Song Miaozhu's days were completely packed. Body training, studying the Secret Art of Paper Crafting, making paper garments, cursing the Japanese Ghost, and using spiritual power to nurture her little paper servants, paper soldiers, clothes, and spirit armor left her with barely a moment to spare.
Since she didn't plan on leaving home for a while, she reserved her midnight hours for a new batch of paper soldiers. The more paper soldiers, the better. If she had just a few more teams at Sanyuan River, the whole ordeal might have gone faster and smoother.
While Song Miaozhu kept herself busy, the kidnappers finally made it back to Guangcheng after much back-and-forth. The moment they set foot in the city, they all exhaled in relief.
Guangcheng might be dangerous for outsiders, but for people like them who dealt in shady business, it was oddly reassuring. Several days had passed since that terrifying night, and their fear had dulled a bit over time. Gathered together, the seven kidnappers began to feel a flicker of hope.
"Boss, do you really think that girl can figure out what we've done after we ran so far?" one of them asked.
"She's got something strange about her, that's for sure. We can't let our guard down. But we also can't keep letting her lead us around by the nose. If we don't push back, even if we find the one who put out the bounty, we might still end up dead."
"We should test her a little, see if she's really watching us—ah!"
Before the words were out, one of them suddenly doubled over, clutching his chest in pain.
"Old Third, you—ah!" The others barely had time to react before they were hit too.
The floor of the shabby rental apartment was soon covered with writhing figures, howling and begging for mercy.
"Auntie! We were wrong!"
"Please! No more stabbing!"
"We'll go find the guy for you, right now!"
Song Miaozhu, watching everything through her little paper servants, heard every cry clearly—but still gave them a proper lesson. She hadn't cursed them immediately only because it took a few minutes to locate their individual cursed paper dolls.
If it weren't for the fact that she still needed them to find the one who placed the bounty on her, she would've ended them on the spot. Now that they had fled back to Guangcheng, their deaths would have nothing to do with her. No one could trace it back to her.
No matter how they begged, the pain didn't ease in the slightest. Some of them thought they were going to die from the torment before it finally stopped. This time, they didn't dare hold onto any false hope. That witch really did know exactly what they were doing.
"Boss, let's just contact the guy who put out the bounty," one of them said through gritted teeth. "Tell him we caught the girl and ask him to meet up."
Anything was better than going through that agony again.
"Yeah," the leader agreed, clearly shaken. "I'll contact him now."
Song Miaozhu perked up with interest.
The leader fiddled with his phone, then read aloud, "He wants us to drop the girl off at an abandoned building on the outskirts at 1 a.m. Once he sees her, he'll transfer the money."
"That way he can avoid revealing who he really is."
"Looks like you're up, Old Seven."
"Huh?!"
...
At 1 a.m., Old Seven, disguised in new clothes with a hood over his head and something stuffed in his mouth, was tied up and tossed into the car. They drove toward the abandoned complex. He was dumped inside one of the buildings while one kidnapper drove off to make it look like they'd left. The rest of them hid inside, lying in wait.
Back at home, Song Miaozhu had just awakened the new batch of paper soldiers and was now focused on the images coming in from the little paper servants near the kidnappers. About half an hour later, another car pulled into the site.
Several men in black got out, entered the building, and ripped the hood off Old Seven's head. The moment they saw his face, they took three steps back.
"We've been duped!"
Old Seven was small and shifty-looking. Anyone could tell he wasn't the girl they were after.
"Kill him!"
Hearing that, the kidnappers waiting inside couldn't stay hidden.
Old Seven was just bait, not a sacrificial lamb.
The two groups clashed.
The one who had driven away quickly circled back.
"Bang!"
"They have guns!"
...
Though the kidnappers had the numbers, the men in black had firearms. The tide turned quickly. Some of the kidnappers died on the spot. Song Miaozhu watched with a chill down her spine.
Guangcheng really was a mess. They even had guns!
In the end, only the leader survived. Even the one who returned with the car, Old Five, was killed by someone waiting in the black-clad group's vehicle. Their cursed paper dolls turned to ash.
Some of the little paper servants fled through the ghost shop's storage system. One latched onto the surviving leader, another snuck into the black-clad group's car, and a third managed to cling to the sole of the lead man's shoe. The vehicle left the abandoned site and headed toward the city center.
Song Miaozhu studied each of the black-clad men's faces. Not one of them was familiar. Eventually, the car reached a gated villa on the far side of the city and pulled into what looked like a private estate. Inside, the group brought the kidnapper leader into a room.
"Sir, it was a setup. The girl was fake. Everyone else is dead, he's the only one left."
"You!" The leader's eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at the man before him.
"It's him?" Song Miaozhu, viewing the scene from her little paper servant's perspective inside the leader's shirt, was stunned. "Isn't that Geng Qiushan, the renowned Paper Crafting Master from Guangcheng? He's the one behind this?"
She had even spent contribution points to attend one of his masterclasses through the SEIU.
His paper crafting skills were indeed top-notch.
What he specialized in was the traditional art that Song Miaozhu had always wanted to learn—using bamboo strips, silk paper, colored paper, and painted cloth to create intricate paper works.
His paper lions were lifelike to an uncanny degree.
But... "Why would he want to kidnap me?"
She couldn't think of any grudge between them. Though he had once provided the SEIU with so-called "Grade Four Paper Clothes," his name had never shown up on the underworld punishment lists.
Clearly, he had only traded with the SEIU, never directly involved himself in their missions. That was how he kept his name clean. Unlike Master Zhang Yunxi, who wasn't so lucky and ended up with a Level 2 Sin attached to his name.
"So you've been to Lingcheng?" Geng Qiushan said calmly. "Why did you come back so soon? Failed to capture her?"
The kidnapper leader glared at him, knowing full well he wouldn't walk out alive. If that witch in Lingcheng was weird, Geng Qiushan was a smiling tiger, feared and respected in both the underworld and legitimate circles. He had killed the leader's comrades, so why would he spare him?
Now, all he hoped for was that the witch really had power. If she and Geng Qiushan ended up destroying each other, it would at least be some comfort. So he wasn't going to say a word.
"No need to look at me with such hatred," Geng Qiushan said, tone still mild. "You all botched the job and tried to deceive me. There are rules. But if you can offer me something useful—like what exactly happened in Lingcheng with the Song family—I'll reward you generously. You can take it with you to the afterlife."
The leader spat at him.
"What kind of crap is that? What good is a reward if I'm dead?"