Chapter 42: Chen Ya Kidnapped

"Dabao, make me yours!"

Chuntao couldn't wait any longer and began to tear at Chen Dabao's clothes.

"Chuntao, don't, this really won't do...!"

Chen Dabao hurriedly grabbed Chuntao's hands, but when his eyes caught a flash of snowy white skin, he was so startled that he quickly shut his eyes. Right at this crucial moment, Chen Dabao felt his phone vibrate in his trouser pocket.

"The phone, the phone!"

"Sister Chuntao, let me answer the phone!"

Chen Dabao was sweating profusely with anxiety.

"What phone could possibly matter at a time like this?"

Chuntao pressed her body down desperately. The fire of passion was already blazing; even if the house were collapsing or an earthquake hitting, this matter had to be settled first.

Yet the phone rang on stubbornly.

It stopped once, only to start ringing again, on and on, endlessly.

"Who on earth is calling at a time like this!"

Chuntao bit her red lip, her seductive face flushed and burning with heat. Irritated, she fished out the phone and answered it in a huff.

As soon as the line connected, Li Zhuang's anxious voice came through.

"Dabao, it's bad! Sister Ya has been abducted!"

"What?"

Chen Dabao jolted awake, quickly grabbing the phone. "Who abducted Sister Ya?"

"It's Zhang Biao's men!"

Li Zhuang was as frantic as a headless fly. "Dabao, hurry up and think of something! I just called the police, but the local station said it's a commercial dispute and none of their business!"

Chen Dabao's heart sank. Zhang Biao was one of the two kingpins of Qingshan Town, wielding immense influence and maintaining very close ties with the local bigwigs.

If Zhang Biao gave the police station a heads-up, no one would dare to intervene.

If this dragged on, Chen Ya might genuinely be in danger.

"Zhuangzi, don't panic. I'm coming right over!"

Chen Dabao quickly hung up the phone and looked helplessly at Chuntao, who was still straddling him. Chuntao let out a soft sigh, silently stood up, and straightened her clothes.

She was not an unreasonable woman who couldn't tell the severity of a situation.

"Dabao, go ahead!" Chuntao lowered her head, her eyes dim. "I know I'm not good enough for you, and I don't want to cling to you. I just wanted to thank you!"

"Chuntao, don't misunderstand. It's not that I look down on you, it's because... because...!" In his haste, Chen Dabao blurted out, "I just had surgery recently, got a little snip, and I can't do that right now!"

"I'll explain when I have time. I have to go!"

Chen Dabao could only tell a white lie, then turned and rushed away in a hurry.

"A grown man like that, why get the snip only now?"

Watching his retreating figure, Chuntao's face flushed slightly, and a sense of relief washed over her.

As long as Chen Dabao didn't look down on her, that was enough.

Chen Dabao rushed home, hopped on his motorcycle, twisted the throttle all the way, and sped to Wuhu Restaurant as fast as he could. At the restaurant, a group of people were running around like headless flies, completely at a loss for what to do.

"Dabao!"

Seeing Chen Dabao appear, Li Zhuang hurried over.

"Where was Sister Ya taken?"

Chen Dabao motioned for Li Zhuang to stay calm. Panic was useless now; the key was to figure out a way to rescue Chen Ya as quickly as possible, or something terrible might happen to her.

"They headed down that way, didn't enter the town proper. They probably went to Zhang Biao's sand yard!" Li Zhuang said anxiously.

Earlier, Zhang Biao's subordinates had come looking for Chen Ya. Words quickly escalated, and Zhang Biao's men resorted to violence, abducting Chen Ya on the spot.

When the staff of Wuhu Restaurant tried to intervene, they were beaten and injured by Zhang Biao's thugs.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll go check out the sand yard!" Chen Dabao said with a solemn expression. Chen Ya had helped him immensely before by solving his strawberry sales bottleneck. Now that she was in trouble, he could not simply stand by and do nothing.

"Dabao, I'm going with you! Any real man, come with me!" Li Zhuang rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife, and ran back out.

Fearing that Chen Dabao would be helpless on his own, he wanted to rally a few more people to go along.

However, the other employees at Wuhu Restaurant wore troubled expressions. Some of them had families to support, and even the unmarried ones didn't dare to cross Zhang Biao.

Zhang Biao was a local boss in Qingshan Town with a small army of thugs under his command—was he someone to be trifled with?

Forget about not going; even if they all went, what difference could they possibly make?

"If you aren't going, fine! I'll go with Dabao!"

Li Zhuang gritted his teeth. He was scared too, but when push came to shove, he couldn't be a coward. Back when his father was seriously ill, Chen Ya had forked out a substantial amount of money to help him.

A person could not be without a conscience.

"Li Zhuang, it's not that we don't want to go. Sister Chen was good to us, and we all remember that, but is Zhang Biao someone ordinary people can afford to provoke?"

A chef in his forties said, "With just the few of us, what good would going there do?"

Hearing this, the surrounding men lowered their heads in shame. In Qingshan Town, hardly anyone dared to cross Zhang Biao.

"Zhuangzi, everyone has their difficulties. Say no more!" After pondering for a moment, Chen Dabao came up with an idea. He immediately instructed the chef to fire up the stove and prepare an exquisite food box. Then, he found a collapsible baton from inside the restaurant, concealed it on his body, got into the restaurant's van, and drove off with Li Zhuang toward Zhang Biao's sand yard.

Zhang Biao's sand yard was located in Crescent Bay, more than ten miles away from the main streets of Qingshan Town. This area was a large river bend entirely occupied by the sand-mining operation.

The place was piled high with mounds of river sand resembling small hills, and sand-mining boats were moored in the river.

Sand and gravel were vital resources nowadays; without sufficient backing and ruthless methods, it was impossible to hold onto such a massive sand yard.

This sand yard originally belonged to Chen Ya's late ex-husband, Zhang Wenqing. After Zhang Wenqing died, Zhang Biao forcefully seized it. Relying on this sand yard to lord over others, Zhang Biao was vicious and utterly shameless, living even more prosperously now than Zhang Wenqing ever had.

Currently, Zhang Biao kept dozens of men at the sand yard. Some were responsible for selling sand, some for guarding the premises, and others worked in Zhang Biao's small gambling den.

Zhang Biao ran a den where he collected commissions and practiced usury, specifically preying on the small business owners of Qingshan Town and the nearby city. Over the past two years, quite a few families in Qingshan Town had been utterly ruined by him.

Everyone in the town knew how cruel and merciless Zhang Biao was, but they swallowed their anger and dared not speak out.

With his powerful connections and numerous henchmen, Zhang Biao was not someone ordinary folks could afford to cross.

"Dabao, it's just up ahead!"

Before long, the van arrived at Crescent Bay. Li Zhuang pointed ahead and swallowed hard. He hadn't felt panicked on the way, but now that the moment of truth had arrived, a wave of nervousness washed over him.

"Don't panic. We're just here to deliver food, what are you scared of?" Chen Dabao smiled, observing the place through the wire mesh gate. A bumpy dirt road led all the way from the gate to the water's edge inside the yard.

The grounds were filled with towering sand piles two or three stories high. An office building stood in the open space beside them, and a canopy was rigged up behind it—that was where Zhang Biao's gambling den operated.

If Chen Ya had been dragged here, she would undoubtedly be inside that office building.

"Who goes there?"

As soon as the van approached, two dark-faced, burly men walked over with guarded expressions.