Chapter 157: Beijing, China

Beijing Capital International Airport - 4:35 AMAfter fifteen hours of constant flight, the private jet finally touched down at the airport.

Wang Jia...or rather Jian Long was the first to step out of the plane, followed by Zhao Ming and then the buff driver that carried the still sleeping Lillian.

She had woken up halfway through the flight, only to be given another doze of night-night juice before she could regain her bearings.

The trio walked towards the private arrivals section of the airport only to be stopped by a young officer who seemed like it was his first day at this job.

He had a small frown on his face as he saw the buff man carry Lillian, "S-Sir," he stammered, eyes darting to the unconscious woman, "I need to see identification. And—uh—her passport. Protocol requires—"

Jian Long didn’t even look at him.

Zhao Ming offered a thin, annoyed smile. "We are with Hua imports, we’ve got VIP clearance and our papers have already been filed."

The young officer gulped. "I still need to verify. P-plus I haven’t been told anything about a female passenger and—"

He swallowed again as his gaze moved to Lillian like it physically hurt to keep talking.

"It’s—uh—quite unusual to see someone unconscious. Is she all right? I just— protocol says— I have to confirm her identi—"

He stopped when a calm, authoritative voice spoke up from behind him.

"That won’t be necessary, Officer Liu."

A middle-aged man in a tailored security captain’s uniform approached, his expression seemed composed but one could clearly see that it was strained. He offered Jian Long a respectful bow.

"My apologies, Mr. Long. My subordinate is still learning and... a bit too dedicated to his job."

Officer Liu’s eyes widened, "captain, I just—"

"Enough," the captain snapped, then forced a smile as he turned back toward the group. "I will deal with the matter personally. Please, continue on your way and welcome back."

Nothing else was said as the three moved past them, but not before Jian Long patted the new officer’s shoulders and gave him a small smile.

The moment, the three men were out of their sights, the captain turned to officer Liu and said, "I thought you were asked to not question the VIPs that’ll arrive today?"

"Y-yes Captain, but they were carrying an unconscious lady, I—" officer Liu tried explaining but was cutoff by the captain.

"Listen kid," The captain placed a hand on his shoulders, "in our line of work, there are certain times you’ll just have to put your head down and turn a blind eye to certain things, this, is one of those things."

The more the captain spoke, the more officer Liu could see his dream shattering right before him.

The dream of being a Justice upholder.

Yes, this was a completely different jurisdiction but he still held the hope of serving justice to the best of his abilities...even if it was by making sure the people that came and left the airport were safe.

But right now?

Right now, he was being told to keep his head down and ignore a woman clearly in danger and there was nothing he could do about it.

According to the Captain’s words, Liu couldn’t even report to authorities since those people had their claws deep within China.

On the contrary, trying to serve justice would just put him in danger, so, as his Captain said, he was going to keep his mouth shut, head down and pray that the lady would remain safe.

The chance of that being incredibly slim.

"I guess my motivation was a fake one after all," he let out a self condescending smile as his boss walked away before walking back to his post.

***

Meanwhile, Jian Long and the other two walked into the an SUV that was waiting on them, the moment they walked out of the airport.

None of the staff questioned the fact that they were walking out of the airport with an unconscious lady in hand.

This wasn’t a new sight to them, plus they were being paid enough to keep their mouths shut, so that’s what exactly they did, keep their mouths completely shut.

Jian Long leaned back on the seat, closing his eyes, with Madam Xu’s puppy, Zhao, sitting right across him.

The two didn’t trust each other...well, that was after what happened just a few months back...when the underworld found out how embarrassed her team of hackers had been, especially after she had promised data from all major companies in the United States.

But Jian saw this as taking advantage of the opportunity given to you rather than betrayal.

Well, it wasn’t like he was interested in explaining himself, after all, he wasn’t the same Jian Long that needed funding just to build a cover anymore.

He now stood at the top with them all.

But the funniest part in all this was Madam Xu thinking that she was using him. Her plan was simple and only a fool wouldn’t see it.

She knew that the person behind OmniTech Corp was a dangerous one, if he was able to move his company from nothing to this level in just three months without anyone getting a whiff of his identity.

And by giving Jian the job of kidnapping Lillian, she hoped to let the owner destroy him while she got revenge for the embarrassment caused to her.

In the end, it was all a win in her favor. Google seaʀᴄh N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

But she forgot one thing, Jian was known as the Reaper for a reason. He had always been at least three steps of her throughout all this.

With her distrust for him, she sent Zhao with him to ensure the job was carried out properly.

Jian Long almost laughed at the thought.

As if Zhao Ming, a glorified errand boy in a suit, could ever monitor him.

Zhao pretended to scroll through his phone, though his eyes moved toward Jian every few seconds.

"Relax," Jian finally said, eyes still closed. "Your nervousness is starting to bother me."

Zhao stiffened. "I’m not nervous."

"Mm." He answered in a non-committal tone.

There was silence for a while before Jian added again, "if she’s asking about the hostage and out route, rest assured that I intend to deliver Lillian Hayes to her, so she shouldn’t worry."

"...."

As much as that was true, he was still going to be the first to get info on OmniTech’s, tech.

How?

Well that was the easy part, but for now, he’d let Madam Xu think everything was going exactly according to her plans.

He proceeded to lean back on the chair, before turning his head to the still knocked out Lillian.

He moved a stray strand of hair away from her face allowing him a clear view of it.

It was obvious enough that she personally knew who the owner of OmniTech Corp was, how long it would take before she gave away the information depending on how close they were.

Which he guessed was pretty close.

But still, if he ever got bored, he could just use that to get the info out of her. Well, it couldn’t exactly get the information from her but it would act as enough motivation.

"She looks so calm right now, don’t you think?" Jian commented, causing Zhao to raise his head from the phone and towards Lillian before his eyes went back to him.

"Madam Xu orders she not be harmed yet so I suggest you keep whatever thoughts you have far from her."

Jian just chuckled in response to his words, oh he really was having thoughts neither Madam Xu, nor Lillian would like but now wasn’t the time.

After OmniTech Corp and its owner was out of the picture, he could entertain them. For now, he just had to focus on pulling two pawns out of his board and make the most profit he ever had.

"Just wake me up when we get there," he said before closing his eyes finally, not really sleeping though, since he wasn’t that stupid.

***

Groan

Lillianlet out as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Oh, you’re finally up," she heard the voice coming from ahead her and she could vaguely make out the silhouette of the person.

But that wasn’t her focus right now...well, more like she couldn’t focus because of the pounding headache she felt.

But above all, she was hungry, extremely so infact, almost as if she hadn’t eating for a couple of days now....which wasn’t far from the truth

Slowly, she regained her bearings and the memories of what had had happened two days ago.

She remembered the attack, her dead driver and the men in ski masks that had taken her. She also remember sending a text to Ethan and for some reason, a wave of relief washed over her.

As long as he knew that she was in danger, she would be safe...which was pretty ironic of her to think, but she was exactly that far gone.

Her eyes finally adjusted and she could now clearly make out who stood before her.

"Hello, Lillian Hayes," the person said, "welcome to China."