Xia Ran could only hang up the phone again, her hand instinctively touching the red string on her other hand, desperately praying in her heart.
I really don't know what to do if something happens to the child.
When Gu Zheng arrived, he found Xia Ran squatting in a corner at the entrance of the residential area. Just by looking at him, he could see the helplessness and fear emanating from him.
Gu Zheng felt a pang of heartache; he didn't know if this plan was even correct.
Chapter 405 Complete Disappearance
To make Xia Ran so worried just to get rid of Gu En, isn't he being a terrible person?
Gu Zheng sighed, composed himself, and rolled down the car window.
"Aran."
Upon hearing the sound, Xia Ran immediately looked up and stood up when she saw Gu Zheng. However, because she had been squatting for so long, her vision went black for a moment when she stood up.
If he hadn't grabbed the wall in time, he probably would have fallen to the ground.
When Gu Zheng saw this scene in the car, his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He immediately unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car in a panic.
"Aran."
He helped Xia Ran up, and this time Xia Ran had neither the time nor the mood to tell him not to touch her.
"Get in the car quickly, I have something to tell you, hurry up," Xia Ran said, her eyes red.
He could hold back just now, but now he couldn't. He didn't know why, but seeing Gu Zheng made him lose all his composure.
Gu Zheng pursed his lips, filled with regret. He should never have carried out this plan.
If Gu Zheng knew what would happen next, he would probably regret it a thousand times more than he does now.
"Okay, get in the car. Don't get excited, just tell me what's on your mind."
"We can't slow down!" Xia Ran yelled at Gu Zheng, opened the passenger door, and got in.
Gu Zheng could only quickly walk to the driver's seat. As soon as he got in the car, he saw that Xia Ran looked like she was about to cry.
"My child has been kidnapped. Someone messaged me saying my child has been kidnapped and that no one else should know, only you and I can go. Please check the address. What should we do next?"
Xia Ran handed her phone to Gu Zheng, intending to bite her tongue again to clear her head, but found that her tongue was already bitten raw and painful to the touch.
Gu Zheng took the phone and glanced at it, his face serious.
"Then let's go take a look."
Xia Ran didn't even notice anything amiss with Gu Zheng's emotions, and simply said,
"Go quickly, I'm afraid something might happen to the child."
His hands were trembling. Gu Zheng handed the phone to Xia Ran, stepped on the gas, and headed towards the address.
It was an abandoned factory in the suburbs in the 1970s, abandoned for many years, next to a large river.
Setting the location there really meant that nobody would notice it.
Xia Ran's head throbbed with pain. "Since that person knows our relationship, they must know us. But I've thought about it for a long time and I still don't know who would be by my side. Do you have any enemies?"
He had thought it over carefully. He had no enemies, so it could only be Gu Zheng's side.
"No." Gu Zheng calmed his heartache for Xia Ran, thinking that since things had already started, there was no point in backing down. He would continue playing his part and then make it up to Xia Ran properly after it was over.
"No? Then who could it be?" Xia Ran was completely puzzled. "If he wanted money, why didn't he just tell us how much he wanted? He just told us to come over, but he didn't say how much he wanted, and he didn't make any demands."
"Don't be afraid, you'll know everything once it's over. I won't let anything happen to the child."
Hearing this, Xia Ran suddenly felt something was amiss. He turned to look at Gu Zheng and asked,
"Why are you so calm? Aren't you worried at all that something might happen to the child?"
Gu Zheng paused for a moment, realizing that he had probably given himself away, and he made his expression turn cold.
"There's no use in being anxious now. We can only wait until we get there to figure things out. If we're anxious now, do you think the child will be alright?"
Xia Ran paused for a moment, then pursed her lips and remained silent.
Indeed, what Gu Zheng said was true. There was no use in being anxious now; everything could only be discussed once we got there.
It takes more than half an hour to get from here to the abandoned factory. Right now it's rush hour, with kids getting out of school and people going to and from get off work. A traffic jam could extend the journey to more than an hour.
Xia Ran grew increasingly anxious. "Is there any other route that's faster? What if something happens to the child after all this time?"
He had barely finished speaking when his phone beeped with a message notification. He eagerly picked it up and saw that it was from the kidnapper.
"Are you coming or not? If you don't come, I'm throwing this child into the river!"
Upon seeing this message, Xia Ran's face turned pale instantly. She instinctively sat up straight and replied to the message with trembling hands.
"We're already on our way, but there might be traffic, so please don't do anything to the child. Also, please tell us what you need at once, and we'll do whatever you ask. Just please don't hit the child."
Although Gu Zheng was driving, he was keeping a close eye on Xia Ran at all times. So when he saw Xia Ran like this, he knew that Gu En must have sent Xia Ran some message that had frightened her like this.
"What's wrong? Did the kidnappers send another message?"
"Yes, they messaged us again, asking why we haven't arrived yet. Gu Zheng, will the child be alright?"
Xia Ran gripped his phone tightly. No matter how hard he tried to calm himself down, he was still in a panic.
"No, they must have had a purpose in taking the child away. We haven't gone there yet, and they haven't achieved their goal, so they won't do anything to the child. The child is their only trump card to threaten us."
Upon hearing Gu Zheng's last words, Xia Ran felt as if something had suddenly come to mind; he felt that Gu Zheng's words sounded somewhat familiar.
The child is his only trump card that he can use to threaten us...
This sentence reminded him of someone.
"Gu En. Gu Zheng, do you think this person might be Gu En?" Xia Ran suddenly looked at Gu Zheng.
Gu Zheng didn't expect Xia Ran to guess, but he still frowned and looked like he didn't know what to say.
Just as he was about to say it was possible, Xia Ran suddenly started talking to herself again.
"No, it can't be him. No matter what, he is the child's biological father. Although I don't know why he abandoned the child back then, how could a father use a child like that? Yes, it can't be him. I'm just overthinking it."
Xia Ran sat up straight again, realizing that she must have been stupid to say those words.
Even if Gu En wanted to use the child to ask them something, she could just go directly to them. How could she possibly do something like kidnapping a child?
But what Xia Ran didn't know was that some people were just that ruthless, willing to disregard all consequences for their own desires.
After hearing Xia Ran's words, Gu Zheng sneered inwardly. Gu En was far more shameless than Xia Ran had described. A person like Gu En did not deserve to be called a father.
As an hour was about to pass, Xia Ran became increasingly restless.
"No need to rush, it's a ten-minute walk from here, and the rest of the road is deserted, so there won't be any traffic jams."
"Mm." Xia Ran nodded. Winter nights get dark quickly; it was already dark by six o'clock.
Especially since this area consists of abandoned factories, almost no one comes here, making it look desolate and not even like the edge of a city.
Gu Zheng was right. There was indeed no one or no cars passing by for the next ten minutes, and it really did take about ten minutes.
"Why is nobody here? Is this the address?" Xia Ran got out of the car and looked around. She found it was completely dark, without a single light.
"Call that person and ask."
“I just called him, but he didn’t answer. He said if I called again, he would be rude to the child.”
"Then send him a message saying that we have arrived. Maybe they are observing whether we have brought any people with us."
Xia Ran nodded and then sent the message.
This time, the message wasn't answered as quickly as before.
"What should we do? He hasn't replied to our messages." Xia Ran grabbed Gu Zheng's wrist.
Gu Zheng grasped Xia Ran's hand in return, his brows furrowed, also somewhat puzzled by the current situation.
However, he was the one who found those people, so there's no problem with the child's safety.
"Let's wait a bit longer; perhaps they're testing us."
Xia Ran looked anxiously at the dark surroundings, now only illuminated by Gu Zheng's car headlights.
He didn't care that Gu Zheng was holding his hand; he was only thinking about checking the surrounding environment for any trace of other people.
As soon as Gu Zheng finished speaking, a powerful light appeared in front of them, looking like a flashlight.
After shining the flashlight twice ahead, a house not far away turned on its lights.
"Someone's here!" Xia Ran shouted. Then he saw a tall man walking towards him.
The man had a horizontal scar on his face, making him look menacing.
"Come with me," the man said calmly.
Xia Ran and Gu Zheng exchanged a glance, then followed the man.
Xia Ran really wanted to ask where the child was, but the man walked too fast, and they didn't have time to ask. They could only follow the man into the dilapidated factory.
Upon entering, he saw an unexpected person.
"Gu En? What are you doing here? Did you really kidnap the child? Where is the child?" Xia Ran blurted out.
The factory exterior was still quite dilapidated, but the interior looked like it had been cleaned up. Although it was still run-down, it was still passable.
Gu En sat on a plastic chair to the side, surrounded by about a dozen tall, burly men who looked like thugs.
Faced with Xia Ran's questioning, Gu En simply chuckled and asked,
"What? You actually doubted me?"
"What exactly do you want to do?" Xia Ran didn't answer Gu En's question at all. "Where is the child? Where is the child? How could you, as the child's biological father, do such a thing to the child?"
After learning that Gu En had kidnapped the child, Xia Ran felt even angrier and more furious.
He just couldn't understand how Gu En could do such a thing.
Gu En sneered, "Why can't I? My biological father? Do you think I am? I'm just a father who can't be acknowledged, whose children can't even call out to him. What's the point of being a father like that?"
"Oh right, and Gu Zheng, didn't you say you were going to give the child back to me? Didn't you say you didn't want the child anymore? Then why did you come here? What are you doing here?"
Xia Ran glanced at Gu Zheng, unable to believe that Gu Zheng would say something like not wanting children.
Gu Zheng didn't look at Xia Ran, but only at Gu En.