When Su Cheng received the text, the entire family erupted.

The good news was that they finally had word of Su Ke.

The bad news was that he had been kidnapped—and the kidnappers were demanding a mid-sized yacht as ransom.

With floods raging everywhere, watercraft had become outrageously expensive and impossibly scarce. Without the right connections, no amount of money could buy one.

Even an ordinary inflatable assault boat on the market now required two kilograms of gold in exchange. As for a yacht? That was something only the privileged had the right to touch.

Even if the Su family sold everything they owned, they might not be able to obtain a mid-sized yacht.

“Who kidnapped Su Ke? Wasn’t that assassin someone you hired to deal with Tang Xiaoman? Why is he clinging to Su Ke instead?” Su Rou was frantic and couldn’t help questioning Gu Heng, who was beside her.

Gu Heng had happened to be visiting the Su family when this happened. He was confused, irritated, and full of suspicion. “That assassin lost contact long ago. I suspect he’s already been dealt with by Tang Xiaoman…”

“Ah! If Tang Xiaoman killed the assassin, then who kidnapped Su Ke?” Su Rou suddenly thought of something and sucked in a sharp breath. “Could Tang Xiaoman be behind this?”

“Impossible! I clearly saw her die…” Gu Heng stopped midway.

In truth, he hadn’t actually seen Tang Xiaoman’s body.

It was just that, under those circumstances, her chances of survival had been almost nonexistent.

Liu Yaqin wiped her tears and pleaded bitterly, “Young Master Ah Heng, you must save Su Ke!”

Su Cheng also looked at him with desperate expectation. “Ah Heng, can you think of something? Either rescue Xiao Ke, or help us get a yacht.”

Gu Heng’s scalp went numb. He suddenly regretted being here at all.

“I’ll find a way to save Su Ke. But a yacht… won’t be easy to obtain.”

Liu Yaqin burst into louder sobs. “If Su Ke dies, I won’t live either!”

Su Rou looked at Gu Heng with tearful eyes and begged, “Ah Heng, please.”

“It’s not that I won’t help, or that I don’t want to save Su Ke. It’s just… my family is still under my grandmother’s control. The money I can use is limited.” Gu Heng couldn’t bear to see the woman he loved suffer, but he also couldn’t drain the Gu family dry to save Su Ke.

In the end, he could only grit his teeth and promise, “I’ll try to free up some supplies. You’ll have to find a way to gather the rest yourselves.”

At the thought of the wealth he had spent half his life scheming to obtain now being spat back out in this way, Su Cheng nearly coughed blood.

Liu Yaqin only cried, repeating over and over, “I just want Su Ke alive.”

To avoid disappointing his beloved, Gu Heng made another noble promise. “The person I love most is Rou’er. Even if the Su family goes bankrupt, I’ll support her—and the entire Su family.”

“Ah Heng, you’re so good to me.”

Su Rou threw herself into his arms with tears in her eyes, a gentle smile blooming on her face. “Thank goodness you’re here. Otherwise, our whole family wouldn’t know what to do.”

Gu Heng had always enjoyed her admiration and softness, but now, for some reason, all he felt was a strange pressure—and irritation.

In the past, whenever he had troubles or problems, Tang Xiaoman had stepped forward and solved them for him.

But ever since he had fallen out with Tang Xiaoman, nothing had gone smoothly. Now he was completely overwhelmed.

Su Rou’s dependence only made the pressure heavier.

A yacht.

Even if he didn’t have to pay for it himself, he didn’t know what connections he could possibly use to buy one.

Even his helicopter had been rented.

Because his own helicopter had been taken by that wastrel Su Ke, disappearing along with the pilot.

Gu Heng had paid a large sum in compensation and spent a long time smoothing things over before finally suppressing the matter.

And now he was expected to spend money and effort to buy a yacht just to ransom that good-for-nothing back.

His heart rejected the idea completely.

But Su Rou was intoxicated by Gu Heng’s tender devotion and failed to notice the complicated emotions in his eyes.

She only felt that with him around, nothing truly terrible could happen.

He loved her, so of course he should protect her and solve every problem for her.

Wasn’t that how it should be?

—

After sending the message, Tang Xiaoman tossed the phone and severed finger back into her spatial storage.

Given the Su family’s current finances, a mid-sized yacht would basically hollow them out completely—and three days might not even be enough time to secure one.

And that money had originally belonged to the Tang family.

To Tang Xiaoman.

Her love-blind mother had been played like a fiddle by that social-climbing scumbag, transferring all her shares into Su Cheng’s name.

Fortunately, her mother had still remembered her missing daughter and left thirty percent of the shares in a trust fund for Tang Xiaoman.

Su Cheng could only obtain ten percent of it by finding Tang Xiaoman, which was why he had brought her back from the orphanage.

The remaining twenty percent was reserved as Tang Xiaoman’s dowry, which was why Gu Heng had agreed to the marriage alliance with her.

Family affection? Love?

None of it had ever existed.

It was all driven by profit.

Having lived once before, Tang Xiaoman had seen through them completely. She no longer regarded these so-called relatives as human.

They were a pack of wolves.

And hell was where they belonged.

“You take over the boat. I’ll kill the crocodiles.”

Zhou Yichen’s voice suddenly broke through Tang Xiaoman’s gritted rage.

Immersed in old hatred, she had almost forgotten there was someone beside her.

She looked up and only then noticed the shapes floating on the water.

Several crocodiles were closing in silently and swiftly. If Zhou Yichen hadn’t noticed them, she might have mistaken them for debris.

“You keep driving. I’ll handle them.”

Tang Xiaoman pulled a chainsaw from her spatial storage.

She waited patiently for the first crocodile to approach, then struck like lightning.

With a harsh roar, the chainsaw started and sliced cleanly through half the crocodile’s skull.

Shattered bone, torn flesh, and blood burst into the water, staining the surface red. The crocodile immediately rolled belly-up.

The sound of the chainsaw frightened the remaining crocodiles away. In the blink of an eye, they scattered.

The assault boat did not slow down and continued forward.

Behind them, however, several bamboo rafts and inflatable kayaks paddled over desperately. Multiple groups of people began fighting violently over the dead crocodile.

A large crocodile weighed over a hundred pounds—enough to feed a family for a long time.

None of them had expected the girl who killed it to abandon it so carelessly, practically handing it to them for free.

Grab it!

Whoever got there first, got the meat.