Still dazed, Luo Qing didn’t notice someone was watching him—or more accurately, surveilling him.
From the moment he drove away from the abandoned factory, a car had been discreetly trailing him. Even as he wandered aimlessly, it clung stubbornly to his tail.
At one point, when Luo Qing began meandering unpredictably, his pursuers even wondered if they’d been made.
The man in the passenger seat kept his voice low. "We’re not blown. His speed hasn’t changed."
If they had been spotted, their target would’ve slammed the accelerator, desperate to shake them off.
A ruthless criminal like him wouldn’t care about traffic laws—wouldn’t even hesitate to mow down pedestrians.
Yet the car ahead obeyed every rule, driving with such meticulous precision it almost seemed… obedient.
Obedient?
The handsome man in the passenger seat smirked coldly. Trying not to draw attention, huh?
The driver, Xu Tao, frowned. "Then what’s his game? He’s been circling all day."
"Just keep following."
Soon, they got their answer. Luo Qing was hunting for his next victim. The two men watched as he approached a mother and daughter, their eyes turning icy.
Xu Tao moved to open the door, but the passenger grabbed his arm, his voice a frozen whisper.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
Before Xu Tao could answer, the man continued, tone grim. "We’ve spent three years tracking this syndicate. You know damn well that if you intervene now, it’ll all be for nothing."
Xu Tao slammed his fist against the steering wheel, his eyes reddening. "So we just let them get taken?"
Silence filled the car. No answer came.
"I can’t do it," Xu Tao choked out. "I can’t watch it happen right in front of me."
"Boss, please—let me go."
He turned to the passenger, pleading. "Abductions go wrong all the time anyway, don’t they?"
The man didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he recited calmly, "March 18, 2018, 4 PM—Old Li. November 19, 2019, 11 PM—Xiao Zhang and Lao Xiao. August 20, 2020, 5 PM—Lao Ji…"
With each name, Xu Tao’s fists clenched tighter, his vision blurring. He knew. These were their comrades—all killed by the very criminals they were trying to bring down.
Some of them didn’t even die as police officers, and even now, their names remain tarnished.
The man listed nearly a dozen names. When he finished, he stared blankly at Xu Tao and asked, "Do you want their deaths to become a joke?"
After speaking, the man no longer looked at Xu Tao. Instead, he turned his gaze out the window, his voice icy and detached. "Sit down."
"This is an order."
Xu Tao opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a single word. The two in the back seat shook their heads at him.
Life couldn’t be measured in numbers, but they were powerless.
If they acted recklessly, the victims wouldn’t just be these two—everything they had worked and sacrificed for would be ruined.
In the end, Xu Tao slumped back into his seat, defeated and disheveled, burying his face against the steering wheel, unwilling to look outside again.
The man called it an order, but his own gaze never left the scene outside. Given their roles, they had to consider the bigger picture.
But that didn’t mean they could only stand by and watch people get abducted.
The man took out his phone and typed a string of numbers. Just as he was about to send it, he froze.
Because it seemed… they had guessed wrong.
Due to the angle and distance, the four inside the car couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, but they could plainly see the woman hand the little girl to him—and the child even kissed him.
That was not how anyone would react to a stranger.
The group was stunned. What was going on? Weren’t they supposed to be traffickers?
This scene looked nothing like an abduction.
The man by the window in the back seat frowned, his voice full of confusion. "Are that woman and child his wife and daughter?"
No one could answer him because they were just as baffled. But if the woman handed the child over so easily, even if she wasn’t his wife, she had to be someone he knew.
This could very well be a breakthrough.
The handsome man said quietly, "Investigate that woman."
"Got it, boss."
The man immediately contacted someone to look into the woman and child. As soon as he sent the message, he received a new one.
He quickly relayed it to the man in the passenger seat. "Boss, Lao Qi sent word. This man’s name is Luo Qing. He has to abduct someone today—otherwise, his boss will sell him off to Myanmar."
No one would sympathize with a human trafficker. Xu Tao's eyes lit up at these words. "This might be a good opportunity."
Everyone grew excited because they all understood what Xu Tao meant—this could be the perfect chance to go undercover.
If one of their own was "abducted," they could infiltrate the enemy's ranks more effectively.
The handsome man thought the same.
However, they were a step too late. Just as they were preparing to act, the man had already set his sights on another target.
...Or rather, someone else had set their sights on him.
As absurd as it sounded, the man seemed to have been approached by someone.
***
After watching the mother and daughter walk away, Luo Qing completely gave up on targeting women and children. He began searching for a new mark.
Men were much stronger than women, and forcing an abduction might not work. He needed to pick the right target.
But before Luo Qing could choose, someone came to him willingly.
The young man was handsome and delicate, offering Luo Qing a polite smile—pure and innocent.
"Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the Lin Corporation on the main street?"
Luo Qing studied the boy in front of him, dressed in a school uniform. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, only slightly taller than Luo Qing himself, and didn’t seem particularly strong.
A high school student.
Luo Qing felt no desire to abduct him. He pointed the boy in the right direction and turned to leave.
Seeing this, the boy immediately grabbed Luo Qing’s arm, pleading pitifully, "Could you take me there?"
"I can’t find the way."
Luo Qing had no intention of guiding him. He just found the boy annoying. His own mission wasn’t even complete—why would he bother playing tour guide?
Irritated, he pulled his arm free and walked toward his car, clearly unwilling to engage further.
The boy watched the cold retreating figure, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes—but in the next second, his expression returned to its pristine innocence.
He blocked Luo Qing’s path again, eyes full of desperation. "I have a terrible sense of direction. I’ve been lost for hours. Please, just take me there?"
"I can give you money."
Luo Qing wasn’t short on money—very few in his line of work were. But in the end, he still took the boy with him because the offer was simply too good.
Besides, he needed to find a target anyway.
This street was a bustling one, with wide avenues crisscrossing and countless traffic lights. When they passed the hospital, they hit a red light, forcing Luo Qing to stop the car.
It was almost seven o'clock. The hospital had long since closed for the day, and the entrance was nearly empty—except for a father and daughter.
The little girl looked about five or six years old. She clutched a cloth doll in her arms, her face deathly pale, as if she were seriously ill.
The man in front of her patted her head, then picked her up and held her, seemingly to comfort her.
No—that wasn’t comfort.
After the hug, the man walked away without looking back. The little girl stayed where she was, obediently watching the direction her father had gone, waiting for him to return.
He wouldn’t come back.
That man would absolutely not come back. Luo Qing was certain of this—because his own mother had abandoned him the exact same way.
"Uh, the light’s green," the boy interrupted Luo Qing’s thoughts, glancing at him. "Aren’t we going?"
Luo Qing looked away and started the car, driving toward the Lin Corporation.
***
Half an hour later, the familiar license plate reappeared in front of the hospital—this time approaching from a different road.
The little girl was still standing in the same spot, waiting for her parents to come back for her. Passersby spared her only a glance before hurrying on.
She was gravely ill. Even human traffickers wouldn’t give her a second look—there was no value in someone like her.
By now, the sky had grown even darker, heavy and overcast, threatening rain.
It was the middle of the rainy season. It had been raining every night these past few days, and today would be no exception.
Soon, raindrops began to fall, one by one—not yet heavy, but enough to make the pedestrians quicken their steps.
Luo Qing took a deep breath, parked the car by the roadside, and ignored the boy calling after him as he stepped out.
He walked up to the little girl and looked down at her, his voice cold. "He’s not coming back."
"Your parents don’t want you anymore."
The little girl seemed to have already known this. Her grip on the cloth doll tightened slightly as she lowered her head, her eyes reddening.
She didn’t make a sound—no crying, no tantrums. Only silent tears streamed down her face, falling drop by drop onto the ground. The sight was heartbreaking.
Luo Qing disliked it when people cried. In fact, the very sound of it irritated him. He looked at the girl and spoke coldly, "I’m a human trafficker."
"Want to come with me?"
The girl froze at his words. Dazed, she lifted her head to stare at the man in front of her, even forgetting to cry.
When Luo Qing saw her lack of reaction, he took it as a refusal. Without another word, he turned and walked away.
Yet the moment his back was turned, a tiny hand grasped his.
The girl didn’t speak. One arm clutched her doll while the other held tightly onto Luo Qing’s hand. She was clearly uneasy, her grip desperate, as if afraid he might shake her off.
Luo Qing didn’t say anything either. He simply closed his hand around hers and led her away. The two figures grew smaller and smaller in the rain.
Inside the car, a young boy watched as the girl took Luo Qing’s hand, a shadow of displeasure flickering in his eyes. But by the time the two got into the car, his expression had returned to its usual innocent and harmless state.
Once Luo Qing was back behind the wheel, he continued driving toward the boy’s intended destination. But just as he started the car, his phone rang.
It was someone from the organization. Luo Qing answered immediately.
"Where are you?" Before Luo Qing could speak, the man on the other end cut in, impatience sharp in his tone. "Get back here now. The boss is already back."
"If you’re not here in half an hour, you can forget about coming back at all."
The call ended abruptly, leaving Luo Qing frozen. The boss was back already?
But he hadn’t even managed to kidnap anyone yet.
His gaze instinctively shifted to the little girl in the passenger seat. He fell silent.
Well… kidnapping a sickly kid who was already half-dead probably still counted, right?
Luo Qing had no choice. The abandoned factory was at least forty or fifty minutes away, and the boss had given him only thirty.
If he wasn’t back in time, the boss would kill him.
Panicked, Luo Qing forgot all about the boy still sitting in the backseat. He slammed on the gas and sped toward the abandoned factory.
T/N: We're nearing the end! Can you believe it? Anyway, if you want to read another Unlimited Flow novel like Beauty NPC, you can read my new translation project, Scepter Rose (I'll focus more on this once Beauty NPC is done). >>CLICK HERE<<
Thank you for the chapter!! Even designed as a "bad person" he's still soft heart. I love it
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