mirror, his expression shifting slightly, and slammed his foot down on the accelerator with a roar!

The car surged forward abruptly. Ye Fan hurriedly grabbed the handle to steady himself and sharply demanded, "What are you doing?!"

"Nothing, nothing!" the taxi driver said with a nervous smile while driving. "Traffic police catching unlicensed cabs. I'll shake them off in a second!"

Ye Fan was speechless. He turned to look at the two people in the back seat: Li Yaoyao's pretty face had turned pale with fright, and she was gripping the rear seat handles for dear life, while Zhang Tielan looked composed, holding onto the handle with one hand and supporting Li Yaoyao with the other.

"Damn punk! Still chasing us!"

Seeing the traffic police hot on their heels and refusing to give up, the taxi driver violently jerked the steering wheel, turning onto an unpaved, unfinished road.

"Driver, watch your safety!"

"Why don't you just stop the car! Safety first!"

Ye Fan shouted repeatedly, but the driver completely ignored him.

With the vehicle moving at such a high speed, Ye Fan didn't dare to rashly interfere with the driver, so he could only pray in his heart that nothing would go wrong.

Unfortunately, fate is often cruel. They hadn't driven much further when the road ahead abruptly ended. The car bounced onto a dirt path, struck a large rock, and launched directly into the air!

"Ah!"

A piercing scream pierced the air, immediately followed by a heavy splash as the vehicle plunged into the water!

The car had actually flown into the sea!

"Damn it!" Ye Fan's head spun from the impact, and the driver had already slumped over the steering wheel, completely unconscious.

"Are you guys okay?"

He struggled to turn around and saw that Li Yaoyao was mostly unhurt, though Zhang Tielan had a gash on her head. Blood was staining her hair, which stuck to her forehead as she frowned deeply in pain.

Li Yaoyao said in a panic, "Just now, Sister Xiaolan pulled me into her arms; otherwise, I would have been the one hurt!"

Ye Fan looked gratefully at Zhang Tielan and said, "Thank you."

"It's nothing. My duty is to protect Yaoyao!"

Zhang Tielan replied, then pointed at the car window. "The car has fallen into the water. What do we do?"

In this era, ordinary people didn't even own cars, let alone know how to execute emergency procedures when a vehicle goes underwater.

"Don't panic!" Ye Fan looked at the driver and delivered several sharp slaps across his face.

"Damn it, wake up!"

After a few slaps, the middle-aged driver finally regained consciousness in a daze. His darkened face first registered confusion, which quickly morphed into panic, and finally ended in tears!

"We're finished! We're totally finished!" he wailed loudly. "This car was bought with a bank loan! It went into the water before I even managed to pay off the principal!"

"You've still got the heart to worry about your car at a time like this?!"

Ye Fan retorted bitterly and tried to push open the door, but it wouldn't budge at all. The car was surrounded by water, creating a pressure differential between the inside and outside that made it impossible to push open. Breaking the window was their only option.

Watching the car slowly sinking, Ye Fan unbuckled his metal belt buckle and smashed it fiercely against a corner of the side window.

"Hey, hey, don't smash my car!"

Seeing this, the driver hurried forward to stop him, but Ye Fan pushed him away with a wave of his hand. "If I don't smash the window, do you want to drown in here?!"

"Aren't the police coming? They'll be here to rescue us soon!"

"There's no time!"

Ye Fan snapped back impatiently, then turned to Li Yaoyao and Zhang Tielan in the back seat. "Get ready to hold your breath! As soon as I smash the window open, we're swimming out!"

With that, he exerted all his strength. With a loud *bang*, the front windshield shattered instantly!

Ye Fan kicked hard a few times to clear away the remaining glass shards of the windshield, then led the three of them climbing outward.

The roof of the car was still floating on the water's surface, and the four of them scrambled onto it, waiting for the police rescue.