Chapter 504 - 503: Swapping Prisoners for Escape
But just now, seeing how impressive Chen Tianlong was, taking down the people Grandpa feared most with a few swift moves, she thought that anything given by such a capable person wouldn’t be bad.
She looked up, gave a sweet smile, revealing her little dimples, and said, "Thank you, then I’ll accept it."
"Okay." Chen Tianlong nodded.
Chen Tianlong didn’t know that this unintentional act of his today would one day plant a heavy bomb beneath the underground of Yunfu City. Years later, this little girl helping her grandfather with the BBQ stall would become an influential figure in Yunfu’s underworld.
Of course, that’s another story for later.
Having a BBQ and dealing with a small matter wasn’t much of a concern for the group, so they continued to eat until they finished it all. As Tang Bing put it, stopping halfway while eating is like stopping halfway through in bed — the feeling is, well, as uncomfortable as it gets.
When it came time to pay, Old Zhao refused to accept any money. After all, Chen Tianlong and the others had helped him solve a big problem today, even if temporarily. But the problem was still solved for now.
Chen Tianlong wouldn’t leave without paying, so he left two hundred yuan on the table, quickly dragged his friends, and bolted out like rabbits. To onlookers, it might have seemed like they ate and ran without paying.
Old Zhao watched their backs as they disappeared, then began cleaning up. That’s when Zhao Qing came forward to help, picking up plates as she spoke to her grandfather, "Grandpa, that person gave me something earlier, said that if anyone bullies us, we should show this to them."
As she spoke, she pulled out a small token and held it up for Old Zhao to see.
"Hmm? What’s this?"
Old Zhao hummed as he turned around, his eyes immediately squinting. When he took a closer look at it, his whole body shook, and he nearly dropped the small token.
"This is..."
It took Old Zhao a long moment to collect himself, he carefully looked around, quickly stuffed the token back into Zhao Qing’s pocket, and after making sure it wouldn’t fall out, he said to her, "Girl, hurry up and pack up, we’re going home. Don’t set up the stall here anymore."
"Huh? Why?"
Zhao Qing looked at Old Zhao in surprise, "Grandpa, why not here? We’ve changed so many places before, and this place has the best business and the most people."
"Stop talking so much, pack up quickly, and let’s go home!" Normally very compliant with his granddaughter, Old Zhao now seemed like a different person as his face darkened and he spoke firmly.
"Okay." Zhao Qing rarely saw such an expression on her grandfather’s face. Though confused, she promptly accelerated her packing.
After Chen Tianlong and the others had their fill and drink, they returned to school, as the end-of-term exams were next weekend. Everyone needed to put in some effort because after the exams, they’d be going home for the New Year and needed something to show their parents.
So, in the following days, a scene unfolded across campus: students earnestly reading everywhere, creating a very harmonious atmosphere.
Influenced by this atmosphere, Chen Tianlong also began reviewing, spending his days running around with Wu Mengting between the classroom, library, and the playground.
As for Mo Shaoyun, Hao Jian, and Liu Wenbin, they seemed to calm down, seemingly waiting for the next year to deal with Chen Tianlong.
There was, however, one who wasn’t calm. He was always scheming to thoroughly eliminate Chen Tianlong. He felt that as long as Chen Tianlong was around, South Sea City would never belong to him.
This person was Hao Shuai, the heir of the Hao Family!
Unfortunately, less than a month before the New Year, something unpleasant happened. Hao Jian gathered some buddies, intending to eliminate Chen Tianlong before he left.
But on the day of the incident, Chen Tianlong’s inside man Xu Wei tipped him off early, and the clever Chen Tianlong knew that Hao Jian had a criminal record. This time, he planned to let Hao Jian fall into his own trap, so he teamed up with policewoman Zhang Yufei and Chief Zhao Bing to set up a trap.
In the end, almost ten people, including Hao Jian, were caught with evidence in a major attempted murder case. Though no one was killed, given the number of people Hao Jian mobilized and the amount of weapons assembled with strong intent, he was immediately taken to South Sea City Prison and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Half a month later.
After the painful lesson from the previous failure, Hao Shuai found himself in deep introspection at home. After repenting for two weeks, a new plan was about to emerge.
"Dad, Hao Jian has been in prison for half a month now, and the police aren’t as vigilant anymore. It’s time to swap him out," Hao Shuai said to Hao Dahai.
"Oh? Hao Shuai, have you figured out a way to rescue Tianlong?" Hao Dahai was always heartbroken over losing this son and had trouble sleeping well every night.
Now, hearing his eldest son talk about Hao Jian, his eyes started to brighten.
"Something like that, but it’s not a prison break. I’ve found a substitute." Hao Shuai’s lips curled into a sinister smile.
"A substitute? You mean to swap him out?" Hao Dahai seemed to catch his son’s drift.
"Yes, you could say that." Hao Shuai nodded.
"For this... It doesn’t seem possible to swap out people like that, they’ll be discovered quickly by the police."
"Heh, if it’s a regular swap, of course they’ll find out quickly. But..."
At this point, Hao Shuai leaned closer to his father and whispered in his ear. After hearing him out, Hao Dahai’s eyes lit up with a look of surprise, clearly finding the plan feasible.
While Chen Tianlong was busy establishing his company, in the city prison, a person of similar appearance and height to Hao Jian came for a visit.
Since Hao Jian’s case had passed the two-month mark, almost no one paid attention anymore. Moreover, visits were a regular occurrence, so prison guards certainly wouldn’t scrutinize every visitor.
In a separate room, the two of them only had ten minutes, but it was at this moment that the prison surveillance system was hacked, causing the cameras to malfunction.
This was the work of Jack Johnson, a top expert hired at a high price by Hao Shuai from the international Hacker Alliance.
However, this was the national security system. Even for a hacker, long-term infiltration wasn’t possible, as it would soon be detected and neutralized by the prison’s systems technicians.
While it wasn’t easy to completely root out the virus, scanning took three minutes, neutralization another three, and rebooting the system at least one more minute.
That was the best-case scenario, but if there were delays, it could take longer.
Conservatively, from virus infiltration to system reboot and camera normalcy would take more than eight minutes.
"Young Master Hao, there’s no need to say more. The plan was explained in the notes you received before. Simply follow through with it." The visitor was someone Hao Shuai had trained for two months to imitate every aspect of Hao Jian almost perfectly. If not for familial ties, it would be difficult to tell the difference.
Most importantly, Hao Shuai had also hired Master Xu Kan to teach the visitor the art of disguise. Thus, this expert quickly manipulated silver needles, weaving them through Hao Jian’s face.
He then took out a mirror that had been prepared ahead of time, applied a few touches to his own face, and the transformation was almost complete.
The entire process took less than seven minutes.
At that moment, Hao Jian looked at the person in front of him, utterly shocked. The resemblance was uncanny, nearly indistinguishable unless scrutinized closely.
"Young Master Hao, there’s no time left. We have one minute to swap clothes," the person said.
Hao Jian regained his composure, nodded, and moved swiftly.
Just as they finished everything, the camera rebooted, and by then, the two had already switched positions and were seated quietly.