Enforcer Manual
Chapter 497: Assassin’s Principle_1

Chapter 497: Chapter 497: Assassin’s Principle_1

Effort never betrays the diligent.

On an evening where Song Lan insisted on commuting to and from work by bicycle, passing through at least three deserted alleys, he finally encountered a white van at the entrance of the alley. Several people wearing masks jumped down from the van and ferociously pointed their rifles at his head, fiercely ordering him to get in the vehicle.

After climbing into the van, the familiar cloth bag covered Song Lan’s head.

Without saying a word, the kidnappers drove the van at high speed for nearly forty minutes before stopping.

Several individuals roughly pushed and shoved him out of the van, which was followed by the exchange ceremony. The kidnappers and someone else stood about ten meters apart, confronting each other in silence. After a few minutes, the pressure on his shoulders disappeared, and he heard the sound of something heavy hitting the ground beside him.

The fully armed robbers met their death, which also indicated that they were not in cahoots with the person they were meeting but were temporary hired guns.

Song Lan couldn’t help but feel pity for the kidnappers who died young; they didn’t even have time to reveal their names before they missed out on the Seventy District’s hall of criminal fame forever.

But he had to admit, these temporarily hired kidnappers were somewhat amateurish. They might have covered their faces with masks but didn’t disguise their voices. With the voice synthesis technology of 2166, as soon as their voices were known, it wouldn’t take long to pluck them from the vast crowd.

Unless they planned to finish this job and then go back home to get married.

"Lu Xiang should have received the email we sent."

The person conducting the exchange clearly had more experience than the kidnappers; his voice had been altered and sounded like a synthetically produced machine voice.

Yet, Song Lan could still sense the confusion in his speech.

Song Lan’s arrival seemed to have been unexpected, throwing him into temporary disarray.

The exchanger murmured to himself, "What on earth is she plotting?"

After receiving the threatening email, Song Lan’s life had changed significantly. He acted even more boldly, riding his bike alone to and from work and deliberately passing through some secluded alleys, almost as if the words "Come kidnap me" were written on his face.

To any normal person, this behavior would seem like a trap set by Lu Xiang.

Using Song Lan as bait, a net was laid out to eliminate the kidnappers as soon as they appeared.

That is what he initially thought, which is why he spent a lot of money to hire some desperadoes to test Lu Xiang’s trap. However, something unexpected happened yet again.

The kidnappers didn’t encounter any traps; instead, they captured Song Lan effortlessly and brought him here.

Could it have been just a bluff?

Upon delivering Song Lan to a dark room, the man immediately began to take off Song Lan’s shirt.

"What are you doing? It’s not proper for men to touch each other like this!"

Song Lan was startled and almost accidentally killed the kidnapper.

"Don’t move, I need to check if you have any tracking devices on you."

The man stopped Song Lan, his voice filled with anger and forcefully emphasized, "I’m not interested in men!"

However, the examination once again ended in disappointment. He searched all over Song Lan’s body and found no bugs or tracking devices. According to the intelligence they had gathered, Song Lan was a rare case of a human with zero prosthesis modification, not even dabbling in daily-use prostheses.

He also hadn’t visited the prosthetic hospital in recent days which meant no opportunity to install built-in trackers.

This meant that...

Song Lan really got kidnapped here so easily, and right after he had sent the threatening text message?

"Has your relationship with Lu Xiang hit a crisis?"

The middleman couldn’t help but consider other possibilities. Could it be that Lu Xiang had grown tired of Song Lan long ago and wanted to use this opportunity to rid herself of this dead weight? It did make sense logically. While Song Lan was a decent person in everyday life, his lack of combat skills often became Lu Xiang’s Achilles heel.

As for Lu Xiang, she was now a three-star rescuer and a favorite among many companies in the core areas. With her qualifications, she could find a much better boyfriend than Song Lan.

But in that case, using Song Lan to threaten Lu Xiang would become meaningless.

However, Song Lan refuted this speculation, "Utter nonsense, my relationship with the manager is just fine."

"Don’t be blinded by appearances. I have a lot of experience in this regard. The corporate world is far more complicated than you imagine."

The middleman sat across from Song Lan, drawing on his years of experience as an assassin to analyze for Song Lan, "Has Lu Xiang been acting strange lately, like suddenly buying you a lot of insurance? I’ve taken on quite a few similar jobs before. They buy lots of insurance, then hire me to kill their partner for a big financial gain."

For a professional assassin, making death look like an accident was a basic skill.

"Such things happen?"

"The world is much more complicated than you think. If everything goes smoothly, she could gain at least this amount."

The middleman gestured the number "3" with his fingers.

"Which amount? I can’t see right now."

"Thirty million watts, that was the profit made by my client from the last deal."

This was also a test for Song Lan. Having confirmed that his vision was impaired, the middleman felt more at ease and even more suspicious of whether Lu Xiang had deliberately set Song Lan up to be killed since his daily routines seemed foolish.

The middleman’s words also sent Song Lan into deep thought.

He couldn’t understand why his girlfriend’s behavior was becoming increasingly bizarre. This professional assassin was actually subtly comforting him not to be fooled by a bad woman. Such a sympathetic stance almost made him feel uncomfortable about attacking the man.

The middleman continued the topic, "With that money, she could completely quit her job as the head of the Law Enforcers department and move to the core areas to live. Our reports show that you’ve been to the Seventh District. Think carefully. Compared to the Seventeenth District, it could be described as Heaven. No one wants to stay in a place filled with crime and poverty forever—one right decision in life can lead to a complete transformation."

I get the logic, but could you please carefully consider your client first?

Song Lan saw and felt the urgency.

Nearly ten minutes had passed since he arrived in the small, dark room, yet the middleman seemed to have no intention of contacting his employer.

Someone is waiting for your good news to threaten Lu Xiang into dropping the investigation!

Just as both men were stuck in a stalemate due to their respective thoughts, the arrival of a third person broke this delicate dynamic.

First came an enamel-eroding sound from above their heads.

The moment the middleman looked up, the chandelier hanging above them suddenly crashed down straight.

"Danger—!"

In that critical instant, he exerted his force fiercely, slamming Song Lan and the chair to one side.