Chapter Text
The bells to the clinic dinged, Chen Yuzhi responded with a soft hum, back turned to the door as he worked with the medicine.
“Hello-” was all he managed before it was an immediate light out for him, already unconscious before he could even hit the floor.
The following multiple moments for him passed by without knowledge. The next time he opened his eyes, he had a bag over his head and a gag in his mouth, preventing most noises. His head pounding as he groggily tried to sit up, only to be shoved back down with great force. His back and neck were slammed against a hard cold floor; pain surged through his body, a grunt had sounded from him from the shock and impact; a bruise was going to form there. He tried to fight his way back up but whoever held him down was much stronger than him, as to be expected.
Chen Yuzhi couldn’t think much about what was going on; the sound of movement he could hear was around him, footsteps, stuff shoved or pulled against the hard floor, things falling, but nothing breaking. His mind and body were running on pure adrenaline; thoughts ran full ramp in his mind, his breathing a tad laboured.
Chen Yuzhi tried his best to calm down, taking deep breaths as he focused on his surroundings. He tried moving his arms, but they were snagged behind him, figuring his arms bounded back, the material cutting into his skin. They were for sure going to be red once he was out of this situation. Whether Jiang Yuelou manages to get him out of this or he does it himself. He didn’t even need to think much after calming down to know he had been kidnapped again, and so he’ll have to wait for rescue again. Sometimes being the damsel in distress was arduous work. Especially when it’s generally by the same-
The bag was torn off his head, a gasp from shock escaped, eyes squinting as he tried to adjust them to the new lighting, his teeth dug down on the gag that the kidnappers had left in his mouth. It had started to hurt his lips, some more red spots to think about later.
Chen Yuzhi instinctively scanned the area to get an idea of where he possibly could be; sadly, nothing could be recognizable to him, dread set in. Something felt off about this whole place, just the energy he could feel didn’t sit right with him. The room was barely decorated, with only a simple table, a pair of chairs, a couch not too far away from Chen Yuzhi. A turn of the head made him realize he had been tied up to a nearby table leg, a hefty table too.
But, he noticed a strange lack of people, for a room so large there, he couldn’t even hear anyone walking outside of the room. Where was the person who took the bag off of him? Did it take him that long to get a hold of his surroundings?
Chen Yuzhi tried to move once more, hissing as his body felt like it was placed in a dryer and had been spun around for a cycle. It was most likely not far off of what happened to him; he would be surprised if the men had even tried being gentle to him in the first place. He wasn’t a small man, so moving him around wouldn’t be easy for anyone to do single-handedly. He would also be surprised if they had tried to in the first place. His head flopped back against the table he was tied against. Chen Yuzhi took some deep breath as he closed his eyes and tried to process all of this.
When someone is kidnapped, the typical reaction would be fear, anxiety, and probably praying that nothing wrong happens. But this was perhaps the third time this week that Chen Yuzhi had gotten kidnapped or had become the damsel in distress in some way, and it was starting to get really tiring.
Okay, he may be a tad bit lying that he wasn’t feeling any fear and anxiety that was still brewing within him, especially the energy of the place. He kept his eyes up, attentive as he watched the door. He was sure the timing wouldn’t help the criminals because the time of day they grabbed him was a terrible one.
A smirk twitched at his lips, but that didn’t last long as the pain shot through as he still had the gag in his mouth. First thing first, try getting his ass out of here or be a bit helpful to the officer. But that’s a bit of a problem when you’re gagged and bounded, so maybe the actual first thing was to get himself free of the restraints. He still needed to get those lessons from Jiang Yuelou, as even the officer picked up on the number of times he gets captured now. Though when that will happen, hopefully soon, will be debatable.
He was ripped out of his thoughts when the door to the room he was hung up in slammed open. The kidnapper, or probably one of their lackeys, staring directly at him as he only stared deadpanned back, seemingly challenging him.
His face was obscured by a full face mask, one that was simple yet detailed, but he could barely focus on it. The mask made it impossible to identify anything from him other than his build from what he could tell through his clothes. He seemed big, but the angle he was at, most things were large. But the way he held himself was very military, tense, ready for a fight at any moment.
Still, he tried his best to assess this situation, his head low as his eyes darted everywhere. Such a look had the man stumble around a step out of shock. It took a moment to recover his actions as he marched forward, stood right above him not even a meter of distance from him.
‘Out of all the angles I had to be in, this was the one for today? God, such a terrible one.’ He thought but did have a twinge of fear in the back of his mind, as he had no idea for what may happen right now, and the position they were in was not promising in any way.
“You think you’re tough? Not even willing to give a whimper for me, doc?” The lackey spat at him, voice gruff and low, but in a seemingly forced way,.’ it sounded; the glob hit him on the cheek, an internal recoil instinctively.
“Huh? Not answering me?!” The lackey kicked him square in the stomach, Chen Yuzhi curling inwards from the impact and newfound pain.
Seemingly not yet satisfied, the man slammed his head against the hefty table he was tied against.
His vision had briefly lost focus as adrenaline pumped through his veins.
“Now now, we need him to live if we were to get Chief Jiang out in the open. Isn’t that right, Tiger?” A soft melodic voice sounded somewhat familiar, but he could not see the owner had somehow managed to calm down ‘Tiger.’
‘So it seemed that they use code names?’ Chen Yuzhi could only narrow his eyes, not daring to move as he watched Tiger.
But he couldn’t dwindle on that thought for too long. The man who crouched before him stood up abruptly once more, his eyes downcasted at his abdomen. Good, there were no red spots on his shirt; that’s a good sign; his breathing steadied slowly.
He didn’t even dare raise his eyes when he heard the footsteps walking off from him, followed with the door closing.
Chen Yuzhi’s head flopped downwards, the back throbbing, doing his best to stay conscious. He had a feeling that he may have a concussion; his head was just pounding right now. If Chen Yuzhi weren’t sitting on the ground either, he probably would’ve needed some form of support, feeling incredibly lightheaded and dizzy. ‘I need to figure a way out of here, and quick, but I should get comfortable while being here to at least regain some energy. Hopefully, Keying is safely watched over by Chu Ran and Jiang Yuelou.’ He maneuvered his body to be more comfortable in his position, which was already difficult due to his aches and the way he was initially positioned. He closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep.
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It was a bit of an understatement to label Jiang Yueluo as angry.
Pacing around his office, his steps heavier than what they usually were. Song Rong and Sun Yongren standing off to the side, casting fleeting glances at each other as the hairs on the back of their necks rose each time Jiang Yuelou got close to them.
Neither daring to say a word as they did have a will to live, and Jiang Yuelou wasn’t on the usual temporary gun ban.
“What are the clues that we have right now?” He finally spoke after the many agonizing minutes. Song Rong was the first to speak.
“From what we can tell, there are tire tracks in front of the clinic that are fresh; according to witness accounts, there was a car that was in front of the clinic at noon for only several minutes. Several men were coming into the clinic and then coming out what seemed to be a large bag; they weren’t clear on if it was big enough to fit a person or not. There was no struggle evident in the clinic other than the dropped medicine bottle he possibly held before being kidnapped.” Song Rong gave the brief on the evidence they had gained, Sun Yongren only nodding along, deciding to keep his tongue in his mouth for this one moment.
Jiang Yuelou, satisfied with the answer, gave a ‘hm’ in response. But his pacing didn’t seem to slow down much. By the time of day that they had decided to take him, there were many eyewitnesses for the act, but that seems fuck stupid for them to do it when the streets are bustling. Either there’s something more to this, or these criminals were enormous idiots he has ever encountered.
“There must be something behind all of this. Did you get any eyewitness accounts on what the men looked like?” He was somewhat hopeful; maybe, they could get somewhat of a lead for what people they can an eye on.
But the look on their faces had indicated otherwise. “Sir, they disguised themselves rather well according to the witnesses, and they moved too quickly to pick out anything. Even the car windows seemed darker, too, making it hard to look inside. They seemed to have been well prepared for this.”
And that just made Jiang Yuelou’s heart do a whole jump. ‘Calm down, Yuelou; this is not the time to get your anxiety up.’
“Sir!” A younger guard came to the door, Jiang Yuelou stopping in his step to turn towards him.
“Commissioner Bai wanted to talk to you.” The officer stated.
Jiang Yuelou gave a curt nod in acknowledgement; the officer bowed before leaving. The room once more fell into the silence between the chief and his subordinates. “You two. Get witness accounts on who the men were and see if you can figure out where they had gone. If you find anyone suspicious, follow them and hopefully figure out where they took Yuzhi.” He ordered, turning sharply towards both with a gaze boring into them.
“Yes, Sir!” Both said in unison, quickly bowing before rushing out of the office, leaving Jiang Yuelou to gather himself, or at least attempt somewhat so. ‘I’m going to call Chu Ran after this, someone needs to look over Keying during all of this, and definitely, it shouldn’t be me.’ It was a thought that helped him somewhat calm down; the poor girl must be wondering where her brother is.
He took in a deep breath, running a finger through his hair as to collect himself all once more, before grabbing his coat and making his way to commissioner Bai’s office. His face stern and cold, ready for whatever that man has to talk about now.