The digital clock on Jinbei's dashboard flickered: 22:14, 23 September.
The two government-stickered vans roared down the Middle Ring Road, tires screaming as they transitioned onto the S20 Outer Ring Road, heading south toward the border of Zhejiang Province. The fake official stickers on the side of the vehicles glinted under the orange streetlights of Shanghai's periphery—a perfect camouflage against the police checkpoints that patrolled the city's exits.
Inside the lead Jinbei, the air was thick with the lingering, chemical scent of the sedative. Gu Wei lay slumped against the cold metal interior, his midnight-blue velvet blazer ruined, covered in the dust of the ballroom floor. Beside him, the "Elite" and "Striver" lines had finally collapsed into a tragic heap: Chen Bo was sprawled across Dong, while Li Jia and Xu Ling lay pale and motionless, their silk dresses tangled together like broken dolls.
Up front, the driver adjusted his grip on the wheel, weaving through the late-night logistics traffic. "Smooth," he grunted, his voice rasping through a black cloth mask. "This 'Kids' was so busy looking at the moon, they didn't even hear the canisters roll."
The man in the passenger seat let out a dark, jagged smirk. "Fools. They spent millions on the parties but couldn't expect a simple cloud of gas. Our Boss's plan was seamless. After we cross the province line and hand over the 'merchandise,' we'll be the ones living in luxury. I'm going to spend my share on top-shelf Moutai and women who won't look at my bank account with disgust."
They both erupted into a coarse, evil laugh that echoed off the van's hollow walls.
The laughter acted like a serrated blade, cutting through the fog in Gu Wei's mind. His lungs burned. He let out a weak, ragged cough, his body jerking as his consciousness fought to resurface.
"Where...?"
Wei's eyes fluttered open, but the world was a spinning kaleidoscope of shadows and nausea. He tried to sit up, his muscles feeling like lead, his brain throbbing with a rhythmic, agonizing pulse. He clutched his head, his fingers digging into his hair as he tried to anchor himself to reality.
"The moon... the fireworks..."
The memories hit him like a physical blow.
Flashback: The Ballroom Massacre
On the balcony, the three of them—Wei, Min, and Mei—had been mesmerized by the peonies of light in the sky. Then, the first scream had cut through the boom of the pyrotechnics. Wei had spun around, his heart stopping as he saw through the glass: Madam Le, Gu Jian, Jiang Rou, and Lin Xia were already slumped in their chairs, wine glasses shattered on the marble. The smoke was a white wall, swallowing the elite.
"Min! Mei!" Wei had roared, his voice cracking. He had lunged for the door, but the gas hit him instantly. His knees buckled. He watched in a slow-motion nightmare as Jiang Min collapsed in her red dress, her hand reaching for his, and Le Mei slumped against the balustrade. Groups of men in black tactical gear were stepping through the fog, their eyes cold and efficient. Wei had crawled toward Min, his vision fading to gray, his last sight being the terrified faces of the four parents before the world went black.
Back in the present, Wei's eyes widened as they adjusted to the dim interior. He saw Bo's unconscious face, then Ling's. His mind spun with a terrifying realization.
"Where are the others? Where are Min and Mei? Where are the parents?"
He looked at the two vans through the rear window—the second Jinbei was trailing them closely. He realized with a jolt of sheer terror that they were being separated. The "Unified Alliance" wasn't just broken; it was being harvested.
Wei's hand went to his pocket, searching for his phone, but it was gone. He was trapped in a moving cage, heading toward a province where the Gu family's name held no power. For the first time in his life, the "Selfish King" felt truly, utterly powerless.
At the BallRoom
The golden light of the Le ballroom now felt cold and mocking. The celebratory air had been replaced by the sharp, medicinal scent of the sedative gas and the heavy, suffocating weight of heart-panic.
In a high-security surveillance suite tucked away from the main hall, the titans of Shanghai's elite were unraveling. Li Meiling collapsed in Lin Xia's arms, her muffled sobs echoing against the soundproofed walls. Xia, though her own heart was breaking for Min, held her with the quiet strength of a woman who had survived the "Striver" life, her face a mask of pale resolve.
Zhang Wei paced the room like a caged tiger, his phone pressed to his ear. "I don't care about the protocol! I pay taxes that could fund a small nation! Find Our Kids!" he roared at a government official on the other end.
In the center of the room, Madam Le stood before a wall of monitors. Her silver gown was wrinkled, her tiara discarded on a table, but her eyes were like flint. Beside her, Gu Jian and Gu Lin were trying to anchor Wang Ruolan, who looked as though she might faint at any moment.
On the leather sofa, Chen Jian (Bo's father) let out a ragged groan. His wife, Mei Ling, gasped, clutching his hand to her cheek. "Jian? Can you hear me?"
The patriarch of the Chen family struggled to sit up, his head swimming. He looked around the room, seeing the tear-stained faces and the frantic energy. "What... what happened?" he rasped. No one answered. The silence was too heavy to break.
"I said, what happened?!" Chen Jian's voice thundered, his face flushing with a dangerous heat.
Madam Le turned, her voice steady but hollow. "Our children are gone,Chen Jian. They were taken under our very noses."
The air left Chen Jian's lungs. "Who?" he whispered, then stood up with a roar that shook the glass partitions. "Who dared?! Who in this city is tired of living?!" He scrambled for his phone, his hands shaking with a cocktail of sedative after-effects and pure, unadulterated fury.
Hao's father grabbed his shoulders, forcing him back. "The police are here, the checkpoints are closing. We are doing everything, Chen Jian. Don't lose your mind now."
Four high-ranking police officers entered the room, their boots clicking sharply on the hardwood. "We are here. We will find them," the lead officer began, but Madam Le cut him off with a gaze that made him flinch.
"You will find them," she said, her voice a low, lethal silk. "Even if you have to turn Shanghai upside down and shake it until every secret falls out. Do you understand?"
"We found them!" a technician shouted, pointing at the fourth monitor.
The parents surged forward as one. The footage showed the service entrance at 22:05. Two white Jinbei vans with fake government stickers were idling. Men in black tactical gear were moving with military efficiency, tossing the limp, unconscious bodies of the teenagers into the back like sacks of grain.
Ruolan let out a strangled cry when she saw Shanshan's silver dress disappear into the dark maw of the van. Jiang Rou stepped forward, placing a steady hand on the monitor, his scholar's eyes narrowing.
"Those aren't amateurs," Rou muttered. "The way they hold the weight... they've done this before."
"Officer," Chen Jian snapped, already dialing his private security force. "I want my people on every road. Find those Jinbei vans ASAP!"
The lead officer looked at the three most powerful people in the room: Chen Jian, Madam Le, and Hao's father. "Do you have any idea who could have done this? Any business enemies? Anyone you've crossed recently?"
Chen Jian let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Crossed us? Every family that matters in Shanghai is in this building. We are the 'Gold Circle'. No businessman in this country is suicidal enough to kidnap ten of our heirs at once."
Madam Le looked at the screen, her eyes fixed on the black-clad figures. "All our partners are here. Our rivals are here. This isn't a business move," she whispered, her intuition as a mother overriding her logic as a CEO. "This is something else."
The officer nodded grimly. "We've tracked them heading toward the S20 Outer Ring. They're trying to leak out of the city. We're on it." He rushed out, his walkie-talkie crackling with orders.
Left in the room, the parents looked at each other. The masks of wealth and power had fallen away, leaving only the raw, agonizing fear of people who realized that for all their millions, they were currently powerless to save their own blood.
Back At Jinbei
The Jinbei van hummed with a low, predatory vibration as it tore through the humid night.
In the front cabin, the passenger shifted his weight, glancing at the navigation screen. "Why this route? We're adding twenty minutes."
The driver let out a rough, confident chuckle. "Nanpu and Yangpu bridges are tourist traps. Every inch is covered in high-definition government eyes. The S20 Outer Ring is our playground. Fewer cameras, more exits. We'll be ghosts by the time we hit the provincial border."
The passenger grinned, his teeth yellowed in the dashboard light. "You're sharp. No wonder the Boss picked you."
In the back, Gu Wei felt the bile rise in his throat—not just from the gas, but from the cold efficiency of their captors. He nudged Chen Bo with his foot, then Li Jia, but they were dead weight. The chemical cocktail was still holding them under.
Suddenly, the passenger stiffened. "Who's moving back there?" He twisted in his seat, his eyes searching the dark interior.
Wei's heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. He instantly collapsed into his previous position, limbs limp, breathing shallow.
"Nothing," the driver muttered, his eyes on the road. "The gas effect lasts at least an hour. They're dreaming of their silver spoons."
Wei waited until he heard them laughing again. He crawled into the blind spot behind the driver's seat, his hand closing around a heavy iron tire iron he found near a toolbox.
"If I choke him now," Wei's thoughs raced, "the van will swerve. We might crash, but we'll stop. It's our only chance before we leave the city."
He raised the iron, his knuckles white. But just as he prepared to lunge, the passenger's phone shrieked.
"What? Why now?" the passenger barked into the receiver. "Okay... understood. We're moving." He hung up, his face pale. "Change of plans. The police are moving faster than expected. We need to hit the Xuanchi Logistics Zone hideout immediately. The second Jinbei is already heading there. We gather everyone, switch vehicles, and vanish."
Wei froze. The iron bar lowered. "The second van... Min and Mei are there. If I stop this van now, I'll never find them. I have to stay. I have to see where they're taking us."
Suddenly, the driver's eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. "Wait—"
Wei dove back into the shadows. The driver stared at the mirror for a long second, then shrugged, returning his focus to the S20. Wei let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He couldn't attack them yet, but he couldn't just sit there. His eyes landed on a small, round canister—a smoke bomb.
"A distraction. A reset."
Wei pulled the pin and rolled it toward the front.
A hiss filled the cabin. Within seconds, a thick, blinding white cloud engulfed the driver.
"What the—! I can't see!" the driver roared, slamming on the brakes. The Jinbei fishtailed, tires screeching as it came to a halt on the shoulder of the road.
The doors flew open. Both men scrambled out, coughing and retching as the smoke billowed into the night air. Wei seized the moment. He didn't run; he lunged for the front seat. His hands scrambled over the dashboard until his fingers hit cold plastic—the passenger's phone.
He ducked back into the rear just as the men returned, their faces red and angry. "The kids!" the passenger gasped, waving the smoke away. He checked the back, seeing five bodies lying exactly where they had been. "They're still out. Must have been a faulty canister in the crate."
"Forget it! Just drive!" the driver growled. The van roared back to life.
Wei lay in the dark, his hand trembling as he pulled the stolen phone from his pocket. The screen glowed, blinding in the dimness. He typed with frantic speed, his mind picturing his brother.
To: Gu Hang
"THis Brother Wei [URGENT] We are kidnapped. Two Jinbei vans. Heading to Xuanchi Logistics Zone. Follow this location. FIND US ASAP."
He hit send and watched the 'Message Delivered' icon. He shoved the phone deep into his pocket and closed his eyes, pretending to be the helpless prince they expected him to be.
The International Charity Event
Across the city, at a five-star hotel ballroom, the atmosphere was a stark contrast of stiff formality and soft jazz. Gu Hang stood in the corner, tugging at his tie.
"Stuck at a charity gala while Mei-Mei celebrates her birthday," Hang thought, swirling his ginger ale. "Wei and the others must be having the time of their lives. I'm stuck here talking about 'global initiatives' with people who don't know my name."
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, but before he could read the notification, his father's voice boomed across the room.
"Hang! Come here! Minister Tan likes to talk to you."
Hang hesitated, looking at the glowing screen, but Gu Hang did not ignore his father in public. He shoved the phone back into his pocket, the unread message—the only lead to his brother's life—fading into the darkness of his suit.