Old Papa John, a Gaul (French) national, is a smuggling kingpin who can move anything.
Medicines, firearms, narcotics, rare animals, and… people.
He is a notoriously powerful underworld boss in Gaul, controlling nearly one-tenth of the country’s narcotics and human-trafficking markets.
He has connections everywhere, both in the shadows and in the light.
The reason he kidnapped Lu Zheng and Lin Wan was simple: the two of them had turned his son into a vegetable.
And that son?
He was the white brute who hunted James, Lu Zheng, and the others in Tanzania.
Back then, the man had taken Elizabeth hostage, trying to trade her for Lu Zheng letting him escape. Instead, Lu Zheng knocked him unconscious with a thrown stone and then crippled his soul with a single strike of the Golden Gate Heart Sword, leaving him in a permanent vegetative state.
Because of that, James’s group of six, plus Lu Zheng and Lin Wan, all landed on Papa John’s kill list.
Not just kill, he wanted to do it personally, slowly, with torture.
He bribed Tanzanian customs officials, obtained records and photos of every Chinese national who entered the country during that period, had his son’s former subordinates identify them, and thus acquired basic information on Lu Zheng and Lin Wan. Then, through other channels, he dug up most of their background.
For example, he learned that Lin Wan was an Interpol agent famous for her combat ability, and that although Lu Zheng was currently unemployed, he had once competed in full-armour fighting and was a top-tier fighter.
Old John had no way to move against them inside China, so he commissioned the Kirby Travel Company, which secretly doubled as a front for an airline, to send the couple an all-expenses-paid luxury Aegean Sea cruise package as a “grand prize”.
Lu Zheng and Lin Wan never suspected anything, partly because it genuinely cost them nothing, and partly because Kirby Travel was a real, legitimate company.
As for why Kirby Travel obeyed Old John…
Because Old John was a shareholder, and the company itself was involved in some human-trafficking operations.
“Fuck! We’ve walked straight into a bandits’ lair?” Lu Zheng swore.
“And then?” Lin Wan asked coldly.
“There’s a yacht waiting at the seaside pier. We’ll take you out of the Aegean, across the Mediterranean, and straight into Gaul,” the second man replied.
He glanced back and saw that the first man’s eyes had turned completely blood-red, veins bulging, his face twisted in agony, yet unable to make a single sound.
Terrified, the second man mentally labelled Lin Wan a devil, but his mouth never stopped talking.
“Old John has a villa in the suburbs of Marseille in Gaul. He’s waiting there for you, no, no, waiting for us…”
“Location,” Lin Wan said icily.
“This… could you spare me…”
The man tried to bargain, but Lin Wan had already tapped two of his acupuncture points.
“Urgh… oh… sss…”
She casually released the first man’s sealed points. He gasped desperately for air like a drowning man breaking the surface.
“He hesitated. Will you talk?”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just give me a quick death!”
The second man still clung to life, but the first only wanted release.
The moment he could speak, he blurted out the exact address of Old John’s villa without hesitation.
“But Old John has over a hundred armed gunmen at that villa, you…”
“That’s none of your concern,” Lin Wan said calmly.
She reached out gently, without the slightest hint of killing intent, and touched the crown of his head.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed dead.
“Wuu wuu wuu…”
The second man stared in despair, writhing, desperate to speak.
“You’ve done too many evil deeds. Death is too good for you.”
Lin Wan stood up, turned, and lightly brought her palm down onto his head as if it weighed nothing.
Bang!
A soft thud. Outwardly he looked unchanged, but everything inside his skull had been pulped.
Lu Zheng asked, “What now?”
Old John’s affair had now exposed both their real identities, and his men had already made a move against them.
To anyone paying attention, or to state intelligence agencies, this was no longer a secret.
If they quietly eliminated Old John now, they would never fully clear themselves of suspicion. Given their demonstrated combat strength, it might even spark further speculation.
So, once identities were revealed, how to clean up the mess, or rather, how to clean it up thoroughly and without future trouble, was something Lin Wan had more experience with.
Lin Wan thought for a moment, then said gravely, “There’s nobody at the hotel right now.”
Lu Zheng nodded. “Right.”
“So nobody knows whether we were kidnapped by the bandits or whether we killed the bandits.”
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow, already guessing her plan.
“Which means…”
Lin Wan nodded. “Which means we were kidnapped, thrown onto a yacht, and silently transported to that villa in Marseille, Gaul.”
“And then…”
“And then we broke free from our bonds. When those gunmen tried to kill us, we fought back in self-defence and wiped them all out.”
Lin Wan spoke with perfect seriousness. “As long as we secure evidence of their crimes and hand it over to our embassy and Interpol, we won’t need to worry about the aftermath.”
The logic was airtight, flawless.
“That way, our involvement ends in the open. If any of Old John’s heirs later try to avenge him and end up dead, it will have nothing to do with us.”
Lin Wan waved a hand. “Once Old John falls, his rivals will naturally finish off the rest.”
By bringing part of their operation into the light, any subsequent shadow moves would automatically be ruled out as their doing.
Lin Wan had arranged everything perfectly. All Lu Zheng could do was give her a thumbs-up. “Professional!”
…
They stuffed all twelve men and the three vehicles downstairs into the gourd, then hurried to the pier.
After killing the two men on the yacht, they sailed to a remote spot and sank the yacht, the cars, and all the bodies.
Then they flew straight to Gaul, arriving the next morning at Old John’s villa on the outskirts of Marseille.
“First find the evidence, then fight our way out from the inside,” Lin Wan said, a faint smile on her lips. “And this time we don’t need to hold back.”
Lu Zheng nodded. The two turned invisible, slipped inside, and quickly located Old John’s office.
“He’s not here?”
“Search first.”
In the office and the safe in his bedroom, they found all kinds of ledgers and evidence implicating numerous wealthy and political figures, plus photos, recordings, and other material Old John had kept.
“Why are both Tony and this Old John involved in human trafficking? Is it really worth it?”
“When you know the tastes of the rich and powerful, think of Epstein,” Lin Wan replied.
“Perverts!”
Lu Zheng cursed. “Even someone as perverted as me thinks they’re excessively perverted!”
Lin Wan: “…”
“Where’s Old John? Logically, after having us kidnapped here, he should want to interrogate and torture us personally,” Lu Zheng asked Lin Wan. “You want to do it, or shall I?”
“Me!” Lin Wan said excitedly. Finally her turn.
She picked up the Cuban cigar lying on Old John’s bedside table, used her Qi Observation Technique, and instantly located him.
Remaining invisible, they soon found an entrance in the rear courtyard, descended, and arrived at an underground dungeon.
Deep inside the dungeon, they saw two burly men tying a dishevelled, sobbing woman to a wooden stake while Old John stood nearby, smoking his cigar and watching coldly.
And that woman, to Lu Zheng and Lin Wan’s surprise, was someone they had briefly met in Africa: Elizabeth.
