Winner Takes All

Title: 谁把谁当真 (Winner Takes All)

Author：水千丞 (ShuiQianCheng)

Translator: 月野 見事 (TsukinoMigoto)

Protagonists ：黎朔 (LiShuo), 赵锦辛 (ZhaoJinXin)

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Li Shuo took Zhao Jinxin’s hand and said solemnly: “Jinxin, this matter is my own problem…”

“You should have told me about this earlier.” Zhao Jinxin leaned close to his ear and whispered, “It’s not that I can’t ‘check-out’ by myself.”

Li Shuo was startled and looked at Zhao Jinxin with wide eyes.

Zhao Jinxin patted his hand, turned and walked towards Xu Darui.

Xu Darui was originally a sturdy figure. Although he was haggard, he was still one size bigger than Zhao Jinxin. The two stood facing each other, and Zhao Jinxin, who was pale, looked utterly weaker than Xu Darui.

Xu Darui glanced at Li Shuo, with a smirk on his face, he handed over the file.

Zhao Jinxin stretched out his hand, but did not accept the contract. Instead, when everyone did not able to react yet, he clasped Xu Darui’s wrist with a flash of lightning. He then twisted his backhand fiercely and Xu Darui’s arm was broken. Behind him, a man who was more than 1.9 meters tall knelt on the ground, crying in pain.

Lao Diao and his men took out their knives one after another, and looked at Zhao Jinxin defensively.

Zhao Jinxin twisted Xu Darui’s arm with one hand, and stepped on Xu Darui’s shoulder with one of his foot, and whispered, “You are Xu Darui, aren’t you?”

Xu Darui shouted: “Let go, let go, let go!”

Li Shuo looked at Zhao Jinxin in a daze.

“Speaking from your conscience, are you counted as being grateful or vengeful? Huh?” Zhao Jinxin added pressure on his foot and Xu Darui’s face twisted from the pain.

Xu Darui tremblingly said: “Forget it. I have to do it. I.. I can’t help it, I…”

“You can do anything you want but you can’t bully my person.” Zhao Jinxin coughed twice, “Forget it, I am not feeling well today, so let’s forgive you for now.” He held Xu Darui’s arm and his long legs slammed down to step on the arm. A ‘click’ sound can be heard…

“Ah——” Xu Darui howled sternly, his entire arm twisted in a strange way.

Li Shuo looked away, looking complicated. He had never seen Zhao Jinxin like this… how many more sides of Zhao Jinxin had he not seen, he couldn’t imagine.

Lao Diao and his men looked at each other.

Zhao Jinxin let go of Xu Darui’s broken arm, picked up the contract from the ground, and raised his chin towards Lao Diao, “Where’s the pen?”

Lao Diao winked at his men.

His subordinate took out the pen from his arms, but did not dare to approach Zhao Jinxin, he just threw it over.

Zhao Jinxin grabbed the pen and quickly signed his name, then shook the piece of paper, “I’ve signed it. So, let Li Shuo go get the money.”

“No.” Lao Diao pointed to Li Shuo and said to Zhao Jinxin, “He stays. You go to withdraw money.”

Zhao Jinxin narrowed his eyes: “I stay. And he withdraws the money.”

“No. You go, he stays.” Lao Diao said gloomily, “Don’t try to play tricks.”

With a ‘pop’, the ballpoint pen was broken between Zhao Jinxin’s fingers. He kicked Xu Darui who was still rolling on the ground, and then looked at Lao Diao coldly, “You probably don’t know what tricks are. I will stay. So, let him go, otherwise we won’t have a deal.”

“I will stay.” Li Shuo walked over, “Jin Xin, you go to withdraw money. They want money, they won’t do anything to me.”

“Impossible.” Zhao Jinxin flatly refused.

Li Shuo raised his head and gently touched Zhao Jinxin’s neck. Sure enough, the heat hadn’t receded… He couldn’t help feeling distressed and guilty. He didn’t want to involve anyone, especially putting the people around him at risk. He said softly: “Jinxin, you are afraid of the dark.”

Zhao Jinxin felt somehow satisfied, then smiled slightly: “Is Uncle Li worrying about me?”

Li Shuo patted him on the shoulder and took the contract.

Zhao Jinxin grabbed his arm. He was being gentle but incapable of holding his strength and said: “I said, I will stay.” He looked at Lao Diao, “Don’t worry, you can tie me up.”

“Jin Xin!” Li Shuo raised the volume: “Who allows you to make your own decision!”

Zhao Jinxin winked at Li Shuo and turned to leave.

Li Shuo dragged him back, and sternly said: “My own business, I will solve it myself!”

Zhao Jinxin tilted his neck and looked at him for two seconds. He then suddenly took off his coat.

Li Shuo was stunned and raised his hand to resist. Unexpectedly, Zhao Jinxin pulled both of Li Shuo’s hands into the inside of his sleeves, took his arms around his back, and tied the sleeves with a knot on the back, directly tying him up.

“Zhao Jinxin, you are crazy!” Li Shuo struggled.

Zhao Jinxin picked up Li Shuo, opened the door of his car, and stuffed the person in. He then quickly kissed Li Shuo’s lips and said with a smile: “I wanted to tie you up a long time ago. Next time when we play this, it must be on the bed.” After speaking, he closed the car door with a slam.

“Zhao Jinxin!” Li Shuo hissed. With his hands tied back and unable to open the door, he used his head and shoulders to hit the window of the car in vain, making his head dizzy, “Zhao Jinxin–“

Zhao Jinxin swaggered towards Lao Diao.

Lao Diao narrowed his eyes: “Tie him up.”

His men pointed at Xu Darui: “Brother Diao, what about him?”

“Take him too. He’s still useful.”

The two approached Zhao Jinxin cautiously and tied him with a rope.

Zhao Jinxin looked at Li Shuo with a smile, and finally flew a kiss at him with his mouth pouted.

Li Shuo’s eyes were almost twisted and the circles under his eyes suddenly became red.

Lao Diao looked at his watch and said to Li Shuo: “The bank will open at 9 o’clock tomorrow. Before 12 o’clock, you will bring your money to the designated place and if you call the police, you know the consequences. Also not to mention that you’ve signed the contract in black and white.”

“He is still having a fever!” Li Shuo yelled fiercely, “If you dare to hurt him, I will hurt you back ten times!”

Lao Diao spit, pointing at Li Shuo and said: “Twelve o’clock.” He pushed Zhao Jinxin into the van and drove away quickly.

Li Shuo struggled frantically in the car. After struggling for a long time, he broke his arm from the rough bondage. As soon as his hands were free, he hurriedly found the car charger and wanted to charge the phone, but his hands trembled, and the small socket couldn’t be inserted.

He thumped the steering wheel severely in anger, again and again, accompanied by an unwilling growl, the whole car was shaking.

Finally, he lay weakly on the steering wheel and whispered: “Jin Xin…”

Damn it, damn it all. It turns out that doing a wrong thing requires so much money to make up for it, but this is his own mistake after all, he can pay it back himself, but why should Jinxin be involved!

The phone finally turned on, and a series of beeps popped out.

Li Shuo glanced hurriedly. There were Xiao Chen, Brother Ning, and Shao Qun. Shao Qun miss-called him three times in a row. It must have something to do with Zhao Jinxin. He quickly called back.

Shao Qun’s somber voice rang on the phone: “Where is my brother?”

Li Shuo took a deep breath, barely maintaining the final calm: “He was kidnapped.”

“Li Shuo.” Shao Qun said coldly, “If my brother is hurt, you will be buried.”

Li Shuo ignored his threats, “What are you threatening me for? Do you know what? Zhao Jinxin said… something about ‘checking-out’ by himself, what does this sentence mean?”

“Describe what happened to me.”

Li Shuo settled down and told the matter from the beginning to the end. By then, he doesn’t care what Shao Qun found out about him, he only cares about Zhao Jinxin’s safety.

Shao Qun cursed on the phone: “Jin Xin asked the driver to send me a tracker today.”

Li Shuo was startled: “What do you mean?”

“What else does it mean? He will be the bait himself, and let me take the police to find him, so that I can be sure of the location of the people who kidnapped him and blackmailed you. Otherwise, you think that those bastards can simply take him away?”

Li Shuo was speechless. If it was just a violent debt collection, Lao Diao and his group would be released after being detained for a few days at most without causing substantial harm, but the nature of the kidnapping would be different. Is this Zhao Jinxin’s goal?

Shao Qun gritted his teeth: “Li Shuo, I really want to fucking break your neck. There is nothing good about you. Jinxin doesn’t have to take such a risk if it’s not for you, I… shit!” Shao Qun hung up.

Li Shuo’s heart was beating violently, and his mind was almost blank. He tremblingly started the car and called Shao Qun at the same time.

Shao Qun did not answer.

Li Shuo sent a text message: give me the address! ! ! ! ! !

After a while, Shao Qun replied to his text message with an address and a sentence: We’ll meet here.

Li Shuo stepped on the accelerator frantically, and the dark suburban road seemed to have no end, facing him towards the abyss.

Li Shuo drove for half an hour before returning to the city. When he arrived at the designated place, it was a police station.

Shao Qun is coming out of the station with a group of police officers.

Li Shuo rushed up: “Jin Xin…”

Shao Qun saw him, his eyes were fierce, and he grabbed his collar and pressed the man to the door of the car, “You really dare to come, if it weren’t in front of the police, I would break your arms and legs first.”

Li Shuo said angrily: “Stop with your bullshit, let’s hurry up and find Jinxin.”

Shao Qun shoved him off: “Get in the car.”

Li Shuo took a deep breath and got into the police car.

Shao Qun looked at the phone: “It doesn’t seem to be moving anymore.” A software was running on the phone screen, and a small green dot appeared in the center of the screen, looking so hopeless.

Li Shuo can hardly think about Zhao Jinxin’s current situation, what would those people do to him? Even if they didn’t do anything, he still has a fever. What if they didn’t turn on the light? He is afraid of the dark, how afraid would he be…

Li Shuo dropped his head and pulled his own hair tightly.

The car started, and Shao Qun seemed to be very familiar with the police officer, and they had been discussing how to arrest people and how to judge them severely.

Li Shuo was silent all the way. Every minute and every second that passed by was torture for him.

The car drove out of the city, getting closer and closer to the green spot from the device. After nearly an hour, they almost overlapped the green spot, but there was only a mountainous area in front of them, and there was nothing else.

Shao Qun pushed the door and got out of the car. He looked at his phone and around, frowning and said, “Why is there nothing? It should be here.”

“There are mountains and farmlands all around here.” The surroundings looked dark and the visibility is not high. However, even at a glance, there is no trace of any building.

“Impossible…” Shao Qun rubbed his hair irritably, “Did they find the tracker?”

Li Shuo’s face was pale: “What’s the matter? Why can’t we find him!”

“You fucking shut up.” Shao Qun paced back and forth, then kicked the tires with a strong force.

“Don’t worry, this is a nearby satellite picture.” The police officer began to call the device in the car. “We are here. The tracker is accurate to within seven meters. If the hostages are not here, there are only two possibilities; either the tracker was thrown in the grass or the tracker’s signal was disrupted.”

“Hurry up and find him.”

A few police officers jumped out of the car and fired in the grass with their instruments. They scanned the surrounding area, but no tracker was found.

There was almost no blood on Li Shuo’s face, but he could not do anything about it. He regretted it, he would rather pay 6 million. Not only 6 million, as long as Zhao Jinxin doesn’t have to go through these things, he is willing to pay as many amounts as possible.

“Boss, I might know what’s going on.” A police officer shouted, “I found two magnet factories nearby on the map. The tracker must have been disrupted.”

“Let me see.”

Several people looked down and studied.

“The magnet factory is here. To the west is a small town, and to the east is a resort. Next to the resort is a tourist attraction. The hostage should be around these three places. Send additional personnels to search.”

“Yes!”

Li Shuo was pushed into the car desperately, his head hanging down, following the car swaying on the mountain road. After a long while, he asked quietly: “Why is he afraid of the dark?”

The carriage was quiet.

Just when Li Shuo thought Shao Qun would not answer him, Shao Qun said coldly: “He was kidnapped when he was a child.”

Li Shuo’s heart jerked.

“When he was six or seven years old, he was locked in a house by himself for three days and three nights. There was no food, no drink, no light, no one. The kidnappers had run away.”

Li Shuo covered his eyes, his heart ached.

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Next update: 2022/04/04 (on knoxt), 2022/04/06 (on wattpad)

*Translator’s Note: It was quite difficult for me to translate this chapter but I pulled through. I’m surprised at myself. Anyway, I found a very interesting story which had not been translated yet (I think?). That might be my next translation project. Hopefully, you guys will support me. Of course, I will only translate stories that have ‘parking lot’ scenes in them. That’s just my preference. I like strong/feisty shous and bad-boy gongs. If the shous are weak and let people bully him, I really just wanna shout at him. I can’t take it. It’s just my preference. Included here some artworks from weibo. -K