Suddenly, Xia Zhi rushed to Xinghe's side and with a terrified expression, relayed something to her. Xinghe stood up so abruptly that her chair fell backwards!
Bang!
The sudden commotion alerted everyone.
They stared at Xinghe's sudden movement confusedly.
"What did you say?" Xinghe asked Xia Zhi sternly.
A horrified Xia Zhi said hurriedly, "Sis, the person said they have kidnapped Dad. If you don't stop competing, they are going to kill him…"
A moment ago, Xia Zhi received a call from an unknown number. His initial thought was to ignore it but since it kept on ringing, he walked to a quiet corner and answered it.
Little did he know it was a ransom call!
They had the audacity to kidnap his father to force Xinghe from continuing on with the competition.
Xia Zhi had doubts regarding the call's authenticity so he came to ask his sister for her opinion.
"Sis, do you think this is real?" Xia Zhi asked apprehensively.
Xiao Mo furrowed his brows and spat out the accusation, "This must be Chui Ming's handiwork!"
Only Chui Ming would benefit from this unusual request and only he was despicable enough to do something like this!
Chui Ming—
Xinghe's vengeful eyes sought out Chui Ming among the public.
He returned her a cold and gloating smile.
No one else knew what was happening. They were curious why Xinghe suddenly stopped competing and entered a staring competition with Chui Ming. Could it be that something happened?
"Could Chui Ming have done something behind our backs?" Junting spoke the first thought that came to his mind.
Mubai's face glossed over icily. He turned and told one of his bodyguards, "Go and..."
He stopped mid-sentence.
He was going to ask the bodyguard to investigate what had happened but to his surprise, Xinghe sat back down and resumed competing.
Both Xia Zhi and Xiao Mo were surprised.
Xia Zhi was befuddled. "Sis, what are you doing?"
Didn't the kidnapper warn them to stop competing?
Xiao Mo shared his confusion. Was she really going to continue with the competition?
Chui Ming's face fell instantly, Xia Xinghe was… not intimidated by his threat!
"Sis, aren't you worried they are really going to…" Xia Zhi asked anxiously but before he could finish, he heard Xinghe's firm reply, "It's fake!"
Xia Zhi stared at Xinghe, asking, "How can you be sure?"
"Xiao Lin is still at home," Xinghe answered as way of explanation.
Xia Zhi and Xiao Mo understood immediately.
It was true, Xiao Lin was at home. For the sake of both leverage and convenience, there was no reason for them to only kidnap one person and not two.
Chui Ming didn't know that Xiao Lin and Xiao Mo recently moved in with them so the lie he made had a glaring loophole.
Furthermore, it had only been ten minutes since Xinghe made her appearance. How could a kidnapping be done in a short period of time‽
Plus, this kidnapping had to happen after Chui Ming recognized Xinghe as a threat. That meant the kidnapping had to occur within a brief window of less than ten minutes.
Therefore, the ransom call had to be a fake threat to undermine Xinghe, to buy ET more time for him to win the competition.
Of course, only Chui Ming would come up with a plan as despicable and as meaningless as this!
If he was afraid of losing so much, Xinghe promised she would let him have a taste of utter defeat!
She would let him regret ever threatening her.
Xinghe collected herself and her expression became exceptionally serious and determined as she prepared to ram Chui Ming down.